OOPS

Guys, I know I said it was travel week(s), but I've got a confession to make - I haven't felt like writing about traveling. Or, really, like writing about anything at all! I'm pretty wiped out after a couple stretches of being on the road, a visit from my parents, and a little cold...and I'm also watching "Master of None" and "Game of Thrones" with the roommates, reading a couple great books at the same time, and...oh yeah, in year-end at work. WOMP. 

Additionally, one of the big trips I was planning on writing about is our February vacation to Miami and Puerto Rico...and it feels a bit insensitive and callous to share gorgeous vacation photos knowing that both of those areas have been/are being slammed by hurricanes. I've been following the news lately and it's devastating...please consider donating to the American Red Cross or finding another way to aid these areas in recovery. 

I'll be hopping right back on the bandwagon after a weekend full of fun, but until I do, a few quick things to share: 

This week was official Stanford move-in week - classes start next week - and it's brought a completely different buzz to the entire area. Welcome to campus, Class of 2021, and welcome back to all the students! I can't believe it's been ten years since my family loaded up my dad's SUV and road-tripped to South Bend to move me into the smallest freshman double on North Quad...time flies. 

It may be the first day of fall, but in California it's always summer, right? Over Labor Day, the Bay Area hit temperatures of over 100 degrees, and I dealt the only way I know how...large quantities of ice-cold champagne. Our building's pool opened the week before the long weekend - perfect timing - and I barely got out of the pool all weekend. Perfect excuse to use more of Chandon's American Summer merchandise - the "champagne wetsuits" to keep my bottles cold, and the American Summer towel to dry off between dips!

Speaking of alcohol...when Dick Schweg comes to town, it invariably means there will be whiskey cocktails in my future. Dave shares my dad's affinity for whiskey, and while he was on call last weekend and couldn't join us, my dad and I officially hit the Changing of the Guard...time for a new bottle of Crown in our bar cart!

I've taken a fair amount of teasing from friends for the snap, above, from this Tuesday's Taco Night family dinner at our apartment. One friend said "he doesn't even know if he has that many matching dishes," while another gave me grief for "getting my whole kitchen's worth of dishes dirty." Taking all the grief in stride, I think that food is extra-delicious when served out of matching bowls, and I have zero shame over the fact that I took five extra minutes to make our taco bar look good. Given we don't even have a dining table and eat around our coffee table/in front of the TV most nights...I'll call it a small victory. 

And as always, a little Fiona to close out. You can tell Dave is secretly her preferred of the two auxiliary roommates - I've never come home to her cuddling MY shoes. Then again, I don't come home and immediately tell her, "YOU'RE AMAZING! YOU'RE PERFECT! I LOVE YOU!" like Dave does, either...hmm...

Happy Friday campers! Hope your first fall weekend is all full of pumpkin spice and everything nice! 

A few things that you NEED to cook asap.

I don't know why, but around this time of year, I always find myself irresistibly drawn to the kitchen. I'd blame the change in seasons, but, hi, I live in California now (oh, have you heard?). Musings on the why aside...in the last couple of weeks I've absolutely killed it with a few old favorites and a few new obsessions, and I think you all need to try...ALL of them. 

I first made this absurdly delicious cheesy sausage and croissant casserole for Eva's bridal shower last July (see photo above, GOD that was a cute party!), and it's been a fairly regular player in my crowd-pleasing breakfast rotation since. The key: the Gruyere. It's decadent. I made it on Labor Day, and I'm pretty sure Drew had three pieces. It's been in my lunchbox all week - the leftovers freeze and reheat incredibly well!

With zero shame, I confess to all of you that I've already gotten my basic on and hopped on the pumpkin bandwagon for Fall 2017. I figure since I won't get a real fall here, I might as well evoke it in as many other ways as possible...so I spent the Sunday of Labor Day weekend assembling this absurdly easy pumpkin coffee cake. The recipe comes from one of my favorite bakers, Jessica at How Sweet Eats, and what truly sets it apart is the combo of that brown sugar glaze with the poke cake. It creates these amazing, trickly craters of glaze throughout the cake, and leaves it totally rich and moist and heavenly for as long as it lasts in the house. (Dave has been eating two pieces in one sitting all week. It's not long for this world.) (Photo via Tasty Kitchen.)

Of course, man (and woman) cannot live on bread alone, or on coffee cake and cheesy egg casserole. So I've been doing a lot of chicken lately, primarily because Safeway sells value packs of eight boneless/skinless chicken breasts for around $10. SUCH a good deal! Two favorites: 

This creamy cilantro lime chicken by Sally's Baking Addiction (the creator of my universally renowned apple pie bars!) is, not gonna lie, not a "simple and easy weeknight dinner" in my book. Then again, a "simple and easy weeknight dinner," in my book, is basically just ordering Doordash delivery from Vesta sooo...let's not go there. What this chicken IS, is incredible. There's great heat from the red pepper flakes, tartness from the limes, and fantastic cilantro flavor throughout - I'm a cilantro fiend. Simmering that sauce made our whole apartment smell heavenly. Bonus - it's super easy to reheat. (Photo via Sally's Baking Addiction, duh guys I'm a horrible food photographer!)

My new favorite chicken in the whole wide world, though, is this beast: fig, goat cheese, and pistachio-stuffed chicken with a fig and balsamic sauce. I'm in year-end at work right now, and am basically coming home, eating, and working more every night...and cooking is a great way to break up the workday and the work evening without wanting to scratch my eyeballs out. Couple that with the fact that this is like THE most California recipe ever: I made it with local goat cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, local figs (because I live somewhere where FIGS are in season WHAT?!), and plenty of rosemary, which is drought-tolerant, insect repellent, and planted everywhere here. 

Funny story, actually: after I stuffed and started baking the chicken, and was working on the pan sauce, I noticed Laura had more finely-ground rosemary in our spice cupboard than the dried whole rosemary I'd bought. I went to add just a pinch more, not realizing that the spice filter thing wasn't on...so I dumped like SIX times the rosemary that the recipe called for into the sauce. Immediately convinced I'd ruined it, I was kind of grouchy until the whole thing started simmering and smelling unbelievably delicious. Like...figs, balsamic, and rosemary filling our whole apartment delicious.

All I needed to do once it thickened was strain it to get all the rosemary pieces out, and the sauce was, shit you not, perfect. Lick-the-spoon, eat-it-on-ice-cream, use-it-as-perfume perfect. The aromatic sweetness paired perfectly with the tangy/creamy/savory chicken. It smelled and looked so good that I, shamefully, ate it standing up and scraped the plate clean with my f(inger)ork when I was done. I'm already pumped to have it for dinner again tonight before I go to the airport! 

So there you have it - I feel like I should have a misadventure or two to report, because that's my usual M.O., but all I've got are wins, wins, wins. Hopefully more fun to come! 

the "Vesta La Crema" salad

You guys, I Frankensteined a salad for roommate dinner late last week, and I can't stop thinking about it. It's to die for, and I would be an utter and complete ass-hat if I didn't share this one with the class. 

First off, a little context: Laura, Dave and I have a favorite pizza place here already. It's called Vesta, and it's located in downtown Redwood City - a darling little hole in the wall with an enormous woodfire pizza oven and no air conditioning, but a huge and shady back patio to mitigate the heat. Their pizzas are fantastically innovative - some of our recent favorites: pistachio pesto and burrata, soppressata with Bing cherries and Calabrian-chile infused honey, and fig and prosciutto. Their July special is a peach and bacon pizza with mascarpone cheese, and I'm not at all ashamed to admit that we've either gone there or ordered it pretty much once a week. 

Additional context, for your edification: One of the wine clubs I joined, La Crema, sends out a newsletter regularly with vineyard information, member specials, and recipes for three-course food and wine pairings. The most recent edition included this recipe for a peach, tomato and corn salad, to be paired with their delicious range of pinot noirs. As I was reading the recipe, I immediately thought of the Vesta pizza, and convinced myself that I needed to make this salad...and add bacon...and a balsamic glaze drizzle...and eat it. All of it. After all, a salad is so much more justifiable than a bacon-covered pizza, isn't it?!

So I did. 

Our bougie apartment complex's outdoor kitchen is not completed yet, so I oven-roasted fresh sweet corn using this recipe. You guys, I had an intense, visceral moment of homesickness shucking the corn over our kitchen trash can...almost an out-of-body flashback to peeling corn on the back patio at our cabin as a teenager, with the concrete burning my feet and the sound of the lake in the background. There's something about sweet corn that immediately takes me back to Spicer, where, I shit you not, we'd occasionally get into debates with family and friends about which farmers had the best, freshest, sweetest corn at any given point in time. I genuinely almost cried when I took the corn out of the oven, with the charred kernels and that perfect roasty scent. SO GOOD. SO MINNESOTA.

Peaches, on the other hand? California all the way. I've never seen such enormous ones in my life (and now I'm feeling weird about that sentence because the peach emoji supposedly euphemistically references butts, HA.). The ones I picked up at our local Safeway for like, under a dollar were easily the sweetest peaches I've ever eaten. No buts/butts about it. 

Dave is a cherry tomato fiend, so I got heirloom cherry tomatoes (which I didn't even know were a thing before Thursday), and I was a bit enthusiastic with the mozzarella pearls (because extra cheese never hurt any recipe). I ended up using four pieces of bacon, thinking (rightly) that too much would overwhelm the more subtle flavors. It was the perfect umami addition, though!

After mixing the whole thing up, I served it with spinach on the side to augment it and sneak some green vegetables in...because I still need to work on the green vegetables thing, honestly. And we drizzled it all with the Gia Russa balsamic glaze, which was the perfect sweet counterpoint to the herby lemon dressing. 

I'm in love, basically, with a salad. 

I'm not going to subject you all to my admittedly sub-par food photography skills, but to Frankenstein this baby for yourself, follow La Crema's recipe, with bacon to your liking and a generous amount of spinach. Balsamic glaze optional but highly encouraged...as is a healthy pour of wine (yesterday, I went with Hanna's rosé!)...of course! 

101 in 1001 #89: Try five new Twin Cities restaurants!

Confession: I am a foodie. 

I mean, duh, anyone who follows me on Instagram or has met me even a handful of times knows that. I eat at Spoon and Stable more than most 28-year-olds eat at Taco Bell. I'm growing more and more adventurous and proficient in the kitchen, but dining out and well has always been my first love. 

I do, however, get in the habit of going to the same few places over and over again. Current faves: Spoon, duh (always and forever, and yes it's so pretentious that I just called it Spoon)...Cafe Lurcat, right across the park from my apartment...Saint Genevieve for champagne and delish snackies...and of course Meritage and the St Paul Grill across the river in St Paul. So I made it a goal to branch out as part of my 101 in 1001, and I've hammered this one out in record time. 

1. Revival St Paul

My coworker AJ and I headed here for a spontaneous lunch outing one day when he was taking a half day. I had the sweet tea to drink, and he had the bourbon sweet tea...I was very jealous that he didn't have to go back to the office :) 

Revival is famous for having the best fried chicken currently available in Minnesota, but also for a damn good burger, so we did what all the cool kids do and got both, to split...plus some cornbread and a side of pimento mac and cheese: 

Verdict: There is no overhyping in the Cities when it comes to Revival. Both the burger and the chicken were high up in the pantheon of MSP GOAT, at least in my book. I left totally satisfied and spent the rest of that afternoon in a finger-licking food coma at my desk, fantasizing about fried things and the crispy, perfect top of that mac and cheese. 

2. Young Joni

Dick and Jodester beat me to Young Joni, the newest offering by Pizzeria Lola's wonder woman Ann Kim (nominated for a James Beard award, woo!). Young Joni, in Northeast just around the corner from Dangerous Man, offers her famous woodfired pizzas, but also expands into Korean-influenced riffs on other favorites. 

We ordered the "La Parisienne" pizza (prosciutto, gruyere, ricotta, brown butter, caramelized onions, and arugula), and it was revelatory. As was the shishito-pepper-laden cauliflower with golden raisins, though we weren't as wild about the Sweet and Spicy Pork Spare Ribs. The cocktail list was craft/artisan-level good, which is rapidly becoming de rigeur around the Cities, but my personal fave: 

The "Church Basement Bar Platter" for dessert. SO MINNESOTAN. Tiny morsels of Brownie, mini chocolate chip cookies, and dark chocolate-coated Special K bars, all served with a tiny carafe of ice-cold milk. Such a novel presentation and exactly what I love about creative dining in the TC. 

3. The Lexington

The Lexington, affectionately known by locals as "the Lex," has a storied history in St. Paul but has been closed for years due to a never-ending renovation and endless disputes with the city. It reopened this February, restored to its former glory, and it's just lovely.

I grabbed a spot in the bar on a frigid late-February day with Dick and Jodester, marveling at the gorgeous wainscoting, beamed ceilings, roaring fire and gorgeous vintage white baby grand piano. 

We got to enjoy the view through rose-colored (and blue, and green, and lavender, and yellow!) glass...the famous stained glass windows are original. 

Dad enjoyed a Vesper, Mom a "Minnesota Collins." 

I hollered back to my London days with the prettiest take on a Pimm's cup...

...and of course a little bubbly, because that's my jam and why not pop bottles on a Tuesday at happy hour? We also enjoyed their fried chicken sliders and garlic parsley fries (seriously such a good snacky dinner).

4. Mercury Dining Room and Rail

We hit up Mercury before my dad and I went to our Whiskey on Ice event, so I was coming out of the dark, terrible throes of the flu (plague). As such, I was not at my dining-out best, and barely touched my food, and skipped a drink altogether (also, duh, we were going to go drink copious amounts of whiskey). That said, the atmosphere is a huge improvement over former tenant Brasserie Zentral...

...and the quarter of the avocado and smoked-tomato relish grilled cheese I choked down was delicious (and made great leftovers once my stomach was back up to actual food)! I really ought to go back and retry this one when I'm feeling less like microwaved death.

5. Bellecour

BELLECOUR! Oh Bellecour. The new restaurant by my favorite person, Gavin Kaysen of Spoon and Stable, resides in the old Blue Point space in charming downtown Wayzata. Just like big sis S&S, it's nearly impossible to score a reservation, but Jodester did on the day the restaurant officially opened, and we headed there last weekend for our inaugural trip.

Much like Spoon, it is immediately apparent just how much thought and intention went into designing the more classic-French Bellecour. It's absolutely lovely, from their enticing pastry window and bakery...

...to the cozy bar, walls of wine, gleaming kitchen, and this mural, which I am utterly obsessed with, in their light-flooded Garden Room (where we dined). The feeling is so different from Spoon, but the same level of attention to detail ensures that the experience, once again, leaves visitors spellbound. 

We started with the most gorgeous Cremant de Loire, a Champagne-adjacent wine region in France, and also enjoyed a fantastic, very mineral Sancerre with our entrees. Adding to the fun of the night: I had made the acquaintance of sommelier Nicolas Giraud at Spoon and Stable on New Year's Eve, when we chatted in French for about 10 minutes about the dinner's wine pairings and his background. He remembered me, and came up to our table launching straight into French, for another quick chat about Bellecour, the wine, and the adventure of running two restaurants with exquisite wine offerings. I was on cloud nine, and it wasn't just the cremant!

On to food! We started with oeufs mimosa, a Belgian endive salad (front), and a fabulously savory salade frisée (right) with quail egg and sherry vinaigrette. All fantastic, and so carefully executed and plated that it took the entire experience to a visually delicious level as well. 

Dad ordered steak frites, with a beautiful filet and fantastic fries. Mom ordered short rib, served with a sauce au poivre and the teensiest mushroom duxelles...fall-off-the-bone tender and so savory. My duck a l'orange, meanwhile, was flawless...and I'm very picky about duck. Just LOOK at that!

We wrapped up with two desserts...a honey-and-cream vacherin and a Paris-Brest interpretation of a profiterole...and a chat with the hostess and Gavin himself, who came over and graciously indulged our gushing for nearly ten minutes. We're total groupies, and I feel no shame...my dad, in particular, is obsessed. A quick shout-out to Gavin - he is truly the warmest, most personable restaurateur I've ever encountered, and his pride in his establishments, staff, service and cuisine is palpable. It makes dining at his places an absolute delight, and completely guarantees I will be a lifelong Kaysen loyalist. 

Can't wait to see what he does next...and what the next big things in the Twin Cities culinary scene will be! 

For more 101 in 1001, head here. And if anyone wants to HH at Bellecour, pound through some fried chicken at Revival, chill at the Lex, or go on new adventures...hit me up, yo!

A foodie tour of Stockholm!

Hey, remember when we went to Scandinavia last JUNE?! I'm a shameful delinquent. While I covered our adventures in Iceland pretty thoroughly and shared a peek at Stockholm's Old Town and gorgeous Lake Malaren, one of the highlights of our time in Sweden was taking a locals' food tour. 

We booked this tour through Viator, which is one of our favorite resources for international travel, and adored the small-group experience. There were only a dozen people on our particular tour, and as we comprised five of them, it was nice to feel like we had a bit of a monopoly on the day. 

Our tour started bright and early in the Ostermalm Saluhall, the oldest food hall in Stockholm. It reminded me so much of a Borough Market type deal...sort of a farmer's market on crack. Our "breakfast" for the day consisted of a wide variety of reindeer and elk sausages...eek! We tried cured elk, smoked reindeer and a moose sausage, along with pungent Swedish cheeses (including a "holiday" cheese that had minced crayfish in it!) and a Swedish "breakfast beer" which was super malty. I had to get past the mental block of thinking about Rudolph and Co while enjoying the sausage, but once I did, I really enjoyed it...the smoky flavor was great and the meat was pretty lean.

From Saluhall, we headed further into the Ostermalm neighborhood and stopped at Ingelsta Kalkon, a deli that specialized only in turkey, another big Swedish meat. Apparently many delis do specialize like that...little did we know! We enjoyed Swedish turkey meatballs served the traditional way...with potatoes, pickles, gravy and lingonberry sauce...and they were delicious. 

Of course, being a city comprised of islands, seafood is huge in Stockholm. Our next visit was to the Sture Galleriam in Normalm, the heart of "Parisian Stockholm." The wide boulevards, carefully-tended trees and gorgeous buildings did remind me a bit of the 1e arrondissement in Paris! We headed to the Sturehof, famous for having the best fish dishes in Stockholm.

Seriously, look at all that seafood, We tasted pickled herring, smoked salmon, and a shrimp salad, all with a lot of dill (a staple of Swedish cuisine). While it was all really good and beautifully presented, this is about where I was like "holy crap, I'm really full and it's only like 11am."

From Sturehof, we headed to another food hall to visit P&B Delikatesser for licorice! Apparently licorice is a huge part of Swedish diets. We tried traditional sweet licorice, smoked licorice (which was such a weird flavor that I almost spit it out...eek! Acquired taste!), and white-chocolate covered bitter licorice...another totally bizarre combo. We also chatted about Swedish drinking culture...very beer-heavy, and sales of wine and hard liquor are very highly regulated due to the cultural disapproval of alcoholism and drunkenness. 

After a weird licorice tasting, we headed to Jonathan's favorite stop of the tour... Chokladfabriken, an artisan chocolatier. We tasted dark salted chocolate, milk chocolate, sea salt caramel chocolate, and a licorice-caramel-sea salt chocolate mix. We also sampled chocolate gelato made with 64% Madagascar dark chocolate.

Needless to say, Dad and Jonny found themselves at the counter buying a wide assortment to take home (or just snack on back at the AirBnB!). The photo doesn't do the size of the box justice...I think between the two of them, they picked out close to 2 dozen different pieces, ha!

Our second-to-last stop was in Gamla Stan at Polkagris Kolkeri for traditional Swedish candy. How cute is the shop?! This reminded me of the hard candy sticks we'd get at the apple orchard or General Store if we were well-behaved as kids...so many flavors, and wrapped in the prettiest patterned paper. 

We tasted classic peppermint and a few other flavors before heading to our final stop of the tour, fika at Under Kastanjen! Fika is basically a mandatory Swedish coffee break, taken daily with friends, which I think is the BEST idea. While fika typically includes coffee or tea and a cinnamon-cardamom roll, we did our fika the Schwegman way... 

...duh. 

all in all, by 2pm after doing pretty much nothing but eating for six hours, we were ready to roll home and take a giant nap. What a great way to see a wide variety of neighborhoods in Stockholm and try food I would NEVER have eaten otherwise!