Wacky Wednesday

Have you heard of the flabongo?  (I know David has!)

Well, the inhabitants of this home have an interesting storage place for theirs, and I think it's quite a unique way to decorate the exterior of your house.  

Happy Wednesday!

What do you think this says about the people who live inside?  

I think this should be a caption contest!  Comment away.

Whitewater Rafting and Pliny

Saturday we went whitewater rafting, and it was awesome.

We rafted with the company All Outdoors on a one-day trip of the South Fork of the American River. 

(both rafting photos from All Outdoors site)

I hadn't ever been rafting on the American River, but my dad used to be a river guide on the this same fork during his summers in college.  He reminded me before our trip that water fights were one of the highlights of rafting, and I took his advice seriously.  Needless to say, our boat "won" our trip; we conquered all the others, which was both fun and hilarious.

The trip covered several class II and III rapids, which had awesome names like "Hospital Run," "Satan's Cesspool," and "Highway to Hell."  Our boat of 7 people in addition to our guide made a strong paddling team, and we handled the rapids very successfully--no flips or ejections.  (We're already talking about a future trip involving class IV rapids to increase the thrill factor!)

After rafting, we joined our new friends at Pangaea Two Beers Cafe in Sacramento.  This place serves coffee and snacks in the morning and then turns into a beer garden with excellent food at night.  This meal not only hit the spot, but we were also able to order a particular beer I've never seen on tap, let alone tasted: Pliny the Elder (Double IPA, Russian River Brewing Company).

 

This beer wins national beer contests year after year, but it's hard to come by (at least it was when we lived in North Carolina!); I had never tried it before Saturday evening.  

It lived up to the hype: Pliny the Elder now tops my list of favorite beers.  

Pliny the Elder

In addition to an impressive list of beers on tap, Pangaea had a bottle shop next door with beers to take home or to enjoy in the cafe (there was a wall of refrigerators opposite this view with beers you could take to the bar to have opened.)

To end the evening, we enjoyed some excellent food, the highlight of which was the barbecue chicken sandwich with bacon and homemade beer-bbq sauce. 

It's too bad Sacramento isn't a convenient distance from San Francisco to become our favorite dinner spot.  But I have a feeling we'll be back here at some point--it's too good to pass up!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Good morning and happy Friday!

And a very happy birthday to my little sis!

To kick off your weekend I thought I'd get you drooling over some cookies with a kick.

Last night we were in charge of bringing dessert to a Mexican-food themed dinner party.  Our idea was to incorporate a Mexican Hot Chocolate flavor to another dessert; snickerdoodles came to mind because of their cinnamon-y flavor.  Just add in some cocoa, extra cinnamon, and some spicy cayenne pepper for the post-bite burn.

These are unusual and delicious!

We highjacked a tried and true Snickerdoodle recipe with some traditional Mexican flavors.


I had to make two separate batches of these cookies, because--while I loved the first batch (with a half teaspoon of cayenne)--I was nervous to serve them in polite company.  No one wants to watch guests sweat while eating dessert.  So I reduced the cayenne by half for the second batch, and that's the batch we brought to the dinner party.


Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

(makes 18-20 cookies)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened

3/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat butter and sugar, then add the egg.  Combine the dry ingredients together, then slowly add the dry to the wet mixture in batches.


Chill the batter for 10 minutes or so.

Roll the cookies into 1 inch balls and coat them in cinnamon-sugar:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
(pinch of cayenne, optional!) 

Place on a non-greased and chilled cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes or until set. You can add another sprinkle of the cinnamon-sugar on top of the cookies after they come out of the oven. Remove snickerdoodles from the cookie sheet and cool on a plate.

If you go with a higher amount of cayenne, be sure to serve the cookies with milk to cool the burn!

Sunday Streets

The final day of our street festival trifecta was Sunday Streets in the Mission this past weekend.

Two years ago when we were visiting San Francisco we stumbled upon Sunday Streets in the Mission, and it was a gold mine of people watching and music.

This year was similar: fun music, good food (though I wished more street food trucks had parked along Valencia!), and lots of people biking, running, walking, and roller-blading.

There were a lot of "greats."

Great music:

Great local coffee:

Ritual (left) and Philz (right)

Great pelvis bike helmet (what?):

Great dancing!

Great dancing.  Yes, that was a choreographed rollerblading routine.  

This city is awesome.

Food Trucks, Street Fairs, and Sunday Streets

This past weekend was a San Francisco trifecta for street festivals.

We started the weekend off with a bang at Off the Grid at Fort Mason, a food truck extravaganza.  As the food truck craze has persisted for a few years now, San Francisco's offerings are plentiful and diverse.

 

In addition to local food, one of our local breweries, Magnolia, was serving their beer.

After taking a preliminary lap around the trucks, we zeroed in on a pork belly bun, grilled chicken banh mi, tamale, and an Asian pork cutlet sandwich with wasabi.

I saved room (well actually, K & D, my whole dessert stomach) for the creme brulee truck we had passed on the way in.  

We chose the El Jefe--It's like Bruce Willis with Hair 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Creme Brulee?  Yes, please.

We plan to return to Off the Grid again soon!

~~~

Our Saturday excursion took us through Japantown, where we hit up the Nihonmachi Street Fair
with game booths, live music, dance performances, and more food trucks.

This ukulele player was rocking out to the Mr. Brightside by the Killers and Build Me Up Buttercup.  He was entertaining!

They wrapped up the Nihonmachi Street Fair with a t-shirt rocket.  I never win those kinds of things, but somehow luck was on our side, and we walked away with a prize.

(Now I just need to find a place to wear my 2XL t-shirt....)

~~~

Sunday Streets was next; more photos to come!