Mt. Tam Hike

Our list of adventures we'd like to try in and around the Bay Area is long.  Might as well start knocking them off the list!

Sunday morning we woke up ready to hike, and Mt. Tamalpais was top of the list.  After a while spent online trying to decipher all the trails in the park, we had a general plan and set out.

Mt. Tamalpais State Park

Across the Golden Gate Bridge...

We started our hike from Muir Woods parking lot, and followed the Dipsea and Old Mill Trails to the Pantoll Ranger Station.

The first several miles were by far the steepest!

But the views were worth it!

That's the Pacific Ocean, with a layer of fog over it...

From the Ranger Station, we hiked another 4.5 miles to the top of East Peak of Mt. Tam, stopping for lunch along the way.

High enough to see over the mountain to the bay.  The city is peaking up over the mountain on the right!

Peaceful lunch stop

The views got better and better.

This structure marked the peak:

7.5 miles in, we reached the peak and had these great views:

Hiking down was much quicker, as it always is.  The end of the hike was marked with a stroll through Cathedral Grove, the impressive and beautiful redwood trees.

The hike ended up being 12 miles, and the very best part of it all was that we were only 20 minutes from home (and showers, drinks, and dinner).  I'm pretty satisfied with the proximity of "wilderness" activities to this busy city!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Even though Fall hasn't quite hit San Francisco, I already miss this season back in North Carolina.
Fall flavors still seem to tempt me, and this recipe I've made a few times really hit the spot last week.

This is a vegetarian dish, but it is so hearty that I don't think you miss the meat!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas (serves 4-6)


1 can of drained black beans
1 can of chopped green chilies
1 large jar of salsa verde (use half the jar in the filling, half to cover the enchiladas before baking)
2 large sweet potatoes, diced and steamed or roasted
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
Salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes
10-12 corn tortillas
Pepper jack cheese

Saute the onion and garlic until soft. Pour in the chilies, black beans, sweet potatoes, half the jar of salsa verde and spices.
Add some hot pepper flakes for heat.  Allow the enchilada filling to heat through.

Pour the last bit of salsa verde along the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish.  Wrap the tortillas in a wet paper towel and heat for a minute in the microwave or oven to soften.

Assemble the enchiladas with the filling and a bit of grated cheese, then roll and place in the casserole dish, seam-side down.  Once the dish is full, pour the last bit of salsa verde over the enchiladas and cover with grated cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown.

Perhaps the star of the show is the cilantro-lime crema I whipped up to go on top.  I just stirred together some Greek yogurt, lime zest, lime juice, and 2 cilantro cubes (from the Trader Joe's freezer section.)  A fresh and healthy garnish!


We served the enchiladas with roasted mini-bell peppers, which we tossed with olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper for the same amount of time that the enchiladas were cooking.

Tastes like Fall!

Prosciutto and Spinach Ravioli with Garlic Butter Sauce

Week 43 is my first week back on track with the New Year's Resolution I mentioned.

In my absence from the kitchen (while all my cooking tools were boxed up), I had been saving recipes that caught my eye.  Enter: Pinterest, where recipe collection is very, very easy.

This recipe for Prosciutto Ravioli with Garlic Infused Butter from Iowa Girl Eats seemed like the perfect comeback meal to make for my little challenge.

Chinatown was a short walk away this past weekend, so I picked up a small package of Wonton wrappers in one of the markets.  (I found them in the refrigerator section, though the recipe I was following mentions that they can often be found in the organic/tofu section of a regular grocery store.  No wonder I had never seen them before!)

Mr. Sous Chef mixed the ricotta, chopped proscuitto, sautéed spinach, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, and an egg yolk together for the filling.

We scooped a teaspoon of filling onto each wonton wrapper, moistened the sides and folded them over.

Two-thirds of this recipe was frozen for later meals.  The rest we boiled until they floated, then removed them to the garlic butter bath.  They were good!

Note: the Halloween spatula is key to the sauce

With some Parmesan cheese on top

The jury is still out regarding the rating of this recipe (I forgot to ask for a review.)  I'll have to update later after I bribe him.

New Year's Resolution

Back on January 1, 2011, I put together my list of resolutions, like usual.
The one I was most excited to commit to, however, was my resolution to prepare at least one new recipe each week for the whole year.

Well, we're currently in week 43, and to date I have made 51 new recipes.
Now for the whole honesty part: I skipped 12 weeks somewhere in the August/September/October range.  I'm blaming this on our cross-country move and apartment search, which may have interfered with my best intentions to experiment.

But I have a funky new red kitchen, and I'm back in action.

The bonus is that each new recipe I make gets rated on a scale from 1 to 5.  Lucky for me I have a very tough grader, who strongly discourages grade inflation :)  It certainly keeps me motivated to create 5s though!

I will start posting some of these weekly experiments here.

And Back to the Fault Zones, Too

I was jolted awake at 5:35 this morning by a shaking room and a "thud."  Instantly I knew it was an earthquake.  Surprisingly, this was the third earthquake I've felt since living in San Francisco for less than two weeks!  I have quickly become a pro at detection :)

All three have been minor ones (between 3.6 and 4.0s), but I was surprised I knew instantly what was happening, even though I can't remember the last time I felt an earthquake (15+ years ago?)

In North Carolina, our house used to shake during thunderstorms.  The shakes from these relatively minor earthquakes, though, feel very different!

Bay Area Earthquakes

Just a few sets of fault lines nearby...