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Blueberry Smoothie Recipe

August 16, 2009 / / 2 Comments

I ran out of strawberries, but got a lot of blueberries at Safeway for $5 – so I decided to make blueberry smoothies for dessert. Everyone agreed it was a good idea. I made them using the recipe for strawberry smoothies I made the other day, modifying it a little. The results (of my second batch) were quite good, though not as good as the strawberry smoothies. The blueberry flavor was also more subtle – if you want it stronger, use more blueberries.
Ingredients

  • 6 ice cubes, crushed
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

Blend everything together until your smoothie is smooth – pun intended 🙂
Update. Mika, my 7yo, made this blueberry smoothie today again, all by herself, and it was really good.
blueberry smoothie

Strawberry Smoothie

August 14, 2009 / / 0 Comments

A couple of week ago I got a Bella Cucina Rocket Blender at Macy’s. It was on sale for $20 and they had a $10 rebate – so, if when I get the rebate check, I’d only have paid $12 – I bought it at the store so there were no shipping charges. I’ve only used it a few times, so I’m not going to review it yet. It’s working fine, but I’ve read that it doesn’t have much on the way of longevity – at least for regular smoothie makers, which I’m not.
Anyway, now that I have the little thing I’m motivated to make smoothies – at least once in a while. The first few recipes I tried underwhelmed me, but this recipe from allrecipes.com was great. I did increase the amount of strawberries it called for, but I think how many you use will be very dependent on the size of your strawberries. Similarly, how much sugar you use will depend on the sweetness of your strawberries. The ones I used were medium to small (and super sweet). Here’s my adapted recipe:

  • 6 ice cubes
  • 8-12 strawberries, hulled
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 2-3 Tbsp. sugar

Crush the ice. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until it’s all combined.
Note: If you are using a smoothie maker like mine, all the ingredients will fill the large mixing glass to the top. I still was able to get them blended, but if you are concerned, you can mix it in two batches (just divide the recipe above by 2).

Zocalo Revamps its website.

August 13, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Zocalo Coffeehouse, my favorite cafe in San Leandro, has revamped its website to make it more interactive. The Zocalo website lists events happening at the coffeehouse – but also some news and events in other parts of San Leandro. You can also subscribe to Zocalo’s newsletter and keep abreast of what’s going on.

Goodbye Sonoma

August 13, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Sonoma restaurant, on McArthur in San Leandro, has closed for good. I’m not surprised – while the concept was good, it failed on execution: the food just wasn’t that good. I gave it several tries, but it just underwhelmed me.
I’d be sorry to see it go, but the rumor is that Mike Wiesner of Paradiso is taking over the space and opening a (gourmet?) burger joint. He will also serve breakfast. The food at Paradiso is pretty good (if also overpriced), and I think that San Leandro could really use a good burger place. There are several, but since the closure of Joplins, the only one that does a good burger is Vila Cereja (though I haven’t been there for quite a while).
Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying the new place.

Sweet Fingers – San Leandro – Review Update

August 13, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Sweet Fingers Restaurant
Sweet Fingers is San Leandro’s only Caribbean restaurant. Located on East 14th, near the Oakland border, it’s relatively inconspicuous. From the outside it looks like a bar, from the inside, like a third-world restaurant. The tables are cheap, the light is dim and the bar quite prominent. It’s the kind of place you go to hang out, listen to some reggae or just have some great Jamaican/Caribbean food. That’s what we did last night, when we had our monthly informal SLCAN meeting at the place.
Everything we ordered was a winner: B. loved the jerked tofu, T. became a fun of the shrimp curry and D. enjoyed his oxtail stew. R. and I had had dinner earlier and weren’t planning to eat, but we had to order the fabulous friend plantains ($4). After we enjoyed them, the waitress was nice enough to bring us a plate of jerk chicken to share. It was dark and moist and nicely spiced – I’m always afraid that jerk chicken will be too strong for my taste but that is not a worry here. In all, I regretted not having gone back to Sweet Fingers since my first review a couple of years ago. Service, as you can imagine, was really good.
The prices, however, are a little high – most entrees are in the mid-teens. However, you can usually buy a $25 gift certificate to Sweet Fingers for $10 at restaurant.com (just do a search for restaurants within a mile of 94577). There is a $35 minimum food purchase. Once in a while restaurant.com has specials which allow you to buy said gift certificate for $2 or $3 – keep an eye on dealdetectives.com.
Sweet Fingers is very friendly to vegetarians – their new menu features 11 vegetarian entrees. With over 15 meat and fish entrees, it’s also pretty friendly to carnivores.

The new menu keeps many favorites such as the jerk chicken, but adds new dishes such as brown stew goat ($16), braised blue mountain lamb ($18) and ginger orange chicken ($16).  Some of the dishes are daily specials.
Sweet fingers is also increasing its musical offerings. They will have music every day but Monday from 10 PM to 2 AM. There will be live music every Sunday.
They will have a happy hour from 3-6 PM with half-price appetizers.
I’m unlikely to go for the music or the happy hour, but I’ll definitely return for the food.
Sweet Fingers
464 E. 14th St.
San Leandro ,CA
510.553.9869
http://www.sweetfingersrestaurant.com/
Marga’s Original Review
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Smoked NY steaks

August 9, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Over the years I have come across recipes that called for smoking whatever you were grilling by putting wood chips in the BBQ grill’s smoker box. I have a very simple gas BBQ grill, so of course it does not have a smoker box – so I usually just ignored those recipes. But a week or two ago, I came across a smoker box at Grocery Outlet and I figured, why not give it a try? The box is a rectangular metal box with a metal lid that has holes in it. You put it on top of the burning element, under the grill.
I first tried it last week when I made Smoked Tri Tip with Sicilian Herb Sauce for a small BBQ that I threw. Alas, the sauce (which I used as a marinade) was too strong to let the smoke flavor come out. Today, however, I “smoked” two cheap Safeway NY steaks, and I can’t believe just how good the meat was. Even Mike was surprised.
I was also quite happy about how easy the whole process was. I’ll be experimenting with other meats in the future.

Update on Golden Tea Garden – Hayward

August 9, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Golden Tea Garden is by far my favorite tea house in the East Bay. Today I visited it for the fourth time in four months and once again I had a great experience.
This time I tried the Margaret’s Hope tea (after researching and finding out it is, indeed, black) – and I liked it more than the English Breakfast or Earl Gray. It’s a Darjeeling, but one that can stand up to milk and sugar. It’s particularly good if you let it seep for a while. Mika (my 7-year old daughter and companion) once again had the caramel tea which she loved.
Golden Tea Garden now offers a “wee tea” for children 10 and younger ($7). It consists of a small pot of tea and a little plate of goodies. Today they consisted of a bite-size brownie, a petit four, two mini-sandwiches (the chicken salad one was quite good), two slices of green apple and a bag of gummy bears. Mika was happy with the petit four and gummy bears, but declined to try the rest. Instead, she went for the cakes in my “Tea Garden sampler” ($13), which consists of a large pot of tea and 3 desserts. Every time I’ve gone so far, the 3 desserts are three huge slices of cake – definitely enough to share (or to take one slice back home). Today there was a peach one that I really liked, a pink champagne one that Mika loved, and the perpetual red velvet cake that is a favorite of both of us. Yes, we both ended up in sugar coma.
Service, once again, was wonderful – and once again Mika got to be a princess with a complimentary jewelry set. She also loved trying the hats in a big box by the entrance.
My only concern with this tea house is that it’s so empty on Sundays. I really, really like it, and I really want it to survive – so go!

Feb. 2010 update. I returned to the Golden Tea Garden with my friends Vienna and Lotty a couple of weeks ago and once again we had an amazing experience. The food was excellent, the service first class and the little touches as cute as always. Vienna had the tea with sandwiches this time, a newish option, and she raved about everyone one of them – the chicken salad was a particular favorite. Lotty had the scones, which were also first rate, and I had my usual “garden sampler” which includes 3 huge slices of cakes. This time they featured a no-sugar-added chocolate cake which I found a bit dry and not very chocolaty. Vienna and Lotty really liked it, though, they appreciated it being less sweet than the usual kind. We also tasted their new gluten-free raspberry cream cake which is absolutely delicious.
Of course, Mika was jealous that she didn’t get to go – so I’ll be taking her there soon, I’m sure.
Golden Tea Garden - Hayward
The Kids’ Tea
Children's Tea at Golden Tea Garden
The Dessert Sampler
tegardencakes.jpg

The Golden Tea Garden
22630 Main Street
Hayward, CA
(510) 538-4832
http://www.buylocalcampaign.com/teaGarden/
Th-Su 12 – 8 PM
Original Review
Reviews of Bay Area Tea Houses

Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay – 2007

August 4, 2009 / / 0 Comments

cupcakechard.jpgSomeone must have brought this wine to my wine-and-cheese birthday party a few months back, because I don’t remember buying it. I did put it in the fridge, however, and it came out this weekend when I threw a very small BBQ. I’m glad it did, because it’s a very good wine and one that I’d definitely want to have again.
This Chardonnay comes from the Central Coast and does not fulfill the stereotype of California Chardonnays as being very heavy and oaky. It’s crisp, with a nice balance of sweet to tart, and bare hints of fruit and butter. It’s easy to drink, but complex and layered enough to stand up to food. I had it with a marinated tri-tip and it went quite well with it. The leftovers kept well in the refrigerator for a few days.
In all, a very good wine, specially for its $12 retail price. The only problem is that I don’t know where to buy it.

Royale Center Cut Naturally Smoked Bacon

August 4, 2009 / / 1 Comment

While looking for a picture of Royale Center Cut Naturally Smoked Bacon, or at least a link to the manufacturer’s website, I came across bacon tasting from the SF Chronicle in which Royale Bacon came at the bottom. The bottom bottom, getting only 24 out of 100 points. The winner, Tyson (really, Tyson), got 80 points.
I have to say that I don’t agree with the tasters. Royale may not have the best bacon, but I actually think it’s pretty good. It has a slightly sweet flavor that I like. Is it the best bacon I’ve ever had? Probably not, but it’s great in my spaghetti carbonara.
I bought it at Grocery Outlet, which carries several Tyson products, so I will look for the Tyson bacon and give it a try.

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