Archive for August, 2009

Yesterday I was up making coffee in the morning and I realized a lot of things really need to be thought out before this baby arrives.  Yes, I know there are diaper choices to think about, strollers, beds/cribs, etcetera…but thats not what I am really talking about.

All you mothers out there, especially the recent ones I want to pool your knowledge for my thoughts and questions, you Dad’s too.  So here is my idea & question:

As I looked at the electric water kettle, coffee been grinder, and french press…I thought to myself:  I don’t have any time for that with a baby!  I need coffee right away every day!  I need to either buy already ground coffee and get an automatic coffee machine (with auto starting timer) or I need to stay with my coffee snobbery and get one of those cuisenart coffee makers that grind the beans and brews it all on a timer that can be set 24 hours in advance (which those are available to buy).  I need convenience!

What practical things do most people forget to think about that can be changed to save time before the baby arrives? (Things like my coffee example.)

Mom’s and dad’s?  What do you say?

*[photo by Ballistik Coffee Boy]

Fraps: The Basics- Use cold coffee- put 10 regular ice cubes in2 blender, poor milk & cold coffee in to just below top of highest ice cube (adjust ratio 4 ur tastes), @ this point I use caramel, chocolate, or some other flavored syrup to both flavor & sweeten, pulse blend & listen 4 no more ice cubes bouncing around (time in between pulses allows 4 remaining chunks to sink back down), @ end give it about a 3 to 5 second ‘on’ blend…if 2 liquidy use less ‘liquids’ next time. But if you don’t get enough liquids n’the blender its harder 2 get ice cubes blended. These make about 12 0z glasses of Frap.

Use same amount of ice cubes and 8 to 12 ounces of flavored yogurt for great smoothies quickly.

Or find big cans of Cafe D’Vitta at Sam’s or Costco (they have caramel, chocolate,….flavors) same directions as coffee drink except add 1 scoop (scoop that comes with it) and then add milk, blend(only use mix, ice, and milk. no reason to add flavors or coffee, unless of course you want to). They are great, 4lb canisters, by the time you figure how many Fraps this canister of powder mix makes it is WELL WORTH IT for a 10 dollar, 4lb, can of mix.

Additional things I do: Add more caramel sauce to it, or mexican or regular chocolate sauce, a few coffee beans to blender for speckled look, add peanut butter, find the Dulce De Leche sauce in ’select’ groceries stores…yum.

Steal lots of BIG STRAWS – (McD’s or Coffee Shop straws) haven’t found that they sell the big ones in any stores yet so I just get a few each time I am at Stab*cks, Pete’s, or McD’s

This is not definitive…just a quick guide for my friends who asked. If you have a coffee shop friend get him to let you ‘have’ a big buckets of Big Train powder mix.

In my professional making and drinking opinion, powders work better than flavored syrups and help thicken Fraps to smoothness better….Using powdered creamer IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, you will soon become tired of the ‘taste’ that comes from powdered creamer, try using some powdered milk.

[picture by foodista]

My wife knowing she would be out of town, and I would be working on my birthday (July 4th!) planned a trip to Napa for later in the month.  So last Tuesday we headed out for a few days in Napa Valley.

What’s in Napa?  Wine, wineries, vineyards, restaurants…all kinds of culinary delights!

Tuesday morning after a mere 2 hours of driving we arrived in Yountville, home of many Restaurants more notably Thomas Keller’s French Laundry.  Then we could also talk about Ad Hoc, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery…But we also wanted to visit Michael Chiarello’s Bottega!  Not to mention the yummy deli sandwiches at the Oakville Grocery Co…Ok, so as not to drag this out here is how it went in a nutshell (I will post pictures afterwords where you can use your expertise to match them with the experience):

Breakfast at Lou’s Cafe a favorite local place (Tuesday morning) then on to Napa Valley.  Stop at Yountville and get macaroons, brioche, eclairs, and coffee at the Bouchon Bakery.  Next we headed to our appointed wine tour at the Robert Mondavi Winery (Excellent! I read the book The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty) which helped form pictures, places, and the ‘feel’ of the book I read about the Mondavi’s…it was like a sense of coming full circle – completing a study, if you will -  for me after reading the book and drinking the wines then being able to get an inside look at the winery and history.

On the way back to Napa City we stopped by the Oakville Grocery for a little lunch outside at their tables with sandwiches from the deli.

Later Steph and I checked into the The Inn on First (Bringing a touch of San Francisco to Napa Valley its a luxury Bed & Breakfast) you will just have to trust me on this one, or check the link, it was worth it!  Excellent!  Jacuzzi/Hot Tubs in the rooms…complimentary champagne and chocolate truffles, all the services you could think of and the Chef, Jim, a graduate of the California Culinary Academy (Le Cordon Bleu) who cooks you a signature breakfast every morning (included in your stay).  Mercedes, Morgon, Jim (Jamie was on holiday) all graceous hosts!  This was in Napa the city, not Yountville. All of it is considered in Napa Valley

Then we went for a little walk around town and ate and excellent meal at Allegria.  We didn’t even order a real meal, just ate multiple choices from the appetizer menu! We once again headed out for a little walk and stopped at Cole’s Chop House for a dessert.  A Banana’s Foster which some may consider a classic…it came to the table FLAMING.  It was an impressive display even though thats what I was expecting.  That was for Steph, I enjoyed a warm chocolate brownie paired with a caramel gelato and chocolate sauce.

The next day we had a breakfast quesadilla that was sent out by the chef, and of course there was all the cold breakfast things like cereals, oats, granola, fresh fruits…Then we headed of to the other side St Helena where stopped in to tromp around the Culinary Institute of America in Greystone after asking, wandering, and looking at everything they would let us see (I believe classes were in session) we headed out to the side of the establishment to visit the school store/shop.  Some of the stuff was unique to the CIA but a lot of it was like being in a Williams-Sonoma, not really anything I wanted to buy that I didn’t already have or see a need for.  But it was all interesting just the same.

On the way back thru we stopped at Dean & Deluca’s for ‘lunch stuff’.  Then we went to the Yountville Park to have a picnic where we got run off by bees and the French Laundry Company Picnic (they had the whole place reserved)…but my interest was in who was catering THEIR company party?

Going to the French Laundry unfortunately was out of our budget range and we didn’t have a reservation.  Looks like they were doing some heavy maintenance or construction to the back of it when we came thru, not sure.  We also tried to eat at Ad Hoc but strangely enough they were closed both of the 2 full days we were in the neighborhood…but thats OK on to that nights reservations at Bottega!

We first took a little refresher back at The Inn on First and then, Bottega.

This is Michael Chiarello’s restaurant.  Current Top Chef: Masters competitor and food network personality also owning NapaStyle trademark stores and Chiarello Family Vineyards.

It was wonderful!  Or as my friends in England would say, Brilliant!  I didn’t even make it to the ‘Secondi!’ course (Which was a shame for me…but I didn’t want to leave being in to much pain to enjoy it!) because we had multiple antipasti’s and pastas.  Although we did skip to dessert, who could miss that?

What a night, we made our way back to the Inn slowly and took another walk.  Unfortunately Stephanie’s pregnancy ’sickness’ decided to re-appear for awhile so it was early to bed for her…but besides her feeling bad, we couldn’t have ended the night any better…I spent some time just relaxing and thinking about what was going to come out of the kitchen for breakfast the next day…

More could be said and was done, But alas I have probably bored you with my excitement.  Our time there was great, and my wifey did an excellent job with plans and putting up with me tasting and commenting on everything (more just to myself than actually being a critic of anything).  Being only 2 hours away I am sure we will continue to visit and explore all the culinary avenues available to us.

[I suppose I should have took more pictures of the food, like in Bottega...But as you are 'in the moment' sometimes you can't be bothered.]

[Stephanie] Since Tyrone and I married in November of 2006 we have always had something on the horizon. At times it was a new job, a vacation, a move, and at one time we were anticipating picking up and going to live on a ship in West Africa. Now is no different we are still anticipating change and perhaps this time it will be the most life changing  of all. I am pregnant am due in early March. We are so excited and plan on staying here in Northern California for at least a couple more years ( I am hoping for a 5 year plan, but we will see). I start my new job at Lucile Packard of Stanford in the Pediatric Intensive care on Monday and I am SO EXCITED. I have been very sick so far in my pregnancy but have been feeling better the past couple of days. Please pray that I continue feeling better and that I will LOVE working in the PICU.

[Tyrone] Some of you probably even forgot that you were subscribed to this blog since we post infrequently now that our lives has changed once again.  But this (Stephanie getting pregnant) too was an answer to prayer and a hope that we had!  I still enjoy working at Pepsi Bottling Group (the physical aspect of it is whipping my butt into shape and I am losing weight!) and in my ‘free time’ (I say that loosely NOW) whipping up great meals and doing experiments in our kitchen at home, my last one involved curing my own pancetta/bacon and then air drying it by hanging it in the closet along with the occasional watermelon carving or two…my food obsessed website is over at http://tyronebcookin.com and I post more regularly about food and aspects of it there.  Also we are both pretty current and ‘real time’ with comments and messages on facebook.  So you can find us there if you are not to intimidated by the internet.

We can hardly believe its AUGUST!  And that we just came back from being in West Africa and Europe at the end of February and already are ingrained in our jobs, church, and life here in Northern California! (Thats right, not Alabama, Florida, or Texas…sorry!)

Write us an email, drop us a line, leave a comment, ask a question…we still love hearing from all of you out there and we will still post blogs on our life updates (although not as frequently as when we were traveling and doing mission work) and hopefully you can at least expect baby pictures by late March!

Tyrone & Stephanie