Month: February 2007

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Sarah had been wanting us to try this little restaurant, Cajun Pacific, out in the outer Sunset, it’s right around the corner from her house. They”re only open on weekends and special days, so when we heard about their Valentine’s Day dinner, we signed up.

We entered a bustling square room and were immediately greeted by the hostess, “Marcus?” she said, and seated us at a corner table by the bar. The kitchen is at the back of the room and a bar divides the open kitchen from the dining room. There are stools at the bar, but only two are accessible. The dining room is crowded with seven occupied tables, about 20 people. Continue reading “Happy Valentine’s Day” →

Big Snow Storm

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It’s likely that you have heard about the big snow storm that just walloped the Mid-west and then the East coast; meteorologists called it “explosive” because the low pressure was able to draw on big hanks of moisture off the Gulf and Atlantic as it spun across the country. It has been very very cold in Maine for the past few weeks (regularly averaging below 10 °F), but we’ve had little snow — just enough to keep your steps squeaking as you cross fields, go into the woods, or finally be able to venture out onto the frozen skins of our lakes and ponds.
Continue reading “Big Snow Storm” →

QM2 Comes to Town

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The Queen Mary 2 paid a visit to San Francisco on Sunday, passing through the Golden Gate at 3:52pm, that’s right, midway through the first quarter of the Super Bowl. And yet thousands lined the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands and the edges of San Francisco Bay.

From our Super Bowl Party living room window, we could see her nosing under the bridge, and went up to the roof for a better look. It was a hazy day, but we could see her.

On Monday, I went to Pier 27 for an up-close look, along with several hundred others. Then I got a shot from Telegraph Hill. Continue reading “QM2 Comes to Town” →

Doc B cooks a fish

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Doc B got a fish-poachin’ pan for Xmas, so he went down to his local fishmonger and picked him out a nice, local fish. Here she is, a two-pound Mediterranean sea bass (called loup in French, which also means “wolf”; smaller ones are called bar — sort of like “cod” and ‘scrod,” I guess), posing in the pan next to the fancy Japanese knife that I also got for Xmas, plus a bunch of Italian “palm cabbage” (more about that to come) and a very handy local fish cookin’ book. btw, those are her egg cases at bottom right in the pan. The fish guy asked if I wanted to keep them and I figured they weren’t heavy so I’d at least carry them home and figure out what to do with them later. I ended up just seasoning them and stuffing them back in the fish, natural-like, before cooking. They were extremely fluffy and rich when cooked and Valérie gobbled them up without flinching. I wasn’t as crazy about them but what do I know? I guess I was just expecting something more dense and salty.
Continue reading “Doc B cooks a fish” →