i do believe this is officially one of the best breakfasts we've had. not only did we dine finely, our eyes had a FEAST. (ok, we just brought in the tulips for the photos, but the aesthetics...a thousand words...) 

yup, we made oatmeal! who knew that it tasted so fine w/ some grapenut sprinkled on top. I never knew i could develop some love for the grapenut. and of course... 

...french toast from the last remaining pieces of SF sourdough. what DOES anyone do w/ the leftover egg batter anyways? and the gorgeous fruit dish. taste just a lovely as it looks. (yes, even the bananas, steph ;) 

remnants of breakfast... 

and here, i've dubbed this desem starter, the prof. meebe one day i'll tackle desem from the it's true birth out of 10 lbs of flour. but until then, each Friday, i get a little bit of starter from my professor... 

the first "tumerous" loaf. tasty, none the less. how can anything hot from the oven not taste lovely? we inaugurated this one with a new way. Butter and then sprinkle liberally w/ red pepper flakes. more than lovely. 

i love how this loaf's slash just got merged. the top is majorly crispy. we already sliced one of them, they're BEAUTIFUL...wonder how these would stand up to french toasting. 

see. if you hold up a straight-edge...you can see how one of the loaves hit the top of the stove...and therefore is slightly "stilted"? ;D all in all, it was a lovely baking day. 

FRIDAY! impending weekend. in fact, some might consider Friday as part of the weekend. at any rate, just to kick it off, here's a shot of emilio sunning himself on my desk. He's a pretty happy starter right now, having just been fed. He foamed up pretty well and made some nifty sourdough waffles (of which, I failed to capture any photos of...). and so, now, i've a renewed penchant for Belgian waffles... 

So this is what resulted after the loaf rested for 12-15 hours, and was baked at 375 for 45 minutes. Ok, so i doubted whether it was going to have any oven spring, and therefore didn't slash it. So oven spring DOES exist for this loaf and I WILL be slashing it in the future... and perhaps dividing it into two loaves and not just one mondo loaf...we will see... 

as well as a camera phone shows you...the nice spring in this recipe from www.sourdoughhome.com for SF Sourdough. the taste...lovely. the chew...just right. but i'm not done with this puppy just yet. I think i'm outta baking energy for this weekend, but the next time, I will incorporate more flour. I think i got lazy and didn't acheive the full amount of cups...but perhaps that's why it just spreads... 

i figured out my camera phone!! meet emilio, my starter...warming on top of my lamp. i moved him from this precarious position. there was no disaster... 

which has been a new try at SF Sourdough from www.sourdoughhome.com. we'll see how it turns out sunday afternoon... :D 

Saturday morning breakfast at Mirabelle's was a lovely crepe filled w/ eggs, asparagus, spinach, and gruyere cheese. It was beautiful, but i give you what i would've like to have eaten instead...KEY LIME PIE.
 

Food Fun 

Apple Pie...with a sourdough crust... 

BLUEBERRIES!! 

one more hurrah for eating away from home. off we march ourselves to Sneaker's down the hill. Us hungry campers are trying to hurry through the mandatory photogenic moment in order to dig into our food... 

a short stack of blueberry pancakes w/ strawberries on top. so good...esp. as the bottom cake gets soaked in the VERMONT maple syrup. o HEAVEN... 

last supper: black bean and barley soup... the corn really is a good touch. next time, add more corn. and instead of using italian seasoning (generic, but it's on hand...), i do believe we'll try the Goya seasonings... 

muenster cheese in a scrambled omelette w/ a SMART dog makes a happy skers! (and...note the teacup of soup...our whole house practices the habit of eating out of teacups...) 

Tonight's dinner included a spicy mushroom and pepper dish...

Green Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, and Tofu in a Garlic Szechuan Sauce. Just as shoes make the outfit, so the sauce makes the dish. I'd give a recipe except that the sauce came in a jar. Still delicious, though...

we are TRULY moving past eggs and toast and longing for some home-cookin'. Friday can't come soon enough...

though one day i will upgrade to a purer form of cooking. tonight's couscous was from a box. flavoring's of roasted garlic and olive oil. and the piece de resistance for tonight: a saute of sweet potatoes, red peppers, garlic, walnuts, and green onions. next time we'll punch up the seasoning, but until then...it was tasty enough to disappear w/o any leftovers...

we are FINALLY breaking away from eggs and toast. though as we near spring break, we are scavenging through the last bits of whatever we can scrape together. So while we don't dine like royalty, we are finding some fun dishes... this is one is couscous w/ sweet potatoes and peppers.

another appearance by happy skers and happy rob. with happy pesto pasta and happy spinach salad. pretty tasty...

a peppery cheese and veggie omelette, accompanied by chunks of bread. NOT eggs on toast though. tomorrow will be another day...

we started off this lovely weekend at handy's...the cheapest brunch we've encountered yet. very enticing but my loyalty to sneaker's is still unwavering...