Paradise

At least my Cards were valiant to the end... So now we are established in San Francisco. I know I'm not the first East Coast refugee to say this, but it is stunningly lovely out here. And the food. Oh, the glorious food.

But first, my mother's rib recipe. She boils pork back ribs with onions until mostly cooked, and then slaters them with a homemade barbecue sauce like this one http://southernfood.about.com/od/bbqsaucemarinade/r/bl40312p.htm. I would make the same but with homemade ketchup a la Mark's Daily Apple and no sugar, but a tablespoon of molasses. In any case, once slathered, they are grilled. HEAVEN. With some grilled veggies it was a feast.

San Francisco is a foodie haven, of course. I only got here last night and I'm already blown away by the quality of the produce around here. I found some lovely crisp asian pears 4/$1.99. They're going for $2/piece in Boston. Last night's dinner was quick and easy, since we're still lacking most of our equipment.

Chicken burgers:
3/4 lb Ground chicken (breast or thigh, whatever you like)
1/2 medium jalapeno, finely diced
1/2 medium onion (100g), finely diced
Salt-to taste
Pepper-to taste
Chili powder-to taste
Romaine leaves
Tomato slices
Avocado slices

Mix together all the ingredients up to and including the seasonings gently and pack into burger shape. Cook in a frying pan at medium to high heat. If you use chicken breast, throw a little fat on the pan, cook for approximatly four minutes each side
or until done. Lay on one half of romaine leaf, top with tomato and avocado slices, fold over other half of romaine leaf to make a bun. Yummy, easy, spicy.

We had that with a side of raw shredded cabbage with a quick vinaigrette (3 parts oil to one part acid, salt, pepper, and enough mustard to make it emulsify, shaken hard in a bottle). We both vastly preferred having home cooking to a restaurant, tired as we were. It amazed both of us how much our tastes have changed since we really started making a concerted effort to eat in a few months ago.

On the long drive out we had beef jerky, almonds, lots of water and iced tea, and the occasional diet soda (I'm working on it :( ). I can't wait to get my kitchen set up and really start exploring the farmers markets here.