10k/good food/new nephew/good food again.

"Becca, are you sure you want to do a 5k when you are three days overdue?"

The past few weeks have been pretty busy!  Mike and I are both working, and there has been a lot going on otherwise.  Last Friday (9/9/11) I ran my first official "race" and was pleasantly surprised.  I've been running for quite a while now, and have been running fairly long distances but had never done anything official.  I ran the Palo Alto Moonlight 10k with Tyler (Becca did a 5k with her pregnant friends), and I enjoyed the overall experience.  I was nervous to run in front of/with so many people, but I just did my thing, chatted with Ty, and enjoyed the fresh oranges at the end (coffee cake isn't really up my gluten-free alley).  It was a lot of fun.  I used to "hate" to run, but now I can hardly believe that!  It really is energizing and refreshing.  Especially when it isn't a punishment for dropping a ball or missing a serve.  T&B were nice to drive me up to the city after the race, and the whole time we were all hoping Becca would go into labor.

Saturday morning Mike and I enjoyed gluten-free crepes with farmers market fruit and homemade yogurt...so so delicious!  During the afternoon we went to the chocolate festival at Ghirardelli Square.  We had heard some good things about it but it was utterly disappointing.  We didn't even end up buying passes because nothing looked too appetizing or worth the long lines.

Saturday night we went to Spruce, my favorite San Francisco restaurant!  We were going to go on my birthday (I'm a quarter of a century old!) but I was sick that day and you just can't go to Spruce unless you are ready to enjoy the goodness.  I made Mike cancel our reservations and watch something stupid and girly with me at home that night instead.

It was definitely worth the wait! 

All day Saturday I harassed Ty and Becca to make sure I knew exactly when my new nephew would arrive.  Luckily their little bundle of joy made it into the world on a very fun birthday--9/10/11--and Mike and I got to meet him Sunday after church.  

Let's all hope that we can look half this beautiful the day after giving birth to our first child.

He is quite perfect.  And tiny.

I have four nieces and nephews now!  I can't believe it!  We were so happy to go meet the little guy and see Tyler & Becca at such a special time.

In other news, I made my first legitimate curry this week and it was a huge success.  I felt very fancy shopping at the Indian grocery store (I had some serious spices to buy), and I loved stringing cardamom pods to add that extra somethin' somethin' to the dish.  My only regret is that my apartment still smells a bit like Indian food even though I have had the fan on for about 30 hours total over the past three days.

I joined Pinterest (addicting) and have seen my husband before 9 pm two nights in a row.  Every time he walks through the door that early I feel confused and wonder if he has lost his job.  Don't worry, he hasn't.

Loving this weather.

When we moved to San Francisco (over a year ago), I found myself completely in love with this glorious and beautiful city save one little detail--the weather.  I am a sunshine girl and as I had never traveled to the actual city of San Francisco (only to Palo Alto and much farther south), I was silly enough to believe that it would be beautiful and sunny all the time.  Luckily Summer weather hits around September and October, so I wasn't too miserable, and as winter crept up on my hometown of Salt Lake City, I felt lucky to be living in mild 50* weather throughout the true winter months.  May through August left me pining for aridity and beautifully bronze skin this year, but now the San Francisco "Summer" is here again and I'm loving it.  Mornings are gorgeous and misty, but the mist usually submits to the sunshine early on and leaves everyone enjoying its golden rays.

 

PS: I am completely in love with San Francisco.

Peach Tart.

Want to know a secret about me?  I love to bake.  I love it a lot.  I like to do it even though I'm gluten intolerant...something about it is just fun for me.  Sometime I'll show you a picture of my make-shift masks (don't want to inhale all that flour, you know).  Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to make Mike a pie because I know he loves them and I never make them despite my love for baking.  So, I headed to the farmers market with Naomi, Curt, the babes, and Peter, and sought out fresh delicious peaches to make my dream pie.  For my husband.

I really wanted to highlight the peaches--I'm not a huge fan of "pies" that are filled with syrup and goop--so I searched the web for a perfect and simple recipe to make my perfect Berkley farmers market peaches shine.

Here's how you make the goodness:

Short Crust Pastry:

1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/8 to 1/4 cup (30 - 60 ml) ice water

Peach Filling:

1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) fresh ripe peaches

2-3 tablespoons (30-40 grams) granulated white sugar (I only used 1 tbs)

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

• Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a mixer until well combined.  
• Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds).  Pour 1/8 cup water in a slow, steady stream while mixing and stop with the pastry just holds together when pinched. Do not process more than about 30 seconds total!
• Gather your pastry onto your work surface, gather it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour.
• The recipe I found called for skin to be left on the peaches.  I didn't think that would fly with Mike (though I would have liked it), so I changed things up a bit.  To strip the skin from the peaches (without losing too much flesh), you need to bring a pot of water to a boil.  Place the peaches in the boiling water for about one minute, then transfer them to ice water.  Halve the peaches and then strip the flesh by putting your knife underneath a small chunk of skin near the top and peeling back.  Then slice your peaches and set them aside in a bowl with 1/8 tsp salt and 1 tbs of sugar.
• Preheat your oven to 425*.
• Once the pastry has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and roll it out onto saran wrap.  You want it to be about 14" in diameter, so you'll need to overlap two pieces of saran wrap.  Always roll from the center out.
• When you have a circle that will not (and does not need to) be perfect, you can easily flip it over and into your pie dish.  Drop your peaches into the center of the dish, leaving about an inch between where the peaches end and the sides of the dish go up.  Then fold over the dough, overlapping and pinching where necessary.
• Your tart will look like the picture at the beginning of this post when you get to this point.  
• Sprinkle sugar over the tart to make it look pretty.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes in a 425* oven.
• Let your tart cool a bit before serving, but it tastes best warm (or so I've heard)!

I can't wait to make this again with strawberries.  And apples with a bit of cinnamon?  What do you think would happen to mangoes?  Are they good in baked form?  Hm....

*I adapted this recipe from this recipe/website.  And by adapted I mean that I did almost everything it said to, with very few variations.
*Have you ever wondered what the difference between a pie and a tart is?  I think this recipe technically makes a galette.