i love alabama

its been hitting me lately, the desire to see red mountain, let my southern drawl out a bit and of course see my lovely birmingham friends. while i can't jump on a plane sadly, i hunted down some alabamian barbq. to do this we headed to oakland and everett & jones. the founder moved here from alabama in the 70s and realized if she was going to eat well she'd have to make it herself. i'm sure glad she did. the sauce was what was truly amazing followed by the tender meat and incredible baked beans. it was a wonderful afternoon, only made perfect if i'd really been in birmingham.

book list

tender to the bone- Ruth Reichl

this work details her life with her parents and her development as a cook and food lover. its a beautiful story of her finding courage and hope and her hilarious missteps along the way.

room with a view- e.m. forster

a telling work about a young woman falling in love and the mental struggles between what she wants and what is expected. its very similar to jane austen but with more inner dialogue. i really love her word play and descriptions. i haven't finished it yet but i'm really enjoying it so far.

the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay- micheal chabon

this one took me a while. its very long and detailed with many different stories and characters running through it. chabon ties it together beautifully with a strong trio of characters who you care about very strongly as they make their way through many struggles including pogroms, new york in the 30s, WWII, and the complacency of the 50s. they write and create beautiful comic books throughout. its brilliant.

any suggestions as i'm finishing up room with a view?

josh ritter

is the bomb. seriously. he tore apart the filmore last night. it was brilliant. i've listened to him before and enjoyed his story telling and lyrical style but now i'm sold. he's my favorite. the show itself was so much fun and very full of energy. everyone on stage and in the crowd was obviously sold on the work of this man. afterwards we waited to meet him and he was incredibly genuine and kind to everyone who waited. i am now in complete agreement with jacob that he's the best, most important, singer/songwriter of our generation.

thank you

tastespotting

i discovered this amazing new site today via my friend sadie. it is a collaboration between food bloggers and the best recipes and pictures are featured on the website. it is now impossible to run out of ideas for things to cook only very possible to not have time to do anything else. i already found an incredible looking pancake recipe. the pictures alone make me drool. yum.

presidio

i'm disappointed to say that i don't know why these turned out so much better than the previous roll that i took at the same time. these were on the canon and a wide angle lens, which contributed but i think i probably had them on different settings as well and wish i had those on record. i love how the light shines through the trees here in the presidio and i'm glad i captured it on film. i did find a great book today about cameras and film and so i can't wait to start taking notes and improving my technique.

the palace

i love the lighting in the film pictures here. i made some slight changes on the palace photos and it totally brought out different light and nuances. i especially love the fluffiness of the clouds in the third one.

indian rock

via localecology.org

jacob and i enjoyed indian rock together on sunday. the bay was spread out before us and the clouds reflected off the bay as they billowed up to huge heights. it was beautiful. I love spending the whole day together and sneaking in a bit of natural beauty, we love the new things we find in berkeley. it was a treat.

blogs

i took a break from looking at blogs as they were beginning to overwhelm my thoughts, time and creativity. i want to focus on the things that add not detract from my spiritual, and emotional life. i want to at least know where i spend my time and this was a very beneficial fast in that area. though as i reenter the world of blogs in a limited way i can't help but remember my love for ill seen and ill said. her ability to pinpoint thoughts and emotions meets me in a very specific way. i love this post and its recognition of the sometimes uneasy place of finding where you belong and being happy with the choices you've made. while i've found my loved one i often feel uneasy about where we'll end up. this poem sums that up pretty well.

Places, Loved Ones
No, I have never found
The place where I could say
This is my proper ground,
Here I shall stay;
Nor met that special one
Who has an instant claim
On everything I own
Down to my name;

To find such seems to prove
You want no choice in where
To build, or whom to love;
You ask them to bear
You off irrevocably,
So that it's not your fault
Should the down turn dreary,
The girl a dolt.

Yet, having missed them, you're
Bound, none the less, to act
As if what you settled for
Mashed you, in fact;
And wiser to keep away
From thinking you still might trace
Uncalled-for to this day
Your person, your place.

philip larkin

popovers

this puffed treat and i have had a long and rather gruesome history. it started off with awe. i knew of these bread delights that were served at Neiman Marcus but only saw the restaurant when we walked through the mall and never had one. i just knew they were very difficult to make rise and often thwarted the baker. but when i started working upstairs they were a regular treat. they even had popover pans and so i quickly realized i was going to have to master them. easier said than done. i have mentioned my inability to read recipes sometimes and i used a whole stick of butter instead of 1 tbs one time. those were inedible as they simmered and i couldn't figure out what was different. but i must add that this recipe is hand written and a few different girls have written temperatures and timings and its made the whole thing very complicated. but then, i came across a popover recipe in the Gastronomy of Marriage. A book i read a while ago and was revisiting now that i'm married. the recipe was simple and clear and added a tip about refrigerating the dough before baking. it worked brilliantly. try it, i think you'll be impressed with yourself.

film favorites

i think its obvious that i am still only good at one thing. anenomes, they love me. the other two are the best of a series that ran from overexposed, to blurrier. my goal this week is to read through my amateur photographer book and try to get a better grasp on shutter speed as corresponding to light and which direction, etc. i'm also going to notate my pictures so i know which photo was taken on what setting. thanks for being my sounding board.

valentine's love

it was our first valentine's day in the same place so we decided to do it out right. while our original plan included a ferry and a tandem bicycle, jacob's impressive idea not mine. the rain caused us to take a different route, public transit.

still, i can't imagine the evening being more beautiful or romantic. we ate at poggio's where we had the wedding reception. it was fun to go back and try their real dinner menu. the service was awesome and everything provided new taste sensations. eating good food together is one of our favorite things. not to mention being served pretty much a whole cow,

much to jacob's chagrin we took some home.

he understood once we got dessert.

i hope everyone's valentine's was as filled with love and laughs.

valentines pancakes

i have wanted to make puff pancakes for a romantic brunch for some time. i found a recipe from the book in the kitchen with a good appetite, it was easy and i made it for dinner. it was very delicious and puffed brilliantly. but with the pressure of valentine's day and the fact that it was the second time i was going to perform this feat, (typically if i make a great recipe, it surprises me the first time and the second time it flops. i think my nerves make me more precise the first time and then for the second i'm not as careful ) it crumpled. but the fact that i am still sharing it with you today, should tell you something about how light, fluffy and carmelized they were the first time. we still enjoyed them but i think that it probably has more to do with the fact that its our first valentines day together than the pancakes themselves.

open mic

this has been a very musical week. not only has he been promoting his music on noise trade, as i posted before, he also performed at an open mic at bazaar cafe. he blew it away. they want him to come back for a gig and the other musicians were wonderful. entertaining and encouraging. we had a blast.

lines

while these will only show up sideways for some reason, i still really love the lines in them. jacob took these and i love how his eye for photos is so different from mine, he takes the big picture and organizes it a little bit into obvious sections and form. i like that.

the only road

jacob put his album on noise trade last night and i wanted yall to have a chance to listen and download from my blog. check out his widget to the right. its free, its lovely to listen too and you can share it on any medium you like. enjoy!

carissa

i do like this photo i took of my sister when she visited last week. she's beautiful and obviously photogenic, so it would have been hard to mess this one up but i'm taking credit anyway. its amazing to me that while we are ten years apart we still take each other's clothes, her more then me for the record, she often gets taken for the older sister, or atleast only a couple of years apart, and that we have so many similar interests. our love of books is one of the biggest and i'm glad she enjoyed the readers cafe. thanks for posing for me!

sophie

"sophie and her smoking accordion" as indicated on her sign, played her accordion in front of the ferry building to "pay back student loans". i loved her carefree nature and her group of friends dancing and how she couldn't stop smiling. i had my camera and was in the mood to take photos but this is one of my biggest dilemmas. do you ask first? should i just be sneaky and fire one off from my waist, or maybe pretend i'm taking one of the clock tower? the last ones are unethical but the first potentially makes her uncomfortable, self conscious, where before she was all dancing and enjoying the music. or she could say no and i'd have to honor that and only have the memory in my head. these questions always bother me when i'm taking portraits of people and when i admire others photos. in this instance she agreed, and seemed to not mind too much, but it was obvious she knew i was taking it and her smile wasn't as wide. not to mention that i have a lot of work to do on my camera skills so as to actually get a moving person in focus. as well as the fact that i can't seem to grasp depth of field focus. the focus does not center on a point but on different planes of field. as you can see i focused on the field behind her, aka the crosswalk sign and road, instead of her, i'd like to think she moved. despite these issues, the blues and reds really strike me and there's potential here, i just have to keep doing it.

entertainment

i've read quite a few good books lately that i have not updated on.

1. mennonite in a little black dress was very enlightening, funny, sweet and sad. i love her continuing struggle between her family values and her educational values and how she brings them together through many dark days. its beautiful.

2. namesake this is also about a struggle to come to terms with a family that is at odds with the greater part of society. as the parents came from India and a the child is raised in America, the ties are stretched but never broken. the author writes beautiful short stories yet her talent really shines here.

3. garlic and sapphires is another female memoir, this one more professional. Ruth becomes the New York Times food critic and must disguise her identity to adequately do her job, she flounders as she is overcome by the praise, the critiscism, the difficulty of always eating out and coming face to face with who she is as she embodies other characters. she keeps her dignity, humor and grace throughout and records her experiences beautifully.

we've also seen a few movies i wanted to recommend. Never Let Me Go, the Illusionist and the King's Speech. I can't wait to see how everything goes down with the Oscars.

we saw the Illusionist at the Clay theater on Fillmore and took a couple of pictures. Jacob aced the first one and i loved the ornateness of the interior.

blue bottle tour II

these film photos are in addition to my last synopsis of our blue bottle coffee tour. i tried to capture the cool, yet serious, vibe that emanates from everyone and everything at blue bottle coffee. when i first came out to san francisco 2 1/2 years ago, they were the coffee place i was excited to try. i looked up their website, found them at the farmer's market and dreamed of working there. though that's probably not in my future its awesome to see the heart of the roastery and to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

bits of beauty

the small things hold the most beauty in these photos.

good times

its been a big weekend, my family came into town and we've been eating and sightseeing like crazy.

i've been wanting to share a couple of recipes with you though so i'll start there. this no-knead bread is incredible, though i've been using the wrong yeast, active, not instant, its still delicious. and since i had extra yeast i would no longer be needing i decided to use it for this cinnamon roll recipe i've been wanting to try. they were perfect after i froze them for a couple of days i let them thaw and rise overnight so they were very easy and fun for a saturday morning.

yesterday we visited one of my favorite places in the world, point reyes. we explored the lighthouse, looked for whales and i got free range eggs from marin sun farms.

on our 8 month anniversary we enjoyed our kara's cupcakes once again. they even had a heart on them this month. what a wonderful celebration!