Brick & Fire Bistro

One of my very favorite restaurants in Eureka is Brick & Fire Bistro.  The food is simply fantastic.

I often start with a salad, like the spinach salad below.  It's a delicious combination of beets, blue cheese and walnuts with a nice balsamic dressing.  You just can't beat that combination of ingredients!

I've had several delicious appetizers as well, including the oysters, and the mushroom cobbler... both so wonderful!  It's hard to decide what to get!  Not to mention, they bring a basket of fresh bread (one of my weaknesses), with flavors like black pepper and a to-die-for focaccia.

The pizzas... oh, the pizzas.

Did I mention I like pizza?

This one is the front of the photo is pesto with brie, red grapes, and prosciutto.  Such a unique combination, and so delicious.  Mom ordered the margherita pizza, which was equally perfect. 

So, that's my dinner heaven.  We go there for special occasions and just a fun Friday night out.

Make reservations though!  The small restaurant is so well loved by the folks here, you may need to plan ahead.  One of the neatest (and warmest) seats in the house is at the bar, where you can watch the smouldering red coals in the oven.  Also very romantic!

Happy dining!  Go support your favorite local restaurant!

xoxo
Franny

High Bräu

It's been nearly a year since my last post.  I guess I've had my mind on other things, but our dinner tonight was so good I couldn't resist taking some pictures and posting them up for you to see.  Matt really enjoys German cooking, and he's very, very good at it!

Jäger stew, red cabbage, and spätzle

Tonight's feast actually began with our appetizer.  At first, we thought there wasn't much to choose from, but we found a stale-ish baguette in the fridge and sliced it thin, added some marmalade and topped it with aged white cheddar.  Throw this in the toaster oven on 'broil' till the edges are golden brown.  Top with freshly ground black pepper.  Delicious!

White cheddar marmalade crostinis

On to dinner.  The stew was perfect, totally delicious and cooked forever so that the beef simply melted in your mouth.  The spätzle was delicious, cooked perfectly and sauteed in butter right before serving.  And the purple cabbage... what can I say?  Perfection.

The chef at work...

The spätzle

Can you believe this is my view every night?
A hot guy giving me a plate of food... oh yes.

So... pretty good huh?  I'll keep you up on our culinary adventures a little better... just need to remember to document them!  I'm so busy eating this delicious food, it's hard to stop and take pictures.  In the mean time, enjoy your food and each other!

xoxo
Franny

Brie Love

We had a bunch of truffle flavored brie left from Matt's birthday party last weekend.  I happen to love melty gooey brie with a nice healthy spoonfull of spicy jam or jelly.  Mad River Farm's jalapeno and habanero varieties are some of my favorites.  This time, we had a jar of spicy kumquat preserves given to Matt by a friend.  Delicious combo!!

Delicious. Melty. Brie.

Spicy kumquat preserves and Wasa crackers.

The perfect bite!

A perfect snack!  I enjoyed it so much that I ate it every other day this week.  So delicious, so perfect.  I am going to be making this again and again!  The next great cooking adventure needs to be canning though.  That's going to be a fun and worthwhile experiment! 

xoxo
Franny

Edible Art

We went to dye some eggs the other day at a friend's house.  We used our own home-harvested chicken eggs, naturally a lovely brown shade.

I started by washing the eggs, just to make sure they were clean going into the pot.

Pretty eggs!

I think the best way I have made hard boiled eggs was this:
Put eggs in water with a tablespoon or so of vinegar and a pinch of salt.  Bring to a rolling boil for about a minute, then turn off and remove from heat.  Let the eggs cool down in the water and then pop them in the fridge.

Putting my new basket to good use!

We found glitter to be an essential decorating ingredient.  The brown eggs took the color surprisingly well.  Our friends who mixed the dye used vinegar in the solution.  Something about that makes the color extra sticky.  Remember the glitter though.

Happy Easter everyone!  And Happy Egg dyeing!

xoxo
Franny

Breakfast for Dinner

After a long time away, I have a new post!  This is the perfect way to use your corned beef leftovers from St. Patrick's Day.  Corned beef hash served with poached eggs.  Matt and I had it for dinner tonight, and it was fantastic.

The leftovers.

Sour cream is essential to the mashed potatoes.

Mixin it up.  Lovely caramelized onions in there too.

Poaching the eggs and frying the hash.  A lovely sight!

The finished product, with a dash of Sriracha sauce and Lizano salsa.

What can I say?  It was simply delicious!  And we have enough left over for later in the week!  The eggs on top are from our chickens, of course.

One of my favorite parts about this meal is the surprise ending... a Sin-Dawg from Dave's Killer Bread out of Milwaukie, OR.  We are HUGE fans of this company and their bread.  Just delicious.

Yum!

So that's all for now!  

xoxo
Franny

Vacation Eats

So I have just returned home from a relaxing vacation on the Mendocino Coast, and the lovely city of San Francisco.  So many things to see!  I was gone a total of six days, and I could have used another few!  The first leg of the trip was with my family in Sea Ranch.  We had many delicious meals.  The very first one was this:  baked egg with sauteed spinach and a delicious piece of bacon.

When my younger brother Dan showed up, he brought the pasta press mom got him for his most recent birthday.  He had a ravioli recipe that he learned at a cooking school in Italy that included potato, parmesan cheese and pancetta.

Preparing the noodles.

Pressing out the dough.

The freshly made pasta was so tender!  An incredible dish.  Thanks Dan!!

The next leg of the trip was to San Francisco to visit my dear friend Emily!  Many culinary delights awaited me.  The ferry building and Saturday farmer's market are something to behold.  You may remember my first visit to the ferry building a few months ago.

So many types of food!

Farm fresh!

We had scrambled egg, tomato and bacon on a baguette for brunch.  Delicious!

Squat and Gobble was great!  What a name!

Decisions, decisions!

I had a delicious pesto chicken crepe.  Wonderful!

We finished off the evening with a trip to Nubi, a fantastic frozen yogurt place.  I had chocolate and peanut butter with lots of candy bar and other toppings.  So delicious!!  I want more!  It's been hard to think of anything else since!

I heart Nubi!!

All gone!

Oh how I wish I could have just another day of vacation!  Although it might be good to get back to routine... still, I don't know.  I sure loved traveling around and sampling all those good eats!  Till next time I guess!

xoxo
Franny

Baking Bread

I made some zucchini bread today, and it turned out pretty good!  Just kind of looked up an online recipe, and made the first one that appealed to me.  Here's the link to the recipe I used.

First, you gather up your ingredients:

I got the squash at the Arcata Farmer's Market.

Next, the shredding of the squash and the mixing together of dry ingredients.

The smell of baking sweet zucchini bread filled my little apartment.  It was a wonderful vanilla cinnamon mix, and I happened to be roasting some pecans at the same time (for our house salad, of course).  I have to say that's one of my favorite things about baking... the way the house smells and the kitchen warms up.

Baking.  About 30 minutes in.

The finished product!  The first bite fresh from the oven is soooo good...

So that's the post for the day.  We had a pretty wonderful sausage, sauerkraut, and potato dinner with our house salad.  Simply delicious!  And way cheaper than going out to eat.  A nice Sunday, and a perfect way to finish the weekend!

xoxo
Franny