Girl in Fog City

Yes, we had a tsunami warning in San Francisco. No, we did not have an actual tsunami here – just some high waves, tidal surges and choppy seas. And although there were big signs on all the beaches warning people not to get into the water, some adrenaline-junkie windsurfers were out on the water in the bay, close to the Golden Gate Bridge. What I’m getting at, is that the tsunami had very little effect on San Francisco. Not that this has stopped enterprising t-shirt companies from coming up with a ‘I Survived the Tsunami San Francisco, 2011′ t-shirt. I did stop to wonder, who would buy such a t-shirt? I wouldn’t. Would you?

Post Script: This is a light post, but it should not diminish the severe and catastrophic effects of the tsunami on Japan and the Japanese people. Click here to donate to the Red Cross to help rebuild lives and homes in Japan.

Fay Park: A view of one of the to gazebos in the park from the lower level

I sometimes check out a very cool website/blog called Funcheap SF. A couple of weeks ago I was intrigued to find a listing for a secret barbecue, sponsored by Hansens Sodas. I am a bit of a fan of Hansens – they make really delicious sodas with no fake additives (except sweetener in their sugar free varieties) and no corn syrup. Anyway, it was free, so I RSVPd and was sent a secret password . . . ORANGE VERMILLION! Love it! Hubby was a bit cynical about it, but the location was on Russian Hill, at the foot of the crooked bit of Lombard Street, which was close to a ‘secret’ garden that hubby wanted to take me to, and to the San Francisco Institute of Arts, home of an amazing Diego Riviera mural that he thought I would like.

The barbecue was interesting. We lingered for photos and got free t-shirts and free cans of soda and headed off. The chicken sausages and spaghetti on offer food-wise was not appealing to us at 11am on a Sunday morning!

Chicken sausages being barbecued at the food of the famous 'Crooked Street'

Barbecue guests eating sausages and spaghetti

So we ambled over to Fay Park, which was really a tiny little garden designed by famous landscape architect, Thomas D. Church. It is so tiny that you could very easily miss it. But it is a gorgeous little gem . . . a wonderful place to have a romantic rendezvous (we were the only people there when we visited), or a nice place to sit and read a book on a sunny day.

Sundial at Fay Park. Inscription reads, 'GROW OLD ALONG WITH ME. THE BEST IS YET TO BE'

Fay Park gazebo: A perfect place for a proposal

After pausing in the park, we walked over to the San Francisco Art Institute to see the famous Diego Riviera mural that it housed. The Art Institute itself is really pretty and very pleasant to walk through, with a courtyard and a pool with fish. The mural was amazing. I can’t believe it took me 2 years to come and see it. Read more about it here.

The entrance to the Art Institute of San Francisco

The beautiful courtyard of the Art Institute

"The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City" by Diego Riviera. Apologies for the bad photo. The light was just not right for a photo!

The view of the courtyard of the Art Institute from the mural room

A Tomato! Image © pfly (via Flikr)

This blog is intended mainly for British expats or “wanna be” expats or people interested in linguistic differences between the UK and the US.

Having lived in the US for 2 years, it never ceases to amaze me how different the English spoken here is to the language spoken back home! Of course, being brought up on a diet of imported American movies and books, I, like many Brits (or many other English-speakers) felt I was quite au fait with American English. I was wrong. I knew some obvious words like, “diaper”, “candy” and “elevator”, instead of “nappy”, “chocolate” and “lift”. But I didn’t know the American words for “tap”, and “plug point” and “footpath”.

I hadn’t bargained on the accent being problematic. My accent, I mean. For the most part it’s been a good thing . . .a feature. People seem to assume that if you have a British accent you are very clever (super smart) and sophisticated. It only gets to be a problem if people actually don’t understand what you’re saying. It happens to me more often than I expected, and when it does, it’s usually with people who have very little exposure to foreign accents. Somehow, unless it’s a really strong southern or mid-western drawl (we don’t see much of either of these in Northern California), I can pretty much understand all American accents.

When I first started tutoring here, the kids were really amused by my accent. They used to try and talk like me and they still try and teach me to talk ‘properly’. One 10 year-old persevered with her ‘British accent’ for all of 5 minutes, after which she asked me, “That hurts. Doesn’t it hurt your mouth to talk like that all the time?” She couldn’t understand, when I told her that for me, talking like her would be a great effort.

Two years down the line, I find myself sometimes ‘aaah’ing my ‘aw’s, rolling my ‘r’s and changing my ‘t’s into soft ‘d’s in order to help shopkeepers and bus drivers and ELL children (English Language Learners – immigrants, who have been speaking English for less than 6 years), understand what I am saying. It takes a lot of effort and feels very . . . well, foreign!

So, with this combination of differences in phrases and pronunciations, and with the variety of people I have to communicate with, I had more trouble than I thought I would.

I thought it might be useful for me to write a glossary of pronunciations, words and phrases, to help others. I have included some words that are obvious as well as others I have picked up. I will keep updating this list as I discover new words.

Pronunciation Guide (a guide to getting yourself understood):

‘Aw’ – I struggled with this. So many people cannot understand my British pronunciation of the ‘aw’ sound. If this happens to you, you need to pronounce these two letters as ‘ahhhh’ instead of ‘aw’, what you would say with your mouth opened wide. So ‘awesome’ is pronounced ‘ahhhh-some’, ‘claw’ is pronounced ‘cl-ahhhh’ and ‘saw’ is pronounced ‘sahhhh’.

Words ending with ‘i’ such as ‘anti’ and ‘semi’ are pronounced ‘ant-eye’ and ‘sem-eye’

Glossary of useful words and phrases (English to American):

all purpose flour – plain flour

anticlockwise – counterclockwise

aubergine – egg plant

bonnet (of a car) – hood

booking (at a restaurant) – reservation

boot (of a car) – trunk

bright – clever

chickpeas – garbanzo beans

chocolate – candy (so candy bar is chocolate bar)

courgettes – zuccini

dustbin/waste paper basket – trash can

footpath/pavement – sidewalk

fringe (hair) – bangs

full stop (in grammar) – period

gynacologist – OBGYN, sometimes referred to as ‘OB’

General Practitioner/GP (doctor) – Family doctor, Internist

hayfever – Allergies. Whenever I’ve told people I have hayfever, they think I’m running a high temperature and am sick

“I feel sick.” – If you say this, people will interpret it as you are feeling generally unwell, literally ‘sick’. Better to say, “I feel nauseous.”

ice-lolly – popsicle

Jerusalem artichokes – sunchokes

kitchen towels/kitchen roll – paper towels (I really confused a shop assistant when I first went out to buy these)

nappy – diaper

oregano – pronounced ‘oar-ay-gno’, with emphasis on the ‘ay’

patent – pronounce the ‘pat’ to rhyme with ‘rat’ (no one seems to understand when I say, ‘pay-tent’)

petrol – gas

plug point/socket – outlet (I learned this when trying to get a faulty plug point fixed)

route – pronounced like ‘out’ with an ‘r’ in front of it, instead of ‘root’

rubbish – trash

sat nav (satellite navigation system) – GPS

self raising flour – This is not a common ingredient in the US. When it is available it is called ‘self rising flour. Get used to making your own at home: For 1 cup self-raising flour mix 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp baking soda

sink – washbasin

skirting board – base board

soda – club soda/sparkling mineral water/seltzer

swede (the root vegetable) – rutabaga (and the swedes you get here are really small and nobbly, not like the monsters back home!)

tap – faucet (I discovered this when I had a leaky tap and was trying to explain the problem to a very confused plumber)

tea (as a meal) – this will not be understood. The term ‘tea’ is used for the drink. ‘Afternoon Tea’ as a meal consisting of tea, cakes, scones, cookies and sandwiches is something that is becoming increasingly popular in some cities. It is considered ‘very English’ and is seen as a ‘special occasion’ meal

‘tea party’ – In American English this term is used to refer to a conservative political movement rather than a party where tea and cakes are served. Read about the American Tea Party movement here

toilet/loo – restroom/bathroom

toilet tissue – bathroom tissue

tomato – Pronounced ‘tom-ay-to’ (the kids I tutor and the farmers who sell fruits and vegetables at the local farmers market do not understand the English pronunciation of this word)

tin/tinned – can/canned. Can can also mean toilet (I think)

trainers – sneakers (thanks, Jules)

“Well done!” (when said to praise an achievement) – “Good job!”

False Friends – you might think you know how to use the following words, but you probably don’t:

biscuit – a sort of a savory scone-like bread roll, commonly eaten alongside other food. Sometimes served with gravy

potato chips – potato crisps

hamburger – when seen in a recipe, for example, this could refer to a meat patty, or just to the ground up meat. There is a line of packaged pasta and powdered sauce mix called ‘Hamburger Helper” that you get here. The idea is that you need to add browned ‘hamburger’ or ground meat and water/milk to the contents of the package to produce a meal

holiday – In the US, this term is used to mean specific ‘holidays’ such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day etc. It is not used to mean time off from work/school. The word for this is ‘vacation’. So, you would ask “I’m going on vacation to London!” rather than “I’m going on holiday to London!”.

pound sign – this usually refers to the # on your phone. On automated calls, you are often asked to hit the pound sign when you’re done and this is what is being referred to

soda – means a sweetened soft/carbonated drink

tea – If you order ‘tea’ in America, you will most probably get iced tea or a pot or mug of hot water and a tea bag. You will most probably be offered a choice of teas, many of which are green or herbal. To make it clear what you want from the outset to avoid confusion, for example, order “strong, very hot English Breakfast tea with milk and sugar”. The milk and sugar will most probably come on the side.

Other things I have discovered:
Automated answerphones (especially the DMV one) in the US do not understand the British/English accent. So, if you have one (an accent), don’t waste your time trying to talk to them (automated answerphones). These machines don’t even understand my fake American accent!  Try and get yourself a real live operator to talk to (and pray that they will understand your accent!)

Americans have a very sweet tooth. Many savory prepared foods contain sugar and/or corn syrup and taste very (unpleasantly) sweet to the British palette. The main sinners are, bread (packaged), soups, salad dressings and sauces. I make it a point to check the labels of the foods I am thinking of buying before purchasing. I also try to buy bread made by reputable artisan bakeries and do not have vast quantities of sugar in them (Whole Foods has a good supply of these)

Other disconcerting things that people say:
“How are you?” from perfect strangers – they are not really interested in how you are, I think it’s their way of being friendly. I’m still not sure how I should be answering this question.

It is normal to pass some vague friendly comment as you exit a lift/elevator, even if the elevator is full of strangers. Comments I use include, “Have a good day!”, “Stay dry!”, “Have a nice evening!”, “Have a good weekend!”

“I love your accent. Can you say that again?” – I must admit that it does feel nice to get special treatment from shop assistants . . . initially. The novelty wears off after this has happened for the fifth time . . . on the same day!

There are benefits to having a British/English accent. People think you are smart and sophisticated. The flip-side of this is that they also think that you are polite, to polite to be pushy, and they will try to walk all over you and take advantage of your ‘politeness’. I find that when trying to get something sorted out, like insurance, or getting something fixed, I have to be very persistent and fairly aggressive for anyone to pay attention.

I will update this post as I learn more!

Low Fat Banana Bread

I was looking for an easy recipe to use up over-ripe bananas and I came across a Fannie Farmer banana bread recipe with no fat in it! I thought of my friend, the Fat Conscious Foodie, who is a fan of recipes with limited/no fat. FCF, this blog’s for you!

The first time I made it, the bread was undercooked and lacked somewhat in the flavor department. I subsequently tweaked the recipe and I LOVE the result. You can still make it with no fat, but a tiny bit of fat makes it a lot nicer.

This bread freezes really well. I cut it into slices and freeze with greaseproof paper/waxed paper in between each slice. To defrost, I simply take out a slice and pop it in the toaster. It’s delicious as is, or with a scrape of butter or cream cheese.

What you need:

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt (do not use if you are using baking powder)

1 teaspoon baking soda/3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

2-4 tbsp butter, melted (optional)

1/2 cup walnut meats or candied pecans, coarsely chopped/crushed

Other optional extras (not used to make bread in photo above):

1 heaped tsp cinnamon powder – you can add more if you like cinnamon. Please note that if you’re adding more you should remove the equivalent amount of flour from the recipe to prevent the bread texture from being very dry.

A small handful of sweet raisins, tossed in 1 tsp of flour

What you do:

1. Mash the bananas, add the melted butter, beaten eggs and vanilla and beat together until light.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon (if using).

3. Add the flour/sugar mixture to the banana mixture and mix until well combined

4. Fold in the nut meats and raisins (is using) until evenly distributed.

5. Put in a buttered/greased  loaf pan 9 by 5 inches and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 Celsius). A toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread should come out clean when the bread is cooked. If bread is not cooked after 1 hour, return to the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F until cooked.

Batter in tin, ready to bake!

Allow to cool in tin for at least 10 minutes and then on a rack for a further 20-30 minutes at least before cutting.

This bread tastes even better the day after it is made.

To serve:

Eat as is or toasted with butter and/or cream cheese and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar.

Fran: This blog’s for you!

I have been meaning to blog about some of my early experiences after moving to the States. I started writing this blog months ago, but it’s taken me a while to complete it!

When I first moved, I was lonely . . . very lonely. In addition to not knowing many people, I was slightly shell-shocked at finding myself married, away from friends and family and missing my job more than I ever expected to (my freelance work had not yet taken off).

I did, what I realize now, a lot of new expats/or newly married women do: I fell into the habit of watching television. I didn’t watch all the time . . . just those times when it was to dark to go out for a walk and when I was bored.

I first became hooked on a channel called The Food Network, or TFN. I aquainted myself to a host of celebrated . . .or more accurately, ‘celebrity’ American television chefs (which is another sub-species entirely).

It did not take me long to realize that cooking skills were certainly NOT a prerequisite for being a host on the shows that this channel broadcasted. Having said that, some of the hosts, such as Ina Garten (pronounced Aye-nah), known as ‘the Barefoot Contessa’, were talented cooks. I watched Ina cook classic stews, roasts, vegetables and cakes and did pick up some good recipes from her. I got to know her husband, Jeffrey, and the various (mostly male) friends who came to dinner, and, as the best dinner guests do, usually arrived hours before the meal to arrange the table decoration and flowers to a professional standard.

Then there was Giada de Laurentiis, who annunciated any Italian terms in a very patronizing way as she cooked. Her show was usually themed – ‘family picnic’, ‘spa day’ and so forth. Any irritations were to some extent forgiven, as I really liked a lot of her recipes (I even went as far as to borrow one of her books from the library!).

Some of my new culinary ‘acquaintances’ had big personalties, which the US audiences seems to like, such as, the extremely irritating (at least in my opinion) Rachael Ray. Rachael, who has coined phrases such as ‘YUM-O’ (translation: yummy), ‘delish’ (translation: delicious) and ‘Ee-Vee-Oh-Oh’ (translation: extra virgin olive oil). Needless to say she now has her own talk show (so much for my opinion! The American audiences and the TV bosses have spoken).

Some of the hosts, were on another plane, in terms of character, personality and culinary skills!

Watching these these ‘chefs’ at work became strangely compelling to me – I’d watch the drama unfold in each episode . . . I mean show (and it was drama, believe me!). I was sometimes disgusted by the food and at times I just knew things are going to get worse, but I couldn’t help but watch!

The two most memorable personalities in this category are ‘Miz’ Paula Deen and Ms Sandra Lee.  I am going to tell you a bit about them, in case you haven’t come across them.

Name: Paula Deen

USP: Southern accent, with perculiar tendency to say ‘Y’all’ as many times as possible. Also known for her propensity to add butter and or extra-heavy cream (UK translation: extra thick, double cream) to everything.

Memorable dishes:
1. Hamburgers – Paula Deen style – you have to watch this on YouTube to believe it! I’m not going to give the game away! It is truly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen!
2. Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese – Paula made regular mac and cheese, let it cool, cut it into squares, dipped each piece in egg and breadcrumbs and deep friend it!
3. Deep Fried Cheesecake – To make this culinary masterpiece, Paula first cut a slice of ready made cheesecake, which she proceeded to cover with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. She then wrapped the whole thing up in phyllo pastry and deep fried it. As if this was not enough, she served it by dusting it in powdered sugar and topping with more whipped cream and chocolate sauce!
4. Lasagne sandwich in garlic bread – enough said!
5. Donut bread pudding – I wonder if Krispy Kreme Donuts is one of PD’s sponsors. She seems to enjoy using these deep-fried artery cloggers in a lot of her recipes (see Hamburger)!

Paula is still going strong, in addition to her TV shows, restaurant and books, she’s got a line of cookware, food, spices and but when she does eventually retire, she has been training up her ‘bohys’, Bobby and Jamie, to carry on the celebrity chef tradition (they already have their own website and a number of cookbooks)!

The incomparable Paula Deen (Image © lifescript)

Rapidly moving onto . . .

Name: Ms Sandra Lee

USP: Humble beginnings and color-coordinating sets. In the show I watched that was presented by her, Semi Home-made with Sandra Lee, Sandra shared her techniques for “combining fresh ingredients with specially selected store-bought items” to produce wonderful meals (which translates as, how to cheat in the kitchen). And there was ‘Cocktail Time’ on each episode, at which point Sandra always seemed to brighten up considerably. She seemed very fond of those cocktails!

What struck me as strange about this show was that Sandra spent all the time she ‘saved’ by cutting corners with her food, on creating elaborate themed ‘tablescapes’!

Memorable dishes:

1. Kwanzaa Cake – the most hideous thing I have ever seen! A ghastly conconction of Angel Food Cake (store bought), ready made icing mixed with cocoa powder, cinnamon and ready made (fruit) pie filling, topped with pumpkin seeds and acorns. You have top see this to believe it. BTW, Kwanzaa is an African American holiday. created in 1966. Read about it here.

2. Hanukkah Cake – Another hideous cake, also made with Angel food cake. This one’s frosted with blue colored store-bought frosting and filled with marshmallows (non-Kosher), and decorated with faux pearls.

3. Ice cream shaped like a baked potato. Essentially this is store-bought ice cream molded into a baked potato shape, dusted with cocoa and topped it with a ‘pat’ of butter shaped/colored frosting. As Sandra says in the show, ‘I am recreating all of the wonderful toppings for my baked potato in a sugar form’. One question – why would you want to do that?

Memorable decorations and (in)famous ‘tablescapes’:

- Grandma Lorraine’s Birthday Cake – a recipe from Sandra’s beloved grandma who worked in a cafeteria and was “a great cook”. It’s made with ready-made cake mix, with juice from a can of peaches and raspberry extract. The cake is put on an upturned foil container and iced with lurid pink and green (ready-made) icing. Watch the ghastly creation take shape here.

- ‘Italian Topiary‘ – skip over ‘cocktail time’ in this youtube clip and have a look at the unforgettable centre-piece on her table. This is the one to watch if ever you need cheering up! This clip made me laugh so much that my stomach hurt!

Sandra Lee (image courtesy of the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Enterprises Inc.)

I think it was Sandra who turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with TFN. I overdosed on those hideous tablescapes and became hooked instead, on a show called , The View, which happened to be on in the mornings when I was at the gym. I also started to get busier with work, so there was not so much time for TV!

Giants fever hitting San Francisco! Even our local pizzeria showed its support!

Baseball is a big deal in the US. If you are a foreigner like me, but have watched any popular American films, you would know this. Keen to experience this important facet of American culture since arriving here, I have tried to persuade Hub to take me to a to watch at least one baseball game, but alas, this has not yet happened.

‘Our’ local team is the San Francisco Giants. Check out the team anthem, here – I can’t stop humming the chorus! And, a few days ago it won the MLB (Major League Baseball) World Series, which is a BIG DEAL. Yesterday there was a ‘ticker tape’ parade to celebrate the win, which bought the city to halt. I knew very little about baseball before arriving in San Francisco. I have always thought of it as the American version of cricket/rounders. This was confirmed by my very patient friend, F, who explained the basics of the game to me. In the past two years my biggest exposure to the games held in the city, have been when I’ve had to listen to Hub complaining about the traffic and parking problems downtown caused when a game was on. I was also used to seeing locals wearing orange and black Giants  t-shirts and baseball hats.

But when the Giants starting doing well in the  World Series, the whole mood of the city changed and I began to pay more attention to what was going on. When The Giants won, the city erupted with happiness. My friend, L managed to capture the feeling in her Facebook Status update where she said, “I find it impossible to believe that there is a place on the planet that is more happy than San Francisco has been these past couple of weeks. Amazing nights of victory and fabulous weather – cheers to the 2010 champions of happiness and baseball.” (Thank you L, for allowing me to quote you).

Smily, happy San Franciscans! I loved this one's Hawaiian Giants shirt!

The last time the Giants won the World Series was in the 50s, when they were a New York based team! As some of the newspaper headlines indicate, the wait for victory has been ‘sweet torture’.

My parents are visiting from the UK. They arrived a week ago and were quite bemused by the fact that several people, ranging from our building security guards to shop assistants, beamed at them and told them how lucky they were arriving in time for the World Series playoffs in which the Giants were playing!

In fact, a week ago I was buying a phone chip with my dad in a T-mobile shop downtown. I asked the person serving us who had won the previous day’s game. “The Giants!” he boomed back and to my dad’s amusement, he ‘high-fived’ me!  That has never happened to me before!

So when the Giants won overall, and the parade was scheduled, and the weather forecast was for sunshine, my parents and I decided to go and soak up some of that happiness and atmosphere and see the parade. We went to the Civic Centre and were submerged in a sea of orange and black. We managed to find a spot, where we caught sight of the procession of players and staff, riding in cable cars. We joined in the cheers of ‘Fear the Beard’ (referring to the beard worn by Giants’ pitcher, Brian Wilson and several other Giants).  There were a lot of people in front of us and the civic centre itself was packed, as some people had camped out from as early as 4am.

This was my view of the parade. I just about managed to catch sight of the team!

One of the many 'Fear the Beard' t-shirts worn to the parade!

We didn’t stay for too long as it was very hot and crowded. We came home instead and watched the speeches and presentations on TV, however being there, for even a short time was quite an experience!

I really must be more persuasive with Hub or find someone else to go to a ballgame with me!

Heading home, we spotted this extremely cute little Giants fan in a cheerleader outfit, fast asleep on her dad's shoulders!

The half-eaten Tuna Noodle Casserole. I forgot to take a photo of it before we'd had our dinner!

Gosh! I wrote this blog AGES ago and decided that it needed a bit of tweaking and promptly forgot all about it! Since I haven’t done a food blog for a while, I thought now would be a good time to post it.

I found this really cool recipe on the Weight Watchers website for a meal I could make out of a few staples that I keep in the fridge and store-cupboard and a box of mushrooms. It does not sound like this combination of ingredients could amount to much, but trust me, this dish is delicious! I felt that the original version was a bit bland and it had too many carbs and not enough protein, so I made some modifications!

My recipe, which uses less pasta and more veggies and tuna than the original version, feeds 4 – 5  fairly hungry people, and is best served with a salad or steamed vegetables on the side.

One thing to note, if you are in a hurry you can choose not to precook the mushrooms. The dish still turns out very well. If you do this, the volume of the dish is bigger and the sauce is a lot wetter.

Leftovers keep for 2 days in the fridge and warm up beautifully in the microwave. When I make this we eat half for dinner one night and the rest, two nights later (it gets boring having it two nights running). I think it tastes better later on. Oh, another thing – you can prepare this in advance and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook it. Make sure you let it sit at room temperature before cooking otherwise your dish might crack.

I suppose you could substitute the egg noodles with a wholewheat version. Use large, twisty noodles, as they blend well with the sauce and vegetables. Do not under any circumstance use the flat multi-colored egg noodles you get at Trader Joes – I did once and the result was not nice!

I tried this using additional vegetables (french beans and broccoli and green bell peppers) in this dish and it was edible, but not very nice. If you want to increase the amount of veggies in this meal, serve with a green salad or steamed vegetables ON THE SIDE!

I made this when my mother-in-law was visiting and she ate it with hot sauce. That got me thinking that if you want to add some heat to the dish, you could actually put the hot sauce directly in the sauce.

Ingredients:

6 oz uncooked wide or extra wide egg noodles (I tried it with thin, stright noodles and it just wasn’t as good)

12 oz or 2 cans salt water-packed tuna, drained

1 box white or crimini mushrooms sliced

1 cup frozen green peas, thawed (I thaw them by rinsing with warm water or putting them in the microwave for 30 seconds-1 minute.

8 oz light sour cream

1/4 cup fat free or reduced fat mayonnaise

3 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar (or another sharp cheese blend)

1 tsp mixed dried herbs (I use a store-bought blend or oregano)

1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 tsp seasoning with garlic in it (I use a lovely Trader Joes seasoning called 21 Seasoning Salute)

An additional 1/2 tsp garlic powder

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF

2. Cook noodles according to directions without additional salt or oil (usually you simmer in hot water for 9 minutes). Drain and rinse in cold water.

3. Put noodles in an oven proof casserole dish.

4. Sauté mushrooms in olive oil spray with a1/2tsp garlic powder and the mixed herbs and mix in with the noodles. You don’t need to precook the mushrooms, but I do because I love the flavor of browned mushrooms. If you are not precooking the mushrooms, just add the herbs and garlic to the sour cream and fold the raw mushrooms into the noodles.

5. Add the peas to the noodle and mushroom mix.

5. Mix sour cream, mayo, mustard, parsley and garlic or seasoning.

6. Add tuna to the sour cream mix and stir gently.

7. fold the sour cream mix into the noodle mix and make sure that everything is well combined.

8. Smooth out the top of the mixture and wipe rim of the dish with a damp paper towel (otherwise you get burned on casserole on the sides that are hard to clean off).

9. Top the noodle mixture with the grated cheese.

10. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is bubbly. I sometimes leave it in longer until the cheese browns a bit.

11. Serve!

The casserole - ready to bake!

This weekend has been a wonderful antidote to the horrid week we had (the apartment upstairs had a leak and the result was a lot of water damage to our apartment which is going to take a while to sort out). On Saturday, we took some of Hub’s rellies (who were visiting from Canada) sightseeing. I find taking tourists round the city reminds me of how beautiful the city is and makes me look at everything with fresh eyes, which is a good thing! In the evening, we had dinner with some friends and some new acquaintances at a restaurant called Marlowe (I had mushroom and truffle polenta – YUM!).

This morning we had brunch at the home of one of Hub’s (French) university friends in North Beach. The weather today was wet, rainy and overcast – reminiscent of the weather ‘back home’. It’s strange, but I have actually started to enjoy rainy days in San Francisco. They have been infrequent enough to be a bit of a novelty and, when following a spate of unseasonably hot weather, they are sometimes quite welcome. And besides, I love the smell of rain on dry earth.

The apartment of the chap who hosted the brunch was really beautiful. It was tucked away in an ‘almost street’, off the Filbert Steps (the ‘street’ had a name, but was more of a pathway and could only be accessed on foot, which is why I thought of it as an ‘almost street’). You have to walk halfway down the steps and turn off into a hidden path that’s overhung with foliage and you find yourself in front of a very small row of homes. The apartment had a balcony in the main reception room with a long balcony in front of it that looked out onto a stunning view of the sea and the Bay Bridge (click on my panorama of it below to see what I mean!). We got to enjoy this view whilst eating our brunch.

Brunch itself was pretty stellar as well – the conversation was lively and animated, and the food was delicious – mostly local produce from the Ferry Building Farmers Market – divine locally smoked salmon, with a proper smoky flavor, olive bread from Acme, sugar-sweet strawberries, peaches and raspberries (and bananas, though I don’t think those were local!). Our host had also prepared Eggs Florentine (I was too full to eat a whole portion, but I stole some from Hub – YUM), homemade creme brûlée (which I had to resist as I am trying to lose weight) and freshly squeezed orange juice (made by our host). I suppose one shouldn’t expect any less from a Frenchman, especially one who’s a friend of my foodie husband!

The SF LitQuake LitCrawl 2010 guide

There is a fantastic celebration of literature and writing that takes place in San Francisco every year called LitQuake. It’s an amazing event organized largely by volunteers (LitQuake is a non-profit which only has two paid employees). The event culminates in a “Lit Crawl” – a sort of literary stroll that takes place in and around Mission Street and Valencia Street.

I missed the LitCrawl last year and was determined to attend this year, which happened to take place on Sunday, 10/10/10! The crawl is arranged in three parts, each lasting about an hour. You pick up or download a LitCrawl guide, which shows you the bookshops, bars and cafés that are holding events and you pick an event to attend for each hour. Our problem was that there were not many things that appealed to us in Phase 1 and lots of things we wanted to attend in Phase 2. For Phase 1 we decided to go to Four Barrels Coffee shop on Valencia and 14th for ‘Scribd: Where the World Comes to Read’. We caught a really humorous monologue by Helen Black, or maybe it was an extract from her blog or her book, about a road trip taken with her children from Portland Oregon (or perhaps it was fictional). Whatever it was, I really enjoyed it! Helen was a very animated speaker and her piece was poignant, humorous and engaging. If this had not been the case, we would have left pretty much immediately because the venue was a little bit awkward (a huge empty space in the middle of the room, with the reader in one corner and occupied tables and chairs along two walls). We sort of lurked in front of the tables, but felt uncomfortable, as we were blocking the view of the people we were standing in front of. Check out Helen’s writing in her Scribd page/blog, which is titled ‘Going The Distance Or, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Mother’.

A slightly blurry photo of Helen Black reading her piece

Once Helen had completed her piece, we decided to move on. We strolled into Adobe Books, a huge second-hand bookshop on 16th, which was hosting readings from Small Desk Press. The reading I enjoyed the most here were some poems by local author, Sarah Fran Wisby. Check her out here. I love the fact that her poems contain local references.

Entering the Adobe Bookstore event

Sarah Fran Wisby reading a poem about the Barbary Coast

Hub was a bit bored, and spent his time browsing through books at Adobe. Below is a photo of one of the books he found (but thankfully didn’t buy). Amongst other things, it had a listing and photos of the famous Hundertwasser Toilet in Kawakawa, Northland, New Zealand, that we actually visited during our honeymoon (so romantic . . . not!).

The book that Hub found

We decided to move on to our Phase 2 locations early so that we could get good seats, peeping into ‘Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids’ on the way there, where there was a very crowded reading from Hans Christian Anderson. Hub’s choice for phase 2 was ‘Zombies and Zeppelins’ at his favorite bookstore in the city, Borderlands Books. I was torn between ‘City of Stairwells: Exploring Place in San Francisco’ by Writerscorps at Serendipity (a really cure gift shop) and the talk I eventually went to, simply called ‘Granta 112: The Pakistan Issue‘, which turned out to be a launch of sorts, of this issue of Granta magazine, which took place at Modern Times Bookstore a couple of doors down from Borderlands.

Once in the bookshop, I realized that Granta 112 included pieces by authors I have read/heard and liked, including, Kamila Shamsie and Nadeem Aslam, I bought myself a copy, and dipped into it, whilst waiting for the talk to begin. I also bought a copy of Michal Pollan’s, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, which I will blog about some other time.

There was just one speaker and a representative of Granta at the talk. The speaker was the wonderfully talented and hugely inspiring Uzma Aslam Khan, who read from her contribution from the magazine, titled ‘Ice, Mating’. I initially thought I would slip out halfway through the session and catch some of the Stairwell talk, but Ms Khan was so engaging that I couldn’t tear myself away. She read beautifully and evocatively.

After her reading there was a question and answer session in which she was asked a variety of questions about her background, the places she’s lived (although she is originally from Pakistan, Ms Khan has also lived in the UK, the US and Japan. She currently lives in Hawaii), and rather randomly, about her opinions of the current dramas involving the Pakistani cricket team.

My favorite question was one that the Granta representative asked about Ms Khan’s fondness of writing on tissues. This is just the kind of author’s quirk I love hearing about – the sort of thing that makes me like an author even more than I did before! I recorded Ms Khan’s answer and have posted my clip of it here. Do have a look, I know you’re going to enjoy it!

Uzma Aslam Khan reading at The Modern Times Bookstore

Once I have got through my current (vast) book backlog, I think I might buy one or both of Ms Khan’s books, The Geometry of God and Trespassing.

Hub joined me for the last five minutes of the talk and we went back to Borderlands Books to talk to our good friend, Susan Tunis, an old friend of hubs, who runs the Bookcrossing SF Bookclub that we sometimes attend and who is an avid reader as well as a talented editor and reviewer, and who also attended the Zombies talk. Check out her blog, In one eye, out the other . . . Adventures in reading, which has lots of really wonderful book reviews.

We were too tired to move on to Phase 3, though I was quite keen on seeing the McSweeney’s and The Believer offering, and ended up going home. After my positive experience of the 2010 LitCrawl, I am eagerly looking forward to LitQuake 2011.

About a month ago I went to an overnight spiritual retreat at Point Montara near Half Moon Bay, just outside San Francisco. The weather was overcast and cloudy, which gave an atmosphere that was very conducive to the nature of the retreat – inward thought and contemplation.

Here are some photos:

The lighthouse at Point Montara

The view out to sea from Point Montara. I spent hours sitting on the rocks and looking out to sea.

The view from the hostel dining room

The view from one of the the hostel's kitchens

The lighthouse at dawn