Dessert 1/1/11

Homemade peppermint ice cream and chocolate filled Piroulines!

Dinner 1/1/11

Chicken breast marinated in mango tequila jalapeno sauce, and various spices. Idaho baked potato with garlic butter and aged extra sharp cheddar.

**Nifty trick I found with baked potatoes, rub the outside with olive oil and sea salt before baking... makes really yummy skins!**

My New Year's Resolution

My New Year's Resolution is to actually use this thing. I take so many pictures of food, and eat at so many great places, I really shouldn't let this blog just sit here... that's my laziness for you. I made this thing mid last year and did a whole two posts! 2011 will be different... I hope.

My goal is to post 1-2 times a week. I'd love to post daily... but that's probably asking too much of myself (maybe next year...)

Tonight, my menu consists of chicken breast marinated in mango tequila jalapeno sauce and various spices and baked potatoes. The potatoes were given to us by Tony's parents. They came all the way from Idaho. I rolled the potatoes in garlic olive oil and sea salt before popping them in the oven. They will be topped with extra sharp cheddar and garlic butter (pictures to follow).

I think I will follow tonight's meal with some homemade peppermint ice cream that I made using my KitchenAid Stand Mixer and ice cream maker attachment.

Click here  for the ice cream recipe.

Last Sunday's Epic Food Extravaganza!

Last Sunday Tony and I decided to head over to Ike's Place on 16th Street and Sanchez. 

It is, hands down, the best sandwich shop I've ever been to, and arguably the best sandwich shop in San Francisco.  The line proves it. When we strolled up to the tiny sandwich shop, located in between two residences, the line was a good 45 minute wait just to get up to the register and order. It took another 10-15 mins after ordering to actually get the sandwiches. We are veteran Ike's Place patrons, so we knew what to expect, and also knew that the wait was more than worth it.

The menu itself has dozens of original creations given lively names, like the Fat Bastard, and Lizzie's Lips. Two sandwiches that used to be our regular order at Ike's. On this particular day, we decided to go for something new, and in the spirit of baseball season, we both ordered the Lincecum. Turkey, ham, bacon, avocado and havarti cheese. The sandwiches come with all the fixin's, tomato, lettuce, pickles, peppers and the infamous "dirty sauce".  The greatest thing about Ike's Place is that they really do have something for everyone. Their menu offers a wide variety of vegetarian sandwiches and even offers gluten free bread.

After our hour long adventure to the sandwich mecca, we sauntered over to Dolores Park to enjoy what I can only describe as the greatest sandwich I have ever tasted. Here it is, the Lincecum, turkey, ham, no bacon on mine, avocado, havarti, lettuce, tomato, peppers, pickles, and dirty sauce on a french roll. Tony got the same, with bacon, on dutch crunch.

After some much needed R&R, we walked the streets of our old neighborhood, Lower Haight. We had been planning a dinner of bbq ribs and decided to stop at our favorite bbq joint, Memphis Minnie's located on Haight and Steiner, to pick up a couple bottles of Texas Red Sauce, and bring a little bit of Minnie's to our BBQ at home. Minnie's has some amazing food, but that, I shall save for another entry.

Before getting on the bus back to SoMa, we stopped by our favorite organic ice cream shop, Three Twins on Fillmore and Haight, for a refreshing treat to cool us down. Since our last visit their menu of options has grown significantly. When they first opened in 2009, they offered 8 flavors which rotated constantly and two or three types of toppings. Now they have a freezer with pre-packed pints and quarts, lemon cookie ice cream pies, a large variety of toppings and syrups, sundaes, and even milkshakes! We couldn't believe how much the place had changed in the few months since we moved out of the area. We were delighted to see that our favorite flavor, Earl Grey Tea, was one of the flavors that day, and both decided to try a milkshake. It was a little piece of ice cream heaven, and perfect for us since we had to get on a bus.

That night our bbq turned out fabulous thanks to our Memphis Minnie's Texas Red Sauce, and it was a 

perfect, end to an amazing day of eating, reminiscing and soaking up the nice weather that San Franciscans so rarely get the opportunity to enjoy. I'm pretty sure I gained at least five pounds, but, it was totally worth it.

Conception

Isn't everyone a "foodie"? I mean, seriously, we all enjoy food. Everyone talks about food. Everyone talks about what restaurants are great... or terrible... or so-so. There's about a million and one food blogs out here floating around in the tubes... The New York Times even published an article about food bloggers and people who post pictures of what they eat on a regular basis. I know this, because a friend/co-worker of mine sent it to me because it reminded her of me. I take pictures of my food. I post them on my facebook.

I've noticed that most pictures that I post of the food that I eat have more comments than the pictures that I post of people and places. I've taken all of these factors into consideration and decided... why not me? Why should I start a food blog? I found no good reason not to so here we are... Monday morning, April 19, 2010, my food blog, "Isn't everyone a 'Foodie'?" comes to life.

Credit for the name goes entirely to my boyfriend. As we were walking home from an epic day of soaking up the sun and eating amazing food, we began talking about food blogs and people who post pictures of food, and he stated, "we're foodies".

quickly he followed this with, "Isn't everyone a foodie though?"

So there you have it my blog has a name. I've been thinking of starting this for months, but, due to laziness, I'm just getting around to it now. I embark on a journey of food. I'm not promising to take AMAZING pictures, as a matter of fact, most of the pictures I post will probably be from my iPhone. I'm not promising to be grammatically correct, or free of typo's although, I'll try. I'm also not promising to be as faithful as some bloggers and post every thing that goes into my mouth either. What I can promise, is pictures of amazing, and not so amazing, foods that I eat whether here in the city, or on vacation. I promise to include names and locations of restaurants I visit, and web addresses where possible, after all, if it's good food or bad, you'll probably want to know where it came from.

So here we go, come along with me as I continue my journey of raving about the foods that I love, and ranting about the foods that are not so great.