Fancy Pants Productions

Scrumptious Spinach & Sundried Tomato Pizza

I haven’t made one of these in a while so I thought maybe it was time. Spinach is so great on this — made that much better with the addition of a few sundried tomatoes.

Some people hate making yeasted dough, but they’re relatively simple once you get the hang of it. You do have to let it rest / rise which takes about an hour, but it doesn’t require any attention. While the dough is rising, I make my filling. I like to use fresh spinach, which takes a while to prep, but I think it gives it a better flavor than frozen spinach.

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Zesty Apple Pie

So… is the season… as was evident when my friend mentioned that he had a few apples to to get rid of… When he dropped them off, it was a grocery bag full of them. I started to explain that I didn’t need so many and he said “I’m sorry one giant bag full is the minimum”. Sounds like they have lots of apples! Which is great for me. I love apples and these are Granny Smith’s. Really good Granny Smith apples. Nice and sweet and crisp.

I put my baking cap on and decided to make a pie. Pies have never been my favorite. I’ve made some pretty horrible pie crusts in my time. I’m more of a chocolate cake girl. But with all these apples, I had to do something.

I have to say right here that having the internet has been THE single best thing that ever happened to my cooking. I can dig through recipe after recipe to find one that I’m looking for (or take several recipes and adapt it to what I want). Before the ‘net, I had to rely on the free issues of Gourmet (RIP) and Bon Appetit that I received from my (then) workplace. I’m picky when it comes to recipes. I tend towards the ones with complex flavors. I could have made an apple pie with just cinnamon and a bunch of sugar, but this recipe caught my eye because it had the addition of lemon and orange flavors… which I love with apples. Obviously this one was going to be a bit trickier since it is easy to over do zest — but I’m glad I gave it a go. The zests brighten up the taste of the apples and offset the flavors in the buttery pie crust. It’s a darn delicious pie… and that’s saying something from this chocolate cake girl.

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Scrumptious and Savory Lentil Loaf

So I just experimented with making a lentil loaf. I had tried the one at Ananda Fuara here in San Francisco and while it was good, it was just a tad sweeter than I would have liked. All the recipes I found online had something weird about it that didn’t appeal to me, so I decided that my first time out making a lentil loaf that I’d have to create my own recipe. I was a bit apprehensive, but apparently that was unwarranted because this one turned out delish! I know the baked ketchup on the top of this looks a bit strange in the picture – but in real life it adds a delicious zing to the loaf — I wish I would have put more on it!

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Tasty Vietnamese Chicken Salad

So I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while — as it seems there is a dearth of good Vietnamese recipes online.

This is one of my favorite salads — Vietnamese chicken salad. I’ve labeled it as vegetarian because there is a vegetarian option of making it with tofu — which is just as good, and if not better than the chicken version. There is a small amount of fish sauce in the recipe, so if you’re allergic to fish, or adverse to eating fish products, this recipe may not work for you (although I doubt there’s really much fish in the fish sauce… but I digress). The base is made out of cabbage. I love cabbage. It’s cheap, it keeps forever in the fridge, and it’s rumored to be good for your stomach. Considering the abuse my stomach gets sometimes, it’s a good thing for me to eat.

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We just returned from a quick little northern California vacation. We started with Lassen National Park, then went to Redding / Whiskeytown Lake and then to the Jelly Belly factory. We got back late Monday of last week.

First stop: Lassen National Park

Lassen Peak

I’m a big fan of the unusual — and Lassen park does not disappoint. It’s unusual alien-looking volcanic landscapes are well worth the hike to see.

If you prefer beautiful meadows, mountains, lakes and a variety of geological formations, Lassen has that as well.

We were there for three days — which wasn’t really enough time. Turns out there are lots of things to see off beaten trails. This can be said for most National Parks, I suppose — but there were a variety of geological formations that can only be accessed by a hike (boiling springs, cold boiling lake, the geyser, multiple lakes, etc.). To top it off, there are three remote entrances to the park that will each provide you with a different reward. If you’re one of those that does just the “drive by” — you’ll likely be disappointed — as the only thing that the road goes right up against is the sulphur vents — which are cool — but not nearly as cool as Bumpass Hell or the King Creek waterfall.

Continue reading Lassen National Park, Whiskeytown, & Jelly Belly

Wow… Facebook is changing SEO — an interesting side effect of Facebook’s popularity.

Not only did the size of Facebook double between February and April of 2009 (in just sixty days!), but there are a lot of links that are clicked within Facebook that are never registered on Google. This is an interesting twist, as it very easily could affect your page rank. More details can be found at Copyblogger.

Edit:

Voting is over now — regrettably, I did not make it into the top 50. Thanks so much for all who voted for me — your support is greatly appreciated!

Congratulations to all of the winners!

And so… the video is finally posted! I’ve put together a video application for the Really Goode job. If I win I’ll get to live in Sonoma for 6 months and be a “Lifestyle Correspondent” — boy does that sound fun! So… I’m asking for your vote. And… to encourage those of you to vote — I’m putting together a giveaway!

If I make it to the top 50, I’ll send some lucky person who voted for me a bottle of wine (Murphy Goode wine, of course!). If I get a job from this, not only will you have my undying gratitude, but someone will win a free iPod nano! I’ll even let you choose the color! and… I’m springing for the 16 gigger. When I win — so will you! To be eligible for the drawing, send me the email you receive from Murphy Goode asking you to confirm your favorite video selection. This contest is a bit of an honor system — as there’s really no way I can prove you confirmed your vote — just that you did a preliminary pick… which is still great in my book!

So.. here’s what I’d love for you to do:

1. Click here (link deactivated).

2. Watch my incredibly clever (or not) video.

3. Fill in your email address where they ask you if this is your favorite video

4. When you get the email asking you to confirm — click the link to confirm this is your favorite video

5. Forward the email you receive from Murphy Goode to me at sabinaisgoode@gmail.com (along with your name).

That’s it! Once I’m chosen to be in the top 50, I’ll contact the lucky winner and we’ll arrange to send you a bottle of wine. Once I have the job, I’ll contact another lucky winner to arrange to send them an iPod…it’s that simple!

Edit: so I’ve recently learned that I made the first cut and am currently at #144 — not too shabby considering there were well over 1000 applicants! But… I need more votes to cinch it! All votes are appreciated! thanks!

So yesterday was a perfect day to take a road trip out of the overcast city. Once we got up north, it was another beautiful day, sunny and warm, with a nice cool breeze. Rolling hills filled with vineyards and the sky filled with fluffy clouds.

I took some friends of mine up to Sonoma for some wine tasting. We had decided to just go to one of the tasting rooms. I was a bit nervous about it since I’ve always gone to the winery. In a lot of ways, it was better than going to the winery. The tasting room featured more vintners featured and you could pick and choose from the different kinds of wines you liked. Often a winemaker will have a general ‘flavor’ that you may or may not like and the tasting room turned out to be the best way to ensure that you found wine(s) that you enjoyed.

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Wow… having been landlocked for the first 20 years of my life — I had no idea what I was missing! My latest favorite ocean food is oysters! I was introduced to a new way to prepare them at a friends birthday party. Here’s how you can make delicious BBQ’ed oysters at home.

Continue reading Oysters – my new favorite food group!

Yet another great restaurant you should know about — Medjool. Our friends were in town this weekend, which was great fun! I love showing off the city!

Continue reading Medjool