Scott's Kitchen

Recipes on FriendFeed

I've been playing quite a bit recently with FriendFeed - and find that FriendFeed's Rooms feature is very interesting and useful. With Rooms, you can create a place where you can share things of common interest among Room members - including being able to comment on them, etc. Rooms on Friendfeed can be either public or private - and they have their own RSS feeds.

I've setup a public room on FriendFeed called Scott's Kitchen Recipes as a trial. I'll be posting interesting recipes there that I find across the web. If you're interested, join the room and then add you own links and comments! Or follow the activity in the room's RSS feed.

Food, Wine in Oakland's Rockridge District

If you're ever in Oakland's Rockridge district looking for some great food and wine, be sure to read this post on my personal blog about Market Hall and Oliveto's! Wonderful places.

Comfort Food: Baked Penne with Meat, Mushrooms and Cheese

This Friday's San Francisco Chronicle's Wine section carried the latest "Pairings" column by Lynne Char Bennett titled "Dry Creek Zinfandel makes a penne-wise partner". Zinfandel is among our favorite red wines (along with Syrah and Shiraz from Australia's Barossa appellation) - so the article caught my eye.

Included in Bennett's column was a recipe for "Baked Penne with Meat & Mushroom Sauce" which we made - with minor variations - tonight.

Her recipe minimizes some of the fat that might otherwise be present - we used 97% lean ground beef, for example, when we cooked it and the mushrooms help extend the flavor along with the herbs that simmer into such a flavorful sauce.

Turns out this recipe was a real family crowd pleaser - we all really liked it, helped ourselves to a couple of servings, etc. We served it along with a simple Caesar salad - yummy! We paired a Ridge 2006 Dusi Ranch Zinfandel with the penne - a great combination!

We'll certainly be making the baked penne again - and are already looking forward to some left overs tomorrow night!

Apple Cider Braised Chicken

A friend said he was making braised chicken for a family get together tonight - which naturally got me interested in exploring recipes for braised chicken!

I came across one - a modified Food & Wine recipe - at The Kitchen Sink. I've always loved apple cider - and this one looked interesting. So, we made our own version earlier this evening and really loved all of its flavors. We paired the chicken with some sauteed vegetables with a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh lime juice - yum!

Restaurant Review: Red Lotus (Portola Valley)

Tonight we headed over to Portola Valley's Red Lotus restaurant - about 5 minutes from home. We got there early (5:30 PM) when the place was empty but by the time we left (6:45 PM) there were already a few folks waiting for tables. Red Lotus is a small restaurant - seating perhaps 35-40 people. It apparently also does a robust takeout business as well. Here's their Yelp listing.

A Different Take on Hamersley's Roast Chicken Recipe

Yesterday, for our New Year's Day dinner, we tried a different take on Hamersley's Roast Chicken recipe - one of our all time winter favorites. If you're ever in Boston, you just have to go get the real thing at Hamersley's Bistro!