Part one: the food.

We really did try as hard as we could to put together our costumes, but it just didn't work out. Luckily, by the time we finished with dinner it was 11pm and even Liz, the party girl that she is, was fine with ducking out on Halloween festivities. Chez Panisse was one of the most elegant meals I've ever had--big plates with consumable-size portions precisely, yet nonchalantly arranged food, the waiter actually used a crumber. The menus are printed for the specific day and they have a great print on the cover. I think the vegetarian menu had an eggplant...or grapes, equally as beautiful as the tomato plant.


The best courses: the appetizer and dessert. The mozzarella was mild and cheesey without being rubbery like big pieces of mozzarella tend to be. The fig crostata was wicked figgy (a crostata is essentially an Italian galette but much flakier), and the fennel ice cream cut the intensity perfectly. George and I plan to go back at least one more time before we leave the Bay area. (Most of the things to do before we leave are eat at certain places.)

Continuing with food, I have three different cakey things to share with you. The first are some hi-hat cupcakes I made for Emily's birthday back in October. They're a chocolate cupcake frosted with a mound of marshmallowy stuff, dipped in a chocolate shell. I pawned most of them off on George's office.




At work I've been playing around with frosting some more cakes, the most recent a spice cake Shannon had leftover. I put some chopped apples and unsweetened whipped cream in the middle which was what really made it. Next time the apples need to be chopped smaller and more of them.




Most recently I made cashew, carrot, cardamom cupcakes with cashew cream cheese frosting from a recipe at Cupcake Bakeshop. The best way to describe them is with their name: they're exactly that. They're delicious in the way that cashews are buttery, soft, and salty.