The Golden Gate...

Today marked the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and the whole city was decked out for the party.

Despite its touristic appeal, this iconic beauty never fails to make me proud.  

I love San Francisco.

Bigger And Better Things...

For the past two months since we've been home from Europe, both Ryan and I have been itching to move to The City.  With no attachments to school (ew) and encouragement from the chefs at work, Ryan set out for San Francisco, while I twiddled my thumbs away taking my last undergraduate classes in Santa Cruz.  Together, he and his friends have found a place on Alamo Square which, we quickly decided, was the nicest neighborhood in town.  Hardwood floors, latticed windows and a real kitchen!, around the corner from the Independent, fancy restaurants like Nopa, and walking distance to everything.  I spent the weekend helping him move in and walking around Alamo Square park, writing down addresses of houses I'd like to live in...I have all sorts of strange criteria planned out.  I want to live alone, I want southeast facing windows, I want to decorate with Pendleton blankets and Mexican embroidered tapestries...

Twenty-seven more days left in Santa Cruz for me.  And before I'm moving anywhere, I've got to find a job....

Home Again, Home Again...

As the view outside the cabin window became more and more familiar, so too did the mounting sensation that maybe I wasn't ready to go home after all.  Suddenly eight months didn't seem quite so long, and seeing the bay from above, looking very much the same as when I left home, put perspective on how little had changed while I was away.

Part of my longing to return home was a fear that everything was happening without me.  Being on the road felt like being on pause, frozen in a fish bowl while life continues on its merry way without you.

And though some things had changed (like the addition of this fantastic little parklettes in the Mission), most had not.  Tartine (my first stop when I got back!) hadn't.  Neither had places Camino, Port Costa, or Santa Cruz, neither had my friends, nor much of anything else that really mattered...

It was a soothing discovery, and one that I thought might have me regretting my desire to come back.  But it was quite the contrary.  Of everywhere I'd been, and everything I'd seen, San Francisco really had everything I had loved, and everything I had missed.  There is probably a city somewhere in the world made perfectly for every person, and I'm back home in mine.

Tartine...

How do you sum up Tartine in words?

Chris.

Simply put, Tartine is the very best bakery in the world.  

I would never be so assuming as to think that I could find bread in France that would trump the art of Chad Robertson and his wife Elizabeth Prueitt, the talented couple who started the bakery in 2002.  Kendra, my Chef at the Penny Ice Creamery worked for Tartine when she came back from doing her stage in France.  She recommended the bakery to me and I've been hooked ever since.

  If there ever was such an attentive bread making process I would never believe it.  Our friend Chris, who works at Companion Bakery in Santa Cruz, deems Chad a god of baking expertise. 

And he is.  I have never seen such a beautiful, even crust, with flawless crisp bubbles on the exterior, and a warm yeasty flavor that needs no butter no any other accompaniment.

We watched as Chad scored each loaf, and maneuvered the dough on great gurney-esque canvas beds into the oven where he then sprayed the outside of the loaves with water as they heated, to create the perfect bubbling crust.

Katie.

We ate out treats in Dolores Park, sharing pastries, cakes and loaves of bread.  Our picnic was a bit of a farewell to  Katie and I both.  Katie, Chris's sister, who works alongside me at The Penny Ice Creamery, is going to France as well.  She and her boyfriend, Daniel, will working on a farm in Normandy that grows wheat, mills wheat, and bakes with the flour.  She'll be just like the 

Little Red Hen!  I can't wait to see her in France!

Perfectly floured loaves.

A year without Tartine is going to be a really long, sad time.  The Tartine Bread cookbook is on my wishlist.  I need to learn to make delicious bread of my own.  It's an art form that I will have to patiently master.

 If you're interested in learning more about Tartine or the proccess of bread, this is the best video to watch.  It's not too long and it's beautiful.

Enjoy!