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Attend a cooking class at Studio of Good Living in San Francisco and you’ll soon discover a new world full of culinary adventures. More than just a cooking school, the Studio of Good Living shares the art of living well with all its students!
Studio of Good Living offers exceptional cooking classes and events in the Bay Area and Beyond. Want to learn how to cook or brush up on your cooking skills? Take a class with us! Escape to San Francisco for a Taste of San Francisco or indulge yourself with Cook, Shop, Spa. Burned out? Drop into Live Well, Eat Well for yoga lovers. Continue the journey with the Art of Dinner Blog and view our video classes for new ideas to spice up your dinner table. . Need a change of scenery? Join us for a total culinary and lifestyle retreat in beautiful Maine. Discover the possibilities with Chef Phoebe Schilla and the Studio of Good Living. Life is Beautiful by Design.
 The Cheese Course
I don’t know about you, but I find it challenging to come up with new and exciting things to pair with cheese. It’s so easy to fall into a rut! That’s where this book is a life saver! For a dinner party, I was requested to pair cheddar with ‘something’. Apples and honey are a lovely, but slightly boring pairing. Quince paste, while perfect with Manchego is not as enticing with a mature cheddar. I found a great recipe for a pear, cranberry and walnut compote in my little book. It was delicious and easy to make too! The morning of the dinner party I went to the Ferry Building to pick out cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and dessert from Miette’s. I always ask the folks at Cowgirl for recommendations and I was not disappointed. I ended up with a fantastic cheddar from Cabot Creamery and the pear, cranberry and walnut chutney was fabulous with it.
Cranberry Pear Chutney
Adapted from ‘The Cheese Course’ by Janet Fletcher
½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
6 oz cranberries
1 # pears, (about 2 or 3 good sized pears) peeled, quartered, cored and diced
1 cup sugar
½ cup cider vinegar
1 2-inch pice of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
½ cup raisins or currants
In a saucepan, combine the cranberries, pears, sugar, vinegar and ginger. Add the cinnamon stick and clove to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to simmer until the cranberries have collapsed and the pears are tender, about 15 minutes or so. Stir the raisins into the chutney and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the walnuts. Cool and before serving remove the ginger, cinnamon stick and clove. Serve the chutney alongside the cheddar cheese. This chutney freezes well and will last about a week in the fridge. I also liked this with soft ripened cheese such as Brie or Camembert.
Sometimes it is not until I write down my menu list for the week that I realize that there is a particular theme to the meals that I have made. This week was mushrooms. I couldn’t seem to get enough of them!
Soy Chicken Braised in Coconut Juice, soy sauce and spices
French Onion Soup
Lamb Moussaka
Lasagna
Tabbouleh
Lentil Salad with Vegetables
Grilled Shrimp
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Braised Brisket with dried Porcini Mushrooms
Barley Mushroom Risotto
Moroccan Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemon
Chicken Korma
Saag Paneer
Lots of Rice Pilaf, Indian Style and Plain too.
Spinach and Sweet Potato Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce and Crème Fraiche
Triple Chocolate Brownies
Crab Cakes
Portobello Mushroom and Bulgur Burgers
Cheese Fondue
Thai Coconut Soup with Swiss Chard and Tofu
Orange Beef
Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
Strawberry Rhubarb Compote (Yay! Rhubarb is back!)
 It’s been a great week so far! I’ve discovered ‘Somersaults’ a delicious and healthy new snack, made with sunflower seeds. Somersaults come in a few different flavors. I like the sea salt and the black pepper varieties. I didn’t care for the cocoa and haven’t tried the salsa. Whole Foods has started carrying drinks sweetened with agave nectar—important for my family since my mom has blood sugar issues. I really liked the Gingerade from Big Island Organics. It was pleasantly piquant and definitely gingery with 1 oz of ginger juice in each 16 oz bottle. I found and purchased an almost new racy, red kitchen aid (with all of the attachments!) at a yard sale for $75 and Mollie Stones, the supermarket in my neighborhood has started carrying Labne. Labne is a yogurt cheese—it’s simple to make—it’s just strained yogurt, but until recently it has been difficult to find in the grocery store. I think it is a yummy alternative to cream cheese. Spice, by Ana Sortun with Nicole Chaison has a great recipe for a winter salad using Labne. It starts with a base of Labne, mixed with herbs and pecans, formed into a disc and topped with a marinated apple slaw and endive. It was delicious, refreshing and different.
Have you found any new and exciting treats at the grocery store lately? If so, please share!! I’m always interested in trying new foods and products.
 Endive and Apple Salad with Grapes, Sumac and Pecan Labne
Adapted from Spice by Ana Sortun with Nicole Chaison
Serves 4
½ cup pecan pieces, toasted and chopped finely. Reserve 1 Tbsp for garnish.
1 Granny Smith apple, julienned
2 tsp each chopped mint, dill and parsley
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
A handful of grapes, stemmed and washed
1 garlic clove, grated
¾ cup of labne
2 Tbsp. ground melba toast or very crisp, dry breadcrumbs
1 head of endive
Sumac for garnish (If you can’t find sumac sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice over the finished dish.)
- Toss the julienned apple with the 1 Tbsp of olive oil, the herbs and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Cut the grapes in half and add them to the apple mixture.
- Combine the labne, the remaining 2 Tbsp. of olive oil the melba crumbs, grated garlic and pecans. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Trim the bottom ends of the endive and remove the leaves, one by one. When you reach the heart of the endive, set it aside.
- Slice the endive hearts into thin rings and toss with the apple mixture.
- Assemble the salad by placing a couple of tablespoons of labne on the bottom of each salad plate.
- Using the back of a spoon, smooth the labne into a 2 inch circle. Arrange the endive spears on each plate at a slight angle, sticking the bottom of the spears into the labne.
- Spoon ½ tablespoon of the apple mixture over each endive spear. Sprinkle sumac and reserved pecan pieces over the salads and serve.
I’ve been meaning to make the Lamb Kebabs with Charmoula Citrus Dressing from Joyce Goldstein’s Mediterranean Fresh cookbook for a while now and I couldn’t put it off any longer. Chermoula is a Moroccan sauce flavored with lemon, garlic, parsley, cilantro, paprika and cumin. It is zesty and extremely flavorful without being overwhelming. Since it is not overwhelming it is an extremely versatile sauce. I use it to marinate chicken and fish, as a dip for pita, as dressing for pasta salads…so be creative! I served the kebabs with a couscous salad and roasted cauliflower for a simple and delicious meal. I would recommend pairing this meal with a rose, pinot noir or other lighter red wine such as a Chinon or a cotes du rhone.
Lamb Kebabs with Charmoula Citrus Dressing
Adapted from Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein Serves 4
2 pounds boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of fat and sinews and cut into cubes. I also really like lamb shoulder for kebabs. It’s a little more work than the leg of lamb to bone out the shoulder blade, but I find that it is a more tender and flavorful cut.
1 small shallot, roughly chopped
1 cup of Charmoula Citrus Dressing (recipe follows)
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
Combine the shallot and the dressing in a blender and puree. Pour this mixture over the meat and toss well to cover. Marinate overnight in the fridge or at room temperature for a few hours. (I marinated my lamb at room temperature for about 2 hours.) Bring the lamb to room temperature before grilling or broiling. Preheat your broiler or grill. Thread the meat onto the skewers. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil or grill to desired doneness. Serve immediately.
Charmoula Citrus Dressing (1 cup)
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 cloves of garlic, grated or minced
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
Pinch of cayenne
2 Tbsp. Parsley
2 Tbsp. Cilantro
½ c. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste.
Although the recipe says to mix this by hand, I found it much easier to put all of the ingredients in the blender and puree it. This worked out really well, and I had one less bowl to wash at the end of the night.
As Julia used to say, Bon Appetit!
What a great name, huh? I have always been a firm believer that chocolate could change the future and now I know that other people feel the same way!! I spent this evening at a great event hosted by San Francisco hotshot chocolate maker Tcho. Their chocolates are exquisite. I highly recommend that you seek them out whether or not you are a chocoholic. FRED is not all about fun and games, no matter what you might hear. This was an event with a purpose. All proceeds from the event went to three different Haiti relief efforts. I was asked to donate some hors d’oeurves to the event. I couldn’t say no to such a worthy cause. I firmly believe that we all need to help each other out in this world, in whatever way we can, whenever we can.
 One of the questions that I am asked most frequently about what I do is: Where do you shop? The answer is a long list of places all over the San Francisco Bay area. It depends on where I am cooking, convenience, and who has the highest quality ingredients available. I typically go to the Farmer’s market on the weekend for most of my produce shopping. For fish, I highly recommend Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park—I rarely purchase seafood anywhere else. On the other side of the bay I recommend Monterey Fish Market. I shop Whole Foods for items such as flour, sugar etc.
 Most Tuesday mornings you will find me at Bianchini’s Market in Portola Valley. Portola Valley has a remote quality that makes it feel very unique. It is undeveloped and whenever I am there I find it hard to believe that I am just 40 minutes away from an urban city center. You will probably see a doe and her babies meandering by the side of the road. If you are driving only a few miles over the speed limit, or come to a ‘rolling stop’, the local law enforcement will surely stop you. It’s that kind of town. The easiest way to get to Portola Valley (from SF) is to take 280 south to the Alpine Road exit. Bianchini’s is located just off of the freeway, on the main road through town. It is family owned and operated. Bianchini’s opened as a full service grocery store in 1998. It now has a second store in San Carlos that opened last spring. What I like the most about the store is the commitment to quality and their support of local farms.  Of course, they do carry long distance items such as bananas and pineapples but they really make an effort to bring in local produce. I believe that they have some of the best local produce in the area. Chanterelle mushrooms when they are in season, a bounty of tomatoes and stone fruit in the summer, squash and apples in the fall. The meat department is also excellent. They do a fantastic job trimming and tying roasts, and the butchers are extremely knowledgeable. They carry high quality grass fed beef from Marin Sun Farms, items such as waygu brisket, as well as Mary’s air chilled chicken. They have high points for customer service too. The only department that I am not impressed by is the seafood department. However, it is worth a stop if you are driving thru Portola Valley.
One of the questions that I am asked most frequently about what I do is: Where do you shop? The answer is a long list of places all over the San Francisco Bay area. It depends on where I am cooking, convenience, and who has the highest quality ingredients available. I typically go to the Farmer’s market on the weekend for most of my produce shopping. For fish, I highly recommend Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park–>Portola Valley has a remote quality that makes it feel very unique. It is undeveloped and whenever I am there I find it hard to believe that I am just 40 minutes away from an urban city center. You will probably see a doe and her babies meandering by the side of the road. If you are driving only a few miles over the speed limit, or come to a ‘rolling stop’, the local law enforcement will surely stop you. It’s that kind of town. The easiest way to get to Portola Valley (from SF) is to take 280 south to the Alpine Road exit. Bianchini’s is located just off of the freeway, on the main road through town. It is family owned and operated. Bianchini’s opened as a full service grocery store in 1998. It now has a second store in San Carlos that opened last spring. What I like the most about the store is the commitment to quality and their support of local farms. Of course, they do carry long distance items such as bananas and pineapples but they really make an effort to bring in local produce. I believe that they have some of the best local produce in the area. Chanterelle mushrooms when they are in season, a bounty of tomatoes and stone fruit in the summer, squash and apples in the fall. The meat department is also excellent. They do a fantastic job trimming and tying roasts, and the butchers are extremely knowledgeable. They carry high quality grass fed beef from Marin Sun Farms, items such as waygu brisket, as well as Mary’s air chilled chicken. They have high points for customer service too. The only department that I am not impressed by is the seafood department. However, it is worth a stop if you are driving thru Portola Valley.
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I was recently invited to hold a cooking class in one of the dorms at the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. I was contacted by one of the RA’s (remember those?). She had noticed that the students who were not on the meal plan were challenged in the kitchen and really didn’t know what to eat or how to prepare something that was quick (so students have ample time to study,) healthy and tasty. Sooo, I am doing a series of cooking classes in the dorms, yes, you heard that right, in the dorms.
Dorm kitchens are small—if you are like me and have long, long forgotten what a dorm kitchen looks like, it’s akin to a kitchen in a studio or small one bedroom apartment. Since time and space where both considerations in planning the class, we limited it to 6 students. We made a mixed green salad with vinaigrette, Chicken Piccata, Brown Rice, Roasted Carrots and Chocolate Mousse. Just simple, tasty food that feeds your soul. Class lasted an hour and 15 minutes, and then we sat down to eat dinner. I emphasized how to properly saute a chicken breast and how to make a classic vinaigrette—these are two fundamental concepts that will carry over into a variety of different recipes.
It was a lot of fun, and I think that the students really enjoyed it. It was interesting to hear all of their questions too, from how to make a pilaf to how long can you marinate chicken for? They were very concerned about fats—specifically good fats, such as omega 3’s and were interested in the proper proportion of carbohydrates, fats, protein and vegetables. It was a lot of fun and I’ll be going back for another class on February 21st.
 Delessio Bakery (delessiomarket.com) Lily is our Peanut Butter Princess. Aka the great Peanut Butter Traveling sales women in training or the Peanut Butter Whisperer. Whatever you may call her, she just loves the stuff. I have to admit to a certain fondness for peanut butter too—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are my go to food when there is nothing else in the house to eat. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my all time favorite combinations. I was hooked on Reese’s as a kid, both the cups and the pieces. I also love Tagalogs—you know the girl scout cookies? One of my very guilty pleasures is to stash a box of Tagalogs in the freezer. I eat the peanut butter patty on top first, then the somewhat naked shortbread. I have always been very specific about how to eat my sweet indulgences. (Don’t even ask about Kitkats or Twix bars.) Lest you are shocked by these revelations, don’t worry—I only eat mass produced treats when I am desperate. Or out of gummy worms.
But Lily’s first birthday is coming up—this Friday to be exact and I want to make her something so delicious she will not be able to resist putting her entire face into her piece of birthday extravaganza. When Lily likes something she screams with joy and puts her entire face in it. Sometimes I wish that I could do that too!
 cakes from Delessio Bakery (delessiomarket.com) When I first started working in the restaurant business, I worked the cold station and helped make desserts. One of the desserts that I introduced to the The Cannery (now closed) in Yarmouth, Maine was Richard Sax’s Peanut Butter Pie with Fudge Topping. It rocks. It’s fast, easy and can be made with one hand on the kitchen aid and a baby on your hip. If you wanted to speed up the process you can make this delicious pie with a purchased graham cracker crust. I love the fudge topping. It’s just soft enough. (Really it’s just ganache, not fudge.) The chocolate that I really like to use is Guittard—it’ a San Francisco based company. They have exceptional chocolates and I really like supporting family owned businesses whenever I can. To complement the pie, I ordered up a small Chocolate Retro cake from Delessio Bakery in San Francisco. They make really great cakes and pastries among other things. Check them out if you can.
Peanut Butter Pie with Fudge Topping
Adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Graham Cracker Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 15 individual crackers)
¼ cup sugar
½ stick unsalted butter, melted
Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use old fashioned or freshly ground)
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
Fudge Topping
½ cup heavy cream
6 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- Graham Cracker Crust: Preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the lower third. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter until well blended. Press evenly into a buttered 9 inch pie pan, reaching up to but not over the rim. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool the crust completely on a wire rack.
- Filling: Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter with an electric mixer or Kitchen Aid at medium speed until well blended. Add the confectioners sugar, butter and vanilla and continue beating until fluffy. (For a more mousse like filling fold in ½ cup not-quite stiffly whipped cream at this time.)
- Carefully spoon the filling into the cooled crust, spreading evenly. Loosely cover the pie and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours. (At this point you may put the pie in the freezer to speed it up. You may also freeze the pie for 2 weeks at this point.)
- Fudge Topping: Bring the cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to lukewarm. Gently spread the topping over the cooled pie. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
- Cut the pie into wedges and serve cold.
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