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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.
 Yes, it’s true. I suffer from OCD. That’s Obsessive Cooking Disorder, not that other one. This past Friday was my first day off in 2 weeks. (Every mom knows that it wasn’t really a day off—more like a ‘spend the day with Lily and catch up on laundry’ day) That means I wasn’t cooking for Other People, just me. I got to make us whatever I wanted, and I went a little nuts. You see, I had just picked up my copy of ‘Good to the Grain’ Baking with Whole Grain Flours by Kim Boyce. It’s the cookbook that all the food bloggers are discussing right now with rave reviews and I had to have it. This book inspired me to go to Whole Foods and pick up not one, not two, but five different flours to play around with. (Oat, Barley, Graham, Buckwheat and Rye, if you must know.) So, Friday morning, baby on my hip and blender at the ready I made two different batches of crepes. It’s a good thing that I perfected cracking an egg with one hand years ago. For those of you not in the know, crepe batter is a marvelous thing; you can make it in the blender and put it in the fridge to use for breakfast the next morning. Just wake and bake, or griddle rather. I also made the Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies and—drum roll please—homemade Grape Nuts! I have never seen a recipe for homemade Grape Nuts before and I was hopelessly intrigued and powerless to resist. The recipe was fabulously easy and was calling my name. They were delicious the next morning with Vanilla Almond Milk and fresh blueberries. They tasted just like Grape Nuts, only better. I also selected the Barley Crepe recipe, with beer and molasses and the Ricotta Crepes substituting Graham flour for the spelt. (Whole Foods was out of spelt flour—this book must have started a craze!!) Lily and I loved the Barley crepes. This batter was quite tender and a little finicky to deal with. The crepes broke easily during cooking. However, they were delicious and I ended up stuffing them with creamed mushrooms and asparagus for dinner. The Ricotta Crepes were delicious too. I had to thin the batter as suggested with extra milk, and I served them with butter and maple syrup for breakfast. The chocolate chip cookies were good too. I mean really, what’s not to like about a Chocolate Chip Cookie? Next up, next week: Sand Cookies
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 I love lazy Sundays. Who doesn’t? For me that means, sleeping in a little later, strong coffee, jazz, the paper and these waffles. These waffles are delicious and the best part about them is that the batter has to be made the night before so it is super easy to whip them up for a really quick breakfast. If you have the time definitely make the caramelized walnuts. They are totally addictive.
Waffles with Caramelized Walnuts
Adapted from The Secrets of Success Cookbook Signature Recipes and Insider Tips from San Francisco’s Best Restaurants by Michael Bauer
½ cup warm water,
1 package active, dry yeast
2 cups of milk
2 cups of all purpose flour
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 eggs
¼ tsp. baking soda
Caramelized Walnuts
2 cups walnuts
1 Tbsp. water
½ cup sugar
Waffle Batter
In a large bowl, combine the water and yeast. Set aside until the yeast dissolves and the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add the milk, flour, butter, vanilla, salt, vanilla extract and sugar to the yeast mixture. Stir to blend. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside overnight at room temperature.
Caramelized Walnuts
Oil a large baking sheet or line a baking sheet with a silpat. Combine the nuts, water and sugar in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar caramelizes, about 5 minutes. Pour the caramelized nuts onto the prepared baking tray. Allow the nuts to cool, then transfer to a storage container and store at room temperature.
In the morning:
The next morning, heat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Just before cooking the waffles, whisk the eggs and baking soda into the yeast mixture. When the waffle iron is hot, pour about ½ cup of batter onto the waffle iron. Cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Most waffle irons have a timer—if yours does not, simply crack open and check to see if your waffle has an even golden brown color. Serve with the caramelized nuts and maple syrup. Whipped cream and berries would be a nice touch too!
Enjoy!
I love this recipe for ‘Chicken in Pistachio, Sumac and Sesame Crumbs’ from the cookbook ‘Turquoise, a Chef’s travels in Turkey‘ by Greg and Lucy Malouf. It’s easy, exotic sounding and tastes great. The sesame seeds and pistachios add a delightful crunch, the lemon zest and sumac add a bright lemon-y note that is tempered by the richness of the parmesan cheese. Leftovers keep well and this chicken is great the second day in a pita sandwich with a little yogurt dressing, sprouts and shredded carrots. Chicken is the workhorse of the carnivore world. It’s easy to eat, a good source of protein, and inoffensive. At its best it is tender, juicy and moist. At it’s worst, dry, tough and tasteless. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts can get more than a little boring if you eat them frequently—and I am constantly looking for new ways to dress them up. The breading on this chicken ensures that it stays nice and moist. The recipe has a couple of steps you need to take to ensure success. The first is to pound the chicken breast to an even thickness so that it cooks evenly, use fresh bread crumbs and don’t chop the pistachios too finely.
Chicken in pistachio, sumac and sesame crumbs
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 6 oz each, pounded to an even thickness
2 eggs
Salt and Pepper
All purpose flour
Olive Oil
Lemon Wedges to serve (optional)
Pistachio Crumbs
2 slices of sandwich bread, crust removed, torn into pieces
1 Tbsp. ground sumac (if sumac is unavailable, substitute the zest of ½ a lemon in addition to .)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ c. unsalted, shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
¼ cup of sesame seeds
2/3 cup finely grated parmesan
To make the crumbs, put the bread into a food processor with the sumac, zest and pistachios and pulse briefly. Add the sesame seeds and parmesan and pulse briefly to combine.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
When ready to cook the chicken, lightly beat the eggs with a little water in a shallow bowl to make an egg wash. Set up a production line of seasoned flour, egg wash and crumb mix. First dip the chicken pieces into the flour, then the egg wash and finally the crumb mix, patting them carefully all over
Heat the oil in a saute pan and saute the chicken pieces until golden brown all over. Transfer to a cookie tray and cook for 8-10 minutes in the center of the oven. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving with wedges of lemon.
Serves 4
As soon as I saw this recipe I knew that I had to make it. It has three ingredients that I love, it was cold and rainy in San Francisco and I had just enough wild rice and pecans in my pantry to make it. This recipe is perfect for the Holidays and everyday in between. It is slightly heavy, chewy from the wild rice, nutty and rich from the pecans and slightly sweetish from the dried cranberries (you could substitute dried cherries or raspberries) nuanced gently with honey and some whole wheat flour. The whole thing just shouts ‘Yum!’. And you know, there are some days that are just bread baking days. The days that you want to spend next to the stove mixing and kneading –pouring your heart and energy into want you are making.
Here is the recipe—I tweaked in gently. Although this calls for 2 9-inch loaves, I made one smallish 9 inch and 2 mini loaves to give away.
Wild Rice, Cranberry and Pecan Bread
Adapted from Beatrice Ojakangas ‘The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever’
1 cup of wild rice
1 ½ cups pecans
2 cups warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast, 2 ½ teaspoons
¼ cup honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups bread flour (I used all purpose, and it worked out just fine. )
1 cup dried cranberries, cherries or raspberries
- In a large pot, cover the wild rice with water and bring to a boil. Cook over moderate heat until tender. This is really important. You don’t want hard, jaw breaking bits of undercooked wild rice floating through the loaf. My wild rice was old and took over an hour to cook. I kept adding water to cover when it started to dry out. When the rice is tender, drain and set aside.
- Toast the pecans in a 350F oven until they are fragrant. Set aside and when they are cool, coarsely chop.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, mix the warm water with the yeast and honey until the honey is dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes, until bubbly. In a small bowl, mix the whole wheat flour with the salt: add to the mixer and beat until a smooth dough forms. Mix in 2 cups of the bread flour until smooth. Add the wild rice, pecans and cranberries and mix until incorporated. Switch to the dough hook. Add the remaining 2 cups of bread flour and mix at medium speed until a soft, springy dough forms, about 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until doubled in volume, about an hour. (At this point I punched the dough down and put it in the fridge to coo k the following day and it worked out perfectly.)
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and divide it into either 2 large loaves or 2 minis and 1 large. Place each loaf in the appropriate loaf pan. Cover and let stand until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake the larger loaves for about 35 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of each loaf comes out clean. The smaller loaves cook in about 25 minutes. Let the loaves stand until cooled slightly, about 30 minutes.
The recipe also says that the bread can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
Good Luck and Happy Baking!
I have been eyeing this recipe since I got Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home to Yours.’ The picture in the book is drool-worthy. These are delicious, decadent and really easy to make. The secret? Purchased Dulce de Leche. I love the combination of a crumbly shortbread-y crust, caramel-y duce de leche, nuts (!) and a dark chocolate layer on top. Oh my god. Totally heavenly. My mouth waters just thinking about it. If you bring these to the next office party or family gathering people will definitely sit up and take notice. I love the fact that you can throw the ingredients for the crust in the cuisinart and whir away until the dough forms then you press in, yes, that’s right press in the crust—no rolling out dough on the countertop and making a mess. You can even melt the chocolate layer in the microwave. The one complicated move is to caramelize the nuts—Dorie uses peanuts, but I had mixed nuts in my pantry so I used those instead. The caramelized nuts add a certain je ne sais quoi to the recipe, but if you are nervous about caramelizing or don’t have time you could just use roasted and salted nuts instead.
Enjoy! I’m going to have a piece right now…
Snickery Squares
From Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’
 Crust:
1 cup of flour
¼ cup of sugar
2 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
Filling
Caramelized Nuts:
1 ½ cups salted, roasted nuts of your choice or a mixture of nuts
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. water
About 1 ½ cups of store bought dulce de leche (I used a 10oz jar of the Barefoot Contessa’s Espresso Dulce de Leche)
Topping
7 oz of bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Guittard bittersweet chocolate disks and eliminated the chopping.)
½ stick (4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temp.
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8” square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
The Crust: Toss the flour, sugar, confectioners’ sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds—stop before the dough comes together in a ball.
Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.
Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.
 To make the filling:
Have a silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon (you’ll be cooking sugar that will climb to over 300F, so you’ll want to keep as far away from it as possible) and a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan.
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves (see picture). Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. (If sugar splatters onto the sides of the saucepan, wash down the splatters with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.) Toss in the nuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring to coat the nuts with the sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white—keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the nuts are coated with a nice, deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet, using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces (I chopped mine.) Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling and finely chop the other half for the topping. Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and then sprinkle with the whole candied nuts or the big pieces.
 Topping:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water or in a microwave oven, using a low power setting. Remove the chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the finely chopped candied nuts. Put the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, (I do!) keep them refrigerated for a least 3 hours before cutting.
Cut into 16 bars, each roughly 2 ½ inches on a side.
Enjoy!
Sprout is a fantastic all organic toddler and baby store in San Francisco. They have a variety of events each month and have a really cool space available for baby showers. The first time that I walked into the store, I loved the vibe and wanted to be a part of it.
Last month I presented a shortened version of my healthy snack seminar at in their store. We all love the idea of ‘healthy snacks’ and I think that healthy snacks should be the same for both children and adults. Cheese, yogurt, fruit and nuts are all examples of basic healthy snacks. But what about when you want something a little bit more decadent? Can you find something that satisfies? Will it still be wholesome? I think that you can. Homemade fruit leather and granola can be made with a minimum of fuss and are both tasty and delicious. I also love to make fruit filled quesadillas with flour tortillas. You can use gluten free or sprouted grain tortillas if wheat is an issue. Banana and chocolate are a favorite as is apple and cheddar.
Check out my video blog for recipes and demos. Hopefully you will see more of me at Sprout in the spring! Everyone deserves to eat tasty food.
This week I had an excess of nectarines and peaches—you know when you buy a batch and they all ripen at the same time? That’s what happened to me and as much as I love fresh peaches, eating six in a day seems excessive. So, I turned to my brand new very awesome ‘From My Home to Yours’ baking book by Dorie Greenspan and this is what I found: ‘Flip Over Plum Cake’. It was so good (and easy) that my husband dubbed it ‘Flip Out Cake’. This cake rocks. Once you have made it once, you will want to make it again and again. It’s super easy too. You can use any stone fruit or combination thereof that you like. If you don’t have fresh fruit on hand you can use frozen. Later in the week I made it for a client and they too ‘flipped out’ over it. Enjoy it! I hope it becomes a Family Classic! It’s tasty enough to serve at a dinner party in bowls with top notch vanilla ice cream paired with Late Harvest Riesling, Coteaux du Layon or Sauternes.
Flip Over Plum Cake
*This is called ‘Flip Over’ because the fruit sinks to the bottom and the batter rises to the top.)
Adapted from ‘Baking: From My Home to Yours’ by Dorie Greenspan
- 2 pounds ripe stone fruit, pitted
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground ginger
- ¼ ground coriander
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
- ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. pure almond extract
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Have ready a 9×12” pyrex baking dish. (I used an 8×8” square pyrex dish, and that worked out just fine.)
Cut each stone fruit half into 4 to 6 pieces and toss into a bowl with ½ cup of the sugar, cinnamon, ginger and coriander. Let them sit, stirring from time to time while you prepare the batter. They will give up some juice and a syrup will develop.
Put the remaining 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Whisk to blend, then pour in the milk and extracts and whisk again so you have a nice smooth batter.
Put the butter in the baking pan and melt it in the oven, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven.
Give the batter a light whisking and pour it over the hot butter—it will probably set around the edges immediately. ( Mine did.) Scatter the stone fruit over the batter and drizzle over whatever syrup has accumulated in the bowl
Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the top is golden and a thin knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes, or let cool to room temperature. Enjoy! It won’t last long…..
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Yes, it’s true. I suffer from OCD. That’s Obsessive Cooking Disorder, not that other one. This past Friday was my first day off in 2 weeks. (Every mom knows that it wasn’t really a day off—more like a ‘spend the day with Lily and catch up on laundry’ day) That means I wasn’t cooking for Other People, just me. I got to make us whatever I wanted, and I went a little nuts. You see, I had just picked up my copy of ‘Good to the Grain’ Baking with Whole Grain Flours by Kim Boyce. It’s the cookbook that all the food bloggers are discussing right now with rave reviews and I had to have it. This book inspired me to go to Whole Foods and pick up not one, not two, but five different flours to play around with. (Oat, Barley, Graham, Buckwheat and Rye, if you must know.) So, Friday morning, baby on my hip and blender at the ready I made two different batches of crepes. It’s a good thing that I perfected cracking an egg with one hand years ago. For those of you not in the know, crepe batter is a marvelous thing; you can make it in the blender and put it in the fridge to use for breakfast the next morning. Just wake and bake, or griddle rather. I also made the Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies and—drum roll please—homemade Grape Nuts! I have never seen a recipe for homemade Grape Nuts before and I was hopelessly intrigued and powerless to resist. The recipe was fabulously easy and was calling my name. They were delicious the next morning with Vanilla Almond Milk and fresh blueberries. They tasted just like Grape Nuts, only better. I also selected the Barley Crepe recipe, with beer and molasses and the Ricotta Crepes substituting Graham flour for the spelt. (Whole Foods was out of spelt flour—this book must have started a craze!!) Lily and I loved the Barley crepes. This batter was quite tender and a little finicky to deal with. The crepes broke easily during cooking. However, they were delicious and I ended up stuffing them with creamed mushrooms and asparagus for dinner. The Ricotta Crepes were delicious too. I had to thin the batter as suggested with extra milk, and I served them with butter and maple syrup for breakfast. The chocolate chip cookies were good too. I mean really, what’s not to like about a Chocolate Chip Cookie? Next up, next week: Sand Cookies
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