It’s interesting which projects catch your eye when you have next to no free time. While perusing my copy of the The Joy of Cooking, I came upon the recipe for Chocolate-Frosted Custard Pie. What attracted to the dessert me was this little blurb that immediately followed the recipe name:

A great favorite in our grandmother’s day and overdue for a revival.

Even though I highly doubt my grandmother ever made this pie, I liked the idea of reviving it. The challenge of baking a custard filling also intrigued me. Apparently, custard fillings are rather sensitive since you have to bake them at a lower temperature to keep from curdling.

Without further ado, here is my pie. Please be kind. Not only is this my attempt, I’m also not the biggest baker.

My frosting is neither uniform, nor terribly attractive. Then I made the mistake of covering the pie with aluminum foil. That made my frosting look even worse. Think man cake.

Also, I think I could have cooked the custard for a few more minutes.

So it’s not the most attractive pie, but it has been completely devoured.

I’ve heard San Francisco is supposed to have wet winter, but so far the weather has been phenomenal. With yet another bright sunny day, we decided to check out Fort Funston National Park, which is a part of the big stretch of coastline known the Golden Gate National Recreation Area*.

The Vachette’s nap schedule prevented us from having the time to make it down to the beach. However, that wasn’t a problem since the views were so spectacular from the cliffs.

Looking South towards the Penninsula:

Looking North towards downtown San Francisco:

Instead of ugly guardrails, there were signs warning walkers to be careful of the steep cliffs.

As you can see in the above picture, dogs are mentioned as well as people. Unfortunately, the park is now a prime leash-free dog-walking area. On such a beautiful day, the park was infested with dogs. I can’t blame the pet owners for taking their dogs there, but there was a little too much canine action for me, so we don’t plan on going back. The Vachette provides me with enough slimy drool.

Speaking of the Vachette, this was the first time we put her in the baby hiking backpack. She can sit up now all on her own, which will make exploring the Northern California countryside much easier.

*Golden Gate National Recreation Area covers both sides of the Golden Gate Strait, including some prime real estate in the city of San Francisco.

Gotta love Google. Today the search engine has marked the 100th birthday of Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family comics featured in the New Yorker.

On a side note, I have a very special place in my heart for Morticia Addams since I have dressed up as her on Halloween twice.

As I have previously written, eating black-eyed peas brings good luck to a new calendar year. 2011 brought many changes to our little household, so I figured we could us as much good luck as possible as we slide, orrutschen, into 2012.

Even though San Francisco does not have a wintry climate, and so far this winter it has been exceptionally sunny and mild, we decided have our black-eyed peas in cold weather fashion, with kale and polenta:

For those of you into food, I steamed the kale and then dressed it like I would Greek horta, meaning with the juice of one freshly squeezed lemon and some olive oil. Then I tossed in the some canned black-eyed peas. Niko made the polenta. He found a recipe Greek-style polenta, which struck me as odd since I never thought of polenta as a typically Greek food. This version had raisins, caramelized onions, and of course, a big chunk of feta.

My neighbor told me about this fabulously decorated house on 21st Street.

The view behind it is pretty great too.

There is no Germanic Christmas market tradition in the Bay Area, but that does not stop Noe Valley from having a fun Advent season. From December 1st through 24th, my neighborhood has been home to some FREE festive-ness.

The Vachette got to meet Santa Claus. She found his beard fascinating.

We enjoyed a free concert from the Conservatory of Music Brass Quartet.

And this evening, we took the Vachette out to see some carolers dressed in Dickens-era garb.

Happy Holidays from warm and surprisingly sunny SF!

Seen on a recent walk on Valencia Street:

No wonder the coffee is so good in liberal San Francisco!

A friend of mine recently asked me what I miss from Switzerland. One thing I really miss is the yogurt. The Swiss are serious about their dairy products. Even the store brand yogurts (like Coop and Migros) are really good. How I miss Coop’s organic cherry yogurt!

The default Swiss yogurt is made with whole or full fat milk. In the US, on the other hand, the default yogurt is made with low or non-fat milk. With that in mind, it is not surprising that the US version pales in comparison to its Swiss counterpart.

If you are really motivated, like yours truly, it is possible to find full fat yogurt at stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but you really have to examine the entire yogurt section, and even then, you still need to be somewhat wary of what you find. For instance, “Greek” yogurt is all the rage in the US these days. Every brand seems to market some version of “Greek” yogurt, but the only truly Greek brand is Fage. (For an analysis on the current US fascination with Greek yogurt, click here.)

Fage is awesome because its full fat version, which is great for making tsatsiki, is comparable to ice cream. However, it’s still not the same as Swiss yogurt, which is less heavy. Fortunately, I discovered the Quebec-based Liberte brand at the Silver Spring/Takoma Park Coop in Maryland.

Liberte is a nice compromise between the Swiss and Greek yogurt. Not quite like ice cream, but still full of flavor.In San Francisco, I’ve seen it at 26th and Guerrero Market.

In any case, I am thrilled that yogurt options in the US have come along way from the Yoplait days I remember before our move to Zurich. Now if I could only find some reasonably priced quark.

Niko and I had an errand this weekend that took us near the Golden Gate Bridge:

As you can seen, it was a deliciously sunny Saturday, and the water was filled with sail boats and kite surfers, but, thanks to all that wind, the Marina was really chilly!

Also evident, the bridge’s name has nothing to do with its color. Instead, the name refers to the body of water it spans, aka the Golden Gate Strait, which divides the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.

Today’s extra long Google Doodle features Tom Sawyer with his fence-white-washing friends in honor of Mark Twain’s birthday.

Happy 176th, Mr Clemens!