San Francisco

My niece is kind of a shitty artist, but she’s talented in other ways. I hope.

If you are looking for an excuse to escape the city and check out somewhere new, look no further than these North Bay to-dos. Sausalito Film Festival While the film festival runs Friday through Sunday, we can’t wait for Saturday night. Check out the screening of America’s Cup: 150 Years in the Making, a homage to the race that has taken over the bay. The film is sure to get your blood pumping and to get you excited for the real thing! The event is Saturday at 7:30 pm, tickets are $30 here. @ CineArts 101 Caledonia St., Sausalito Samavesha Cave Concert Experience Celebrate the sounds of South East Asia inside a tunnel-turned-cave for the evening. Get down to the music and dance of Bali, and take a chance to enjoy something new and totally different. The event starts Saturday at 9:30 pm and tickets are $36 here. @ Hawk Hill Tunnel, Marin Headlands Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance If you love the gleam of chrome or the sound of a loud engine, it’s time to get excited. From Elizabeth Taylor’s Rolls Royce to a 1932 Packard, check out over 400 historic autos, motorcycles and other machines that will have any car lover drooling. The event runs Sunday from 10 am-4 pm and tickets are $20 here. @ Marin Civic Center, San Rafael

Andrea Bowers

There is a lot happening in the Mission today, including the following events: Adobe Books and Art Collective is hosting a “Market Place Party” at its new location at 3130 24th Street from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. The third annual Mission Pub Crawl will start at Double Dutch at 3912 16th Street. The crawl runs from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Find more details here. Esta Noche is holding...

I love the power of social media.  One of the things that I find special about it besides relationships that are born is the creativity that is provoked by one small snippet.  The other day as I was enjoying my coffee and catching up, I saw a tweet from Brandi, about an angel food cake recipe.  I have not really thought about angel food cake in years.  I have enjoyed it, but have not really thought about it until Brandi planted that seed.  A seed that continued growing …. I was suddenly taken back to a time when I was a little girl.  I remember my grandmother and mom baking it.  It came from a box, and there was a special pan, one with little legs that helped with cooling the fresh baked cake.  I remember the floury mixture, and the sweet smell as it mixed and tripled in volume until finally it oozed over the top of the mixing bowl.  I loved the caramelly warm sugar smell of the cake as it baked, and how the top slightly cracked.  I would anxiously peek into the oven waiting for it to be finished while being gently reminded “not to open the oven door”.  And my favorite part was when the cake came out of the pan.  I would take my dirty little fingers and scoop out the crumbs that clung to the sides of the pan.  Eagerly, I would nibble off the sugary sweetness. Once I saw that tweet from Brandi, and relived that brief moment, I went to find the pan I had inherited.  I hadn’t used it in years as I thought making angel cake would be labor intensive.  I had time today, and we were celebrating so it would be worth it.  Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand that were needed for my recipe;  eggs, cake flour and sugar.  On a whim, I added lemon zest from one of the few lingering Meyer lemons.  Last minute I added vanilla bean paste as I love the little speckles of bean in baked goods.  Angel food cake is like heaven, it is as light as a cloud and as sweet as eternity. And I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot of angel food cake this summer. This month we are celebrating by sharing this cake with you.  What are we celebrating you ask?  Chez Us has turned 6!  Six years of getting to know you, and of sharing our lives, memories and recipes.  While there have been ups and downs to blogging, in the end, it is something, we enjoy doing so we keep doing it.  We are blessed from the relationships that have formed near and far.  We enjoy reading your comments about how a recipe changed your life.  We enjoy getting emails telling us your children are now eating cauliflower because of a recipe we made for you.  Or maybe we wrote about a memory that touched us, and through social media you stumbled upon that memory that really belonged to you.  Whatever the reasoning is for you being here, we thank you, and we hope to continue feeding you as long as we can continue cooking. To thank you for your continued support we have finally updated the site.  We met a wonderful woman during the MIXED event, her name is Kita, and she has many talents besides cooking.  She develops websites!  It was a joy to work with her, and she helped make our virtual kitchen easier for you to navigate around.  A few highlights for us (and we hope you) are the sections we created of What’s In Season and Camping Grub;  we plan to change this area with each season and what is available to us.  As well we are highlighting a few fun areas we enjoy in the kitchen off on the right hand side of the front page.  One of the most exciting areas is our newly designed Recipe Index.  It is all still a work in progress as we tweak areas, and we are getting there.  Soon all recipes will be printable – yeah!  Is there something you’d like to see us do over at Chez Us?  Let us know;  leave a comment or drop us a note. More Angel Food Cakes to make you swoon: Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream – Bran Appetit Strawberry Angel Food Cake – Bobbies Baking Blog Key Lime Angel Food Cake - Foods of Our Lives Rai

TweetJust announced: “Senator Michael Bennet Chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee & Senator Harry Reid Majority Leader, U.S. Senate Cordially invite you to a reception & dinner benefiting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with President Barack Obama Thursday, June 6, 2013 Reception | 5:00 PM Home of Marci & Mike McCue Palo Alto, California *Address provided upon RSVP Dinner and Discussion | 6:30 PM Home of Neeru & Vinod Khosla Portola Valley, California *Address provided upon RSVP *Due to timing restrictions all guests may only attend one event. Paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, www.dscc.org and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Thursday, June 6, 2013 | Palo Alto, CA Dinner Guest: $32,400 per person ($64,800 per couple) Ticket to dinner at the Khosla home & discussion and photo opportunity Reception Chair: $12,000 per person ($15,000 per couple) Ticket to VIP Chairs’ reception at the McCue home and photo opportunity Reception Sponsor: $5,000 per person ($7,500 per couple) Ticket to reception at the McCue home and photo opportunity Reception Guest: $2,500 per person Ticket to reception at the McCue home I cannot attend the reception or dinner, but I would like to make a contribution of $__________. *Due to timing restrictions all guests may only attend one event. The maximum amount each individual may contribute to the DSCC in a calendar year is $32,400 ($64,800 per couple). The DSCC will not accept contributions from currently registered federal lobbyists, registered foreign agents, political action committees, or minors under the age of 16 for this event. Contributions from corporations, labor unions, and foreign nationals are prohibited under federal law. Please make checks payable to “DSCC” and mail with completed form to: DSCC c/o Emily Sullivan 120 Maryland Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20002 For PERSONAL credit card contributions please fax this completed form to: (202) 314-3231. Federal regulations require that all contributions drawn on joint accounts be personally signed by each contributor. *A contribution of $32,400 enrolls an individual as a DSCC “Majority Trust” member and, along with other benefits, allows for attendance at the DSCC’s signature retreats. Contributions or gifts to the DSCC are not tax deductible.

Photo by Talia J. Early Friday evening, around 6:10pm, a giant eucalyptus tree fell into the northbound lane of Park Presidio between Geary and Clement. Reader Talia J. (@Mycrobecatnip) snapped this pic, and said “Fortunately no cars hit”. Which is really an understatement since it was during the commute hour. What a thoughtful tree. Sarah B.

Inside Four Barrel Coffee. [Photo: Kenn Wilson/Flickr] THE MISSION—Looking for a taste of Mill Valley Beerworks' acclaimed food, minus a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge? Head to Four Barrel Coffee tomorrow afternoon, when regular customer and MVB chef David Wilcox will offer $9 Prather Ranch porchetta sandwiches with radishes, pickled mustard seeds, and aioli, or beet Reuben sandwiches with cucumber, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing, as well as $4 pickles. No beer will be served, though, so be advised. The pop-up is out back on Caledonia St. from 11 am-3 pm. [EaterWire] UNION SQUARE—Millennium is holding an agave-centric dinner next Wednesday, May 22, with six courses of tequila and mezcal shots and cocktails paired with dishes like cherry salad with spinach and purslane, sweet pepper relleno, and masa dumplings with porcini mole. Admission is $95 and includes the drinks. Call Alison at (415) 345-3900, ext. 13, to reserve. [EaterWire] HAYES VALLEY—Boxing Room is bringing in a whole goat from Rossotti Ranch for a special dinner this Monday, May 20, and chef Brian West of Petaluma's Risibisi is coming down to give Justin Simoneaux a hand with preparing the five-course dinner. Dishes will include smoked goat ham, goat-neck tortellini, and goat's milk cheesecake, paired with three beers and two wines. Dinner is $100 all-inclusive, with two 20-person seatings at 6 and 8:30 pm; call (415) 430-6590 to reserve. [EaterWire] HAYES VALLEY—Tomorrow marks the third edition of Hayes Valley's annual Ham and Eggs Fire Brunch, which commemorates the fire caused by a local back in 1906 while making the titular breakfast dish. This year's brunch will be at Biergarten at noon, with proceeds going to the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association; those who feel like getting up early can take a walking tour at 10 am before they dine. [Hayeswire]