Jelly Belly, the World's #1 Gourmet Jelly Bean

They can rot your teeth. They have little nutritional value. They're not natural, organic, sustainable, or low in carbon footprint. But we love 'em, because they taste so good.

It's our family tradition to stop by the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield on our way back from Lake Tahoe where we vacation every July. This gives us something to break up the long drive home, and eases the inevitable end-of-vacation letdown.

Stepping into the Jelly Belly factory, shop and restaurant center is like entering a cross between Chuck E. Cheese's and the candy store of your childhood dreams. It's meant to get your children and the child in you excited, and it works. Where else can you get a piece or pizza or a hamburger in a jelly bean shape? The factory tour line can snake out with a wait time of almost an hour, but where else can you indulge your Willy Wonka candy factory fantasies? For us the highlight is the large shop which offers every kind of Jelly Belly you know about, lots you've never heard of, all kinds of branded merchandise, chocolate candies, and even lower priced Belly Flops, the jelly beans that came out misshapen but still taste great.

We have to set some ground rules before we head into the shop. Usually everyone can choose whatever confections they desire, as long as the total amount comes up to about two handfuls. Yep, that seems like a lot and it probably is. The kids fill up their bags with a mix of their favorite flavors. I usually get a pre-packaged bag of whatever strikes my fancy. Last time I tried the pomegranate flavor which I enjoyed not only for its tart, fruity flavor from real pomegranate juice, but also because it has Vitamin C and antioxidants added in. Jelly beans for the health conscious--who woulda thunk? My other favorite flavors include raspberry, black licorice, tangerine, and sizzling cinnamon.

Brad goes for the unusual, including buttered popcorn and jalapeno. To me the buttered popcorn flavor tastes bizarre. It just doesn't translate well from the original food to jelly bean form. And forget about the jalapeno for me, although Brad loves them and often gets jalapenos on his pizzas, in his omelets, and in his burgers.

Jacob's favorites include black licorice, sizzling cinnamon, and mint mint chocolate chocolate chip. Valerie has a hard time choosing favorites but loves lemon lime, root beer, and tutti-fruitti, while Amanda's up for most flavors like watermelon, bubble gum, and green apple.

Not only does Jelly Belly offer its fifty regular flavors, it also has extended its offerings to include Sports Beans (to give exercisers some carbs and electrolytes), Cold Stone Creamery ice cream flavors, Sunkist fruit flavors, Cocktail Classics, and BeanBoozled trick flavors. BeanBoozled jelly beans are nauseatingly brilliant when you think about it, with each normal flavor having a lookalike disgusting twin.  The top banana flavored bean has an evil twin that tastes like pencil shavings. The trick is to know which is which without actually having to taste barf, skunk, rotten egg, or booger flavors.  I remember once Brad's father Brian bravely tried a barf flavored Jelly Belly. He declared it sweet and tasty, and laughed at himself since he knew his sense of taste obviously wasn't as acute as it used to be!

It's also fun to experiment with Jelly Belly recipes which require combining different flavored beans to create something different. Did you know eating two cappuccino beans, one cream soda bean, and one chocolate pudding bean equals tiramisu flavor?

Jelly Belly has a fascinating history, a classic American success story. The brothers Gustav and Albert Goelitz emigrated from Germany and bought a candy store in Illinois in 1869. The family's second generation invented Candy Corn around the turn of the century. In 1960, the family's fourth generation based in Oakland expanded the company to include jelly beans and America's first gummi bears. The first eight Jelly Belly flavors were born in 1976: Very Cherry, Licorice, Lemon, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Root Beer, and Grape. Gustav Goelitz's descendants continue to make more than a hundred kinds of candies over 140 years after the brothers arrived in the U.S.

So if you're driving back from Lake Tahoe or Sacramento and want something sweet and fun, try some candy from the Jelly Belly factory and shop in Fairfield or the standalone shop in the Nut Tree shopping center. Your mouth will be happy.

Frozen Lemon Chèvre Cookie Bites

Did you know goat cheese is higher in protein and lower in fat than cow's milk cheese, and can be eaten by people who are lactose intolerant? If you're a goat cheese lover, you know how good it tastes, how smooth its texture feels melting on your tongue, and how just seeing its crumbly white chunks can make your mouth water. Knowing how good it is for you just adds to the pleasure of eating it.

Recently while watching the local talk show 'View from the Bay', I saw a frozen lemon chèvre cookie recipe that intrigued me. Demonstrated by Jacquelyn Buchanan, director of Culinary Development at Sonoma-based Laura Chenel's Chèvre company, the recipe sounded simple, refreshing, and with a wonderful combination of ingredients. I wanted to experience how this unusual mix of flavors would taste.

Instead of using Belgian waffle cookies to sandwich the lemon curd cheese filling, I decided to use store-bought gingersnaps. I've always loved the tart and spicy combination of lemon curd and gingersnaps, which I first tasted at Lisa's Tea Treasures. These cookies are easy to prepare, and make a great cold confection to enjoy during hot summer months. The filling reminds me of lemon cheesecake, and the goat cheese flavor finely complements the other ingredients.

Here is the recipe adapted with my changes. The original recipe, along with several other goat cheese recipes, can be found on the company's website.

Frozen Lemon Chèvre Cookie Bites

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Laura Chenel's Chef's Chèvre
• 8 oz lemon curd
• 1 box gingersnap cookies

Preparation:

1. Mix equal portions of Laura Chenel's Chèvre and lemon curd.
   
2. Top a gingersnap cookie with a spoonful of the chèvre/curd mixture. Close with another cookie to make a sandwich.
   
3. Continue making cookie sandwiches until all the filling is used. Place cookies in layers in a container and freeze for at least 2 hours.
   
4. The cookies can be made a week in advance, wrapped tightly in foil or in a glass container. Keep frozen.

My sister Sara served another great goat cheese appetizer at a recent dinner party. She simply placed a log of goat cheese on a serving platter, topped it with lemon zest and drizzled honey, and served with crackers. It was a delightful mixture of creamy, tart, and sweet, and so easy to make.

I love Jacquelyn's approach to educating others about artisan cheese. "I let the cheese dictate what should be done with it," she says. Well said and well done.

P.S. I took my two daughters to see a taping of 'View from the Bay' which was both fun and informative. You can get free audience tickets on their website.

Vancouver Vacation Eats

I just got back from vacation in Vancouver and am itching to write about some of the fantastic food we tasted there. Even though Vancouver's far north of Silicon Valley, I can't not share these culinary discoveries:

- Japa Dogs: I first learned about these fusion-flavored hot dogs on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show.  Sold from a cart on a busy downtown street corner, Japa Dogs make a tasty lunch treat. Atop the familiar hot dog sits surprising Japanese condiments. Mine had a combination of Japanese mayonnaise, teriyaki sauce, onion, and dried seaweed. Unexpectedly yummy!

- BeaverTail Pastries: On the top of majestic Grouse Mountain we found these fried confections shaped like you-know-what.  We tried BeaverTails with cinnamon sugar, apples and cinnamon, and Nutella. Crispy yet soft, warm, sweet, and sticky. Definitely delicious.

- Mongolian BBQ: We had to make a return trip to this restaurant for dinner. Part of the fun was participating in creating our meals. We filled our bowls with noodles, meat, vegetables, and whatever sauce creations we chose. I used the recipe for the House Special sauce with six ingredients: 1 small scoop each of sesame oil and honey lemon, and 1/2 scoop each of crushed garlic, mongo pau, mongo sauce, and mongo wine. Then the cook poured our bowls out one at a time on a large 4' diameter circular griddle and cooked up the concoctions with long wooden sticks.  Each bowl cooks up fast in about a minute. Our restaurant was all you can eat so both Brad and Jacob had seconds.

- Maple Leaf Sandwich Cookies. When in Canada, try the maple goodies. We loved Christie's Maple Leaf Cookies from the grocery store. Crunchy maple leaf shaped cookies plus a sweet maple cream filling equals pure maple goodness. We also enjoyed Tim Horton's maple dipped donuts at the airport. Sweet.

We stopped in Seattle on our way to Vancouver to visit with Brad's sister's family and enjoyed even more scrumptious food: salmon chowder at the salmon locks; French palmiers at Pike's Market (I loved that place! It was like the Ferry Building on steroids... I could spend several days eating my way through the market); Stu's grilled wild salmon and flank steak; Dawn's crab spread; and a memorable Vietnamese pho and sweet coffee lunch at a restaurant called (no kidding) What the Pho!

I love trying new foods on vacation. It's part of discovering and experiencing different places. Reminiscing over flavorful meals helps create great vacation memories. I adore Vancouver and definitely want to go back someday. Happy travels!

Sunset Celebration Weekend: Fabulous Frickle, My Favorite Candy, and the Incredible Potato Tower

Ever since I was a kid, I've been reading Sunset magazine.  My mom always subscribed to it, and once I graduated from college I subscribed too. Over the years I've enjoyed the creative, upbeat tone of Sunset and its array of ideas for the Western home, garden, travel, and food. Now that I think about it, it's probably the magazine I've read the longest, for about forty years (egads!).

Sunset's headquarters office is just a few miles away in our town of Menlo Park. Every summer Sunset hosts a Celebration Weekend with a variety of demonstrations, hands-on activities, foods, beer & wine, and exhibits. This year my husband Brad and I took our 10-year-old daughter Amanda to check it out. Among the highlights:

- Numerous food stands where we tried not only the usual lemonade and kettle corn but also Fabulous Frickle fried pickles, Acme bread, Recchiuti Fleur de Sel Caramels and Spring Jasmine Tea chocolates, Straus yogurt, and my favorite candy in the whole wide world, R & J Toffees premium almond toffee. Needless to say, I bought a bag of the toffee! We also bought an Acme walnut loaf, some of the best bread around.

- Gourmet food trucks including Seoul on Wheels Korean BBQ and Sam's Chowdermobile.

- A variety of wines and beers. Brad's favorite beers were the Lagunitas India Pale Ale and the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra India Pale Ale.

- A tour of the Sunset test kitchens where all their recipes are created and perfected. Surprisingly, the food staff is not made up of professional chefs, just really good cooks. They publish about 35 recipes in each monthly issue, and each is tested about five times before it's printed. Since they have 3-12 month leadtimes, sometimes they have to go to great lengths to create their recipes out of season. Our guide told us one time they spent $80 making a strawberry pie!

- Making an original munch mix with Amanda using Post cereals, popcorn, and pretzels. This mixture can then be customized by combining with various seasonings and baked. They have many fun recipes on their website for all kinds of cereal snack mixes.

- Exploring the Sunset gardens and chicken coop, with an emphasis on fruit and vegetable gardening. One of the most clever ideas I saw was the Potato Tower, an ingenious way of growing potatoes that saves space, creates 2-3X the usual yield, and requires no digging! You can just reach in and get your potatoes when they're grown or undo the tower and watch all the grown potatoes tumble out.

We enjoyed wandering around, listening to the live music, seeing the exhibits, and smelling the wonderful foods. Celebrity chefs demonstrated their cooking prowess all weekend, featuring recipes to try for yourself.

What a treasure to have Sunset in our home town. I'm already looking forward to next year's celebration.

Very Berry Crisp with Webb Ranch U-Pick Berries

What could better than picking and eating fresh, delicious, organic berries? We're fortunate to have a local gem of a farm that opens its berry fields for picking every June. The Webb Ranch in Portola Valley has been owned and operated by the Webb family since 1922. They began by planting strawberries and have since expanded to include a variety of vegetables including corn, green beans, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and bell peppers. The ranch operates a local farmers' market open daily on Alpine Road near the 280 freeway, and its U-pick berry farm is just a bit farther west up Alpine Road. Webb Ranch is widely known for its corn picked hourly. They never sell day-old corn, instead feeding it to their pasture horses.

Our whole family has enjoyed picking berries there for about five years. Some tips for picking:

- Wear sunscreen, a hat, and comfortable, closed-toed shoes

- Pick inside the bush for berries with the best flavor

- Ripe berries come off easily

- Look for the berries with dark coloring

- Bring gloves since some of the vines have thorns

The ranch planted 6,000 new berry plants last season so this year's crop is particularly abundant. And there's an impressive variety of berries available: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, and loganberries.

Telltale signs of successful berry picking include berry stains on hands and mouth, purplish lips, and a big smile. Of course the berries are delicious fresh, but we also love them with whipped cream and baked in a berry crisp. One of my favorite desserts is fruit crisp, especially when made with ripe, flavorful fruit. Below is a berry crisp recipe that I've had for so long I can't remember where I got it. Even though I can't trace the originator, I know that whoever created this recipe has left a delectable legacy for all those who have enjoyed it.

Very Berry Crisp

5 cups fresh berries of your choice

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup regular rolled oats

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, separated

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut

1. Place washed fruit in a 2-quart square baking dish. Stir in the granulated sugar and 3 tablespoons of the all-purpose flour.

2. For topping, in a medium bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour and nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts or coconut. Sprinkle topping over filling.

3. Bake crisp in a 375 F degree oven for 30 minutes or until fruit is tender and topping is golden. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or your favorite vanilla ice cream. Makes 6 servings.

Berry crisp is best eaten outdoors after a nice summer meal. It tastes even better if you picked the berries yourself. Look at the luscious berry colors, smell the intoxicatingly sweet, buttery fragrance, and dig in. It's summertime!

Google's Big Table Cafe

One of the well-known perks of working at Google is free lunch served at a variety of cafes on campus. My husband Brad, the Gmail Spam Czar, sometimes takes this benefit for granted, but every time I join him for lunch there I remind him how very fortunate he is to be so well fed at work.

Eating at a Google Cafe is not like eating at an ordinary company cafeteria.  From the start, Google has taken its food seriously, and hired skilled chefs who have created food not only big in quantity but also big in flavor, variety, and nutrition. Over the years, I've tried about ten of Google's cafes. This month I joined him at the Big Table Cafe at a new office building he recently moved into near Shoreline Park in Mountain View. Surprisingly, there is no actual big table at Big Table. Rather, the cafe's moniker refers to the codename of some technical project that I'm not privy to. As Brad says, 'It's too hard to explain,' but Googlers are in on the secret and to them it makes perfect sense.

I greatly enjoyed my Asian-inspired meal, just one of the many meal options offered that day at the cafe:

- Baby bok choy and pickled red cabbage
- Ginger garlic noodles
- Ginger sesame asparagus
- Onion pancake with spicy Szechuan peanut sauce
- Grilled corn on the cob with butter and lime juice
- Hint water flavored with pomegranate and tangerine
- Pineapple
- Rum ball

It's truly a delight to eat excellently cooked vegetables, and the bok choy delivered.  It had a firm yet delicate texture, and its simple sauteed preparation allowed the fresh flavor to express itself. Even with its small size, the baby bok choy varied as I ate starting with the light green, mild, crunchy bottom up to the richly dark green and slightly bitter leaves. It oozed not only with flavor but with nutrients and cruciferous crunch. I know a vegetable has been perfectly prepared when eating it is as enjoyable as eating dessert. Knowing how good it is for me only increases the pleasure.

I also loved the ginger garlic noodles, thin and cooked al dente, delicately coated with a sparkling touch of ginger garlic sauce. The combination of those two Asian ingredients creates a well known combustion of fiery flavors that have been enjoyed for centuries. The delicate noodles provided just the right amount of bite and sustenance to carry the flavors forward all the way from tongue to stomach.

The grilled corn on the cob also started a flavor party in my mouth with its sweet, rich and sour combination of caramelized corn, butter, and lime juice. I've always loved corn on the cob, best hot off the coals and dripping with butter. Sweet and crunchy, corn on the cob is the taste of summer, eaten in rows like keys on a keyboard, and bringing back memories of 4th of July picnics.

To make this meal even more memorable, we sighted both Larry Page and Sergey Brin. I admit I'm a groupie when it comes to Silicon Valley movers and shakers, and felt a little thrill spotting the two Google guys. It was all very ordinary for Brad, but for me it was a treat. Enjoying lunch with Googlers talking and eating animatedly all around us, I felt a palpable energy, a kind of social vibration that emerges when I'm around engaged and enthusiastic people. That kind of energy is contagious, and I want more.  I'm convinced the food at Google is an integral driver of this vitality, not only delighting and nourishing employees, but also instilling a creative energy that fuels their ideas just as much as their work. It's part of the secret sauce that propels innovative thinking and helps the company stand out from the rest. It's no wonder why Googlers are feeling lucky. 

Hooray for Hobee's

Why has Hobee's been voted best breakfast in Palo Alto by readers of the Palo Alto Weekly newspaper so many times it's now in the Hall of Fame? Let me count the ways. Hobee's offers the quintessential California breakfast and brunch with a lively atmosphere and comfortable setting. You can even order breakfast for dinner and no one will bat an eye. Starting with their very cinnamon-y hot or iced tea, robust coffee, or fruit smoothie, a meal at Hobee's brings comforting nourishment as well as big flavor and smiles. Featuring a diverse, friendly, healthy, and mouthwatering selection of choices, Hobee's is as sure-fire a restaurant for anyone looking for a satisfying meal as there could be.

Widely known for its tall blueberry coffeecake with cinnamon crumb topping, Hobee's features seasonal coffeecake flavors including apple walnut, peach pecan, cranberry, and banana toffee. The omelets and scrambles never fail to deliver. My favorites include the Florentine scramble with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese; the Pruneyard omelet with turkey bacon, onion, mushrooms, and Swiss; the Santa Cruz scramble with artichoke hearts and lots of garlic; and the breakfast burrito, a whole wheat tortilla stuffed with eggs, rice, salsa, cheese, and guacamole.  Sometimes I'll either take the coffeecake to go or just eat the top, which of course includes the cinnamon brown sugar topping. My husband often orders the BDBIT, the Best Darn Breakfast in Town -- two eggs, country-style hashbrowns, and coffeecake or toast.

Hobee's sells some items to go, including large tins of coffeecake, cinnamon tea, and crunchy granola. They also sell their famous t-shirts, and if you bring in a photo of yourself wearing the t-shirt at some far away yet recognizable landmark location, you can earn a free meal. Just look at the wall of photos inside every Hobee's to get an idea of its devoted fans and the lengths they will go to to get a free Hobee's meal.

Hobee's is always busy so if you go at the height of the breakfast or lunch hour, you may have to wait. I think the longest we've waited to get into Hobee's was forty-five excruciating minutes, but it's always worth it when nothing less will do. Luckily they have many locations in Silicon Valley. Just make sure if you're meeting a friend, to make it very clear *which* Hobee's you want to meet at so that you're not waiting and wondering, growing hungrier by the minute! (I speak from experience.) It is a good place to meet people, and sometimes you will overhear Silicon Valley business deals being made at nearby tables. It works for both business and pleasure get-togethers, but choose another restaurant if you're looking for a romantic meal or quiet conversation.

The restaurant is extremely kid-friendly with crayons, a kid's menu, and a fun happy face made of fruit on glass plates to start. My daughter Amanda's usual choice is the Mickey's Pancake, and she always gets a kick out of the menu item which reads, "Liver & Onions--with brussel sprouts, broccoli, eggplant, and lots of beets, $29.95." Dinner meals also please the palate: pastas, wraps, and sandwiches fill the menu, as well as burgers, salads, hash brown concoctions, and any of the breakfast egg dishes. It's a good place to bring a largish group with kids because there's something for everyone.

There must be something special in their cinnamon, because the cinnamon tea and cinnamon coffeecake have a special allure that always brings me back. It's extra spicy and flavorful, the kind that makes my taste buds do a little dance, and something about it fires off powerful neurons in my brain that reinforce my love of the place and the food. I wouldn't be surprised if scientific studies showed the cinnamon triggers endorphins which have the magical effect of stimulating animated conversation and pleasurable eating.

It's comforting to know that a Silicon Valley institution like Hobee's is just minutes away, and that here I can find one of my favorite breakfast meals even if it's for dinner. It would be hard to count how many times I've eaten at Hobee's over the years. Sometimes I take it for granted, and going there is more of an afterthought than a destination. But it's good to take a moment to be grateful and appreciate the wonderful elements of ordinary life, including nearby restaurants that have always been there. Hobee's definitely delivers.