Giants and the Freda B

Coworkers and I were lucky enough to watch a Giants game from McCovey Cove aboard the Freda B recently! I've attended so many games at AT&T park, but this was my first time in the cove! We bundled up, enjoyed some brews and waved at the ESPN cameras all evening! 

 

 

Gluten Free Cupcakes

I just realized I never posted about these gluten free cupcakes I made for my coworker's birthday! 

Okay, well, let me just say before you get too proud of me, that I didn't make them from scratch. I had tossed the idea around but wound up deciding that since gluten free baking requires entirely different ingredients from traditional baking, none of which were previously in my kitchen, and because I only had one evening with which to throw these together, there simply wasn't time to buy all the necessary goodies and risk the first batch not turning out. There is a wonderful little gluten free grocery store near my work where I managed to find a cake mix. I got the yellow cake mix and added some almond extract for flavor, tossed out the frosting mix that came with it and made a basic sugar frosting mix with vanilla extract. I topped off the cupcakes with fresh blueberries and refrigerated them overnight. 

To make the "Happy Birthday" banner I used a toothpick, scrapbooking paper and a gold paint pen. I used one level of a cupcake tower and paper shreds for presentation.

I'm definitely inspired to do a bit of ingredient shopping next time I can get over to that shop so I can start practicing gluten free baking from scratch.

 

Goooo Niners!

Last night was the 49ers last preseason game, and what a way head into their 2012/13 season than with a 35-3 win against the Chargers! A handful of coworkers happened to be going to the game, so we carpooled from the brewery and got two hours or so of tailgating in before the game. At Anchor we're all about our "brews and baseball" theme with the Giants, but it's about time for some brews and football!

 

 

Ozomatli and SMOD at Stern Grove

Stern Grove Festival is celebrating its 75th season! 

Yesterday, a few coworkers and I watched SMOD and Ozomatli from our company's sponsor table. It was quite a different experience from the previous week, when the SF Ballet performed. SMOD opened the show with such energy that concert goers immediately poured down to the front of stage, jumping and clapping to the French African beats. At the end of the show, Ozomatli gave an encore from a large rock in the middle of the park. Fans swarmed around them cheering and dancing.

 

SF Ballet at Stern Grove

Stern Grove Festival is celebrating its 75th season! 

Yesterday, a girlfriend and I enjoyed the SF Ballet from my company's sponsor table. It was a perfectly overcast 65 degrees, and every inch of the park was covered with blankets and picnic baskets. The ballet was beautiful and inspirational, and the event itself a reminder of how lucky I am to live in such a wonderfully creative and diverse city.

 

Pixar

Friday afternoon a few coworkers and I were lucky enough to get a tour of the Pixar campus in Emeryville. I've always thought that it must not get any cooler than working in a brewery... until I saw the setup at Pixar.

Each department has full creative control over the theme and decor of their individual offices and common areas. I was thoroughly impressed with the creativity and quality of their work - a plane crashed in a jungle, a tree house, a dollhouse, a turn of the century saloon. Several departments had built fully functional, professional quality bars into their common areas, where they host happy hours and parties for coworkers. The campus itself boasts a soccer field, basketball and volleyball court, and a lap pool. One of the most intriguing features of the Pixar campus is the art - all drawings, paintings, stills, and clay forms from their staff, generated during the planning and production of Pixar films. Most of the art is rotated out depending on which film has most recently been released. Currently, most of the art is from Brave, which is still in theaters.

 

 

 

Rooftop Slide Show

A carousel slide projector propped up on two cases of beer; two boomboxes stacked one atop the other; a white sheet taped haphazardly to a wall protruding up from the east corner of the building; an ice chest packed with Liberty surrounded by folding chairs; a video producer nonchalantly weaving through and around a dozen brewery employees. As the sun dipped below the horizon, we gathered near the ledge and cheers'd, twice actually, to be sure our video producer captured it just right.

Last night some coworkers and I gathered on the roof of the brewery to watch Tom, an Anchor old timer, show slides he took at rock shows in the 70's and 80's in Philadelphia. He timed out the slides to match music from each band. The concept was initially brought about for a video production piece that our marketing department is working on, and we certainly did knock that out at sunset, but after our videographer had captured all she needed, we kept the beer flowing and slideshows rolling well into the night!

Spice Cupcakes

Somehow my coworker Lynda made it to her 30's without realizing that women get a full week to celebrate their birthday! After all these birthdays of only allowing herself one day of birthday fun, we've been stretching her birthday out at the office. 

Today I brought her cupcakes with plenty to share. She wanted carrot cake so I made a first ever try of it last night and couldn't get them to turn out. I think the carrot shreds were too big? After running out of carrots I went for a spice cake instead, but still topped them off with cream cheese frosting and sugar sprinkles.

Easter Treats

Now that I've done cakepops for my coworkers a few times, I decided to change it up for Easter and do a throwback to my childhood with chocolate nests! There was some initial disappointment when I didn't walk in with cakepops, but as soon as I started handing out these little goodies everyone was on board. They're so quick and easy you have no excuse not to throw a batch together tonight!

INGREDIENTS

1 bag of chow mein noodles (I used the Safeway brand, Asian food section)

1 bag of Reese's chocolate chips

1 bag of Cadbury chocolate eggs

1 package of Peeps

DIRECTIONS

Melt chocolate chips. I like to do this on the stove top in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water as opposed to in the microwave. While you can use the microwave, it's very easy to burn the chocolate. If you need to thin the melted chocolate (with the Reese's you will), add a little bit of Crisco.

Gently fold in 3/4 bag of chow mein noodles, being careful not to crush the noodles, until they're all coated in chocolate.

Use hands to shape the mixture into little nests on wax paper. Place the eggs in the nests before the chocolate dries so they'll stick and won't roll off later in transport. Allow nests to dry completely.

Decorate any way you like! I cut squares out of a roll of cellophane, placed a handful of decorative grass in the middle, topped with the nest and a yellow Peep, and tied it closed first with a twisty and then a ribbon.

Recipe makes 10 nests.

A Belated St. Pattie's Day

My coworkers had been giving me a hard time about not bringing them any baked goodies lately (it had been since Halloween!) so I promised them St. Pattie's Day cakepops. But, I wound up being out sick with bronchitis most of that week and it didn't happen. I decided to make it up to them with a belated batch of vanilla-almond cakepops dipped in green chocolate and topped with sugar crystal sprinkles. 

Better late than never!