Summer in San Francisco

Hello people. I’m in San Francisco at the moment visiting my extended family!

My trip has been lovely so far. The weather here is, as always, cold. Now, having lived here for three years, I have not forgotten how SF is the odd ball in California and that summer doesn’t actually mean summer here, but I did forget how MUCH of an odd ball it was. I was out the other day, wearing a sweater, and still freezing my butt off. I was also noob enough to go to Golden Gate in an evening wearing a skirt.

And stayed for two hours.

Needless to say I almost died. Buuuuut, the shivering and the runny nose was worth it because sunset at the Golden Gate was as beautiful as ever:

I also played tourist and went around the city taking photos. I rode Muni for the first time in three years, and I forgot you had to pull the cord to indicate your stop, so.. I missed my stop. NOOOOB!

Anyway, I went to the Moraga Steps.

And the Cliff House. But my camera very conveniently died on me when I got there because I forgot to turn it off  so here is a crappy quality photo from my phone.

I also wandered into a Safeway and went into an instant shock at how cheap everything here is compared to Australia. I mean, look at the prices of these organic fruits!

And this. WHAT IS THIS!! I am just downright outraged and disgusted by how I have to pay 12 bucks for the exact same tub of Ben & Jerry’s. DISGUSTED I tell you.

To recover from this shock I went to Trader Joe’s aka heaven and bought myself some chocolate. And a little bit of other stuff…

Wow this post is getting really long! You are probably wondering where the heck this pasta recipe that you came for is. Thank you for reading (if you are still reading) all that nonsense. I ramble a lot you see. Anyway before I go onto the recipe I just want to show you this.

No, I don’t drink coke. But is that not the cutest bottle of coke you’ve ever seen?

Having once made vegan mac and cheese with cashew as a base and loved it, I wanted to see if I could make something similar with just whatever I had on hands. I sort of threw whatever I found in the kitchen in a blender (I miss my VitaMix so much) and hoped for the best. And guess what? It turned out pretty darn amazing!

 Pasta with Creamy Cashew Sauce (serves 8)

2.5 Cups cashews (soaked for at least 3 hours)
1 Cup water
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1‐2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp white pepper
3 tsp salt
30 cherry tomatoes (or 2 tomatoes)
1 lb pasta
0.5 Cup reserved pasta water

1. Roast cherry tomatoes in a 300F oven for 30 minutes.

2. While the tomatoes are roasting, bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to instructions on package. Drain when cooked, reserving about half cup of the cooking liquid.

3. Drain your soaked cashews. Blend them in a blender with 1 cup water until very smooth.

4. When the tomatoes are done, add them along with all other ingredients (except pasta and pasta water) into the blender with the cashews and blend until smooth.

5. Transfer sauce to a big pan or pot and gently heat it up. Thin it up to desired consistency with the reserved pasta water (I used around half cup). Then add the pasta and stir to coat evenly.

6. Garnish with more parsley and black pepper and serve.

I also just realized this is the first savory food post I have! Yay! Haha. I apologize for this extremely long post and thank you for reading all of this! Enjoy the pasta! Me and my family certainly did 🙂