Once I was finally home from bread making on Saturday at 1pm and had grand plans to clean my apt and sleep, I discovered a voicemail from a friend asking, would you want to go to Berkeley right now? Of course!

So, we sat in traffic on the 80 until we landed in town, and I promptly ate a hot dog at Top Dog. There were so many dogs to choose from, but since we were going out for pizza in a few hours, I opted for the Bird Dog - low fat turkey hot dog with cilantro. It was fantastic. Served in a soft sesame hot dog bun, it had the perfect snappy outside and meaty inside. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was also spicy (the meat was quite red) and juicy–which is admirable for a low fat dog. Oh, and when I’m tired (a good tired), dazed, and sporting chef’s hat head, this is how I look while eating a Bird Dog (special thanks to L, my guest photographer).

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And so concludes my 18 part expose of a single Saturday in Marin and Sonoma Counties.

All I want to do now is go to Wild Flour Bread to celebrate. Friday is one of their pizza days….

Since it was almost 5pm, California Carnivores, in the rural southern part of Sebastopol, turned out to be our last stop. And it seemed fitting — why not watch another species eat for a while? It’s purported to be the world leader in quality carnivorous plants. I was looking forward to seeing Venus Fly Traps and expanding my ready knowledge of other carnivorous botanicals.

Oh. They close at 4pm. Most stores and wineries close around 4pm or 5pm, so I wasn’t very surprised.

But I still looked inside…. and could make out two skeletons amidst some plants.

I think that even carnivorous plants are in their winter phase this time of year. Their plants outside looked pretty recently pruned… but given my lack of teaching, these may or may not be carnivorous.

On the way back down through Sebastopol, we stopped at the Village Bakery, which is known for its Scandinavian specialties amongst its breads and pastries. They had a lovely long pastry case full of cakes and tarts and pastries. Like Mom’s Apple Pie, this was a rather traditional establishement, smelling faintly of butter and flour. We ordered the lemon roll cake and mocha biskvie.

I think I’ve stumped Google on what biskvies are. They possibly derive from a form of biscuit, as it was a cookie-like bottom with apricot preserves and icing on top. A lot of icing–see that ridged structure on top of the cookie? Solid icing. Apricot preserves is kind of another one of my pastry pet peeves…. Why does it pop up so much? It always tastes the same, and is just kind of there and usually comes in huge plastic tubs. The lemon roll cake was rather dry and bland; only a hint of lemon flavor came out of it. Neither of us ate much of either pastry.

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I don’t think that winter is a good time to visit Kozlowski Farms in Forestville, which is north of Sebastopol and a mile down the road from Iron Horse. It would be fun to buy fruit there when it’s in season, but when we went, there were jars and jars of jams and sauces and dressings, and a few pastries in the pastry case. Many free samples, which were good, but I wasn’t smitten by anything. Unless I can find something that I absolutely can’t make myself and must have, I’m not so much into those. I considered the Kiwi Jam (which wasn’t offered as a sample that day), but in the end, I just walked away. If you’re into bottled stuff, though, this is your paradise.