PacificSpecifics

recipe: Enchilada Casserole

2012-03-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

This recipe was a serious winner in our house. Pretty sure Mike was extremely skeptical (primarily due to the fact that anytime I venture into the category of ground turkey he immediately doesn't like it...I would agree with him 87% of the time, as ground turkey pretty much lacks all flavor.) Today, my friends, ground turkey triumphed. This recipe is definitely a keeper not only because it tastes good, but it's also relatively quick to make, and it makes a lot. The recipe says 4 servings, however we still have over half of a 9 inch pie plate of leftovers, so I'm pretty sure that it will feed us for 2 dinners and probably 2 lunches for myself. I'm also a big fan of this recipe because you could have everything on hand and can prolong the trip to the grocery store just one more day. (Or is that just me?!)

I did several tweaks to this recipe, which were primarily just to make it spicier and make sure that the turkey didn't come out tasting bland. We like things extra spicy in our house. I served this with Spanish rice and a mixed green salad with pomegranate flavored craisins (these deserve an entire post of their own, I love them!) and walnuts. No wine tonight, we kinda got wined out from the weekend, so we didn't open a bottle for this meal.

P.S. my notes are in italics

Ingredients

1 pound ground sirloin (ground turkey)
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium beef broth (chicken broth)
1 tablespoon 40%-less-sodium taco seasoning mix (such as Old El Paso) (I used half of the packet in the tomato sauce and the other half on the turkey while it was cooking.)
1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
4 (8-inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
Additionally, I seasoned the turkey with (about a teaspoon) cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt and pepper.

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef and onion to pan; cook 6 minutes, stirring to crumble.
Preheat oven to 400°.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Sprinkle with flour; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add broth, taco seasoning, and tomato sauce to pan. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 1/2 cups tomato mixture to beef mixture; reserve 1/2 cup tomato mixture.
Place 1 tortilla in a 9-inch pie plate. Top with 1 cup beef mixture. Repeat layers, ending with tortilla. Spread reserved tomato mixture over tortilla. Top with cheese. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Cool slightly. Cut into 4 wedges.

Vanessa Pruett, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2012

winery: Murietta's Well

2012-03-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Murietta's Well - Our first stop in our wine tasting expedition in the Livermore Valley. We had very low expectations, which were blown out of the water after the first sip of wine.

We've been meaning to try out some of the wineries in the Livermore Valley for a long time. Then we heard that the Livermore Valley is known for its Zinfandel...and the following weekend, we made a point to go try them out. We were blown away. One employee at Murietta's well said that Livermore's atmosphere today reminds him of what Napa was like about 20 years ago.

This valley is friendly, relaxed and makes good wine. I'm sold. We love it here. The East-West orientation of the valley allows for cooling off quickly at night even though the summer days can be quite warm (this valley is in the East Bay, after all, and I'm sure you are all too familiar with my complaints about how stinking hot it gets here in the summer.)

We ended up taking home a bottle of the Cab Franc and a bottle of the Zin. We also loved the merlot (always shocks me when I have a good merlot - darn you, Sideways!) and the Spur (their red blend) were also totally worthy of being purchased. We just like to save our pennies, and we live close and know we can always go back. And we definitely will. The people at Murietta's well were fantastic, employees were stopping us on our way out the door asking us which bottles we bought.

little friend

2012-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here I am working at my "desk" (it's a book shelf, not a desk, but it's what my computer sits and it's my workspace, therefore I refer to it as my desk.) And this is the cutest little face telling me, "Stop working, and take me on a walk!"

How could I resist that?!?!

dirty details

2012-03-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

Guess what? I'm in love.

In love with a vacuum.

Never thought I could be.

There is something so satifying about looking at the disgustingness that is living in your carpet.

This is after one time of vacuum our 1000 sq. ft of carpetted living space. Makes me wonder how long our old vacuum hadn't been working! Pretty sure it was nearly 3 years. yikes. gross.

I'm going to go vacuum again right now.

PS - this is the Dyson DC 41 - the pet vacuum. We got it not because our dog sheds. But I do. Like the dickens. Good thing I just chopped 5 inches off of my hair...might make less work for the dyson!

Ravenswood

2012-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe I haven't ever talked about the Ravenswood winery on this blog. Ravenswood is just outside of the town of Sonoma (which, by the way, is super cute and looks to be a great spot for lunch and some shopping. We did the lunch part, just not the shopping. Next time, shopping will be added the agenda.) Ravenswood was a wonderful surprise. I mean, the Vinter's blend Zin is a staple in our wine frig, however I had no idea what the winery would be like. The wine guy that took care of us was the best, most entertaining person we've met in wine country. He gave us the history of Ravenswood, along with the origin of their label, the grounds, the wines, and as self-proclaimed button manager, we left with buttons of each of us and "No Wimpy Wines" bumper stickers. It seemed like we tried 12 different wines. They were all good but the wines that you can only get at the winery or through the wine club were great. (Just another reason you should go visit.)

Seriously. Go visit.

Ravenswood was comfortable, everyone that walked in the door was treated like family, and we were no exception.

wine: Cline Zinfandel 2010

2012-02-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of Mike putting 80,000 miles on a car in under 2 years is that occasionally when he is out and about, he happens to drive past a winery. Which I guess is also one of the perks of living in Northern California where it's easy to drive past a winery or two no matter what direction you are driving. Cline was one of those stops to pick up a few bottles of wine one day to say, "Happy Wednesday!"

This wine was good. I think the vanilla taste was a bit too strong for me initially, but it was still a totally drinkable bottle. The retail price is $18, so for that price, I would say, I'm not sure I would buy it again. I was reading about this wine on the Cline Website {here}and they also mention that there are "flavors of dark berry, coffee and chocolate with a great vanilla oak character and lingering long finish." I totally picked up on the strawberry flavor. The smell of this one was great (i.e. the oak factor). So all in all, it was good. I'd give it 2.79 stars.

P.S. Pardon the blurry picture, I have been trying to take my camera off auto and do more on the manual settings...looks like I need to do a bit more work. :)

three hundred!

2012-02-28T10:07:00.003-08:00

We interrupt your normally scheduled programming to say,

"WHOOP WHOOP! This is my 300 post!"

Thank you for reading about me, Mike, and this pup. We appreciate you stopping by.

Here's to 300 more!!!!

And you might have noticed that I've royally screwed up the header on the blog. You see, I'm trying to update a few things here and there, and in the process of doing so, I managed to completely forget how to correct the problem. whoops. Bear with me. I promise I'll figure it out. Plus, we went wine tasting this past weekend...and you know what that means...

More winery pictures and more wines to talk about. Yahoo!

[update:] Guess what? I miscounted...Thursday's post is 300... so happy 298 to you too!

barkley says...

2012-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read"

-Groucho Marx

coffee table books (+ 1 wierd puppy dog)

2012-02-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Santa brought us all coffee table books this past Christmas. (Yes, I realize that Christmas was nearly 2 months ago, but I just downloaded the pictures onto the computer, so we are talking about it today.)

Anyway Mike, Barkley and I all got a new book to dress up our coffee table. Mike received the Paris book - it's bilingual, so while we read about the Paris walks in English, we try to learn french at the same time. (It's actually not working out too well. We'll just rely on our pretty looks and charm to get us by the next time we are in Paris.) I received Design Sponge, which I love, not only for its contents inside the book but the pop of orange is a nice touch too. Barkley got Wine Dogs. Yes, Barkley got a book. What, you don't read to your dog?

Weirdo.

Wine Dogs is a book all about the dogs that live on Wineries in North America - in my next life, I would like to come back as a wine dog. Mike and I both love looking at the Wine Dog books whenever we are in a winery that has one out in their shop. Turns out that Barkley really likes to look at it too. She gets super excited when she recognizes Agnes the westie of Turnbull Winery.

And reading about the fact that we read to our dog makes me realize, It's official. Our dog is weird. It's OK though, we like to embrace the weird in our house. Which is why we read books to our dog. And while we are on the subject of our crazy pup. We were walking Barkley last weekend at Crissy Field in San Francisco and ran into another westie family. The first thing out of the owner's mouth was "does your dog watch TV too?" Yes, yes, she does. Check it out, she's watching Ellen very intently.

recipe: chicken and rice with mushrooms

2012-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

[recipe]

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms (about 1/4 ounce)

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

3/4 cup chopped onion

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

3/4 cup uncooked brown basmati rice

2 cups frozen green peas, thawed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

Preparation

Combine 2 cups boiling water and porcini mushrooms; let stand for 20 minutes. Drain through a sieve over a bowl, reserving soaking liquid. Finely chop mushrooms.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken evenly with paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken mixture to pan; sauté for 5 minutes or until chicken is browned, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from pan.
Return pan to medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion and cremini mushrooms; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in reserved porcini liquid, chopped porcini, and rice; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer gently for 35 minutes. Stir in the reserved chicken, peas, and thyme. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is done.

Wendy Kalen, Cooking Light

JANUARY 2012

........................

January's edition of Cooking Light has done it again! This recipe was a keeper. Not much to change (other than a personal note to myself to stop cooking chicken too long!) But that's just my own personal battle of figuring out timing in the kitchen when I'm trying to cook the meat and other things all at once.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

"I can live without money; but I cannot live without love."

~ Judy Garland

Thank you, my dear readers, for your love. I write to entertain, to talk about my love of wine and to show my love to my dear friends and family. And when I see that someone has stopped by to read the blog.

I feel so loved.

Happy Valentines's Day.

barkley says...

2012-02-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."

-Ben Williams

installment numero duo: walking with a camera phone

2012-02-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

And here, in our super sweet second installment of "AnnE takes pictures on her phone while walking Barkley here and there and everywhere"

Again, people.
I need help with the title of this segment. I'm a wordy person. I think an acronym would suit me well.

Dusk is my most favorite time of day.
Like absolute favorite.
And I just decided that recently.
Pretty sure it's because the hills are so dark and the sky is so brilliant. I'm a big fan of all the hills we have surrounding us here in northern CA.

I'm also a big fan of the pink sky.
So are the seamen.
Isn't that the saying, Pink sky at night, Sailors delight?
actually, I'm pretty sure it's a red sky. but I like pink. this is my blog. pink sky is my delight. so there.
my dad was a sailor.
and that, my friend, is your fun fact for the day.

recipe: Cooking Light's cheesy potato soup

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

via

Another new recipe in our household, this one was OK, although after a few tweaks, I think next time it will be a real crowd pleaser. Crowd. As in, Mike and I. Barkley joins us at the table, however she is only interested in stealing my napkin, not actually eating any human food, but I guess to make to feel like a crowd, we'll include Barkley. Because as the saying goes, "Three's a crowd."

Case and point...

Married Couple + dog = crowd

crowd + doctored up potato soup = crowd pleased

And that, my friends, is your math lesson for the day.

Now on to dinner:

Cheesy Potato Soup - Cooking Light, January 2012 issue

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chopped red potato (about 1 pound)
1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (I like it hot, so I added about a palmful or so of crushed red pepper flakes (to be honest, I don't know what ground red pepper is), which to me, is about a tablespoon
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
AnnE's addition: Spicy chicken sausage - we have a stock pile (OK, so we have 2 packages, but for this crowd, that is a stock pile) of it in the freezer, so to add a bit more spice and extra umph (and by umph I mean another food group) to the meal, I would add a few links of cooked chicken sausage cut up into bite size pieces.

Preparation

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Sprinkle with flour; cook 1 minute, stirring onion mixture constantly. Add potato, milk, broth, and 1/2 cup water to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese and ground red pepper; cook 2 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring frequently. Top each serving evenly with 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped green onions.
AnnE's additional step: Cook the chicken sausage how your package suggests and add to the soup.

Vanessa Pruett, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2012

camera on phone; not afraid to use it

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new segment today. It's called (insert trumpet sounding) "AnnE's got a camera on her phone and gets bored on occasion when going for walks with Barkley."

It's a long title. It could use some work. I'm open to suggestions.

In the mean time, here are a few from our jaunts in the great outdoors recently. I'm a big fan taking pictures and doctoring them up on Photobucket's app called Snapbucket.

[out of focus, but who doesn't love large light bulbs on a string?]

new recipe: Pork with Mushroom Sauce

2012-02-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

[photo credit and recipe link]

The January 2012 issue of Cooking Light seemed to have a lot of real winners - meaning I tore out at least 10 recipes from the magazine. Which kinda makes me think, I probably should have just kept them in the magazine rather than have a lot of torn pages sitting inside another cookbook. But I know how I operate and sometimes I just won't go back and look through an entire magazine to get a recipe that looked good to me.

I did a lot of tweaking to this recipe (see my notes at the bottom of the post as well as in parentheses in the ingredients list). It turned out to be a very good meal, definitely one that we will make again. And because of that, I thought I'd share...

Pork with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed (I used pork chops)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 (8-ounce) package button mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)
1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (didn't use this, I'm not a fan)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (didn't use this either, I never seem to have fresh herbs around when I need them.)

Preparation

Place a small roasting pan in oven. Preheat oven to 425°.
Sprinkle pork evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to preheated pan, and swirl to coat. Add pork to pan. Roast at 425° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest portion of pork registers 145°, turning after 10 minutes. Remove pork from pan, and let stand for 10 minutes.
Place roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 1 minute or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and broth; bring to a boil. Cook until liquid is reduced to 1/3 cup (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat, and stir in crème fraîche and mustard. Cut pork crosswise into slices. Place 3 ounces pork on each of 4 plates, and top each serving with about 2 1/2 tablespoons sauce. Garnish with parsley.

Note: Wine Match: Look to California for a wallet-friendly wine to pair with this recipe. Highlight the dish's meaty pork tenderloin and creamy, earthy mushrooms with a light, fruity red like The Naked Grape's Pinot Noir ($9). --Gretchen Roberts

Julianna Grimes, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2012

~~~~~~~~~~

My notes:

I didn't cook the pork chops in a roasting pan / oven. I just made them like I usually do in pan on the stove. I took them out to use the same pan for making the mushroom sauce. I also didn't add the mustard because I don't like it (simple as that). It was still very delicious without the mustard, but if you like it, by all means, toss it in. So if you want to follow my way of cooking it: just skip steps 1 and 2 and head straight to step 3 after you have seasoned your pork chops with salt and pepper and browned them in the pan.

Also, a side note: I don't typically eat any meat other than fish or chicken. But after a while I get really really sick of chicken, so I started to cook pork chops because I figured I could stomach them and as it turns out I can, as long as they are masked in some sort of sauce, which is why this recipe caught my eye to begin with. I cannot however stomach pork loin. Something about that seems a little too meaty for me.

We really enjoyed this meal. Mike typically doesn't like sauces on top of his meat, however this one proved to be a winner in his book. He cleaned his plate - always the biggest compliment.

Along side this meal, we had au gratin potatoes and corn, and St. Francis Cab 07 (because it's a stable in our house).

the end.

etsy love: charlieheartsdiesel

2012-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

I know that all dogs go to heaven...and now I'm pretty sure that all dogs need a cowl:

Check out this specific doggie cowl here: doggie cowl. And be sure to take a gander at all the rest of the great stuff that Charlieheartsdiesel has to offer - pretty sure Barkley needs one of everything...

* I randomly came upon this shop on Etsy. I really like Etsy, but no one specific shop, nor Etsy itself, have given me anything for featuring any of the things sold on Etsy. I just love to check out handmade products and share them on my blog.*

barkley says...

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Charles Schulz once said "Happiness is a warm puppy."

Barkley once said "Happiness is a warm pile of fresh laundry."

etsy love: address stamps

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

[photo credit]

Between sending baby shower invites and sending out a boat load of christmas cards, I decided this year was finally the year to get a return address stamp. So, I went straight to Etsy to find the perfect stamp. Holy Hannah, there are a lot of options! After much deliberation, I chose to go with the stamp above (and no my name isn't Buckley - could you imagine Barkley Buckley! How fun would that be! Talk about a mouthful.)

Lisa at Stamp Out Online was absolutely fabulous. I love my new stamp. Is it strange that I want to move so that I can buy a new stamp? Yep, I think that's strange, maybe I just buy stamps for others...that would make more sense. Check out her shop here.

baby shower

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve-Eve (yep, the night before Christmas Eve), my mother-in-law and I threw a small family shower for my sister-in-law, Megan. Because, I think babies need a lot of hand made things just so that they can sense how loved they are, I made a lot of things for this little one.

[appliqued onesies - I couldn't just have a plain onesie, this baby girl is going to be as fashionable as her mama! ] This project was super easy. I also added coordinating leg warmers (why I didn't take a picture of those is beyond me, I'm pretty much in love with baby leg warmers.)

[burp cloths became the napkins for the event. Napkin rings are the chain link thingys. People were afraid to use them as their real napkin but seriously, they washed up so easily (and we had pizza for dinner) that there really was no cause for concern that anyone was going to ruin them before the baby had a chance to spit up on them.] I bought all the fabric on Etsy (see below) and made 24 burp clothes.

Etsy shops where I purchased this fabric:

Plump Patch

Spice Berry Cottage

[on the left: "Wishes for Baby" - since this was a family shower, I handed out this sheet of paper for all the aunts, cousins, grandmothers, great-grandmothers to fill out and give to Megan as a keepsake. I made the shower invites and the "wishes" cards out of this magenta and white polka dot paper - just made it on Word (I can make circles with the best of them!) and printed them out at Kinko's so that they were on nice card stock.] Here's a link for a similar version both are free printable pdf's: here or here.

[on the right: we played the memory tray game where I had 25 baby items on a cookie sheet and walked it around the group. Four people got 21 items right...so our tie breaker was who can guess Megan's weight when she was born. Megan's college roommate / cousin-in-law won. Cheater. :) just kidding.]

[baby girl's college savings plan: our other game that we played was one where everyone was given a roll of nickels as they walked in. They were all instructed that whoever said the word baby would have to drop a nickel in the piggy bank. This game turned out to be a fun one for all the little girls that were in attendance. They had fun dropping everybody's money into the piggy bank. And as a bonus this little unborn baby girl has $40 in savings already!]

2012-01-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

"In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want."

Irish Proverb

just not cutting it anymore: $5 bottles of wine

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Houston, I'm in trouble. Yep, trouble. You know what happens when you start to recognize good wine vs. not - so - good wine? You really get a taste for the good stuff. And with the good stuff, means gone are the days of enjoying a $5 bottle of wine. Which is a bit of a bummer. Because although I may like wine (a lot), I also like to be thrifty. One might say, I like to save money like a squirrel likes to pack away nuts all winter. Only I don't store my dinero in my cheeks. So, it makes me sad that this bottle will no long put a smile on my face the way it used to.

The good news is that we haven't gone from $5 bottle of wine taste straight on up to a $35 bottle of wine (although those are really good! Check out Sequoia Grove 2007 Cabernet...our favorite in that price point.) We have however jumped up to the $11 bottle (on sale with our grocery store discount card) per wine category with the St. Francis 07 Cab. It's really a top notch bottle of wine for the price. [Read more about it here.] And while you may be wondering why I haven't been featuring any new wines lately, it is because of this bottle. Our wine frig is brimming with bottles of the St. Francis 07 Cab. Recently, I saw that our grocery store was starting to sell the '08 Cab instead, so I pushed the front bottle off to the side, and found 5 bottles remaining of the '07, snatched them up quickly and away I went to check out. It's that good, people.

Three years (and one day)

2012-01-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

Three years. Three years I have been typing to the world hoping someone was reading. Three years ago, we were getting ready to move away from a city we had come to love to a new city where we felt more like tourists than locals. Three years is essentially how long it took me to love this new town we call home. Three years of liking wine to learning more about wine to LOVING wine, wine country and all things wine related.

Thank you for taking the time to check in and see what I am up to.

I appreciate it, more than you will ever know.

remember

2012-01-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

[*]

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr.

blasphemy

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am a bit timid to write, but sometimes, just sometimes, we drink beer instead of wine! There, I said it. *Gasp*

Shock and horror, I know!

Yep, it's true. Sometimes a bit of Belgium's finest needs to be drank. Drinking it feels like we are magically teleported back to Brugge this past summer sitting in the sunshine drinking awesome beer.

Duvel tastes like honey and sunshine. Pretty sure that I need help on the descriptions - that goes for both wine and beer. That'll be my new year's resolution. I haven't made one of those yet. Until then, go get yourself a little bit of honey and sunshine. It's delicious.

segway, what?

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

Typically on New Year's Eve, we get all fancy and go out for crab legs (it is crab season, after all). This year however, was no ordinary year. This year was pushed our limits to do what Steve Wozniak likes to do...Segway all about town. Woo-Hoo! As scared as I was, (and Mike was too, it wasn't just me who was a pansy) this tour turned out to be our absolute favorite tour that we've done in San Francisco (and believe me, we've pretty much done them all).

We did the 5:00pm tour, which meant that it was dark when we were on the streets. With all the New Years Eve crazies milling about, Mike and I were a bit concerned that there might be some issues on the streets - on a segway, however the tour sticks to quieter streets near North Beach / Fisherman's wharf, and when we were on Embarcadero, we rode in the bike lane, so it turned out that all of our worries were unnecessary.

Fun facts were learned from our boy Mark (the tour guide):

1. Don't come to San Francisco craving clam chowder...It's not local (remember what I told you at the beginning, it's crabs, we are crab people, not clam people. Go to the other coast for the clams.) So when you stop by the guy that sells clam chowder in Boudin bread bowls, apparently that guy gets his clam chowder from Campbell's soup. Yep, sad but true. Now go eat some crab legs. Those babies are delicious!

2. We have local parrots that live on the Telegraph hill. Apparently these parrots were either released or escaped into the wild when they were on their way to a pet store years ago and have called Telegraph Hill home ever since.

This fun fact is news to me. It might be my most favorite fact I've learned on any tour. I cannot wait to go in search of these birds next time I'm in the city. From what I understand, it's not too hard, but I'm going to make a day of it, because there was some good shopping I saw in North Beach on the segway tour...but that's for another day o' blogging - you know, parrots and shopping go hand-in-hand.

3. I have no other fun facts. I stopped listening when I heard that there are wild parrots living in the city.

This tour is one that I would totally recommend doing. The first time that I tried to step off my segway, I managed to send it flying and the employee caught it before the un-manned segway named U Smile went for a ride straight into the line of people waiting for the cable car. So, if I can do it, I am sure that you can too. We had so much fun.

[this is my husband's "Holy - $#*% - this - thing - scares - the - hell - out - of - me - face"]

[each of the Segways had a name...Mike's "Happy Hour" had a way cooler name than my "U Smile", I didn't take a picture of U Smile. It took me a while to smile, I was a bit FREAKED out, but then I mastered the learning curve and I "U Smiled" my way all around the wharf.]

[who doesn't love a reflective vest?!]

twenty.twelve

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! I know, I know, 11 days into the new year and this blog has been silent. My apologies. The weather has been so beautiful that as soon as I'm finished working on my computer, Barkers and I skee-daddle outside to enjoy the unseasonably dry and warm weather...I love this weather!

These pictures were taken on the Bay bridge on our way into the city on New Year's Eve for our super - fun Segway ride. More to come on that tomorrow...

socks

2011-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

Barkers had a great Christmas. She got socks. Yep, socks are pretty much the BEST thing you could ever get a westie. At least this westie. Hope you got socks too...

and had a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

May your hearts be filled with happiness & joy this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

trimming the tree

2011-12-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas. I love everything magical about the season. And I love traditions. I come from a family where my mom was serious about her traditions. Christmas was so wonderful growing up and still is - this year we started a new tradition at my parents - the magical holiday of Thanksmas - that's right the holiday where the pilgrims celebrate the birth of Jesus all in one day - as my nephew says, "Wow, Nana that's a lot of food!"

Mike and I have given each other ornaments every year. The past three years I have been buying the Crate and Barrel photo ornament (sorry I don't know why my photo isn't clear, just too excited for Santa I guess to keep still these days). Anyway, each ornament has a pendant dangling that denotes the year. And every pendant has a photo of the picture that we used that year for our Christmas card. I still like to keep an actual card, but it's nice to see photos of us on the tree too!

green

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

You may be getting tired of me raving about cleaning supplies. But I have one more tidbit for you. Let me tell you a story, which really has nothing to do with cleaning. at all. But sometimes I like to share, even when it has absolutely nothing to do with why I originally sat down at the computer. And sometimes I like to babble, not sure if you had ever realized that, but yep. it's true. I'm a babbler. like right now in fact...so let me get back to business...

I was walking Barkley one day when I bubbly girl in yoga gear asked a woman in front of me something, she shook her head and kept walking, then the yoga geared girl offered me a lululemon bag. I jumped on the freebie. Who doesn't love a reusable lululemon bag? Well, I know one person that doesn't like them...the lady right in front of me that said no, that's who. Her loss.

Anyway the girl in spandex gives me this bag and inside is a sheet of paper to write down your personal and professional goals. (I didn't do that part.) But I turned the paper over and started to read all these interesting mantras. (this is where I circle back to the natural cleaning supplies...)

All the quotes about the environment and taking care of the earth reminded me of my favorite Chief Seattle quote:

"The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth."

And then I read further and saw this quote that reminded me of my new found environmentally friendly cleaning supply, bon ami...you know the one that I'm probably a little TOO excited about since it is, after all, still just a cleaning supply.

"Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters or floors. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter."

And because we are talking about how much we love the earth, and because I have no other pictures to add to this post... here is a picture of Mt. Shasta as my mom and I drove by last summer.

green clean

2011-12-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

I typically choose natural cleaning products, however I have always LOVED a good chlorine smell in the bathroom. It just says clean to me. I love that smell. But recently I nearly asphyxiated myself while cleaning our shower...
...OK I over dramatize sometimes, but it was enough for me to seek an alternative to a good ol' Ajax clean.

I have an addiction to buying Method cleaning supplies, so every time at Target I need to stroll past the Method section to see if there are any new cleaning products, more specifically any new scents to their cleaning products. That is when I took a gander a few feet away to see the bon ami sitting there on the shelf so cheerfully. So i picked it up and after reading on the label that you can clean nearly everything...from your shower to your pots and pans. Hello! Did you just read that? You can clean the soap scum off the shower floor and clean something that you are going to use to cook with. Sold.

So I brought it home, cleaned the shower, worked great. no asphyxiation here.

I told Mike.

And then I cleaned the stove (you know, like I seriously, cleaned the stove)

And I raved to Mike.

and then I cleaned the teapot and all the crud that turned the silver teapot brown.

Came off.

Easy as pie

[Side note: pie is not easy, making a pie gives me toddler like tantrums, so whoever came up with that saying, needs to come make me some pie.]

Back to cleaning....

Hello! Our teapot is silver again!

And I told Mike.

At this point he was getting slightly tired of me raving about a cleaning product but then I pointed out how spic and span our apartment is and then he gave me a high five.

Seriously, thank goodness for the near asphyxiation in the shower to bring me to the wonder drug of the cleaning world.

Now, who needs a high five?

~ two ~

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Where has the time gone!?!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Barkers!

You are the best puppy dog we could have ever imagined!

[our little wine dog ~ Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, October 2011]

[senior portrait time!]

[with her best friend, squirrel]

tricks of the trade

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that we like to go wine tasting. A lot. I mean, c'mon, we live near one of the most remarkable wine regions in the world, wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't go?

We go wine tasting for you, people, so that this blog has content.

We are givers.

And since it's the season of giving, I thought I'd share with you what we bring with us each time we go wine tasting. Thank you, you kind readers that like to hear me babble. I appreciate it.

Now, let me tell you a story. Once, we were at Kenwood (Sonoma County) tasting their delicious wines and there was a girl in the tasting room that wasn't looking too hot. Her boyfriend, husband, poor soul...whomever he was, was basically carrying her over his shoulder, she had had a bit too much to drink. (Side note: This was our first winery of the day, hardly 11am.) Shortly after we finished up our tasting, we headed to the car to grab a few snacks, and to our left was this girl, and her poor soul of a caretaker, leaning over a rock ledge. Then, as if the fire hose turned on, vomit started violently coming out of her. Purple vomit. Let this be a lesson to you, purple vomit is never pretty, even if you are just an innocent bystander.

To avoid vomit like the marionettes from Team America, we bring snacks. Here's our list of things that come with us every time we go wine tasting:

1. Barkley : no, we don't eat her, she's just so fun, we can't leave her behind...you don't need to have her on your list, but she's on ours and I wanted to be truthful with our list...therefore, I'm sharing. Many wineries are dog friendly, more than you would expect.

2. Water : I mean a lot of it. Like toss a case of water bottles in your trunk, I typically am not a proponent of plastic water bottles, but this is my one exception.

3. Snacks : party mix, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, apples and granola bars are our go-to snacks

4. Pack a picnic : Most wineries will not allow you to picnic on their grounds, however there are some that will either allow you to picnic if you buy a bottle of wine (Rutherford Hill Winery) or others that have a deli where you can buy your sustenance and picnic on their grounds (V. Sattui and Beringer). I am sure there are more, but those are the few that we've actually eaten at.

The good news about packing a picnic is that you don't waste time sitting at a restaurant. We are serious about our time management in wine country. Most wineries are only open from 10 - 4pm or so, which means it's important to maximize your time. In the course of a day trip to Napa, we typically don't taste at all the wineries we go to (but when we do a tasting, we typically share one so that we don't become like the purple vomit girl), but we like to check out as many as possible, just to see the grounds, take a few pictures... you know, for the blog.

wente

2011-12-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Tucked back in the hills of the East Bay, Wente Vineyards is a wonderful place to golf, take in views of Mt. Diablo and enjoy a different wine region of Northern California. Wente is located in the the Livermore area, which boasts some great wines, and very relaxed attitudes. Also, it's one of our favorite places to golf. I say, any golf course that you can see grapes on nearly every hole is a winner in my book, even if I do score an 8 on a par 4. It's OK, because it sure is pretty.

roasters and tantrums

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

This year was the very first year that I actually attempted to make any Thanksgiving related foods - on. my. own.for thanksgiving (I can make green bean casserole 12 times a winter, but it's different when you are making foods for an actual holiday.)
This is a big deal, people.

I may have called my mom 17 times for advice, but I did it. I also told the lady at the grocery store and everyone at our early thanksgiving celebration with friends that this was my very first stuffing and pumpkin pie making mission.

I like to toot my own horn from time to time.

First up was stuffing: since we were traveling to a friends house we bought a roaster to cook the stuffing in since we weren't sure about the space available in their oven. Turns out their oven was completely free, however, it worked out well and now we have a roaster sitting in the floor of the office.

(Is that where you store your roaster too?! Small world!)

After making the stuffing the day before, I preheated the roaster to 350 degrees to cook the stuffing the morning of our celebration. Mental note to self...even though a roaster doesn't look like an oven, it actually heats up - quite hot, in fact - so do not place any appendage on the inside of the roaster...my wrist will always remember my first stuffing experience with the nice burn I gave it. (whoops).

Stuffing = delicious. We quadrupled the recipe for 16 people and 2 babies ( I like details, so while the 2 babies didn't eat much, I needed to let you know what we were working with). After everyone taking home some leftovers, we only had enough for one meal of leftovers.

Stuffing = success.

Now moving on to the pies. I made pumpkin and apple and had 2 toddler-like tantrums while making the crusts. It's OK though, everything turned out well, albeit slightly deformed, but the taste was good. And that is all that matters, my friends.

Pumpkin pie = success.

I was so happy with my pumpkin pie, I could make it every day. Well, I'd hire someone to roll the crust out for me because that's where my tantrums stem from.

Apple pie: not my first time making the Mike's mom's famous apple pie, but it was my first time without my sous chef (Mike)...again, tantrum with crust led to me sending Mike out to walk the dog. I needed some peace and quiet with my crusts. [warning crucial equation ahead]

One-on-one time with pie crust + self pep talk = delicious pie.

[Side note:] I don't typically have tantrums. Like never. I just hate when things don't go my way, that's all. From now on I will always roll my pie crusts out onto wax paper because the tantrums always are created after I roll the crust out and then I try to lift up the crust and BAM! it rips. I can only handle that so many times before I get annoyed. Once, actually, I can only handle it once.

All in all, i am very pleased with my first thanksgiving baking and stuffing extravaganza. I feel like such an adult (pie-crust-tantrums and all.)

deck the halls

2011-12-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Because, i'm a sucker for christmas music.

and because i'm a sucker for flash mobs...

here's a little bit of both...

good job, u of m!

winery: mumm

2011-11-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

We've heard good things about Mumm. Clearly everyone and their brother heard these same good things, since the day we went to try some Mumm wines, we were not alone. (Clausterphobia might have been the word of the hour.) So, we took a few pictures and continued on our journey of wine tasting happiness. Some other time, when it's not the middle of crush, we'll go back. But until then, I'll leave you with what might just be my most favorite picture I've taken in wine country.

happy thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes it feel like Thanksgiving like watching all the Thanksgiving Friends Episode. OK, there are a lot of other things that make it feel like thanksgiving - celebrating with family, cornucopias, cooler weather, football, busy airports, typtophan, pumpkin pie - but besides those, it's the episode where Rachel makes her trifle that tastes like feet. Best. Episode. Ever.

Happy Thanksgiving!

winery: Chimney Rock

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Each time we drive to Napa, we like to stop at a new winery. When we have people visiting, we always have to stop by our mainstays (Castello di Amorosa, Beringer, Silver Oak), however it's nice to try something new. And there are so many new wineries to try that no matter how long we live in Northern California, I think there will always be an opportunity to try a new place.

During this trip to Napa, we decided to make a stop at Chimney Rock. Mike and I enjoyed a jeroboam of Chimney Rock Cab while in Las Vegas this past February. We loved it, so we thought it was about time we checked out their winery. [Full disclosure: Mike and I, and 24 of his clients enjoyed the jeroboam - Mike and I like wine, however we can't finish that much wine. A jeroboam, or double magnum (but I like to say jeroboam, it just rolls off your tongue) is 4 regular bottles of wine all put into one mega large super cool looking large bottle of wine.]

Chimney Rock is part of the Terlato family of wineries which didn't mean much to me but a few stops later on in our day, we went to the top of Rutherford Hill at the Rutherford Hill winery and voila, they are also part of the Terlato family (I read it on their sign), so it's quite a good group. The wines that we tried were fantastic (the Cab is quite good), the winery is dog friendly and the people - both the guests and the employees were very nice and the employees very knowledgeable. Which makes for a great experience trying some wine and will bring us back again and again.

I'm not sure who lives in this house, but whenever they are tired of this view, if they could just bequeath it to us. We'd be honored to wake up and make coffee overlooking this view. Wouldn't you?

locals

2011-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

As if by a flip of a light switch, we've become locals to our sleepy little commuter town. The lady at the grocery store asks how my mom's health (she's doing great! Go mom!), people give Barkley shout outs as we walk down the street and the most remarkable thing is that I no longer get lost on a run when I decide to take a detour down some random street to check out a pretty house. (My most crowning achievement to date.)

For a long time, we were in this state of limbo - primarily due to the financial markets - but now regardless of what the stock market is doing, we are here. Firm roots may be planted, for at least a few more years. That, in and of itself, is so satisfying. We can finally let out a sigh of relief and say, Ahh yes, we are Californians. We will be here, for a while, would you like to be my friend?

Roots. I like roots, not necessarily roots that involve a mortgage, but roots that involve knowing that we will be here next month, next quarter, next year.. It's been a while, but man, does it feel good.

[Barkley - picnicking at Rutherford Hill winery]

thankful

2011-11-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

[*]

Thanksgiving came a week early and will last for days, weeks, months, and years to come. I am so thankful that my mom has completed radiation. Three months ago, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. Yesterday, she got to ring the bell and celebrate the end of radiation.

Mom, I am so proud of you. You have so many people who love you and pray for your strength to continue on this journey. You are so strong. You are the best. I cannot wait to see you and dad next week.

me and my momma...and part of Santa's workshop located directly behind us

Christmas 2010

Side note: I am wearing my mom's dress from the 60s or so, actually I am not sure what time period, other than it was BA (Before AnnE).

Barkley, as Jesse James

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to you and your little bandits.

bargain basement: wine

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen: We have found a winner. This wine is oaky and fruity, with enough bold spicy notes to let you know that you are drinking a cab. This wine is fantastic. We bought it from the liquor store for $20 and thought that was a deal and we bought 2 bottles. Then, we found it at the grocery store for $12.99 and we bought a case.

One of the bottles that came home with us even had a tag on it that described this wine better than I ever could, which makes sense because this description came right from St. Francis (no not the patron saint of animals, but the Sonoma County winery, which is just as cool.)

(Side note: in 4th grade we had to dress up as saints for Halloween

- it was a catholic school -

and I chose St. Francis,

I stuck on a robe and my mom safety

pinned all my stuffed animals to me.

Still cracks me up. )

Back to the wine:

St. Francis describes the wine as "full bodied, rich mouth feel, generous tannins, black currant, plum, blueberry, spicy oak, and vanilla with a hint of spice and smooth finish."

book binding

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love my Ipad.

I love my Ipad's house.

It's a Dodocase. and it's made right here in San Francisco.

yep, right here.

well, not right here. they don't make it in my living room, but pretty close. someplace, I'm actually not sure at all.

I read an article in the San Francsico chronicle about the 2 guys that started the company.

there are a lot of young people that start companies in this town. There must be something in the water.

Me?

I just buy the things people my age invent.

like method soap

and this dodocase, which is the entire point of today's post.

it's pretty neat.

the map on the outside is a literary map of san francisco.

Doesn't the "property of" sticker just scream writing your name in red crayon?

I think I just might.

cornucopias need not apply

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

This year, I felt the need to decorate for fall. There are a few stipulations to decorating in this household however - with very little storage space, things must either be able to be kept up all year long (Valentine's wreaths have remained up for 2 years...it's ok though because they are pretty non-valentiney, just red and made of feather boas, frankly what living room wouldn't need a feather wreath? hello?) Other stipulations include: things that are edible or cheap and can be used as raccoon food after a few short months, or are just plain old super cool. We can always find room to store super cool things in this house.

Ok, now onto the fall decorations:

I walked into the grocery store recently and found these gourds for 99 cents a piece. It was still 105 degrees out, so when the lady at the checkout counter asked me what I was going to do with these, I politely replied. It's fall...somewhere, therefore it's time to decorate. I have no idea why that check out lady was judging me but apparently I was the first person to use food products for decorating in 105 degree heat...I'm not sure, either way, I'm a big fan of fall, even if it doesn't quite feel like it here.

Squirrel candle - gift from my big sister - Isn't she the best? Well, one of the best, I have 3 big sisters and I like to be politically correct. So, you are all the best. (bonus points however, if any of you read my blog...hmm.)

Walking around Target one night, I found acorn potpourri...hello! match made in heaven! ladies and gentlemen, we have a bingo! fall decorating. check.

directions

2011-10-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

So, I changed the look of the blog...but if you are wondering how to read more of each post, just click on the date.

(I did that just for you, mom.)
Love you!

This picture was taken at the Paris train station, where the size of a snickers is abnormally small.

obsession: pillows

2011-10-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our new Crate and Barrel chairs came - they are wonderful. We love them, but something was missing.

About a day after the chairs arrived, a whole new can of worms was opened.

We. Needed. Pillows.

And not just any pillow would do. No, no, no. I needed to do my due diligence to make sure that we had the very best (and by very best, I mean, a great pillow at a very low price with modern designs but not too trendy and totally worthy of taking a nap on and maybe drooling, just a little). I had requirements people, so yes, doing my due diligence was a must! At first I thought, hey, I could totally turn that lonely curtain panel sitting in the drawer into some sweet pillows. And then I completely tossed that idea out the window. ( I wanted washable pillows with zippers. I don't know how do sew anything on my sewing machine other than a straight line - sans zipper - so I wasn't about to figure out how to tackle that project quite yet. There were too many requirements (see above) to satisfy on this assignment for me to figure out the zipper dilemma. That'll have to wait for a rainy day.)

If Barkley could talk, she would say, "Hey Lady, these chairs need some pillows! Stat!" and I always know she's pretty serious when she uses medical jargon.

So, after many hours looking online each and every night, I found out that pillows are expensive! holy moly! I looked high and low, but they were either ugly and cheap or super sweet with a price tag to match. And then I turned to Etsy.com. The mecca of all things great and good in the crafty / vintage world. I love that site. There were so many pillow choices I literally had dreams of pillows dancing around like sugarplum fairies.

seriously. I will not joke about pillows.

Dreams, so many dreams.

I meant business when I was on this Operation: New Pillows.

And then while visiting my parents in MN, I found it. Not just one pillow, oh no. But so many pillows my brain nearly combusted. It really was a great day - not just because I found my pillows, but my brain didn't combust. yippee!

I already had the striped pillows from way back, I believe from the days of yore from Pottery Barn (name that Friends episode). And then all the pillow inserts were from either old Crate and Barrel pillows, or feather pillow inserts from Pottery Barn (which are surprisingly inexpensive).

This is Barkley's newest perch. She can look out over the valley and make sure nary a squirrel comes near.

Barkley isn't guarding out house from evil squirrels in the picture above. Nope. She's watching tv. She's a big fan of that show about the swamp people these days. (But aren't we all? Who doesn't love a show about alligator hunters that need subtitles because their bayou accents are so strong that even though they are speaking english, the "normal" person wouldn't be able to understand without reading along.)

Side note: my dog can't read.

So, there you have it. Pillow obsession = complete.

four

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Four years ago today, on a beautiful fall day with unusually hot - 90 degree heat, Mike and I were married. We walked up those stair, said our vows (amidst a lot of happy tears) and were completely surprised when the bagpiper entered the church just after we were announced husband and wife. What a day. Here's to 184 more years of celebrating the best day in the world, October 6, 2007.

Mike, I love you so much!

wine: Castello's Barbera

2011-10-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I'm a sucker.

A sucker for a good story, a Hallmark commercial, or a good deal. On one day recently, I was a sucker for a bottle of wine that they are no longer going to be making after this year. (On a side note: Our wine guys said that Castello di Amorosa is going to start making a Zinfandel - yahoo!)

As it turns out, being a sucker sometimes leads you to buy a bottle of wine that you are not so much in love with the taste, but that extinct like a stegosaurus.

This wine earns 2.34 stars in my book. One star goes to its extinction, while the other 1.31 stars are earned because they keep sheep, chicken and a peacock at the winery. If you are doing the math, that leaves 0.2 stars for the wine. So long stegosaurus wine. Hello future Castello Zinfandel, I cannot wait to try you out.

wine: Marietta Old Vine Red

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes when you taste a glass of wine and it transports you directly to a winery? Immediately you feel as if you are enveloped with the smells of the oak barrels and the dirt from the vineyard is stuck your finger nails?

(remember I was that soil science nerd, so yes,

in my vision, I am not only drinking wine,

I am playing in the dirt...)

And then other bottles of wine, you open and you taste and you are immediately transported to church where you are trying wine for the first time during your First Communion.

No?

Just go with me people.

So, I think I've figured out why one bottle of wine can transport me one place while another can transport me another. It's all about the amount of oak in the wine. The more oak = more winery experience, while the more fruit = church when I was in 2nd grade. I think as I've become more of a wine drinker, and interested in wine, my tastes have changed - away from the fruit and towards the earthy/oaky flavors. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still good to have a bit of fruit, but I think there needs to be a balance of fruit mixed with spice mixed with earthy flavors to give you a good bottle of wine.

This is also why this wine only scores 1.37 stars in my book. It's just too fruity for me, and therefore, upon first taste I was immediately transformed out of my typical evening uniform of a t-shirt and yoga pants into my white gown and the dried floral wreath crown thing that I wore for my First Communion. Seriously people, this wine wasn't good, but you should have seen me in that crown. I thought I was mega-sweet.

winner

2011-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Remember, way back, in the midst of showing you all 1712 pictures of Europe, that I told you how I stumbled on this blog that had a contest to submit your wine pictures. No? Well you can read about it again here. As it turns out, I WON! Let's just take a moment to see just about what my reaction looked like:

Yep, that's right, the moment the delivery man came to my door and gave me my prize, I immediately started dancing just like Elaine from Seinfeld.

Ok, now back to that prize...

The prize was two bottles of wine! Holla! Whoop! Whoop! Who doesn't love free wine?!? Thanks so much to the people of The Wine Lounge and Touring and Tastings magazine for making me a winner! I never win anything! Yippee!

Now excuse me, I need to crack open these and do a little wine tasting of my own.

tiburon, ca

2011-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's good to remind myself that I live near this:

and then I feel lucky and thankful... because living by the bay is pretty neat.

...and if I were the least bit daring, I could drive a boat like this one below. But I'm not daring. Not in the least. Especially not when it involves water and rip currents and waves and sharks. Nope, not for me. I like to stay on the shore and admire.

And with views like these, I could admire all day long.

These pictures were taken in the Tiburon. A cute, little town that I'd been suggesting to Mike that we check out, and I'm sure glad we did.

muffin cups: there are sizes to those things?

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

We are always looking for quick, easy, healthy breakfast items for Mike to grab as he's heading out the door. So, I ripped out the article in Cooking Light and immediately made the Cherry Wheat Germ muffins. OK, not immediately. I had to go to the store, get wheat germ, and dried cherries (two very important ingredients, hence the name: Cherry Wheat-Germ muffins) and I also needed to get muffin liners because if there's one thing I hate to clean, it's the muffin tin.

Seriously, abhor it.

Anyway, back to those muffins... I purchased the trusty ingredients, brought them home, started making the muffins and lo and behold, the muffin liners didn't fit...What?!?! They have sizes for those things? I had no idea. Clearly I don't pay too much attention while at the grocery store's baking aisle.

Anyway, back to those muffins...the good news is that using the wrong size muffin liner doesn't affect the outcome of the tast-i-ness of the muffin. Seriously, tasty. And they have wheat germ and came from Cooking Light, which means, it's OK to eat two.

(Or at least, that's what I tell myself.)

Ingredients

6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through allspice) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, oil, and egg in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups, and coat liners with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Maureen Callahan, Cooking Light
MAY 2011

[click here to go directly to the recipe at Cooking light]

pup

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Study hard, and you might grow up to be President. But let's face it: Even then, you'll never make as much money as your dog."

~George Bush, to a graduating class, referring to Millie,

his dog, who earned $889,176 in book royalties.

10 years

2011-09-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

10 years ago today, I was sitting in a Soil Physics class (yes, that is a real class). We pulled a television into the classroom to watch the events unfold. What a day, so hard to believe that it has been 10 years. Feels so much longer than 10 years, but at the same time just feels like it's been months since we watched that second plane hit the tower.

Today, I drove around town and saw more American flags flying than I have ever seen before. It brought a tear to my eye. (I am my mother's daughter.) The patriotism is brimming here, there and everywhere.

getty museum

2011-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after returning from our travels to Europe, we headed down to LA to have a little college roomie reunion. Well, the weekend started out with a few mishaps. Mike was sick, pneumonia-type sick, so he stayed home with Barkley. So I headed down to LA for some fun, at the airport I lost my driver's license. How? No clue. Just jumped right out of my pocket as soon as I passed through the security gates. But after settling down and accepting the fact my ID was gone, I had an amazing weekend with my friends. It was so great to be together again.

I have always read about the Getty Museum and wanted to go check it out. I was happy that we made the trek to the Getty on Saturday morning. Oddly enough, in all my times that I've read something about the Getty Museum, I've never actually learned who the Gettys are and how they earned their money. So today, I did a bit of googling, (you know so that we can all sleep better tonight). Here's what I found: they were rich. They married a lot. They were into drugs

...seriously, I have no idea where their money came from. Clearly, I need to do more research. Until then, enjoy the beautiful grounds. The museum was nice, but the gardens were remarkable.

amsterdam

2011-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

While we didn't particularly enjoy our time in Amsterdam (read: do not stay anywhere near the central district where the club scene is bumping until at least 4am), we did however really like the Heinekin brewery tour and the canal ride.

While on our canal ride, we were past by another boat, and lo and behold the currents tossed us right into the wall of the canal. As it turns out, those canal boats are quite sturdy.

If you remember, there was a word (ok, two words) that I really liked from our time in Paris: flying buttress. Pretty sure the Bloemenmarkt just surpassed flying buttress as my favorite word(s). I also like to say it in the strongest dutch accent I have. (Which, by the way, I'm extremely terrible at accents. Sadly, I can sound Canadian at the drop of a hat. You can take the girl out of Minnesota, but you just can't take the Minnesota out of the girl. But that's ok. I don't mind.)

Mental note to self: I wish someone would have told us to stay in the west end of town, near the Anne Frank House. It's quiet, it's beautiful and it doesn't involve a bunch of bachelor parties dressed all in white (apparently one must dress in all white to look super cool in the dance clubs with the black light?!? I'm not sure. Regardless, we didn't pack a lick of white clothing and we went to bed at 10pm. We are old.)

Again, we were a bit lonely for Barkley...however, isn't this the greatest stoop for a pup?

all time favorite

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have a favorite grape. No, not to eat (although I am particular to a good crisp, sweet, red grape) but rather to drink. I absolutely love the cabernet franc grape. It makes heavenly wine. I love it. I think it might have to be an early 2012 resolution to seek out every winery in Napa and Sonoma that make 100% cab franc wine. So far, we've found Beringer's Cab Franc. It is perhaps one of my most favorite bottles of wine ever. It's like stepping into a cedar lined closet and licking the walls. Yep, I said licking.

This wine is fantastic. It is woodsy, spicy and has a hint of blueberry. (OK, so I got the woodsy and spicy part but I didn't capture that blueberry hint on my tongue. I probably would have just said "berry". And that, my friends is why we are always thankful that wine companies write something on the back label of the bottle.) I can't get enough of it. But at $50 per bottle, I do have to call it quits at some point.

(just another reason to win

the lottery)

One of our favorite things to do while in Napa, is to buy a bottle and sit outside of the Beringer home (also their reserve tasting room) and watch the world go by. It almost feels as if time stands still while on the porch at Beringer. The grounds are serene and the wine is amazing.

Also worth mentioning - this is a 2006 bottle. 2006 wasn't known for it's rock star harvest. 2007 on the other hand was a fantastic year in Napa. I think I might need to go back and stock up on some of that 2007 Cab Franc when it's available. Pretty sure it's going to blow my mind.

accordians, chocolate, and a mullet

2011-08-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

[one of many chocolate shops AND... they give samples! Hello! and not just scraps...these are the real deal, like an entire piece of chocolate]

[brugge zot, a local beer = mmm. mmm. good.]

[smallest street in the town. Yep, that's a street. Could be a doorway, but nope, it's a street!]

[oldest pub in town - established in 1515. Sadly, they aren't open on Mondays or Tuesdays, so we didn't get to experience it]

[We did however get plently of beer at the local brewery. Brugge Zot and Straffe Hendrik are both brewed in Brugge.]

[one must always take a picture of any westie tapestry one sees while on vacation]

[even Belgium folks sport the mullet]

brugge

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Brugge is a sweet little town of 22,000 people. It's quaint. It's picturesque. It's reasonably priced and it has boatloads of seafood. boatloads. After we there one night, we had to look at a map to find out where exactly we were (if you remember we didn't do a whole lot of planning prior to our trip, like looking at any maps), it is in fact, very close to the sea.

[*]

It has good chocolate, good beer and great Belgian waffles. Seriously, I'd go back just for the waffles. We had waffles and beer for lunch one day. (When in Rome...right?) It was bliss.

Basilica of Holy Blood

We took a carriage ride on our first night. Our driver was one of the nicest people you could meet. We really enjoyed our 30 min trip. We were also missing our pup, so we of course soaked up every moment with Cortez.

Cortez (the wonder dog) and Mike - taking a break to feed our horse on our carriage ride through the city.

Cortez is an award winning show dog in his past time...clearly he knows how to pose for the camera.

Sarah, our trusty steed

best ways to see the city:

take a carriage ride...the drivers (and their sidekick dogs) know so many fun facts.

take a canal ride...you get to see the back of the buildings that you saw on the horse and carriage ride...and a lot of other cool stuff, but I like to state the obvious.

arc de triomphe

2011-08-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Arc de Triomphe was probably the most delightful surprise of our entire stay in Paris. And it wasn't just because of these guys and their warm machine gun welcome. They were nice enough to pose for me as we were walking up the steps to get to the Arc. These men were part of a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is located under the arch.

There's something about an old man in a uniform that makes me want to sing "God bless America"...yes, i know he's french, but still it's the patriotism that exudes from his jacket full of medals that makes me feel like marching and singing.

well that, and the fact that I am my mother's daughter.

[the tomb of the unknown soldier]

The 360 degree views were incredible. We also ran into a couple from San Francisco at the top. We shared our love of the Giants, but we were pretty sure they weren't interested in talking to us further...this is why if you don't want to be talked to, you really shouldn't wear a San Francisco Giants World Series tshirt in Paris...

because, I will talk to you.

wine: Quail Creek Merlot

2011-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Bananas Batman! Do not adjust your eyes...we did in fact consume a bottle of wine that was not a cabernet sauvignon.

The Stats:

wine: Quail Creek Merlot, Napa

purchased from: Whole Foods

price: haven't the slightest idea

color: cherry red

smell: tobacco

taste: sour cherry

stars: 3.047

This wine was pretty good. Having said that, we drank this long ago and although I did take notes on the bottle, I don't remember too much about it other than it was drinkable. Which I guess, all things considered, it could have left a much different and more unpleasant memory, so for that, I'd say, it's good. Plus, since we rarely drink merlot, it was a pleasant surprise that we actually liked it.

And yes, that is Barkley laying on our kitchen table. And yes, our kitchen table is still just a card table. And yes, we had high hopes of buying a real kitchen table as soon as we moved to California two and a half years ago, but frankly, a card table does the job just fine. And yes, I do clean the table after she is done lounging on it, but it provides her a good vantage point to watch me cook/clean and to see if there are any squirrels outside that need harassing.

the character

2011-08-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Barkley loves stuffed animals. She recently scored a new monkey.

She's a big fan of her new friend.

But then I came across this:

hmm...I'm not sure if Barkley is trying to tell me that her monkey needs dinner, or her monkey is her dinner.

notre dame

2011-08-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

On the day that we went to Notre Dame, it was 197 degrees outside. Yep, I know, you didn't think it could get that warm. Clearly you didn't look at my previous post with my sweaty tshirt. It was hot. Like unbearably too-hot-to-stand-in-any-line-unless-you-are-naked type hot. We weren't naked, and luckily the line moved quickly.

Pretty sure I could say the words "Flying Buttress" about 25 times per day, and I would giggle every time. Those words just make me happy. My nephew used to think that the word "cubbie" was funny. Me, I like Flying Buttress. Glad it was such a useful form of architechture in Paris, I used that word a lot.

a lot.

paris

2011-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

The view from our hotel room...pretty sure this is the reason that I could spend days and days in Paris. Thank you Mr. Eiffel for making such a beautiful tower to look at.

Paris was H.O.T. hot, while we were visiting. We weren't the only ones trying to escape the heat...we like to call this picture "smart pigeon, dumb pigeon."

And just to prove to you that it was hot...I took off my backpack and Mike had to take a picture. Yep, I know, it's hot (in the temperature sense, that is.)

The other reason why we loved Paris so much?

The pastries! Clearly, I believe heaven tastes like 17 sticks of butter in one morsel of pastry goodness.

I'm camped out on the wall near the Louvre, enjoying every different type of pastry that we bought, and waiting for the Louvre to open so we could see our friend, Mona Lisa.

Apparently, we aren't Mona Lisa's only friends... Poor Mona, she has to deal with the paparazzi every day.

Paris: Nord

2011-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

oh man! I was blogging at such a consistent rate for a bit there, we were really moving along quite swimmingly, wouldn't you say?...and then things got quiet. whoops. I dropped the proverbial ball. Well, not anymore! I'd love to show you more vacation photos, however I'd hate for them to dwell on and on into the holiday season. So, let's get to it.

Next up: Paris

We loved traveling by train...the ease of traveling between countries, the architecture in a lot of these train stations was unbelievable (if only I would have pulled my camera out more often), the food in the first class cabins of some trains is delicious! Hello pastries!

There is, however, one thing that we learned from our travels throughout Europe:

Do NOT bring a suitcase that doesn't work to begin with and then think that you can haul it up and down the stairs of the train stations without cursing...It was not a pretty sight. By the end of the trip, the handle to pull the suitcase was only popping up about 3 inches high. A midget would have been better suited to pull this suitcase.

Next time: Use a backpack, 10 grocery store plastic bags or just plain old pack less. Any option would worked out better.

These pictures were taken at Paris Nord train station, just after we got off the Eurostar from London.

sunshine on my shoulder

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, Mike got me sunflowers. The day after my birthday, Mike got sick. Like pneumonia- type sick. Both are really the gifts that keeps on giving, but I like the sunflowers better.

London Eye

2011-07-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am not going to lie, the London Eye Freaked. Me. Out. Not necessarily once we were up on the air because the views were phenomenal. It was the entry / exit that got the best of me. The thing never stops moving. This didn't appear to be a problem for anyone else, but the idea of having to time my steps just right so as to leave the stable (non-moving) platform, onto the counter clockwise, albeit slow moving, car. I did not like it in the least. The things I do for you people. It was quite a photo op once in the air.

Only slightly scared at this point...

OK, now this is cool.

Just behind Big Ben is Westminster Abbey - one of my favorite stops on our entire trip. (The only problem is that they do not allow photography inside the Abbey. So you'll just have to take my word for it.)

It was neat-o.

2011-07-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Do you remember when we went 0 for 4 in the Trader Joe's wine selections? If not, just read about it here, here, here and again here. It wasn't my most stellar moment in the wine section of the grocery store, let me tell you.

Abysmal, might be the proper word.

Because of that, we've been sticking to some good (and cheap) wines that we know won't disappoint. The only dilemma is that when we keep drinking the same two bottles of wine, I have nothing to talk about on the blog. And I do apologize, but sometimes, I just need to have a good glass of wine. I'm sure you can understand.

At the beginning of the summer, Mike and I went to Costco to stock up on wine. We realized that there aren't a lot of deals in the wine at Costco, occasionally you'll find a winner here or there, but when you get 10% at Safeway when you buy 6 bottles, it's hard to compete. Plus, Safeway has a much bigger selection. But today, we're talking Costco, so let me get back on track... The deals at Costco are the double bottles - our Costco wraps up two bottles of BV or two bottles of Menage a trois for less than $14. It may even be cheaper than that, I'm not exactly sure. Either way, it's a deal.

And when a good bottle of wine is a deal,

that, my friends,

is hard to beat.

Notting Hill

2011-07-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it fun when your technology hits a glitch and the 2nd installment of a story comes out before the first? Whoops. Here's what was supposed to have been posted over the weekend...

The Notting Hill Market was one of the "must see" places to go on our list of things to do while in London. (Again because of all the extensive research we did prior to our trip: reading one travel book and watching the movie Notting Hill.) Although quite a zoo on a Saturday, I was very happy that we went.

This would have been the most perfect place to get an 18th century cheese knife as a keepsake from our trip. Did I? Nope. To remember our trip, I got a pair of sandals as the shoes I brought with me gave me open wounds on the 2nd day of our trip, and then we bought a toy for Barkley. Yes I know, neither one of those items are keepsakes...but 1217 pictures we took should suffice. That's how we will always remember our trip, long after Barkley has chewed her toy to bits.

Notting Hill (take 2)

2011-07-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

While on Portobello road, we stopped into Stumper and Fielding. Talk about a great spot to pick up a hat or scarf for the blustery, quite similarly to San Francisco (read: it's cold there too in the summer!) weather. Although, we didn't buy anything, we did a have a great time looking around.

and just when you thought I was finished showing you pictures of the Notting Hill market...here's a few more.

[What do I see? A Westie pillow case? Tempting, but no.]

[Hmm... We weren't the only people that had the bright idea to go to the market!]

[meet me at the pizza place. which one? oh you know, the one where they drove a car inside...]

great news!

2011-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

[castello di amorosa]

[beringer]

While doing some research on Napa Valley wineries with cave tours, I stumbled upon a blog called The Wine Lounge. Clearly, I knew it was right up my alley, so I decided to check it out - and now you should too! You see, they have a contest to win some wine just by submitting a photo (or two...I like to over share). So I submitted a two pictures, because you know me, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to win a few free bottles of wine. And guess what? They've published a few of my favorite pictures over on their blog. Isn't that nice of them?!?!

Now, I haven't won any wine yet, but seeing my pictures on somebody's blog (that's not mine) just makes me feel like I should go reward myself with a glass of wine....it's too early. I'll wait. But you shouldn't (not the drinking wine part, well you do that too if you want, but what you should really do now is go check out my pictures!)

What are you waiting for? Go. Go. Go.

Just click the link below:
The Wine Lounge

wine Wednesday

2011-07-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I had no idea how much I loved California wine until we were on vacation. I mean, let's face it, I really love wine, however I didn't know the exact amount until we were in Europe and there was nary a drop of California Red to be found. On our very last day of vacation, we went to the wonderland emporium of Harrod's. Let me tell you, if I lived in London, I would frequent Harrod's often. and I mean of - TEN. Inside Harrod's you can buy high end jewels, pet toys, furniture, and Juicy Couture sweat pants. Oh yes, and groceries and wine.

We love Seghesio wine and were so excited to see it for sale at Harrod's. Did we buy any, you ask? Nope, because we live a hop, skip and a jump away from the winery, we didn't feel the need to buy it on the other side of the pond. Had it been something that we found on day 1 of our 15 day journey...now that might have been a different story.

Just three floors up from the wine shop is the grooming salon within Harrod's. And what did two people missing their westie named Barkley see when they went to check out the pet area? Well, of course, a Westie! In fact, when I used the restroom, I found Mike smiling at the window watching the westie. Yes, I know mom, this is why you say that we need a child...but really, what's not to love in a westie?!?!

Harrod's won us over so much that we want to go back to London during the Christmas season so that we can see how they decorate. Yep, we schedule our vacations on when we think shopping malls will look the prettiest.

We did live in the land of the Mall of America, after all.

It's not that strange.

OK maybe it is.

thirty-one

2011-07-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

[*]

Did you know that Herbert Hoover and I have a LOT in common? Yep, it's true. He was the 31st President, and today, I am 31 years old! and boy oh boy, the similarities don't end just there.

His last name is a brand of vacuum, and yesterday I vacuumed our apartment. Hoover was born in the midwest, and so was I. Hoover went to Stanford, and I like to walk around Stanford's campus. Seriously, the similiarities are astounding!

Just in case you are playing game of Trivia Pursuit this weekend, here's your Hoover lesson of the day: Hoover was only one of two Presidents (Taft being the other) in the history of the US that never held an elected office prior to being elected President.

Because it's my birthday, this post shouldn't be all about Hoover. This is me in Brugges, Belgium on our way to the oldest pub in the town (circa 1515). Unfortunately the only pub in town needs to take a few days off here and there, and this day was exactly one of them. Do not fret, we just walked to the other side of town to to brewery and had a jolly good time there.

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are few words to describe walking around a neighborhood in London. Actually that's not true, there are many words, yet I am speechless. I loved walking around London - any place in London - however my most favorite times were walking around the cute west end neighborhoods imagining what life would be like living here full time. Pretty sure it would involve living in Notting Hill, owning a travel bookstore and having a house with a blue door. Whoops, that's not my life, that would be Hugh Grant's in a particular movie.

Mental note to self: if I ever open a restaurant, place all of your delectable goodies in the window and people will come in like moths to a flame. No joke, I was getting claustrophobic standing in the entry way waiting for our cupcakes to be boxed up.
I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this scooter. Looks nothing like our old scoot scoot, but a scooter nonetheless and we love scooters.

2011-07-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

In water one sees one's own face, but in wine one beholds the heart of another.

French Proverbs

1719

2011-07-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is where I share with you the 1,719 pictures that we took while in Europe.

Ok, not really.

That comes tomorrow.
Stay tuned!

silver oak

2011-06-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I know I've talked about Silver Oak before but I really like this place...it's a two-fer in my book. Meaning, wonderful wine AND wonderful atmosphere. Couldn't you just sit here with a glass of wine looking at a field of vines every day for the rest of your life? I could. Pretty sure that the folks at Silver Oak might (just might) get sick of me.

I love it here. And clearly, Barkley does too. (She's got good taste.)

on the edge of your seat...

2011-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

I know you are all on the edge of your seat from yesterday's post about Hess Winery. It appears I forgot to complete my thought about the soil sample that I'm standing next to. I love a good soil sample, but who doesn't? In my years at UW - Madison, I spent many - a - days looking at layers of soil, and trying to identify each soil type. My favorite soil type, you ask? Why, it's the Antigo Silt Loam (It's the state soil of Wisconsin...bet you had no idea that along with a state flag and state bird, there's also a state soil.) Yep. I'm here all week to give you fun facts just like that.

the hess collection

2011-06-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hess Winery may be off the beaten path of the two main thoroughfares of Highway 29 or Silverado Trail in Napa County, but it's definitely worth a bit of a detour to admire their grounds, check out the two floors of modern art in their gallery, and of course enjoy a bit of wine. Our favorite wine of the day was actually a very reasonable bottle (under $20 at the winery) of zinfandel named Artezin.

You may be wondering what I am standing next to...It's

I'm not sure if Mike was taking this picture to capture the happiness that Nik and I had for actually getting to spend a best friends weekend together...or if we were just a by-product of him admiring the wall of ivy. Either way, it might be one of my favorite pictures of the weekend. I had so, so, so much fun having my bestest friend in the whole. wide. world in town for the weekend. :)

2011-06-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here we are taking our 2nd annual family picture at Silver Oak in Napa...this year's picture includes our long lost uncle, Stone. He doesn't say much, but he's a hard worker.

This one is for KG because she is such a wonderful friend and told me this morning that I really need to update the blog so she has some new reading material. Thanks KG! Love ya!

I promise, I will be back in action shortly - we've been so busy with entertaining visitors that I have so many pictures to show you...I am just procrastinating on the "Project: Clean up the pictures" that the blog has been quiet for an entire month...

...really there's no excuse.

I know.

wine: Hamilton-Stevens Zinfandel

2011-05-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen - we have finally tried all four (albeit pitiful) wines from Trader Joes. While I'm sure Trader Joes has plenty of tastey wines (they have Stag's Leap for goodness sakes!) I managed to seriously butcher all four tries of buying a good bottle of wine. (This is why I now access my own blog while in the wine aisle to make sure I don't buy the same bad wine for a second time.) I went into Trader Joes to get agave juice and clearly did not have my A-game on to tackle picking out some good wines while I was in the store. This might be the best one yet. Still, however, it's not one that I'll probably ever buy again, but nonetheless, it's drinkable. (...and I'm drinking some right now).

[2.14 stars]

This wine is all about the cherries on top. While I love a good cherry flavor, I like when it's part of a combination of flavors hitting my tongue. You know how I say the wines that we really like have a "right from the winery" smell and taste? Well, I'm pretty sure that a skilled wine person would condense that statement by saying "Oak." Yep, oak sums it up, but I still like my phrase because it evokes happy times of sitting at a winery with my husband, dog and maybe a visitor or two. (We really really like wine country, in case you've been living under a rock.) All that to say, this wine doesn't have the "right from the winery" taste.

i.e. no oak in this bottle

a cookbook

2011-05-10T19:50:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love a good cookbook. I could spend days looking at the pretty pages of beautifully photographed food. This year, I am trying my hardest to actually try recipes from my cookbooks, rather than just looking through now and then. The San Francisco Ferry Plaza happens to be one of my favorite places in the all of San Francisco. I live the vibe; the food, wine and book stores are so fantastic, you really must go there if you are ever in the area.

Give me a call, I'll gladly go with you. :)

I have yet to try anything in this cookbook, but that doesn't mean I haven't flagged nearly every page of the book as something that I must try. I love that the book is broken up by season because eating seasonal local foods isn't just a hip idea, but also very cost effective. This is also my favorite go-to birthday or hostess gift. My mom and a few of my sisters all received this last year for their birthdays...pretty sure the other two sisters don't read this so I'm safe to say that they might be getting it for their birthdays this year.

Just look at a sample of the amazing photography in this book! It not only tells a story, but makes your mouth water page after page.

yountville

2011-05-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Every time we go wine tasting in Napa County, we drive past the town of Yountville. We always comment that we should really check out the town. Luckily, we had a quiet Saturday recently to do just that. Yountville blew me away. Seriously. It is such a cute town, so rather than make you read anymore, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

enjoy!

wine: Dynamic

2011-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a Christmas Miracle! This wine is part of the Trader Joe's 4 bottle purchase, AND...

It's a winner! (sort of...)

[3.46 stars]

My standards have been lowered from the previous two bottles that once tasted were poured directly down the drain, so this one may have just received an extra 0.73 stars because of that, but still, it's a good one. I was honestly surprised. Especially because when I looked at the label tonight prior to opening it, I saw that it's primarily a Syrah and I thought, Uh-Oh, typically I'm not a big fan of that grape. But it was good. I really feel like I just aced an Organic Chemistry final. (And, no, I never managed to ace anything in my organic class, but I would imagine it would feel that gratifying.)

Word to the wise: This isn't one of those bottles that you can let linger and drink throughout the week. I poured myself a glass the next night and my rating went from 3.46 stars to a measly .76 stars. Yep, should have drank it all the first night...however it was just me and the dog, and she doesn't drink wine.

old school Florida

2011-05-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

just one more post about Florida...

Matlacha (pronounced Matt - Lachey, like Nick Lachey, only Matt) is a artsy little town in SW Florida.

[We took a little drive through the town, every house that we saw had a backyard that has a dock.

How sweet is that?]

My mom brought me to a fish market for lunch. Sooooo good. The shrimp was amazing! And if you remember, consuming as much fresh seafood as possible while in Florida was on our agenda.]

Grouper (above) caught from this boat (below)...We also consumed this grouper, it might just be my most favorite fish in the entire sea. Loved it!

Florida: the golf edition

2011-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Who wants to see some more vacation photos from Florida?

Just go with it people, I want to share.

[best parents ever!
We did a photo shoot during the middle of playing 9 holes, there was a bit of a wait on the tee box, which means, perfect opportunity to whip out the camera.]

[Mike and I waiting to tee off. I'm a big fan of the driving range behind us because you get to hit into the water. Who doesn't love purposely hitting into the water?]

[somewhere in the back 9]

[pretty sure this photo doesn't need any explanation,

however a photo without a caption would just seem naked,

so these are turtles.]

florida

2011-04-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, we were in Florida visiting my parents. There are a few things that must be on the agenda while visiting the Sunshine State:

1. Eat as much Key Lime Pie and seafood as possible

2. Find gators, geckos and possibly a wild pig.

Mike and I had never been to the preserve before. It was a lot of fun, we saw so many animals and even on a hot day, the temperature was very comfortable walking around the slough.

[wood ducks]

[baby gator]

We were quite successful in our quest to find gators, geckos and although we didn't actually see a hog, we heard one grunting up a storm. Additionally, we saw plenty of birds, a water moccasin and when we were swimming in the pool at my parents, we had a snake swimming in the deep end...talk about a good way to clear out the pool! yuck!

Oh yes, and we enjoyed more key lime pie than one should consume in one week. It was great!

wine: Cocobon

2011-04-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here we have another wine purchased at Trader Joe's. And here we have a wine that also earned a whoopin' one star, maybe, actually at second thought, it might be a negative star. This wine got me at the label...again. I was sold with the part about the "dark chocolate walnut cake with cherry coulis." I really like that word Coulis, and I had a hankering for some chocolate.

The taste was a mix of cocoa and gasoline. Yep, pretty sure that's a technical wine description. (Could imagine a food pairing with that wine description? Ha! I crack myself up...sorry, carry on...) When I went to Trader Joe's, I bought 4 wines in total, so if you are keeping score, we're 0-2. I really hope that I can come through with the last two wines. Stay tuned....

wine: BV Rutherford

2011-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Do you know what happens when you delay putting the pictures from the camera onto the computer? You totally and completely forget what a bottle of wine tasted like. Now, I know what you are thinking, "AnnE, Hello, didn't you say that in 2011 you were going to keep notes on your wine tastings so that you didn't encounter this issue."

And to that, I say. Yep. You are exactly right, however that wasn't a resolution that was made at the beginning of the year, it was more like one that started a bit later, and unfortunately this bottle of wine was drank prior to that resolution. But what I do know is this: it was a winner. I believe it was an expensive winner at the $15-$20 price point, but all in all, it was fabulous. We'll be sure to get this one again and then I'll be sure to take notes and tell you all about those tannins at that time.

it's back! Wine Wednesday! ~ Tribunal red

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Two things I learned after trying this wine:

1. You shouldn't put all your eggs in the basket of the Trader Joe's worker that claims this wine to be the best wine there is in the store (meanwhile Stag's Leap is sitting a mere 3 feet away).

2. The label reminds you of the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox - which although wonderful in its own right, should not be a reason to buy a $9.99 bottle of wine.

[1 star]

Sadly, this wine scored one star. One star because the label was wonderful. I love a good label where the animals talk. One star because once the bottle was opened, it was tasted and promptly poured directly down the drain. You may just find a better red wine at church.

I'd suggest that instead of spending $9.99 at Trader Joe's, you take all that dinero and go directly to the aisle that has those mini peanut butter cups. Buy those. They are de. light. ful.

yum.

a quote...

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

I had to share this quote for you as when I read it, I laughed so hard I may have had a bit of projectile snot land on my computer keyboard.

"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear."

~ Dave Barry

And now I must go clean my computer.

and yes, i realize you might not think it's nearly as funny as me. but I'm OK with that.

stanford

2011-04-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Every so often, Mike and I need a fix of campus life. Few things are better in life than sitting on the grass in the middle of a college campus watching the world go by. Since Cal's campus is in our backyard, we get a weekly fix of the liberals, but on occasion, we'll take a drive to go hang with those smart republicans on the peninsula (i.e. Stanford). On this recent visit, we witnessed a few bridal parties and the most awful quinceanera photo shoot ever. (I couldn't bear to take a photo, but let me paint a picture for you - think in your mind that the wicked witch ate the entire emerald city and then she threw it up and out popped 12,000 yards of seafoam tulle in the form of a dress fit for a 15 year old birthday girl.)

If you are headed to Stanford, you should be sure to go up to the top of the Hoover tower. It's a fantastic view. (Dogs are not allowed on account that the professors frown upon that...however, we were not aware of that on the elevator ride up so Barkley may or may not have enjoyed the view from the top.)

When we go to Stanford, we also make sure to spend some time at the Stanford Mall - just a hop, skip and a jump away. It has nothing to do with the actual school, but it's one of our favorite malls (and we like malls...we come from the land of the world's largest monster mall, for goodness sake.)

PS - the Stanford mall loves dogs. If you (or your dog) have an aching of a dog biscuit, be sure to head to the jewelry store, among others, but that's one of our stops (mainly because my husband has a watch fetish) and the treats for Bark Bark just turned into a bonus.

vintage wine bar - Santana Row, San Jose, CA

2011-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Quickly, get me a beaker of wine so I may wet my mind and say something clever."

~Aristophanes

wente

2011-04-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mike and I have taken up a habit. It's called:

Improve thy golf game.

And if you say this in a very deep, loud voice, it sounds very serious like it is something we must do. Luckily the rain has stopped so we can continue on our quest to

improve thy golf game. (In my head that voice sounds just like the announcer on the old Nickelodeon show, Legends of the Hidden Temple...) love that show.

I digress.

Ok, now let me get back to the topic at hand, which coincidentally has nothing to do with the ever popular 90s game show on Nickelodeon.

Recently we took an afternoon drive to a few different golf courses that we like, not to play golf, but rather to pick up a golf ball with the course's logo on it for Mike's golf ball collection (you see, he received a display cabinet for golf balls for Christmas, but an empty display cabinet looks plain old silly in the office, so we need to fill it!) Speaking of silly, we actually haven't hung the golf ball cabinet on the wall yet. In due time my friends.

You may be thinking to yourself...how does getting a logo'd ball help improve thy golf game? Well, it doesn't. Pardon me, I keep getting off track. Anywho, we went to Wente golf course to pick up a golf ball. Mike has golfed here, but I have not...yet. I will soon enough, because who doesn't want to golf among grape vines? Hello! I do! and remember today's slogan:

Improve thy golf game.

I'm pretty sure Barkley is saying in this picture - I really like it here... but PLEASE give me a haircut!

Do not fret, she has since received a haircut and looks to be about half this size.

How cool would it be to have an event under these lights overlooking the vines? Sign me up!

Nothing says "yippee it's spring!" like some daffodils growing curbside.

Many people think Napa or Sonoma when they think about wine country, but oddly enough there's quite a few wineries located in Livermore Valley as well. The most recognizable (for me, at least) is Wente. The Livermore Valley are what I imagine Sonoma used to be - very relaxed, very country and very wine related without all the hoopla that surrounds the estates. (Don't get me wrong, I like the hoopla, and Wente does give you some hoopla, just not vast amounts of the hoopla in this region.) Case in point: we drove past one winery that looked like they just may have decorated their entire patio from Wall Drug. You may be wondering, where in the heck is Wall Drug?

[*]

Don't ask...there's plenty of bumper stickers in South Dakota that have beat you to it. Anyway, the Livermore Valley wineries are still quite beautiful in their own right, just different than the experience you would have in Napa or Sonoma.

Another fun thing about Wente is that they have a huge concert series in the summer. Check out their website below for all sorts of beautiful pictures and fun facts of their wine...and come April 15, their 2011 concert lineup.

for more pretty pictures of Wente, go here

in case you have an aching for Wall Drug, go here.

chicken sausage medley

2011-03-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Don't adjust your eyes. This picture is blurry. Yep, I was a bit of an eager beaver to take a picture of this for you, but the steam overtook the camera.

whoops

You may remember me telling you that I wanted to try one new recipe each week throughout 2011. Well, I haven't been doing so hot. The main reason for this new years resolution was because we have been stuck in a dinner rut. I really enjoy watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks, and cooking magazines, but I rarely try the recipes. Not this year, my friend. I found this recipe while watching the Rachael Ray show, however, my recipe is a bit different as I wasn't on my A game when I went grocery shopping so I was missing a few ingredients when I wanted to make this for dinner. I ended up roasting spicy chicken sausage, butternut squash, red potatoes, carrots, garlic and an onion with some olive oil, salt and pepper. I roasted it long enough for the veggies to be tender. It was so good, we've made it several times in the last few months. It's super easy, tasty and a good rainy day recipe.

Check out Rachael's recipe here. After taking a second look at her recipe, it's really much different than what I made. So, I think I'll have to try her version soon!

The Intern

2011-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Meet the newest (and only) intern. She gets paid in kibble, snuggles and a daily outdoor walk.

birthday boy

2011-03-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Pardon me, but I must let you know... this boy is 30! Yippee! Yahoo!

Happy Birthday Mike!!!

I got him an office chair (his birthday request). While Barkley just kissed him to the point where he will not need to use a Kleenex anytime soon.

Such a thoughtful dog.

We love you!

what happens in vegas...the dining edition

2011-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

By far the best part of Vegas was eating. I love a nice meal. We found some fabulous places. You may notice that have a thing for crustaceans. Boy oh boy are they delicious!

The first night in Vegas we ate at Smith & Wollensky. It was great, but we were with 24 people, so I didn't bring my camera for that meal. I did however try to document everything for you on night number two at Aquanox, which we affectionately called Aquasox. This place, located in The Venetian, was ok. The Stag's Leap Artemis smelled a bit like smelly socks, which turned me off a bit, but it didn't seem to bother Mike.

The next night we headed back to The Venetian to try Del Monico. This was also Valentine's Day, and we didn't have a reservation, so we sat at one restaurant for a while only to find out that they wouldn't be able to seat us, but then we found Del Monico and were the last people to sit down for dinner at 10:15PM. Two things learned about what happens in Vegas :
1. Make a reservation on Valentine's Day

2. No clocks in casinos = eating at odd hours.

We really didn't gamble at all, Just one time at the Roulette table after Aquasox, I placed my big money ($10) on Red....and it landed on green. I placed $10 more Red...and it landed on green again. Gambling days = over.

At Del monico, I had the special of the night - the grouper. It was the best grouper I've had outside of Ft. Myers, Florida. Absolutely wonderful. The Paraduxx wine was also a winner, we chose that wine after reading all 96 pages of the wine menu... which is why we didn't eat until 10:30 PM.

PacificSpecifics

recipe: Enchilada Casserole

Enchilada Casserole ~ Cooking Light, January 2012

Preparation

winery: Murietta's Well

little friend

dirty details

Ravenswood

wine: Cline Zinfandel 2010

three hundred!

barkley says...

coffee table books (+ 1 wierd puppy dog)

recipe: chicken and rice with mushrooms

Preparation

Happy Valentine's Day

barkley says...

installment numero duo: walking with a camera phone

recipe: Cooking Light's cheesy potato soup

via

Preparation

camera on phone; not afraid to use it

new recipe: Pork with Mushroom Sauce

Preparation

etsy love: charlieheartsdiesel

barkley says...

etsy love: address stamps

baby shower

just not cutting it anymore: $5 bottles of wine

Three years (and one day)

remember

blasphemy

segway, what?

twenty.twelve

socks

Merry Christmas

trimming the tree

green

green clean

~ two ~

tricks of the trade

wente

roasters and tantrums

deck the halls

winery: mumm

happy thanksgiving!

winery: Chimney Rock

locals

thankful

Barkley, as Jesse James

bargain basement: wine

book binding

cornucopias need not apply

directions

obsession: pillows

four

wine: Castello's Barbera

wine: Marietta Old Vine Red

winner

tiburon, ca

muffin cups: there are sizes to those things?

Ingredients

Preparation

pup

10 years

getty museum

amsterdam

all time favorite

accordians, chocolate, and a mullet

brugge

arc de triomphe

wine: Quail Creek Merlot

the character

notre dame

paris

Paris: Nord

sunshine on my shoulder

London Eye

Notting Hill

Notting Hill (take 2)

great news!