pie

every year gabriel and my mother-in-law, make delicious pies. this year was no different. there was a pumpkin, an apple and a sweet potato bourbon pie.

ollie's mater (from cars) drove through the pumpkin pie. it was not an accident. i can't say i blame him.

+i have to share this blog, where the lovely things are. there's so much good stuff here.


+ martín azúa's beautiful gold house, which inflates from body heat or the heat of the sun. it also fits in your pocket. wish we could bring this on our next picnic.

from frolic,via lolita. photo from here.

+this paint chip diy from a beautiful mess is making me want to hit home depot this weekend.


photo from a beautiful mess.

happy weekend!

i dig ♥ & hummus. pair it with some celery and carrots and it's probably my favoite snack.



photo and more info here.

fall

my office is in our old neighborhood in san francisco. once a week i work out of that office and i really look forward to visiting all my old haunts for lunch. it’s the highlight of my day.

we moved from sf to berkeley last october so this summer was our first official summer in berkeley. while i'm nostalgic for our life in sf and our neighborhood, i certainly didn't miss the fog this summer.

and now, fall is upon us. i hate when the time changes. hate.

while i much prefer the heat, there are some things about fall i love, like halloween, cozy weekends, and comfort food.

here are two ladies who inspired me to make soup last night.

Mushroom Soup with Gabrielle.
Cauliflower Mac and Cheese with Frances.

food

on friday night we had ollie's best bud and his wonderful family over for dinner. the kids had fun and us parents did, too.

we barbecued hots and hams, made a green salad, and i made pasta ponza. (people seem to love her or hate her, but i'm a fan of giada. i find her recipes to be super simple and always tasty. gabe didn't love the pasta, but i did. two helpings loved it.)



here's the recipe if you're interested.

Ingredients

Butter for greasing
2 cups (12 ounces) red cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups (12 ounces) yellow cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup capers, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
1/2 cup Italian-style seasoned breadcrumbs
1 pound ziti or other short tube-shaped pasta
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 ounces) Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Set aside.

Place the tomatoes, capers, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in the prepared baking dish. Toss to coat. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the tomato mixture. Drizzle the top with olive oil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is golden. Cool for 5 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water.

Place the pasta in a large serving bowl. Spoon the tomato mixture onto the pasta. Add the cheese and toss well. Thin out the sauce with a little pasta water, if needed. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve immediately.

recipe via food network.

after reading through the recipe, i realize i did 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, instead of half cup. next time i make it, i want to add garlic, onion and zucchini.

speaking of food, two of my favorite people started a food blog. their names are gabrielle and craig. these two folks used to live upstairs from us in the city. it was always a treat to eat dinner with them. they're both great cooks. they're my favorite people, along with gabe, to dine with.

seriously, i love these two to pieces. they're some of the sweetest, kindest, and coolest people i know. but enough about my love for them, go see for yourself. e is for eats. read them, i promise you won't be sorry.

p.s., the E shelf pictured on their blog? it's full of food they canned.

happy place

yesterday's lunch. a big bowl of fabulous. of phobulous. looking at this picture is making me want another bowl. btw, i finished this yesterday and felt totally comfortable. i think i made my stomach bigger on vacation.

i'm running out of ideas for o's lunch -- and dinners for that matter. find good ideas here.

good fun thing(s) day(s) 10, 11 and 12

pretty sunset

friday

+ g had a show with the orange peels at the make-out room in sf. one of the teachers from ollie's school watched him. i raced home, made them dinner, made myself something to eat, paid my fastrak bill (since my debit card was hacked i had to get a new card, which meant that fastrak freaked out), washed my face, changed and bolted out the door. of course, i had no gas, so i stopped for gas. and i tried to get money out to pay the sitter and i forgot my new pin number. i was a little frantic. by this time gabe was 10 minutes away from playing. i raced to the freeway and got off in emeryville like a dork. then i circled the mission for EVER looking for parking. i finally made it and saw three songs. they sounded great!

+ after the show we joined john and suzie for dinner at dosa. dinner number two for me. i couldn't help myself.

saturday

- in the middle of the night ollie woke up and i went in to get him and bring him back to our room. he was burning up. we went back to sleep for a while and when we woke up, he was still warm. we played for a while and then, at around 10, he fell asleep on the couch. this is very unlike ollie. we tried to move him to the bedroom and it didn't work. i took his temp and it was 101.3. we would not be joining daddy in the city for lunch. ollie and i spent the day in front of the tv. we napped in my bed for a couple of hours and watched a shit-ton of thomas the train. daddy and i loathe thomas the train.

+ by the time gabe got home, ollie's temp was gone and he was asking to eat at "the restaurant." we went to tacubaya. i'm in LOVE with their tortilla soup. LOVE.



little boy feels better

sunday

+ today was all about hanging at home, chores, and naps. i went and got my hair cut and then we went to little star for kyle's birthday. i think they're better than zachary's. their pizza and their salads are both so GOOD!



little star, i love your cornmeal crust.



i love summer. i love long days, lots of daylight and sandle weather. don't end summer.



happy boy, purple horse.

+ my youngest brother's girlfriend is having a baby in september. we're throwing the shower next saturday. i asked ollie if he wanted to come see uncle chris. he said he did. "and his baby?" he asked. i told him that the baby would come a few weeks before his birthday. he said, "dadda, uncle chris is having a baby for my birthday." yeah ollie, something like that. i asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted this year. ollie said, "a pink one." whatever you say little guy.

once a week i take myself out for sushi. it's become a weekly ritual that i love. i get a diet coke, and sit and read google reader. i'm all about salmon nigiri. today at around 3:30 i realized i still hadn't had lunch and i was feeling dizzy. sushi it was.

also, louie is on thursdays and that's a really good thing. if you haven't seen it you're missing out. very funny.

pacing the panic room has long been a favorite read. you have to read this about fart salad. it's incredibly sweet and funny.

good fun thing(s) day 5

people's donuts are insanely amazingly delicious. i could eat 3 in a sitting.




i could write an entire post about the jewelry i've lost. it would probably be too painful for me. my baby ring. my brother's baby ring. (what?) the jade earrings my grandmother gave me for my 16th birthday. the list goes on. and on.

at one point my parents gave me a ring like the one below, but it was two bands, knotted together. the other day, at the temescal street faire, i bought a ring like the one pictured. today my 12-year old cousin bought one from a vendor on telegraph avenue. we have matching rings.

if you haven't noticed i'm a big fan of mighty girl. i'm pretty sure i'd be a bumbling idiot if i ran into her in public.

maggie has started a project, which involves making time to do something fun each day. i'm going to do my best to play along.

here are some fun things since friday:

getting my guy aguas frescas. he finished it in under a minute. (i should tell you about the train in the picture. ollie loves it. gabe and me, not so much. oy, the tantrums this train has caused. but this post is supposed to be about good things.)


pretty sky over the uc berkeley campus.


my mom watched ollie on saturday night so gabe and i could have a night out. i drove ollie down to my folks while gabe stayed home and did chores. here's ollie sitting in my folks' backyard, eating strawberries. i love how much he loves my mom and how much she loves him. da, as he calls my mom, can do no wrong and he'll do anything she tells him to do. also, strawberries have been delicious lately. another good thing!


dinner and drinks with g. we went to gather for dinner. it was fun. i highly recommend the bee sting. and the vegan charcuterie. also, i don't have a picture but i also got to sleep in until 10 the next day. that's a good 4 hours later than usual.


my handsome husband, me and my eyebrows. they desperately need some attention. (ugh.)


little man sleeping in his tuxedo t. 'nough said.


beers, bbq, birthday, loved ones, gorgeous weather, and time outside. so relaxing!

you know the kind of friends that you can go for a long time without seeing, but once you do see them, it's almost like no time has lapsed, you just pick up where you left off? i'm super lucky to have friends like this.

this past weekend i hung out with one special lady who i'd not seen in a month and one special lady who i'd not seen in almost two years. and it was lovely to be around these two incredible women.

as a bonus, i got to meet a gorgeous 8-week old baby and catch up with an awesome 4-year old.

also notable, i also learned how to eat brisket this weekend. i'm a changed woman.

my lovely friend c's wonderful husband showed us why white bread comes with bbq.

i will never eat bbq the same way again.

take a slice of white bread and slather it in tangy bbq sauce. cover the surface with dill pickles and layer slices of brisket on top of pickles. fold in half. eat. repeat.


(i added a little bit of slaw to mine, too.)



next up, queso.

thursday i took ollie to the farmers market. we didn't get around to buying any veggies because he was more into exploring. there was a lady sitting in the middle of the grass playing guitar. no one else was really paying attention, but ollie sure loved her. he got his groove on. i bought o a guitar -- a purple guitar, his choice of course.



friday we had a wonderful dinner at lococo's with my cousin katie, her husband, brian and my cousin megan and her bf, matt. katie's mom is my dad's sister and megan's dad is my dad's brother. we laughed a lot.


saturday we took ollie to the lawrence hall of science to see the dinosaur exhibit. he loved it. i couldn't tell who was more excited, gabe or ollie.



and last night, our friends maegan and ella who are visiting from nyc came and had dinner. FUN! ollie cried when it was time for ella to leave and asked to see her this morning before school and tonight after school.

ici, i love your ice cream and your ginger snap cookies.
love,
me

i want a copy of the flavor thesaurus, by Niki Segnit.

From Bloomsberry:

Ever wondered why one flavour works with another? Or lacked inspiration for what to do with a bundle of beetroot? The Flavour Thesaurus is the first book to examine what goes with what, pair by pair.

The book follows the form of Roget’s Thesaurus. The back section lists, alphabetically, 99 popular ingredients, and suggests classic and less well known flavour matches for each. The front section contains an entry for every flavour match listed in the back section and is organised into 16 flavour themes such a Bramble & Hedge, Green & Grassy, and Earthy. There are 980 entries in all, with 200 recipes and suggestions embedded in the text.

It covers classic pairings such as pork & apple, lamb & apricot, and cucumber & dill; contemporary favourites like chocolate & chilli, lobster & vanilla, and goat’s cheese & beetroot; and interesting but unlikely-sounding couples including black pudding & chocolate, lemon & beef, blueberry & mushroom, and watermelon & oyster.

Beautifully packaged, The Flavour Thesaurus is not only a highly useful, and covetable, reference book that will immeasurably improve your cooking - it's the sort of book that might keep you up at night reading.

found here.

more great pictures here.

really easy chocolate chip cookie recipe

this weekend i somehow stumbled across the blog, a little yumminess, where i found the recipe for aunty ann's chocolate chip cookies.

the author, simran, calls them the "easiest chocolate chip cookies," and really, they were. they took me 20 minutes, from start to eat and if it weren't for a shortage of chocolate chips, i'd be making a 2nd batch now.

chuao's firecracker bar is fun!

dark chocolate, salt, chipotle, and popping candy! seriously, little pop pop pops on your tongue.

went to the doctor today, for a check up. really it was an introductory meeting because my doctor had to leave the practice. she told me she had to get a job. (at kaiser.) she had just had her second baby and she needed a job where it would be OK if she called in sick.

so anyway, i went to meet my (maybe) new doctor today. she was nice enough. (i really loved my old doctor. she'd come into the exam room and sit down and chat with me before she'd look in my ears. sometimes we'd sit there and chat for so long i'd get nervous about her other patients who were waiting.)

back to today. she asked more questions than any other doctor has ever asked me. i started to feel nervous. really, i had no issues or complaints. at one point she said, "i don't know what i really do for you, you seem healthy." and then she asked me 9,000 more questions. she was looking for something to help me with, or a drug to prescribe. i had nothing for her. in the end she ordered some lab work. for cholesterol and stuff like that. i felt so anxious when i left. is it normal for a 34-year old woman to get lab work? is she worried about me for some reason i don't know? my nervous nature needs a doctor who brushes things off, who shrugs and tells me i'm silly. or maybe someone in the middle. today's doctor was too gloom and doom.

on another note. ici. holy f'in amazing. the chartreuse chocolate is ridiculously delicious. i know this to be true because i just polished off nearly a 1/2 pint. or maybe more.

i'm going to the la cocina gift fair this friday, and if you're in san francisco, you should go, too!

there will be tons of amazing, locally made food, drink and wares.

friday, 12/10

at the mission cultural center for latino arts

4-9 pm