Oh What a Night

I wanted to post quickly about an evening out that Hubby and I had the other day. I got invited to attend a dinner event at Myers+Chang from myBlogSpark.

I don't know much about myBlogSpark, so I figured it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the organization. Plus, it's nice to include Hubby in my blogging adventures, and my friend Cara from Cara's Cravings and her Hubby were going to be there too!



When we got to Myers+Chang, we were shocked to learn the restaurant had closed down for the event. A few people were already sitting at small tables when we arrived.

I spotted Cara and we sat down with them. Cara and I chatted about how this wasn't like any other blogging event we'd been to. Granted, we've only been to a few, but still. There was no mingling or anything, everyone just sitting at their tables as if we weren't all there for the same purpose.



At our place settings, we had a 4-course menu with a few items to choose from for each course. We started with a round of drinks and our first course.



I got the Pork and Chive Pot Stickers and Hubby got the Crispy Spring Rolls. Both were very tasty and we switched plates after our first few bites. I loved the freshness of the spring rolls.



For the second course, Hubby got Wok-Roasted Mussels. If you don't know Hubby, know that he loves mussels. Almost as much as he loves lobster.



I went with the Thai Ginger Chicken Salad. Both were made with very fresh ingredients and tasted delicious.



Then came time for our entrees. We decided as a table to order four different entrees and share them all. As a table, we ordered the Orange Chicken, Shrimp Lo Mein, Beef and Broccoli, and Kung Pao Chicken. We also ordered a scorpion bowl for the table. How fun is that?



When our entrees came out, we could tell something was different. One thing I did notice was that the brocolli in the beef and broccoli (see below) was really small. It was crisp, but usually broccoli in dishes like that are large and have a longer stem.



As we were eating, we were also commenting about how the entrees were pretty good, we all liked the first two courses better. Then someone from General Mills stands up to make an announcement. Turns out they had done a "switch" on us and we were in fact eating frozen entrees from Wanchai Ferry.



Just like those Pizza Hut commercials with the pasta. In fact, I always wondered how they got that many people in a room and none of them figured it out. Well now I guess I know. This makes sense now why there wasn't any mingling or big tables for people to meet and talk. Once one person figured out the trick, we would have all known.



We weren't at all surprised that the food was frozen entrees and we were looking forward to dessert at this point. Hubby got the Coconut Cream Pie.



I had the Chocolate Terrine. Myers+Chang gets their desserts from Flour Bakery. Both were devine.



At the end of the night, we headed out still scratching our heads at what had happened. We definitely had a good evening chatting with Cara and Ben and enjoyed the meal. Based on the first two courses, I would go back to Myers+Chang. I would definitely go back to Flour bakery as well. As far as whether I'd actually buy and Wanchai Ferry frozen entrees... Hubby and I both enjoy cooking. If we eat at home, we cook our dinners ourselves. We definitely stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Even when we need a quick meal, we don't go for frozen entrees. So I highly doubt we will ever actually buy any Wanchei Ferry entrees.

Check Cara's blog to see her recap. We also saw Megan from Delicious Dishings and the Boston Chomper. Thanks to myBlogSpark for hosting the evening.

Christmas in July - Family Cookbook

Today I bring you the last gift idea for now. This gift is actually the whole reason I started this blog and appeared on my first list (see #8). You see, back in 2006, Hubby and I were driving somewhere for the holidays. We started brainstorming gift ideas and thought it would be fun to make a cookbook featuring favorite recipes from our two families.



At that point we didn't have enough time to pull it off for 2006. But I started taking pictures and collecting recipes. One of the first food photos I took were that holiday season in 2006. I made deviled eggs and pretzel M&M treats at Hubby's mom's house that Christmas.



Every year when the holidays started to roll around, we agreed that we were still missing some key family favorite recipes. Back in November of 2009, Hubby and I agreed to just bite the bullet and make all the recipes we were missing instead of waiting yet another year.



So we busted out the list of recipes we absolutely wanted in the cookbook. We made them all in one week. It was a very random food week in our house, but it was worth it. We added some of our favorite recipes from the last few years to the list as well and I set to work designing the book.



It was a lot of fun putting the book together. I ended up with an 80-page book from www.blurb.com that included an intro page and a page at the end with some measuring conversions and substitution recommendations in it.



If there was a funny story or memory about the recipe, I included that on the page. I had a blast making this book (and all the food for the pictures!). Check out my Family Favorites tag for some recipes that made it into the book!



One Year Ago: Banana Nut Mini Muffins and Breakfast Pizza
Two Years Ago: Blueberry Lemon Basil Cupcakes and Stuffed Strawberries

Christmas in July - Homemade Taco Seasoning

For my second gift idea this week, I went with a simple gift. Remember those crockpot chicken tacos I made last summer? With the homemade taco seasoning? Hubby and I love that taco seasoning. We use it anywhere you would normally use a packet of store-bought taco seasoning. We love it so much we thought it would be great to share with our family and friends.



So we mixed up a VERY large batch of the seasoning. I ordered some cute little jars and again put labels on them including instructions of how to make the taco seasoning when people ran out. I saved the label files if anyone is interested in them. Just shoot me an email.

One Year Ago: Monkey Bread and Boston Cupcake Crawl
Two Years Ago: Tomatoes stuffed with Salmon Dill Dip

Christmas in July - Homemade Vanilla Extract

With just under 5 months until Christmas, it might be time to start thinking about gifts for your friends and family. That's what I was doing about a year ago. I am definitely a big planner and had decided early in 2009 to make as many Christmas gifts as I could. Some of these gifts required quite a bit of time and some were easy to throw together. This week I'll be sharing the gifts that I gave our family and friends last year.



The first gift came about due to a sale on Amazon. There was a great deal on 1/2 lb of vanilla beans. I started with two bottles of vodka and the vanilla beans. Once the beans were split (but not scraped) and placed in the vodka, the bottles just had to sit in a cool dark place. Every couple of weeks Hubby would pull the vodka out of the closet and shake the crap out of it. A couple months later the vanilla extract was ready to go!



I ordered some bottles online and made some labels for the bottles to finish off the look. I also placed two vanilla beans into each bottle.



I love that the vanilla extract tastes so good, has the specks of fresh vanilla beans, and will essentially never run out. If the vanilla starts running low, you can just top it off with some more vodka. As you use vanilla beans, just throw the pods in the bottle to replenish the vanilla flavor.



One Year Ago: Goat Cheese Potato Salad and Salmon with Yellow Pepper and Cilantro Pesto
Two Years Ago: Champagne Cupcakes

Trip to San Francisco - Days 5-6

Today I'm going to wrap up the last two days we spent in San Francisco. Thursday the 8th, we left Sonoma and returned our rental car back in San Fran. We checked in to our last hotel for the week. The Westin St Francis in Union Square. We got a great rate ($199 for 2 double beds) through the Avon walk. The room was really big and spacious. The hotel itself was beautiful and Union Square was a lot of fun.


Cable Car - too bad it was full!

We went across the street to get one of the $11 passes for public transportation. Since the cable car costs $5 to ride, and the buses and F-line are $2/ride, we figured we'd get our money's worth. The line at the ticket station was crazy long and since it was so cold, Hubby and I ran over to Macy's to get a sweatshirt for him.


Pagoda at Japanese tea garden

Once we were finally on our way, we decided to hit up Chinatown. We waited for a little while to ride a cable car, but every one that went by was full so we gave up on that. Instead we just walked over to Chinatown. We were all hungry and decided to get dim sum at New Asia. It was a great experience and the food was good. Our bill at the end was $40 for the 4 of us.


Dragon at the gateway to Chinatown

Next we wanted to see the Golden Gate Fortune Cookies. It's a small little place that'd you'd miss if there weren't a bunch of other people going there too. There are two women who make the fortune cookies by hand. We bought a bag of chocolate and regular fortune cookies for $4 and had fun snacking on them the rest of the trip.


Cable Car Museum

Then we walked over to the Kong Chow Temple. It was really neat to see a real Buddhist temple. We did want to see the Chinatown gate as well, so we headed down to see that. We were kind of backtracking and should have gone there first, but we were hungry when we first set out. We enjoyed seeing all the markets and shops in Chinatown as we were walking around.


Pretty house and flowers on Lombard St

The next thing to do on our list was check out the Cable Car Museum. It's free and really informative. Being a bunch of engineers and a history teacher, we all loved learning about how the cable cars work and the history behind them. They only go 9.5 miles/hour max and the cables all run through the museum. This was my favorite part of the trip (until we went to Alcatrez).


Looking up Lombard St

From the cable car museum, we were able to catch a ride on one! We rode it up the street to Lombard street (aka the Crookedest Street). We walked down the stairs on Lombard and snapped some pictures. There were quite a few cars driving down the curvy road at the same time.


Alcatrez

We walked the short distance over to the Fisherman's Wharf. A&J hadn't been yet, so we went to Boudin Bakery to try some sourdough bread. I got a mini turtle and a cinnamon-chocolate loaf (amazing btw) for Hubby and I to snack on. Asha got a bread bowl with chili. It was a great little snack for all of us. Then it was about time to head down to Pier 33 for our Alcatrez tour.


Inside the halls of Alcatrez

I ordered the tickets for the night tour online about a month in advance. The latest tour was already sold out at that point, so we were on the 6:10 tour. This is something everyone should do when visiting SF. Hands down, our favorite part of the trip. The tour included an audio tour that you could listen to at your own pace and wander around. The views of SF from The Rock were pretty cool and Hubby and I had a great time taking a bunch of pictures, especially when the sun started setting.


Movie poster for The Rock (which happens to be one of my favorite movies!)

When we got back to Pier 33, we were hungry for dinner, but tired from a long day. Across the street was Hillstone. We decided it was a good choice because of the location and the menu posted outside looked tasty. Hubby and I split the house salad, roasted broccoli, and rotisserie chicken. It was all amazing. A&J split an Asian salad that looked great too. Hubby also had a glass of wine and our total was $50. This was our second favorite meal of the trip (after Roy's), but much more affordable!


Sunset at Alcatrez

That night we went home and crashed. Friday was our last day of sight-seeing and we wanted to do some relaxing to prepare for the Avon Walk. We started the day at Lori's Diner. I didn't write down how much our meal was there, but it was standard diner breakfast food. Good, but nothing amazing.


Rose in the rose garden

We hopped in a cab and headed over to the Golden Gate Park. We checked out the Japanese Tea Garden, which cost $7 to get in to. It was very serene and the landscaping was amazing. We wished they had a tour to talk about all the different plants and such. Then we walked through the rose garden. It had rained the night before so there was still some dew on the roses. I got some pretty sweet pictures in there. We walked around some more and decided to call it a day near the Conservatory of Flowers. Asha and I wanted to get off our feet and we needed to head over to the Castro to meet up with Hubby's Aunt.


Mini Turtle from Boudin

We were able to grab a cab who drove like a mad man up and down super steep hills near Buena Vista and ended up in the Castro. We had planned to go to Ike's Place based on a recommendation from a coworker. There was a line down the block, but we didn't want to sit outside, so we decided instead to check out La Mediterranae. The food here was good and the tea that Hubby ordered was quite tasty.


Watch tower at Alcatrez

After we ate lunch, we headed up to see the Castro Theatre. We had fun doing some people watching on the corner and I grabbed a double chocolate cookie from Hot Cookie. It was huge and I didn't think I could eat it all in one sitting, but before I knew it, it was gone. Hubby and I said our goodbyes to his Aunt and jumped on the F-line back to the hotel.


Castro Theatre

It was about 3:00 at that time and the last touristy thing we wanted to do was take the elevator up to the top in the Westin. It's an all glass elevator that goes to the 31st floor and you get some great views. You don't have to be a guest to go up in the elevator to check it out. We just happened to be staying there. Once we got back to ground level, our sight-seeing days were over. Asha and I started laying out our stuff for the walk and the boys had a crew meeting. If you missed my recap of the Avon Walk, check it out here.


Tree stump in the park

Sunday night after the walk, we headed out for dinner. We were all in the mood for a beer and a burger. Our cab driver suggested BurgerMeister. He gave us all sorts of SF movie trivia while he drove us there. Hubby got the BurgerMeister and some AMAZING garlic fries. If you like garlic, get these fries. I had a turkey burger and curly fries. We each had a beer and it was ~$40. It really hit the spot and at that point we were all exhausted.


Approaching Alcatrez

Monday morning, A&J got up to catch their planes pretty early. Hubby and I took our time in the morning since our flight didn't leave until 2:00. We went to the Taylor St Coffee Shop for brunch. It's a very small place but would be worth a wait. I got the vegetarian breakfast sandwich and a bowl of fruit. I was expected the sandwich to have egg on it, but it didn't. It was delicious even without the egg. Hubby got the Sailor hash. It had a bunch of seafood in it and he was in heaven. Our bill came to $30 for our last meal in SF.


View of San Fran from Alcatrez

Hubby and I had a great time in San Francisco. There were so many things to see and do and I think we got a good mix while we were there. I hope you enjoyed the recap posts!

Trip to San Francisco - Days 3-4

For Tues-Wed we decided to head out of town and see some nearby wine country. It was also the beginning of our time with A&J. On the morning of the 6th (Tues), Hubby walked down to the Hertz to pick up our rental car. There was a HUGE delay and it took him about 75 minutes to return to our hotel with the car (a 4-door Mercedes, not sure of the model which ran $104 for 2 days). While he was dealing with that, I packed up and checked out of our hotel. We loaded our stuff into the trunk and headed to the airport to pick up A&J.


Grapes at Ledson

They had just walked out with their luggage as we pulled up. Once we stacked everything in the car, we hit the road. When Asha had made the car reservation, she requested a full sized vehicle large enough for 4 adults plus luggage. They told her we'd get something like an Empala. The Mercedes was not nearly as large as an Empala, so us girls had some small bags between us in the back seat. It wasn't a huge deal though. The first stop we made was on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge. It was less foggy than the day before, but just as windy and chilly. We snapped a few pictures and got back into the car.


GG Bridge

One place we wanted to try was In-N-Out burger. We were all hungry for lunch so I found one on my GPS in Mill Valley. That was our next stop. Hubby got a double-double and I just went with the cheeseburger. We also split an order of fries and a Sprite. It was definitely a tasty burger. We enjoyed our meal and piled back into the car. We joked that A&J were having an extremely efficient trip because in the first hour since leaving the airport, they had already hit two major stops off their list of must-do items in San Fran.


In-N-Out burgers

We continued north on 101 and got off the highway to head over to the Korbel winery. Now when I think of Korbel champagne, I always think of extra dry brut - blech! Turns out they have tons of other champagnes and a great history as well. We parked at 2:00 on the dot and only missed the first minute or so of the tour (starts every hour on the hour).

The tour was very informative. They have these huge oaken barrels that were installed in the basement and are so big they can't move them! They also have the worlds largest bottle of champagne. The tasting at Korbel was free and we got to taste 4 champagne varieties outside and one other taste of something inside. Two of the champagnes we had outside aren't available in stores anywhere and they were our favs! You get 10% off if you buy 4 bottles, so we bought two of the Sec and A&J bought a bottle of Sec and a bottle of the Rose (which we drank to celebrate finishing the Avon Walk later that week).


Lots of old wine bottles at Korbel

After tasting some bubbly, we headed over to Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve. There's a big parking lot just before the entrance to the park. Pedestrians can enter for free and to drive in would cost you $8. The park map cost $0.50 though which was somewhat odd. We bought a map and headed down a trail. We ended up doing about 3 miles of some heavy duty hiking. We saw some amazingly huge trees. The Redwoods can grow together which was pretty cool.


Looking straight up an old redwood at Armstrong

After hiking around a bit, we headed out to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Sonoma which is located in Santa Rosa. I got a good deal online and booked the room for 4 adults for $143/night. We dropped off our stuff, changed clothes, and headed out for dinner. We wanted something casual and our friend A had recommended a place called Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. They had some great beers and pizza. I'm not a huge pizza eater, but the pizza I had was one of the best I've ever had. It had pesto, spinach, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and grilled chicken on it. Hubby got a calzone and we each had two beers. Total for that meal was $42.


Olive Oil tasting at Ledson

Wednesday morning we got up and asked for a recommendation for breakfast. We went to the Omelet Express in Santa Rosa. Asha and I split a 4-egg omelet that had avocado, bacon and tomato in it. Hubby got his own omelet. Our total after tip was $25 for breakfast and the omelets were awesome.

After breakfast, we headed south on the Sonoma highway to hit up some wineries. This would be our only day tasting wines and we wanted to make the most of it. Most places open around 10am so that's when we got to the first winery, Ledson. Here, the tasting was $15/person and you got to taste 6 wines. The guy pouring for us was definitely giving us quite a bit of wine too! In the end, we enjoyed their wines but they were a bit pricey for us. I did leave with a Reisling because it was one of the best I'd ever had and was only $18. Ledson doesn't distribute anywhere, so their site in Sonoma is the only place you can buy their wine. The grounds were very nice and the mansion/castle that the tasting in was pretty cool to look at.


Benziger grapes

The next stop we made was Benziger. Our friends E&V had said the tram tour ($15) there was the best and we wanted to do one tour that day. We had about 20 minutes to kill before the tour started so we walked around their little biodynamics garden to learn all about it. The tram tour was very good and we learned all about the farm and the process of making wine. It included 4 tastings. We didn't like the wine here very much at all...


Interesting facts about wine found at Benziger

Next we headed over to Arrowood. Arrowood is a small winery that just buys grapes from other vineyards to mix up unique blends. We had a coupon for a free tasting for 2 so our tastings were free (regular price $10 if I remember correctly). Be sure to ask your hotel for coupons for the wineries you plan to attend in the morning before you leave. They usually have 2 for 1 or even complimentary coupons to give you. We tasted 5 wines here and Hubby got a bottle of Syrah that we both really enjoyed.


The castle/mansion at Ledson

At this point we were getting really hungry. We hadn't fully planned out the day in that much detail, so even though we were literally feet from Imagery, we headed back over to Glen Ellen to check out the Village Market there. Wow that place was amazing. They had made-to-order sandwiches and a huge salad bar. All of our sandwiches were delicious (sandwiches were ~$8/each). They were large so Asha and I should have split one. I also got some roasted veggies from the salad bar that were really good.

Once we had some food in our bellies, we headed back over to Imagery. It's the sister vineyard to Benziger. When you buy your tram tour tickets at Benziger, they give you complimentary tasting coupons for Imagery. Imagery was pretty crowded so we checked out the art halls. The labels are all done by local artists and some were pretty cool. We tasted 4 wines here including a blueberry port that was really unique. Hubby got a Tempernio to bring out bottle total up to 3 at this point.


Bezinger Caves

Then we headed back to Glen Ellen to go to a couple wineries that were open after 5pm. The next place we went was called Eric Ross. This was our favorite winery of the day. The guy pouring the wine was the actual owner of the winery. It was amazing to hear his stories and the passion in what he did. The tasting there was $6 for 6 wines. We bought a white blend and a port from Eric Ross and he even signed the bottle for us.

I honestly can't remember the name of the last place we went. I'll have to go look in my notes again... They are open until 6 and we had coupons for free tasting there. Asha and I were wined out, so the boys were the only ones still tasting at this point. They didn't like the wine much here and we decided to call it a day.


Huge oak barrels at Korbel

We headed into Sonoma to check in to the Best Western. The room for 4 adults was $228 and included continental breakfast. The location was great and we were able to walk to our dinner reservations at The Girl and The Fig. We stopped in about an hour before our reservation and they said they could seat us outside, under some heat lamps, so we did that. By the end of the night, we were so cold, they gave us girls a blanket to keep our legs warm.

The food here was everything everyone raves about. We split the goat cheese appetizer for the table and the boys both got the 3-course tasting menu with the wine pairings for ~$40. I went with the mussels. For dessert, I got the strawberry/rhubarb tart and it was amazing. The total for our meal including wine for Hubby and a cocktail for me was $90 before tip.

That wraps up days 3-4 of our trip. Check back on Friday for the final installment of the San Fran recap.