Surprise!

I'm engaged!

Now to figure out how to have a wedding without going bankrupt.

I couldn't resist

I've posted this picture here before, but I had to turn them into lolcats.

Four paws up!

Morty and Eli are still satisfied with their new digs!

SF: Day 6

When we first visited SF a few years ago, we didn't get a chance to visit Golden Gate Park, so this time around, it was a priority on our list. However, it took forever for a bus to come, and when one did, it was too full to even stop, so we wound up waiting for Jessica to get to the condo so we could all drive there. At that point, I was really missing my NYC subways. The park is huge, and we spent a lot of time at the Japanese Tea Garden because a lot of the other sites were closed.




Our last dinner in San Francisco came from a recommendation we got at the farmer's market. Actually, the craft market outside of the farmer's market. We were buying some photographs and the vendor told us about this non-touristy steakhouse that we had to try.



So Jessica, Janet, Josh, and I went off to Izzy's Steaks and Chops, located (appropriately) in the Cow Hollow neighborhood. It's a fun, casual place, definitely not one for hushed voices and dinner jackets. I went with the filet mignon medallions au poivre in a pepper cream sauce. The steaks come with two choices for sides and I went with Izzy's Own Potatoes (potatoes au gratin), and felt guilty about the unhealthiness of my meal, so I went with steamed broccoli as my second. Josh went balls to the wall and got the bone-in ribeye. Unlike me, he didn't care about the guilt factor of the meal, and went with Izzy's potatoes and the creamed spinach.

The steak was fantastic, and those potatoes were divine; I wished there were more. Josh was determined to finish his huge steak, and he did it. However, our plans to visit Crepes-A-Go-Go were thwarted by our overly full tummies.

SF: Day 5

I just realized that I don't have a lot of photos from this day. Janet and Jessica came up from San Jose to spend the day with us and Janet brought her wiener dogs, Frankie and Freddie. We went shopping during the day, had ramen for lunch (sorry, no pictures taken, but was delicious), and J&J were going to leave late in the afternoon to return the next day.

However, Frankie (brown hot dog pictured above) wasn't feeling well, so Janet recruited Josh and me for dogsitters and left Freddie (brown and white hot dog) with us. It was fun, but a little hairy at the beginning because Freddie kept crying at the door. He has severe separation anxiety because his previous owner dumped him in an ASPCA drop box or something terrible like that.

Janet told me that Freddie must go out when he wakes up in the morning at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. and you have a twenty-minute window to get him out before there's an accident. So the next morning, I woke up at 7:30 and realized Freddie never woke us up with his collar jingle that Janet said would occur. I smacked Josh and he took Freddie out, but came back saying that the dog refused to do anything. We figured it was because Freddie preferred ladies taking him to the bathroom, so I got dressed and we all went out again. Bang! Within 2 seconds of being outside, Freddie "dropped a deuce," as Janet is so fond of saying. Josh was pissed, of course.

SF: Day 4

The day started off slowly, as we didn't really have anywhere to be until the evening. Josh graciously allowed me to go shopping in Union Square as I needed a scarf for our evening out. Breakfast consisted of one bowtie from Happy Donut, which claimed to be have the best donuts in SF. While I can't say it was the best donut in SF, I can say that it was one of the best donuts I've ever had. It was so fresh and tasty with the perfect glaze.

After shopping, we made our way down to Fisherman's Wharf so Josh could stare at sea lions for a while. I wandered around the wharf while Josh got his fill of sea lions, and finally hunger brought us to Boudin's Bakery. We ate at the restaurant upstairs, which is pretty pricey in comparison to the street vendors, but then again, it's a beautiful restaurant with nice views of the bay. The soup in a bread bowl is larger here, as it should be, with a cost double to that of the $6 ones outside. But being able to sit down and eat in peace rather than standing in the gutter with discarded half-eaten bread bowls made the cost worth it. Speaking of the leftover bread bowls, I wonder why all the city's homeless don't make their way to the wharf and eat all the sourdough.

After lunch, we snuck into the Boudin museum. Okay, maybe not "snuck," more like there was nobody at the ticket counter and I heard an employee tell someone it's free because there's no tour guide speaking. The museum smells of dough, which is appropriate as Boudin likes to toot its mother dough horn. Every day, bakers use a portion of mother dough (dating back to 1849) to mix in with the day's baking. The mother dough is refreshed with new dough too, so don't be too grossed out.

In the evening, we had tickets for the Giants vs. Nationals at AT&T Park. The stadium is beautiful, but a lot smaller than I'm used to at Yankees Stadium. It's right on the water, and home runs get hit into the bay. I was hoping to see the feat, but none went out that way. The evening was very, very cool, making me very happy that I'd bought a scarf (actually I bought two because I couldn't decide) and worn layers under my long coat. Josh was wearing a hoodie and a fleece jacket and we were still cold, but loving it! Just think: wearing jackets at a baseball game in July and shivering!



Because we weren't that hungry, we shared an order of famous Gilroy Garlic Fries. Click on the picture above to see better, but those fries are liberally sprinkled with bits of chopped garlic. They weren't the best fries I've ever had, but the garlic flavor was amazing. Each order comes with post-garlic mints. We followed that up with Ghirardelli hot chocolates and it was a fantastic night out.

SF: Day 3

We spent most of the day at the Ferry Building, starting with SF's famous farmer's market. I found that the market there is mainly produce, whereas the Union Square farmer's market in NYC has a wider range of items.

I saw varieties of fruit I'd never seen before. We bought a bunch of strawberry peaches (pictured left - white flesh, very sweet) and were tempted to buy these HUGE peaches called sugar giants. However, we would've had way too many peaches to consume. Another cool thing at the market - the fruit vendors would have sample stations and they really made us want to buy everything. After the market, we browsed the shops inside the Ferry Building, buying fancy chocolate at Recchiuti Confections. While Josh was figuring out which box to get his parents, I bought a dark milk bar because I love dark and milk chocolate (even though dark is supposed to be better) and a small package of their fresh marshmallows. I've had a fondness for good marshmallows ever since my first one at City Bakery, where I find the only good thing is the marshmallows. I also whined a little when Josh was buying a big box for his parents and he gave in and bought me one fleur de sel caramel. It was great, just the sweet/savory hit I was looking for.

Lunch was at the San Francisco Fish Company, also located inside the Ferry Building. I had the oyster po' boy and Josh went with the jambalaya. The food was so good and we sat on stools in the small eating area enjoying the vacation happiness. Josh's jambalaya was perfect with chunks of seafood sprinkled throughout and a spicy kick at the end. For dessert, we shared a gelato from Ciao Bella Gelato. One scoop of a Mexican (or was it Aztec?) chocolate and one scoop of strawberry.

On our way back to the condo to unload our bag o' peaches and relax before dinner, we stopped at the artists' stalls outside of the farmer's market. One photographer recommended a steak house, off the tourist path, and it became our mission to eat there during the week. After buying a bunch of pictures that we probably don't need and will probably procrastinate on framing, we stopped at a Peet's Coffee on the way home. We shared a jasmine lime iced tea and I wondered why we don't have Peet's Coffee in NYC. Josh tells me they were edged out by Starbucks. How sad, because Peet's also sells Recchiuti chocolate!


Dinner was at the Slanted Door, one of SF's most popular restaurants. I started with the manila clams with thai basil, crispy pork belly, and chilies. Josh went with the much more subtle sweet white corn and dungeness crab soup, which was surprisingly tasty. I thought it was going to be too mild, especially after I saw Josh's bowl, but behind the mild-mannered exterior, the flavors seem more complex and I wanted to get my own bowl! The clams were good, but the soup was more special.




For our entrees, I got the cellophane noodles with fresh dungeness crab meat and Josh went with squid stuffed with a mixture of cellophane noodles, pork, and maybe mushroom. It's not on the menu anymore, so I can't verify. That's what I get for waiting around to do my vacation blogging. The Slanted Door gets really mixed reviews, but even non-enthusiastic reviews would recommend the cellophane noodles with dungeness crab. Maybe it's the crab again, but this is not a dish that punches you in the face with bold flavors. It tastes really fresh, and little bits of noodle have browned, so you get these layers of flavor. Josh's squid dish was pretty good, but I could sit around eating the cellophane noodles all day.

For dessert, we shared monkey bread with peaches and apricots. The first time I heard of monkey bread was Alton Brown's "House of the Rising Bun" episode. The monkey bread at Slanted Door had the texture of something I'd expect at breakfast, crispy on the outside and chewy/tender inside. It wasn't very sweet, but the natural sweetness of the fruit was more than enough. Josh and I shared my pot of Hong Kong milk tea, which was only $5 and was more than enough for two people. Actually, my lychee-infused black tea, at $2.50, was served in a glass along with a half carafe more! Seriously good deals on the tea!

We had a great time and the bill was surprisingly reasonable considering all the food we ordered. Josh said he'd be more than happy to go back again.

SF: Day 2

For our first full day in SF, I figured it'd be the best day for wine country because we're still on east coast time and it won't be so hard to get up early. When planning our vacation, we thought we'd rent a car, drive out to Sonoma or Napa, rent bicycles, and then bike to wineries from there. Then when you think a bit, you realize it's a bad idea. Riding bikes in the sun, drinking wine, and then having to drive 1.5 hours back to SF after a bunch of tastings? Not smart.

We chose Wine Country Tour Shuttle for our trip to Napa. You are driven to Napa in a shuttle bus and visit four wineries, get a coupon for lunch, and then take the ferry back to SF, avoiding any of the afternoon traffic. You don't have to worry about drinking and driving an can fully relax, unless you have obnoxious tourmates like we did. Fortunately, the idiots didn't get fully obnoxious until they'd gotten a good deal of wine in them. Anyways, the tour group meets at the Ferry Building, which is a temple of deliciousness. Josh and I got there early because we're fast NYC walkers. Our friends told us to take the bus to the Ferry Building because it's over a mile, but we walked it anyways and it wasn't so bad. We had delicious ham and cheese turnovers from the Acme Bread Company. I was eying the pain au chocolat, but I figured I'd need a better base for the wine tastings. The turnovers were so crispy on the outside but tender and flaky on the inside, chock full of gooey cheese and cubes of ham. Every time we went to the Ferry Building after that, I wanted another turnover but I never had another one. I guess it's time for me to start another food quest for a good ham and cheese turnover in NYC.

We started our tour at Domaine Chandon, which produces sparkling wines. It was the most educational part of the tour, as we got to go through the wine making process. When we actually got to the tasting portion of the tour, I really wasn't in the mood to drink because it was just shy of 11:00. I was the only one who disposed of tastings in the "pour bucket." I'm not a very sophisticated wine drinker. I go for white wines of the sweeter variety, like riesling and chenin blanc. The sparkling wines we tasted at Domaine Chandon got drier and drier with each one.

Our second, and favorite, stop was V. Sattui Winery. We were given free reign there, but only had about 1.5 hours for lunch and tastings. The winery is lovely and I wish I'd taken pictures of the grounds, which look like an old Italian farm. The wine tour provided a $10 coupon per person and with that, Josh and I were able to get a lovely picnic lunch with an herb bread, salami, cheese, foie gras mousse, and fruit salad. The weather was slightly warm with cool breezes and the sun was shining; it was heaven. We later did tastings and loved the wine so much that we ordered several bottles to be shipped home.

Our third stop was at Rutherford Ranch, but it was very unimpressive in comparison to Domaine Chandon and V. Sattui because there really weren't any grounds to explore. It was a store and a tasting room, which felt like the living room of a contemporary house. The last winery was Andretti Winery, of race car driver fame. It was gorgeous and we did the tasting in the backyard, which was strung with globe lights, like you could have a huge party at sunset. The grape vines are adjacent to the backyard so we could actually walk amongst them, something we couldn't do at any of the other wineries.

After the ferry ride back to SF, we walked all the way to Fisherman's Wharf for a quick dinner of soup in a bread bowl. On the way over there, we saw Boudin Bakery, home of SF's famous sourdough bread. They have a huge window at the front of the building where you can watch the bread makers at work. You can smell the sourdough when you walk by, and there's also a museum inside, but we were too tired to go that day.

SF: Day 1

Josh and I meant for this trip to San Francisco to be totally relaxing, with no pressure of doing the usual touristy things. We did those things several years ago on our first trip to SF.

We went out to Sausalito with our friends and had a small lunch at Scoma's. Small, not because I wasn't hungry, but because we had fancy dinner plans at Fringale as a thank you to those friends for letting us stay in their condo for the week (thanks Janet!). While walking by the water, we saw a man doing rock balancing. Those rock sculptures are not stuck together with anything and it's so amazing.


On the way back to SF from Sausalito, we went to the Marin Headlands, where you can take amazing photos of the Golden Gate Bridge (okay, fine, so we did a touristy thing, but it's not like we planned on it). After that, it was time to get back and walk the dogs and head out to dinner. The food is good at Fringale, but I'm not sure if it's worth the high prices.

Barely awake

I'm a "better safe than sorry" kind of traveler. So for a 7 a.m. flight, you can imagine that I'll get up before 4. Josh, in order to guarantee a decent night's sleep, took a sleeping pill and wound up groggy. We managed to get out the door on schedule, at 4:15, and made it to the airport without a car accident. I had gotten only 3 hours of sleep, so I conked out during the middle of the flight for a while.

By the way, Virgin America is awesome. I love you, Richard Branson.

'Scu me, can I talk to you for a minute?

My cousins just introduced this to me and I find it hilarious. Now when we hang out, we throw random quotes from the skit into our conversation. I was all skeptical over the funniness of the skit when my cousin was summarizing it and giving me the best lines while heading to dinner after the longest high school graduation ceremony EVER.

But yeah, it's that funny.

Own that ponytail.

Waterfalls

Welcome

We're pretty well settled into the new apartment, aside from a few piles that got shoved to the side with an "I'll take care of that later." The boys love the place and are adorably outgoing, watching me leave in the morning from the stairs. Eli still sleeps on my pillow at night, something I was afraid he'd stop doing with the shock of a new home. He still comes up to me at 11 every night and meows at me until I go to bed (usually not until much later).

Now to plan the housewarming....

No Teavana for me

I was at the mall in my home town this morning, and visited the new Teavana shop that opened where my Häagen Dazs used to be.

I'd rather they kept the Häagen Dazs.

I have no problems with nice tea; I've been ordered from Revolution Tea for some time. Teavana was giving out samples of a couple teas and when I asked how they sell it (loose? bag?), the salesgirl roped me into the store and showed me the gigantic canisters holding the loose teas. She'd open a lid and then fan it in my direction. Yeah, smells good. Then she keeps firing her schpeel at me, while waving a huge can lid, about how they sell it at a certain price (i.e. $12.00 per 2 oz), but generally sell them in 1/2 lb canisters. Uh, how about you put the per pound price on the canister then? You don't need to be an expert in math to see why you're trying to make the price seem lower.

I said I preferred my tea in individual infuser bags and she got hostile with me, "So you're saying you like canned vegetables? You know, people are getting concerned with the preservatives in their food nowadays." I said that I'd been buying organic teas from Revolution for some time and I enjoy the convenience of the single serving. She saw that I was annoyed, and said, "But we have easy ways for you to make a single serving with loose teas!" I said no thanks, and walked out, shaking my head. If she hadn't gotten so uppity with me, I may have gone for some of the tea, which was very nice, but I didn't want to have someone lecture me like a timeshare salesman to guilt me into buying some very expensive tea.

Countdown

We have fifteen days until we officially move.

I have not packed a thing.

I love frozen yogurt

I have been on the hunt for the perfect frozen yogurt.

Pinkberry popped into the world a few years ago, and I didn't go because I didn't see what the big fuss was about. Then I went to visit Jennie and Julie and went to a frozen yogurt place on campus, where the yogurt was pretty good, kinda like soft serve ice cream, and started my quest for good frozen yogurt.

First I went to Oko in Park Slope. Aside from serving all natural frozen yogurt, the store also encourages you to think of ways to be more eco-friendly, with factoids posted on their bamboo walls. Their packaging is 100% biodegradable and compostable too! The first time I had their wildberry flavor, which turned out too sour, and I tried Josh's orange creamsicle, which was less sour, but still too sour to enjoy the whole thing. Tonight, we went again; Josh went for the walk because he didn't like his yogurt last time and I went with the intention of trying their plain yogurt flavor to compare with the other places I've tried. Turns out it's great, and Josh changed his mind about disliking frozen yogurt.

I also tried Pinkberry a couple weeks ago and got addicted. It's pretty close to my office, so it's easy to say, "I'm having a bad day, let's go spend $5.50 on frozen yogurt." I've restricted myself to one visit to Pinkberry per week, and I'm now having less iced lattes from Dunkin Donuts for my weekly treat as a result. I always get the medium original Pinkberry flavor with banana, strawberry, and mango on top. Because they charge so much for toppings, it makes more sense to order the medium, which includes 3 toppings. I learned that the first time I went, when I ordered a small with one topping and paid just a bit less than my friend. And I ran out faster and was sad. Pinkberry has two other flavors as well: green tea and coffee. I don't like green tea and the idea of coffee flavored yogurt grosses me out, plus these flavors are more expensive than the plain one.

Another place opened up nearby, called Yogurt Land, where you serve yourself and pay by the ounce. I went during the grand opening and served myself some cookies and cream, about a small sized portion at Pinkberry, and topped it with mochi, and paid $2.00. They have 16 flavors at one time and it's nice to pick out exactly what you want.

Pinkberry is my favorite followed by Oko. I guess I'll stop with the weekly Jamba Juice visits and go with frozen yogurt for the summer.

Productive weekend

We hate our apartment. My upstairs neighbor is noisy and dirty. My downstairs neighbor his smelly and dirty. My floors sag and my bedroom floor has a big hole that I covered with a box. In the kitchen, you can get stuck to the edge of a board that's starting to splinter off if your pant lets are long (all of my pants). And let's not get started about the assorted bugs that dirty neighbors attract. Thank you, craphole apartment, for introducing me to roaches and water bugs (aka gigantic roaches). It's time to move on!

Despite the fact that our lease doesn't end until July, we've been looking at apartment listings for months so we could figure out how much we could spend to get a bigger place in an area that was safe and offered relatively easy street parking. After defrauding one scammer (wanted a deposit check for an apartment he refused to show because the keys were supposedly with him in Maryland), I made a couple appointments for this past Saturday. The first place was really promising and the second was a total dump with holes punched in walls, graffiti on walls and doors, footprints on doors from being kicked open, etc. And the previous tenants left all their food behind, so there were roaches. The landlords wanted the new tenants in by May 1st and the tenants would be responsible for fixing up the place and pay for the expenses with some sketchy deal where you deduct the total amount of renovation over 12 months.

We were all set on the first apartment because it was so new and gorgeous, but after Sunday brunch, I got a call back from one of my inquiries that I gave up on, thinking the apartment had gone to someone else. She wanted to know some more about us and after she figured we were normal people, she offered to show us the place in the afternoon. Poor Josh, after a day out on Saturday, he just wanted to play Xbox in his sweats. He hadn't been in them more than half an hour when I told him we had to jump on a viewing. After we saw the place, which is more than we ever thought we'd get, Josh didn't mind losing a couple hours of Xbox time.

I'm so excited to move, because I love our new apartment, but then I have to remember that we have two more months (technically) in our current place. Maybe if I speed the move through, I'll be able to spend most of June in my new place.....

I'm coco-nuts!

Yet again, I broke my rule for bringing baked goods to work. I normally bring only tried and true recipes to the office, but for my boss's birthday, I wanted to do something special. I decided on a big, old-fashioned coconut cake. This is not something I wanted to practice beforehand because it's expensive to produce and makes a BIG cake. I dorkily recorded the process of putting the cake together, just in case you want to be bored.



Here's the first layer, on top of a foil wrapped cardboard cake round. The cake smelled so good because of the coconut mixed into the batter and it was hard not to cut a piece for myself. I had to be satisfied with the bit I cut off of the bottom to make the layer level.



Then came a layer of cream cheese frosting, which was surprisingly not too sweet. The problem I ran into while frosting was trying to figure out how much was enough. I didn't want to put in too much, because the top layer's weight might make it ooze out the sides, and at the same time, I didn't want to have a lot of leftover frosting.



And there's the top layer in place. It looks like a gigantic whoopie pie.



The cake isn't naked anymore! Turns out I could've put some more frosting in the middle because I had a lot of frosting left over.



I didn't want to make that big a mess or risk dropping the cake, so I gently pressed shredded coconut onto the sides. I probably could've gone with a heavier application, but I figured I was already dropping enough coconut.

It was a little taller than 4", so I had some problems with my cake box, which is 10 x 10 x 4. I just smushed the top icing down a little and put parchment between it and the box top. Thankfully, the cake was a huge success and fed 20 people! I'm definitely making this cake again.

'Nana Bread

After tasting Julie's banana bread last week, I couldn't stop thinking about making some of my own. I got a copy of Julie's banana bread recipe, which comes from the Silver Palate Cookbook and bought a couple loaf pans (long overdue in my kitchen). So I made the loaf pictured above last week and then figured the next time, I could make some adjustments. Not that it wasn't good already, of course. The next time I made it, I added cinnamon (I was surprised there wasn't any cinnamon in the recipe) and a teensy bit of vanilla bean paste (not sure if it made a difference).

I've put Nutella on it, and when I ran out of Nutella, I put a little butter on with a swirl of honey. Yum!

Southern Comfort

Last Friday, I left NY for a weekend mini break in Chapel Hill, NC, visiting Jennie and Julie!

Their new home town is so pretty and quaint. I suppose it helps that UNC was on spring break, so everything seemed really peaceful. I really appreciated the relatively TV-free weekend, as we watched only the UNC basketball games, and left the set off when we were home. In my apartment, if Josh is home, the TV is always on, even if there's nothing on.

I had some genuine southern barbecue at Mama Dip's and the biggest, fluffiest, tastiest biscuit EVER at Sunday brunch. Julie also baked a delicious banana bread while Jennie and I were out shopping for books that we really don't need. But we really do. We tried a used bookstore that even Jennie hadn't visited yet, and it had a romance section (lots of used bookstores are too high in the instep to stock romance) and a gentle giant of a boxer dog.

It took me forever to get home on Sunday evening though, with my original arrival time in NY scheduled for 8:00, my flight was delayed so boarding didn't start until 8:00. Add the backed up flights at JFK, and I didn't get off the plane until 11:00. I have the most wonderful boyfriend in the world who waited for 1 1/2 hours and didn't even get mad about it.

People at work who hear my description of the weekend (books, no TV, reading, and playing cards) probably think it was terribly boring, but it was just right for me.

Thanks for having me over, ladies. I can't wait for my next visit!

Weekend trips

My favorite part of our weekend routine is food shopping at Fairway in Red Hook. Josh has been digging his feet for months, saying we can't go because Red Hook is a shady neighborhood. My friend was telling me that it's perfectly fine if you go in the daytime, so Josh gave in, and when we got there, he asked me why haven't we been going shopping there all along. Ha!

The market is right on the water, with a lovely view, and it's a really nice weekend thing for us to do together.

Farewell Wellington

Wellington, or Wellie, as I've been calling him lately, has left his bathroom in my apartment.

His new mommy came by this morning to meet him, after a week of my telling her how sweet the little guy is. I was afraid that I'd cry when she said that Wellie was a wonderful cat. But I was a good foster mom and went through his checkup at the vet's, his remaining antibiotics and the canned and dry foods I'd been feeding him.

Then the time came for Wellie to go to his new home, where Morty and Eli wouldn't swat at him from under the bathroom door. I went to the bathroom by myself to pick him up for the last time, give him a snuggle, and back out of the room so he wouldn't see the carrier. Then his last memory of my hospitality was being stuffed into a carrier and holding him down so I could zip the top up.

Then he was gone, and my bathroom feels strangely empty when I walk by.

Happy new year!

Happy new year, from my kitties to yours!