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Baked Shrimp Scampi
(I found this photo on this blog. She gives credit to FoodNetwork, but when I go there, I get a video.) The other day I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner, and decided I wanted to make something with shrimp, since I had some in the freezer. (The folks at America’s Test Kitchen say to buy your shrimp peel on, frozen, because what you get at the store in the fish aisle is thawed anyway, and the longer it sits there thawed, the more flavor it loses. As to the peel on, they use some kind of chemical to get the peel off, so if you…
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Movies
One thing we did on our little ‘staycation’ was to go to movies. Our first pick was Another Earth, which wasn’t playing out in our neighborhood (though it is now), so we went into the city and stopped and had a drink and an appetizer beforehand. Nice way to start a movie, no? Especially on a weekday, when your coworkers are covering for you because you’re on vacation. I didn’t know what to expect with this film. I thought it was going to be a big sci-fi film, with mysterious aliens maybe and certainly some shoot-em-up violence. Instead, it’s a film about very human trauma. Rhoda (Brit Marling, who co-wrote…
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Bodega Bay
We decided not to take a regular vacation this year, partly because money is kinda tight, and also because Genevieve isn’t thriving, and we would feel weird asking anyone to take care of her for several days. Blind, kinda confused, not a lot of appetite, questionable tummy issues, etc. And since we live in a beautiful part of the country, we have been mostly staying close to home, and adding in a few day trips. Monday we went to San Francisco to see Another Earth, which was really good. Wednesday, we drove to Bodega Bay. I’d never been before, and Ted hadn’t been since he was 5 or 6. Bodega…
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Artisan Bistro
(photo found here) Saturday morning, Ted and I were downstairs, looking at the newspaper and wondering what the hell is going on in the world, when we received a phone call from our friend Marilee, with whom I have been friends since our days in graduate school together, many years ago. She was in our little town on the wrong side of the tunnel, and had unexpectedly been released from her duties of the day. Would we like to go for coffee or breakfast, she asked. Indeed, we would! We considered IHOP, but decided to go to the other end of the spectrum and try the Michelin recommended Artisan Bistro,…
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Bruschetta (aka, Crostini), Three Ways
This weekend, in addition to attending Maya’s swim meet one day, and working the meet the following day, we found time to celebrate two birthdays, those of Ted’s mom and Ted’s uncle. Our family get-togethers are generally pot-luck, with the host telling everyone what to bring, so that the menu has some sort of cohesion, and we don’t end up with 5 plates of chicken and nothing else. I was asked to bring corn and bruschetta. Yay, bruschetta! I love my standard, go to bruschetta recipe, which I have posted about before, but I also like to try something new from time to time. Happily enough, a recent Bon Appetit…
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The Tree of Life
In the first moments of Terrance Malick’s new film, The Tree of Life, we are presented with two competing and supposedly alternate approaches to facing life and its beauties and hardships. There is nature, and there is grace. Nature is difficult and tries to find the worst in the world, Grace is generous and tries to find the best. I think this is disingenuous, and that the truth lies in the middle. Nature gives and takes, it doesn’t try to find the worst, but it doesn’t look for the best either. Rather, it is indifferent. Grace wishes to find the best and forgive the worst, but sometimes ignores the reality.…
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I want a petite lap giraffe, don’t you?
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Mix Tape
(awesome mix-tape picture found here) A couple of people commented on my anniversary post about the beauty of mix tapes, and Dad Who Writes even requested to know what might be on some of the ones that Ted made me back in the day. So I dug out what’s left of our tape collection, then sorted through to find any that might still have their cases intact. I found just a few. There are a lot of tapes, but many are unmarked, and we no longer have a tape deck. Not even in our cars. OK, I think I still have a walkman somewhere, which I kept JUST in case…
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Morimoto Napa
For our anniversary dinner, Ted and I decided to try something new, rather than our traditional Rivoli dinner. I wanted to go to a place in San Francisco that is supposed to be wonderful, Aquarello, but they’re not open on Sundays, so that was out. Maybe for our 20th anniversary, we’ll go there. Anyway, I remembered reading that Iron Chef Morimoto had opened a restaurant in Napa, so we decided to see if we could get a reservation there. Happily, we were able to get a table, even though it wasn’t until 9:30. So we got dressed up a bit (we were overdressed, the place is pretty casual…but I wanted…
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Happy Anniversary!
18 years already? I’m not sure exactly how that can be, since it feels like we’re still in our 20s…. Thank you for being my husband, my best friend, such a wonderful father to our child, and for always being on my side. It’s you and me against the world, honey. I’m looking forward to the next 18 years of happy marriage to you, though not so excited to think about the wrinkles I’ll have at that point! HA! OK, here’s another anniversary video for you… I remember when you used to make me mix tapes, and this song was on one of them…the next song was ‘Legal Tender’ by…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Truly Yummy Jam
Yesterday I looked in the fridge and saw a pint and a half of ‘beyond their prime’ strawberries, and started thinking about the jam I made last year. I decided to make a batch, and then I started thinking about the strawberries in the freezer. Every time I buy new strawberries, I clean and trim the last of the old ones, and freeze them in a bag. I assume we’ll use them for smoothies, but I guess we haven’t had smoothies in awhile, because there were a lot of strawberries in there, and a few bananas as well. So I decided to use my frozen strawberries, in addition to my…
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Louis’ Lunch Burger
Does anyone else watch ‘Man vs. Food’? We’ve been watching sometimes lately, and we saw an episode where they were in Hartford, Connecticut, and the secondary restaurant that was featured claims to be the birthplace of the hamburger. Louis’ Lunch says that they served up the first burger in 1900, and that they’ve been serving it pretty much the same way ever since. We all thought it seemed like fun to try the Louis’ Lunch burger recipe. So I looked around online to see if I could find a recipe, and I came across this one, and we made them that evening. The keys to a Louis’ Lunch burger are…
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Yay New York!
(photo found here) Someday, equal rights to marriage for all will hopefully be the law of the land everywhere. For now, at least, gay and lesbian couples can get married in New York. (That’s 6 states that have gotten there before California. People think that’s strange, but California is actually a very conservative state, with the exceptions of the Bay Area and the greater Los Angeles area.) Good going, New York! Just in time for Pride Week, too. Rocking good news.
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Wordless Wednesday ~ Photos taken from car windows edition
(click to enlarge…sorry that they’re kinda blurry sometimes, but that’s the whole moving car thing in action…)