Weeks 31 and 32, Woo hoo!

This week ended with a 2nd place win at a pie contest! Woo hoo indeed! More on that in a bit...

211: Sunday started with some red velvet cake, the dessert I never got to the day before. It was a mouthful of sugar, and not in a good way. Not going to that bakery again.
212: Another dinner at the desk, with some panini left over from lunch.
213: My favorite go to, noodles and broth, topped with a farm egg from Grandma's ranch
214: More soup, ran out of noodles though.
215: Dinner out, sushi! I could just eat this photo.
216: Happy hour! Oh, glorious happy hour. Pisco punch and apps at Le Mar.
217: Homemade strawberry and blueberry wheat pancakes for breakfast.
218: Had pizza the night before at Jake's, a high school hangout. Tastes good the next day too!
219: A huge plate of pasta with all the fixin's!
220: Made an eggplant zucchini parmesan. Not bad!
221: Enjoyed the tomatoes and basil from my garden. I need to do some homemade mozzarella since it is so much better than store-bought.
222: My favorite (well, my only) roasted chicken recipe from Emma. My dogs love it too.
224a: Missed a day! Thinking too much about pie, here's my entry for Omnivore Books pie contest.
224b: Celebrated my second place win with mango cheesecake. But could only stomach a mouthful after all the pie.

So I entered another food contest yesterday. Third time's a charm, and I tied for second place! Helps when 1/2 a dozen of your friends come by to root you on.

I made a version of Eat the Love's Cherry, Apricot and Plum pie. I had made it a few weeks ago, my first attempt at an old-fashioned pie. Thought I'd try it again, although this time, I had to go to the store for the fruit. No cherries in mine, and unfortunately most of the plums were not ripe. Plus I only had one pie pan, so I ended up making some pie "cupcakes" as well. It all seemed to turn out well in the end since there was barely a crumb left! (I think bringing ice cream helped too!)

So much fun! Thanks Omnivore Books and Eat the Love!

Exploring Golden Gate Park

Last weekend, I decided to get away from the computer and work and take a much needed exploration of the city.

My destination: Golden Gate Park. I've lived in the Bay Area for so many years, and I have been to bits and pieces of the park, but I don't really know it very well. So my goal: to walk from one end to the other, taking photos along the way.

Ha! It was not to be, especially in flip flops. I guess I figured I used to always do it in Central Park when I lived in NY, but GGP was a whole lot more vast than I expected.

Just made it a little over half way through

I started along the ocean side, walking along JFK Drive under foggy skies. Since I had gone for a run earlier in the day, my legs were already sore, so about 1/4 mile in, I had to take a break at Spreckles Lake. Made some friends with the seagulls.

Continued on, past the Bison Patch (had no idea there were bison in the park), taking another break at Lloyd Lake.

An abundance of seagulls, a few of which took a liking to me, despite the fact that I had no treats. Plus a pair of turkey ducks, which I don't think I've ever seen before.

Along with the bits of wildlife, I was enjoying the bounties of nature.

Then I came across the boat house and Stow Lake. Super cute area, with walking trails that took you up to the top with views of the city. 

A few more random creatures along the way. 

What a crayfish was doing in the grass, I haven't a clue. I picked him up to the glee of some kids, and they passed it around before placing him back in the lake down the road.

I was trying desperately to catch some hummingbirds in action. But alas, this is the only shot that I managed to get.

It was a wonderful little adventure, and I'm looking forward to more visits and more discoveries!

We interrupt our regular programming...

called Life to do some mindless web surfing, look at pretty photos and post some old ones.

I am still struggling with this fork in the road of my life right now. I'm stressed, anxious, tired, and the last few days, I've just wanted to throw in the towel and start bawling uncontrollably. Maybe I should just go forward full force and not look back. But I keep taking little steps, and then I sit and wait, pulling out my hair.

Tonight, I'm taking the middle ground and just giving my mind a break from it all.

Hence this post. I thought I'd share some lovely moments I had in Napa back in March. I actually did a few day trips, two with friends, one with family. Each time I go, I like to try a new winery or restaurant, so the experience is different every time.

But each time, I seem to pass by the French Laundry.

I think I'm secretly hoping I'll run into Thomas Keller and he'll just invite me in.

They have a beautiful plot of land across the street, where they harvest a plethora of vegetables. If only my garden could look so organized.

The weekend I went with family, we visited several wineries known for their architecture. Some of it was a bit over-the-top, including a castle with a peacock roaming the grounds.

Still gorgeous though.





We visited another estate, Chateau Montelena Winery, in Calistoga. A beautiful site, with a small lake and beautiful courtyard. This would be a lovely place for a romantic picnic for two.

One of the weekends I went with friends, we visited Ram's Gate Winery. Another great spot, with small plates paired with their wines. A great place to grab a snack and enjoy good times with friends.

Napa and the area around it is filled with fantastic sights, not just good wine. My eye always catches sight of a cool building, sign or landscape. But there is always a destination in mind so we just pass it by.

One of these days, I just want to go up there on my own to just take photos. That'd be nice right now...

Resuming proper weekending posts

I started up yesterday morning with a lovely message that I was being featured over at Shutter Sisters for their weekending feature. Happy dance happy dance! This was then proceeded by a mini freakout. Why? Because my weekending posts have been rather paltry.

"Ai spends her weekends "brunching" with friends and enjoying time outdoors."


More like "Ai spends her weekends going buggy-eyed from staring at a computer and working."  I have had a few lovely weekends since my last real (only?) weekending post, including two day trips to Napa and another brunch with college friends at our alma mater. Lots of photos but no time to post. So I thought I'd start this morning with my current weekend happenings. Hopefully I will get to posting the other weekending adventures before the year ends.

After doing my happy dance and then freak out, I needed some calming moments with a yoga class. The only thing this photo has to do with the yoga class is that it's a building across the street from the studio.

There is a day care center in this building (!)

Now thoroughly relaxed, I went off to the Farmer's Market. I wanted a little basket of strawberries. Well, for $10 you could get three. And then the lady practically forced me into buying double, for only $12! How could I resist?

Now relaxed but getting buried in strawberries, I headed home to work in the garden.  Oh, and deal with this guy.

He's not mine. I'm dog-sitting this weekend. He's 70 pounds of energetic puppiness. He's keeping my old guy busy.

My little guy is not a fan. Not a fan at all. If the pup gets too close or takes his toys, Archie starts snarling and baring his teeth; it's like he's possessed by the devil.

Gardening produced a few things for dinner. I think I pulled the carrots too early.

The evening was spent cleaning this mess.

Spooky glow of the chandelier

This morning, I woke up to the pup whining. Not quite ready to get out of bed, I caught up on some blog reading. And trying to figure out what to do with all my strawberries.

Luckily, I came across this post for Strawberry Crepes by Ez. I didn't have gluten-free flour though. I didn't really have much regular flour either. Or whipped cream. Or milk.... But I sure had a lot of strawberries!

So I made crepes with whole-wheat flour, almond milk, and marscapone.

The crepe turned out a bit thick, so it was more like a strawberry burrito. But a very tasty strawberry burrito.

A sausage link joins the party

Now that I am seriously carbed up, I need to clean up the mess in the kitchen and take this whining pup outside.

HAPPY WEEKENDING! 

(and happy easter too!)

Weekending and a sweet recipe

What a lovely weekend I'm having! After much needed rain on Thursday, it's been sunny and gorgeous since.

Friday night, I headed up to the city with two of my best girlfriends to watch Mamma Mia at the Orpheum. The musical was meh, but catching up with my friends is always wonderful.

The ceiling at the Orpheum Theater

Today I headed up to Oakland for brunch with college friends. Yum yum and yum! I made a quick and easy dessert, mini salted caramel dark chocolate tartelettes. I had pinned this recipe 11 weeks ago (lovely how Pinterest keeps track of that), and I finally made it. I didn't have time to make pie dough, so I used one from the store.

Mini Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Tartelettes
(adapted from Salty Pineapple)

Pie dough 
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
4 oz dark chocolate of your choice (I used Moonstruck's Dark Chocolate Espresso Bean bars)

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. If you are using store bought pie crust, let it come to room temperature and then roll it out to about 1/8" thickness. Cut out 2" rounds. 
3. Press dough into mini muffin tins, poking the bottom a few times with a fork.
4. Place in oven and bake until golden brown, between 5-10 minutes. Set out to cool.
5. While baking, prepare caramel. Cook sugar, water, corn syrup and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Swirl the pan periodically as it cooks. 
6. Remove from heat once caramelized and slowly add 1 cup cream to the mixture. Let cool.
7. While everything's cooling, prepare the chocolate by setting a bowl over a pot of boiling water. Add the chocolate to the bowl and stir as it starts to melt. Add 1/2 cup cream to the chocolate and mix well.
8. Spoon caramel about halfway up the pie cups, and then top with chocolate. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top. 

Happy there's still one more day to the weekend left! I love weekending!