Saturday, June 23, 2012

Enormous salad consumed

The world's most unflattering photo of me eating my ginormous salad. I made sure to get every single candied walnut into my pie hole.

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Second favorite

Chris' second favorite wall of treats.

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Harry & David

Chris' favorite wall at H & D.

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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Making & Keeping Memories Fundraiser

Last Sunday Chris and I went to an Alzheimer's fundraiser out at Book's Family Farm on Hwy 99. My co-worker, Dina, was part of putting it on and sweet talked me into buying tickets for the event which was basically a wine and food tasting extravaganza with live music. Horse-drawn covered wagons greeted guests at the parking lot (where the old pumpkin patch was) and escorted them to the back of the main ranch house when the festivities were located.
Thankfully the event organizers anticipated the hot weather and had big covered tents erected over the tables so that the main seating would be out of the sun. When you first entered there was a table full of small bamboo plates and silverware as well as wine glasses for everyone to use. There were local caterers, restaurants, olive oil companies, wineries, and Sierra Nevada brewery there to fill our bellies with.




I mainly stuck with water since nobody brought any sweet whites, only an occasional rose. Our favorite food was from Leon Bistro which is a pricey restaurant downtown (about 2 blocks before the Senator theater). They were serving a half a tortilla topped with shredded pork in peanut sauce and a vinegary cucumber and cabbage slaw sprinkled with crispy rice noodles. It was fantastic! Another co-worker, who does the sourdough baking classes at her home, was also there with bread and dip samples. I tried to buy a loaf of bread from her, but she wouldn't hear of it and just gave me one. Yay for friends with edible talents! We had a blast because it was a group of older, well-behaved attendees versus the stoned pimps and pirate hookers we had to contend with at the brewfest. We take any chance we get to wave our canes at punk kids these days.

So, what do you do when you wake up at 8:00 a.m. and it's already hotter outside than inside? A whole bunch o' nothing. We spent some time this morning at Barnes and Noble with a Venti Cookie Crumble Frappuccino to cool our heels and Chris did a little bottling followed by a little brewing (a new, mint flavored mead).
We've reserved the rest of the day catching up with all the movies we recorded last weekend during our free Showtime preview. Anything that doesn't require leaving the house since it's now 2:30 p.m. and it's 101.5 outside! God bless you Chico summers!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Summer salad time

While checking in on one of my favorite gluten free blogs I found a warm lentil pasta salad that looked right up our alley. Diced tomatoes, red bell pepper, celery, onion (which I omitted because I forgot), Italian parsley, and black and green olives. You mix in some cooked lentils, which I found precooked at Traders, and cooked pasta and coated everything with a tangy vinaigrette dressing.
To make it more substantial the Canadian grilled up some seasoned shrimp to add to the salad. Delicioso! I think the leftovers will even be tasty chilled.

So last night we went on a new eating adventure to Kwando's. For lack of a better description it's an Oriental buffet, but nothing like regular Chinese food. Our intern at work had given it rave reviews and had said to go on Friday nights because that's seafood night. It's in the old King's Table buffet restaurant next to Safeway on Mangrove. There were things like fried frog's legs, oysters on the half shell, stuffed mushrooms, sauteed squid, creamed scallops, coconut shrimp (both of ours favorite), steamed clams, soups, sushi, and there was a whole hibachi grill setup with raw veggies and meat that a chef would grill up to order.
 What a crazy good surprise! Even if I did feel horrible by the end of the night because my tummy wanted to explode from too much food. If we went again I would just get a plate full of coconut shrimp, some creamed scallops, and a couple of helpings of soft serve. That would get me to my happy (buffet) place.

Tomorrow we have an Alzheimer's fundraiser we're going to in the afternoon at Book's Family Farm out on Hwy 99. Of course it's on the hottest day of the week in the hottest part of the day, but we'll persevere with the free wine, beer, and food there. We're troopers like that.  

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Watch out!

Apparently our custodian caught an alligator lizard in the building last night and left it for us. How kind!

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Blood donor

Todays treats were root beer floats and Bbq'd hot dogs at the blood drive. Beat that Wilson!

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Monday, June 4, 2012

Sugar high

Lemon whoopie pies the size of my hand at work today from the resident baker. The Canadian will be in (sugar) heaven!

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Team shirt

The back of our softball tanks - instead of where's my 'b*tches' at. Classy.

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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Who needs cleats?

Today was our only day of softball practice (up at the Moore Rd ball fields in P-town) as a team before our first game on Monday night. And what better time than right at the hottest time of the day, 1:30 - 3:00 pm? I loaded myself down with all the necessities - sunglasses, sunscreen, visor, water bottle, and glove and headed up the hill for a little softball smack down. No sooner did I arrive and greet my co-worker, Dubbie, who was already there practicing her pitching did I realize that I forgot my freaking cleats at home! I was looking at her cleats, noticing they weren't the new ones like mine that she had just bought the day before, when it dawned on me I was still wearing my house slip-ons!! No socks or anything. So I played the entire hour and a half in slip-ons. Awesome. I kept saying out loud "I can't believe I forgot my cleats" so that people didn't think I was some kind of idiot who thought sandals were appropriate softball footwear. But even with my footwear handicap, I looked like a softball superstar today. I was catching pop-fly's, grounders, calling the ball, and backing people up like some kind of professional. I even slid across the grass on one knee, all Risky Business style, to catch a short pop fly. At this rate I'm definitely going to need to get some Susie Slugger baseball trading cards made up.

Tonight we were on the hunt for some new fermenting vessels for the Canadian's brewing which took us to some of the more unsavory establishments around town - CholoMaxx, Wal-Mart, and Big Lots. As much as I dislike going to Big Lots I always come across some sort of food find that is a ridiculous deal. Tonight was no exception.
Gluten free Chex for $2.50, a case of 144 creamers for $5.00 (I usually buy 50 packs at Cash & Carry for $4.35 for work), and a huge container of Pumpkin Spice almonds for $5.00. You can't beat that! And yes, the almonds are deeeeelicious.

Guess what showed up at our front door Thursday evening??
My Ninja blender!! That's Chris with his "Tyler" smile, his homage to our young nephew's years of unnatural, little kid, forced smiles. So what's the first thing I did with my Ninja? Cut my f-ing finger on one of the razor sharp blades - that's what I did. After cleaning up the quart of blood I lost, I made my protein smoothie in the smaller carafe and was awe struck at how fast it pulverized and blended the frozen banana. It is quite a thing of beauty. I mean, the kind of beauty that will cut you and leave you for dead on your kitchen floor, but it's still something to behold.

A night on the town

Just another Bieber-tastic night at Barnes & Noble.

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