Breakfast and burros

The Canadian and I got up early this morning to head over to the Durham park for their Exchange Club's pancake breakfast and Cruzin' Classics car show.

The boy has had a hankering for real, honest-to-goodness gluten filled pancakes and these hit the spot for him. For $8 we got a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes with orange juice and coffee on the side and some free James Taylor being blared out of the PA system. Can't beat that! We got there around 8:30 am so not all the cars had arrived yet for the car show so we spent a little time first checking out the crap, I mean craft, booths and Chris made a new friend, Sally the burro.

When I was finally able to tear him away from his one, true love we made the rounds through the cars. Lots of great restorations and paint jobs, but my favorite car shows are always the European cars, not these big American classics.

We got out of there while the day was still young so we put in a little time at Barnes & Noble and grocery shopping before I took some time for my usual weekend nap. And then it was time to settle in for some NASCAR, World Cup, and IndyCar. Good thing we got up early and took a walk because clearly we're not going anywhere beyond our couch anytime soon.

Mini kitchen makeover

First it was our front and back yards, then it was the windows, now it's tile in the kitchen on the boy's to-do list. Chris has been talking about wanting to put up a tile back splash in the kitchen so we've made trips to Lowe's and Home Depot to check out our options. By far our favorite tile was:

 So earlier this week Chris picked up a bunch of squares of this tile from Home Depot and when I got home from church today I was greeted to a construction zone in the kitchen and the boy half way through installing the tile:

About an hour and a half later 99% of the tile was up, pending a couple of pieces around the window sill that need to be trimmed.

Now we wait a day or two for the mortar to set before slapping on the grout, but what a difference a little bit of color makes! Apparently I'm married to the Canadian Bob Villa.

Norwegian wedding

This last weekend the boy and I headed south to Sveadal, in the Santa Cruz mountains, for my friend Kari's daughter's wedding. The weather was warm and the mosquitoes were plentiful, but it was still a lovely evening.

Kari and I before the wedding which happened to also be her birthday.

The bride and groom, Jess & Jason.

Official wedding singer...

We were assigned to the coolest table in the bunch!

The beautiful bride and I.

Yep, they were the cake smashing type!

Then we danced, danced, and danced until the wee hours. And by wee hours I mean like 10:30 pm. This is Chris getting all up in Kari's business during Sir Mix-A-Lots "Baby Got Back". We stayed Saturday night in South San Jose and then came home Sunday. A nice little getaway for the weekend.

And from our regularly scheduled week here's some snapshots:

That's right - Mickey Mouse Birkenstocks. And yes, they are very comfortable for my fat foot.

We got new windows!! Our neighbor across the street is a window contractor so we hired him to replace the two big living room windows, the small kitchen window and our sliding glass door. The windows were done Thursday, and look wonderful, and the slider is scheduled for Tuesday to avoid the scheduled power outage on Monday during which we really don't want the house open to the heat when there's no a/c available. The new windows have a nice, fat white vinyl frame which look much better than the old aluminum frames. And we already notice how much quieter the outside noise is - praise Jesus! Chris has also done some more outdoor improvements, but those are different pictures for another day...

Evening of Wine & Chocolate

Tonight was the Chocolate Fest Evening of Wine & Chocolate in P-town so my co-worker, Dina, and I bought tickets to go together. The event started at 7:00 pm at the community park so we got there right when it opened so we could be first in line at the sample tables.

There was also a silent auction at which I bid on two baskets. One with a glass necklace and earring set and one with a bottle of port and six tasting glasses. And as luck would have it, and because I stood and hovered for the last few minutes to outbid any last minute vultures, I won both baskets! So much fun and with great company - I'll definitely be back next year!

A taste of Spain

Tuesday night Chris and I went back to Leon Bistro for another cooking class, this time on Spanish cuisine. We were joined by my co-workers Dina and Josh to make it an official group outing.

What followed was 10 courses of ahhhh-mazing food so get ready to salivate and loosen your pants!

First appetizer was an anchovy and garlic spread with soft-as-a-baby's-behind bread. I was literally licking this stuff out of my bowl.

A roasted veggie salad in a vinaigrette with a side of roasted parsnips and beets.

Roasted asparagus and green beans covered in some sort of creamy vinaigrette (we didn't get the recipe on this one) that had shallots sun dried tomatoes in it. I could have eaten this dish alllll day.

Spicy chorizo tomato soup with fried calamari and sour cream. OMG - my favorite of all of the dishes. I gave the stink face to the old ladies who thought it was 'too hot'. Bah!

Pan seared baby peaches topped with Gorgonzola cheese, pork belly, and drizzled with blood orange olive oil. Surprisingly tasty.

Breaded pan fried eggplant topped with cheese and a tomato relish in a lightly spicy sauce.

Garlic clams with chorizo over cheesy polenta. Second favorite dish of the night.

Tortilla Espanola, a layered potato quiche drizzled with a Romesco sauce. There's actually a local Spanish restaurant, Leonardo's, that makes tortilla espanolas that I get slices of from S&S and I like theirs better. So this version wasn't wowing me. 

Of course you can't eat Spanish cuisine without having Paella. This version had mussels, clams, chicken, chorizo, and prawns. But honestly, the turmeric and saffron in the rice wasn't my favorite. Meh. 

And don't forget about dessert! A lemon custard with fresh churros. Yes, please! Seriously, I could just eat this, the asparagus, and the chorizo soup and be set for life. As you can see they don't feed you very much and you leave starving. We both liked this class better than the Thai cooking class because the food just settled better with our tummies. Less raw veggies, more meat. The next morning my co-worker Dina and I both agreed that neither of us needed to eat breakfast that morning because we were still full from the night before! 

Wine tasting with the ladies

This afternoon was the League of Women Voters wine tasting event at the Elks Lodge that I attended with three ex co-workers.

My favorite winery Honeyrun Wines were there, but they were doing stingy pours so I ended up spending more time trying other wineries. Nothing fantastic in my opinion, but my friends were happy with some of their finds. And that brings an end to my booze-a-palooza weekend!

Sierra Nevada brunch

This morning Chris and I met up with two of my co-workers, and their significant others, for Sierra Nevada's food and beer pairing brunch at the brewery.

Matt, our construction inspector, Josh, our IT manager, and me!

The menu of many, many good things to come.

Course one - a sweet bread roll with Summerfest infused cherry jam and strawberry compote and a few slices of cascade hop aged cheddar all served with a sample of Summerfest. One of my favorite courses.

Course two - a piece of maple cured pork belly over honey malt noodles, caramelized oyster mushrooms, asparagus salad in a spicy broth served with a sample of their recently released Pale Bock.

Course three - malted bacon scramble with hop butter poached lobster and candy cap mushroom scones served with a Pale Ale. Another of my favorites!

Course four - a hop smoked oyster and sausage stuffed quail with a side of Brewer's grain brioche, a fried quail egg over hopped lemon and chive custard served with a Rauchbier (smoked beer). Meh. Didn't care for the quail and pretty much just ate the egg and the bread.

Course five - dessert was a ginger spice crepe gateau (layered crepes) stuffed with Hoptimum lemon curd and served with a sample of Hoptimum. Loved, loved, loved this one.

Had so much fun with my co-workers that we already all made plans to do the next Leon Bistro cooking class, Spanish Cuisine, in two weeks. Look at us making friends - who would have guessed?!?