Birthday dinner!

With a generous gift, I was able to go to the fabulous @116 Espresso and Wine Bar cafe.  I had come here once with a friend and I loved the wine selection and food and dreamed of coming here again. This is one of the sure bets of a great dining experience and was so psyched to come here for my birthday:

Started out with a sweet, crisp Prosecco and their Hibiscus Highball (which was potent!):

Paul and I shared the Cheese Plate appetizer:

As well as their Deviled Eggs with Seared Tuna:

I had the Rainbow Trout with Blue Crab and Hollandaise:

Paul had the Cuban pizza:

For dessert, we split their version of Strawberry Shortcake:

and Key Lime Pie:

Such a great birthday dinner--everything was awesome and I left with a happy full belly!

Hello Cali!

We're having a memorial for my mom in the Bay area this week and we swung by SoCal and the girl caught up with some of her lovely high school friends:

We grabbed lunch at Urban Plates:

with my cool crafty friend Linda:

The food was really tasty--reminded me of a smaller scale version of Lemonade:

And the girl and I squeezed in haircuts with Christina:

It was a really quick drop-by to SoCal but we packed every minute!

A nice positive

when your mom passes is that you get nicely fed.  Like a great meal at the local raw vegan cafe:

Or an awesome cafe brunch in town:

Or someone makes you a vegan blueberry cream cake:

Or your awesome company sends you an edible arrangement:

That even a little nephew or niece can enjoy:

Or a friend sends you home with a huge trough of leftovers:

Or brings fancy take-out:

This was pretty awesome and delicious. If food = love, I am very well loved. On a separate note, I have gained approximately 15 pounds.

Tuesday

THANK GOODNESS for Enterprise car rental and their complimentary pick-up service.  They picked me up at my mom's house and I was able to rent this compact set of wheels::

"Chevy's answer to the Smart Car--HOORAY!" shrieked no one

I made it to the Trader Joe's and made salad rolls for my mom, which she really enjoyed.

Thankfully, despite the rain, I didn't get into any car accidents. That counts as a good day for me!

Catch Up: Holidays in the Northeast

We spent the Christmas holidays up in NJ, CT, and NY.  We got to see my mom and of course, the girl was excited to see her sweet little cousins:

And she also got to perform a little holiday concert with her cousins-in-law in CT:

It was the first time she got to meet Josie--so any face time was precious:

After Christmas, we went back down to NY and enjoyed fabulous pizza in SoHo:

As well as delicious Salty Pimps at Big Gay Ice Cream--despite the chilly weather!

Family, New York, and Food--what makes holidays better?

Thanksgiving weekend

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend--starting with some traditional Thanksgiving noshes:

I also made a gluten-free vegan pumpkin pie and vegan coffee cake!

But the exciting part was a visit from our friend Tom and his boys on Saturday--just in time to be enlisted in the Garnet Army for the big South Carolina victory over Clemson:

Very pleased I got Tom hooked on Green Smoothies:

And Tom, being the devoted Dallas fan he is, was a great reason to actually wear my Dallas Dat Nguyen shirt on Sunday gameday.  And he appreciated my debut effort of the Dallas City Satchel--he was very good-natured about the stitching mess on the strap, especially when I compared the project to a typical Dallas game this year--great and efficient start only to see things maddeningly fall apart and not go as planned when it was almost done.

For posterity's sake, the kids (because they grow so fast):

Can't wait to meet up again!

Eating in SoCal

I always, always have to hit Native Foods when I visit SoCal.  This time, per Linda, I had to try their new Bistro Steak sandwich.  My usual is their Reuben but fortunately, I had a friend who was willing to try both and we split both sandwiches:

So GOOD.  I wish, wish, wish there was a Native Foods in South Carolina.

Linda made me these awesome crepes with lemon butter (I helped make the butter!). The best part? She just goes for it. We were having coffee and she's like, "let's make crepes--I read a recipe and it looks real easy". And we did. I would have wanted to test them out and then worry how crappy they'd turn out my first time out but they were perfect:

I also had a dynamite dinner of homemade soup and baked bread at my friend, H's, house.  Though I think one of the best aspects was this dynamite tablescape with this awesome origami mobile:

and origami napkin:

I also got to try a new place, Taco Asylum, which featured all these eclectic tacos, like duck and falafel:

And wild mushroom and pork belly:

Always LOVE eating here in SoCal.

This week...Green Smoothies

were my obsession this week.

If you're interested in any of the combinations I did, you can check out my post on my food blog:

Ate & drank in So Cal

I ate a LOT while here in SoCal.

Like Brodard's rolls:

And macarons:

And stuffed my face at Umamicatessen:

With these lovely friends:

who would put up with me:

When I photobombed their pictures:

But a nice cocktail always makes for a lovely evening:

Getting Crafty with Linda

While at Linda's, I made and dressed up these Rice Krispies Treats:

And I made this lovely clutch: