things that keep me up at night
Our celebrations started off with Pilat (or Christmas Eve). We exchanged presents with the junior Pilats, had a great grazing dinner of hors d’oeuvres, and finished off with some excellent carol singing.
The festivities continued the next morning and afternoon with a traditional breakfast for Sarah, John, and me. We ate Christmas dinner at Jon and Ryan’s where Jon did a fabulous job preparing a prime rib. Merry Christmas!
This evening we celebrate the last night of Hanukkah with cookies, candles, and latkes. John buys six giant potatoes which we decide to use three of and makes 17 latkes! He has his frying station at on the back patio to minimize the mess and does a great job. They are so delicious! Plus Sarah has made Norwegian drommer cookies and Monrovian spice cookies.
Sarah and I take some of the latkes to our neighbor next door. She gives them rave reviews!
Happy Hanukkah!
Today we travel over to Palo Alto for another celebration of my birthday. Yay! I get so many cards! Nathan and Sam have crafted their own cards. Nathan’s has stars and planets on it and Sam’s has sea creatures.
Since I have requested no sweets we have a bagel and lox birthday breakfast. There is even a candle for the bagel! Thank you to Ryan, Jon, Nathan, and Sam for a very happy birthday,
Wow, the first time George and I celebrated our birthdays together I was 29 and here it is 40 years later. We are not so spry now but we always manage to have a good time. This year’s Birthdays celebration takes us to Little River, CA. We are staying at the Little River Inn and will also dine there.
On the way up we stop at Healdsburg for lunch at the Healdsburg Bar and Grill. It has food that everyone should like. They are especially known for their burgers. Karen and George opt for a cheese burger while John and I try the veggie burger. I am still trying to stay on my vegan before six diet. The veggie burger comes with a load of feta cheese so I dutifully scrape it off.
The drive out to Little River is beautiful and we pass through redwood forests with their deep shade and ferns abounding. Along the way we stop at Goldeneye Winery for a little tasting. For $15 we get a seated tasting with some nibbles and seven different wines. This is so much better than Napa where you have to pay $50 just to walk through the door!
We reach our hotel and our rooms are pretty far apart. George needs a disability room and our room is on the second floor of a building on the other side of the complex. The room itself is pretty spartan for the price but has a nice porch and view. We are greeted by a seagull sitting on the railing who does not seem to be afraid of people.
We meet for dinner to celebrate my birthday. The food is pretty mediocre but we have a great time nonetheless.
After breakfast at the hotel the next morning we are off to celebrate George’s birthday. We decide to go to a few wineries for tastings and find lunch somewhere.
While John and George peruse the menu of wines WE CAN TASTE FOR FREE I spin the wheel and hit the jackpot – 45% off a case of wine! We decide to split a case. My birthday celebration is going along great!
After visiting three places we find a place for lunch. Stone and Embers is a great choice with a wood fired pizza oven. The oven is so hot that it cooks the pizza really fast and the crust comes out wonderfully cooked with a little char. We sit at the counter and George has fun schmoozing with the owner/chef.
Since the food in the restaurant is only meh we decide to have dinner in the bar. We have a lot of fun. George has found someone who is also celebrating his birthday and we get a rousing chorus of happy birthday with our dessert course.
The next day we ride down the coast towards home stopping in Point Arena for breakfast. I love our Birthday celebrations and this has been a great one.
Since I am going to be away for my birthday, Sarah has made me my birthday confection a day early. I have my choice between pretzel rolls and Dugan coffee cake (Swedish Tea Ring.) Such a hard choice!! Ultimately I go with the coffee cake because it is so delicious and brings back memories of being a kid again.
I just cannot help myself and eat three pieces, two with butter! We are off on our birthdays adventure tomorrow so I tell her she can have the rest for her and her friends. A real sacrifice!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!! We are having the feast at our house and expecting 10 people. In addition to us and Sarah, there is Jon, Ryan, Nathan, Sam, and Leigh, plus Rose and John Henderson. John and I have been cooking for days and things go along pretty smoothly. We have one disaster dish, butternut squash with bacon and sage. The squash tastes terrible and we throw it out. Our only other hitch comes when John puts the turkey in the oven not realizing that I had turned the oven off. Turns out that we only need to slip the schedule 30 minutes.
Jonathan brings a broccoli dish and sauteed kale. Ryan brings cranberry sauce. Leigh contributes homemade Chex Mix for before-sies. Rose makes four pies – strawberry rhubarb, pumpkin, mincemeat, and chocolate chess. Sarah also makes dessert, our family favorite, Indian pudding. I think we have enough desserts.
Nathan has made a Lego diorama of aliens at the first Thanksgiving and Sam brings along placecards. Everybody is taking part this year.
Here are some pictures –
Happy Thanksgiving!
Since the weather looks pretty fabulous in St. George and we will not be able to sneak in a trip in December, John and I decide on the spur of the moment to make our way to St. George.
I think the biggest difference in this trip is that I am trying Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before Six, a new way of thinking about how you eat and the impact you can have on the environment. So most of this post will be about new dishes I am trying out. In addition to shopping and eating John and I manage to get in some tennis every other day until my back just says, Enough!
First, finding decent vegan food on the road is not an easy task. Using YELP! We stop at Hummus Express in Bakersfield. The food is pretty oily but tasty.
Mostly my days in St. George are vegan for breakfast and lunch and whatever for dinner but occasionally I manage to construct an entire vegan day. Some dishes I made –
The days pass by quickly and we need to get home for Thanksgiving so face the challenge of finding better food on the road. Eureka! We find an excellent Mediterrean restaurant, Mr. Kabob, in Barstow. It is kind of a hole in the wall but has some excellent dishes.
The weekend before Halloween we spend some time with Nathan and Sam and have dinner at Jon and Ryan’s. The kids are excited about trick or treating soon and we add to their excitement with a bag of candy and a little money gift in their card. Here is what they are wearing on Halloween.
Of course I have no idea what these characters are although I have heard of Clash of Clans. The fabulous costumes were made by Ryan and Leigh.
At home on Halloween we will have no costumed children at our door since we are too far out of the area of maximum candy procurement in the minimum amount of time. Sarah, though, is dressing up and spending the evening with some friends at a high traffic house.
While all the Halloween festivities are happening we are having Karen and George over to dinner. We have been cooking for a couple of days while we try to perfect our dinner dishes. Wedge salad, beef Burgundy, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots and onions are on the menu. Karen is helpfully bringing dessert.
While we have been away in St. George Sarah and her tomato plants have been busy. There are so many tomatoes!!! Even though the tomatoes are getting a bit long in the tooth they are still busily making tomatoes. Sarah is making sauce and we are eating them like crazy before they start to spoil.
In October we embark upon a lengthy stay in St. George. We were in Utah in September, now this month, and we hope to go again in November. As the holidays approach it becomes more difficult to get away for more than a few days so December is definitely out. We are enjoying our time in Utah and as the weather improves it will be even better. Highlighting this stay is a visit from Jon for a long weekend. His work obligations have given him less time than usual to come and relax and play tennis and golf.
Before he arrives we have a little quiet time with just John and me. It is hard not to spend some time every day looking out the window.
We meet Jon at the St. George Airport on October 12th. Before you know it he is ensconced in one of his favorite spots.
But he needs to cram a lot into 4 days so the next morning we are all out on the tennis court. We manage to squeeze in three sessions while he is here.
He tries to do all his favorite things – go shopping, eat at our favorite restaurants, play golf and still have time for reading and arranging music. He manages to do them all!
But all too quickly his time here is over and after many hugs we drop him off at the airport.
We spend another four days in St. George and after an overnight in Bakersfield we arrive back in Pleasanton on October 20.
