Hello Friday!

Hi Possums! I was having a “moment” and it turned into a four day stretch of Internet abstinence. I went to the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA – also known as E3. I got to experience a little NBA final madness around game six but made it out of town before the madness of game seven. E3 was the opportunity I needed to really geek out with some cool game developers. Really – I geeked and it was grand.

This weekend I have a good friend’s wedding to get to and I plan on enjoying summertime. Is the living really “easy” in summertime? I don’t know but I know in the summertime my thoughts turn to my home up north.  And , here are some random thoughts I have had this week:

The best bagels in the world – yes I know it to be a bold statement but it is true – come from this joint

And wouldn’t a bagel sandwich be yummy with some of this stuff?

Icebergs are in my head for some reason and I saw this cool Newfoundland berg tracker linked off a Time Magazine blog

We all need to have emergency ballet flats like these

The wedding means it's mani pedi time tomorrow

Happy weekend possums!  

Happy Weekend!

Happy weekend my lovelies. With the springing forward of the clocks, warm comforting sunshine has returned to the Bay Area. My sweeties J, B and L, were over tonight and we actually had the windows open because it was warm enough to enjoy the evening breeze.

I am off to San Diego for work on Monday so I am not sure if posts will be plentiful next week but I will do my best.

In the meantime here are a few ideas you can chew on over the weekend.

My uber cool friend Hubert shared his thoughts on what is cool in San Francisco - he is a super sweetie!

Start thinking about Earth Day – it’s coming up. During April I will honor the earth by only drinking coffee from real mugs – no paper.

Check out Liberty of London for Target.

Enjoy the weekend possums!

Join the Red Party

I think I am feeling red this weekend. Here are some snippets from things I have done:

I coveted this red, Kyocera Japanese mandolin which has a ceramic blade.

I made some perfect cosmopolitans. Okay, they were more pink than red but darn yummy.

I got a pedicure with Butter London’s Blowing Raspberry polish.

I got a yummy cranberry sourdough boule at the Mayfield Bakery.

(FYI – boule is the fancy French way of saying round loaf.)

Cheers to Verjus

Last weekend I took my visiting family members on a wine tasting tour of Sonoma. I hired this fantastic driver Max – you can read about him here. He was extremely knowledgeable about wine, very pleasant and he writes articles for Italian wine magazines – in Italian, no translator required! As I expected Max took us to some great wineries and they were very tiny – definitely off the beaten path. Some were so tiny they did not even have signage on the road. We got to meet the winemakers and the tastings were beautifully arranged, courtesy of Max.

I could go on about the wine but I want to tell you a little about a great product that our first vintners introduced to us. The first wine makers we visited, Karen and Justin, run a tiny two person operation called Garden Creek Ranch. They have a second company, Terra Sonoma, which produces two food products, verjus and saba. Verjus is produced when the vines are thinned to allow the grapes destined for wine to ripen properly. Rather than discard the semi-ripe wine grapes, Karen and Justin press them to create verjus – an acidulant which can be used for cooking, in place of lemon juice or vinegars. They offered us a little sip and it was quite yummy – acidic, but not biting like a vinegar or sour like lemon juice.

You can use verjus in salads, in marinades, drizzled over fruit the way you might use aged balsamic and for deglazing pans for sauces. So far I used it in a marinade for pork tenderloin and in a simple vinaigrette – olive oil, Dijon mustard and the verjus. Delicious over a simple green salad! They didn’t have any saba on hand for sale but we have some on order. I will create a post on the saba as soon I get my hands on some.

Happy weekend everyone!

Weekend Plans?

One of my best friends from Montreal, S, will be here this weekend visiting inlawas and we are planning on having brunch.  She lives in Denver now but I always count her as a "Montreal friend" - weird how we categorize like that - isn't it?  Anyway, I can't wait to see her!  There is nothing better than seeing an old pal.  With S, I think back to times when nobody in our circle had much money but we always managed to have so much fun.

Then on Saturday night I am taking mi madre to San Francisco to see a show - Wicked -  and we'll go out to dinner.  It's only Wednesday night but I am already counting the minutes to my weekend!