Riverbank Wine and Cheese Exposition 2010

Sunday we stayed close, very close, to home and went out to the Riverbank Wine and Cheese Exposition. The Mr. and I really could have walked there from our house but because we did tons of walking the day before, we decided to drive the three minutes and find a parking space. At first I felt pretty lazy but in the end I am glad that we did because we didn't stay that long. Its not that we didn't have fun, its just that we go almost every year and had seen most of it before. I was excited to find out that Cupcake Vineyards was showing this year. I hadn't tried their wine yet but of course I was intrigued because of the adorable name. When we reached the wine tasting area, the Mr. and I ultimately decided that we didn't want to pay the $35 dollars when we only wanted to try to few of the wines. I was disappointed that I didn't get to try the Cupcake wine but I think I would rather just purchase a bottle some other time. Last year we went to the free cheese tasting, but the community center (where the tasting is held) was too warm, too crowded and we ended with only a couple of morsels of cheese. This year it seemed we might face the same problem so we avoided that all together. This year the expo seemed more 'family friendly' with a carnival with games and rides for the kiddies and there seemed to be more festival fare geared towards the younger set. Because it was pretty warm, the Mr. and I headed to the beer garden. We walked the rest of the expo with refreshing beer in hand. I have to say, I am glad that we decided on beer that day instead of the wine...is that wrong?

 The tasting corral. 

Ginormous inflatable hawk advertising a local radio station. 

Celebrating fall even though it hasn't quite reached us yet. 

This was outside the community center. Downtown Riverbank has gone through a makeover in the past couple of years and the statue (along with other statues around town) is a new addition to the community center. 

This was the coolest thing for the kids that day. A mad scientist concocting 'volcanoes' made of juice and dry ice. 

Who could resist BBQ being sold by the Duke? 

 October 9th would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. It is strange to think of him as an old man and I wonder what the world would have been like if he hadn't been senselessly gunned down. 

John watching over the Wine and Cheese. 

Sensing Sunday: October 10, 2010

'The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria' Grame Wilkinson

What I am:

Hearing: Laundry tumbling in the dryer...more specifically, the buttons on the jeans clanging against the dryer drum.

Seeing: 'Columbus: The Lost Voyage' on the History Channel (Did you know that Columbus had an illegitimate child named Fernando? I had no idea!)

Smelling: 'Chance' by Chanel (Its what I wore on my first date with the Mr. and it is what I wore the day I married him)

Tasting: Just finished breakfast...homemade Buttermilk Vanilla Bean Pancakes, turkey bacon and coffee with Italian Sweet Cream by Coffee Mate.

Feeling: Satisfied, happy, productive, anxious, excited, in love...oh a bunch this morning! Hope everyone is feeling the same!

Fleet Week 2010: The Pup's First Trip to San Francisco

I swear that I do more than escape to San Francisco.
I was confronted with a very tough decision this weekend. Do I go to the Riverbank Wine and Cheese Exposition, or do I go to San Francisco Fleet Week? "Why can't I do both?" I said, and that's what I did (or at this point, plan to do). I don't know why I never really thought to take the pup with me before, considering that SF is such a dog friendly city, but I decided that today was the day to make her official debut. The pup, the Mr. and I headed out early. Well...early enough. We had a late night with friends the night before dining on huge steamed oysters, hamburgers, sausage and drinking good, cheap beer. There was too much food, including pasta salad, an amazing sun dried tomato dip that I must have the recipe for, and a delicious Chinese Chicken salad. It was so good that I was sure I didn't like that sort of thing but have now changed my mind. We ate well and sat on the edge of our seats as the SF Giants let the Braves take the win last night in the 11th inning. The night would have ended earlier for us if the Mr. and his best friend hadn't egged each other on to rally on Mario Kart for the next hour or so. At that point felt I had to step in to put a stop to it. My tactic didn't work too well  because I found myself, with Wii-mote in hand, screaming at Toad to stop falling off the edges and putting me in last place for a couple more games.
I don't know how we managed to get out of bed but we did and were in SF by 11:00am. We stopped to visit my brother at Books, Inc. so that he could give his dog-niece a doggy treat (pathetic I know, don't judge me.) and then the Mr. and I walked on until we reached Barney's. I have been here before and knew the Mr. would love it. We took a seat outside so that the pup wouldn't go nuts (she has a little separation anxiety problem). The burgers are ridiculously large but hard to stop eating. I was hoping that if I ordered the BLT that the meal might be a little more modest. I was wrong. I had to leave the restaurant with half of my sandwich because the first half was more than enough for me. The Mr. had the Chipotle Burger. He loves spicy things and is usually unimpressed when a restaurant insists that a dish is spicy because for him, it usually isn't and he is disappointed. He wasn't disappointed this time. He said the burger had quite a kick.

Oh yeah, the sweet potato fries...um...pretty much the best thing ever and the reason I return to Barney's time after time. 

Guys from Cal Berkeley decorating the neighborhood for Fleet Week. Go Bears!

 After lunch we made our way down to the water. We walked along the 'St. Fancy Yacht Club' (St. Francis Yacht Club) and strolled through the Marina Green. We walked passed displays from the Marine's and of course the Navy. Walking amongst all of the service men and woman dressed in uniform made me feel patriotic and very proud of my country. These are men and woman, as well as the rest of our military branches, who are risking their lives for the freedoms of our nation. This is something that I couldn't step up to do. No matter what your belief is about the war that we are fighting, these men and woman are the true heroes of our country. Not the celebrities or athletes that we see in front of us everyday and definitely not the pseudo-celebrities on reality television grasping at their last 15 minutes of fame. 

The best part of the day was taking the pup to Chrissy Field and finding a spot to watch the Blue Angel's Air Show. We walked to the end of the beach and let her loose to frolic with the other dogs on the beach. It was the first time that she had ever been to the ocean and I thought that she would be fearful (see THIS earlier post) but she wasn't. She charged every wave until she was tuckered out. We caught only the first part of the air show before deciding to get an early start out of the city. What we saw was terrific. I loved watching the synchronized planes leave a trail of red white and blue behind them as they passed. There were jets that, when you heard the rumble of their engines, you looked up and they were already passed you flying faster than the speed of sound. It was insane! We loved it. 

Please excuse to excessive amount of photos of my pup playing on the beach...yes, I am THAT kind of dog-momma. 

Its not the best picture but this guy was gettin' it. He made me feel very lazy for sitting on my duff watching him cruise by. 

I am a pretty sad 'action' photographer so this was pretty much the only photo I was able to get of the air show :(

One last fun note. Below was the most random, but quintessential San Francisco, photo op of the day...

Peace and Love Man! 

The 'Allllll Baaaadddd' Sunday

Sorry again for the delay between posts. Events have been happening but I have been horrible about writing them up. At this 'new' job (not so new anymore), I sit in front of a computer all day. By the time I get home I do a quick check of my emails and designated social networking site and then I try to stay away from it. This last weekend was quite eventful in fact.
First up, my good friend had her baby girl 2 weeks early on Friday morning. Both baby and mama are happy and healthy. She is too cute for words and I find myself 'cyber-stalking' her pictures online (but not in the creepy or pervy way). Congratulations T on your little OG!
I camped out in my kitchen for 2 nights working on sweet treats for the bake sale that I mentioned before. For the Saturday delivery I made, what I call, Dirty Southern Red Velvet Cupcakes and Grasshopper High Hat Cupcakes. I have almost perfected my red velvet cupcake recipe and topped it with a whipped cream cheese icing that turned out lighter than most cream cheese icings I have used before. I garnished these with homemade, chopped pralines. I mentioned these in the last post and was excited that they worked out to be the perfect topping to a cupcake favorite. The Grasshopper High Hat was a devil's food cupcake and buttercream lightly flavored with peppermint piled as high as I could get it. After setting these puppies in the freezer for a bit, I dipped them upside down in a chocolate opera glaze. I was trying to get them to taste like a peppermint patty but ended up tasting more like a Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie (which, in my opinion, was a better turnout). For Sunday I stuck to our traditional 'Monster Cookies'. This is a recipe that was handed down from the Mr.'s grandmother and I make them every year as gifts at Christmas. We also included these in our wedding favors as his childhood cookie (mine was chocolate chip and walnut that my mother used to call 'Frog Leg Cookies' to try to keep us kids from eating them. The 'frog legs' were the walnuts.) The recipe is meant to make an obscene amount of cookies and I had dough left over. I finally got around to baking the rest of them and now they are in my house looking for a home.
After dropping the cookies off at the bake sale on Sunday, I stopped to visit with my grandmother. The visit was pleasant. I left and was in a little bit of a hurry to get out of town to SF to make it to my french macaron class (taught by the same instructor at Baking Arts where I learned the opera glaze used on the High Hats) that I had been anticipating forever. I realized I forgot my phone at home and made my way there to pick it up before getting out of town. On my way there I got into a little fender bender. Everyone was alright but after the police report was taken and all was said and done I was running really late. I made it into the city 30 minutes late and could not find parking ANYWHERE! I finally gave up, called my instructor and hoped that he would call me back so that I could reschedule the class. I met up with my brother at the 'Secret Starbucks' in the Presidio. Walking out of the Starbucks we saw, hand to God, a three legged dog!! My evening was starting to look up slightly. We had some fantastic seared ahi sandwiches at Pacific Catch and we had dessert at the Grove Cafe. The Grove Cafe was adorable, when we walked in it felt as if we were in a ski lodge in the middle of the mountains. It was the perfect setting for my cheesecake and hot apple cider. I dropped my brother off and started for home.
The reason I couldn't find parking anywhere when trying to get to my class was because it was the last division game for the SF Giants (Go Giants!). I have nothing but love for the Giants, but the Giants fans in the city that evening...well...that is a completely different story. These guys had no clue how to drive in the big city. It took me 2 and a half hours to get from my brother's apartment to the other side of the bay bridge. I was beyond irritated. Oh it was alllll baaaddd.
The next day I ended up getting sick, but that is for another blog post later...

Cookies for Kids Cancer and Antiquing

First up...pralines! Why have I never made these before?
Next weekend I am participating in another charity bake sale. This time it is in support of Cookies for Kids Cancer. More specifically it is in support of two amazing young men (Noah and Caden), one beautiful angel (Chase) and their families that have been affected by this terrible disease. I was asked to break out my mixing bowls and measuring cups. Anything that I can do to help I will. A high turnout is expected because of the overwhelming support of friends and a small write up in the local newspaper (Around the Region),  I thought it might be the perfect time to try out some new recipes. I spent the better part of last week just trying to perfect a red velvet cupcake recipe. I am still working on it but I am determined to get it by the sale. I got the idea to sprinkle homemade pralines on top of the cupcakes to make them extra extra southern. After my first attempt at making them I found myself asking, "Where have these been all my life?" They are crunchy, sweet and salty (with my own addition of a sprinkle of sea salt to the recipe). The first batch didn't last for my second try at red velvets. I am actually grateful that I have not known how terrific these lil guys are because I am sure I wouldn't be able to fit through the front door if I had known about them before now. I can't wait to debut them next weekend.

On Saturday, even though it was scorching hot (at the end of September, I am more than ready for fall weather), I took a little trip to the Antique Warehouse. I was prepared to look and not buy but, for the most part, the prices were extremely reasonable. I got lots of inspiration for future decorating. The store is right off the freeway and when you pull into the parking lot the entrance can be kind of tricky to find. Good thing they have flags up at either side of the door to make things easier to figure out. The great things about this place is that it is comprised of multiple stalls that are rented out by people wanting to sell their collectibles. Every stall is different making it a place for all sorts of different styles. The staff is very helpful and will call the stall renter for you if you want to barter on an item. It had been years since I had last been and it was just as fun as I remembered it. Part flea market, part museum.
Below are some of my favorite and not so favorite finds.
The Good...

I had to show some real restraint when I found the cookie cutters and I loved the old tool boxes. I am a big lamp fan as well, can you tell? 

If I was going to buy anything it would have been a tea set bit nothing screamed out to me. I really liked the weathered cookie jar and the ice crusher might be on my Christmas wish list. I found some vintage linens with adorable retro bows printed on the corners that I thought seriously about buying. I forgot to get a picture of those (I think subconsciously so that no one else would buy them and I could go back and get them). 

My favorite things in the shop that day were these AMAZING porcelain bunnies...could you just die?!? I love them so much. These I definitely might go back to get...now I just need to find out where I would put them...

The Bad...

What tha??? Old timey toilet? Kinda gross. 

...and The Downright Creepy...

Nightmare inducing dolls that follow you with their vacant eyes....creeeeeeeppppyyyy...