Tahoe-a-rific!

January 26, 2008

With all the travels and taking care of things on my "to do" list, there's bit a little bit of Tahoe mixed in as well. Will and I had gone to Tahoe the weekend of January 19-20, but the snow was well-traveled and the crowds on MLK Jr. long weekend were as expected, so we cut the snow activities short.

We headed back up to Tahoe on Thursday night to catch some of the new snow falling (San Francisco is wet wet wet!) before we headed to Cancun for Will's work shindig. It was so nice to be on the mountain on a weekday, with no crowds and lots of good snow to take advantage of. I found some great stuff in Mott Canyon. Shaun was also up at the cabin, so we had a good time tumbling all over Mott in the powder.




This year has already surpassed last year's pitiful base, so it was fun to get some good turns in again. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings!

Dine About Town: Scott Howard

January 24, 2008

The sabbatical time is quickly ticking away and I'm trying to cram as much stuff into the little bit left before I go back to work. Part of my "to do" list is to catch up with as many folks as possible, and it worked out that I could catch up with some girls over dine about town dinner at the same time, efficiency at its best.

During the day on Wednesday, Wendy, Will and I decided to have lunch at Houston's and visit Natasha. There's nothing like prime rib to soothe the soul during the day.

I went to meet up with Wendy, Gail, Tracy, Kerry Soo and Lyrica for dinner at Scott Howard, a place that I've always enjoyed and was participating in the Dine About Town program.

I had already had a big eating day, so I opted to select two courses off the regular menu instead of doing the 3-course dine about town menu. Good choice.

I started with the Japanese Hamachi, served with pickled cucumbers & hon shimenji mushrooms, and citrus ponzu. Yum! I heart hamachi. It also makes me think about all the delectable hamachi that we caught in New Zealand and is still down there...
For an entree, I had the Roasted Venison with roasted butternut squash and red currant sauce. It was delicious. I was hoping that the beef short ribs were going to be on the menu (a favorite), but had opted for the venison, which was a good choice. I did note that it looked like the portions had gotten a little smaller, but that's probably a good thing, considering I was perfectly satisfied after my meal and not hungry for more.
I dipped into dessert with Tracy, the trademark butterscotch pudding with whipped cream. You really have to try this if you come here.



It was great to catch up with the ladies and enjoy some more great eating. It's too bad that Dine About Town only lasts two weeks this year, there's not enough time!

La Ciccia

January 23, 2008

Will and I took my aunt Joanne and uncle Peter for dinner as a belated holiday gift last night to our new favorite Sardinian restaurant, La Ciccia, in Noe Valley (30th Street at Church).

We decided to order two appetizers, two first courses (pastas) and two main dishes and split them all to try more dishes.

Featured "salumi" appetizer, salmon and ahi tuna carpacio with smoked eel. Delish!

We also had the Prupisceddu in Umidu (octopus stew in a spicy tomato sauce), which Will and I had tried before and enjoyed a lot. The octopus was so tender and the stew was fantastic with the homemade bread.

This was a featured pasta of the evening, a taglianini with shaved ahi tuna heart, sounded so interesting and tasting wonderful.
We also had to make sure that my aunt and uncle got a chance to try the Fregua cun Cordolinu e Sumini (Sardinian Fregula served with Mushrooms and Pancetta), one of my favorites on the menu.

A featured entree for the evening, an extremely tender pork loin, breaded and served with a 5 mushroom tapenade and herbed mashed potatoes. This was my favorite dish of the evening, the pork was incredibly tender

As recommended by the server, we tried the Spezzatinu de Sirboni cun Zaffaranu (Wild Boar Stew with Saffron and Dried Porcini Mushrooms) which was also pretty amazing.
For dessert, we shared this interesting dome-shaped cake, with orange cake on the outside and chocolate gelato and pistachio gelato on the inside. It was really good.



As expected, La Ciccia did not disappoint. It's a great little place with lots of great food, nice atmosphere and a very helpful staff. I heart Sardinian food...

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

January 20, 2008

On MLK Jr. Day, I headed down to south bay to hang out with Angie and the kids. Our plan was to take the little ones to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, and considering the insane rain, it seemed like a good idea.



Terrina and I had the twins in the toddler play room on the second floor while Angie took Olivia to the bigger kid play areas. Simon was not a big fan of the dark tunnel:











It was a nice way to spend the afternoon with the kids, they have so many great activities for kids.

Concrete Sliding

January 20, 2008

Will and I came back early from Tahoe on Sunday, the snow was okay and the crowds during the long weekend were only slightly bearable. The other plus of coming back early was that we got a brief chance to hang out with our friend, Aaron (a.k.a. Double A), who was in town for just one day.

Wendy and Double A came by our place, and we walked 2 blocks from our place to the infamous Seward Street Concrete Slides. Wendy had discovered these a while ago and we hadn't gone to check them out previously, so it was a good time to see what all the hype was about.

We brought a pizza box to slide on, but there was a nice pile of cardboard that other folks had left behind.


















We felt like we were 10 again, it was awesome.

Dine About Town: Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

January 16, 2008

Every year, I get a little excited during the month of January because there's always San Francisco's Dine About Town to look forward to. It's a great program that SF restaurants participate in, with a 3-course lunch for $21.95 or a 3-course dinner for $31.95. It's a great incentive for diners to dine out after the holiday season. I use it as a good excuse to check out restaurants that I've been wanting to try for a decent cost.

This year, the program is only running for 2 weeks (January 15-31), but has a fantastic list of places participating. Will was out of town for work, so Key took me out to try Ruth's Chris Steakhouse as a belated birthday dinner.

Our choices for the 3-course dinner were:
1) Steak House Salad - Iceberg, Arugula and baby lettuces with cherry tomatoes, garlic croutons and red onions.
2) 12 oz. Ribeye - An outstanding example of USDA Prime at its best. Well marbled for peak flavor, deliciously juicy. I chose the creamed spinach as the accompaniement, while Key went for the mashed potatoes.
3) I had the key lime pie while Key had the bread pudding.




Dinner was delish, and I'm glad that I finally got to try this steakhouse.

Go check out Dine About Town if you get a chance, it's a great deal.

Olivia's Pirate Party....ARRR!

January 12, 2008

Although Olivia's birthday was on Tuesday, her little birthday party wasn't until Saturday. And because I'm such a good auntie (Yi-Yi), I did not go up to Tahoe, but instead headed down to Santa Clara to help out with the party.

The theme for Olivia's 5th birthday party was pirates (ARRRRR!!!), so I spent a good deal of time during the week (thank goodness I'm on sabbatical!) and made up three game stations for the party. In general, I love all things pirate, they crack me up, particularly pirate jokes (e.g. "Did you hear about the newest pirate movie? It was rated ARRRRR!!!!"). However, after this experience, I will gladly take a break from thinking about pirates for quite a while.

The three games were:
1) Guess how many pretty baubles are in the jar
2) Guess which of the four pirates (which I named One-Eyed Moody, Calico Jack, Long John Silver, and Captain Morgan....ha!) are locked in the treasure chest
3) Make your own pirate name by choosing a piece of paper from each box.

And each kid had to put their answers on a little "treasure map" that I had made that they would hand in for their goody bag (a.k.a. booty bag). I had little bags of gold-wrapped chocolate coins for prizes.





Auntie Terrina, bringer of pirate cake, mixer of pink lemonade, chaser of twins.










It was pretty insane with 30+ kids running around the house doing all sorts of activities.



Olivia and her booty:





Happy Birthday Olivia!