Pre-Birthday Goodness

December 20, 2006

I am turning 30 years old in the imminent future, and Key wasn't going to be able to make my birthday dinner, so I hung out with Key for an early birthday session. We went for some yummy vietnamese food at Sunflower in the Mission with Katharine and Will first. More importantly, Key came out of baking retirement and made me a sweet ice cream cake!

It was awesome, there was a chocolate cake bottom layer, mint chocolate chip ice cream, a white cake layer, and then vanilla chip and vanilla ice cream top layer. And then Key covered the entire cake in crushed mint candy cane...delicious! I'm so honored!

Thanks Key!

Beware: Cute Baby Pics From Babysitting

December 17, 2006

Big Wheel

December 16, 2006

On Friday night, Will and I went to Kilowatt in the Mission to meet up with a slew of boys that we hadn't seen in quite some time, namely: JonZ, Pete, Damien, Woody, Big Jim, MG, Idris, Bruss, and so on and so on. It was also the site of Pete's company post-holiday dinner party.

In general, there was drinking, carousing, and jovial catching-up. The funny story of the evening is the "Big Wheel" that occurred. I did not participate for fear of passing out on a dirty grungy bar floor. But I watched and took pictures...

What is a Big Wheel?
1) Irish Car Bomb: Shot of Jamieson's and Bailey Irish Cream dropped in Guiness

2) Boilermaker: Shot of blended whiskey dropped in beer
Apparently, this is supposed to actually be a Flaming Dr. Pepper, but Kilowatt didn't have all the ingredients, so...

3) Seventh Inning Stretch: Singing of "Take Me Out To The Big Wheel"

4) Jager Bomb: Shot of Jagermeister dropped in Red Bull

Ewwwww.....

Olivia's First Nutcracker

December 15, 2006

My niece Olivia, is almost 4 years old and started taking tap/ballet classes in September. Apparently, she loves it and would like to be a ballerina (ideally, a princess ballerina).

When Angie and I were growing up in small town Alberta, we didn't have much access to high-brow culture like ballet, so Angie and I wanted to give that experience to her kids, starting with Olivia. So, a couple months ago, I bought us tickets to go see the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker for the family matinee show.

Apparently, Olivia was so excited that she didn't sleep or eat the night before. We wanted to make sure that we were early, as the first 500 kids were supposed to receive a free toy. Angie picked me up and we went down to Hayes Valley for a quickie lunch at the Crepe House.

From there, we headed over to the Opera House (well, actually, Olivia skipped the entire way). Olivia's free toy was a little stuffed toy mouse, pretty cute.

Right before the show, Olivia started having a little bit of a meltdown. She had waited "soooo long!" and was pretty frustrated. She also wasn't quite sure what the Nutcracker was, except it had something to do with ballet, so she got even more frustrated when she found out that it's a show and that she wasn't going to be able to dance. This little girl wants to be a ballerina sooo bad!

I've been to the Nutcracker for the last couple years in a row, but have gone with adults. So, it was interesting to be there with a child, specifically during the slow parts of the show and seeing how tired little ones get. During the intermission, Olivia perked up quite a bit, as they were serving free milk (even chocolate milk!), with cookies and Ghiradelli chocolates. Yum!

In the end, Olivia enjoyed the Nutcracker a lot, especially as she finally knew the story. She kept asking me to read her the story from the program.

Her mom got her one present from the day, a heart-shaped musical jewelry box.

After the show, we headed over to Citizen Cake for some post-show desserts and a glass of wine for Auntie Bea. It was a great afternoon and it will be a nice annual tradition for the kids. I highly recommend that the child be around 4 years old for this to be a successful day.

Offsites Are Fun!

December 14, 2006

On Wednesday morning, I had the novel experience of heading downtown during the morning commute (8 amish), as my group was having a working offsite in the city at the W Hotel. I had the task of planning most of this offsite, so it was fun over the last month to search for a good place. We had a hefty agenda full of topics, and our intent was to have the meeting off-campus, in a nice locale with good meeting space, and where there was a good restaurant on site. I originally wanted to have the offsite at the St. Regis, as I was dying to try the new hot restaurant, Ame (from Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, who opened Terra in Napa Valley), but alas, there was no room for us (foiled!). And that's how we ended up at the W Hotel. Not too shabby.

We spent the morning embroiled in agenda topics, and broke for lunch at noon. We headed down to XYZ Restaurant, where had each chosen menu items from a 3-Course Prix-Fixe menu.

For an appetizer, I chose the carpaccio of ahi tuna with pickled red onion, daikon sprouts & agrodolce cucumbers. Surprisingly, this was not a typical carpaccio cut of tuna. It was almost like ahi sashimi, and we all know how much this girlie loves her raw fish. The pickled cucumbers were delicious as well.

For an entree, I had the fennel rubbed skirt steak with deciccio broccoli, delicata squash & veal jus. The flavors in the veal jus were very good and added a slightly different taste to the skirt steak. The squash was so delicious that I imagine it was cooked in a pound of butter, tremendous indeed.

For dessert, I chose the chocolate caramel bar with candied peanuts, coffee sabayon & salted caramel ice cream. In truth, it was fine, but not amazing.

Here's a picture of the other dessert (that I didn't choose) that looked pretty tasty, the roasted pear bread pudding with huckleberry sauce & sour cream mousse...d'oh!

Our meetings ended around 4 pm, and most of the group had to get back to work or go home to some poor little sick kids. I headed off with a couple managers around the corner to Vino Venue, where we were going to do a little wine tasting.

Vino Venue is an interesting place. It's a smart business idea, but there's a little contradiction to what I imagine any wine tasting experience to be like. The best wine tastings that I've experienced is when you have someone knowledgeable who takes you through a flight of wines, nurtures and supports the tasting of the particular wines, and teaches you a little bit at the same time. For me, this happened a lot when I was a server in Calgary at some higher-end restaurants and they really took the time to educate servers on wines and food pairings. My trips to Napa have been really fun, but it's really rare to got somewhere to taste wines where the staff will spend time with you in that way.

So, at Vino Venue, they have these high-tech machines that are designed to pour exactly 1-ounce pours out of a nozzle hooked up to the bottle of wine. Each "station" concentrates on a varietal of wine. You put money on a card (like a debit card), insert it into the slot, put your glass under the desired nozzle, and push a button. Each 1-oz pour costs different, depending on the price of the wine, so in some cases, it's not cheap. There are little cards above each wine that talks a little about the wine, the flavors, etc. etc.

I stuck with Pinot Noirs for my tastings. I ended up trying about five different pinots. It's a great business idea because people can taste independently, at their own pace, and it requires less manpower to staff this place. It's also good for people who are looking for wine to buy and want a quick taster without any troubles. Apparently this place is popular for work functions too. They have room in the back for food to be laid out and it's right next door to A.G. Ferrari Foods, so you can get good nibblies catered too.

By 5:30, I parted ways with my co-workers and ran a few errands while I was downtown. I hoofed back up the hill after my Muni ride and was amazed at how ridiculously sweaty I was.

Around 7 pm, I headed over to Heather's house for a get-together of the ladies of present and past Brass Monkey for dinner. We ordered take-out Thai food from Thep Phanom, always a good place to eat. The ladies hung out, ate yummy food, and had some quality girl-bonding time on a weeknight. By 10:30 pm, most folks pulled the chute, which was to my relief, I was tuckered out!

The Salt House

December 12, 2006

On Tuesday night, I met up with Adam and Wade (in town for yet another meeting at the North Face head office in the Bay Area). It's great when the boys have time to meet up for dinner, I've been using these times as excuses to try new and notable restaurants that I've been wanting to try. Last time, it was Farmer Brown, and this time, we were heading to SOMA to check out Salt House. Salt House has been open for less than two months, and was done so by the creators of another great and extremely popular SOMA joint, Town Hall. I've enjoyed the food (especially the butterscotch pot-de-creme!) at Town Hall, so I figured that Salt House wouldn't be too shabby.

Salt House, like many other restaurants in the city (eg. Nopa), prints their menus daily, so you've always got the most accurate and up-to-date menu for your perusal. This also makes it handy for me to take one home (I asked first!). Also, another trend is the community table for walk-ins. The room itself had a urban rustic tavern look and feel to it. It was very warm and inviting, with high ceilings, wood beams, and a "weathered" wood floor.

They serve water in these funky milk bottles with their logo emblazoned.

Adam was immediately taken with their appetizer list and had to order:

Salt Cod Brandade, with nicoise olivces and lemon crumbs. This was an interesting dish, not at all what Adam expected it to be. We both had no idea that a "brandade" is a pounded combination of salted or smoked fish, olive oil, garlic, milk and cream. It was actually very tasty, particularly if you got a bite of a nicoise olive as well, which enhanced the taste of the salt cod spread.

Roasted beet salad with smoked salmon, horseradish and rye croutons. Beets are everywhere these days, I see them on everyone's menus and they must be in season (I never keep track of what's in season and when). Yay for me, because I love beets. This salad was a winner for me, as the combination of the smoked salmon (a favorite!) with the horseradish and the frisee was sharp. The beets were damn good too.

Recommended by the server, the Crispy Shrimp with spicy green beans, serrano ham and almonds. The shrimp was very good, very lightly battered and had a nice texture. I usually love spicy green beans, but these had some kick and they almost had too much seasoning/sauce. For me, if the spice was brought in a little, it wouldn't have been so overwhelming.

As usual, I stuck to my guns on ordering something that I don't/can't make at home, so I went for the Muscovy Duck Leg Confit, with persimmon mostarda and celery root. I had never heard of a "mostarda", but it was like a salsa and instead of your typical mango as the main ingredient, the use of the persimmon was genius. It was one of the best fruit salsas that I had ever had. The duck was so tender that it literally fell off the bone. It was delicious and would be a meal that I'd come back for.

Adam ordered the Braised Lamb Shank with farro and parmigaiano crust, which was also a winner. Very tender and the parmigiano crust brought a mouthful of rich flavors that was surprising but very welcome. The portion was generous and Adam could barely finish. Or did he?

Wade chose the New York Steak, with creamy parsnips, cipollini onions and lardons (diced bacon that is blanched and fried). The cut of steak was so tasty, it tasted like a filet mignon. We were all amazed at how great this steak was. I always eat steak and this bad boy was good.

In the end, we couldn't say no to the Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse with cream fraiche and sugar cookies. Thankfully, it was a reasonable little dish that we could all have a taste and not pop the top button on our jeans.

In addition to the milk bottles used for water, there are nice little original touches, like the the hand-pressed logo on the menu, the vintage letterpress letter that was used to keep the bill face down.

This trip to SF is the last before Adam and Arissa's baby makes its big arrival in January, so as a little baby gift appetizer, I gave Adam a little something to take home:

It doesn't matter if they have a girl or a boy, their kid is going to wear these Robeez (best little shoes for babies ever!).

Weekend Re-Cap: Why Hangovers and Babysitting Don't Mix

December 11, 2006

FRIDAY

Hooray, it's the weekend! And I'm actually in town to catch up on life instead on the road somewhere!

It's hard to believe that we're in the thick of holiday season...

In year's past, I usually take the bulk of the lion's share in planning a holiday dinner that just kept getting bigger every year. This year, the idea of a big dinner/party night got kyboshed when I wasn't around for most of November to do the planning and frankly, it's a lot of work. Maybe next year, I'll have the energy back, but this year, it'll be a quieter holiday season. I even RSVP'd no to the annual Genentech ridiculousness, which is a madhouse and you can never find your co-workers that you actually want to hang out with.

Anyway, Friday night rolled around and some Brass Monkey teammates threw out the idea of a karaoke night at The Mint...brilliant! Will, Coco and I were walked down to the Castro from our house in the light rain (SF winter has begun!) and were stylishly late, showing up after 10 pm, where a light smattering of our teammates had gathered.

The Mint is not your typical cheesy karaoke establishments, as there are many "regulars" who can make you look like a sheepish fool behind the microphone. There's a dude named Frank who's the MC/DJ and he runs a tight ship. It's high-pressure karaoke. I chose to drink Captain n' Cokes instead. And boy, did I ever.

Matty was brave and did a sweet rendition of "Tainted Love", originally made famous by Soft Cell.







Heather stepped up as well and belted out Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds". It was awesome.

Next thing we knew, the lights were up and we were getting herded out the door and into the misty rain. I really should've drank more water before I hit the pillow...

SATURDAY

Saturday morning wasn't pretty, as I barely dragged my tired and hungover butt out of bed sometime after 10 am. I spent most of the day being "productive" by cleaning upstairs, doing laundry, all that boring, allergy-inducing stuff. It was all in anticipation of my sister and her family arriving later in the early evening. Angie, Jack and Olivia were going to a holiday party in the city, while Will and I were going to babysit the twins (oy!).

It was insane the amount of "stuff" they brought up for one night, including a pack-and-play with changing station, two swings, baby bath, bags and bags of diapies, wipies, bottles, formula, breast milk, blah, blah blah...

Once we finally got everything set up, it was better. Poor Charlotte showed up in "hungry" mode, so she was unhappy from the get-go, but chilled out after a while. Simon, on the other hand, was boy-sunshine in his party chair all night, the most easy-going baby. After a couple feedings, a bath, and a couple monumental diaper changes, the babies were asleep by 9 pm, and Will and I could finally eat dinner...phew!

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning, the babies were up pretty early (5-6 am), so I helped my sister out with feedings, and we hung out with the kids. We packed up all the "stuff", it took a while. Then we embarked on the monumental (I know, I keep using this word, I do know what it means, it just seems like the most appropriate descriptor) task of going to brunch with kids.

We headed to MoMo's, in SOMA and across the street from AT&T Park. Angie was craving a good egg's benedict and all the places we normally brunch at would result in a long wait and aren't necessarily easy with kids (eg. little tables, super busy, etc.). It ended up being a really good decision. They had valet parking, gave Olivia crayons right away, sat us in a big booth with plenty of room for the baby seats and were super-accomodating.

We had a couple starters:

• herbed flatbread with warm Cambozola cheese, dried figs and baked apples
• roasted beet salad with toasted hazelnuts, Stilton cheese, sliced apples and frisée
• French onion soup
  

I ordered the macaroni and cheese with black forest ham, which was delicious. It was a good thing I ordered it, as Olivia was not interested in her french toast and shared my mac n' cheese.

A washed-out picture of Angie's Egg's benedict.

Will went for the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with Coleslaw and Fries.

Olivia can draw a schoolbus...she's not even 4!

After brunch, I had to go home and take a nap. Kids are exhausting. My sister's an amazing mom.

On Sunday night, I headed over to Berkeley with Coco to Jenny & Nate's house for their holiday party. Everyone had to bring a mixed CD for a CD exchange (great idea!). It was great to see a bunch of faces that I hadn't seen in a couple months and hear all the great stories from the folks that went to Frisbee Worlds in Perth, Australia. I ended chatting so much that I didn't take any pictures! (Inconceivable!).

I chose the mixed CD that Jesse and Lindsay made, a self-proclaimed "booty" mix. It's pretty hot. If you're nice to me, maybe I'll pass it on...