We miss France. We miss France a LOT.
I made Onion Soup (Julia Child's recipe via Smitten Kitchen), one of our staples while we were in Paris. I didn't realize it would take so long to make. But it was OH SO WORTH IT.
After all these years of seeing it, we finally go to the Armenian Food Festival at St Gregory's church near our house. The food was so frickin good! We've been missing out! We will definitely take Clementine again next year so she can try the meatball keufta (as well as the seuberag, the custard pastry, the tomato bulgur wheat, the pilaf...)
More info about the festival HERE (it was their 54th year!)
Russell, Corser, and I spent my birthday weekend in Los Angeles. We stayed at Isa & Jay's place, and we all went out with Monica & Chris for dinner on Saturday night.
Tita Lorna & Tito Raul hosted us for Easter Dinner at their place in Thousand Oaks. The newly remodeled kitchen is uber-lovely!
It's another Cabo Wabo Xmas for the Cayco family! This year, the de Joyas & Chuidians were joined by Miko, Bea, and Monica. Yep, it was a full(er) house this year!
As usual, everyone gathered on Christmas Eve for a Filipino dinner at Tita Yeyet & Tito Pepeng's house.
Save some for the rest of us, Isa!
Christmas Dinner was held at Chris and Erica's place. Keeping our tradition from last year, the "kids" made the Christmas dinner. Everyone was in charge of their own dishes, but we all chipped in to help each other with the prep work in the morning.
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It was another wonderful Christmas filled with Food, Family, and FUUUNNN! For more pics, click HERE to see the album.
We had our annual Xmas tree ornament-making party, and boy oh boy did our friends deliver this year! Here's a creepy christmas poem, music and words by Russell, and read by a friend.
I made some Hoddeok today.Hoddeok is a sweet Korean pan-friend pancake stuffed with sugar, nuts, and spices. There's a version with cheese too, which I gotta try.
I made this one from a package kit from the Korean grocery, which had green tea in the flour. The package kit is just easier because everything's pre-measured. Next time I'll try it on my own, just like Maangchi teaches HERE.
Isa, Jay, and Marley-dog drove up from SoCal to spend the July 4th weekend up north. They spent Friday night in Elk Grove with the Chuidian family (and had a Filipino food feast courtesy of Tita Yeyet, from what I heard!), and drove to San Francisco to spend the rest of the 3-day weekend with us! We had a small backyard grillfest with some old friends who have just moved back to San Francisco. The sun came out for a second, just enough to warm us up before the afternoon fog blew in. Well, that's Ocean Beach living for you!
It was one of those ultra-rare days when the sun is actually shining in our usually fog-bound Outer Sunset District neighborhood. So we just had to drop everything and take advantage by having a backyard barbecue brunch cookout with Justa and Drew. And what would brunch be without bottomless bloody marys?
The weather was rather warm for Corser's taste, so he started acting like a dog (for once) and dug himself a cool little nest in the shady sandy soil.
For more mouthwatering pictures of our barbecue, click HERE.
We escaped to Kauai for 6 days in May. And it's a true "escape", complete with secluded beaches, small-town life, and empty wide open roads stretching out into the sky before you. Our hotel, the Aston Islander on the Beach, was on the border of the towns of Waipouli & Kapaa, which is on the East Shore, halfway between the North and the South coasts (the Western side of the island isn't very navigable). This central location made it easy for us to travel easily to various beaches & destinations. Our hotel was also a few minutes drive to the town of Kapaa, where a few of our friends were born, raised, and still live.
Some highlights: -- Making our way through many of Kauai's beaches on the North, East, and South shores. A few were pretty popular, most were almost deserted. The surf, weather, and terrain varied from beach to beach, and some were more suited to swimming, snorkeling, or just lying out on the beach away from the waves. -- Watching our pal Aldrine ROCK a live show (that links to another performance a few months ago, but so what, he's frickin amazing) -- Chowing down on the BEST coconut manju, seafood poke, saimin noodles, and shave ice (yes, we are NOW Hawaiian Blizzard shave ice believers!) thanks to our friends' advice -- Learning the intricacies of local pidgin language (examples: Never using the word "are", Saying "slippahs" instead of "flip flops", and Heavy utilization of sound effects) -- Wending our way through Waimea Canyon -- Ziplining through gorges in the rain
Click HERE for our pictures. Warning: there are a LOT! We'll be posting videos soon too.
We had a blast hanging out with our Kauai buddies, checking out the sights, and soaking up the sun (in between the rain) while laying on the 3rd or 4th beach of the day. Thank you so much to Ryan & Emmi, Aldrine, and Aaron for being such great hosts during our visit!
Russell's Aunt Lorna invited us and a bunch of other Gong family cousins to her house for dinner. She is going to teach me how to make her famous Sticky Rice! I was taking pictures, but unfortunately my camera's batteries ran out of charge about halfway through, so I didn't get to capture the final presentation of the rice, which was last to come out. Throughout the night, plate after plate of food came out of the kitchen, a seemingly endless parade of freshly and expertly prepared dishes. What a feast, Aunt Lorna!
The de Joya, Chuidian, and Pastor families gathered in Elk Grove to celebrate Christmas together. It was also the 3rd Annual Cabo Wabo Christmas. Here's a picture of my dad, taken in the inaugural year:It's now 2 years later and the tradition is still going strong.
Tita Yeyet made an incredible Christmas Eve dinner of Kare-Kare, grilled pork chops & roasted tomatoes, Dungeness crab, and Lechon, followed by a spread of desserts. It was a raucous night with 4 doggies and 3 cats in the house (Mollie quickly showed them who was boss!), and family members all taking turns at the dining table. Afterwards, the cousins stayed over at Erica&Chris's house. This year, the "kids" would be in charge of making Christmas dinner, and we had quite a menu planned. It was the first time we'd be attempting dinner for our parents, and we have a lot of expectations from prior years feasts to live up to! It was a lot of work, but a LOT of fun, and it looks like we're going to be doing it this way from now on. Already looking forward to Cabo Wabo Christmas #4!
A night of beer-fueled karaoke at the friendly neighborhood dive bar always seems to lead to an urge to cook the next day (like this). And Isa's mention of adobo last night put all sorts of crazy ideas into my head. I ended up waking up to a fever-dream of making adobo-glazed barbecue babyback ribs. Could I pull it off? Click HERE for the answer!
The onset of cooler weather signals the influx of hearty green and orange colors from Terra Firma Farm, the organic CSA farm we subscribe to, located in Winters, CA.Here's our box of produce this week. Loaded with goodness, just in time to fortify ourselves in the wet winter months. One of the things I love about Terra Firma is their inclusion of seasonal recipes in that week's newsletter, like this yummy Butternut Squash and Spinach Soup. Their recipes come in handy for those times when they send us vegetables I'm unfamiliar with, and I've learned so much!
A blog I've been following is Darya Pino's www.summertomato.com, which is filled with information on eating & living healthier. I like her approach, which doesn't focus on diets but instead talks about small & simple steps to improving your health and being mindful about what you put into your body. But at the same time, it leaves room for occasional indulgences without the guilt. I like this piece on Saving Money While Eating Healthy. It's realistic and do-able, and I highly recommend you check it out.
We took a trip down to SoCal to hang out with Isa, Jay, Marley-dog and Sidney Vicious for the long Labor Day weekend. Highlights from the trip: - Sweet Tea Vodka - Del Taco - Scoops Ice Cream (shoulda tried the Brown Bread, darnit!) - Ostrich tacos at El Coyote Cafe - Seeing the freaks at Venice Beach - Meeting friends & family for san-nakji at Masan Korean Restaurant (and everyone had some, yay!) - Hanging out with Isa & Jay's pals Meg & Lyle, and meeting the Charlielator Click HERE for our pictures!
We checked out the Eat Real Fest in Jack London Square on what was possibly the hottest day this summer. The organization was "created to inspire eaters to choose tasty, healthy, good food. Through a vibrant, local festival in Oakland, CA, and a focus on delicious and sustainable “street food,” Eat Real puts eaters in contact with the real people -- the farmers, chefs, and producers -- who make our food." This also gave us a chance to meet some of our rockstar street food vendors who've been making waves in SF this year, see them in action, and sample their goodies.
Pretty much all of the vendors are on Twitter, and there were a few that I was determined to try. We noshed our way through Phat Matt's BBQ, the Adobo Hobo, 4505 Meats, and succeeded in finding Steve of Gobba Gobba Hey, creator and purveyor of delectable Gobs and Gobbles. We were pretty much stuffed by the time we made it to the Beer Shed to guzzle a few servings of local microbrews.
Pictures of the sweltering (but satisfying) summer day: HERE.
I wasn't feeling well today, and stayed home from work so I could herbal/vitamin-supplement myself back to normal. As I tend to do when I'm putt-putting aimlessly around with no agenda &/or feeling under the weather, I decided to spend the afternoon doing what I do best: making dishes from our abundant Terra Firma Farm produce. We were overloaded with basil, garlic, walnuts, and apples, so I made some pesto and an apple pie.
For dinner, we had mushroom tortellini with fresh Basil-Walnut pesto and sliced Brandywine, Marvel Stripe, and Lemon Boy tomatoes, and warm Gala Apple pie for dessert. Happy Tuesday!
Russell, Corser, and I spent my birthday weekend in Los Angeles. We stayed at Isa & Jay's place, and we all went out with Monica & Chris for dinner on Saturday night.
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Hoddeok is a sweet Korean pan-friend pancake stuffed with sugar, nuts, and spices. There's a version with cheese too, which I gotta try.
I was taking pictures, but unfortunately my camera's batteries ran out of charge about halfway through, so I didn't get to capture the final presentation of the rice, which was last to come out. Throughout the night, plate after plate of food came out of the kitchen, a seemingly endless parade of freshly and expertly prepared dishes. What a feast, Aunt Lorna!
It's now 2 years later and the tradition is still going strong.
Here's our box of produce this week. Loaded with goodness, just in time to fortify ourselves in the wet winter months. One of the things I love about Terra Firma is their inclusion of seasonal recipes in that week's newsletter, like this yummy Butternut Squash and Spinach Soup. Their recipes come in handy for those times when they send us vegetables I'm unfamiliar with, and I've learned so much!
We took a trip down to SoCal to hang out with Isa, Jay, Marley-dog and Sidney Vicious for the long Labor Day weekend. Highlights from the trip:
