mustard and whine

Today, Gretchen and I had a girls' day out and headed on up to the Napa Valley for the Mustard Festival. The weather was excellent... not a raindrop fell on us today, which was a really pleasant surprise. jandrugs.com

There was a mind-boggling selection of mustard and wines for us to sample (the above photo shows just one booth's selections). I particularly favored Oakville Grocery's Sun-Dried Tomato Curry Mustard and Willamette Valley Mustard's Aoli Garlic Mustard Sauce. So many good wines to remember (alright, maybe I was a little buzzed)... and a lot of fun, to boot!

The whole experience made me a little wistful. I was really into the culinary world when we were living in Hawaii... mostly because it's a pretty big industry there. We used to host wine tastings at our house, and I loved cooking... a LOT. It also made me wonder, why we never patronize the local vineyards and check out the great restaurants, when we are in the heart of the food and wine country.

I know, it's just a luxury. I also guess that it has to do with the fact that the South Bay seems to removed from the rest of the Bay Area. We have almost nil access via public transportation (and if you *do* take public transportation, it takes at least twice as long to get where you're trying to go). I can't tell you just how much I miss the convenience of BART, MUNI and the ferries. The recent news that I heard regarding the imminent cancellation of the Bart Extension to Santa Clara County is a real bummer.

But I so do love my food and wine!

*whine*

that wasn't chicken.

Riddle me this... why do you feel so darned sleepy after a good dinner of Chinese food, and then feel ravenous only a few hours later?

Is it the tea? The starch? I am stumped on this one. Or maybe I'm just plain tired and delirious.

But I will say that this is one of the great mysteries of our time.

yeast power

I'm currently munchin' on a vegemite sandwich.

How d'ya like me now?

c is for cookie

I finally decided what I was going to do with that leftover icing.

I made some of The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies... something like five or six dozen(!), and have rid myself of most of my icing.

I also decided to have a little fun with it, and mixed some rose pink food coloring paste into the last batch, and made some big pink cookies for Christine...

I still have more cookies to decorate, but definitely not as painstakingly done as my christmas cookies. I actually never tire of baking... I find it fun and relaxing. Plus, I get to eat the dough as much as I want. ^_^

frosted dreams

Anyone have any suggestion on what to do with approximately 4 cups of leftover royal icing in various colors?

The options:

• Make MORE cookies
  
• eat the frosting straight
  
• squirt onto packaged cookies, i.e., Oreos?
  
• eat with cereal
  

hmm...

sammiches

I have food on the brain.

I so totally diggin' The Sandwich Project (aka the URL of Sandwiches, haha). This site features recipes for many delicacies, such as...

• Bit of Yummy Posh (avocado, feta cheese, fresh asda pesto)
• The Old Peacock Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Ciabatta
• Grilled Spicy Chicken with Dijon mustard and Cheddar Cheese
• Mozarella Salad Sandwich

And some strange concoctions such as:

• Lemon curd...turd (lemon curd & pb)
  
• Milk Sarnie (condensed milk on white bread)
  
• Surf and Turf Trailer Park Style (a big mac plus a Filet o Fish)
  
• The Spleen (mint sauce and grated cheese)
  

Make sure you visit the site and enter in your own sandwich creations! I'm interested in learning what you peeps pile between a coupla pieces of bread. Heck, I might even try it out, if it sounds appetizing... share some of your faves with me in the comments!

Since this is a UK site, there's plenty of Marmite sandwich recipes for the connoisseur of brown yeast spread... which I do partake in occassionally.

banzai!

I'm stoked. I went to Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose today... we discovered that place a few weeks ago... and it has a Kinokuniya Bookstore inside!

I spent a good amount of time this afternoon browsing each section of the Marketplace. Their grocery section is bigger than any other asian market I've seen in the states... and I love it! I didn't have any "real" groceries to buy today, so I raided the snack sections.

I came away with some good stuff... including, but not limited to: Pocky, Tohato Maple Puffs, Carl Curry Puffs, Seasoned Nori, Mug Ramen, Shelley Senbei, and the dreaded C.C. Lemon we all know and love (hocked by the Simpsons!).

I need to go back when I have more time (and money) to burn. Lots of J-Pop CDs to buy... hee!

every flavor beans

The Harry Potter Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans are now available for purchase at the Jelly Belly website. To ensure you get all flavors, you have to buy the boxes as opposed to the bags.

(click for larger image of bean flavor chart)

Who has been adventurous enough to try the vomit, earwax and booger flavors? This bloke has.

a snippet:
"Want some earwax?" she asked.

What the hell, I am too far gone. I try the earwax, then the sardine, the spinach, and the black pepper. Why am I doing this?

"Are you ready for a booger?"

Yes, she had a booger-flavored jelly bean. With trepidation I swallowed it. Not bad.

"Only one more," she says. "Vomit."

eeewwwww! my brother has apparently tried a bunch of them, but "not the nasty ones". hah!

mmm... donuts

Yeah, I know, you spell that "d-o-u-g-h-n-u-t-s".

Kevin had his first visit ever to Krispy Kreme. His reaction to a doughnut hot off the line? "Very impressive," he states with a full mouth of sugary dough. I wore my Krispy Kreme hat almost all the way home from San Bruno. It kept my noggin warm.

What was funny was the couple standing inside the door when we walked in. The wife was cradling the baby (who was obviously too young to chew a doughnut), while dad had his digital video camera, gleefully exclaming, "Your first Krispy Kreme!"

This entry dedicated to my compadres in Hawaii, where there *is* no Krispy Kreme.

evil

I'm convinced that ice cream is evil.

dammit.

I have been eating rabbit food, as proclaimed a few days ago. Tonight, the last bits of a pint of Godiva Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel Hearts were calling me.

The damned evil frosty confection. It's breaking my stride!

NO, IT WON'T!

I will eat more salads. I promise. And I'll stop fighting with myself out loud.

"I'm kicking my ass!" (quick, what movie is that from?)

acid

Holy fook.

I am having an unusual case of heartburn. Unusual in the respect that I just don't get cases of heartburn. Ugh. Hurts like hell, donnit?

I guess you can blame it on today's activities. Let us recap.

We took a drive up to San Rafael to visit the Marin County Fair on its closing day. Before we got there, we stopped at Chevy's in Greenbrae for lunch... Culprit number one. Chicken Fajitas and the obligatory chips n' salsa. Mmm.

Culprit number two: Funnel Cakes. Kevin had never had one, or so he says. We get one for laughs. Cinnamon Sugar.

Still full from lunch when we leave the fair at 6. We stop by A&W afterwards for liquid refreshment. Culprit number three: Root Beer.

I skip on the dinner plans for the kids... they get some BK close to home. Kev and I wait until around 9:30pm. Culprit number four: BBQ chicken leg. I heat one up for Kev to munch on for dinner. I pick off a few bites while I wait for my soup to heat up.

Culprit number five: Egg Drop Soup. I make a quick batch and foolishly burn my bottom lip and tongue on a hot spoonful. I eat about half a bowl of the stuff. I wasn't all that hungry anyways.

Late night munchies kicking in. 2300 hours and counting. Culprit number six... we bake up a couple of Pillsbury choco chip cookies (ya know, the refrigerated dough kind) and down a glass of milk each.

All right, this was a bad day, food wise. This was not typical at all. Ugh. I'm gonna eat nothing but rabbit food for a while. Bleh. I need to go back to my old diet plan and lose this excess crap.

Hey, this makes the second food-related post in a row. Hmm, what does that tell me...?

Someone, please, kick my ass.

Sugar Frosted

Hoppy Easter. Bawk bawk!

It was like any other Sunday. Slept in, made pancakes for breakfast, did the laundry, took an afternoon nap.

And then I spent a good deal of the day making Easter Cookies.

I did all right, considering I was out of disposable pastry bags, and only had 4 colors to work with. But that's not a big deal. All these cookies will probably disappear within a few days anyways!

We're preparing for the big move. Got the crap together for a garage sale in two weeks, purged purged purged. Garage sales attract... interesting people. The wacky ones come super early and act like stalkers... sitting in their cars in the light of the sunrise, watching your every mood. I'm not looking forward to the bargaining, either, heh.

Hmm. We need a link. Funny news is good.

Enjoy your week. :)

I Scream, You Scream

Anyone love Cold Stone Creamery as much as I? They finally opened one in Waikiki and I hit it up while on a business excursion yesterday, on a bright sunny afternoon. Ah, the pains of working in Hawaii. I had a regular sized coffee ice cream with a fresh brownie mix-in and caramel. Yum. Anyone have a favorite concoction there (hint hint, post some comments)?

More stuff I like. Quirky cute characters from San-X Japan. Now you know where I find my Afro Ken stuff. ;)

Today's web art: Google Image Search for "light in darkness".

Tonight is Happy Family Plan night on KIKU channel 9. IT IS TIME TO FACE YOUR DESTINY!