Go berry picking (#11)

Everytime we go pick up our CSA box, we get a newsletter along with it. It tells us what is in our box for that week, what the vegetables are, how to store them, and some recipes for how to use them (which has been handy). The second time we picked up our load of veggies, our newsletter had a little headline "Don't forget to sign up for strawberry days!" Turns out, the farm plants twice as many strawberries each year as they predict they will need for the CSA boxes and then opens the farm up to visitors four days a year so we can come pick our own berries.

So, we of course signed up and found ourselves driving up to the farm one lovely sunny Saturday afternoon. We found the farm, drove around and couldn't find a living soul to figure out where the strawberries were. Because we weren't supposed to be there until Sunday. Awesome. We wrapped up Saturday with some outlet shopping and a trip to Costco.

Anyway, on Sunday, we went back to the farm, slathered on some sunscreen and joined about a hundred other folks who were also out picking. Lots and lots of kids, which I can't imagine trying to wrangle and explain the art of strawberry picking to. Strawberries grow close to the ground, the plants probably only grow  about 10 inches, and the berries often lay directly on the ground - there is a lot of reaching and bending involved. Even so, Dan and I persevered and picked about 5.5 pounds of berries to take home with us. We just finished cutting them all up for dessert tonight and we picked them almost 2 weeks ago. I'm super impressed with how long they've kept in our fridge.

It's also sort of boggling my mind how achieving one goal (CSA) directly led to another one being achieved as well. Hopefully this sort of karma continues. There clearly has to be something to the theory that if you make your goals/dreams known, then others will somehow help you achieve them.

That being said, is there anything on my list that you also want to do? Let's make that happen. Or, is there anything you want to do that I can help with? Let's make that happen too.

Transition from plastic to other materials in the kitchen (#34)

We have been making a big effort to transition our entire kitchen from plastic to mostly stainless steel and glass. It took awhile to complete it because every time I thought we were done, we noticed something else was plastic. First we replaced all our mixing bowls and storage containers with Pyrex bowls and food storage. Then, duh, our colanders were plastic and...oops, plastic mixing spoons and spatulas. And, oh hell, our cutting board. Then, shopping trip to replace them with pretty wooden spoons, recycled paper cutting board, and metal colander. And...maybe some other things.

The hardest thing to find were measuring cups that weren't total pieces of crap. We have metal measuring spoons, and glass measuring cups for liquids. But measuring cups continued to elude us. It was really difficult to find options that weren't really flimsy. We found to be any sort of substantial, they had to be one piece of metal instead of cups with the handles fused on separately. And...most of those sets were $40 or more (Paula Deen's were $70). Um....for measuring cups? How about...no? But, when I was looking on a friend's wedding registry, I noticed a $20 set that was exactly what I was looking for, score.

We do still have some plastic items, for specific purposes. We're looking for a non-plastic ladle that holds a decent amount and isn't ridiculously expensive. We kept a silicone spatula to use on our non stick pans, because you can't use metal on them. Also, ice cube trays. Where the hell do you find non-plastic ice cube trays?

Anyway, I'm counting this goal complete because all the things I really wanted to find have been replaced. A lot of people have asked me why this was a goal in the first place. I'm not going to write a long winded report about studies and everything, but the more I read about plastic and chemicals leeching into our food, the more I just didn't want to chance it. Some plastics were safe a few years ago, and now are known to be harmful. Maybe the same thing will happen with metal or glass, but getting rid of plastic is a step I'm taking for now.

The measuring cups in action:

The purée button is my favorite

In the last year, I've learned how much I melt over a well crafted soup. There's soup and then there's soup! I can strangely relate to the passion the Soup Nazi put into his creations on Seinfeld. I can distinctly recall some of the most flavorful and perfectly concocted soups I've had recently (and for when you're in the Bay Area, many of those have been seemingly simple and utterly astounding sips of bliss at Digs Bistro).

Attempting to create my own bowl of fabulousness has become a new found love affair almost entirely attributed to the purée button. I can't really explain it in any logical, reasonable manner that will make any sense, but I just love that darn button! KK will tell you that I actually get a bit disheartened when we make a soup that doesn't call for any purée festevities of any kind - as if it's less of a soup because it isn't puréed! KK dreams of a stand mixer; mine might be an immersion mixer. Regardless, KK says we can stop buying soups in a can since ours have turned out so well. I say it's because of the purée button. But all the fresh ingredients and significantly less reliance on salt to add flavor probably give us an edge up on the canned stuff too.

You'll find the bulk of these ingredients fresh in the summer months. And just a quick lesson learned for today:

• Lime juice is AMAZING. Try it fresh squeezed over a veggie pizza... holy goodness in your mouth!!!

Southwestern Corn Chowder

Serves 4. Or 3 if you like big bowls of soup like me.

1/2 cup sweet onion chopped

Sauté in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a soup pot until soft.

2.5 cups corn (equates to roughly 5 small-ish cobs)

3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Add and cook for 10 minutes. Remove 1 cup of solids & 1/3 cup of broth and place in blender. Purée until smooth. Return purée to soup pot and and heat until nearly boiling.

1 medium red sweet pepper chopped

1 small tomato peeled, seeded, and chopped

Stir in and heat another minute.

1/2 fresh lime

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro finely chopped

Squeeze lime into soup and top with cilantro immediately before serving. Garnish options include Tobasco sauce, lime wedges, plain yogurt, or sour cream. (Or if you're classy like us, the salt from a Ritz cracker was a perfect match!)

I blame the French

I blame Julia Childs. Actually, no I blame the French. Why does everything in cooking sound more difficult than it really is? Is it to be fanciful or is it to make you feel as if you could never actually accomplish this feat on your own. ...cooked in a wine reduction sauce and served with a tossed jullienne salad... instead of ...we simmered some wine and cut some vegetables in long thin strips.

I believe the answer to my question lies in the fact that even the simplest task requires significant concentration and skill. The knife skills alone in chopping, slicing, dicing, mincing, creating rondelles or chiffonades such that every cut is identical only comes with dedication and practice. Who cares about identical cut pieces anyway?

Just in case you didn't know, today's cooking lessons learned:

• Similarly sized pieces will cook the same and thus have a similar consistency/texture throughout your dish. No more biting into one perfect bite of potato or a bigger bite that didn't cook through or a smaller piece that was overdone. Maybe you all already knew that, but I had never really considered the science behind that before I started cooking regularly. You put it in a pot and it cooks!
• Google how to chiffonade. Seriously made my life cutting greens, leaves, and basil so much easier!

Back to simple tasks. I believe it is Chef Tom Colicchio (Top Chef anyone?) who said his test for chefs applying for a job was to have them cook a single egg. Seems simple, right? After recently making a single attempt for the perfect poached egg, I realize the complexity of the task. One, I don't know how TomTom likes his eggs. Screwed from the get go! Not too mentioned picking ingredients to add, how to plate, how much heat, do you cook it through or leave it a little runny. My brain hurts. Last but seemingly most important, do you add cheese or not!?!

So here's the real question to you all: How do you like your eggs? If you need help, here's 100 ways to Crack an Egg.

We attempted a soufflé. Again, always thought they were complicated. This was SUPER easy, light and delicious!

Brunch Soufflé with Strawberries

Serves 4.

3 cups strawberries (or other fresh fruit of choice)

2 tablespoons sugar

Sprinkle fruit with sugar. Toss gently. Set aside.

1/2 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375F. While oven heats, place butter in a 9 inch pie pan and place in oven to melt. Swirl pan to grease bottom and sides.

3 eggs

1.5 cups milk

Beat together with mixer or blender

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Add and beat until smooth. Pour batter into pie pan and bake until edges are golden brown and center is set, 25-30 minutes. Top with berries and plain yogurt.

Bon apétit!

We are what we eat

I've taken far too long of an absence from being a contributing writer to our blog as opposed to merely proofing and editing the KK show here. We're changing all that right now. It's a big day. I have a lengthly list of life updates and topics that somehow never learned how to magically write themselves into interesting posts. There's not an app for that yet. But really, it's an interesting challenge to write about our lives and only hope it is intriguing enough to spawn comments and continued motivation to share. On the other hand, instead of writing about it, I'd much rather just show you our lives.

I don't want to alarm you, but we like food. A LOT. Shocking, I know. Especially considering we don't ever talk about it or blog about it or anything. But then I realized we have never actually written about our own cooking. (Don't worry, we're working on new blogs to discuss other people's cooking too.)

We didn't eat like this before. And if you look at the country as a whole, we're pretty sure most people don't either. Supposedly the trend is swinging back. But, if the saying, 'You are what you eat' is true, then I'm pretty sure we're a couple of organic, sustainable, no added hormone, grit in your teeth hippies. The grit in your teeth isn't to be trifled with. It also means washing greens is time consuming and we suck at it.

The aftermath of joining a CSA is of course figuring out how to cook all the stuff into something appetizing you actually want to put into your body. A few years ago, I don't think I could have told you what Swiss chard was, told the difference between green garlic and green onions, or known that egg yolks are actually naturally much more golden yellow than most of us likely know.

Now I know this isn't actually our food blog, but I'm declaring this Food Week here! Mainly because it'll force me to post once a day, you to check once a day, and KK isn't here to stop me from such a declaration at this time.

We regularly cook 3 or 4 nights at home with all our local fresh goodness. So here's a few cooking lessons we've learned along the way, along with a recipe, and photographic evidence.

• Best lesson we've learned: Fresh produce tastes amazing!
• Best cooking advice we have to give: Don't screw up things that taste amazing.
• Also, don't burn the kitchen down. I'm sure KK is eager to post about my attempts at this one.
• Balsamic anything is scrumptious. For example, onions grilled in balsamic to top a burger with, balsamic glazed asparagus, balsamic cheesecake (totally made up, but I bet it'd be good!)

Maple Walnut Scones + Chilled Strawberry Soup

(These are two separate recipes that I decided to combine)

Maple Walnut Scones

Yields 10-12 scones.

3.5 cups flour

1 cup walnuts finely chopped

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

(we added a healthy dose of brown sugar in here too)

Combine thoroughly.

2/3 cup butter chilled

Cut in until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

1 cup milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

Stir in and work into soft dough. Knead 5-6 times. Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and about 7 inch round. Cut into 10-12 wedges. Place on greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 425F for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

Serves perfectly with a bit of honey in the morning or drowning in strawberry soup for desert.

Chilled Strawberry Soup

Serves 6.

1 cup apple juice

3/4 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine in saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and let cool.

3 cups strawberries

1/4 cup water

Puree until smooth in blender. Pour into a large bowl.

2 cups plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add to pureed strawberries with apple juice mixture. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

It's more smoothie or shake than soup, but I still licked the plate, so enjoy!

Join a CSA (#31)

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, you pay a farm directly, and every so often you get a box of whatever fruits and vegetables they grow on their farm delivered to you. I'd been wanting to do this for awhile, because I love the idea of the people who grow the crop actually getting paid for it directly, rather than selling it for less than what it is worth to large companies, who sell it to grocery stores, who sell it to you. Also, cuts way down on the amount the food has to travel before it gets to you. This way it gets picked, and delivered...that's all.

The CSA we chose has a pretty wide distribution in the Bay Area and they have the option of pasture raised eggs, which I'm pretty excited about. The picture shows everything we got in our box last week. We get a box every other week because it is actually a LOT of food in there.

If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see: swiss chard (leafy green with bright red stems), radishes (small, purple and white), onions (huge and purple), a bundle of fresh rosemary, fava beans (right in the middle, they look like huge pea pods), carrots, a bag of fresh baby spinach, asparagus, green onions, strawberries, sweet potatoes and the eggs. The paper bag on the left side has dried peaches in it.

We've picked up two boxes so far, and we're pretty happy with it. It does take some adjusting to, and it does help if you've been comfortable making dishes that rely on vegetables, which we'd gotten used to. But now, we get our box and then have to plan our recipes and go to the farmer's market to pick up anything else we want/need. Also - this is all fresh picked, harvested. That bag of spinach still had dirt and mud, so it is a little bit more time intensive to clean/prepare, but we enjoy it.

I'm not sure we'll stick with this specific farm (we have two more boxes to go on our trial run) but I think the CSA idea may stick. Either way, goal complete.

Her Birthday from Her POV

Well, Dan gave you the basic rundown of what he did for my birthday - it was amazing! Not only did we spend the whole day eating (but not overeating - which was impressive) but he planned out a really detail heavy experience. Considering that I'm most often the planner/details oriented/organized one of the two of us, I was happy to not have to do so for a day. Anyway, Dan mentioned the list of the 100 best things to eat in SF. The list can be found here if you really want to read it. Before my birthday food extravaganza, we had had 10 of the items already (#2, 6, 35, 40, 46, 49, 53, 63, 74 and 97 if you really care). The list hangs on our fridge, and I occasionally look at it, but it's not what we focus our trips to the city on. Besides, I have a long enough list of restaurants I'd like to try all around the Bay Area that list doesn't need to be any longer, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, the morning of my birthday, we left the apartment about 50 minutes late, me already stressing out about ruining all the timing of Dan's elaborate plan. Seriously, all the way into the city I was worrying about it, and Dan was totally fine, of course. I felt better when we got to our first stop for brunch and we got seated after only a couple of minutes.

Brunch: Buckwheat crepes and French cider at Ti Couz (#88)

This is an amazing creperie in the heart of the Mission, that serves all sorts of sweet and savory crepes. I was a little hesitant to get a savory crepe, because most of the crepe places I've been, they use the same crepe recipe for both types of crepe, which really confuses my mouth. Eating eggs and whatever else rolled up in a thin, sweet pancake is weird - I don't like sweet and savory all at one time. Happily, their menu talked about the different types of crepes they make, so we ordered one of each - sausage, tomato, cheese (savory) and pear, chocolate nibs, and brown sugar (sweet). Also, they make AMAZING cocktails. The bloody marys the bartender was making were epic, and I had a Ti Couz cocktail which included blackberry puree, champagne and vodka. If you come visit us, we will probably bring you here.

After we left, we walked maybe five blocks until we hit our next stop, which was a bakery that has sort of a cult following in SF, and I'd actually been wanting to try it for awhile, so Dan already was doing really well.

Morning snack: Morning Bun at Tartine Bakery (#8)

The place was completely packed, which was to be expected for a Sunday at brunch time. Before we left that morning, Dan had told me that at one of the places, he was probably going to have to limit me to just a couple of choices and this was the place. I have no willpower in bakeries. I want to try everything! But, this time, knowing we would be eating more, I refrained from getting the bread pudding, or the croissants, or the everything else and settled for what we came for...and a couple of macaroons (they're little!) The morning buns are incredibly soft and flaky without tasting like straight butter, even though I know they use plenty, and then they top them with an orange flavored glaze. Droooool.

We walked a block over to Dolores Park to eat our pastry and generally people watch. It was a beautiful day and there was lots of SF "uniqueness" to watch. Afterwards, we hopped on bus and went North to...a bar. Confusion.

Pre-dinner cocktail: A Fernet at R Bar (#71)

I think the first time I read this on the list, I assumed it was a mixed drink. Wrong. It's actually just a shot of a type of liquor, fernet, which I had never heard of. And you probably haven't either, but it's an Italian liquor that for some reason, is super popular in SF. This particular bar, which is just your average non-descript bar, apparently pours about 25% of SF's total consumption of it! It tastes...completely different from everything else I've ever had. And I fail at words to describe it really, but a few days later, I saw this Boston Globe article on Fernet, which is a good quick read. The bartender told us a lot about it, and served it to us with a ginger ale chaser, and told us to just throw the first shot back to see if we liked it. Tasty! We each had two and then headed on, almost ready for dinner. This picture below isn't of the booze, because we didn't take one, but just of some of the bottles the bar goes through every month.

We walked another few blocks, and ended up outside what looked like a small, family run Thai restaurant. Dan told me he planned to order an item here to go, and then we could take it near where we would be eating dinner and eat it as an appetizer. Good planning.

Appetizer: Papaya salad with salty crab from Sai Jai Thai (#27)

Ok, when he told me what he was ordering, I was psyched. I love love love papaya salad, and I love crab. How could this possibly go wrong? Knowing that I like spicy, but simply can't usually handle it, Dan even ordered it medium spicy so I could enjoy it. And this is where things went wrong. We took the salad down to the waterfront, opened it up and...my eyes watered from smelling it. I had one bite, basically started crying from the spice and couldn't eat anymore. Dan had maybe 3 bites, and then had to go beg for water from a nearby restaurant, who totally turned him down. Seriously, I tasted spice anytime I coughed for the next half hour. We think we may try again, after telling them NO spice because I bet it is really good. (We did bring it home and Dan tried again a couple of days later...he got through half and then drank all the milk we had and 4 glasses of water)

So, Dan told me then that we had to get to our dinner reservation at 5:30, but that we had to hurry through because we had to be somewhere else at 7. I was starting to worry about getting way too full...but I shouldn't have worried.

Dinner: Shaking Beef from the Slanted Door (#7)

This restaurant is in the Ferry Building, right on the water by the Bay Bridge. It has been on my list of restaurants to try for a long time, and is currently one of the "places to go" in SF. Dan apparently had to call a few times and talk them into giving us a reservation, since they were all booked up, but he managed and we got one for right when they opened for dinner. We had a few different dishes but the highlights were the ones in the picture below - squash rice cakes and shaking beef. The squash was pureed, combined with rice, fried, covered with fresh coconut. Could have had them for dessert. The shaking beef was a beef and vegetables dish, in lime sauce with rice. Yummo.

So, because we had gotten there early, we were out of the restaurant in plenty of time, and we started walking a few blocks to wherever we had to be at 7 PM. Like I said, I was thinking we were off to eat still more, but I was wrong.

Dessert: "The Bathing Ritual"

Dan had found this awhile before my birthday and shown it to me, but I never thought we'd actually go do it. Basically, the spa is on the top floor of a hotel, and they have huge tubs that are outdoors on a balcony. There is plenty of cover, if you choose to undress to get in, but when you're in the tub, you can see the sky above you. The tubs are Infinity tubs, so you can completely fill them, and water just spills over the side, and refill on their own (like Infinity pools). oh. my. gawd. They are amazing. See picture in previous post.

Happy Birthday to me.

Pacific Northwest: Miscellaneous

While we drove all the way up to Washington primarily for concerts, we did manage to do some other stuff too.

In between the second and third shows, we took a side trip to Idaho. Because...when the heck else would we ever be in Idaho? Granted, we didn't get very far inside the border, but we visited a really cute lake/resort type town (who knew they had them in Idaho??), went to lunch, took pictures for proof, and then left. Idaho, off the list. No, we did not have a single potato at lunch. But the people were very nice.

On the way back from Idaho, we stopped in Spokane, because we wanted to go on the ride! Spokane has some pretty awesome waterfalls running right through their downtown area, and they've figured out how to profit off of them - the Spokane Falls Skyride. It's basically the same as the skyrides you see at amusement parks, when you want to get from one end of the park to the other. So you get a really nice view of the waterfalls, up and close and personal like.

Spokane also happened to be having a fair when we rolled into town. Who doesn't love a fair? Or fair food?? I was all excited to have funnel cake, or crepes, or whatever, when two girls walked by with strawberries, dipped in chocolate, on a stick. It was AMAZING. It took us a really long time to find the booth - named the "Shishkashack" for their "Shishkaberries." You can get them dipped in chocolate, chocolate with sprinkles, nuts, oreos. Whatever, I'm just hoping they get another cart and come live in Berkeley outside my apartment. They were amazing. Dan got dark chocolate with white chocolate swirls, named, I am not making this up, the "Halle Berry." I have a picture of it, but it's not as sexy as this picture of me with my oreo berries. hawt.

After the concerts were over (sad), we left Washington, only to have hundreds of miles to go before we actually got home. But as I mentioned before, we stop at every possible attraction, or scenic overlook.

Exhibit A: Scenic overlooking the Columbia River

Exhibit B: Multnomah Falls

These falls are the second highest year round waterfall in the US - 620 feet high. (I'm so glad I remember to get pamphlets so I can report these facts back later to you). The bridge (the historic Benson Bridge) was first built in 1914.

So yeah, Pacific Northwest, pretty awesome. Don't tell Dan, but I'm already planning our trip back next year.

Wow. This post is so late it's irrelevant.

New Orleans what? Right, so two months ago, we were in Louisiana. We did a lot in two days. You've seen the ninth ward photos, and the swamp boat tour, which were the highlights. Also, we ate a lot. There is SO MUCH GOOD FOOD in New Orleans.

So, as a quick recap, we toured around the Garden District, walked around Tulane's campus, drove all through the French Quarter and the Marigny, got some drinks on Bourbon Street - where there was more nakedness than I expected in low-tourist season on a Wednesday night,

and generally decided that we would like to go back to spend some more time. So much culture and pride in a place. I really enjoyed it.

I thought it would be ungodly warm while we were there, but it turned out to be really nice. The weather was warm, but not sunny, so we weren't in the bright noonday sun ever. And, all three days we were there, it stormed right around 2 PM to cool everything off. It was perfect weather. Although, bugs. Big bugs. Ew.

Dan and I after the swampboat ride. Notice Dan's windswept hair.

In the Quarter.

Jackson Square at night, while we searched for a working ATM to buy some beignets. (It never worked out, we ended up getting them the next morning en route to Baton Rouge)

Dan, excited about a muffaletta.

Beads still hanging in the trees on Tulane's campus.

I heart grocery stores.

So, this eating vegetarian thing is going fine, although the first two nights totally reduced us to eating like college students. One night, pasta and sauce from a jar. The next night, pancakes and eggs for dinner! Tonight, I think we finally got our act together and made sweet potato and black bean burritos. Feeling more my age again. Anyway, we had to go out shopping for some of the ingredients before we made dinner tonight, and I'm just going to come out and say that I love grocery shopping. I really do. There is something about wandering around slowly and picking out whatever I want that really makes me happy. I don't do as much aimless meandering as I used to, because that's when I come home having spent a lot of money, but not being able to make anything from the stuff I've bought. Now, I try to make a list and just buy a few things extra, but it's hard for me. For example, there were fresh tulips at the store tonight for the first time this "spring" and now they are home with us in Dan's pretty vase. For another example, pita chips. Am newly addicted. My friend Dana kindly reminded me a couple of days ago how much I am NOT keeping up with my new year's goals. Kind of her, I know. But, she's right. I have revisited and am recommitting rather than giving up. Yes, working out. Yes, calling people more. Yes, stop buying less (ahem, previous paragraph). Will definitely need to focus. Although, would rather do myriad of other things than focus. *sigh* Dave Matthews released their summer tourdates. You know I'm excited. *does dance of joy* Yes, I know you all think I'm nuts for continuing to see them in concert. And, I'm ok with it.

Recent goings on...

Well, just to catch everyone up (which apparently is necessary my mom complained today that the blog needs updating)... **My grandmother is doing...OK. She was in the hospital a few days ago for some serious nausea and pain after her first round of chemo - bad news. She had an MRI a couple of days ago and everything looks normal - good news. So, we're kind of all over the place. Obviously, I want her to be feeling as good as possible, which doesn't work out 100% of the time. I try to send positive thoughts her way rather than worrying about her, but who knows if that helps. Thanks to anyone who has been doing the same or praying or whatever have you. So, everything else is going to sound trivial after that. But, life goes on even while serious things are happening, I guess? Last Friday, Dan and I took a day trip to Marin - it was kind of a pre-Vegas birthday/save Kristin's sanity trip - to visit the creamery where our favorite cheese is made. Yummmmmmm. We got a "tour" where they tell us how their cheese is made, got to watch said cheese making and then got to taste all 8 of the different kinds they make. It's nice to find out that our favorite cheese is made from the same local milk we buy our milk from, and use alternative energy to power their factory. Yay. I would totally go back and even survive the long windy drive to hang out in the TINY town they make it in, because the tiny town is super hippy sustainable-tastic. EVERYTHING was organic, compostable, local and whatnot. It blew my mind. I thought Berkeley was intense about it - we have nothing on these folks. The coffee shop we went in, there was a container with a sign that said "Please put used stir sticks here to recycle. They make great kindling!" um, wow. Killing two birds with one stone, our favorite cheese is made closeby to where some of the best oysters in SF are actually (sustainably!) harvested. So, we went to get Dan some fresh-right-out-of-the-bay oysters (I am not a fan). The folks who work there clearly have no patience for the folks who come in from the city to eat oysters, so they don't shuck them and give you about a 3 second lesson on how to open them yourself. Ha, it was fun to watch. But, as you can see below, Dan did OK. Took probably longer than it needed to for him to shuck 6 oysters but hey, he said they were delicious. Cheese=perfect food. Favorite. Dan's (open!) oysters Clearly, they know what they're doing. Cow. There were quite a few. We were out in the country. I took the Friday off to take this trip because the creamery only does tours on Fridays, but also because work has been craaaaaaaaaazy the past couple of weeks. We're right in the middle of choosing the RAs for next year, and the Wed/Thurs AND Sat/Sun of the same week we went to Marin, I was interviewing RA candidates for big chunks of time, as well as doing, you know, my regular job. I was also slammed because I have been teaching my first RAD class in the evenings. So, I was certified to teach a women's self defense program back in October, and this is the first class I have taught (with two other instructors). We had 5 students, and they did SO AMAZING. They started feeling scared and quiet and finished up loud, empowered and confident. This is something I will now totally be doing all the time, that makes me feel like I'm doing something right and good and helpful. It's a nice feeling. To come: Many fun filled kitty photos, to hold you over until Dan and I get back from Vegas this weekend! It's Dan's birthday trip, just a little late. Hooray.

The May edition of 12 on the 12th

Two months in a row that I've remembered. I should totally get an award. Or a sticker on some sort of chart somewhere. (I prefer scratch-n-sniff, just fyi.)

Anyway, here's my day in photos. There are multiple cat photos, I apologize.

10:41 AM - I'm just leaving the house for work (I work until almost 8 PM on Mondays, don't judge me!) And the cats are wrestling. This is quite the action shot.





12:42 PM - On my way out of the office for a meeting. This is my office. Note the ridiculous volume of stuff on my desk.




12:42 PM - I thought you would get a kick out of the fact that I get paid to make charts and such out of things like Carebears.




6:19 PM - This is some of my Hall Association giving away root beer floats to the residents to celebrate their last day of classes (which was today)




7:03 PM - And here are some of the fantastically wonderful staff mentors I've been working with in my class. Today was our last day, just time for students to turn in their papers. Koko (the other instructor) and I would never have gotten through class without them.




7:14 PM - And here is said stack of papers. Guess what I'm doing this weekend!




About 7:45 PM - View from one of my buildings on the 8th floor fire escape. Why yes, that is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset. And yes, we are ridiculously lucky.




About 7:46 PM -Dan and I thinking we're clever taking pictures of our shadows.





Shortly after the shadow picture - This is what my unit looks like. 6 buildings, courtyard, etc. You may remember a very similar view from my summer blog when I was an intern out here.



About 9:15 PM - The stuffed mushrooms Dan made to go with dinner. They're baby portabellas (local, from the farmers market), stuffed with feta and tomatoes. Yum. I know, they kind of look like little creatures with big red eyes. But you know what? They're TASTY little creatures with red eyes.





10:35 PM - Lily independently decides to climb into the office trashcan. Adorable.



11:15 PM - Andddddddd they're out.

Superbly Berkeley

Yesterday was a wonderful full day of embracing the Berkeley lifestyle. We only set out to take a walk and get some food, but it turned into an exploration filled with local produce, public services, and the good old random park festival. Oh, did I mention that we must have walked nearly 4 miles around Berkeley to enjoy all these fun things. Who needs a car. OK, so we actually did purposefully want to make it to the farmer's market. There are 3 each week in Berkeley, you think we could make it to at least one. And we did! The last time, we went to the all organic farmer's market and basically stuffed ourselves with giant peaches. Yum! It isn't peach season, but strawberry season instead. Again, yum! There's pretty much everything you could want: the local butcher shop meats, local dairy cheeses and butter, fresh veggies, hand made breads and pastas. Hungry yet? So we bought strawberries, and mushrooms, and locally made challah bread. So right next to the farmer's market is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park which is even cooler than it sounds because it has a rock climbing wall sized for babies. It's one of those fun things for kids I wish I could play with. (Not like I can't go use the big boy rock climbing wall.) You know what I'm talking about. Well on this day, there was an interesting looking festival with booths full of fantastical things. By interesting and fantastical, I mean it was a Pagan Festival. Not really our scene, but stumbling through trying not to stare was fun. The children running around with brooms, while their moms who were wearing fairy wings all chatted was...interesting. So continuing our walk, we came across the Berkeley Public Library. Who owns a library card these days? I do. Actually it's in her name, but whatever. Our library is actually really nice, who knew! She's basically trying to find as many inexpensive ways to get books as possible. I count about 7 different ways thus far. As for me, I get to read a lot more now since I commute on the metro... ahem BART. Kristin is excited about using me as her book pick-up and drop-off, since my walk to the BART station takes me right past the library. Anyway, we left the library and then went to do he rest of our grocery shopping that we can't do at a farmer's market. So, we went to Whole Foods. Milk in recycled glass bottles, organic everything, buying in bulk, etc. Good times. Then we walked on home. It really was quite a Berkeley day. And with that, maybe I'll finally post about work too. 2 posts in a day... I dunno, that might be pushing it. Miss you all!

12 on the 12th!

WOOT I remembered this month! Let's jump right in, shall we?

So, today was actually Cal Day, which is like the huge fair type deal for students who have been admitted to UCB to come visit, get a tour, etc. So, my staff and I get to organize and give tours of the residence halls all day. Yeah, it's not our favorite day. And yet, here is (some of) my staff at 9:55 AM looking relatively cheerful.



So we were swamped all morning during my shift, which was from 9 AM - 12:30 PM. Of course, here's how busy we were at 12:19 PM, right before my co-RD came to take over:



2:30 PM - Brunch




3:15 PM - Taking a lovely walk in the 85 degree weather. And here is what it costs to have a car in the Bay Area:




3:30 PM - Someone is clearly kind of a big deal:

4:30 PM - Leaving a super cheap used book store, found some plaques! This one was in a series of events that happened in Berkeley through the years...with Dan's feet.

4:45 PM - Gelato! Mine was panna cotta flavored heavenly goodness. Enjoying the downtown Berkeley scene, sitting across from the second picture, an enormous tuning fork. Whatev, it's Berkeley.

5:30 PM - Back from walk and afternoon adventure, stopped to take a picture of the pretty church right next to my Unit. The tall building in the background is one of my buildings. Attractive, no?







8:30 PM - James and the book I bought this afternoon that I already finished reading. Don't freak out, it was only about 130 pages.





About 10 PM - Durant Food Court, a lovely place for college students that is a bunch of ethnic restaurants that are cheap and open late. We went for Italian tonight, with bubble tea for drinks.





Time for bed: