Friday Night Date Night

Oh, look!  Another post from me.  It's been a week since I came back from my last work trip and my first real, live weekend in two weeks.  We kicked off the weekend with dinner at Lark Creek, a local restaurant that we have walked by hundreds of times but never went into.  The place prides itself on local, mostly organic cuisine and we sat down to some warm bread and ordered our starter, a tamale pancake.  The shredded chicken, avocado, and tortilla strips made this a perfect, unique starter.

 For our entrees, we decided to roll with a lamb special for the husband, who said it was perfectly done.

 I went with the seared scallops accompanied with butternut squash risotto and roasted kale.  It was perfectly prepared, salty, creamy, and full of flavor.

Just to prove that although I don't always blog, I still can't stop the picture habit, hubby caught me taking this one of my food.  Goober :)

We are off to enjoy the rest of our real weekend- we have a hike and movies on the agenda.  I am also going to be spending time with this little buddy.  (Another photo taken by hubby, don't be jealous of my glamorous outfit).

Anniversary Meals

Since we knew that our kitchen would be a war zone, the weekend of our anniversary was spent going out and eating our weight in delicious foods.  What else can a food blogger (am I still allowed to call myself that?) and a man who just loves food do?  We went to two of my favorite restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed our meals:

Sweet potato fries to share from the counter:

Followed by a turkey burger with pineapple, grilled onions, and black bean salsa:

For our fancy anniversary dinner, we cleaned up the remodeling dust from ourselves and went to Havana for the evening.  They have half off mojito Mondays.  Mojitos are the only drinks that I can actually finish.  The evening ended with a drunken trip to Trader Joe's.  But first- our delicious meals:

Scallops and lamb chops small plates:

Halibut ceviche with plantain chips:

My date for the evening:

Mojito inhalation by yours truly:

And now it's back to sandwiches, salads, and wraps- or anything else I can can make with a fridge or a microwave...and a waffle iron, if that counts.

Do your celebrations involve meals?  Mine always seem to- food is part of a great experience!

Represent, Cuba

One thing that my husband and I love about the city we live in is the extensive variety of the food choices.  Going out to dinner is something we don't do very often (usually by choice), but when we do, we love trying as much as possible.  I usually don't share my food, but this was an exception.
For this reason, Havana Restaurant was a perfect choice this weekend.  Havana is obviously a Cuban restaurant and for some reason I have always been fascinated by the Cuban culture, so getting to try the food was right up my alley.
We started with a mojito.  I have had a fascination with mojitos ever since my favorite sister-in-law took me to a Cuban bar in Mexico and I swam in the minty-sugar cane-rum goodness.  Havana is popular for its mojitos and I went with the original variety.  It was perfect and strong too. I needed help finishing it.

Next we ordered some tapas to share.  First up were Plantain Maduros with Manzana Aioli.  Although the plantains were fried, they were perfectly sweet and not too greasy.  The aioli wasn't anything to blog about, but the hubby seemed to like it.

Next came the Grilled Shrimp with Cilantro Lime Sauce.  I remember trying this dish when I last went to the restaurant five years ago and it was just as good.  The shrimp were grilled to perfection and the rice- oh my was it good!  I don't even like rice.

The star of the show had to be our last tapa- Halibut Ceviche with Mango, Black Beans, Onions, Peppers & Cilantro with Plantain Chips. Not only was it beautiful to look at, it was one of the best dishes I have had in a long time.

The music and atmosphere was a little loud and if you go to the restaurant, be prepared to sit almost painfully close to your neighbors, but if you can handle more than one mojito without wanting to go home and instantly take a nap (like someone you may know) then I'm sure you won't mind the crowd.  I am looking forward to coming back to Havana later this summer when I want a mojito and some plantain lovin.  Until I can go to Cuba, this will have to do.

If you are in the 'burbs of San Francisco, check out this restaurant- it's well worth the trip!

Halloween Night

So Halloween night took a little more out of me than I thought!  We had a great time and I will look back on it as a really fun night with friends!

Before I forget, like I forget everything else, I want to thank Tania for the beautiful mangoes she gave me as my Trick or Treat present.  These are delish!  Have you ever had golden mangoes?

We got ready to go party in the city and took the train there both for safety and because the bridge is still broken.  I ate an almond butter sandwich since I didn't know if there would be food there.

Can you guess what our costumes were? 

We went with a Soviet theme and I was a White Russian and my husband was a Communist. 

We had lots of fun with the new moustache.  I'm convincing him to grow one.

We also had a couple of drinks.  Apparently I was very interested in the wine.

And took a closer look before having some and then going to dance like a crazy person.  We had a great time and safely took the train home after which I promptly slept for 10 or so hours.  

Today we continued the celebration since Halloween is our 4 year dating anniversary!  We went to our favorite restaurant, Metro Lafayette.  We each enjoyed the Tuna Poke and I had the grilled artichoke while my love had the brussels sprouts.  We shared our veggies and ate a loaf of bread together.  It was glorious.  Here is my hot date for the night:

And this was what he got:

I was obviously very excited for my dinner.  Everything was delicious and most of all, the experience was even more wonderful because I got to spend it with my hot best friend.

Wedding Recap- Part 2...The Rehearsals

Live Trip Update
Howdy again!  My camera died and I don't have much to show you except for the fire that I saw on the runway from the hotel.  Apparently they didn't think it was a big deal because they let it keep burning and then did it again.  I felt quite safe today.

Back to the recap! Rehearsal Part 1
Since we had never been married, we needed 2 rehearsal dinners- this is something we do not take lightly!  The first rehearsal actually started with a practice run of our ceremony and it went well.  My husband turned into quite the wedding coordinator and regulated- he got people marching right into place.

We practiced at our wedding location, The Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco.  The hotel was by far my favorite vendor to work with for our wedding.  We chose it mostly for the location and we loved the exposed brick on the inside and outside of the hotel

My nephew took the job seriously:

Once we finished the rehearsing (much of which was delightfully wrong when we did the actual ceremony), we went to eat dinner with our bridal party.  I had looked for a place that was fun and captured the San Francisco experience, so we chose Bocce Cafe in the North Beach area of San Francisco.  Bocce Cafe is an Italian restaurant with live entertainment and a beautiful outdoor seating area.  Since it was fairly chilly out and we had a large group, we sat inside.

I pre-set the menu and people were able to order their own entrees after sharing some appetizers.  My personal favorite was the warm bread and the veggie lasagna. 

After our dinner, we went out to grab a couple of drinks and to get our dance on!  We went to an awesome mojito bar with live salsa music and stayed out too late for my own good- but it was all kinds of fun.

Rehearsal Part 2
The second rehearsal dinner was a dinner to practice eating.  Something you should know about my family is that food is important- eating it, preparing it, talking about it, and figuring out how to eat it without growing another human's worth.  My mom is a gourmet chef- self-taught and super creative (hi mom!).  My parents hosted a rehearsal dinner for our out of town guests and family.  It was a really nice time together and we enjoyed a plethora of Russian foods and desserts. I hope to tap into my mom's arsenal to share some fun Russian recipes with you soon!

We had a classic American dessert- ice cream cake that was brought by my mother-in-law:

Spent some time with the 'original family'

Played, hung out, and exercised:

And could not believe the day was almost here after all that planning!

We were so excited and I think I went to bed and never slept.  I just closed my eyes and woke up to marry my best friend of 4 years.

She's Alive! (Evil Laugh)

Recap

I'm alive and as random as ever. Since I have been feeling sorry for myself and being sick with bronchitis, I've had a lot of things on my mind and no spare time! Last night I took the last of my vomit pills (antibiotics) and I don't know if it's the placebo effect, but I am feeling much better. I have been eating (shocker) but not the healthiest as I was hit with waves of nausea...don't worry- totally antibiotic related. Mike threatened to call me out to the blog world when I only wanted frozen yogurt one night for dinner. I also finished my second quarter at school- yay!

Here are the highlights of what I ate over the last few days. Everything else consisted of various crackers and toast...yum.

1/2 bagel with light cream cheese and smoked salmon:




Work baby shower ice cream cake (because ice cream cake can't possibly make you sick, right?)



Weekend

So far we have had a productive day. We woke up to go to services not only to be spiritual, but because we have been trying to be active and meet our wedding officiant outside of um...the wedding day. Now we don't have the best timing, but he has been out of town each time we have gone there. I'm starting to think I'm in the wrong field. The whole experience was still nice and we had a good time and got some errands done. The best part is that we spent the whole day on foot and estimate about 3 miles each way- much more exercise than I have had in weeks!

First, we went to Whole Foods to redeem the coupons I received last night from the lovely Kristina of Stoneyfield Farms. She gave me coupons to try Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt! This is my first blog product trial and I'm taking it seriously! She also sent this cute bag that I'll be using to bring my lunch.




I haven't tried the yogurt yet, but my intern promised he would do one of the review for me, so you'll get to see another perspective on this. I told you I was taking this seriously!

After we went to get the yogurt, we went to a Thai restaurant. I'm still not sure how I feel about Thai. I know I like it, but it's never the first cuisine that pops into my head when I want to go out to eat. The restaurant is called Erewan is really cute inside. I particularly loved their menus:




I got the Pumpkin red curry tofu with jasmin brown rice and a fresh spring roll (not fried). It was delicious. I ate the roll, 1/3 of the rice, the side salad, and 1/2 of the entree.






Since we walked home, I was able to digest pretty quickly and got started on some earth shattering activities like laundry, cleaning the kitchen, the the landslide that our home has turned into since I have not felt well.

Phew...that was long. I'm off to do some wedding junk on the computer and fold some laundry. Don't be jealous!

Indian and Fighting the Bug

I made it through Monday and Tuesday and now it's time for a quick re-cap. Work has been busy as ever and I am getting used to the longer hours. I got home at 8:00 PM this evening, with all intentions to go to the gym, but it didn't happen. I am going to do a 'commercial workout' while I watch TV and attempt to fall asleep early since I'm fighting something. I thought that my cold had gone away, but I have had a lingering cough and congestion. That meant that my run would not work so well...If I don't do anything tonight, I'll cough it up tomorrow and confess!

Now, here are the eats of today (except for a boring tortilla with pumpkin and better n' pb)


First- a packet of Raspberry Vitamins:



Lunch was a fruit and yogurt parfait- office style. I wanted to add in some citrus fruits for extra Vitamin C and incorporate it into my craving for cereal. This is one orange, one kiwi, 3/4 cup Honey Nut Cheerios (Mari Style), and 6 oz nonfat vanilla yogurt:





This wasn't much protein, so I added some baked marinated tofu (about 1.5 servings):





Since I was staying at work until 6:30, I had about 1 serving of trailmix from the office stash and an unpictured orange:





Dinner came at 8:00. I had about a cup of homemade vegetable barley soup. I also wanted some salsa with some rice crackers. I had about 8 crackers and 3 tbsp of salsa (heaping, heaping spoons of salsa!)





I had a couple of mini chocolate meringues and one cranberry dipper left over from my party. These things have been in my pantry for 2 weeks now and I can't waste food right? I was hoping to get through more, but I'm just not feeling dessert tonight- a sure sign that I'm not myself.


Now on to Indian Food!

Indian food is my fiance's favorite food. I like it just enough to settle on going to dinner there since we had a coupon. There are several things I like about Indian food- the variety, the spice, the vegetarian option. However, I don't like it because it tends to be greasy and while it may be a leftover of the 90's 'fat fear', I just don't feel like it's that healthy. We went to our favorite place right next to our house. It doesn't look like too much from the outside, but the service is excellent and the food is pretty good too!




We ordered 2 dishes that came with rice to split and whole wheat Naan.

Here is the Chicken Tikka Kebab (my order):




My fiance ordered another chicken dish...I totally forgot the name (can you spot me mid-fork action?):





The restaurant also provides yummy spices- the bright green one is minty and awesome (future hubby mid-bite...we don't mess around here)!




I ate about 1/3 of the kebabs, a few of the veggies since they were drenched in oil, a little rice, and a bite of naan (also visibly oily). I also stole about 1/4 of Mike's entree. The boy did a much better job than I did and ate about half of everything he ordered as well as mine. He took the rest home for lunch so the meal was well worth it!

Alright kids, I'm off to do some crunches, lunges, pushups, stair dips, and whatever else I can fit in without hurting myself in the living room!

ETA- I got my bootay in gear and did the following quick and dirty workout between coughs:
-Jumping jacks and running up and down the stairs to get warm
- 3 sets of alternating lunges with 10 pound weights
-3 sets of 10 shoulder presses with 10 pound weights
-3 sets of 12 'bench press' on the ball
-3 sets of pushups on the ball
-2 wall sits (1 minute each)
- 2 sets of 15 crunches on the ball
-3 sets of kickbacks (down on all floors, raising legs up at 90 degree angle)