Picnic in the Park

Ahhhhh, Saturday was so so lovely. It was warm, perfectly warm, and my friends and I headed to the park for some fun in the sun. Yes, I live one block from that park. Many might recognize it from the intro to Full House, and it is also the famous Painted Ladies in Alamo Square. So we hoofed it up the hill, cooler in hand, and had the most amazing picnic/sunbathing session/lie about.
Before the park I went to Cheese Plus on Polk St and bought some amazing cheese and salami. Of course I spent too much money there, but everything was amazing, especially the Tasmanian blue cheese. Mmmmmm.
John's favorite orzo salad also made an appearance, as well as the crunchiest grapes of the season.
I decided after that day that it is the Summer of the Picnic, not to be confused with the Year of the Dog, or the Hair of the Dog for that matter. I live one block from an amazing park, I have a cooler with wheels and a picnic blanket that's actually named picnic time. What else could I need?! And look how happy I am! And how relaxed everyone looks!

Opera In the Park

We had an amazing picnic at Stern Grove yesterday. The annual Opera in the Park is one of my favorite events and we were lucky enough to have a good spot (thanks for saving it Lys) and an even better picnic. We had four really lovely cheeses, the salami and prosciutto, I made more of my now ubiquitous orzo, and there were four salads from Whole Foods.

We drank mimosas and enjoyed the music and company. The music was a celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 90th birthday, so it was really fun to hear parts of Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, and Oklahoma amongst others. It was also nice because I think that music is probably more palatable for beginning opera attendees.
The only downside of the weekend was eating way too much. I have felt gross all day and it's been 24 hours since the gorgefest. Yuck. My pants feel tight, partially probably because of the amount of sodium I consumed and also because of the time of the month. But it is light eating for the next two weeks, as I am in a wedding 2 weekends from now.

Enjoying the San Francisco Opera Co.

PuPu Platter

Sometimes you are just hungry and want a simple snack. This happened on Sunday. After my whirlwind weekend of running up and down Northern California, up to Hopland, then off to Calistoga, a little traipsing around St. Helena and Rutherford, and then to my mom's house in Ross, John and I collapsed on her new couch in front of the Olympics. It was an absolutely beautiful day on Sunday. We watched the Olympics but I spent half of the time laying in the sun in my bikini. I know the sun is bad for me, but I have to say nothing feels better than sweating outside. I love it.

Anyway, we had brunch that day at Taylor's Refresher in St. Helena. I know it is odd to eat a cheeseburger at 10:45am, but we both didn't want to pass up the opportunity to sit at Taylor's when we could. Also we were coming from a wedding and some greasy food is what we both needed to hit the spot. The funniest part is that I work about 6 blocks from the Ferry Building in San Francisco where the other Taylor's is, but I rarely go. I think that diner food is best kept as treat and shouldn't become part of my daily lunchtime routine.

I ordered the Ahi Burger, a large piece of rare ahi with an asian slaw on top. Amazing as always. John got a bacon cheeseburger, of which I had a bite, and we shared both garlic and regular fries.

But late in the afternoon we got munchy, which is amazing considering how full I was for hours after my ahi burger, so I raided my mother's fridge for some snacks. I put together a little pupu platter that wouldn't ruin our appetites for dinner and was mildly healthy. Yeah, maybe a little high in fat, but there was not very much on the plate. Cold asparagus is one of my favorites, so I ate most of that!

I also have attempted to improve my photography skills this weekend. I am simply not a good photographer. Why, I have no idea. But I am not. I think it must be like cooking. I am a good cook. Somehow it always works out for me when I am in the kitchen. But photography, not so much. So here are some test shots that I took in an attempt to improve my ability to take close up shots, mostly of food, of course!

Camping Food

So, I went camping. Now, this statement may not sound shocking to those who do not know me, but this is a REALLY BIG DEAL. After a horrific camping experience at 19 (ok, there was a frog that freaked me out and the whole sleeping outside/no electricity/dirt combo is just not suitable to my needs)I swore I would never camp again. This rang true for almost 9 years, but alas, it was dashed on Memorial Day weekend. It all started with my new boyfriend. When you begin a relationship and you are all lovey dovey, somehow one may be convinced to things they might not ordinarily do. Like camping, for example. So, there I was stuck with the conundrum, if J loves camping and I love J, does that mean I love camping?! Does it work like that? (In case anyone is curious, NO, it doesn't. Love is not transitive like that). But I had to experience this for myself. So off I went with a (borrowed) backpack filled with such things as a headlamp, a mini stove, and wine (yes, I brought wine camping) and I was off. Off into the wild wilderness never to be seen again perhaps.

Living in the Bay Area, the wild is really only a 40 minute drive from the comfortable apartment in San Francisco. I refused to go to the Sierras (there was a chance of rain and snow, and I was RIGHT!) and I thought that knowing how close I was to civilization might help put me at ease on the trip. So J, his friend Brian, another experienced camper, and I set off on our expedition. In an Audi. Wearing my new white North Face Jacket, armed with artisan cheese and tabbouleh and wine. Or so we thought.

Now, the three of us arrived in Point Reyes and started unloading our gear. We were doing a 3 miles hike to Sky Camp and we had a site reserved. At my house before we left we had loaded a cooler with food for the trip. Sausages, cheese, wine, my homemade tabbouleh, fruit, etc. We were going to leave this in the car and refill on day two. So as J and I take out our backpacks both us say, hey Brian, where's the cooler? Well people, the cooler was on my kitchen counter in San Francisco. Brilliant! We forgot all the food. Except for some sardines, a package of freeze dried Chili Mac (needless to say I did not want nor did I have anything to do with this), mustard, salami, sausages, and buns. Are you noticing a theme here? (hint, processed meat). Oh, and two apples I had stashed in my backpack. So, we were going to starve. Well I was. For 15 years I did not touch red meat or pork products. This is changing a little bit. I like to say I am flirting with the stuff, a bite here and a bite there, but I don't really want to indulge of a meal of two different sausages and salami. But not really. We simply ran into Pt. Reyes station, picked up some cheese and crackers and called it a day, or a hike.

Well I have never actually hiked to camping. I have car camped, but this was the first time I had ever put literally everything I needed on my back and hauled it straight up a mountain. It's funny, men say that women are high maintenance, but camping, now THAT is high maintenance. You have to carry your bed, food, light, entertainment (this came in the form of a bottle of vodka), toilet, shower, etc all with you. Staying at a nice hotel, LOW maintenance. And I will give credit where credit is due, I had some help carrying things up the mountain. My pack was heavy, but J's was really heavy.

When we got to sky camp it was really pretty. I got to see things like this.


The trail was beautiful and we saw deer and yellow finches. It was quite nice. And for about 5 minutes I was really content sitting on a picnic table, while the boys put the tents up, and relaxing. Then I realized that I had to sleep there and got a little grumpy. But, I started making appetizers and I was really excited. I got into it! The top photo is of my appetizer, a triscuit with mustard, cheddar cheese, and a sardine one it, doctored up by J. He decided it would be nice to fit every food we had into said bite. So there are two types of cheese, salami, smoked salmon, and a sardine atop a pita. I lied, we had some more stuff than I claimed. This looks absolutely revolting if you ask me, but J said it was quite tasty, as evident below.

After a lovely meal of said appetizers and some sausages that the boys hungrily ingested, I thought, ok, I can eat in the wilderness. And I can sleep in the wilderness. It isn't so bad. Then J suggested I should write a cookbook of camping food and he offered to be my guinea pig. He said we can go every weekend and he will taste all the food. I said "don't push your luck buddy."