My month of no school went by so fast. I am currently enjoying my last week of freedom, it’s nice but feels rushed! Four weeks goes by so fast when you want to enjoy it doesn’t it?

Anyway one of my things on my list of things to do on my summer break was to do some reading. A friend recommended the Stieg Larson trilogy so I went out and bought the first book to try it out. Oh it’s good and crazy, super crazy. I was hooked for 5 days and thought ok I need to take a break from reading before I get his next book, because I need to do things and not just read all day. So last week I bought the second book, Girl Who Played With Fire so I am going to get on that one as soon as I get done with my current book. This book is great I know that I can pick up and put it down at a leisurely pace without feeling like I am going to miss out on anything. Yes! The book is The Sweet Life in Paris from David Lebovitz. Check out his blog if you haven’t heard of him. He used to cook at Chez Panisse, is a bay area native and has had many years of experience cooking desserts. Oh and yes he lives in Paris, my favorite city. The book really answers all my questions that I every had about Paris and I am not even half way through. Not to forget the awesome recipes he has in the book, which to me is amazing, stories of Paris with food recipes?? Love overload! I love all of it. I need to find more books like this, or make Mr. Lebovitz write more books.

I was browsing the food blogoshpere and found this post about The Omnivore’s Hundred from the blog Very Good Taste. You just copy and paste the list and bold anything that you have eaten on the list.

Here is my 100

On My Plate’s Hundred

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Not to say this list is lame, but some of them I do not think should be on this list, like churro, eggs benedict, root beer float. Or the asian influence like pocky, which everyone has had or at least seen growing up, why are those so special, I don’t think those are special at all. But hey who knows could be someone’s all time favorite thing, or things that I would never eat anyway like roadkill. Really? Maybe it should be called a foodie’s 100 and have quite a few edits and then it would make more sense to me. But it was kind of fun to see what I have eaten off the list. In the end, a cute idea.

This past weekend was a good time. On Saturday we had a girls dinner at Eddie Papas in Pleasanton. It’s good Americana food, we even had a smores hibachi for dessert. Very cool and hot on my face!

We hung out at the lounge and chilled with friends I mean looking back we would hang out every weekend back when we were younger, single and big drinkers. Now a days we are older, married off and moderate to light drinkers! ha! It’s true and I think the biggest thing that caused that is the fact we got older and have bad hangovers if we over indulge! Ah life. I saw baby Luke and took a couple of snaps of him getting out of the bath. The rest of our lovely weekend was filled with yard and house work, lovely I know!

Smores Hibachi

husbands showing us how real men ride bikes or scissoring either one works

I’m an Aunty again!! My brother who lives in Hawaii is celebrating the arrival of his third child Brooklyn Tomiye. She was born via c-section two days ago.

She was 7 lbs, 8 oz, and 20.5 inches. She is the first girl and baby of the family so you know she will be one protected spoiled baby! Kim and Doug did another wonderful job bringing beautiful babies into the world. Brent and I cannot wait to meet her!!

The drive up from Point Reyes was really calming, the water and the trees was a refreshing sight, but unfortunately we got to drive through a bunch of dairy farms right after that to get to Santa Rosa, it was nice and stinky!

After we arrived in Santa Rosa we walked from our hotel to downtown. Santa Rosa down town really doesn’t get enough credit. I really enjoyed hanging out there on the weekend it is no SF, it is not like SJ, it is just laid back and really cute. Lots of outdoor dining, and many cute little places to eat and hang out. Brent’s favorite brewery is Russian River so we got our drink on and had a nice tasting of our favorite sour beers. For dinner we just had a casual sushi dinner near the hotel since our nice big dinner was the following day. We had some really good fried oysters for the first time and oysters are pretty tasty fried! Anyway, the next evening we met with Brent’s parents and Brent’s brother and sister in law at Bottega in Yountville. I have wanted to eat at this restaurant for a while and knew everyone in the family would really enjoy it. If your looking for a wine country dinner spot, this is the place to go. Casual but still special and the prices are not the highest around, so you cannot beat that. Plus it is Michael Chiarello’s restaurant who had a show on the food network and is well known around wine country. Seriously go now!  Brent had a great birthday, and we were both really happy to get away for the weekend to drink good beer, eat good food, and unplug from life’s day to day responsibilities. Brent said his birthday was one of the best he’s had so that is all I can ask for.

A couple weekends ago Brent turned 32. Brent wanted a memorable birthday this year so we planned a weekend mini break to Santa Rosa with a family dinner in Yountville.

On the way up to Santa Rosa, we decided to take a small trip for lunch in Point Reyes. I have never been but I know they are close to all the famous oyster spots and that it’s just a cute little town. I thought Point Reyes Station was really cute, all the food local and organic. For lunch we sat in the back patio of  The Station House Cafe, I had a great clam chowder with a garden salad with a sparkling juice. Brent had some really good fish tacos with black beans, and we shared a plate of oysters. They were delicious. I forgot how much I love  oysters, I highly recommend a trip up there if you enjoy oysters. Then we visited Bovine bakery, I got a rasberry almond torte, and Brent got a huge blueberry scone, I think that was the best scone I ever had!! We saved our pastries to eat the next day with our morning coffee, which I realize is something Brent and I do a lot when we go on vacation. Enjoy the first segment of Brent’s B-day weekend photos!

on our way to Point Reyes

Tomales Bay Foods

a cute house

where we had lunch

Since our plans for SF fell through we made our anniversary more then just one date night and took advantage of Memorial Day weekend.

We had a delicious dinner at Los Gatos Grill which is part of the same restaurant as Rutherford Grill in Napa which is crazy good! Los Gatos Grill was still really good but I still favor Rutherford Grill.  Then saturday we had a picnic at Alum Rock Park which is only a few miles from our house, it was relaxing and felt nice to get out. Picnics and other outdoor activities aren’t things Brent and I do very often. Then we had a very special and delicious dinner at Dio Deka in Lost Gatos, which is high end Greek food, this place is so good and everything was perfect. It was a very memorable special dinner and people celebrating their special occasions as well.  Then on Monday we relaxed and took it easy at home with a light bbq dinner. Brent had some work to do so we just took it easy.  It was a really perfect anniversary weekend.

This sunday is our first anniversary! This time last year I was getting ready to get married, I was probably stressed and had a to do list a mile long!! This year of marriage has gone by so fast, and I love my husband more everyday. He’s the best thing to happen to me, I love him like crazy!! Ok back to my story, so Brent and I made some dinner reservations for saturday at a cute and romantic restaurant in the Mission in SF a few weeks ago. We planned on just keeping it mellow and having a nice date night. We didn’t even know that it was a three day weekend till after we made our reservation, which we liked so we can have an extra day to relax. Until this morning while watching the news hubby told me that Carnaval is going on in the Mission this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. They expect oh ya know just around 20, 000 people. Waaa?? I was discouraged, my plans my wonderful little plans for a nice night out became compromised! I was defeated all morning until I came up with some new plans.

We could have kept our reservations but I didn’t want to add any stress to our evening, I just got done with my finals, and Brent is working like crazy at his new job so anything hectic or too busy is not what we have in mind. I instead looked around online at some restaurants that I have wanted to try but never had a chance to. Problem is at most nicer restaurants trying to book a table at seven the night before is kind of out of the question, booked, booked, booked. So I thought hey the next night I can reserve a nicer restaurant since husband has monday off so at least we can eat dinner on our official anniversary at a normal time. Then I reserved dinner tomorrow at 5:30 it’s a really good restaurant with no corkage fee! So anyway long story short, kinda, our foiled dinner plans are now all fixed and we get to celebrate our fist anniversary at restaurants close to home rather then over an hour away. So now our weekend will be eating out, hiking, picnic and relaxing. I am thinking next year Brent can plan our anniversary, we can switch off. Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Bridal showers that is! I have been to quite a few showers the past few years. And I just love them. I really enjoy a bunch of women hanging around playing games, eating food  (home cooked preferred), playing games and drinking cocktails. Not to mention the fact that it is usually the beginning of all the wedding fun that is about to ensue. The bachelorette party is soon to follow, then the wedding planning gets into high gear and before you know it, your rehearsing, and getting married. Not that I want to go through all of those things again or anything but it reminds of how exciting this time of someone’s life really is. Weddings bring families together and we all get to celebrate the love and commitment of two people, it is just all good to me. Plus it reminds me of how happy I was when all this stuff was going on with me before I got married. It was nerve racking, exciting and something I think everyone should have the right to do if they choose to, but that’s another post.

Today I wrapped up my gifts for my friend Crystal who is getting married in less then two months. She is marrying my husbands best friend from childhood, my husband is also to be a part of his friends special day. In the invite we were asked to print out a couple recipes to share with Crystal for a recipe book that will be part of her shower gifts. Such a great idea as her fiance and her love to cook (I will share the recipes later). I know the shower will be lots of fun with yummy foods and games, I hope she has the best day being showered by all the women in her life!

These days have been so busy. These are the last few weeks of school so it feels like I have either been studying or commuting! Brent has been doing some freelance work on the side and just got a new job, so he has been super busy. Oliver turned seven on April 3oth, my little pug is an old man. We got him a big bone to chew on, and a new toy to tear up, he was in heaven. One of my closest friends Jacob moved away to Denver to start a new life basically. I am sad, but I know how it feels when you need a change or just something to mix it up and get out of your comfort zone, so good for him.

Also our first wedding anniversary is around the corner. May 30th this time last year Brent and I were getting married in Sonoma. Our plans so far are just a romantic dinner in San Francisco. It will be nice to have some time for a nice special dinner with the hubby!

I leave you with some adorable picture of my seven year old!!