Browse Category: yum

Monday off

Yesterday I had the day off to off-set the upcoming 7-day work week.  With Jes in NYC for the next two weeks, I guess it was good timing for me to have a 2-day course over the coming weekend.  Anyway, I managed to be very productive on my day off.  Stopped at work to turn in my parking application and brought Koa along to take him to the dog park nearby.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be a rather ghetto fenced-off area with asphalt and dirt. I suppose it’s a good use to dead space under the freeway.

Koa was a little confused and didn’t know where to poo but eventually gave in and took care of business.  Once that was done, he was able to run around and sniff the two other dogs that were already in there.

Later that day, I cleaned the house, did 3 loads of laundry, and went to Trader Joe’s to buy groceries for the week.  With Jes gone, it was time for me to detox and experiment with new products.  I bought a box of red quinoa, a jar of sundried tomatoes, whole wheat flatbread, and a jar of green olive tapenade.  I made the quinoa in the rice cooker and it came out perfect!  Then I added a tablespoon of olive oil, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped sundried tomato, and a pinch of salt.  Added to a bed of arugula and accompanied with a soft and chewy flatbread plus a small scoop of tapenade, it was a tasty but fiberlicious lunch for me.

So unloved…

Got an email from a friend who is currently in the midst of transforming from a humble street cart to a full-on SF hipster cult.  I got a taste of their corned beef sammich a couple months ago and snapped a few photos for them.  In her email, she asked if she could send my photos to a person who was interested in writing an article about them in jweekly and I was excited for them and for my photos.  THEN!  I got a second email from her saying that coincidentally there was a blog posting (totally unrelated to the aforementioned article) on SFoodie featuring an event going on tonight featuring MY PHOTO on the header!!!  I guess the writer grabbed it from Pearl’s Kitchen’s Facebook profile and didn’t ask for permission to use the photo from my friend nor did they ask for the photo credit.  Bummer.

Spicy Fried Goodness

After a quick stop at Costco, we had dinner at a newish place called SO.  It’s Korean but not.  They have some really tasty fried chicken wings that are sticky, crunchy, sweet, and spicy.  Yum.  We also had noodles cooked with a spicy shredded pork sauce.

Our last dish was curry potato croquette that was also super tasty.  The best part of it all was that it was a pretty cheap meal and I was happy.

Fun Pot Sticker Friday

Every Tuesday morning at work, the Rehab Team gets together to plan a Fun Friday activity.  Some days we take the kids to the park and on other days we stay in and play games.  We have a great group of kids right now and they’re mobile and healthy enough to do some really cool things.  This Friday, we made pot stickers and the kids had great time.  I prepared the ingredients the night before and left the carrots, chives, and cilantro for them to shred and cut.

They had a choice of meat, cabbage, water chestnut, mushrooms, chives, and many others.  Each child made their own stuffing for their individual pot stickers and then wrapped it all up with the wonton skin that I bought.  Once they finished a batch, I fried up their creations and they got to roll back to their rooms with a tasty treat.  So fun!

There’s something really cool about seeing kids participate in cooking activities.  They always seem to get excited about doing the “grown up” things like cutting, shredding, and stirring.  This is truly occupational therapy in action.  Play is every kid’s occupation but so is brushing your teeth and meal preparation.  The kids are doing something functional, building hand strength and social skills, and it’s therapeutic both physically and cognitively.  This is one of those time when I can say that I love my job.

Tuesday Dinner at the Ballpark

On a whim, we decided to go to a Giants game for our usual Tuesday dinner and invited the girls from work since they were playing the Pirates. Steph and her husband are from Pittsburgh and jumped at the chance of watching their home team with garlic fries. I drove the girls to my house, stopped at Safeway for snacks and beers, and we had a mini happy hour at home before the 7:15 game.

Patty showed us how to properly prepare Coronitas complete with fresh lime juice, salt, and a few drops of Tapatio and we shared a couple bags of potato chips. When the boys arrived, we walked across the street to the game and settled into our $12 bleacher seats.  Jes also managed to sneak in 2 ice cold cans of Coors light in his pants.

It was a breezy but really pretty night at the ballpark.  The Giants fans were crazy as usual and the Pirates won.  We also had a fun time cheering for players we didn’t know and singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at the 7th inning stretch.  My dinner consisted of a Giants dog, nachos with lots of jalapenos, and a Coors Light.  Mmmmm.  It turned out to be one of the cheapest Tuesday dinners we’ve had in a while and we all had a fun time.

More Meat Cake and Some Fireworks

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Jack’s house.  Ryan made beef bourguignon with short ribs and some leftover prime rib that he had frozen from another dinner we had a while back.  It was delicious and re-purposed meat never tasted so good.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of it.  Shucks…that’s so unlike me!!

Later that evening, Jes and I went onto the roof of our building to watch the fireworks over AT&T Park.  It was the first night game of the season and we got a free show! This photo was taken with my Nikon in manual mode. I like how you can see the fireworks and what’s going on in the foreground. You can even see the party that’s going on in one of the units on the top floor!

Here’s another photo.  This one was taken with my little digi on “fireworks” mode.  Not too shabby but it didn’t get any of the ambient light from the building.  Weird.

Here’s a short video clip of the fireworks in case you were interested.  Not a bad view, huh?