Polka Dots

The Big Road-Trip Back To CA: N'awlins

That is the way they really say it...N'awlins, not New Orleans...Lea & Paul's family taught me that when I went with them last year for Mardi Gras. I end up pronouncing it in some strange combination of the two sounding like a white girl trying to play Cajun. No one seems to care they just smile at my attempts...Everyone in this town is always smiling.

We got into New Orleans late on Sunday evening. We headed directly for Beignets at Cafe Du Monte. We got distracted by some Hurricanes along the way. Bermuda was along for the party! New Orleans is a good dog city because most everything is in walking distance and outside. We did find out after having her on Bourbon street for a while that dogs are not allowed on that street.

The food in New Orleans is awesome. On our drunk-ish walk home I couldn't pass up a shimp po-boy. We found this little divey place for breakfast called Lucy's Retired Surfers bar. Emeril's for dinner was delicious! Dave had a hand rolled cigar at the New Orleans Cigar Company. I found some great shopping in Jackson square. We ooed & awed at the antiques, saw a book case priced over $40,000. Sooo many great galleries, but we decided against art because we just don't know what our soon to come house will look like :) We even caught a few hours in the afternoon by the pool to start overcoming our North Country sun deprivation. You can see from the pics below that my skin is still a pale tone of paste.

Bermuda needed a bath before getting back in the car after tromping around in the New Orleans street sauce. We had a great time here in New Orleans!We are coming back to New Orleans with our timeshare program!

The Big Road-Trip Back To CA: Distance Between GA and NOLA

Please note that I am catching you up on some posts I wrote in the car along the way...

The drive between Cartersville & New Orleans went quick. We stopped of in Birmingham for a visit with Kerri and Tim. We saw just enough of Birmingham to know that it looks like a fun town to live in. We got to take Bermuda with us to lunch at Rojo. The sun was shinning and food was great. Kerri & Tim thanks for taking us to lunch! It was a great pit stop.

Before we got to Birmingham we got to see some of the Georgia and Alabama countryside. These pics show you a little of that flavor. There were quite a few funky little homesteads. I imagined them to be places where the life lived was very simple. It looked like an area where dinner around the table was the big event of the day. No materialism as far as the eye could see.

 

The freeway through Mississippi was pretty boring. I always had big dreams that there was something special in Mississippi...I think we just missed it.

NOLA (New Orleans, LA) here we come. I love the little bit of New Orleans that I saw last year at Mardi Gras. It is one US city that has a true culture of its own. It has music, food & fun all unique to New Orleans. We can't wait to have our way with it!

Good Food & Good Friends & Good Memories!

After all the preparation the holiday landed on my doorstep as I shut down the computer on Christmas Eve at 4pm to finish our grocery shopping. Christmas Eve included one more last minute package to wrap for Dave, Christmas Mass and preparing tiramisu for the next day. My mixer shorted out and we whipped cream by hand (not recommended) on Christmas Eve.

Our theory is that when you can't spend the holidays with all your family you deserve to really do some amazing food. If its a small group you can afford to get the best, right? Our idea of amazing food is prime rib & lobster.  We started this little tradition the first Christmas we spent away from our family. Brent & Jenn joined us for a great meal...they brought all the sides and we did the main.

 

I just had an idea...I think that we should name our lobsters each year to reflect our year. We will have to retro name these guys...

Our families were so generous sending us tons of gifts. Bermuda even got a few. We are the most practical gift givers for each other. The list of items we give each other includes mostly things that we have decided we need. Dave got a new ipod, a coin sorter (because the pile of coins drives me nuts), Levis, a Cal Poly sweatshirt, tool set, Clue (a reminder of our youth!). I got a new cappuccino/coffee maker, a snazzy GPS for our car, notebook & socks plus lots more. Bermuda got a new stuffed pheasant (which she has already chewed apart) and treats.

One final holiday story for 2008 about how I got caught! Dave had his family send his ornaments a few years ago so when we decorated the tree it was full of Dave's Christmas memories. As we unpacked them together many of the ornaments were a memory of something special in his past. He would share the memory with me as we hung it. As I unwrapped this I burst into laughter and asked, "What is the story behind this one?" He said, "What????....I picked it out when I was little!" I proceeded to show everyone who stopped by Dave's Purple Pinecone.

 

After this I called my mom and asked her to send my ornaments. I wanted the joy of unwrapping memories too. She sent a few in a small box. I pulled out different angels and hung them on the tree one at a time. Then as I unwrapped this one, instantly both Dave and I burst into laughter! This was my childhood version of the Purple Pinecone...My Pink Ice Cream Cone!

I think we will disregard the tacky-ness of our Cones and keep them on the tree forever just for good measure. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and are looking forward to a fabulous 2009.

Holiday Spirit

This year I have been very focused on work through most of December. Most of my current projects continue on a very rigorous track through the holiday and into next year. This weekend I finally really began to enjoy the season. Some might say the holiday season is so stressful but it is a very welcome distraction from work at this point. We had a bit of a hectic Saturday morning trying to get the final gifts in the mail so they would make it to the west coast in time for Christmas. Shouldn't the post office stay open later this time of year?!?!?! Oh yeah, I guess they want to enjoy the holiday too.

We had our first annual Dave & Christine cookie baking evening on Friday night and sent off the packages to friends & relatives early on Saturday morning. I had the bright idea that this would be a more cost effective way to let everyone know we were thinking about them. Now I think buying gifts might have been the easier route! My husband used a tape measure to roll out the dough and I burned the pecans three times before I got them toasted correctly. We had a lot of laughs doing it and in the end the packages will be really tasty for everyone on the other side (i hope)!

The cookie recipes we tried:

• Pecan Snowballs
• Raspberry Pinwheels (turned into Blackberry using Nana's Jam)

The snowballs turned out great. They are a little messy with the powered sugar but very tasty. The Blackberry Pinwheels were a bit of a disaster, which I would have known if I had read the reviews of other people. They came out a little better if you left them in the fridge longer. The taste of the cream cheese in the dough was delicious. They just didn't come out anything like the pictures. They are packaged and shipped with some mediocre fudge. We can only improve from here :) ha ha ha!

The gifts are stacking up under our tree. We must be most loved people around. There is more and more snow on the ground every morning. In order to keep us warm, I made this mulled wine right in the kettle. It was the perfect warm up in this freezing weather.

In the kettle put...

• Half a bottle of dry red wine
• 2 cups of apple juice (i like juice instead of cider to keep it sweet)
• 4 Tablespoons of honey
• 2-3 slices of an orange

In a coffee filter combine cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg. Fold the coffee filter shut and seal it off with string (or even a paper clip). Drop into the kettle and bring to a simmer.

Thanksgiving 2008

This year we have quite a lot to be thankful for. This year has brought Dave home safely. Now that he has been home a month we are getting back to normal. At times the future seems a little overwhelming with so many options before us. So in the short term we are just trying to enjoy every moment. This Thanksgiving was a day full of those totally fun and relaxing moments. I forgot about work 100% and we just had a good time together all day. We originally thought we might have a few friends in town but it ended up just being us. We slept in and then just focused on the cooking (if course with mimosas in hand). Dave took care of the turkey and stuffing, while I fixed green beans, potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and the pecan pie. We even got a little dressed up just for each other! In true reflection of our personalities, I was giving Dave direction on the turkey while he advised on the pie pastry rolling technique. Good thing we know to laugh at each other when our Type A's comes out.

I realized that sometimes on holidays I take some of the fun out of the day worrying about entertaining while cooking. The next time we entertain on a holiday I won't worry about everyone having a good time. I think when you have good friends and good food everyone has a good time.

Here are a few snaps from our Turkey day. You can see the self portraits are a little funky but I think the fun of our day comes through.

Halloween 2008

We got into the Halloween spirit just in time. On Friday afternoon we carved up some pumpkins really quick! It was so much easier than I remember it being when I was a kid. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that we can use big kid knives rather than those little serrated things. We knew we were likely to get one specific little trick-or-treater so we had to have some pumpkins for his first Halloween. Ramsey was up here in the North Country visiting his dad for a few days upon their return from Iraq. Even with an ear infection he was full of giggles and smiles while he played with Bermuda in our little house. He didn't have much interest in the candy, in fact I think he thought it was a dog treat so he kept trying to feed it to Bermuda. Somehow I didn't get a snapshot of the little pumpkin who came a knocking but I am sure Tara will get us some pics.

For the adults we baked up the pumpkin seeds and brewed a little spiced apple cider to warm up. It was a nice cozy eve at the apartment. The welcome home week was so much. It was great to have Ramsey & Tara around for a few days. Other significant others were in town this past weekend. Now they have all headed back to their respective places and we are getting bundled up for the winter here.

Spiced Apple Cider:
Apple Juice...up here there is a some great cider specific juice in the stores.
Orange
Ground Cinnamon
Cloves
Optional: Splash of Cranberry juice

Pour apple juice in pot. Create a simple spice packet using cheesecloth or a coffee filter. In the spice packet dump in a tablespoon of cinnamon and a palm full of cloves. Tie it up with some string and drop it in the liquid. Slice the orange into thin rings. Bring it all up to a simmer for a few minutes and then just keep it warm on the stove. Ladle it into mugs as your guests arrive!

Baked Pumpkin Seeds:
Rinse off the seeds in cold water. Spread out in a single layer on a oiled baking sheet. Salt to your liking. Bake for 25-30 mins at 325....I left mine in too long and they burned :(

Re-Living R&R: Delicious Wine & Generous People

I have been meaning to share with you some of our favorite wines from R&R. Yesterday I was reminded when I went to put away some stuff in our closet and realized I don't have much room because I have 2 cases of wine in there. I can't wait for my hubby to get home so that we can drink it together. I did cheat a little and open one of the bottles when Jenn was here visiting. The Tolosa Pinot!

But it's okay because we have 2! We bought one, then while we were at this winery our driver told an older couple that we were on R&R. When we went to leave the winery, after lounging on the patio, the tasting room employees gave us 2 bottles and told us the older gentleman had bought us another bottle to say Thank You!

Sometimes it is hard to see because the negative perspective tends to get so much more press, but for the most part Americans amaze me their respect and support us for us. Similar to the wine purchase, last year we were on a cruise just after Dave returned from his first deployment and he wore his uniform for the formal evening. It was "fancy" restaurant on the boat where you had to pay for dinner. A couple of women picked up the tab for our dinner and snuck out before we could even say Thank You.

Tolosa 2005 Pinot Noir

Re-Living R&R: Beverages on the CA Central Coast

For those of you that don't know...there is "no drinking" in Iraq so apparently we had some catching up to do over R&R. We love so many restaurants & wineries in the San Luis Obispo area so we had to have a drink everywhere! I promise we are not total lushes just had a lot of fun in 18 days!

Starting Top Left: Margaritas at Pepe Delgado's in San Luis Obispo; Guinness at a Irish Pub on State St in Santa Barbara;  DaVinci Chianti at  Ca' Dario in Santa Barbara (this is reasonable but great atmosphere & FANTASTIC Italian); Tacate's on the beach; At the beach house Christine's Grey Goose w/ 3 olives, not to be mistaken for Dave's Bombay w/ a twist; Edna Valley wine tasting tour on the patio at Tolosa (their pinot is one of our favorite); Font seat of our wine tour van you see the damage  (2 cases) from our afternoon tour (I joined Laetitia BUBBLY club, must have it you like champagne);  Enjoyed many nice bottles of wine just relaxing in the evenings (I think this was the Wild Horse Cab, YUM!)!

Eating with Friends! (Back Blog - Written on May 5th)

I have been eating like crazy for the past week or so. Each of these big eating occasions have provided a great time to spend time with some wonderful people.

Focaccia, Whisky & Walnuts & Some Lentils with The T-Town Ladies:
Last Friday night, Kerri, one of my dear friends from growing up, was back in town for a quick trip. Melin’ had us over to her beautifully spiffed up house for a ladies cooking and wine night. The perk for me was that somehow I didn’t get the string of emails that suggested we should all prepare our favorite dish. SOOO I showed up with no plans to cook anything! Instead I sat and laughed and watched Kerri, Melin & Meg cook away. These were some of the tastiest small plates I have EVER had…They all check in on Polkadots SO maybe if we are lucky they will post their recipes in the comments 

Meg’s Focaccia - Pizza dough for the base, plus yummy caramelized onions & Blue cheese. Then bake it. She was crying for most of her baking ‘cause the onions were potent. I didn’t catch all the ingredients…Anything else Meg?

Melin’s Italian Lentil Soup- This was a delicious lentil soup PLUS some pasta.

Kerri’s Whisky Walnut Brie- So original but so yummy. She mixed brown sugar whisky & chopped walnuts. Then put it over some brie….then baked for about 20 minutes. OMG!!!  I will definitely steal this when I try to Martha at some point when I am back up in Sackets.

Union Hotel Classic:
Everyone knows the Bruschetta is to die for! It is such a great appetizer that the most I do after that is a small bowl of minestrone soup & salad. (Do you say the long E on the end of Minestrone? I do and it drives me crazy when people don't...I feel like I didn't finish saying word!!! Who knows what is actually correct???) This is my aunt & uncle’s restaurant but if you are ever in the Napa/Sonoma Country area a trip out to Occidental will promise a beautiful scent of redwoods, a beautiful drive  and a delicious more than you could ever eat dinner at the Union Hotel.

Authentic Cinco De Mayo with L&P:
I didn’t even realize it was Cinco De Mayo until about 7pm on Monday night. I was going up to dinner with L&P in Inwood at the very top of the island of Manhattan. When I arrived they had margaritas waiting to celebrate my Bday. We went to Mamajuana a Mexican food spot that is delicious. We had an amazing filet & paella. My favorite was a seafood tamale with scaloops, shrimp & lobster.  The margaritas were STRONG & all the dishes were uniquely perfect.

To top it all off I have never had a more authentic Cinco De Mayo…historically mine have been pretty gringo! There was essentially no English spoken in the restaurant with the exception of when the waitress was talking to us. PLUS there was a live mariachi band and some quasi latin karaoke going on. Paul is going to buy the Spanish Rosetta Stone so he can have EVEN more fun next year at Mamajuana when he can actually understand it.

 

Back In Action

I am here and alive and doing well!
Lots of change and transition for me in the past few months.

DAVE UPDATE:

Dave has moved to a new company and getting settled. H e is adjusting and getting into his groove. We are adjusting to a satellite phone where we can't talk as often and it is a little $$$. Mail takes MUCH longer which is a real bummer. The mail gets taken out to where he is pretty randomly. I sent him a balance ball  to workout with two weeks ago and it just got there. (I didn't realize it but it is PURPLE)

In the midst of this change he cracked his tooth and had an emergency filling. It sounds like it was a miserable experience involving not enough but then too much Novocaine in a strange place with no one to take care of him!!! He survived but as he told the story I shuttered thinking about the pain.

BERMUDA UPDATE:

Bermuda is getting into shape. She is starting to follow rules. We are going to obedience classes...I think the classes are more for me than for her :) We have some great new items in her life that are her favorites. This orange-squeaky-head looking thing was her favorite toy when we stayed with Clyde, so we had to get one. After months of pulling me along on walks this "easy walker" harness was like a miracle.

MY UPDATE:

Trying really hard to find some balance!!! Since Dave left I have not been settled enough to get into a good exercise routine. I am getting motivated to get into the exercise mode as the weather gets nicer, AND as the idea of R&R in June becomes a reality.

Any suggestions for a website with good workouts or a good tracking to to monitor your exercise schedule? I have looked around a little but they seem overcomplicated.

You know how I mentioned the "rear view mirror" in the last post. Well after that I decided it was time to get some new jeans. I got a new pair of jeans that are really fun.

I have also be trying to spend as much time as possible around home with my family. We are having some fun! The "Jensen" ladies went to Central Market in Petaluma for a tasty dinner a couple of weeks ago. Then we celebrated my mom's birthday at...get ready for this..."Rocker Oysterfellers" in Valley Ford. We are finding some fun little nibbles around home. I love it!