a99kitten's Musings

Tried a new recipe tonight. I wanted to do more in the slow cooker because well, it’s easy :) A lot of slow cooker recipes are full of carbs and yummy cream sauces though. Yummy for sure but not so healthy. So I found a few scouring the internet this AM and grabbed some ingredients.

First up today is “Chicken and Wild Rice”…I did swap out some of the ingredients (that I don’t like) though. My version:

2 slices of bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 lbs boneless/skinless chicken breasts – sliced into thinner breast steaks (recipe called for thighs with skin.)
6 garlic cloves chopped (was 1/2 cup ea of onion & celery – blech)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 thyme (recipe called for sage – I didn’t have any-doh! But thyme can sub for sage)
6 oz converted white long grain rice (recipe called for 8oz)
6 oz wild rice (recipe called for 4 oz)
8 oz brown “baby-bella” mushrooms cleaned and quartered or sliced (I bot pre-sliced!)
3 cups chicken broth, or enough to cover ingredients (I used a little over 2 cups)
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish

Microwave the bacon on high for 1 minute. Transfer to your slow cooker. Add olive oil and spread evenly on bottom. Place chicken in slow cooker. Add ingredients in order given above (except last salt & pepper & parsley.) Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or until rice is tender.

Uncover and let stand 15 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste if desired. Garnish with chopped parsley (if you want….)

The smell of the cooking at about the 2-hour mark is dee-lish! :)

2:45min mark – husband asks what’s that dog food smell. Sigh…make your own stoopid dinner….

It tastes YUM!!!!! Even husband had to admit it was quite tasty. I highly recommend it! And super easy. Enjoying tonight with a glass of bubbly and the last 2 episodes of season 2 “Mad Men” :)

Made some very yummy fish last night. And ridiculously quick & easy too! I love those kind of recipes :)

Ingredients:
1 lb cod
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 limes – thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (may substitute 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry hot mustard
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
sea salt (to taste)

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Dry the fish by gently patting with paper towel. Place half the lime slices in the bottom of a baking dish and lightly salt.

Combine melted butter, ginger and spices and drizzle over the limes. Place the cod on top and cover with the remaining lime slices.

Bake for 11-13 minutes. Garnish with cilantro; salt to taste.

Now – this was the recipe I had. What I did to alter it slightly was used 3 tablespoons of butter. This little extra allowed me to have a small amount of sauce that could be spooned over the fish (placed on top of jasmine rice would be perfect but I skipped the carbs last night – next time!)

I also didn’t have sea salt (thought I had some when getting spices at the store) so I used some pure ocean salt that I did have. You’d think they’d be the same? Or similar enough? The ocean salt is a thicker, coarser grain so you can probably use less. I am a complete, unapologetic saltaholic so I used the same amount of it as required by the recipe. Husband thought it was too salty for him – wimp :) And I left off the cilantro as I am not a huge fan of cilantro and it was garnish only anyway.

The fish turned out very zesty! And spicy (although I’m the wimp when it comes to spice!) And I drizzled the sauce over the fish and the sauteed zucchini and mushrooms I made. YUM!

I am SOOOO making this again. I should have taken a picture of it – I was too hungry to think about it until after I started eating :) But with the drizzled sauce and baked lime slices, it makes a nice presentation too.

My first week of football was all crazy! I had 3 players in my Fantasy team playing in Thursday’s game. I HATE that! Because then I have to stress going into Sunday’s games that I didn’t build up enough of a cushion. I also hate when all of my players finish up on Sunday but my opponent has a player left in the MNF game. Stress!!

Yahoo Sports projected 51 points for my 3 players (DEF, K and WR) and I got 62.75. Although I was stressing going into overtime as Ward got his 100yd bonus in OT! Whew..although Santonio Holmes stole some of my points! :) Yahoo! also projected 62 points for Brees which I felt was optimistic of them even against the DET defense. Turns out – Drew rules again this year :) 100 points! I needed that since a lot of my other players didn’t do as well as projected. I ended up with 273.05 in total points. The person I am playing has 211.40 at the half. I just need Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball and not run it with Ryan Grant to win my week since neither of us has players in tomorrow’s games!!

Also made it through week 1 of Survivor Football. First week I generally take a “sure thing” as I haven’t seen what the teams are playing like (pre-season games simply don’t count.) So I chose New Orleans at home over Detroit. Big gambler eh? :) Hey! Anything can happen, right? Any Given Sunday…But yes… I survived Week 1! Whew…

My weekly pool picks choked. I decided to get a little crazy and pick TB and CAR who were both underdogs…and they played like it. Although TB did a MUCH better job against DAL than CAR against PHI. What the heck happened to Jake Delhomme?? And the dominating CAR D from a couple years ago?? Whoa..Although they did take McNabb out. Not good though. I actually like him (even though my FF opponent was playing him!) so do not want to see him hurt. Especially with Vick salivating in the wings for Week 3.

So I won my FF week and survived Survivor week 1. Tanked on my weekly picks. Not so bad for Week 1. And now on to stressing about week 2!! :)

In honor of the first NFL weekend, I decided to make some homemade mac & cheese to go with a grilled ribeye! I chose an easier one – “Today’s Macaroni and Cheese” by Rick Bayless (chef and owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill and Topolobampo.)

It’s actually a fairly simple recipe. All basic ingredients:

Ingredients

Just a few add this, stir in that’s for the cheese mixture:

Cheese mixture

And it has some spice so that’s different for mac&cheese! Once you finish boiling the pasta till al dente you mix it all together and then put in baking dish and top with a melted butter and bread crumb mixture. I used a bit more butter than called for in this part of recipe but cut it back on buttering the dish. I was channeling my inner Julia!

Ready to bake and brown!

And voila! Baked, yummy “Today’s Macaroni and Cheese” brought to you by Rick Bayless and me :) The cheese and butter are bubbling…oh yeah baby…

bayless mac&cheese

Husband grilled the ribeye. Yum. Along with a glass of bubbly…a perfect dinner :)

Yum

My mac&cheese cookbook was quite a purchase for me. Very happy with it. If you are a fan of macaroni and cheese, I highly recommend it:

Angelus wondered where his was…

Don't I get some?

and Storm was attempting the Jedi mind trick…

This is the puppy you want to feed...

It’s a gorgeous night out. After dinner the sun has set but not dark yet. The sky has some dark clouds, and blue sky and these create a great color mixture. It’s chilly out which reminds me of fall. You can smell forest and maybe a hint of fireplace (?) in the air. I LOVE that. Autumn technically doesn’t start until 9/22 but between chilly weather and football, it makes a nice start to fall for me! Maybe I’ll break out the pumpkin/fall/Halloween stuff…

All in all, a good first NFL Sunday :)

Had a girls’ night tonight! Dinner and a movie – nothing crazy :)

Very yummy dinner at Kingfish in San Mateo where you eat like a King and drink like a fish. Hey – that’s their motto…and I did NOT drink like a fish! I yelped about it tonight – cannot believe I hadn’t already!! It’s one of my favorite local places for sure. I had their Big Eye Tuna (now renamed the ever so creative “Fresh Grilled #1 Ahi Tuna”.) It’s sashimi grade tuna seared over sushi rice with sesame spinach and garlic sauce. Otherwise known as “Yum”.

Ahi Tuna

We started with tuna tartare and cheesy garlic bread (yes, they do too pair quite well!) I had a glass of sparkle – Roederer Brut. Also quite yum.

I get the Ahi almost every time I go. I have tried other things there (the Po Boy roast beef with fries is very tasty) which are all delicious but this entree is simply too yummy for me to pass up. Perhaps if I ate there more often I might dare to try more new things but really…why? I like to stick to something good once I find it!

Then we saw Julie & Julia. VERY much enjoyed this movie. I love Meryl Streep in anything she does. And I really like Amy Adams a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed Enchanted and NOT just because McDreamy is in it :)

This movie was directed by Nora Ephron who has definitely made some great rom-coms and chick flicks.  This doesn’t disappoint in that department. Solid films with good happy-endings. Yes – I like that. If I wanted horrific, heart-wrenching, sad or depressing – I’ll read the news.  When I go to the movies I want to be entertained and made to smile – not shocked.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I assume when Julie wrote her book (that the movie is based on) she used letters or some other base of knowledge for Julia’s portion of the movie. Julia and her husband seemed to be so in love and perfect for each other. A very cute part of the movie. They were the butter to each other’s bread…very sweet. Or, to paraphrase a Beastie, the cheese to the other’s macaroni…

The reviews I had read praised Meryl/Julia’s part of the movie but didn’t have as many kind words about Amy/Julie’s portion. Dull was the most common theme. I would disagree. While watching Meryl Streep act is always a joy. And her part was great. I would say I enjoyed the 2nd story of Julie’s just as much. It was a journey for her. Not one I would necessarily take but this is supposed to be based on this girl’s year-long journey to cook her way through Julia Child’s cookbook and blog about it. And during this time discovered some things about herself as well as renewing her passion for writing. I feel they accurately portrayed this. Although I would have insisted on cuter hair if I were Amy Adams…:)

Funny side note was that Julie’s husband gets upset with her for spending so much time and energy blogging about these things. I think I’ve had this same discussion with my husband re: twitter/blog. “Why, what’s the use?” Etc., etc. Because I like it…that’s why.

Another thing I noted – both of these characters cook a LOT obviously. Julia didn’t start out her life as a chef but took it on as a challenge and enjoyed it greatly as part of her life. Julie took it on as a personal challenge and enjoyed it as part of her life (although not professionally as a chef.) The people who I have known in real life who are chefs or work in professional kitchens hate cooking when they are home. NEVER want to do it. Yuck. “They do enough of it at work.” I would say then that they do not have the love for what they do like Julia, that’s for sure. Perhaps why she seemed to be such a happy/stable person. Certainly a far cry from the cooks you see on these dumb reality shows.

I also think it’s fantastic that she worked for the OSS during World War II (long before her success as a chef/writer/TV star.) FUN! This is not covered in the movie. Other than to say that she used to work at the OSS.

Now I want to buy the book! But it’s not available on Kindle? :( Dumb. Now that I want a Kindle – I’m paying attention to these things…but maybe I’ll buy it paperback anyway!

I am considering buying her cookbooks..even though I’m not all that into French food (a foodie I am not.) It does seem like every kitchen needs one much like the Joy of Cooking (which I do have.) And some of the food in the movie looked delicious so maybe I could attempt a bit of French cooking as long as I am not de-boning anything or killing lobsters. You do need cookbooks in hard copy form for sure (no e-books!) Having a cookbook that shows drips and spills on the pages shows you have tested those recipes and can speak to their to yumminess (or blech factor.) Although it would be fun to have an old school copy of it…I do love old books….

So I highly recommend this movie. And I don’t think it’s strictly a chick flick at all. Just a good story where the the 2 main characters happen to be women. But since they don’t dress in bikinis, shoot things or have a pillow fight in their lingerie, some guys might not be interested :)

To quote a movie review I read (which maybe came from Julia? Sounds like something she would say):

“Sometimes a meal can be less than perfect but still so thoroughly enjoyable that a missed ingredient here or a bit of overcooking there doesn’t really matter.”

This nugget should be applied to life, love, the kitchen and movies :)

Today, August 4 is said to be the day Dom Perignon invented champagne back in 1693. Now, I have no idea if this is true. Not sure anyone can confirm this as all parties involved are long gone and record-keeping was a bit spotty back then what with no iPhones, laptops or even a PC around ;-)

The funny thing is naturally occurring bubbles were seen as a problem at the time in wine-making so this was more of a problem than an invention but I’ll take it :) And from what I have read, what was invented back then as a sparkling wine/champagne bears no resemblance to what we love to toast with now.

The Dom :) Looks like its bubbling over to me :)

Now, if you know me, you know I call all bubbly ‘champagne’ (or just bubbly) because that whole “it can’t be called champagne if the grapes aren’t from that region” is phooey to me. But I’ve ranted about that before so won’t re-hash :) So if you are offended if I call a delicious Gloria Ferrar Carneros Cuvee or a Schramsberg Brut “champagne” – you should hang up right now because I simply don’t care if I offended your delicate sensibilities about that.

Champagne is a happy drink.  It can be served, and goes well, with any food – from fanciful 6 course dinners to pizza. A long-standing holiday tradition for me is when trimming my Christmas tree I order pizza and drink champagne. Love this! Another of my favorites treats is, when my husband is out of town and I don’t need to make dinner and feel like being bad, a glass of dry Brut with a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries. The salty food and sweet but not really that sweet Brut mixture is fantastic!  I *highly* recommend you try it!

But whatever the truth is about the true origins of champagne, we do owe the Dom (not to be confused with the Don!) a big THANK YOU anyway! And I see this as a good enough reason to toast him this evening with a glass of bubbly  – although likely not opening one of my bottles of Dom to do it since I can’t drink the entire thing by myself and it is school night after all :)

If you love champagne like I do, I highly recommend reading “The Widow Clicquot”:

I really liked this book.  A good amount of reading on champagne making history in general plus about the Widow’s life. Fun read for sure. Starts off a bit slow so keep with it :)

And if you really want to try a “fancier” bottle of bubbly but find the prices out of reach, look around for a newly released vintage and just hold onto it for a few years.  They are still pricey but much less so and it’s a great way to enjoy a really nice bottle on a special occasion later. Champagne should be enjoyed within 10 or so years of its vintage year (on bottle.)    Although I had a bottle of Cristal that was given to me as a gift (2 bottles actually) about 13-15 years ago. I finally just opened 1 of them last year and it was GREAT! I need to enjoy the other one soon because if it were to go bad – I would definitely cry over the needless waste of a $400+ bottle of anything!!

And get yourself a champagne stopper so you don’t have to drink it all in 1 night (this is for the less expensive bottles – finish your good ones!) Or *horrors* waste it….this was the best buy ever! I love mine from Beverages & More.  I think it cost like $5.00 or something. I had one from Bed, Bath & Beyond – not as good.

Hope you enjoy some soon!

Today is the last day of my birthday/4th of July vacation :( very sad…

I’ve been hiking every day and doing chores, staying and then yesterday had an afternoon/evening/night out at the park/beach for the 4th and fireworks. My hike yesterday was awesome. Gorgeous as always. But again – for the 3rd time on this trail – butterflies swarmed around me during this 1 section. VERY AWESOME!  Like walking with them. I wish I could have videoed it :) On Friday I did a 3-hour hike but yesterday changed my route and it ended up being 2.5 hours.  But all pretty – all the time :)

Tahoe Mountains 1

Tahoe Mountains 2

Tahoe mountains 3

I will be back either next weekend (depending on Wicked Tickets in SF!) or the weekend after but I still hate leaving. SOOO planning a Labor Day week vacay…

So because it’s my last day, I decided to just chill today. No plans of hiking, Squaw Valley pool party (going to the August one though!), hiking to Squaw High Camp, whatever. Just chill. It’s been nice :) Spent the day in the sun – on my deck, walking the huskies by the lake (although did try to avoid the sun for them!!) and then our clubhouse pool. Husband said “we should do this every time we come here.” Ummm…I always want to go to the pool – it’s YOU who can’t relax!

After about an hour, I went back home and to our deck again! Been getting caught up on my last 3 Vanity Fair magazines today that I haven’t had time to really read. As much as the articles have SUCH a grossly LIBERAL BENT, I still enjoy reading the mag for their old-world, old-society articles.  Plus any Annie Leibovitz photo spreads are beautiful. For now…but if they keep up with the pathetic Obama ass-kissing, I might not renew. At some point it’s just gross. Although they did turn on Bill Clinton so who knows – might make for fun reading in a year or 2…

I was still determined to make one of the mac and cheese recipes from my new-ish cookbook. I chose the City Hall Mac and Cheese by Henry Archer Meer. I do not know who that is but futzy, fancy foodies might? I googled him and he owns a NYC restaurant called City Hall (hence the name of this recipe!)

It was fairly simple. This is pre-baking after milk and cream reduction and cheese adding/melting and spice adding and then pasta adding…

City Hall Mac & Cheese

Put it in the oven to bake and then took Angelus on a short after-dinner (his dinner) walk. And we FINALLY saw a coyote!! Hadn’t seen once since winter!!! Storm decided he didn’t want to come on our walk and all I saw was a tail out of the corner of my eye and it looked just like a fluffy Storm tail! I thought did husband bring Storm out? NO! Once I looked and saw it was a brown and grey coyote looking quite cute and fluffy like our little Storm. I tried getting a picture but he wanted no part of me or Angelus. But he was only 2 houses away from us so I am keeping my eye out tonight!! I did hear 1 in our backyard 2 nights ago – maybe the same little guy.

Timed walk to be done with mac & cheese baking. Looks and smells SOOOOO good:

Baked mac&cheesey goodness!

Having with BBQ hot dogs (since I didn’t get one yesterday for the 4th – I have been craving one!) and they will compliment this mac&cheese nicely! I just tried it….OHMYGOD good!!!  Page 32 of the Macaroni & Cheese cookbook “52 recipes, from simple to sublime” by Joan Schwartz. Get one!!! :)

I just got this recipe from Epicurious – I am drooling…

COFFEE RUBBED CHEESEBURGERS WITH TEXAS BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

Coffee rub:

• 1 tablespoon freshly ground coffee
• 2 teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Burgers:

• 8 slices applewood-smoked bacon
• 1 pound ground chuck (preferably grass-fed)
• 1 pound ground sirloin (preferably grass-fed)
• 8 slices smoked provolone, smoked caciocavallo, or smoked Gouda cheese (about 8 ounces)
• 8 potato-bread hamburger

Buns:

• 8 slices red onion
• 8 slices tomato
• Texas Barbecue Sauce*

For coffee rub:
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

For burgers:
Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Break in half. Gently mix chuck and sirloin in large bowl. Form meat into 8 patties, each 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter and 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Using thumb, make slight indentation in center of each burger. DO AHEAD: Burgers and bacon can be prepared 8 hours ahead. Cover separately and chill.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Sprinkle 1 teaspoon coffee rub on top side of each burger. Place burgers, rub side down, on grill rack. Grill until slightly charred, about 4 minutes; turn.

Place 2 bacon slice halves atop each burger. Cook 3 minutes.

Top each with 1 cheese slice. Cover and cook until cheese melts, about 1 minute longer. Place burgers atop bottom halves of buns. Top with onion slices and tomato slices. Spoon dollop of Texas Barbecue Sauce* over. Cover with bun tops and serve, passing additional sauce alongside.

*TEXAS BBQ SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 chipotle chile from canned chipotle chiles in adobo,* minced with seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Stir in ketchup and all remaining ingredients. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until reduced to 1 1/3 cups, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Can be made 1 week ahead. Cool slightly, cover, and chill.

* Dried, smoked jalapeños in a spicy tomato sauce called adobo; available at some supermarkets and at Latin markets.

I am SO trying this!!!  And perfect timing for the 4th! perfect BBQ time :) This is what it looks like in the recipe. I guess we’ll see what my turn out like :) But if you make it – tell me!!

YUM Burger!!!

Today was a fun day! I did sleep in till about 7am like a lazy slack! Huskies said HOT outside already Mom! I took them down to a forest walk so it was mostly shady so they could stay cooler. They had the same reaction today that they had last fall on this same walk – something wicked this way is! They smell a bear? Or a dead body? Ghost? Angelus is afraid of nothing (ok, well…bees…) and he was acting strange and not wanting to continue on down the path.  And Storm had less than zero interest in continuing. So I of course made them continue on…but then was imagining a scary movie…where the dumb girl makes her dogs keep going down the scary path even though every person watching the movie is screaming at the screen to listen to your dogs!!! So we turned around :)

After doggie walk and coffee and email..I went on my hike. About 6 miles with 3 of it straight uphill. Beautiful though. A great hike. The goal was making it up to Hawks Peak. And I did :)

Hawks Peak view 2

There was still snow in some of the higher elevation areas.  And the best part – I saw 1 biker in the distance but other than that – came across no one. Very peaceful.  It was windy up on the tippy-top rock at Hawks Peak so I had to be careful not be blown off the rock!

Hawk's Peak View 1

I was using my iPhone app TrailGuru and it said about 6 miles and almost 2 hours but then my battery died – doh!! Good thing I didn’t run across any bears and need the phone camera!

Then it was lunch (turkey burger!!) and sun/tanning time! I just started reading James Patterson’s “8th Confession”. I realized today as I was going through my stack of books that I brought that I *always* read a James Patterson book on my vacation. So I moved it up in the priority pile :) These are always fun summer reads. This is the Women’s Murder Club series he does. I really like this series. ABC made a short-lived TV series based on it last season which I also liked. But not as much as the books obviously. Although Angie Harmon (who played the main character – Lindsay Boxer) was quite likable. I find his books, and this series in particular, to be very fun reads. And when you are baking in the sun, “thinking” books are not always the best (Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” is next in my pile…might get pushed down for “Gossip Girl” till after vacation..)

After sun time, it was chore time – laundry, cleaning guest bedrooms used this weekend, vacuuming house (I am ALL FOR 1 story houses btw…truly….stairs suck), hosing off deck pollen & spider webs (Angelus was VERY happy with this), and taking the garbage and recycling out to the bear box for pick-up day tomorrow. Now…I considered “accidentally” dropping garbage in the driveway and entryway to “accidentally” attract a bear or 2 (they LOVE and know when garbage day is – very smart bears!)…but I didn’t (dang it!)

Then we did another short buddy walk. I wore flip flops when I did this…unwise…I stabbed my foot on a big stick. OUCH! Bleeding!!! Crazy that the buddies can walk on all the sticks and rocks like they do. What pansy feet I have :)

I set myself a time limit on chores so it was time to make dinner and pick a movie! I made my tofu spaghetti – yum! And watched “Doubt”. Good movie. Not as dark as made out to be…but perhaps that is because A) I like the actors (Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams) and B) I’m not Catholic. Good watch though.

But now just about time for sleepy so I can do it all again tomorrow :)

Today was day 2 of Tahoe vacation and Birthday Season (although technically I think Day 3 of Birthday Season there was plenty of lunch and cupcake celebrations on Friday!)

Took the buds for a fun walk at Donner Lake. We got a late-ish start around 7:30am so it was already pretty sunny and warm. Because of this, we did the easier, flat lake walk so the buds would get plenty of shade and lake time. I think it’s only about 2.5 miles but we did lots of stopping for sniffing and chipmunk chasing so it was about 1.5 hours of fun husky time! Angelus was slightly annoyed when I wouldn’t let him keep the dead chipmunk he found. No husky kisses from him today :) This is a nice, mellow trail. Good for the fluffy monsters when it’s warm and sunny out. Lots of access to the lake for wading in and plenty of trees, rocks, critters, etc to explore and sniff.

After the doggie walk, I relaxed with my coffee, read twitter and watched GAC. It was nice to not have to rush anywhere. Then Helen and I went for a hike. The weather was perfect hiking weather – warm, partly sunny, nice fluffy clouds that came in and cooled you off along with a nice breeze. We got a little over 1.25 miles in when husband called. His bike riding friend had fallen and punctured his arm and needed to go to the ER but left his wallet at our house with his medical cards, ID, etc. They were over an hour away so needed me to bring the ID. Dang….hike cut short :(

After getting ID to them, H and I went to Gar Wood’s in Carnelian Bay on Lake Tahoe. One of my FAVORITE places for lunch and drinks. They are famous for their “Wet Woody”. The best way to describe it is a peach Jamba Juice with plenty of light rum mixed in and a 151 rum shot floating on top:

Wet Woody!

Their lunch menu is delicious. I’ve never had anything there I didn’t love but I’ve repeated the sliders and fries several times. Today was no different!

Sliders & Fries!!

Other *very* yummy things there are the mahi-mahi tacos. And their garlic bread with gorgonzola cheese! And the zuchinni sticks.

We hung out quite a while. The weather was just so perfect and it was so relaxing. Oh, and we ordered another order of garlic bread with gorgonzola! The people here are usually nice, normal people out for a nice time and lunch. This time we had a bit of people-watching…The couple next to us were soooo obnoxious and ick. Pretty much everyone else there were as flabbergasted as us. The woman looked either beyond drunk or way high on something else. She was sitting on her boyfriend’s lap and they were making out – right there on the restaurant deck for all of us to see – and then feeding each other food (and not doing a very good job of it.) One of the comments you could hear from the girl “Why are you talking? Stop talking. You know I hate when you talk so much.” Ummm….so sweet…..thankfully they left. I know mean and superficial…but neither person was attractive in anyway so this made it all seem so much worse and annoying.

Then we walked down to the beach in front of the restaurant in search of the cute golden retriever puppy we saw go by! But he was too fast with his dad so we didn’t get to skoosh him :( But the views are just so awesome. I know I am spoiled living on the NorCal coast and it is very, very beautiful. But I do think I prefer the mountains, trees and lake view:

Then we went home and hung out. Husband and his friend Robert played Guitar Hero (I giggle at that myself…)

Guitar Hero-ing....

Tonight husband drove back home with our friends and it’s just me and the huskies for 3 days (then he will be back for my official birthday and long weekend.) The huskies are relaxing on the deck now that it’s cooler while I watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent and type this – crazy party girl…I KNOW :) But I need to get up and get those huskies out early to beat the heat!!

p.s. of course I was stuffed full after lunch until now…at 10:30pm…dang it!

Friday night we got up here up around 12:30am…pretty late for me!! I was very tired since I woke up at 5am. Once here, we unloaded the car, got ready for bed and finally got to sleep around 1:15-1:30am.

Angelus barked at me to wake up around 3ish…he *never* does this unless he has an upset tummy. But he did not. He had no interest in going outside to pee or anything. So I went back to sleep. Then he woke me up again a short time later. Again, he did not want to go outside the front way to pee. He wanted to go out on the back deck.  I was exhausted so I just let him out and said good night.

Then he woke up husband around 4am and was going crazy running from the back deck to go out at the front door. We are pretty sure he was tracking a bear or coyote outside as he simply doesn’t get that excited about a raccoon or smaller critters unless he is actually chasing them – DAMMIT! I wanted to see the bear!!!! Next time! It’s been almost 2 years since I saw the bear in our driveway – I am due!! :)

I woke up at 7am and took the buds on a walk for an hour. Then it got too hot for them. Pretty sure Stormy gave me the paw.  Then it was vacation-coffee-mode on the deck in the sun :) I love sitting out on the deck facing the forest. Very peaceful, pretty and the forest smell is amazing.  Mandy came over about an hour later and Helen woke up and we eventually rallied to do a 6-mile hike where we found this alien pod:

Alien Pod

Not sure what is was. But had fun convincing ourselves it was poisonous and might kill us all on touch if we touched it (we were clearly dehydrated by this point ;) ) So I moved it out of the path with 2 sticks….where it dropped. Lesson 1: do not put me in charge of the nitro-glycerin. After giggling at ourselves we continued on and finished the hike unscathed by the alien pod…oh yeah – we did name it John :)

Mandy and me looking out over Donner Lake

Helen, me and Donner Lake

Got back and laid in the sun for an hour or so reading magazines and chatting. We opened up a bottle of Brut and a great time was had by all!

Later we had a yummy sushi dinner at Yoshimi Sushi in Incline Village. This is one of the several rolls we go that were not on the menu. This one is called the Lucky #7:

Lucky #7 sushi roll

You can link to my Yelp review from a previous visit on the front page of my blog (under Lifestream.) I HIGHLY recommend this place!!!! But then again, not so much that it gets too popular and I can’t get seated :)

Now I am in a food coma on top of 5 hours of sleep, sun and hiking…so I think this party girl should go to sleep by 10:00pm on her first day of vacation in Tahoe :)