third weekend in July

Hey, it's the weekend update!  Lucky y'all, right?  Here we go!

Friday started out with me doing a mighty mighty long morning walk:  just shy of ten miles.  I was understandably a little worn out the rest of the day, but I rallied for dinner at Maestro.  No Van this time - he was a little under the weather - but we did have a nice time with Stephen. 

Ah, Stephen, someone we didn't see often enough despite him living just over in Glendale.  And now he is all packed up and moving to Texas.  This week.  We wish him well there, what with the new job and being much closer to his daughters and grandson.

Anyway, it was a nice evening outside. 

I stuck with the Maestro margarita, a hibiscus-flavoured drink, and we shared some good food:  guacamole with plantain chips, oysters, the roasted beet salad, and the cochinita pibil.  

I really love that last dish.  Yum!

Conrad and I came home from dinner, poured a little wine, watched some television.  An easy Friday done.

Saturday started out with less walking than the day before.  And, of course, we ended up at Amara.  Rather than having my usual arepa, I split a breakfast burrito

with Conrad. 

Have no fear:  there was a decaf latte for me.

Saturday then unspooled through a day of groceries, some laundry, and tackling some of the accumulation in the one storage room.  That felt good to get done.  Eventually I took up residence in my kitchen where I cobbled up from dim memory a lentil and bacon tart

to serve at room temperature for dinner and served that along with a salad platter (no lettuce - we are being wary of that like many other people) of burrata with crispy prosciutto, tomatoes, nectarines, basil, and mint. 

We had barely finished when Erik from next door showed up at the door to say hello.  That turned into a longer evening with him and his friend, Barry, joining us.  And then, because the dishwasher is on the fritz, I was up until after 11 washing and drying all the dishes by hand.  A lot of time on my feet despite a shorter walk that day, and man oh man, was I exhausted by the time I went to bed.

I let myself stay in bed longer yesterday, and our morning walk was meager.  It was nice to get a morning with some oatmeal and decaf and writing a few notecards to friends.  I made some dinner for Conrad to reheat tonight while I'm at Van's, then set to work on the happy hour cocktails.  That was fun.  Van stuck around for sushi after drinks, and then he headed home while Conrad and I finished up with some travel planning we'd been doing earlier in the day.  To bed after that.

Just a rather ordinary, easy weekend for us.  Nice to have! 

a weekend was had

Yep, it was a weekend, and not at all a bad one.  There are remnants of my cold lingering even now, but for the most part, I'm doing alright and was that way through the past weekend.  And that meant, happily, some welcome and familiar things.

Such as dinner at Maestro on Friday night!  It was a nice, warm evening, so Conrad and I sat outside.  I've been having a mostly dry month, so I had a mocktail made with coconut, pineapple juice, and cafe de olla syrup. 

We shared guacamole and plantain chips, a roasted beet salad,

and the black bean and huitlacoche tetela. 

It was only toward the end of dinner that we realized that we'd had a vegetarian meal.  Great!  It was nice to be back.

Saturday morning we walked.  After a few days of inactivity, I was sluggish, I admit.  But we hauled ourselves around Old Pasadena for a couple of miles and landed at Amara for a light breakfast. 

On  the way home afterward, I stopped to get a shot or two of the "snow" of fallen tabebuia blooms on the sidewalk. 

From a distant, they looked like crumpled caution tape.  Really striking.

We got things done at home and at the bank (but ugh, I won't go into the whole story, just...grrrr), and eventually I got into the kitchen to make us a simple dinner of pork tenderloin and cabbage. 

And after the bank thing I thought, you know what?  I will join Conrad in a cocktail with dinner.  And so I did!

I have no photos from yesterday, alas.  A much lazier day, and I wish I had slept better the night before.  The time change over a week ago is still kicking my butt, and my sleeping hours have been wonkier than I would like.  We ultimately ended up at Van's in the afternoon for a handful of hours of watching the Oscars and then dinner together.  Nice time of it, but nothing that I captured with a lens.

last weekend in September

Howdy, neighbours!

Is September really ending?  Wow.  I guess it is.  Life feels somewhat back to normal, but I say that a whole heck of a lot, so maybe redefining normal is needed?  Not tonight, though.  Tonight, let's blog.

Friday!  On Friday, we went to Maestro.  Just as we have done many times before, and - with luck - we will do many times again.  We arrived there not long after 5, but the bar was already too full for the 3 of us.  So it was dinner outside on what had been a grey day.  Very comfortable temperatures at this time of year, and we appreciated that.  Cocktails to start with,

and among the food was a roasted beet salad. 

It was very good to be back.  I always appreciate our time there.

Saturday morning I was feeling lazy.  It had rained a little overnight, and I decided not to go out and walk all over on a still-damp morning.  I waited for Conrad to get up, and then the two of us headed to Amara for breakfast.  Decaf oatmilk latte and, this time, a breakfast burrito for me. 

That was enjoyable.

We did some things around the condo after breakfast yesterday, and we also had some lazy time.  That was welcome.  Oh, I know - Hawaii was relaxing, right?  Yes, it was.  But it's another thing to get to relax in your own home, and so we did.  Early evening, though, we headed to Van's, where he made us cocktails and put out light bites for us to enjoy,

giving Olive some love,

before we met up with Jennifer and Sanders at Cannonball,

a new restaurant in South Pasadena.

My verdict?  Handsome space, decent food (ocean trout for me)

and cocktails (the Arroyo Park and then the Milk and Honey),

but it was very loud.  I'm genuinely glad that they are popular, but I don't know if/when we will go back.  Even for the 3 of us not wearing hearing aids last night, it was tough to listen.  ah well.  Maybe one day.

This morning I got up a little later and went for a walk - just look at that magnificent fungus I saw. 

Groceries and Starbucks, and then Van made us a satisfying brunch.  The even wound down with an online happy hour that I'll blog about separately.

What's weird is that I have a fairly normal workweek ahead..... 

I made dinner last night…

… and, for a change, I was pretty pleased with it.  Oh, I am a terrible critic of my own cooking.  Don’t flatter me, I know that X or Y could be better.  That’s me, usually.  But last night was a good night.  A beet risotto, steamed beet greens, and a nice piece of steelhead with crispy skin.  No complaints at all.  Nice job, Peter.

third weekend in February

An atypical weekend, somewhat, but not entirely.  And yes, I know the blogging has been sparse this month - a simple quiet life is all that underlies that.

We enjoyed an unseasonably mild Friday evening at Maestro by sitting outside for a change (and hooray!  Van joined me and Conrad) rather than at the bar. 

That was a nice change.  Nestor took care of us,

and we ordered a few things we haven't had in a while:  beet salad,

shrimp tacos,

carrot cake con leche. 

Nice dinner out!

Saturday morning was the usual.  A bit of a walk, Amara for breakfast. 

Familiar, comfortable, enjoyable.

Saturday evening we're usually over at Van's, but this time we were at The Arbour and without Van.  We're sad to say that Natasha is leaving us this week, moving to Seattle.  We'll miss her.  And so a small group of us comprising a semi-reunion of South America travelers what with Marina (and her husband, Nick, too) joining us along with Fiorella and Alessio visiting from Italy. 

The Pasadenans all ordered the same thing, the yellowtail tuna, a dish we've enjoyed before. 

A nice night, a bittersweet dinner.

Yesterday was a fairly easy day for us.  A jaunt for groceries in the morning, me in the kitchen in the afternoon.  I slow roasted a whole chicken for the three of us, and that made for a nice enough dinner.  Desert was individual souffles, using my base recipe. 

For the fruit puree to fold in, I worked with blueberries.  That was, well, interesting.  Blueberries have a lot of pectin, and from when I made the puree to when I pulled it out of the fridge to use, it had set up.  Whisking it helped, but it was still weirdly lumpy when folded into the egg whites.  It came across a little gritty in texture overall even though I had passed the puree through a sieve.  The liquid from the puree precipitated out during baking.  The flavour was a little subdued as well - I wanted more punch.  Nice colour when baked, and nice aroma to the souffles, but I won't try that one again.

Van and Olive headed home, Conrad and I cleaned up the kitchen, and that was the weekend done!

happy birthday to ME!

I love it when a restaurant surprises me.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday at Sola, and what a lovely, relaxed meal it was. Better still, there were dishes that exceeded expectations. Best of all, we had service that was ever so friendly and winning.

Let's back up. In case you don't know already, today, the 27th, is my 39th birthday. It's really not a big deal. I've loved getting a ton of FB messages, but despite my joking, I'm NOT anxious about my age. I'm 39. I can live with it.

Conrad has a ticket to Hawaii for me for my gift, so it was somehow appropriate that we opted for 1000 points (and the use of a gift certificate) at Sola, owned.operated by a chef who has a deep connection with that tropical state. We haven't dined there in ages, and even then it was brunch. Time to head back west over to it.

We'd barely ordered cocktails when a summer shower blew through. That drove us inside, but eventually we made it back outside, practically the only people sitting out on a pleasantly warm evening. Conrad had a martini (with Hendryck's - thanks Dale!) and I had Champagne. I HAD to celebrate!

We opted for sharing six appetizers to get a good selection of foods, then dessert, then cheese. We also enjoyed a half bottle of an Oregon Pinot Gris and a half bottle of a California Pinot Noir before a glass each of Pedro Ximenez with the cheese course.

The food started fine with an amuse then a dish of raw kampachi, but it blew us away when the tempura squash blossoms arrived, filled with shellfish and served with a housemade kimchi. Really? Awesome! We were tempted to reorder this very seasonal dish.

The artichoke fritters were fine, as was the tuna poke. It was when the cod with fava bean risotto came out (and the potstickers) that we were jolted again. All of the food was good, but these were the exceptional dishes that made us shake our heads in happy wonder.

Family called throughout dinner. I hadn't talked with Bella since we were up for Dad's funeral, so that was nice.


I ordered Conrad the chocolate dessert, and it was fine, but mine was the third stunner of the evening: a tart of beets and a miso creme fraiche filling. Beets. Miso. Dessert. Good gosh, was that a show-stopper. Not the first time that night we sent compliments back with the wait staff.

The wait staff, I must add, were fun. Truffles with a candle came out, but no singing (THANK YOU!). We got to discuss the food and the wine a bunch, and we really appreciate that. A vital part of an exceptional dinner.

Cheeses were last, the best being the Louisiana cheese (who would've guessed that?) in the middle of the plate.

And now? We're home. Decompressing before bed. But gosh - and big thanks to Conrad - a wonderful meal that prompts us already to find time to go back, preferably with friends.

In short: happy birthday to me! :-)