start of a long weekend

Happy Friday!  I'm off work today through Monday, going on an escape with Conrad

up to SF.  The flight is this afternoon, and I still have to pack, but it's a leisurely morning otherwise.  We got up a bit earlier than usual and had a nice walk in the chilly morning.  Yes, chilly - we think so, and the fresh snow on the mountains above Pasadena. 

Brrrr.  Good to see, though!  The walk, unsurprisingly, ended up at Amara for breakfast.  The usual, even if it wasn't a Saturday:  arepa,

decaf latte. 

Good stuff.

I'm looking forward to the weekend ahead, for sure!  May it be a good one for any of you out there.

Thursday morning

I have plans to do a longer post from last weekend, I promise, but I've had a weirdly busier than expected (and less relaxing and fun than hoped) week.  Sorry!

For now, here's me with a decaf latte, heading into the library.

Oh, and here's Olive from last night, happily ignoring us while we ate our dinner.

Onward with the day!

a Tuesday swim happened

And that is about all I can say.

Oh, I can blather on a bit more.  It wasn't a great swim in terms of speed, endurance, or technique, but it was nice to have a fairly calm, quiet pool and a bit of time this morning to splash around.  Here's hoping I can hop in again on Thursday!

sometimes I wish this blog were scratch and sniff

Mock orange, I believe.  Or a plant that is probably called mock orange by some and other names by others.  No matter.  It is gorgeously fragrant.  Our morning walks these days always start out with some lovely scents like this in the air.

'tis the season (allergy season)

Rain in February, then record warm temperatures to close out the month.  In other words, things are blooming, and I've had a very sniffly, sneezy week.  Fun and snotty times, right?

Just the same, though, I do love seeing spring flowers.  I know we get things blooming year round here in SoCal, but seeing flowering cherries (or are these plums or something else) or crocuses or daffodils or tulips really delights me in a way that other flowers don't always.  Bringing me back to childhood, perhaps, and thinking of how long winters could stretch and how the first flowers of spring really did feel like a promise.

last swim of February

I won't say it was a good swim, but I will say that having swam earlier this week, I felt a little better in the water on Thursday when I made it to the pool for a splash.

Making it even better?  Conrad made it to the pool with me!  YAY!

Let's see how the March swims go....

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.

I've had worse

But oh yes, I've had far far far better swims.

Sigh.

Better than no swim, I guess, right?

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!

oh, right

I swam earlier this week. 

So did Conrad. 

Keeping up my wildly inconsistent and sadly pathetic efforts in the water here.  Just FYI.

Grammys cocktails

No, not cocktails for drinking during the Grammys - the awards were what, two weeks ago now?  No, instead it was simply our theme this month for online cocktails.  Drinks that somehow evoked the Grammys.  Combine that with a holiday Monday for me, and there we were:  an opportunity to try making some drinks ahead of time to pick what I would make for us during happy hour.  So here they are, ranked from my least to most favourite:

The Birds of a Feather. 

Great song, weirdly flavourless drink considering that it had pineapple juice and Aperol in it.  It just tasted watery and washed out.  I had high hopes for this one.  Sadly, unfulfilled.

The Blue Sun. 

Not quite the name of Andre 3000's nominated album, but close enough.  A variation on a margarita that used blue curacao in place of a clear orange liqueur.  It was ok, but only just.  It didn't taste balanced.  The colour was fun, though.

The Pink Pony Club. 

A boozy sangria, kind of.  Passion fruit syrup for depth of flavour, gin for booze, but it tasted more like a fruity rose sangria than anything.  Which isn't a terrible thing!

The Benson Flip. 

Not a particular fan of Benson Boone, but I was impressed by his performance.  And by this drink.  It's a rich one:  a whole egg and whipping cream in there, along with rum and chocolate liqueur and coffee beans.  I'd go back to this one, but as a dessert drink.

The Short and Sweet. 

Sabrina Carpenter wins this one for us.  A limoncello spritz, it had some lemon juice to cut through a little, and a nice, light sweetness.  The fresh mint actually made a difference here, too, I think.  I made this for the three of us, and we enjoyed a great conversation with the others.

easy Sunday morning

Happy Sunday!  It's late morning, and we didn't get off to an early start here.  A little stroll, then on to Amara for us.  No Van - he's still asleep as I write this, so far as I know.  But Conrad is back

and not going anywhere until he and I go to SF in a few weeks.  Decaf latte for me,

our usual breakfasts. 

Just a lovely little morning.

he made it home!

Conrad is back!  Yay!!

Olive is clearly happy as well (no, really - she just hates being photographed).  Her Plan C, available to give her attention.🫒🐶❤️

short ribs

Another in my series of exceedingly brief check-ins on a quiet week.  Van and I celebrated Valentine's Day with dinner in last night.  I cooked up beef short ribs and served them atop a saffron carrot puree with some Brussels sprouts.  A bottle of a nice wine, music, great conversation.  It was a good evening.

And now to get to LAX to pick up Conrad!

Italicus Spritz

A short post, a drink from yesterday.  Brightening the rainy day with an Italicus Spritz or two.  Tasty!

it's raining

Happy Thursday!  A wet Thursday here.  The rain gauge on our roof has already recorded four inches today.  I'm over at Van's, staying dry inside with Olive.  Work from home today.  A quiet week overall.  Not much to report, as you can tell.  And that's fine.  All is ok!

So then, just checking in on a very wet late afternoon, a day before a holiday weekend, looking forward to the rain ending so that we don't get flooding and mudslides in the area.

second weekend in February

Remember last weekend?  Maestro on Friday night,

Amara on Saturday morning? 

Same thing this weekend.  But we were at the condo last night, not Van's.  I made us dinner again, though:  lamb chops with an eggplant and pea curry and saffron rice. 

And then today, Sunday, it's more cooking, with a vegetarian lasagna in the oven for me and Van tomorrow.

In short, a regular weekend.

Conrad is off to Japan tomorrow, Van and I will enjoy each other's company through Saturday, and next weekend is a long weekend.  Let's see what the middle of February brings.

oh, Zoom...

I don't actually hate Zoom, to be honest.  I just think that when something is put into my calendar, and I show up on time, the event shouldn't then start 15 minutes later.  Other people who arrive late to meetings or events are not my fault.

Sigh.

Thursday dinner

Our usual habit is to order sushi from Mama M on Thursdays, but we'd already had sushi this week (this past Monday, after our neighbour, Les, came over to have drinks).  Plus, it was a rainy evening, and even a short amble over to get sushi was not appealing.  I got home from work, dried off and changed, and got in the kitchen instead.

Pork tenderloin and green pea puree plus some carrots.  A bottle of a Côtes du Rhône.  An episode of Great British Bake Off (noooooo, not Nelly going home - we loved her!).  The makings of a very nice Thursday night indeed.