three meals in the desert

Two dinners and a lunch for us to talk about.  Here we go.

Wally's Desert Turtle.  Our favourite place to get to.  Yes, there is better, more adventuresome food in the desert.  And, honestly, service was kind of lacking this time.  But we love it there.  My streak continued:  so far as I can recall, I have had liver and onions every time I have eaten there, and this time was no different. 

Yum!  Also, chocolate souffle shared for dessert. 

What a nice evening it was, service glitches aside.  So happy to be back.  Conrad was able to chat with the owner about a possible big birthday dinner for himself later in the year, too.  You know that made him happy.

King's Highway.  Brunch and an opportunity to catch up with Kent for the first time since he and Geoff moved to France, split up, moved back to the desert.  Nice to see him, and a nice choice for brunch.  A diner, but a few cuts above.  I had a mocktail to sip,

then a substantial breakfast burrito because I was in a breakfast-y mood. 

I stole fries from Van, yum.  I'd be happy to go back.

Bar Issi.  The other restaurant at our hotel.  Van and I had been there the year before, but it was nice to get Conrad there with us.  We had a table outside, and the temperature, while warm, was entirely pleasant.  We had cocktails and then dug into a few courses.  A tomato salad that was just dressed, thick slices of heirloom tomatoes - simple and good.  Puccia bread with butters, piping hot and delicious. 

Zucchini blossoms, a nice little treat. 

Two pizzas, one pepperoni and one with chicken and asparagus. 

We ate our fill and took the rest back to the room.  A very nice night, but Van and I did think that some of the little service issues we experienced last year hadn't yet been fully fixed.  Ah well.

All in all, good dining in the desert.  And there are yet new places to try next visit as well as old faves to return to.

Friday evening in

Conrad is off to LAX early tomorrow morning, which means (I'm writing this Friday night) that I should head to bed soon.  But hey, a quick post opportunity while I'm on a roll this week, right?  Sure, let's do it.

Normally we would be at Maestro on a Friday evening, but Conrad had to pack for his trip to Chicago.  He asked that we do takeaway sushi, and I'm totally down with that.  A little later for dinner than usual, but he got the packing done.  Then it was on to sushi (mmmm... shrimp heads!),

sitting out back. 

The jasmine is going wild, flowers starting to pop out,

and after dinner, I was getting little whiffs of their lovely perfume.

Conrad will be back Tuesday, but Van and I will enjoy some time until then.  More posts to come, and then in a week, it's the start of the New England trip! 

as seen on morning walks this week

After a week of hot weather last week, it's been a relief to have cooler temperatures this week, especially overnight.  It is still March, though, right?  I ask because the June Gloom (or, if you prefer, the May Grey) was thick and soupy at least a couple of mornings this past week when I was out on walks. 

I don't mind, believe me.  Makes for great walking.

The recent heat has set so many things blooming.  I very much hope the jacaranda bloom is remarkable this year when it happens.  A couple of days this past week, though, I've come upon these trees.  White or pink flowers, depending on the tree. 

A Google search suggests that the tree is called the orchid tree or mountain ebony.  Either name, it's lovely.

Only a short walk this morning - I had to set off for the library much earlier than usual these days because I had an 8:00 meeting before opening the building at 9:00.  Not much of the marine layer today, but it was a pleasant temperature, and the light on City Hall was lovely. 

I hope to get some good walks in this weekend! 

Tuesday evening

I am so mixed up.  Tuesday evening last night?  Was it?  Really?  I could have sworn it was a Sunday.  Life will get back to normal at... some point.  Conrad heads out of town on Saturday, and then exactly one week later, after his return, he and I head out of town together.  I think that maybe by late April there will be some semblance of routine again, but who knows?!

Anyway... Tuesday night.  Having let loose this weekend, I decided we'd have some wine with dinner (I'll go back to greatly tempering drinking the rest of the week, more or less, and then beyond!), and I made us some dinner out of things found in the fridge and cupboards rather than going shopping.  A simple tomato sauce, some pasta, burrata, crispy prosciutto. 

Not the most refined dinner, but it tasted fine and used up some burrata that was at risk of getting past its sell-by date.

Conrad and I sat outside, watching Drag Race and appreciating having a pleasantly mild evening.  The recent heat was unwelcome, and then we had the heat of Palm Springs, so a relatively cooler (but not at all chilly) evening was welcome.  Plus, the heat has the jasmine in the back courtyard on the verge of blooming. 

Hooray!

Onward with the week.... 

home again

Hey, friends!  We made it home over an hour and a half ago.  An easy ride back from the desert just as the ride down on Sunday was easy and relatively fast.  I'll post from the desert in days ahead, but for now, I've got laundry on the go, and I'm feeling lazy.  We'll catch up soon!  For now, relaxing, much like I did yesterday.  And, like yesterday, I am not getting in a pool.  🤣🤣🤣

 

Amara/Mama M

I'll soon have to grab a small suitcase from the storage locker and get to packing for a couple of nights away.  Conrad and I have been for a short (2-mile) walk, and have had coffee, and it's still a while before Van picks us up to head to the desert, though.  So, let me post quickly from yesterday.  Warning:  it was a very mild day.

What did we do?  In no particular order, then.... A little laundry and dishes.  Some things online.  Fixed the blinds in the front room.  Read and listened to music.  Watched Rental Family during and after dinner.  Went for a walk and then another with Conrad.  Takeaway sushi from Mama M. 

Breakfast at Amara.

  

I'm delighted that Amara and her husband have said they'll come to our party in May.  Yay!  Meanwhile, I look forward to the next time I see Chef Jack and his wife, Joy, at Mama M so that we can share more of our Thailand planning with them.

Alright, Van has messaged.  He is awake!  Now to get things organized to head out of town until Tuesday. 

Friday night at Maestro

In recent months I've taken to summarizing the weekend that was after the weekend that had been.  But we're all off to Palm Springs tomorrow, back on Tuesday, and I thought I'd squeeze in an entry or two before I go.  So, from dinner last night, I present a Maestro meal for your visual feasting.

Van joined us last night, which was nice.  He hasn't been over to Maestro in a while, and they do ask about him when he's not with us.  We sat outside - their outdoor seating is fully shaded by the building across the alley in the evenings - and had an early meal.  The two of them had cocktails (two for Conrad, one for Van), but I stuck to mocktails and enjoyed the one with cafe de olla syrup first

and then their house margarita but made with a non-alcoholic tequila. 

Still trying to stick to one drink each week (but not a week apart necessarily), and I had my drink on television date night with Van.  I will be enjoying a cocktail tomorrow when we have dinner in the desert, though!

As for food, we didn't have too big a dinner.  Plantain chips and guacamole as we sipped our cocktails, then we followed that with the kale and sesame salad,

the bone marrow esquites,

and then a plate of enmoladas. 

All of it good, filling us nicely.  There is a new (to us) musician playing outside on Friday evenings, and we enjoyed his strumming and singing.

After dinner we walked back to the condo.  A little chocolate, Van watered the plants, we chatted a bit, then he headed home to Olive and left us to our devices.  A mild evening followed, and that was perfectly alright by me! 

warm nights at home

It's been unreasonably, unseasonably, record-breakingly hot this week in southern California.  While Conrad's family in Michigan has been suffering some heavy snow, we've been reaching well into the 90s daily.  It should cool down a little after the weekend, but it's too much and far too soon.  Technically winter, but nope.  Summer temperatures already.  Ugh.

In such a week, I'm trying to keep the cooking to a minimum so as to turn on the stove infrequently and the oven even less.  Dinners like on Wednesday night (and a similar one at Van's on Tuesday):  a grazing board of things that I pulled out of the fridge and cupboards. 

That was just right for us - variety and ease all in one!  I poured us mocktails from a bottle of a pre-made mix (not a great drink, but nice for something a little different),

and we sat outside enjoying the evening air cooling off. 

loquats

Nothing newsy to report, just a photo to share.  I was out walking north of the freeway yesterday, and I saw some loquat trees in a few yards, heavy with fruit coming along nicely.

I've read in the past that there are many such trees around the LA area, and that a lot of the fruit goes unused.  And I don't doubt that - in the groceries stores (read:  white, or non-ethnic) where I shop, the fruit is almost never on sale.  I probably haven't tasted it since I lived in Montreal and was dating Claude, and he would find loquats in stores (sold as nèfles) and buy them.

Anyway, no invading yards for me.  Just admiration.  Handsome trees.  I hope some owners are harvesting them.  

television date night

After a week of enduring a cold (and it doesn't help that the heat has so much blooming right now, including the oak trees - hello, hay fever!), it was back to a regularly scheduled weekly television date night at Van's.  American Idol is our current watch, but we also made time to dive into a Netflix dating series, Age of Attraction.  Yes, my television tastes are far from refined.  Unapologetically so.

I've been having a mostly dry month but have been allowing myself a drink a week.  Before we watched television, we sat outside with some light dinner that required no cooking in this heat, sipping Fallen Angels. 

Water for the rest of the night, and a satisfying time parked on the couch watching television.

Oh, and Olive!  Olive was there to get her little bit of love, too! 

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.

the day I left Vancouver

Let's finish Vancouver, shall we?  Essentially an excuse for a last photo dump from the morning walk,

but hey, isn't it a treat to see Nanaimo bars in the Maple Leaf Lounge at YVR? 

Speaking of YVR, I had time to kill there, and I was tired of sitting in the lounge, so, yep, you guessed it:  a walk.  I headed down to the small planes end of the US gates and found absolutely no one there.  Nice and quiet.

I really must get up to Vancouver again soon.  My step count this past week has been terrible!

May the weeks ahead bring some more activity, some things to blog about.  Happy March, everyone!