Summer Chardonnay

Experimenting with the toy camera and enjoying the summer with a glass of Chardonnay.

Lyfe

Who says happy hour must be synonymous with unhealthy fried foods. Matchmaker, Teacher and I decided to mix things up for our latest gathering by going healthy. We made our way to Lyfe Cafe and ordered a medley of healthy snacks to accompany a glass of wine and great conversation.

 Watermelon cucumber mint salad

Grilled asparagus flatbread

I added a twist to the hummus challenge (previous contenders featured here and here) by sampling the edamame hummus, which was incredible.

Here's to healthying it up!

The Rock

As part of the summer program, we took a night tour of Alcatraz, aka The Rock. Walking through the dark, cold prison with the wind howling outside truly added to the experience.

It is amazing to think this piece of US history is sitting just across the bay. Alcatraz is one of those places you never go to unless you have visitors from out of town, but this venture just goes to show what a joy it is to explore the treasures that are in your own backyard.

Delicious Improvisation

Teacher paid us a visit, armed with a bag full of farmer's market treats.

Aside from her teaching skills (hence her nickname), she's also an amazing chef. Teacher improvised everything based on what she brought and what we had in our kitchen. Before scarfing down the delicious concoction, I had to take pictures of her culinary masterpieces.

 Organic greens with homemade dressing

 Half baked bread which we finished baking in our oven

Tomato kale fritata with goat cheese

 Peach raspberry crumble

With a little greek yogurt for fun

Believe me, the meal tasted even better than it looked. This is a give away of a true chef- someone who can just walk into any kitchen and put together a delicious meal by improvising. Sometimes a meal at home is better than any meal at a restaurant.

4 Courses

A roundup of the best servings of the week:

Course 1: Family & Friends

• Celebrating the Bakestress and O2
• Continuing the hummus challenge

Course 2: Food

• Cereal sushi
• Celebrating national ice cream day
• Checking off garlic ice cream off the list
• Testing out the Asian Box

Course 3: Fitness

• 7 days logged so far on the beach

Course 4: Forever Remembered

• A local trip to the famous Garlic Festival

To a great week and an even better one ahead.

Gilroy Garlic Festival

We decided to take a mini road trip to Gilroy to cross an item off my food list and because Husband loves him some garlic. Love is not an exaggeration for how he feels about garlic. His love list is probably family, then fitness, then garlic. I may be giving myself too much credit for being the top of that list, but needless to say in a top 5 list of things he loves, garlic is on that list.

As always, Husband and I approached this event with ninja like precision and type-A pre-planning effort. We had our official 'hit list' of food items, all of which we got through.

Garlic Lumpia

Garlic Lavash Pizza

Garlic Mussels

(Not so garlicky) Garlic Ice Cream 

It was the largest food related fair I have ever been to in the United States and was definitely a fun experience. I'd recommend going early to avoid the traffic, leave any shoes you care about at home because it can get muddy and bring an appetite because the food options are abundant. Surprisingly there were many vendors that served non-garlic treats which we refused to patron in the overall spirit of the festival. Some other funny photos:

 Children in hamster balls

This very large frenchie refusing to move until his owners gave him something to drink.

As a souvenir of our trip, we brought home a gigantic garlic dark chocolate reese's cup which, unlike the ice cream, had a very distinctive yet surprisingly not overwhelming garlic taste.

If only ever weekend was a food festival type of weekend.

Asian Box

The trend of what I like to call the "Chipotle Method" continues- i.e. giving you the option for the receptacle by which you enjoy your meal (bowl, salad, taco, burrito, etc.), your choice of meat and your choice of fixings. I've heard a lot about Asian Box so I decided to give it a try.

Pros: Super fast, good variety, rice and pork were yummy.
Cons: The tamarind sauce was very sweet, overpowering the pork and the vegetables could stand to be a little more present. Next time I'll have to try asking for 'double vegetable' and see how that goes down.

Local Life

I have passed this particular building countless times and this was the first time I ever noticed this series of art. I'm sure conspirators will tell me this is how they getcha; they just never expect you to look up.