Marky Mark

Go see The Fighter. You will not be disappointed. Mark Wahlberg will tug at your little heartstrings in his quiet struggle and Christian Bale is at his method-acting finest. Seriously. They are SOOOOO good together. And, as an added bonus, you get to see some very, very fine examples of classy southie hair and clothing. Thank god midriff baring, daisy dukes and teased bangs went away - at least in most parts of the country...

And, we're starting to see that all of the theatres here are old art-deco houses. They're gorgeous! If only I could ever remember the camera!!!

For all the cat lovers...

Meet my other co-worker. He may have fleas right now, but he's still the sweetest, cuddliest, ginormous orange kitty you've ever met. I'm in love. He must weigh 25 pounds. Normally, he snuggles up all day on the top of the pantry next to the refrigerator (about 7 feet off the ground). Since the cleaning man was vacuuming, he was banished to his other favorite spot, the flower pot. Not the best pictures but....

Don't you think Simon needs a friend?

Napaaaaaaaaahhhh

Disclaimer: Minneapolites, we know that you were the victims of a snownami this weekend so if you don't want to read about a glorious, sunny day in Napa, you may not want to continue reading. 

This weekend was Aaron's virgin trip to California wine country. And, it was good.

Two things happen when one visits Napa. It is, afterall, the happiest place on earth, according to Mara.

1. You believe you are independently wealthy.
2. You believe you are invincible and that you can drink copious amounts of wine while retaining both your intelligent conversational skills and your very refined palate.

We rented a car and drove up early Saturday morning. The fog was just lifting off of the hills and the clouds were splitting to reveal a gorgeous blue sky. It was warm, still, and absolutely beautiful. The fantastic thing about going to Napa during the off season is that there is NO TRAFFIC. We made it from Berkeley to St. Helena in under an hour. During the high season, this trip can easily take up to 2 hours.

We started at Freemark Abbey, my favorite winery (in my limited experience). They have been around forever (since way before Prohibition) and were the first winery to be owned and operated by a woman, Josephine Tychson. They have had the same winemaker for almost 30 years, making wines in the old world style, blending the reds in the French tradition, and making truly amazing wines. 

Picnic grounds beside tasting room at Freemark Abbey

It is a pretty fantastic place to begin. We were the only ones there for the first hour so we had Diane's undivided attention. We also decided to join their wine club so we were offered everything - library wines, their signature red blend, their dessert wine...the list goes on. In any case, go there. You will not be disappointed. The only problem is that you don't want to dump anything because it is all so fine. It probably should have been our only stop for the day... ;) 

Incidentally, today I learned that my co-worker's father was a famous winemaker for over 30 years in Napa and Sonoma AND...he was a partner at Freemark in the 60's. Too crazy. Also, the current winemaker at Freemark was my co-worker's TA for her viticulture class at UC Davis many moons ago!!! What a small world. She told me story upon story about her father's amazing farming and scientific skills. She was so proud of him; it was awesome. Again, crazy serendipity.

Next, our friend Diane from Freemark sent us down the road to St. Clement winery. The tasting room is up a very steep hill in a late 19th-century estate with spectacular views. Their specialty is cabernet sauvignon, but they had just released a chardonnay that knocked both of our socks off. I'm not a chardonnay drinker AT ALL but this one was so soft and floral, it tasted like it was blended with muscat.

St. Clement estate

And, here's the view from the top of the hill. Pretty nice, huh? They also have several picnic tables and a fire pit and are very encouraging of hillside picnics...

I won't detail every single stop but the last winery we went to was Hope & Grace in Yountville, the home of the famous French Laundry, Bouchon, Bottega, etc. etc. And every. street. looks. like. this. It really is the happiest place on earth.

Hope & Grace is known for its lush, delicious pinots and Malbecs. And, one of the tasting room attendants brings his dog, Romeo, to work with him so that's an added bonus. Romeo is going to be featured in the next Winery Dogs of Napa Valley. We also met a chef there this weekend who was Welsh so, OF COURSE, we had to ask him the most obvious question. Do you know Bryn Terfel? And, of course, he did. Seriously. He told us a couple of stories and made our night with that hilarious accent.

And with that, we were off...back to the farmer's market, Christmas parties, and the realities of Monday morning. Well, at least for one of us :)

The Brussels Sprout Diet

I suppose that, by now, some of you out there in Readerland are wondering, "Just what the hell is Aaron doing with his time, given that he currently has no job and has not penned a single entry to this outstanding blog?" (It's more likely that you're not wondering that. Unfortunately for you, I'm going to tell you what I've been up to anyway). Well, he has been developing an exciting new nutritional plan: The All-Brussels-Sprout-Diet. Will it make you ride faster up mountains? Will it make you run faster and further than you ever thought possible? Will it make you more attractive to the opposite (or same, we are in the Bay Area, after all) sex? I cannot guarantee any of these things. What I can tell you is this: Brussels sprouts are damn delicious, and boy are they cheap in California.

What you see above is a stalk of the delectable sprouts in their wild form. For me, this was an incredible discovery. For the first thirty years of my life, I thought that they grew in freezer bags or in miniature cabbage patches. But no, they actually exist as some sort of Mother Nature's ninja attack weapon. The stalk itself is roughly two-and-a-half feet long, and I would say that it contains at least 50 individual sprouts. The cost of this beauty? $2.95 at the local Berkeley Bowl market. And, they're organically grown. We have also purchased the tiny cabbages at the Temescal Farmer's Market. It's a five-minute walk from our apartment, in the parking lot of the DMV. Here is what the walking path looks like:

The path is beautiful, if fraught with runaway children like the one pictured above. I don't know how many times we have nearly tripped over a wayward child or narrowly escaped being trampled by a parent's desperate dash after a child headed straight for the small ravine next to the path. It's a dangerous trip, but worth the risk for the aforementioned Brussels sprouts and other assorted goodies.

You can also buy these at the Farmer's Market, but we haven't done so yet. We learned our lesson living with Mara and Stu.

We have experimented with Brussels sprouts in several forms: pan-seared in the style of the 112 Eatery, roasted, and finely chopped and sauteed. While we have not yet embarked on an all Brussels sprout diet, we may have eaten our weight in the fine vegetable over the past two weeks. (At the risk of sharing too much, I think that my stomach started to rebel against all of the fiber this morning). They are delicious as a side dish, a main course, or on tacos. (And what of tacos? We have a blossoming addiction to them, thanks to their versatility and the proliferation of great tortillas at the grocery stores here.)

Tonight's dinner was a galette of roasted vegetables with a side of shredded Brussels sprouts. (Recipe courtesy of Eating for England. Lil' A, if you're reading, I highly recommend the linked post for her thoughts re: MPLS) A smashing success and great team effort, this is a recipe that we will try again for sure.

If it appears that the galette dough contains chocolate chip cookies, that's because it has olives in it. A stroke of genius.

And finally, the star of today's post: the glorious sprouts in their final form.

I know not how far down the path toward an All-Brussels-Sprouts-Diet we will go. I will happily update you all regarding future adventures in Sproutsville and other culinary locales. Until next time...

Sunshine on my shoulders

Um. I'm not trying to gloat or anything but, um, it is sunny and 62 today in the Oakland Hills. Gorgeous. I can't believe it is December 6. Wow.

Christmas, O-Town Style

Friday night Oakland held its main tree-lighting ceremony at Jack London Square. We were promised "snow showers" every half-hour, a talent contest, reindeer, and a 55 foot tree. Now, this is not the sort of event we would ever go to in Minnesota but, you know, when you're far away from the Midwest you miss watching the snow fall just a little bit (but not that much).

However, before the official lighting ceremony, we found ourselves back at Beer Revolution for the happiest of hours. Not only do they offer delicious and unusual beers from all over the world, but they also are next door to another revolution, Souley Vegan. This place is fantastic. They offer all of the typical Southern foods - yams, okra, black eyed peas, collards, lentils, etc., but EVERYTHING is vegan. The restaurant itself is nothing to look at and one would be very tempted to pass it by (vegan soul food, WHA?!?!) but it is totally worth a stop. We were afraid to try the mac and cheese (no one can really beat Ross's F.C. version) so we stuck to lentils, collards and a ridiculously tasty sandwich. The sandwich had BBQ tofu AND fried tofu. The BBQ tofu was spicy and seriously addictive, and the fried tofu was like a pillow of happiness. It had a perfect cornmeal crust, was as light as air, and so savory you never wanted it to end. ALSO, you order at Souley Vegan and it is delivered right to your bar stool at Beer Revolution. Awesome. We actually had to stop back on the way to the tree-lighting and have a piece of cornbread. So, so, good. We'll be going back. 

Anyway, on to the main event. This is how O-Town decorates for Christmas:

They may not have snow, they may not have pine trees, but they sure do have Christmas spirit! They also have these:

That's right! Reindeer at Jack London Square. They probably vacation here to escape the cold of the North Pole. For some reason, none of the kids at the event had any interest in the reindeer. I wanted to watch them all night. Maybe if the reindeer had worn their sleigh bell harnesses the kids would have been more interested.

And, just for BCSM, they had Miss California with a tender offering of Whitney's "Who Could Imagine a King?" I wish I could include a soundfile. It was very, very special. She had a VERY serious tiara.

Then, on to the main event. The tree-lighting ceremony. They had to light up a 55 foot tree so they enlisted the help of several volunteers, including out-going Mayor Ron Dellums, and Oakland's new Mayor, Jean Quan. There wasn't any of the promised snow, but the tree sure looked pretty.

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It has been a little cloudy this week but the rain that was expected never came.  I walk 20 minutes to my bus in the morning and all around me, the morning mist creates views like this:

You can barely see the hills in the background but usually by the time I get to work, the mist has cleared, the sun has broken through the clouds and the hills are flooded with light. I am in awe of the geography of this city every time I look up. The other great thing about Northern California, that you can sort of see in this picture, is that they do actually have trees whose leaves change colors! Let's face it, fall colors are one of the best things about the Midwest and I was so afraid we'd miss that. Thankfully, many of the trees are still in the red/gold phase here.

When I leave work (in the hills), it looks like this. Every. Single. Evening. 

Lastly, for my cat-loving friends, meet my new co-worker. She works hard for her money. Also, I have never met a cat who talks so much. We have to tell her to be quiet when we're on the phone. She works (sleeps) in the office all day long.