Day 2: Rock Removal

It was a lot cooler today than when we first started removing these rocks. I spent the entire week looking for a contractor or someone licensed to get rid of these annoying things but to no avail. So, today we worked on them ourselves. It still doesn't look like we accomplished much but Justyn's truck is already full! If anyone knows of a good company that can hire a crew to take care of the rest of this in one day, please let me know!

Crafting: Patterened Paper Flag Garland

I recently discovered LifeFlix.blogspot.com through CreatureComforts.com and saw these really cute mini flag garlands (Link: http://lifeflix.blogspot.com/2009/09/still-learning.html). They looked simple enough to make and I had a ton of American Crafts patterned paper lying around that I hadn't used before. This project is definitely good for using up whatever scraps you have too.

Here's how mine turned out. It's hanging above our bed kinda acting as a faux headboard. I plan on making two more strands so the wall doesn't look so naked.

White Gel Pen

Kristina Werner, might I remind you, one of my favorite card designers recently did a review on white gel pens. I thought the one I had was pretty good until I saw her video review. Yeah... I think I'm gonna have to splurge on getting the White Signo Gel Pen in Broad.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faPOASMurUU

Here's a sample from my pen.

Cooking: Hainese Chicken Rice

SteamyKitchen.com recently did a post on the infamous Hainese Chicken Rice. It made me drool just reading the title of the post. I seriously love this stuff and around here I haven't yet found a place that serves a good version. The instructions seemed straight forward so today since I had time, I decided to try it out.

I couldn't find a free range organic chicken at my local supermarket, so I just bought a Foster Farms chicken. I did rub it down with salt to exfoliate as per directions from Jaden. Look at how lumpy and bump it looks compared to her chicken.. blech.



The skin was already torn when I bought the chicken but whatever. I liberally seasoned it with salt and pepper and then stuffed it with some green onion, ginger & cilantro.

I let it boil for about 45 minutes because for some reason, the chicken wasn't coming up to tempurature. However when I tested it with the thermometer, the liquid that came out of the hole was clear so I figured I was safe.

Into an "ice" bath it went. I forgot I didn't have any ice whatsoever *sigh*

Justyn helped me hack up the chicken with a cleaver since I wasn't cutting it.

Here it is plated.

I loooved this recipe! It turned out very well despite the fact that it was not a free range organic chicken and since I had no ice. The flavor of the soup was amazingly deep from the aromatics in the chicken and the chicken itself and I looved the chicken with the spicy sauce. The rice was savory and full of flavor from the broth. I'll definitely make this again. Justyn said it was OK but he said it's just not his kind of food. Oh well!

Recipe: http://steamykitchen.com/5068-hainanese-chicken-rice.html

Cooking: Japanese Curry

Ahh yes.. one of my favorite go to comfort meals. I was pretty wiped out from the weekend and we had just finished watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in New York. He sampled a bunch of different yet delicious looking food and my mouth was already salavating even though we just ate lunch not to long ago.

I looked at my favorite food blogs but didn't find anything quick and easy to make so we defaulted to Japanese Curry. Yummm..

Labor Day Weekend

It's kinda interesting how you take certain things for granted like the fresh salty smell of the ocean, the gorgeous view from a hill top or the awesome weather that we have here in California.


Justyn and I spent Labor Day weekend in Half Moon Bay. He recently bought a Miata and we decided to take full advantage of the great weather and drove along the coast with the top down. The drive was really breathtaking and fun. Normally I hate long drives, especially windy ones but this was just so amazing.


Eventually we made it to the bed & breakfast place called Seal Cove Inn. I was casually perusing hotels.com and came across this place that had no ratings. The pictures looked inviting enough so we booked it. When we checked in, they couldn't find us in the computer which had me a little worried but as soon as I provided the confirmation number and proof that we had actually booked a room, the front desk was more than accomodating. In fact, because of the mess up between hotels.com & Seal Cove Inn, they upgraded our room for free! Check out this place. It's seriously beautiful and relaxing. They even gifted us a free bottle of white wine :)




We had a few hours to kill before dinner so we followed some signs to a distillery. We thought it was going to be a distillery of spirits or something but it ended up being a bar/restaurant. We parked and wandered around the property which was on top of a hill leading down to a beach.



We were originally going to go to Pacifica but I really wanted to visit the tide pools while the tide was low. I haven't seen them since I was a little kid so seeing them really took me back.



I forgot my camera for dinner at Sam's Chowderhouse but there wasn't any real loss there. I have a sneaking suspicion that we accidentally ate at a chain restaurant. I had a garlic roasted dungenness crab with swiss chard & old bay fries. Justyn ordered the lobster roll with polenta fries. Man, what a disappointment. Although the crab meat was sweet and well cooked, the sauce was a disaster. It was drowning in a big red grease pool. The swiss chard was actually spinach and they served the spinach on the same plate as the fries so they got soggy. Justyn's lobster roll and coleslaw were decent but nothing to write home about. His polenta fries were overly salty. Blech. In light of the food, we had a really nice view of the ocean & harbor.


We stopped by the store to pick up some ice cream & wine and enjoyed that on the balcony of our room. Justyn lit a fire and we just relaxed the night away. I had such an amazing time and as I'm typing this, I wish I could go back right now! It has been a long time since I felt that relaxed.



The next day we drove to Downtown Santa Cruz for lunch at a Greek place. IIRC, it's called The Greek. Not bad however I found the avogolemono soup to be waaay too tart. I added a bunch of pepper hoping to counteract it which helped a little. The gyros were fantastic though. As an added quirk, they put french fries into the gyro instead of serving them on the side. After lunch, we walked around downtown and did some shopping before heading home. Thanks for the awesome weekend B :)

Cooking: Grilled Cheese

I was stumped for dinner so I asked Justyn what he wanted to do. He said the two magical words... grilled cheese. Why not? It's comforting and super easy to make.

Instead of American cheese we used Muenster and added ham. I cut the grilled cheese into cute triangles and served it with some salad with some of my favorite salad dressing, Pietro's Shoyu. Yum!