Monday, June 25, 2012

Food and Love

So...I want to tell you guys about the night I got engaged. :) When I took these pictures I didn't know it was going to be the night I got engaged but I was excited to use them in this post.
It was our two-year anniversary and Mark surprised me (or tried to surprise me, but I was pretty sure about where we were going - and very happy to see when I was right!) by taking me to Chez Panisse! Any foodie in the Bay area (and many places beyond) would understand my excitement.

Okay, so here's dinner, in order:

Cherry tomatoes. All by themselves. The food here is so simple. Oh, and it's prix fixe.

Summer squash tart with dried cured olives and mesclun

A white wine the (server? sommelier? we weren't really sure!) wanted us to try and we really liked it

Pacific grouper with new potatoes, green beans, and sauce bourride

Mark's expression while eating fish, which he doesn't even normally like (this is a good expression, although it might look like he's in pain)

Grilled Wolfe Ranch quail marinated in juniper with polenta, Little Gems braised with pancetta and roasted porcini mushrooms

My view of the kitchen. This one's going on Flickr!

Very happy. And full.

Cloud 8. Cloud 9 comes later :)

Cloud 8 1/2 was when we got to tour the kitchen! Too bad the quail chef's face is blurry



There were some ladies having dinner in the kitchen. They were friends of Alice's I guess, and there were no tables available, so they got special treatment :)


They were all so nice!

I guess I forgot to take a picture of dessert. It went too fast. This is coffee (specially blended for Chez Panisse by Blue Bottle) with cherries and mini biscotti)

Here's cloud 9! This picture was taken about 2 minutes after he proposed on Indian Rock, by a bunch of high schoolers who were very excited for us. :)

He put pink sapphires on the sides because pink is my favorite color :) (and yes, I painted my nails after the fact)

Hand over my heart, which this ring is connected to :)



Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Food sites I want to remember

http://pastoralplate.com/
The pick-up sites for this CSA are not convenient for us, but what is convenient is that I can just order whenever, I don't have to subscribe to a monthly service. So I figure if I ever know I'm going to have some free time on their next delivery day and I can drive to go pick stuff up, I can order.

http://www.zerocater.com/
Our company is so bad at ordering food. Someone always forgets to pay ahead of time and then the admin person designated for pick-up ends up having to put it on their credit card, or someone forgets to order in time, or someone couldn't figure out where to go...this place would just be so much easier.