what's for dinner
on this new years' eve heading to 2010 there is a blue moon and we are opening a blue top caviar which will be enjoyed with lobster and a veuve clicquot. now on 01-01-10 it will be dixie caviar and bloody marys. our life with food is intimate and certain foods bring memories.
before i married my husband he cooked a fillet for me. it was in a simple iron skillet and it was the best i had ever tasted. i think the saying should go a way to a woman's' heart is through her stomach. we are both gastronomes and oenophiles and have spent the last 25 years cooking our way to a better marriage. if you can work together in the kitchen you can work anywhere. we have three children and all love to cook and appreciate fine cuisines. when first married we were in a tough real estate market in california. so we decided to give away in home gourmet dinners for new home buyers. they were so popular we had other realtors giving our gift of food. what great fun and we met so many wonderful people. we would come in when all was still in boxes. we would set up the tablescape and bring everything from fine china to flowers and edible centerpieces. it was truly about the food. my husband is an amazing chef and gourmand but together we were amazing. we could whip up delightful fair in crazy places. once we did a dinner for four out of a laguna niguel vacation condo with nothing but a microwave with convection oven. ahh! the roquefort wine cream sauce almost separated. we added a caveat to our dinners after several couples were expecting babies right after our dinners. the first couple had a house at the bottom of palos verdes almost on the ocean. they had just bought a four acre horse farm. the house had to be adjusted yearly by engineers due to the land movement. but it was an amazing view of the ocean not seen by many from that coastline. we always do a lot of research on the menus. there have been french themed caribbean fare and many others. usually inspired by our travels. some of my favorite events have been auction dinners. we would give dinner reenactments as auction items. these dinners took a lot of research one i remember vividly was the dinner for the czar. when the russian czar visited france. i believe veuve cliquot was served and they took it back to st. petersburgh. it was difficult menu to acquire all the ingredients. we were known for flying in fresh seafood and black truffles. and the vino would flow. oh what nights!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
bought and sold!
bought and sold
car stories are the best conversation icebreakers with a guy. i have a few tall tales to tell. seems like i have always been driving. living in the country you drive tractors, motorcycles and four wheelers from a very young age. i was fourteen when i got my first legal drivers license. took the written exam and passed easily. went to the driving portion and the large sheriff told me i looked like i could drive and issued my license. had a few good boyfriends with great muscle cars from the 70's but i was stuck with my older super conservative country gentleman of a brothers' car. a 1964 plymouth valaint with a push button transmission. it was labeled the ghetto machine as i cruised up to my high school parking lot, where everyone hung out in the mornings. this was a great improvement above my past ride. squeezing out of my dad's chevy truck with the bench seat, four brothers and me in the floor board. the quintessential johnny cash on the eight track tape player. it was a coolness deal breaker. with four brothers you can believe we went through quite a few vehicles. i am pure american with a love affair for the car. i love the olde pictures of my ancestors standing by their cars, classic americana. i briefly drove a 1968 blue ford mustang and then a 1975 monte carlo. great cars to drive. each has their own stories and bring back memories from that time. my first new car was a 1984 cavallier with a stick shift. i learned to drive a standard on that car and it took me to california with my schwinn beachcomber on top. met my husband and he cut me a deal. he paid off my car in exchange for haircuts. he had at least thirteen years of free haircuts. the hills of cali got the best of the transmission, but i still sold her for a sweet penny. married my husband with his own great car stories. he had a 1969 rolls royce silvershadow when we first met. we drove that back from florida through new orleans. what a float. right after we traded it for an orange rv with air shocks that we tooled across america. good are bad trade? the owner crashed and burned the rolls soon after. you gotta know when a cars time is up. i think he hit a freeway wall and died. we have had trucks, vans, suvs, a couple of cadillacs and an infiniti. my kids' first cars were an acura and a hummer h3. but my favorite vehicle was our 1977 rolls royce corniche convertible. this is my favorite car story. drove from memphis through the delta to vicksburg in the hot sultry southern summer. i have driven some of the greatest drives in the usa. the pch down the coast of california, route 66, cottonwood pass, great smokeys, los angeles to vegas. i have travelled the classic autobahn, amalfi coast, the french riviera. this drive was the best drive i have ever taken. the car made the drive. i have never loved a car so. sweet leather and wood. it had a special order etter narodi gold stering wheel. i like to know a car story in fact i wish all antiques could have a history to buy with them. i do know a princess owned this car and it had spent time in a garage in palm springs. she had lived in chicago also. i have one daughter that needed a personal body man but it was the other daughter with the clean driving record that took out the front end of the corniche with her hummer. i hear there are actually hummers that they put rolls royce front ends on, guess we started something. we had it on the market and if you know about the rolls royce the front end is not easily replaced. emily flying on the front, the spirit of ecstasy left my body but she survived. we had the front end repaired by a artist, then sold her. of all my cars i wish she was still in my garage. i think it is time to head to the monterey auction! happy motoring!
car stories are the best conversation icebreakers with a guy. i have a few tall tales to tell. seems like i have always been driving. living in the country you drive tractors, motorcycles and four wheelers from a very young age. i was fourteen when i got my first legal drivers license. took the written exam and passed easily. went to the driving portion and the large sheriff told me i looked like i could drive and issued my license. had a few good boyfriends with great muscle cars from the 70's but i was stuck with my older super conservative country gentleman of a brothers' car. a 1964 plymouth valaint with a push button transmission. it was labeled the ghetto machine as i cruised up to my high school parking lot, where everyone hung out in the mornings. this was a great improvement above my past ride. squeezing out of my dad's chevy truck with the bench seat, four brothers and me in the floor board. the quintessential johnny cash on the eight track tape player. it was a coolness deal breaker. with four brothers you can believe we went through quite a few vehicles. i am pure american with a love affair for the car. i love the olde pictures of my ancestors standing by their cars, classic americana. i briefly drove a 1968 blue ford mustang and then a 1975 monte carlo. great cars to drive. each has their own stories and bring back memories from that time. my first new car was a 1984 cavallier with a stick shift. i learned to drive a standard on that car and it took me to california with my schwinn beachcomber on top. met my husband and he cut me a deal. he paid off my car in exchange for haircuts. he had at least thirteen years of free haircuts. the hills of cali got the best of the transmission, but i still sold her for a sweet penny. married my husband with his own great car stories. he had a 1969 rolls royce silvershadow when we first met. we drove that back from florida through new orleans. what a float. right after we traded it for an orange rv with air shocks that we tooled across america. good are bad trade? the owner crashed and burned the rolls soon after. you gotta know when a cars time is up. i think he hit a freeway wall and died. we have had trucks, vans, suvs, a couple of cadillacs and an infiniti. my kids' first cars were an acura and a hummer h3. but my favorite vehicle was our 1977 rolls royce corniche convertible. this is my favorite car story. drove from memphis through the delta to vicksburg in the hot sultry southern summer. i have driven some of the greatest drives in the usa. the pch down the coast of california, route 66, cottonwood pass, great smokeys, los angeles to vegas. i have travelled the classic autobahn, amalfi coast, the french riviera. this drive was the best drive i have ever taken. the car made the drive. i have never loved a car so. sweet leather and wood. it had a special order etter narodi gold stering wheel. i like to know a car story in fact i wish all antiques could have a history to buy with them. i do know a princess owned this car and it had spent time in a garage in palm springs. she had lived in chicago also. i have one daughter that needed a personal body man but it was the other daughter with the clean driving record that took out the front end of the corniche with her hummer. i hear there are actually hummers that they put rolls royce front ends on, guess we started something. we had it on the market and if you know about the rolls royce the front end is not easily replaced. emily flying on the front, the spirit of ecstasy left my body but she survived. we had the front end repaired by a artist, then sold her. of all my cars i wish she was still in my garage. i think it is time to head to the monterey auction! happy motoring!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
a green and brown christmas
green and brown xmas 09 [aka jerry springer xmas]
the spirit of the christmas season runs deep in my soul. i love this time of the year and enjoy all of our family traditions, but next year i am spending christmas in hawaii. my family is quite large and we always get together at granny and pappaws' house. we have several new babies in the family and chaos was reigning supreme. i call this the green and brown xmas 09. green because we produced the least amount of trash ever and brown, well you will see later. my dad is the official trash collector and believe me none of it stays in the house long. as my mom says if she sits still long enough she will be found in the trash can. i do not know if it was the economy, we did have less presents as we only focused on the children this year. or the fact we used less wrapping paper, but we did not even fill one trash bag this year. i also used some led, not lead lights,too. i am not a real green freak though much more a conspicuous consumer, so it must be the money. we gathered round the table as the children had their interactions. they are usually at granny's with her undivided attention, so the competition began. there were so many vignettes unfolding it seemed as if i was in a christmas story observing from the outside. like scrooge with the ghost of christmas past. i kept catching the overveiw of each dynamic event as it began to unfold. i have a very diverse family with four brothers, i the only girl. a preist, a hippy stay at home dad, a rocking drummer blue collar man, a career computer geek all met at a bar. oh! wait that is not the joke. they all went to granny's for xmas celebration. there i was watching it all unfold. mom walks in holding the remote,or was it the phone? my oldest brother talking to my younger about how he felt doctors had messed his legs up while trying to correct his pigeon toes as a baby. my older brother totally dismissed his argument. and the testosterone took over almost escalating to fistycuffs. as this started to move around the house my father called out to one of my brothers involved not knowing about the argument but trying to get help because his great grandaughter was choking on ham. my daughter, an emt in college, went to action and cleared her throat. my dad turned white and went outside running into the arguing brothers and he tries to explain the choking and gets rebuffed by the younger thinking he was siding with the priest. my youngest brother had brought his dog which none of us really appreciate. can you imagine the house with all the pets from all five households? no! leave pets at home if possible. anyway my mom was taking pictures and in one shot she got the dog pooping on the floor. we found out later my dad had tried to pick up what he thought was candy from the floor. smelled it a realized it was poop. he thought one of the grandchildren had pooped in their pants. he got on to the child and then had to apologize because it was the dog,. later wafting from downstairs comes an odor of poop heavy as a cloud this time it was the grandchild. this is the brown in the green and brown xmas. and to all a goodnight! we all went to our homes and called to check on each other. we talked out our differences realized the pressures and the build up had gotten the better of us. dad found the remote deep in the couch next to my brother the priest's special hat. his homily still inspired and all is well till next year. i have lived all of the christmas stories this year from its a wonderful life, scrooge and the grinch, but this is my story and my green and brown christmas. aloha christmas in hawaii 2010.
the spirit of the christmas season runs deep in my soul. i love this time of the year and enjoy all of our family traditions, but next year i am spending christmas in hawaii. my family is quite large and we always get together at granny and pappaws' house. we have several new babies in the family and chaos was reigning supreme. i call this the green and brown xmas 09. green because we produced the least amount of trash ever and brown, well you will see later. my dad is the official trash collector and believe me none of it stays in the house long. as my mom says if she sits still long enough she will be found in the trash can. i do not know if it was the economy, we did have less presents as we only focused on the children this year. or the fact we used less wrapping paper, but we did not even fill one trash bag this year. i also used some led, not lead lights,too. i am not a real green freak though much more a conspicuous consumer, so it must be the money. we gathered round the table as the children had their interactions. they are usually at granny's with her undivided attention, so the competition began. there were so many vignettes unfolding it seemed as if i was in a christmas story observing from the outside. like scrooge with the ghost of christmas past. i kept catching the overveiw of each dynamic event as it began to unfold. i have a very diverse family with four brothers, i the only girl. a preist, a hippy stay at home dad, a rocking drummer blue collar man, a career computer geek all met at a bar. oh! wait that is not the joke. they all went to granny's for xmas celebration. there i was watching it all unfold. mom walks in holding the remote,or was it the phone? my oldest brother talking to my younger about how he felt doctors had messed his legs up while trying to correct his pigeon toes as a baby. my older brother totally dismissed his argument. and the testosterone took over almost escalating to fistycuffs. as this started to move around the house my father called out to one of my brothers involved not knowing about the argument but trying to get help because his great grandaughter was choking on ham. my daughter, an emt in college, went to action and cleared her throat. my dad turned white and went outside running into the arguing brothers and he tries to explain the choking and gets rebuffed by the younger thinking he was siding with the priest. my youngest brother had brought his dog which none of us really appreciate. can you imagine the house with all the pets from all five households? no! leave pets at home if possible. anyway my mom was taking pictures and in one shot she got the dog pooping on the floor. we found out later my dad had tried to pick up what he thought was candy from the floor. smelled it a realized it was poop. he thought one of the grandchildren had pooped in their pants. he got on to the child and then had to apologize because it was the dog,. later wafting from downstairs comes an odor of poop heavy as a cloud this time it was the grandchild. this is the brown in the green and brown xmas. and to all a goodnight! we all went to our homes and called to check on each other. we talked out our differences realized the pressures and the build up had gotten the better of us. dad found the remote deep in the couch next to my brother the priest's special hat. his homily still inspired and all is well till next year. i have lived all of the christmas stories this year from its a wonderful life, scrooge and the grinch, but this is my story and my green and brown christmas. aloha christmas in hawaii 2010.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
a blast from christmas past!
a blast from christmas past!
for the love of christmas! my childhood was full of wonderful christmas memories, and as an adult i wanted to repeat all of the special traditions. well, i am sure my children remember the traditions as well as many new memories we have made. i must say being and adult at christmas is a challenge for my spirit. on my daughters fifth or sixth xmas, santa brought a large outside pink playhouse, some assembly required. after midnight mass and a little christmas cheer, bourbon for him and veuve clicquot for me, we started to build. wow! several hours later and a few chinese slang words, mr. claus and i were under roof. putting the finishing touches on, he stabbed a screwdriver through his hand. there was blood everywhere, the walls, the ceiling! it looked like a murder had taken place! i was still wiping it down when the girls awoke with wonderous eyes. no claus lost his life in the making of these christmas memories.
i should have known after our first christmas together that i was seasonally challenged. we had just moved to california and a new house. ok! so i had just had my first baby who had to stay in the neonatal unit for two weeks after she was born. so, babies first christmas when she was six weeks. my mother had come and gone as had my mother in law. my sweet husband was working and taking care of all the details, except we had forgotten christmas dinner. the tree was decorated, the gifts purchased, but we had no food and he was quite the gourmand. christmas day and nothing was open not even a trader joes. we ended up eating spam from a convenience store. it is related to ham right.
the year of gasoline! i think my son was eight or so. he had moved from the christmas puppy to the christmas four wheeler. no problem coming in the front door with a dog try a four wheeler. thank god we awoke to the smell of gasoline!
we have had the regular christmas pratfalls. yeah, the griswald christmas. the fully decorated tree falling. TIMBER! the lovely smelling pound cake fresh from the oven on the floor being devoured by the dog. the kids finding all their presents. yes baby there is a santa claus. but xmas 05 was a special christmas. my daughters were now in their teens with lots of friends over all the time hanging out. well they decide to decorate with some finishing touches to our outside lighting. they drew out a design for a large lighted tree. we lived on the only hill in the area. we called it our hilltop estate, mansion on the hill, castle in the sky, alright home. well this tree took up the whole yard. it was quite impressive. we took pictures and video of the lights. the following evening my husband and i were having a christmas party. we were both busy all day preparing. when the first guest arrived they commented on the lights and i said the girls did it. they gave me a strange look and several others arrived and start talking. i said didn't the girls do a great job on the tree in the front yard. everyone looked at each other laughing and they took me outside. the tree had been rearranged. it was now a giant lighted PENIS. yes this phallic symbol was large and blinking. we live next to several fedex pilots and it was spotted from the air and was quite the attraction for landing planes. we believe some college boys had a little to much fun with our lights! just to show no hard feelings i lit up the penis one more night. ohlala! christmas penis.
for the love of christmas! my childhood was full of wonderful christmas memories, and as an adult i wanted to repeat all of the special traditions. well, i am sure my children remember the traditions as well as many new memories we have made. i must say being and adult at christmas is a challenge for my spirit. on my daughters fifth or sixth xmas, santa brought a large outside pink playhouse, some assembly required. after midnight mass and a little christmas cheer, bourbon for him and veuve clicquot for me, we started to build. wow! several hours later and a few chinese slang words, mr. claus and i were under roof. putting the finishing touches on, he stabbed a screwdriver through his hand. there was blood everywhere, the walls, the ceiling! it looked like a murder had taken place! i was still wiping it down when the girls awoke with wonderous eyes. no claus lost his life in the making of these christmas memories.
i should have known after our first christmas together that i was seasonally challenged. we had just moved to california and a new house. ok! so i had just had my first baby who had to stay in the neonatal unit for two weeks after she was born. so, babies first christmas when she was six weeks. my mother had come and gone as had my mother in law. my sweet husband was working and taking care of all the details, except we had forgotten christmas dinner. the tree was decorated, the gifts purchased, but we had no food and he was quite the gourmand. christmas day and nothing was open not even a trader joes. we ended up eating spam from a convenience store. it is related to ham right.
the year of gasoline! i think my son was eight or so. he had moved from the christmas puppy to the christmas four wheeler. no problem coming in the front door with a dog try a four wheeler. thank god we awoke to the smell of gasoline!
we have had the regular christmas pratfalls. yeah, the griswald christmas. the fully decorated tree falling. TIMBER! the lovely smelling pound cake fresh from the oven on the floor being devoured by the dog. the kids finding all their presents. yes baby there is a santa claus. but xmas 05 was a special christmas. my daughters were now in their teens with lots of friends over all the time hanging out. well they decide to decorate with some finishing touches to our outside lighting. they drew out a design for a large lighted tree. we lived on the only hill in the area. we called it our hilltop estate, mansion on the hill, castle in the sky, alright home. well this tree took up the whole yard. it was quite impressive. we took pictures and video of the lights. the following evening my husband and i were having a christmas party. we were both busy all day preparing. when the first guest arrived they commented on the lights and i said the girls did it. they gave me a strange look and several others arrived and start talking. i said didn't the girls do a great job on the tree in the front yard. everyone looked at each other laughing and they took me outside. the tree had been rearranged. it was now a giant lighted PENIS. yes this phallic symbol was large and blinking. we live next to several fedex pilots and it was spotted from the air and was quite the attraction for landing planes. we believe some college boys had a little to much fun with our lights! just to show no hard feelings i lit up the penis one more night. ohlala! christmas penis.
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