Panoramic Saturday: Marin Cheese Country

On Saturday, Jen and I were seeking a little bit of sun, since the Bay Area seems to live under a cloud in January and February. Jen had heard from a co-worker that a creamery up north, the Cowgirl Creamery, was a simple weekend getaway and would provide lots of tasty choices to bring to our impromptu picnic. One of our favorite pleasures when living in Greece, was the chance to pack a blanket, bottle of wine, book and make our way to a beach for some sun, even if it was too cold to swim.

First, we stopped by the creamery, which is located in Marin county and unbeknownst to us, also doubles as the Normandy of the US and is world renowned as one of the best cheese making areas in the world. Recently, a local cheese maker of camembert and brie was voted higher than its counterpart French originators. I suppose California has a way of always competing with (and often besting) the French when it comes to its wine and cheese.

Next, we took some of our purchases and randomly found a nearby beach called Chicken Ranch Beach, that shares the Tomales Bay Ecological Reserve, a piece of nature conservation that was protected from factories early on and is home to a considerable amount of local wildlife. There, Louloudi could run along the beach, while Jen and I snacked on some fresh brie, raclette, salami and polished off a bottle of wine. 

We made some new friends on the beach who's lovely pitbull took a liking to Louloudi. They were amazed that we would let our dog play with their muscular pitbull, as they were used to being treated as the aggressors at the dog park. Their pitbull was lovely, albeit she did steal the last of the salami from our picnic area when we weren't paying attention. But a small loss in comparison to what I gained, which was a contact that was a CEO of a growing solar company that gave me a number of fantastic names and contacts to get in touch with for possible job opportunities.

After all was said and done, we made our way back home, only to stop for a moment while the sun was setting. Such a beautiful vista and memory of what makes our trips out of the city all the more memorable. We also had a little fun with the new panorama feature of the iPhone. The below picture has no photoshop and is only carefully timed to catch Jen at three different points, as I slowly rotated the camera around. We watched the sun set together and took our tired bodies home across the towering Golden Gate Bridge. A day well spent!

King of Turkey Land

As a CSA that I organized for work comes to a close the last drop off was a HUGE turkey. Gobble gobble time a few months past the holidays but I was determined to cook that bird. I have never roasted any type of bird, not even a chicken, so this was a new challenge to take on and put behind me so I can be prepared for when turkey day responsibilities fall to me.
 I was a wuss at taking out the inner stuff (I believe a neck and liver) Stu was my knight in shining armor and helped me to rinse and clean the bird before brining. If not for him I would have had to face the bird innards and a fear and I am just not ready to tackle yet. Maybe the next turkey time I will win my bravery badge for fully cleaning the bird.
The farmer was saying something about rubbing salt before cooking so figured this was the way to go. So to the computer I turned and after a bit of googling I found that the easiest thing to do was rub salt on the bird and leave it in the fridge overnight for the crystals to soak in. And surprisingly it worked! All the salt was soaked up by the next day leaving a "brined" bird ready for the oven.
Next I moved onto the spices taking meyer lemons, (lemon that is mix with an orange) rosemary, garlic and stuffed all that goodness up into the birds belly. A good smear of butter all over the bird like suntan lotion at the beach and we were ready for cooking.
 Then the bird went into the roasting pan to officially meet it's hot end in the oven. I used a one-time-use tin that Stu and I found at Target opting to not buy a big roasting pan because I don't think that a 15lb turkey will be in our future anytime soon.
Basting happened every 45 minutes and I had to wrap the top in a bit of tin foil to keep the bird from getting overdone. Wow did that turkey look and smell good! Done to perfection I took it out of the oven to sit while looking up youtube videos on how to carve a turkey.
After it cooled down a bit I went at the bird with a large serrated knife and took the meat off the bones like a professional chef. Loulou as at my feet hoping for bits to drop, which being a newbie at carving happened quite often.

After all the meat was off and the kitchen cleaned I sat down to watch TV, eat turkey, and feed niblets to my dog. Feeling full and accomplished I dozed off into a tryptophan induced slumber. What a great Sunday afternoon.

Ketchup: Louloudi

Our favorite spoiled, but not quite rotten, Parian mutt has had quite a lot on her plate lately. From travelling to Greece for 5 weeks and Buffalo for 10 days, she has accrued some serious frequent flyer miles. She indulges in only the finest homeless delicacies at the park, is bathed twice weekly to offset her penchant for offensive odors and is now a treasured local commodity by our neighbors who call her out on a first name basis, but would struggle to know what her parents names are.

 Dancing for our upstairs neighbor who always has handmade ham jerky on hand to feed to Loulou.

Telling me it's time to quit working and take her outside.

Chasing the little beach birds shows us just how fast she really is. Everyone usually stops and watches this girl fly through the waves.

Louloudi emerging from her "Bat Cave", where she goes to hide when she wants to be left alone to crunch her bone. She usually emerges quite hastily when we tell her it's time for a walk and you can see her quickly squeeze out from her hiding place. Never gets old to watch.

Louloudi in Paros getting bossed around by the tough Greek cats who stole her breakfast most mornings.

Louloudi is a bit spoiled, but knows her limits, one of which is that she must be invited up to the bed and cannot jump up there by herself. Of course, she knows how to increase her chances of being invited, which is to start adoringly by the side of the bed until we motion for her to jump in.

You try saying "No" to those sad eyes.

Success!

Jen's 30th Birthday Weekend

For Jen's 30th Birthday, Jen wanted to have a low key weekend without any big parties. Something that she had been wanting to do for a while, was to visit the San Francisco Zoo. As many of you may know, seeing Jen watch the exotic animals of the world is to see in her eyes a heightened sense of curiosity and amazement. 

We began with a lovely brunch at the fantastic soup and sandwich place, Outsidelands. 

A family of giraffes

A little gorilla prankster constantly agitating the adults. 

Jen's all time favorite animal, the rhino.

It's alright to get a little childish at the Zoo. 

After a full day at the zoo, we had dinner and drinks with some friends at a local tapas place and then a night of 80's dancing next door. We had a fantastic time dancing our butts off in a sweaty little room and closed the bar out. The next day we had a recovery day with a trip to the beach and plenty of water.

80s lovers, my sister Michelle and Jen

Jen's actual birthday was that Monday and we celebrated low key with some flowers and cupcakes. Then by picking out some exotic teas at the local tea shop, a fabulous sushi dinner and a trip to the movies to see Les Miserables, a movie she had been dying to see for a while. While it was not an extravagant affair over the weekend, what made it special was a series of small surprises and some quality time together.

Christmas in Buffalo

For Christmas, we were invited to spend the holidays with Jen's family in Buffalo, NY. We were both missing a little bit of the East coast and certainly were excited about a white Christmas. We even managed to bring the dog along! I suppose we could be mistaken for that nutty couple that can't ever be apart from the dog, but she truly is a part of the family in the sense that she is spoiled by the grandparents and can't get enough of the snow. 

The boys got out of the house for a little bit...

while the ladies made about 300 christmas cookies to give out to friends and family. 

Christmas Eve was celebrated with a dinner of immediate family. 

A beautiful Christmas tree that was soon only partially visible with the enormous amount of presents soon to come. 

Ariana's (Jen's niece) first Christmas made it extra special

We found a couple of time capsules at Grandma's house (circa 1993?)

Little Jen who dressed her uncle Jim up nicely 

During the festivities, we made a break to hang out with some of Jen's old high school friends. A lovely bunch and everyone was in fantastic spirits, despite the fact we had about 3 feet of snowfall happening just outside.

Kim, Carly, Tiffany, Jen and Jillian.

There were plenty of hor d'oeuvres and a lively competition of Michael Jackson dancing for the Wii.

One of Grandpa Klimas and Ariana's favorite activities is to take a sled ride around the house via laundry basket, belt and a few stuffed travel companions.

Christmas was commemorated with a long awaited Baptism for little Ariana. Jen and close family friend Giovanni were the honorary Godparents. It was a beautiful Sunday ceremony, followed by a wonderful lunch at the local country club.

4 Generations of DeMonte/Klimas women

The Official Granddaughter 

The Unofficial Granddaughter

While the winter wonderland brought about 3 feet of snow, the city of Buffalo can clean up the roads and driveways quite quickly. Areas that don't get cleaned up are the parks and fields nearby, which proved to be the perfect playground for our little snow lover. Louloudi turns into a little hornless elk as she bounds from drift to drift, barely slowing as she launches through the trees and surrounding homes. She is a truly an athletic prodigy, running breathlessly while only stopping to quench her thirst by munching on snow from time to time. Who would have thought that a little beach dog would be so excited by subzero conditions.

It was a wonderful Christmas in all and we could barely pack our bags with all the generous gifts to take home. Thanks so much to all who made it a wonderful, tasty and giving white Christmas.