SURPRISE!

Yesterday, I called My Sweeter to check in really fast before a meeting...I asked him what he was up to and he told me that he was really busy but was off work early. I suggested that he come up for the weekend and visit, knowing full-well that he was going to be a busy bee this weekend. We hung up the phone, I went to my meeting and he continued on with his busy schedule.

A few hours later, I called again for another quick "hello." I asked him what he was up to, and when he said "Nothing..." in that mischievous tone, I knew he was up to something. During our phone conversation I heard his car make some noises and I asked if he was on his way up to see me, not expecting the response, "No..." (Again, in his mischievous tone.) He then got a little flustered because he was already past the Grape Vine and on his way up for a surprise visit! He was upset that I ruined his surprise! :-)

It was such a wonderful surprise to have him come up to see me! I wasn't expecting to see him until next weekend! WOOHOO!

I had yet another meeting and immediately following I was looking up recipes on the Food Network website for some inspiration. I was not sure what I was in the mood for, so I was just browsing when I came across a Giada de Laurentis recipe. I walked over to Trader Joes and bought all of the ingredients that I did not already have, and a few minutes after my return home, My Sweeter arrived!

We made Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter. To be honest, My Sweeter and I, both, were a little worried about how it would turn out, but it turned out so YUMMY! I bought spinish raviolis from Trader Joes that were delicious and fresh. I wish that they had some meat raviolis because it would have complimented the sauce really well.

After eating the entire dish, we discussed how we could make it better the next time. Next time, instead of using butter we would use olive oil and definitely not as much as the recipe asked for. We also, may add a little flower to give the sauce some more texture and not have it be only a dressing on the raviolis. And we would let the noodles soak in the Balsamic sauce a little more before we ate it because when we went back for seconds, the noodles had been soaked in the sauce and it was even better than the first time around. Also, do not forget to put the Parmesan cheese and the walnuts, the flavors and the textures really bring the entire dish together!

This was a yummy, yummy meal and I will most definitely be making it again!

raviolis

What a Beautiful Sunny Day to Catch up with my Favorite FRIEND!

I had a super busy day yesterday! I woke up in the morning to have some much needed time (As always) with FRIEND! We initially wanted to go to Mama's Cafe in North Beach, but the line was out the door and around the corner! We decided to try our luck down by Ghirardelli Square. We walked around looking for a tasty breakfast spot. We found one, I cannot remember the name, and we were given AMAZING service! We were asked about 6 times if we were ready to order in the first 4 minutes of sitting at the table, by different waiters! Then once we finally got our food, we had been forgotten :-) Oh well, it was a fun experience and provided for a funny story/memory!


After breakfast we walked over to Ghirardelli Square to buy some tasty Kara's Cupcakes! I bought the "Seasonal Flavor" Organic Strawberry Cream and the Fleur De Sel(My Favorite) and FRIEND ordered the Meyer Lemony Lemon and Kara's Karrot. We both decided to eat one in Ghirardelli Square while enjoying the beautiful Sunshine in San Francisco and take one home to save for a later fix.

We chatted and caught up and gossiped (of course) about life while soaking in the sun rays! After we finished our cupcakes, we decided to drive over to Chrissy Field and walked along the beach and to the Palace of Fine Arts. We sat on a bench and took in the beautiful scenery and the lovely weather! I can't say enough how wonderful it was outside yesterday!

After our catch up session we drove back and FRIEND dropped me off!

I would not have wanted to spend my Friday morning ANY other way! I love you, FRIEND!

cupcakes

Lime

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MICHAEL!

Yesterday was a coworkers birthday, 21st birthday! So, Melissa and I took him out to dinner and for his FIRST legal 21 drink!

We went out to the Castro (Area) and went to a Lime, a restaurant and bar. His first legal drink was a Cosmo and Melissa and I got Lemon Drops. The drinks were yummy!!

The restaurant has set up their portion sizes to be bite size and for everyone to share. So we decided to sample a large part of the menu by ordering one of a lot of things! We ordered the Chipotle Fries, Chicken skewers (My favorite), mini burgers, fried green beans (a little interesting--I wasn't a fan of the texture), and a port quesadilla. The food was small and fun to share!
The waiter brought us a dessert menu. The desserts were all bite sized and $1/piece. We decided to get one of each-to try them all :-) The two mini cupcakes were very tasty! One was a red velvet and the other was an apple cinamon, both with cream cheese frosting--so good! There was cheesecake dipped in chocolate (on a skewer)-this was my favorite! The strawberry was cut in half with cream cheese frosting on both sides. The creme brulee was not very good, they over cooked it (as you can tell from the picture of the black sugar on top). There was an ice cream cookie sandwich that was very yummy-it was 2 chocolate chip cookies with pistachio ice cream in the center. And lastly, there was a yummy chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream on top!

Our waiter took great care of us since it was Michael's birthday and brought us these other yummy drinks on the house! They were lemon drops with grenadine at the bottom! They sure were tasty!
The restaurant was great and had a very fun atmosphere! It was a little pricey, but totally worth it! For the three of us

Mangarosa and Cafe Jacqueline

My Sweeter and I celebrated our year anniversary about 2 weeks ago. It was such an amazing weekend! Since I am a starwood perferred guest, and we stay in hotels often, we had earned a free night at an Starwood Hotel. We stayed at the St. Regis and were given drinks on the house at the fun bar in the Lobby of the hotel. The room was gorgeous (sans the fact that we had a smoking room--which is GROSS) and very high tech! We thought it was the coolest place!

On Saturday night after checking in, we walked from the hotel to North Beach. It was warm outside, but overcast. We walked to Mangarosa, the restaurant that we ate dinner at. The ambiance was very trendy and fun. We were seated kind of in the back and we were worried that we were going to be forgotten about, and we kind of were...We ordered an appetizer and it was never brought to us-fortunately it wasn't put on the bill, but we were excited about trying something new and different. Mangarosa has Italian/Brazillian cuisine. I ordered a ravioli dish that had pesto and marinara sauce-it was delicious! My Sweeter ordered pesto risotto with chicken and mushrooms, his was very hearty and delicious! We also ordered wine. The glasses were amazing and big and beautiful!

Overall, I would recommend trying Mangarosa out! our meal was about $65 with tax and tip. Not too expensive considering we ordered wine.

For dessert, I was searching for a romantic place that sold yummy desserts and I came across the absolute perfect place! Cafe Jacqueline. It is about 1 block from Mangarosa and they are known for their gourmet souffles. The restaurant is a quaint little place, it holds about 15 tables in the restaurant and it is warms and smells of french pastries and delicious-ness :-) We were seated and knew exactly what we were planning to order-Chocolate souffle. It took about 20-25 minutes for our dessert to be prepared, but it was totally worth it! The waiter brought us the souffle and My Sweeter and I looked at each other like we were crazy for wanting something so HUGE! We dug in and, literally, LICKED the dish clean! It was so light, airy and fluffy! We decided that we want to go back to try their entree souffles. After we paid the bill, our waiter told us to go into the kitchen and tell Jacqueline, herself, that we enjoyed the souffle. We headed back into the kitchen where we were greeted by a little old French woman preparing and cooking all of the souffles to perfection.

Cafe Jacqueline was absolutely delicious and I plan to go back there for an entire meal. It was a little pricey-I must say, but totally worth it and it is a very special treat! It was about $45 including tax and tip for our chocolate souffle that can feed 2-4 people.

Our special night was wonderful and romantic. I can't wait for many more to come :-)

mangarosa

Mother-Daughter Weekend

My mom asked me in the beginning of last week if I wanted to have a Mother-Daughter Weekend. I, of course, jumped on the chance to get some alone time with my mom! She has been busy all summer with baseball games and summer BBQs, so it was wonderful to finally get her all to myself for a weekend!

On Friday, I went home and we had a family night at the Concord Drive In. We saw the new Harry Potter movie over wine, a picnic and my family and friends! The movie was not my favorite the first time I saw it, so as you can imagine, it wasn’t my favorite the second time. I am glad, though, that I had seen it before because I was explaining the entire thing to my mom because she couldn’t hear the sound from the car stereo

On Saturday, my mom, step-dad and I went for a walk around the reservoir and we had a really great conversation (after explaining the entire HP movie to my step-dad). I now stand a bit taller and am much happier! I love those kinds of conversations!

After our walk, we showered and got ready to head out for our fun night away! We drove through the Napa Valley and ended up in Calistoga at a small hotel and spa, Mount View. We got there around 2 and we had a spa treatment for 3 so we changed into our swim suits and sat by the pool and played Dominoes (one of my mom’s FAVORITE games) and we drank a bottle of J Champagne, definitely my favorite Champagne(So Far:-)). It was a BEAUTIFUL afternoon! A little before 3 we went back inside and changed and got ready for our spa treatment. We were scheduled to have a Seaweed Wrap. Neither of us have had a wrap, so we were excited and anxious to see what to expect. I got into the room and had a huge TL FML which I will write about in a few!

The massage therapist did a full body citrus scrub, which was amazing and smelled wonderful! Now, I was expecting to be wrapped in big seaweed leaves…NOT what a seaweed wrap is…he then spread this hot seaweed liquid all over my body and then wrapped me in the blankets that were on the table then he left me in there for a few minutes to sit in the warm room with the delicious smells. He came back in a few minutes later and massaged my feet and my scalp. It was quite relaxing, but then again, wait for my TL FML. I showered and then met up with my mom. We got ready and went up to our room (which wasn’t ready when we arrived at the hotel).

Mount View does a very unique thing with their rooms. Each room is sponsored by a different winery in the area and each room has a complimentary bottle of wine from their winery in their room. Our room was sponsored by Hans Fahden. The room we stayed in was gorgeous! The front door opened into a sitting room and then off to the left was the sink, shower and toilet and to the right was the king size bed and further to the right was another small room with a gorgeous bathtub! We got ready to go out for dinner and decided that we wanted to get a lot out of our night.

Calistoga is a small town with one main street, Main Street. We walked to the beginning of it and went into a restaurant called Pacifico (a Mexican restaurant). We had a drink and an appetizer. We ordered Empanadas. They were DELICIOUS! The chips and salsa were amazing too! My mom always says that if the chips and salsa are good at a Mexican restaurant, the rest of the food will be yummy too!) We got the check and decided to go “Restaurant Hopping.” We walked about a block down the street and stopped in another restaurant and had another drink and another appetizer. We did this one last time. The first restaurant is the only restaurant worth mentioning because it was delicious!

We went back to our room and opened the bottle of wine that was in our room. We drank our wine and watched a movie while we played cards. It was such a nice and relaxing day!
We woke up in the morning and we watched a TV show and it was super exciting because (my sister is in a band: Joy Zipper) Joy Zipper’s song “Go Tell the World” was on a commercial! I have never heard one of the band’s songs on the radio or on a commercial! It was super exciting!

We got up and got dressed and decided to go to the Hans Fahden Winery to try more of their wine and take a tour of their “famous” caves. The Winery was gorgeous and was voted one of the top places to have a wedding reception-when we got there, they were setting up the main hall for a wedding. We stayed and spoke with the owner of the winery and then headed out. We drove to Duckhorn Winery and tried a huge assortment of wines. The winery was BEAUTIFUL! At this winery I decided that when I get married, I want to get married in Napa at a Vineyard!

After Duckhorn we drove to the river and had lunch with a very close family friend at a small French Restaurant, Angele. French food is not my favorite, it seems, always, to be too heavy, and the only thing that I could read off of the menu was a Hamburger so, that is what I ordered. It was really good and their fries were delicious! We then ordered an assortment of 3 scoops of ice cream- Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry, and Vanilla. It was very yummy! We enjoyed our lunch and company for about 3 hours! We sat out on the patio and enjoyed the sunshine!

After lunch, we headed on our way home. Overall, my weekend with my “madre,” as I like to call her, was extremely relaxing and wonderful!

If you are ever in Napa/Calistoga, I definitely recommend staying at the Mount View Hotel and Spa! It was wonderful and it is so quaint inside!

Nirvana Restaurant and Bar

Last week, my new senior staff, boss and I went out for a staff dinner at Nirvana, a restaurant on Castro Street in San Francisco. I was not sure what to think about this place because I was told that it is an asian fusion place, and I was not quite sure what that could mean.

It turned out to be delicious! We ordered the sample appetizer platter, to share, and it was really good! They have this onion bread that was sooo good! The restaurant also has specialty lemonades, so we all ordered a different lemonade to taste! I ordered this chicken dish that totally hit the spot! If you are in the area and want something warm and hearty, Nirvana is the place to go!
Since we were on Castro Street, we had to make a stop at Hot Cookie. A bakery that makes novelty cookies. Their chocolate chip cookie was very yummy! On our way to Hot Cookie, what do we see, but a man dressed up as a penis! Leave it to have a man dressed in a Penis costume on Castro Street :-)

Just Because

I was thinking, yesterday, that there are so many people that I appreciate in my life and those people should be recognized and celebrated. These people are amazing and so much to offer this world and everyone should acknowledge the wonderful and the beautiful things that they do. I would like to thank each and every one of them for helping mold me in to the woman that I am today.

I am going to start recognizing them on this site. I want to show my appreciation and my thanks to them..."Just Because."

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Cafe Divine

I like to see FRIEND at least once a week.
To start the week off right, we decided to go out to dinner on Monday. We originally were going to the Castro to find a place on the street and saw a HUGE line around the block for the movie theater. We decided that the parking would be CRAZY and decided to go to the Fairmont Hotel and eat at the Tonga Room. We find a place to park, quickly, and jump out of the car. By this time we are hungry! We get down to the Tonga Room, and they are closed! We are shocked because it is by far one of mine and our favorite places to eat! Since we were up by the Fairmont, we decided to go down to North Beach and try to find a place in Little Italy to eat. We spend about 45 minutes looking for parking!
We finally find a great spot right next to the square and begin to walk down the street to find a new restaurant to try. We stumble upon Café Divine. We took a look at the menu and decided that it was within our budget and that we wanted to try it. We walked inside and the place is ADORABLE. It is small and quaint and there was live music playing in the restaurant. There is someone playing on the accordion and it reminds us of a little family run restaurant with beautiful ambiance.
The menu had a number of different entrees to chose from and it was relatively inexpensive. I ordered their “Blue Plate” which, last night, was a salad and pasta Bolognese all for $12. I thought it was quite the steal! We decided to go to the Fog City Diner for the Peanut Butter cups for dessert. After getting “a little turned around” We made it to the diner and enjoyed a delicious dessert with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream-so yummy!
It was a beautiful way to start the week off right-with a Fabulous Friend Date!

cafe divine