Sintra-- Summer Palace

Sintra, Portugal or as known as the king`s summer palace. (images above)

We are here in Portugal visiting Marco`s mom during our Thanksgiving break then we continue on to Paris for 3 days then back to SF. Today is our last day here in Portugal and is also Marco`s birthday!!! i think we were planning on visiting Lisboa today but with the rain... i`m not sure what we are going to do. then there`s dinner with his family tonight!!! yum!!! we`ve been to many places on this trip... visiting families down south in Santa Andres and another town near Almada. it was good seeing everyone since the last time i was here 4 years ago. the food here has been really good. one of my favorite is a shrimp bread pudding like texture and it`s soooo good... i`ll have to try and make it when we are back. then of course there`s the thin pork steak sandwich that marco loves (i think he had 2 for dinner the other night.

ok... off we go now (11.56am).

...on Halloween night...

We went over to our friends Trina and Russell's place after some Halloween dinner meal at Bitter End. As you can see a little singing and drinking were the thing to do on Halloween night... and with a big afro- it's even better!!!

Cake Gallery

i came across the AIA SF Awards and these two gallery like bakeries was just a gem-- so cute and so nicely designed it makes me want to spend more than i need to on a cupcake.
check out Kara's Cupcake next time you're in Ghirardeli Sq. and I Dream of Cake in North Beach.

summer is officially over

i turned on our heater tonight :-( where was my summer? i think i only went to beach 2 or 3 times. i think we only had a few weeks of hot weather, but summer ended fast this year in Sept. it's getting cooler and colder every day. i think i'm ready for the fall :-)

here are some good summer 2009 recap! (breakfast out in our patio, summer bbq meal, fresh lemon mint tea from our patio).

Marco the plumber

over the summer so our dishwasher was not draining properly and it would back-up to our sink... and now i can't remember how Marco fixed it. it's good to have a plumber around :-)

Brunch at 505

We had our neighbors over for brunch and it was to test our some of our wedding gifts and to celebrate Chinese Moon Fest. I couldn't wait to use it :-) we made lots of yummy finger foods and i have to say my strawberry tart/cake was very good. The little cupcake was like a pound cake with red bean filling and it turned out really good.

No Reservations...SF & Fruitvale

he was also at Fruitvale checking out the taco trucks - yum! Click here to read more.

Taco Crawl... gotta do it soon :-)

Jack Johnson's new dvd

I'm so excited that Jack will have a live concert & film dvd due out in Oct. i'm so getting one!!! click here to see the trailer.

yes.... i kind of met him at Virgin Records in SF back in in 2005... i was like 3 feet away from him hahahha-these are some pictures i took with my little phone :-)

BM Custome Making Party!

So over the past 2 weekends we hosted the Burning Man costume making party at our place and boy it was an all Day event. oh and yes this will be our first year going to Burning Man (i think and the last). we have total of 10 people going and we are pretty organize with our costume making, shade stucture design, and 16' truck ... i think we got it all together.

We’ve made silly funky shirts and pants over the last 2 weekends. This past weekend I made 1 jacket for Marco. Furrrrryyyy…. Apparently fur jacket is the thing to wear at BM. Everyone here cut their own jacket pattern and we were able to cut 11 jackets in one afternoon- I was impressed with the sweat shop we have going here at Lancaster.

Korean food near work

OMG so Trina told me about John’s Snack and Deli that was written up over the weekend http://www.sfgate.com/columns/bargainbites/ this place is 2 blocks from my work and so a few weeks ago I decided to check it out. I was there at 12:05pm and already there’s a line out the door-crazy!!! All the pedestrians that walks by were all looking at us lining up in front of this cigarettes store and was probably wondering what’s going on. I ordered the kimchi burrito and the sushi just to try … then it was the Looong wait… 35 min. (they had an order of 56 burritos today). I talked to some of the people waiting around with me in this tinny store and they all read the article on SF chronicle and are here today to try it. the power of internet/newspaper/word of mouth!!! I think everyone is looking for a new place to try and a good bargain in the financial district. I was starrrving … rushed back to the office and then took a big bite…. And it was a chuck of kimchi cabbage!!! Love it!!! the burrito was actually really good-not too spicy and the rice was white korea rice! But they did add cheese which I thought it was weird… but it was not too bad at all for $5.95 and it’s huge- I was stuffed :-P The sushi was ok... never a fan of matchstick carrots in my sushi, so i took it out. I don't think i would get that again.
The snack store also got some Korean snacks like red bean and melon popsicles! I can’t wait to get one when the weather gets hot again – soon – I hope. I think somebody should open up a Korean restaurant in the financial district. There are no good Japanese sushi restaurants and too many crappy Chinese and Thai food. Korean food is defiantly a nice change... i'll probably go back there again and try other items.

Summer Tomato

so Marco tells me that women talks to their flowers/plants a lot more than men and apparently it grows better, according to NPR(?). Well, I don't really talk to my tomato plant, but I try to water it every day from a 4" high to a 24" tall tomato plant :-) I do have to say it must of been my silent prayers! these pictures were taken last month and you can see I only had ONE to-mato and today I have total of 3!!! so excited!!! It's still very green and I can't wait to harvest it!

here are some more updated pictures of our tomato ... 8/2009

and i think all the talking and water helped ;-) they were yummy!

Restaurants are closing

due to this bad economy many small stores, cafe, business, and restaurants are closing... and before i can say 'but I've always wanted to go there'- IT'S GONE!!! I always have forgotten about Public in SF and my friend David have told me about it 8 years ago and now it's closed... too late for me. I decided to make a list, not a to-do paper list that can be tossed, but a list that's on this blog page so i will remember to visit before it's too late.

Jeremy's

ok so here's my big shoe shopping secret... i love Jeremy's in Berkeley, when this place goes on sale it's additional 50% and you can get shoes from JCREW down to $12 (Italy made) so i walked out with one too many pairs "how am i gonna tell Marco i'm gonna take more of his shoe spaces for my new shoes...!" (i didn't tell him this other pair i bought..oops- soon you'll find me hiding my shoes in my car trunk-hahhaha). i just love this place to buy shoes, it's really quality and great style too. i have to say most of their clothing there are from JCrew, which i don't care much for but they also got some other really cute clothings.

Fresh Corn Pancakes

I love reading the Gourmet magazine, the pictures just look so good you could just taste it. It makes you want to read more about it and try it for yourself. I came across this Corn Pancakes yesterday in the magazine and thought this was really easy to make and I even got corn in the fridge ready to go. It turned out so very good and we served the pancakes with a dry rub steak for dinner. I just might make this again for next weekend's brunch party.

Serves4 (Makes about 12 pancakes)

• Active time:25 min
• Start to finish:25 min

Gourmet July 2009

Ready your griddle. These pancakes capture the golden sweetness of corn cut from the cob. Drizzle warm maple syrup on them for breakfast or serve them as a side dish with salsa and sour cream.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 to 4 ears corn
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• Accompaniment:

  pure maple syrup, or salsa and sour cream

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1 tsp salt in a medium bowl.
• Cut enough kernels from cobs to measure 2 cups. Using back of a knife, scrape pulp from cobs and transfer to a blender with milk and 1/2 cup corn. Purée until smooth, then strain through a sieve into another medium bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Whisk in eggs, oil, and butter.
• Add to flour mixture with remaining 1 1/2 cups corn and whisk until just combined.
• Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until hot, then lightly brush with oil. Working in batches, pour 1/3 cup batter per pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden-brown, about 2 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook until undersides are golden-brown, about 1 minute more. (Reduce heat if pancakes brown too quickly.) Lightly oil griddle between batches if necessary.

Low-Fat Banana Ginger Bread

i got a new laptop for my birthday and now i 'm a little mobile, so i hope i will post more often. i wanted to archive good recipe that i've tried and if it turns out yummy i'll post it and share with you all. here's the first one... so i got a few over riped bananas at home and so i felt like baking on a sunday morning :-) what i love about this recipe is the spices i added recommended by epicurious reviewer and it actually has a really good kick to the boring banana bread.


Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup smashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)

1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon butter (or veg. oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon each of ginger, cardamum, nutmeg and cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch pan; dust with flour.
Using electric mixer; beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until thick and light, about 5 minutes.
Mix in smashed bananas, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt over mixture; beat until just blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake bread until golden brown on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Turn bread out onto rack and cool.

Church Announcement

I surprised Marco with our church bulletin announcement on 5/31/2009 " A very happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY to parishioners Tammy and Marco Alves, married here last May 31st!"
... click here to see it :-)
May God Bless you all!

Our First Anniversary!!!

Can you believe it it's been a year!!! felt like it was just 8 months ago we did this. Marco has been in Portugal for the last week, because his mom was having some surgery done. He came back on May 30th and he surprised me with a flower delivery from our wedding florist Laura Miller with peony flower arrangements just like my wedding bouquet. I was almost had tears in my eyes... especially I had not seen him in a week- that was so sweet of him. The arrangement came with a card and it says to pack my bags and we're going to a B & B. hmmm.... I wonder where we're going...? north or south...? so i packed up everything and wore all of my wedding day accessories (Bling**) to the airport to pick him up. Oh- it was so good to see him. Then Marco started to drive 101 South, 92, then HWY 1 South... an hour later we arrived at Costanoa.

He was hoping we could catch the sunset at 8:35pm but it was overcast all along HWY 1 so... no romantic sunset :-( Costanoa is a eco adventure resort designed for you to explore the California coastline. What a great beautiful place!! and they don't even have a TV in the room... talk about exploring. We checked in then left to have dinner at Pescadero, another favorite little coastal town. We ate at Duarte's Tavern (Portuguese owner) a very yummy place for local seafood and artichoke dishes. The next day morning we went for a short walk around Costanoa and what an amazing landscape and tons of native flowers and plants, so pretty. We then headed back slowly along the coastline and stopped by one of our favorite place Arcangeli Grocery- they have the best artichoke bread in the world! Hot off the oven! yum!!! and we got some cheese and strawberries and had our own picnic at Montara beach - pretty big waves there. Marco was there surfing a few weekends ago when we had the heat wave, but man all I see was his long board jetting out of the water... more practice honey-
I can't believe it's been a year and what a wonderful year we had together!! We've done so much and so little, but we will always experience it together with good friends and family.

most romantic restaurant

tonight i came across online"Slow Club" a tinnny restaurant in San Francisco. i remembered walking in there once just to use the restroom... ( i think) back 8 years ago and i thought the place was so romantic. This restaurant seats about 10 tables if not 8 and no lighting what so ever other than the tiny candle lighting at each table & small continuous lighting washing the bottom of the walls. Everyone that was there were party of two and they all looked like they were on a hot date and so happy (maybe because it was just dark). I was 'Single' back in the day and at that moment i just thought Slow Club was the hottest place to go on a hot date.
I still yet to have that HOT date there... i think at one point the place was closed but it looks like it's open again and maybe this time i'll go on a hot date with my husband!

dancing veggies!

how cute is that!

NKOTB

ok i have to say yes i went to the NKOTB concert back in 11/2008 and you know it was actually kinda fun. Clara is a huge fan, so we both went as our first time and had a really good time. I have to say these guys are in their late 30's now (can you believe it...) and they can still reach the crazy teenage high notes and hop around the stage... not bad.
here are some of their new songs click here and yes they had a new album out last year.