Fresh Tart

Baseball, steaks, naan, and um, Volkswagen? Not quite as catchy (or kitschy) as the old Chevrolet jingle but the sentiment, while not pure Americana, is the same - man, there is nothing like a sunny summer's day, ahhh. We caught some actual heat today, which meant real pool time for Nathan and John, a long, sweaty walk for me, and some grilled goodies for us all. And then, to cap off the day, an evening baseball game. What a perfect night for a game! And Nathan's team came from behind to win! Just a lovely, fun end to the weekend. I hear it's going to rain again this week so I'm extra thrilled to steal one of these beautiful days.

So, as for the steaks - I grilled a top sirloin, one of my favorite cuts. On the leaner side, but juicy and full of flavor, particularly good on the grill. Although in my mind it needs nothing more than a generous sprinkle of Kosher salt before hitting the heat, top sirloin takes nicely to a marinade or generous rub of crushed garlic and spices - steak tacos, anyone? Oh yeah!

And because grilled bread in any form is one of the most delicious things on the planet, I grabbed some naan at Whole Foods, rubbed it with a bit of olive oil, gave it a light sprinkle ofsalt, and grilled until smokin' hot and soft. Soooo good. Works great with pita as well. And of course thick slices of baguette or other crusty bread is The Kill. With soup, or salad, or alongside grilled steaks, chicken, or fish - makes the meal, and that's not an exaggeration.

Now...I'm beat, guess I'm not much used to the heat. The plan is to sleep like a rock and move on into Monday... Happy June! And oh, Happy 50th Anniversary to my in-laws Dot & John - 50 years, my friends, incredibly impressive. Can't wait to celebrate in just a few short weeks!

Yay for Friday Morning Coffee with Suz! Well-timed, loads to talk about, things have been so crazy-busy I feel like I haven't seen her for a year. We sipped our yummy joe, ran into a few old neighbors, gossiped some more, and cackled and shrieked so loudly we damn near chased away all the other customers. Woops! Man, good friends are worth their weight in gold (or in this case, much more, since Suz is pretty tiny and doesn't weigh very much at all)!

I had to tell her about the blast of a night I had last night - my mom invited me along to her office holiday party at The Chanhassen Dinner Theater for their production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I admit, I'm not a big Broadway musical fan of the Andrew Lloyd Weber variety, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Joseph. I first saw it in oh, 1983, it was my high school's spring musical production. I remember going in with low expectations...and walking out completely charmed. I went at least another five times (hey, I was 16). I had last seen it in the mid-90s, the big-time Donny Osmond version at the State Theater, very fun. And then not again until last night, almost 25 years after my first viewing (ouch!) - still fun, still charming. Good stuff.

While I was out, John was wrapping up the two-month-long celebration of our 5th anniversary. Huh? Well, back at the beginning of October, after much brain-wracking in an attempt to come up with a gift worthy of my sweet husband, I birthed two pretty friggin' awesome ideas. Idea One: a surprise dinner with his boys, his long-term buds, at 20.21. I got emailing right away, tossing out dates, and came up with...December 13th?! Ack, so far away from October 19! I felt I needed something else too, something closer to the big day, hmmm...

And then, Idea Two: I commissioned my coolicious sister Stacey to paint a portrait of Sigmund, John's dear, sweet dog who passed away last March (and who he's been missing mightily, sniff). An entire painting obviously couldn't be ready by the 19th either, but Stace thought she could have it done by Thanksgiving, so I told John he had two kickin' gifts coming. And so...Stace did her thing and delivered the painting on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. It is, as you can see, completely amazing, a fabulously Stacified Siggy Roo, John was (is) absolutely blown away. BIG time hit. (Yesss!) Then last night...finally the dinner with his boys, total blast, a bawdy feasty feast that had the guys thanking me for thinking of it. (Yesss again!) So there. We are really, truly, absolutely done celebrating our anniversary.

Although for dinner tonight perhaps we could....

Hello from Vancouver! Well, actually, hello from Minneapolis, we just got back from Vancouver, but hey eh, it's all the Great White North as far as I'm concerned! (Although Vancouver is much comelier than her older cousin Minneapolis...but shhhh, we won't say that aloud...)

Yes, John and I blew north last Thursday, via Seattle, arriving in Vantown, oh, around 4:00 p.m. I immediately did what I always immediately do upon dumping my bags in a fancy-pants hotel room - giddily pry open the mini-bar (tee hee!), crack open a cold beer, sink into the fluffy bed, and hungrily scan the room service menu for a club sandwich or cobb salad. Oh how I love room service! Oh how I love mini-bars! Woo hoo for great hotels! (We scored a club sandwich, btw...turkey, avocado, bacon, cheddar, and a super-secret ingredient - a fried egg! Genius! I'm totally stealing the idea, yum.)

We always stay in cool hotels, but this one was particularly lovely, thanks to the 25th-floor views of the Harbor and Stanley Park. What a city! A pretty intoxicating mix of uber-chic-urban meets crunchy-granola-outdoorsy. A comfortable Chanel-Patagonia mix, as it were. Apparently west coast is West Coast, US or Canada...

We didn't spend the whole trip in the hotel, although it was mighty tempting, ha. No, we fell into our usual John-and-Stephanie groove - pretty chill mornings (breakfast and lots of good coffee en room), then out the door late morning for a few hours of exploring and sightseeing on foot, followed by a late-afternoon drive.

We started Friday with a stroll through the newly gentrified and very quaint Gastown neighborhood, then made an ill-advised loop through Chinatown (turns out Vancouver has a significant, sadly infamous homeless/drug-addicted population that tends to gather near Chinatown, bit of a rough crowd), then turned back west for a trip up to the top of Harbour Center, a funky Seattle-Space-Needle-esque lookout with 360 degree views of the city. Very handy for map studying and getting our bearings. Then back down to street level for more wandering and a stumble into a cute little bistro for big glasses of icy coldMolson Canadian (gooood stuff) and hot, toasted sandwiches (with fries, mmmm, fries...).

Properly fortified, we strolled back to the hotel, hopped in our car, and drove north over the majestic Lions Gate Bridge and on up into the mountains. Our first stop was at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a well-known tourist spot worthy of its fame. The bridge is for walking only, suspended on cables over a plunging, Douglas-fir lined ravine. As you walk across, the bridge bounces and sways (shiver), but the view is breathtaking. On the other side, there's a short, fragrant path weaving through a patch of soaring temperate rainforest. After a quick-stepping (!) cross back over the bouncy bridge (shiver again), we continued on up, via large gondolas, to the tippy-toppy peak of Grouse Mountain, which overlooks the whole city, huge Stanley Park, and the city's several bays. Uh, wow.

By then, we were toast, walked- and toured-out, so it was back to the hotel for a chat with the concierge, who helped us settle on an Italian restaurant called Cin Cin for dinner. After a quick change of clothes and a three-block walk from our hotel, we were fully immersed in the after-dark Robson Street scene...chic, young professionals, merrily shopping, dining, and cocktailing all around us. Cin Cin just happened to be featuring an autumn mushroom and truffle menu - score! We split a gorgeously rich and creamy mushroom soup, topped with chanterelles and truffles, as well as an earthy risotto showeredwith both white and black shaved truffles. Fantastico! But filling-o! Man we were stuffed, causing us to decide then and there that we didn't really need to go out for dinner each night, since we both prefer to do our serious eating earlier in the day, when we have a chance to, you know, walk it off, uff.

Good decision given that Saturday morning we set out for Granville Market, a permanent open-air market just south of downtown on Granville Island. Shops, restaurants, and the creme-de-la-creme, an indoor bazaar of best-quality food vendors, selling everything from pastries to cured meats to chocolate drinks. Heaven. On. Earth. We had read enough raves to know we'd be happily eating our way through the place, so we were ready with big, big appetites. And even then, we hardly made a dent in the offerings! We did however score delicious bites of butter chicken with basmati rice and warm naan. Smokin' hot fish-n-chipswith malt vinegar andlots of cool, creamy tartar sauce. Beefy cornish pasties wrapped in the flakiest of crusts. Almond and pecan tartlets (again, seriously melt-in-your-mouth pastry, rarrr...).Frozen hot chocolate and steaming espresso. We faded at that point, although I had my eye on a stand with the most gorgeous pies I've ever seen. Next time, next time...

After a long, bracing walk along the Seawall and through Stanley Park, where we almost got attacked by swans (check out the look on my face as I posed with the monster of all maple leafs...the swans were silently, menacingly stalking up behind John!), we burned off enough of our feast to manage a little nosh and nip in the hotel bar before turning in for the night. I lurve hotel bars. Naughty snacks, great people watching, all cozy and buzzy and such. Lovely day, that Saturday, yeah.

Sunday didn't suck either, despite the fact that our intended float-plane tour up into the mountains was canceled due to low cloud cover. Boo. But we rebounded with a tour through the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, followed by a fantastic, gorgeous lunch at a harbor-side spot we stumbled upon called Lift. Scrambled eggs with asparagus, caviar, and truffles, and more fish-n-chips, worked their decadent magic and Lift-ed our moods mightily, as did another long, bracing walk along the harbor. It was quite romantic and cozy, strolling along with all the other Sunday Strolling Couples.

And then Monday...home. I was ready, I have this inner five-day-trip limit (drives John nuts, but I'm a homebody, and anyhow, I miss Nathan too much to stay away longer). John was genius-ly able to maneuver at the airport to get us on the direct flight home, saving us hours of travel time. Yes! Aaand he let me take the one first-class upgrade we were able to score. Nice husband, huh? Yep, indeed a keeper!

So Happy Vancouver-ish 5th Anniversary! (We're now officially done celebrating, in case you're wondering...)

Um, OK, sometimes I do like surprises - A LOT!!! Yes, my sweet husband looked past my unsentimental anniversary attitude (although I got him a killer gift too, which I haven't been able to give him yet, but I know he's gonna love it) and got me the most killerest, hardcore, rock-n-roll ankle boots EVAR. Oh yes, they are METAL. Suz not only said so (I wore them to Tuesday Morning Coffee with Suz & Kim - although Kim wasn't there today), she bowed down and gave them - not me, them - the metal sign. YESSS! How did he make such a genius, fashion-forward pick? He very, very wisely called my fabulously coolicious sister Stacey, who pointed him in the right direction - thank you, Stacey! Thank you, John! I'm oh, about 6'3" in these bad boys, so if you see me in them, get outta my way! Woo hoo for kickin' boots! Rarrr...

Ahem. Anyhow, now that I'm home, the boots are off and I'm folding laundry and thinking about roasting another chicken for dinner tonight. I'm just going to keep roasting 'em until I'm roasted out. And for now, I'm not even close. Buttery, crispy, roasted chicken, here we come!

Anniversaries. I don't go overboard for the required celebrations (other than my 40th birthday, ha). Oh, John and I saw an amazing movie (Into the Wild), followed by a lovely dinner tonight, in the bar at La Belle Vie (always a winner) to celebrate our 5th annivesary. But the forced part of it, that this should be an amaaaazing night, better than all others, meh. Rather unromantic, I know. But I'm not that uber-romantic girl. I don't love surprises. Plus, romance requires a certain amount of sentimentality, don't you think? And I'm too practical to be terribly sentimental. The day-to-day is where the pedal meets the metal! Our weekly Date Nights are really fun to me, because they're not forced, we just go with what sounds good. Spontaneity that I have a say in, much more my (sometimes cranky, often controlling) style, ha.

So...sorry to have been absent for more than a week! Sheesh! Not cooking terribly interesting things - the Good Calories Bad Calories book has me thinking - a lot - about grains and sugar. Hmmm...especially in light of diabetes in my family, and other health issues, just a lot to think about. A bit of an awakening, perhaps. Doesn't change things terribly much, but while I'm all contemplative and such, I tend to withdraw. Hmmm...

Hope all is well with you!