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Making home-made pizza at home is not easy. Before you start laughing, I'm not talking about throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. I'm talking about home-made dough and home-made sauce. The dough is my challenge. I know it shouldn't be as hard as I seem to make it. Yet somehow it is. Our favorite pizza place,  Pizza Antica  is right across the street. We could just go there. But that's too easy. The challenge of perfecting the dough has me obsessed. At the moment. It never comes out crispy. I've bought pizza stones and pizza pans. What I really need is a pizza oven that heats to a high temperature with a surface you can lay the pizza on to give the crust the crispiness it deserves. Well, I don't have a pizza oven. And as much as I would like to build a fabulous grill and outdoor oven in my backyard, I can't do that either. We don't have a backyard. And our back patio is about the size of a shoebox. But I will not give up. I've decided I...

The evening news has been all about the death of Ted Kennedy.  I knew he played an important role in the senate. But I really had no idea how many bills he had passed in his career. I never thought about how long he had served either. It's hard for most people to put up with a job for a few years.  Sheesh, he was fighting for rights for all of us for over 40 years. That's insane. One of the many things I learned while watching the news was a little thing called Title IX.  Or Title Nine.  What is Title Nine you ask?  An athletic clothing store for women? Yes. But that's not the Title Nine I'm talking about. Although now I understand why the store is called Title Nine .  So what is it? Well, basically it gives girls equal rights to boys, in school and in sports . It went into effect in 1972.  Oh, that Title Nine you say. The one that allows girls to play golf and soccer alongside the boys. Yes! The actual law says: "No person in the United States, on the basis of se...

Yesterday was Elli's first day of 3rd grade. Here she is (in the middle) with two of her really good friends. I love that first week of school when everything is fresh and new again. Kids are happy and excited. Parents are relaxed and happy. Clothes are shiny and new. And backpacks aren't full of crumbs and crud yet.  Along with a few new clothes and new shoes, Elli got a new backpack/messenger bag. It was tough finding just the right bag. It had to have pockets (Elli's a collector) and a water bottle holder. Not be too big or too small. And be in-stock. We found one on Fleurville.com. When the packaged arrived Elli could hardly contain herself. She opened it up and screamed. She loved it. She was dancing around the house. It's cool. It's stylish. It's just the right size. It's perfect. The bag can be carried like a messenger bag with a long handle, or as a back pack. (It has hidden straps that tuck in a pocket.)  Plus the size of the bag ...

I don't know about you. But I love a good joke. Especially those that make you laugh out loud. This joke made me laugh. So I thought, what the heck, I'll put it on my blog. This one was sent to me by my sister. Thank you, Kathy! Here you go: A man wakes up in the hospital, bandaged from head to foot. The doctor comes in, and says, 'Ah, I see you've regained  consciousness. Now, you probably won't remember, but you were in a pile-up on the freeway. You're going to be okay, and you'll walk again, but something happened. I'm trying to break this gently, but the fact is your willy was chopped off in the wreck and we were unable to find it. The man groans, but the doctor goes on, 'You've got $9000 in insurance compensation coming and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did, better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn't come cheap. It's $1000 an inch! The man perks up at this. 'So,' ...

On Monday night Don and I got an unexpected reprieve from little miss sassy - Elli had a last minute sleepover. We quickly decided we wanted to go see a movie.  The theatre down the road had a movie starting at 7pm. It was 6pm. Perfect.  We nuked some leftovers for dinner and headed to the movie. First let me say how crowded the movie was on a Monday night. It was like Saturday night. I thought this was strange and interesting. I don't think I've ever been to a movie on a Monday night. Who knew? Anyway, once the movie finally started (after 20 minutes of scary previews) I leaned over to Don and asked what movie we were seeing.  He looked at me like I had two heads.  "It must be a scary movie from all the scary previews," I said. "It's Inglorious Basterds, " he said. "What?" I said.   "The Nazi movie," he said.  I thought about it for a minute. Then I remembered. "OH!!! The Brad Pitt movie," (purrrrrr) No comment from Don. H...

I haven't thought about our family "icky spoon" in ages.  But I was just on a website ( The Kitchn ) that had a picture of a horrible looking spoon (pictured here) and I remember our family "icky spoon." (Sorry to whoever made this spoon. But it doesn't look appealing to me.) I'm sure I'll get the story wrong. But my recollection of the random spoon in the drawer is that it came from my mother's side of the family.  It had a definite metallic taste whenever you ate with it. So it was always the last spoon in the drawer.  No one ever wanted to eat with that spoon. So here's the big question, "Why didn't my mom throw out that spoon?" D id she like watching us squirm while we tried to eat our oatmeal with it?  We had a jillion spoons. Did we really need this one? Did it have sentimental value? Was it valuable? I really want to know.  And whatever happened to that spoon anyway?   So mom, please click on the comment button below and ...

As many of you know, Don and I own a custom furniture/upholstery store in Napa called Pollin's Interiors and Custom Upholstery .  Through our business we have met some fabulous winemakers, restauranteurs, and interior designers. One of those interior designers is Kimberly Rider . (pictured here) I first learned about Kimberly from reading the August 2006 issue of Marin Magazine . She was featured in a story about eco-living. I thought to myself, "I want to work with her someday." In addition to her successful interior design business, she was a featured designer on the tv show "Curb Appeal" and she had just published two books, Healthy Home Workbook and  Eco Baby,  which are all about furnishing your home with non-toxic, healthy materials.    I contacted her after we bought Pollin's in November 2006. I thought it would be amazing to have her come to the store for a book signing. I called and emailed - and she agreed. Alright! I sent out press releases, and ...

Yesterday was not a good day.  We found out that my client, BevMo!, is looking at other agency's. And we are not a contender. Clients change agency's. I knew this might happen - there were signs. So I wasn't completely shocked. But the way we found out was shocking and disappointing. My boss, the President of our agency, got a message from Adweek.com on her Twitter account. Yes, we found out from Twitter. "BevMo Eyes Three Shops." POW!  It was liked getting sucker punched. It seriously took me all morning to get over the shock. I'm not exactly sure what it means for me or the agency.  There is usually a transition period. I'm sure we'll learn more next week. It's definitely time for me to get the resume out there again - in a big way. This experience reminds me of the Golden Rule : "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Hmmm.  If I ever work on the client side again ,which I hope I do, and want to switch agency's, I am...

I bought my first pair of swimming goggles. I finally tried them out last Saturday.  I know what it's like to swim without getting water in your eyes because Don and I scuba dive. But a mask and snorkle in the GREAT BIG OCEAN is different than goggles in the pool.  So after being in the pool 5 seconds with my groovy new googles on I thought to myself, "Oh....my.....gosh.  Where have they been all my life?" I'm a dope! Let me give you a little history. My mom had all of us signed up for swim team going back about as far as I can remember. Every summer she would get us up at the crack of dawn (for years) and drop us off at the local pool for swim team. I don't remember her asking us if we wanted to be on the team. It was a mandatory in our house.  I HATED swim team. I know that's a strong word. But I was not a fast swimmer. I had a good stroke but I am not speedy. I never won. Or even came close. I am extremely competive so years of suffering losses was a major ...

I love looking at food photography.  All my favorite cookbooks have pictures of the food.  My favorite food sites all have amazing food photography. Smitten Kitchen Dean and Deluca And then there was this in the paper last Sunday. Spanish-style sausage at B44. Now, sausage can be tricky to photograph. But when Don flipped to the section and said, "Wow. It looks like a plate of beans and a turd!" What?? I take a look, and he's right.  Oh no. This is not good. Especially since we know the owners of the restaurant. How could they let this happen? I think the Chronicle owes the restaurant an apology and a do-over. It's a great restaurant, with great spanish cuisine.  This photo is not going to get people to want to eat there. I guess I'm not helping by showing it again either. But sheesh. Really???? This is the best they could do? B44 Restaurant in San Francisco. Here's a picture of one of their specialties. Now this looks better. The sausage photo was taken by ...

This story happened last Saturday..... "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.  In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."    - Julia Child Oh dear, this is definitely not me. Learning to cook like Julia is probably going to cost me a lot of therapy sessions. After tonights debacle with the simple Buerre Blanc Sauce I think I'm in serious trouble. For dinner I bought some fresh halibut, asparagus and sweet cherry tomatoes. My grand plan was to grill the fish and asparagus and serve it with the Buerre Blanc sauce, then I would top it all with the chopped cherry tomatoes. I turned on the grill and started the sauce. The sauce was looking really good. I found a site that had Julia's recipe. I was following it (I thought) when all of a sudden my gorgeous sauce (which is supposed to look like Hollandaise sauce) went from perfect to melted butter. WHAT THE HAY?  Well, I scrolled down the recipe and it says somethin...

True story. It's Monday morning (yesterday). Everything is going just fine until I take a sip of coffee in the car. I can feel it drip on my pants before it even hits the fabric. Not good! I'm wearing white pants today. grrrr. It's one spot. I have a little spray bottle of Oxi Clean in my desk drawer. I'll deal with it when I get to my office. I pull into the parking garage. Park. Get my purse, briefcase and coffee. I'm not going to drink it until I can tighten down the lid. I'm not even out of the garage and I feel coffee on my hand again. No!!!! Yes, this time it has dribbled all down my pant leg.  Great.  I have a client meeting this afternoon.  I get to the office grab my little spray bottle and head right to the bathroom. I spray it all over my pants. It's not working. I spray. I dab with water. Great. It's not coming out. I read the back of the package. It has a list of items that it "works great on." The first one listed is COFFEE. Uh h...

When I grow up I want to be.....a Professional Food Taster. Is that a job? Part critic. Part chef. Part foodologist.  I don't know what I'm talking about. All I know is that I love tasting food. And I love giving my opinion. And the job I have imagined in my head would be really fun. Sort of like being a wine taster (another one of my dream jobs.) I got a taste of a job like this a few times (literally). I worked in corporate marketing  for Einstein Bros Bagels for five years. And I worked in the marketing department for Houlihan's Restaurants  for 3 years. I loved both jobs. But with Houlihan's I was part of the team that worked on the new branding and new menu. It was a great job. I flew to Kansas City every week to go to the corporate office. One of my favorite things was tasting the new recipes from the test kitchen. I could sit there all day eating food and telling the chefs what I think.  We also got to create yummy cocktails. But I'll sa...

I forgot how creamy and delicious Good Humor ice cream is. Have you had one lately? Ya gotta go try one. It's seriously good stuff.   Elli and I were in Toys R Us buying a birthday gift and she asked if she could have some ice cream. Going to a toy store with a kid to buy a birthday gift - for someone else is my least favorite thing to do. You get the sad eyes, the begging, pokey walking, it makes me crazy. So I made her a deal. I would buy her an ice cream - if she didn't beg for everything in the store. This seriously worked. She focused on the gift we were buying and her reward at the end. Great! I love it when a plan works.  We get to the little reach-in freezer at the register and she stared at all the ice cream treats - for a really long time. This was a big decision.  After much (and I mean much) debate, she picked the large ice cream cone - the King Cone . There was a small one too - but my gal picked the big one. (It reminded me of my brothers when we were little. When...

Thanks for the tip Daily Candy.   I'm inspired!  This looks fun. I'm going to try hooping this weekend. Elli has two hoops. I think we'll try it together. No peeking. Let me practice first. Check it out: You Spin Me Round, Baby

.....continued from yesterday ok. After reading yesterday's blog I realized I set myself for a really big, dramatic story. I hate to disappoint, but the bikes didn't fall off. We didn't leave anyone behind, or run over anything. We lost something. But it's a really important something. And caused major stress and sweating. Here's the story... As we're driving on the highway to REI Don notices that he didn't latch the bolt to Elli's bike. This is not good.  Elli has a Trailer Bike that attaches to Don's with a fancy little bolt. We've already lost one, and replacements are not easy to come by. He can see in the side view mirror that the bolt is still there. We don't have far to go. But we're on Hwy 101. We're literally willing that dang bolt to hang on. It falls off. Doh! But we didn't see when. We search the parking lot, and side road, up and down. Not the highway. Although I was tempted.   We go in REI. They don't have a re...

We had an awesome bike outing last Sunday to Sausalito. It's a short ride (~5 miles) from our house. It was a gorgeous, sunny, non-foggy Sunday morning. Not too windy. Not too cold. Just right.   Our whole purpose was to go and have breakfast at a new restaurant called CIBO . It was awesome. I had a delicious Fritatta with bacon and potato. Don had poached eggs on toast.With the most amazing heirloom tomato salad on the side. Elli couldn't stop mooching Don's breakfast. And Elli had raspberry shortbread cookies. It was 10am. She eats breakfast at the crack of dawn. It was snacktime for her! And of course they have coffee. Really delicious coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee . They brew it one cup at a time as you order it. They don't give it to you in one of those old diner cups either. All the food is served on Heath Ceramics dinnerware (based in Sausalito.) So not only are you eating delicious food. It's sitting on a beautifully designed plate too.  If I had some extr...

On Tuesday night we had dinner at Bottega Restaurant with Joe and Cherrie Anderson, colleagues from Dallas from way back when. When I say "colleages" I really mean the boss Don and I used to work for back in the 80's. Joe owned a small agency in Dallas. He hired me as an intern. Don worked for him as an art director in their Houston office.  It seems like a million years ago.  It kind of was! It was the summer of 1986.  One of my jobs was sorting through newspaper tearsheets. (A tearsheet is basically a copy of the ad that ran.) I remember being in a small conference room filled with tearsheets and orders that I had to sort through. I left the room covered in newsprint each day. I finally finished that arduous task and was assigned to an office, which was conveniently located in the supply cubby.  Need a pen?  No problem. Paper clip? Staples? I'm your gal. This was WAY before sticky notes, fax machines and clips.  Seriously, it was. Anyhow, I survived that first summe...

I think Homer Simpson made the phrase uber-famous. But come on. What doesn't taste better with bacon? Homer was right! That fake tofu, cardboard stuff does....not.....count.  Forget it. I feel sorry for those non-bacon eating folks out there. They are really missing out big time. Seriously, how can you go through life without at least one BLT. Freshly toasted bread, with heirloom tomatoes, crisp lettuce, crispy bacon and just a touch of mayo?  Did you know that the BLT is the second most popular sandwich in the U.S. - according to Wiki? I don't know about you but it's always my go to sandwich in a new strange diner.  I have a friend that got "Bacon-of-the-month" as a gift once.  At first I thought that was a weird gift. But then I thought, ooooh..  Honey Bacon, Pepper Bacon, Smoked Bacon, Thick Cut Bacon, Thin Cut Bacon..... Yeah, I think I would be ok with bacon as a gift.  But not from Don.  If he gives me bacon as a gift he'll be in big trouble.  Unless i...

I have a thing about Pinot Noir.  Most of the time I don't like it because it tastes like dirt. Or "It's too earthy",  as I usually say.  I haven't really eaten dirt. But it has that hint of mud/earth/wood/worms that to me is not something I want to smell or taste in a wine glass. It must be me. My husband rolls his eyes in total disagreement. And others look at me like I'm koo-koo. I can't help it. I have similar issues with goat cheese. It tastes like barn. So maybe I have a sensitive palate? I thought I should look up Pinot Noir on Wiki to see what they say about it.  And what do you know.  Here's what I found out. The Pinot Noir grape thrives in France's Burgundy region, particularly on the Cote d'Or which has produced some of the most celebrated wines for centuries. Traditional red burgundy is famous for it's fleshy, "farmyard" aromas. So my take on that comment is that if Pinot Noir is made in the French/Burgun...

We just came back from seeing the movie. Loved it! It was funny, heart-warming and really entertaining.   I used to watch Julia Child on TV and knew a little bit about her. I haven't read Julie Powell's book.  But I did check out her blog when I heard about the movie. It would have been really fun to follow the blog as she wrote it. And I don't own a copy of Julia Child's cookbook. Yet. But I think I'm going to have to get a copy.  I must make Beef Bourguignon , like the rest of America. Meryl Streep as Julia Child was AMAZING.  I forgot it wasn't really Julia Child. That woman is so talented. I was in awe. Amy Adams was good too.  But Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci (as Julia's husband, Paul) were awesome. I think there might be a gold statue in her future. And because I'm me, I got a little teary eyed in the end. It wasn't really sad. I think it was just seeing her kitchen/tv set and knowing she's gone that got to me. I noticed a few others wer...

One day, an average girl named Julie decided to make every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering The Art of French Cooking." She challenged herself to do it in a year. And blog about it. She called it the Julie/Julia project. It became huge. She got a book deal. Then a movie deal. Wow.  "Julie and Julia" is in theaters today.  I can't wait to see it. Here's a sneak peek. Meryl Streep plays Julia.  And Amy Adams plays Julie Powell.  Maybe I should put more thought into my blog, turn it into a best seller, then a movie. Ka-ching!!!!! Moving right to my potential movie.....who will play me?  According to Facebook, Jennifer Garner is playing me in the movie (Facebook quiz), Elli will play herself and Don will be played by Jeff Daniels (because I think they look alike.)  I also like Julia Roberts, for her loud laugh. Cuz we all know I don't have a quiet laugh. Have a good weekend everyone. Do something fun outside. Then go to the movie! : )

Last week we had a meeting at Cav Wine Bar & Kitchen to discuss an upcoming promotion with Wilfred and NBC.  I thought it would be fun to meet at a wine bar,  instead of the office,  so the executive producer of the show could see Wilfred in action. After we discussed the business details. We asked Pamela, the owner of Cav Wine Bar, to bring us a bottle of wine to taste. We wanted it to be a blind taste. So they brought us the bottle in a brown bag.  We all swirled it, sniffed it, sipped it, talked about it, debated it's region and varietal. It had the color of a Sauvignon Blanc. Was really tart and crisp. We finally decided it must be from France. Ok, it was Wilfred who decided that. I thought maybe New Zealand. But what do I know? Here's the big reveal. Wilfred was right!  It was a Pouilly Fume from France .  If you want to try this wine and can't make it to the Cav Wine Bar you can click on the link and buy a half bottle for nine bucks.

Someone once looked in our fridge at home and made a comment that we have a lot of condiments.   It's true.  We do have a lot of condiments. There are 4 or 5 kinds of mustards. Grainy. Sweet. Spicy. Regular. Asian. We also have a lot of marinades, salad dressings, salsas, olives, pickles, ketchup, barbeque sauces, jams, jellies and cheeses. I've never taken an inventory of my fridge. But as I sit here thinking about it. We do have a lot of little jars in there! I guess I thought everyone had this kind of stuff in their fridge.  Want to make chinese food for dinner? No problem. We've got soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, spicy mustard, plum sauce, hot asian sauce. Want an olive for a snack? For a cocktail? With or without jalapeno? We've got about 5 different kinds of olives.  Or how about chips and salsa? Spicy? Mild? Mango? We have it. And pickles. Whole pickles, sliced pickles, sweet pickles, dill pickles. We even have pickled jalapenos. Which are delish by the w...

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday. One of the wines I opened was a Tapiz Merlot from Argentina. My friend really liked it. She asked where it was from, and was surprised to hear it was from Argentina and that she liked it so much. I went on SF Gate Sunday morning, and what do you know, there was an article in the  SF Chronicle  travel section about Argentina.  It's an interesting article about and a wine growing region that is producing some fantastic wines.   The reporter for the article went to five or six wineries.  As I read it, I kept waiting to hear about Vino del Sol. But apparently he didn't go there. Too bad for him. He missed out on tasting some fantastic wines under the Tapiz label. Patricia Ortiz and her family own Vino del Sol and produce many fabulous wines there.  They bought the winery from Jess Jackson (Kendall Jackson) and have turned it into an Argentinian wine powerhouse. If you want to try some really good wine from Argentina, that is a great...