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Ok. First let me say I did not set out to buy this wine. I walked into Safeway last Friday night to grab some stuff for dinner (which was awesome and you can read about on Friday.) A super friendly manager was standing at the entrance handing out flyers to everyone that walked in. He handed one to me and explained they had some awesome specials that were good that day only. And all were $5.00. And it was good stuff too! 1) Signature Cafe Roasted Turkey Breast or Turkey Pot Roast $5 2) 5-lb box of Clementines $5 3) Shrimp appetizer Platter $5 4) Fetzer Valley Oaks Chardonnay or Cabernet $5 My immediate reaction? I gotta try the $5 wine. Sheesh if it's horrible we'll toss it and never buy it again. Just kidding. It has to be completely undrinkable for us not to drink it. As in corked or something. But what the heck. So I bought one bottle of each. We opened the Chardonnay that night and gave it a whirl. It's not bad. Not the most sophisticated wine on the planet...

Silence. Maybe you didn't hear me. "Who likes oatmeal cookies?" I say to Don and Elli. Silence. "Hello??" Silence. I know they can hear me. Our living room is literally 6 steps from the kitchen. I just counted Don's steps as he walked from the kitchen to his red chair. "Elli. Do you like oatmeal cookies?" I say to her. "I dunno. I don't think so." This is not going like I'd hoped. "Well, you like oatmeal, right?" I respond. "Yes." she says. "Ok. Then you'll love oatmeal cookies. We'll toss in a few mini chocolate chips too. Just for fun." Cuz everyone knows I hate raisins. There will be NO raisins in these cookies. "Ok." she said. With about as much enthusiasm as someone about to take a math test. We never did get a response from Don. But I've seriously never seen that man pass up a cookie. I know he'll eat them. So, after convincing Elli she would like the ...

"Mom,  there's something on Sam (the dog.) It's either a bug, eye booger or a burr." says Elli. "Uh huh." is pretty much my response. "Give me your finger." she says. "Why?" I respond. With just a touch of sass in my voice. Ok, more than a touch. "I want to stick it on your finger so you can tell me what it is." says Elli. "Uh.......NO! That's gross!!" I bark at her. Is she nuts? Why on earth would I give her my finger to have some potentially disgusting thing put on it. Especially when I'm in the car. Or anywhere for that matter. Hello? It's me your talking about. Yuuuuuuuck!! "Mom, you really need to learn how to deal with bugs better. Dad and I do it. It's time you learn." she responds. "That's what you and daddy are for!" I reply. Yes, I'm 12. "Oh, mom." says Elli. It's now time to change the subject. Thank goodness she saw a white cow out ...

It's Trés Chic Wine Wednesday and I'm featuring Kool-Aid. What the heck? I'll have another new wine for you soon. I promise. Elli went to the store with her dad recently and came home with this. He's much nicer than me in the store. I'm the queen of "No!" Of course I take her shopping MUCH MORE than Don does. So he doesn't deal with the constant "I WANT" with everything she sees. She just starts spewing out everything that comes in her sightline in hopes it's something I might respond to. It's actually kind of comical. "Can I have a donut? yogurt? ice cream? Toaster Struedels? Chicken nuggets? Bacon? Corn Nuts? Doritos? Lunchable? Sugar Cereal? It seriously goes on, and on, and on. It's a nightmare. Of course I remember being the same way. So when they came home with the Kool-Aid Fun Fizz packets I wasn't completely surprised. Poor Elli just drinks water most of the time anyway. And you know why?  That's ...

The nearly empty ship yards in Alameda is not where you would expect to find a winery. What you might expect to see is the crew from Myth Busters. But we didn't see them anywhere. And trust me. We looked. But the empty (kinda scary shipyards) is exactly where we found ourselves yesterday. We went to Rock Wall Wines to hear a band. Don participated in something called the Closet Musician's Workshop the first year that we lived here. He loved it. He got to jam with a bunch of really talented "closet" musicians, like himself. At the end of the session they performed at a local bar. It was awesome. I felt like a groupie. And Don really loved playing guitar and singing on stage! The man that doesn't talk actually sang on stage. It was awesome. They had a lead singer of the group. Her name is Hilary. Hilary was really serious about becoming a real performer. She wasn't doing this just for fun. She had a voice coach. She called the group to her house in the ...

Check. It. Out! This JUST arrived at my office from Safeway Corporate. A box filled with Bright Green goodies. About 6 weeks ago I blogged about my drinking glasses looking streaky and yucky so I switched dishwasher soaps. Well, guess what people. There ARE people out there reading our blogs and they do care if our glasses are streaky. They don't like it either. So they sent me this: Super cool tote bag. Nice. Big bottle of dishwasher soap, a water bottle, a tote and a laundry soap sample. Looks like I better do some cooking this weekend so I can try out their newly reformulated soap that reduces spots and streaks. 'Cuz we really don't want this to happen again. Remember? Yeah. Not good. Gotta do some dishes before I can report back. Big thanks to Safeway, and Cristina Stanley for reaching out to little 'ol me in Mill Valley. This worldwide web stuff is kinda nuts, huh?

I'm an arrive on time, or just a titch early sort of gal. Or at least that's what I strive to be. For client meetings I always plan arriving early. Mainly because the stress of driving fast, parking, etc is too much. It's better to give yourself few extra minutes.  I had a client once say that if you show up exactly on time than you're late. He was a cranky old chap. And that's putting it nicely. My husband has a tendency to run late.  We'll be getting ready to go to a party, I'm dressed, purse in hand, and he finally jumps in the shower. Grrrr. It makes me crazy. "WE"RE GOING TO BE LATE!!" I mutter under my breathe, but loud enough that he can hear. I think he doesn't want to risk being the first one there. That would mean a lot of focused small talk. If you're mixed in a crowd you can become invisible. What kind of person are you?

We participated in our first sample sale on Saturday. We brought our new line of Elliott Grace totes made from remnant fabrics, cow hides and leather. We have cow hide wine totes (large and small) and fabric bags in a few styles. Click here to see our bags. Shoot me an email if you want to order one and I'll have Don get in touch with you. Christmas will be here before you know it. Get a jump start and order your mother-in-law a bag. You know she'll love it. The booth next to us was handbag designer Bryna Nicole . She had a great day (as in sold a lot more than we did. A LOT.) Bryna was there most of the day. She's a super nice, young gal with a bright future. I was impressed by her style and grace. I would definitely buy one of her bags - if I were in the market for a chic bag. You can check out all her bags here on her website. Addison Messenger Hobo, $320 Fallon Hobo, $425

Mahi Mahi burgers, with yummy roasted garlic and green chili spread, and crispy sweet potato fries. The perfect weekend meal. No fuss. Minimal mess. And super yummy. Here's what you need. Don't be scared about fish burgers in a box. Honestly, I never would have bought these. Don picked them up at Trader Joe's. I was worried they wouldn't taste good. (I had a previous bad experience with fish burgers in a box - not from TJs.) So I asked Don what he thought about me making up a flavored mayo for the burgers. His response? "Uh, sure. Whatever." It just looks like it might need a sauce/spread, right? I love the yummy sauces restaurants put on their sandwiches. I wanted something gourmet for our sandwich. You know, something to accent the fish, not cover it up. So I decided to make one myself. I had some roasted garlic, green chiles, mayo, and sour cream which I thought would make a good spread. So I googled garlic mayo and found a recipe fr...

Remember the first time you felt you had to suck in your gut? How uncomfortable and yucky it was? Well, Elli came home from ballet class yesterday complaining that her teacher Miss Erika told her to stand tall and suck in her gut several times. Elli was just completely thrown off. She's never sucked in her gut for more than a second. "I cannot get as tall as the other girls. It's impossible." she cried out. "I cannot dance sucking in my gut. It hurts!" Uh yeah. Welcome to my world.  She showed me what the teacher had her do, how it elongated her body, and made her compact little body look lean - the way a ballet dancer does. Elli's immediate reaction. I hate ballet. I don't want to do it anymore. Ha. Get used to it missy. Nothing in life is easy. Keep practicing. Listen to your teacher.

It's Trés Chic Wine Wednesday. Yeah! Today's reco is another fab wine from Spain that you can buy at TJs for $6.99. Don picked this up and we REALLY like it. He bought the last two bottles at our store. I hope they get more in because it has a nice fruit flavor and is really drinkable now. It would be a great wine to have when guests are over. Or not! 2005 Monte Ducay Reserve Red Wine I don't know about you, but we're amassing quite a cork collection here at the Mulkey compound. We have about 500 corks at home in various places. Yes, you read right. 500. I know. We originally started saving corks for a science project that Elli was going to do at school. I had seen a cute little project where you make little cork boats, stick a thumb tack in the end and push them through water with a magnet. I don't know exactly what happened, but Elli decided to do a project with a friend that didn't involve corks. So here we are three years later with a cork collec...

I heart shortbread bars. One of the signature dishes I make is called Breakfast Bars and the recipe is from Nancy Silverton of LaBrea Bakery. They have a super butter crust, fruity middle, and crunchy, buttery topping. They are delish. But they are kind of a pain to make. Lots of steps. So I was pretty excited when I saw a post by Smitten Kitchen with a picture of a bar that looks exactly like the breakfast bars I make. Except she used fresh peaches in the middle. After I read the recipe and saw how easy they were to make I knew I had to try it immediately. If these bars were good, they might knock Nancy's recipe off its pedestal. Whoa. And guess what? They're AWESOME! I substituted fresh, juicy nectarines for peaches. The recipe said two pieces of fruit should be enough. Well, I could have used one more because I ran out. So I started digging through the fridge to find jam or something else for filling. I found some Fig Spread. Perfect. They will taste like sup...

Remember a few weeks ago when I was whining about the new house that Heather Armstrong, blogger extraordinaire, founder of Dooce moved into? I was just about ready to move on. Until yesterday. Check out her totally awesome breakfast nook . How fantastic is that light fixture? I'm sure she'll have a swell time dusting it. My fantastic breakfast nook light fixture from Home Depot (aka, the 300 dollar store) never needs to be dusted. ha. Photo from Dooce.com So, my unhealthy and completely immature obsession with her home continues. Don't get me started (again) on the gorgeous wood floors either. wah wah waaaaaah