Art, music, food, fun - this weekend in Sausalito.

The Sausalito Art Festival is this weekend. Yeah!

This is really the only art festival we go to anymore.  It has the most interesting and professional art of any show in the area - in our opinion anyway.  And it's rated the #1 outdoor art festival in America. Not sure who voted them #1. But I completely agree. I've been to a lot of festivals in my lifetime (used to do corporate event sponsorship.) I've seen it all.

They have an interesting mix of art, sculpture, music, food and wine. Here is Elli, in 2007, standing in front of a painting and a sculpture that we saw. 

We didn't buy the Chairman Mao painting, or the horse sculpture, but they definitely got our attention and got us talking. Which is what I think art should do -get your brain churning.

One of the nice things about the festival is that it's close enough to where we live in Mill Valley that we can bike to it. They have V.I.P. bike parking right up front in a secure area. It's free. Super convenient. And you feel good about not driving, especially when you live so close.

And we're not just festival window shoppers either. We always buy something. One year we bought a print. The next year a piece of pottery. And last year a huge painting from Scott Olson. Here's a sample of his style. The Olson painting is my favorite. It also cost the most, but it's something we'll have forever. 

This year I'm going to check out the wine area too.  Now that I'm on my mission to taste California wines this whole month, I should be able to check off a few new wines on my list. Not too much though. I do have to bike home.  

I love the image for this year's t-shirt. (It's the fish image above.) It was done by Tanya Doskova from British Columbia. Very cool. It's on the cover of the program too. For a copy, click here.

In Search of Bobby Flay

I can't believe it's been seven years since I went to the Food and Wine Festival in Aspen. Somehow, my boss at Einstein's, Joanne, convinced the powers' to be at Einstein's that three of us needed to go to the festival. Ha! Marketing girls from a bagel concept attending the Food and Wine festival - in Aspen. Uh huh. Well, needless to say, we had the most amazing time.

We tasted wine, attended seminars, went to parties. We enjoyed every second of our trip.

One of my memorable moments was watching Bobby Flay at his cooking demonstration. It was Saturday morning, about 10:30am. Everyone was a little tired and hung over from the night before - including Bobby. He stood there at the demo table and made himself a Bloody Mary. Then drank it - while all of us were sitting there with mouths dropped open, hoping he would pass it around. No such luck. 

I didn't really know who Bobby Flay was at the time, and I have no recollection of what food he cooked. But I was instantly a fan. He was funny, easy-going, approachable and just a little bit cocky - in a good way. He didn't care that we were all sitting there waiting for him to cook. And we didn't mind. He was just doing his thing.

After the seminar, we went to the festival bookstore. I bought his book and we all became obsessed with finding him (ok, I was the ringleader) so I could get his autograph. Our trip was renamed "In Search of Bobby Flay". We never did run into him again. So I guess I'll just have to try and get back to the festival. I do work for a wine, beer and spirits retailer.......hmmmmm. (Except, I'm sounding like a stalker!!! Really, I just want my book autographed.)

Tonight I'm going to grill chicken and use his 16-spice poultry rub. mmmm,mmmmm. Can't wait.

Bobby Flay's 16-Spice Rub for Poultry

3 T ancho chile powder

3 T pasilla chile powder

3 T ground cumin

3 T ground coriander

3 T ground ginger

2 T garlic powder

2 T onion powder

1 T allspice

1 T cinnamon

1 T ground cloves

1 T fennel seed

1 t chile de arbol

3 T brown suger

2 T kosher salt

2 T coarsely ground black pepper

1 t cayenne pepper

Whisk together all spices in a bowl. Keep extra mix in a glass jar in the pantry.

Need spices? Check out my favorite place for spices Penzeys Spices.

Update...... I have a confession. When I got home I started pulling out spices to make the rub when I remembered a new spice that I just got from Penzeys. So I decided to try that instead. It has most of the spices in the rub recipe - with a few changes. It's called CHILI 9000. 26 spices in all. It smells like chili with a hint of cinnamon. Elli didn't like it.  Too spicy.  I thought it was pretty good.  No comments from Don. Which generally means it was ok.