Cleaning out the fridge

It's a cathartic experience. You should try it.

I cleaned the fridge out the weekend before Thanksgiving because company was coming.

I really didn't want my sister and her family to see my condiment collection, or the sticky stuff that had dripped on the shelf which we all saw, but no one bothered to remove, because it had turned into sticky cement.

A lot of the stuff in the fridge came from two neighbors who moved. I'm saying no next time. They can keep their own don't-know-what-to-do-with-this-food-we're-moving guilt. Don't dump it on me. I can't say no. Please don't ask me. I'm begging.

No one needs 15 kinds of mustard, or 10 jars of olives, three jars of capers or blueberry juice. And I have never made a martini with an onion ever. What is wrong with me?

And then there's the blue bread. I would love to tell you the blue bread is theirs, but it's mine. It wasn't tucked behind the Brita water filter either. It was just sitting in there with all the other crap. I honestly didn't notice it was blue until I yanked it out with everything else. I swear it was fine a few days earlier.

It is kind of a pretty shade of blue. More like a teal actually. HA.

I kicked everyone out of the kitchen, cranked the music, rolled up my sleeves and stripped the fridge. All the items were sorted in a "keep" and "toss" pile. Then I completely wiped everything down.

After I put everything back I just stared at it. It was beautiful. It sparkled. I could see everything. I felt like a new person! Silly I know, but the state of the fridge had been bothering me for weeks. I just didn't want to deal with it.

I was happy all day.

I showed Don, then Elli. "Nice, Mom." she said with a nod. Not impressed at all with how clean it was. And then she saw the bread. "Ewwwwwwww, I'm never eating a sandwich again. Ever!" She shouted. "What are you talking about. You don't eat sandwiches now!" I answered. "What about the fridge? Don't you like how clean it is?!! Isn't it nice!" I asked.

"Mom, it's a fridge." she quipped before walking away.

Whatever. I get no respect around here.

And then Thanksgiving hit. My fridge is packed again. This time it's mostly Tupperware containers, and extra food from hosting.

I'll be able to clean it out this weekend and it will look like this once again. I hope.

Does anyone like Firestone Pale Ale? I have some beer to give away.

Yummy Mediterranean Herb Dip Recipe

I first tasted this dip in 2006 when we went to the Olive Oil Tasting in downtown Sonoma. It was a really fun event in the old mission off the square. There was lots of wine, olive oil, snacks, and this yummy dip.

The chef from Blackstone winery was mixing up a huge batch of it while we were there. I kept going back for more because it tasted so good with the wine and I wanted to know what was in it! I knew there was basil and roasted red peppers, but I couldn't figure out the rest. I finally asked the chef for the recipe and he led me to their website where they had it posted.

You can make this using a food processor, which is how I do it. You can also chop and mix everything by hand if you don't have one it will just be chunkier, which is okay too.

One batch makes four cups of dip. So if you are hosting a party, or attending a party, this dip is perfect. It can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Just divide it up in containers and you're all set. Or keep in one large container and scoop it out as you need it. That's what I do.

I must warn you though, it tastes mighty good with a glass of wine so be prepared to serve a lot of wine. 

Mediterranean Herb Dip 
adapted from Blackstone Winery

1 8 oz jar sun dried tomatoes, drained
1 10 oz jar roasted red peppers, drained
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 4oz container feta cheese
1 8oz bar of cream cheese softened
1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup fresh, flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup fresh, basil

1. Put the sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. 
2. Add the feta cheese, cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Pulse until combined.
3. Add parsley and basil. Pulse again until combined.

Makes 4 cups. Keep refrigerated.

Serve with pita chips or crackers. It also works well tossed with pasta or rolled up in a chicken breast and baked.

San Francisco with the cousins

We spent last Saturday in San Francisco with my sister Kathy, her husband Mike, and their two kids. We had a blast walking all over Union Square. We darted in and out of shops looking for the best Christmas decorations. Of course we did a little shopping, too. The Paul Frank store was definitely a hit with the kids.

Our first stop was Macy's. We were all quite impressed by the large, shiny red balls hanging in the entrance to Macy's. We ooed and aaah'd as we went up the escalator trying to find Santa. Once you get to the top floor (where Santa is) you can go up one last escalator to the Cheesecake Factory (inside Macy's) and go on a deck outside! It's pretty cool.

We all posed in the big window in front of all the beautiful Christmas decorations and experienced a bit of vertigo as we pressed our noses against the glass and looked down.

The best part for the girls?? Trying on glittery Ivanka Trump stilettos that were not on the sale rack. eeeks! After that I said "don't touch" about a hundred times. "Look with your eyes!" I kept reminding her. "Then why are you touching things?" she asked. "'Cuz I'm the mommy." Smarty pants.

Ivanka Trump Stilettos

I don't think they're ready for these shoes.

Remember the movie Elf? Yep. We watched it the night before.

We made quite the grand entrance at Neiman Marcus with the kids going round-and-round-and-round in the revolving door. Lucky for us there are other people out there that have seen Elf, so we were safe. In fact, they actually smiled as we walked in. Impressive for Neiman's.

We checked out their giant tree, even going up a few floors into the restaurant so we could pose for photos near the top! My sister and I drooled over the beautiful clothes, shoes and Christmas decorations as we zipped up and down the escalator.

Hi, enjoying your high tea? Don't mind me. Just getting a picture.

After a quick swoop through the huge Nike store we walked to Chinatown for lunch. Don and I wanted to take them to House of Nanking for some authentic Chinese food. It was a great lunch. I'm not sure my niece and nephew would completely agree with that statement, but my sister and brother-in-law seemed to enjoy the experience. It's definitely not like the Chinese food you eat in the burbs.

Chinatown in SF.

The House of Nanking is crowded, cluttered and the waitstaff can be a little, shall we say, short when it comes to serving? They were very nice to us - very accommodating and quite funny!

We sampled a bunch of stuff. That's the best way to do it. Some dishes take a little longer to prepare than others and they don't wait for everything to be ready before serving. They serve them as they're ready. So the best way to eat there is to serve everything family style and just start passing plates around as food arrives.

Our tasting menu:

Fried Pork Pot Stickers

Onion Cake

Steamed Dumplings

Sesame Chicken

Beef and Mushroom dish (special of the day)

House Noodles

Blossom Tea

House Noodles

Beef and Mushroom

This is what you get if you ask for hot sauce.

This is all that is left of the Sesame Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

Elli loved the Sesame Chicken. Maya, her cousin, is looking on saying "Ewwww." She was not very adventurous and spent the meal hugging her plate until the white rice arrived. Poor baby missed out on all the good stuff.

Blossom Tea (it blossoms right before your eyes in the mug.)

If you're ever in SF I highly recommend a visit. They prefer cash. But don't worry, if you forget your cash there are plenty of ATMs close by.

After lunch we wandered all over Chinatown going in a bunch of the crazy tourist stores. The kids were on a mission to find knit animal hats. Elli found hers and was dancing around the sidewalk like a proud peacock. We're not entirely sure what the animal is. But it sure is cute, and she loves it.

Silly monkeys.

The girls loved the Joe's Jeans store. Not sure the dude's there felt the same way.

The street performer captivated the crowd, and the girls.

Me and my honey bunny.

That's it! So glad my sister has a new iPhone 4G with an awesome camera, because I forgot my camera. DOH!! All these pictures are from her. YAY!  Thanks, Kathy!!!

Come back soon! The pink canopy room with the view of Mt. Tam is ready anytime.

So many things to be thankful for

But first let's talk about food.

It's been a good year for us so I splurged on food and even bought flowers for the table. I haven't bought flowers all year. It felt good to have them in the house again.

I was only making dinner for our little family of three. But I still wanted it to be special so I asked everyone what they wanted, and that's what I cooked. Don wanted dressing, Elli wanted pasta, and I wanted gratin potatoes with gruyere cheese. So that's what we had with our smoked turkey (from New Braunfels Smoke House in Texas), gravy and cranberry/pomegranite sauce. It was delightful.

It took me all day long to fix everything. I had pots and pans juggled everywhere. Somehow I got it all done without an incident. I sure would like a bigger kitchen again. But for now we'll be happy that there are flowers on the table.

I used Don's dressing recipe. I usually buy a jiffy cornbread mix for the corn bread and I forgot so I had to make it from scratch. I realized it's not hard to make from scratch, so I may do it that way from now on.

And of course there was pie. You can't have Thanksgiving without pie. Don loves his mom's Coconut Cream Pie. It's become a Thanksgiving tradition. I made a home-made crust that turned out perfectly light and flaky. (Thank you Elise from Simply Recipes. Her tip on freezing the butter made all the difference. You can find the recipe for her perfect pie crust here.)

The coconut pies before the meringue.

Elli joined me throughout the day.  She was a big help with the pie crust and made the home-made crescent rolls with very little help from me. I showed her how to flour the board, and kneed and roll the dough. Then I let go of my desire to have everything perfect, and let her roll all the crescent rolls herself. Okay, maybe I did cut the dough. I promise, she did the rest. And guess what? They're perfect.

Making crescent rolls.

Here is the recipe if you would like to make the Flaky crescent rolls. It's Jenna Weber's recipe from her blog Eat.Live.Run  Click here.

Dinner is served!!!

As I cooked today I thought about all the wonderful things that have happened this year. It didn't start out wonderful, and there were a lot of stressful moments, but it has turned out to be an amazing year.

~ Don successfully ran his first half marathon in honor of our brother-in-law Mike who was battling leukemia. He is now in remission.

~ Don's mother, Rose, has been in and out of the hospital as was our sister-in-law and niece. They all seem to be on the road to recovery. We're so thankful they're all healthy.

~ Our store in Napa has had a major turnaround this year - just in the nick of time, too. We couldn't have survived another bad year.

~ I've been able to use my new social media/writing skills by working freelance for an old client. It's been a great career change for me. I love what I'm doing and am so grateful for the opportunity.

~ Elli is thriving. She's put up with our transition this year without a single complaint. When I grow up I want to be just like her.

~ Don and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this summer. It's been an amazing and wonderful journey. We've had our share of "in good times and bad." this year. But we've weathered those storms and still like each other. : )

~ And my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year. They're happy, healthy, and busy as ever.

Life is good.

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving.

Love,

Kris and Elli (the celery Queen!)