pure country..kind of

Last weekend Dave's parents were in town for a quick visit. We subjected them to the usually routine and took them to our new favorite destination near Los Angeles, Brophy Bros. in Santa Barbara. This place has the freshest fish for miles (my dad even agrees)...and the weekend lunch scene is not to be missed. But we didn't stop there...nope we pulled out all the stops and scheduled a nights stay in nearby Santa Ynez valley which I'll have to agree with the website is 'in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country'. This area is truly the country...and not like Napa or Sonoma either. We had Cash with us (the dog, not the currency) and the wineries were so laid back most ASKED us to bring the dog inside. This is also where the majority of Sideways was filmed for the movie fanatics out there. On Saturday, post lunch we stopped at Foley Estates, Sanford, and Lafond. The latter of which keyed is into Demetria Estates for our single (and favorite) Sunday tasting. Saturday, Dave and I managed to nap/sleep through our dinner reservations (apparently we are older than we realize) but luckily Bradley Ogden's new restaurant, Root 246 had an opening. The restaurant has a full farm to table menu that seriously can not be beet. (ha). A few pictures from the weekend can be found over on the sidebar through the flickr link.

my father's daughter: a poem in four parts

My dad is a Tarkio, Missouri farmer.

I grow things in LA which is a bit warmer.
Last year he grew corn, but this year has beans
I must have inherited some of his genes.

eat your greens

Lately, waiting for the garden to be edible is like watching paint dry. In fact, David said to me the other day that "staring at it will not make it grow faster" Really? Because I thought my stern glare was definitely forcing that corn higher. Specifically I've been waiting for the rhubarb because I have some dishes planned, like pies, cakes, and ice cream, but for the longest time its just been green stalks with a bit of red at the bottom. Granted the stalks are getting very large but 98% still green. Thus when we were in Brooklyn this weekend wandering by a farmer's market and I saw GREEN rhubarb for sale, I was very inquisitive. So I asked the vender, what he clearly thought was a ridiculous question,"Does rhubarb ripen after you pick it?" Duh, No! Then i follow with..."Can you eat green rhubarb?", to which he replies "would I sell it if you couldn't" Okay, fair enough Mr. Farmer's market man. But given that it is Brooklyn, I did some research upon our arrival home and wouldn't you know, some rhubarb is green! Well rather it doesn't ever turn red do to the climate. And with that my friends, Dave and I are tonight enjoying some chx thighs with a nice rhubarb chutney. Yum!

growing

Since starting seeds over a month ago the garden has seen big progress.

First Dave built a raised vegetable bed for the back yard.

Then we waited,
and waited.
and then finally!

Corn! 8 plants total + 10 more from thinning...

Beets (and cilantro top left)...these are red ringed (i think) and we have a row of yellow as well.

and the beans, seen here are french green, but we also have red (for chili and soup) and white. I think around 16 plants of each...that's a lot of magical fruit!
Also appearing this week are carrots, red & white onions, leeks, melon, eggplant, peppers, and okra.

Last but certainly not least, our berries and rhubarb plant are nearing their yumminess quotient.

pickles and ice cream

^ two things that we baked yesterday.
The pickles were not your average Claussen cucumber pickles, they were grapes! and they were delish. You may find the recipe here.
The ice cream we have been doing for weeks but Dave was requesting a whiter vanilla than usually, which meant I needed to call my mom. After a few tweaks to the recipe, less yolk more milk, we were set and Dave was extremely happy.

barcelona

We really really loved this city, and we also loved that we got to see it with our friends George and Molly. Why did we find it so attractive? ...it was a combination of the architecture, the tightness of the old city and the food! Dave gets to go back this summer to teach for 3 weeks and I could not be more jealous.

As promised, more pictures of us (here with George & Molly) in architecture.

And again ...dave is hiding.

If you go to Barcelona, you can't miss Gaudi's architecture and we saw a lot of it. Above is Casa Batllo which is a renovation done by Gaudi around 1905. Very hard to imagine those forms created without the aide of a digital model. The rest of Gaudi is below and over in the flickr link.

That is Sagrada Familia in the distance which was started by Gaudi in 1882 and is STILL under construction and not due to lazy contractors but mainly its sheer size and relying solely on public donations. I think its possibly the only building in the world that has allowed tours during construction.

Here we are out front, the oldest facade behind us.

...and inside the church, specifically the new wing. seriously beautiful and amazing.

One item that Dave and I loved more than the architecture (yes hard to believe) was the olives. Here Dave is hunting for the perfect olive from oh 20 or so different types.

better late than never

Remember when we went to London and Barcelona for three weeks? Yeah me neither, but that's why we took photos! Oh you haven't seen them? Well now you can. I finally got around to picking through all the photos we took on the trip and posted them to flickr. Well not exactly all of them (just London pre and post Barcelona) but no worries, Barcelona is scheduled for tomorrow night. I know. You are on the edge of your seats, especially after seeing these goodies. Click over on the flickr link for the others.

While in London we visited a lot of museums.. ok nearly ALL of the museums because one they were free and two they were warm. This photo is from the newly renovated Saatchi Gallery which is very near Bruce and Liz's flat. What you are looking at is a model of the Guggenheim in NYC modeled out of dog chews. I know, cool. The exhibits were fantastic and I highly recommend the stop if you are in the area.

Our family is always asking for more pictures of us and less pictures of buildings... well how about more pictures of us in buildings!Yes! We agree much more interesting. Lots more of this to come in Barcelona.And one of just Dave because frankly, he's cute.

On our last day of the trip we rented a car and drove to Brighton, an easy day trip from London. Brighton is aptly named as you can see from the photo.