2 cats, 1 dog and...

3 lizards!
(if you are keeping track, yes we did at one time have a turtle but released him to a local pond where there was more room to swim and less cats to terrorize)

So. Today I'm in the back yard tending to the garden and I move a pot that's full of water. Under it I see two little worms squirm. Only these worms appear to have a blunt edge on one side. Hmm. I think that perhaps I've just chopped a mighty worm in half with the pot movement. Oh well, onto garden stuff. At which time I notice out of the corner of my eye one of the worms CRAWLING. When I look back down at them, one is looking back at me! EYES! I scream. LITTLE MOUTH MOVING! DAVID!! Yes of course this worm is the size of my pinky but it does have eyes and a mouth and upon closer inspection (by David) legs! It appears the lizard living in our rosemary (whom I will now call Rose) decided to grow her family, by two.

a decade of good eats

From the very start of our relationship Dave and I have enjoyed sharing a table of good food. I do mean the start, our first date was in the Plaza Oak Room (thanks Uncle Allan!) where we both tried our first foie gras. You might say we were hooked, and not just on each other. With that said, here's a list of our more memorable tables from the decade.

Oznots Dish - this jewel was a block from our apartment in NYC. We ate countless meals here and were seriously saddened to hear of its closing in 05.

Uknown restaurant in Chicago - Our friend David Burns set us up for dinner on our 3rd? anniversary. David ordered the skate, or as we now call it.. THE SKATE. It was like butter.

Crepevine Bistro - This was our go-to restaurant in Los Angeles until it was forced to close after a series of kitchen fires. A dessert crepe there, the Moulin, composed of bananas and caramel butter yumminess is easily our favorite sweet of the decade.

The Ledbury - Our anniversary dinner from last year in England. The entire meal was noteworthy, c-note worthy to be exact. It's also where we first found celeriac, which is now growing in our garden.

Deetjen's - We traveled to Big Sur for my birthday one year and on a recommendation went here. I had lamb chops which put all our other lamb chop experiences to shame.

The Hungry Cat - For our anniversary dinner this year, we decided to do a progressive and this was our last stop. It was a good choice as the Surf and Turf (lobster! and goat ragout!) was easily one of the best entrees we've ever tasted.

Izote - It was midnight on our first night in Mexico City and I was pretty sure we were going to be relegated to the vending machine in our hotel. Wrong. Izote is open late (like most places in the city) and is crazy delicious. We even had the ant eggs and loved them.

Starlight Theater - We stumbled onto this gem on the Texas - Mexico border when we drove out to California in 02. After stuffing our selves on meat and potatoes Dave convinced me we had room for desert. It was blueberry cobbler with ice cream and the portion was the size of a small baby. We ate it all AND licked the bowl.

us. in a decade

I've seen a few other lists floating around and thought it might be fun to do some here given that Dave and I have been together the majority of the decade. Hopefully you find it interesting... more to follow

A list of places we've been together (chronologically)
NY, NJ
Canada
MA, CT, MO
Costa Rica
NC, SC, TX
England
Netherlands
Belgium
Switzerland
France
Italy
KS, AZ, CA, LA, IL, NM
China
OR, WA, CO, MI, NV
Mexico
PA, DC, VA
Spain
UT
Barbados

barbods!

Finally got around to posting some of our photos to Barbados up to Flickr. First I want to say this.
Go. To. Barbados. Seriously.
It was amazing. The weather was perfect. The beaches were perfect. It was perfect. What else can I say? Check out the photos and then book your plane.

for the love of cheesiness!

Remember when we were in London and I fell in love with scones. Well there is one thing better then a scone, and that is a scone with cheese baked inside. Trust me. Now go make some.

because running a marathon wasn't enough..

As many of you know, we travelled to Utah last weekend so that Dave could compete in the St. George marathon. And many of know you know that Dave didn't just finish the marathon he ran it FAST. 3:26 fast! Given a time like that, you might think that we layed low for the rest of the weekend, but you'd be wrong. After the race (and a short nap), we decided to take in the local sites which amounted to a drive through Zion National Park and a stop in Hurricane (pronounced "hur ih kun" by the locals) for some fresh apple cider. We woke up Sunday with the long drive back to LA in front of us and decided on a quick detour through Snow Canyon because really it was too close to miss. Then after that we decided to take a two lane highway out of St. George looking for something interesting for lunch. We somehow ended up at Kayenta, a small community with some amazing blue corn waffles. Then we realized that we were (relatively) close to a land art piece, Double Negative. We knew vaguely how to get there as Dave had tried unsuccessfully to see it the year we met in a cross country land art tour with some friends. That year, he was in the civic (aka red devil) and the civic wasn't quite up to the road conditions, but we were in the Audi! oh wait.. not an off road vehicle either but we gave it a go.

And it made it!..well most of the way.. we walked the last 1.3 miles across the top of the mesa...for this.

and it's only Tuesday

Apparently misery loves company because not only are Dave and I enduring triple digit heats, smoke from the "fire of the century', but we've also put our oven to some back breaking tests this week thus raising the temperature INSIDE the house to a balmy 98 degrees. oof. Now some of you know that we've started taking our eating habits seriously this year, but we've also taken our cooking to new levels, sticking to from scratch recipes with fresh ingredients when possible. We recently instigated Suppers with the Freelands in an effort to socialize more often and share our new love of all things yummy. This week is the inaugural Supper (tomorrow night to be exact) and while I thought the menu for the week planned including the Supper was appealing yet not overly taxing. I think I misjudged. Below is a list of what's come out of the oven or off the stove top since Saturday.

Tomato Rosemary Foccacia which was quite tasty, Cash can attest as well since he helped himself to half.
Boiled chicken for arugula salad
Our weekly loaf of French Bread
Hake with clams, rice and green beans from Spain cookbook
15 cups of chicken stock
Braised 5lb chicken for Rilletes-Day 1 (Supper dinner)
Duck fried rice and miso soup with tofu.
Sauteed shredded chicken for Rilletes - Day 2 (Supper dinner)..this better be worth it.
Chicken enchiladas with Ancho chile sauce, black beans and spanish rice from Mexico cookbook
Lemon greek yogurt ice cream (Supper dinner) Yes it was baked and a slight variation on the recipe linked. We added 1/3c lemon juice and substituted some honey for sugar. As a custard it tastes amazing and can't wait to try it frozen.