Brunch & Brushes

To celebrate Rosalind's birthday, we headed out for brunch at La Note and pottery painting at Brushstrokes Studio both in Berkeley. When I first opened the invite, I was so excited - brunch and all hands on crafty things are my favorites. I was even more excited when I found out Angelique was flying in just for the day.

At La Note, we feasted on frenchie breakfast plates and mimosas in their cute little patio area. I had the Omelette de Pommes de Terre - a potato and carmelized onion omelette with Provencales tomatoes. Delicious! I cleaned my entire plate and then proceeded to try everyone elses food. I love that they serve their hot chocolate & coffee drinks from bowls.



Brushstroke Studio was awesome. The whole top floor, where we feasted on various finger foods & wine while we painted away, was reserved solely for our party. I was overwhelmed with the options here, but decided on painting a latte mug that doubles as a soup bowl.




Rosalind's masterpiece was crafted so beautifully. It's amazing what hundreds of little dots can create. I love that all of the girls in attendance were all uniquely creative and enjoyed this as much as I did. Hopefully I can get a few photos of everyones finished projects once they're out of the kiln (ladies, please send pics of these over if you have them) to share with you.


I opted for a love themed mug with translations of "I love you" from around the globe. Love + my love for travel, coffee & soup = my finished product. I stand by my project 100%, even though I was called a "cheese ball" for my idea. Can't help being me :)


Happy Birthday, Rosalind!


Check out more details on Completely Smitten:
http://completelysmitten.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/brunch-brushes-berekley-california/

The House

Located in North Beach, The House is an Asian Fusion/ American restaurant with 4.5 stars on Yelp with 1155 reviews and counting. With that many Yelp reviews & personal reviews from friends, I finally made a reservation and can now confirm that this restaurant deserves the 4.5 star rating it currently holds.

I tasted almost everyones entrees/ appetizers and EVERYTHING was tantalizing to the taste buds. They serve beer and wine (sorry fruity cocktail drink lovers) and I was pleased to find Chimay on their beer list. Perfect for washing down my ribeye. Another bonus, the prices are very reasonable. All entrees are $17-24 each! Though small in size, they were even able to comfortably accommodate our reservation for 12. Can't wait to come back!

Grilled sea bass with garlic ginger soy

Angus ribeye steak, housemade teriyaki, toasted garlic butter

Grilled ahi tuna (rare) with spicy mustard aioli

Warm wasabi house noodles with angus flatiron steak

Deep-fried salmon roll with chinese hot mustard

Elite Status

After receiving an email from YELP and approving the invite, I am officially part of their Elite squad. Though I wasn't intentionally trying to achieve Elite status (not sure how one even becomes a part of this group), I'm excited. Looks like I'll be able to attend the private soirees at local restaurants & bars! And of course, yelp about them some more.

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Not the movie, the restaurant. I'm not normally a huge fan of indian food, but I left this indian fusion restaurant in Sausalito feeling satisfied. The samosas came with 3 tasty dipping sauces and the other appetizers (not sure what any of these are called) were just as good. The service was awesome - I love how you can describe what type of meal you want if you don't see anything you like on the menu and they'll whip something special up for you. Definitely a plus. I had the enchiladas, but it was Craig's meal that I truly enjoyed. He chose their special for the night: lamb, mussels, prawns, and veggies grilled with various indian/ jamaican seasonings over basmati rice. The only dessert they have is made with an almond gelato, topped with pistachios and rests on top of a rose petal mango mixture. At first I was hesitant to try it due to the flavor combination, but it was surprisingly good - I'd definitely have it again. Also, if you're thirsty, they stock indian beer - one of which is black, Xingu.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day. Although it's just another Hallmark holiday, it's still a fun day to remind the special person/ people in your life how much you love and care for them.

Craig and I exchanged our surprises for the day and we ended up at one of my favorite places, The House of Prime Rib. After, we watched a movie at my favorite theater in the city, Sundance Cinema. What I love about this theater -- you can drink cocktails, beer & wine in your seat. Plus, you can reserve your seat! No more rushing into the theater to save seats an hour ahead.

After all that, we were much too full and lazy to do anything else.

Lack of details, I know, but overall - perfect day for me :)

P.S. Speaking of the Sundance Cinema, I've already reserved my seat for the opening weekend of Alice in Wonderland in 3D!!!! So excited!

KP San Francisco Half Marathon & 5K

The KP SF run was on Super Bowl Sunday and since friends were here from out of state to run it, I decided to sign up too. This was the first time I ran since the half marathon in October so you can imagine how out of shape I was. I didn't even practice!!! Luckily, I completed the run in one piece and now I can use this toward my new year's resolution. After running, I also felt better about guzzling down a few beers and eating fried food during the bowl later that day :)



P.S. Go Saints!!! Peyton Manning is a freakin' genius and is so amazing to watch in action, but my $$$ was on NOLA. What a great game.

DIY: Turn Crates into a Shelf

I have a hard time passing by consignment and thrift stores without going in. I always feel like there are hidden treasures just waiting to be found & modified. When I walk down the aisles, the countless possible makeover projects run through my mind and I get really excited. So, I admit, I have a little Martha Stewart blood in me. Well, I've been needing a shelf, so when I stumbled upon these 3 crates priced at about $6 each I knew exactly what to do with them - a little cosmetic surgery.

After a few hours of white paint, applique removal, & moving/ stacking, check out my finished product:

BEFORE

AFTER

The shelf doesn't have much in/ on it yet, but it looks pretty good don't you think? I love it even more because I paid less than $25 for it (I already had the white paint :)).

House of Prime Rib: Prime Rib

#33 Prime Rib at House of Prime Rib
1906 Van Ness Avenue
7x7 The Big Eat SF 2009: 100 Things to Try Before You Die
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If you LOVE prime rib or meat, in general, you will love love love this restaurant. Do you sense my enthusiasm for this place? Well, I'm not going to lie - this is one of my faves. When you order your meal, it comes with sides and a salad. The salad is soo good - not sure what makes it so good, maybe the dressing? As for the meat, it's tasty, juicy and.... you can have more than one helping!!! Expect to spend about $100 on a bottle of wine and dinner for two.

Verdict: <3

Mijita: Sopa de Albondigas

#91 Albondigas Soup at Mijita
Ferry Building
7x7 The Big Eat SF 2009: 100 Things to Try Before You Die
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This meal is great for a cold day in the city. Sopa de Albondigas is a Mexican soup with beef & pork meatballs in a tomato based broth with vegetables. After one bite, you can tell that they use very fresh ingredients and make everything from scratch. I enjoyed the meal, but I think the soup would be 10x better if it had a dollop of sour cream. It was lacking a little flavor, but I think that with a bit of extra herbs and sour cream it'd be perfect. Quantity wise, they give you enough to fill you up for lunch. I ordered with my eyes and decided on adding a cheese quesadilla to my order which I only ate half of. Cheese quesadilla + sopa = about $11. Not bad.


Mijita is towards the back of the Ferry building and you can get a great view of the Bay Bridge in their outdoor seating area.

Verdict: Decent meal, but would be better with more flavor and sour cream!

Miette: Ginger Snaps

#49 Ginger Snaps from Miette
Ferry Building
7x7 The Big Eat SF 2009: 100 Things to Try Before You Die
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Miette is a bakery that tries to use organic ingredients (when available) in their products and offer all types of pastries from cakes & tarts to macarons & cupcakes. They even sell beautifully crafted cake stands. Their ginger snaps are on the 7x7 list and since I've never tried them (but have enjoyed many other items on their menu) I bought a pack for $7 and took it back to the office. Though thin and crispy, they pack a ton of flavor. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of ginger I tasted. I know, I know, they're ginger snaps!

Verdict: Next time, I think I'll go back to the cupcakes and macarons. Miette has so many other great offerings and I'd prefer to go back to what I love about this place because it certainly isn't the ginger snaps. However, I shared the rest of the snaps with my co-workers and everyone else loved it. You might too.

The Ferry Building

The Ferry building houses restaurants, meat & cheese markets, cafes, flower stands, bakeries and it runs a daily farmer's market right outside its doors. It's VERY difficult to leavee this building without buying something, especially if you LOVE food, but who doesn't love food?

In the next 2 posts, I'll introduce you to 2 spots on the 7x7 list that inhabit this building. Every person visiting SF should stop by this place for a sweet or savory snack or meal.

Lake Tahoe Snowboarding

One of the many advantages of living in northern California is being in close proximity to Lake Tahoe. Year round, people flock to Tahoe for snowboarding, skiing, camping, water sports, casinos, hiking, and more. Over the weekend, I had my first snowboarding adventure of the season at Sugar Bowl and it was by far one of the best times I've had. Although it was snowing during our way up, the resort was close enough that we didn't need chains. We were pretty psyched about that. Also, snowing = powder and if you're a skier or a snowboarder, powder = an amazing time on the slopes. It gets better... Because we went up for a Saturday day trip, we were expecting crowds of people, but little to no lines for the lifts!!! We went up the mountain at least 7 times. Due to the fluffiness of the snow, I was able to build up enough courage to carve down the steeper runs.

Snow makes me happy and snowboarding is one of the few things that completely clears my mind. It's very "in the moment" and you really don't think about anything else when you're up there. I love it.