What did you eat today?
Breakfast: Homemade granola with cranberry juice and fresh strawberries
Morning Snack: Currant scone from Awaken
Lunch: Roast beef sandwich with hummus
Afternoon snack: There was a tiny piece of plum cake that someone brought in. Also a little leftover chocolate whiskey bundt cake
Dinner: Experimental herb tart. Tessa had noodles.
Dessert: Leftover skillet cookie
Breakfast: Leftover waffles
Lunch: Pizza at Gilroy Gardens. In all honesty, the pizza does not have much to recommend it, but in other respects, Gilroy Gardens is an amazing place. If you have kids between about 4-11, it’s a great day. Think of going to the fair, but without the whining for tickets. There is a water play area that is great on a hot day (i.e., most of them in Gilroy) so have them wear swim clothes. Eliza couldn’t believe that they just let her stay on the spinny Mushroom Swing ride as long as she wanted.
Afternoon snack: Popcorn
Dinner: We had promised Eliza a burger, but then ate pizza for lunch. Truly, we thought we’d be home by dinner, but we were having such a good time at Gilroy Gardens that there was no way to make it home in time. Punched in “Burger” into Waze from on the road and selected one that wasn’t too far off the route. It brought up The Counter, which I”d just noticed in an airport last week. What we didn’t notice was that this one was at Santana Row, a fancy shopping mall. Nor did anyone realize what a zoo that would be on a Sunday evening. It turned out to be a 45 minute wait, but it was a gorgeous night. After 15 minutes of waiting, we finally got smart to the fact that we could order to go and sit at a lovely outdoor table to eat. The build your own burger is great. I highly recommend the fried onion strings, both as a side and on the burger. But it’s also a chance to experiment with stuff I wouldn’t normally put on a burger, like pineapple (not bad). Next time, I’ll go when it’s less crowded and check a few more boxes and see what I get.
Breakfast: Super Cinnamon Waffles, courtesy of Eliza
Lunch: Pizza and BBQ beef sandwich at Costco
Dinner: Tomato Tart. Along with a green salad. Fresh garden food never really gets old.
Dessert: Experimental whiskey chocolate bundt cake.
Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice and fresh strawberries
Lunch: Leftover pizza
Afternoon snack: Kettle corn
Dinner: Ceasar salad, fried chicken at Casa Orinda. This place has such an old-school feel, it’s incredible it still exists. I mean, there’s a moose head on the wall, plus a bunch of long horn cows. And waggon wheel chandeliers. Plus, if what you’re looking to eat was popular in the 50’s – 60’s (think steak or fried chicken), this place will do it with rare skill.
Dessert: Hot fudge sundae
Breakfast: Doughnuts from Toot Sweet. First time here for doughnuts (though I think I’ve had cake from here). I would probably rate them as mediocre. They were out of the custard filled by 9:00. The saving grace, though, was the buttermilk doughnut with chocolate glaze. This was just a different take on the genre, and I loved it. Suzanne described it like a biscuit, deep fried and covered with chocolate.
Lunch: Leftover pizza
Afternoon snack: Chips, salsa, watermellon, a ham sandwich, and some birthday cake with ice cream. Sweet jesus. Birthday parties are trouble!
Dinner: Baked potato with leeks, tomato, cheese, and salsa.
Dessert: Popcorn (while watching movie)
Location: Pacific Grove
Lunch: Burrito from Turtle Bay Taqueria
Afternoon snack: Drumsticks and other ice cream treats.
Dinner: Buttermilk chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes
Dessert: Strawberry tart
Location: Home -> Feast of Lanterns
Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice and fresh strawberries
Lunch: Bacon cheeseburger from Jeffrey’s Hamburger’s in Palo Alto. Pretty decent burger, good fries, good shakes.
Dinner: Ribs and other yummy potluck food. Thanks Luke
Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice and fresh strawberries.
Lunch: Roast beef sandwich with bbq sauce
Afternoon snack: Watermellon at the pool. Thank you summer!
Dinner: Pork tenderloin with Yuki’s apple sauce and green bean and tomato salad
Dessert: Nectarine cake that Suzanne tried out for the first time. Great.
Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice
Lunch: Burrito from Cactus
Dinner: Rosemary salmon
Dessert: Blackberry spice cake.
Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice
Lunch: Turkey sandwich with avocado, ripe tomato, and some really spicy hummus
Afternoon snack: Ice cream. From Smitten Ice Cream.
Wow. This place is crazy. They individually mix up your ice cream in a couple of minutes using special mixers and liquid nitrogen. It really gets a wonderful consistency… just past that super soft, just out of the churn stage, so you can actually scoop it up. The salted caramel was great, the brown sugar and cinnamon was so good I thought I was eating an apple pie (apparently, no apple. Turns out, I really think the ice cream is the critical flavor in apple pie). The mint chip, sadly, was just a touch disappointing. It’s made with fresh mint, which was cool, and all, but it came across as just a bit too earthy. I’ve made my own ice cream with fresh mint and thought I’d just done something wrong, but apparently that’s just the flavor. I like my mint ice cream almost like a tic-tac where it takes your breath away and the chocolate is the mellowing influence.
I was all over the N2 ice cream machines, though. In a way, it’s a sign of my own failure as a gadgeteer. I used to make a lot of liquid nitrogen ice cream in graduate school… whenever there was a big party, we’d always fire it up. And I was always disappointed. It was a great schtick, and it impressed the hell out of visitors, but the ice cream was always too fluffy from too much vigorous stirring, by turns soupy and icy, and never as good as what I’d make with rock salt and a churn. I just assumed that was what it was… but this Smitten person looked beyond the problems and saw something beautiful and made it so. I’m so impressed, I didn’t even cringe at the price ($6 for a standard dish)… hot ticket: buy a pint for $11 and share with 4.
Dinner: Sloppy Joes. On the brioche rolls. Damn good. I followed a recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and it was pretty good. Only thing was it was just a bit too sweet. I’d skip the optional tomato paste, or maybe 1 Tbls of brown sugar next time.