Life as a Chef's Wife: travel

Thursday, January 6, 2011

@kevinandamanda

San Diego.

and the crazy world of Twitter...

saw from a blogger I adore & follow

{and get loads of fun fab fonts from!}

Amanda of kevinandamanda.com

the post

"going to San Diego, where do I NEED to go"

often the answers are this

no, I don't know what that is.

Animal I mean, I know what I'm looking at!

its San Diego Zoo

And yes, it is FANTASTIC!

So is this

amazing Sea World

but truly neither of these popped into my mind;

Why?

Because this girl likes to eat!

And after all, that's my hobby

I did mention the need to go to nostalgic Coronado...

this beachy pic doesn't do it justice

last time we went I wasn't thinking camera time, I was thinking....time for a cocktail!

We sat on the patio of this fantastic amazing captured in time hotel and watched the sun go down on one of the most charming little spots ever.

now.

on to the answer we twits tweeted

the must go to

Hash House A Go Go

{mind you this is 2003...the place has kinda "taken off since then!" as in the city of LV asked them to make them one there.}

THIS place was fans-tasic! Our concierge recommended it when we asked for a great breakfast & not a brunch

we didn't want pretension we wanted creation!

We hailed a cab & headed up the hill

there was a line.

REallY?

OH yes. And they brought us ice water while we waited...because hello we're in SAN DIEGO!

we sat out in their patio, and ordered a beverage

mine was an Orange Crush.

Fantasticly refreshing & don'tcha love the straw!?

His was this Mary

they didn't have full liquor license, so they went with a kickin' Mary & Budweiser

LOADED up with vegs

next we ordered our breakfast; each ordered 1.

idiots, we knew not what we were getting into!

AND I had to order their Cinnamon Sugar Toast

I'd never seen it on a menu & its a FAV, never seen=must order

THIS was his.

Alllll of that.

Yes, normal size skillet. No, not normal size breakfast.

But this place isn't just about making something outrageously huge, its outrageous combos too!

Those chunks of breakfast of champions is their Meatloaf Hash!

Cubes of meatloaf, potatoes, veg, spinach made into a hash with eggs & biscuit Oh my!

THIS was mine.

the plate was bigger than the screen I'm looking at now....

It was a Fried Chicken Benedict

with mashed potatoes, between biscuits & covered with a Chipotle Hollandaise

there, see the size of that...CRaZZy

We had a 3 hour breakfast that day...lots of digesting and a need to nap & jazzersize at the same time.

but it was worth it,

an experience

this was where we stayed,

just across from the airport actually,

which is great if your on a short vaca

from airport to hotel sunshine in 5-

in the middle black row...airport.

The next time we went it was 2006 & we went back with the kiddos

Honestly, I can't even remember what this was but we needed 15 new friends immediately.

with forks.

kids had pancakes

not JUST pancakes! But griddled Frosted Flakes & fresh Strawberries...oh yeah!

They had blueberry too...served with sweet faces of syrup :)

Then we saw this cool old sign on a old theater we loved...turns out our home town 9 hours away was somehow part of San Diego....

thanks for the memories Amanda & inspiration to blog...

as always vacations & landmarks are fun, but its always the food that brings takes back!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

there are some perks. officially the longest post yet.

life as a chef's wife does have some perks.

no doubt the obvious is a "personal chef"

I say that as casually as possible because countless times when I would love & need to have him to cater for me, he was catering elsewhere.

However, I have never had to cook an entire holiday meal in all my 18 years as an adult.

I get to pick & choose what I'd like to make

{and of course those requests :}

which really is a perk to be able to make what your inspired to instead of a whole meal.

The other obvious perk is he can make anything.

yes.

ANY thing.

anything I desire

anything I've had before & wish again

anything I crave

anything I see

anything I read about

{insert here. have I mentioned my magazine fedish? well, that's another post}

yes it its lovely to have my chef.

another perk is events.

mostly we go

he works

i wander & look for other solo partners of other "workers" to act as a group date.

The other less often but seriously good perk is meeting other chefs.

We actually know a lot as you can imagine.

Both around our neck of the woods and all over really.

Like in May when we went to Disney Food & Wine event, met up with our friend Danielle (whom we adore) who was there with Anne Burrell & her side kick Cocktail making Celebrity.

good times be had @ The Mouse House.

Of course knowing where to call when you need a favor. Again perk.

Last year Pebble Beach Food & Wine event. Oh my the fun. Oh my the perks (my perks, my chef worked his A** off!) The 4 day event started like this and had more of this. Too much fun. well, not tooooooo much :)

This last week we had the invitation to congratulate friends on a new & wonderful cookbook.

In order to make a Wednesday night work,

we loaded the whole fam for a much much needed adventure.

Out of town.

Still "working"

This is what that looked like

HA!

Lists emails voicemails texts 2 phones & 1 ipad.

Can you tell we needed a break???

Then we got to the fun part

but had to travel past this

Huge day for Giants....so close to the action but no tickets :(

OH how I love The Ferry Building.

It has

Slanted Door

Gott's

Boulettes Larder

and much much more.

But we will be there in 2 weeks, so we drove on.

The ever lovely & breath taking Golden Gate

[since we took the kids outta school to "adventure" we used this opportunity for a physics lesson & history lesson]

There is never a time it hasn't awed me.

About 10 minutes past is a small darling town called

Mill Valley

we found a room {large one for our crew!}

at Mill Valley Inn

it was top floor of a house

kids loved the balcony in the redwoods.

I loved the smell.

Fresh Forest with Fog Wisps.

then we ventured around the town.

B on his bike.

Tyler Florence Shop

Summer House Shop

street florist (I LOVE this green color!)

I know. I know, lame- me taking pictures of butter. BUT look

all those different kinds of butter!!!

European

French

Irish

English

OH my!

my sweet kiddos got in the mood from all this yumminess. They grocery shopped for their night in the Inn.

And being that they are wonderful & we DID just venture through SF

It was time for ITs ITs.

Please tell me you've had this ice cream oatmeal cookie chocolate dipped goodness.

He hadn't before.

The room

and back to my story of perks.

SO we were graciously invited to the shop for a friends & family Book Release Party
It was so fun to stroll just around the corner from the Inn
shop was closed
but filled with friends & other Mill Valley-ites :)

Have you seen the book?

Even my chef who has 400+ cookbooks was impressed & looked it over cover to cover