Monday, July 14, 2008

Getting away from it all.

In wine country. Nate says it doesn't really count as camping (because we ate lunch in town) but Kara, Shaina, and I slept in tents by Lake Sonoma this weekend. It was awesome. No cars, no pollution, no stinky smells (except for those in the outhouse).

Some highlights:

Friday night, I built a fire! It lasted for several hours, and on it we cooked preformed burgers from Big John's Market. They had little cubes of cheese in them and lots of Worcestershire sauce. So good and easy. They would have been even better on buns, but we ate them on regular bread, because that's what we had. And we were roughing it, you know.

Saturday morning, I swam in the lake. I did somersaults and headstands and tried to float. I lost myself in the water until my myopic eyes thought that K + S were making faces at me and wanted me to get out. I love swimming. That's one way that SF and I are not compatible - no good swimming 'round these parts.

Saturday lunch. Best BLT ever. On toasted white bread. At a place in Cloverdale called the Owl Cafe. The coleslaw was also amazing and had just the right amount of dry mustard in it.

Saturday snack. Orange freeze. Like a root beer freeze, but with orange soda. We got our sodas at Pick's Drive-in, also in Cloverdale, and sat on the picnic tables in our shorts. It was like being ten and going to Dairy Queen after swim practice or Grama's house.

Really, the whole weekend was like being ten, with the warmth and the swimming and the junk food and the girl talk. It was wonderful. Thanks ladies.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

third time's a charm

Beretta was fabulous, as usual. The only fault I can find with the place is that the drinks are so good, it's very challenging to leave without having at least two. And really, is that a fault?

I'd say no, considering how delicious the drinks are. One of them, the Lonsdale, is so wonderful that we are trying to steal the recipe. Our server was going to ferret it out for us, until she realized that might not be good for business. Next time we go, we'll sit at the bar and order Lonsdales until we've figured it out. It includes apple, gin, lemon, honey, and basil, but it's the proportions I'm after. And is the apple in juice form? Fresh squeezed (I'm sure)?

The food is not too shabby, either. Burrata on pizza? Yes, please. Pork wrapped in pancetta sitting atop green beans (which were swimming in butter and wine)? Don't mind if I do. And grilled asparagus. I'm trying to avoid saying something silly here, like "Finger lickin' good," but it seems I cannot help myself.

See, Beretta drives me to distraction. I think I'll have to make it a regular habit.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Where does your food come from?

So, a bunch of people recently had salmonellosis. The FDA thinks that the bugs are from tomatoes, although they are starting to change their minds a little. Problem is, no-one knows where the tomatoes came from. Why? Because tomatoes are imported from god-knows-where to US distribution centers, where they're repacked and sent to stores, etc. And what does the FDA say about this? Let's track the tomatoes better. What do I say about this? Let's get our tomatoes from a farm. Let's have them picked ripe, not green, let's have them go from the vine, to the picker's hands, to a box, to my doorstep.

Now, before you suggest that I get off (or fall off) my high horse, know that I buy fast food and don't always eat at restaurants that grow their own veggies in the backyard. But, in an ideal world, I wouldn't (eat fast food) and would (eat as locally as possible). Why does the government's answer to all of these food contamination problems involve even more money, oversight, and centralization, when so many problems can be solved by going smaller?