Recipe & stuff

This is another good one that's easy and healthy- Honey Mustard Chicken. We both love asparagus and couscous so it has everything you need for the meal all in one. And, since I'm procrastinating going out and running errands at the moment, I've spent the time to publish it for everyone to click on to check out. Feel special. =)

On another note, I am completely beyond sore today after 3 consecutive days of Bar Method. Yow! I came home the other night and was showing Karl some of our "moves" and he couldn't even do half of them! According to our instructor, all the running I've done has actually made my hamstring tight and not flexible at all. I've been hoping that Bar class will help them become the lean, long muscles our instructor talks about in class every day. Although I'm still not at the point of doing splits (far from it actually) I am able to see a difference in flexibility in just a couple weeks. We'll see...

And, before I sign off I wanted to share a cute article Karl sent me today. It reminded me so much of the book/movie Marley & me. Warning - it can be a tearjerker but it's so cute. Stories like these continue to remind me how I didn't grow up in a home where I was ever that close to our family dog. I can't say I know completely how these people feel but I can imagine. Hopefully, some day we can have a pup in our family........some day. =)

Our project...

If you've ever been over to our apartment you have seen the huge glass vase in our kitchen we've been collecting wine corks in for a while now. We brought some corks out from Texas that we had saved and we've added to those quite a collection from wine we've had here in California. Well, it started overflowing recently so we decided to create the framed corkboard we've been meaning to make. It was fun to dump them out, go through them one by one and try and remember where we drank the wine. There were only a handful that we could pinpoint exactly where we had it and for what occasion. It was also fun to see how much our taste had changed from the bottom of the vase to now! I guess frequent trips to Napa and exploring new wine at home with dinner helped with that! Not too long from now we'll probably have enough to make a second one! Here's the final product. It will now hang on our kitchen wall.

Valentine's Day!

So my awesome husband continued his tradition of spoiling me AGAIN this Valentine's Day. The winery that we are members at, Pine Ridge, has two major events for their wine club members- Lobster Fest in the summer and Cave Dinners. We LOVE Lobster Fest so we decided to try the cave dinner on Valentine's Day. The "Sweetheart Ball" was hosted inside the wine caves at the winery. As we expected, it was awesome! The invitation let us know the theme was a Black, White & Red Sweetheart ball and to wear our finest in any of these colors. The caves were lit entirely by candles and they had a live band playing Big Band and Swing music all night. We enjoyed seared Scallops, Duck Confit and then a Filet Mignon steak. I had been craving a steak all week so I was thrilled to see Filet on the menu! The menu was paired with Pine Ridge wine, of course, and there were waitors walking around topping off our glass all through the night. Dancing was fun and we definitely made room for the Chocolate Cake filled with caramel & marshmallow at the end. Our favorite wine we had that night ended up being the Cab Franc. Everything was great and we were happy to have tried another one of their awesome events while we can. We learned that there will be another Cave Dinner in May so maybe we'll have some visitors in town we can treat ;) Any takers?

Here are some "not so great" pictures because of tough lighting and using my point & shoot camera but at least you get the idea.....

A movie weekend!

It was due to be a rainy, cold SF weekend so we thought we'd catch up on some movies we've been wanting to see. Saturday we took a long walk around the neighborhood (as in the hilliest neighborhood in SF so I didn't feel so bad for not running because it was definitely a workout!) then we decided to go to breakfast at IHOP on Lombard. Yes, a total tourist trap but who cares. Yes, the most non-SF local brunch place in the city but sometimes we just want a cheap breakfast within 20 minutes of walking in, instead of waiting in long lines outside for the tiny local bruch spots in our hood. It was just what we wanted and we left stuffed. Yey for "Never ending pancakes!"

We then continued our walk around the neighborhood while we talked (compromised) about what movie we wanted to see. As we were approaching our street and starting our ascent up the steepest part of the hill, we see 8 cop cars parked haphazardly around the neighborhood and a fire truck attempting to make it's way up a hill so steep I think it's not going to roll straight backwards down the hill. Cops were walking all around one block and all staring up at one of the enormous 4 story Victorian houses on the street. I, of course, as a "concerned neighbor" have to ask a cop what's going on. Apparently, someone called in when they saw someone sneaking into one of the attic windows on the very top of the house. The police couldn't crawl up that high so the fire truck was in the process of sending out the ladder to the attic window. We had to stop and watch the entire procedure and "robbery in progress" as the cops called it. Just as the ladder almost reached the attic window it stopped and retracted. By this time, there was a group of us watching so I didnt' feel like the nosey neighbor. Other people were interested too. We waited and waited and nothing happened and then the family comes out of the house. A mom, a dad, who had just got home from a bike ride and about 4 boys about the age of 10. The family was home while the burglar was breaking in? Oh my gosh! Cops eventually started dissipating and no one was around to give us any answers. Well, after watching this long I had to get some answers! I called the neighborhood Police station and the dispatcher told me one of the family's sons likes to climb on the roof and is often seen going in and out of the attic window of that house. Karl called it when he saw the kids come out of the house. So, after basically causing mayhem in the neighborhood and shutting down 2 streets with about 8 cop cars and a fire truck, it ended up being a boy playing in his own house. Only in Pac Heights.

On with our day. We decided to see "Taken" since it was one of the only movies we agree on. (Side note- most of the time we never go to movies because we never really want to see the same thing and we agree to wait until we can Netflix it and then the same standoff occurs at home ;) This was actually a movie that looked interesting to both of us. Liam Neilsen played a great ex-Special Forces, protective dad but there were definitely some pretty disturbing scenes that I'm still trying to get out of my head. Overall though it was very intense and kept me awake so, good show. After the movie we went to dinner with friends at an "old school" favorite of ours that we used to eat at with the flurry team when we first moved out here, Brother's Korean BBQ. It's a fun, family style place and each table has a grill in the middle where you cook your own meat (Bul go gi) which is Korean marinated chicken and pork. Yum...It also comes with about 50 other small, Korean side dishes that are all pretty interesting. The meal is always topped off with individual bowls of cold, sweet rice water as a treat. Fun!

Sunday, we agreed, would be my day to choose the movie and I of course opted for "She's Just Not that into you" which came out Friday. All the small theaters around us had been sold out since Tuesday but I figured a Sunday matinee wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. After meeting our friends at the theater we had to search other SF theaters for one that wasn't sold out. Good thing we had Karl's Iphone to look it up! haha. We raced to a theater downtime and bought tickets off Karl's Iphone on the way down there. Ok, ok, I'm starting to see how the Iphone is useful. (According to my husband, I still have to practice my two thumb texting skills and frustration that comes with it before I can buy one.) Fair enough. So, onto our movie rating......we're sticking with it was "just ok." It wasn't near as funny as the previews make it out to be. Sadly, the funniest moments of the movies are the ones you see in the previews. And, some parts of the movie are just sad and depressing. Think cheating, breaking up, divorcing....sorry if I ruined it for anyone but as you follow about 8 different couples, it's bound to happen, right? Overall, pretty good cast & I'm still glad we saw it.

It was fun end to a good weekend until we came home Sunday evening to find that I did indeed (sitting through the movie thinking I might have) leave the left burner of our gas stove on. I now have one, not happy, pretty cross husband :( I guess I can't even hack it as a housewife.........

Yow!

I am feeling the BURN today! After an awesome outdoor lunch (pretty rare in SF, especially in the winter where it's normally raining & cold) Dara & I went to this new crab shack on Union and it turned out to be a treat! We shared this crab & artichoke dip that was heavenly and definitely NOT healthy but who cares when you're splurging. I had an awesome shrimp salad with avacados, grapefruit and the best beets I've ever had...who knew yellow beets would be my new favorite veggie? Are they a veggie? Anyway, paired with an awesome white wine it was definitely a meal appropriate for "lunching ladies" catching up. It is so fun to have a city friend to hang out with during the day now!

So during lunch Dara convinces me to try the "Bar Method" class which I've been hearing more and more about from friends in SF. Both studios are within walking distance of our apartments so I said I'd give it a shot. WOAH! Was I in for it. One intense hour of nothing but toning EVERY muscle in your body. Even the ones that you don't know exist until the next day. We use small weights but go for time and lots of reps and then use the bar to tone the lower body. I'm definitely NOT the ballerina or coordinated by any stretch of the imagination but it doesn't take much talent to do 5 minutes of straight squats holding on to the bar. I couldn't play dumb here. It reminded me alot of Pilates but without the machine. I loved it! Lots of abs, legs and of course the dreaded PLANK. ug. The hour flew by and I'm extremely sore today so I obviously did something right!
Well, our night didn't end there. Wednesday night is also the nights we hit up free Yoga at Lululemon. They rotate in new instructors from different studios each week and who could turn down free yoga? We arrived a little early to find out that free Yoga now includes free wine when it's over! Whoo hoo! Wine doesn't necessarily seem like the obvious end to Yoga but it was awesome and we were very relaxed after. Then, to top it off I had to hike up the Fillmore steps home...the never ending day of excercise!

Yummy Recipe Share!

I'm always on the look out for new, healthy recipes for our family of two so I thought I'd share my latest concoction. (well, really, someone else's that I found in the Express News while I was in Texas) It's called Healthy Cajun Chicken Pasta. I'm all about high flavor & low fat and sometimes those types of recipes are hard to find even though you can Google just about any recipe these days. What we (it got Karl's stamp of approval too, even though we know how easy he is to please in the food department ;) loved about this recipe is that it did have a *ton* of flavor, not too spicy but a little bit. And, it has alot of veggies so it's a great all in one type meal!

Also, this post has inspired me to start a list of my favorite weeknight recipes on the sidebar to the right. We eat alot of chicken, so watch out. I'll start with a few of my staple meals for during the week. I try and stay quick, low fat & tasty! Enjoy!

(Back to that Spurs game now.....) Go Spurs Go!