eating around the gas lamps in San Diego

woo hoo look what they have in cali!

recently i traveled with my husband to san diego...he for work...me using airline miles...to work from the hotel room and try and have a little fun in the evening.  the weather never got out of the 60's...so much for relaxing by the pool on the weekend....only thing left to do when we both finished a long day of working was to poke around and find something decent to eat.....we stayed in the gas lamp district so plenty of tourist traps to pick from...but also some lovely, friendly people and really good food choices too.....(many of the friendly people i met were transplants from florida that were also freezing in the 60 degree weather......)

Dinner at the Merk Bistro the hostess was so friendly and genuine she talked us into eating there...and the food was so yummy we came back the next nite!
pictures and reviews after the jump

vegas, virginia,......travels

my nephew's first hockey game....... the monster bag of cotton candy 

for various reasons i've had to do a lot of traveling lately....while traveling can be fun or miserable ...depending on where you are going and why......going somewhere is an opportunity to try new restaurants or indulge in some celebrated favorites.
let's start with vegas. this was my first visit....really the food is pretty much the only thing i liked in vegas....not being a gambler or smoker and even though i love to shop...it is not the best place to find a bargain.  we sampled payard pastries...YUM...bobby flay's mesa grill at ceasar's palace  specifically the yucatan chicken taco and iced tea with some kind of honey syrup, best iced tea ever.... highly recommended.

deconstructed taco's with a peanut bbq sauce so good

more after the jump

September in Tuscany

my happy place

we survived the hurricane in the northeast and got power back just in time to jump in the car and head to the airport  for a fortnight of sun, wine and pasta in Italia. (forgetting all the misery of broken trees and dangling wires)  the weather was incredible....like summer!  sunny and warm everyday ....the sweet aroma of ripe figs and grapes waiting for the harvest.
lazy.... long mornings of sleeping in, sipping coffee and lounging by the pool....a quick shower then off to the city or a wonderful hill town for some exploring (just as the Giotto tour buses head out of town)  and enjoy a wonderful dinner.  Have been back home for a full week but if I close my eyes I can still smell those figs and conjure up the feeling of that sunshine...hear the squeaky tractor and the rooster that has no idea what time it is............

Join the adventure after the jump:

visiting the Farmer's Market at Ashlawn Farm, Lyme CT

i woke up early on saturday morning and decided to visit the farmer's market at ashlawn farm in lyme.  it was a beautiful clear sunny hot day and the market was busy!  i parked my car in the hay field with about 40 other cars already there.  the air was buzzing with people catching up with one another, kids, dogs and beautiful scenery.  it almost felt like an old time market day (only with air-conditioned cars and lattes), kind of like the markets you still see in italy. (and they have air conditioned cars and espresso)  what a nice way to start a summer weekend.

things are just getting started on saturday morning at ashlawn in lyme ct

more after the jump

foodie adventure "magic kingdom"

our family....the four of us have some travel rituals.....we have often returned to the same places many times to spend our vacation together.  one of those places is walt disney world.  i've lost count of how many times we've been ....but every time....(even with kids in their 20's ) it is a super fun vacation.  we have our favorite rides (yo ho yo ho......a pirates life for me).....and of course there are a few favorite treats.  one must do every visit is to wander over to the dole pineapple soft serve stand in adventureland and order one of those pineapple floats for each of us.    on a hot day a pineapple juice parfait with soft serve pineapple sorbet....ahhhhhhhh.   (secret discovery...they also have these in hawaii at the dole pineapple plantation on o'ahu.)

frosty fruity goodness

hipsta-matic.......ok now i am ready to ride space mountain!

  i can try this at home....why not.  i have an ice cream machine...... i bought a ripe pineapple and some dole pineapple juice and set about trying to find a good recipe for pineapple sorbet. ......

my recipe after the jump

williamsburg brooklyn flea market

on sunday i got up early and took the train to new york city to meet up with britany for a trip to williamsburg to scope out the flea market.  the first good thing that happened was that i made the 10:56 am train from new haven...the second good thing was it was the brand new metro north train.....wow what luxury!!!!! i had a wonderful ride ....read the sunday times and had breakfast in comfort.  britany met me at the 6 subway station on bleecker and we headed out to la colombe torrefaction (the name sounds like a bit scary) for a good cup of coffee.  brit had olive oil cake and i had a chocolate walnut cookie.  the olive oil cake had a sort of zucchini bread texture and was very heavy on the nutmeg....the chocolate cookie was the perfect combination of slightly crisp on the the outside with deep fudgey gooey inside.   we split half of the cookie and i saved the rest......the olive oil cake ended up oozing oil all over the style section of the times.   we took the L train to williamsburg and got off at driggs and 7th. and walked toward the water.  i have never been to brooklyn on purpose.....the two other times i have been there were both by mistake....once was a wrong turn and the other a little miscommunication with the gps.  the neighborhood was interesting...kind of urban meets beachy bar vibe..... we found the flea market and had a great time walking from stall to stall and taking in all of the treasures/junk against a kind of eerie foggy back drop of the manhattan skyline.  there was 60's kitchy furniture.....stuff i remembered tilly and my mom having....kind of weird in a fun way.  (my  mom says it's only collectible if you did not own it the first time it was in)
one whole side of the flea market was devoted to food stalls.  there were quirky teams of folks selling all kinds of food....grilled corn on a skewer, huarache, molasses milk, various yummy looking baked goods....some odd looking pickles  and czechoslovakian pies......and so on.   we decided to sample some of the jams, the molasses milk...which was very good.  we ventured into the sunday gravy  special which was a slab of crusty bread with a tomato sauce that appeared to have multiple kinds of meat in a hearty ragu. this tasted really good. the bread was covered with toasted sesame seeds which had a great flavor that was nice with the ragu.

concetta's sunday gravy

 more after the jump

italy... the ultimate foodie adventure

one of my favorite kinds of books is the travel adventure....true stories of what people have encountered on the road.  peter mayle's "a year in provence" and "toujours provence" are delightful (the audio version is fabulous)...then came frances mayes "under the tuscan sun".....they got got me hook, line and sinker...i had to go.  first to provence ....dragged the kids when they were in their teens and we flew into marseilles and drove all over provence....loved it.....the people, the landscape, the food....take your breath away. 

in 2004 kelsey signed up to go on a people to people youth ambassador trip to several european countries.....it was 21 days....a long time to be away.  we decided to meet her half way for a quick visit plus we would get to see some of italy.  i assembled my favorite travel guides....rick steves (indispensable) and the michelin green guide to italy.....karen signed on to join us....lars agreed to spend 10 days with two women and a teenager (britany) and we were on our way.  we did a lot of searching to find an apartment in a village but not too far from the highways so we could get to all of the hill towns of tuscany and of course the "prada" outlet......(yes outlet at the factory in montevarchi) we shopped, we cooked, we ate, we all fell in love.  and crazy or not every summer or fall since 2004 we go to tuscany.  we stay in the same place and add new adventures every year. 

as you might guess i have so many stories of my visits to italy i could write for days. .......last year i decided to keep a diary of what we ate at the restaurants in tuscany and what i cooked at our place which we lovingly call the "willage".  here is the inventory from our 2010 trip:

margherita pizza with artichokes, mushrooms, onions, olives

pici pasta with ragu

linguine con vongole(za za, firenze)

more after the jump...

NYC and some of the boroughs: buying easter goodies.......

road trip to nyc: a few weeks ago my friend karen and i took the day off and drove to nyc....several of the boroughs...some accidentally, in search of delectable european specialty food to stock the kitchen at home.   karen had read about a specialty irish grocery store in queens and was willing to drive so we could cart it all home.  we pulled into the butchers block at 11 am and got an awesome parking space right out front.   karen is irish....forgot to mention that... her brother and sister in law who recently moved to the states from ireland are missing some of their favorite foods.  as soon as we walked into the store and surveyed the wares karen dialed up her sister in law on the mobile and started giving her an inventory of what was available.   special easter eggs filled with cadbury treats, irish sausages, irish butter, cookies, crisps (the delightfully helpful staff opened cases directly off the delivery truck)... between the two of us we filled the back of her suv with bags. 

that was so lucrative we decided to start internet searching from the car and found another euro grocery less than a mile away.  this one turned out to be mainly greek.  pitas, olives, cheeses, olive oil.....it was fun.  bought just a few things (italian olive oil for $8) but it was very entertaining.  some of the things at the deli counter resembled actual hoofs......and the sounds system played an all greek sound track, fantastic.

this is the olive bar at the euro market

starving by now we decided to walk a few blocks and found an awesome restaurant bare burger......wow what an awesome lunch....my ice tea was pink, the burger was fantastic, fries also delicious. 

next stop was eataly in manhattan.  we put the address into the gps and found ourselves at that address but in brooklyn stuck in traffic. we laughed a lot at how dense we were and how long it took us to figure out that we were not in manhattan. an hour later we pulled into the flatiron district, parked our car and headed in.  i had been there once before on a day that was insanely busy.  this was a friday mid-afternoon so it wasn't too bad.  we window shopped the olive oil (mostly very expensive) and visited all of the different departments.  we checked out the balsamic vinegar. it was very expensive.... twice as much as we had paid for really good quality balsamic vinegar we picked up last fall in florence italy.  we stopped at the coffee bar and had excellent macchiatos and we did buy a few things.....a load of bucatini, aborio rice and some nice italian cookies.  (karen also bought some prosciutto)

next up we met britany for dinner at momofuku noodle bar....pork buns...fabulous! then around the corner to momofuku milk bar for dessert....french toast soft serve ice cream.....wow you could taste the butter and syrup and the crack pie......yummmmmm.  we also got birthday cake truffles and 2 kinds of cookies way too much. i was still nibbling a cookie 3 days later.  we jumped back in the car and made it home by midnight...i have to say i had to sleep late and chill out all day the next day. what a wonderful day off!  thanks karen great idea!!!!