Hawaii.Love.Forever

This past weekend, on the anniversary of their 10th year of marriage, my sister and brother-in-law renewed their vows (they eloped the first time around) on a small beach in my hometown.  Despite all the fuss and stress that went into creating this day, the event itself was intimate and beautiful, with less than 30 people in attendance at a sunrise ceremony overlooking the ocean and mountains.

I can only hope my own wedding one day is as wonderful as this one was!

An Indoor/Outdoor Experience

What I did this weekend:

 Went thrifting.

Went on a hike in the Marin Headlands.

(Photos by: Adam Paul and Pappy V.)

Had a picnic with N. here:

And took a long, lovely nap with Finn.

Now, I'm ready to face the world.  Or, if not the world then at least the week.

A Mile High

If you follow me on Twitter (lets be Twitter friends!), then you know by now that I was in Denver this past weekend for a beautiful wedding (and that I randomly met a dude who dated Lady Gaga).  Aside from the insane heat that permeated the city while I was there, I thought Denver was a great place to be.  It (like most of Colorado, I assume) is incredibly outdoorsy, pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and getting out of the city is as easy as getting to a Safeway here in the Bay.  A half hour drive and you're in the mountains with a view (see above) of The Rockies.

Now if only there was an ocean nearby.

Anyhow, Denver and my friends there have re-inspired me to get outside more, and that's the plan this weekend.  So I hope you all also have a great weekend and a chance to get outdoors, go for a hike, do whatever it is you do to reconnect with the world away from concrete and steel.

Enjoy!

a respite

when things are complicated and overwhelming, and it all seems like it's too much to bear, sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to get away and reconnect.  it's a great big, beautiful world out there, and that's easy to forget in the face of all of our day to day stresses.

i was reminded of that fact this weekend, when i fell in love with yosemite.

"in God's wilderness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness.  the galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware." - john muir

party like it's 1999

a few weeks ago, N. and i threw a decades party to celebrate our birthdays, having some friends in town, and life in general.  here are a few of the highlights:

there just doesn't seem to be anything quite like friends!

the m/k project

like most women i know, i loved the movie "julie & julia".  not only is amy adams one of my favorite famous people, but meryl streep and stanley tucci are a couple of the best actors of our era.  meryl streep in particular is just...timeless.  the movie was extremely well made and, though i haven't read the book its based off of yet, i don't feel like a lot of short cuts were taken in the storyline.  from costuming to location to food imagery to script, i loved it all.

so it's no surprise really that when N. and his best friend asked that the lovely M. and i cook them dinner for a change this weekend, there really wasn't a question: we were going to go as julia child-esque as possible.

and so "the M./K. project" was born.

on the menu: tournedos sautes au poivre et champignons, petits choux au fromage, and reine de saba.  or, in plain english, filet mignon with a mushroom sauce, cheese puffs, and chocolate almond cake with chocolate butter icing.  we also served an antipasti platter and roasted vegetables.  and lots and lots of wine.  like, buckets of it.

so first of all, we started the evening off with a simple store-bought antipasti platter (salami, prosciutto, bread, havarti, brie, and something like a chorizo tapenade that, along with some guacamole, was provided by the boys), and the cheese puffs.  these cheese puffs are super simple to make and a complete crowd pleaser, unless you're me and soon figure out that you don't actually like cheese puffs.  but with the help of a kitchenaid mixer and about 20lbs of butter (it is julia, after all), they're a quick starter that impressed our guests when they realized we made them.  (tip: they're really good with the chorizo tapenade)

the roasted veggies are sort of self-explanatory, and even someone with me and M.'s limited kitchen abilities can make them.  we chose carrots, parsnips, potatoes and onions, drizzled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, and just roasted until soft.  because we desperately needed a dish that wouldn't clog our arteries with lard.

also, and i don't know if i made it clear, but rockefeller was not bank rolling this shindig so those filet mignon's the tournedos recipe called for quickly became the much more affordable top sirloin.  unfortunately, as we later learned, there is actually a damn good reason that filet mignon is about a thousand times more expensive than our rather economic choice: because, apparently, economy = tough.  word to the wise my friends, unless you're planning on marinating those sirloins for hours (possibly days) on end, be prepared to work those jaw muscles a little more than usual.  a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when staring blankly into your grocer's meat counter is that price really does matter, and the buttery-ness of the meat is directly proportional to the price.

tough meat aside, the main dish wasn't that bad.  the steaks are covered in crushed peppercorns which made them sort of impossible for me to eat (i'm very sensitive to heat/spice -- though this near-disaster turned out okay when the boys showed up with a nice, fat piece of rib eye to grill!), but the mushroom sauce is to die for.  it requires quite a bit (and by bit i mean almost a stick) of butter and cream, and a huge ball of fire that erupts from the sauce pan once you pour in your brandy and set a match to it, but that just makes it all the more yummy.  careful though: we were quite a few bottles of wine into our evening and several hairs got singed in the process of burning off the alcohol.

speaking of alcohol, if it wasn't obvious from all of my previous references, drinking during the preparation of this meal is highly encouraged.  it makes it all the more fun!

and now for the crowing glory: the much-anticipated chocolate and almond cake.  ever since i saw that scene in "julie/julia" where julie and her husband are stuffing their faces with it, i wanted to make it and do the same.  while i'm used to the simpler, let-me-pour-this-cake-mix-out-of-the-box-add-water-eggs-and-oil-mix-and-put-in-the-over recipes, this recipe wasn't that hard.  the melted chocolate is really the part that sort of freaked me out at the beginning because well, who actually melts chocolate over a double boiler?  all i can say is that those years of watching the food network finally paid off when i knew what a double boiler was without googling it, and i knew how to fold in whipped egg whites with relative superiority.

the cake, my friends, was awesome.

in the end, M. and i only needed a little bit of help from our more kitchen-acquainted friends and overall we feel pretty proud of ourselves.  what i've learned about cooking in general is that it takes some time before you're comfortable enough to change recipes on the fly to suit your taste, but it's really something to look forward too.  what i've learned about french cooking though, is that no matter how that movie makes it seem, it is not easy.  but i'm up for practicing.

until then, bon appetit!
 

oh, hi vancouver

as i mentioned in my last olympics post, something sort of surprising came up and, as it turns out, N. and i ended up taking a very last minute flight up to seattle (courtesy of the free flights we had on virgin america, so i didn't need to break my monthly budget!), piling into a car with a bunch of the superfriends from college, and heading up to vancouver the weekend of the closing ceremonies (and the big U.S.A. v. Canada hockey game).  we didn't have tickets to an event but, as i soon found out, vancouver during the olympics is an event in and of itself.

the city just came alive.

if there were words enough to convey how incredible of an experience this was, i'd find them and use them over and over.  but there aren't, so all i can say is that everyone, absolutely every single person on the planet (and that means YOU!), should go to the olympics at least once in their lives.  not only are there a billion things to do, but there are a billion people doing them as well, and then sense of comradery and fun and...global citizenship...is so inspiring and refreshing.  it's cheesey, i know.  but it's also so very true.

as the canadian woman i sat next to on the flight back told me: it's one of those experiences you just never forget.

 

vancouver really does look like both the olympics and the canadian flag threw up on it.  there's even a building (at least 5 stories tall) that has a giant -- and by giant i mean GIANT -- canadian flag wrapped around it.  it's awesome.

the rings!  it was so exciting to see them in person after seeing them behind bob costas on tv all week!
 

and these are a whole different sort of olympic rings.  you can't see it, but he also has the canadian maple leaf on the top of his head.  the press were taking pictures of him, so we pretended to be press as well and got a few shots.  :)

sumi!  the olympic mascots were doing a "mascots on ice" show at the underground ice rink in robson square in downtown vancouver, and we were lucky enough to be in time for a show.  after the show, there was free skate time, and my friends and i became buddies with a 10 year old boy who not only dominated everyone in hockey, but he was also a fan of trivia and asked us a bunch of questions about canada and the olympics, and gave us pins (which were apparently a HUGE thing for some reason) as prizes.  he decided we weren't worthy when he asked us "who's going to win tomorrow's gold medal hockey game?" and we answered, "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"  i'm just happy he didn't throw a puck at us.

quachi!  he nearly ate us.  i came home with a quachi doll for my nephew, which i don't really want to part with anymore.  at least i didn't get the version where he has on those incredibly popular (and sold out) red mittens...  i'd never give him up then.
 

a look down robson street, which was packed every single second of the day.  at random intervals you'd begin hearing canada chants, and see someone run by wearing a canadian flag as a cape.  there were lines getting into absolutely everything, but the atmosphere was so charged with energy that it was fun just walking around, shopping, catching events on tv's in pubs, bars, and on one of the many outdoor screens set up, and people watching.

this is robson square, and under this glass dome is the ice rink where we saw the mascots on ice earlier in the day.  on the upper right corner of the picture, you can just make out a few cables.  those are for the zipline going over robson square.  every few minutes, all you'd hear is a scream, then someone would whiz by above your head.  the superfriends and i wanted to do it, but the line was 4 hours long and i'd prefer to give it a shot up at whistler one day anyway!
 

more olympic rings, sometime near midnight.
 

 and at long last, the outdoor cauldron.  at the end of our night, we all just sat in the middle of the huge crowd surrounding the flame and tried to take in our time in vancouver.   there was a russian choir nearby singing and playing the accoustic guitar, and it sort of just rounded out the moment.  from this cauldron, you can see the faint glow of some of the ski villages on the ridges surrounding the city, you can see the olympic rings, and you sort of feel like you're in the center of everything.  it was great.  memorable.  i suggest you go to the next games.

"on a white, sandy beach of hawaii..."

here are some highlights from my recent trip with N. to the big island, where i grew up.  it was most definitely not a white christmas, but it was pretty amazing anyway!

 

this is in honomu (ho-no-moo) village, directly across the street from the house i grew up in (in fact, those palm trees in the shadow belong to the ones in our front yard!).  my sisters and i would wait in front of this store -- which also makes really good blueberry ice cream -- for the school bus each morning when we were kids.  this is also where the old men in the village hang out during the day, drinking their coffees, reading their newspapers, and watching the tourists go by.  and that store to the left, glass from the past, is where i worked my first job!

 

looking down the street from our driveway.  this is the main street in our village, and it's usually busy with tourists driving up and down from the falls a few miles up the road.

 

looking up toward my house (which is right where that green sign is in the center of the photo) from the bottom of the street.  the village is really old (it was a plantation village back in the day, and most of the old timers still refer to areas of it by "camp" name), so you'll see a lot of these old style buildings, many of which now house touristy stores and art galleries.  at the top of the street, where those banyan trees are, is our town gym.  i grew up climbing those trees and playing with one my oldest friends who lived across the street from them.

 

while we were in hawaii, N. wanted to take a drive down to the south point of the big island, which also happens to be the southern most tip of the united states.  this was taken on the drive there, right before we go the town of na'alehu (na-a-lay-hoo), looking north up the coast towards hilo (hee-low).  the bay you see there is called punalu'u (poo-na-loo-oo), and it's one of hawaii's famous black sand beaches, where you'll regularly see turtles hanging around.

 

same as the above picture, except here we're looking south towards south point (which you cannot see in this picture).

 

the windmills down at south point.

 

more windmills down at south point.

 

this is south point on the big island.  people jump off of these cliffs into the ocean and try not to get themselves killed.  this is also a pretty big fishing spot, so those wooden things you see is where the fish are pulled up.  whenever i'm here, and i look out at the ocean, i can't help but thinking how vast and deep the ocean is, and how small i really am.

i just think the picture on this sign is hilarious.

 

that's my dad checking out the waves while N. and i take a dip in the warm springs down at pohoiki (po-ho-ee-kee).  he and N. eventually went surfing for a couple of hours while i splashed around and got burnt in the sun.

 

beautiful, beautiful hawaii.  this picture was actually taken last christmas, which you can tell by the fact that there's a huge storm cloud blowing in.  this time around, there was absolutely no rain, as evidenced by the insane sunburn i got on my back and shoulders.

 

N., my mom, my cousin, her boyfriend and myself went up to the summit of mauna kea (ma-oo-na kay-a), which means white mountain because it snows up there some winters.  it's one of the big islands four mountains.  this is on the drive up to the summit, looking south towards mauna loa (ma-oo-na low-a), which means long mountain.  mauna loa is one of the largest mountains on earth in terms of volume and area covered.  an interesting fact to note is that both these mountains are volcanic and, while dormant, are in no way extinct.  that means they can explode at any moment.  yes, i live on a ticking time bomb.

 

these are four of the twelve or fourteen government observatories at the summit of mauna kea.  though N. and i have argued quite heatedly about this, i'm going to just put out there as a fun fact that mauna kea is the tallest mountain on earth -- yes, even taller than mount everest -- if measured from the ocean floor.

 

me and N. at the summit, when we weren't bickering about which mountain is bigger than the other.

and that was the last two weeks spent in hawaii, nutshelled.  we also had our annual family christmas day cook-off (N. and i lost to my older sister and her husband), saw a bunch of my friends from childhood and high school,  visited pu'ukohala heiau (poo-oo-ko-ha-la hey-ow), went fishing with my dad, and hung out with my family.

i already miss it.