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but I truly do not understand how ‘white people’ (ok, ok, anyone know anyone who has grown up eating their grapefruit like this?!  I need a survey on the demographics of this population.)  eat grapefruit. And by ‘white people’ I mean anyone who cuts it crosswise and scoops out the flesh with a spoon. This is the image I have seen on TV growing up, at the breakfast buffet in hotels, etc…

I grew up in a grapefruit loving home (well, my dad loves grapefruit but my mom just kinda screws up her face and says it’s too bitter, and my dad and I would end up eating most of it) and we would always just peel the grapefruit like an orange, separate the slices, and then peel the thick skin off the individual slices with our hands. Definitely not as refined as eating a grapefruit with a nice spoon. But at least it doesn’t squirt you in the eye, leave lots of mashed up pulp, and a puddle of leftover juice. Plus, I think it feeds my OCD tendencies to make myself a nice pile of peeled grapefruit to savor. Yum.

Ryan says he doesn’t think he can take me out to a nice brunch anymore, since I don’t seem to want to eat my grapefruit in a civilized way. I say, if we’re busting out the big bucks for a nice brunch, I certainly won’t be wasting my precious stomach space on some grapefruit…

PS. Don’t tell me I need one of those pointy grapefruit spoons with the serrated edges. I need a set of those like I need another tokidoki bag.

I found these photos last night and every time I need a little pick me up I just have to look at these photos and it instantly makes me smile.  See?  It doesn’t take much to make me happy!

via virginhoney on flickr

Tonight, Ryan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary with the usual: yummy food. We had a delicious dinner at Baraka - highly recommend the pistachio crusted goat cheese with honey, onions, and crostini!!!

The strange thing about being married for 2 years is that on the one hand, I feel like I’ve known Ryan forever and our relationship feels totally natural - and on the other hand I *still* feel like I’m pretending to be a grown up, old person that is married…

Ah well, who cares about my inner struggles… I leave you with a picture of our former, skinnier selves… but looking pretty much as we always do - Ryan with a smirk and me with my non-existent eyes. Ha!

PS - For the record, married life has been great… I love it!! Everyone should get married!! *hint hint - this applies to more than one of you couples out there!!!* (I promise I’ll help with the wedding planning… really!!!)

PPS - Pics of Ryan’s bday steak bonanza to come, I promise…  I know, I’m a lame-o.

For the last few weeks Ryan’s ban on corn syrup products really hasn’t affected me all that much, in the sense that I’m still using plenty of ketchup on my fries… he just can’t eat any of the ones touching the ketchup… but on Saturday night we steamed an artichoke. You can’t eat artichoke without mayo. And most mayo has some corn syrup in it, including the one in our fridge. So, Michelle and I made mayo… so that we could make the herb-caper mayo recipe in bon appetit magazine, so that Ryan could eat the artichoke.

Mayo is really easy to make, actually. It only requires egg yolk, lemon juice (or vinegar), oil, mustard, salt and pepper. It does take a bit of time though, to emulsify the egg/oil mixture into, well, a mayo-like consistency, but in any case it was messy but quite tasty.

The herb-caper mayo was just mixing in dill, chives, capers, and some mustard into the mayo. And, we just happened to have both dill AND chives. I needed chives last week for risotto, and for some reason the phrase ‘Ryan, can you pick up some chives for me at the supermarket’ somehow translates into ‘I need to buy dill for Hayley’ in Ryan’s brain… so we had both. Anyway. YUM. Artichokes with fresh herbs and mayo is delicious!

We had a lot of mayo leftover and needed to use it up within two days (per Joy of Cooking) so last night I made potato salad. YUM. Potato salad with fresh mayo is also delicious!!

Conclusion? Homemade mayo is awesome.

PS. Just as a side note, since I’m talking about food, I would like to add that Berkeley Bowl is awesome too. I’ve been there so many times but every single time I go, their produce department never ceases to amaze me.

PPS. Pee wee avocados are also awesome. (Yes, that is the real name) You can find them at the aforementioned awesome Berkeley Bowl.

Sometimes, I just need to remind myself of the great things in my life, and there are quite a few things recently that have given me joy (in no particular order):

1. Adorable nephew Mattie:

2. nanoBrew (our nerdy name for our nerdy Rock Band)

3. Unexpected flowers and delicious fruits from Ryan (and homemade ice cream from Dryw):

4. The new and improved Engineering Circle. I think they tore this down my freshman year of undergrad, and now, after 9 years, a seismically retrofitted Heart Mining Building and brand new Stanley Hall… it is gorgeous.

5. Rice vermicelli with Imperial Rolls from Le Petit Cheval.

( Tamales from the Tamale Lady come in a close second. )

6. Adorable doggies: Winston, a shorkie (shih tsu and yorki mix)

7. Mission Bay Community Church (MBCC): Fun, friendly, and two blocks from home… what more could I ask?

8. Happy news from friends:
Genese and Adrian on their new house!
Lucinda and Dan expecting their first baby in April!
Michelle and Will expecting their first baby in August!
Julian and Diana expecting their first baby in August/September!
Michelle and Kreg on their upcoming wedding this October!

9. My dad is a real golfer!!

10. The expectation of trying our very own brown ale beer… in another week or so!!

Or, How well do you know my friends?

I asked a friend of mine if they had any plans for V-day and the reply was:

“Every day is Valentine’s Day for us!”

It was said in an admittedly half joking way, but, like I said, half joking. Of course, I did my duty as a great and fantastic friend and laughed my head off…

so the question is: do you know who said it?! Comment below and win the satisfaction that you were right.

I do have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with V-day - I hate it because it’s really just a made-up holiday just so the card, flower, and food industries can charge us exorbitant amounts to kick start their sales after the holiday slump. But inside I really love it when Ryan gets me flowers, or takes me out to dinner, or gets me a little gift. Obviously, I love that kind of stuff any day of the year, but heck, another excuse to squeeze a nice dinner outta my hubby isn’t a bad thing, right?!!

Speaking of which, we celebrated Valentine’s early this year, on Tuesday, in fact. (Ryan wanted to cheer me up after a crappy morning - see my previous post) We went to this fun restaurant in the Marina/North Beach called Albona. Total old school European kinda place, and the owner, Bruno, was a total hoot. As we were leaving he was escorting us out and giving me detailed instructions on how to reheat my risotto (he didn’t want me thinking his risotto was glue, God forbid) when the topic of V-day came up. He asked if we had any plans, and we admitted that we were celebrating early!! He lit up and started his rant about V-day… Oh, everyone on V-day, ah… they’re amateurs!! We give them this set menu, so they don’t have to think about it, and for me, it’s just hell… (he shows us his reservation screen for the 14th - completely packed, obviously) much better that you’re celebrating early~! And the men, they all have intentions, you know… ulterior motives for after dinner, eh?!!

I think we both got a huge kick out of that.

Soooo…. we finally made the beer last night. Last time we got sidetracked by, well, actually drinking beer instead.  Anyhow, we got lots of pictures of the process I’ll post later. But the upshot of it is, we will have (hopefully, pending all of it leaking out of our carboy, or contamination or some other horrible thing that I shouldn’t be worrying about but still am) about 50 bottles worth of beer that we will need bottles for in about two weeks, and only about a dozen bottles so far.

So drink beer (in brown or green or any dark color glass, with a regular cap, no twist off) and give us the empty bottle. We’ll give you back a bottle of homebrew in about a month or so. (After we bottle you have to wait 2 weeks for the beer to carbonate itself…)

How awesome of a deal is that? Come on. You get TWO beers for the price of ONE!!! Score! (No guarantees on the quality of the second beer. Should be akin to a pal ale but like I said, no guarantees.) Plus you get to feel good about recycling. Double score!!

And, just for the hell of it, to get everyone in the spirit of drinking beer, I leave you with a fabulous AOII drinking song (Actual performance of this song by me not included with your bottle donation, sorry!) :

We drink beer,
We drink beer,
We drink lots and lots of beer
On the sundeck of old AOII…

(repeat above verse)

And we’ll drink, drink, drink
Till we vomit in the sink (blech!)
Then we’ll shout it out, loud and clear:
More Beer!

And if Mom should appear,
We’ll say “Mom, have a beer!”
On the sundeck of old AOII…

Apologies to any AOIIs out there, if I got the lyrics off a bit, it’s been a while…

So to recap (haha, get it? oh… nevermind):
-brown or green or dark colored beer bottles, with regular caps, no twist off.
-get them to us within two weeks.

Thank you!!

Found this awesome artist today who creates fun art with everyday objects and some wire… and it reminded me of someone and his hate for bananas…

Jon is your alter ego the orange?  Wait, that would imply you eat your prey….  hm… I guess that doesn’t work.

If so please email/call/comment… ::FOUND!!:: Thanks to all who responded!!!

We got a cool beer making kit from Nathan for Christmas… and no, the kit doesn’t include the pot, no, we can’t do it in two batches, and yes, it needs to be an actual pot we can use on the stove.

The lucky owner who lets us borrow said pot will get first dibs on our homebrew!!! (or first dibs to pass on it, depending how it goes…)

Gosh, there are so many things I am thankful for this year. My parents, Ryan, actually my whole family, and of course friends and…. most important… fooooood. We celebrated Thanksgiving today at Nathan’s new house… a brand spanking new townhouse in Oakland! The spread:

Me contemplating how we’re going to eat all these mashed potatoes…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!