The Bathroom Attendant

He comes complete with a tuxedo.

"May I draw you a bath, madam?"

Summer? Allo?

Have been a little behind on posting because we've been busy doing some extensive landscaping in our backyard ...

Ok. So maybe this isn't quite what our backyard looks like. In fact, our backyard looks the same as it always has, minus a lush veggie garden. Spring 2.0 has provided for some mild temps and moist soil.

Oh well. At least now we've reached 20 degrees and these wee things have started popping up in the garden:

I'm not sure what they're called. Weeds? Bits of grass?

Carrots? My, I haven't seen you since last September!

Peas? Delightful! (and I promise to stake you soon)

And.... ONE spinach plant?? Where are your buddies?! Oh right. They failed to germinate.

I'm most excited for cucumbers. This is my very first cucumber plant and he's already got some fleurs. Not bad. Especially since I bought him from the sketchy convenience store down the street where I'm pretty sure they're selling human organs out the back freezer.

In other news... many, MANY thanks to our thoughtful landlords (aka Cam's parents), for furnishing our kitchen with two FANTASTIC new appliances:

These bad boys had a hand in producing this amazing Broccoli-Cheese Twist:

The BCT is courtesy of my Mum who started making it when I was a teenager and I've loved it ever since.  It's ridiculously simple, yet SO TASTY. Trust me on this one.

  

The BCT had a short life due to someone coming home from mountain biking. The delicious mango salsa had a similar fate a few nights ago...

When we haven't been cooking, we've been riding. I'm taking care of the giant road rides...

...and Cam bought a little thing called GoPro, and soon he may even do his first blogpost showcasing a homemade mountain bike video.

On that note... stay tuned. If we even have any readers left, due to the poor posting!

A Bit Overdue

After that monster of a post recapping our Cupertino trip, this next one has been a long time coming. Since our return, I’ve been working on a number of writing projects, Cam’s been prepping to build his first bicycle, and both of us have been keeping up with our riding. But we’ve had time to try a few new recipes…

A simple Spinach, Tomato, Mushroom, Feta Cheese Pasta

Homemade Wontons!

We haven’t just been feeding ourselves, though. There have been others.

These gals decimate our feeder multiple times a day. I've only seen one male and he just flits through, scarfs down food, then harasses the females before taking off. Typical male.

The landlords/parentals have been working hard around our place… we’ve gained a new drier, a couple new bathroom fixtures, and will soon have a brand new fridge and oven. Upgrades are sweet. Speaking of upgrades, Cam and I are planning a trip to Ikea the weekend we go to Vancouver for the Lion King. Did I mention we got tickets to that? That show is like number four on my list of things-I-want-to-do-in-life. Right next to number five, which is buy-something-cool-from-Ikea  :)




A big project that I finished literally days before leaving for Cupertino was a small quilt for Isabella. I mentioned it a few posts ago, when it was in its infant stages. Back then I was naively optimistic about how easy quilt making seemed to be. Yeah, that was before I got to the top-stitching by hand. But despite the tricky parts, I thoroughly enjoyed making it.

You can kind of make out the top stitch designs I did in the yellow squares.

 

It definitely wears the baby well.

 

 

 

Bambino in Cupertino

Well. We had quite the trip. You always know you've had a good vacation when you return home feeling refreshed and energized to try new recipes... more on that later!

A warning ahead of time: this post is long. Possibly the longest ever. Kind of appropriate for our 50th post!

We didn't plan any of our vacation... except that we knew we wanted to do a nice dinner for Michael and Jill. So it was nice to just go with the flow and enjoy some quality hang-out time.

The flight down to San Francisco was a quick 1:30 minutes... even though our tickets said 2 hours. Hm. Time warp?

We were thrilled when the golden gate bridge appeared and San Francisco was spread below us in all her hilly glory. (These plane photos were taken on my iPhone. I am thoroughly impressed with the quality. Good work, boys!)

My brother might find this interesting: the air strip in the above photo is where they do a lot of filming for Mythbusters. If you squint you can see an explosion on the far left runway.

Ha, I kid.

After landing, we met Isabella for the first time.

Not sure what she thought of Cam!

These photos below are courtesy of Jill, who has some great timing!

And then she filled her diaper...

Kind of looks like a baby getting changed in heaven, doesn't it?

On our first day in Cupertino we hit up Whole Foods. Cam enjoyed pushing Isabella in the stroller. She was a great chick magnet!

Hungry? They've got meat any way you want it.

It's hard to make a decision with this much choice!

Aren't American supermarkets bizarre? Wine and beer sold right next to the cheese.

You can also get a full meal at Whole Foods... they've got hotlines and everything. You just load up your plate and they ring it through the cash register!

They also love their U-turns in the States. They actually have streetlights for them. (The lunatic's voice in the video is me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsI7Zova09o

On our second day, Cam and I hopped in the M3 and burned rubber down the coast to Santa Cruz. Cam found the holy grail of dirt jump parks (read: famous guys ride here). Just looked like piles of dirt to me!

Our third day was devoted to cooking a good meal for Michael and Jill. With a little help from Giada, of course.

We went to Starbucks to plan the meal. Cam ordered a French Press coffee and very quickly went into caffeine overload. 

And this was the result:

Fresh Tomato and Goat Cheese Strata with Herb Oil

Roasted Halibut with Grapefruit Fennel Salsa

And for dessert (photos by Jill)....

A strawberry granita with whipped cream!

Day four and five were spent enjoying Isabella and some quality pool/hot-tub relaxing time.

On our sixth and final day in Cupertino we went for a nice evening drive with Michael to capture some scenic shots before the sun went down.

 

We concluded our vacation with some last minute shopping at Ikea and a late night stop for fro yo!

Two words: Deeeeee  LICIOUS

Toppings anyone?

I now conclude this monsterous post with a menagerie of baby photos... we miss Isabella!

Cleaning out those neckfolds! Find any mushrooms in there?

Baby likes her baths and the dryer-warmed towels that follow.