Mijo bought two bottles of Josh Cellars 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon with the plan of serving it to his relatives when we invited them over for a small barbeque. Let's just say the two bottles were left unopened.
I haven't made this dish in a while. I remember I used to make this dish once a month after I learned how to make it. It is a simple dish with only six main ingredients.
The other week, I finally found time to take care of the crate full of ruby red grapefruit that one of our neighbors gave us. Thank you so much! 
On Thursday, we opened a red wine from the Abruzzi region of Italy called Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. For food pairing, we made enchilada casserole and spanish rice. The thick fruit flavors of this red wine is perfect for the cheesy and meaty flavors of the enchilada casserole with a hint of cumin. Here are my notes:
For our light lunch, or more like a snack really, we made something quick - my all time favorite - steamed mussels.
When I started reading about wines, though I don't like to admit, I became sort of a wine geek. Years later, I had forgotten most of what I had read but a few things I can still remember. I recall that Beaujolais-Villages is a young wine and it is meant to be drunk that way.
After a series of rain the past weeks - I am referring what felt like a monthlong non-stop rain in Northern California - the weather this week has been gorgeous, sunny, springlike. On Tuesday, Mijo grilled some chicken thighs, skirt steaks, and Salvadoran chorizos for dinner so we opened a bottle of Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. We usually don't finish a bottle in one sitting so a bottle is extended for the rest of the week. 
Ceviche. Put the ceviche on top of the tostada. Ceviche is a dish generally served in coastal Latin American restaurants, is made of raw fish marinated in lime juice. 
Guacamole. This is just another name for avocado. This fruit adds that creamy texture to Latin American food.
Someone has been in the house.(The picture above is the inverted cube of the newly opened Contemporary Jewish Museum on Yerba Buena lane in San Francisco.)
Monday was also the beginning of a five year plan and this plan is something I've been contemplating for a while now. I went to the main library on the weekend to pick up the books I requested online - Business School Confidential, Your MBA Gameplan, and MBA Jungle B-School Survival guide. I plan to finish reading them in the next two weeks. Sounds serious, doesn't it?
With the way the hitech industry is going these days, the job market for programmers and developers seem going into a slump, the Salvadoran and I decided that I should commence working on it before our skills become extinct. Instead of competing against cheaper hitech labor elsewhere, we should jump into the bandwagon of professionals going back to school to get a graduate degree.
Reading through the first five chapters of the MBA Jungle book made me feel a mixed sense of excitement, challenge, confidence and maybe a little bit of fear. Let's see how far I'll go in this. I'll find out soon whether this is right for me, or not. I am giving myself a year to prepare both mentally and financially. In the meantime, I enrolled in a non-credit Small Business evening course at the city college.
My plans to become proficient in French, Italian and photography will have to take a back seat for now.
(The photo above is the newly opened library branch in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco.)
Excess...
My brithday is still a couple of months away but here's a list of books in a newly created Amazon wishlist. (take a hint guys!) :)
If the link above does not work, please use this one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3CCRXE9H14U62
It is not that I am messy in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, I consider myself well organized when it comes to that. I just need room to move around when I cook, that's all. And the kitchen we have is a city kitchen. No aisle, we only have one sink, a big enough counter space, etc. We have to live in 'burbs to have my dream kitchen. Besides, breakfast, desserts and hors d'œuvre are my cup of tea.
He has another expression when he's really being teritorial of his kitchen especially the last time I made focaccia bread...
¡Qué dispije!
And that's what it looks like outside after Northern California got walloped by a hurricane-like storm a couple of days ago. I've never seen anything like it in my ten years of living here. A tree a couple of doors down got toppled. Dead leaves, branches, empty plastic bottles, small junk everywhere. Three blocks down the street close to the BART station, another tree got uprooted and it ruined the sidewalk around it.
During the storm, the power went out before noon. It was on a Friday so I was working from home and I had to call in to tell everyone in the office that I am unable to continue working because of the power outage and will just resume when the power is back. Almost half a million homes didn't power that day.
Major cabin fever at home because it was cold, dark, damp, and there was nothing to do. No tv, no wi-fi so no internet, and no music so we headed to the malls, where it is warm and lit and dry, as soon as the winds died down. To our surprise, the mall was crowded. People must have thought the same thing we did. We ended up seeing a good movie called The Orphanage. Later that day, I called our home phone and I got the phone's voicemail which means power is back in our neighborhood.
I'm just thankful that there wasn't a single damage in the house and our pine tree still stands. It was a fast moving storm so everything was quiet again after it left.
The city public works crew will have a busy time cleaning up the mess.
~ral
*In case you still don't know, mijo is a contraction of mi hijo. You know spanish, they make a lot of things sound cute. :)
(The photo above is a scene in the city's sleepy neighborhood of Glen Park.)
It was a little over 8 in the evening when I heard a cracking noise from below. Not downstairs, much deeper. I mean, beneath the house. I don't know why but that's always what I hear before an earthquake when I happen to be indoors. Maybe, in reality, they are preceded by an underground noise? In the past, earthquakes would occur without my knowledge in the middle of the day while I am at work or late at night while I am sleeping. I would just read about them in the paper the next day. 
I recently acquired a new drinking ritual. No, it does not involve alcohol but I know some of you wouldn't mind if it did.
I can hardly notice the seasons change in the city. Today was grey, cold, and drizzly. Eventhough it is already July, the temperature feels like it is only 10 degrees warmer than in December. My Saturday morning tennis match was cancelled again because the fog was so thick where I live, the courts in Glen Park canyon were wet as if it rained the night before.
It was unusually hot in the city that evening. He is usually sound asleep before he could actually finish his prayers, but not tonight. It was late, already past midnight. He couldn’t figure out if it is caffeine or the temperature that is keeping him up late that night. Caffeine has never been a problem for him so it must be the unseasonably warm conditions. Maybe not? His mind is clearly somewhere else.
My birthday fell on a workday this year, on a Friday. I wanted a low-key birthday so no trips. no fine dinning and no shopping for me but I still took time-off from work that day. 
I could hear the rain from the skylights. It is cold in the living room. I feel a draught, probably coming from the kitchen window. Using a throw, I bundle up on the sofa. My feet resting on the Sumatra trunk. I feel like taking a nap after reading just two chapters. It is a very lazy, quiet afternoon.
Northern California is having a cold spell. The weather is going to be subfreezing again tonight. The forecast for the weekend is even colder. I used to joke about winter being the time of year for showing off stylish clothes. It is nice for one day but two, three, four days? That is too much.
