Tonight we went out for dinner in celebration of my birthday. We went to the Village Pub for the second year in a row (Tamarine was my second choice; we'll have to find an excuse to go there again). It was a great dinner.

We started out with crusty bread from their wood-fired oven, which is visible from the dining room. Next was a surprise zeroeth course (yay, free food!)--a shooter of fava bean soup. It was tasty, though I couldn't identify all the flavors in it. All I can tell you is that it tasted (and looked) green. Like springtime!

I started with a salad of local lettuces tossed in a simple (and delicious) vinaigrette. It came with two little crostini topped with white bean spread and tapenade. Patrick didn't order a first course, but the chef was nice enough to send out a complimentary mini-dish of smoked trout, grapefruit, shaved fennel and diced cucumber in a delicious light dressing (I think it was a mix of rice vinegar and mirin and maybe some other stuff). It was probably rude of me to mooch off of his complimentary food when I had my salad to eat, but I wanted to try his food too! It was good stuff. That chef is so considerate!

For the main course, I had Wild Stinging Nettle and Mascarpone Ravioli with Spring Peas and Pancetta. The sauce it came in was so good and smoky. I think it was just a bunch of melted butter and pancetta drippings (and maybe a little cream), which made the part of me that worries about my pseudo-diet cringe a little, but the rest of me was happy! The ravioli were delicious (I was curious to see what stinging nettles were like; they were pretty much like any other green). I was very happy with my choice. I mopped up the leftover sauce with more crusty bread. Yum!

Patrick had Alaskan Halibut with Crispy Potatoes and Baby Leeks and Artichokes. I liked the potatoes and vegetables a lot, but the halibut itself wasn't super-exciting. Patrick said he liked it, but he thought my food was better. Both entrees were very reasonably-sized, which was a relief, since I'm still trying to eat smaller portions. It was nice to eat everything put in front of me and not feel stuffed.

For dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Souffle with Grand Marnier Creme Anglaise for two. The souffle took 20 minutes to prepare, so the chef (that lovable guy) sent out cute little scoops of rhubarb sorbet to tide us over. We also ordered tea--I had Earl Grey with Lavender and Patrick had Darjeeling.

When the souffle came, the waitress asked if we'd like her to prepare it for us. Neither of us had much souffle experience, so we told her to go ahead. Turns out that when you're presented with a souffle, the next step is to stick a spoon in the middle of it and pour in the creme anglaise. Good to know. The souffle was really good, especially with the creme anglaise mixed in. I think I prefer the texture of chocolate mousse to chocolate souffle, but it was still an awesome dessert; worth the wait.

The check was accompanied by the final complimentary course from the chef. It was a plate with two types of nut-based cookies (really small ones). The first tasted like chocolate and peanut butter and seemed to have some sort of firm ganache in between two wafers (like a fancy version of these). The second one was a teensy macaroon. If I had to guess, I'd say hazelnut with candied lemon filling.

It was such a nice dinner. The food was great, and I love getting complimentary food from the chef. You never know what you'll get! Patrick and I are lucky we get to go places like this. We appreciate it :)

At dinner a guy at the table next to us was talking about how Cabo has the best golf. The way he said it made us cringe. I don't want us to turn into people like that, who talk about their BMWs and golf vacations and stuff. I guess I just don't want to be all materialistic. But I like going out to nice restaurants and fancy farmer's markets and stuff. I don't know; I think we're doing fine so far.

In other news, we've just recently tried stroopwafels for the first time. I don't know how we went this long without encountering them. They're yummy, especially with tea, as the Internet recommends! I foresee us buying many more in the future.

I happened upon the stroopwafels when I was buying seaweed and bonito flakes for miso soup at Nak's Oriental Market. I was looking for some sort of Dutch treat to bring home to Patrick, and the stroopwafels looked appealing. I'd had no idea that we had a store like Nak's in Menlo Park until I started searching for one online. It was on a street we'd never walked down, along with an interesting-looking Singaporean restaurant (Shiok!) and a new store selling Italian ceramics. I need to walk down more side streets! Anyway, Nak's is the kind of place I'm happy to have in Menlo Park, and I'm going to make a point of buying all my specialty Asian (and Dutch) foods from them so they stick around. It's a tiny place, crammed with all sorts of foods packaged in languages I can't understand, as well as good-looking produce and sushi-grade fish (and pre-made seaweed salad--yum!). The guy working the counter was very friendly and helpful, and they had everything I was looking for. Yay for local businesses!

Also, Patrick and I have acquired some hippie bags and are using them instead of getting plastic/paper bags from the grocery store. It makes me feel good, plus we get up to 5 cents refund per bag, depending on which store we're at (Draegers is 5 cents, Safeway is 3). Is there a word for hippie + yuppie? Like people who shop at fancy farmer's markets and get organic produce boxes delivered to their homes? Patrick suggests eco-yuppie. I'd prefer to be unique and original, but I'm pretty sure we're acting like stereotypical Bay Area twenty-somethings. It's a good life though, and I'm glad we live in an area that fits our needs (except for those stupid housing prices--how will we ever be able to own a home?). Now all we need is a hybrid car, and we'll be set.

Speaking of eco-friendly modes of transportation, Bike to Work Day is coming up next week. I'm going to ride to work this year (last year I considered it but wussed out). We only live ~7 miles from my work, and it's all flat and mostly bike-friendly, so it should be fine. I'm hoping that I enjoy it so I can bike commute a few days a week. Patrick does it, and his commute is longer and harder than mine, so I should be able to bike to work too, especially during the summer!

Also, my brief trip to San Diego for the Regulatory Affairs course went well. The course wasn't about Regulatory Affairs as a career, which is what I was expecting. It was more a summary of FDA regulations for the medical device industry, which was useful information to have, but I'm still a little unclear on what a career in Regulatory Affairs entails. From what I've learned so far, it seems like it could be a stressful job, since it's your responsibility to make sure your company complies with FDA regulations. That's a big responsibility. But I do like following rules and being safe!

As predicted, I didn't do much fun stuff while there. I didn't rent a car, so I spent all my time at the hotel or in class or walking between the two. I enjoyed it though. I took a bubble bath and watched TV and drank tea. And I went out to dinner at Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens, a nice restaurant tucked in between all the big tall corporate buildings in the area. I sat out on the patio next to a big koi pond, ate a really tasty ahi tuna burger and watched a duck eat a tortilla chip (I also saw lots of bunnies on my walks to and from class!). It was relaxing, though it felt a little weird eating by myself. Anyway, it was a nice restaurant with good food and friendly service. I'd go back again if I were in the area.

Things I meant to post about sooner:

Last Sunday, we had some friends over for a birthday barbeque. It was a good time! We had farmer's market strawberries and pita and hummus to start. Then our grillmasters grilled some farmer's market asparagus and two big hulking Fred's steaks. We figured there'd be steak leftovers, but people ate them all up! I don't blame them--that's some good steak. I think Fred's steak tastes better grilled than baked (which is how I prepared it last time). Yum! People had also brought various hot dogs (including an assortment of Top Dogs), which we ate as our second meat course.

We were all pretty full at that point, but we luckily had enough room for birthday cake, which Patrick got at Miette (he trekked all the way up to the city just for me--what a man!). It was their gingerbread cake, which is my favorite, and it was decorated adorably, of course. He also brought back an assortment of their macaroons (or macarons, if you'd prefer), which are light and chewy and delicious.

It was a good birthday barbeque and a good birthday weekend. Patrick takes good care of me :)

We spent the first half of this week subsisting on leftover Top Dog and kraut. When the barbeque leftovers ran out, we made Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon with roast asparagus and mashed potatoes. It's definitely a tasty way to prepare salmon, and we got to use our saucier!

Our garden is doing pretty well. We had a major aphid infestation for awhile (though they didn't seem to be damaging any of the plants, just hanging out). Most of them seem to have died now, so now we have dead white aphids all over the place. I don't know if they died because it was the end of their life cycle or if we've got some parisitic wasps taking up residence on our patio. Whatever it is, I'm glad the aphids are gone for now.

However, as soon as the aphids started dying, we had a new kind of bug show up in our garden. I wasn't able to identify it (Update: I've been informed it's a juvenile ladybug. That's a surprise!). It has six legs and no wings. It looks kind of spiky like a caterpillar. They were all over the place during our barbeque, which was unfortunate, but they seem to have cleared out since then. I tried to take a picture of one, but it was crawling too fast:

I wonder what kind of infestation we'll have next! Maybe it's about time for cabbage worms to come back, though we're not growing collard greens this year.

We took yesterday off from work and spent the day enjoying nature up in Marin County. It was a great way to spend a Friday :)

We started out our morning at McEvoy Ranch (they make olive oil), attending a tour organized by MALT (it was our first experience with MALT; I found out about them while looking for tours of the Straus Family Creamery).

It was a little tough finding the place (though I love driving around agricultural areas, so I was happy), but we made it there in time. We really liked the gate leading into the ranch--I wonder if Patrick could make something like that using his welding skills. There was a large stone bunny with a very wise but menacing expression on its face guarding the gate (it looked like something Michael Sowa might draw). I tried to take a picture of it as we drove through, but it's a little hard to see.

There were about 25 people there for the tour. A good number of them were probably retired, but there were a few people around our age as well.

McEvoy Ranch is beautiful. There are rolling green hills surrounding it (planted with olive trees, of course) and a lake populated with noisy geese, ducks and swans. They had a row of olive trees in pots along the edge of the lake, each labeled with the variety and country of origin (almost all were from Italy).

Here's a lizard on a hippopotamus rock:

First we stood around and were told about MALT and McEvoy Ranch. MALT is part of the effort to keep Marin County full of farms and wide open spaces instead of filling it with houses and shopping centers. I support that. We'll have to go on more of their tours, as we really enjoyed this one. McEvoy Ranch was started by a former chairwoman at the SF Chronicle who decided she wanted to live in Marin. In order to make any changes to the land she bought, she had to do something agricultural with it. So she decided to start making Tuscan-style olive oil and brought in an expert from Italy and just did it. And it worked!

We went over to one of the olive orchards and learned about the different seasons of olive growing and how they harvest the olives and all that. They're certified organic, so they are limited in what they can do to control pests, etc. The girl who told us about the olive trees had a really cute belt buckle and a good straw hat for being out in the sun. In fact, all the women at the ranch but one had good hats. I guess you need stuff like that when you work on a ranch.

After learning about the olive growing process, we went into the mill and learned how they make olive oil. All their machines are from Italy. One of the cool things about their operation is that they take all the solid waste from the oil-making process and compost it and then apply it to the trees. Apparently it's hard to compost olive oil waste because of the olive pits, but some guy at McEvoy Ranch figured it out. Good stuff!

They seem like a good company. Local olive growers can come use the mill to make olive oil, because the owner believes in supporting local agriculture.

Next, we went into the gift shop/tasting area and sampled their olive oil. First we slurped it (they described it as grassy and peppery, and I agree with that assessment), and then we had some drizzled on some French bread spread with Cowgirl Creamery fromage blanc (yum!). We also sampled some of their lemon marmalade (made with Meyer lemons grown on the ranch), which was delicious.

And that was the end of the tour. We considered buying something from them (in addition to the olive oil and marmalade, they sell olive oil soap and hand salve and other olive-related items), but we already have a bottle of Tuscan-style olive oil from Tuscany itself that we have been afraid to use (you know when you get something from far away and then you don't want to use it because it'll be gone and you won't be able to get more?). But once we've used up that olive oil (and we will, since it turns out olive oil is best used as soon as you get it), we'll buy some McEvoy Ranch olive oil (available at Whole Foods, among other places). They're the kind of company I'd like to support.

A few more pictures from around the ranch:

After the tour ended, it was lunchtime, so we drove over to Point Reyes Station, where Tomales Bay Foods (home to Cowgirl Creamery) is located. The original plan was to get food for a picnic and then take it to the beach, but we were both hungry and decided to eat at the grassy picnic area behind the Tomales Bay Food building (which used to be a barn).

We briefly watched the cheese making process (but there wasn't really much to see) and considered buying some cheese, but we were a little intimidated by all the choices (and the possibility that the cheese would have to sit in our car all afternoon before getting to a refrigerator). Instead, we bought sandwiches from the Cowgirl Cantina. Patrick got a sandwich with grilled chicken breast, gremoulade (some sort of lemon-parsley pesto), tomatoes and Cowgirl Creamery fromage blanc (second CC fromage blanc encounter of the day). I got a sandwich of Ohlone smoked trout, arugula, pickled red onions and Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam (a triple cream cheese that is just the best thing ever. Mmm! We'll definitely have to buy this next time we have a need for melty oozy creamy delicious cheese). It was super tasty. We also split a farro salad that contained edamame, cherry tomatoes and shallots and was dressed with what I believe was McEvoy Ranch olive oil, since it had the same grassy, peppery taste (they sold McEvoy Ranch products there, so it's very possible that's what they used). I love salads that have grains and beans in them! We washed it all down with sparkling pink lemonade. It was an awesome lunch, and the picnic area was really pleasant. There were bales of hay to sit on, as well as a few tables, and people brought their dogs there and sat around and chatted. Just a pleasant place to hang out.

For dessert, we walked over to Bovine Bakery (apparently a favorite of cyclists in the area) and split a big ginger cookie. Yum! Point Reyes Station is a tiny town, but it's got some good places to sit and enjoy life!

Our next destination was Tomales Bay State Park for a little post-lunch hiking (though at the time, we would've preferred some post-lunch napping). We got a little lost, but eventually we found it. We were the only ones there. I guess people don't normally go hiking at 2pm on a Friday.

The hike started out a little harder than expected (too much uphill stuff!), but then things evened out, and it was pleasant. We saw a deer up ahead of us at one point. We stopped at Pebble Beach (a very modest and pebble-y beach) and appreciated the lapping waves for a little bit, and then we continued on. The trail went through the group picnic area, which looked nice. There was a bench looking out over the bay in one of the picnic areas, so we spent a little time relaxing there. Then we walked over to Heart's Desire Beach, but it wasn't very exciting (or maybe we were tired of looking at Tomales Bay by that point), so we headed back to our car.

We made a half-hearted attempt to go visit the Point Reyes lighthouse, but it was a long drive out, and it closed at 4:30, so we gave up halfway there and turned around. Maybe we'll visit it next time. Lighthouses don't interest me hugely, but I'd like to visit one someday, just to see what it's like.

It was dinnertime, so we drove back up the road to the Olema Inn and Restaurant (I'd picked it out as our dinner destination the night before), which is pretty close to Point Reyes Station. As with the state park, we were the only ones there initially (though people did start showing up at the restaurant after a while, whereas we only saw one other group of people at the park the whole time we were there).

I really liked their decorating scheme--very simple white walls and table linens with dark hardwood floors and chairs. It was very clean-looking. Our waiter was nice enough. He made a joke about stinging nettles while telling us the specials (I guess stinging nettles must be a big springtime item, as we've kept running into them on menus in the last few weeks).

I ordered a cranberry spritzer to drink, which came with the best-smelling lime slice ever, as a garnish. Maybe limes always smell that good, and I just never have them that close to my nose. Anyway, I very much enjoyed my beverage. Patrick got an iced tea which tasted weird--bitter, but not like tea--maybe soapy? He said he's had another iced tea that tasted like that, so maybe it's just a type of tea that tastes funny. That was too bad.

I started with a salad of Bolinas organic lettuces, Cowgirl Creamery fromage blanc (yes, third time that day!), candied kumquats, pistachios and ver jus vinaigrette. It was delicious. Candied kumquats taste a lot like apricots. Yum! Patrick had the Dungeness crab salad with pancetta, celery root, fennel and truffle vinaigrette. He enjoyed it. The crunchiness of the pancetta was disarmingly similar to that of stray bits of crab shell, but once we figured out that the salad was supposed to be crunchy and did not contain any crab shell bits, it was more enjoyable.

Our entrees had similar springtime elements. I had tombo tuna (seared just a little bit) with forbidden rice, fiddlehead ferns, fava beans (yum!), asparagus, Dungeness crab and candy cap beurre blanc. I love beurre blanc. I wasn't sure what they meant by candy cap, but the beurre blanc tasted like maple syrup or vanilla or something equally delicious and creamy. Turns out candy cap is a kind of mushroom that tastes like maple syrup. Crazy! Patrick had fresh pasta with fiddlehead ferns, fava beans, morels, English peas and squash in a garlic cream sauce.

We finished by splitting a strawberry shortcake with honey-mascarpone filling (or maybe honey-mascarpone pastry; it was unclear). The strawberries used were small and bright red, but not super flavorful. But the shortcake and filling were delicious, so it was still an enjoyable dessert.

All in all, we enjoyed our dinner very much, and I'd happily go back to Olema Inn if we were in the area again. All in all, it was a great day, spent enjoying nature (and food!). I'd love to do something similar again in the future.

This morning, we rode to and from my work, as a trial run for Bike to Work Day this Thursday. It's a pretty easy ride, and much of it is on the Bryant Bike Boulevard, which has very few cars and lots of pretty houses with well-kept gardens. I'm lucky to have a such a pleasant bike commute. It's about 6 miles each way, which is totally manageable. It was still kind of scary sharing the road with cars, but it should be fine. If Thursday goes well, I should definitely consider bike commuting a few days a week this summer. It would require a change in routine (I'm pretty resistant to changing my routine), but it would be good for me and the environment. We'll see.

We had a very colorful dinner a few nights ago: Fish with Pineapple Chutney, Cauliflower with Curry Sauce and Golden Basmati Rice. All recipes from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites (for once, I can't find all the recipes online!).

Both of us really liked the cauliflower. I was a big fan of the rice (I added golden raisins, which made it even better), but Patrick was unmoved. Neither of us liked the fish much.

I rode my bike to and from work today, for Bike to Work Day. I really enjoyed my morning ride, but the ride back home was harder. The sun was shining in my eyes and my bag was heavy and I was tired. But I'd definitely like to do it again. My plan is to bike to work every Friday.

Guess what I won at the Bike to Work Day raffle at work? Streamers! They're going to make riding my bike more fun, though perhaps not more dignified. I'm so excited!