I'm very much enjoying my four-day weekend (poor Patrick has to go to work tomorrow, but at least he gets Tuesday off). Here's some stuff we've done so far:

On Friday night, we had dinner at King of Krung Siam in Mountain View. I had the pad thai with combination seafood. The pad thai was pretty standard--nothing special--but I was impressed by the amount and variety of the seafood included. Crab claws, squid, shrimp, scallops and huge mussels! After dinner, we saw Superman Returns. It was entertaining. I think the casting of Parker Posey as Lex Luthor's lady friend was spot on (the rest of the casting was good too, but she stood out to me as being just right for the part).

Yesterday we went to the Marin County Fair. It had all the requisite elements of a fair (except for mini donuts--poor Patrick had to eat funnel cake instead!), but it wasn't as great as I'd imagined it would be. I guess things like that are better when you're younger.

Things I liked at the fair:

• The live entertainment. We got to see some clogging (they weren't wearing wooden clogs, which was sort of sad; instead they attach metal taps to the bottom of regular shoes) and a breakdance/hip-hop competition. Very different types of dancing, but both were enjoyable to watch. There were also performances by Nelson and Eddie Money, but we only heard those from a distance.
  
  
• The food. Many of the vendors had healthy options (marked by a grinning cartoon apple with a bite taken out of his head), so we were able to eat tasty, healthy food at the fair (ignoring Patrick's funnel cake). We both had vegetarian tamales (with seitan inside, I believe) with sesame-oil-dressed coleslaw on the side. We also shared an ear of delicious roasted sweet corn. Yum!
  
  
• The fireworks. They had some nice sparkly ones that were especially pretty. And there was plenty of space on the lawn around the lagoon so it was easy finding a good spot from which to watch them.

Things that I found disappointing at the fair:

• The rides. They were gaudier and more rickety-looking than I'd expected. We ended up only going on the ferris wheel. The ride itself was pleasant enough, but there was a super-drunk couple in front of us in line, and when the ride operator wouldn't let them on the ferris wheel, the drunk guy took a swing at him and yelled a few racial epithets as he was dragged away. Not so fun.
  
  
• The marketplace. Everything being sold at the fair looked pretty crappy. Booth after booth of scarves, poorly-made turquoise jewelry, henna tattoos and airbrushed stuff. Good thing we didn't have a kid with us, or else we would've come home laden with crap. The most popular item being toted around by children was a large inflatable machine gun covered in an American flag motif with "USA" printed on the side. At the fireworks, there was a cute towheaded little girl in her pajamas walking around pointing her patriotic gun at everybody, just like her big brother. Ugh.
  
  
• The barnyard. I was looking forward to the barnyard area, as there were events such as Cow Milking, Sheep Shearing and Mini-Horse Driving on the schedule. I had mixed feelings about it when I actually got there. It was exciting to see all the cute farm animals, but they didn't seem too happy. I guess I'd romanticized farm activities in my mind, and the reality isn't so nice. The sheep bleated pitifully as they were sheared, and bulls were kept in a pen marked "beef" instead of "cows." There were plates of chicken carcasses on display in the middle of a tent containing live chickens. The girl demonstrating the cow milking machine stated matter-of-factly that once the cows stop being useful for milk, they're sent to become McDonalds hamburgers. It just all seemed so stark. But I guess it's good that they were presenting things truthfully.

There were also things that were mildly enjoyable, like the exhibit hall full of various home arts items that people had entered in hopes of winning a blue ribbon. Here's a display of various preserved items:

I'm glad we went, but I don't think I'll feel the need to go to a fair for a few more years at least.

Today was a normal Sunday. Patrick rode his bike really far (over the mountains to Pescadero and back), and I walked to the farmers' market and to Draegers for a few groceries. For dinner I made Spicy Shrimp Kabobs (broiled instead of grilled), Brown Rice and Edamame and Stir-fried Baby Bok Choy.

Everything was good, and I'll probably hang onto the recipes to make them again later. I was a little disappointed with the brown rice. I was hoping it would turn out like the brown rice salad I had at Millennium, and it just wasn't quite right. Not fluffy enough. The chowhound thread linked to above had a few suggestions on how to prepare brown rice, so I think if I keep at it, I'll find a good method sooner or later.

I did lots of cooking (for fun) yesterday while Patrick was at work. For dinner we had Christmas lima beans with leeks and andouille sausage, Creamy Macaroni Salad, and Cabbage Salad (the latter two from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites).

The macaroni salad turned out well, but the cabbage salad wasn't very good. As with the Good Mother Stallards, I was slightly disappointed to find that the beans, once cooked, just tasted like beans (but the texture was good, the beans were humongous, and they were so pretty prior to cooking!). Luckily, the addition of leeks and sausage made them yummy! We have 6 more servings of plain cooked limas in the fridge, so I need to figure out what to do with those.

For dessert, we had tapioca pudding from scratch. Last week I bought some pearl tapioca for fun. It turns out that making tapioca pudding from pearl tapioca is time-intensive! Next time I'll get the minute tapioca instead. I had to soak the pearls overnight, and the pudding-making process took ~1.5 hours after that. At least the finished product turned out well. The only thing I'd change was that the recipe calls for beating two egg whites until stiff and then folding in the pudding, but that yielded an overly-light and fluffy texture that we didn't like. We prefer dense and creamy tapioca. Easily remedied whenever I make it again. Here's a glamour shot of the tapioca prettied up with mango slices and a mint leaf (the mango and tapioca flavors actually didn't go together so well, so I ate them separately after taking the picture).

I had also bought some gooseberries on a whim (I need to cut back on the impulse buys, I think). They were so pretty, and they reminded me of a picture book I had when I was little that had drawings of all sorts of different berries, including the elusive gooseberry.

Once I started looking for recipes online, I found out that green gooseberries are too tart to eat alone and are usually made into jams or pies. I decided to make Spiced Gooseberries, since they weren't too much fun to eat plain. The finished product isn't very attractive, but it actually tastes okay. It's sweet-tart, kind of like apricot jam.

I'm not sure if it will actually get eaten, since I'm on a diet and don't want to squander my precious calories, and Patrick probably won't eat it of his own accord. Plus I can't think of anything good to eat it with. So, no more buying gooseberries for fun, unless I have a specific recipe in mind!

This morning, Patrick made us 10-grain waffles (using Bob's Red Mill 10-grain cereal), at my request, since I'm a big fan of whole grains at the moment. They turned out very hearty (inevitable, given the 10-grain cereal and whole wheat flour in the recipe he used). Not bad though...

After breakfast, we walked downtown to see the Menlo Park 4th of July parade. It's basically a bunch of kids on decorated bicycles/tricycles/wagons riding down our main street. There were also a few all-American dogs in the parade, and even a goat! Sadly, we didn't get a picture of the goat, just some people.

This was followed by lunch at Left Bank (one of the few restaurants open) and lazing around at home. We're going to stay in and grill up some burgers (ham- for Patrick, veggie- for me) for dinner. I made a low-fat chocolate Bundt cake for dessert, using the Chocolate Cocoa Cake recipe from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites. I know, what an awful thing to do to a chocolate cake, making it low-fat. I just wanted to make a Bundt cake, and it seemed wise to make something I could actually eat without messing up my diet. We'll see if it's any good...

Maybe next time I get the urge to make a Bundt cake, I'll do it up right. There's a recipe for Sweet Potato Bundt Cake in In the Sweet Kitchen that looks yummy. Double the calories, but maybe worth it...

Dinner was good (Patrick's hamburgers were yummier than my veggie burger, unsurprisingly). Patrick had cheddar and grilled onions on his burgers. We had leftover macaroni salad and cabbage salad on the side.

The chocolate cake was unremarkable and a little dry (but with one of the suggested glazes/toppings, it probably would've been better). I reduced some frozen mixed berries and a little sugar to make a berry topping. Not bad...

Courtesy of Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, we had a tasty but unusual dinner tonight. We had Five-Spice Brown Rice topped with Sweet and Sour Lentils, with Japanese Sesame Spinach on the side. Incidentally, if you're interested in any of the Moosewood recipes that aren't online, let me know and I'll email them to you.

The spinach was pretty good, but it seemed unnecessarily gussied up. We would've liked it just fine without any sugar in it. The five-spice rice was very flavorful. At first bite, it seemed a little too potent, but after that it tasted mellower. The lentils turned out well. Definitely sweet, but not overly so. Both of us had the same reaction--we liked the lentils and rice, but they were kind of strange. I'd probably make them again though.

The highlight of our dinner was the dessert--olallieberry cobbler! You see, this morning we went berry picking at Webb Ranch (the outing was organized by the Stanford alumni club of Palo Alto, but it would've been cheaper if we'd just gone on our own). It was the first time either of us had been berry picking. We got kind of hot and tired, but it was enjoyable. And we came home with three pints of yummy berries.

Patrick with a few choice blackberries:

Me taking my job very seriously:

Our fingers were stained with berry juice by the end:

Close-up of the berries (raspberries, butte blackberries, and olallieberries):

Conveniently enough, I'd run across a recipe for blackberry cobbler yesterday. I quartered the recipe and used all of the olallieberries, plus a few blackberries, to make individual cobblers (the butte blackberries tasted marginally better than the olallies, so we decided to keep the former for eating plain). Because I was making individual servings, I made smaller biscuits, decreased the biscuit cooking time to 13 minutes, and decreased the berry+biscuit baking time to 15 minutes.

The cobbler turned out great! The biscuit topping was moist, fluffy, and flavorful. I can't wait to eat the remaining tiny cobblers tomorrow!

Too bad berry season is almost over; I'd love to make this again in a month or two. Still, I'm glad we got to enjoy summer's bounty!

Yesterday failed to live up to my expectations. I was hoping to have a relaxed, laid-back kind of Saturday. I walked over to Menlo Medical Clinic first thing in the morning to get a little blood drawn for a routine cholesterol test. I'd been putting it off for months now and was happy to finally be able to cross it off my to-do list. The blood drawing part went okay (it took the lady a few pokes to get it right, which wasn't fun). On my walk home I suddently felt woozy and faint (like a really bad headrush) and kind of blacked out and realized I was standing in the middle of the street (luckily it was a small street and there were no cars or people around). In retrospect, I was probably dehydrated (it was a hot night, and I hadn't had much water in the morning), plus I hadn't eaten anything because I was required to fast prior to the blood test. It was just weird, because I felt fine walking out of the clinic, and then all of a sudden I felt really wrong. I made it home by walking slowly and stopping to sit down on the curb every half a block or so. I should've just called Patrick to come and get me, but that seemed like it would require too much effort at the time. It was scary not to be in control of my body. Thankfully, I felt fine after drinking lots of water and eating breakfast. Lesson learned.

It was really hot yesterday, and I decided to make three Russian-inspired dishes from The New Moosewood Cookbook for dinner (Solyanka, Odessa Beets and Balkan Cucumber Salad), to use up a big bag of potatoes we'd gotten in our box. I figured that having the oven on for a little bit wouldn't be so bad. I underestimated how long it would take and ended up spending 3 or 4 hours preparing dinner in our sweltering kitchen, and it was totally not worth the effort. How disappointing. Next time we should just have sandwiches.

But none of that matters because it's a beautiful day so far today, and I get another day of weekend to do whatever I please. And I'm working on a big entry about our recent trip to Seattle and Portland, which makes me happy. Today will be better than yesterday!