My, my at Waterloo/Napoleon did surrender...

"Oh yeah and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way."

At Sandrini's in Bakersfield eating Eggplant Napoleon. Sort of a hole in the wall Italian restaurant downtown on Eye Street. The kind of place you walk by and have no idea what's inside unless you walk down the stairs to check it out. It's always better to support small business over slick and generic chain restaurants.
The bruschetta trio was unique with a traditional bruschetta and two different types of tapenade. An in-house made sun dried tomato vinaigrette was served over greens and topped with Gorgonzola! Chianti was a mild enough red for all at the table to enjoy. It's a little loud for visiting (pool table in the bar!), but maybe that's best when dining with in-laws...ha ha
Now for the entrees: the kids' linguini and meatballs was a big enough portion for a lumberjack! My eggplant Napoleon was a tower of fried eggplant plastered together with mozzarella and a marinara with a bit of zip. I was so STUFFED I actually could not finish my plate! I surrender!!!!
WATERLOO! I feel like I win when I looooooose! Couldn't escape if I wanted to....

Green Onions (the only song I could find about onions)

I'm sick.
Yes, I have the entire week off and instead of having fun or crossing tasks off my "To Do" list I'm battling a cold and puttering around the house or napping. I puttered at my sewing machine and that about wore me out. However, prior to getting sick, I planned and purchased all the ingredients for French Onion Soup and I wasn't going to let sinus pressure come between me and my crock of cheesy happiness. It's a puttering type of recipe (Nigella would be proud) and so my hazy state of mind might have been perfect for watching onions cook for an hour.
This was my first attempt at making this soup and it was easy (although time consuming) and I was told it tasted "perfect." Even the kiddos loved it (of course we called it "French NOODLE Soup" and let them make false assumptions).
I combined Julia Child's and Ina Garten's recipes. Here it goes:

Sauté the following for a couple minutes and then lower heat to low-med, put lid on and cook for 15 minutes:

6 or 7 large YELLOW onions, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick (8 cups)

One T. olive oil and one stick unsalted butter (Hi Paula! Hey gurl!)

One (or 2 or 3) bay leaves

Now, off comes the lid and stir in 1 tsp. kosher salt and 1/4 tsp. sugar (browns the onions). Raise heat to med-high and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often, until onions are a deep, golden brown.

Deglaze pan with 3/4 cup sherry and 3/4 cup cognac/brandy. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add one cup dry white wine and simmer uncovered for an additional 15 minutes.

But wait, you're not done!

Add 8 cups beef stock, plus more kosher salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Take out bay leaf (oops, I forgot-surprise!) and taste to adjust seasoning.

Here comes the fun part:
Using broiler safe soup crocks, ladle soup into bowls. Shove in stale (or toasted) French bread and top with 3 slices baby Swiss cheese. I'm sure Gruyere will taste better, but I wasn't willing to spend the $. Put all crocks on a cookie sheet and broil for exactly 6 minutes.

Three days later (figuratively speaking) and YUM!

Come together...right now...

Hollywood would lead you to believe that an ethnically and racially diverse school can only come together in unity by singing oldies in the locker room before the big game...or worse yet, students can only work together when a self sacrificing teacher gives up her personal life, savings, evenings and weekends (of course Hollywood doesn't tell you these teachers work in a classroom for only four years and then they become "motivational speakers"). I'm here to tell you, that in a diverse school we come together for Food Fair!!!!!
I now have Food Fair Indigestion, but it was worth it at the time!

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Our last day in NY: time to cram in all the unchecked items on our "To Do" list.
Shopping for fabric in the garment district..found Metro Textiles after reading about it on several sewing blogs. Patricio (sp?) knew where to find anything I was looking for. Double knits? Silks? Cottons? No problem! Although I'm excited about all my fabrics, I'm particularly stoked about a blue/yellow taffeta that looks like a dupioni silk.
South Seaport...such beautiful views of the harbor, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge and historic Brooklyn Heights. We had a seafood lunch overlooking the harbor and I had my favorite mussels and Brooklyn Lager. Jett asked for a bite of my mussels and he LOVED them. That's my boy!
Great shopping prices...David found great deals on suits he really needed. Now to bring them home. Yikes! Where will they fit?
Of course we crammed in a couple more playgrounds...David needed the exercise.
Ice skating in Central Park...Jett really wanted to ice skate, but it wasn't as easy as it looked. You can take the six year old out of Cali, but you can't teach him to ice skate in one hour. Poor guy will be feeling it tomorrow.
Then it was more thin crust, NY pizza and off to bed...good night NY!

Ch-ch-changes

"It seemed the taste was not so sweet."

We switched things up and rented a car to tour and visit friends at the Watchtower facilities at Patterson and Wallkill in upstate New York. Of course we got a late start, but as long as everything went flawlessly, we'd still make lunch with our friends, which is served at precisely 12:15. So we were making great time and then Jorja puked all over herself. We didn't have so much as a tissue in the car to clean her up with so we pulled over and took the time to clean her up and went on our way. We missed lunch...
As for Jorja, seems like it was just motion sickness and although a little bratty and cranky, she was fine the rest of the day. However, I didn't get as many pics as I would've liked because I was tending to her. David did get some nice shots I'll have to post later.
Once you get about ten minutes out of the city it's a completely different world. They still have the changing colors of fall, but with a pastoral background and rolling hills (which is probably why Jorja barfed). The little towns are quaint and Starbuckless. The east coast seems to have a deeper appreciation for preserving the past.
Our friends at Patterson took great care of us and then we had dinner at Walkill Bethel with other old friends. We also made one of the last tours of the printing presses, which were pretty cool due to their cutting edge technology. We ended the evening with a nice visit over dessert and a freshly brewed, strong cup of Italian roast. Who needs Starbucks when you have good friends?

Hakuna Matata

"Means 'no worries' for the rest of your days!"

Would you believe I walked my kids, all by myself, back to Central Park!?!? The kids loved the playground so much I did the self sacrificing thing and revisited the area. That and I left my credit card at the Central Park Zoo. Groan....

I can see why all the nannies take their charges to Manhttan's largest park. The trees, pond and lawn areas are beautiful! My charges had a great time playing and drinking NY fountain water-the tap water here is surprisingly good.

After a day of play we cleaned up for dinner at Carmine's (a theatre district Buca Di Beppo) to go to the theatre...Lion King! That took up a paycheck, but hey-Hakuna Matata! Seriously, that show alone was worth the trip to NY. The African-inspired music and old world puppetry was flawless. The kiddos were on the edge of their seats. Like the geek I am, I was full of regret that I didn't bring my Lion King charm bracelet. We did get drinks in commemorative cups. Drinking wine out of a non-clear sippy cup is soooooo high school, but now I have a cup to carry around school for bragging rights. As in:
"Jeanine, nice cup! Where did you see Lion King?"
[nonchalantly] "New York."
"When did you go to New York?"
[excitedly] "Last week! Do you have a minute? First, we went to..."

You get the idea.

I Like My Chicken Fried

"Cold beer on a Friday night..."

What many people don't know about David is he is a white boy trapped inside of a dark boy. He has some roots in North Carolina, where many aunts, uncles and cousins still live. When looking at David one would never guess that he is third cousins with Ernest from the Ernest movies (true story).
So, imagine his delight when we walk into Brother Jimmy's BBQ and it's all things North Carolina-they even serve his favorite soda/childhood memory called "Cheerwine." Of course I was thrilled too because as a Paula Deen fan, I'm a fried chicken connoisseur.

As the evening progressed, David enlightened me on the topic of North Carolina BBQ. It is only BBQ if it's pork. BBQ is not throwing something on the grill, but rather it is slow cooking. And NC BBQ sauce is a red vinegar like sauce...thin, not thick.. Much like the coleslaw, which is not really sweet, but red and tangy.
We ordered hush puppies, BBQ (pulled pork), fried chicken, fried brussel sprouts, collard greens and corn brea. And did I mention kids eat free? They devoured their chicken and Mac n cheese. Pictured below is the last teaspoon of Mac n cheese a generous Jorja offered me.

Long live the confederation!

Empire State of Mind

"Yeah, yeah I'm upa at Brooklyn, now I'm down at TriBeCa...and since I made it here I can make it anywhere..."

About 17 years ago, I was traveling with a friend to a hair show in Woodland Hills, near L.A. On the way back, she was telling me her life story and I was completely engrossed in it while I drove us home to Visalia. A couple hours later, still listening, I looked out the window and thought to myself, the trees blowing in the ocean wind are so beautiful. Then I thought to myself, there was no ocean on the Grapevine on the way down! Come to find out we were in Santa Barbara-on the coast.
Today I had a similar feeling as we (just me and the kids-David working) rode the subway to Central Park Zoo and I looked out the window and admired the stoic Brooklyn Bridge and the large body of water, as I thought to myself: there is no large body of water on the way to Central Park, nor is there a Brooklyn Bridge. So, instead of the Upper East Side we ended up in Brooklyn. I am not above asking for help, but every single person on the train was Chinese, Korean or asleep. (As a matter of fact, I'm 70% certain I saw Vera Wang and Sean Lennon on the subway.) Thank you iPhone for mapping us back on track.
We ended up having great weather and a fun filled day in Central Park. We also managed to visit the "Plaza" and find our new digs in the city (NOT the Plaza). Mommy rules!