A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition | Date: 2005

Hubby flew down to California and we spent the weekend relaxing and running some California errands. Last night we went to dinner with my brother-in-law and sister who graciously let me stay with them while I am in California. Nick and Vera have hearts bigger than big and we love and appreciate them very much.

We went to Zov’s Bistro.  Wonderful food and great conversation.  Gary, one of the owners, introduced us to golden berries.   This is the only thing I took a picture of at dinner!  Go figure!

Cape gooseberry Fruit of the herbaceous perennial Chinese lantern Physalis peruviana, P. pubescens, or P. edulis, resembling small cherry, surrounded by dry, bladder‐like calyx. Also known as golden berry, Peruvian cherry, and ground tomato. Dwarf Cape gooseberry (strawberry tomato or ground cherry) is P. pruinosa. A 100‐g portion is a rich source of vitamin C and a source of vitamin A (as carotene);

My birthday week was quite the busy, fun filled week!  Monday, Michelle, Ryan and Melissa took me out to dinner at the Napa Rose at Disneyland!  They were sneaky and treated me to this extravagant meal!  Thanks you guys! We finished the evening off with a cup of coffee and beignets dipped in powdered sugar while watching the firework show!  Delightful way to start the week of birthday joy!

Tuesday night was a fabulous dinner at my mom and dad’s!  The wonderful dessert shown above is a cheese and strawberry crepe with chocolate sauce!  My sisters Kathy and Vera were there along with my SIL Kelly and my beautiful nieces: Debbee, Michelle and Melissa.

Wednesday night I went to the Cheesecake Factory with Deb and Miss for the Cheesecake Factory’s 30 year anniversary special – $1.50 a slice of any cheesecake they sell!

My oh my this is going to get interesting if I keep this dining lifestyle up!

Then to top the week off, Thursday night our office had a party at Ruth’s Chris Steak House since we have 4 birthdays in July!

I think this week I will stick to salads and fruit!

Flew home last night and had a hankering for a steak dinner. So, went to the Palamino restaurant in Bellevue.  Check out the deliciousness…

Yummy steak!  But check out the size of hubbies raviolis!

Unbelievable!

We went to our friend’s house last night for a casual BBQ dinner and I was in charge of the salad.  I wanted to bring a hearty salad; one that could be considered a side dish.  So, I looked on the internet and then came up with my own in a hurry – lazy broccoli salad:

I bought the broccoli/cauliflower florets in a ready to use bag along with pre-diced red onions and a bunch of red seedless grapes.  I broke down the florets into bite sized pieces mixed it with a quarter cup of the diced red onions and cut about a cup of the red grapes in half.

The dressing consisted of a cup of mayo, 3 tablespoons champagne vinegar and 1 tablespoon sugar mixed together.  Combine the dressing with the broccoli/cauliflower, red onion and grapes and put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  When you are ready to serve the salad mix in the cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds to your liking and dig in! Delicious!

While you are waiting for the salad ingredients to get to know one another, you can make pecan thumbprint cookies…

I will share this recipe when I get back to Washington! Wait for it…

Friday evening, my sister and I went to a nice little wine cafe for happy hour before I went to pick up hubby from the airport.  Happy hour is a great way to have a scrumptious light meal for almost half the price.  The nice part about a light meal, is you can say yes to dessert!  Life is too short to say no to dessert!  

The Happy Wonderer had the lovely scampi fennel salad and I had the hanger steak on a pesto flat bread! Both were delicious. Our dessert was a warm blueberry and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream – a little something sweet to end the meal!

Lovely meal, lovely fellowship on a gorgeous day in Washington – what more  could you ask for?

How about a gorgeous sunset on Lake Washington…