Lovely Centerpiece

floral arrangement
by Linda Davick
For your dinner party this weekend, which would you rather use for your centerpiece? The factory-made flowers (above), or the spray of fresh flowers (below) from our garden?
















Me too! FYI: You can find it at Ross Dress for Less on Sloat, in the toy department. From the ello creation system kit; which contains over 100 pieces. Marked down to $3.98.

Beach Find of the Day

photo by Linda Davick

My Pal Sal

Left to Right: Salzini holding up shirt I want, Sally Moto holding up mojito
Everyone remembers My Pal Sal. (Also known as Salzer, Salwood, Salvador–and after last night, Salzini and Sally Moto.) She was in town today. We attended a class together at Puccini & Pinetti, so I didn't feel so guilty about leaving work early. After the wine tasting class, it happened to be Happy Hour. We moved to the bar and had some champagne. Incredibly delicious appetizers can be had for $3 at Puccini & Pinetti between 4:00 and 6:00. We ordered one pizza and one bruschetta. Both were extraordinary, and enough to make a meal.

We left and walked toward the Embarcadero, but cut down 2nd Street to Maya. We felt inexperienced–neither of us had even tasted a mojito in our whole lives. For your information, Happy Hour at Maya lasts until 7:00. We ordered our mojitos, and a double-decker platter of complimentary Mexican snacks appeared. It included 2 baby quesadillas, 2 tiny taquitos, 2 bites of tamale, and what I think was mole sauce on a big round tortilla. When we finished the tortilla, there was still quite a bit of mole sauce left. An overflowing basket of chips was set before us. All in all, enough to make a meal for sure.

When I got home, Tom had picked up Japanese from Day Boat Sushi on Balboa. Only some soup and 2 orders of sushi, but certainly enough to make a meal. I happened to look up between bites of eggplant nigiri, and here's what I saw:









e-mail from Aggles: Is “our pal Sal” Salzee (sp) from Knoxville? What happened w/ the guy w/ the “rug” that she was dating?
Aggles is referring to a man Salwood dated a long time ago. When Sal brought this particular guy over to our house for dinner, she called and warned us not to look at his head when she introduced him. Of course when the time came, our eyes went straight to his hairpiece.
But Aggles, Sal is now married to a great guy–not the one with the rug! His name is Pat. He's cute. He's a geek. He loves Apple computers and is here for the Apple Developers' Conference. This morning he's learning to make widgets. Plus, he's nice.

It's Not My Fault

photo by Linda Davick
Can I help it if Chef John calls us up and says: "Meet me at the back fence?" What am I supposed to say? "No, we're on a diet."? "No, we're vegetarian."? And now I'm fat, but it's worth it.

Did I mention that Chef John is the father of Chef Johnny? Chef Johnny is Executive Chef at Genentech. Last week Chef Johnny prepared lunch for that guy who's been hanging around town–Tony Blair. It goes without saying that Chef John taught Chef Johnny everything he knows. If there's one thing I love, it's a detailed description of food:

e-mail from Chef Johnny to Emmy: We fed Blair and 80 others of his staff. At Blair's table was Art Levinson, CEO of Genentech and 16 other CEO's of biotech firms. The food was peppercorn crusted fillet of beef with poached peaches, ruby port reduction sauce, herbed grilled polenta, summer melange of vegetables, gourmet sandwich skewers with house cured salmon, chicken rojo, turkey with brie/avocado, Italian Hero and a roasted ratatouille sandwich. Each sandwich was cut perfectly into little squares and put on a skewer. The garnish was champagne grapes, apricots, strawberries and figs. Tons of desserts....chocolate covered strawberries, petit fours, cream puffs, fruit tarts, chocolate trilogy cake with three mousses and passion fruit mousse on a bisquit. They enjoyed the food a lot. It was a good time.

A Sweet Deal

photo by Linda Davick
Last time Lawrence went on vacation, he went to Hong Kong. He asked us if we would move his car on street cleaning day. When he got back, he casually mentioned that he was planning to sell his car. We put it on our credit card the next day.

This time Lawrence went to Japan. He asked us if we would check on his house while he was gone. Today he brought this candy over to thank us, and casually mentioned that he was thinking about moving. He hasn't offered to sell us his house yet. That's good, because I don't think we can squeeze it on our credit card.

Seems Like Old Times

photo by Linda Davick
I couldn't believe my eyes. Spots was back on the beach today. (By that I mean Scott was back on the beach today.) We had walked about a quarter-mile, and there he was. Just sitting there, throwing the ball for Spots and her best friend Tipper.

It's been about a year and a half since we would run into Scott and Spots on the beach almost every day. Now Scott's out of the wheel chair and onto crutches. Whenever he wants to make excuses for anything, he refers to himself as a cripple. Whenever he wants to cut through a crowd, he'll say, "Get out of my way! I'm a cripple!" And does he ever look great for a cripple. Tan and muscular. My camera was shy today, but it won't be for long.

Major Accomplishment

photo by Linda Davick; centerpiece by Tom Davick, licensed architect
Those of you who know me well will be stunned. This is the second dish I've cooked in one weekend.

I had lots of eggs left over after making Barbara's low fat muffins, so I decided to make deviled eggs. They're incredibly good, if I do say so myself. Page 220 of The Joy of Cooking explains how to hard-boil an egg. I probably don't need to tell you how to hard-boil an egg, but here's what I mixed together to make the stuffing:

1. Vegenaise (egg free/no cholesterol–important when making an egg-based dish)
2. Mendocino mustard (hot & sweet–the best mustard in the universe)
3. A bit of extra hot horseradish
4. A dash of jalapeno pepper hot sauce
5. Finely chopped sweet pickle
6. Finely chopped sweet onion
7. A little sweet pickle juice
8. Finely chopped parsley
9. Finely chopped basil
10. Salt
11. Egg yolks
note to David: I used Cage Free Eggs

Barbara's Low Fat Muffins

photo by Linda Davick
e-mail from Barbara: Leenda I am walking everyday (well 6 days a week) in the gym though, because it's too hot outside and trying to lose those 10 pounds. I went to Realage.com, to see what my real age is and after the test, they told me I am in fact 48.2 years old... One of the things they recommend for me if I want to become younger, is considering taking a dog...........

Here is the recipe: OATMEAL BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

2 egg whites, slightly beaten
1 cup non fat yoghurt
2 tbsp. butter (you can lower that)
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup oats
1/2 cup sugar (you can lower that)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (you can leave that off if you want)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line medium muffin pan with paper baking cups. Mix all ingredients except blueberries in medium bowl just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 min. or until golden brown.

If you make 6 muffins and you put the walnuts in them that it's about 377 calories each.

I have a hair appointment at 11.00, speaking about hair.

I didn't get around to making them until today. I doubled the recipe so I could take some to Emmy and Chef John next door. Some observations:

• Since they're so low in fat, don't be afraid to ice and decorate them with abandon.
• I got 9 muffins for every 6 of Barbara's, so each muffin above contains only 248.82 calories.
• If you have a hair appointment, don't forget to turn off the oven.

Why Do I Draw the Things I Do?

I'm such a nice girl. Things like this shouldn't come out of my pen. I know that Tom was reading a Walter Mosley book called Bad Boy Brawly Brown at the time I drew this. And when he would bring the book to bed at night, I'd start singing "Bad Boy Brawly Brown" to the tune of Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, as in:

Bad Boy Brawly Brown
Baddest man in the whole damn town
Badder than old king kong
Meaner than a junkyard dog

He got a custom continental
He got an eldorado too
He got a 32 gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe (then back to the refrain at least 14 times)

Cave Drawing

photo by Linda Davick

They repainted over all the graffiti on the concrete pier that juts out from Judah Street. The very next day, this friendly beast materialized. It just couldn't restrain itself.

Prawns in Hydrochloric Acid*

photo by Linda Davick
We went to West Portal and saw *Scoop this afternoon at 5:00. Fun. But as fun as Manhattan Murder Mystery, which I never remember reading anything at all about? Maybe; maybe not. I think people are just starting to like Woody Allen again, and are raving about every new movie he makes, which they should have been doing all along.

Oh! But you were asking what my favorite Woody Allen movies are. Crimes and Misdemeanors is way up there, along with Annie Hall and Manhattan.

I was in such a good mood when we got home that I decided to go for a jog on the beach. The tide chart said it wouldn't be dark until 9:22. Around 8:15 I was walking up to the boardwalk from the beach, and I saw Tom drive up and park.

He said there had been an earthquake a few minutes earlier, and that he had driven down to try to find me, bearing in mind my ardent and somewhat irrational fear of tsunamis. I hadn't even felt the quake–maybe because I was on sand. But it's true: I dream of tsunamis all the time. I have a great fear of the ocean, along with a great love of the ocean.

e-mail from Aggles: Have you always been fearful of tsunami’s or is this a recent thing ‘cuz of the big Indonesian tsunami?

It's really more a fascination with them. Kind of morbid. Like some people being fascinated by train wrecks/car accidents.

Stop Eating & Start Drawing

© Linda Davick