The big 3-0

It's official folks, I'm 30! I celebrated my milestone birthday December 27th with a tapas and paella party at my parents' house. Months ago when Scott asked me how I wanted to mark the big occasion, I decided on a Spanish themed culinary celebration, as part of my heart has been in Spain since my study abroad in Madrid in 1999. The party was spectacular! Scott, my parents, my uncle and I all combined efforts to create a huge spread of Spanish tapas, and then Scott and my dad made paellas that rivaled eachother in taste. We drank sangria and Spanish wines, and we were graced with Scott's famous cheesecake for dessert. I spent my big day with 20 family and friends, making me feel oh so loved =)
Here's a quick recap of the night:

Prepping for the evening in our "McCarthy" aprons

Dad's Baked Spanish olives
Uncle Dick's Bacon wrapped dates stuffed with almonds
Holly's Tortilla Espanola, a classic Spanish dish available everywhere in Madrid!
Mom's Jamon serrano and melon
Mom's Fried eggplant with yogurt lemon sauce
Uncle Dick's Manchego rice balls (rissotto balls with manchego cheese in the middle, fried)
Mom's Asparagus a la plancha (grilled)
Mom's Roasted mini peppers stuffed with goat cheese
Dad's Peppers marinated with garlic
Scott's Clams with white wine and garlic sauce

Those were just the tapas, I was a little worried that no one would be hungry for the marvellous paellas, but I had nothing to worry about as we ate through almost 2 full paellas:

Dad made a chorizo and chicken paella on the BBQ

Scott made a seafood paella on the stove

Dad's smokey paella

Scott's finished product

Ta-da! Time to eat. My salad is in the middle of the paella feast.

After dinner, we still had more to eat! I requested Scott's cheesecake for dessert, which we tore into after quite a harmoniously handicapped version of "Happy Birthday".
Now that I've posted all the food we ate, I'll leave you with some pictures of the crowd!

Cousin Hank and brother Max munch on tapas

Andrea digs in to the paella

The McCarthy clan (Scott, his mom, and sister)
Julianna tastes a tapa
Mother and mother-in-law enjoying the spread

Kelly, Kim, and Linda finish off the sangria

Bam! Finishing touchesThanking my husband for a great party!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Holiday sweater party...not our everyday sweaters =)

Dorris Eaton Reunion

I went to a tiny private school for preschool through 8th grade. That meant I spent 10 years in school growing up with the same classmates, ultimately graduating in 1993 with 33 classmates. After junior high, we all took different life paths, attended different high schools, colleges, and now, thanks to Facebook, we were able to reunite. We met at Americano, a restaurant in San Francisco last night, and it was quite a kick to see everyone! I would say, after 15 years, everyone still looks the same, but grown up. 13 of us showed up, and most of us still live in the Bay Area. It was fun reminiscing, and Michelle even brought our 8th grade yearbook!

Charlotte and I...we were inseparable in junior high!

Jenny and I...we were in girl scouts together!

Kari and I met in preschool!

Coconut French Toast

We celebrated the holidays early with sister-in-law Kelly and her boyfriend Levi on Sunday with a brunch at our house. Kelly and Levi braved the COLD temperatures and traveled all the way from Santa Rosa for brunch and Xmas movies (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). Scott decided to test a new recipe for us...coconut french toast a'la Plums. Plums was our favorite brunch place in Costa Mesa, where Scott always ordered the coconut french toast, and has been craving to re-create it since our move. It turned out DELICIOUS and went perfectly with our blood-orange mimosas. Here's my re-creation of Scott's recipe:

Coconut French Toast
1 loaf Brioche bread (available at Trader Joe's)
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup cream
1/4 orange juice
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 bag shredded unsweetened coconut
powdered sugar (for sprinkling)

Slice the loaf into 8 slices.
Mix together the eggs, cream, orange juice, and vanilla.
Pour the coconut in a shallow bowl.
Dip each slice of brioche in the egg mixture, and then dredge in the coconut (both sides).
Cook on a hot griddle until browned. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Enjoy!
Scott served it with Satsuma (tangerine) butter, syrup, bananas, mangoes, and blueberries.

Kelly and Levi ready to dig in!

Awww, nuts!

This is a great EASY holiday recipe. I first had these at my parent's house, and then made them myself last weekend to bring to a Christmas party. The nuts are flavorful and spicy. These are a good alternative to your standard bottle of wine for a hostess gift for holiday parties!

Union Square Cafe Spiced Nuts

• 1/4 pound each peeled peanuts, cashews, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, and whole unpeeled almonds or 1 pound unsalted, assorted nuts (or a mixture of whichever you prefer!)
  
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven until they become light golden brown, about 10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter.

4. Thoroughly toss the warm toasted nuts with the spiced butter and serve warm or at room temp.

From the The Union Square Cafe Cookbook

ps--Never been to Union Square Cafe, I think its in New York City...

Claremont Hotel & Cafe Gratitude

Last week Scott and I met up with Andrea in Berkeley at the swanky Claremont Hotel. She was staying there for work...she works for the state folks, so your tax money goes straight to Andrea's Claremont hotel tab (she's going to hate me for saying that, since she feels so guilty about work sending her on trips and using state $$ on them...but in her defense, she has a travel allowance, and she split the hotel room with a co-worker so it fit in her budget). Enough said about that, and now on with the hotel...which looks fabulous from the outside...a grand white 100 year old hotel nestled in the Berkeley hills. However, Andrea's room was run down, needing new paint, and small! I guess 100 years ago hotel rooms were built to different specifications. The lobby was nice, decorated for the holidays with a HUGE gingerbread house with, I kid you not, 2 snow machines that they periodically turn on to spritz drifting snow around the house. We were there when they turned them on, and having no batteries yet again, I missed a fantastic photo op of our faces with a great WTF look going on. The hotel really is in need of a major interior facelift, but Andrea did give kudos to the pool and spa facilities.
We declined to dine at the hotel, and instead headed down to Shattuck in Berkeley. We meandered our way down Shattuck, stopping to drool at Chez Panisse's menu, and made our way to a brewery for a few local beers, and then ended up at Cafe Gratitude for dinner.

Cafe Gratitude is a organic, gluten free, live food restaurant. Live food is their sneaky way of saying "raw". Andrea had dined at the SF location, and was eager to try it again. The owners are your typical Berkelians....one was trained in the "being of abundance", and his skills include "keeping attention on all there is to be grateful for". The other owner's presence "is the gift of being present and listening for our most genuine Self to emerge." You can't make this stuff up...straight from the website!
The Gratitude part comes in while ordering. Everything on the menu has names like "I am fulfilled" or "I am whole", and when you order, you are self-praising. So Scott and Andrea had "I am elated", while I had "I am devoted". In normal people language, Scott and Andrea had enchiladas, and I has spring rolls and cauliflower soup. Now, I know you are thinking, aren't the foods raw there? How did they make enchiladas and spring rolls? Well, I'll tell you! The enchiladas were filled with a pressed sunflower seed paste, wrapped in a tortilla made with pressed greens, and sauced with a cashew nut sour cream. My spring rolls were an assortment of raw veggies and fruit (beets, apples, carrots, cucumber), wrapped in blanched collard greens, and served with a cilantro-cashew butter sauce. It was surprisingly tasty, and after our self praising we felt so good =)
It was a fun experience, but the next night I opted for some "non-living" food and made some smoked turkey and corn chowder with corn chips (gasp...the chips were processed!!!!)

So many things going on...but no battery in my camera!

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks, and then there was this thing called Thanksgiving thrown in the middle of it!
This year Scott and I celebrated Thanksgiving together for the first time EVER! This is another perk of Scott's new job...the restaurant is actually closed on T-day and Xmas. At his old job, Thanksgiving was one of the busiest days of the year, so we are both very thankful that he doesn't have to work it anymore. It is very rare that we get to spend a holiday together, so we took full advantage of the day, beginning with coffee, baked eggs, and the Macy's parade. We had dinner with 21 family members at my grandma Marianne's house in Walnut Creek...everything was delicious, the turkey was perfect, and paired perfectly with the wild mushroom & duck reduction gravy Scott bought from a local chef at a fundraiser. Oh, and a special shout out for my mom's pumpkin pie...best crust ever, I still can't replicate it, and I even have the recipe!
So after Thanksgiving, I continued to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season for the remainder of the weekend. Friday night I dropped by my neighbor's fish fry in our shared backyard before heading to Pam's house for cocktails with my parents, brother Max, and his girlfriend Victoria. Pam is my childhood friend Haley's mom/ old neighbor/ dear family friend. After cocktails, our family headed to my parent's house to dine on homemade smoked turkey chili and cornbread while watching Wizard of Oz...not my mom's top choice, but the rest of us loved it =)
After two family days, the rest of the weekend I spent with friends. Saturday night I went out for Mexican food and margaritas with high school friends Liz and Andrea, and then Andrea and I headed out to Berkeley to meet up with Andrea's friend; where Andrea proceeded to drink a concoction called a "Booty Shaker."
Sunday night Scott and I had dinner with our Walnut Creek friends Brian & Irina. Scott and Brian went to high school together. Irina made a wonderfully tasty and rich french onion soup and Parmesan chicken. Gotta say, Scott and I are used to doing the cooking when we are at friend's houses, so we were both very pleased to have dinner cooked for us...thanks Irina...it was delicious!
So after my busy weekend with no camera batteries, the holiday season is officially kicked off...more posts to come!

Why is this so small?

Why are my post dates so big and my titles so small? Anyone know how to fix that?