Nana's 80th

Not only did we celebrate my parent's anniversary last weekend, but we also celebrated my Nana's 80th birthday, with a picnic at the Lafayette Reservoir. It was a perfect end to the busy weekend, complete with Italian cold cuts, silly newspaper birthday hats, cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and lots of family.

Our picnic spot...thanks to my brother for arriving at 6am to claim it!

Uncle D, Pa, Aunt Kim, and Nana

Check out my grandpa's choice of newspaper sections...hmmmm

Love our hats! Apparently this is a tradition from the 1930s

I really like this picture...the party goes on behind my dad.

I contributed to the festivities by bringing an antipasto platter. I bought some marinated olives and dolmas (Greek grape leaves stuffed with rice) at my local farmer's market; and then I hit up the olive bar at Whole Foods to get giant white beans, mushrooms, and peppers. I also made pickled cherry tomatoes and fennel (courtesy of Food & Wine)...a super easy recipe for a healthy appetizer. Scott helped my with the presentation of the platter...and viola...our antipasto platter!

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes and Fennel

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup rice vinegar

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

2 teaspoons sugar

pinch of ground cloves

pinch of ground cinnamon

1 fennel bulb; trimmed and cored, cut into 1 inch by 1/3 inch sticks

1 pint cherry tomatoes; halved

In a shallow dish, combine the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon; stir. Add the fennel and tomatoes, and refrigerate overnight. Drain and serve lightly chilled.

25 years!

25 years ago: my parents, brother & I
(sorry about the glare)

No...not how old I am (I wish!), but how many years my parents have been married! We celebrated last night with a BIG party at their house, complete with a fresh oyster bar (and oyster shucker Scott), DJ, and a surprise vow renewal. Fun fun night, even if I couldn't partake in the oysters and martinis. I took tons of pictures, these are only a few...

Vow renewal. Now my uncle has married us, my aunt, and my parents!

Then my dad professed his love to my mom in 4 languages: Czech (my mom's heritage), Swiss (my dad's heritage), Hawaiian (their fave vacation spot), and Spanish (based upon their kids' travels)

Scott gives Pam an oyster shucking lesson
Julianna and I representing the girl cousins (we're the minority...good thing another girl is on the way!)

And here are some preggo shots!

My brother Jason & me

Mama and father to be!

In all my glory

Open Faced Summer Tomato Sandwich

Now is the time to indulge in summer tomatoes! In my opinion, they are always the best in late summer/early fall. If you don't have a garden to feed your tomato hunger, then head over to your local farmer's market to pick up some beauties.
I picked a beautiful heirloom tomato from our old garden, and searched for the perfect recipe to showcase it's wonderful-ness. And thanks to Food & Wine July 2009, I found my answer. With a little tweaking of the printed recipe, I created this fabulous and quick summer sandwich for dinner. The key to making this dish is FRESH and QUALITY ingredients.

Open-Faced Summer Tomato Sandwich

Four 1-inch slices of crusty white bread (rustic sourdough, ciabatta, etc.)

olive oil

1 garlic clove, peeled

2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto

1 heirloom tomato, sliced into 4 slices

1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced

fresh ground pepper

salt

sweet paprika

4 basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the bread slices on both sides with a bit of olive oil and transfer to a baking sheet. Toast about 10 minutes, turning once, until golden and crisp on the outside, but still soft inside. Rub the toast on one side with the garlic.
Top each toast with some prosciutto and a tomato slice. Season lightly with salt. Top with some cheese.
Preheat the broiler. Broil the sandwiches, shifting the pan occasionally, until the cheese is bubbling (about 1-3 minutes, depending on your broiler). Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and paprika. Top with a single fresh basil leaf. Serve hot. Enjoy =)

Yummy, yummy, yummy...how could you NOT like this?

We Moved

Sorry for the blogging lag, my time has been occupied by moving and starting work again. Our move is really not too exciting. We went from a two bedroom townhome to another 2 bedroom townhome, about 2 miles away from our previous one. I was very sad to move away from our garden, hot tub, neighbors, and quick freeway access (our new place adds on atleast 10 minutes to my commute!). But I am trying to make myself happy at my new place by concentrating on our awesome kitchen appliances (finally a Dacor gas stove in a rental!), our proximity to a big park with a lake, soaking tub in the master bath, and a garage. So there are some pluses for sure, but I still miss the old place =(

Here's a few pictures of the new place. These are post painting...the guy before us lived here for 7 years with hideous faux finishing all over the place...our first piece of business was to cover that up and replace the ugly blinds with some fresh new curtains. Next piece of business will be to get rid of the couches and replace with a leather couch and chair (as you can see, 2 couches don't really fit.) Third thing: NURSERY!! The second bedroom is currently empty, waiting for me to pick a paint color and furniture =)

One of the bathrooms pre-painting (ugh...7 years with that wall??)
Ahh, the new downstairs 1/2 bath.

Gas stove and copper hood!
The dining room (don't you keep your iron on your wine rack too?)
A not too flattering picture of the living room, but atleast you can see our new curtains and too big couch.