I’ve been neglecting my new-found past-time activity of blogging on chicken nugget toe because I have found another distraction: YELP! If you are on Yelp, add me. Be my virtual friend. I’m not a huge foodie and I think that’s because all food is pretty much delicious to me unless it’s awful. Which means it’s probably really horrendous. I blame this on my inability to distinguish smells all that well. Basil on the other hand has the nose of a bloodhound. He can tell if someone has had coffee in the morning by the scent of their urine. And he likes to tease and ask me if I’ve had a stressful day after sniffing my head. So romantic I know.

But I digress.

So despite not being what wikipedia defines as “amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news” – I at least love food for consumption and enjoy commenting on such.

I admit to being a few steps behind in the world of social networking. Google+ what? (By the way, I’m curious about this and waiting for an invite. Hopefully this will not turn out to be another Google Wave debacle). Justin Timberlake buying into MySpace? Foursquare? Still trying to figure out why I would Tweet. So it’s no surprise that I’m years behind in jumping up on the Yelp wagon. But late or not, these days I Yelp.

This means that I will no longer eat at the same 3 places in my neighborhood. I’ve already started bookmarking places nearby that I need to nosh at. Orenchi Ramen. En for uni fried rice. A reminder to go back to Yuki Sushi for their incredibly buttery Hamachi appetizer.

Also wasting time in the Gawkerverse:
Dwelling Gawker
Food Gawker
Craft Gawker

Oh, also recently checked out the REI Used Gear Sale and the De Anza Flea Market. Highly recommend both. Maybe I’ll yelp about it.

Despite Basil’s back issues and Esther’s hip pains and sleepless night (thanks to Emma), we managed to make it to the top of Carlon Falls during our Yosemite Trip (#2) two weekends ago! I usually get a little bored while hiking but this particular trail is so beautiful – entirely encased in trees and follows the South Fork Tuolumne RIver. It’s a pretty easy hike (4.5 miles round-trip) with only one spot near the finish that gets a bit steep. There is a fork in the road near the end – make sure to follow the path going up or else you’ll end up bouldering like we did the first time.

Here’s the reward, Carlon Falls:

Water flow right now is pretty nuts but during late summer the waterfall is much more calm and you can actually swim at the base which is what I hope to do in August!

We always bring along some fishing poles to this trail because there is one spot that so far has always guaranteed us a sure catch (3 in a row) – I’m sure I just jinxed us for the next trip. We call this fish Jack because we joke that we’re probably just re-catching the same fish each time we come out here.

Lower Yosemite Falls
Another spot we like to check out in Yosemite is the Lower Yosemite Falls because it’s very little work with a huge payoff. It’s only a 1/2 mile stroll on pavement to the bottom of the falls which drops 400 feet from a rocky ledge on the north side of Yosemite Valley to the base below.

Here’s a peek:

All in all another very fun and satisfying escape to Yosemite. By the way, this trip we saw FOUR bears! Three separate sightings and one little baby cub.

Yosemite Trip #2 starts tomorrow and I’ve been put in charge of one of the dinner meals. Normally Basil does the cooking in this household but he pulled a muscle in his back on Wednesday and has been a bit out of commission since. I’m hoping he’ll heal well enough for us to still make it on this trip and maybe possibly hike to Carlon Falls. Is that asking too much? We’ll see.

Initially I had wanted to make this awesome looking Chicken & Rice dish that supposedly recreates and even improves the dish found at the best halal chicken and rice cart in New York (corner of 53rd and 6th) but the yogurt in the recipe gave us pause since this could possibly make the dish go bad before we could consume it on Sunday night. (Link via Ambitious Deliciousness).

So instead I decided to try out David’s Taco Soup Recipe.  Basil took one bite and enhanced it.  Here’s my attempt to record the recipe.  We figure this recipe serves about 8 because I always overcook, so plan accordingly. (I once had 3 heads of lettuce left over after a taco salad party.)

Taco Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
4 pounds ground beef
2 large onions, chopped
1 can chili beans
2 cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 cans stewed tomatoes – mexican style
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
2 pkgs. Original Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (dry)

Preparation:
Brown ground beef and onions in a large pan, drain off fat.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or so.

So easy.

Below are Basil’s additions which of course improved the dish though I thought it was pretty good as is.  I yelled at him to measure so I could record but he ignored me and moved quickly to add the following:

couple squirts of ketchup
drizzling of worcestershire sauce
ground mustard
cumin
chili flakes
garlic powder
chili powder
paprika
cilantro
bay leaf

We plan on throwing this over some rice, because rice makes everything better.

Tony came by my desk yesterday with a little present (thanks Tony!) in honor of my recent lunch adventures:

Larvets: the Original Worm Snax which comes in 3 flavors: BBQ, Cheddar Cheese, and Mexican Spice.

The box gives the 5 top reasons to enjoy this snack:
5. You’ll give people something new to say about California besides that it’s the state of fruit and nuts!
4. Your entomologist friends will think you’ve learned how to cook.
3. “Tastes like chicken” will have new meaning.
2. You don’t have to drink a whole bottle of mezcal to get to the worm!
1. BBQ, Cheddar Cheese, & Mexican Spice Larvets make great party food!

For some reason all the exclamation points! annoy me but I left them here for accuracy.

I’m tempted to try them out but currently not feeling all that adventurous. Maybe I’ll bring them as an “in case of emergency snack” for our camping trip this weekend – Yosemite Trip 2!

Saturday night I slept 16 hours recovering from our afternoon at the fabulous extravaganza that is the annual Sunset Magazine’s Celebration Weekend Event at their headquarters in Menlo Park. Sunset Magazine is a favorite of ours “showcasing the region’s unique lifestyle and noteworthy destinations, inspiring people to achieve the dream of living in the West.” Bottom line is that they feature places and adventures that we can actually see ourselves taking without breaking the bank!

We woke up to a lovely rain shower but that only encouraged us to go all the more since perhaps that meant more freebies for those who braved the weather. We donned our rain-gear complete with new umbrellas and headed out. One sad result of the rain is not having any fun pictures to share since I didn’t want to have to negotiate wet weather while taking out my camera. Perhaps next year! Yes, we had so much fun this is now going to become an annual outing for the Shen’s.

A few more details:
In a nutshell, Sunset Celebration Weekend is their annual garden party held at the Magazine’s beautiful campus featuring cooking demonstrations, wine seminars and endless innovative home and garden ideas for inspiration. Parking is free though we did have to to walk a bit. For parking lots that were further out (such as the future Facebook campus) Sunset provided free shuttle bus service which was pretty convenient. When we arrived (tickets were only $16 and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Children’s Health Council), the first thing they handed us as we entered the gate was a huge schwag bag ready to fill up with goodies.

Here’s a rundown of our favorite finds:
1. Filtered Water Stations throughout so we could fill up our free stainless steel water bottles (thanks Honda!) along with generous and seemingly never-ending samples of Crystal Light Pure.

2. Recipes and food tastings galore – some of my favorites:

• Cypress Grove’s Midnight Moon Cheese – The last in a long line of tastings, a delicious goat’s milk cheese with the texture of a gouda – we bought a wedge for $5.
• Lucero Peach Balsamic Vinegar – I’m not usually a big fan of balsamic vinegar, but I was able to drink this straight from the sample cup without the bread. I imagine a little bit of this over a nice salad would be great for summer.
• Cucumbers with a Lemongrass Vinaigrette that I unfortunately do not remember the name of – but this reminded me a lot of something my mom used to make.
• Virgin Bloody Mary Shooter – better than a V8.

3. Gerard’s Paella: more than a sampling so it gets it’s own line item. $10 for a heaping serving that still left me wanting a bit more.

4. Lots of travel ideas, and we grabbed great resources for our upcoming trips to Yosemite and Kauai. Most vendors also held drawings to give away prizes (mostly weekend trips or gift baskets). We entered every single drawing and contest we could find. Would it be too much to bring a stamp with our address and contact information next time?

5. Blu Home (Custom Prefab Eco-Friendly Homes) – fun to look and more affordable than you think!

6. Airstream Trailer – so pretty.

Bonus: Spending the entire day with our lovely friend, Susan, who we met out in New Orleans during our stint with Habitat for Humanity during our honeymoon.

Dinner Bonus: Back A Yard Caribbean – just down the road from the event and a great cap to the day before heading home to that 16-hour nap.

Recently finished my 3rd painting (water-soluble oils), a gift for my friend D. Dennis. The 1st is pictured here and the 2nd I’ll have to request a picture of. I haven’t quite figured out how to have a steady hand without resting against the painting which means I end up with paint all over the place. If you look carefully, there is green paint around several of our door handles. Reason enough that our next home needs to have a small studio with a sink so that I don’t have to walk through 3 doors before I can clean my brushes – a girl can dream, can’t she? At least I’m able to hang on to my director’s chair despite the lack of space in our cozy home.

Not yet at the place where I can just paint from stuff inside my head, so I found this painting to copy:

On a semi-related note, we went hiking yesterday on Memorial Day at Rancho San Antonio and hiked the Wildcat Loop Trail (3 miles) which was perfect as we had 2 kids in tow. The start of the hike brings you past Deer Hollow Farm where we saw goats, sheep and pigs – no cow or chickens this time, perhaps taking the day off like the rest of us. There are a lot of families with kids at the start with some more serious hikers zipping past to head to some of the more challenging trails. The Wildcat Loop takes you past streams and is nicely covered with trees with enough spots of sunlight and occasional views of the San Francisco Bay and the Peninsula. Bo was able to use their BOB stroller the entire time though Noah would take breaks to throw rocks and play with bugs. At the top, we were rewarded with an open field that overlooks the Peninsula. We took the shortest route down (High Meadow Trail, .8 mile) but next time will try out the Wildcat Canyon Trail (1.6 miles down) for a different view.

Noah, enjoying the view:

Hoping to hike at least 1x a month while the weather is nice! Basil pointed out that we definitely ate more in calories than we burned (Liang’s Kitchen and Yogurtland was our reward) but no need to think about that.

Earlier this week (Monday – Wednesday), we Shen’s and the Lee’s headed out to Yosemite for a little camping adventure.

Highlights of the trip:
1. Bread Pudding from Todd’s Cookhouse Barbeque in Oakhurst. Also, amazing ribs and brisket. Thanks Lynn for the tip!

2. First time camping in the Valley – Upper Pines, right near the entrance to the hike to Vernal Falls – quite luxurious!

3. 7-month old Emma being a champ on her first camping trip (other than her backyard) and charming all the other hikers and campers.

4. Basil’s attempt to start a fire Bear-Grylls-style with 2 pieces of wood. Next time we’ll bring a flint.

5. Seeing a BEAR walk through the campsite – strolling along behind our tent until it was chased out by the rangers.

6. Hiked Vernal Falls (3 miles round trip) – made it to the top this time and worth the effort. At the bottom of the falls, there are restrooms and a place to refill on water. It’s a good idea to bring a poncho as it gets quite wet near the falls (hence “Mist Trail”). Perhaps next time we’ll venture further to Nevada Falls (another 4 miles round trip). Followed a little Asian grandma – if she could make it to the top, we could make it to the top.

7. Crows the size of chickens.

8. Lunch of MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) – add water and stir.
Mac & Cheese – decent
Chicken with Potatoes and Stuffing – not so great
Pasta Alfredo with Chicken – group favorite

Apple Cobbler – the best one of all. Also took more prep than the others, but was pretty tasty.

9. Taking the hybrid bus with the endearingly crotchety bus driver.

10. A short rewarding stroll to the bottom of Yosemite Falls.

11. Justin caught a fish at our favorite fishing hole on the Hetch Hetchy Trail. Right before he cast his line out for the 7th time, Basil teases that this is his last chance and that we were leaving as I was secretly getting anxious that we wouldn’t see any fish action. But lo and behold on that 7th cast, he caught a beautiful rainbow trout! Charmed life. On the bus Justin asked, “Is there a place to rent bikes in Yosemite?” Answered by crotchety bus driver: “Next stop, Bike Rental.”

Note the medical shades he’s sportin’. Basil got a similar pair for $10 on eBay.

Was great to escape for a few days and explore a small sliver of Yosemite. Nothing like an enormous, beautiful national park to put a fresh perspective on your life and to make you feel wonderfully small in God’s gorgeous creation.

Sitting at the dining room table looking out onto our little garden made me pretty happy today so I felt like sharing. I guess it’s really Basil’s garden – I’ve got a bit of a black thumb and my only contribution is to pick off the lemons or eat a blueberry or two.

My view

Avocado Tree
We (Basil) planted an avocado pit a year ago and now the tree is taller than I am. We’re hoping to see an avocado in the next decade or so, although I hear sometimes you may never see an avocado – I’ll let you know in 15 years what happens. At $1-2 bucks a pop, can you imagine the cost savings? Fingers crossed.

Blueberries
I just discovered that we have four different types of blueberry plants – I wonder if they taste different from one another? As soon as we get enough for a taste-test I’ll try it out. Varieties growing in the garden: Sharpblue, Emerald, Star and Mist. We harvested 3 berries and tried them out yesterday, twas fantastic.

Lemons
So useful to have.

Jade
This replaced the one Basil gave me to take care of while we were dating and I subsequently killed.
*Update* It turns out that this didn’t replace the one I killed, this is the one I thought I killed. Basil with his magical gardening abilities brought it back to life. I wish I had taken a picture of the dry mess I reduced it to so you would understand how amazing this is.

We’ve also got a Birds of Paradise (my mom’s favorite), an alien-looking flowering Aloe plant, Japanese Maple, and a Blood-Orange Tree which has produced just one very weird orange.

Ordered paella for lunch today and looked forward to sitting out in the sun with some work buddies. I was happily chatting and chomping away until I noticed something very peculiar about my meal. Are those maggots I see? They were just hanging out near the sausage and the mussels, and nowhere else. Pushing the thought away, I took one more bite but as the idea settled in more I felt all of a sudden both nauseous and itchy. To be sure and to get validation I shoved my plate toward my lunch buds and yep, they agreed it had to be MAGGOTS. A few dry heaves and a glass of water later, I was ready to get my money back.

I discreetly brought my plate back to the counter and asked for a refund. Four guys (not sure if any of them was the chef) took turns inspecting the plate and one commented that it did look “suspicious.” No problem on the refund and off I went to pick up something else. This time from the bakery. (Rice pudding – though now that I think about it what made me get rice again? Must be the Asian in me.)

As I was about to pay, one of the food inspectors came over to me with the paella pan to assure me that they were not maggots at all but rather burnt rice. Pretty convincing as all around the edges of the pan were little maggoty rice pieces, nicely burnt and crisp. I felt much better until Jim mentioned that he thought it was just that the maggots were trying to escape the pan but died trying.

After discovering that I had 4 1/2 weeks of vacation saved up and was no longer accruing additional time off, Basil and I decided to cash in our Napa Wine Train gift certificate (thank you Lisa and Harry!) and headed up to Napa last Friday. We stuffed our faces first at one of our go-to local eateries and then started the drive up north. Dinner train reservations were set for 6:30 and we had no plans except to drive aimlessly and see where the day would take us.

First stop was to be Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, a stop inspired by our conversation with Winnie the day before. She was right, the macarons are HUGE and only $3 each! Bargain of all bargains – we tried strawberry rhubarb, pistachio, hazelnut, and espresso paired with an iced coffee (on the house) and I would have kept on ordering except we had dinner to look forward to and Basil was giving me the “don’t be greedy” eye.

We drove for a bit and headed for a pit-stop at the Napa Outlets – dropped a little $ on some new clothes – and then it was time to check in at the wine train. I was told by the woman taking my reservation that it was “very casual” so we rolled up in jeans and t-shirts but we got nervous when we drove by a very small woman in a red velvet suit dress with matching hat (I think this involved a feather of some sort) and white gloves. Turns out she was part of the cast of the Murder Mystery play taking place on the train but we were still dressed much more casually than most, many were celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and the like. But no matter! Onto the train!

We opted for the first sitting (you can choose to eat first or wait until round 2) and got settled comfortably in the dinner car. Initially, we had started taking pictures of the food to share with the Hong’s, but we quickly forgot as we discovered how good the food was and started stuffing our faces. Us Shen’s can eat.

However, I did manage to take a picture of the flower sitting on our table:

The food did not disappoint and we were stuffed by the end of the meal. I had the seared ahi and Basil had the pork tenderloin though the most memorable was the appetizer that included a bit of smoked cheddar cheese. I love cheese. We had planned on doing the wine tasting (4 wines for $10, if you’re with a friend then you get to try 8 wines each for $20 – what a deal!) but I couldn’t even get through the dessert.

One last photo of the day, me testing out my camera and Basil questioning my tactics:

Fun day trip and I even managed to stay up during the drive home, a rare thing for me.