The first thing I wanted to do was check out the Palo Alto Farmer's Market which is Saturday mornings from 8-12 and we just barely made it at 11:45. I was stressing on the way there that everything would be empty and closing down and why are we even bothering.... but I was stressing for nothing! It was AMAZING, the most incredible quality and variety of fresh fruits and veggies and all sorts of foods and it wasn't picked over at all. We dashed from stand to stand buying stuff as fast as we could and in 15 minutes I was blown away by our haul.
"I think maybe 10 times better," I said.
I could not wait to put together some salads for that night; we were having our first dinner guests! Rich met them back in grad school at MIT, they live about 30 minutes away and they brought their daughter, who is the exact same age as Valerie - the girls were born one day apart.
They were so excited to finally meet each other; they'd seen lots of pictures of each other but never got to meet until now, and they were so sweet and loved playing together.
As soon as they arrived, Valerie insisted on changing into a dress and hair bows so they would match. They were definitely twins at first sight. So cute. We can't believe our amazing luck at having such great friends nearby!
I was pretty excited about the menu, based on all our fresh produce purchases. For appetizers we had jalapeno cilantro hummus and guacamole with chips and veggies, and for dinner I made an heirloom tomato salad with basil and truffle flavored oil, mint and lemon infused water, watermelon mojitos, and a dinner salad, which was definitely the highlight: a mix of greens, fresh peaches, blue cheese and walnuts, and a lemon shallot dressing which was so easy to throw together. I stole this recipe from Vogue , used white wine vinegar since I didn't have any red wine vinegar, and added lemon juice:
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. honey
1 T red wine vinegar (preferably Banyuls)
½ small shallot, finely minced
2½ oz. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
 |
| From left: guacamole, mint lemon water, so much fruit, heirloom tomatoes, peach walnut salad |
OMG... I will toot my own horn. The salad was RIDICULOUS. So good. Of course, the credit really goes to the incredible fresh ingredients from California and not to me. I am in absolute salad heaven here. I have been making salads every day since we got here and it's pretty impossible to go wrong. Everything is just.... so... GOOD.Rich made sausages for the protein portion of dinner, and we also had tortellini and red sauce for the girls. Valerie doesn't eat any kind of lettuce yet... I can't wait for that day! Life is going to be so easy when I can make a big salad for dinner and she will eat it too. I still need to make something separate for her most of the time.
We had a lovely meal on our back patio, and then took a walk to the park down the street so the girls could play. They had so much fun, Valerie insisted she was going home with them, and kept asking for one more minute, one more minute. She finally conceded to a hug and our friends had to go home. So hard to say goodbye!
Sunday we decided to drive to the coast and check out the beaches.
We packed lunches and left first thing in the morning for Half Moon Bay, where we found Lemos Farm, which was hopping with parents and kids around 10 am. It was cool and overcast in the morning, too chilly for the beach, so we decided to stop and check it out. Valerie has been talking a lot about riding horses lately and we saw that they had pony rides, along with a hay ride, train rides, playground, petting zoo and bounce house. All of her favorite things!!
 |
| feeding the goat |
 |
| waiting for the hay ride |
The pony ride was her dream come true.... if only the pony had been pink. It was adorable. She sat so still on the pony as it walked around and around for close to 20 minutes and we finally had to get her down. She wanted to go again and still talks about riding the pony. She is well on her way to becoming the cliche little girl who wants a pony, in this case, a pink pony. What is it about little girls and horses?? I don't think I was ever into horses and now I'm really not a fan. But I will admit it's sweet how much Valerie loves her some horses and ponies, and farms in general.
She loved feeding and petting the baby goats. She loved riding the train. The playground and bounce house were hits and the hay ride was just okay, but we definitely got our money's worth between the pony and train rides. This place was seriously toddler heaven. We were so glad we found it; it was the perfect morning activity while we waited for the sun to come out.
From there we went on to Pescadero to get the famous artichoke heart bread from Arcangeli grocery / Norm's Market, which our friends had recommended the night before. While we were there we got some giant pastries to tide us over til lunch... yum!!!
Then we stopped at San Gregorio beach for our picnic lunch. It was lovely but there was a big lagoon blocking the beach access so we just ate there and headed back to Pescadero beach.
We weren't sure what to expect of these Pacific beaches; I had low expectations of cold water and lots of rocks. I wasn't wrong; the water is ice cold and we definitely saw some cliffs and driftwood and rocks. But wow, my expectations were blown away... the beaches are absolutely gorgeous! And the weather got so perfect in the afternoon, it didn't even matter that the water is ice cold. Between warm sun and cool breeze it was perfectly comfortable hanging out on the sand, no need to even go near the water, although Valerie enjoyed sticking her legs in and shouting, "It's too much, it's too much!!!"
We had the loveliest afternoon hanging out on the beach, flying the kite, playing in the sand, tossing the frisbee... and yes, there was also some bad behavior, sand throwing and time out... we'll skip over that part. Overall it was a delightful day and none of us wanted to go home. We stopped at a farm market on the way back through Half Moon Bay and bought a huge box of local strawberries that are utterly to die for.
When we got home we sat on the back porch and gorged on strawberries, peaches, grapes and artichoke bread with butter. So many carbs.... I died and went to carb heaven, between the luscious peaches, the candy strawberries and the warm buttery bread....... heaven.
It was our first California adventure. We discovered that there are amazing beaches less than an hour's drive from our house, cute Pacific towns, farms, wineries, and stunning views of the hills and valleys along the way. So beautiful. What an incredible place to get to spend this year. I still can't believe we're really here living this opportunity. I can tell it's going to fly by so fast and be over before I even realize it's begun. What an awesome first weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment