Week of June 4: Sloppy Movies and Sloppy Joes

On Saturday, Andrea and I invited a few friends over for a mellow night of fine dining and beautiful cinematic. We would play host and cook a sumptuous meal. Our guests only had one requirement. We required everyone to bring a DVD of their guilty pleasure... that is, a really bad movie (by normal standards) that he or she secretly and shamefully loved. From the pile of these gems, we would then draw one movie for everyone to watch.

We decided that a night like this called for an equally exquisite dinner menu. What could be more perfect than Sloppy Joes, coleslaw and Bud Light to go along a truly bad movie? So with much anticipation, Andrea and I carefully and lovingly prepared the dinner (it took us about 30 minutes... Really gourmet!). One by one, our guests arrived. Each with their guilty pleasure in hand.

Kathi brought Spaceballs and revealed her secret love for Lord Dark Helmet... "May the Schwartz be with you!"


Todd brought a movie that no one has ever heard of before... Blackball?!! On the other hand, Leslie's choice (Airplane), in my humble opinion, does not qualify as a bad movie. Just imagine the two of them going out for a movie night... good thing there is a multi-plex theater in San Mateo.


Monica's contribution was B.A.P.S (aka Black American Princesses). Eventhough I have never heard of this movie, both Andrea and Monica were quite fond of it. Somehow Halle Berry stared in it.


My contribution was the 1989 classic, Skin Deep. Film snobs such as myself consider this movie to be John Ritter's finest performance. How he has never won an Oscar is truly tragic. Andrea proudly added Undercover Brother into the mix... solid! I think this movie was actually out on DVD the same week it was released in the theaters.

After the Sloppy Joes dinner, we put the names of these fine movies into a hat and drew the winner... Undercover Brother, to Andrea's delight. To be honest, Undercover Brother was actually good and funny. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I especially enjoyed the catfight scene between White She Devil (Denise Richards) and Sistah Girl (Aunjanue Ellis). Billy Dee Williams and Dave Chapelle also starred in this movie... not to mention Chris Kattan. With so many mega stars, its hard to believe that Undercover Brother 2 was never made...yet.

Week of May 21 and May 28: Sleepless in Seattle

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

~ Mignon McLaughlin

Can you believe it? It's been a whole year since Andrea and I got married! Not only has Andrea managed to put up with me for a year, but she still laughs at my funny jokes (yes they are funny and not stupid) and even enjoys hanging out with me. Imagine that! This week, we traveled to Seattle for a romantic getaway to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The first anniversary is also known as the paper anniversary and airline tickets are certainly made of paper!!! So we packed our bags and caught an early flight on Saturday and flew into sunny Seattle.

We landed in Seattle before noon to a grey, cloudy morning. We would not see the sun ever again while in Seattle. But we had expected that. We checked into our hotel in downtown Seattle and began our weekend adventure.

After dropping off our bags we headed down to Pike Place Market which was only a short walk from our hotel. The market, especially in front of the world famous Pike Place Fish Market (home of the flying fish), was very crowded with shoppers and tourists. We had hoped to grab a lunch there but we had a hard time coping with the herd of people. We escaped the Market and headed down a couple of blocks for a delicious lunch at Etta's Seafood Restaurant, where we enjoyed Bloody Marys and real fresh seafood.

After lunch, we met up with Brock and his family and our friend Michelle and her boyfriend Kris by the space needle for the Duck Tour. Nothing says TOURIST more than being seen on one of these bad boys. Not only was the tour bus a WWII amphibious landing assault vehicle but the Captain played loud music and made loud jokes over the speaker which helped draw more attention. Even our non-tourist friends had a great time on this tour!

Brock got everyone duck horns which we proudly tooted while waiting for Michelle and Kris. I think Brock will come to regret buying these. Brock and his family live in Bellingham, which is about an hour and a half ride north from Seattle. Must have been a fun ride home... Quack! Quack! I'm not sure why Michelle and Kris were wearing sunglasses. In fact, why did they even own sunglasses in Seattle? The tour lasted about 90 minutes and it did manage to rain during the middle of the tour when we were floating on Lake Union.

By the time we got off the Duck Tour, it was time for dinner. We headed over to Buca di Beppo for an Italian feast. The food was extremely tasty and generously portioned. Check out the size of this meatball! It was almost as big as Emily's head. But it was no match for her! I see an IFOCE champion in the making. After dinner, we parted with Brock and his family. It was really good to see all of them again. His three daughters were perfect angels... angles with duck horns!

Seattle is perhaps best known for it's year round rain but is also known for its micro breweries and drinking. With a couple of locals showing us the way, Andrea and I were more than happy to oblige. We spent the night hopping from bar to bar drinking everything from fancy Tahitian drinks, to mysterious Brazilian cocktails, to good old fashion Maker's Manhattans. All that drinking equated to quite a festive night followed by a not so festive morning after.

This was the first time Andrea and I met Kris. And like all good friends, we put Kris through a rigorous Q & A session and an adult beverage consumption test. We were happy to announced that Kris passed both tests with flying colors! Thumbs up Michelle!

On Sunday, we decided to be lazy and slept in. The bar hopping probably had something to do with our desire to take it easy. We ordered room service for breakfast and eventually headed out around noon. During the Duck Tour the day before, we passed by Seattle's Underground Tour that peaked our interest. Since it was near by, we decided to walk over to check it out. Much of Seattle's old downtown is built above a floor of old store fronts and roads that burned down during the great fire of 1889. So underneath what is now the ground floor of Seattle's Pioneer Square, there is a whole forgotten subterranean world.

Sunday, May 28th, was our official anniversary day. Much like the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle has a lot of good restaurants. So when it came to picking the right one, the restaurant with exquisite flavor, impeccable service and stunning views, I knew Ray's Boathouse was the right choice. You can never go wrong with Ray is what I always say!

So that was how we spent our first anniversary... the paper anniversary. I can't wait for what our next, cotton, anniversary will bring.

Week of May 14: Crawfish Boil

About 2 years ago, Andrea and I attended the wedding of my friend Zach to his wife Laurie in New Roads, Louisiana, a small Creole town about 2 1/2 hours northwest of New Orleans. It was there where we had our first genuine crawfish boil. Ever since then, we've had the biggest craving for crawfish. After two years of just talking about having a crawfish boil, we finally decided to just do it. We had originally wanted to have a small crawfish boil with just our Cajun friends but as it always does, we ended up inviting a few more friends.

Due to the birth of their first child 10 days before, Zach and Laurie were not able to attend. Laurie is from New Roads, LA and we had wanted her expertise on our first crawfish boil. Fortunately for us, our friends Peter and Chantel did attend. Chantel is Cajun as well and her boyfriend had received some schoolin' in the fine art of crawfish boilin' from Chantel's family last summer.

Early in the week, I place the order for 60 pounds (approx 5.5 pounds per person!!!) of live crawfish from Louisiana Crawfish Company to be flown in via Fed-Ex and delivered on ice by Friday. It arrived promptly on Friday and was transferred and packed into a cooler full of ice for the boil on Saturday.

The crawfish arrived in a Styrofoam box. Inside, the crawfish were divided in two 30 pound mesh bags. Kodi had never seen one of these critters before. Kodi wasn't quite sure what to make of them. Brandon had a fun time chasing Todd around the yard with a live crawfish. Leslie was right, Todd does scream like a little school girl!



Here's what 60 pounds of live crawfish look like. I think this was a 130 quart cooler... big enough to double as a coffin! The first step was to purge the crawfish in water and baking soda. By doing this, the crawfish "spit out" all the swamp gunk from their system.

While we were cooking the crawfish, Andrea made some Pigs in a Blanket. After being chased by Brandon and the crawfish, Todd took comfort in this tasty treat. Here is a manly picture of Todd grabbing the hors d'oeuvre... "Ouuu!"



I had to stop and admire Peter's skills. Chantel's parents would have been proud! The crawfish were cook to perfection. Chantel gave her "just like home" approval as she sampled the first batch.

And with Chantel's approval, we began to pile on the cooked crawfish directly onto the table. And as usual, Brian and Brandon were the first ones ready to eat

Along with the crawfish, we boiled some corn, potatoes and hot links. Soooo good!

Who says that a crawfish boil isn't sophisticated?

There really is no limit of how much fun you can have with these critters!

We discovered that eating 60 pounds of crawfish was a lot of work. Notice that no one is actually talking here. Brian was supervising to make sure everyone ate at least 5 pounds each!!! We managed to suffer through it ;)

There is a trick to properly eating crawfish. Towards the end of the 60 pound meal, we were all experts in peeling the crawfish... well, everyone except Leslie.

Ed and Laura's son, Sean, thought it was a crabgrass boil. Our weed problem could have been solved... too bad he didn't like it.

After we had gotten our fill, we got down to some serious fun. Brandon was the big winner of Acey Duecy. We'll definitely have to do this again real soon.

Week of May 7: Eating Tour

This week, Andrea's parents, Rick and Karen, flew into town from Bemidji, MN, a week early for Rick's conference in Reno to spend some time with us. They have both been to the Bay Area many times before so we decided to take them around to places where Andrea and I have always wanted to tour but never gotten around to. Lucky for them, Andrea and I have excellent tastes!

On Thursday, we made reservation for the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory tour in Berkeley. If you've never had Scharffen Berger chocolate before, consider yourself lucky. It's highly addictive and can be an expensive addiction. Scharffen Berger is a first-tier chocolate manufacturer. That means that they execute every step of the manufacturing process, from sourcing the beans to molding the bars. They pay close attention to every step along the way, never taking shortcuts. The result is evident in every bite... and we did take lots of bites during the tour!

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I think I found my true calling. Not only was I able to crank out 8 kilos of premium grade cocao but I got to wear a real hairnet. Lucielle Ball, eat your heart out!

Smokin'!

Hard to find a good Wiener these days. This Wiener made great chocolate! Don't you just love the word "Wiener"?

After the chocolate tour, we had lunch at Cafe Cacao which was in the same building as Scharffen Berger (not really sure if its operated by the factory). Perhaps it was the chocolate high that we were on but we all agreed that Cafe Cacao had the best cheese burger and pulled pork sandwiches that we've ever had. Honestly, they were amazing!

After gorging ourself silly on chocolates and bergers/pulled pork sammies, we drove up to Napa to get a behind the scenes wine tour at Hess Winery. A good friend of mine from college, Scott, is one of the four winemakers at Hess. He was kind enough to take some time out from his day to walk us through the wine making process and to personally deliver the wine tasting. I must say that Scott's discriptions of each wine we tasted really made us appreciate the love and care that went into wine making.

Not a bad way to spend a Thurday afternoon... a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon with my buddy Scott. Scott's wife, Margaret, by the way is an amazing pastery chef. Andrea and I are extremely jealous.

After the personalized tour at Hess, we visited Luna Vineyards and Darioush Winery. Although they both had good wine, we preferred the wine from Hess. Before heading home, we stopped over at Scott and Margaret's home in Napa and dropped in on the informal happy hour party they were hosting for their friends and colleagues. The majority of people at the party were wine makers or related to the wine industry. Maybe because it was a hot evening, but nearly everyone at the party were drinking either beer or margarita. Good thing I didn't listen to Andrea and bring over the Almaden Cabernet Box!