The House Poet

What started off as a blah morning turned into a really fun day of laughter and trading stories with friends! I was feeling a little blue this morning so my sister suggested that I call up one of my high school friends to meet up. I did, and ended up hanging out with 3 of my old friends all afternoon! I first met up with Katie at, my favorite, the Green Tea Cafe downtown! I had the Strawberry Mango slush and she ordered a Thai Iced Tea. My slush was sweet and refreshing! I love it because it isn't overpoweringly sweet and fake tasting. Thumbs up! My friend Anu met up later and ordered an Almond Milk at my recomendation! ;) We had so much fun talking about our college lives and what it was like living in a dorm! We have all changed a bit, but it's rather refreshing. I feel like all our worlds have opened up and we are growing up. :) Of course, they were curious about Andrew, so I told them about him and showed off my lovely ring!!! :D After Green Tea Cafe started to get a little...

Last night after a pretty hot walk with my family, we came home and got ready to eat pizza! Yay! My dad also made some wheat bread for us and an ailing client. Doesn't it look cute? As I mentioned in my other blog post, my dad decided to take a break from making calzones, so he went back to making normal pizzas last night! Yum! Above is my dad's pizza with ground beef, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, and olives. Here is my huge pizza, complete with an egg! :) Otherwise, it has the same toppings on it as my dads, minus olives. I never cared much for olives. My pizza was very tasty; the ground beef was a nice change from ham or pepperoni, so that was good. Even the fresh mozarella tasted really good and was all gooey! I love the addition of the fresh basil leaves from our plant too. :) And lastly, here is my sister's pizza! :) Hers has the same as my dads, mnius the olives. She doesn't like the idea of putting an egg on pizza. :) She wanted me to take a picture of her ...

Last night, I had one of my favorite dishes for dinner, Doro Wat! It's an Ethiopian chicken stew that tastes sooooooo good! :) It even has hard-boiled eggs in it, which adds a heartiness to the stew. The stew itself has a strong tomato sauce base, with onions and spices. So tasty~ It's also very good served with rice because the rice can soak up the yummy sauce! Today has been a chill Sunday. I mopped the floor this morning (my favorite) and the apartment looks rather clean if I may say so myself. ;) I watched a short French film with my sister that was in black and white by director Eric Rohmer. It was pretty good, but just a short, early version of some of his films. It was still interesting though. Paris always looks lovely in black and white. For lunch my dad made vegetable stir fry, with carrots, grean beans, snap peas, celery, and garlic in soy sauce. My dad decided that he wants to eat less meat and make more vegetarian meals......this shall be interesting. I'm up f...

Yes, the weather has been acting oddly this past week. Chilly winds and cold evenings have been plaguing where I live. This afternoon it's been hot, about 90 degrees, which actually feels kind of nice. :) Scooter is enjoying walking around our little porch in the nice sunshine! Last night, my dad wanted to make corn chowder since we had some fresh corn on the cob from the farm stand near us. It was tasty and warm! He also put in some potatoes I had bought from the farmer's market in Martinez, so it was a pretty healthy (apart from the bacon hahaha) and organic meal! The bacon added a nice saltiness so it was appreciated. :) Here are some of the grapes that I bought at the Martinez farmer's market. They were pretty sweet with a somewhat tough exterior, but my sister and I enjoyed them before lunch. We put some in cute little red mugs to nibble on. :D For lunch, my dad made the leftover taco meat for himself and my sister. But also, he kindly made me some beef ramen! We had s...

My dad has been on a calzone kick lately. Last night for dinner, he made 4 calzones, and we ate two since my sister was at a friend's house. She ate one of the leftover ones last night, and then I had the other for lunch today. :) Yum! My dad wants to go back to making traditional pizzas now though; he says he misses how the cheese would cook together with everything else on the pizza. Here is a shot of mine from last night. Ham, eggs, basil, cheese, and pepperoni were crammed into this one and it was very good! I love the egg in it, and the basil adds such a nice earthy kick to it. :) Below are pics of the calzone I ate today. This one had the same as the others, but with the addition of red onion. The onion added a nice flavor and goes well with the other ingredients. My sister was craving beef tacos, so my dad made some for them. I tried a bit and it was good! I was fine with eating my calzone since the tacos might have been too spicy for me. They loved it, so that's good! ...

Talk about going from one extreme to another! Yesterday my dad, my sister, and I went to San Francisco and it was super cold! The sky was grey and little droplets of water hung in the air! I, of course, wasn't thinking and expected it to warm up so I didn't bring a jacket. Needless to say, I paid the price for it! However, perhaps because of the cold weather we all desired warm, comforting food. So, we decided to go to our favorite San Francisco joint, Americana Grill in the Richmond District. We've been going there for over 10 years and the people who run it still recognize it! The man who runs it never fails to ask if my dad needs another wine glass for me, hahaha. :D But first, Fiona and I went shopping while my dad met with a client. We walked around Japantown for a bit, and I picked up some cute folders for school. Then, we walked up to the Fillmore to do some clothes and pastry shopping! I got a nice shirt at Crossroads and then we went to the Boulange Bakery! I picke...

YAY! Happy 40th post!!!! :D The weather has been cooling off this week, which has been interesting. The mornings are practically chilly....weird.....But, it's still sunny and lovely. I went on a walk this afternoon and it was so bright and clear; one of my turtle friends in the lake poked its head out of the water to say hello! For lunch today, my dad made us all sandwiches. He had made some this morning to take to an elderly client, so he was in a sandwich mood all day! I had a Croque Grandame, as we called it. :D It had turkey, chicken, ham, and cheese with an egg on top. Very filling and so tasty! I made a salad to go along with it. My sister had a deviled egg sandwich made with my dad's homemade bread! She really enjoyed it! My dad had this monstrous BLT, also with his homemade bread! He also made a two bean salad for himself and my sister. According to them, it was tasty but very garlicy. My dad surprised my sister and I with eclairs! The last time I had one I was with An...

Sunday was a busy day! After writing up a blog post about my awesome day with my love in Stockton, I got ready to go to San Francisco to meet up with my roommate Devon for next year and her family! I took a BART train into Union Square and we met up. Everyone was hungry, and the only good and inexpensive restaurant I know around the Union Square area is a Japanese ramen place called Katana-ya, which is kind of famous in SF. Her family was up for it, so off we went! I ordered the regular miso ramen, and it was delcious! I had never ordered miso ramen in a restaurant before, and I was glad I did yesterday! :) It was not too thick, but almost creamy in a way. It actually didn't taste like miso soup at all, which is nice because I don't always like miso soup. But this was yummy! Sooo gooood~ I ordered a combination meal, and I got the tamago don (egg over rice). However, the waitress either mixed up my order or heard me wrong because she gave me oyako don (chicken and egg over ric...

I spent the day in Stockton yesterday with my love and his family! It was so fun and relaxing, but extremely hot! His already large house is full of people right now, so it was non-stop talking and fun! His visiting sisters taught us how to dance the salsa and merengue! (I intend to practice these dances with Andrew, much to his dismay :D) I felt so comfortable and happy there! Andrew's mother kindly made us all lunch. Clockwise from the top: pork ribs in a dark sauce with green onions, a very mild curry, rice, garlic bok choy, and fried tofu. All very interesting and good! I found myself really enjoying the bok choy, which made me think of my tortoise since I feed her bok choy sometimes! :) In the early afternoon, we went to their old house, which is the house Andrew and his family grew up in. They moved into their current house a few years ago, and their cousins now live in the old house. I love it; the backyard is so large and beautiful. There is a basketball court, a swimming p...