Pink House

Hand Bell Choir

 

About 5 days before Christmas, I went into my "zone" and all I could think about was Christmas prep - shopping, cooking, wrapping, cleaning up, making lists etc. My moments of calm were the outings that I'd planned with my mom and family during the week. We went to a choir holiday concert, a community theatre musical, lunch out, dinner out, a lovely Christmas eve service, and a hand bell concert. I do love the sound of hand bells and am fascinated by the method of making music - one bell/person at a time. Each individual chime a lovely sound on its own, but together they made a melody.

It was so nice to just SIT and breathe and listen, to take in the sights and sounds with nothing to do but enjoy. Aahhh!

Holiday Happenings!

Lots going on around here, and I'm just barely keeping up. Today is the last day to "get things done" and I still have a LOT on my to-do list. Not sure I'll be able to post again until Saturday, but I'm taking lots of photos. So I'll be posting when I can.

Happy holidays everyone and be sure to take some time to SLOW DOWN and just ENJOY!

(This photo was taken on Balboa Island by Newport Beach the Sunday evening after Christmas. They had decorated the entire little Main Street with lights, garlands, and wreaths. We walked all the way from one side of the tiny island to the other shore along this road. So pretty!)

Whoops! I was going to upload some photos from my camera tonight and realized that I'd left it at a friend's house tonight. I can picture it sitting on a shelf right where I set it. Must get it back tomorrow.

Lunch Out!

Just had lunch @ Cafe DeCamp in Billings. Slow but good. Now off to shop.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Christmas Breakfast

My first holiday guest arrived today, and so my Christmas holiday officially began today. It will continue until January 2nd, I figure, when our last guest flies away. I FINALLY finished the decorating, and cleaning, but still to do is SHOPPING (oh my!), and menu planning for the next two weeks. And some goody baking too. So still a LOT more miles to go, but it's here and I'm happy about it.

I've been mulling over different meal ideas for the last few weeks in my mind, but I need to get them down on paper and actually write out some shopping lists, go to the grocery store, etc. One piece of the puzzle is what to serve on Christmas morning. I just read a fellow blogger's (Poetic Appetite) take on Christmas morning cooking too. It's a puzzle.

Our tradition for the last...20 years or so, has been to do presents on Christmas morning, and so I get up extra early, throw some prepared cinnamon rolls in the oven, make coffee and cocoa, and orange slices. That's what we "snack" on while we open gifts...(we do the slow method, going around the circle one at a time, and each opening one gift at a time - takes a couple of hours). By the end of gift opening, we have a gigantic pile of wadded wrapping paper and discarded gift boxes, and a lot of hungry tummies. Suddenly, I'm on the run to get breakfast to the table as fast as possible.

Our tradition for years, and one that my sons insist on continuing, is doing bacon, sausage, and soft-boiled eggs with toast strips. Why I ever started making that on Christmas morning, I don't know. Because anyone who has ever made soft-boiled eggs for 6 people know that it's HARD to do - to get them all done at the right temp, not too soft or hard. And enough warm toast strips for dipping. And by the time you just about get the top cracked off of your's, others are ready for round two. It's hard to sit at the table dining festively, when you're running to the kitchen to check on eggs bubbling away every three minutes. I always have one or two pans that don't turn out - usually OVERdone, and then you're starting over.

So LAST year, I thought I could get away with making bacon, sausage, and EGG CASSEROLE instead. You'd have thought I committed a crime - everyone was wondering what happened to our soft-boiled eggs. I explained.....we'd hosted a nice dinner for 10 the night before, stayed up late cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes, and then STILL had to make two desserts for a big family dinner later Christmas Day. My cooking energy was wearing thin! But then my "mom guilt" got a hold of me.......

So this year, I guess I'm doing soft-boiled eggs again. Darn. Even though I'M HOSTING 25 PEOPLE (this is NOT an exaggeration!) later that day. And I kind of think I'm going to have to cook a nice dinner the night before for Christmas Eve too. Even though I like to cook, I get kind of weary just thinking about it. Too bad, I couldn't hire a chef to stand in my kitchen watching the eggs bubble with a timer in his hand, while I dine leisurely in the other room. That would be nice.

But back on my grocery list once again is: bacon, sausage, bread, and EGGS!

How does everyone else deal with Christmas breakfast? I'm open for some good ideas!

Brrr.........It's too cold!

Rocco is on strike! It's just too cold in Montana for much of anything other than hunkering down underneath a pile of blankets right now. Keep warm everyone!

Dining out in Newport Beach

We had some yummy and entertaining meals out in Newport Beach. A little sampling of all kinds of dining. Mostly local fare recommended by the locals.

Chase's order of housemade ravioli with meat balls. The meat balls were the size of tennis balls!

One night we went to a little Italian joint called Mama D's that was just a couple blocks from our house. It was packed out (always a good sign) and we had to wait outside for a bit. It was a surprise when the hostess brought us out a tray of garlic bread to sample while we waited on benches out front. Then she brought us little paper cups of water, followed by wet wipes. Wow! Finally she seated us at our table with a smile where we were promptly greeted by a server who introduced himself and plunged right into telling us that we were going to have a great time. And we did! There was a big sign on the wall that said "Voted the FRIENDLIEST business in Newport Beach for 8 years running!" And we could see why.

My order was from the "Light" side of the menu: Chicken Scallopini Pasts - artichokes, mushrooms, tomatoes, chicken and NO tomato sauce! Just the way I like it. Yummy!

The food was great. Everyone enjoyed what we ordered, and the portions were very generous and the prices reasonable. We shared salads to start, and after our pasta dishes we didn't have any room for dessert, as usual. The staff kept busy but always with a friendly attitude and smile - so nice! There was a singer at a keyboard near us performing cover songs. That kept us entertained as well. A fun evening!

Mama D's in Newport Beach  (It appears they don't have a website, but there are a lot of reviews about them on food websites. Very popular locally-owned place.

One day for lunch, the guys were hungry when we were bike-riding so we stopped at another local restaurant near our house that had been recommended to us. It was very crowded on a Saturday afternoon: Avila's El Ranchito. Great mexican food - very fresh and lighter choices on the menu than your average mexican spot. Their specialty is a tomatillo chicken soup which the people next to us ordered and I'm still thinking about. I'd love to find the recipe somewhere. We sat out on a patio and enjoyed the sunshine and people-watched. Lots of LA celeb types in this tiny place.

Avila's El Ranchito on Newport Blvd.

The last evening we splurged and got a reservation at an upscale restaurant called Gulfstream. It was really a nice spot - just a couple of miles from our house and near Fashion Island. A very large restaurant, it was very crowded and noisy when we first arrived but quieted down at the end of our time.

Delicious rosemary biscuits the guys ordered for an appetizer!

The lighting was low and the place was buzzing. Kind of fun atmosphere. The menu was fairly traditional seafood and steakhouse, which was a bit disappointing to me. I like something more creative.

Chase ordered the burger (he doesn't like seafood) which actually had a lot of creative toppings.

Sean ordered the grilled salmon. I ordered salmon too with sauteed spinach rather than fries.

We were told that they had a cool outdoor flagstone patio with fire pits and adirondack chairs, so after dinner we went out to the patio to have tea and coffee. It was a bit chilly, but the fires were going and they had on the heat lamps too. Unfortunately I forgot to switch to the "candlelight" setting on my camera, so they turned out really fuzzy.

The outdoor patio was really a nice touch. The fireplaces and small white lamps warmed up the area and the chairs were comfortable. A fun way to begin or end your evening. We liked our night out at Gulfstream and would recommend for a special occasion in Newport Beach area.

Gulfstream restaurant in Newport Beach

ON Monday Kev and I drove down the coast about 10 miles to Laguna Beach area. We drove through Costa Del Mar and really liked that neighborhood. The concierge at Hyatt had recommended a place in Laguna Beach called "The Beach House" when we asked for a recommend for a lunch spot to enjoy the beach views. It's a good thing we asked because we would have found this spot otherwise. It's an older building off of the Pacific Coast highway, but sits right on the sand. The views? Wow!

We were seated right on the front deck overlooking the ocean. So pretty and beautiful weather too!

We both had the Shrimp Bisque and it was very tasty!

I also ordered Lobster Sliders (like mini lobster rolls!) but skipped the fries.

 

So many great places in Newport Beach - we loved the area. Beautiful and lots of fun to explore!

Fun in Newport Beach

One of the treats of southern California visits is the year-round warm weather. When we arrived I spotted a chart in a magazine showing their high & low average temps in Newport Beach. In summer the temps top at high 70's and in winter they hover around mid-60's. How's that for perfect?! Every day we were there in November was warm, light-jacket kind of weather and most evenings were moderate too.

For us, that meant lots of outdoor time. Morning started for me on the rooftop deck with a cup of coffee and my Kindle to read. I would look down at the street below and see people walking, walking everywhere. To the grocery store, to the beach, to work. I love neighborhoods where people can just come out their door and take off walking rather than having to drive.

Another common sight was seeing young men long-boarding around as a means of transportation. The longer-style of skateboard with wider wheels is meant as a reliable form of getting around in California and Chase regularly uses his in San Luis Obispo to get from his house to campus for classes. Your arms are free to carry your laptop and a backpack. They're used just like bikes and work especially well in areas without steep hills to navigate. In Newport Beach I saw a lot of young men coasting through the neighborhood streets on their longboards with ease. 

That's Chase ahead of me, carry his surfboard on his longboard

Later we would head out for some kind of activity - beach walking, biking, or watching Chase surf. I LOVE the beach and miss going on weekends when I was growing up in Portland area. There is nothing that I love more than walking on the beach and watching the waves roll in.

Chase is out there paddling out - right at the end of pier

The house we rented had two long surfboards to use and Chase had brought his short surfboard in the back of his Toyota pickup. He also brought his wetsuit along. One afternoon he headed down to the ocean on his longboard with his surfboard under his arm. We were only two blocks from the ocean, so it was easy to tag along.

At sunset one evening we walked out on the beach again while the sky turned pink then orange as the sun sunk into the sea. We made our way back to the house in the dusk, walking on Balboa Blvd while checking out the interesting houses for sale and rent along the oceanfront drive.

The house we rented in Newport Beach

Newport Beach has a 3-mile boardwalk that stretches from the north end of Newport, all the way down the Balboa Peninsula. Since the land is totally flat (of course!), it is a great place to ride the beach cruiser bikes. (This is where the beach cruiser bikes originated in fact!) The boardwalk is so busy in this area, that it actually has traffic lanes and posted rules for passing etc. We walked and rode bikes down this. So fun!

How' s this for a beach front cafe? Stopped by here one morning while biking

Our rental house had two beach bikes for us to use, and we one day we rented two more cruiser bikes so that all four of us could ride. We rode all the way down the peninsula, watched the Wedge (where the Newport bay comes into the ocean) a famous bodysurfing area, and then rode back on the streets. The houses along the peninsula are SO CUTE! Some are huge and ultra-modern, but my favorite where the older tidy-as-a-button ones. It was fun to see the residents out putting up their Christmas decorations in the balmy weather.

I loved riding the cruiser bikes. It made me feel about ten years old again. You sit up high and straight, your arms wide on the handlebars, your water bottle in the basket up front, the fat tires beneath you, and just pedal. Being in a flat area makes the pedaling so easy! No hills mean no need for shifting gears. Good thing we didn't drive there or I would have been buying a cruiser bike for myself to load up and take back home. So many fun colors!

Sean and I were fascinated by this elementary school that we biked past. Newport Beach Elementary has BEACH FRONT property! Obviously, this was built years ago before the real estate when sky high. The school sits on one side of the boardwalk overlooking the ocean. (you should see how many bike racks the school has up front). And their PLAYGROUND is this (see below)- a blacktop pad right out on the ocean side, atop the sand. Oh, those lucky, lucky kids. Four-square, tether poles, and kickball all while watching the waves roll in!

On Sunday Chase headed out at noon to drive back up for SLO (needed to prepare for finals week), and the three of us packed up the house (Kev and I were moving to the Hyatt later that day). We decided to rent a small motorboat and take a loop around the Newport Bay waters. It was a gorgeous day and so interesting to see the houses, stacked side-by-side along the shoreline with their yachts parked just a few feet away. Crazy!

 

Sean got a kick out of checking out all of the creative boat names - everyone names their sailboats, yachts, and even small motorboats. One was named "Free-Range Chicken". I love being on a boat! Someday, some day, I am going to have a boat. On a body of water somewhere. It's on my list. But for now, I will settle to just ride one once in awhile.

I really loved being somewhere - in the winter, no less - that we could be outside and be active every day of our trip. So much nicer than having to go to the gym to get your 45 minutes in for several months of the year.

In the afternoon, Kev and I checked into the Newport Beach Hyatt resort which we'd booked for a steal on Hot Wire. We planned to spend our last two days here after the guys went back to their homes. This was a fun resort because there were so many outdoor activities  - 3 nice pool areas, a 9-hole par-3 golf course (which we played), outdoor volleyball courts, outdoor ping pong tables, and even shuffle board. Kev taught me how to play shuffleboard and beat me handily. This resort also had a lovely outdoor patio lounge with a gas fireplace that was a fun place to hang out in the evenings. Californians are lucky to be able to enjoy the outdoors year-round. It was fun to sample it for a few days!

One morning I sat in the Hyatt lobby sipping a latte and using the WiFi and reading the newspaper. Christmas carols playing on the sound system and hotel employees were decorating a Christmas tree, while outside the palm trees swayed under the sunshine. Seemed surreal. I loved how the grass was green and flowers were still blossoming outdoors on December 1st. Aaaahhhhhhh!

Later this day we flew back home to snowy cold! Bye bye California!

Black Friday at Fashion Island

While I heard from friends and family back home through Facebook about their plans for Black Friday. They were getting up at 4 am to hit the bargains at the big box stores, but I knew that in Newport Beach we wouldn't be doing any such thing. For one thing, we stay up too late, and then the guys like to sleep in. But we talked about it on Thanksgiving evening and they all agreed that a shopping outing to nearby Fashion Island would be fun for Friday.

At Newport Beach, in the neighborhood we were in, it's all about the little surf shops and small boutiques, and tiny cafes. I never saw a big box store. But then I saw on a map this BIG shopping center just a few miles away called Fashion Island. Oh year, it was BIG and BEAUTIFUL. And had all of the big department stores. The guys finally got up about 11 am, and so we didn't start our shopping until about NOON on Black Friday. Yay, that's how we roll. With the early birds! But there were still some worms to get.

It's nice to "shop" when you really don't intend to buy anything at all, but just to enjoy yourself. Fashion Island is a huge outdoor shopping mall with a beautiful courtyard. There were fountains and flowers everywhere. Green grass and palm tress in November! The weather was positively balmy and we just walked around enjoying ourselves. The stores were all upscale - we wandered into some and Sean actually purchased some clothing on good sales. I only bought some jewelry at Express and my perfume at Bloomingdales, all that I can't get back home. After he warmed up, Chase even succumbed to the shopping virus and bought a few new clothing items (or let Dad buy for him). 

We roamed around and I oohed and aahed over the HUGE outdoor planters overflowing with poinsettias in full bloom. Again: outdoor in November! I thought I took a photo of one of the planters, but it didn't turn out. We spotted a Pinkberry store (popular Cali frozen yogurt) and stopped to buy some mini bowls to sample. Yummy, but not sure it was THAT great. 

For lunch we hit up P.F. Chang's at Fashion Island (there were several large restaurants as part of the development). We don't have one of these in Montana, so Kev and I think it's a treat to hit it when we travel. Their food is SO tasty, even if it is a chain. Of course, we all shared lettuce cups and salt & pepper prawns. Honey chicken, and wok-charred beef. So so tasty!

It was interesting for me to see how California does the whole holiday decorating thing when it's sunny and warm outside. Besides the poinsettias planted everywhere, there was a huge tree decorated in pink and white in the center court, and most interestingly the PALM TREES had white lights wrapped all the way up their trunks. We drove back by at night and the row of palm trees looked like a row of lighted columns in the dark. It seemed kind of fake, because we have the evergreen trees here and frosty snow which makes it seem like "holidays" to us. But I could definitely get used to the warm variety too.

 

Creating Thanksgiving in Newport Beach

People always ask me if I cook Thanksgiving dinner for our family when we go to California every year to spend the holiday weekend with our sons.  They ask, "Or do you just eat out?" My answer to that is always the same: I make Thanksgiving dinner in its entirety for our family of four in California. We also eat breakfast and some lunches at the rental house, but we usually eat out at restaurants for the other dinners. Because it's fun to sample some of the local dining spots, but its also nice to have some mom-cooked meals too. This works out great for us. We always rent a house on www.vrbo.com (Vacation Rental by Owner) and one of my selection criteria is to have a decent kitchen to cook in.

In Newport Beach, our house was small but newly remodeled and decorated, and only two blocks to walk to the beach. We arrived late Tuesday night and headed for the grocery store on Wednesday morning. We were only a short drive from a Trader Joe's and I had a wonderful time shopping here. We bought a small 10-pound fresh turkey and the other fixings here. I was a happy shopper! I wish we had a Trader Joe's in Billings! (as I've said about a hundred times)

This time I remembered to bring a few things from home so that I wouldn't have to buy things like spices. Most of the vacation rental houses, this one included, only have salt & pepper and pots and pans in their kitchens. So you have to go shopping for the rest. So at home I blended a few poultry herbs together in a small baggie and stuck that in my suitcase to bring along. I mixed that blend with a 1/2 cube of butter and rubbed that all over the turkey as well as under the skin of the breast. 

The view from my Newport Beach kitchen window

I'm always a bit nervous about the kitchen appliances - especially the stovetop and oven. This kitchen had a newer gas cooktop (which is what I'm used to at home) but the oven should be replaced. When we opened it - it was dirty, and we tried using the "self-clean" method twice, but that didn't work so we had to clean out the oven the old-fashioned spray-soak-and-wipe method ourselves. Kev worked on that. I'm also aware that different ovens cook at different temps - and this one appeared to be cooking hot. Anyway, it was a hassle and our turkey ended up being a bit overcooked but still tasted good.

Our tradition is that while the turkey roasts in the afternoon, we always go to the beach for a long walk on the beach. In recent years we did this at Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. And this year at Newport Beach. The weather was very warm and just beautiful. There was no wind at all. Gorgeous! I love California in the fall! Newport Beach has the best "beach" for walking of any that we've been to. Long, sandy, and even though there are more people, there is also more room to spread out. The mood is relaxed and everyone seems happy to be enjoying themselves. We walked and took turns riding the two beach cruiser bikes on the 3-mile long boardwalk along the beach. 

Kev brought a special bottle of Justin Isosoles from his collection

When we returned to the house, Kevin got busy setting the table. I asked Sean to help me with the mashed potatoes (peeling, cooking, mashing). And Chase helped with the green beans (sauteing pancetta and shallots, then adding the fresh green beans.) I worked on the stuffing, roasting sweet potato cubes, and making a salad.

I was excited about the carton of baby heirloom tomatoes that I purchased at Trader Joe's. They were so cute! My salad was simple baby lettuces and herbs, with the sliced baby tomatoes on top. 

Here's a photo of our table ready for us to sit down. Dinner turned out great even if the turkey was a bit dry. We ate, sipped, and talked. At the end of dinner we made phone calls to family in Oregon, and family back home in Montana and passed the phones around to give everyone a chance to say hello.

Later I put together the french apple pie (from scratch) to put in the oven while we went up to the rooftop deck and watched the sunset. The guys played guitar and sang while Kev and I just enjoyed the rooftop concert under the stars. Fun times.

Later we went back in and had warm apple pie (I had prepared a large baggie at home with all of the topping ingredients except butter which I cut in before covering the apples. My mixture had four, sugar, and cinnamon.) We added a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream alongside the slices of pie.

When I cook Thanksgiving dinner for us, I try to make it nice, like a small homemade slice of home. But I don't go for perfection. The menu is fairly traditional, nothing spectacular or unusual, just the family favorites. There's a balance between making things with a bit of special effort, and going for perfection. I KNOW that I can't hit perfection and don't even try. But I try to make it nice, a bit special, and memorable. And that's what I remember from year to year.