Weekend in San Francisco

There hasn't been much cooking going on around here. I've just started a new job and Lee has his testing period at Boeing where he works crazy hours, plus May was one of the busiest months we've had in quite a while. Tonight we had KFC and Cozy Shack Rice Pudding for dinner--it's not always healthy, but it sounded kind of good. I'm excited our garden is growing by leaps and bounds, which means I'll be eating lots of vegetables this summer and from our own garden. It looks better this year than last and I've got lots of ideas for next years garden to make it better, such as an irrigation system and different varieties of veggies. Maybe I'll grow that green thumb yet.

Lee and I haven't been away from Seattle since la

st October and I don't remember the last time I haven't gone anywhere for that long. So what is close, a big city and some place I've never been before? San Francisco! We took a quick trip down there last weekend and it was just what I needed. To get away, relax, be alone with my honey, eat lots of seafood, see some new things and feel very excited to come back home. We really liked it for the most part, not sure we'd go back since there are so many places we love and more we'd like to see. I think we saw

the majority of that huge city in 2 days, but we are a good team and seem to like doing similar things, so it makes traveling easy.

I don't know if Lee and I have this amazing good luck angel hanging above us when it comes to food, but we had another great experience. We dined at the 2 star Michael Mina restaurant and had an incredible meal, probably the second best meal next to Joel Robuchon. Lee asked for a copy of the menu when we were done eating, which he usually does at fine restaurants where we have a memorable meal--it's like a little picture of our evening that we will ne

ver forget. Very romantic I think. Well, this evening in San Francisco Michael Mina himself happened to be cooking in the kitchen. This is very rare for such a well known chef who has several other restaurants and is somewhat of a celebrity in the chef-y world to be cooking in their own kitchen. Our waiter asked us if we'd like our menu signe

d and of course we said yes, then asked if we'd like to meet him! So we went back to the kitchen, yes we did, and met Michael Mina and made small talk-found out he is from Ellensburg and found he's a really nice guy. Most people look up to athletes or actors or whatnot, but my guilty pleasur

e is following well known chefs. I do watch Top Chef, and way too much of the Food Network, so this was a fun experience for me.

My new job at Spa Scotta is so great! It's so great that it d

oesn't feel like I'm working. I can actually talk to my friends and have lunch with them on breaks, we can go for coffee (!!), I have input in all the decisions that are made and no one watches over my shoulder, I get to listen to and dance to every fabulous 80's song, plus I still touch tootsies and love on people all day. I realize these things are normal for most people, but I've been working for a large corporation for many years now and laughing and

hanging out and having large amounts of input in the company weren't possible. It's incredibly refreshing and I am happier than ever at work.

Some of the places we went to eat in San Fran were John's Grill, Boudin, R@G Lounge, Michael Mina, Quince, Buena Vista, Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop and the crab vendors at Fisherman's Wharf.