Winter Wonderland

My in-laws visited from Michigan last week and they were good sports about the weekend activities I suggested, like checking out the new downtown doughnut shop Vinnie's (fine but no need for a repeat visit) and the SA Children's Museum (ditto).

Downtown SA

We're not talking.

Forever in blue jeans



 

Lunch at the Cove

 

It was a great visit!

 

[I have the sinking feeling that my posts only reflect the weekend and nothing noteworthy happens during the week and I HATE the 'working for the weekend' mentality since that leaves 5/7 of the week unsung. It was a very interesting workweek on a professional and intellectual level, however.]

 

That said, on to the next weekend...

 

Walking out with my colleague on Friday afternoon, the doors slid open and we were hit with a blast of sunny 80 degree air and we both said --ahhhh!  It feels so good.  The cold (35-50 degree) overcast weather gave way and SA got back to being warm before it gets back to being infernally hot. We celebrated Valentine's Day with filet mignon from Omaha Steaks (thanks Dad! And thanks Chip and Joy for the chest freezer!) and House of Cards.

 

On Saturday C and I made the British-style scone recipe I'd ripped out the March/April Cook's Illustrated - they were stellar.  I took the rest to the salon about an hour later where I had a facial/cut/color.  I'm not a devotee or even believer in facials - I prefer strong acids and neurotoxins when it comes to skin care but during pregnancy some pore-degunking is as good as it gets.  My skin has been all-pregnancy-haywire so some TLC and de-gunking were in order.

 

 Beautified, we packed up the C-Bear for an afternoon out.

 

Lunch at the Luxury:

 

These plastic animals are the table numbers

For the second night in a row we fell asleep on the couch watching House of Cards and stayed there until the morning. That could be explained by comfortable couches, but we have two terrible, sat-upon-1000-too-many times loveseats, so there really is no excuse.



Morning: Yes wearing the clothes from the day before.

On Sunday I made a pilgrimage to Neiman Marcus because it's the only place in SA that sells Armani makeup -- the best foundation, ever, period, end of story.  I'd completely given up makeup entirely for weeks out of laziness and finally said, no, this must end. [See above: all-pregnancy-haywire skin - acne, worsening melasma.] I justify the expense by thinking of all the $12 bottles I'd have to buy at Walgreens only to decide immediately they are too light, too dark, too greasy, too sheer.  If you need to talk to me simply call 1-800-ENABLE.

Then to the Block - a bar and food truck park - for Luke's afternoon gig (thanks for joining us, Hertlesses!)

That evening I made rocky road ice cream from Jeni's book (using the 'milkiest chocolate ice cream in the world' recipe which TEN CUIDADO! has a typo plus layers of mini marshmallows, almond slivers, and caramel drizzles.  We tried it today and it is by far the best batch I have ever made and way, way better than storebought).  I also made the pastry cream for the Boston cream cupcakes I'd wanted to make for ages from Cook's Country.

Rule #45 from Michael Pollan's Food Rules: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

 

I don't think you know who you're dealing with, Mr. Pollan.

This morning I finished up the cupcakes and had one with lunch (actually, just a couple of bites -- they were so rich and I don't think I've ever thought those words much less typed them). Luckily Luke's producer was in the neighborhood and he swung by to share them with the studio crew (the magic of Instragram).

Egg salad and ersatz Boston cream pie, my diner-lunch-at-home. Butter lettuce is the best lettuce of all the lettuces.

C and I made a Target run and then to Pearl (the only pedestrian friendly area of SA) where I found the cowboyish hat with a chinstrap (so windy here) I'd been looking for. We sat on the patio of La Gloria where she ate an astonishing amount of guacamole (something idiomatic about an apple and a tree here), delighted in the birds scavenging for chips, and drank from a straw for the first time!  It just took an agua fresca for her to get the hang of it.

Tonight we found out she is on the cover of our neighborhood publication Hills & Heights in a feature on her daycare.

 

 

Until next weekend...