In yesterday’s post, I purposely left out something that we did on our way to Santa Cruz. About halfway between San Mateo and Santa Cruz sits the city of Cupertino. If you have an Apple product, you’ve heard of Cupertino. It is the time zone setting on every Apple device; from the iPhone, and the MacBooks, to the iPad. I know this because I’ve reset it on every Apple item I own.  Let’s see – Marissa and I are both on our second MacBooks, Connor has one, I asked for and received an iPad for Christmas and then didn’t use it much, so it now belongs to Connor, and each of the three of us has an iPhone and we all, of course, (including Dave)  have iPods. Once we get rid of Dave’s stupid Blackberry and his horrid PC and buy him an iPhone and a big old desktop Mac, our transition will be complete to a true Apple-only family!

Yes, I happily guzzle the Kool-Aid, in fact, give me some more! I’m thinking that Apple TV maybe my next move. Besides all of the Apple stuff we have, I’ve been a bit obsessed with the subject because I’ve been reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It is the authorized biography that was released soon after Jobs’s death in October 2011. What a complicated, brilliant, narcissistic ass he was! I started the book the Tuesday before we left and finished on the plane, on our way home. I highly recommend it if you like biographies, Apple, tech stuff, Steve Jobs, or just want to learn about the impact on our culture and way of life that Jobs most certainly made. Whether you own an Apple product or not!

Cupertino is mentioned on about every page, so a stop there was a must. I had no idea where we were going, so we drove into town and started to look for Apple.  It didn’t take more than a minute before we saw buildings with the Apple logo on the signs.

I knew there had to be a bigger grander place than these little buildings, so I asked Siri (on my iPhone 4s) to direct me to Apple headquarters. She came through with flying colors. I have a love/hate relationship with Siri.

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… in San Francisco. That’s how I always feel when I board the plane and leave my girl behind. It helps to have dates on the calendar marking when I’ll see her again… Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving, but it still leaves a tiny little hole each time.

Then again, what a joy it is to be able to go to such a great city to visit her. So much better than if she lived in Podunk, Nowhere Special, USA! Plus there is the fact that she is adorable and sent Connor and I an itinerary, ahead of time, filled with fun things she had lined up for us to do. Love her!!!

We arrived at 7:30 PM on Thursday night. When we landed, I sent Marissa a text at work saying, “the eagle has landed,” and she pulled up just as we were walking out the doors from baggage claim, what timing! It helps that Connor and I travel extra-lite and had no baggage to claim, we shared one carry-on. As you’ve seen from my refrigerator, I am a super-duper packer!

We drove toward Marissa’s home and stopped at San Tung Chinese Restaurant, 1031 Irving Street, located in the Inner Sunset neighborhood. We went specifically for their famous dry fried chicken wings. Wow, they did not disappoint!

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I had hoped to post about our trip to San Francisco, but I haven’t been able to get all the photos formatted yet…  tomorrow… San Fran, I promise!

Until then, here is the quick and easy dinner I made for Connor and I, the night before we flew off to see Marissa.

Connor has always loved taquitos. You know – those thin, crunchy, nasty frozen sticks. He also adores Buffalo chicken wings.  I made these Buffalo taquitos just for him. A healthier (especially if you use low-fat cream cheese and sour cream) version of those fried greasy sticks!

A little side note: I brought home my tortillas, opened the package and there were only 9 tortillas! It clearly states on the package that there are 10 tortillas, but I only got nine.  What’s up with that? It makes me wonder if someone got hungry at the grocery store, opened the package, and ate one, or if there was a miscount while packaging… hmmm?

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As a celebration for another great year at Les Gourmettes Cooking School, Barb treated me and Kim to a spa day. It was scheduled for early June, but I got food poisoning the night before and could not go with them. Barb, sweetly scheduled another date for after my summer classes at Les Petites Gourmettes, and she and I had a great time a week ago at the Willow Springs Spa at the Scottsdale Princess. After our treatments, we enjoyed a delicious lunch. We each ordered the Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad. It was your basic Cobb, with the exception of the herb vinaigrette… which was outstanding.  I asked the waiter if the chef might be willing to share the recipe. I gave him my email, and sure enough, within an hour of arriving home, it popped into my inbox.

I cut the recipe he sent in half. You may want to cut it in half again, it still makes over 3 cups, and although that is a lot, it is delicious on more than just salads. I drizzled it on hot fresh corn on the cob and as the dressing for a tomato-mozzarella salad. Both were fabulous.

You can wing it with the herb quantities if you don’t have a scale or just don’t feel like weighing everything, nothing has to be exact. Look at the photo I posted of all the herbs and it will give you a good idea of the amounts needed for each. I can tell you that 1.25-ounces of chives is two of those little herb boxes you get in the produce section. You can take it from there.

Thank you, Barb, for a relaxing and luxurious day – what a generous gift and treat! xoxo

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… and thank me later.  Connor and I are in San Francisco this morning, with our sweet Marissa. We arrived last night and are ready for a fun-filled, big city, mom and kids, weekend!

Last weekend, I made these pancakes for Connor and Patrick, his Flagstaff roommate, who was down for the weekend. I started us all out with a stack of three each… which was two too many for me. Dang, these babies are rich! Be sure you have a tall glass of ice-cold milk to wash them down.

The inspiration to make them that morning was two-fold. Firstly, I had a bunch of overripe bananas to use (isn’t that always the case?) and secondly, when we were in Wisconsin, Jen’s boys kept pestering her to make her famous banana pancakes. Sadly, we never remembered to buy bananas when we went grocery shopping. Connor has never had Jen’s pancakes, so I felt obliged to serve them up. I make the call to Jen to get her recipe, but since there is a two-hour time difference when she didn’t answer the phone, I figured they were already down at the lake. So, I winged it and they turned out pretty good, although I’d still like to get my hands on her version.

I have a cool website to share with you today. Did you know that you can find out where your milk and other dairy products come from? How cool is that!?

This Website allows you to type in a code from any dairy product. It then tells you where it’s from! Great to know where your milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, etc. are from and how far it had to be shipped to get to you. The code from the gallon of Fry’s brand milk that I typed in showed me that my milk came from the Tolleson Dairy, which is about 21 miles from my home.  Check it out for yourself and see where your milk products are coming from.

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We love flank steak, it’s a favorite “go-to” meal at our house. I usually make THIS version, with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and brown sugar.

For a change of pace, I tried something new, that was even easier. My boys – Dave, Connor, and my dad – gave it six thumbs up!

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I went to Costco yesterday with the sole purpose of buying a package of their fantastic ahi tuna. If they didn’t have any, I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner… I was craving ahi and ahi it was going to be… hopefully.

Connor came along with me and as we walked toward the back of the store, we passed a very tall older gentleman wearing a blue pinstripe seersucker suit. He was holding an extra-large reusable “cold” bag. You know, the insulated kind you take shopping to help keep your groceries cold on the way home. He was talking rather loudly and animated toward the guy selling the cell phones. Not in a mean tone, just really loud and attention-drawing.

On our way to the seafood, we got distracted by some cool maps we saw, and in the process, Mr. Seersucker passed us by.  When we arrived at the seafood area, he was already there, filling his bag with salmon, crab legs, lobster tails, and more. Basically, he was just going down the aisle, putting one or two of every sort of seafood in his bag. As I scanned down the open refrigerator for the ahi, I walked past him. There it was, at the far end of the refrigerator, the ONE and ONLY package of ahi left. I snapped it up and put it in our cart. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mr. Seersucker, near the center of the long refrigerator, looking in my direction, he did not look pleased.

Connor and I headed to the bakery to get the rolls for our ahi sandwiches and I watched as Mr. Seersucker called over an employee and proceeded to ask him about finding some more ahi tuna for him. The employee shook his head and told Mr. S. that no, there was no more ahi today.

Linda scores with a mere second or two to spare! Sorry, Mr. Seersucker, the crab legs, lobster, and salmon will have to do for you today.

The other thing from Costco that I used was this tasty Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Sauce as my marinade. But use whatever sort of marinade you like, such as teriyaki sauce.

The ever-popular roasted raspberry-chipotle sauce would be a great choice too.

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I posted some photos of our trip to Wisconsin on Facebook and my sister commented, “I would like to see pictures of the rest of the house! It looks so pretty!” Although I’ve spoken of the cabin and posted a few pictures before, today I will fulfill her wish and show you the whole thing.

One reason I call Jeff and Jen’s vacation home a log mansion is because it is drop-dead gorgeous. And the other is because my husband, Dave, grew up in a simple and modest vacation log cabin in northern Wisconsin. It was built by his dad, several years before Dave was born. Sadly it was sold in 1987. I stayed there one time, in 1986 when Dave and I were first dating. And next to it, J & J’s is truly a mansion – even Dave’s mom agrees!

The Hopkins’ cabin was originally without running water (there was only a hand pump), no inside bathroom – instead of an outhouse (as seen above from a 2007 photo, and NO, I never went in there!). No heat besides what the fireplace provided. And no electricity until the mid-1960s. Once the electricity was in, the pump became electric and a bathroom was added. But as Dave told me, “Even then, when we lost electricity due to storms, it could be out for days at a time. I remember one time it was out for at least 3 days. So we still had to revert to using the hand pump, and the outhouse, and that is why we kept the kerosene lamps and the gas refrigerator and stove.”

This photo of the Hopkins’ cabin was taken in 1955.

And this one was taken in 2007, the first summer we spent a week at Jeff and Jen’s. We drove over to show Marissa and Connor the mystical place their dad always told them about… “the cabin in the North Woods.”

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After driving by literally hundreds of farms and thousands of acres of corn fields in Minnesota and Wisconsin, during our vacation to the North Woods, I’ve had corn on my mind.  I took dozens of photos of as many of the charming farms and barns as I could, as we sped by in our rental car.  We even came upon a flock of wild turkey on the side of the road.  I made Dave turn the car around so I could get a picture.  They took flight just as I clicked the shutter.  That, and more barn pictures are at the end of this post.

The first meal I made when we returned home was this pasta with shrimp and fresh corn off the cob.

Even though the pasta is in a cream sauce, it is still lite and perfect for a summer supper. Instead of clam juice, I used some lobster stock I had in the freezer (the continuation of my perpetual freezer clean-out!), and wow, did it make a delicious sauce! And that is the reason my sauce is a little darker than yours will be if you use clam juice.

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Initially, I was going to label this “new and improved” taco salad. But after going back and looking at the original taco salad I posted in November, 2010, I determined that it isn’t improved, just different, and a whole lot easier!

I love this dressing, it is so smooth and creamy. Feel free to add whatever else you’d like to the salad toppings; black beans, diced red or green onion, and pickled jalapenos are just a few things that come to mind.

I used the multi-grain Tostitos Scoops as my chips of choice. Connor thought that was a waste of the perfectly formed Scoops, so I dumped out the package and picked out all the broken pieces, so we wouldn’t waste a single “Scoop”!  Then I had the brilliant idea of making Individual Taco Salad Bites as a party appetizer. If you decide to make these cuties for your next party – be sure to chop the lettuce finer, place the shredded cheese in the “Scoop” first, then the rest of the ingredients, and fill at the last minute to keep them from getting soggy too quickly.

I used some of this delicious Jalapeno Olive Oil that I’d bought last year at The Olive Press store which was located inside the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards in Sonoma, California. But any olive oil you have or prefer will do nicely.

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