This day was all about spoiling my kids. After our world-class breakfast at Outerlands, we drove downtown for a day of shopping and luxurious spa treatments.

Check out Marissa glaring at me in the rear-view mirror. I guess I was irritating her from the back seat. Hmm, a mother irritating a daughter, now that’s new!

Be sure and stick with me through this rather lengthy post. It was a big day so there is a lot to share, but you have to read the end and check out our spa time and our dinner choice… even if you just scroll down and skip the shopping parts. :-

First, we ducked into the Apple store because I wanted Connor to see the awesome theater-style classroom. I know, how much Apple can one person do in a long weekend?! Even our newest store in Scottsdale has nothing like this.

As we walked by we noticed they were demonstrating exactly how to use iMovie. We sat in on the class and learned so much that the rest of the weekend I was taking videos so that I can test my newfound knowledge. And guess what? I’m working on it, and there will be an iMovie on this very blog, very soon.

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Last Saturday started out so very yummy!  Only a few blocks from Marissa’s house is what is said to be one of the top 10 best places for brunch in the entire city. I hardily and happily agree! It is Outerlands, located in Outer Sunset at 4001 Judah Street. Although we could not make the brunch on Sunday, we did go there for breakfast on Saturday, and my oh my, if breakfast is this good, I can not imagine what brunch must be like!

Additionally, it is rustically beautiful inside. You must get there at least 30 minutes before they open and write your name on the list that hangs on a clipboard outside the door. We did, so we were fifth on the list.  By the time they opened, the list was three pages long and the outside sidewalk was packed. Marissa says it’s like that all time; morning, noon, and night.

The bread is what really sends this place into the stratosphere. If I could bake bread like this, I would have more friends than I’d know what to do with!

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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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Dave and I just returned from a long weekend in the wine country of Sonoma, California. I can’t wait to tell you about all the fabulous food we ate and wonderful wineries we visited.  But before I can even think about that, I have to share with you an absolute gem that we stumbled upon on our arrival night in San Francisco – Gitane Restaurant & Bar. You absolutely have to go the next time you are anywhere near Union Square! I am in love with this place and now my mission in life is to recreate the dishes we had there!

“Gitane” means gypsy woman in French. Additionally, Gitane is the name of a French bicycle manufacturer and also a brand of French cigarettes. This place is exotic and ultra-sexy, exactly what you might expect from a gorgeous romanticized gypsy image. It is hidden away on Claude Lane, an almost alley-like, side street between Sutter and Bush in one direction and between Grant and Kearney in the other.

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My baby girl was in Stonehenge yesterday. I don’t know why, but this photo that she posted on Facebook, made me want to make these cookie bars…

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This recipe comes from Martin Kuzmarski of The Lobby Boy, One Aldwych, London, England via the Food Network. It is in honor of my darling Marissa’s two-week trip to London, which she left for this morning. Have fun sweet baby girl!

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This past weekend, we were traveling yet again, this time to Illinois for our niece’s wedding. This particular niece, Katie Hopkins, who is Dave’s brother’s daughter, just so happened to be our flower girl, 25 years ago, at our wedding. She made an even more beautiful bride than she did an adorable flower girl – hard to imagine!

Thankfully, my jet-setting days are over, done with, and finished, for the rest of 2010. It is exceedingly difficult to put up new blog posts about cooking when one is spending countless hours in airports, having items confiscated by the TSA, and visiting faraway lands all the time! Maybe Canada and Illinois aren’t exactly exotic, but travel is not only exhausting – it is expensive and hazardous to your health! Expensive not only because of ticket prices but also paying for bags (which was necessary on the week-long Canada trip – luckily not so on the Chicago weekender) and having to replace those confiscated nail scissors and hairspray -oops! Unhealthy because I (and only I) had to go through the x-ray body scanner, 3 out of the 4 trips through security, these last couple of weeks. That just can’t be good for you. Even at the dentist, one is shielded from the harmful rays – but not at the airport – “Here is a tasty plate of cancer, cooked up, especially for you, Bon Appetit,” is what I imagine the TSA is saying to me!

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One of the many things I love about Europe, and now Quebec, are the adorable store signs. The one above wasn’t one of those, but I just couldn’t pass it up. It was painted on the side of a building in Montreal and I think it is the cleverest thing. I have saved the best for last, be certain to scroll to the end… enjoy!

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