Tag Archives: weekend

Perfect Place for Pedalin’ Peeps

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How many times have you biked our American River Bike Trail in 2012? In your life? For me, the answer for both – regrettably – is only one. And the only proof I have is that I’m the one who took this photo.

I’ve run on the trail before, the 10 miles or so from Discovery Park to Watt Ave., just not biked. And it’s not like I don’t have a bike; I bought mine from the Bike Kitchen months ago. So my heart’s in it, I’ve just never been a bicyclin’ gal. But now I live in a city where every 16 seconds I see another permutation of two or three or four wheels whizzing down the road. I needed some motivation to get in gear, and last weekend it came in the form of that lady pictured at right: my sis-in-law.

My husband’s sister, Giselle, visited us last weekend from Hood River, Oregon. She’s got a view of the Columbia River from her back porch, so we couldn’t let her leave without showing off our Sacramento waterway, too. (And, by the way, that’s my hubby, Gannon, pictured at left.)

So far, when friends and family have visited, we’ve walked the river, perched on the Guy West Bridge to peek at feeding fishes or floated the river with the S.S. Happiness. But I wanted to try something a little different. I brought up the idea of biking knowing that Giselle – an experienced urban biker from her days living in Portland – would be game to see the river via two wheels. Besides, it was about time I got back on my bike myself. I do live in Sacramento now, thank you very much. So with the generousity of our super stupendous neighbors (I love Sacramento neighbors!) who lent us a bike and helmet from their garage for our visitor, we were on our way.

We biked from home to the Guy West Bridge river entrance, racing under the sun and whizzing through trees to find the sounds of wind and water. For such a stunning, sunny day, the trail was calm, and at times felt like our own. We stopped to skip rocks under the Watt Ave. Bridge, then pedaled home with our bellies full from a pit stop at Selland’s.

Before that bike ride, I gave myself excuses to not ride my bike. It’s too cold. My tires look flat. I’m not enough of a two-wheeled phenom to make it in this fast ‘n’ fixie town. My gears skip. It’s not worth the helmet hair.

Really, I think I just needed a little boost of pedal power confidence and a gorgeous bike trail setting to remember what all the fuss about biking in Sacramento is about.

I even rode my bike to work once last week. Helmet hair and all.

A Bountiful Market

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Look at all that color! We are *so* lucky here in Sacramento to have all this bounty right at our fingertips… or, at least, just a hop skip away at the 8th and W Farmer’s Market.

Now, I know I typically conduct such formal food photo shoots with my CSA stuff, but I just couldn’t help myself when I got home from the market on Sunday. Such ripe and vibrant produce begs for shutterplay. And, since my last round of CSA was quickly depleted leaving only Spike, I was due for a fun food shoot anyway.

Easter egg radishes, Meyer lemon, Mexican lime, blood orange – KIWI! – vine-ripened tomato, mint, basil and LOOK AT THOSE GREEN ONIONS. Not leeks. Not garlic. Green onions. Amazing.

Note the butter peeking out at right. Now, I do not mess around with butter. Butter is… heaven. Butter is life. I have been known to eat smooth, salty slivers straight from the block. I’m a purist. So sue me.

This is the best butter I’ve ever tasted. USDA Certified Organic Spring Hill Jersey Cheese Unsalted European Style Butter. It’s a mouthful o’ words and a mouthful o’ glory. Apparently, I’m not alone in my admiration. Michael Mina orders it by the truckful.

Speaking of super fabulous restaurants, while I was perusing one of the market’s citrus stands, I found myself standing next to the one and only restauranteur extraordinaire Randall Selland!

A celebrity in my eyes, I had been wanting to meet Mr. Selland of The Kitchen, Ella and Selland’s Market Cafe fame since before I moved here. And here he is standing next to me ordering kumquats! O, happy day!

When I mustered the gumption to introduce myself, he was – of course – more gracious than I could have ever imagined. I’ve always gotten the feeling that the Selland family business is one with an abundance of integrity, hard work, passion and love of family, and after meeting their patriarch in person, I am not at all surprised.

Have you been to the market lately? Seen any other big local names?

CSA Box, February: Not a Triceratops

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Recognize this??

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Wait for iiiiiiiiiiiiit………….

It’s our fractal friend the Romanesco! We got one in our CSA box last week! And, yes, it’s like broccoli meets cauliflower meets Jurassic Park.

I’ve named him Spike.

This really trippy green guy came to us last week, and I’m waiting to eat it like a awesomely wrapped gift I can’t bring myself to open. Then again, I know if we wait too much longer to eat it, our Roma-dino will in fact turn against us. And I do not want this thing growing four legs and battle ramming its way out of the fridge door.

Other CSA treats that survived traveling to us with our buddy Spike here were oranges, apples, pears, green lettuce, leeks, small red potatoes, chard and box choy (most of which was delicious and can no longer sit for a photo).

More local food photos from today’s Farmer’s Market coming up!

Lounge ON20 Love Affair

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Do you feel you’re swimming in pink champagne? It’s not your screen. It’s Lounge ON20.

Saturday night, Gannon and I cozied into a cushioned booth tucked in the back corner of the lounge for our first dining experience at this swanky Sac spot swimming in a warm magenta glow. Shame on me for taking so long to make it to the lounge. Months ago, I profiled their Chef de Cuisine, Mike Ward, for Comstock’s Magazine, so I knew the culinary treats within those uplit walls. At least I thought I knew.

Chef Mike delighted us with the amuse bouche pictured above – thai tea shooters, if my pink champagne memory serves – topped with flowers and melt-in-your-mouth raspberry foam kisses. (Rumor has it those raspberry kisses will also make an appearance tonight for anyone able to snag reservations for their divine Valentine’s six-course “Love Story” chef’s tasting menu.)

The teeny teas packed a flavor punch, filled with an explosion of delicious. Literally. Chef Mike had immersed in the glass a ball of flavor – part of his “exploding stuff” repertoire he alluded to in my article. A welcome surprise of “What the-?!?” …then …”YUM.”

After Chef started things off with a bang, we moved on to a compilation of Chef Mike’s master work and a Lounge ON20 must-try: the charcuterie plate.

Chef Mike, who along with Lounge ON20 Executive Chef Pajo Bruich is a local pioneer of molecular gastronomy – particularly charcuterie – presented us with more than a dozen culinary creations. Of course, I would fail miserably trying to remotely explain what comprises this delectable spread, but every bite: exquisite.

The best part: the flavors on this plate are deliciously interesting twists on familiar flavors that I already love, like ham, chorizo, pate, cherry, garlic, eggplant and an array of mustards made in-house. So for those people who see innovative presentations like this and think, “Too fancy for me,” I DARE you to try this plate and not like it.

And then… there’s the pork belly. A degree of indulgence all its own.

Another one of Chef Mike’s creations, he preps this pork for weeks or more before it lands on your plate – thick and succulent in its infinite pork glory. For this magic, he deserves a place in heaven.

Every bite more indulgent than the last, my love affair with Lounge ON20 is in full swing. More than an eatery, Lounge ON20 creates a top notch culinary experience maximizing the Central Valley’s magnificent ingredients down to the last mushroom. Even their balsamic vinegar is the finest in our fine region.

Plus, you can tell that the chefs who create these plate sensations along with Chef Mike truly take pride in what they do with food. Refreshing and wonderful in every way.

Thanks to the lounge for a sophisticated, intimate setting to enjoy an indulgent evening.

Next stop: Happy Hour!

MLK Celebration Today!

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Photo by James Karales, from MLK365.org

“We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.”

~ from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963, Lincoln Memorial

It’s not too late to join today’s MLK 365 March for the Dream or head down to the MLK Celebration! From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., MLK 365 are welcoming all people and all ages to their Education Village, health screenings, celebration of visual and dramatic arts, and their Wisdom Corner. See more information at MLK365.org and head over there now!!

Put Your Feet in the Air for 2012

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Photo courtesy of Stacey Oswalt

And we’re back! With our feet in the air!

The last couple weeks have been quiet at This Sacramento Life. We’ve now entered what I call the post-season. Not like the Tebow-actually-looks-like-a-quarterback post-season, but the I-overdosed-on-peppermint-bark-and-secretly-want-to-keep-our-Christmas-decorations-up-until-July post-season.

After a beautiful holiday visiting with loved ones, sharing gifts and gorging on ham and eggnog ’til I felt too fat for my shoes, it been a kinda rough getting back in the game. Something needed to jolt me into 2012. Then, Friday afternoon, one email waved a little pair of defibrillator paddles in my face.

“Winter Yoga in the Park tomorrow – Come!” 

Call it yogi hokum, but to me yoga is wholly rejuvenating. So Saturday morning, when my body begged to sleep past noon and pick at my last scraps of English toffee, I headed to McKinley Park’s Clunie Center for some (FREE) indoor yoga with the locals. (While Yoga in the Park is typically outdoors, the winter version gets a roof and four walls so our tootsies don’t freeze.)
Turns out, that’s all I needed. The always awesome Gina Garcia began the (FREE) class welcoming us to the year anew, inviting us to let go any ails or anxieties holding us back or holding us hostage.
Note: DO THIS. NOW.
After the 75 (FREE) minutes of yoga mat magic, I felt it. Maybe it was all the oxygen from deep breaths, maybe it was sweating out all the butter ingested over the past six weeks, or maybe it was just being in a room with a ton of strangers and closing my eyes and lifting my arms up to the sky and feeling every single person lifting their arms up with me. Lifting me up, too.
I felt better. I felt ready.
2012. Let’s do this.

Christmas Trees & Wineries

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The Hansen Christmas Tree Farm is everything I love about Sacramento: accessible, homey, friendly, historic, winery-centric, full of character and full of green.

I heard about the farm from Georgina, a Hansen daughter I work with at Sac State. Georgina is a talented graphic designer, a tremendously delightful person and a veritable Sacramento historian. She gets about a million extra points at life for having a family Christmas tree farm. With a vista of vineyards.

Not only has her family grown and sold firs to families at Christmas for decades, but their home was once the old 19th century Placerville schoolhouse, Union School. Georgina’s mom, Joanne, showed me this photo taken of the students around the 1880s.

Below is a photo of the house today. Gail (Georgina’s sister) and Joanne kindly took me on a tour of the home and even agreed to this photo op. (I was just slightly spazzing out about exploring an old schoolhouse… on a Christmas tree farm… in wine country.)

We just missed Georgina at the farm, but before we left, we snagged the most awesome Christmas tree (as well as our annual Christmas card photo, which you will soon see). Oh, and when I say snagged, I absolutely positively definitely mean SAWED.

After taking our photos against a backdrop of lush evergreens, Gannon and I embarked on the quest for our yuletide fir. Bobbing and weaving through the boughs, we came upon our perfect pine. And our timing couldn’t have been better, as I sensed my indecision began to border on irritating.

You can’t blame me for taking forever to decide. The trees at the Hansen farm are different than any I’ve ever seen. Less pruned, these firs are naturally wild and simply stunning… like I’m finally seeing the un-Photoshopped version.

When we found our winner, we got to work with the handsaw. Notice that in my (fierce) two-handed sawing below, I’m not kneeling down. We cut the tree at waist height. See, another another fun fact about these trees is that, over the years, some have been cut in such a way that when the larger branches grow back, they begin growing out to the side – then up, towards the sun – creating multiple trunks on one tree. So it’s not unusual for one tree to have two or three trunks splitting around waist level, like ours. Even when we cut our portion of the tree down – at the perfect height for our living room – it still had plenty of greenery left.

After I handled the sawing – OK, Gannon helped, too – we hoofed the fir back up the hill. Back at camp, Gannon sliced a half-inch piece of the trunk that we’ll use as a tree ornament. (Fun tradition for you crafty kids out there.)

Joanne was kind enough to offer Gannon a vacant birdhouse to perch the trunk on for the wood cutting. He was using his foot. THANK YOU, JOANNE.

We also owe the Hansen ladies a huge thank you for their use of heavy duty nylon rope. Our city-folk twine snapped like a twig. Gail especially was a huge help affixing the tree atop my Jetta. ‘Twas truly a pleasure to meet them both.

En route home, we tootled cautiously down the 50 back to Sac. More than once, the hubs and I glanced at each other chuckling in slight disbelief that we had, in fact, just sawed down our own Christmas tree and, yes, we were that couple driving 45 mph down the highway with a fat fir on their car. It rocked.

It may just look like a lump of greens here, but stay tuned for the big reveal…

The Christmas Tree Adventure Starts in Placerville

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Giddy me bounced into downtown Placerville with my hubby last Saturday at the suggestion of my co-worker at Sacramento State, Georgina. Our final destination: Georgina’s family Christmas Tree farm up the hill on Union Ridge Rd. That’s right, we’re getting our Christmas Tree from SOMEONE I ACTUALLY KNOW. Never in my life has this happened.

I love this Sacramento life.

On our way to the adventure that was procuring said Christmas Tree, we rolled into the historic Gold Rush town for a spell. I adore quaint little towns. Back in San Diego, Julian was my favorite – a mini-Apple Hill, if you will, but minus the wineries. So, lacking. (Jooooooke to you Julian loyalists.)

It’s also about a third less of a drive. (Wow, I am a pretty lucky duck to be nitpicking so.)

Placerville is pretty sweet, especially at Christmastime. Cheers for bow-clad gaslamp light thingies! The block has also got antique shops, the historic Cary Hotel (top right), this controversial effigy and Hangtown Hardware – the oldest hardware story west of the Mississippi (and with the most kitchen goodies). Also, these seasonal highlights…

Horsies! (With antlers.)

Have you ever SEEN so many Christmas Trees in one room? This store doesn’t have aisles. It has TREES. It also has every Christmas ornament imaginable. Except, of course, what we needed: a star tree-topper. (I know, right? Baffling.) We bought one of the huge stars intended for branch-hanging in hopes of fastening it atop our soon-to-be-sawed evergreen.

Next post: the Hansen Christmas Tree Farm!

Tennessee in California

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After some raucous weekend fun in San Fran at our dear friends’ Christmas party, the hubby and I met up with another nearest and dearest across the bridge in Marin for a hike to share some quality time (and to burn off that second – OK, third – slice of late-night pizza). So ‘cross the Golden Gate, we met her in Tennessee – Tennessee Valley, that is – to hit the trail. There she is on the left, Christine, with my hubby on the right.

Tennessee has been called the greenest state in the land of the free, but I think California gives it a run for its money. And forget trekking for gold. Shimmering at the end of our hiking rainbow was … wait for it… the beach!

Stinson Beach to be exact. The valley, nearly glowing in green led us to a gorgeous steep shore with cliffs soaring overhead. This one had a big hole in it. We named it Hole in Rock.

All this awesomesauce… courtesy of a miniscule drive from this Sacramento life.

 

Festive Fab 40s

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Running though the Fab 40s on Saturday, I saw these long lines in front of some houses. What, I wondered, could draw people to line up in folk’s yards on this first weekend of December? Ornament estate sale? Christmas tree decorating demo? Eggnog free for all?

None of the above! These lovely looking people are actually enjoying one of the five elegant abodes on the 2011 Sacred Heart Holiday Home Tour. I’ve been on one of the self-guided tours in the Fab 40s before, and the neighborhood does not disappoint. Did anyone out there in This Sacramento Life land go on the tour? Tours like this are right up my alley, but I couldn’t get to this one since we had to skedaddle out of town for a holiday party in the city. I was bummed I couldn’t see more of the mistletoe and merriment.

I did, however, see this little guy…