Vallejo has a Buttercup restaurant which we love. I find the booth dining charming and there’s a large variety on the menu.
Sadly, today would have been my mother’s 81st birthday.
Having been together almost ten years, five of those years have been as husbands. We ended up dining at Bella Siena in Benicia. It was surprisingly busy for the middle of the week.
Great Thai food dinner with friends of Santa in Vallejo Friday night after setting up for Photos with Santa for Saturday morning.
Every Vallejo Art Walk (which is monthly and year-round), we make a point to stop in Anchor Pantry for specialty food items. it’s very vegetarian-friendly and has novelty items, which always keep our visits interesting. I love supporting local businesses and I really appreciate that they stay open late on Art Walk nights so we can explore their wares.
This pasta product doesn’t have an Italian name at all, but my daughter showed me this brand when she was at an Italian supermarket in the East Village of Manhattan years ago. I can’t believe it’s a thing, but yes, it is our last name! It’s very cool that they have it here in Vallejo too!
Who knew? My daughter found these in an Italian specialty supermarket near Union Square. Even though I’m mostly Italian, these are the least Italian last named product in the place!
Shando made homemade pizza with artichoke on an Italian roll with one of our crazy favorites, balsamic glaze. Amazing!
Shando had to work that evening, so I went with friends to one of our favorite Italian restaurants in the area.
A few days later, coincidentally, my colleagues at work and I, went to a bear-themed restaurant in Concord, so I had to take some a picture of the most iconic decor:
After some anniversary shots in our house and backyard, we had a vegetarian meal in the lovely Rockridge part of Oakland at “Millennial,” and then walked over to this “home-made” (delicious) Smitten/Red Wagon ice cream place that we didn’t previously know about, with a diversity placard in the window.
Happy Halloween! I was organizing my spices and shelves and saw that I had some ingredients that I wanted to use up so I thought I’d document how I made a cake for the first time in my life completely UNINTENTIONALLY! I tried to read the instructions, but just didn’t have the patience to do it their way, so….
I put virgin coconut oil in a cake pan. Manually mixed 3 packages of cinnamon muffin mix, added (I don’t really measure, because I”m Italian) about 5 teaspoons of extra white flour, 3 jumbo eggs, one cup of milk, a few teaspoons of cinnamon, a few packages of chocolate chip oatmeal. Baked at 400 degrees for 16 minutes. I took this picture and then I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top and applied vanilla icing on each piece individually.
The muffin-ish cake is amazing! It’s not even over-the-top sweet, but the moisture and thickness is divine. I’m sure I could probably not have this kind of luck the rest of my life, but it was great to use up those ingredients and at least for now we can enjoy something very tasty for the holiday.
