Category Archives: Restaurants

Fabio From Top Chef at Cafe Firenze!

 

Do you watch Top Chef? Fabio from last season of Top Chef owns a restaurant with his brother in Moorpark, California called Cafe Firenze. We decided to go there for dinner with our daughter on Sunday night and we hoped to see Fabio while we were there. We ordered our food and were enjoying our appetizers when we felt some excitement fill the restaurant.

 

From our seat we could see that Fabio had arrived and was overseeing the operations in the kitchen.

 

I was such a happy camper to see Fabio in person after enjoying him on Top Chef!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Birthday Girls at The Tudor House

My walking Bloggy buddy Willow was blessed to be born on St. Patrick’s Day (which makes her exempt from the wearin o the green) I was born on the 14th of March. We decided to celebrate by taking tea in Santa Monica, California yesterday. Willow happened to have the day off and we worked it to our advantage.

Happy Real Birthday Willow!

 

We drove south along the coast to Santa Monica. This British Corner on 2nd and Santa Monica Blvd. has the Tudor Tea Room and Bakery,  Ye Olde King’s Head Shoppe, and a British Pub.

 

Look at that! They set all the tables in Willow’s favorite china pattern…Willow! We enjoyed eating our food and drinking our Earl Grey with these great Churchill plates, cups and saucers.

 

After our tea we strolled through the British shops and pub that was all decked out for St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations.

You can see Willow’s reflection in the mirror. Darn! We forgot to have someone take a photo of us taking our tea!

 

We headed for Ocean Blvd. to catch another glimpse of the Pacific before heading home.

This was waiting for me when I got home and it’s exciting and scary at the same time…

 

This is my birthday present from Dear. I’ll let you know if I figure out how to put it together and use it! :0)

Have a wonderful St. Patty’s Day!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

How you can tell you are in a Jewish Deli…

I have many posts speaking to important eternal things that I am thankful for. This does not fall into the eternal category but I’m very thankful never-the-less. I grew up in the Los Angeles Area. There is a large Jewish community in the Los Angeles Area and I grew to love the culture and the delicatessens. My high school also had a large Jewish population and some of my best friends were Jewish. When our little family moved to Washington State one of the first things that became quite evident was the lack of good Jewish delicatessens. Now that Dear and I are living in the greater Los Angeles Area we are enjoying good Pastrami on Rye Sandwiches again!

 

On our way to South Orange County on Sunday we stopped in Woodland Hills at Jerry’s Famous Deli on Ventura Blvd for a bite to eat. How can you tell you are in a Jewish Deli? Any menu that has a section called Nosh could be a clue. Then there is the overabundance of bagels in the food service area. Pastrami, Corned Beef, Lox and Bagels on the menu is another clue. A plate of dill pickles on the table instead of chips is a really good clue. Last but not least are the boxes and boxes of Matzos!

ABC Wednesday ~ M is for…

 M is for Mariachis, Mexican Food, and Margaritas.

Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Cocula, Jalisco, Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least three violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). They dress in silver studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats. The original Mariachi were Mexican street musicians or buskers. Many mariachis are professional entertainers doing paid gigs in the mainstream entertainment industry. Professionals are normally skilled at more than one instrument, and they also sing.

 

Some of our Mexican Restaurants in Southern California have Mariachis strolling around the restaurant taking requests for songs to play and sing.

This Mariachi group played at my nephews wedding

I was born and raised in the East Los Angeles area of Southern California. The Mexican culture (these days if you are politically correct called “Hispanic” not “Mexican”) was all around me. We celebrated Mexican holidays at my elementary school, took field trips to Olvera Street in Los Angeles where the culture was further introduced to us. I have always enjoyed Mexican Food. There isn’t a Mexican restaurant in the Southern California area that calls itself Hispanic that I know of. They still all refer to themselves as Mexican restaurants.

 

Our favorite Mexican Restaurant in the Camarillo Area is El Tecolate. In Mexico El Tecolote means the Owl. Mexican Restaurants always serve chips and salsa at your table when you arrive. Sometimes we order guacamole to go with the chips too. Guacamole is a dip made with mashed avocados and other ingredients.

They have decorated the restaurant with many different types of owl “art”. This is just a fraction of the Owls you’ll see inside.

 

They serve your typical Mexican food here and other interesting dishes that are unique to this restaurant.

This is an open tamale

Carnitas (slow cooked pork) is another Mexican favorite. So yummy…

There are some Mexican restaurants that still hand make their tortillas. The restaurant where this Mexican lady is making tortillas is in Venice Beach, California (a district of Los Angeles).

 And last but not least I leave you with a Margarita which is a classic Mexican Tequila and lime drink! You can have the double, I’m fine with the single.

We prefer ours on the rocks. A lot of people like the blended variety that gives you a brain freeze on your first sip. Muchas Gracias for visiting my M post mi amigos y amigas.

For more ABC Wednesday visit Mrs. Nesbitt.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Dressed-To-A-Tea!

Generally when I go to a tea I dress up just a bit from my normal everyday style (jeans and a top) I’ll put on my black pants and try to wear something more interesting on top. I am not a hat person because a hat does not compliment me at all. My daughter Katie can wear any hat out there and look cute but not me!

 

We had tea at The Gilded Rose Manor Tea House for my mother’s 85th birthday on Saturday. I took a few photos of some pretty accessories they had around the tea room to share for “Dressed-To-A-Tea! This hat rack with the hats and boa’s was in the front entry.

 

This was something for a little girl to wear.

 

And some other pretty vintage children’s dresses.

More typically our Tea apparel is “to each his own” as you can see from the tea guests above. There are more pictures from my Mother’s birthday tea here.

This is my daughter Katie dressed for a Winter Tea with her vintage hat, gloves and pearls.

I’m hoping to be able to share a tea post with my daughter dressed for her Japanese Tea Ceremony class soon. She’s taking this class from the University of Washington and travels to a Japanese Tea-house in Seattle at the Arboretum each week for her instruction.

Visit LaTeaDah at Gracious Hospitality for more Dressed-To-A-Tea Posts.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Tea in the Afternoon

 

Kelly (SIL married to my brother Steve), Melissa my niece (Sister Kathy’s 2nd daughter) Jessica (soon to be my niece by marriage to my nephew Timothy, Kelly will be her MIL), Kathy my oldest sister, My Mother Nadia, My sister Vera, Debbee my niece (Sister Vera’s daughter), Michelle my niece (Sister Kathy’s first born daughter), and myself. (Wish my daughter Katie and DIL Laura, my sister Lana, my SIL Letty, my SIL Mandy, and my niece Kristin (Vera’s DIL) could have been with us, too!!)

In honor of my mother’s 85th birthday I spent a couple hours today with these lovely ladies having an afternoon tea. (More tea posts to follow) My mother the guest of honor shared with us some verses she wanted to gift us with. She read them in Russian from her Russian Bible. (This Psalm is 132 in the Russian Bible)

 

Psalm 133 ~ “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is lke precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

What a blessing it is to live with these ladies in unity. It is good and pleasant everytime we get together. Thanks mom for sharing this Psalm with us at your tea.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Holdren’s Steak and Seafood Birthday Dinner

 

Wedge Salad, Martinis, Porterhouse Steak, Rack of Lamb and a free Birthday piece of Mud Pie. All the food here was very good. We’d go again for a special occasion.

 

The Birthday Girl

 

The Guy who supports me in everything I do and always shows me love. Thank you Dear!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Party!

We got together on Saturday night at Moreno’s in Orange to celebrate my sister Vera’s bigger than the last big birthday party!

 

Vera the Birthday Girl and Me,  Leticia my SIL and Tim my brother, The Mariachis, and the table conversation with David, Debbee (Vera’s kids) Noah, Melissa and my sister Kathy at the end of the table.

The Matriarch and Patriarch of the family…

 

There were these great old trees in the patio. The original part of this restaurant was a Friends church (Quaker) and built in the late 1800’s! Click here to read the interesting history.

And this joker on the right confiscated my camera when I wasn’t looking to take a photo of himself with the Birthday Girl!

Gotcha Ryan!

If you like non-spicy Mexican food that any Gringo can eat and enjoy this is the place for you. For us spicy hot Mexican food lovers this was fun for the history, fun being with family, fun with the mariachis, but not memorable for the food. 🙂

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Fun Monday ~ February 25th

This week’s Fun Monday is easy, Mariposa is hosting and asking TWO things –

First (1) Please share with us how the NAME of your BLOG was made? I can’t wait to hear interesting funny stories!

This is a photo of my brother starting my blog. He’s sitting in front of his laptop excited that so far it’s all working. Now understand that I hadn’t started blogging yet so I still had a lot to learn about taking good pictures for posting.

When my brother told me he was going to start a blog for me I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle the technology. He convinced me everything would be ok. We then started brain storming about what I should name it. We came up with a few fun names but the way I came up with my keeper is…

a. I’m generally a very happy person.

b. I’m also someone who wonders about a lot of things and have a deep need to know.

So as we were discussing point a and b my husband came up with The Happy Wonderer.

As far as the purpose of my blog I chose “to Honor and Encourage”. I’m an encourager to people around me and I wanted that reflected in the relationships I’d develop on my blog. It is very important to me to Honor Jesus Christ who I consider to be my King.  I want my words and posts to be things that will encourage people and be something that won’t reflect poorly on my King. My blog was born on March 3, 2007 so I am very close to my first bloggy birthday!

(2) Please share with us (in words or photo, though a combination of both will be a bonus!) your favorite/ most common dish!

Oh boy, I love food! I also love to enjoy people around a table with good food. So what to show? I’m going with a favorite dinner, lunch and breakfast!

 

A typical dinner is some protein with a couple veggies items. This is a easy dinner that we enjoy. Some great bbq’d Rib Eye Steaks, sauteed mushrooms with caramelized onions, and a green salad with tomatoes and cucumber. Now to go with this my hubby will make me one of my favorite drinks, a Kensington Dream. It’s a drink he copied after watching a bartender in South Kensington (England) make it for me. Update: A few of you wondererd what is in this drink. There is brandy, creme de cassis, juice of half a lemon, amaretto, shaken together and then you top it off with champagne! They don’t call it a dream for nothing, cuz you’ll soon be dreamin after you drink it 🙂

 

For lunch I am always ready for Mexican Food with lots of good salsa and cilantro! This happens to be a meal at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in town, El Tecolote.  We are having an Open Tamale, chips, salsa, and guacamole.

 

Most mornings I have my high fiber cereal with a banana and large cup of black coffee. In the summer I add more fruit that is in season.

For more Fun Monday visit Mariposa who is hosting this week.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

ABC Wednesday ~ E is for…

E is for…

This is a sitting room in a Model Home in our neighborhood. I was tempted to nab the pillow with my initial on it but I controlled myself and resisted my Evil side…

 Ellen b. and one of our favorite Saturday walks at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California.

 

E is for the Ebb of the tide

 

E is for Edinburgh

Dear and Ellen B. in Edinburgh

 

the elephant house in Edinburgh

 

An Epitaph for J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife in Oxford, England.

For more ABC Wednesday photos head over to Mrs. Nesbitt.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.