The joy of field trips with the kiddos and this week was wonderful as we did a full school day trip to San Francisco to see the Symphony at Davies Hall. It was a splendid day though very tiring with so many kids to keep an eye on. We had all 3 classes of our 1st graders on the trip so it was extra busy! The day started off on a bus ride and then the kids made it to the line for their snack with another 300 kids from around the Bay Area – whoa chaos, yes!!
Inside Davies Hall is beautiful with the symphony at the front – I loved the lighting and the sound was just incredible. We were in the front so we got to see the musicians and the conductor way up close. The conductor was so good with the kids and the kids really enjoyed him too!
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| Are you ready for the Symphony?? |
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| The SF Symphony warm up |
I found this stunning watermelon radish in my CSA box this week and it is just delicious in this salad of arugula and carrot sticks with a lemon balsamic dressing. I loved the colour of the watermelon radish when I cut it and seeing how vibrant it is, it just had to be placed on a plate to look at and then devoured 🙂
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| Delicious watermelon radish jazzing up the plate |
It was finally the weekend though it was no rest for the wicked with a Scouting event on Saturday – it was race day and the Pinewood Derby was happening. I volunteered with the decorations with some friends and we got the place looking fancy in no time. After all was settled it was time to go out for lunch and conveniently for us there was an amazing French Bakery across the road. It was serendipitous as I had read about
Voyageur du Temps in the local paper that week and could not wait to try it out! I had the Salmon Tartine with capers, french shallots and a hard boiled egg sliced on top of the salmon and slice of thick bread. With the lunch I had a dessert of a Marron Danish which was puff pastry with a chestnut creme in the centre and a roasted chestnut inside – divine! And to drink I had a Afghani Chai Tea with organic Indian tea, ginger, organic red poppy flowers, green cardamon, star anise, close, black pepper and organic spices – it was an hour well spent being happy with food!
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| A beautiful lunch for two – my hubby and me (he had the Salami Sandwich on a croissant) |
Sunday I spent getting Meyer Lemons ready for something new – dehydrated lemons for tea over the summer time. Here they are though some may be a bit overdone. I had them in the oven on 170 degrees F for hours on end as I do not have a dehydrator – I tried them in tea and they are quite lovely hydrated again.
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| Lemons ready for summer |
I bottled up my first batch of Limoncello as it was ready for it’s sugar syrup and as I was making up the lemons with the sugar, honey and water I used an immersion blender to squish up the lemons and oops not a good thing with squashing all the white pith into the sugar water making it a little bitter. My solution was to strain out all the white bits through a nut milk bag and hopefully getting the sweetness back – tonight I tried it and it is very lemony though not as sweet as my batch last year. Now I am trying it the Internet recipe way with Everclear Grain Alcohol and leaving the lemon zests for around 48 days – let us see how this batch turns out!
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| Woot 75.5% alcohol – do not drink this stuff! Though it is OK for Limoncello, apparently?!? |
Sunday afternoon and the weather was still beautiful so we went on a 9 mile bike cruise with the kiddos along the bay trail. We saw lots of birds and a Great Blue Heron and its buddy the Snowy Egret on the trail. Unfortunately as we were cruising along we saw a few skeletons of birds from the land predators -bobcats, racoons and feral cats looking for easy prey.
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| Getting home before the sun sets! |
On Friday I finally drafted my pattern for the Geometric top I have been working on – drafting and correcting with fabric is a job that requires a heck of a lot of concentration. Friday I had the time to fine tune the pattern and finally here is the top. It was certainly a bit tricky to put together but once I worked out the ‘tangrams’ with the fabric it all came together. I am looking forward to making more out of the sari fabric I have in my stash. This pattern was from the book Burda Sewing Vintage Modern – published two years ago but for me nothing but classic styles throughout. I am looking forward to making more outfits from this book.
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| The front with an abstract shadow |
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| All Ready to go! |
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| Lovely back V of the top |
poppypeach 