Standing Chicken

Jana came to visit a few weeks ago. We had so much fun. We hadn't seen Jana since we moved to CA so it was really great to see her.
Whenever someone comes to visit I always have so many places I want to show them. Most of them of course involve food or wine.
The first thing we did after picking Jana up at the airport was head straight to La Note for some creme fraiche pancakes.
They are pretty much my favorite pancakes in the east bay. I've tried a few other things on the menu there but always go right back to the pancakes.
Next, we hit up Trader Joe's to buy some ingredients so that we could make the Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bottoms from Sweet Pea Bakery in Portland, OR. My MIL and FIL brought some Portland magazines for me to read the last time they came to visit. One of the articles was about vegan baking in Portland.
The recipe was really easy and really good!
Jana brought some Palm Sugar to try as a substitution for regular sugar. It comes in these cute little pucks.
Having never tried Palm Sugar before I didn't really know what to do with the pucks.
Jana grated one of them into a bowl while I broke my food processor trying to grind it up. The processor was already on the fritz, so don't cry for me just yet.
We figured out that if you warm the pucks up you can mash the pucks with a fork or potato masher until it resembles granulated sugar. Probably would have been better to figure that out in the beginning.....
The result, in the end yielded a mildly sweet, moist pumpkin bottom that we all enjoyed.

On Saturday, we went into the SF to shop at the Ferry Building and Farmer's Market. I have to be honest, I wasn't ALL that impressed with the Farmer's Market. I think the we usually go to by Lake Merritt on Saturdays has a lot more variety.
We did score some delicious Olallieberry jam and some really beautiful tulips there though. Inside the Ferry Building we walked around, tasted the samples and tried some of Miette's french macaroons. I think they were rosewater geranium??? They were "different" I didn't really love or hate them. I found the macaroon part to be too doughy which is not how a traditional french macaroon should be.
For lunch we had planned to eat in the Ferry building but so did everyone else so we took a walk down to The Fog City Diner.
I have to say, I remember that place being really good. My dad used to take me there as a kid and my mom and I ate there not too long ago and it was pretty good. This time around it was just "eh." Though, I must admit the bloody marys were quite good.
Jana and I shared a crab salad and an ahi sandwich. Of course we ate the whole thing, so it couldn't have been THAT bad, really.

The weather was so nice that day we took another walk down to Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe. The roastery is near our house in Emeryville and they sell beans on Monday and Friday but of course I never get over there to buy them. Jana mentioned before she came out that she wanted to go there and buy some coffee. I have only had one cup of coffee that Peter brewed since we bought the beans. It was good, but I'm not really a coffee connoisseur so I can't really tell you if it was good or not.

We stopped on the way home and picked up some wine and cheese and bread and had us a little party that night. Oh, how I heart cheese!!!!
Sadie and Jana had a little photo workshop on the floor. Jana taught Sadie how to take a picture and look at it afterwards. Today, I caught her fooling around with my camera, pushing the buttons and aiming it at things. It wasn't turned on of course, but now I sort of wish it had been.

Sunday morning we went over to Chester's Bayview Cafe in Berkeley. Peter and I had been wanting to try it for a long time and we are so glad we did! The rooftop deck, bloody marys (can you tell I like marys?) "no huevos" rancheros, all of it was so good!
Jana's friend Donna met us there. She has a love for cupcakes that just might rival my own.
Sadie and I were playing on top of a table during brunch, she was looking at the flowers and lights hanging on the railing when lo and behold what do I see? CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There, right before my eyes, two girls eating what appeared to be 4 cupcakes.

Determined to find out where these treats came from, Sadie and I went downstairs to poke around.
Love At First Bite Bakery is a little bakeshop tucked away between a photography studio and letter press shop.
The place was filled with cupcakes, sweet gift items and the-what-seems-to-be-mandatory punk rock girl selling cupcakes in the front of the shop.
We of course, could not decide what to try so we tried a bunch. Red velvet, Strawberry, Vegan gingerbread, green tea, coconut, and one other one I can't remember the name of.
The strawberry one was made with real strawberries and sort of tasted like Cap'n'Crunch berries. I kind of enjoyed that.
The others fell a bit short for me. Green tea was a pleasant surprise, even though Donna and Jana said it was too sweet. The coconut could have been so much better and the vegan cream cheese frosting didn't taste like anything to me.
The cupcakes were cute, but not that cute. And pricey for what they were.
Still, I will probably go back for another round the next time we eat at Chester's.

The weekend flew by and before we knew it, it was time for Jana to go home. We were sad to see her go. After she left, Peter and I were a little down. Seeing her, talking about NJ made us miss the east coast. For like a split second we contemplated how we could move back.

In other news Sadie is standing up on her own for minutes at a time now. I caught her walking along the wall today while pushing herself off to stand alone from time to time.
I'm excited to see her walk but at the same time I'm not really looking forward to her growing up!
She says "uh oh" "cheese" and "whoa" now. In addition to saying "woof woof" like a dog, she knows that snakes say "sssssss," bears say "grrrr" and lions say "rawr." It's real cute.
Sadie is climbing up and down on the couch which is funny and scary all at the same time. I keep thinking she's going to fall off backwards. It hasn't happened yet, thankfully.

My mom and I went to the The De Young Museum in Golden Gate park to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was pretty cool. The exhibit is all about Warhol's involvement with and love of music. There were a lot of photographs, movies, paintings and LP covers to look at.
Sadie particularly liked the psychedelic room with the flashing lights and big pillows to crawl all over. She was dancing and rolling around while giggling and hugging on my mom.

Our recent visit to the pediatrician was a riot. Since our insurance changed we were able to go back to the doctor we had when Sadie was first born.
This is cool because 1) she's a total hippie 2) she hasn't seen Sadie since she was 5 days old 3) they're real organized and nice there, not like Kaiser.
Sadie is 29 inches long, and 19 1/2 pounds. She is totally thin for her age range and I am keeping my fingers crossed she is thin her entire life.
I was worried at first when I saw the chart and it said she was in the 20th percentile for weight. I mean, kid eats, and eats, and eats. The doctor said she was perfect (which we knew) so I'm not too concerned.
Now if only we can get her hair to grow!!!

enjoy!
xoxo

jana's march visit