Memorial Day Weekend

[Jared]: Beth and I have been enjoying our nice, long weekend in San Diego. My weekend actually began early since the company computer servers were shut down early on Friday in preparation for the weekend relocation to the new office. Our weekend has been relatively low key and relaxed, but as always - delicious.

Saturday night I rocked out a rotisserie chicken on the grill. This time I used some BBQ 3000 rub from Penzeys, then finished it with a little Kassebaum family barbecue sauce.  It was quite tasty.

While the chicken was on the grill, I spent the rest of the evening with a rather ambitious undertaking.  Several years ago, I was enjoying some late night drinks and appetizers at one of my favorite restaurants in Charlottesville when I successfully convinced my waitress to share with me the chef's recipe for curry corn chowder (a soup I had on every visit).  At this point the kitchen was closed and the chef had gone home, and I'm quite certain it was this fact alone which allowed the waitress to comply.  In fact, she brought out the entire restaurant cookbook - I couldn't believe it.  I wrote things down as fast as I could, sure that any moment I would be interrupted and told that I couldn't have the recipe after all.  Thankfully I escaped with a delicious recipe.

And yet, one problem remained.  The recipe was in bulk quantities.  As in, 5 pounds potatoes, 10 pounds corn, 1 carton cream, etc.  As a result, I never attempted to make the soup, until this weekend.  I finally decided to go for it.  I used the ratios of the ingredients to get as close as I could and just improvised the rest.  After about four hours, I'd say the experiment was a resounding success:

If anyone wants me to post my version of the recipe, just ask and I would be glad to. I wouldn't call it a healthy soup, but it is pretty darn good and was worth the effort.

Last night we made our first visit to 30th on 30th.  On the 30th of each month, a bunch of restaurants and bars on and near 30th Street offer specials, such as a feature appetizer for $2. This makes it easy to go on a restaurant crawl and check out all the amazing places on the 30th Street corridor. Beth and I made four stops last night and had a great time. We also discovered a few new places in North Park that we're excited to return to.

May Gray but Cards Win the Day

[Jared]: Blogs always begin with the best of intentions.  And then life gets boring for a few weeks, and suddenly you haven't posted in ages.  Sorry about that.

We did have a bit of fun this week though.  We caught two Cardinals games at Petco.  Tuesday night's game was a relatively quiet one.  Adam Wainwright struck out twelve and only gave up one run over 7 innings, and yet had to take the loss because the Cardinal offense wasted opportunity after opportunity.  We did get to see some incredible defensive plays though, particularly Ryan Ludwick's catch at (into) the wall.

Thursday afternoon's game was significantly more enjoyable.  The slumping Cardinal offense broke out of their funk.  Plus we got to see a couple of home runs.  Not to mention, it was just a beautiful afternoon in San Diego.  Sunny and 70...well, for most of the game...

Prior to moving to San Diego, I had never heard of the phenomena known as "May Gray" (see also: June Gloom).  Essentially, during May and June in San Diego, the marine layer moves inland and leads to gray skies and cool temperatures.  It's actually quite nice in my opinion, but most San Diegans prefer the sun.  Thursday afternoon's game was a picture perfect portrayal of May Gray...

1st inning view from our seats:

8th inning view from our seats:

In other news, my company is moving to a new office this weekend. Starting Tuesday I'll be walking to work!

Stick around blog readers, June is going to be a busy month!

27 and Counting

[Beth]: Soooo, somehow it's been over two weeks since our last post.  Umm, time flies... when you're both working?  Hopefully we haven't lost our two and a half faithful readers, and we promise to be more diligent in the future.  Well, two weeks ago today was my 27th birthday.  Since we saw Conan the previous Thursday, it was a low-key day.  Which was great.

We started the day by clogging our arteries with breakfast at Denny's.  In case you haven't heard and were born after May 18th, Denny's offers a free Grand Slam breakfast on your birthday.  I treated myself to delicious biscuits and gravy.  It almost felt like being back home in Tennessee.

After working for most of the day (something I believe should be outlawed on one's birthday), my chef-husband made a delicious dinner.  I had been wanting scallops for awhile, and we had some nice fennel from our CSA.  Thus, we have herb and sesame scallops with orange and fennel salad:

It was a delicious dinner and a wonderful end to another great birthday!

Unquestionably Funny On Stage

[Beth]: Several weeks ago, when I learned Conan was coming to San Diego on his new stage tour, we bought tickets (as an early birthday present to me) to go.  This past Thursday was the heavily-anticipated event.

First, we began with dinner at a local Thai restaurant we've been to a few times.  The food was tasty as always - I love me some Pad Thai.  Then we headed downtown.  We had a few minutes to kill before the show, so we stopped in at The Yard House for a drink.  They claim to have the world's largest selection of draft beer.  So I had a cocktail.  Ha ha.  They did have an impressive selection, though, and Jared was pleased to find Murphy's Stout on draft.  The stop made me feel like we were a hip, urban couple who do cool things and go cool places.  But then I felt like I was in college again as we joined seemingly all the 20-somethings within a ten mile radius heading for the Civic Theater.  Seriously, I kinda felt like I was going to a frat party.

Finally, the big moment had come.  Time for Conan O'Brien and his "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour."  Yay!  As Jared can attest, I was practically giddy.  The opening guy, Reggie Watts, was pretty awesome and did some tricks with a looping machine that were ridiculously impressive.  I enjoyed it, but was impatient for Conan!  When he took the stage, I somehow got more giddy.  After years of watching him at 1815 JPA with my girls and with the requisite chips and queso, I was finally seeing Conan live and in-person.  And he did not disappoint.  At times, his show felt a lot like his television show.  I always liked the monologues and jokes more than the celebrity interviews, and with the stage show, that what's you get.  Lots and lots of jokes.  Tonight Show staff member Deon Cole did some stand-up that was also very hilarious.  It was two hours of pure laughter and fun, and I wish I could see it again.  Except the part where Jason Mraz was a surprise guest.  Sorry to any fans of the guy, but I just wasn't into it.  Conan recovered from the low point, though, with a cover of Cake's cover of "I Will Survive."  And indeed he will survive - on TBS come November.  Can't.  Wait.

[Jared]: My lovely wife left out one important moment.  After we parked our car, and on our walk to The Yard House, a random guy on the street stopped Beth and said, "You have just an incredible stride! I love it!" He was right too.  I love being married to such a bomb-shell.

Adventures in Grilling (Episode 1)

[Jared]: I recently (finally) became the owner of a grill. Our apartment community in Richmond didn't allow grills of any type. Thankfully our new place in San Diego does not hold such restrictions. Even so, it took me nearly 8 months to see the dream fulfilled - mostly due to monies (or lack thereof). About a month or so ago, after much research and debate, I pulled the trigger on a Weber Summit S-470. This thing is a rock star. Four main burners, a fifth for use as a sear station, a sixth beneath a built in smoke box, an infrared rear-mounted rotisserie, and a side burner. I'd wager that since the grill arrived Beth and I have enjoyed roughly 80% of our dinners from the grill. I'm still getting adjusted to this particular grill and I have a long list of recipes and meats and grilling methods that I am anxious to try. This week though, it was finally time to have my first go at using the rotisserie. I will admit that I made a few simple mistakes, such as not tying the bird tightly enough or enough times. As a result the sliced lemons and garlic fell out of the cavity half way through cooking. Beyond that though, my biggest mistake was merely trying to do my first rotisserie on a weeknight instead of a weekend. Beth and I didn't get to eat until about 9pm. That said, we ate very well. :-)



Rotisserie chicken: Salt, garlic, lemons in the cavity. Outside rubbed with salt, pepper, butter, and Penzey's Herbes de Provence [rosemary, cracked fennel, thyme, savory, basil, tarragon, dill weed, Turkish oregano, lavender, chervil, and marjoram]. (I should point out that I love love love Penzey's Spices. Rest assured you'll be hearing more about them.)