This weekend, we’re celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in Monterey Bay. This time, I’m writing lecture materials for my Russia trip inside the bar next to the conference center.

Both times, we managed to mix business and pleasure. I know I’m lucky to have a husband who understands my need to work on this special weekend. I know the importance of taking a break and enjoying the beautiful weather, wine and food in Monterey and beyond.

Ten years later, Mark is still surprising me. He set up a lovely anniversary dinner at Peppoli. It’s a classy Italian restaurant off 17 Mile Drive. We ended the evening with a decadent flourless chocolate cake and espresso gelato.

Before dawn, I spent a few hours researching what plants work for our garden space. Last year, the potato plants played Prima Donnas. Basically, the potato vines took over most of the space. I suspect that’s what killed off the chives and green bean plants. Another rock star in my garden: Roma Grape Tomatoes. I remember picking some for my parents. As I showed off our backyard, we sampled the fresh vegetable off the vine.

For this year, I wanted more structure for our garden instead of using a strategy of “Anything Goes.” I wanted to give plants a fighting chance.

Here’s what we planted for 2010:

• Garlic (2 rows on the side)
• Corn (2 rows in the back)
• Spinach (2 rows on the side. I’m also staggering the planting of other spinach seed in order to spread out the harvest
• Cherry Tomato
• Roma Tomato
• Beefsteak Tomato

Soon – I will plant more potatoes. This time around I’m going with a bucket strategy. Hopefully, this will let my potatoes continue to flourish without taking over the rest of the garden lot.

My Rosemary and Italian Parsley plants surprised me. I put them in the ground last March and they survived the winter. In fact, I’ve been using some of the rosemary leaves in my winter dishes. Yah!

My two mint plants are also growing strong off the side of the house. I’ve used those leaves in hot cups of tea and savory food like my dad’s version of laarb.

I suspect this is proof that I possess green thumbs. Woot!

I fell in love with Fedrico Fellini’s “8 1/2″ at Cal. My film professor screened this film at the Pacific Film Archives. Marcello Mastroianni was brilliant as the Italian movie director who was struggling to come up with his next masterpiece.

[from http://www.britannica.com]

For extra credit, I built a web site breaking down Woody Allen’s homage to 8 1/2: “Stardust Memories”. I had a lot of fun pulling images and video for this web project.

For curiosity’s sake, I want to watch this new Rob Marshall musical: “Nine“. I’m curious to see Daniel Day-Lewis walk in Mastroianni’s footsteps.

“It makes you feel a little dirty…but it’s good,” from a KC bacon fan.

He’s right.

After Zinfest, we fired up our new grill for the first time. I guess we skipped the birthday cake for my hubby and went with an epic bacon entree. (Mark turned 33!!!!! Happy B-day to my hubby!!!!). Scott and Tom helped us figure out the grill. We also fired up some hot dogs and buns. We had a fab feast on the patio.

The Paupered Chef inspired me to take another chance on my thumbs. If he can grow a salad in Brooklyn, I should be able to follow in his footsteps back here in California. So, we planted our first garden at our Vacaville home on March 14.

Now we’re dreaming of the harvest. I’m looking forward to using fresh vegetables for stews, salads, grilling, anything! Mark’s dreaming about fresh mint leaves for mint juleps. It feels good to water the plants and monitor their growth. I’ve had some potatoes poke out of the ground. I’ve buried them in the soil again. Plus, I am thrilled to see green sprouts growing from our sunflower seeds. Joy!

Here’s what’s in our veggie garden:

• Ace 53 Tomatoes
• Roma Grape Tomatoes
• White Potatoes (10)
• Italian Parsley
• Rosemary
• Mint (I know. I know. I’ve read plenty of sites warning me about this herb and how it will take over the garden. I moved it to another part of the yard.)
• Chives
• Sunflowers

We also planted these flowers in the front yard, next to the house:

• Pansy
• Daisies
• Alyssum
• More Sunflowers

So, any advice for this budding gardener?

Italian sausage meat, chickpeas, garlic and penne pasta. Plus baked green and white beans. We also had a Talus 2006 Pinot Noir.

Eating a slice of Italian bread and watching the surfers Hang 10

After almost a decade of cooking, I still feel like a novice in the kitchen. I think that’s cool because I’ll always find something new and challenging to tickle my taste buds. My love of culinary adventures goes back to my family. I’m happy we had a chance to return to some good home cooking for the P-Day Weekend.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

I loved my dad’s home cooking: fish, laarb, fried rice and more. He’s the first one to teach me how to cook. During my 2nd year at Cal, he showed me how to make chicken adobo in the our tiny dorm kitchen. Little by little, I got more daring in the kitchen. Sometimes I had misses when it came to my cooking. Other times, one bite showed me that it was all worth the time and prep invested in the dish.

Lately, I’ve been going back to my food roots and exploring rice dishes. I’ve figured out the Spanish paella and the Italian risotto. Now I’m trying to master the art of fried rice. It’s one of the most basic Filipino meals and I’m tripping over the combination of soy sauce, patis and salt. I also found some inspiration for fried rice in our Christmas present from my cousin and her hubby: Seduction of Rice.

I’m also in an egg phase. In our kitchen, I’ve rekindled my love for all savory parings of eggs. Like scrambling eggs with peanut oil for my Mom’s fried rice dish. Or frying an egg in olive oil and pairing it with slices of a prosicutto for a hearty breakfast sandwich. I’m digging the yellow yolk flavor spilling over toasted bread and white rice. Good times.

We made a yummy dinner for Valentine’s Day. Mark cooked this yummy linguini with clams in a white wine sauce. I did salmon wrapped with Italian ham slices. It was fun to cook together. We ended dinner with a dance set to the music rolling for the end credits of Sixteen Candles.

Today, I treated Mark to his anniversary gift: video game shopping at Best Buy. The sales clerk carded me for one of his game choices: Gods of War. It got an NC-17 rating and apparently, I don’t look older than 17. It’s kinda nice to look so young at my ripe age of 29….but it’s also a little embarrassing.

Still, Mark’s enjoying his game, Daisy’s curled up and snoring in her blue chair and I’m blogging about the flavors from our anniversary weekend.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

Mark made reservations for the New City Cafe in Topeka. I’ve heard good things about its upscale, American fusion cuisine. We started-off with this tasty Lobster Ravioli…Large pillows of pasta stuffed with cheese and lobster.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

We finished up our anniversary dinner with a Limoncella Sorbet. I’m tickled to find my favorite Italian liquor in a Topeka restaurant. It tasted, sweet, lemony and refreshing on a hot summer night.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

Thanks to a relatively new Kansas law, we could take our leftover wine home. This is Duck Pond’s Pinot Grigio from New City Cafe. Here’s how it works: the waiter places the corked wine in a large plastic baggie along with the receipt. Then he seals it up and we’re good to go. All legal and it’s still tasty after a few days in the fridge.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

We continued our Anniversary celebration with a pub trivia contest in Lawrence. We started off with dinner at a new Italian restaurant in the downtown area, Genovese. I was incredibly disappointed with the crudo, but I enjoyed this apple tart with thyme, carmel sauce and mascarpone cream. We were surprised how well a spice like thyme complimented the sweet dessert.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

I had to work on the day of our anniversary, so we continued our celebration with lunch at the Brick Oven in Topeka. We finished on a sweet note with our favorite dessert on the menu, this bread pudding. It’s made with fresh croissants and a vanilla rum sauce. It’s so rich and decadent.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

And I have to speculate that God himself…
Did make us into corresponding shapes like…
Puzzle pieces from the clay…by Postal Service