Peach and Strawberry Soda

Ryan’s parents were stopping by our place for the first time on their way up to the Sacramento delta. I was making them dinner, but I also wanted to make a special drink to be refreshing, and of course non-alcoholic.  I looked through my bookmarked recipes and I had all of the ingredients for this one, so that is always perfect.

Ginger Chicken

One of my favorite things to order at a Chinese restaurant is paper wrapped chicken (I usually don’t because it tends to be greasy, but it is so delish!)

I always wondered how they made the chicken so moist and flavorful. Whenever I cooked chicken in college, it was a dried out mess, but that was probably because I put it in a frying pan with a tiny bit of oil and cranked up the heat.

San Francisco

For Mother’s Day, my parents came up to visit my brother and me. On Saturday, we took a day trip to San Francisco.

When my brother was in the high school band they went on tour in San Francisco. For dinner one night, a group of us asked the front desk for a good Chinese restaurant. They gave us a map and we were on our way. I am pretty sure they said short walk, but I think we walked for like 3 miles. Along the way we had a free sample of fudge and took a wrong turn into the red light district. Arriving at the restaurant was like getting to Mecca.

I don’t know if we looked lost and confused, but the owner came right over to us, asked us what we like, how much we wanted to spend and took all of the menus away.  After that they just brought out plate after plate of food.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

In junior high they loved showing us E. Coli videos. I don’t know if they got a thrill of scaring us out of eating hamburgers or they really wanted us to learn about the disease...epidemic...sickness? Whatever it was, ever since then I have cooked my meat well done. No pink. Brown all the way through. 

Well, while studying abroad, I didn’t have the luxury of cooking the meat to my liking. They liked it medium rare. And instead of refusing to try it, I decided to forget the awful videos and just take a bite. And it was so good! It was so tender and so flavorful. What had I been missing out on???

So I really wanted to try meat again...cooked to the appropriate doneness. I went to the butcher to get the beef tenderloin, which to my surprise is another name for filet mignon. Yes, a little more than the average steak, but I had already picked out the recipe and I had my heart set on it. (And my dad was paying because it was for Mother’s Day at my Nana’s.)

This recipe is so easy. When you get a good cut of meat, I guess you don't have to fuss with it that much. 

Mix up the spices.

 Rub on beef.

Drink wine.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

Watermelons mean that summer is here! It’s time to break out the barbecues and beach towels. Now I realize that summer doesn’t start until June, but I pretty much feel like I am on an extended summer vacation as I search for a job.

I keep seeing chefs pair watermelon and feta and was really excited to try the interesting combination.