In the Bay Area

Good morning.

It's Day Nine of being away from home, and I have not blogged until today.

I couldn't remember my password and was too lazy or busy to look it up.

I have done a lot of cooking since we came up here, and have enjoyed it. I do always enjoy cooking unless I am too tired.  Haven't been tired here!  Until at nine at night, when I crash.

We came for Ben's eye operation, which has passed and was successful.  He went back to work today which was optional, so he must have felt like things are back to normal. (Or he couldn't abide the "Bickersons" any longer!)

Yesterday we went to eat in Sonoma at The Girl and the Fig.  It was fun, but it's too established now. I'd have enjoyed it more in its newer days.  The food was good.  We went for brunch which is inexpensive, so the bill was not bad.  We had several good things: Theo had Croque Monsieur, which was by far the "biggest" thing anyone got...a huge sandwich with bacon and egg and ham and a salad on the side of frisee with nice dressing. Benjamin had Confit of Duck with potatoes and etc. Also very nice.  He ordered a tomato-watermelon tower as well, with feta cheese and a pleasant creamy dressing.  I had chicken sausage with grits and chard. The chicken sausage wasn't very good; was hard and nothing to a real pork sausage which is the trouble with chicken sausages. But the meal was good, all things prepared well; unfortunately there was a garnish of bees and hornets over everything as we'd chosen to eat in the patio.

Beware of the patio if you're in bee country; they can take away some of the pleasure of eating outside for sure.  And do not choose "outside" if there are more than two in your party and it's brunch time, (or any time, really)---the sun is going to be in somebody's eyes no matter what you do.

We weren't going to have desserts but chose two in spite of that: I had profiterolles which I shared with my spouse. I wanted to see what they thought was good bittersweet chocolate sauce and it was very good.  And the pastry was a pleasant surprise, being crisper than I'd have expected.  Ben thought they might have fried the cream puffs but I'd say they did not. The choux paste just came out kind of crisp.  And Ben and several bees and hornets shared the port and fig ice cream, which came housed in a shallow thin little cooky, very pleasant.  I said the cooky was like a fortune cooky; he said it wasn't. But it was, only very thin and flat with a saucer like curve.

We have loved and admired the hills all around, with the golden dried grass and the black oaks.  How beautiful it is.  How much more beautiful it was when Theo and I lived here as younger folks, with the little winding roads and the interlacing oak tree tunnels, and the happy cows on the dry grass hillsides, making their incredible terraces as they munch their way around a hill.  Ben is able to find plenty of such places all about, but truly now most is all ruined by progress, by concrete, tacky housing, very tacky landscaping, stores, malls, and such. Well, what do you expect in fifty years? James H. Kunstler is right.  We have really messed up the USA in those fifty years. The American mindset has been wrong; but it's about to be re-set at last, I think. The young will do it; they have eyes and brains. I hope. YAZZYBEL