Ostrich Land – Feeding the Big Birds

We’ve traveled along the California coast from North to South and vice-versa plenty of times visiting quaint beach towns to major cities along the way. And stopped at the same pretty places multiple times. It doesn’t get less prettier, but at some point you do get the feeling that may be next time when you are driving along the coast, you should stop at a place where you’ve never been before . So, on our latest road trip on California State Route 1 from the bay area down south, we decided to stop at towns which were not too touristy, and decided to visit places that we had not visited on one of our earlier trips. It was one of my best road trips, and probably demands a separate blog post for each unique stop that we took. This post is for a 2 hour stop that we took on our way to Solvang and is memorable for a different reason. I am not an animal person and that’s not too difficult to gauge if you’ve spent a little time with me. Any living being four-legged and as tiny as a foot tall has the capacity of scaring the living hell out me. So when I was presented with the idea of spending time bird feeding 6-9 feet tall ostriches and emus, I was dubious nevertheless. I still decided to give it a try thinking that at best, I could stand at a distance and take pictures. And hence was made the decision to spend some time to feed ostriches and emus after reading rave reviews on Yelp about OstrichLand. The overall experience definitely left me with sweet memories!!!

I can now say that OstrichLand near Solvang is one of the best “things-to-do-in-Solvang” if you are visiting Solvang or Santa Barbara. I am surprised that we never came across this on our Santa Barbara/Solvang trips. Spare an hour/hour and a half when you are in the area and you will not be disappointed. It should be a unique experience for kids as well as adults. The ostrich farm is in the city of Buellton right on Highway 246 on the way to Solvang. You enter through the gift shop (that has some cool stuff too) and purchase entry tickets along with feeding pans for the birds. The shop owner gives you a quick walkthrough of instructions and you are ready to go!

After my first encounter, I returned to the store to get more food pans Oh what fun!

Pretty pink beaks and big eyes (actually largest among land animals)!

And the long necks!

Few Fun Facts about Ostriches
- Ostriches are the largest and fastest birds in the world (No brownie points for guessing that )
- Ostriches cannot fly. They are flightless, and instead are built for running.
- Ostriches grow a foot per month until they reach 8 or 9 feet tall!
- Each ostrich egg is equivalent in size to 2 dozen (24) chicken eggs!
- Ostriches have no teeth. They swallow pebbles that help grind the swallowed food in the gizzard. (This was shocker for me!)
- Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand (Myth Busted )

I am sure after reading the fun facts about ostriches and looking at the pictures you would be tempted to visit OstrichLand on your Solvang trip

 

Wordless Wednesday – Spring Fever

Spring in my garden – Acrylic on Canvas

Spring in my garden – Acrylic on Canvas

 

Manresa: A celebratory farm-to-table dinner feast

Manresa in Los Gatos is by far the most amazing farm-to-table restaurants I have been to. We had Manresa on our list of restaurants to go to for quite some time. A few months back we managed to get a reservation to celebrate our wedding anniversary by trying out Chef David Kinch’s tasting menu. Manresa and Chef Kinch are famous for using fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients and converting them to dishes that explode with flavor and leave you asking for more. Manresa gets its produce from Love Apple Farms near Santa Cruz.

Expectations were sky-high ever since I found out that Manresa had made it to the list of World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2012. We were seated promptly upon arrival. The ambiance makes you feel warm, cozy and welcoming. We were served warm freshly baked bread soon after we were seated. As usual, I opted for the vegetarian tasting menu, but when our server found out that my hubster (M) does not eat red meat, but is fine with other forms of meat, they offered to create a pescatarian menu for him. We’ve been to quite a few fancy places, but no restaurant had offered such an option to us earlier. It was a first and M was delighted to get a chance to try out his first pescatarian tasting menu. I have to state that the staff at Manresa make it a point to make your experience personable and pleasant.

Amuse Bouche was black olive madeleine and roasted bell pepper jello cube. I liked how it was served on a slab of stone. Following the amuse bouche we were served garden beignets with crispy kale. The garden beignets were made with goat cheese and the kale leaves went well with that. Next on the table was chilled lavender lemonade with mint – super refreshing. I slowly sipped on it feeling like a child trying to save her favorite part of the meal so that it wouldn’t get over fast. But I knew there were plenty more of such plates coming up

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

M was served smoked salmon with wasabi and green apple while I was served braised chestnut with avocado paste. The chestnut dish was my favorite of the entire meal. Next on the list were nantucket Bay Scallops in brown butter with chestnuts and a dish made out of green tomatoes. They used a specific name for it, but I forgot since I was busy relishing the chestnuts from my earlier course . All I remember is that it was tangy and had crispy bites to cut off the tangy-ness. Next pescatarian item on the list were clams with sesame seeds and shiitake mushrooms while the vegetarian item on the list was sunchoke soup with yolk. The soup was my second favorite item on the menu. The flavors blended extremely well with each other.

Our next course was the super famous “Into the garden salad”. I felt like there were 20+ ingredients all from Manresa’s kitchen garden in this dish. I was overwhelmed by the amazing concept of the dish. After the salad, M was served North American fluke sashimi with chamomile while I was served a pumpkin dish with porcini mushroom and garlic emulsion. Next entree was a dish with smoked persimmon, cilantro and yogurt. I love persimmons but this was my least favorite dish of the meal. For our final savory entree, we had a plate of scallop and cod with potatoes for the hubby and a plate of cripy potatoes, foamy emulsions and nasturtium leaves. I did not know we nasturtium leaves are to be eaten. I have them in my patio garden and was surprised to see them on a plate and to find out that they are edible!

Our first dessert course was fromage blanc with strawberry sorbet and toasted pumpkin seeds. Rich, creamy and delicious. For our second dessert course, we had a parfait with almonds, pear sorbet and poached pear pieces. Our final dessert course was a chocolate madeleine with a cube of strawberry jelly served on a stone slab. I loved the fact that the first course (amuse bouche) and last course (final dessert course) of the menu were identical in looks but very different in taste – Creative and classy!

Post our remarkable celebratory meal, we were a given a pumpkin brioche for next day’s breakfast. I was expecting a goodie for breakfast next day since this is a tradition at most Michelin-star restaurants. When we were leaving through the door, they offered us fleur de sel caramels. I just took one but they saw me hesitating and told me that they were going to be closed for the next couple of days for Thanksgiving so we should take as many as we wanted. When I tasted the caramel candy the next day, I felt I should have taken many more of those . The meal at Manresa has been one of the best meals I have had this year and I guess the Chef deserves a big big thank you for making our day even more special and memorable. I would surely like to go back for another meal at Manresa

 

Wordless Wednesday – Colors and shades of life

colors-abstract

 

Glass Painting 101

Recently, I along with a couple of friends spent some time creating a miniature glass painting each. We had a great time and it served as an inspiration for this blog. I have a lot of friends who have at some point asked me how to paint on glass and whether it is easy or not. The answer is YES, its EXTREMELY EASY and SIMPLE. So, this is a quick 101 if you want to try your hand at glass painting. I can positively assure you that it does not take much effort and almost anyone can do it.

Supplies needed:
1) A 8 X 5 glass frame
2) A bottle of leading liquid
3) Glass painting colors
4) An old cloth

Step 1: Choose a design and place your plain glass on a design that you’d like to print on. Now start putting the leading liquid on to the glass mirroring the lines and curves of the design. It is advisable to start from a corner and move down. Also, start with smaller lines first. Even amount of pressure while applying the leading liquid on the design helps create smoother lines.

If some lines are uneven, you could remove those lines with a scalpel-like tool and imprint them again.

Laying out leading liquid lines on to the glass

Step 2: Once the entire design has been created, allow it to dry for atleast 24 hours.

Step 3: Start coloring The only thing to take care while pouring the colors is that you don’t want a lot of bubbles. If there are bubbles, use a toothpick to remove them. You can try mixing different colors to try out different shades.

Coloring after leading liquid lines dry out

Step 4: Allow the colors to dry. Once dried, invert the frame. A glass painting is always hanged the other way round. The direction which has the leading liquid lines and the colors go at the back and the imprint of the colors stay at the front.

Here’s the final result

Finished glass painting frame

 

Plumed Horse – A dining experience at San Jose’s finest

Have you ever been asked the question of whether you eat to live or live to eat? I seldom think about this and I can’t decide for sure. The brain wants to choose eating to live while the taste buds definitely want me to opt for living to eat. But let’s keep the brain aside for now and talk about food. This post is for all those who live to eat! I’d like to share reviews of my dining experience at the Plumed Horse, one of Saratoga’s finest restaurants.

Recently for my birthday, the hubster took to me to the Plumed Horse in Saratoga. Thanks to M for the sweet surprise, and for topping it off with good food and even more wonderful memories . The ambiance of the restaurant is very elegant and sophisticated. When you step in and walk towards the dining room, you know that you are in for a great fine dining experience. Decor is sleek and upscale. The restaurant is huge compared to few of the other fine dining spots I have been to around the bay area. Plumed Horse serves modern Californian cuisine and chef Peter Armellino manages to bring innovation to the dishes served.

We decided to opt for the tasting menu since none of us is a heavy eater and we love to be surprised by the chef’s creativity. Our server also suggested that would be the best bet for vegetarians. Before food was served, we were offered gourmet bread. I always look forward to the amuse bouche. Amuse Bouche at Plumed Horse was Australian truffles with oil cheese over a cracker. Feed me a good truffle dish and I am sold

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After relishing the amuse bouche, we were served basil bread and roasted garlic bread. For some reason, the impression that I have from a lot of “good” places is that you have to chew so hard on the bread that you feel like you are eating rocks. The side of bread at Plumed Horse was so soft that it almost melted in the mouth. Our first course was Portobello mushroom with truffle oil and cheese. I have to admit that this was my least favorite dish. Since the first course was just ordinary, I was skeptical about the entire meal, but what a ride it was for the taste buds after that first course. The salad course was a grilled local peach with smoked almond, goat milk yogurt, fricassee salad. I was hoping to not eat a beet salad and the chef surprised us with the peach salad. Our third course was corn bisque with corn flan. Now for those of you who don’t know me that well, I cherish almost anything and everything that is made out of corn. For me there has never been a bad tasting corn dish EVER! After some delishhhh salad and soup, our next course was mushroom risotto with truffles. This was the tastiest savory dish of the entire meal. Our final dish was lentil cakes with zucchini roles and mini peppers. This was the chef’s most innovative dish because the heat of the peppers blended really well with the lentil cakes. And the peppers were extremely tasty.

After finishing the savory round of dishes, our server asked whether we wanted to opt for a cheese tasting before moving on to the desserts. Both M and I are light eaters, so we decided to skip the cheese tasting because we wanted to save some room for dessert.

Course 2: Local Peach Salad with goat milk yogurt and fricasse salad

We knew it was going to be desserts galore as soon as our server placed 3 spoons on the table. The first dessert course was raspberry sorbet with tapioca. It was very refreshing. The next dish to be served was toasted coconut semifreddo vanilla salt with strawberry soup and micro basil. This was the yummiest dessert I have eaten in a long long time. It had a lot of flavor to it. After that was a familiar peanut butter jello combo with white chocolate mousse and marshmallow fluff crispy. I could eat those crispies all day long . We have tried enough of chef’s tasting menus to know that it never ends at the final course. Next to celebrate, there was a toast, and then some chocolate macaroons and then a strawberry ice cream popsicle dipped in dark chocolate and coated with nuts. Wowwww!!! This is one of the finest Michelin stars we have been to so far. I highly recommend it for a special someone!

Who doesn’t love being pampered! A day when I was supporting the motto of “Live to eat”. Indulgence at one more bay area’s finest restaurants and I am all smiles This place is definitely worthy to make a special occasion memorable.

 

Latch Hook Art

Ever since I was a kid, I have tried to create a variety of art and craft projects. I was drawn to painting primarily, but my mother encouraged me to try my hand at other arts as well. There was one summer when I wanted to try a different form of painting and she took me to an art teacher who created latch hook frames and rugs. The latch hook frames were quite intriguing and I somehow ended up signing up for the latch hook art class. First of all, for all of you who are wondering what latch hook art means, here’s a quick definition from eHow:

Latch hooking is the technique of pulling short pieces of yarn through a canvas or mesh with a hook that latches. Latch hooking is a rug-making technique used to make wall hangings and other accessories.

If you interested in knowing more about latch hook art, here’s the link to the article: Definition of Latch Hooking | eHow.com

Latch Hook Art Wall Frame

Although the latch hook technique could be used to create rugs and throws, I created a wall hanging frame using it. Let me tell you one thing: It’s not at all a difficult art technique to master, but it takes forever to work on huge frames. Literally forever!!! I have only created one latch hook art frame so far and this is by far one of my most precious creations! Precious because it took me more than 2 years to finish off the entire frame and I have never spent so much time behind one art project. And I guess the more time you spend on something, the more you admire it because of all the hard work that goes behind creating it!

Since I made this long time ago, I do not have pictures in progression while the frame was being made, but For those of you wondering how latch hook technique works, here’s a great YouTube video.

If you want to try a different kind of art project at home, get a latch hook tool kit from Michael’s and start with a small canvas frame to create a latch hook throw or frame