To Do: Chihuly at the De Young

I'm almost too embarrassed to admit this, but even though we live TWO BLOCKS from the entrance to the De Young Museum, we still hadn't been before Friday night. We decided it was high time we visited and we were SO glad we did! Who knew. We especially enjoyed the Chihuly exhibit (running until September 28th). It brought back such wonderful memories of London 2005 and our trip to Kew Gardens where we were surrounded by Chihuly.

So apparently every Friday night at the De Young they have a live band and all sorts of characters come out to "Swing". It was great. Patrick and I just sat on the steps and watched the dancers for an hour. I could have stayed all night. For all of you looking for some cheap (free) entertainment, let me tell you. THIS is the place to go on Friday night!
After dinner, we picked up some Burma Superstar and had a delicious burmese feast! We LOVE Burma Superstar, especially the Sesame Beef. YUM!

Laguna for a week!

I was in Laguna all last week and how many pictures did I take? TWO. Nothing to commemorate the wonderful time that we had basking in the sun, hanging out with family and friends (Rodney, Rachel, Eric, Heather and Tyson), and eating our brains out. I'm a terrible blogger.

We're Gourmet. What, didn't you know that?

Last week was quite the culinary week for us!

On Tuesday night, we attended a Sur La Table cooking class. Amanda gave us a gift card there for a wedding gift and since our guests were oh so generous at the wedding, we decided to use the GC for a cooking class instead of more kitchen supplies (we're already bursting at the seams!). I wanted Patrick to take it with me, but I knew he wouldn't be willing to cook just anything...after I discovered the "4th of July Feast" I knew I had a winner. Our menu included:

-Baby Back Ribs with Ancho Chili barbeque sauce
-"Awesome Burgers" with a cabernet reduction, bacon, and blue cheese. Shannon, you would have LOVED them
-Asian Slaw with spicy peanut dressing. Henry, definitely right up your alley. I thought I would hate it but it was actually everyone's favorite dish!
-Sour Cream potato salad (only so, so definitely not the best thing we made)
-Lattice-Topped Berry pie (so good, I might be making that again tonight! And I never like pie!)

It was so fun to cook together and learn from such an amazing instructor. I asked a million dumb questions but I think that made me learn even more.(Look how serious he is, mixing that meat!)

It also made us feel more inclined towards cooking together in the future. Usually we're in a big hurry and I only like things done my way (I know, I'm working on it!) but we've decided to try and make a "gourmet" dish once or twice a month together to practice our skills.

The class was an absolute blast and I highly recommend asking for it as a gift (it was really expensive so I'm not sure if I would pay to go) as it's a great way to spend some quality time with family or friends.

Thursday evening was Heron and my "Thank You" dinner from Henry and John. A few months ago, Heron and I taught Henry how to grocery shop and prepare some simple, healthy recipes. It was really a great time, but we had NO idea what kind of "thanks" we were in for! We both showed up at 8 pm to incredible smells and smiles from the boys. We were instructed "not to lift a finger" as we were served up a culinary feast! The menu included:-Fresh fig and goat cheese drizzled with honey and served on endive spears-Gruyere and Spinach stuffed, bacon-wrapped chicken served with sauteed tomatoes & onions and shallot/thyme new potatoes-Deluxe s'mores complete with fresh homemade marshmallows and delicious chocolate sauce and raspberries.

Could two girls ask for a better dinner?! We told them guys who want to date a girl don't even go to that extreme, let alone just good friends saying "thanks"! We had a fabulous night and are very excited to see what they whip up in the future! Not to mention what they're making for their girlfriends who are next!

Saturday afternoon I was sitting alone in the apartment waiting for Patrick to come back from his softball tournament when I turned to the "Macaroni and Cheese Tournament" on Food Network. This got me thinking about our first gourmet creation. I quickly researched recipes online and proposed the idea to Mr. Larsen when he got home. Lets just say it didn't take long for him to change and get back in the car! After browsing Whole Foods for the best quality cheeses, butters, truffle oil (yeah, we're that high class) and pasta we went home to whip up Martha Stewart's Mac&Cheese made with Pecorino Romano and Sharp White Cheddar cheese. We make a good team in the kitchen, but I have to say, I think we may have added a little too much Pecorino Romano because our end result wasn't the most delicious Mac&Cheese we've ever eaten. The Romano flavor was pretty overwhelming. We came to the conclusion that we like wimpy cheeses and are going to tweak the recipe to match our tastebuds next time (Read: Mozzarella, Provolone, Medium Cheddar, stuff like that).

Back to the Big Apple

I feel like we've been quite the Jetsetters these days. It seems every other weekend we are going somewhere. It's been fun, but I think I'm ready for a little break. Anyways, here's the latest on our latest trip:

*Warning* This post is too long. Sorry.

We'd been planning our trip to NYC for a long time now. After the wedding, we had racked up enough JetBlue points to get ourselves free round-trip tickets and decided what better way to spend them than to go back to our second favorite city. We really miss all our friends who live there so we've been looking for a good excuse ever since we left last year.

So Tuesday night, we packed up the car and were about to drive over to SFO when I got a phone call from JetBlue saying our flight was canceled due to weather. WHAT? They offered to reschedule us out of Oakland, but we had to get there ASAP. That would have been fine except that our return flight was in to SFO which meant we couldn't drive ourselves to the airport and we didn't have time to call a Shuttle. Thank Goodness for Good Friends huh? We quickly called Brooke and Eric and they were kind enough to drive us all the way to Oakland. We ran into the airport with just enough time to check in. The whole drive there I was throwing a tantrum thinking we weren't going to make the flight (and consequently miss Conan, which was NOT an option). Luckily the Burgons and Mr. Larsen put up with my whining. Sorry guys.

We got to the I-House Wednesday morning at around 9 am but we couldn't check until 2 pm. We decided to just leave our stuff there and go out exploring until Conan! We were pretty wasted, but I think it was a good thing since we got used to the time change very quickly. We were some of the first people in line for our tickets, so we were put in the front section. Somehow we finagled our way to the front of the line and ended up in the front row! (We watched it this afternoon and you can see us for a split second during the Hulk skit). It was so cool to see him live. I had NO idea how tall he was in person! Oh, and Patrick and Joel got to shake his hand. Becca and I were a bit bummed we got ignored, but Patrick hasn't washed his hand since so maybe it's a good thing I didn't shake it...haha...

After Conan, we met up with Seth (Patrick's other good friend from College) and went to Two Boots Pizza. We LOVE Two Boots. We also loved the fact that all three boys were wearing grey T-Shirts. Patrick and I went back to the I-House immediately after dinner to crash. Needless to say, we were exhausted!Day two was Statue of Liberty and Shake Shack Day. In all my NYC travels, I somehow escaped the Statue of Liberty every time. I was determined to see it this trip! I'm really glad we did. It's one of those things that need to be done once every few years (kind of like Alcatraz here in SF). We met up with some of our fellow 489ers (that's BYU Ad Major speak for BFF's forever) at Shake Shack that night. We've decided that Shake Shack is what we would like Heaven to be like. Delicious hamburgers, fries and ice cream. SO good!Day three we went to the Moma. Those of you who know me well know my penchant for modern art so I LOVE the MOMA. We saw an amazing exhibit by Olafur Eliasson. I loved it. I spent a little too much time there so Patrick and the B-12 boys ditched me to go eat. Completely Understandable. I am a little slow at museums when it's something I'm interested in. (If I'm not, however, that's a whole other story). After the MOMA we met up with 489ers at Havana Central for a little Cuban corn and then saw The Incredible Hulk. Can't say I loved it as much as Iron Man, but still very enjoyable.Day four we met up with my good friend Lauren from Y&R for delicous brunch at 5 points. The banana stuffed brioche french toast? INCREDIBLE. I'm still dreaming about it. After brunch we ran over to Times Square (If Shake Shack is my idea of Heaven, Times Square is my idea of Hell) to see a matinee of Spamalot. Lots of silly fun. Probably not the best musical I've ever seen but we definitely enjoyed ourselves. I'd recommend it for sure. As we walked out of Spamalot we were greeted by some of the craziest rain I have EVER encountered. It was absolutely POURING down. Most of you know how much I hate the rain, so I made Patrick go back to the I-House instead of exploring the city more. Shannon, I think even you would have given up. This rain was brutal. We went to dinner at Toast and then went to bed early to prepare for our 5:30 am departure. Our trip went by SO fast!

4 am this morning: I get a call from JetBlue that our flight has once again been canceled. You have GOT to be kidding me. Luckily, they did get us on a later flight that wasn't even delayed so I've got to give them credit for that. I guess I'd rather be woken up at 4 am to be told not to come to the airport than to show up and sit there for 6 hours, but still!

We're home now and as much as we miss NYC we realized just how much we love San Francisco. It's seriously the most wonderful city. We LOVE living here so so much. I know we made the right decision.

6 more hours until takeoff.

Make sure to watch Conan tomorrow night. Patrick, Becca, Joel and I will be waving at you from the crowd. Just pretend not to notice that a certain pair will look just like they just got off an airplane.

Boy oh Boy am I excited for our trip! Mostly because we get to see our friends, eat at The Shake Shack, see a show, and eat lots of ice cream.

See you next week! (Or for those of you in the Big Apple, Tomorrow!!)

Grr

I seem to always be gushing about how much I love San Francisco. To be honest, there are a few things I don't like. Namely,

1. Parking
2. Street Sweeping
3. Parking Tickets

That's what happens when you get home from vacation at 1:3o am Monday and forget that it's Monday.

I really hope there isn't a limit on how many parking tickets you can get in a year.

25 Years

Can you belive PSG has been around for 25 years? All their hard work sure has paid off! Things are better than ever around here and it's only looking better.

There are so many campaigns PSG is famous for it's hard to list them all. A few examples:
-Got Milk? (No, NOT the mustaches)
-Comcast "It's Comcastic!"
-Budweiser Frogs, Lizards, Donkey that wants to be a horse
-Emerald Nuts
-NBA "There can only be One"
-Most importantly (for me) Sprint "Only on the Now Network"

And the list goes on. To celebrate, we did the only thing Ad Agencies this large can do--threw a huge party at the San Francisco Opera House, got plastered (ok, maybe not me) and danced the night away.

Great times, great people. I'm already planning for the 50 year reunion!
Yeah, that's Jeff (above) and Rich (below). The G and S in PSG... I'm quite the big deal these days! haha.
717ers (that's our floor)
Sprint Retail team pic! Yes, the red and blue is real. LONG story...
Ever seen the Comcastic Slowskies? This is Mr. Slowsky!
Retail team!

I love PSG!

Where else could you find a company that distributes 100% compostable paper products for employee use even though they are MUCH more expensive than Styrofoam? It's times like these when I am so grateful for where I work. And for the city that loves being Green. Now I just need to ween myself from my terrible paper towel addiction!!

(And yes, I did put my company's name backwards on purpose)

Oh, and that post I was promising revealing our secret Saturday purchase? I've been meaning to take my own pics, but this will have to suffice for now. I think most of you already know...
We bought a Mini!!! We've been contemplating buying a new car for a while now and with gas/parking in San Francisco being the way it is, we thought we'd better Carpe Diem. We owe Heather and Tyson HUGE for driving the Montero down to So Cal so my dad can sell it for us and we owe my Dad HUGE for selling it! It's pretty difficult to sell an SUV in San Francisco and its even harder to get a good deal on a Mini--but we think we made out pretty well :)

AND...thanks to Diana for the redesign :) Our blog looks so cute!

More Guests!

The best part about San Fran is living somewhere friends want to visit!! I have a feeling if we lived in the middle of nowhere, we'd see less of these beautiful faces.

Heather and Tyson drove in Friday night and even though we tried to tell them to stay with us in the city, they decided to spend time with other friends and sleep over there (I guess I can learn to share:) ). Saturday, Patrick and I were running around like crazy people doing what I'll post about next, so we didn't get to meet up with them until dinner time, which was totally a bummer. We went to this cute little Italian restaurant in North Beach called Volare. Its really hard to find a good restaurant in North Beach because there are SO many tourist traps, but lucky for us, the Fujikawa's other friends (and our new friends) the Packers already knew where to go. Brad has been going here since he was a little kid. Delish! I had Chicken Parmigiana and Patrick had Lasagna.

After dinner, even though we were all stuffed to the gills, we had to get Gelato. We went to Gelateria Naia which was soo good! I had peanut butter chip and Madagascar vanilla.

Sunday we spent the day watching the Jazz game and catching up. For those of you who don't know Heather, she is (among other things) the CMO of a new company called Knotheads. They are really great hair accessories that you should each buy 10 of. I am testing them out as we speak and so far I'm totally sold.

It broke my heart to say goodbye, but we easily convinved them that San Francisco is the best city in America and they totally fell in love. Now we just have to convince them to move here...hehe

BFF's come to SF! Part 2

Since I'm waiting to go to a baseball game with the gals instead of spinning, I have time to post the second part of our BFF Adventures with the Corneliuses!Monday night was Alcatraz. Mitch and I hadn't been in years and both Patrick and Shannon had never been before. The night tour is dubbed the "Best" of all the tours and since Patrick and I both had to work Monday, we decided to do that one. We bought tickets a couple weeks in advance which is apparently the only way to get tickets (they sell out really fast). We rushed onto the boat just in time to sail away. It was really cool to go and learn a little more about "The Rock" and we had plenty of fun goofing off too.
(Notice my hair sticking straight up. I should have used a knothead, not a bobby pin!) Unfortunately for me, they filled in all the toilets :) After Alcatraz we were off to Ghiradelli Square for Hot Fudge Sundaes. We have ZERO problem going to Ghiradelli any day you want to go! It is Larsen heaven! haha.Tuesday was our farewell dinner at Foreign Cinema. We were so excited to go because we'd only heard fabulous things from everyone who's gone. Once again, those of you in the City, we'd LOVE to go again with you! Patrick had the halibut with fig and I had roast duck with foie gras butter (sounds gross, tastes divine!). I basically licked the plate clean. The restaurant is really cool too because there is this outside patio that they play foreign films in during your meal. We watched "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" while we ate.

We loved having Shannon and Mitch tour the city with us---we just wish they could have been here a little longer or better yet moved here :). I guess I'll settle for a weekend getaway whenever they can take one. Thanks for coming guys! Come visit again soon!

In Other News

Today is 31 cent scoop night at Baskin-Robbins (or 31 flavors if you're a Cowan). Needless to say I'll be there indulging in the 10 scoop/person limit.

I bought a hammock yesterday for our backyard. HELLO summer, here I come! Best part--it's portable, which means I can take it to GG Park and Baker Beach too!

Ok, maybe mine doesn't look like this, but I'll take it all the same :)

BFF's come to SF!

Yes, it's true. Shannon and Mitch came to visit this week! Needless to say, Patrick and I couldn't have been more thrilled. It isn't every day you have friends come to visit (ahem) and especially not these two. We had hoped that somehow we could convince them to stay forever, and although it ALMOST worked, they just have too dang good of jobs in SLC. Lame. (But we still love you!)

First thing's first. We picked them up from the airport on Saturday and went to lunch at Boudin's so Shannon could get her bread fix and Mitch could eat "Real San Francisco Chowder".

Side Note: The Boudin factory is 3 blocks from our house so whenever I walk home from the bus late at night I get to smell heaven (aka fresh baked sourdough bread). It makes me want to grab a loaf and run for my life, but I control myself (barely).

After lunch, we headed over to Golden Gate park to wander around and go to the Japanese Tea Gardens. It was so cute! We'd been meaning to go for a while, so we were glad they were here to do it with us! Next stop--Giants stadium! The Reds beat the Giants just barely but we managed to enjoy the sun, crab sandwiches (well, Patrick did. I had garlic fries mmmmmm), and whale-tail in front of us regardless. Oh trashy blonde, why couldn't you pull up your pants! Yuck!
On to Bi-Rite creamery. For those of you in SF who have yet to indulge in this locally sustained, small batch, completely compostable utensil artisan ice cream goodness, get there STAT. And those of you not in SF, come visit so we can go! The coconut, cheesecake, chocolate and brown butter pecan were voted top four by us four. I can't wait to go back!!


I'll split the adventures into a few posts to save on the length...hold tight, folks!