An Urban Girl

We are planning a small "New Year's Eve"/"Mr. Urban Turns 3X" celebration with family tomorrow night. I thought of having everyone over for deserts and cocktails, as a nice sugar rush is bound to pull us through to midnight. On the Menu: Caramelized Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Cake from Butter Sugar Flour . Barefoot Contessa's [amazing] wine poached fruits with an assortment of single serving Haggen Dazs ice creams. French Cheese Board.  Fresh Black Berries and French Dark Chocolate Truffles. And as a tribute to 2011, French 76 Cocktails, Mr. Urban and my favorite cocktail find of 2011, Merci Absinthe !   1/2 oz fresh lemon juice, 1 oz gin, 1/2 oz Cointreau, and a dash of sugar syrup shaken over ice, poured into a Champagne flute, and topped with chilled Champagne. Garnished with a twist of lemon.  Cheers! And how are you planning on giving thanks for the last 365 days (or else rebooting & restarting)? Wishing you peace of mi

I have never been a great consumer.  I'm not a shopper like most women in my life are, knowing where to go for the best of any purchase and deal.  I often do not have the right "things" for the right occasions. My beloved grandmother didn't travel much, but spent a good amount of time in shops scouting chic travel bags, matching cosmetic and toiletry kits, and fancy pajamas for nights spent in company of family in a hotel suite.  She had the perfect suits for afternoon wedding ceremonies, fox fur stole for just the right winter social occasion, sun glasses for walking by the seawall and ones for roaming downtown on Sunday mornings.  Me?  I have given my girlfriends heart attacks upon returning from trips to Paris, Rome and New York, declaring never having stepped into a shop, opting instead to sip coffee with Mr. Urban and savoring every last morsel of time with him.  During this last trip to New York, I decided to throw caution to the wind and spend an hour sho

The Holidays are supposed to be about love, magic, big smiles, and everything light and delicious. So then I won't tell you about the colds and the ear infections,T.A.N.T.R.U.M.S. and the IDON'TWANTTOs (shhhh).    No, I will just stick to stories of glorious moments in between. Like our wonderful plane ride from San Francisco to Washington, where after a short initial shock of the flight being over sold and our original seats getting bumped, the UrbanToddler and I got seats in the front row of the Virgin flight with plenty of leg room and unlimited FREE access to the in-flight entertainment and meal service, with Mr. Urban sitting a safe distance behind us. Gates to the White House And our short lived sightseeing trip around the Nation's capital, which swiftly ended on a high note, with drinks at the magnificent lobby of the W, where the UrbanToddler gushed over the soft zebra tables around the room. Mr. Urban had planned a fun train ride trip from Washington

Monday will be our last school day before the holidays.  The UrbanToddler has six teachers in her classroom.  In these short months we have really fallen in love with each one of them... they bring passion, compassion,  energy,  talent, patience, humor, presence and more into that room each and every day.  And I am so grateful for my child to be on the receiving end of all these gifts.  And so we are excited for a chance to say thank you in a small way.  My girl helped me wrap a gift for each teacher and write each a note telling me of what she is thankful for specifically:  "[He] loves Musical Instruments", "[He] loves the African Nation", "[She] is smiley", "[She] read Owl Babies to me, I love Owl Babies".... Here's To Good Teachers!  In Love and Gratitude...

The other day the UrbanToddler invited a few girlfriends over to bake holiday goodies with.  On the menu: Martha Stewart's Chocolate Gingerbread Cake and Curtis Stone's Home Made Granola .  It was amazing how nicely the girls worked together, all in their matching sour cherry aprons.  Ms. Stewart's Gingerbread cake left something to be desired.  But Curtis' granola is a home run every time, even though we didn't take into consideration the longer baking time given the bulk quantities.... How can you go wrong in taste when you have a  mixture of butter, oats, spices, nuts and dried fruit?  The girls added a generous amount of orange zest to the granola recipe which was a fantastic idea.  If you try it, feel free to add less butter and sugar than in the recipe.  It still turns out as delicious and special. We'll definitely do this again next year, and hopefully with more little friends now that we have a hang of it...

We infuse so much holiday spirit and celebrations into our weekends that they are bursting at the seams. The festivities were underway on Friday night with a dinner (to die for) at my favorite Palo Alto restaurant Birch Street   (the Old Bistro Elan).  Sadly, due to lease issues, the bustling Bistro Elan has been moved to a much smaller location down the street.  Which naturally has me worried as I could hardly get us a table at their much larger old location.  Advance strategy needs to be taken from now on! Their signature Foie Gras Dish After dinner, I thanked the Gods that we still got to  enjoy the same beautiful food, ambiance and fabulous service.  But especially for the great company of our beloved friends who joined us with awesome wines and stories from their collections.  On Saturday, Mr. Urban invited me to join him at a holiday party for some friends' rather hot dating start-up in San Francisco.  Hint: They are the Number 1 dating site on FB.  As you can imagin

Last week, after having a perfectly nostalgic few days with friends from another time and another life, and then indulging in a bona fide Southern style gourmet Thanksgiving meal, where each dish was a perfectly caramelized medley of vegetables, butter, brown sugar, pecans, and North American Autumn spices,  we took a drive into the mountains. IKEDA is a favourite diner to break the journey up to Tahoe I have  called different parts of this world HOME for long enough periods of time for people and places to have had a chance to leave their impressions on my heart and my mind.  You can try and try to maintain a semblance of a long distance relationship, but in most cases you can't, and so time and distance dull the impressions on your memory to a point that your remembrance of certain people and places are akin to vivid dreams that are hard to recall once you are awakened.  Mr. Urban, my girl and I had an amazing few days with an old family friend that I had not seen for ov