If you haven't been clued into where I am currently located in the world, these two pictures show the vast diversity of this crazy crazy place.
Also, as I am using my company computer so have no access to photoshop. If my pictures look like shit, blame the PC. (Perhaps this should be Apple's new ad campaign)
I'm happy to announce Les Petites Images second and most delicious give away to date.
The amazing Marxfoods has graciously provided me with the goods to give to one of my very lucky readers.
When the box arrived here I was in awe. It's simply ridiculous how many great things there are. It seemed like I just kept digging and digging as though it was Mary Poppins handbag. Though sample sized, these goodies could keep you busy in the kitchen for six months and will certainly spark some creativity.
The sweeteners alone are enough to make any sweet-tooth's mouth water...
Granulated Honey
Demerara Sugar
Vanilla Sugar
All of them together looking pretty
And then there were the salts: a plethora of specialty, rare, beautiful and oh-so-different types of salt. Salt you can use to make an extra special margarita, or add a spicy crunch to the top of a fabulous appetizer, or even as an addition to a fabulous home made truffle.
A "palette" of different flavors and colors
Hawaiian Red Sea Salt
Espresso Salt
Smoked Sea Salt
Lime Salt
Gray Sea Salt
Szechuan Pepper Salt
Hawaiian Black Sea Salt
Habanero Salt
That's quite a good give away isn't it? Salt and sugar? I guess spice would be an appropriate addition. So why not add, say, eleven types of dried chiles from around the world? Sure, no problem.
Clockwise from far left: New Mexican Chiles, Japones Chiles, Organic Aji Cereza Chiles, Ancho Chiles, Aji Panca Chiles, Habanero Chiles, Puya Chiles, Chipotle Chiles
and a few more...
Top to bottom: Ghost chiles, Smoked Serrano Chiles, Pasilla Negro Chiles
And then... (can you believe there is more?)
Finally there are the mushrooms. We all need a little umami in our lives right?
Shiitake
Maitake
Oyster
Porcini
Black Trumpet
Lobster
Chanterelle
Matsutake
And that people, is the greatest giveaway this blog has ever seen. Granted it's only the second giveaway I've done around here, it's still totally boss!
To qualify:
Leave a comment telling me which of the above products you are most excited to try in your kitchen and how you would use it.
Comments will close at 12pm central time on Friday October 9th. The winner will then be selected at random using the random integer generator at random.org to select one person by their comment number. If you blog, tweet, tumble or facebook (or any other form of social media for all I care) about this give away, leave a comment linking to your shout-out and enter to win up to 3 times!
Good luck!
After another full day of meetings, we all really needed some R&R. Wednesday night we hit up the traditional "Irish pub" of Petaluma (what?) and enjoyed sitting on the patio until the sun went down and the temp dropped to the 40s. It's true that I deal with temperatures this low 6 months out of the year, but in California in August? I had just about enough of that. I made everyone go inside so my poor flip-flop-cladden feet could warm up.
This looks like a scene from the birds, but it was really cool to watch these guys swoop around for 5 minutes, go back to their perch, and then back to the swooping thing. Strange creatures.
Thursday we had another long day ahead of us. That's right. It was beach day. A pretty heated east coast v west coast volleyball game ensued (I picked east coast as my team, as I hand spent time hanging out with them during the week, and they are a much smaller sales team. Good thing too, because the west coast was ALL talk. I think it ended up 3-0 East coast. Way to go my friends.
Finally the competition subsided and the relaxing part of beach day began. Some people kayaked (and got to see seals 10 feet away from them, awesome!) and my bosses daughter Madelyn got her first taste (literally) of the ocean sand.
seriously how cute is this?
After a fun trip back into SFO on hwy 1 (Read: not fun for the weak of stomach, including yours truly) we spent a short period of time in touristville USA, ate at McCormicks and Kulitos (and had what was truly the best Halibut of my life) in Ghiradelli square and bought some sourdough to throw in the freezer at home.
Of course I grabbed a quick shot of this bride and groom
The next morning, after the panic of an ammonia spill (and the possibility of being stranded at the Airport hotel) I finally got to SFO, bought a few pounds of Peet's and got a free cup to go (apparently when you spend $30 some dollars on coffee they'll give you a free cup). This was when I realized that I couldn't actually BRING my DAMN coffee with me to the terminal because Peet's was in ticketing. DAMN YOU TSA and your crazy 2oz bottle rule.
This gave me the opportunity to relax under what turned out to be a pretty cool sculpture hanging right outside of the terminal. Fine, I guess I'll forgive the TSA, but only this one time.
I know what you're thinking. Kate starts a new job, Kate stops blogging. Guys, it's not true! There is no doubt I've been busy. Learning a new job does take up time and energy. Add that to a couple of weddings and baby shoots, plus a trip to sunny CA and a bout of the stomach flu and there you have it. Bad blogging. Now I'm not making any promises. I have a bunch of things coming up pretty soon here. But I am going to give it a concerted effort to be better. In the mean time... here is a glimpse into my "work" trip to California.
My company is based out of Petaluma, CA, which ensures a trip through San Fran. I love this city, but since I was riding with others, I didn't really have a chance to do anything on my own. No worries. We at least stopped at a "scenic overlook"
My 1st day of the sales meeting was tough. A plant tour in the morning, followed by long lunch and 3 hours of meetings afterwards (I know you're feeling my pain right now).
Now I realize I told you I wasn't going to mention the company I work for. The same holds true today, but if you figure it out from a picture or two I'll just think you're REALLY savvy.
The sales team (well, 1/2 of us)
Mmmm, veggie burgers.
The beginning of cheese enchiladas
The amazing thing about this company is that so much is still done by hand.
The last thing I expected a plant to smell was pleasant. Today it smelled like the inside of a Mexican grandmothers kitchen. Not bad!
There is a ham in every group
Get this. They make their own tofu... by hand. We ate some right off the pressing block (this was the 1st delicious step towards me having a very full and bloated soy belly by the end of the week).
We didn't get to see any soup being made, but the set up looked pretty cool
After our three long treacherous hours of meetings (you hate me, don't you? Hold on, it gets better) we headed off to a ranch about 10 minutes from downtown Petaluma.
complete with pomegranate trees
.. .and a fully equipped bakery
... and scenes that look right out of an Anthropologie catalogue
... and chef preparing us produce purchased at the farmers market that morning
We stayed until dusk, filled to the brim and more content than ever before. Seriously this place was so incredibly beautiful. I'm thinking about getting our marriage annulled so we can get married all over again at this place. I can't even imagine what it would be like to live on the premises (three families have small cottages on the land, that are just as cute inside as they are out)
Up next: Beach day!
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