Apricots, apricots and more apricots

It turns out the tree in our front yard is an apricot tree. It's a very productive tree too! Over the past 2 weeks, I think we picked ovr 40 lbs of apricots. The crazy thing is that we didn't really do anything special to the tree.

At first I was really excited about being able to pick and eat as many apricots as I pleased. Greg didn't share my enthusiasm, which was fine. Just meant more apricots for me. I soon realized that we have more apricots than I could possibly eat.

So, I started giving them away to friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. I even shared with the squirrels in our neighborhood. (We'd find discarded, half eaten apricots on the ground around the trees in front of our house. And sometimes we'd even see a squirrel dart up our tree and have a picnic in the tree.)

We still had a ton of apricots! What was I going to do with all these apricots? A friend suggested that I make jam. And that's exactly what I did today. I made 14-8oz. jars of apricot jam.

It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Sugar, lemon juice, sliced/diced fruit, and pectin...lots of boiling water to sanitize the jars, lids and bands...a little help from Good Eat's Alton Brown...an online recipe...and voila....apricot jam! I felt very "Martha Stewart" as I was making jam in our kitchen. I'm quite impressed with myself and with the jam, even though I haven't tried it yet!

Our First Anniversary

It's our one year anniversary! Neither one of us can believe that it's already been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were busy planning the wedding and our New Zealand honeymoon.

So, what did we do to celebrate this milestone? We played volleyball! =) The league we play in together had playoffs tonight. And since I'm the captain of the team, we couldn't really skip out of playoffs. But we did celebrate on Saturday by going to dinner at Manresa. That was definitely a dining experience. Unless you're filthy rich, I'd say Manresa is a special occasion place.

We ordered the 8 course tasting menu with wine pairings. The food was excellent, unlike anything either of us has tasted. My co-worker, Sid, asked me what type of food they served. And I really couldn't describe it. The chef creates dishes with unique flavors, combining things I would never have thought to put together. The food really can't be categorized into one type of cuisine like Italian, Greek or French. The service was also excellent and completely met our expectations for a restaurant of Manresa's caliber.

Mocktails/Cocktails and Appetizers

Every few months or so, a group of our foodie friends get together for a meal. It used to be dinner, but 2 of them had kids, so they've become lunches. These meals usually have a theme and everyone makes something to bring. When we first started doing these events, my cooking skills were pretty basic. Boil water? Check. Operate microwave? Check. Use an oven? Check. Despite my novice cooking skills, my foodie friends were very welcoming and usually let me bring simple things like wine, beer, soda and dessert (that I'd usually buy from a bakery...heehee).

Our most recent gathering was at Rob and Linda's place in San Francisco, and the theme: Mocktails/Cocktails and Appetizers. Rob and Linda made homemade salsa and guacamole plus a summer salad from The French Laundry. Rob also made greyhounds and a special peach/mint cocktail. Sylvia and Ken made seared ahi tuna and guacamole ahi poke salad. Ken gets special props for beautifully plating the seared ahi tuna. Viv and Eric made skirt steak sandwiches with a chimichurri sauce and two flavors of homemade sorbet, grapefruit and apricot/muscat. And we brought...(drum roll)....pigs in a blanket with mustard. Yeah, our contribution wasn't quite on the same level as everyone elses. That's why we're hosting the next gathering. The theme is Trailer Trash, but after my marketing spin it's now Comfort Food.

If you want to see more photos click here.

Gombei

Gombei is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Until recently, there were 2 locations: Menlo Park and San Jose Japantown. Everytime we've gone to the one in Japantown, it's been packed. The menu is different than most other Japanese places. Of course, they have the typical teriyaki chicken/beef, katsu and udon. What makes Gombei unique is the daily specials that resemble home-style cooking. Oh, they also don't server sushi or sashimi, unless it's part of one of the daily specials.

About a month or two ago, we noticed a Gombei sign in one of the shopping centers near our home. Could it be they were going to open up another location walking distance from us?! When we went to Gombei in Japantown, we asked if they were opening another location in Santa Clara. The response, "Maybe." Hmmm...sounded promising. Occasionally, we'd stop by and peer into the window and look for a sign that said when the place would be open. Well, it finally opened last week, and we went to check it our for dinner tonight!

You could tell that they were still working out some of the kinks, but the food was good! It's different than the other Gombei locations. The Santa Clara location actually serves sushi. They kept the sushi boat conveyor belt from the previous restaurant. The sushi boat counter takes up the majority of the restaurant. There were only a few tables in the front even though there was definitely room for more tables. Not sure if they plan to add tables in the future or keep it focused on the sushi bar. They also didn't have a daily specials board, which was somewhat disappointing. Maybe they'll add the daily specials after they work out some of the opening kinks. Or maybe this Gombei will be focused on sushi, which I wouldn't mind either.