Cloth

Yesterday was our second wedding anniversary, the cloth anniversary. The bulk of our celebrations of marital bliss took place on Saturday, though, when we went out to the Warwick wine estate for a Big 5 wine safari, wine tasting, and gourmet picnic. We were lucky enough to have *pristine* weather, which made the day feel all the more festive. The safari was a hoot. Eight of us rode around in a big Land Rover type thing and we "spotted" the big five wine grape varietals. We now know that:

cabernet sauvignon = lion (bold flavor)
cabernet franc = elephant (a taste you'll remember for a long time)
merlot = leopard (subtle taste)
pinotage = buffalo (very strong, aggressive flavor)
sauvignon blanc = rhino (distinctive nose)

We rode up to the top of the vineyard to enjoy the views of both Table Mountain and Paarl Rock and have a glass of sauvignon blanc.

see the silhouette of Table Mountain in the background?

Once we hunkered down in our lovely picnic spot, we gave pressies and feasted.

We both did our best to include the traditional gift of cloth. I gave Brendan some honey and coconut coated apple rings, a t-shirt I put a funky design onto, and a Kindle with a hand-sewn cloth cover. I got a gorgeous hot pink Le Creuset mug, a meter of block printed fabric I have been lusting over from a shop in Kalk Bay (I am open to suggestions for what it should be turned into!), and a pair of lovely heart-shaped earrings. The picnic was scrumptious: caponata salad, sun dried tomato puree, green bean and feta salad, salami, camembert, cheddar, smoked salmon with buttermilk dill dressing, two loaves of ciabatta bread, biltong and brandy pate, smoked smoek pate, and dark chocolate brownies for dessert. Yum.

Last night, we enjoyed a bottle of Spice Route pinotage (served at our wedding) with some sesame-crusted seared tuna steaks and sushi rice salad.

Then we scooted down the road to share a mini lemon meringue with Anna & Graham. I love having wonderful neighbors. All in all, it was a great start to what will be an exciting third year!

Miya's

As promised, here is the full recap of the deliciousness that is Miya's. If you are in and around the New Haven area, check it out at 68 Howe Street. If you go within the next 12 days, invite me. If not, express mail me something. I'm sure Customs doesn't have any rules about intercontinental transfers of sushi.

One of the things I loved straight away was that it is rated one of the top 10 most sustainable restaurants in America. Sushi is delicious, but I always have a bit of a guilty conscience when eating it as most of the yummies I am partaking in aren't doing the environment any favors. Miya's uses eco-friendly fish options and has many vegetarian rolls. Sushi + no guilt = the best sushi ever.

What else is there to love? This:

We started with their pumpkin miso (!!) and huge green salad. The greens come from the farm associated with the Yale Sustainable Food Project. You get a heap of what's fresh and in season. I think I taste a hint of wasabi in the dressing, which thrills me to no end. 

With that we each had a glass of sake. Their sake selection is highly unusual. Brendan had the spicy Firecracker sake, and I had the gingery Dragon Lady sake. 

For the main event, we forced ourselves to only choose five options from their really extensive menu. This is no small feat as basically everything sounds delicious and you want seven of them. From left to right you'll see the edibaba, hot-headed cowgirl (front), water piglet (back), japafrican queen (back), and your standard spicy tuna (front). The descriptions are part of the fun:

Edibaba- great. Who has hot sushi wrapped in potato?! The sauce is so delicious you'll want to lick the plate. Anything with coconut is fine by me, so the hot-headed cowgirl was also a serious winner. Perhaps what I love the most about the water piglet is that there is, in fact, no pig involved. I don't know why but that really tickles me. The Japafrican queen, however, was hands down our favorite. The flavors are out of this world and it is just so stinkin' innovative. Plus the hilarious description doesn't hurt. 

b&b signing off

lately

Here's a smattering of what we've been up to lately. I must admit that I've forgotten my camera (gasp!) or forgotten to take pictures (double gasp!) of many things. The moral of this story: our life is even more fun than these pictures convey.

Last week I developed a new obsession- Miya's sushi restaurant in New Haven. I had lunch there with two of my nearly-former Peer Health Educators and it has changed my life (mostly because now I want to eat there every day).

I look weird in this picture because I'm trying to hug two people who are a little too far away from me. But they look great. 

Miya's will get its own post later this week. I am also considering going back for some additional research. 

Last week also brought an abundance of pie, which is never a bad thing. My lovely co-workers held a little going away gathering for me feature 6 varieties of my favorite food group.

Naturally, I needed to eat a slice of each.

I have been lucky enough to work with some of the most intelligent, inspiring, fun, fabulous people for the last nearly-four years at Yale. This Thursday (my last day) is going to be a toughie. 

And then, because six pieces of pie on a Friday isn't enough of a treat, we went to Miya's for dinner. Swoon.

We spent Saturday with our friends Krissy and Tim and their ridiculously cute girls. 

Krissy made me the *MOST* lovely apron as a going away gift. It's made of this soft flannel, has corset-style lacing in the back, a tea cup applique on the pocket, and the daintiest ruffles around the edges. I adore it so much, and now am even further convinced that she needs to hurry up and start a business so I can buy every last thing she puts her needle to.

Krissy also makes really cute children, but she won't be selling them in her shop. 

Ella and I played outside for a bit while the food was grilling. 

We had some great salads with our meal. I made a mango slaw and Tim made an orzo salad with sultanas and pine nuts. I'm going to strong arm him into giving me the recipe. 

After sups there was birthday cake for the Krissy. Happy summery times.

In more recent news:

As part of the never-ending stream of work to be done so I can be employed in South Africa, I found out this morning that I needed a full criminal record check and to be fingerprinted. Thankfully I had a friend in the Yale Police Department who could help me out. Now if only I had a friend who really like completing paperwork...