Birthday Dinner: Zibibbo

I woke up this morning and it was super overcast! B informed me that it rained around 4am when he was (inexplicably) awake thinking about teaching Physics. I was stuffed from our birthday dinner last night, so I took a stroll around our apartment before making breakfast.

Last night, I took B to Zibibbo in Palo Alto for dinner. I was really excited to try a new restaurant but as soon as we walked in,  I realized I had eaten there before - when I was in high school!

Zibibbo has a really yummy seasonal pan-Mediterranean menu and is inside a renovated Victorian mansion in downtown Palo Alto.

We opted to sit in the outside garden (with a huge roaring fireplace!)  and started with an antipasti plate:

Fried risotto, artichoke dolmas, and roasted beets with goat cheese.

We could have eaten fried risotto all night long!

For dinner, I got the Summer Gnocchi with peas, green beans, and tomatoes.

B got the Alaskan Halibut.

For dessert we shared a Banana Brioche Bread Pudding. When they set it on the table, B said, "No pictures! Just eating!" I didn't argue.

The food was incredible and surprisingly affordable. We will definitely be back!

We are headed to Santa Cruz later today to celebrate the birthday boy with my in-laws. I also have 130 tests to grade. No biggie. :)

More Greens!

No, not another Green Monster.... yet!

After taking Brian to the airpot (he is spending the next five days with a friend from college in Illinois. They are going caving, camping, and kayaking!), I came home to find this beauty sitting on our front porch:

 

Oh yeah, our first CSA box from Farm Fresh to You! I have been eagerly awaiting its arrival all week!

Inside I found all these goodies:

According to the newsletter, we received: 1lb Red Flame grapes, 1 seasonal melon, 1lb yellow nectarines, 1.5lbs mixed squash, 1 bunch of Nantes carrots, .5lbs Gypsy peppers, 1lb tomatoes, 1 bunch of celery, and 1 bunch of basil.

We will be receiving a box like this every 2 weeks from FFTY. It's costing us $25 a box and I am super excited to start experimenting with more fresh produce! 

If you live in the SF Bay Area and are interesting in trying a CSA, FFTY has a refer-a-friend program where you can get $5 your first delivery and I will get a free delivery! Use promo code 6164 and mention Megan Ellis.

SUPER EXCITING EDIT!: Farm Fresh to You delivers all the way up in the Sacramento area too! Go crazy, NorCal friends!

The other fun green news I have concerns my lunch yesterday. I drove to Walnut Creek to visit my sorority sister, bridesmaid, and awesome friend Lindy.

At my wedding last summer!

She took me to lunch at Tomatina and I had a piadine.

Basically, a piadini is a big, warm flatbread right out of the woodfire oven topped with a salad. When you get it, you fold it in half and eat it like a big taco! I had the Caprese piadine (Romaine hearts, fresh mozzarella, oven-dried tomatoes, pesto, balsamic vinaigrette, and parmesan) on a wheat flatbread. 

Wowowow! I am going to have to learn how to make these ASAP! The combo of the warm bread with the cool salad was to die for. I could eat one of these every single day! It looks like there are lots of recipes out there, so I'll start experimenting soon!

Two questions for you today:
1. Do you participate in a CSA? How often do you get your box?
2. Have you ever had piadine? Do you make your own?

Ashland Day 2

We woke up a bit late on Thursday morning, since we did not get back to our campsite after Merchant of Venice until nearly midnight! We ate a nice camp breakfast of coffee, oatmeal, and White House Muffins before heading back to the festival for our Folio Viewing, where we got to see a beautiful original of Shakespeares First Folio (published in 1623) on loan from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection and learn about the history of the Folio and printing practices of the time. Fun (and nerdy)!

Brian was especially happy to get this parking spot (he called it his winner spot), because we were right across the street from the theaters and didn't have to pay for parking all day!

After the viewing, we went to lunch at our #2-most-favorite-restaurant-in-all-of-Ashland, Pangea! I have eaten at Pangea every single time I have visited the festival. It is so yummy!

Brian checked the soccer scores while we waited for our food.

We split a Squirrel Nut Salad (organic field greens with sprouts, slivered carrots and grilled foccacia, topped with goji berries, chipped coconut, sunflower, pumpkin and any other seeds or nuts that catch our fancy. Served naked with lemon-sesame tahini on the side - Brian talks about this salad all year long!). Brian ordered the Ethiopian Wrap special and I got The Tempehst (spiced tempeh, caramelized onions, grilled and marinated zucchini, roasted sweet peppers and garlic aioli).

I had never eaten tempeh before, but I don't know what I was waiting for! This was incredible (and so much yummier than tofu, which I merely tolerate for the sake of being healthy). Tempeh is awesome! I did a little research and learned:

Tempeh is a complete protein food that contains all the essential amino acids. The soy protein and isoflavones have many health benefits. Isoflavones strengthen bones, help to ease menopause symptoms, reduce risk of coronary hearth disease and some cancers. Tempeh maintains all the fiber of the beans and gains some digestive benefits from the enzymes created during the fermentation process. [Source]

Sounds good to me!

After lunch, we frolicked around Ashland for a while, grabbed lattes at Key of C (I got the Tiger Eye - a chai latte with a shot of espresso!), read/napped in Lithia Park, and before we knew it, it was time to eat again! For dinner, we tried a new (to us) restaurant, Hana Sushi. We ordered an enormous bowl of edamame and some gyoza for appetizers, and then ordered three sushi rolls.

veggie roll, spicy salmon roll, spicy tuna roll

They were all delicious, and left us with just enough room for dessert, so we grabbed frozen yogurt at Yogurt Hut!

mango fro-yo with fresh kiwi, pineapple, blueberries, and coconut flakes

With our bellies full, it was time to see some more Shakespeare! I don't think Hamlet really needs much introduction, does it? I taught Hamlet to my very first class of twelfth graders in 2006, but have never seen it live. I knew that this was going to be a great show, but I was not prepared for how unbelievable it would be (and it did not hurt that we had front row seats!).

Dan Donohue was indescribable as Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. He received the only standing ovation I have ever witnessed at the festival!

[photos by David Cooper - source]

I don't really even have words to adequately describe how flawless this production was, I am still a little amazed by it. Needless to say, it made the entire trip worth it (and I would make the trip again just to see Hamlet again). You can watch some video of the production here.   

Ashland Day 1

We left for Ashland around 9:30 on Wednesday morning (after watching the US beat Algeria in the final minute of stoppage time! If you missed the game, you must watch the highlights here). Our first stop was less than 5 minutes from our house - Psycho Donuts! This place is crazy (no pun intended), and we save it for road trips only. Otherwise, we would be eating donuts every day and each weigh about 500 pounds! I got the Fudgie, their vegan donut of the week. It was a cake donut with fudge frosting, rice crispy cereal, and peanut butter drizzle. Yum!

Brian got the Mood Swing, a cake donut with chocolate frosting topped with half peanuts, half coconut. Also delicious!

After that, we were off! We stopped once and made it to our campground around 3:45 in the afternoon. We set up camp as quickly as possible and then headed into downtown to pick up our tickets at Will Call. We splurged on more expensive tickets this year, so we decided to only attend two shows: The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet . I also bought tickets for a Folio Viewing, which I did several years ago when I went to Ashland for a week-long teaching seminar. I thought it was really neat and wanted Brian to experience it as well.

After picking up our tickets, we decided to grab dinner at our #1-most-favorite-restaurant-in-all-of-Ashland, Dragonfly. Once again, we were not disappointed! We ordered two appetizers, a roasted veggie platter, and the Ahi wontons. They were excellent (even the wontons, and I don't even like raw tuna).

  

For dinner, I ordered an Imperial Bowl, and Brian ordered the Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos Three Ways.

 

Me and my Imperial Bowl - I must learn how to make these ASAP!

(big bowl of steamy lemongrass and coconut milk broth with shiitake mushrooms, brown rice, steamed zucchini, bean sprouts and julienne vegetables)

Brian and his fish tacos

(three mahi mahi tacos, topped with cabbage slaw, avocado, tomato salsa, and pineapple salsa with a side of beans and rice)

For dessert, Brian ordered a Coconut Flan (which I happily helped him finish!).

After dinner it was off to the show! The Merchant of Venice is one of the (few) Shakespearean plays I am unfamiliar with, having neither seen, taught, nor read it before this festival. It's most famous for the phrase "a pound of flesh" and the character of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. I enjoyed watching a play I was not familiar with, because it allowed me to go into the show with zero expectations. As usual, the OSF company did an incredible job. The show was done outdoors in the Elizabethan theatre and we had second row seats (!!). It was great fun to see Anthony Heald (who played "William Shagspeare" in the world premiere of Bill Cain's Equivocation at the festival last year) steal the show as Shylock. I also really enjoyed the costume design, which was so ambiguous it made it impossible to determine what time period the story was taking place in. This worked especially well for Merchant, I think, because the themes of prejudice and alienation are so universal. Taking the play out of any identifiable time period allowed those themes to really shine through.

OK, enough English teaching talk for tonight! I am trying to get caught up from the trip so I can take a few days off to visit my mom while Brian is at a teaching convention in Monterey next week. Lots to do!