The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent

It's been a crazy couple of days, filled with MCAT prep and traffic on Mopac, but I've finally found some time to update the blog for the last week or so.

Last Wednesday, I returned home to northern California for my beautiful sister's graduation from UC Berkeley. I was looking forward to some sunny May weather, and packed lots of shorts, tank tops and sundresses, accordingly. I threw a fleece into my bag as an afterthought, just in case it happened to get chilly one night. Mistake number one. When Mark Twain said "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," he wasn't kidding. I stepped off the plane to fifty degree temperatures and some light rain. No sunshine in sight. Oh yeah. That's why I don't live here anymore.

We went straight from the airport to the Oakland A's game. Wednesday nights at the Coliseum, fondly referred to as "White Trash Wednesdays," feature $2 tickets and $1 hot dogs. Attending the games brings back major memories from high school and earlier - I've been going to A's games since before I could walk. We met the Piganellis at the game. Always eager to cause some sort of a scene, Kara insisted we get our picture taken with Stomper, the A's large, furry elephant mascot. Stomper, also known as Hairy Elephante, was extremely... excited to have his picture taken with some adult women. I'm pretty sure Kara got the scene she was looking for.(notice the creeper in the Cal jacket on the left... he was highly interested in the Texas Lonestars featured on my fleece/hat)

Thursday morning started at 7am with some Irish Breakfast tea and Scottish oatmeal. After breakfast, we headed down to the Greek Theatre (http://facilities.calperfs.berkeley.edu/greek/) on the Cal campus for Fran's graduation. Once there, my dad and uncle shared "memories" (or lack there of...) of when they saw Bob Marley perform there during law school. It was still freezing, so I wrapped up in a fleece blanket while we waited for the ceremony to start. There were two notable things about the Department of Cell Biology's graduation ceremony:

1) UC Berkeley is The Best Public University on the Planet. This fact was mentioned at least once per minute. (I guess you have to count the little things when your football team sucks.)
2) Frances doesn't know how to pronounce her own last name. According to the pronunciation guide she wrote for the speaker, we are the "fair-EE-mond" family.

All jokes aside, the ceremony was surprisingly painless and we could not be more proud of Frances for graduating from The Best Public University on the Planet.
After the ceremony, all our family members disbursed for a couple of hours and Fran and I found some grass to take a nap on. We spent a wonderful sixty minutes laying in the grass, planning which cookbooks we would bring to Austin and which Mariah Carey songs we'd sing when we got there.

Refreshed from our nap, we headed up to our dad's house to prepare for Fran's graduation party. Frances had selected a fantastic menu of Berkeley delicacies to celebrate. We had tamales from Cancun (the Mexican restaurant that practically raised us), goat cheese and roasted pepper pizza from Cheeseboard (my favorite California food: http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/Pizza%20Collective/PizzaPage.html), bread and cheese (mmmm goats milk gouda), and grilled vegetables.

Fran had selected an incredible variety of vegetables from the Berkeley Bowl (http://www.berkeleybowl.com/) for us to grill. She and I spent the afternoon slicing, peeling, blanching and marinating them in preparation for the party. While we worked, we dreamed about the restaurant we would one day run from our farm. Always practical, Frances decided that while she'd love to have a real restaurant, it would be fine with her if it were "just open once a week for close friends and family." You know, like a dinner party.

How gorgeous are these vegetables? I know I'm slightly more food obsessed than the average person, but I really can't think of anything prettier than a huge selection of vegetables.


The party was wonderful, filled with family, old friends and new faces.

Friday we mostly hung around the house, but my mom and I did make a trip out to Walnut Creek for Nordstrom and a pedicure. I got a fabulous new pair of shoes to show off my pedicure.


Saturday brought coffee at Peet's, a walk around the Lafayette Reservoir and a massive salad from Cafe Intermezzo. To celebrate Fran's graduation and 22nd birthday, for dinner we went to Greens in San Francisco. Greens is an all vegetarian restaurant in a old building of Fort Mason, which is right on the water. We could see sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from our table.


Frances, Rondi and I all had "Sweet pea ravioli with spring peas, fava beans, spring onions, green garlic, pine nuts, meyer lemon butter, chive blossoms and grana padano." It was spectacularly delicious. I'm now inspired to learn how to make my own pasta.

This brings me to the mission for the summer. Frances and I have decided to try to cook our way through Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food. I have no idea if this will actually be possible. However, my real goal for this summer is go from being someone who's pretty good at following a recipe to a genuinely good cook.

Get excited, future roommates. I'll keep you updated on my progress. :)