Last Dinner At Our Favorite Place

For our final meal together, Ryan and I enjoyed a meal at our favorite spot; the Grove in LA. This the the place where Ryan and I go to get away from the Biola / La Mirada bubble and are able to love each other and enjoy the craziness that is the world around us. From the eccentric women and men of LA to the obvious tourists from all over the world, there is always something to take a gander at : ) In fact Ryan and I sat together at a random little bench placed perfectly near the trolly station where we were able to sit and people watch for a good half of an hour without feeling one bit of boredom. But to dinner...
So Ryan and I decided that our favorite food is French. It fulfills our love of good wine, our desire for amazing cheese, and our fervor for salt and sweet and all that is... good! So for our final meal in our favorite spot, Ryan and I went to Mr. Marcel Pain Vin Et Fromage, another fine French Restaurant. This place is so fun! It consists of a bar that faces out toward the rest of the Farmer's Market (another wonderful place to people watch : ). Ryan and I started with another perfect bottle of Rose and a cheese platter with three different cheeses, nuts, figs, quince paste, and grapes - SO GOOD! We had a soft goat, a semi-soft brie, and a hard something... I can't remember but it was my favorite : ) and its rind was a wine flavor. Amazing... I LOVE CHEESE. And then I got an Endive Salad, with crumbly blue cheese, walnuts and a tangy vinaigrette. Ryan got his new found favorite clams and mussels in a garlic butter cream sauce. We were on cloud nine. Again a wonderful time of enjoying the company of the one you love, knowing we must soak in every moment together : ) Again, I am so in love with this man. We complete each others thoughts, we love each others tastes, we enjoy each others company and we genuinely appreciate each other for who and what we are... even all of our many flaws. I am in love, I am in love and I don't care who knows it! : )

http://www.farmersmarketla.com/restaurants/index.html

Last Big Dinner

So the day before I left, Ryan and I went out to our last dinner together before I leave for the summer. So depressing. It was a great dinner, not our best, but great none the less! We went to Pinot Provence at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa which is part of the Patine Restaurant Group. Ryan had signed up for their birthday club so we were able to get $30 off of our meal : ) Our meal consisted of a starting appetizer of Escargot with roasted garlic, parsley, French butter, brioche bread crumbs. Ryan got their duck which was seasoned to perfection, had an amazing port reduction sauce and white asparagus cooked to impeccable perfection. I ordered the fish special which was a thin sea bass, cooked with skin on, seasoned with salt. It was accompanied by abalone mushrooms, grilled spring onion, fiddlehead ferns, celeriac purée and asparagus as well, spring onions, which altogether made it light and perfect for summer. We paired our meal perfectly with a beautiful rose that meets both of our pallets amazingly. We finished out our meal with a fantastic dessert called S’mores Gâteau which was a chocolate sponge cake layered with cappuchino gelato, marshmallow brûlée, and espresso tuile. Wonderful! The food at Pinot Provence was a tad over priced, and there were a few things that could have been perfected, yet it was still a wonderful meal. Our conversation was positive and lively as ever, and yet again through this dinner I am reminded of why I love my fiance so dearly. He is perfect for me. Though we were at a fantastic restaurant supposed to be acting like adults, we fell back into who we are: children at heart with a taste for amazing food. I love him and miss him already, and I have only been away from him for barely 24 hours. This will be a long summer without him!

http://www.patinagroup.com/restaurant.php?restaurants_id=25

Black and Whites!

I am currently in love with old movies, black and white in particular! So fun! I just finished "All About Eve." I have never even heard of it before but it was wonderful! I am beginning to love the old humor that is hardly ever seen anymore! I have also watched "Funny Lady," " Why change your Wife?," "Wuthering Heights," "The Pajama Game," "Holiday," "The Big Sleep," "Desk Set," " Ball of Fire," " His Girl Friday," "How to Steal a Million," and "Cover Girl" ... so many fun ones! All so different! Different from movies now and different from each other! I would recommend them all but especially "Cover Girl," "Funny Lady," and "All About Eve."

Blah

So today, was a Monday. No good food to report... and no fun trips made today unfortunately... just class and work... not too great of a day, but hey, they week can only get better right?

Breakfast with Grandparents and Frogs!

Hello everyone! So on Saturday morning my grandparents surprised me by coming into town! They asked me to take them to a fun breakfast place so I chose Blue Frog Bakery in Orange. I had been there a couple of times before and have loved it every time I have been. It is in the Orange Circle so it is surrounded by old antique shops and quaint little boutiques. The Blue Frog is a bakery with chocolate eclairs that look almost too good to resist, mocha's so large they are practically in a bowl and are perfectly delicious on a Saturday morning, and different breakfast and lunch items that fill you up so much you feel as though you are on vacation! So good! The restaurant has that old town diner type feel with blue frog inspired decor you can't find anywhere else! So if your grandparents are coming into town I truly recommend it!

Do It Yourself!

MMMM... Tonight Ryan and I went out on a date. We weren't sure what we were in the mood for and we were literally going to flip a coin for where we were going to eat because we were that indecisive. It was between a fun pub type restaurant and a Shabu Shabu place. We blindly made our decision and went into the fun little pub with a great back patio. But once we got our menu, we realized that was not the place we were in the mood for. So we watched to make sure the waiter wasn't looking and ran out the back door. : ) There is a first time for everything! Then we decided to go back to the Shabu Shabu restaurant called Mitsu (Fullerton). We walked in and were seated immediately. We looked around and really had no clue what we were getting into. The food people were eating looked like kind of a mixture between fondue and Korean BBQ. We then asked the waiter what we were supposed to do. He told us to pick a meat and he would help us with the rest. Both Ryan and I ordered the beef and they cut it on a slicer right in front of us. It was beautiful meat, so red and fresh! They then brought out two bowls of water that boiled in front of us, like fondue. Then they gave us the meat and a mix of different veggies, tofu, and noodles. The waiter gave us two different sauces, one for the meat and one for the veggies. The meat sauce was kind of a dark brown, almost soy sauce but then he added green onions, radish, garlic and red pepper sesame oil to it. - my favorite! And Ryan really liked the veggie sauce which was like a soy dressing, also very good and very light. He then dumped all of the veggies in the boiling water and showed us how to cook our meat properly (only for about 3-5 seconds). Once you boil the meat until it changes its color, you then dip it in the meat sauce and plop it onto your bowl of rice and enjoy. It was SOOO good! It was salty, savory, hot, delicious and so fresh tasting, just what we were in the mood for!
Once the meal was over our waiter told us our meal came with a free iced coffee, brewed to perfection along with a simple syrup and cream. - The perfect ending to such a wonderful meal. Though the meal was a tad pricey for a random date night (about 15 dollars + a plate), it really was a fun environment with quality ingredients and proved to be an entertaining activity. I would highly recommend it!

http://www.mitsueshabu.com/

The Funk

Alright, So nothing new and exciting today, just the fact that I believe I have lost my touch for throwing together recipes. I will fully embrace that fact that I am the "follow the recipe" type of girl, but I remember the days when I used to strive to make the best and newest pasta sauce around. Now I can't even take a few ingredients and make them work well... humpf... O well... I guess those days are over.
All in all, today was a good day. Surprisingly long, but much was completed. I did not sleep in, even though I had the opportunity to because the accountant from the company I work for called to tell me I can't get the money they took from my pay check for being a part of the union that I am not actually a part of. I got to watch "Blind Side" and enjoy a cup of tea. I wrote a Tribute to my Dad... sounds logical ; ).. its for a class but really I had a lot of fun with it. I went to class, I went to Michael's to return our wedding invitations because I can get them cheaper later with a discount I received. I went to Kohl's to get a frame from my Tribute. Then I went and got my oil changed, snagged a coffee and went back to Michael's to pick up some more items for my Tribute. Then came home completed my Tribute project and was able to rest. Then, when Ryan got off work, I went to his house to make him dinner... not a very good one... but a dinner none the less and watched "The Princess and the Frog" Now I am home and ready for bed, but I can still taste the flavor of "dinner." I guess you have your good cooking days and your bad ones.

Tranquil Tea Lounge in Fullerton

This place was really cool! I was an RA at Biola University and so I met my old staff there to catch up on life and chat about old times. Tranquil Tea Lounge has a hip and modern flare, with gray and blue tones and different kinds of art work by local artists hanging on the walls. There is a huge variety of teas to choose from. They range from "blueberry muffin" to classic Earl Gray to even "tiramisu"! The teas are a little pricey but well worth it! They had a dinner trio which included a choice of panini, a caesar or green salad and a tea of choice for only 8 bucks! Not bad at all. I had the trio with a prosciutto, mozzarella, and basil panini, with a caesar salad and a blueberry muffin iced tea with lemonade! Perfect spring dinner!

http://www.tranquiltealounge.com/

First... Introductions!

My name is Kristen Walker. I wanted to start this blog more as a journal so I can remember all of the things I want to, without carrying a stack of old journals around with me that I tend to forget to finish. So since I am starting this on a whim, I am expecting this blog to be filled with all sorts of things like recipes, wedding updates, food adventures, significant outings I take, or really anything I choose. I mean after all, this is my blog right?

So a little more about me. I am in college, and am engaged to the most amazing man I know. His name is Ryan and we are getting married on January 8th. Which believe it or not is coming up, so I am pretty sure that a lot of my entries here will be about the wedding plans. Ryan and I like to call ourselves "foodies." We love going out to eat, but we love creating adventures in our own kitchens. Ryan is amazing at just throwing different things together and coming out with creations that the most talented chefs would marvel at. Where as me, on the other hand, I am great at following recipes but baking it truly my specialty. I love making creations look just like the picture, but strive to make them better than the last, by adding little things here and there. I would have to say that cupcakes are what I do best, but I am learning! I am also graduating from college in December which will be huge. I really do not have much of an idea what I want to do yet. I would love to cook, so I am expecting to search for cooking jobs at camps or something like that. Who knows. Ryan and I will travel where the Lord leads us. Lord please lead us!

Wedding update! Our wedding party is finally picked!Hurray! Ryan and I had the hardest time deciding who would be in our wedding, being that the party itself is fairly small and we have so many friends and family that we want by our sides! DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

Maid of Honor: Michelle Smith

Bridesmaids: Aimee Larew, Bria Walker, Danielle Long, Kari Petersen, Lena Geide, and Leah Schwartz

Best Man: Aaron Smith

Groomsmen: Alex Turpin, Alex Bustrum, Chris Atterbury, Ryan Walker, Scott Heinrichs, Davin Tang

We also just got our engagement photos taken by Danielle Long and they turned out better than we ever imagined! Sur la Table also let us invade their store for a couple of hours in order for us to take pictures around the things we love... COOKING TOOLS! It was so much fun... and again... they are amazing! We also took some more photos in front of a couple of churches in Anaheim. If you are friends with me, you can check them out on the book of face.

Another wonderful thing! We chose our wedding invitations. Now, don't judge but we got them from Michael's. I wasn't to excited thinking of already made invitations, but being on a very tight budget it really was the best option. By fandangling with the system, Ryan and I were able to get our invites for less than a dollar a piece! And I personally think they are beautiful! Probably better than anything we could have afforded if we would have had them designed and printed ourselves. Plus we were going to miss out on the whole rsvp cards thing in order to save money, but they are included! : ) I am so excited to get all these little cards in the mail! I LOVE MAIL!

So this is the beginning! Of what I hope will be a beautiful blog!