We spent yesterday indoors avoiding the cold and rainy weather, but come dinnertime Eric suggested a few options to get us away from our computers. We settled on Parizade, located in Erwin Square in Durham.

Our first impression was positive, large paintings covered the walls and the open kitchen was bustling. We ordered a bottle of Spanish cava (sparkling wine) and the gnocchi appetizer to begin our meal. The delicate gnocchi were clearly fresh and the mix of roasted chicken broth and pancetta were just salty and hearty enough. Plus, it was the perfect portion to split for a starter.

I surprised Eric by getting a pasta dish as my main course, but the combination of salmon and artichokes in a tarragon cream sauce sounded too good to pass up. Eric ordered the bolognaise with beef tenderloin and pancetta. Both dishes were delicious and chock full of the advertised ingredients. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get when I have to hunt for the tasty elements supposedly included in my entree. My cream sauce just coated the pasta, so I got all the flavor without the cloying, thick texture of some creamy sauces.

We ended the evening with a monster slice of the 3-Chocolate Torte, and even though we aren’t typically big fans of orange flavored chocolate, the flavor was subtle and overall rich and tasty.

The service was also stellar, our champagne glasses were never empty and Michael was even kind enough to keep us updated on the Davidson/Kansas score. :)

Overall, atmosphere and food were great, I would definitely make it back here in the near future.

Leandra has spent the better part of yesterday and today organizing her stacks of old photos- she’s making good progress and finding some great old shots along the way!

“Would you like to go and visit the puppies?” Um, YES! We went over to the Southeastern Guide Dogs breeding center down the road this morning and got our fill of fuzzy warm pups.

Rocky was the only puppy born to Sensei (Lynn’s sister’s dog), and he came out big!

Love the paw over the head of the one pup… What, you want MORE puppies? Alright, you asked for it:

Surprisingly, Leandra made it out of the building without stealing any. :)

Leandra: He’s serious. I was <this close>.

We are celebrating Easter in sunny Florida with my Dad and Lynn.

Happy shadow bunny day!  :)

The recent rainfall along with the warm temperature has brought most everything in our garden to life over the last few weeks, and we are fully in mid-spring in Durham. Some photos from the garden:

Our daffodils started blooming in mid-February, and this is one of the last with a bloom. I’ll need to deadhead them next weekend.

A group of grape hyacinths in the front yard. This is the most prolific they’ve ever been, which is surprising considering the drought we’ve had.

These hyacinths have a great scent so we’ve been cutting some to bring inside.

With a little luck our dogwoods will be in bloom next week!

Both of us are more interested in college football than college basketball, but this weekend was still pretty exciting since two of our schools won their conferences. The UNC Tarheels are one of the top teams in the nation and were favorites to win the ACC, which they did after a few close calls. With their win they’re now the top-ranked team for the NCAA tournament. Go Heels!

More surprising were the Georgia Bulldogs, often great at football, but not basketball. This weekend, sportswriters and announcers were using words like miracle, shocking, and improbable to describe their SEC tournament championship. To put this in perspective, UGA had lost 4 of the 16 games played against these same SEC teams; on top of that, they had to win three games in 30 hours due to the tornadoes in Atlanta over the weekend. Go Dawgs!

I made a whole batch of this so I would be set for an easy and tasty lunch for the next few days. It’s adapted slightly from a Cooking Light recipe from January 2001.

White Bean Soup with Bacon

2 tsps olive oil
1/2 cup bacon, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
3/4 cup celery, chopped
3/4 cup carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups water
1 tsp chicken-flavored “Better Than Bullion”
2 (19 oz) cans white beans, undrained
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsps fresh parsley, minced
2 Tbsp sherry
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly grated

Combine water and Better Than Bullion and blend well.

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium heat and add the bacon. Sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and sauté until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the water, beans, bay leaves and broth mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer, partially covered for 20-25 minutes. Add the parsley, sherry and black pepper and cook another minute. Remove from heat and discard bay leaves. Blend soup briefly with an immersion mixer to the desired consistency.

Makes 4 servings.

Our last post about San Diego (until we go back that is). :)

JRDN—Eric ate here last June, so we made a point to have dinner here on this trip. The food was very tasty, but I think our waitress was having an off night. One of my sides was wrong (quickly fixed) and Eric’s flat iron steak took forever to come out. Thankfully, the steak was still delicious. Our waitress wound up giving us an extra bottle of wine because of the mistakes, so we came out happy, albeit slightly sauced. The atmosphere of this place is very chic and modern. A wave design constantly changes color on the main dining room wall; this is one of those places where it is impossible to be overdressed on a Friday night.

The Eggery—As this place was located a block from our hotel, we ate here twice for breakfast. I had the best eggs benedict ever here on our second visit. Even though the place was completely packed, somehow my poached eggs came out perfectly cooked. Plus, they were sitting on toasted english muffins, a generous portion of avocado, dolloped with hollandaise sauce and sprinkled with crispy bacon. Yum. I didn’t hear Eric complain about his croissant breakfast sandwich, so it must have been good as well. :)

World Famous—This busy place right on the beach was actually attached to our hotel and although it took forever to get a table (we were watching this sunset unfold while we waited, so it could have been worse), the service was friendly and the food was good. I had a very surreal experience when our waitress introduced herself as “Leandra.” I suppose the novelty of meeting someone who shares your name wears off quickly for people with common names (Eric is very used to this), but I rarely meet other women with my name, so that was a nice surprise. My bacon-wrapped scallops and lobster bisque were both very tasty. Eric’s chicken ceasar salad was equally tasty.

Coronado Brewing Company—After our stint in Balboa Park we headed over to a brewery in Coronado. One of the nicest things about San Diego is that everything is close, so it only took us ten minutes to get from Balboa park to the brewery. Obviously the thing we were looking forward to most was the beer and I was disappointed when I discovered that they were all out of their dark beers. In winter! Grrr! Thankfully, the Mermaid’s Red Ale hit the spot and Eric really enjoyed the Islandweizen. We split an order of Spicy Potato Flautas and a Hawaiian calzone, both tasty. We left completely full and with a new pint glass for our collection.

Mission Cafe—This place is known for it’s comfy atmosphere and hearty breakfasts and our meal did not disappoint. Eric managed to almost finish his Mission French Toast even while nibbling the rosemary potatoes off my plate. I enjoyed the chicken apple sausage and fresh rosemary bread and a never ending mug of very strong coffee. All the breakfast places along the beach are busy, so you definitely need to get here early unless you want to wait for a while, even during the week!

As you may have noticed, we wrote about breakfast and dinner above, but not lunch. With a big breakfast we often aren’t hungry until dinner, and since breakfasts are typically cheaper then lunch, we’ll often eat two meals with a small afternoon snack when traveling.

Our options were limited on Sunday due to the rainy weather, so we had a leisurely breakfast and used our 24 hours of internet-time to research some indoor options.

Eric suggested we look into Balboa Park which is a huge park of museums near downtown. After looking around at admission pricing and offerings, we decided on the Museum of Photographic Arts.

But first we took a damp stroll around the first (large) lathe building built in the US that houses several orchids, bromeliads, and other flowering plants. The grounds of Balboa Park are sprinkled with sculpture and fountains, including a huge ampitheatre for the weekly organ concert each Sunday.

Once the rain cleared up we walked over to the Spanish Village arts center to check out some local artists.

This is more or less what every building looked like, absolutely stunning detailed architecture…

It’s easy to see why locals and tourists alike flock to this place!

For those of you who haven’t wasted a whole afternoon on the website, hillaryismomjeans.com, here’s your chance.

(You simply refresh the page and each time you get a new “outrageous characteristic” of Hillary Clinton. You can even submit your own!)

This one is for my dad…

(giggle.)