My lunch hour will never be the same.

My sister Katie works in the Ferry Building here in San Francisco and every now-and-then, when the stars aline, both our schedules permit a lunch date. Our usual date consists of a wonderful Tossed Cobb Salad and side of fries from Gott’s Roadside Tray Gormet (formally known as Taylor’s Automatic Refresher). On this particular day my sister had something better in mind.

Unbeknownst be me, Thursday at the Ferry Building is the place to be! Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday the Ferry Building Plaza is host to the most amazing and abundant Farmers Market. Booths overflow with incredibly delicious smelling flowers, baked goods, organic fruits and vegetables. I mean, it is quite a sight. A real feast for your senses. If for nothing else at all, the people watching is truly amazing.

Amongst all of this hustle and bustle, Katie had her sights set on the street vendors, and one in particular.  I knew this was going to be a memorable experience when finding the end of the order line meant walking halfway down the block.  This was my introduction to the wonderful world of Hapa Ramen.

As the front of the line neared, the rich aroma of savory vegetables and stock captivated me. My mouth was watering as I gave my order . . . Slow Cooked Pork Ramen Bowl with a cooked egg. As I sat down with my HUGE bowl of ramen, chopsticks and spoon in hand, my lack of patience got the best of me. I grabbed up the bowl in my hands and took a hug sip.

(Image courtesy of haparamensf.com)

WOW . . . I was blown away. This was one of the most rich and flavorful broths I had ever tasted. I immediately scooped up my chopsticks and went to work. I simply couldn’t stop. The ramen noodles were delicate but hearty. The seasonal vegetables and Pork Shoulder were cooked perfectly. Although the portion was enormous, I found myself wanting more when I reached the bottom of the bowl. Simply amazing. Thank you Richie Nakano (chef/owner) and the Hapa Ramen crew for such a wonderful lunch.  I will most definitely be back!

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Ever find something you just HAVE to share? And you keep telling people about it, over and over until you sound like a broken record of crazed enthusiasm and you’ve talked it up so much the thing can’t possibly live up and your friends are tired of hearing you yammer on abou it anyway?

That’s where I am, right now, with the Whipped Shea Butter Body Cream from i melt with you.

Rather than go on and on about how wonderful these are, I bought them as gifts. To give to people. So they can experience it themselves and I can shuddup.

But I’m afraid I won’t be able to give them up.

What makes this whipped shea butter body cream better than others?

Casey writes that her objective with i melt with you is:

Mostly though, if being absolutely honest, it’s about playing with and creating things that smell really, really yummy, making skin soft & healthy, and sharing that.

She nails it. The scents are AMAZING and while not overpowering, they last and last and last.

And, while I prefer a whipped body cream in terms of texture, most of the time they absorb too quickly don’t seem to provide much actual moisturizing. But these do – not sticky, not oily, but lasting moisture.

The whipped body butter contains:

• Shea butter
• Aloe juice
• Sweet almond oil
• Avocado oil
• Jojoba oil

And is available in 12 “flavors.”

I’m dousing myself in Cucumber Mint right now. Sweet Lemon Cream makes me cry a little with joy every time I open it. Mint Mango Tea is infused with the magic of kittens and unicorns.

Go visit i melt with you and enjoy the whipped shea butter body cream for yourself. This woman has a gift!

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This is Rory after a long football practice:

He’s bright eyed and bushy tailed no matter what. Well, homework DOES takes him down a peg or two, but otherwise, even after the longest day, this is what you’ll get.

He’s nine years old and, as we found when we went to buy him some snow boots this weekend, has advanced into a size 9 in MEN’s shoes. Can you believe it?! Thank goodness he’ll be playing basketball this winter, we’ve got to put all that lankiness to use.

Rory lives and dies for his friends, sports, and just *activity* in general. To be moving is to be happy in his world.

I wanted to commemorate this Fall’s football season for him and had a Shutterfly Photo Book made. Why Shutterfly? We ordered Colum’s Christening announcements from them and were very happy with the product, but that was 5 years ago – not necessarily indicative of their quality today. Mostly, I chose Shutterfly because that’s where the team photographer uploaded all the pics she took. Rather than download them all and upload them into another service, Shutterfly it is!

WHY IT WORKED

Here’s why this project went from, “Oh, that’d be a cute idea…” to actually getting done… When you go to the Shutterfly Photo Books page, you’ve given two options, “Custom Path” or “Simple Path.” If you choose the “Custom Path” it’s up to you to put your book together. Lots of people want that kind of control. But me, I’m so obsessive I’ll spend a week working on it if I have complete control. I chose the “Easy Path” and Shutterfly assembled the book for me in it’s entirety.

I chose a theme (“Sports, duh!) from the 20 they have to pick from and switched out the cover picture for one I really liked. I gave it a title and then hit “Order.” It took abot 30 minutes. The last 25 minutes of that were me compulsively checking each page multiple times for any errors. There weren’t any.

These are 8×8 in size and softcover. There are quite a few size options available and there’s usually a Shutterfly coupon of some sort running that you can use. They usually post the specials and coupon codes right on the front page of their site. With a Shutterfly coupon I used, I got the 4 books, plus tax and shipping for $49.

The Shutterfly photo books turned out so nice, and I think it’s a gift he’ll have for a long time, which is more than I can say for the Halo figurines.

Who in your family would LOVE one of these? Click here to try the “Simple Path” and see how fast you can get one made.

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It’s that time of year – or it was a couple of weeks ago – where the fall themed supermarkets are awash with squash. Awash with squash. Just came up with that, right here, on the spot.

I was trolling the internet looking for what to do with acorn squash beyond the usual baking and eating plain and found a recipe I bookmarked, but wasn’t sure about.

Yesterday, we had to bring a simple meal to prepare dinner to my Grandparents’ house. We were bringing Colum there to celebrate his 5th birthday, and figured folks would want food in addition to the cake. I found the stuffed acorn squash recipe I’d bookmarked and thought it would be fun to try. It looked healthy (unlike the pizza the kids had) and filling.

But first! The fun stuff – I think Colum liked his presents:

And the cake was wonderful too:

Grandma found a trick candle and he went to town on it:

As much fun as Colum had, *my* highlight of the night (other than watching my little fella turn 5 and celebrate with his Great Grandparents) was the acorn squash dish. The table went SILENT several times because we were too busy mowwing down on our food to bother talking – always a good sign! All the adults scraped their aquash clean and it was an absolute hit.

Here’s what we ate:

Stuffed Acorn Squash

The recipe is Sara’s Italian Sweet and Savory Squash Bowls from the Kitchn. Seems kinds weird, tastes like heaven!

We used ground pork from Marin Sun Farms, nixed the roasted red peppers (because we didn’t have any on hand AND because I’m a weenie) and then doubled the tomatoes to make up for the missing red peppers.

It was REALLY easy to make, seems kinda fancy and was soooo good – highly recommended!

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Body Parts # 22 by Brian Chippendale

I saw this print on Tumblr 3 days ago.

I followed the source link, which appeared to go to the artist’s web site, but from there I couldn’t find this particular print. His site seemed mostly about his music. And there were no images. The post had been reblogged and I set it free.

But I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

So today, I got serious about finding where this piece of art came from and how to get a hold of it.

How many times have you been in the same spot – you see something you LOOOVE but you can’t find where it came from?

Can I show you something?

Google has a bitchin way you can find stuff that was originally posted on Tumblr, Pinterest or even blogs. So if you find something like this, that you love, but you can’t find the source, use this Google trick.

How to Find the Source of Images From Tumblr, Pinterest, StumbleUpon and Blogs

STEP 1: Go to Google image search.

STEP 2: Click the little camera in the search box:

STEP 3: Paste the URL of the image you want to find the original of.

To get the right URL to paste in here, you have to either being on a page that only features this one, singular image you’re looking for or you’ll need the actual URL to the image that’ll end in .jpg, .gif, .jpeg, etc. You can get this by right clicking the image and selecting “Copy image URL,” like this:

You can also sale an image and then upload it, but usually I only need the paste URL function.

Once you’ve put in the image URL or uploaded the image, click “Search.”

STEP 4: Check your results!

Google will tell you the URL’s where you can find that EXACT image, and below that it’ll show you similar images.

I was able to go through the links at the top, with the exact image matches, and find the print that’s been nagging me is available from TinyShowcase and will set me back $75. Wishlisted!

If you use Pinterest, Tumblr, StumbleUpon or check out a lot of blogs I KNOW you’ve run into this problem before and I hope this gives you a new way to find them!

“Body Parts # 22″ Close Up

And I’m hoping my husband reads this blog… Christmas hint!

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When Free People thought, “What would people like to wear in December?” they came up with the above.

Cozy.

An not an anomoly.

Here’s a look at some other selections from the very chilly new items for December:

Being in my thirties now, I’m probably too old to understand – but aren’t you girls FREEZING in this shit?!

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Are you cooking for Thanksgiving?

I cooked last year for the first time. It was just a small crowd of our family of four plus my mom and brother. I made a goose, because I’d never had goose before and I thought it would be fun and different.

I was a fan and thought the goose was good, but more like duck meat, which is a bit fatty and dark, and truth be told, probably not for everyone’s palatte.

This year I’m cooking for 20. Quite a jump, eh?

Today I’m printing out all the recipes I plan on using and getting organized for the week ahead. I’ve already gotten everything I need from the store except veggies, I want them as fresh as possible.

Here’s the 2011 Thanksgiving Menu:

Appetizers

• Mushroom Stuffed Brie En Croûte – I made this last year and it was a huge hit, so we’re bringing it back!
• Tortellini with Pesto Dipping Sauce – I may regret bringing kids & toothpicks together.
• Mouth Watering Stuffed Mushrooms
• Rosemary Roasted Almonds & Cashews – Good for snacking!

Main Course

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I think that they aren’t joking here:

I can’t imagine a circumstance for which the Beard Hat isn’t appropriate.

This beanie and beard combo was designed originally for snowboarding or other outdoorsy, freezing sports types, but was too amazing to be confined to those niches.

The Beard Hat by Beardo is perfect for a White Elephant gift exchange or just the man who has everything – except a beard.

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Add this to “Things I never thought I’d have to think about and most definitely not make a ‘rule’ about but then I had two kids, started working at home and past 30 years old and suddenly my body was not a fat burning machine anymore and I realized I’d have to change some of that habits I’d cultivated that, it turns out, are not something I’m able to do just because I have a bad ass metabolism but were, in fact, part of my glory days of eating, which are now over.”

Rule #57: If You’re Not Hungry Enough to Eat an Apple, Then You’re Probably Not Hungry

I mean, yeah, I tell that to my kids at least 6 times a day, but I never thought it would have to apply to me!

I read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma & Food Rules. Good books. But it turns out that as long as it is natural and local, I still can’t just eat whatever. Getting older and having a home desk job are wonderful, and a little sucky.

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Birchbox Man debuted yesterday, and today it’s already out of stock and waitlisted!

I thought about getting it for Zach, but truth is he doesn’t have the penchant for grooming AND samples that I do. You can still sign up for the waitlist here.

Is this something your guy would go for? I’ve *very* curious!

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