A package, salsa, and a fabulous new book to read!

Happy Monday evening to you!

I had a good day, except for battling back to school traffic on my way into work this morning. I pass by a high school on my way and I noticed so many cars on the road in that area.

I started off my morning with some of the Seattle’s Best level 5 coffee, which reminded me of Starbucks. Some people don’t like that taste, but I prefer a dark, bold blend of beans.

I also had plain non-fat Chobani with fresh strawberries, hemp seeds, and the last of the Trader Joe’s Vanilla Almond granola.

Lunch was a ham sandwich topped with spinach and a roma tomato from our garden. I also had a string cheese, a red pepper from our garden, and some cucumber slices. I enjoyed the pomegranate Chobani as a 4 p.m. snack right before I left work.

My drink was a Cascal soda. I have to be honest–I didn’t love the crisp white flavor. I am hoping I enjoy the other ones more.

When I got home from work, I received our Kodak Gallery medium hardcover photo book in the mail!

Craig and I were both really impressed with the quality of it. I am so happy I was able to receive it as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Kodak. We’ll have these memories of our honeymoon to share with others and remind us of the unbelievable trip we experienced in Europe.

The back is a picture of us pouting on our last day of our trip, in Frankfurt.

We made salsa for dinner. We have so many different types of tomatoes and hot peppers to use up.

Our favorite tortilla chips are these from Sam’s Club.

It was beautiful out, so we dined outside next to our container garden.

I went to the gym and started reading Farm City while biking. I love the book so far! It is definitely well written.

The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee is hosting a book club discussion on the book, so I want to read it and attend the event.

The author lives in Oakland, CA and talks about her experience farming in the backyard of her apartment. I lived right on the border of Oakland and Berkeley and the neighborhood she lives in sounds pretty close to the one I lived in in Berkeley.

Some of the quotes I can relate to so far are:

“This place, this ghetto of Oakland, California, brings out the best and the worst in us.”

(Well for me, it brought out the worst in me to be completely honest. I did feel challenged and like I was always learning something while living in the area. But, most of the time, I felt pretty depressed living in that area).

She talks about living in the Oakland hills with a pack of straight-edge vegan anarchists and says the following: “At first I thought it was cute that anarchists had rules. No alcohol. No dairy products. No meat. Then the paradox started to chafe.”

(Kind of reminded me of the apartment I lived in in Berkeley with 5 or 6 housemates at a time. This Midwestern girl did not like it when my one housemate and classmate told me that drinking cow’s milk was evil and I should start drinking soy. I did try soy out, but it seemed to upset my stomach and now I much prefer almond milk to soy.)

I can’t wait to read more of this book and go to the discussion in September.

Time to sign off of this addictive new computer and go read!

Cafe Hollander Brunch

On Sunday, Craig and I met my parents for brunch at Cafe Hollander in the Tosa Village to celebrate my upcoming 31st birthday. This is the real reason I dressed up yesterday. I didn’t dress up to go buy my new Mac, we just planned on going right to the mall after we were done with brunch.

I seem to keep wanting to hang out in the Wauwatosa village this summer. I get a nostalgic feeling from it since I grew up in Tosa until I was almost 9 years old.

Isn’t it cute though?

The top of the cream city brick building pictured above has Pabst Milwaukee on it, so we were wondering the history of the structure. It now houses Bartolotta restaurant.

I wanted something more breakfast than lunch like, so I went with a Benulux omelet which had gruyere cheese, tomatoes, & mushrooms. I also had some potatoes and toast on the side.

Craig had a breakfast burger…so a burger with an egg on top.

Dad had a short stack of pancakes.

Mom had an Avocado Chicken Wrap that she enjoyed.

Naturally, I had to “show” my mom yo mama, right up the street. My dad was kind of shocked that we would be getting frozen yogurt after just having a big meal. There is always room in my tummy for treats, especially fro yo.

I enjoyed cake batter (third time now having that flavor) and red velvet swirled with some mochi on top.

We enjoyed our brunch at Cafe Hollander and would recommend the restaurant as a nice place to grab a drink inside or outside or to have a nice meal outdoors.