Prune Juice and Ice Packs to the Rescue!

I think we've finally found a solution for El's constipation woes! We have been introducing her to more fruit and veggies each day but she can still be a finicky eater. I had heard all the great things about prune juice being an effective laxative but never had a chance to use it. After my first taste of it with our recent jug purchase, I knew El would totally reject it, even cut with water. So I tried about an ounce of it in one of her sippy cups of milk with a small squirt of chocolate syrup. I tasted that concoction and it wasn't the yummiest but was passable. El's reaction was one of slight surprise as she pulled the sippy away to look at it but she continued to drink it up. It has been a couple of weeks and I have started to put up to two oz. of prune juice into each sippy that she drinks and she has been much less upset when #2 time comes around.

8 oz. of organic whole milk + 2 oz. of prune juice + 1 squirt of chocolate syrup = a happy bum!

With the onset of summer and our constant "on-the-go" schedule, I've had to find a way to be sure I can make her sippy cups ahead of time and have them readily available during our car trips. I like to pack at least two sippy cups in a cooler bag and have at least one to leave in the fridge for when we get home. Here's how I pack them to keep them cool:

Take n' Toss Sippy Cups are awesome! They are BPA, PVC, and pthalate free and are spill proof, relatively easy to clean (as long as I use a cut up sponge to get in all the crevices of the spout), and come with a handy removable spout lid.


A Blue Ice Can Cooler keeps the drinks from spilling over. I also add in juice packs for the other kids.

Learned this tip from Hubby: Since heat rises, put an ice pack on top of the items you want cooled for more effective cooling.


All packed up!

Having to pack up like this each day and then wipe/wash everything after makes me long for the days of breastfeeding, for sure! Talk about the most convenient food/drink "to go!" =)

Dine About Town

One great thing about living in the SF Bay Area is the bi-annual "Dine About Town" promo where you can partake in a pre-fixe 3 course dinner at some fine establishments for less than $35. Hubby and I used to take advantage of this deal at least once each year during January. I didn't realize the promotion runs in June, as well, until my BFF, R, invited us to join her, her hubby, D, and her older bro, J.

We headed to B44, a Spanish restaurant near Union Square. Our reservation was scheduled for 7pm but after we hopped on I-80 at almost quarter past 6, we realized that all the commuters were heading towards the city on Sunday night. Whoops! R changed the reservation to 7:30pm and J advised us to take an alternate route onto 680, which we hadn't done before. Although longer, this was a wise move that shaved about 20 minutes off the original route, highlighted in red in the traffic alerts. (Gotta love the iPhone and all the awesome apps!)

B44

We found rockstar parking right in front of the alley that leads to the restaurant. It was pretty busy, especially for a Sunday evening, and we relaxed at the bar to wait a few minutes for our reservation. This gave us time to start on some drinks.

My cocktail - Lorca: Pear vodka, pear puree, St. Germaine elder flower, lemon juice, and pomegranate seeds. Served straight up! I loved it but Hubby hated it. I'm all about pears!

Cheers! Me with BFF R

After less than 10 minutes at the bar, we were directed to our table for 5. We sat close to the kitchen where we could see a display of Jamon Serrano, a type of cured "raw" ham. One of the servers saw us eyeing the ham and offered us a few slices to sample. It was delicious!

But we were there for the "Dine About Town" promo and didn't want to veer from the special menu. There were about 3-4 selections each for the first two courses. Hubby let me order for both of us since he says I always order better food than he. J decided we should order a couple more "tapas" to enjoy which was a good call as we were all starving and ended up clearing the dishes. The shrimp was so yummy we kept shoo-ing any servers who tried to take the skillet away as we continued to dip our bread in the yummy sauce.

Ceviche B44: white shrimp, octopus, scallop, tomato

Gambas Al A Jillo: white gulf of mexico shrimp sauteed with garlic and adobo

My first course: Fire Roasted Piquillo Peppers stuffed with dungeness crab meat. Probably my fave dish of the evening!

Hubby's First Course - Soup of the Day: Tomato & Basil Soup. Lycopene!

I must have eaten too much bread because by the time the main entree arrived, I was already feeling somewhat full. Of course, my eyes are way more eager than my stomach so I continued to indulge...

My Main Course - Paella B44: saffron rice, chorizo, chicken, shrimp, squid, mussels clams, vegetables. A little on the dry side but still pretty good.

Hubby's Main Course - Pork tenderloin with sauteed apple slices and potatoes. This was delicious and ended up being better than my own dish.

As stuffed as we were, we still had our choice of two desserts. We ordered both! It seems like many of the surrounding tables had finished dinner at the same time so dessert service was a little slow. That was okay by us as this gave our tummies some time to digest and allow us to chat some more.

Cream puffs. The ice cream filling had this delicate lemony flavor and paired well with the chocolate sauce. The puff itself was on the dry side.

CREMA CATALANA *2005 Dulce Cristal-li Moscatell

Toasted cinnamon and lemon infused custard

with caramelized crust. This dessert was SUPERB!!! Only one of the three that arrived on our table was this beautiful caramel color as the other two seemed to not have been torched long and evenly enough.

It was a great dinner with great friends, whom I consider our family. BFF R and I don't always get a chance to hang out for some "adult time" as if we are together, our activities center around the kids. As much as we'd like to be able to "dine about town" more, we actually decided to hunker down and make plans to work out together again and eat more healthy while she stays in town for the summer with her family. We'll trade in those cream puffs for salads, I suppose...

End-of-the-year Retirement Luncheon

To celebrate the end of the school year and honor the joint retirement of our colleague, R, and his lovely wife, J, the counseling department headed to Hurley's in Yountville. Besides yummy food and great decor, one big reason for selecting this restaurant is free corkage. That's not easy to find in the Napa Valley!

Each of us brought at least one bottle of wine and it was fun sampling each of them, mostly reds. I'm not a huge wine drinker so my palette isn't refined but I can tell when I'm drinking pretty good wine, which we certainly did yesterday!

Opolo and Mantra

Our food couldn't have come soon enough, as I hadn't eaten breakfast earlier and we had scheduled to meet for our luncheon at 2pm. For an appetizer, we split a couple platters of calamari, which were just the right amount of spiciness and had a unique crunch of cornmeal rather than the usual flour batter.

I opted for the special lunch menu which featured two courses for $20. My meal started with a hearty mushroom and barley soup. Even Hubby enjoyed it, which he called "healthy tasting but in a good way."

Mushroom and Barley Soup, with a garnish of goat cheese crouton

Hubby opted for the sirloin, which was excellent, and I chose the trout as my second course. It was delicious! I believe it was panko-encrusted and sat atop a fresh corn, tomato, and fava bean salad, with a garnish of leek and some herbs. Perfect for a warm spring day!

Trout

I was even able to convince Hubby to order a side of mac 'n cheese with his steak. Yum!

Mac 'n Cheese

For dessert, ordered creme brulee, a chocolate almond torte, strawberry shortcake, and an ice cream sandwich to pass around so we could each have a bite. I think the chocolate almond torte won the prize for tastiest dessert of the day.

Strawberry Shortcake

By the time we had finished dessert, we still had a couple bottles of red wine left and had yet to open up the bottle of Sinatra wine Hubby brought. We asked the servers if we could head out to their patio to enjoy the rest of our beverages and they kindly obliged. It was so nice to sit outside and continue to drink and chat leisurely.

wine glass

We couldn't leave Hurley's without taking at least one group photo. This one doesn't include Hubby, as he was the photographer, like always:

Most of the VHS Counseling Department plus J and J.

And I couldn't leave Yountville without picking up some giant macarons at Bouchon Bakery!

Some of the best french macarons ever!