Birthday Bonanza

We celebrated Vin's birthday this year with lots of sea food! On Friday, our good friends and neighbors hosted Fish Fry Friday with the Crescent City catch. Experimenting with different types of batters offered a palatable array of dishes along with vegetables and rice. Always a crowd pleaser. We also tried our hand at home made ice cream--nearly have this mastered--with a new recipe and our garden-fresh chocolate mint.

A couple of years ago, while shopping at Trader Joe's we found a chocolate mint plant, bought it, planted it and now it's going haywire in the herb garden. And by haywire, I mean taking over. So we ground some of it up and added it to the ice cream recipe, dropping in mini chocolate chips at the end for a delicious and refreshing treat to go along with birthday cake.

Saturday morning we took a leisurely drive to Bodega Bay with our friends Curt and Cheryl and their daughter, Nicki. It was foggy, but a welcome climate change to the 100º+ weather we've had in the valley. The Lucas Wharf never disappoints with their calamari lunch (breaded calamari steak on an onion roll) and for dinner, the Tides Inn (where Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed) always pleases with a variety of dishes. If you have a chance to sample their pastry bar, we recommend it!

Sunday was a day of relaxing and we wrapped it up with wine and cheese night sampling the myriad collection we have along with the gourmet cheese we purchased from the Loleta Cheese factory during the Crescent City trip.

It went too quickly, but was time well spent!