Dinners with and for the Fongs

This post is way beyond due.  The Fongs have already been back in Kuwait for about a month now, but I haven't had time to post all of the food that we ate and made.  The first night we went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Postino.  It was delicious as always and apparently Cat Cora used to be a chef there.  I had no idea!  I just knew that I loved the place.  We got our normal Buratta appetizer that includes prosciutto, home made mozzarella and tomato relish, toasted baguettes, and green olives.  We also got a clam appetizer and beef capriccio that were quite good as well.  For dinner Nick and I got the house specials, a veal stuffed ravioli type pasta in osso bucco broth and meatballs over polenta. Mr. Fong and Nick's sister got whole fish and Mrs. Fong got eggplant parmesan.

Every time that the Fongs come home they like to go to sushi in the Piedmont area to see one of their church friends who is the sushi chef there.  Sushi guru?  Whatever his title is, he is the head sushi person at this restaurant.  They like the place so much that they went there two or three times during their stay.  It's nice because the chef knows that I'm not really into raw fish so he always makes me a non-fish roll.  We also went to Mustard's in Napa, where we saw Laura Dern from Jurassic Park.  Since I'm not a big Jurassic Park fan I looked at her and said to Nick, "That lady looks familiar.  Like from TV or something."  He looked at her and agreed, but it was Nick's sister who recognized her.  We thought that was pretty cool, but I think I enjoyed my food more than seeing her.  

Rabbit nuggets really did taste like chicken.

Usually our families get together when they are home just to catch up.  Last year the Fongs came to celebrate Christopher's graduation and then we got together during Christmas time too. This year, we decided to have a BBQ for them.  Nick and I grilled whole trout, prawns, and scallops.  Oh man, it was good.  Nick is definitely my grill master. 

Nick even grilled the broccoli!

Before they left, we all went out to dinner a restaurant called Chow in Lafayette.  It was pretty good, but I prefer Postino. I had been craving lasagna so I got their organic, homemade pasta lasagna.  I'm not sure if it's just because I'm not in tune with all the organic mumbo jumbo, but it was really unsatisfying.  I need my lasagna to have substance, and this thing was flatter than my dad's steak. 

Nick's vegetarian lasagna from Chow

Lasagna from Postino.  It was so much more satisfying.

Finished Patio

My dad finished that side patio that he has been slaving over the last few months.  My mom had all of the garbage and old shed hauled away too so our backyard is really shaping up.  In this picture you can still see  the old wood piled by the fence that my dad was saving from our old deck, but that has been hauled away as well.  The only thing now is to either try to revive our dead grass or plant new stuff.  We will probably have to plant new stuff, because it is REALLY dead.

Grilled Steak

Recently after work and on weekends I've been doing a lot of apartment renovation so I haven't had much time to cook.  When I get home after work and renovation I plop myself down on the sofa and don't move.  A couple of weekends ago my mom wanted to make steaks.  I had just dragged myself into the house after spending all day at the condo, but offered to grill if she made everything else.  It's not often nowadays that we have dinner as a family of four, usually there are six of us, so it was pretty quick and easy.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  The steaks came out perfectly and were quite delicious.  The steaks were huge and none of us finished them, but they were sure nice to look at on our plates!

Flooring is approved!

My Mom emailed me this morning and said that our flooring was approved.  It's a good thing too because we signed a contract with Home Depot last night.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the dark wood flooring that I originally wanted, but this is good too!  It is actually a little darker in person, but I think that it will be good for the rental.  I'm not sure if having dark flooring would appeal to everyone, which makes this option better in the long run.  The flooring guys are scheduled to do the measurements on Saturday morning.  Yippee!

Aaron Brother and TJ Maxx

I've been trying to hold myself back from buying a lot of stuff for the apartment, but haven't been doing so well.  I figured that if I just don't go to the store then I won't buy anything, but keeping me away from stores is the difficult part.  Yesterday after my mom and I went to Home Depot to sign a flooring contract she needed to go the Aaron Brothers to get a couple of frames and to take advantage of their buy one get one for a penny sale.  I figured I'd just go with her to get a frame from the Wicked poster that I got last December.  Of course, since they were having the sale I had to get another frame.  As it turns out, the frame I got for the poster is too small so I will have to return it, which means that if I don't buy another one that I got the frames below for a penny!  I do want a frame though so I will probably try to get another one that fits. They were also having a 50% off sale on all of their mirrors.  I got the ones below to put in my spare/makeup room.  

Aaron Brothers:

Org. $24.99
Sale: $12.48

Org. $17.00
Sale: $0.01

I have also recently found myself in TJ Maxx quite a bit.  I wanted to get a blue glitter stool that I had seen during a previous trip to put under the vanity.  It is already in the apartment because I wanted to make sure it fit under the the counter before I took off the tags so I don't have any pictures.  While I was there, I picked up a few more things...

TJ Maxx

This was $6.99.  I got a bigger one too for $9.99 and was planning on returning
this one, but I think I will keep it at my parents house and move the bigger one
to my apartment.

$19.99

$19.99

$19.99
It's a huge platter.  I'm excited to use it for dinner parties.

Pixi Haul

Before I decided to move out, I had purchased  Pixi makeup from a Hautelook.com sale and then also a Pixi $25.00 coupon and get $50.00 worth of products from Popsugar.com.  I have to tighten my belt now and using the coupon helped fill that shopping void.  I also purchased a similar coupon for E.L.F through Livingsocial.com that I sat on for a while, but busted out last weekend.  (I have yet to receive that shipment, but will try to post pictures when I get it.)  Pixi is sold in most Target stores, but is pretty pricey for a drugstore brand.  I've always enjoyed their designs and colors from the sample swatches I've taken, but am not willing for fork out the cash for them.

One morning when I was still at Celery, I bought a bunch of Pixi stuff from Hautelook.  Pixi has been on Hautelook before, but they sell out really quickly.  I made sure to get up a few minutes early to purchase what I wanted right when the sale started (8am PST).  I bought four things, but then ended up giving one palette to Briana because I had similar colors already and she was having a bad day.  After trying out the palettes that I did keep, Bonnie told about the Popsugar sale.  Having tried some of their eye shadows and enjoying the colors, texture, and staying power, I decided to get the $25 for $50 deal.  I really enjoy this line, but wouldn't buy it at a Target.  If another Hautlook opportunity arises, then I will definitely being shopping for some makeup, but if not, I don't think that the line is worth it.  If I'm going to pay those prices, I'm going to Sephora and loading up on Stila and Urban Decay!

From the $25 for $50 deal:

Nude Shade Wardrobe
$26.00

I like the eyeliner, but personally wouldn't buy them again.  They have a nice smooth feeling and a very similar consistency to Stila's Kajal eye liner, but for and extra $4.00, the Stila liner doesn't irritate my eyes.  For some reason, I'm beginning to believe that it is the shape of my eyes, some eyeliners get onto my contacts.  I find it really irritating because it will stick on the lens and make my vision blurred. I tried the Milani Liquif Eye in black and it did the same thing.  It went on really smoothly with no tugging and had awesome, awesome staying power, but it got on my contacts every time I used it. I ended up just shaving it down a little and giving it to my friend Juni.  This is a personal matter, by all means.  If I could spend $7.00 on a great liner like the Liquif Eye, I would.  Anyway, back to the point.  I believe that the Pixi liners would work well for others, just not for me.  I have been using them the last couple of days and found that if I don't tightline and only use it on the upper lid with a little bit of eye shadow patted on top of the liner, it works normally.  The only thing is that I don't really like putting eye liner on my upper lid during the summer.  I like to have lighter looks, which is why I mostly tightline.  The Stila Kajal works really well for both my top and bottom waterline with little to no irritation.  In conclusion, I would definitely recommend the Pixi liner if one was looking for a high end drugstore brand, but if you're looking for a really good drugstore pencil liner, go for the Milani Liquif Eye.  I got my Stila Kajal in a Costco pack that included two shadows and a mascara for $18.00 a while ago, but would definitely buy it at regular price ($18.00) if the pack doesn't show up at Costco again.  It is now my go-to black pencil liner.

Endless Silky Eye Pen
$14.00 each
Top: Deep Plum  Bottom: Black Cocoa

From Hautelook.com (these aren't on the Pixi website)

This is my favorite palette and I use it all the time now.  The colors are super
pigmented and they stay on my lids all day if I use a primer.

San Francisco Symphony

Nick won MAJOR brownie points this weekend.  Not only did he help me with the renovation, bring me lunch, and taking me out to a really nice dinner in the City, he got us tickets to the one-night SF Symphony performance of all Disney music.  To top it off, he even got us premier seats.  We could see all of their fingers moving and the glisten on their foreheads.  Oh I was in heaven and couldn't stop smiling.  Nick had this planned for a few weeks as my early birthday gift.  This was the best gift ever.  I will never forget it.  I just wish they had recorded a cd for me to buy!

Nick's new car

This is supposed to be a behind-the-head braid that I saw on a Bubzbeauty
video.  It doesn't really look braided, but at least it's not just a plain side
ponytail.  

This picture is taken from our seats.  

Before dinner, Nick took me to Absinthe Brasserie & Bar for dinner.  We were originally trying to get to the concert hall early so that we could participate in a sing-a-long, but dinner was so nice that we wanted to enjoy each other instead of the bustling crowd.  It worked out well because we caught the tail end of the sing-a-long and still were able to participate a little bit before sitting down. 

Since we love Postino's burrata so much, we had to try
it here too. 

Mixed olives to go with our wine that was $29 a bottle, but really $12.99
in store.  Yup, those are the kind of people we are.  We looked up the retail
price on our phones while we were sitting there. 

Nick's pork loin and belly

My braised lamb 

Nick's Black Forest Cake

Cheese plate for my dessert!

It was a beautiful evening that I won't forget even if it was a month before my actual birthday.  Nick, how are you going be able to beat this next year?!