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What did happen was Friday night after receiving my gift, a wonderful herb garden, my wife and I had a great time waiting an hour and a half for a table at Gabbi’s Mexican Grill, our favorite mexican place, by watching the hostess and potential patrons as she gave them the bad news on the wait. On Saturday, Nick, Mary and Annette and I had a wonderful meal at the Napa Rose. This restaurant at the Grand Californian in Disneyland serves some of the best slow roasted beef in the area. But, the most surprising thing about that meal was the retail value of the wine consumed was easily greater than the price of the meal. The Don Perignon, a bordeaux, and a Vin de Paille, the wine even out shined the wonderful meal.  The cool thing was, I don’t think Nick or I paid for any of the wines.  The wines were gifts over the years.

Sunday morning I did my one selfish thing by running 10 miles.  Now I can say that I ran ten miles since I turned fifty.  In the evening, I met my brothers and parts of their family in San Clemente at James Gordon Grill for a wonderful family meal celebrating the wonderful boring day.

So I turned 50 without any trauma.  I don’t feel older.  I don’t look older.  I still have my hair and still no gray.  I was just lucky to celebrate the day quietly with family and friends, just like the weekend before and the week after.  Hopefully, I will have many more birthday weekends like this one.

My family of four plus my nephew headed to Cabo for some rest and relaxation. Actually, the place was chosen so my 19 year old son could legally drink beer with his older sister and cousin and yes his parents. We checked into the Riu Santa Fe, an all inclusive resort and imediately changed into swim ware and headed to the bar, I mean the pool. Several Coronas and Pina Coladas later, we headed back and ate at the buffet. All of us were a little disappointed with the food and with the sit down restaurants booked for the rest of the week, we decided to hit the town the remaining nights.

Felix’s, owned by a Oakland ex patriot, offers some great everyday Mexican grub. Shrimp tacos, Conchinita Pibil, taquitos with all those salsa choices make for a great meal. The next night we took the recommendation of the taxi manager at the hotel and headed to Ponchos Restaurant and Tequila Bar. There I had some prawns in a tequila sauce. Yummy! We chased our food with shots of Tequila and some Sangrita, a non alcoholic tomato chaser that pairs well with tequila. Nothing like some shots for some family bonding. It may be a good sign that Annette and I enjoyed the shots more than our kids. The final night we headed to Mi Casa. This restaurant is located on a torn up side street near the other two places. We would have never found it on our own, but the cab driver pointed us in the right direction. This is a huge outdoor place with good pork dishes. It was a great place to have our last dinner on our vacation.

Nothing like five days of sun, heat, swim up bars, beaches, cards (did I mention I won two of the four hearts games?) and good Mexican food to bond with family members and rejuvenate the body. The resort was very nice. Except for the dinner buffet, the food was decent. The rooms were cool, comfortable and great places for your afternoon siesta. I came back fully rested ready for work for 6 weeks before our next vacation in New England.

Oh yeah, I turned 50 right before the trip, but I will blog about that later.

All the sauces follow a basic pattern. Saute some aromatics(garlic, shallots, onions, etc.) and add wine and reduce to a syrup. Add a tasty liquid back (demi glace or stock) to the reduction, thicken with a roux to the consistency you like, add some seasonings and herbs and voila, a great sauce for your protein.

The picture shows the lobster Homardine sauce, which definitely is a show stopper from its looks, but it wasn’t my favorite sauce. For fish the Bercy white wine sauce with tomatoes was my favorite and for meat, the wild mushroom, truffle cream sauce made me very happy (followed closely by the green peppercorn sauce). I will post a few of the recipes soon.

Earlier in the week, I made a Bobby Flay inspired Habanero mango sauce and my daughter and I used for a jerked rubbed pork tenderloin and served it with some papaya salsa. Oh yum, that was one of the better meals I have prepared. Fruity, with enough spice to hold up the jerk spice rub.

As a friend of my brother once said, his favorite food was anything with a sauce. After two classes, and tasting several great sauces, I have to agree. Any bland protein can be drastically enhanced with a fully flavored great sauce.

After enjoying two major baseball games this year and the week at the Little League state championship, I bit the bullet and bought 4 tickets to five games at Angel Stadium scattered over the remainder of the season. I didn’t go cheap. I got on Craig’s List and hooked up with a season ticket holder and scored tickets in the club level at regular season ticket prices (no premium). After exchanging some e-mails and phone calls, the final exchange was like a clandestine drug deal as we met at light poll E10 at the Spectrum which is located at a parking lot that is only used on overcrowded shopping days.

My first game is not until the middle of August, but I can’t wait. I have some Tuesday games and couple of Sunday afternoon games. With the seats in the club section on the third base side, just past third base, the sun should not be an issue. After the five games, I will evaluate the tickets and jump on Craig’s List early (I have inside info on when they go on sale), to try to secure a share of even better seats.

Even with our construction, many guests have still enjoyed their stay. Will invited a group of college friends.  Despite the limitations, the group seemed to have a good time and they all worked with the shower schedule.  Even our regular guests found time to enjoy Hotel Clark.  Ivana made a surprise visit and she enjoyed the room with the Aerobed.

After construction, we will have increased our bathroom capacity.  One room will be a complete ensuite with a private bath, but that room is booked for a while by Nicky who is home from New Zealand.  An additional bathroom is available to all guests and will include a whirlpool bath.  Finally a private powder room downstairs will replace our hallway/laundry/bathroom (more than once have our visitors have had a surprise while trying to have some privacy).  The hotel should be back in full functionality in early August, just in time for us to go on vacation, so book your rooms early.

Oh yeah, the pool is closed until further notice for tile repair.  Enjoy your stay!

Our son last played Little League 7 years ago, but my wife and I enjoy helping the local district and hopefully watching some good baseball for kids this age.  Although its only been three years since I last coached a kids team (I coached a  14 year old team for two years when my son entered high school), youth baseball has evolved.  Over the years, batting has definitely improved.  During my coaching days, all star teams had a few kids with good bats, now even the subs are capable of hitting home runs.  the good teams do not have easy outs and the average teams loaded with power hitters.  Pitching on the other hand appears comparable to my coaching era.  Occasionally you see a hard thrower who can spot their fastball, but that is rare.  Pitchers rely on  curve balls (I hate curve balls at that age, but that is another post).  I would love to work with a league and teach pitchers to work on balance and spotting their fastball on demand.

I digress.  I guess Annette and I did a good job, because they asked us to repeat our duties at the state’s (in our case Southern California is a state) division tournament next week.  Only a possible business trip may keep me away.  Here is where you come in.  I play the standard Little League music during breaks (All Star, YMCA, Centerfield, Put me in Coach, Glory Days, etc.)  I would like to jazz up the breaks.  Leave comments or  Twitter me with some suggestions.

So, what did we do with all of these peaches? Peach jam, peach cobbler, peach pie, peach pop cycles, all with peach margaritas to wash it down. We froze a bunch of peaches waiting for more peach recipes. Some of the recipes need work (peach jam, good taste, too runny) and others are outstanding (Annette’s peach pie). We will work the frozen peaches to perfect the recipes prior to next year’s crop. We were also so excited about our huge crop, we are planning on adding an apricot tree to our backyard orchard.

If someone has a great peach recipe, please add a comment, and we will give it a shot.

For seven innings, I couldn’t figure out what was more enjoyable, watching the game or watching our guests experiencing America’s pastime. I did realize a couple of things that night. I do really like going to games. I really like good seats. I am going to have to get to Craig’s List to score some regular good seats. I am going to have to score four seats, because nothing is more fun than taking friends and family to a relaxing evening or afternoon at a ballpark.

So I searched the web for paella recipes and decided to sort of make up my own based on the ingredients I had on hand. So I browned some chorizo, then some chicken thighs, then onions, tomatoes, red bell peppers. I added the rice with some smoked paprika to toast the rice followed by a splash of white wine. Once reduced, I added enough homemade chicken stock which I bloomed some saffron to fill the pan. I added back the sausage, chicken and added some artichoke hearts and let it cook away. After twenty minutes, I added some peas and covered the pan with some foil and turned off the heat. We waited 5 minutes and I moved the whole dish to the table for a wonderful presentation.

It was amazed at the difference a pan makes. The large, shallow carbon steel pan allows the rice to carmelize on the bottom, creating the socarrat. The socarrat is a tasty addition that I couldn’t achieve in any other pan.

If you want a pan, I would get one online at PaellaPans.com, but Sur La Table is a good alternative if you cannot wait for it to be shipped. So after holding our pasta making party, a Paella fest will soon be on our entertainment schedule.