Valentine's Day and Mini adventure: San Francisco Gardens

We decided not to fight the Valentine's Day crowds and to stay home for dinner.  I knew I would be home first, so I planned out a special meal.  I moved the table to the living room so we could eat in front of the fireplace, pulled out the tapered candles, and added fragrant flowers.  So far so good.  As to the food-- well, there was smoke but no flames, so overall a success.

Menu:

Baked goat cheese on a bed of fresh greens with sliced strawberries, gorgonzola crumbles, and a tangy vinaigrette

(isn't it funny to say "on a bed of"?!)

4-cheese gourmet macaroni and cheese

(sharp cheddar, gorgonzola, freshly grated parmesan, and goat sprinkles)

That all went well, it's the dessert of all things that went poorly.

John loves strawberry and I love chocolate so I thought I would make a double-layer cake of each flavor.  Rather than two separate cake pans I thought I would be efficient and cook them both in one pan, pouring strawberry on top.  Then would frost with chocolate and throw on fresh strawberries.  Long story short, the whole things overflowed, spilled, and started burning and smoke filled the apartment.  I pulled it out and it was an oversized, bubbling, sloppy, disaster.

We salvaged it by scooping out half the half-baked dough and baking again.  It looked worse than ugly, but tasted just fine.

It was a nice way to celebrate our 2nd married valentines!

Next- Mini-Adventure

I almost always use the visitation of friends and family as an excuse to complete a mini-adventure.

This past weekend John's brother Devon was with us, so off we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens (not so great) and the Conservatory (super great).  Visiting those two places involved a stroll past Stowe Lake, a log cabin in the park, and the outdoor musical theatre by the De Young.

It's amazing how often I feel like a foreign tourist here, there are so many unexpected surprises.

Best part of Japanese Tea Gardens: a ridiculously steep bridge

Walking past Stowe Lake, where you can rent paddle or row boats 

John loved all the turtles.  You can't imagine how many photos he took just like the one above.

And the log cabin:

I think he is doing a jig.

Then the conservatory, one of my all-time favorite places.  Specifically, the low tropics section.  I would like to have a little conservatory one day- somewhere that is always warm? always humid? and full of my favorite blooms and fruits? perfection.

Even the outside gardens are beautiful.

The brothers.

Voila!