Cadillac-Bon Appetit Event @ Irvine Spectrum

Sunday afternoon, D and I had our monthly "date" at a free event sponsored by Cadillac and Bon Appetit. We had been to one of these events a while back (pre-kids) at what is now the Great Park. I was definitely more excited about the food than the cars. We signed up for the 2:00 cooking demo, and arrived about ten minutes early, but all of the seats were taken! D snagged a couple of the mall chairs, and we sat in the back. It was supposed to be a battle of the chefs with the featured ingredient being corn. The two chefs were Neal Fraser of BLD restaurant and Ben Ford of Ford's Fillng Station. Chef Fraser made Fall Succotash with Corn, Fava Beans, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Bacon and Corn Veloute. Chef Ford made Warm Fried Ipswich Clam, Grilled Corn and Bacon Salad. Chef Ford won over the tasting panel by a small margin, and I agreed. The green goddess dressing on his salad was very yummy. The emcee said that we might recognize her from the Food Channel, but she didn't say what show, and I don't think I've seen her before. Too bad we didn't win one of the two $50 gift certificates to the chefs' restaurants. Both are on my list to try one day, but since they are in LA, it might be a while before I do.


Neal Fraser


Ben Ford. Does he look familiar? He is Harrison Ford's son!

We ended up not test-driving any cars, but we did look around:





D liked the dark brown leather seats. I think they remind him of the dark brown leather couch that he wants to buy for our home someday.

Hello Kitty Jack O'Lantern

It wasn't too difficult. I found the pattern online and used the $4 pumpkin carving set from Target. Now I need to think of something to do for next year...

Pumpkins in Irvine

We went on our annual fall trip to Tanaka Farms with my mom's group on Friday. Luckily, it wasn't raining, although it was on the warm side. There were a ton of kids there. It seems to have become quite the popular field trip.

First stop: Petting Zoo.


I knew k wouldn't be too excited about petting the animals, but I wasn't sure about n. Turns out he wasn't too thrilled, either. I was kind of freaked out myself when a goat came up to me and chewed my name tag right off my shirt. I guess we're just not animal people.


Then we took the wagon ride tour around the farm. There was no narration, so I like the strawberry farm tour better in that respect. Then they dropped us off by the corn maze. We skipped it, even though they made it a lot shorter, height-wise this year. Parents could actually see over the top, unlike two years ago, when I was wondering if k and I would ever make it out. Instead, we went straight to the u-pick veggies: 4 radishes, 4 carrots, 4 green onions and 4 green beans per child. k had fun with this part, and n kept on wanting to climb over the rope that we were supposed to stay behind.

u-pick carrots that had already been picked. I think it is good for kids (and adults, for that matter) to learn how vegetables are actually grown in the ground. We become so accustomed to just seeing produced bagged up in plastic in the grocery store.

The last part of the outing was the main attraction, the pumpkin patch, of course.



This is the one we ended up bringing home. The rule is that the kid is supposed to be able to carry the pumpkin she picks herself. They're not too strict with enforcement, but I was surprised when someone actually asked if she could carry it as we were leaving the exit.


n, on the the other hand, seemed to enjoy picking up the pumpkins and dropping them on the ground. Luckily, no damage was done to the pumpkins.


Our Little Pumpkin

We've been to Tanaka Farms too many times to count now. However, D still has never gone with us. I'm thinking we should try the watermelon tour next year. When k saw some of the leftover watermelons from the past summer, she commented, "green pumpkins"!

A HOT Sunday

I am NOT enjoying this heat wave we are having...fall weather please return. On Sunday we had two outdoor events to attend: 1. Church service/Picnic at Mile Square Park and 2. OC Japan Fair.

Having church at the park was a nice change of pace. We brought our blankets and chairs and made sure to sit under some trees. Unfortunately, the sun shifted so that we were not completely shaded. Some might say it is distracting to have church outdoors, but if the distraction is God's creation, I don't really see a problem with it, especially since it is only once every couple of years.




Cookie pop! (She didn't eat the whole thing...n and I had some bites, too!)

We didn't stay for all of the games after lunch because it was just too darn hot and we were all really tired. We pretty much just crashed when we got home (actually, both kids crashed in the car on the way home). However, we had free tickets to the OC Japan Fair at the Great Park, so we went there around 4 p.m. for an early dinner. We ended up seeing people from church, some of whom went straight from the picnic! Craziness. We just found a couple of chairs in the shade, D sat with the kids, and I braved the heat to buy the food. I ended up with yaki soba ($5), spam musubi (2 for $3), beef teriyaki sticks (2 for $4) and a red bean pancake ($1.50). I thought the spam musubi was really good, maybe the best I've had. I liked how they put the big crisp sheet of nori on to order, so it didn't get soggy. k liked it too. D liked the beef the best. The yaki soba was just "eh". Surprisingly, n liked the red bean pancake! I think he thought the inside was chocolate, so he had a puzzled look at first, but he kept on eating it.





We also received three free boxes of tofu, so I guess I'll have to come up with some recipes. This event would have been much more enjoyable if it weren't so blazing hot. It improved from the year before...bigger venue and more booths. It is also interesting to see those non-Japanese japanophiles, like the girl dressed up as Sailor Moon.

Another Chinese-Japanese Marriage

Saturday night we went to a wedding reception for a couple who, just like us, consists of a Japanese American girl and Chinese American guy. We were noting how this combo seems very common these days. Anyway, they had Chinese lion dancers at the start of the reception and the bride changed into a kimono.


I like creative attention to detail: tangerine place card holders that said what table we were at.







Prime rib w/horseradish sauce


Chocolate Mousse Cake

I couldn't get a picture of the bride and groom together.

Bride


Groom

There were some "small world" connections too. Someone D knew from Sacramento recognized him from 16 years ago, so that was kind of funny. My second cousin on my Dad's side was there because he knows the groom. Plus there were relatives from my mom's side as well.

We were pretty tired and had to pick up the kids, so we left before my favorite part of receptions, the slide show. (We didn't even make it to the ceremony since my parents couldn't watch the kids as they were at the ceremony). We had a good time, though, it was like our "date night", and we wish all of the best to the new couple.

Birthday Freebies

It's been a while since we've updated. We celebrated n's 1.5 birthday and D's birthday. We've been busy redeeming all of our free birthday goodies (just sign up online):

*Free Starbucks drink (any size, any drink)
*Free Veggie Grill entree
*Free Jerry's Signature dog
*Free IHOP Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity
*Free Baskin-Robbins scoop
*Free Coldstone Like-It (1 add-in)
*Free Red Robin burger (you can also get a chicken sandwich, or salad if you prefer, but we didn't get free ice cream sundaes or the song this time; it is nice how they let us redeem both coupons at once since our birthdays are within 14 days of each other)
*Free cream cheese wontons from Pickup Stix
*Free Premium shake from Del Taco (person at the drive-in didn't seem too pleased about us redeeming the coupon, but she was the only one so far)
*Free reuseable tote from Container Store

Still planning to redeem free meal at Rubio's and free Big O Cookie from Pat & Oscar's.

Play Houses @ the Spectrum

Last night we went to Irvine Spectrum to redeem our two free birthday meal coupons at Veggie Grill (sometimes it is nice having birthdays 11 days apart). It was our first time, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. (We smuggled in a Chick Fil A sandwich for the kids, which we also received for free by posting a "My first Chick Fil A story on facebook). Anyway, the texture of the "meat" was a little off, but it tasted good, so we were happy. It is kind of expensive without a coupon, so I can't quite recommend it.

Thai "chik'n" salad and Santa Fe crispy chicken sandwich.

Afterward we walked around and came across these cute play houses that are up for sale for charity:

The "UP" house


I would love to have a place like this to relax in on a nice cool morning or evening.


My favorite of the bunch. I wonder how much these things go for??