PIZZERIA PULCINELLA

When Allan and I are at home, we do a lot of cooking and eating at home.  But when we are on the road in our rv, then we start looking for interesting places to eat.  When we look for a restaurant, we want to find a place that has something to offer that we can't or probably won't prepare at home.   Because we were meeting our friend Jann at the Kubota Gardens this week, I went on line to find a restaurant nearby that would be a good place for lunch.   Pizzeria Pulcinella looked like it would be close to the gardens, but before making that final decision I took a glance at their menu on line to determine if they had anything we would particularly enjoy.  

They had a lunch menu that was priced reasonably and included several salads, many different kinds of pizza, polenta, and panini sandwiches and more.  But the big surprise was that they were a registered Neapolitan Pizzeria.  Coincidentally I had purchased a used book the week before called Best Food Writing of 2000 Edited by Alice Waters, and had just read one of the food essays the night before entitled Food Court by Nancy Harmon Jenkins of Food and Wine Magazine about how Neapolitan Pizza was going to obtain the coveted Protected Designation of Origin by the European Union which recognizes about 500 foods and beverages as having something inherently special and inimitable and deserves to be in a protected status.  This means that several requisites have to be met; where the product is made, the raw materials from which it is created, the knowledge of how to make the product and the sensibility built up over generations.  Most people are familiar with champagne wine, roquefort cheese, or Po Valley ham, but now Neapolitan Pizzas will have that designation as well.

So what a surprise to find that this restaurant has that designation and is number 304 on the register for protected status of neapolitan pizzas.  This means that they had to have a wood fired pizza oven made in Italy sent over to be used to make their pizzas (they had to remove the front wall of the restaurant to get it in the building).  They also have to import the flour and yeast.  And they have to have the training and knowledge to know what exactly makes  this pizza different than any other.  

Well of course we had to order a pizza and Allan chose the pepperoni and portabello mushroom pizza.  Jann and I decided to share a polenta with Italian sausage meat sauce.  We all had the rugala salad with Arugula, cherry tomatoes, and olive oil with Meyer lemon dressing.  We dug right in and then remembered that we should be taking photos, so my apologies for the photos of half eaten food.  Actually it was lucky I did remember or the photos might have been of scraped clean plates.  The pizza was thin crust, with a crispy edge and a soft elastic dough center.  Delicious.   

Then we could not resist the dessert menu.  We decided to share.  Allan had spumoni, Jann had profittaroli, and I had the crema al limone.  Well they were all good, but the crema al limone which had been flown over from Milan, was exceptional.  It tasted kind of like a cross between sorbet and ice cream and was a lemon cream swirled with a limoncello.  Since once again we started eating before we got photos, our waitress was kind enough to bring out another limoncello flute for the photo.  
If you don't have the time or the money to fly to Italy and you are in the Seattle/Tacoma area, then consider taking a drive to South Seattle. You can take a stroll around the Kubota Gardens and then drive a couple of blocks over to Pizzeria Pulcinella for lunch  www.pulcinellapizza.com.  It is something special.

DROP OFF DAY AT THE MORRO BAY ART GALLERY

Last Saturday, Allan and I drove over to Morro Bay to drop off my paintings at the Morro Bay Art Gallery.  It was similar to dropping off paintings at our own shows, with artists coming in and checking their names off, setting out the paintings along the walls and saying hi to old friends.  We didn't have any old friends, as this was a new venture for me, but we were happy to meet Jerry, the show chair and he chatted with us for quite a while and made us feel welcome.  One thing that was different at the drop off, was that a numbered sticker was placed over the signature on the painting so that when the judge came by on the following day, they would not be able to see who painted any of the paintings.  But I am pretty darn sure that the painting next to mine was a Terry Ford, with her characteristic deeper, darker, and richer colors.  We will see tomorrow when the gallery opens the show to the public.  We did notice that every single one of the paintings was great.  It did not matter whether they were portraits, landscape, or still life.... each one was beautifully executed.  If you are in the area, the reception is on October 12th.  

On Tuesday, we headed up to Paso Robles to purchase Italian Sparkling Grape Juice for myself and also for our own show reception at the Scottsdale Artists School on October 18th.  I would have loved to purchase the wine there also, but it is a little out of our budget.  
Last night, we headed into San Luis Obispo to the downtown evening farmers market and it was well worth the visit.  There were no arts and crafts at all, just produce and food stalls, but it covered about four blocks and there were plenty of folks out for the event.  

Almost immediately, Allan spotted a pasty stall and his Australian heritage called out to him.  He got a steak and rutabaga pasty, I got one with chicken pie ingredients.  Both were delicious.  
At the produce stalls, we purchased bunches of tiny carrots, beets, beautiful Spanish onions, a whole box of shallots for two dollars, tomatoes, pluots, strawberries, blackberries, assorted lettuces, garnet yams, and a cucumber.  

We walked back along the street, listening to all of the various street musicians, ranging from a Scotsman playing some sort of long necked fiddle to a classical violinist to the usual folk guitar and finally a teenage boys rock and roll band (which was quite good with sounds of the 70's filling the night).   At the other end of the market were all the food stalls and there must have been at least ten different rib stalls, with the vendors doing everything they could to attract the customers to their own ribs.   It was definitely a fun evening and we came home with plenty of produce for the week to come.

BEING ELKS IN SANTA BARBARA

Yesterday we arrived in Santa Barbara and we are staying at the Elks Lodge which is actually in Goleta.  This is our second stay at an Elks Lodge RV Park and this park is as nice as the first one in Chula Vista.  There are electricity and water hookups and a dump station for when we leave after the maximum five days.  The lodge is right up the street from the Trader Joe's and is in a lovely residential neighborhood.  When I went inside to register, I noticed the huge smoke free restaurant where they were serving lunch, so after hooking up the rv and getting the dogs settled, we went in to have Shrimp and Chips (me) and a French Dip (Allan).  The total cost was $14.00.  And it was all delicious and bountiful.  Who knew? 

While we were still in Paso Robles, we continued to go out each day discovering new wines and olive oils in a countryside that is one vineyard after another, interspersed with olive and walnut orchards or cattle ranches.  We have cases of wine stashed in the rv to rediscover upon returning home and it looks as if we are going to be in the market for a wine cooler.  I am not sure if we are going to be bankrupt or if we have just spent the last of the children's inheritance but it was a fun experience (even though I didn't taste any of the wines) and we got loads of photos.

 Our last excursion was over to Cambria, where we first stopped off in Harmony to taste wine that comes from Santa Maria vineyards.  We have been to Harmony in past visits but usually to eat at the small french cafe.  But this trip we drove a little further up the hill to the winery and while Allan tasted the wine, I got even more photos from the hilltop.  Then we

drove further north into Cambria where we stopped at the used book store which was for sale and noticed most of the books were disintegrating on the shelves, literally turning grey and crumbling.  Then on to one of the best garden shops on the west coast where we found some new garden art for our

yard and a very different variety of geranium which I just had to have.  Then we went over to Moonstone Beach for lunch.  Oh my, what a lovely lunch.   I always try to take photos when the lunch is great, but I am so sorry, by the time we stopped filling our faces with the delicious food, it was all gone and I hadn't taken one photo.  The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake was especially good.

On our very last day in Paso, we went into town for lunch and to visit the Art Studios across from the park.  It is set up like a cooperative, but each space is large enough for the artist to work as well as have room for their work to be displayed.  We saw the work of Linda Mutti, a pastelist who is a signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast and also a signature member of the Pastel Society of America.  She has worked with Albert Handel, Richard McKinley, Kim Lordier, and many other nameworthy artists.   Her work was of the Paso area and her interpretation of the dry oak studded hills is exceptionally beautiful. To see more of her work, visit her web site....       lindamutti.fineartstudioonline.com
   
     

WINING AND DINING IN PASO ROBLES

This week we are staying at the Vines RV Resort in Paso Robles, California while Allan checks out some of the wineries that produce Chardonnay.  The RV park is situated just a little north of Paso along Hwy 101 which is its only drawback.... listening to the sounds of tires rolling along.  But they have two pools and a spa, music entertainment on the weekends, their own wine tasting room, and lots of room in each site.  
Our trip up here was uneventful but long.  It was supposed to be four hours, but took six.  Mostly because of the congested traffic getting out of L.A. on a Friday and then because of the road construction further along towards Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara.  

We took a short rest after arriving and then headed into town to Panolivo Bistro for their prix fixe dinner.  Lovely.  Allan had Beef Bourguignon and I had Chicken Cordon Bleu both prefaced by a delightful salad of mixed greens with their house salad dressing.  This was accompanied by their crusty home made yeast rolls and followed by our choice of any dessert on their menu.

 I had the Italian Panna Cotta and Allan had the Poached Pear with home made ice cream and Raspberry Coulis. 







The following day we started out on our own wine tour beginning with Shadow Run, a small family vineyard with a white Viognet.  It was a great start for two novices because we were the only people there for about one half hour and they helped us learn more about the wines of the region and pointed out wineries on the map where Allan could find Chardonnay.  It turned out that they were foreign movie buffs also and they were happy to hear about the French mystery series "Blood on the Vine" which was all about wines.  

Next, we stopped down the road at Olivas de Oro to sample olive oils and learned that 2000 of their olive trees had just been transported and transplanted from Corning, CA as the olive groves there had been sold.  The trees were 109 years old.  
We then traveled further north to Still Waters Winery which had a beautiful garden in the front of the tasting room.  In addition to purchasing some of their wines, we also purchased a big bag of freshly picked tomatoes.  

 Our final winery was the Tobin James which was a real bar scene.  It was located on Hwy 46 and was jammed with folks.  Just a short way up the road we stopped at the Broken Earth Gusto Gourmet for lunch  where we ordered sandwiches and sat out under their trees listening to live blues music.  A very relaxing way to finish off the day after all that hard work researching white wine.    

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND GARDENS and a bit more.

On Wednesday we drove to San Marino to visit the Huntington Library and Gardens (and Art Museum).  We had been here before on several other occasions in the past and it is always worth revisiting, if for no other reason than to walk in the gardens, of which there are many.  So upon entering the park, we turned to the right and headed for the conservatory which had some new features.  There were several areas set up with microscopes in order to see spores or pollen up close and personal.  Attached to each microscope was a computer screen so that those standing around could also see what you were seeing.  A nice touch.  But it is just one of the ways that the Huntington contributes to education.   In fact, the whole front entrance is under construction for a new education center and entrance/gift shop.  

Leaving the conservatory and again turning to the right, we came upon the trail to the Fragrant Pathway Chinese Garden.  This is one of the largest Chinese gardens we have encountered and they are adding three more sections for the misty cloudy hillside and the twisted pine forest, etc.  We were very appreciative of these descriptions, coming from the "village of tin huts" located next to the "spiked cactus desert".    

After the Chinese garden, we made our way through the forest to the Japanese garden... with its tea house and bonzai trees.  From there we had a great view across the whole Japanese garden area.

By this time it was lunch, so we chose the Cafe in the Rose Garden where we could sit under the shady trees.  Allan had a BarBQ Brisket sandwich and I had a Shrimp and Grilled Vegetable Salad which was exceptional.  One thing we have noticed about museums now-a-days, they are all serving gourmet food.  

After lunch we finally ambled over to the building that houses the American Art (as opposed to the main house which has the European Art) and the selection was small but we were happy to see several paintings by Sargent including this painting of his friend Charles Forbes.  The face is very well done and the remainder of the painting is done in quick strokes with some of the canvas barely covered.  There was also an oil by Mary Cassatt.
We continued on to the Library building where they had a special exhibition of materials collected about science.  There were several early texts on medicine and quite a bit of material on astronomy,

but being a former biology teacher, the exhibit that caught my eye was a complete collection of every edition of Darwin's "Origin of the Species".  The collection started with the year that the book was published and traveled on around the room to reach the current year.  The collection included every volume printed in another language as well.  
We thank Mr and Mrs Huntington for thinking and planning for the future by buying "the ranch" in San Marino and creating a library of their book and manuscript collection, building a home which was to be an art museum after their deaths, and establishing a series of gardens almost unequaled (and we have seen quite a few).   

On Thursday, we visited the Long Beach Art Museum which houses only seasonal exhibitions of which this summer's exhibit was an artists collection of artifacts from his family, back 4 or 5 generations.  Interesting.  So, on to lunch at Claire's on the patio of the museum where we looked out onto the Long Beach beach.  As I said before, there are some good eats at the museums.  

ROUGHING IT AT THE GRAND CANYON

 After 30 years, we thought we might make a return to the Grand Canyon.  We arrived on Thursday, as planned, but it was touch and go there for a little while.  On Tuesday evening, while we were still in Flagstaff, we got a phone call from our neighbor.  Our irrigation line was blowing off an elbow joint and although he had done a temporary replacement for it, we had already lost one home to an outside irrigation leak and we decided to be prudent and drive back to Apache Junction and take a look at the system for ourselves.  We finally arrived about 10:30 at night and sat outside for a bit, while the A/C was bringing down the inside heat of the house.  We got up at 5 a.m. and Allan decided to replace the system with our old manual system until we returned in August.  We both felt a little better when we hit the road back up to Flagstaff.  It turned out to be just a little hitch in our giddy-up and we were ready to drive to the Grand Canyon on Thursday.
We are staying in a national forest campground WITHOUT HOOKUPS OR SERVICES,   to see if we could dry camp.  Well.... saving water is no problem, and letting the yellow mellow is no problem, and using the 12 volt to read by is also no problem.  The problem is that all of our cameras, jetpack, computer, smart phone and ipad stuff needs to be recharged, every day.  I ended up recharging the smart phone in the truck while we were driving.  The rest is getting recharged via a Honda Generator which Allan has hooked up to our electric line to the rv.  Also, we are camped in a spot with partial shade.  Of course during the hottest part of the afternoon is when the shade is impartial and we get not one speck of it.  But we are managing.  Today we stopped by the Trailer RV Park in the national park itself and they gave me all the info for making reservations for the future.  We will definitely be doing that for the next trip.  We have found that we CAN manage, But Why Do We Want To.  Is it because we want to be in a rustic site where we can sit outside early in the morning and watch our drowsy camper across the way stagger over to a bush and water it (when there is a very clean restroom with pit toilets just 50 feet from where he is standing.  Or perhaps we want to be where we can hear the boom boom boom of the boom box somewhere at a campsite nearby.  Or maybe it is because we can sit outside and watch the blue jays and the nuthatches, although I suspect they also have those over at the Trailer RV Park in the national park.

 While we were walking the trail along the edge of the canyon over to El Tovar for breakfast, we stopped many times to take photos or just to contemplate the distance down or across the canyon.  At one point we realized we were not the only sightseers when we spotted this little feller, sitting calmly on the very edge, looking down for several minutes.  Just think, he gets to see this view every day of the year, what a lucky guy.
After his moments of contemplation, he turned around and scurried off, to take care of gathering nuts and all those other mundane duties of his daily life.

We continued our walk over to the El Tovar Lodge where we had a lovely breakfast, Allan had Prime Rib Hash, that was a first for him.   The photo does not even look like hash because the hash was not shredded like normal hash.  It was just hunks of prime rib and red skinned potatoes with grilled peppers and onions, and on top was an ancho chile cheese sauce.
Then we walked the rest of the trail out to Kolb Studio where we had a wonderful chat with the Studio Manager about the annual Plein Air event in September where Michael Chesley Johnson will again be included.  
When we returned to our rv around lunch time, the thunderheads were already building up and we made it just in time before the big fat drops started pelting down.  

LUNCH IN SEDONA

Although yesterday was our first day in Flagstaff, we had already made arrangements to meet Rita and her husband Steve in Sedona for lunch.  We headed down early so that we could check out the wonderful consignment shops in the morning.  As usual, here in Sedona, we hit pay dirt.  Allan found 5 Ralph Lauren shirts in barely worn condition for $6 each and a couple of tshirts.  I found a Ralph Lauren dressy top and black dress pants (perfect for the Masters Pageant later in LA), plus a pair of Banana Republic dress slacks.  When we got to the cash register, it turned out that all clothing was 1/2 off, so our final tab was $31.  We got some really fine clothes and the PAWS pet shelter got a little more money.  Good news for everyone.  We then headed off to the Oaxaca to meet Rita and Steve for lunch.  We had a great conversation about food, art, and travel.  We were also able to give Rita a return gift of two of our paintings for the painting she gave to us of our two dogs, which was in the Spring Sedona Show.

Elsie and Murray are now famous and we enjoy her painting so much as it is a reminder of when they were just year old pups.
They are such great travelers too.  They have really taken to the rv life and have already settled into their traveling routines.  Allan takes them for long walks every day and they are especially lucky in this rv park to have an off leash area to run around.  The people in this park have little signs all over the park to remind you of the rules and they even have a sign in the dog park.  
Today is a Flagstaff day... we will just check out the town a little and then stock up on some groceries for our week in the Grand Canyon.   We will probably have to have a nap this afternoon as the rig next to us is full of young men from Britain who talked under our bedroom window last night until after 2 a.m.   We are hoping they move on down the road today and are replaced by a quiet senior couple.  

Salem, Oregon

We have been staying in the Woodburn RV Park for the last week so that we could explore the Salem area.  The rv park is adjacent to one of the largest outlet malls in the state.  Other than Allan using the mall to walk the dogs, it has not been much of a temptation.  Instead we have been doing our usual kinds of side trips, finding

bookstores, cafes, art galleries or museums, and trying to find a spot to plein air which because of the inclement weather did not turn out to be fruitful.  One of the first places we went during a rainy day was to the Readers Guide Bookstore.  Google maps showed its location as a vacant lot and upon actually arriving at the location, all there seemed to be was an abandoned warehouse.  Allan went to peer through the window of the door and it turned out that there were people and books inside and they were happy to turn a bag of our books into a $75 credit for us, so we immediately foraged through their bookshelves and found plenty of books to use up our credit, plus some.  Another overcast day we went to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and it was a very small museum,

mostly showing local artists of Oregon but there was one small room where there was a print by Hiroshige called the Iris Garden, completed in 1857.  We have a book on Hiroshige at home and it was nice to see one of his woodblock prints up close.  It was one of the 100 views of the Edo area of Japan and is interesting because it has only a foreground and a background, no middle ground.  Hiroshige was trying to produce a compromise between the traditional Japanese birds eye view and Western linear perspective.  The only European paintings that they had at the museum were 5 paintings by artists from the

Barbizon group.  Barbizon was a village suburb on the outskirts of Paris.  One of these artists was Camille Corot, a French artist, who enjoyed success in his time and like his fellow artists in the Barbizon group painted rural scenery.  Their practice of painting outdoors anticipated the later impressionist plein air painters.  Just recently I purchase a rare book on Corot, so I was delighted to see one of his paintings, this one called A Balmy Afternoon. 

Some of our other excursions involved going to the local Saturday Market in downtown Salem where there were about 150 vendors including hot food vendors.  We managed to find plenty of fresh produce and fruit, bakery items, and more.  We then had a artisanal pizza with artichoke hearts and feta cheese.  And we also took a trip up to Beaverton to visit the Powells Books in Cedar Crossing Shopping Center.  It never has the inventory of the main store in downtown Portland, but we managed to find a few things nevertheless and they took about a half bag of our books for credit.  One book that we did purchase from them was Edgar Payne's Scenic Journey which Kim Lordier brought with her to our workshop and we have been looking for a copy ever since. 

We also stopped at Uwajimaya Market to pick up a few hard to find Asian items and had no trouble finding Macha Green Tea, Soba Noodles from Australia, new chopsticks, Curry Sauce, Plum Chutney, and a beautiful Sake Bottle which will be used for a still life and not for drinking sake.  We finished off our visit at Pastini's where they offer 10 lunches for less than $7.00 and they are all good, we have been here on past visits and this day Allan had the lasagna with salad and I had the meatball with ziti in a tomato butter sauce with a salad.   Tomorrow we will be heading up to Portland and we are hoping for less rain, although from the weather forecast, it does not look promising. 

Eureka Eating Experiences Etc.

Going to Eureka to visit our daughter Stacey and her husband Pat, always involves eating.  It must be because all four of us love to cook and more importantly, eat.  On Sunday we arrived in Fortuna at the Riverwalk RV Resort where we usually stay while visiting Eureka.  We like this rv park because it is adjacent to the Eel River and we can walk the levy of the river in either direction and get great photos of the surrounding farms in their hillside setting.  That very evening we went to Stacey and Pat's house for a great dinner of brats and coleslaw.  Coming from Minnesota, brats are a big tradition in Pat's family and now they are a tradition in ours too.

On Tuesday Pat and Allan set off for Stone Lagoon to go kayaking.  There are so many places to kayak around Eureka, but Allan had wanted to kayak Stone Lagoon for several years now and he finally got to do it.  There were cormorants sitting around on branches and eagles gliding in the updrafts.  While they were kayaking and Stacey was at a doctors appointment, I took the dogs and went out to plein air.

I set up the easel with the dry lagoon on my right and the ocean out to my left and tried to paint a scene from the lagoon.  Somehow I ended up with my focal point dead center and the entire painting was green.  Not a great success except that I got some fresh air.  I packed up and headed into town to meet everyone else for lunch at Café Nooner.  The next evening we met Stacey and Pat at the Crabs Stadium to see the local club play baseball. 

Usually they play against another summer team, but this night they were playing against the high school team and they had their work cut out for them as the high school team was very good.  The two best parts of being at the Crabs game is getting the hot dogs and hamburgers made on a grill behind the refreshment stand AND listening to the music by the Crab Grass Band.  Although the game went into overtime, the Crabs prevailed, so we all went home happy. 

One of the days that Allan and I were out photographing barns and scenery, we stopped at the Loleta Bakery and Bistro which is in a town that barely has a main street, let alone a bakery, but there are folks waiting in line every day to get a seat for lunch.  Everyone orders the chicken pot pie and you can see why in the photo.  The crust was flaky and buttery, the chicken was in a gravy with veggies.  We also took home several pastries and a couple of slices of blueberry pie.  

One of the days in Eureka was spent at the Bootlegger Used Bookstore.  There are always books just calling our names from this familiar stop on our used book trail.  This was no exception, we staggered out of the shop with books on both arms.  One of the books Allan got was a book called the Shirley Letters, about a woman who went out to the goldfields during the goldrush and kept a record of her experiences.  One of the books that I got was British Painting "the golden years".  

Friday evening we hosted dinner at our rv and purchased baby back ribs from a truck that Stacey and Pat recommended to us for great barbeque.  I made potato salad and we had a good time eating and talking about the rv life.  On Saturday morning we all went to the Arcata Farmers Market which is one of the best in the northwest.  There are booths ringed around the Arcata Plaza and they are all selling produce or bakery items or plants or honey....  all organic or home made. 

I was able to stock up on some lovely beets, small nantes carrots, several lettuces, hand made soaps, scones, preserved meyer lemons, fresh basil, and much more.  Allan bought a geranium for our Apache Junction garden with tiny pink and white butterfly shaped flowers (watch out Paul, even though Allan isn't there, he is still getting plants).   And for our final evening in Eureka, Pat and Stacey treated us to dinner at the Brick and Fire Bistro in Eureka.  Really interesting and delicious meals. 

Stacey and Pat shared two appetizer dishes, one a mushroom compote and the other was grilled apricots with blue cheese.  Allan and I shared a fabulous salad of Apricots, Arugula, and Avocado with cashews and other fun ingredients. 

Allan and Pat both had the Beef Stroganoff with Grilled Polenta and Balsamic Reduction.  Allan had never had polenta grilled before and liked it very much. 

I had an Angelhair Pasta with Portabella Mushrooms and a Meyer Lemon Wine Sauce. 

And Stacey had one of their pizzas with pine nuts and basil.  And that was certainly a great dinner to end a great visit.  Thanks for all the good food, Stacey and Pat.  Now we really have to get back on that diet again.  Someday soon.  Well, someday.  

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