Friday Food 04-07-23

The food at Empty Spools is provided by the Asilomar Conference Center and they have different vendors in different years.  Sometimes the food is excellent, sometimes it is awful.  This year was one of the awful years!   I usually eat something in my room in the morning, don't usually go to lunch, but depend on dinner to carry me through.  The menu offers a regular diet or vegetarian diet, so one has a choice.  One night the choice was pork with chili verde or tofu with chili verde.  Since I don't eat pork I tried the tofu and found  it inedible.  NOT a good combination.   But there is always a large bowl of fresh green salad and bread or rolls.   I survived!  I do think they must have hit a  good deal  on black beans and polenta, because both were served at every dinner!  

The one night that there is not an evening program some of us go out to dinner in town.  My choice was Il Vecchio, an lovely rustic Italian place about a block from the Aquarium.  And my choice is always Carbonara and a side of broccoli.  Everyone tells me that all the food is exceptional, but since I can only go there once a year I always have the Carbonara, the best I have ever eaten.  This time I couldn't eat all of it, so had a doggy box to take back to my room and eat for breakfast! 

I like the "decor" at Il Vecchio.  

 On one wall they have assorted chairs hung high up, just to look at, not for sitting, of course.

 

And in the restroom they have this lovely large naked lady... 

  
                                          ....and strange tiling on the floor.

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Empty Spools 2020 - Other things. 04-11-22

Three meals a day are provided for students and the food is usually quite good.  They do fabulous veggies, fresh from the local fields and cooked correctly.  There is also a large bowl of salad at the table for dinner - fresh and tasty.  On Wednesday night there is no evening program and some students go off campus for dinner.  Several of us went to one of my favorite Pacific Grove restaurants right on the border with Monterey.  Il Vecchio has the best Carbonara I have ever eaten and they also offer a side of steamed broccoli which is my favorite vegetable.  Delicious!  I don't even remember what anyone else ate, but we did share a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.  Four forks were flying!  It was excellent. 

Judy, Andrea, and I went to the Red House (another favorite spot) on Thursday night for their scrumptious hamburgers.  It is always difficult to decide which of my favorites to order, but this was definitely a hamburger night.  Never fails to satisfy. 

On Thursday immediately after class (4pm) all the classrooms are open for "walkabout" so students can visit all of the classrooms.  We enjoyed seeing  the work others were doing and contemplated what classes we might take in the future.

We especially appreciated Priscilla Bianchi, who is from Guatemala and uses fabric from her native country in her quilts.  Combining that fabric with commercial fabric her students were creating some fascinating designs. 

We were so taken with the vintage Japanese yukata fabric that Patricia Belyea was selling in her classroom that I didn't take pictures of her students' work.  However, I did buy some of the fabric.  I have followed Patricia for a few years and she has moved to Eastern Washington now and will open her online shop this month. Check out Okan Arts.  Her students were working with the yukata fabric and commercial fabric and sewing both curved and straight seams.  Interesting. 

We admired the projects in classes with Katie Pasquini Masopust, Susan Carlson, Velda Newman, and Marianne Williamson.  

It is expensive to attend Empty Spools, but all food and lodging are provided so there aren't extra costs involved, unless you choose to eat out or buy fabric!  Start saving up for next year's session. The 2023 schedule will be out in early May.  

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Still at Empty Spools 05-01-19

Too late to be up and on the laptop.  Had another hard working day in Sue Benner's class "Composition Quartet".  But I did have my annual massage with Heidi - HEAVEN!  And went out to dinner with Jeanne Mills and Gail Abeloe to Il Vecchio, a great Italian restaurant.  The carbonara is as wonderful as ever and we had cannoli for dessert.  Now it is time to hit the hay, as we used to say in the old days.  Maybe more tomorrow night.  I'll ask some ladies if I can post their work on this blog.  

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Friday Food 09-28-18

I looked through my food posting in the past and found this one of lovely meals at Il Vecchio in Pacifiic Grove.   I didn't get there last spring,  but it is high on my list for my next trip up there.  

Dining at Il Vecchio in Pacific Grove 03-30-15

One of my favorite restaurants in Pacific Grove, CA., is Il Vecchio, and this year I had dinner there twice.  Five of us enjoyed the following dishes on Wednesday.

 Pasta Carbonara  (my choice on Thursday evening)

Cannelloni

Polenta with Ragu

Mussels and Sea Bass  (my choice on Wednesday evening)

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Empty Spools Day Three 03-05-17

I was so busy trying to catch up in class that I didn't take a single picture today.  I have three seatmates in an arrangement of four tables in the NW corner of Scripps classroom - one is a speed queen and the other three - Susan, Mea, Del - are all snails.  I am the furthest behind and spent the entire afternoon cutting and fusing the fabrics I have selected for my palette.  I've learned over the past 26 years that I have been coming in Empty Spools that I will not have the right fabrics no matter how much thought I give to the selection.  So, I just pull a bunch of fabrics in different colors and textures and hope something will work.  I may get by with not needing to buy any fabric this trip.  Sometimes I am a dreamer!  But I also brought a box of scraps and a box of miscellaneous silks, rayons, sheers, glitzies, and clothing construction scraps collected over the past forty (or longer) years and I don't intend taking them home again.  I did find in that big box a few pieces I can use for accents.  My tablemates are very willing to share what they brought, so there is a great variety of fabric available to me. 

 

Dinner tonight at Il Vecchio a super Italian restaurant in Pacific Grove.  I love the Carbonara, which they make from scratch - perfect al dente.  I am not enjoying the food this year in the Asilomar dining all.  I understand they have a new executive chef, that may be the problem.   Cardboard fish, rubbery compressed turkey, ersatz turkey pot pie - even the desserts are less than expected. 

 

Rain a couple times this morning and the wind was blowing all day.  It is cold tonight, 42F at 11:30pm.  Prediction of 59F tomorrow with partially cloudy skies.

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Dining at Il Vecchio in Pacific Grove 03-30-15

One of my favorite restaurants in Pacific Grove, CA., is Il Vecchio, and this year I had dinner there twice.  Five of us enjoyed the following dishes on Wednesday.

 Pasta Carbonara  (my choice on Thursday evening)
 

Cannelloni

Polenta with Ragu

Mussels and Sea Bass  (my choice on Wednesday evening)

 

After such delicious food we decided that a Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae would be the perfect ending, but when we arrived there at 8:05pm, we found it had closed at 8pm!  The only other ice cream place I know is the Baskin Robbins in Monterey, so we went there.  Not quite the same, but it was ice cream and satisfied us, somewhat.

 

It turned into "dueling cell phone cameras" and we had a silly time among the teeny boppers and the hand holding couples.   Even our teacher Elizabeth  Busch joined in. 

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Second week at Empty Spools w/Ruth McDowell 04-05-12

This second session of Empty Spools Seminars started on Tuesday instead of the usual Sunday.  So, I, and a bunch of other people, keep getting confused about what day it is.  Day three should be Tuesday, not Thursday.  Anyway, yesterday was the day that Ruth went over the process of drawing a piece-able design, looking at each student's photo or drawing and making suggestions for how the design might be drawn.  Today everyone (except I) settled down to develop their final drawings.  I always do a class list, which takes longer each year and includes a schematic of the room, who is sitting where, and what they are working on.  Somehow, this week it took me almost an entire day.  Of course, I stopped to have an massage by the wonderful Heidi Diouf, who provides massage service to many quilting seminars and retreats in this area - she has gifted hands.  And then I took a long lunch sitting with Verna Wheeler, my Book Group friend from Placentia.  And then ....  well, you get the idea.  I can find a zillion things to do other than what I should be doing!  But I thoroughly enjoy just being here and absorbing the creative energy and the beautiful surroundings.  Beautiful blue sky, but a wicked wind whipping up the whitecaps on Monterey Bay and trying to steal my hat.   I have signed up on Ruth's "HELP" list for first thing in the morning to have her check my completed design for any dangling lines or unsewable intersections.  Once she has her say and I have corrected any errors I will start numbering, ticking and transferring to freezer paper.  I did not bring a machine so will not be sewing.  But I can do some fabric selection from what I have purchased and what I culled from Mary's fabric library.  There is a lot to keep me busy.  And there is always the world's greatest fabric shop......

 

 

 
This was taken from in front of the shop looking at the Bay with whitecaps. 

Dinner out tonight at a restaurant that opened last September and is wildly popular with locals and tourists alike - reservations are necessary.  Il Vecchio serves fabulous fresh, mostly local food in a slightly funky, slightly sophisticated, wonderfully warm and cozy atmosphere.  I had the sea bass in tomato sauce - cooked perfectly - a crisp, fresh salad, and for dessert melt-in-your-mouth cannoli.  I might even have had a glass of wine, but I was driving.  Il Vecchio is just two blocks up from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and subscribes to the Aquarium's sustainable fish program, so I was comfortable eating the sea bass!