Lunch at Bowers Museum 02-23-13

Have I written enough about food lately?  I didn't go to San Diego this time, instead some of the ladies I know there came up to Santa Ana on a bus to visit Bowers Museum.   Two current exhibits of interest are one on Maurice Sendak and one on costumes in the cinema.   I didn't do the exhibits, just the gift shop and lunch.


 

Choosing from the menu was difficult, but a "compressed" salad sounded interesting.  They stuff everything into a mold and press it tight, then the mold is upended and a tower is created.  It was very, very good, but too much for me to eat, I picked out all the yummy bits and left the rest.

Compressed Manchego Salad - Baby arugula, shaved Manchego cheese, Fuji apples, Medjool dates, caramelized walnuts, balsamic syrup, pistachio vinaigrette.

Several of the ladies had the salmon salad with avocado.
Grilled Salmon Cobb Salad - Applewood bacon, chopped egg, avocado, blue cheese, tomatoes, lemon thyme vinaigrette

Rosie sitting across from me ordered the "Wild Things Hamburger" - a rename from:
Tangata Burger - Hand ground sirloin, Vermont white cheddar, smoked bacon, roasted tomato, baby arugula, crispy shallots, and herb aioli served with house made Kennebec garlic fries

An additional picture:

Andrea took this picture at the Bowers lunch.

Roasted Red Beet Carpaccio Yellow frisee, candied hazelnuts, Bermuda Triangle goat cheese, toasted ciabatta and honey mustard vinaigrette

 The restaurant name is Tangata. 

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Friday Feet 02-22-13

 

I've posted these feet before, only in high heels.
Isn't that a nice reflection on the shiny floor? 

Wordless Wednesday 02-20-13

 

 

Food - yet again. 02-19-13

I think that whenever I go to San Diego there will be food images on this blog!  The ladies I know down there have identified great places to eat and, of course, I want to try them all. 


One evening we went to The Brigantine, known for fish dishes.  The fish dishes were good, but not outstanding - not picture worthy.  But they are also known for their cheesecake which comes as a huge serving and it was fabulous!  Might be a place to go just for dessert.  Beth cut it in half and then forced me to take the larger half - I had to take half of it in a to-go box and ate it the next day.  M-m-m-m. 
 

Saturday night we went back to Ikiru, the lovely little sushi place about two blocks from VAM and had a wonderful dinner.  They serve great sushi rolls and teriyaki and tempura and noodle dishes and...  well just good food.  I have however become shameless in my quest for good food images and actually asked the couple sitting next to us at the sushi bar if I could photograph one of their dishes.  You see it above - I believe this is called "pink" on the menu.   For unknown reasons I can't post the other pictures, but I'll keep trying.

On Sunday at VAM I gave a tour to a group of art quilters who had arranged it in advance.  Afterward they took me to lunch at what was called the Tin Fish, but has been replaced by Roseville Cozinha,under the same ownership.  The interior of the place is basically the same, but there is a much shorter menu.  The service was good, but those who ordered the beet salad were surprised to find only four small squares of beets in a pile of arugula - we asked for a "remake" and the salads returned with a few more beets, but basically it was an arugula salad garnished with a sprinkling of beets.  Not your best bet.
 

Four of us ordered the yellowtail (tuna) sandwich which was delicious.  It came with sliced raw mushroom and a pile of greens including this one I have never seen before.  One of the ladies identified it as tatsoi.  I looked it up online and found it is  also called spinach mustard , spoon mustard , or rosette bok choy , is an Asian variety of Brassica rapa grown for greens.

The flip side is this lovely grey-green color.  To me it tastes spicy, somewhat like wild mustard greens.
 

Here is the cut side of the yellowtail sandwich on chibatta bread.  Yellowtail on the bottom, lettuce, tomato, slightly sauteed thin-sliced onions and a light sauce - like thin mayonnaise.
I would certainly order it again..  and again....!

Monday Browsing 02-18-13

Monday Browsing  02-18-13

Front Range Quilters – CO, is a state wide organization that specializes in art quilts.  Great work.

http://www.artquilters.org/altered-threads/

http://www.artquilters.org/frcq-portfolio-2013/

 It is always interesting to see what new tutorials there are online.  This one is cute.

http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/2010/02/altered-candy-box-tutorial.html

Is your creativity blocked?  Carol Marine has some hints to get back on track.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/ArtTutorials/ArtByteLibrary

A new resource for quilt teachers, guild program chairs and quilters everywhere.

http://www.quilters-calendar.com/

Carved ammonite motif.

Small quilt by Terry Grant on my blog 02-17-13

This quilt was purchased because the Oregon Junco was one of the first birds I learned as a child.  I have seen them many time over the years, especially during the winter in San Juan Bautista, CA, when I visit my friends Mary and Joe.  But I haven't seen them in falling snow for probably 65 years!  So, it is a nostalgic quilt.  Of course, Terry's wonderful technique leaving the black underlining to create a line all around the motifs makes such stunning images - how could I resist.   For about the last month this little quilt has hung on my family room wall with six other bird image quilts in TCQC. 



"Oregon Junco"  Terry Grant - Beaverton, OR  2007  9" x 9"
Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton embroidery floss, cotton batting.
Machine applique, hand quilted with "snowflakes".
 

Here you can clearly see the working details of Terry's applique.
 

 
I believe she has used a tiny dab of paint on the beak and the eye.
 

 
Not quite an adequate label as there is no contact information.  When she made this piece she did live in Portland, but then moved to Beaverton. 
 

The back is lined so none of the stitching is showing.
 

A morning at Visions Art Museum 02-16-13

This morning was the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast at VAM.  This year, for the first time the biennial Visions exhibit has been at our own facility, so we had many white glove volunteers.  They were very much appreciated.  The food provided by the Board members of the museum was very good in quality and quantity.  And the event was well attended.

 
We had a special treat since Won Ju Seo, whose work in the exhibit "A Korean Woman in Modern Times #1" took the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Recognition Award, was in town with her husband  They came from a cold and snowy New Jersey to enjoy the lovely winter sunshine in SCalifornia.   Won Ju talked about her work and her inspiration.  Here she is wearing a necklace that she made from silk scraps and stitches. 
 

 
Here I am with Won Ju and her lovely hand stitched piece.
 

 
Beth Smith, Director of the Visions Art Museum, with volunteer Mary Tabar.
 

This is Won Ju's husband, Howard, visiting with volunteer Judy Birchett.  He is a wonderfully supportive guy and spent his time taking pictures for Won Ju and visiting with the volunteers.  In the background are volunteers Barbara Friedman and Nelda McComb.

Last Saturday there was a closing reception for the exhibit and the Viewer's Choice was announced.  It is this piece from Valarie Robinson of Victoria, Australia.  Which garnered the most votes from visitors and, incidentally, sold just last week to a couple visiting from out of town.

 

 

 

 

 

It is quite a large piece and very white with black quilting.  Hung on a white wall it is impossible to take a good picture, so I am showing two not very successful images.  The quilt is white-white - the color in the pictures come from shadows and no flash used.  

 

The Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) is amazing.  Full of motifs that represent the era of each dress the all over view from a distance looks like lace is attached over the white fabric. 

 

These little motifs represent women's tasks during the English settlement of the continent.

 

The filler quilting is imaginative and connected to the theme of the dresses.