Family Weekend

This past weekend, mom and dad flew down from Las Vegas for a long weekend trip. We ate good food, reminisced about our childhood memories and took a magical road trip! When they arrived, I put out a little feast including my latest Lemon Lavender Loaf, which they were freaking out about. I always cherish their taste, as they seem to be my biggest fans :) Food is has always been a big way I show them and my friends love.

For the lunch I put out:

-Red Rose Tea - a Canadian blend that our family has loved from the beginning.
-Brie and medium cheddar cheese
-Applegate Organic Genoa Salami - gluten free, fairly treated
-Celery with Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch
-Blue Diamond Almond Nut Thins- my favorite gluten free crackers to date!
-Lemon Lavender Loaf - my own recipe, gluten and sugar free



The boys golfed throughout the weekend with Dad, and it has become a new love for them. We have a little 9 hole course just up the road and it's the cheapest to play in town. I support the sport because it is a peaceful, outdoor, and calming hobby. Men need things like that in their life. Plus it's always had a good vibe in my books, seeing Dad used to have the golf channel on all the time at our old place while he worked on the computer. It's a comforting thing to me.

We did a late night dinner at Hannah and Jeph's later the next night. Phil bought a little keg and we fired up the bbq. I took charge of dinner and made:

-Bacon wrapped water chestnuts, with fig glaze
-Hamburgers (none of us eat buns)
-Chicken with a simple bbq sauce
-Salad with lots of avocado, cucumber and tomato
-Earlier that afternoon a made up a new bundt cake I call, Coconut Orange Cake w Cream Cheese Topping. I will have to post a recipe for it. Gluten and sugar free of course!



The recipe for the Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts is simple:

-Cut lower sodium bacon strips in half, so they aren't so long.
-Wrap the half piece of bacon around the water chestnut in a way that it will stand itself up when set down onto a cookie sheet.
-Slip a toothpick into the bacon and water chestnut to keep it snug.
-Set onto a greased cooking sheet and make sure they don't touch. You want them to bake with enough of air around them.
-Make as many as you can, as they go FAST
-Mix fig jam, a few drops of hot sauce, a few drops of Worchestire sauce and a little bit of water together for the glaze. Use a brush to lather the bundles. Continue you put layer over layer over them throughout their baking process.
-Bake them at 375 for about half an hour. At the end if you want them good and crispy, bring up the temperature and watch them.
-Serve with a new batch of the glaze for dipping, and you're set!

Me and Hannah, besties forever!!



The next day we wanted to do a good full roadtrip to Big Basin but we got a bit of a late start, seeing we took an amazing lunch at Fiesta and the day was getting on. Instead we did a full circle drive up to Half-Moon Bay and up to Santa Cruz for dinner. On the way we stopped at a lighthouse that was beautifully haunting. It overlooked cliffs and ocean. A place I would die to live. One thing I love about Phil is not only that he is Irish, but that he loves overcast seas just as much as I. We always feel so close when we are in a place that feels cold and medieval.





Later we all did dinner on the Pier in Santa Cruz. On our walk back to the car, a couple was being married on the night-beach with candles around them. It was so amazing! Even better, there were probably about 10 people there in all. Romantic muchhh?



It was a sweet weekend of family time. Next time Mom and Dad come to visit we will be celebrating their 30th anniversary. It is so amazing that they have made it this far, through it all. It is a blessing to still be altogether, as I know that is a rare thing these days.

What should I make them for a special dinner?