Ubuntu - The best veggie food I have ever met!

I told Bonnie - "I wanna go."

Bonnie said - “You will go and you will blog about it."

Therefore, I blog.

On Sunday I headed to wine country to dine at Ubuntu with some very lovely ladies. There was good food, good drinks, great conversation and mucho pictures taken of all the beautiful and delicious veggie and vegan friendly food. And if I do say so myself, the pictures of the food came out pretty damn good. So prepare yourself for a lot of pictures food, I can almost taste it.

Let’s first start out with the menu. The restaurant kindly gave me a copy of the menu. There were only two items on the menu that we didn’t try.

(Please click on images to enlarge)

And a picture of the menu.
Bread and butter.
We started with the 3 bites for 15. Marcona almonds, hummus with wild fennel crackers, and.............
marinated olives. Fantastic!
We also shared a delightful bottle of prosecco.
And now we start with the day's dishes. First to come out was the new crop potato salad, with get this a "virtual" egg. This would be some whipped up magic of cream sauce yummines. When I explained to Jamie that this dish had a virtual egg, he said "like a cadbury egg", well no honey, Ubuntu uses only the best of farm fresh indigents, most of which is grown in their biodynamic garden. There will be no processed foods here.
The next dish to make it's depute was the english peas. There were fresh springs of chocolate mint lightly sprinkled in the peas. Wow! Chocolate mint......incredible, it actually tasted like eating a chocolate mint candy. This was a first for me. Fabulous presentation.
Our third dish was the cool garden green and lemongrass soup. And now let's take a moment of silence and just enjoy the pictures.........
Oh yes........
Honey.......
Must finish every last drop.
Our fourth dish, the onion top fritters.
Next is the sardinian pearl pasta. This one almost made my top three dishes.
Number six was the homemade carrot gnocchetti. Fabulous. Pesto. Amazing. Love it! My fav.
Next is the southern breakfast: slow cooked carnersos egg with grits and goat's milk cheese.
Moving on to number eight and nine were the pizza's. The garden pizza of summer squash and goat's milk ricotta and.......

the strawberry pizza margherita. On a sidebar note, the kitchen was experiencing a back-up, so it took a while for this pizza to come out. The restaurant kindly comped this for us. We didn't mind a bit, as I think the break was much needed. We needed to start preparing for dessert!
We did a trio of desserts, which included, the vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar.

Mini vegan carrot cupcakes. A-MAZ-ING!
And the rhubarb & citrus sherbet float.
Viola!

Wow and I didn't even get paid to write that.

Here are the lovely ladies with this cool sculpture art thing at the restaurant, they looked like mummies.

More of the lovely ladies.
While I was experiencing Ubuntu, Jamie hung out with some friends and took Annmarie swimming. According to Jamie Annmarie had a great time. I forgot to mentioned it was scorcher this weekend, in the 100's in Napa and the east bay. Also, this is what happens when Dad dresses you - backwards shirt, note the tag.
Also, Aunt Bonnie got Annmarie this T-shirt. Don't you love the back? Thanks Bonnie!

Good times girls! Let's do it again!

Dinner with Luke

On Saturday we had some dear friends over for dinner. Here is their little guy, Luke. Annmarie thought it was fun to watch Luke eat. He was all smiles for the camera. What a cutie!
Awww. Baby love.
For dinner Jamie made some awesome beef and lamb kabob's from this cookbook. This cookbook is a must have for grill lovers. We (well, mainly Jamie) have made several recipes from this cookbook and have never been disappointed. They are fairly simple and delicious. I think this cookbook has really boasted Jamie's confidences in the kitchen. The cookbook was a wedding present and for the longest time we never opened it and then one day Jamie just went at it and its been wonderful.

Here is the recipe Jamie made. We also had a green salad and couscous for dinner.

Angela Reads: 10 Good Reads

So I have been blogging about the current books I have read. It all started with my Edward obsession the Twilight saga. I thought I would post some of my past favorite reads, in no particular order. I wouldn’t consider this my top 10 list, just 10 random good reads.

Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert.
Love. Love. Love this book. I loved Elizabeth’s personality. She was tender, yet brings a lot of humor to her story. Her journey through Italy, India and Indonesian was incredible.

Time Travelers Wife, Audrey Niffenegger.

This is such an interesting and compelling book. It’s hard to describe. I totally fell in love with characters. You just have to read it, it’s a must read.

Honeymoon with My Brother, Franz Wisner
I think I picked up this book after hearing about it on NPR. What a fun book. It’s a great story about travel, but mainly about relationships. I loved the letters from their Grandmother.
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
This is the story of Chirs McCandless all too short and intense life. Excellent book and so well written. This is the first book/gift I gave to Jamie.
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Simply Wonderful
Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
I read this book over 12 years ago and really enjoyed it then. I remember writing about it in College. It has many messages. I know a lot of people who didn’t like it. I wonder what I would think of it now if I were to re-read it. It still sits on my bookshelf.
The Book of Joe, Jonathan Tropper
I laughed. I cried. Very entertaining. I need to read some of Jonathan Tropper’s other books.
The Know it All, A.J. Jacobs
This is a very good memoir. The wit is sharp. And I learned some stuff.
Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Pure adventure. Pure entertainment. I read this book 5 or so years ago on a plane to Paris. It was the perfect book for the trip.
Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling
What can I say about Harry Potter? I love it! Genius.

What are some of your favorites? I'm tempted to read Twilight again. Call me crazy....it's ok.

Angela Reads: Julie and Julia

Just finished this book by Julie Powell. I wanted to read it before the movie comes out.

Fun book.

Girl starts blog.
About cooking her way through Julia Child's Cookbook - Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Girl gets book deal.
Girl gets movie deal.
Movie stars Meryl Streep.

I could have done this (that's what everyone says). But I didn't. Cooking Club needs to get with it! Although I'm not sure if a book titled, Cook the Baby would sell.? People might not get the humor in that.

Two-fisted drinker

So one of Annmarie's new things is to have two drinks in hand. One milk and one water. Go figure.

And I'm just playing around on picnik.

I like the way this one turned out.


The before pictures are right out of the camera. The afters are with some picnik effects.

Father's Day

For Father's Day:

Annmarie thought it would be nice to sleep till 9:00 am this morning. Happy Father's Day Dad! She must be going through a growth spurt.
I made breakfast and Jamie and Annmarie looked on.
When you ask Annmarie to show you her happy face - this is what she does.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and Jamie got a sports massage. Not because it was Father's Day, but because he tweaked his neck.

We went out to dinner with my parents to Fresca. Dinner was great and Annmarie had a good time and loved my french fries.
This was my attempt to get a picture of the Dads.
Happy Father's Day!

And I know it's a cliche to say....words cannot describe.....but words cannot describe what it has meant to me to see Jamie become a Dad. Jamie's an awesome Dad!

Angela Reads: The Pillars of the Earth

Fantastic book! An epic tale set during 12th century England and the opposing forces of the Monarch and Church. All while struggling to a build magnificent cathedral which binds all the stories together. But the characters were by far the most intriguing aspect of the book. Each one essential to the book and beautifully woven together.

The book is of considerable length (973 pages), but it moves at a surprisingly quick pace.

And even though I have never been to England, I have been to some wall towns in Germany and Italy and often found myself remembering those. I went back and forth weather to invest my time reading this book. I’m glad I did.