Bacon of the Month: Balinese Long Pepper Bacon

The final bacon! This bacon is made for Zingerman's, with a wet cure featuring Balinese long pepper. What's that? It's like black pepper, but not. It's an artisanal spice, but had no one told me it was there, I'm not sure I would have realized it wasn't regular black pepper. But it has a more complex set of flavors, with a lingering tingling that you don't get with regular black pepper. And the bacon itself? It's really nice! I might invite my favorites from the club back for a side-by-side tasting. That would likely mean the Nueske's, Ozark Trails, and the Long Pepper. (That would also mean 2¾ pounds of bacon, though.)

cold and windy beach party

At long last, Anders had his birthday party. Last year, we had a beautiful warm party on the beach in Pacifica. This year, we had a cold and windy party at Ocean Beach. The kids still loved it.

Bacon of the Month: Benton's Dry Cured Tennessee Bacon

Month 5 of the Zingerman's bacon club brought the second dry-cured choice. It's very meaty, but I think too salty. Perhaps it would be good in a BLT or some other use where the salt would be less prominent. But for a Bacon of the Month tasting, I really just want to try the bacon on its own. I mean, I'm not throwing the rest away, but if I bring a few varieties back after I'm done with the club for a taste-off, this is not going to be part of that.

camping with the fourth graders (and an anniversary celebration)

Anders's class had its fifth annual camping trip. We couldn't get sites at Memorial Park, which had been our camping site four three years running, so we went to the KOA at Costanoa. Our family has been to Costanoa tons of times, but this was our first time putting up a tent!


As camping goes, it was very easy. The Pine Tent BBQ & Brew is right next to the campground, so on Friday we took the easy route and got a pizza and wings. And some of the families tried dinner at the Cascade Bar & Grill, which the Costanoa restaurant.


Some of the SFS crew rented cabins or other accommodations, but a good chunk of us pitched tents in Ohlone Garden.



For the second year running, the camping trip fell on the same weekend as our wedding anniversary. Sigrid and I snuck away for a champagne moment on the lawn at the lodge—the spot where we got married. We celebrated at about the same time we were pronounced married eleven years ago.





Saturday s'mores.


Sigrid and I went to watch the sunset on Saturday night, but didn't take into account that when we've watched the sunset at Costanoa before, it's been in the fall. In May from our usual spot, the sun sets behind a stand of trees. It was still pretty, though.

Kwun Bhansali Lazarus LLP

There's a new law firm in town...


I've started this new venture, Kwun Bhansali Lazarus LLP, with Asim Bhansali and Kate Lazarus.


That means that after 9+ years of counsel at Keker, Van Nest & Peters (formerly Keker & Van Nest), and a previous 3+ years as an associate there, I had one of my few experiences of having a clean desk.

forty-something

I'm still in my forties! Sigrid and I went out to dinner at Frances on Friday. It was our second dinner at Frances, the other time being for Sigrid's birthday in 2011. We should go more often! This is a "market shot," a spiked shot of something they found fresh at the market (in this case, blood orange with a couple of apertifs tossed in).


For my birthday itself, we had roast chicken and vegetables...

...with cupcakes from Roseann afterward.

Ten!

A lot has happened in ten years!

Spirited Away

exploring

Anders and Soren came up with a new use for the air cannon at the Exploratorium that normally is used to send a beach ball into the air.


We also spent a bunch of time in the Tinkering Studio, which has a great vending machine...

...that sells electronic components and tool kits.


The Tinkering Studio also has a wall of trophies, featuring disassembled toys.

egg hunt

The boys found fourteen eggs (twelve that they had decorated, plus two that we got at a dinner last night) in the backyard.


The Easter Bunny rewarded them for their efforts.

Food Bank - apples!

For our second family shift at the Food Bank, we lucked out and got to pack apples, rather than the far more common shift of portioning rice into bags.



We packed 2+ pallets of apples into smaller boxes. Here Sigrid is, celebrating the bottom of the first pallet of apples.

Soren tried to escape this pic, but you can see his head peeking out from behind some boxes.


It was a small crew today (instead of the 80 volunteers they expected, we for some reason only had about twenty of us), but we managed to box up 12,600 pounds of apples in our two hour shift. You work up an appetite when you're surrounded by apples for two hours, so we went to Little Chihuahua for an early lunch.

Pagan Eggs

My contribution, in honor of Michigan playing in the Final Four later today.

Bacon of the Month: Underground Bacon, Juniper & Thyme

April arrived a bit early, with installment #4 of the Zingerman's Bacon Club arriving yesterday. Wet-cured with juniper and thyme, and smoked with hickory and apple wood. It's pretty interesting. Perhaps not a good candidate for a go-to everyday bacon, but it's delightful nonetheless.

Vivaldi Club

Midday performance for the elementary school.


Here is one of the several pieces they performed.

apple pie

Anders and Sigrid made a pie.

Happy Pi Day!

We ate the whole thing!