new knitting patterns by kim hargreaves and an easy peach parfait

Happy Father’s Day! It’s been hot in Marin this weekend. Yesterday was about 80 degrees, but it felt like 90 indoors. This week has been busy and exciting. First: I got my passport last Monday, which means I get to go on our family vacation this summer. I am super happy and excited about the trip.

This weekend, we also celebrated Patrick’s parent’s 60th wedding anniversary. As part of the celebration, we gathered for a delicious dinner at Cucina in San Anselmo. We had a great time. There were speeches, a few tears of joy, and lots of laughs. The food was really good. I especially loved two of the salads: Carpaccio di Zucchini, which had thinly sliced zucchini, almonds, and pecorino cheese, and the Insalata con Bettole, with roasted beets, avocado, arugula, goat cheese, almonds, and a shallot-mustard vinaigrette. I am definitely going to experiment and make something similar at home; either would be a perfect summer lunch all on its own.

I also went jogging on Saturday which makes me feel super proud of myself. I’ve been slacking on the exercise routine for months, but my motivation is back, and I’m trying my best to hold on to it.

This morning, we had breakfast with the whole family to celebrate all the dads before everyone goes back home. It was great to see family. We are all quite excited to go on our trip together.

For the four of us, Father’s Day plans include cooking a Pollo in Vin Cotto recipe (chicken in wine) and most likely, lemon bars made by Sarah, for dessert.

Anyway, this week I have a few things to share.

Kim Hargreaves’ easy summer style patterns

Kim Hargreaves released her newest pattern book this week, which has thirteen designs to choose from. If you like simple, casual tops, and are a fast knitter, this book is for you! The release comes a bit late, I assume as a result of the pandemic, so I don’t think I will get to knit any of these this year (I’m too slow of a knitter), but I can already see myself wearing a few of these tops with jeans next summer. Take a look at the full collection or buy the book.

Paella in Fairfax

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the great things about the Fairfax farmers’ market is that you can shop and grab dinner at the same time and give yourself a mid-week cooking break. What immediately caught my attention last Wednesday was the paella stand — a new addition? I’d never seen such gigantic pans, and the paella looked and smelled delicious.

I found out the paella was from Gerard’s, a restaurant we had stumbled upon on Father’s Day a few years ago, when we rode the SMART train to Santa Rosa for the first time. We thought the paella was excellent. Unfortunately, when we tried to go back some months later, we found out the restaurant had closed.

Today, after a little research, I found out that although the restaurant did close, they still offer catering services and sell their paella at local farmers’ markets. How lucky are we?! Dinner next Wednesday? I especially want to eat this again after I found out Gerard once beat Bobby Flay in a paella Throwdown challenge.

Make sure you get to the market early to get the chicken paella. They were all out by the time I got there!

Easy peach + yogurt parfait

Yesterday, I made myself a well-deserved peach and yogurt parfait for breakfast after my jog. I posted the recipe on Instagram, but I thought I would share it here as well.

• 1 cup Greek yogurt (plain/natural flavor)
• 1 fresh peach, peeled and sliced into medium wedges
  (Use the sweetest peach you can find, from the local farmer’s stand will be even better!)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla syrup
• 2 tablespoons granola (We love G-nola’s Toasted Coconut flavor.)

Place the yogurt in a bowl, mix in the vanilla syrup, add the peaches and granola. Enjoy

What will you be making today? Let me know in the comments.