Fourthiversary Fun!

Although Jason and I were pretty bummed to come back to California after our week in Michigan, we turned our frowns upside down in time for the long Fourth of July weekend and our anniversary--our Fourthiversary. This year we had more than just fireworks to look forward to--we had NKOTBSB tickets!

We drove up to San Jose on Saturday afternoon and got settled into our room at the Hilton before heading to dinner at a local pizza place. I picked it specifically because this place offers Daiya vegan cheese. It was so good that we got another one to stash in our room for a post-concert snack.


A short taxi ride took us from our hotel to the HP Pavilion, where the fangirls were milling about in giant hordes. We made our way through the long door and beer lines and made the ascent to our nosebleed seats. I wish I would have been able to get better ones, but by the time I was sure that we'd be able to go to this concert, the upper deck seats were the only ones left.

Jason wasn't super-thrilled to be there, so he was in and out of the arena the whole concert long, but I was beyond psyched and totally transfixed the whole performance. The New Kids have been my loves since the tender age of 7, and I was known to enjoy some Backstreet Boys in high school. The two groups mostly took turns singing their own songs, but they did collaborate a few times, which was pretty mind-blowing. My camera died halfway through the show, just as Donnie Wahlberg began tearing off all of his clothes. You'll have to take my word for it that you could wash your clothes on those abs.


We got up on Sunday morning in time to enjoy the delicious breakfast buffet. Seriously, Hiltons have the best breakfast/brunch! It was a beautiful day in San Jose and we didn't want to go home yet, so we went to the Tech Museum (where Jason considered a career change) and the San Jose Museum of Art, then walked around downtown San Jose until I realized that my wedding day sunburn was getting its own sunburn.


On Monday we celebrated Fourthiversary day one with a quiet cookout food dinner at home--veggie dogs, homemade baked beans, homemade jalapeno cornbread, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. We watched the base fireworks from our friends' driveway while sipping moscato from Jason's special anniversary gift--pewter-stemmed wine glasses that he brought home all the way from the Royal Selangor pewter factory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which he visited during his deployment. They are seriously one of my favorite gifts ever!


Although we consider July 4 to be our anniversary because it's the day we met (in 2005), we were actually legally married at court on July 5, 2006 (since it was closed the day before). It works out great--we just get to celebrate even more! On Fourthiversary day two we had another quiet day at home, and I taught my city-boy husband how to shuck corn, which he had never done before. I laughed and laughed about that discovery. It's the little things, people.

Or an addict.

Over the summer, I had my annual physical and lady inspection. Things were all good under the hood except for one little thing in my labwork. It seems I have hematuria, high red blood cell count in the urine. It was news to me, so they redid the labs a second time, and then a third time. After three positive tests, it wasn't likely to be a fluke or laboratory error, and we'd ruled out the simple causes like a urinary tract infection.

Hematuria can be a sign of bad things like kidney disease or cancer, so I was sent out to a urologist in Fresno to pee for them. If anything has come out of this experience, it's that I am a pro at peeing in cups now! The urologist made me get a CT scan to see if there was anything lurking in my midsection. And then finally, last Friday, I got a cystoscopy, during which the doctor inserts a lighted tube through your urethra and into your bladder to get as up-close and personal as possible.

I'll tell you, the feeling of something going in through the out hole is not pleasant. It basically made me do this:


Once the tube was in, they pumped my bladder full of distilled water to inflate it for optimal visibility. And what that really means is that the liquid was spilling out of me and puddling on the table under my bare butt and there was nothing I could do about it because there was a tube holding my hoo-hoo open. But soon enough, the doctor had seen what he needed to see, and with one ripping, burning tug, the tube was gone.

There was nothing in there, of course. No bloody tumors, crystals, gremlins, nothing. Apparently I'm just one of those freaks who has lots of red blood cells. I'll go back to the urologist in six months for another round of labs, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just another example of me being an overachiever.

In other health news, I started seeing a new neurologist after my little fainting spell during my arm lump removal in September. He thinks that I might have been misdiagnosed years ago (and wrongly medicated ever since) and that perhaps the events that occur when I pass out are not actually seizures, but rather non-epileptic convulsions. It sounds hokey when I say it, but his theory actually makes a lot of sense. I'll be having a series of tests over the next couple of months to see if he's right, starting tomorrow (today, actually) with a sleep-deprived EEG. I've been up all night, and will have been up for about 24 hours when I go in for the EEG in a few hours. Weee! Luckily Jason was able to get permission to miss work to take me to my appointment--I sure won't be in any shape to drive myself.

Lately, though, I don't have to do much to stay awake at night. The good old California air pollution is getting to me in a bad way, and nothing prevents sleep like not being able to breathe properly. A recent Forbes article titled "America's Dirtiest Cities" said:

"The biggest problem spot in the country is California's San Joaquin Valley, where farming, industry, car culture and topography collide to trap smog. Wildfires contribute to the problem."

Guess where we live? I finally had to give in and go get some help from my doctor. So now antihistamine pills and nasal spray are part of my daily routine. My medicine cabinet makes me look like an old person. Or an addict.

I'm going to take a nice long afternoon nap when I get home.

Drive-In!

Although there is a lot that I dislike about living in Lemoore, one thing that I do like is living near a drive-in movie theatre. They show a double feature every night and it only costs $8 per car. That's right: an entire car-full of people (and homemade snacks) can see two movies for what one single ticket would cost at many regular theatres.

Last night we packed up some drinks and a batch of chocolate chip cookies, picked up some sandwiches from Subway, and took our little picnic down the road to the Kings Drive-In in Hanford. We saw The Town and Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Bem Affleck is in fine form in The Town, which he also directed. And by fine, I mean check out those washboard abs! There's just something about a Boston boy (see also: my infatuation with Jason and New Kids on the Block), so I knew going in that I would like this movie. I also learned something useful for my potential future career as a bank robber: no one will recognize you if you wear a uniform for a profession that isn't yours.

I've watched Jason play all the way through two of the newer Resident Evil video games and dabble in a few of the older ones, and I've seen bits and pieces of the other Resident Evil movies. I'm always up for a zombie movie, so having Afterlife as the closing pitcher last night was icing on the cake. Plus, it was fun seeing some of the video game characters fleshed out (literally).

You can find a listing of drive-ins by state here. The site seems to not have been updated for a few years, so some of the theatres listed there might have closed down, but if you can find a theatre near you that is still open, it's a fun and cheap thing to do with your sweetheart, your kids, or a group of friends. Go now before this part of American culture is gone!

too bad we didn't meet any bears

Part two of my mom and stepdad's visit began when they came to stay with us last Wednesday. We spent two days close to home, just showing them the base and what life is like at NAS Lemoore. Jason even showed us around his shop.

On Saturday morning we met up with my stepsister and her fiancé and caravanned to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, which we got into for free because September 25 was Public Lands Day. We stopped the cars at lots of scenic viewpoints to gaze out at the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, squeal at the adorable chipmunks, and walk about craning our necks to look at the giant trees, including the Generals Sherman and Grant (all the while swatting away the ever-present flies--funny how they don't mention fly hordes on the tourism websites).

My mom and I climbed the 400 steps to the top of Moro Rock even though she was coming down with the plague:

Homegirl wore 70 SPF sunblock and still got sunburned on her pasty shoulders.
Jason was a good sport and let me take his picture a lot, so I did the forbidden dance to entertain him:

Seriously, no dancing like that. Can't you see the sign?
Sequoia is gorgeous and completely doable as a day trip, or if you are so inclined there are areas to set up a tent and camp out overnight. I even found vegan cookies, meatless jerky snacks, and nondairy chocolate bars at the campers' convenience store!

Look how beautiful:


It was a great day, and we were both sad to see my parents leave the next day to go to Yosemite without us. I had to fight back the tears as we said our goodbyes in the driveway.

Now that we've had our first California houseguests, I want more visitors! Who wants to come see me while Jason's deployed?

dry pants are good

Greetings from California, indeed.

We rolled out of Lemoore at 5:30 on Sunday morning and traveled 4 hours down I5 to Anaheim, where some of my favorite folks were waiting for us at Disneyland.

The last time I saw my mom, stepdad, and stepsister was when I was home for Christmas last year, so I was long overdue to see them. Jason hadn't seen my mom and stepdad since she moved from Massachusetts back to Michigan two years ago, and he had never met my stepsister. We also got to meet my stepsister's fiancé for the first time.

We hit all of the major Disneyland attractions, including Splash Mountain, which resulted in me walking around soaking wet for a good part of the day despite the sun and 80-degree heat. My advice: go on the water rides last or bring a change of clothes.

I was thrilled to relive part of my childhood at the Captain EO Tribute, but I had to wonder if those 3D glasses have been around since 1986 when the original Captain EO debuted.

The one major thing we didn't get to do at Disneyland was Star Tours, which is closed for refurbishment and reopening next year. I was really bummed about it, because I know Jason would have loved it. I can't be too sad, though, because it gives us a reason to go back to Disneyland next year when Jason gets home from his long cruise. If we do make it back, I'm hoping that Indiana Jason will reappear.

On Monday we went to California Adventure, which is right next to Disneyland (and where that first picture was taken). I managed to not get wet, which was a huge improvement over the previous day. California Adventure's rides are not as tame as Disneyland's, so Jason and I were happy. Even my mom liked it--she spent a day and a half freaking out about riding the Tower of Terror, but after keeping her eyes shut and screaming "oh shit" over and over on the first ride, she wanted to go on it again immediately.

I did well food-wise on this trip, but I didn't manage to take any pictures. We had lunch at Café Orleans in Disneyland, where Jason and I shared a salad, French fries, and Creole ratatouille. All three are easily veganized simply by leaving the various cheese garnishes off. The ratatouille comes with cornbread which is almost definitely not vegan, but they could probably substitute something else for people who are strict. It was very good, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if my pants hadn't been soaked through.

At California Adventure, we had dinner at Wine Country Trattoria, which offers a most excellent vegan pasta option (with broccolini!) and where I discovered the best wine I have ever tasted--Snap Dragon riesling.

Look how happy it made me!
I found out it's distributed locally, so I think we're going to have to invest in a corkscrew.

We got home Tuesday afternoon and my mom and stepdad arrived in Lemoore yesterday evening. Jason welcomed them with a home-cooked steak dinner--even I was impressed. I pitched in with mashed potatoes, green beans, and my favorite kale and mango salad.

They'll be here for a few more days--we relaxed today, but weekend plans include hiking in Sequoia and Yosemite national parks. If I can stay dry over the course of those trips, I'll consider them a success.

BZZZZT

Jason spent last night installing and uninstalling and reinstalling a new wireless router. He did the whole process again this morning when the first router turned out to be a dud and he had to go get another one, so I was in a bloggy time out for the past 24 hours. I took the opportunity to (mostly) catch up on the DVR and to get my fill of college football. Victory for MSU! And with a sweet trick play, too:


We also got a new scale this week--a fancy one that measures your body fat percentage by shooting an electrical current up through your feet. This purchase both intrigues and angers me. It intrigues me because every time I step on it I imagine it zapping through my feet, and I can't help but whisper "BZZZZT" to myself. It angers me because it weighs me two whole pounds heavier than our old scale, which had lost all of its feet and was probably weighing incorrectly because it was improperly balanced. It also angers me because now I know what my body fat percentage is... yikes!

Speaking of body fat percentage, go meet my new friend Annie the pot cat over at List of the Day. I'll wait.

...

Seriously, I never tire of watching silly cat videos (while my own cats are acting insane in the background).

Tomorrow we'll be getting up at the crack of dawn to drive down to Anaheim and meet my mom, stepdad, stepsister, and her fiancé at...

Disneyland!

We're wicked excited. You'd think we were 8 years old, rather than 28.

I'll be taking my camera and my laptop, so I might check in at some point. If not, we'll be home on Tuesday.

insert "jury" joke here

Last week was a whirlwind of action. I went to the doctor, the dentist, and the eye doctor, and I am pleased to report that all of my body parts are functioning satisfactorily, if imperfectly. I ordered a fancy new kind of contact lense and was sorely tempted to schedule a fancy $600 teeth whitening procedure (but I didn't). We can only afford so much fancy at one time. See also: my teeth would be whiter if I didn't drink so much coffee.

I also went up against the man and prevailed. You see, a couple of weeks ago, I got a jury duty summons. I was due to report to court today. I had resigned myself to just going, but then Jason reminded me that I'm not technically a California resident, and therefore not obligated to serve. Because Jason's home of record with the Navy is Massachusetts, we pay taxes there and our various civic duties are owed to the commonwealth. All I had to do was fax some paperwork over to the county courthouse, and I was off the hook. Woohoo! An unobstructed workweek for me. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't be so excited about that...

Over the weekend I did some relaxing, but also some exercising, some cleaning, and some grocery shopping. It was my last weekend as a boat widow, so I wanted to get things in order around here before the husband hurricane returns.

I hung some pictures in the living room and in the hall outside our bedroom:

Owl print by Happy Doodle Land, wedding pictures by Jamison Wexler.
I had to evict the barn spider from the web she had strung from our patio roof overhang all the way over to her original web on the sliding door. I felt bad destroying her hard work, but there are plenty of other places for her to build a web that don't involve me inhaling it every time I go outside. You can't see the web in the picture, but she's hanging in the center of it. It was strung perpendicular to the two wind chimes. It was huge!

Had I left it there, this is what I imagine would have happened to me eventually:


Oh, and one more thing. These guys:


Look like my guys when they were little:

The hat in action!

I introduced you to all of my resident California spiders but one the other day, so here's the shy one a wee bit late. She runs a bit of web from each end of the corner and just hangs there in the middle.

In cat news, remember how Jasper has refused to use the litter box since March? I've been making the best of it and giving him litter boxes lined with towels instead. Well, on Tuesday I took away his towel box and he has begrudgingly started using the litter boxes like everyone else. There have been a couple of accidents, but he seems surprisingly willing to use the boxes with litter in them now. It's a miracle! Fingers crossed that this isn't a fluke.

Finally, my feather hat was such a hit that I thought you might like to see it in action. Blink and you'll miss me:


I know the timing is completely off from the middle to the end, but I can't do anything about a 12-year-old VHS tape's glitches.

there she weaves by night and day

I used to be terrified of spiders. If I saw one in the house, I would suck him up with the vacuum and then have nightmares about him crawling back out to get me. Not all spiders were bad, though--in high school my sister and I shared a bathroom and a little spider lived up in the skylight. We named him Kud'ar Mub'at (after the Star Wars novel character) and said hello to him whenever we came into the bathroom. Or maybe only I did that.

These days, I try to take a more balanced approach. Spiders are useful in that they keep all manner of other annoying insects out of my house, and they're pretty neat to look at when they're not crawling on me. There are a few interesting California spider friends I've met lurking outside our house, and instead of freaking out about them, I've been working on identifying them.

Meet my friends:

This is a barn spider. She disappears all day and comes back to her web on our sliding glass door at night. Tonight I watched her rebuild a section of web.
This is a banded garden spider. Look at how huge her web is! It's woven all throughout the bush outside my office window. She never seems to move from that spot on the web.
I haven't identified this guy yet. He was hanging out at the top of the barn spider's web one day a while back, during the daytime when she goes into hiding, and I haven't seen him again.
I also have a teeny-tiny black widow living inside my kitchen cabinetry. She dangles off the edge of the cabinets by the floor sometimes, but hustles right back under the drawer if there's even the slightest movement of air. I haven't yet been able to take her picture--she's shy!

Does anybody else have cool spider neighbors? Have you ever named a spider?

P.S. Name the poem quoted in the title and the movie in which the main character quotes it and you will be officially crowned the emperor or empress of awesome.

there are spiders in this one

Hidey-ho, blog friends. Aunt Flo's in town and I've been feeling particularly crappy and sluggish all week.

Never fear, though, because I took a rally nap this afternoon and got to work putting together a dinner of champions, which is baking and boiling to perfection right this moment. Consequently, it's about as hot in the kitchen as it is outside, so I took advantage of the momentary cooking lull to escape to the living room.

I've been dealing with some real life stuff this week, too, so forgive me, my loves, if I've been distant. I promise I'll be back and better than ever soon.

For now, meet my friend who has taken up residence on the wheel of the recycling bin:


What the heck is that white cone ball thing? And please don't tell me it's holding spider eggs, because I do not need a bunch of baby spiders being born in my garage.

Just for fun, here's a game of "how many spiders are in this web":


That's all for tonight. I'm going to crack open a beer and have my dinner.

AT2 is SIQ

First, I want to thank everyone for the kind words on Tuesday. In my family, our furry friends are family too, so the goodbyes hit hard.

---

For the past month and a half, my dear husband has had this problem where he suddenly becomes unable to breathe. If you have ever been going about your business and found yourself devoid of oxygen, you know just how frightening the experience can be. Understandably, Jason didn't waste much time getting to medical after just a couple of these panic-inducing episodes.

They sent him home with a tranquilizer. Because the solution to having trouble breathing is to be unconscious? Um...

A week or so later he went to medical again after another episode. They sent him home with cough syrup. Never mind that he wasn't coughing.

After another series of episodes and a third trip to medical, they finally decided that the blame lies with all of the nasty factory farm pollution from the dairies in our area and the smog that drifts up from Los Angeles and gets caught in the San Joaquin valley. The air here literally makes people sick.

Jason came home yesterday afternoon with a rescue inhaler. Finally!

He also came home with puffy cheeks and a collection of pills that rivals the contraband bin at the Celebrity Rehab clinic.

Cue the question marks floating above my head!

It turns out that he also had the pleasure of having very short notice dental surgery yesterday morning--a bone grafting procedure that had been scheduled for July. Rather than have to reschedule for another date, he sucked it up and went through with it on the spot.

Because he had his wisdom teeth out in his twenties (at boot camp, no less) rather than in his teens, the bone in his jaw didn't regenerate itself as it would have at a younger age. So they sliced open each little area behind his molars, dropped in some bone bits probably harvested from somebody's corpse (ew), and sewed him back up.

He'll be home recuperating for the rest of the week, SIQ--sick in quarters--with nurse Heidi to attend to his every need.

My grasses. Let me show you them.

When we moved into base housing late last June, it was already summer in California and all of the grass in our back yard was either dead or near dead. Either way, all I had to do to it was ignore it.

Lawn care service and inground sprinklers are part of the base housing package here, except for the back yard patch. The landscapers do not enter the walled area and the sprinklers don't reach it. Fair enough, it's just a little 12' by 17' postage stamp. Surely we can manage that. Right?

Well, central California winter, aka the rainy season, was very kind to our grass, and even kinder to the weeds. By March, our barren rectangle of scorched earth had turned into Pandora.


It had become difficult to step over the shock of weeds and grasses that bordered the patio. It was so bad that I hadn't even noticed that Coco had made himself a secret spy nest in the corner of the yard. I decided that something must be done.


So I, in my infinite wisdom, headed out with my scissors, thinking I'd snip off the worst of it, dump the cuttings in the trash, and be done. Then Mother Nature laughed in my face. Not only were the weeds too thick to cut through, they also had prickly stems so I couldn't pull them out bare-handed.

And do I have gardening gloves? Of course not! This little area is the first "yard" that Jason and I have had. Don't get me wrong--this gal knows her way around a tool shed and can operate just about any motorized gardening equipment there is. I mowed the lawn at my mom's house many a time in high school and college, and my dad and stepmom run a farm, for pete's sake. I just haven't had reason to acquire any accoutrements of horticulture since moving out on my own. Jason, on the other hand, has never had a yard of his own to tend because his parents have always rented. You can't find someone more clueless about yard work than he is.

It was decided that we would get some thick gloves and some heavy garden clippers with which to handle the beastly weeds. So a couple of weekends ago I sent Jason off to the Navy Exchange to procure said items. He came home with a weed whacker... which we had specifically agreed that we weren't getting because we didn't want to spend money on one. I got over it when he told me it was only $40.

I was all ready to go tame the wilderness when we realized that the darn thing didn't come with a cord. So back to the NEX he went. And then he went again when the first extension cord he bought didn't fit into the whacker. By the time I got started, it was already late afternoon. I did as much as I could before I ran out of daylight.

It took two days' worth of hard work, but I finally got the weeds pulled out and the grasses trimmed down to a normal level. It doesn't look great, but at least I can walk through it.

one year post-Massachusetts

A year ago today I left Massachusetts and began my grand drive out to California. I could not have been happier to leave there.

A year later, we're not in the place we want to be in many ways. That said, I do not regret any of the choices we've made on the road here. At all.

To be fair, living in Massachusetts wasn't all bad. There are things that I miss about it.

For example:

• Our great veterinarian. The office was close to home, it was open every day of the week, the staff was wonderful, and the facility was state-of-the-art.
• Our cat food store. It was just down the street from where we lived and they carried all of the fancy foods our cats liked. Things we can't find in stores here. We have to order the only canned food that Jasper will eat online now, and it costs $75 for each two-case order.
• Sales tax-free shopping in New Hampshire.
• Our favorite local restaurants: Mehmaan and La Carreta in Nashua, New Hampshire; Minado in Natick, Massachusetts; Family Pizza in Dracut, Massachusetts; and Life Alive in Lowell, Massachusetts.
• The proximity to Boston.
• The proximity to Maine.
• The vaulted ceilings in our apartment.
• The fresh air. Fresher than here, anyway.

Jason misses his old job and hanging out with his dad.

We will find the right place for us. It wasn't Massachusetts. It isn't California.

It's a big world out there. We'll just keep looking.

I still wish it had all been a hallucination.

I've been sick all week. I woke up last Friday with a burning sore throat (that's what she said) and while that has gone away, I still have some sort of crud hanging out in there of the snot and phlegm variety. I blame the dentist, because Jason hasn't been sick and I didn't go anywhere else that I could have picked up a bug. I'm usually one of those magical vegans who never gets sick, but I guess I've met my match--this guy inserts the germs straight into your mouth.

So, no soup for you. Foodie Friday will resume next week. If I've recovered.

Since I've been hopped up on all manner of drugs for the past seven days, I figured I was hallucinating when earlier this week Jason started talking about selling his Corvette. And then he kept talking about it and started calling around seeking offers. I haven't been hitting the NyQuil that hard, so I knew he must be for real.

Sure enough, last night we (well, he, since I had to follow in a second car to drive home in) took one last joyride to CarMax in Fresno. And just like that our hot rod became the property of... not us.

I officially feel old and way more like every other boring sensible car-driving family on this base. It's a buzzkill and I feel decidedly un-fancy, but it was for the best. Jason made the decisions all by himself from start to finish, and I could not be prouder of him for thinking about the future.

In the short term, we'll be able to pay off our furniture and Jason's TV. In the long term, we'll be saving enough money for a respectable down-payment on a nicely-appointed home that we'll be purchasing in a state that is not Massachusetts or California when Jason gets out of the Navy in three years.

The good stuff is on the horizon. I know that. But it is bittersweet to look in the garage and see my CR-V sitting there instead of this beauty:




Responsibility is a bitch, but at least we won't have to be renters all our lives.

Foodie Friday: Smoothies and why I'll never order Chinese takeout again

It's Foodie Friday! Foodie Friday is my weekly feature that gives you a window into my kitchen. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to read cookbooks, and I love to inspire people to give vegan food a chance. Thus, Foodie Friday was whipped up and baked to perfection.

I didn't do a ton of special cooking this week. We (well, I) have been tired from staying up late to watch the Olympics--really, NBC? Figure skating at 11 p.m.?--and I just haven't been feeling like slaving over a hot stove. Barefoot. NOT pregnant.

Luckily for me we had a ton of leftovers from previous chef-ing sessions and we splurged on some Subway footlongs the other night (that's what she said).

Here's what I've been making recently:

Creamy orange smoothies (from Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes). This tastes like an orange Creamsicle! Jason looooved it.

I also made another fruit smoothie, this time of my own creation. I didn't take a picture, but it looked about the same as Mr. Creamy Orange right there. Try it for yourself:

Banana-Pineapple-Coconut Smoothie
Serves 1

1 large ripe banana
1 1/2 cups frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 cup coconut milk

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Add more coconut milk if your blender needs it, or use part soy, rice, or almond milk for a lighter coconut flavor.

Black bean and corn tofu scramble (my recipe) with corn muffins (from Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes).

This week's showstopper is General Tao's tofu. When I found this recipe while blog-hopping recently, I knew immediately that I had to make it. Jason and I love Chinese food, but we haven't been able to find a takeout place that we like since we've moved to California. We seem to have the worst luck with Chinese restaurants. We tried so many in Massachusetts, and when we finally found one we liked, it closed soon after! We miss our favorite place in Virginia Beach.

The process of preparing the tofu is labor intensive, but I doubled the recipe, so that was my own fault. All that work was worth it though--this is SO GOOD. Way better than any Chinese tofu dish I've had here in California.

And who's that in red in the corner of the picture? It's one of the pairs of chopsticks that my bloggy BFF Jamie sent me! It was a complete surprise and made my whole week--especially when I got to use them to eat something so delicious. Thank you, Jamie!