A Warm Welcome Home for Petaluma National Little League

Phew!  What an amazing welcome home party the town of Petaluma threw for our little league boys yesterday!  Thousands turned out to welcome home the Petaluma Nationals, aka the West from the Little League World Series where they battled it out in extra innings, ultimately finishing second in the U.S. and third in the world.

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A Multiple Generational Gathering of Dairy Women

When Dominic and I were newly married, his Grandma Mary asked me if I would be interested in joining a group she belonged to called North Bay Dairy Women.  North Bay Dairy Women was established in 1965 and is a local organization with the purpose behind it being to educate consumers about dairy and dairy farms and to promote the dairy industry.  This group remains busy year round, some of the activities include participating in events such as Ag Day in surrounding towns, volunteering time at the county fairs, sponsoring scholarships to students pursuing agriculture education, and is also a co-sponsor along with the CA Milk Advisory Board to the District 3 Dairy Princess Contest. 

Yesterday, Paige and I met my mother-in-law, Annette, my sister-in-law, Lesha and her daughter, Leila, at Mr. Magoos Restaurant in Petaluma to attend the North Bay Dairy Women's annual Christmas luncheon.  A group of 40+ women,  representing multiple generations of dairy women and families were in attendance. 

A short meeting was conducted before lunch.  Both Paige and her cousin, Leila were quiet and well behaved at the "meeting".  Paige is really beginning to get into these "grown up meetings" she is able to attend with me......maybe she'll be a future Dairy Women member, who knows!  And now that Paige is a little older, I hope to volunteer some of my time and become more active with N.B. Dairy Women.

Lunch was served shortly after the meeting concluded.

We were served family style platters of raviolis, chicken, veggies......

and prime rib.

Paige had already eaten her lunch on the car ride over after her gymnastics class, but that didn't stop her from eating another snack with a special request for "meat" and "milk".

There is also a gift exchange at this Christmas luncheon.  Bring a wrapped gift, put your own name on it and receive another gift in exchange.  The gift I received was this adorable Christmas apron from Margaret G.

We also brought gifts so the girls would have something fun to open as well.  Paige loved her ballerina Barbie and Leila her perfume toting puppy.

A pleasant afternoon was spent enjoying traditions of generations and dairy family history that I am proud to be a part of.

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A Mission to Find Spring Hill Old World Portuguese Cheese

Ever since my girl's wine tasting day a few weeks ago when I found that Old World Portuguese Cheese made by Spring Hill Dairy at a little market in Sebastopol, I've been on a mission to find it in my home town. 

I've tried four or five different grocery stores including Whole Foods, with no luck.  The closest I came was Whole Foods.  They had Portuguese cheese but it was made with raw milk and by a different brand, not what I was looking for.  The manager at the cheese counter told me he was placing an order with Spring Hill later on in the day and if the Old World Portuguese Cheese was on the Whole Foods list of items that can be ordered, he would order it.

I felt good about making some progress in getting Portuguese cheese retailed in Novato.  Our Whole Foods is new in Novato, it's only been open a few months, this was only my second time in the store so Paige and I decided to buy something for lunch and eat it out on their patio.

Paige wanted pizza.  The slice was HUGE for $2.99 so I cut it in half for her.  She was super hungry after her gymnastics class and ate the entire thing.

I got a freshly made avocado and cucumber roll made with whole grain rice from the sushi counter.  It was really good and I ate the entire thing as well.  I guess I was super hungry after watching Paige at her gymnastics class.

As we were leaving the patio area, Paige asked to borrow my camera to take a photo of the "pretty flowers".

And the "painted birdhouses".

I still had that Portuguese cheese on my mind.....it is just that good!  If you haven't had it before, it's a hard table cheese with a nutty flavor.  I can eat an entire block of it with some crusty, whole grain french bread if I let myself.

I decided to go directly to the source, something I should have done to begin with.  The Petaluma Creamery is owned by Spring Hill Cheese Company.  They produce some of their cheese at this facility as well as on their dairy with the milk of their Jersey cows, west of town {Petaluma}. 

So now I know I can just head on over the the Creamery when I run out of the chunk of 'Portuguese gold' I just purchased!

Another bonus to visiting the Petaluma Creamery is, they also make ice cream right there at the creamery.  Paige and I both ordered a 'kid's size' to sample.....hers, chocolate and mine, lavender.

Creamy and delicious.

This was the first time I tried lavender ice cream and I really liked it!  I was expecting it to be a lavender color but it's white with a very apparent lavender flavor.  I will definitely order it again.

On the walls inside the creamery hang some historic photos that date back to 1913 when the Co-Op Creamery was founded.

So if you're ever in Petaluma, the Petaluma Creamery is a fun place to stop by to get a feel for some of Petaluma's dairy farming history.

Happy to report, my mission accomplished.

Happy Thursday!

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Another Kid Friendly Restaurant ~ Pinky's Pizza Parlor

Pizza night is always a fun night for our family.  Pinky's Pizza Parlor in Petaluma is the pizza parlor of choice for us.  It's been around for 47 years....a Petaluma staple you might say.  It has a little something for everyone; it's a sports bar- type with TV's along the walls broadcasting the current baseball, football or basketball game, there's an arcade for the kids {this is big draw for my kids}, they serve beer and wine and the atmosphere is one of an old time pizza parlor. 

We found a spot at one of the picnic tables that run down the center of the room and waited for our pizza to be ready.

Three against one {me}, I like a vegetarian pizza, only because it helps me feel like I'm being somewhat healthy when eating pizza, but I lost out on this round.  Pepperoni and sausage as toppings won out. 

The crust on a Pinky's pizza is not thin,  it's crunchy and thick {but not too thick like a deep dish would be}.  I prefer the crunchier crust.  It all comes down to personal preference....you're either going to love the crunchy crust or not going to like it at all.  I find the crunchy crust makes it easier for the kids to handle a piece on their own without it flopping over and losing half the toppings.

Nothing like a good pizza and a beer on a Friday night.

Pinky's is a very popular place for 'after the game' pizza; little league, soccer, softball and such.  The place is usually packed on any given weeknight during the season.

You can't miss Pinky's as you're driving down Petaluma Blvd....'manican woman' sits atop the building, usually dressed according to the season, waving as you pass by.  Bye Bye!

Happy Friday!  Cheers!

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Date Night!

Last night Dominic and I had a date night.  It had been so long since just the two of us have been able to go out alone, we really need to do it more often. It's amazing how much conversation we can have without a 3 and 5 year old competing for talk time :)  The kids have been asking to stay over night at Nonny and Papa's house, so that's where they were.  Thank you Annette and George!

We chose to go to Semolina in Petaluma.  Italian food.  Neither one of us had ever been, but we had heard good things about it.

I didn't try the bread, but it didn't go to waste, Dominic ate every last piece with the 'cold' butter......we're very picky about butter.....it needs to be spreadable right?!

I did try the fried calamari that we ordered though.  It was a little more chewy than I like it, but it was good.

Ahhh.....one glass of La Crema Pinot.  Really good.

Calamari gone.

Dominic ordered minestrone soup which he said was really good.

I ordered the spinach salad which came topped with mushrooms and panchetta.  It was okay.  I don't like limp spinach, must have been the warm mushrooms - I don't recall the menu mentioning that the spinach salad was served warm....not sure.  But I was glad to get some extra greens into my system.

For an entree, I chose the salmon special which was topped with sun dried tomatoes, capers and a light lemon butter sauce.  Paired with fresh veggies and some potatoes.  I really like salmon and this dish was pretty good.  Dominic ordered linguine with clams in a white sauce but my photo was completely missing from my camera this morning!  I'm not sure what happened to it?! He liked his dish.

We shared a dessert.  I thought the Chocolate Raviolis looked good and something we have never tried before, so we ordered those.

Chocolate pasta filled with ricotta, white chocolate, Kahlua, and brown sugar with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.  The raviolis are fried and therefore crispy.  When you dig into one, the ricotta mixture oozes out.  I liked them and Dominc didn't, he thought they tasted too much like ricotta for a dessert.

After dinner we decided to head over to Kodiak Jack's for some prime people watching and maybe dancing. It had been years since we had been to this place. 

Barry the bartender has been bar tending at Kodiak's for many, many years.  It was early in the night and therefore slow in the bar so Barry and Dominic got to catch up a little bit.

We definitely scored on the people watching!  Because look what type of party they were hosting last night.  Not really our thing, but it made for great people watching.

Some line dancing....

Dominic had a cocktail, I didn't.....still full from dinner.

They also had Karaoke going on where we heard the good, the bad and the terrible. But I give people credit for doing it, I'm definitely not brave enough.  SO entertaining.

The DJ.

No bull riding action.....but it was still early.

Said 'Bye' to Captain Morgan on our way out.

It was only 9 p.m. and we didn't want to go home yet so we headed over to Graziano's which is a delicious Italian restaurant and bar.

The Lemon Drop I drank, but shouldn't have.

I only had the two drinks all night, but I woke up with the biggest headache this morning.  Luckily a couple of ibuprofen cured it in about 30 minutes.

Gotta go pack.  We're leaving for vacation in the morning.  No wi-fi available...Oh No!  But don't worry, I've scheduled some good blog posts for you to read and view while I'm away (if my blog host doesn't mess up with the automatic publish).  A few of them have to do with Grossi family history and some really cool photos circa 1940's - 50's.  I hope you enjoy them!

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