New Vendor Alert

I'm happy to welcome Crystalyn Kae to the Petaline family! Crystalyn is a super gal who makes gorgeous (vegan) purses:




Choose your color and choose your favorite vintage fabric. These Soiree Drawstring bags are a limited edition!

Apparently, big bags are this Fall season's handbag trend and these beauties fit the bill perfectly.

Mexico

The mister and I got away for our belated honeymoon and prebaby vacation last week. We went to the Los Cabos area. We stayed at Marbella en la Playa. It was a gorgeous hotel:






It was infernally hot - but we had some incredible moments together. Very romantic.

The highlight was a meal that we had at Don Emiliano in San jose del Cabo. The chef is the head of the local Slow Food movement and she uses many Pre-Hispanic and local ingredients.




We chose the Prix Fixe menu that consisted of:

Sliver thin octopus with cilantro oil - so tender and delicate
Salsa Fresca with tomatillos and cheese
Sopa Seca (dry soup) with vermicelli, chorizo and chiles
Ancho chile relleno with shrimp and chorizo with red beans
Chile glazed beef with hibiscus sauce and tequilla apples
Mexican chocolate tart and flan for dessert

It was SOOOOOOOOO delish, it was killing me not to have the accompanying wines, i'll bet they were as exquisite as the food.

Big Butterfly Belly

Garden Harvest

Here are some (blurry) pics of our garden harvest:

First Annual Harvest Dinner

Labor Day marked our First Annual Harvest Dinner. We had some amazing food and some even more amazing friends over to create and enjoy a meal from our garden. Our friend Mike came over and he and the mister spent the day cooking and exploring the Carniceria in our neighborhood. Mike taught the mister how to make pasta al fresco on a slab of marble that will soon be my new kitchen counter.

Here's a shot of the mister and Mike and a very attentive pug:


The tortelli process:





The filling was zucchini and yellow squash.

Fettucini from the leftover pasta dough.


Mike put some of the other leftover dough on the grill which crisped up to an amazing flatbread.

We all had such an great day and the food turned out delicious. A great way to end the summer.