Get in your car and drive...

Came across this picture the other day and it brought smiles.  The two of us (Jill & Kari) are at the end (standing next to each other in the fuschia top and the turquoise top).  The other gals are our cousins Heidi and Heather and the middle gal is our sister-in-law, Meagan.  The five of us have had some good times together.  This particular picture was taken during a road trip to Napa.  Fun, fun, fun.  While we had a great time wine-tasting, shopping, and enjoying the great weather, some of our favorite memories (and manic giggles) from this trip came from our time inside a car.  Yep, that's right:  inside a car!  

Road trips rule.  They are relatively cheap when you have a car-full sharing the fuel bill, and there are so many memories to be made!  The United States is a big, beautiful country and you only need a road trip with good friends to remind you of all the great places out there.  Here is a great article on Ten Great American Road Trips.  Of course, there are thousands of roads just begging to be discovered, so you needn't limit yourself to the trips in the article.  You also don't need to do an overnight road trip.  Sometimes, a road trip consists of one day, a picnic basket, an ipod full of travelin' tunes, and a map (or, if you're like our husbands, no map---just "intuition").  

Summer is rapidly approaching...why not plan a road trip for a couple days this summer?  Yes, while we know that spontaneity adds a certain something, the truth is that not everyone can do spur-of-the-moment trips.  Start planning now for a summer road trip---take lots of pictures and be sure to share them with us!

Little Traditions...

Sometimes, it is the little things that are really the most fun. In our family, we have many small traditions that make spending time together even more enjoyable. For example, on girls' weekend every year, we exchange "home-made" CD's. Every woman makes enough copies of a fun, mixed CD to hand out, and everyone goes home with lots of new music to enjoy.

When we were younger, our zany mother would create elaborate scavenger hunts for everyone to play together at family gatherings. Whoever wanted to play would split into teams and have a lot of fun trying to find Barbie, (who was usually tied to a tree in the back of the orchard.)

This New Year, spend some time thinking of some of your family's favorite little things to do together, and consider adding some new ones! These small traditions are the things that create lasting memories. We here at the Babs Blog wish you a very memorable 2009!

January Picnics

(In the top photo, from the left: Our fabulous sister-in-law Meagan, Jill, Jill's hubby Adam, our brother Matt, Kari, and Kari's hubby Robert).

Okay, we admit it...living in California has perks. The weather allows us to do fun things outside all year. Here's a couple photos from a winter picnic we went on. With Dad and Mom in Liberia this year, we needed to break tradition and do something new for our holiday celebration. So, the six of us packed into a rented minivan (none of us owns a car big enough for six people!) and headed to the Paso Robles wine region here in California, on the Central Coast. We had a fabulous day winetasting and enjoying crisp, clear winter weather. Perhaps our favorite part, though, was our impromptu lunch picnic at one of our favorite wineries, Halter Ranch. The kind ladies in the tasting room encouraged us to use the spacious porch of the beautiful Victorian farmhouse that graces the property. So we sat, spread out all of our goodies, and enjoyed a perfect lunch together.

You can see from our spread that we had more than enough. And it was all easy stuff: A variety of hard and soft cheeses, some sliced salami, proscuitto, crackers, fresh bread, hummus, mediterranean olives, pepper jelly, cut raw veggies, and a bottle of local wine. All of this was thrown into an icechest for the day, and when we were ready for lunch, it was ready in about five minutes. Easy---and delicious!

You may not live near a fantastic wine region like we do (yes, we are spoiled by wine country, fantastic mountains, the ocean---anything we want is within an hour or two. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!) and you may not have very nice weather right now---going outside might not be an option! But, if you are intimidated by the idea of hosting people because you're not a gourmet cook, consider bringing our wine country picnic inside your home! You need only browse a Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, or your local supermarket to find sliced meats and cheeses, gourmet crackers, fresh-baked breads, exotic spreads, and yummy wine. Take it all home, throw it on some cutting boards or platters, and let your guests help themselves. It's the easiest thing ever!

If you are in an area where you can enjoy the scenery this January, consider packing a picnic and getting out of the house! Our family is very adept at the picnic thing----we love it! We've sat on tailgates in the snow and shared hot chocolate and Mom's famous ham buns. We've sat on tree stumps in Dad's almond orchard and have wolfed down peanut butter and jelly. We've sat on blankets on the beach and enjoyed local deli sandwiches. Picnics are fun because they offer a change of scenery. Even, sometimes, in January!

What's Cookin'?

Veterans Day Weekend is an important weekend to us. A tradition was started by Babs that once a year a group of very special ladies would join together for an annual "Girls Weekend." We keep that tradition going even though this year Mom (Babs) could not join us. We know she was thinking about us from Liberia, probably sharing a story or two about former Girls Weekends with Dad. This year, Girls Weekend was held in San Francisco and we attended a wonderful cooking class as our "main activity." (A special thanks to Aunt Cathy and to Terri for making all the fun arrangements!) Our group keeps growing as marriages happen---(if you marry one of "our guys," you automatically have to endure Girls Weekend!) This year, Lindsey joined us for her first Girls Weekend (she married into the group this past September---hurray!) Lindsey actually made all the cute aprons you see in the photo above. What a nice surprise that was! So, not only did we learn some cooking tips, but we all looked pretty darn cute while we did it, thanks to Lindsey. :)
We enjoyed our cooking class in the home of Emily Dellas who owns First Class Cooking. What a wonderful treat this experience was! Emily was kind, warm, and definitely patient. She was full of great tips---secrets about ingredients and cooking utensils. The menu was delicious and all of us left with the recipes---and the confidence to try them again. We had roasted corn chowder with jalapeno, a butternut squash gratin (to die for!), pomegranate-glazed pork tenderloin, and we finished off with a decadent creme brulee. It was a very fun evening!

We hope this post encourages you to do two things:
First of all, gather the beautiful women in your life and begin a yearly Girls Weekend. We do something different every year, but it's really the getting together and having a weekend of good, old-fashioned belly laughs that makes it special.

Secondly, if you are in the San Francisco area, look up Emily Dellas and arrange a cooking class! Her website is at First Class Cooking, and you'll see lots of options for classes. It was a wonderful evening and we all learned so much. If you don't live near San Francisco and you aren't looking to take a trip to the City by the Bay, look in your immediate area for opportunities to take a private cooking class with your girlfriends!

Thank you, Emily, for a wonderful evening!


Above, Emily teaches the group some tricks for cooking a perfect pork tenderloin.


Our sister-in-law Meagan with her sister, Katie---washing hands before getting them in the ingredients!



Jill, serving up delicious corn chowder.



Sisters-in-law Lindsey and Katie. (Lindsey is responsible for those darling aprons!)




Jill and cousin Heidi showing us their stirring skills. (Or, Jill was stirring and Heidi was supervising...)



Cousin Heather, washing the leeks. Or at least holding the bowl for Meagan...



Heidi, rewarding herself for something...must be her supervising skills...



Terri, Meagan, and Jill



Emily teaches Heather how to properly cut an onion

Heather, attempting the cutting skills on her own



Emily teaching the group how to get the good stuff out of a vanilla bean



Terri and Jill at the helm of the stove



Heidi, serving up the creme brulee



Katie, showing her torch skills



Meagan does her best Julia Childs impersonation



The leftovers of our labor...amazing butternut squash gratin and pork tenderloin



Creme brulee...delicious!