OLDchella - Part One

Every year, a group of our friends head out to the California desert to attend Coachella. Many of them go every single year, while my husband and I make it out when we can. Sometimes only my husband goes, while other times we've had to cut the trip short. This year, because the planets aligned just right—and my mom was available to watch my son for five days—we were both able to go and stay the entire time.

The theme this year: OLDchella ... when the average age of festival-goers is almost half as yours!

We drove up on Thursday with a couple of friends who flew in from the Bay Area, arriving at the hotel in the late afternoon. This year we stayed at the Marriott Shadow Ridge, sharing a two-bedroom suite with the couple we drove up with. The suite had plenty of space, and our bedroom had a little patio that overlooked a quiet stream.

Most of our group arrived earlier, so the party was already well underway by the time we got there. (Translation: drink up to catch up.) The group always goes out for a big pre-Coachella dinner on Thursday night; this year our reservation was at 8pm at Cliffhouse Grill & Bar in La Quinta, so I had time to drink a couple of Bloody Marys and a glass of wine before we had to pile into the huge van that would take us to and from the restaurant. I had a glass of Zinfandel with my sugar-spiced salmon, followed by coffee and their ridiculously rich Happy Point S'mores for dessert. Between me and two friends, I don't think we even ate half of it. You know you're old when you've got a massive sweet tooth and can't even finish your dessert.

After dinner, the party continued at the hotel in one our friends' suite, where my arm was twisted (with very little resistance) to have a shot of tequila (meh) and Absolut Whipped Vodka (yum). By that point, the room was definitely spinning. I think I switched to water, but I honestly don't remember much after that second shot.

To be continued. Next up, Coachella Day 1.

Vegas for Old People

So what do married people in their late 30s do in Vegas? In my world, the answer is: EAT. Weekend "benders" now involve obscene amounts of food instead of alcohol. And I'm fine with that.

Whenever we go to Vegas we try to stay someplace new. This time we ended up at The Venetian. I like the fact that all their rooms are suites, most with a large sunken living room and an L-shaped couch. Our suite had a view of the Strip hotel pools below.

Our King bed.

The first order of business upon arriving on Saturday afternoon was to get some food. After failed attempts at Noodle Asia at the hotel (closed for renovation) and i♥burgers at the Palazzo side (long wait time), we ended up at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. We all opted for the day's specials: lasagna for my husband and a friend, ravioli for another friend, and artichoke pizza for me. All the food was incredibly YUM.

Evil, but divine.

While the  guys drank Italian beers, we drank blood orange cosmopolitans.

Potent, but oh so yummy.

After lunch, we raced around a bit so the guys could secure a place to watch football on Sunday. Take note: if you want a reservation at Lagasse's Stadium, book a couple of months in advance. (They'll just laugh at you if you walk up and ask for seats the day before.) While at a pit stop at the Wynn to figure out what to do, Barry the bartender at the Stratta bar concocted a Blackberry Bliss for me.

Fresh blackberries count as a serving of fruit!

After finally securing a spot for Sunday, we did some light gambling before dinner at Tao. The place was busy, which wasn't surprising since it was Saturday night. We had reservations at 6:30pm, although I don't think we got seated until closer to 7:30pm. I do like the fact that they had a lobby with plenty of couches and drink service while we waited.

We sat next to this guy.

We opted to go family-style for our food, sharing everything between the six of us. For starters we got Lobster Wontons with Shittake Ginger Broth, Kobe Tartare Tempura, and Pork Potstickers with Chile Sesame Glaze. They were all very good, but I was surprised at how much I loved those mushrooms that came with the wontons! For our main dishes, we got Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass, Kung Pao Chicken, and Wasabi Crusted Filet Mignon with Tempura of Onion Rings. Again, all were simply scrumptious, but  if I had to pick a "winner" it would have to be the Chilean Sea Bass. That glaze was to die for!

Even though the plates weren't very big, I think we ordered just the right amount for our group. Their dessert (and tea) menu looked very promising — especially that Lemongrass Creme Brûlée — but the rest of our group wanted to venture someplace else. We ended up at a bakery that was also in the Canal Shops where I picked up a few small pieces of pastry.

Sunday was mostly about football, Vegas-style. We got a spot at Blondies in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. While the guys got out there to catch the early games, I took my time to get ready and met them there around lunchtime. I got some wings and a Bloody Mary, which were good, but I think all the spiciness did a number on me because I felt bloated and gassy for most of the day afterwards. Later, for the afternoon games, I got a ginormous margarita and some donut dippers. The dippers were great, but I think they forgot to put the alcohol in my margarita. For something that large, I should have been stumbling over myself, but I felt surprisingly sober.

After Blondies, I headed back to The Venetian to get a hot stone massage at Canyon Ranch SpaClub. For one thing, the facility is HUGE with lots of hallways to walk through. I was a little bummed that I didn't have all day to just laze about and check everything out. My massage therapist, Tanya F., did a lovely job though and those 80 minutes seemed to fly by. (Maybe because I kind of dozed off?) I did have time to check out the Salt Grotto and the Wave Room though; the Salt Grotto was nice, warm, and potentially relaxing if it weren't for the chatty couple who were already in there when I stepped in. I wish a staff member poked in to tell the guy to use his inside voice. Oh, and to stop snorting his snot. Not exactly the sound I wanted to hear while attempting to relax. The Wave Room, thankfully, was nice and quiet, and the moving water images projected on the ceiling added a nice touch. Overall, not a bad experience, but I'd have to rank this place third behind the spas at the Wynn and Aria which were much more Zen for me.

After my time at the spa, it was time to stuff our faces again. This time, we headed over to SushiSamba over at the Palazzo. I love the idea of mixing Japanese, Brazilian, and Peruvian cuisine, and they certainly had plenty of offerings to satisfy anyone's curiosity. Our servier recommended a drink called Sad Samurai for me, which is how I felt after trying it since it didn't live up to the fruity concoctions from Otto and Stratta the day before. We all decided to get our own dishes this time, and I opted to try some of their Samba Rolls (Maya, Green Envy, and a special Kobe Beef).

Kobe, Maya, and Green Envy Rolls.

My husband and one of our friends got the five-meat Churrasco plates, which, if you've never tried it, is a shit-ton of food. These guys are full-fledged carnivores, and even they will tell you one plate would have been good enough for both of them. I guess considering how small the plates were at Tao the night before, they assumed these would be similar, and it would have been nice if our server warned them about how much meat was involved in those dishes.

Five-Meat Churrasco with dipping sauces.

That aside, the food was pretty damn tasty, and it was a shame we couldn't finish it all. After dinner (and a quick change into looser clothing), a few of us stayed up for a bit of gaming before calling it a night.

Monday was our last day in Vegas and we had time for one more meal. After rave reviews from another couple of in our group, we decided to try Bouchon Bistro off the 10th floor in the Venetian Tower. This time we were warned that the plates are fairly generous, so we split a Pain au Chocolat and a Croque Madame with Pomme Frites.

Dip the frites in the mornay sauce, yum!

Now, we're back in LA and reality. I'm slightly poorer and heavier now, but overall it was a lovely trip spent with good friends, new friends, and great food.

Cooking: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (with chocolate chips)

I didn't do any cooking today since we have plenty of leftovers in the fridge, but I felt an itch to bake something tonight. I got busy in the kitchen right after I put my son down early for bed (since he didn't nap today).

Late night baking.

This must be one of the easiest cookie recipes I've ever tried. In fact, it was so easy that I was worried it would come out tasting like cardboard. Thankfully, they came out quite yummy!

I have this giant bag of Coach's Oats in my pantry, so I wanted to see what it would be like in cookies. Since they're closer in texture to steel-cut oats than rolled oats, I think they gave the cookies a lighter crunch. The smaller pieces of oats, rather than flat blades of rolled oats, seem to mix in more uniformly with the batter, so you get an even, "oaty" texture all around. Does that even make sense? I guess I sometimes find that when using rolled oats, I get small chunks of oats mashed together in a cookie, while other parts of the cookie seem oat-free.

This might have to be my new go-to recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm already thinking of different ways to make them. Adding coconut flakes, using dried cranberries instead of raisins, peanut butter chips instead of chocolate, etc. Thank you, Jamie Oliver, for a super easy and yummy recipe!

Cooking: Slow-Cooked Lime Chicken & Rice

I'm trying to use my slow-cooker more often these days since I like not having a lot of extra things to clean up at the end of the day. Slow-cooking allows me to prep things in the morning or even while my kid's napping — easier on my sanity to clean up then than at the end of the day when I have other things I need to do.

Tonight's dinner was a lime chicken and rice dish I found on allrecipes.com. I heeded the some of the user comments and made a few alterations by adding extra garlic and cilantro; and since I only have regular, non-instant rice on hand, I added a cup and a half of uncooked rice to the pot with about an hour left of cooking.

I was worried about the salt — on one hand, I love salt, but was afraid it might dry the chicken breast even more. (The chicken did seem a bit dry at the end, even without added salt while cooking.) I ended up adding several generous dashes of kosher salt at the end, just before serving, as well as extra chopped cilantro. My husband said it needed something else, so I gave his (second) serving a few pinches of red pepper flakes. I'll probably try this again another time, but perhaps with even more garlic and/or red pepper flakes.

Cooking: Jamie Oliver's Sausage & Zucchini Carbonara

I finally tried out the Jamie Oliver iPad app last night to make dinner — Sausage and Zucchini Carbonara. (I joked to my husband that I wished we had the technology where a virtual Jamie Oliver would be standing right there in my kitchen while I cooked.)

Effort: mostly painless. The ingredients were easy to get (all from Trader Joe's), while prep and cleanup were easy to manage.

Result: Yum. The zucchini adds a nice, lighter compliment to the sausage and bacon. However, it's still a  fairly heavy dish. The cream and egg in the sauce, along with the pasta, sit quite heavily in your belly afterwards. I made the dish to serve four, and even though my husband took seconds last night, I think there are at least another two to three servings left.