Monday, May 11, 2009

Rice Canyon Spa - Mother's Day Special

This year I woke up to a quiet house. A husband making breakfast.....but not for me! He did make me a cup of coffee (when I asked). Okay, admittedly I have been off coffee recently. Been trying to start on the Flat Belly Diet (more about this on later postings). Coffee had been a no no for the first part of the diet. After my breakfast of cereal and fresh strawberries we headed out to my Mother's Day Treat - Rice Canyon Spa.

You mean you have not heard about Rice Canyon Spa? My, my but it is the latest and greatest..... actually a well kept secret. As we step into the Rice Canyon, I am laughing and teasing my husband. After being married to each other almost half of our lives at this point (being married at 25 and hitting the golden 50 now) and giving him two beautiful and wonderful children I am treated, not to Canyon Ranch Spa but to Rice Canyon Spa!! Rice Canyon is a beautiful canyon that
runs through our neighborhood with walking, hiking and biking trails. For the first in a long time, I had walked the canyon with husband on Friday. We had a great time. So on this Mother's Day we did so again. We did a 4 mile hike/ walk , talking, laughing, remembering and planning our future. Being us.

We talked about our children. Dear daughter L will off to college in less than 3 months. Our Son A who will be a freshman in high school in fall........and of course his heartbreak. He is heartbroken over the breakup with his girlfriend of over 5 months. How as parents you just have to be there to support them but they have to go through these moments themselves. Of how to talk to them and hoping that some of what you say reaches them. The fuddy duddy parents we all are no matter how "cool" we think we are. Grateful for the close relationship we have with our children who talk to us. Motherhood is wonderful. While it does not define me in total, it definitely is an essense of my being.

It felt good and healthy to walk. A great start to Mother's Day. Home to children who by now are awake and hungry (ha, ha do you get a picture of hung
ry squawking little birdies greeting mommy and daddy). Since we did not make any reservation for Mother's Day at any place - typical of us, we get into the car and start driving. We decide not to go any of our regular Asian restaurant haunts in Convoy because they would be packed. We decided to go to Kanpai our neighborhood Japanese restaurant for their famous Chanpon - a soupy noodle dish and sushi. We were just in time before similarly bright thinking families filled the restaurant. Katsudon for me, Spicy Ramen for hubby, Chanpon, no ebi and bean sprout for daughter and Seaweed Ramen for Son. Spicy Tuna, Spicy White Tuna, Spicy Baby Lobster Roll, Unagi, Salmon Skin Roll and Yellowtail Sushi. Yum. Excellent! Very full. The bonus is because Kanpai is local we can go home and sleep!!!

Put on the DVR and watch recorded show. Love DVR. We now watch our fa
vorite show when we have time instead of when they come on. Liberating. We can even set the DVR to record the shows from our cell phones!!! Ghost Whisperers, NCIS, Numbers and for me, the F Word. Of course, I wake up on the comfy couch to hear by husband snoring!! Ha,ha.... I admit to earlier waking up to a start to realize that I must have fallen asleep and hoping I was not snoring myself.Good food can do this to you.

Out to REI for the sale and to buy stuff for hubby climb in the summer. Left him there and wandered down to the shops. Nothing interesting so as usual to Barnes and Noble I ended. Bought a scrapbooking magazine and Donna Kato's book - the Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques. Yes, Mom I am thinking about maybe working with polymer clay. I still have the hugh untouched stash I brought when you were last here. Hopefully, it will not just be an addition to my library and I will actually have something to show for it.


Want to guess where we went for dinner? Okay, not fair- too easy. We went to Helen's Kitchen. I grilled up some NY Strip Steaks together with some tomatoes and zucchini. But the star of the dinner came from Helen's Kitchen Garden- Broccoli Rabe. For those of you who don't know what Broccoli Rabe is, it is a Italian green, slightly bitter but wonderful. For Malaysian, it looks a bit like Choy Sum/ Sawi. It's name is misleading it is nothing like broccoli. It is a leafy green. It has flowers like Choy Sum and should be eaten just when flower shoots form. I had to harvest all of it!!! Shallots, garlic, olive oil, salt and chilli flakes. Truly Yum! The next crop of Broccoli Rabe is already in the beds. So 30 days from now, harvest and repeat!!

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