Dream Dinners is yummy for your tummy

and super duper easy too! I'll be honest, I am not big fan of cooking the day-in-day-out dinner when you are short on time, ideas and ingredients. I find it irritating to try to scrape together a meal that is not only tasty and healthy but also out of stuff I already have at home. This exercise usually leads to a dinner of cereal or toast or chunk of cheese (or I'll even admit to having a tablespoon of peanut butter with a glass of milk for dinner once).

But these days I rarely find myself in that predicament... thanks to Dream Dinners! You may or may not have heard about Dream Dinners and I am here to tell you, and be a testament, to this company. Ryan and I were introduced to them about 2 years ago by our good friend, Holly Todd. She and others in our circle were raving about them and when she had a Taste of Dream Dinners party (don't worry, it's not like the dreaded Tupperware party), we were quite interested to see what it was all about. We learned that Dream Dinners is all about preparing fresh meals in a setting of a commercial kitchen using top quality ingredients already provided for us. You prepare a month worth of meals that you take home and freeze and then cook throughout the month. And guess what??? Someone else cleans up after you!!! Woo hoo! You absolutely cannot beat that. We signed up on the spot for this fantastic service.

So, here we are, 2 years later still loyal customers of Dream Dinners. We have introduced several people to the fabulousness of Dream Dinners and hope to introduce more. Once you see how easy and delicious the meals are, you never want to go back to having to prepare dinners the "old fashioned" way.

We had our most recent Dream Dinners session last Friday, couples night. That's right, you can bring your spouse and make meals together! And on couples night they have wine and chair massages. It's really a lot of fun. Anyway, the current menu has my ALL TIME FAVORITE meal, the Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread. Ok, it may not be the healthiest option on the menu but it's a lot better than grabbing a burger and fries! We had to make 3 of them and we've already eaten one. Other tasty meals we made included chicken yakatori, creamy chicken risoto, arroz con pollo, and crispy coconut chicken. I cannot wait to dig into these dinners. YUM! And the thought of how easy it is just cannot be beat.

There are no more struggles in our household of what to have for dinner... Dream Dinners to the rescue! Our local Dream Dinners is located in San Luis Obispo at Ferrini Square, give them a call to set up your appointment at 805-786-4852 and tell 'em Amy sent ya!

Newport Beach Wedding Weekend

Well, the big weekend for Graham and Amber had arrived! A large group of us headed from the Central Coast down to Newport Beach to help celebrate their big wedding weekend. Friday morning (the 16th) we drove down to the OC and actually had decent traffic on the way, but we made sure we left by 10 am to beat what jams might be on the 101 and 405. It was pretty much smooth sailing as long as you are through LA by 2.

The hotel we all stayed at was the Ramada Costa Mesa. It's a decent place to stay and you cannot beat the rate, $89 per night (but that was a group rate). The beds are pretty comfy, the room was large, and there is a huge vanity in the bathroom. The hotel is set up more of a motel where you park in front of your room. We heard a lot of noise from passers-by and you could hear people walking above you, but all in all considering the price and location it was a good hotel. Oh yeah, there is pool and small hot tub too! Oh, and a mini fridge in your room! That's always a plus.

There is plenty around the hotel to walk to, a Trader Joes, a pizza place, a bar, Denny's, Del Taco and more. Or you can hop in your car and be down at the beach in a matter of minutes. Or prefer shopping? Fashion Island is minutes away by car also. They have a restaurant, The Yard House, where we had a party Friday night. They had fantastic appetizers and pretty good drinks (just don't order a mudslide, the bartenders don't quite know how to make it on the rocks). But it was a great time mingling with the wedding party and guests Friday night.

Saturday was a day to relax, shop, hit the beach, and get ready for the wedding. We were all shuttled from the hotel to the yacht Athena at Newport harbor. It was a fantastic ship. They really did a nice job of hosting a wedding and reception on board. The food and service were very good. And I am just so happy for Amber and Graham and wish them many years of happiness together.

Sunday, those of us available, wound up at the Hodge house for an afternoon of margarita machine and taco man. And, yes, it IS as wonderful as Amber said. Man, those were good tacos. I wish we had him up here in our area! It was nice to mingle with friends and family who were at the wedding again. But the party has to end at some point.... Graham and Amber left for their honeymoon around 7:00 p.m. I sure hope they are enjoying that honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, I can't wait to hear more about it!

Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2010 - Budget Travel

Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2010 - Budget Travel

Quite a few cool destinations on here, some unexpected and some not quite up my alley. But it's nice to know there are good deals to be had out there!

Luxe on the job 4-10-10

Luxe was on the job this past weekend assisting Premier Vein Care (www.premierheartcare.com) with their booth at the casting call for America's Next Top Model in Santa Maria. We had the pleasure of setting up, manning, and tearing down the booth. It was a great feeling to assist such a great company to grow their business while helping those who may need special care for their legs get to a great doctor, Dr. Stevens at Premier Vein Care.

Yes, people watching was darn good at the show, especially when you consider who I like to call "Velvet Lady". Oh boy, was she a doozy! She was late 30's dressed in black velvet head to toe (except for some strange white velvet cowl neck on the dress), white panty hose, silvery grandma sandals, and platinum colored hair that was "bumped up" or teased in the back showing brown roots! Oh boy. She really "stood out" against the many 6' tall beauties strutting around. Let's hope at least one of our Central Coast ladies makes it on to the show!

New explorations in San Francisco

Well, we ventured into the City (that's San Francisco for those of you outside San Luis Obispo) last weekend. We had not been in 10 months so it was a trip long in coming. We stayed in Union Square, our usual haunt, but decided we would be more adventurous and check out different districts we had not been to before. Our drive up on Friday afternoon was long (we had to turn around in Paso and come back home, 45 minute drive, to pick up some critical concert tickets) and traficky. Ugh. And rainy. More ugh. But it's all worth it when you are heading to SF.

Once in the City we made our way to our hotel, The Handlery, right smack dab in the middle of Union Square. The location is ideal. The hotel is old but has been recently renovated and is clean and comfortable. They also have their own parking garage. It's best if you get a park and stay package rather than ala carte for parking at $38 a night - yikes! Ryan booked us an Executive Room, and it was nicely appointed and had a comfy bed. We had windows looking out onto Geary St. and they even opened! The room had a mini fridge and a nice strong hot shower. If you want a detailed review, you can check mine out at http://www.tripadvisor.com. So for now I can tell you I would recommend this as a clean and comfy hotel in a good location for a good price.

Friday night we had intended to go to this "moving" restaurant. It's a place that is a mystery and you don't know where it is until you call a number and they tell you where to go and you enter through a door that says "No Entry". Unfortunately, the phone number was no longer in service so then we were on our own to figure out something else for the evening. We started off with a cocktail (or two) in the room and headed out to an Irish pub across the street from the parking garage O'Farrell. Had a Magners cider there, oh and a buttery nipple, and we headed down to Market Street. We took a cab to the area where the Castr0, Mission, and SoMa districts intersect and had dinner at place rumored to have a bacon and egg pizza. We showed up at Star Belly and it was very crowded even though it was well after 9 p.m. We were seated in 5 or 10 minute at the bar. This bar serves only beer and wine so we tasted a few beers and settled on a light ale which was not bad considering I am not a beer drinker. We asked the bartender to order us the bacon and egg pizza and he seemed a little confused but said the kitchen could make it for us. When it came out it was not really bacon and egg but maybe more of a green goddess pizza, regardless, it was very tasty! You can tell the ingredients are fresh and dough is handmade. I'd probably go back but try something else on the menu, they had a wide variety of entrees and appetizers, mostly along Italian tastes.

After Star Belly we decided to head back to the hotel but stopped for a drink at Zuni in the SoMa area. They were slowing down for the night but some were still eating dinner and ordering dessert after 10:30. We ordered Bacardi and Diet Coke but no Bacardi here, your choice is Cruzan. It is a lighter sweeter rum but did the trick. After our night cap we started walking down Market Street toward Union Square but we had come a lot further than we thought and decided to take a cab the rest of the way. It was cold and we were quite drunk and it was quite late. We thought hitting the sack for an early day was a good idea.

Saturday Ryan had us head out to the Filmore district (Western Addition) for late breakfast at Gussies Chicken and Waffles. This was some good food! We had the cornmeal waffles and Ryan chicken wings and I had buttermilk chicken tenders. Yum! If you are looking for some true southern food, you've got to check this place out. After this huge meal we walked a little to a bus stop to head to Golden Gate Park. We have been to the City many times and never been here, so today was the day! Once we got there we walked all around and it is truly a beautiful park. We decided not to hit the museums on this trip but went to the Japanese Tea Garden and it is quite beautiful.

Then we walked back through Golden Gate Park over to the Haight Ashbury area. This was a lot of fun! We had excellent people watching during this part of our excursion. We'd pop in at a bar for a drink (Punch Bowl, specializing in rum drinks, with a feel of the Caribbean), then we'd visit a vintage shop and oooh and aaah at the great items for sale. We stopped in at a gay bar, Trax, where they have $1 schnapps shots, then poked around in an awesome clubwear/costume/drag clothes shop. What a fun day! It's full of energy and fun stuff! You can pretty much make a whole day in this area.

After we'd had enough for the day we hopped on a bus and headed back to Union Square. We did a little bit of shopping and the ducked in to Lori's Diner for an early dinner. Why Lori's? I wanted an omelet for dinner and they had breakfast all the time. It was ok, it's touristy and the service is so so. But I got my bacon and cheese omelet.

Then it was time to rest the feet and back to the Handlery. Before we knew it, Ryan and I had fallen asleep! We were just supposed to rest a little and then shower up for our concert that night at Ruby Skyy. Ooops. We slept for about an hour and a half. But once we realized we still had a whole night ahead of us, we had some absinthe (that always helps you get going) and started getting ready. It was fun to get really dressed up for an night out. It seems everywhere is so casual these days that it doesn't make sense to dress up. But we looked HOT this night. We had only a block walk to Ruby Skyy and were able to go right in since Ryan bought the tickets ahead of time. The show was for the debut of the Crystal Method's new album. There was a dj on before CM who was pretty darn good. Eventually CM came on and they were pretty good but a lot of hype. We stayed until 2ish and then headed home. The club was still hopping at that time but we'd had enough.

On the walk home we had our obligatory post-Ruby Skyy pizza. We found the "sideways" pizza place again and got one to go. It's always packed in this place but it is truly great pizza. "Sideways" pizza? Yes, there is a story to that.... the first time I took Ryan to Ruby Skyy we stopped at this very pizza place and got a pizza to go. We were very drunk and in walking back to the hotel Ryan carried it as you might carry a stack of school books, on end, down at your side in one hand. So when we got to the hotel and opened the box all the toppings slid to one side of the pizza and lumped on that half. It's quite a funny and memorable story.

Anyway, the next morning was Easter and check out day. We checked out and had the front desk hold our bags while we had breakfast and shopped a little more. By now the rain started again. We went half a block down to a diner that claimed to have "the best breakfast in SF", well, we had to see if that claim was true. We got seated at the counter and this place is VERY busy. Breakfast took a long time but we got to watch the cooks "do their thing" right in front of us. It's amazing all they have to keep straight. Breakfast was quite tasty but I'm not sure if the long wait warranted it. I might try it again but during a less busy time. After breakfast it was on to Chinatown for a specific item and then the rain really started. Once we had the item (one of those cats with arm up that is supposed to bring you good luck in business) we went back to the hotel and loaded the car and started on the journey home.

I can say that I'm very glad we checked out some other areas of the City. It's really an interesting and fun city, one of my favorites, and I can't wait to go back and explore more new places there!

Helping people makes me feel good

I truly mean that! Helping people simplify their lives, be more productive, and have more free time makes me feel good. And doing it for our own business gives it all new meaning.

However, when you have to do this type of work for others, at your own expense, it really sucks. Believe me, I know. You can work your butt off, making the bosses life easier while he pockets the profits, meanwhile the stress cortisol machine is pumping away making you fatter and more depressed by the day.

Well, I am happy to say that starting Luxe and helping our clients make their lives better is so gratifying. And I love helping each and every client in whatever task they need help with. We meet interesting people, get to do all sorts of tasks from travel planning to being secret shoppers to helping businesses when the owners go on vacation, and make people happier by taking a small load off their shoulders. I look forward to helping many more people!