Running, Wine Tasting, Boxing and Cooking - One Busy Mother's Day Weekend!

This was a wonderful weekend of wine, food and celebrating my moms.

It started yesterday with a 7.5-mile run. Kate, Ciela and I are preparing to run Bay to Breakers next weekend - a 15K in San Francisco.

Next was a trip to the mountains with my mom and sister. We didn't actually make it up to Julian, but we had lots of fun on the way.

Heading up Highway 67, we decided to stop at the Schwaesdall Winery in Ramona. If you haven't been there, it has a cute little tasting room and a patio overlooking the vineyard.



This chicken came right up to me!

We worked up an appetite tasting wine and headed across the street to Daniel's for some pizza. I ordered a pizza with no cheese for the first time and it was actually pretty good! Sure, it would have been better with cheese, but I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would.

The food and wine were delicious, but the best part of the day was on the way home when we found the Hall and Oates CD in my mom's car. We cranked it up and sang along. So many good songs - "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)." It was the best!

After that, Pat and I headed to our friends' house to watch the Pacquiao fight. If you haven't heard of him - Pacquiao is a Filipino boxer. And since I'm Filipino by marriage, I am a big fan. :) I don't really know that much about boxing, but Pacquiao always wins.

We celebrated with Filipino food, Red Horse Filipino beer and Pacquiao t-shirts. It was a potluck so we brought lumpia - some meat and some veggie. Oh - and he won again!

Today, the celebrations continued with another potluck at Pat's mom's house. We made a bunch of stuff including vegan pancit bihon - a filpino noodle dish. Here's how I did it.

Vegan Pancit Bihon
8 ounces bihon noodles
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cabbage
1 green onion
6 medium carrots
3 stalks celery
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup veggie broth
Soy sauce to taste

Soak the noodles for 10 minutes. Saute the veggies and then add the broth. Stir in the noodles, add the soy sauce and voila - done! You serve it with lemon wedges (or calamansi - little Filipino citrus fruits) for squeezing on top.

I also got a cooking demonstration from Pat's mom on how to make bibingka mochiko. Its a Filipino dessert made from rice flour and coconut, milk, sugar and butter.

She is so used to making it without measuring anything that it was easier for her to show me how to do it than tell me. I watched closely and wrote it all down. It was a very special bonding experience with my new mother in law.

She gave me the rice flour you use to make it and I'm excited to try and make a vegan version.

On the way home, we saw this amazing sunset.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you enjoyed yours!!