An active, foodie weekend

Sandy Feet Events puts on the Grape Day 5K

This weekend was filled with foodie fun and outdoor activity. Rachel's company, Sandy Feet Events, put on the Grape Day 5K for the Escondido Rotary. It's good to know the owners of companies, because she kindly gave Brian complimentary race entry, and she gave me a free booth to sample my blended chicory drinks and promote my budding company, The Shangri-La Shack.

Since I spent the entire week dealing with some craziness at my current job and starting continuing education classes at the San Diego city college, I hadn't had a chance yet to prepare any marketing materials to pass out or display. Also, since there would be no electricity to serve it hot and because Escondido is usually hot as heck this time of year, I had to prepare the 50+ servings of chicory Friday night so it would be cooled down to serve over ice as Iced Chicory Coffee and Iced Chicory Tea Saturday morning. This made for a seriously long night.

Brian's new uniform

I got home from work and supply shopping after 7pm. Brian had wanted to take me out on a date to celebrate that he just got his dream job with the California Conservation Corps, where he'll be working in the wilderness of San Diego County every day! However, with time ticking by going out just wasn't an option.

Luckily, we had a garden full of produce and a bag of pasta on hand, so I was able to make a simple but flavorful meal of Gluten Free, Dairy Free Pesto Pasta with garden fresh basil, tomatoes, and onions, and a side dish of Roasted Rosemary Butternut Squash from the garden as well. It was a delicious, and hearty meal to get me through what would be a long night and long morning to follow.

roasted rosemary butternut squash

gf, vegan pesto pasta

After finally deciding on the herbal blends to use and after numerous confusing conversions and calculations to make 50 servings of chicory coffee and 20 servings of chicory mate tea, I then discovered it takes 40 minutes to brew 40 cups of coffee in my new commercial size coffee maker. So after about 2 or so hours of meandering around the kitchen, I got to work on making some marketing materials using my mommy's specially painted water color of Shangri-La. I got finished up around 2am and the alarm went off at 4:45am to get us up to Escondido before race check in at 6:30am.

Getting the booth set up

Once we got there, things went really smoothly. Rachel has this race directing thing down to a science. It was an absurdly smooth running event and everyone involved was super nice. The manager of the local market that was donating the breakfast even asked me to bring by my product to the store and he would distribute it for me. How easy was that?!

It was also great to practice talking to people about the product and the company's mission. Plus, I found people's feedback to be really helpful. One big thing I learned...not everyone is excited to have a sugar free beverage. A couple people did ask if there was any sugar to add. While the whole point was to be providing a sugar free, health drink, I think it couldn't hurt to give people the option to add sugar as desired for sampling purposes.

winner of the grape day 5K

So, 16 minutes after the runners all took off, Brian came cruising through the finish line in first place. Way to go Brian! This was pretty special since he had had to cancel 2 races he signed up for this summer due to injuries. Plus, he won a free pair of running shoes, which he desperately needed as he runs his down to shreds almost monthly.

We then went off to celebrate at the Stone Brewery - Brian's fav - which is conveniently located up in Escondido. While they don't have gluten free beer, they did have a gluten free menu, and the waiter assured me that when he puts the order in the computer as allergy to gluten, the chefs all wash their hands and clean all the prep surfaces. I enjoyed a garden salad, cheese plate, and spicy kimchi. Stone's food policy is to buy locally, seasonally, and organic when possible. Although the food was really good, I found it to be way overpriced in my opinion. But their gorgeous garden setting partially made up for the price.

After a not long enough nap, Brian and I finally got to go on our date to celebrate his exciting new job. We first checked out Ray at Night. We met up with some friends and watched an adorable ska band that had us all skankin' on the dance floor. Then we cruised through the galleries to check out the local art.

Hangin with Emily in north park

Skavolutionay performing at Ray at Night

brian sat directly in front of the beer list

I had bought Brian a certificate to another local farm to table, microbrew restaurant called Sessions Public, which is conveniently down the street from our house. So following the gallery walk, we enjoyed round two of microbrew (for Brian) and locally grown, organic food. Brian's vegan plate featured red quinoa, plump tomatoes, and sauted arugula. I got gluten free duck rice wraps and we shared an order of french fries that were fried in a dedicated gluten free fryer! That was my first time having fries in a loooong time, and I think I accidentally ate more of them than Brian.

I definitely recommend Sessions Public for a cozy relaxing place to eat that is good for gluten free. The head chef has been to our house (and drunkenly made us food on fourth of july), and he assured me that when an order goes in for gluten free they clean everything down hard core - he's even fired someone at a previous restaurant for catching them mess up on an allergy order - luckily he caught it before the food went out!

The reunion...a classy joint

Everything caught up to me on Sunday and I didn't get out of bed till nearly noon! Maybe it was the late night jukebox dance party Brian and I had at new fav local dive bar The Reunion, or maybe it was the two and a half hours of sleep from the previous night, but my productivity levels were low. So we enjoyed a lazy Sunday of garden work and beach walking.

It was an amazingly low tide - I think maybe because of the full moon? So we got to do a lot of tide pooling and exploration of the Sunset Cliffs caves. Here are some pretty pics I took with the phone camera.

hike down the cliffs to the secret beach

magical tide pools

beach caves

funny doggy

crab party

We then walked back in the opposite direction and loaded up on groceries from People's. Dinner was a delicious locally made, gluten free vegan, organic pizza crust by Toovaloo topped with homemade pesto, garden tomatoes, and garden shallots. We also enjoyed a liver detoxing salad of roasted rosemary beets, beet greens, carrots, and lemon juice. I will have to get the pizza crust again and take a pic and write a more detailed review soon, because it was really good!

Ah the weekend....can't wait for the next one :)

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