Monday Morning Mix-Up 3/12/2012 With Scoop on Our California Weekend!

As I write this I’m on a plane looking out over gorgeous snow-capped mountains somewhere between California and Chicago.  Unfortunately I’m writing offline because United isn’t hip enough yet to have wifi on their planes.  In Chicago I’ll share another $10 with Mr. O’Hare so I can work online for a while before taking a quick flight over Lake Michigan back to GR.  I can’t wait to crawl into bed with my hubs, and then jump back into the Mom thing in the morning.  Getting away always makes you thankful for those little things and I’m ready for my hugs.  🙂

I had a great time at Expo West and made a lot of contacts with companies. (I’ll tell you more about them soon —  I plan to do some ‘favorites of Expo West’ posts…  Update, here's the first:  Cool stuff! Favorites from Expo West – Part 1)  The best part of the trip was meeting so many really sweet people.

While I didn’t make it to the beach, I did enjoy some great food, of course.  I tried some new things that I wasn’t real sure about trying…

I had escargot dumplings (pictured below) that were really tasty – is there anything that wouldn’t taste good served inside a dumpling?

I also had caviar, which I didn’t care for.  (I don’t love foods that are quite so out-loud with the fishy taste.)

I had this dish, “Sweetbreads with a fried egg on a bed of kimchi”, and it tasted like yummy pork, but get this:  it was pancreas or thyroid gland or some weird icky sounding thing like that.  I also had foie gras, which I’ve had before.  It’s so good that I still can’t believe it’s actually liver.  It tastes like a super flavorful piece of fatty meat. I had it twice this weekend, and this one was served with a little apple tart, cool huh?

Last night I had a great steak served with duck fat fries, but unfortunately they cooked them in canola oil first.  I loooove Béarnaise sauce…

So basically I got to eat all sorts of delicious food!

Besides that I ate a LOT of food on the floor of the show each day from all the companies who were rolling out new products, and I got loads of free loot, too.  I had no idea about this or I’d have brought a much bigger suitcase.

On to a few links and tid-bits for this week…

• In case anyone is wondering, today's pat down leaving California was just as uneventful as the one leaving Grand Rapids, I told a little more about it in the comments at yesterday's post, I'm not normal.
• Remember you have until Wednesday to enter the latest Kitchen Kop giveaway and also meet my assistant, Kimmi!
• I have to admit that I haven't even had time to read this post yet, but the title grabbed me because I know of so many parents who struggle with this issue, so you'll have to let me know what you think:  A commonly missed cause for bedwetting — is the current treatment correct?  (Sorry I can't get the exact link there, I'm not sure if their site is down right now or if my airport internet is acting up…)
• This one drives me crazy — some changes mentioned in the article are great, but the whole milk thing makes my blood boil:  USDA bans whole milk in schools.
• Here's another blood boiler:  Seven Million Pounds of “Pink Slime” Beef Destined for National School Lunch Program.  (Thank you to Elizabeth for sending both of those links to share with you all.)

That's all, they're about to board the plane heading home!  🙂

Have a great week, everyone!