Bostonians in NorCal

Here in Berkeley for a Friday, my Dad and Stepmom joined the NorCalAllens for music class.

Near the end, Daphne decided to go hang out with her grandfather.

We had a nice family dinner on this Friday. Petenice, of the SoCalAllens, was up for some IBM business and we invited our cousins too. That's Julie and Dillon on the right, relatives from Ohio, the Heart of America (be nice to them, they'll decide your next president). Susan and I worked together in the kitchen to great effect. We made creamy, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted carrots with shallots, golden tofu and a beautiful mushroom sauce with homemade fresh herb/mushroom broth and tomato paste base. You can see the parsley that we used to add color and a fresh amoma. There were many empty plates after all was said and done.

Another food treat, Zachary's pizza. We had the mushroom and spinach deep dish pie. There's no reason to get anything else (PS--the secret to their tomato sauce is adding nice nutmeg to the sauce).