List 96

Love: Having the prospect of a dinner out at Oakland's brand-spanking new Ramen Shop to look forward to when I emerge from my January Clean Program.  It was started by some Chez Panisse vets and is apparently already racking up 90 minute wait times.

Like: The idea of getting an indoor fiddle leaf fig tree, maybe for a corner of our sunny, West-facing dining room.  I saw this example on  Pinterest and like its wide, green leaves.  Plus it would be nice to harvest plump figs later this year without the problem of birds getting to the ripe fruit first.

Discovery: Barrel-aging cocktails without the barrel. Negronis have been off the menu for me this month, which meant it was the perfect time to barrel age a couple in this cool 2-cup glass jar with a bit of barrel wood inside, a very thoughtful gift from my friend Ralph.

barrel-aged cocktail kit found here

Obsession: Healthy grains and vegetables have been my constant companions during this experimental month of strictly clean eating, and I've come to feel satisfied by them in ways I simply wasn't before. So even though I don't have to, next week I imagine making things like roasted vegetable salads with lentils or quinoa, and spaghetti squash instead of pasta, and continuing to crave my new favorite daytime drink, the Energizer from The Plant Cafe - carrots, beets, parsley and ginger.  Clean January will yield to Cleanish February.

Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa recipe

Roasted Fall Vegetables with Lentils recipe

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs recipe

Complaint: That I haven't yet been able to cook from Charles Phan's gorgeous cookbook, which I got for Christmas, because nearly every recipe that catches my eye contains a few verboten ingredients. Still, it was a treat to flip through it this month and dream of things to try come February.

List 89

Love: Rookie Yearbook One, which gathers the best of crazy-talented, crazy-precocious Tavi Gevinson's teen girl site's content from September 2011-May 2012 into one well-designed package. I love Rookie's use of monthly themes("Secrets," "Girl Gang," "Transformation"), its writers' breathless discovery of, and quasi nostalgia for, things I actually did grow up with (the band Heart is "Literally, the best thing ever"), its exploration of the emotions and angst of teen girldom ("How to Approach the Person You Like Without Throwing Up," "How to Look Like You Weren't Just Crying in Less Than Five Minutes," "How to Survive a Small Town") and its mapping of the all-important little details ("Midnight Snacks: A Taxonomy," How to Clear Your Room In 10 Minutes.") Rookie Yearbook One is hands-down one of the most fun and vibrant things I've read through in ages.

Like: Portland's Olympic Provisions sausage. Double like that you can now buy it in certain Bay Area gourmet shops, like Oakland/Berkeley's Pasta Shops.

Discovery: Temescal Alley, or, as Erich brilliantly dubbed it, Hipster Deadwood.™ Tucked away behind Pizzaiolo, parallel with Telegraph Avenue, it features, among other things, a solid mid-century antiques store, a vintage clothing shop, a dry goods store, a horticulture shop (for your terrarium needs), and, yes, a barber shop.

Obsession: Horses.  Back when I was a kid, like most girls, I spent hundreds of hours playing with horse models, reading horse books like Misty of Chincoteague, and researching the feasability of turning our garage in Milwaukee into a stable (a no-go).  Stella is now playing with my old models, which had been carefully boxed in the attic all these years, and for her birthday was given a wonderful gift by some good friends, the next best thing to having her own horse: partial sponsorship of one at Sunrise Horse Rescue in Napa, outside St. Helena.  The horses they've saved have heartbreaking stories with happy endings.  This weekend we decided to contribute toward the upkeep of thoroughbreds Richie and Stryder, and plan to visit them every couple of months.

Complaint: After years and years of avoiding it, I'm going to have to suck it up and subscribe to Showtime because of Homeland.  We are rolling through Season 1 on DVD, it's gripping, the acting is bang on, and we just can't bear to wait a year with the promise of brand spanking new episodes starting this weekend.  This will likely push our monthly Xfinity Xtortion/bill past $275.

List 86

Love: Water Right's Made in America (Oregon's Wilammette Valley, to be precise) garden hose.  It looks and works better than any other hose I've ever tried - strong but thin, light-weight and easy to move around - and it's nice to support a company that describes its mission as: "to make great garden hoses, take exceptional care of our employees and customers, and promote an American standard of quality, safety, and innovation."

Like: Modelo Especial, particularly in the can, as post yard-work refreshment.

Discovery:  Comal, Berkeley's swanky new Mexican joint, has a very cool back courtyard patio where you can wait for your table with a drink by a fire pit.  Surrounded by other buildings, it has that NYC back patio feeling, a rarity here. 

Obsession: Badminton.  I went crazy for it when it was a gym class unit in high school, and couldn't get enough of it when, back in the day, GSP had a badminton court on the 3rd floor of our office.  We finally ordered a set for our backyard where, granted, the width of the play area is likely half of regulation, leading to a doubled-up, ghetto-looking net.  Now I'm counting down the days until our daily evening fog bank gives way to Indian summer for sunny after-work matches.

(Alice Waters-Approved) Complaint:  Deep planting boxes plus kick-ass compost from American Soil = out of control cherry tomato plants.  It's hard to even get in there to water them and pick the ripe tomatoes.  On the bright side, our Meyer Lemon tree, which we had to cut way back a few years ago as it was blocking our view of the Bay, is finally beginning to produce lemons again, with green buds popping up all around its branches. 

List 80

Love: The Joey Roth ceramic speakers Erich gave me/us, which sound as lovely as they look.

Like: On the Gwyneth scale, I count myself as an occasional eye-roller as opposed to a full-time hater, but it's hard to deny the utility of last week's Goop feature on how to arrange flowers by vase type.   
http://goop.com/newsletter

Discovery: Rodeo Beach, a beautiful spot tucked away on the coast next to Sausalito, at the old Fort Cronkhite, which we only just found out about, despite having lived here for nearly 20 years.  Now that a drive all the way up and over to Muir Beach or Stinson beach isn't required for a sand-and-Pacific day, it's likely to happen a whole lot more often.

Obsession: Spice Kit's Asian breakfast sandwich - a steamed bun with Hobb's applewood smoked bacon, spicy egg, ginger glaze and scallions - made by guys who used to don toques at places like The French Laundry and Per Se.  

Complaint: Camping. It's just never been my thing, what with all the roughing it and outdoorsy-ness. I was excited to read about a new pop-up lodging service called Shelter Co, who'll set up luxury camp sites - tents with beds, fire pits complete with a s'mores kit, even an outdoor movie theater option - at the location of your choice. Many may no longer count this as camping, but for some of us it makes a night outdoors appealing. For once.

Their site:

http://shelter-co.com/index.html

Their gorgeous tumblr with imagery to get you in the mood:

http://shelter-co.tumblr.com/

List 66

Love: Having a garden, again.  Now that all the work we've been doing on the house and yard is done, we finally have planting boxes and have put in a passle of herbs, lettuces and winter crops like kale, broccoli and carrots.

Like: Philodendruns.  We have a fairly horrible track record with house plants, and the cats like to shred the leaves, but I just love the exotic vibe of these plants, and the lush hit of green they add to interiors.

Discovery: I Am Love, which was sitting in its Netflix envelope gathering dust for half a year until I finally chose it for treadmill viewing a few days ago.  Set in a beautifully photographed Milan, it stars the always amazing Tilda Swinton as a Russian woman who married into a wealthy Italian family decades ago and who, after one fateful night, is shaken from her passive, luxe life.  

Obsession:  Pinterest (again). Back in List 3, I was into stalking a few people whose style I admired on Pinterest, but not pinning myself.  Now, I am developing a pinning problem (though not as much as certain friends and co-workers), snapping up images for my many boards. 

Complaint:  The tease of Fall cooking magazines in my mailbox.  The recipes and photographs of dishes like braised short ribs, chicken pot pies, savory stuffed pumpkins, butternut squash soup and rustic apple tarts make me ache for for cooler, cozy weather and a fire in the fireplace.  But it's only just now getting warm in the Bay Area.