Dining Alfresco on our Deck overlooking the San Francisco Bay

Brunch Dining Alfresco.. Delish Mixed Mushroom Frittata!
It's that time of year again, when we find any excuse possible to live outside in the sunshine and enjoy our view over the central part of San Francisco Bay. We are lucky enough to be able to walk with our coffee cups down to the farmer's market on Sunday mornings, here in our little community. Walking back, our arms and bags laden with fresh local produce, artisan cheese, hand-crafted olive oil...

Easy Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
3 cups mixed mushrooms - doesn't matter what kind!
6 eggs
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a nonstick pan,  heat gently, then add the shallots,garlic, and basil. Saute gently for a few minutes until softened, but not browned.

Chop or slice mushrooms and add to the pan, saute for 4-5 minutes until they just start to brown, remove from heat.

Mix the eggs into a bowl with the parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Then carefully stir in the mushroom mixture, and the sun-dried tomatoes. Wipe the pan clean.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the clean skillet and pour your egg mixture back in. Cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until set on the bottom. Transfer to under a pre-heated broiler and cook for about 2-3 minutes until the top is nicely brown.  We love to top ours with a nice manchego or parmesan cheese, but it's all up to you!

The complete touch?  Mimosas served in our Caron's Beach House beautiful coastal martini glasses!

1/2 glass Champagne
2 barspoons of Grand Marnier
freshly squeezed orange juice to top off

Enjoy your next Sunday Brunch - would love to see some of your favorite brunch specialties!

Martini Glasses with Etched Schools of Fish!

The Search for Beach Glass at Monterey Bay

Last Sunday (April 11) Tom and I packed our lunch - lovely leftover bbq'd chicken pizza - jumped in the car and headed down the coast for another adventure in beach glass collecting! Read a great blog the week before, giving me the idea for our latest Sunday drive. I highly recommend checking out this blog out if you are headed in the Monterey Bay, Carmel, Pacific Grove direction...wonderful advice about where to go and what do to.

BlogMonterey.com: http://www.blogmonterey.com/

I met the author of the Monterey Blog on Twitter (for Twitter fans - http://twitter.com/SeeMonterey) and she gave me some great advice about where to find sea glass in Monterey, especially helpful since we had no clue where to start.  Followed her directions and ended up at just where we needed to be. At the park across the street from McDonald's on Del Monte, south of Fisherman's Wharf!


Beautiful day, and the beach was littered with tons of sea glass, just waiting for us to scoop it up! It's a little hard to tell in the photo, but I was trying to show you how much glass was there, and how easy it was to find. Even if we had not found any glass, it was simply a great place to walk and enjoy the calm, mesmerizing sound of the gentle deep turquoise surf, sea birds, all while meeting other beachcombers out for a Sunday walk on the shore.

Here's just a few of my favorite pieces to show off!

Collection of all kinds of green pieces. I like the really pitted worn ones the best, and the light green pieces.

Amber and brown tones - love it when you can still feel and see the ridges from old bottles...

Wish I made jewelry!  Love love love my aqua and turquoise pieces of sea-tumbled glass

This cool rounded, cupped piece was Tom's big find for the day! Kind of an avocado-lime green, with little bubbles in the glass, about an inch in diameter, can't imagine what it might have come from..

This unique piece of sea glass was my favorite find! Looks like chicken wire

 embedded into an aqua chunk of glass; 

almost 2 inches long  x 1 inch at the widest section. 

I find it so interesting that every beach that I go to, I find different shapes, colors, textures....  

Would love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite haunts for sea glass? 

Beach Cottage Shopping - Join me at the Alameda Flea Market!

Step One - Convince the boyfriend that getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday to go flea market shopping is fun...(he must really like me)

Step Two - Layer on the clothes. Jeans, t-shirt, sweater, coat, scarf. Although we live in California it is not warm on this Easter Sunday. We are going to Alameda Naval Air Station in the middle of San Francisco Bay, and the wind is fierce!!! 

Step Three - program the GPS on the iphone and in the car.  No fun if we get lost!

I am so excited - have been planning this for the past few months, and have never been able to go.  The Alameda Flea Market is held only on the first Sunday of the month - rain or shine. 

A few things to note about this market: 

#1 Everything sold at the show must be at least twenty years old and there are no reproductions allowed. (great rule!)

#2 Largest antique and collectible show in Northern California

#3 over 800 vendors to see! 

Lots of painted furniture, shells, coral, shabby chic treasures, original art - a veritable feast of inspiration! Let me take you on a tour!  

Beach cottage painted furniture - love the yellows, greens, but especially the simple fun pieces she had to offer. Can you see the bright pink desk in the background?  Wouldn't that be a great piece for a girl's room? 

A little coastal, a little French Country.. abalone shells, shabby chic framed sailboat picture, 

hand made linen pillow. 

Love this whole vignette!

Blue Starfish in metal coffee pots. Dang - I think I gave away a really neat 

blue old campfire coffee pot like this.  What was I thinking?   

Can think of a lot of crazy storage ideas for those old tin bins...

Pretty. Want one. I am sure that I NEED one of these chandeliers.

Kicking myself for not buying this crazy, rusty, metal fish.  I am going to blame it on the cold weather.... my hands were absolutely freezing!! Had to buy coffee just for a hand warmer.

Hope you can see all of these antique - vintage style bottle with real seashells soldered on top.  Love these - also kicking myself for not buying.  I will definitely stock up on these next time I go in May.  

They will go on the Caron's Beach House website for sure.

This was the best one! Purplish large sea fan on top of an vintage vase. 

Beautiful pieces of white coral... this one was only $65.00.  At the widest part was about 12". 

More coral, sea biscuits, and more coral.  All displayed on top of an old desk with a deep green felt top.

Creamy white buffet ($560.00) and even more coral!  I went back to this booth at least three times. No, I didn't buy anything.  It is hard for me to buy these big chunks of real cora. Beautiful, but the thought of someone cutting 

them off of a reef is hard to swallow. 

Wish I had a good spot for a tiki bar in my apartment - wouldn't this just be a hoot at parties??  

Could see my pretty martini glasses on top!

So many coastal framed art pieces! This is just one example that I liked.

Beautiful, round white painted table.  This should now be in my apartment - I was really, really, extremely dumb for not buying table.  

This buffet should also be in my apartment - what was I thinking??  Beach Cottage perfect. I could display some of my shells, my cottage china... I took the artist's card home, maybe I had better call her?

More painted furniture in my favorite colors!  I really miss having my "brick and mortar"  store sometimes....

Not sure what this  huge ball of vines is made of, but they were really interesting!  Looked almost like twisted, dried up sea kelp.   Check out the  creamy yellowed cottage cupboard underneath...

Hand painted, tea-stainted vintage, French Country booth.  They had lovely lovely things - I wanted everything in the space!  

Lots of pretty garden art... too bad I don't have a garden anymore.  There's something so beautifully tranquil about having angels in the garden to watch over us.....

Hope you enjoyed! I had such a great time, and now I have a plan of attack for the next time I go. This time with a girlfriend, (Yay - Melissa will be here!)  a cart, coffee in a thermos, and lots of cash....

Helpful link: Alameda Flea Market Details http://www.antiquesbybay.com/default.asp

**The post was shared on 3.30.2011 for Good Life Wednesdays at @abeachcottage.com