Shoeda, Woulda, Couldas

What’s the allure of gambling again? I was wearing my YSL Tribute T-Strap Sandals at the Harvey’s Casino in South Lake Tahoe and they concluded that the allure for sure isn’t the smoke-filled air, the multi-colored carpets, or the weird drunk guy sitting next to us asking, “So, what’s your story?” I guess the appeal of walking away at the end of the night with more cash than what we came with is enough to have us changing our bills into chips and ignoring everything else. Mama always needs a new pair of shoes, right? While hoping Lady Luck accompanied us to the blackjack tables, we began playing. Nowadays, it’s more like praying, since cards can’t be touched when dealt face up and while using multi-deck shoes (yes, blackjack cards have shoes too). While the goal is to get to 21 or as close to it as possible without going over, we’ll take a win however we can get it, either by beating the dealer or by the dealer busting. Even a draw can some times feel like a win; it sure beats losing. Whether up, down, or even, player emotions run high and if we have chatty shoes like my Tributes, emotions may run even higher. It seemed like every had my shoes had something to say. When I hit because the dealer showed a face card my shoes would say, “You shoulda stayed at 16, there was a 5 that the dealer wasn’t showing and you took the bust card.” When I increased my bet only to end up losing it they’d say, “If you woulda kept the bet the same, you woulda minimized your losses.” Even when I won, they yelled, “Ugh, you coulda bet more!” Yeah, that’s really easy to say when hindsight’s 20/20 and maybe slightly easier if we all consistently got hands that equaled 20. After a while, I had to put my foot down and walk away while I was ahead. While gambling, it’s easy to get carried away trying to press our luck. But if we lived our lives solely relying on luck, we’d have to deal with a hell-of-a-lot of Shoeda, Woulda, Couldas.

Savoring The Icing On A Wedding Cake

What usually gets people invited, excited, then reunited? A Wedding! This past weekend was the marriage celebration of Flo and Allen, held at the Edgewood Golf Course in beautiful South Lake Tahoe. The invitation came unexpectedly, as I haven’t seen Flo since she graduated from high school, joined the US Air Force shortly after, and then stationed out of California, most recently in Guam. Upon receiving our invites, I along with the group of us girls, all on the drill team together in high school, were excited to plan our trip to the destination wedding close to home. The wedding venue has a perfect view overlooking the lake; the only thing more breathtaking than the scenery was the gorgeous bride, who looked absolutely radiant. The ceremony was short and sweet, but filled with many “Aw!” moments and the reception that followed was equally filled with many things to savor; the delicious food that was served for dinner, the sing-a-long music and fun dancing, and the irresistible candy bar and wedding cake. What I savored the most; however, was having shared in such a special event with close friends and people I love. Every one reunited under one roof to celebrate such a wonderful occasion together is something we should never take for granted. Like the wedding cake, designed with photo images on the icing of captured moments of the happy bride and groom during wonderful times spent together, while the 3-layered cake in chocolate, spice, and vanilla flavors was thoroughly enjoyable to eat, the best part was really the unforgettable memories of the time spent together, which was really the icing on the cake!

Craving Kitchen 19

What’s the first thing I think about the second day of travel? You guessed it, where to eat of course… Whenever I am on a trip, it’s one of those things that I constantly have to think about since I don’t have a refrigerator full of food or a kitchen to cook in. It is; however, nice to already know what restaurants to count on when craving great food, so we headed to Kitchen 19 on the 19th floor of Harvey’s Hotel and Casino. We started with a half dozen of the the blue point oysters (I know, we had oysters last night, but oysters never get old for me). They were actually so good that we asked for half a dozen more. We made a fast friend in the elevator to the restaurant (every one is really friendly in my experience in South Lake Tahoe), who recommended the shrimp scampi flat bread, so that came out next. Then shortly after the flat bread came the scallops, asparagus and spinach risotto, my favorite. The pan seared scallops with creamy Northern Italian rice prepared with asparagus and wild mushrooms is no joke. For my main course, I had one of the signature dishes, the dover sole, which I managed to finish despite me already feeling full after the risotto. Kitchen 19 is located on the top floor of the hotel and one wall is covered in floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake, which is beautiful, especially at sunset or if your lucky enough, during a fireworks show over the water. If you are ever in town, this is the definitely one restaurant you can’t miss.

Craving Sage Room

What’s the first thing I think about whenever I travel? Where to eat of course… Whenever I am in South Lake Tahoe, I usually prefer staying at the Harrah’s or Harvey’s Casino. These casinos are within walking distance to the Gondola and after a day of boarding, everything is in your hotel to experience Tahoe’s nightlife of lounging, entertainment, gambling, or my favorite, dining. My boyfriend and I are staying at the Harrah’s this time around, but on our first night here, we had dinner at the Sage Room at the Harvey’s. We shared everything, starting with some appetizers: the king crab cocktail and a dozen oysters on the half shell, freshly shucked, with lemon, horseradish, tabasco and cocktail sauce. Prepared table-side, we had the Caesar salad for two made a dressing that I saw prepared with worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, dijon mustard, egg yoke, vinegar and anchovies tossed with romaine lettuce and topped with fresh parmesan cheese. I will definitely be attempting to recreate this salad at home. Although the Sage Room is a steak house, we had one of the fish specials, which was a sea bass with asparagus and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. The server was surprised we actually had room for dessert, but we couldn’t resist the Chocolate Lava Cupcake, a fresh made chocolate cupcake served piping hot topped with fudge sauce, chocolate chips, and served with vanilla bean ice cream. Pure deliciousness.