Conejo Valley Days Is Coming Up May 8-11! Win Free Tickets!

April 24, 2014 by 35 Comments

GIVEAWAY CLOSED.  For current giveaway please 2015 Conejo Valley Days

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Now with bigger, better rides! The 58th Annual Conejo Valley Days is coming up May 8 through May 11 at Conejo Creek Park South in Thousand Oaks. This year the carnival rides will be operated by the same company that does rides for the Orange County Fair, Los Angeles County Fair, and Coachella!

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In addition to carnival rides, CVD will include food booths operated by nonprofit organizations, motocross exhibitions, outhouse races, games, vendors, a Kids’ Korral children’s stage sponsored by Eureka Organic Bread, a “Garage Band” stage to showcase new local bands and live entertainment in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon.

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The motocross exhibitions and live entertainment are included with general admission. Entry: $10 for adults, $5 for kids 6 through 12 and free for kids 5 and under. Parking is $5. Ride tickets and food are additional costs.

CVD hours are Thursday, May 8, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Friday, May 9, 5:00 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 10, noon to midnight and Sunday, May 11, noon to 8:00 p.m. The Lucy Pet Foundation is the nonprofit partner for this year’s Conejo Valley Days.

Conejo Valley Days
May 8-11
Conejo Creek Park South
1300 E. Janss Road
Thousand Oaks, CA
Website
www.facebook.com/ConejoValleyDays and Twitter @CVDays2014

The CVD folks have given me 2 packages of 4 tickets to give away here on this site. To enter, simply leave a comment below by Thursday, May 1 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. One entry per family. Winners will be chosen from qualifying entries by random number drawing, and I will mail the tickets upon learning the mailing addresses.

2014 CVD logo

Filed Under: Around Town, Events, Fun Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vegetable Garden Week 3

March 10, 2014 by 1 Comment

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Since I planted my little garden on a Thursday, I have been spending more time looking at it on Thursdays than any other day. I’m a creature of habit. Now it is Tuesday, so I’ll write what I remember from last week.

So yes, I went to get a bag of horse poop. With my kids in the car. I laid a plastic sheet across the floor of the trunk and took everything else out. I was prepared for our ride home to be quite stinky.

The farm where I went to get the poop was in the hills south of the freeway in Thousand Oaks. The farmhands were cleaning up a horse paddock, and I had gotten there a few minutes early, so I stood there awkwardly in the horsey smelling parking area hoping to get their attention. One of them finally looked up and I said “Sorry, I’m early. I just want one bag.”

So the farmhand closest to me looked at the one near the barn and without speaking at all he gathered up the bag he was filling and brought it to my trunk. My kids watched from inside the air-conditioned car.

That was it, then.

“Thanks,” I waved, and then we left. With 40 pounds of horse poop, something that I usually try to avoid.

Surprisingly, I could never smell it. We went straight home and Kyle helped me lug the back to the garden area. He held the bag with one hand and plugged his nose with the other, because he hasn’t yet learned how to block his sense of smell. I wonder how old you have to be to figure that one out?

In the morning, my husband mixed the horse manure with topsoil and spread it out over the cardboard area and watered it. The cardboard hasn’t noticeably broken down yet. Come on, earthworms!

By Thursday, I swear I could detect the tiniest bit of growth. Certainly the bulbs I rescued from my planting area have sprouted, so if nothing else, I’m enriching our soil and I’ll see a bunch of pretty flowers behind the vegetable area!

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Sprouted mystery bulbs! I’m pretty sure they are daffodils.

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Fava beans. Don’t they seem just a tiny bit taller?

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Kale.

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Rosemary.

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What the heck. Let’s track the leaves on the birch trees that will eventually close us off from the back neighbor’s house.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: , , , ,

We Olive at the Oaks Mall

January 18, 2014 by 27 Comments

IMG_9869This feature might have been more useful to you late last fall, say, just before Thanksgiving and Hannukah, and then Christmas, when there are lots of party invitations and gifts to get for people you love or just like or don’t even know at all.

But all is not lost. There will be dinner parties and birthdays and Valentine’s Day coming soon.

Plus, this feature is about a little store at the mall that is filled with delicious treats that you don’t have to buy as a gift for someone else. You can sit and sip wine and nibble on tasty appetizers. You can taste olive oil and balsamic vinegars. You can marvel at the vast array of different bottles and pots of oils, spreads, tapenades, cheeses, dips, wines, and vinegars on display.

Chef Stroh at We OliveChef Steven Stroh, of Chef Stroh’s Pestos, with his mother, and several of his spreads

We Olive started out as an olive oil and balsamic vinegar store, but last fall its owners obtained their liquor permit, and so their wee wine bar was born. As a guest at their opening party (along with my friend Charlene, who does a much more detailed write-up here), I was able to sample many of the flavors of wines, olive oils, vinegars, and dishes that one can buy or make with items from the store.

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If you like to cook with oil and vinegar, and you want to change up your ingredients from the bland flavors you can get in bulk at the big box stores, this is the place for you. A big benefit of coming in to We Olive is that you get to taste the oils and vinegars before you buy. This was a revelation to me. You taste them by actually doing a shot, not just dipping your tongue in to tentatively taste the flavor (as demonstrated below by Josh Mercurio, who develops the franchises for this family-owned chain of businesses). I was blown away by the lemony balsamic vinegar and cannot wait to make a salad dressing with it.

At We Olive, you buy a refillable bottle and then pay for the liquids by the ounce. The lovely unmarked bottles brand you connoisseur of oils and vinegars, and what better way to share the love than by bringing a pairing to your host or hostess the next time you attend a fancy party?

We Olive Thousand Oaks
190 W. Hillcrest Drive, Suite 51
Thousand Oaks, CA
(In Oaks Mall behind Red Robin)

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