Around Town

Dinner Done Easy

By Mary Mcinerney

Heather McCracken Wu is a busy mom who likes to cook but dreads all the chopping and prep that go into making a meal, especially on busy nights when her kids have baseball practice. Her outlook on dinnertime changed recently when she spent a girls' night out at The Dinner Source in Emeryville, where she caught up with a couple of friends and made more than a week's worth of dinners, too.

"We went out for a drink and an appetizer and then we [cooked]," says Wu, 40, who lives in Alameda with her husband and two children, ages 5 and 8. At The Dinner Source, Wu and her friends went from station to station--cold tables stocked with chopped fresh vegetables, sliced meats and pre-made fresh sauces--bagging and packaging meals for their families. Following The Dinner Source's recipes, Wu put together eight meals, most of which ended up in the freezer for use on busy weeknights. Among the entrees: salmon en papillote, blue cheese burgers, oven-fried chicken, chicken enchiladas verde, three-cheese macaroni and jumbo turkey meatballs with spaghetti.

After 90 minutes, Wu and her friends were done. She wrote a check for $164 (meals cost $2.75 to $4 per serving) and walked away. There had been no vegetables to chop and nothing to clean up afterwards. "I felt like it was a bargain," says Wu, who liked all the dishes she prepared. "It was great."

The Dinner Source is one of about a dozen Bay Area and 750 nationwide make-and-take meal stores that have cropped up in recent years. The stores are popular because there's a move back to the dinner table, after years of take-out and fast food. (Almost 80 percent of meals were eaten at home last year, a slight increase over previous years, according to NPD Group, a national research firm.) And as Americans are returning to the table, they're finding they have less time to cook.

Then there's the fun factor. Making dinner with a group of friends, perhaps over a glass of wine, is more entertaining than boiling pasta alone. Kim Cartmill puts out wine glasses for her customers at The Dinner Source and encourages them to nosh on cheese and crackers while they prepare meals.

Beginning this summer, Alamedans will be able to make and take without leaving the Island. After schlepping to a Pleasanton Dream Dinners (the Washington-based company that's credited with starting the trend in 2002) every couple of weeks for more than a year, Alameda mom Noreen Roth decided to open a local location at Park Street Landing, 2307 Blanding Ave.

"I knew it would work here. How many families with Little League and soccer are here?" says Roth. "Who couldn't use this?"

For more information on make-and-take stores, contact the Easy Meal Prep Association by visiting www.easymealprep.com. For the scoop on the new Alameda Dream Dinners, visit www.dreamdinners.com or email alamedaca@dreamdinners. com. Or check out www.thedinnersource.com

Bravo!

In the Spring, St. Joseph Notre Dame High School seniors Jon Siapno and Gabrielle Soria made the jump from students to playwrights when Home Sweet Home, the musical they penned, graced the school stage for a five-show run.

The Broadway-bound "best friends" spent nine months composing the play, which tells the story of a family struggling to find peace after losing their father in the Vietnam War. "We wanted to write something that would touch our generation," says Soria, 17, who wrote the script, while Siapno, 17, was responsible for the score. "The script deals with issues of dealing with parents, becoming who you are, homosexuality..."

The production of Home Sweet Home marked the first time in executive director Didi Kubicek's 13-year tenure at St. Joseph that a student- composed play was selected for the spring musical. "It's a huge undertaking. Somebody could write a short story or a poem, but to make a dramatic piece ..." says Kubicek, who admits that she was initially hesitant when the students approached her about writing the play. "We saw the first draft and heard the music and it was quite good. But it turned out to be so good."

About an Artist - Calling All Jazz Fans

In the last five years, jazz guitarist Terrence Brewer has played more than 1,000 live gigs, most in the Bay Area. His debut album--a two-volume effort aptly named The Calling--offers fans the first chance to hear his straightahead brand of jazz anytime they like. For the Alameda-based Brewer, the release of The Calling represents the culmination of years of effort. The Pittsburgh, Calif., native started on the flute at age 8 and, inspired by the 1950s and '60s sounds of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, jammed on a rock 'n' roll guitar in high school before taking up jazz guitar at Los Medanos College. After graduating, the self-described "blue-collar musician" found mentors in guitar greats Charlie Hunter and Duck Baker as well as music theorist Mark Levine.

For all of its classic qualities, Brewer's music is never boring. From the punchy acoustic bass notes of "Murray's Law" to the sweet guitar and piano of "Cat Nap (For Cathy)," Volume One proves that Brewer can evoke foot tapping and nostalgia in equal measure. On Volume Two, the mood gets funkier, as a Hammond B-3 Organ complements Brewer's guitar on "Lately," perhaps the best track on either album.

"I just feel like it's something I was meant to do," says Brewer, and any jazz fan who hears him play--live or on CD--will agree that he's found his calling. For more info about Brewer, visit www.terrencebrewer.com or catch him at the New Zealander (1400 Webster St., 510-769-8555) every second and fourth Thursday of the month. --Judson True

The Name Game

The Alameda Free Library needs your help.

Its private and corporate fundraising arm, the Alameda Free Library Foundation, is leading the Campaign for a Great Library to raise money on behalf of the Main Library and its branches. The money will support library operations and services and help build a healthy endowment to enhance each facility's annual book collections.

Every penny counts, but this campaign is aiming high, gearing outreach toward well-heeled heavy hitters. Donors who answer the fundraising call--thanks to a plan approved by the Library Board and the city--will be recognized for their contributions by having their names in public spaces of the new Main Library at Lincoln and Oak or at branches.

On the top end of the spectrum, $500,000 earns individuals, foundations, corporations and nonprofit and forprofit organizations the naming rights for the children's library, community meeting room or the main staircase. A contribution of $250,000 gets donor naming rights for the children's story hour and craft room, a computer lab or the cafe. For those with lighter pocketbooks, $1,000 puts your name on a table or book stack, $500 earns a plaque on a chair and $100 allows you to name a shelf.

So far, the campaign has raised $50,000, says Jeptha Boone, president of the foundation. While the 2006 campaign goal is $600,000, the organization is hoping to collect at least $95,000 to cover the commissioned public art for the new library as public funds cannot be used for that purpose.

Those who are interested in donating to the campaign can drop by the foundation office at 2515 Santa Clara Ave., Suite 202, or call (510) 464-1099. To contact Boone, e-mail jtbooneaflf@aol. com or call (510) 521-3434. Complete information on the campaign and the naming policy is online at www.alamedafree. org (which also contains a link to a donation form.) The new library is scheduled to open in November.

Coming Soon: Rubber Sidewalks

If you notice a spring in your step strolling around the Island this summer, take a close look at that ground beneath you; the bounce may not be a result of a warm-weather high.

Thanks to a program aimed at creating cost-effective repairs and durable pathways, Alameda is swapping tree root-damaged concrete sidewalks with rubber replacements.

Installing rubber sidewalks is different from the traditional concrete pour: A metal track is spiked into the earth, and a premade rubber slab is laid on the track, thus securing the slab to the ground. When root maintenance is required, the rubber slabs are raised from the track, the roots pruned and the rubber tacked right back into place. No more jackhammering or repours.

Southern California-based Rubbersidewalks Inc. is behind the environmentally friendly procedure, which creates the rubber slabs out of old tires. Although the rubber sidewalks are initially more expensive to create and install, they save money over time: repairs are seldom and root access is easy. And, because the sidewalks are made from recycled materials, the city received a $94,000 matching recycling grant for an additional 3,950 square feet of sidewalk. --Erin Rech

Alameda Made: The Power of Prayer

It's no surprise that the word bead is derived from the Old English term bede, meaning "prayer." Religious groups around the world have used beads in their spiritual practices for thousands of years, and in Alameda, artist Eleanor Wiley's Contemporary Prayer Beads continue the tradition.

Wiley began beading more than a decade ago when a friend asked for help stringing necklaces for a craft fair. The patterns, shapes and placement of the beads felt natural to Wiley, who started collecting rare and exotic beads for necklaces of her own, many of which sold right off her neck.

After discovering the linguistic link between beads and prayer while teaching meditation at an Alameda yoga center in 1996, Wiley began selling her unique, handcrafted strands out of a local studio space.

Wiley's Contemporary Prayer Beads can be used as necklaces, belts, bracelets or pocket charms. In addition to beads, Wiley also sells the Sacred Wheel, a medallion she designed to honor all spiritual paths. "My beads appeal to people because they don't exclude anyone and include everyone," explains Wiley, who counts the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey and Nelson Mandela as owners of her pieces. You can purchase Wiley's creations through her Web site, www.prayerbdzs. com, or by calling (510) 865-1349 to set up a studio appointment. --Erin Rech

Sharks on the Shoreline

Hidden along Hayward's marshy coast stands one of the Bay Area's best-kept secrets: the 20-yearold but little-known Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center. "We get visitors who think we're a restaurant," program director Adrienne De Ponte says. "I have to explain, 'no, you can't order lobster here!' "

The staff should be doing a lot less explaining with the addition of two leopard shark pups. Bringing those sharks to the center took months of planning and fundraising. Hayward businesses and individuals raised $14,000 in 2005 to provide a home for several coastal animals and organisms, including the 300-gallon shark tank. The new aquarium room allows up-close views of critters like mud crabs and a gopher snake.

De Ponte is optimistic the sharks-- which drew a crowd of 650 to the aquarium's debut--will boost the center's profile and help entrench its mission to provide learning opportunities through observation and interpretation. Additional tanks, a brine shrimp exhibit and a shark-naming contest are also in the works.

The center contains a resource library touching on geography, migration and conservation; a kids' corner packed with puppets and books; and quarterly art exhibits. An all-ages weekend interpretive programs allow visitors to explore the marsh to learn about sea-life and shoreline plants.

The next time your inner marine biologist calls, check out the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave. Admission is free, and hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. School programs are available Wednesday through Friday by reservation.

For more information, visit www. hard.dst.ca.us/hayshore.html or call (510) 670-7270. --Jamie Andrade

Friday Night Flights

Put your love for wine, food and the community together by participating in Friday Night Flights at Angela's Restaurant (807 Marina Village Parkway, 510-522-5822). From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays through October, local winemakers-- many of them award-winning Alamedan vintners like Rosenblum Cellars and R & B Cellars--will share flights of their wines with Chef Saboor Zafari's hors d'oeuvres and donate proceeds to a different local organization each month. For $8, oenophiles can sample 2-ounce pours of three different varietals paired with Zafari's nibbles, helping Bay Oaks Soccer (Alameda girls under 11) in July, Girls Inc. of the Island City in August, the Alameda Boys and Girls Club in September and Lincoln Middle School in October. Friday Night Flights supported Alameda Meals on Wheels in May and the Alameda Civic Ballet in June. Reservations are suggested but not necessary by calling Angela's.