Minor Details

So I'm Lame. Whatever. And Christmas.

2010-12-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to talk about my continual lack of posting. I'm trying to get over it. You should, too. Let's all move on, shall we?

So here's kind of what Christmas looked like this year.

My niece, Kenzie, and nephew, Bryce, ready to open gifts. Happy people.

My mom and her husband. More happy people.

My brother, Tim, and my newest niece, Addison. Happy and cute people.

And then there is my nephew, Max. Max hates getting his picture taken.

A lot.

(Okay, this might be Bryce's foot. Whatever.)

He doesn't care who else is in the picture.

Like my nephew, Carter, and niece, Madison (who loves earmuffs apparently).

Max is five. And this is what five looks like:

I was playing with my camera to see if it could take decent video.

Here is the narration:

Me: "This is Monica [my sister] putting Max's shoes on. It's a thrill a minute. This is Max, getting his shoes put on. The end."

Max: "HEY!"
Me: "And that's what he looks like most of the time."

Thank goodness for Max. Someone's got to keep things interesting around here! Love ya, buddy.

Hey! It's blue!

2010-09-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't notice, I just changed the colors and layout for the blog. I originally chose black and white because it was very simple and striking. But it's been feeling a little heavy to me lately, and besides, Blogger has all these cool new templates and ways to adjust them, so I decided to go blue.

I am still working on posting some of my trips to very cool restaurants in the Seattle area. It's just taking a while because I have SO many pictures. I don't want to bore you with twelve pictures of the same thing. I hope to have at least one up before Tuesday.

Another relatively new item on the blog is a way to follow me using Facebook. You may have noticed it off to the right. It looks like this:

Can you see all that space? Just waiting for more people to fill it up? It's not hard to join, you just click the "Follow this blog" box while logged in to FB. Not that you have to or anything, but it looks so sad right now with only four people. And one of them is the fake person I created so I can play stupid Facebook games. Yeah. So jump on the bandwagon, won't you? Thanks!

It's Fall

2010-09-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

Here it is, just the first day of September, and already I'm proclaiming a new season. I actually wanted to post this about two weeks ago, but am just now getting around to it. Huh? What would make me feel like it's autumn during the middle of August? Hmmm, well let's see.

Could it be these?

image from www.betterbudgeting.com

No, that's not it. I haven't seen very many of the trees starting to change as it's been a pretty mild summer in our neck of the woods.

How about this then?

image from blogs.eveningsun.com

No, that's not it either. Though the weather hasn't been wonderful lately (especially yesterday) it's actually been pretty wet all summer, so that doesn't distinguish it in my book.

Okay, then. It must be this:

image from www.google.com

Well, this might be a little part of it. Our district starts tomorrow and some around us begin today. But that's not the definitive sign that we have officially begun a new season.

It's this:

This is one of the literally dozens of spiders that have decided it's fall. I know because they have all come into my house for refuge. This one happened to be at the very top of one of my twelve foot ceilings, so he gets to live in infamy instead of being transported elsewhere. That's right, I don't kill spiders. I put a big clear cup over them (known as "the bug cup"), slide a magazine over the opening, take it outside, set it down, tip it over, and run like hell. Am I kind to spiders because I'm an animal lover? Or because I believe in the sanctity of all living things? I wish. It's mostly because the feeling of squishing a spider this big can leave me with the heebie-jeebies for weeks. I found one in the bathtub about a week ago who was defying the bug cup, and I am still completely grossed out by the memory of the feeling and the sound it made as I got it with a kleenex. Ugh! I just shuddered!

Hopefully the critters where you live will be enjoying summer a little while longer. I, on the other hand, will be embracing fall. I'm ready for the next chapter. Speaking of which, don't expect too much posting for the next week or so. The beginning of school is a very hectic time for me. But I will be back! Kind of like the dang spiders.

Happy Autumn!

Cupcake Royale

2010-08-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I recently had a chance to visit one of the fancy shmancy cupcake shops that are in the process of taking over the world. Cupcake Royale has a number of locations; we visited the one in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. "We" being me, Laurie and her very sweet husband, Wayne. This would be Laurie from the Hawthorn Tea Room who is now a good friend. I guess she felt sorry for me after all my whiny blog posts about having no friends. So, see? You can make friends over the age of 40. Or I can. I don't know about you per se. You might have a gypsy curse which has forced you to become a recluse who never leaves your home to eat cupcakes. Or something.

The shop is super cute, lots of pink, brown and white with other very bright colors thrown in here and there. It's also very Seattley. Very trendy, lots of laid back cool people lounging about. And of course, there's coffee. Cupcake Royale also has some good marketing happening. Lots of cupcake related merchandise for sale and they also sell their products through Metropolitan Market, the upscale grocery store. My favorite item was the "Legalize Gay Cupcakes" shirt. It cracked me up.

We went to check out the selection and I had to spend some time wiping saliva from my chin. They don't like it when you drool on the display case. Sorry!

I've actually had their cupcakes before because, as I mentioned, they sell them at Met Market which has a location near my house. So I knew I'd be getting one with a white base. I absolutely LOVE the texture of their white cake. I'm usually a flavor person, but I'm all about the texture here. It's extremely dense and rich. It's almost like pound cake, but not that heavy. I wish I could describe it better. For me, it's the perfect cake consistency. I've tried other flavors, and they're all yummy, but the vanilla buttercake is my idea of cupcake heaven.

I chose the Lemon Drop, which has a lemon head candy on it. Even though these are super cute, this is too much frosting for me. This is how they frost all of their cakes, so I've learned to deal with it. But if they handed me the spatula for a minute, about half the frosting would come off. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, I just think the thickness of it is a little overwhelming. This plate, on the other hand, rocked my world. I adore it and am actually kind of glad they weren't selling this pattern, because I don't have any room for it in my house and I wanted to buy twelve of them.

They bake the cupcakes on site, which means they frost and decorate them here, too. They have an open area in the center of the store so you can watch. I was enamored with the sprinkle jars. Feel lucky you only have to look at two of the fifteen pictures I took of them. Not even joking.

After I ate my Lemon Drop, and Laurie and Wayne shared their vanilla and chocolate babycakes, one of the bakers came out and started frosting a tray of chocolate cakes. I freaked her out when my flash went off for this shot. Oops!

But she was so sweet and came over to the other side so I could take pictures. And she didn't call me "weirdo" or anything. In fact, you can see in the second picture she was talking with me about what she was doing and how long it took her to learn the signature swirl. This is the cream cheese frosting (which is phenomenal, by the way) and because it was a warm day it wasn't cooperating with her. But I still think they looked beautiful.

I know you may not live close to Cupcake Royale, but I'm sure there is an independently owned cupcake shop somewhere near you. Since they are taking over the world and all. So go support them and eat a few cupcakes. Unless you have that gypsy curse thing going on. In which case, never mind.

Proctor Farmers' Market

2010-08-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

I am fortunate to live in an area that has not one, but three farmers' markets available on different days of the week. The unfortunate part is the lack of effort I usually make to visit them. Last week I got off the couch and made it down to the one on Proctor in the North End of Tacoma. I didn't think to take my camera, but here are a couple of things I brought home.

This bouquet was one of the smaller ones. Only $5.00. I love how they look in the pitcher.

This was my attempt at an artistic shot. I think the natural lighting made it turn out nicely. I got the whole bag of hazelnuts for only $5.00. They're super yummy too. Slightly sweet like I remember them as a child. And for some reason lots of twinsies. (2 pieces in one shell)

Freshly baked whole wheat bread. And only $5.00! Okay, not really. I don't actually remember what the loaf cost. I'm pretty sure it was less than $5. But it would be cool if everything I bought was the same price. Right? Or not.

I also picked up some blueberries which weren't very photogenic and grabbed some lunch at one of the restaurant stalls. Mmm, chicken curry and naan! Finally, I bought an official Proctor Farmers' Market bag in which to stash all of my goodies. Oooooo. See how I put the preposition in the right place there, instead of saying "to stash my goodies in"? And did you notice I put the apostrophe AFTER the s in Farmers? That's cause I is a college graduet! Impressed, ain't ya?

Anyway, I need to be better about supporting our local sellers, especially before the markets close for the season. Hopefully I'll have lots more $5.00 goodies to share soon.

All the Way Home

2010-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

A friend shared this a few days ago on Facebook, and I just had to pass it on.

I don't watch TV very often, so this might be old. But it is new to me.

I may or may not have been a lot like this as a child. Or I might still be like this today. I'm not saying either way. But I want those pinwheels! Weeeeeee!

Cooking Light Mondays: Skillet Fillets with Cilantro Butter

2010-08-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, ~~Shrink My Butt~~ Cooking Light Mondays haven't been going too well. Namely because I haven't bothered to cook any food for a million years or so. However, I did manage to throw something together way back in June and actually take pictures of it. Miraculous, I know. This recipe was super easy and very tasty. Definitely a do-again. Here's what transpired as far as I can remember.

Any recipe that has a big hunk of butter in it has to be a winner, right? To the softened butter I added some fresh cilantro, lemon rind, paprika and salt. I think it goes without saying that you have to be a cilantro fan to enjoy this. But I guess I just said it anyway.

Smoosh everything all up together. I suppose I should have wiped down the sides of the cup for this picture. Honestly, I'm just happy I found my camera.

You can use any "mild white fish" for this dish. I believe this is cod. Let's just say it is, okay? It gets sprinkled with a mixture of salt, cumin and ground red pepper. Don't worry, it wasn't too spicy. I am the poster child for the Spicy Food Destroys Tastebuds foundation and I thought it was fine. So it is SFDT approved. I may have put in less of the red pepper than called for, but I can't remember. You'll have to cut me some slack--this was two and a half months ago.

Anyway, the fillets and the nonstick pan both get a good dose of cooking spray and then fry for about 3 minutes on each side. (Fry the fish, not the pan.) I seem to recall leaving the thicker piece in longer because it didn't seem done. I'm always a little iffy about using cooking spray because I feel like I'm eating chemicals. But I've managed to down my fair share of Pop Tarts in my life, and those are probably worse, so I just get over it.

That was pretty much it. I stuck some Cilantro Butter on top and served it with a baked sweet potato and sauteed spinach. (Baked meaning microwaved for 5 minutes.) This was the money shot. Ooo. Ahhh. Ohhhhh.

Then I realized the fish really had very little flavor on its own. So I squeezed the lemon over it and spread out the butter so it would melt into the fish. MUCH better. Not as pretty, but pretty tasty!

So if you need a quick meal and want to get more fish into your diet, we have a winner! Hop on over to Cooking Light if you'd like to make this recipe. And let me know how it turns out. I'll pass the findings on to the SFDT. The tastebud you save may be your own!

Pathetic Confession #6

2010-08-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

This billboard was posted near the freeway on my way to work for quite some time:

image from www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com

Does anyone else find this to be slightly dirty? Or is it just me? Anyone? No?

Okay then. Never mind...

Party Time!

2010-08-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

That's right, people! Time to get out the confetti and cake! It's a party! Whoo-hoo! "Celebrate good times, come on!" Let the good times roll! "Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999!" Party hearty!

What? You want to know what we're celebrating? Oh. Um...okay. We are celebrating the following:

I am posting an actual real live blog. Not a fake one. Yippee!
I have more stuff I want to post. And not just once every 6 months. Yowza!
There will henceforth be NO MORE WHINING allowed. Yay!
I am actually in a good mood and have been for quite some time. Exclamation starting with a Y!

Exciting, isn't it?

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern during my posts this last year. I was not in a good place, and I'm sorry it leaked into Internetland. And, no, I don't know what made it better. Mostly I got sick of being depressed. So I worked on fixing it. That's the only good thing about situational depression. Sometimes a couple of kicks in the ass from caring people can make a big difference. So thanks, friendly neighborhood ass-kickers. (You know who you are!)

Just to be clear, this doesn't mean I'm going to post every day. My life is just too hectic for that. But I'm actually looking forward to posting instead of dreading it.

On a side note, I am freaking out a little bit. Blogger has a new tool that lets you see how many people have viewed your blog and even which posts are most read. Apparently, I am getting over 500 views a month. WHAT? That's got to be wrong. Even with the random views, how in the heck is that possible? And now I feel so bad for all those people who had to look at my depressing posts. SORRY!!!!! Anyway, not sure I'm buying it. All 500 of you should comment to prove you actually stopped by. Hee hee!

Time to go eat some of my party cake. Mmmm, cake. See you all soon!

Where Am I?

2010-02-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

image from www.davidsuzuki.org

How did I get here? Is it really 2010? Already? What do you mean it's February?

I feel very lost right now. My birthday is a week away. How is that possible? I feel like all I've done for the last 6 months is work. It feels like one giant work week. I just wrote the word "feel" three times in five sentences.

How is it possible that I have made it this far in my life and still don't feel like I'm on solid ground? Except at work, which I pour all of my energy into. Why am I okay putting so much effort into my job but I don't do the same for anything else in my life?

I was at a conference over the weekend and saw my ex-fiance from about a million years ago. We run into each other occasionally at these things. It always gets me thinking about the direction I could have gone in but didn't. Not that I would want to be with him, but the life that I could have had...marriage, kids, a house with a white picket fence and a dog...

I was at an entirely different conference a week ago (see what I mean about too much work?) and I had this amazing session where they discussed moral purpose. We were asked to make some decisions about what we valued, our moral stance, on certain topics. Then we were to make goals related to our moral beliefs. I totally took this to a personal level and realized that I do not live in a way that reflects my morals. For example, I believe that it is important to show respect for and honor peoples' time by being punctual. And yet, I am always late for everything. I always find one more thing I have to do, or think I have five more minutes before I have to leave. This is just one example of how my actions go against my values. I don't want to be this person. I can't say I believe one thing and then do the opposite. All the time. About everything.

I know this post is extremely random. I've got a lot in my head right now, so I'm putting it here. I don't know that it will help. I feel like I've been complaining on this stupid blog for forever. What will it take for me to make changes? I can't wait around for other people to figure out what I need, because apparently that is not going to happen. Sometimes I don't know what I need. But it has to be something other than what I have, which is a great career. It's not cutting it. I need a full life with lots of parts to it, so that when one part falters, I have somewhere else to turn. I don't know how to create that. I just know that right now I only have one place to turn, and that's not healthy.

Anyway. I'm still not sure how I can be this old and not have figured out how to get what I want. Sometimes I question whether it truly is what I want. If it is, why do I do things to keep me from having it? I know part of it is fear of getting hurt. Again. But I also think I am afraid that I will find out that no matter how hard I work, I won't be able to get it. Maybe I'm not...enough, or something. I'm not even sure how to complete this thought. Maybe I'm just super lazy. It's much easier to do nothing and bury myself online and ignore that I have no life. But sometimes it hurts too much to ignore. Like right now.

Oh my God, I'm such a Debbie Downer. I am extremely tired of posting sadness on this stupid blog. Seriously, go check out the archives. I used to be funny and cutesy. Really! I'm a fun person most of the time. No, I am! Or maybe I'm just not anymore. Was that real? Am I real now, or just feeling sorry for myself? It seems like the only time I write any more is when I am having a pity party. I am so sorry, my five readers, for having yet another pity party.

Okay. I am going to use what I learned at the session. I am going to set a goal right now. My goal is to be on time to work every day this week (it's only a three day week, so doable) and not make anyone wait more than five minutes to meet me for social events. I can do this. I know it's small, but I think I need to start with something little and build off of it instead of trying to fix my whole life at once. I can do this. I think I'm going to set a few more small goals, too. I'll let you know how I do at the end of the week. I have to do something. I can do this.

Thanks for listening internetland.

Tea and Sympathy

2009-12-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I am writing this at 5 a.m. It is concert week for me, which means I have a hard time sleeping. Which means I was very awake at 4 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep, but no such luck. And it's WAAAYYY too cold to get up. Like temperatures in the teens cold. Right now it is about 11 degrees outside. Yeah. So I am snuggled up in bed with my very warm laptop.

Last Saturday was the Holiday High Tea at the Hawthorn Tea Room. I was still in a pretty grumpy mood after my little melt down from my last post, so not as many pictures as there could have been. But it was very nice and Laurie tried hard to cheer up my downer self. Plus, I went with my wonderful friend Jill, so that made it even better. When we walked in, we were greeted by this:

Such a pretty little composed plate! Besides the fruit there was a tiny jam tartlet with pomegranate seeds and some pecans and walnuts that I think were spiced. I just love this Christmas tree plate, too. So cute! It was nice that they had the plates ready for us. They serve their "special day" teas all in one sitting, so even if people arrive at different times you have some little nibbles to tide you over until they are ready to serve everyone.

Next came a champagne flute of Sparkling White Jasmine Tea, which was very light and refreshing. Definitely reminiscent of champagne, but no bite and a very light flavor. I enjoyed it and it was nice to have something unique like this. Good choice, Hawthorn!

On to the main courses! This is where I got lazy and should have taken more individual photos, but as I said, not feeling it that day. Anyway, on the bottom were some savories; pesto cheese pastry and chicken-apple-brie crostini. Very fancy! The sandwiches were yummy. I think the turkey with cranberry cream was my favorite, but I also really liked the cucumber with feta and mint. The feta added a lot of flavor and was somewhat unexpected, but in a good way.

One of my favorite things for this tea was the scone. Usually I am a plain scone girl because I like to put lemon curd and devonshire cream on it so it will taste like lemon meringue pie. Mmmm, pie. But the Ginger Pumpkin scone was really good! Neither flavor was overpowering and they complemented each other well. The scones were also baked perfectly. Definitely a highlight!

The dessert course was lovely. Jill was most excited about the chai-infused shortbread. I, on the other hand, could have eaten about ten of the Chocolate Cherry Christmas bars, which are the ones with the pink filling. For those of you that don't know me, I generally dislike fruit with chocolate. Because the chocolate is so sweet, it makes the fruit taste sour. Icky. But these were SO GOOD! The bar part was super moist and delicious, while the filling wasn't overly sweet or fruity. The cherry flavor was subtle enough to taste fabulous with the chocolate. I would love to see those on the menu again. Hint, hint Laurie!

For our tea we had three choices, and Jill and I both chose the French Breakfast, which is a black tea. It was excellent. It had the flavor of an English Breakfast, but wasn't quite as bracing. Much more gentle. I will probably buy some the next time I'm there. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you, Laurie and Cathy, for all you do to make us feel comfortable and happy at the Hawthorn!

Now, on to the sympathy part. Thanks to everyone who reached out after my last post. I just have the single girl blues sometimes and throw a little pity part for myself. I will try really hard to stop throwing them on my blog. I'm sure you all are sick of hearing me whine. So I am making an effort to reach out and build my relationships a little more, as well as widen my circle of friends. Soon I will have lots of exciting adventures to post as I do lots of fun things with my wonderful friends. See how I'm being positive there? And not whining? Go me!

Odd Man Out

2009-12-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

So I'm having an emotional melt down right now, and I'm pretty sure no one wants me to call them at midnight, so it's all you, internetland.

Without going into specifics, sometimes I just feel like leftovers. What do we do with this single girl? Where do we put her? I'm the proverbial spinster aunt that someone has to take in. Do people have conversations about this? "What are we going to do with Christine?" "I don't know." "Well, we took her last time. It's your turn."

I know I'm just being melodramatic, but this is coming on top of my severe lack of social time. I'm tired of inviting people to spend time with me and getting turned down. I'm tired of not being able to have an equal phone conversation. Somehow, I am friends with many, many people who like to talk and not listen. No, I am not talking about the six of you, so chill. I guess I am drawn to extroverts, since I am one, too. But I know how to ask questions, listen to an answer, paraphrase...I'm even pretty good at it. How come I can't find other people who are?

I spend all day surrounded by children, then come home to an empty house. I have no one to talk to. It is killing me!!!! My hairdresser knows more about my life right now than almost anyone else. Because she asks. I had a hair appointment yesterday, and as I was starting to steer the conversation back toward her, she asked me another question about me. Because she was concerned since I cried all over her last time. We still talked about her half the time, but I felt listened to. And I could tell she cares about me. I didn't want to leave. How crazy is that?

I know I can be a lot to handle sometimes. I am loud (always) and obnoxious (on occasion). But it makes me wonder if I need to be different than I am...maybe my personality is keeping me from finding the friendships I lack. But how do you change who you are on the inside? Should I even have to? If I just say less of what I'm thinking would it be better? But, except around my immediate family who HAVE to put up with me (it's the law), I am already filtering something fierce. If I say much less I won't be talking at all. And that's half the problem. I process my thoughts by saying them out loud. If I think of something, it keeps spinning around my head until I can tell someone about it. If I keep it all inside I feel bottled up and more and more alone. Which is why I'm writing this. If I don't get it out I won't get any sleep tonight.

Oh my gosh, I don't know what's happened to my blog. I started this whole thing trying to be cute and funny, but it sure has gotten boring lately. All I do is whine. Welcome to my personal sob story.

Whatever. I know I should be a big girl and just suck it up.

But I'm sad. I'm tired of being sad.

Anyway. Thanks for listening.

p.s. Sorry, but I've disabled comments for this post. I just wanted to be listened to and not talked at for once. Thanks for understanding.

p.p.s. Don't worry, Mom, I'll be fine.

Mmm...Hot Butter!

2009-12-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

When I think about the holiday season, I realize that yes, I love the family time, the weather and the spirit of giving. But the thing that I think of most during the holiday season is THE FOOD! There are treats we get to enjoy at this time of year that are the true essence of the holidays for me. I associate many smells and tastes with the magic of the season. And some of them just aren't available at any other time of year, so I take advantage of them while I can. One example is this:

This special product comes to area stores and I get so excited when I see the little yellow tub. This so reminds me of the stuff my mom made when we were kids that I would drink by the gallon if allowed. The only problem is, I don't like rum. So I just drink the batter on its own, hence I drink Hot Butter instead of Hot Buttered Rum. I wanted to find out how many calories were in this stuff (bad idea since it's mostly sugar and butter) so I went to their website. No nutritional info, but a very interesting story about Harvey, the man who invented this stuff back in the 50's and now runs a small factory in Bremerton (a town about 30 minutes away) making only this batter. The man is in his 90's and still going strong. Which goes to show, that drinking this stuff will help you live a very long time. Plus it is SO GOOD! Of course, the container says to use a teaspoon of mix per cup. Bwahahahahaha! That's a good one! I'll just stick with my 3 heaping tablespoons, thanks. So, if you are in the Northwest and you see this nectar of the gods in your local dairy case, do yourself a favor and pick some up. You'll thank me.

But, wait, what if you don't live in the Northwest? What if you are doomed to live in some other boring, Not Northwest, Butter-Rum-Batter free zone? Well, guess what I have for you? My mom used to make an equally deadly version of this every year and because I'm so kind I will share the recipe with you. Mom's is technically better than Harvey's but with the premade stuff I don't have to work so hard. Always a plus. Anyway, go whip up some of this batter to keep in your freezer. And I won't count how many tablespoons you put in your cup if you don't count mine!

Hot Buttered Rum Batter

1 lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. brown sugar
1 lb. butter
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
1 Tbl. vanilla extract

Beat together all ingredients. Place in an airtight container and store in freezer.

To make, combine 1 1/2 Tbl. batter, 1 cup hot water, 1/2 jigger rum. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

I told you it was bad for you. What's not to love? Enjoy!

By the way, anybody know what a jigger is?

Look! Snow!

2009-12-01T20:40:00.001-08:00

The view from my window last December.

I made it snow on my blog! Cool, huh?

Hopefully this time it won't mess up anyone's computer. Last year poor Laurie couldn't access my page because the snow made her computer freeze. I used a different program this year, so hopefully things will be fine for everyone. See how nice I am to you, even though this snow doesn't collect in little piles on the bottom of the browser like before, which was so completely adorable...oh well.

Also, hopefully my computer generated snow will not result in any real live snow. The computer kind is JUST FINE! We had enough snow last year to get us through three or four winters. So no praying for snow days or singing "Let it Snow" from this girl. Instead, how about, "I'm dreaming of a green Christmas...."

Cooking Light Mondays: Pomegranate-Avocado Salsa

2009-11-30T23:15:00.000-08:00

This is one of the appetizers I brought for Thanksgiving. We always have snacks before hand, but I'm not sure why since we eat freakishly early, so I'm rarely actually hungry for dinner. But somehow I managed to eat plenty anyway.

The first time I ever had this, my friend Jill made it for a cookie swap she was hosting. I don't remember much about the cookies we had, but I remember this salsa, so that says a lot. It actually has "spicy chips" that you can make to go with it, but I wasn't feeling it. Also, remember: broken oven. We had baked Tostitos scoops and they worked great and tasted yummy. Couldn't really tell they were the baked kind, so that's good.

This is fairly easy. The hardest part is seeding the pomegranate. I used the underwater method to keep from spraying juice all over the place. It was kind of tedious, but it got the job done. The rest of this is just chopping stuff up; oranges, avocados, cilantro, green onion and jalapeno. You throw it all together with some honey, lime juice and salt. That's it. Easy as pie. Actually, pie's much harder to make, so I'm going to say Easy as salsa. So there.

Here's the recipe if you would like to make your own. It's a really popular dish, there was nothing left of it. So I highly recommend it for any holiday parties you might be attending. I think I'm going to make it again for our upcoming staff party in December. If you make the chips let me know how they turn out. Once I have a working oven I might give them a try. Enjoy!

p.s. Isn't the dish pretty? I just love Polish Pottery!!

Thanksgiving and Tea

2009-11-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it is almost the end of November. Only two more days of NaBloMoPo. I really do intend to keep posting. But it will definitely be less frequent as December is a very busy month for me. And you too, I'm sure.

Anyway, thought I'd catch you up on my holiday weekend.

My niece, Madison, made these cutie-patootie decorations in school out of toilet paper rolls. I'm not sure why they are looking to the side and sticking their tongues out. Maybe they are full from too much turkey. I do know that my nephew Max enjoyed pulling their hats off repeatedly.

My poor sister, Monica, came down with the stomach flu on Thanksgiving, so no turkey for her. It was a pretty rotten holiday for her overall. She's trying to look cheery in this picture, unlike her daughter. Madison is a very sympathetic girl, so she's hanging out with mom on the couch.

Mmm, turkey! You can tell it's done because its little timer popped up. It's sitting on this neat rack my mom found that lets you easily lift the entire bird up out of the pan.

Here's the center of the table loaded up with food. Why, yes, we did have a ham as well as turkey. No, I don't know why. Because we did, that's all I've got for you.

After we recovered from pigging out at dinner, we further did ourselves in with pie. Besides pumpkin, we had pecan made by my brother-in-law, Steve, (it was very good!)

and apple pie without any cinnamon. My step-father is allergic, so we had to sprinkle our own cinnamon on there if we wanted some. It didn't really taste the same, but what can you do?

The next day was tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle. You may recall that we did this last year, too, but with a different cast of characters. Unfortunately, my sister still wasn't well enough to come. So besides me, we had

my Aunt Kay (left) and my mom (right). They are wearing crowns because the waitress offered tiaras to the little girls but they wouldn't wear them. So we put them on instead. Plus, we made them look GOOD!

Madison drinking her Almond Cream tea, looking pensive. Actually, I think she's mid-sentence, but I wanted to get bonus points for using the word "pensive."

Kenzie is trying her hardest not to smile in the top picture. Obviously, that didn't work too well for her!

Our tea trays, loaded up with lots of yummy stuff! You would never have guessed that we pigged out at Thanksgiving the night before, because by the end of tea, our trays looked like this:

Overall, I ate WAY too much. But I was able to spend time with my family so that makes it all okay. That and the healthy eating I plan to begin again tomorrow. Right before Christmas. When there is food literally everywhere. Yeah. Oh well, holidays come just once a year, right? Thank goodness!

p.s. Welcome to my 6th official follower, Pam from Sidewalk Shoes. I feel so honored to have all these people reading my lame little blog. Thanks, guys!

Mama! Mama? Yoo-hoo! Dada!

2009-11-28T21:54:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh. So funny. Enjoy!

Family

2009-11-27T22:33:00.000-08:00

The last two days have been so great. I've spent lots of time with my family, and especially some aunts I rarely see. Tomorrow I'm going to visit my dad and his wife. The older I get, the more I appreciate the people who raised me. I also find I'm so much more interested in their history and the paths they chose. I love to hear old family stories, and who remembers what. I guess I'm realizing that they won't be around forever, and that I need to appreciate the time I have with them.

The other day, I was talking with a friend I know from my last school. We realized that the good times we had there are long gone, for a number of reasons. I told her that where I work now, these are the "good times." Someday I will look back and remember this place and time with fondness. That's how I feel about my family, too. Right here, right now, these are the good times. And I need to appreciate them in the moment as well as keep them in my heart. Some day I will be sitting at my niece's dinner table for Thanksgiving, sharing stories from the here and now. And I hope these are the times they will remember with as much love as I do.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T21:52:00.000-08:00

Here's hoping your Thanksgiving looked a lot like this:

And not a lot like this:

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Gobble Gobble!

images from www.ehow.com

Jingle Jingle

2009-11-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

Not as in bells, as in commercial jingles. I was thinking the other day about how many commercials I remember because they had a catchy tune to go with them. I know way more than I should. Does anyone remember these besides me?

Ice cold milk and an Oreo cookie, they forever go together it's a classic combination. When a dark delicious cookie meets an icy cold sensation like the one and only creamy crunchy chocolate O R E O!

My bologna has a first name, it's O S C A R. My bologna has a second name, it's M A Y E R. Oh, I love to eat it every day, and if you ask me why I'll say, 'cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B O L O G N A! How's that? ( I had to sing the song to myself to spell bologna correctly.) It always bugged me as a kid that the word ends in A but we pronounce it with an E...okay, it still bugs me.

And in honor of my sister: Please don't eat all the morsels. Please don't eat them all. For if you eat all the morsels then your cookies will be bald! I swear she sang that for months on end.

If you are from the Pacific Northwest, you might also know these:

We've got crab legs, Sea Galley. We've got crab legs, Sea Galley. We've got Snow (Snow! Snow!) King (King! King!) Dungeness too!

Or, how about

Take a princess to sea. Have a crumpet and tea. There's fun aboard all the way, sail away for the day, hey hey hey. Let's go to Victoria, with Princess Marguerite!

I could go on forever with this. I'm always been musical, so once I hear these things they are stuck in my head FOREVER. How about you? What "message from our sponsor" do you get stuck in your brain? Or am I the only one singing songs I learned from television in second grade?

Speaking of, please someone tell me they know this last one. I keep asking and no one can remember it. I sure as heck didn't make it up. But I sing it every time we go past the Seneca Street exit in Seattle.

Seneca, the first frozen apple juice enriched with vitamin C. Rich, delicious Seneca, sweetened naturally. Young and old love Seneca, enriched with vitamin C!

Someday I'll figure out how to put sound files on this thing and annoy you with the actual tunes. Hmm, maybe you're lucky I haven't figured it out yet!

images from: www.flowgo.com, www.snappysdelivers.com, www.nestle.ca, www.seagalley.com, www.squidoo.com, www.kosher.com

Blogger Award

2009-11-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

I am feeling very honored to have received a blogger award for the first time. For the uninitiated, these are given to bloggers usually by other bloggers in recognition of your writing. Some are just pretty, others have some requirements to go with them. Such is the case with this award I received from Susan at A Slice of Life.

The stipulations are to 1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog, 2) Present this award to others whose blogs you find brilliant in design or content, and 3) Share ten honest things about yourself.

So first, thanks bunches Susan! I'm glad I make you laugh once in a while. Susan has recently started blogging again, as have I, so we're supporting each other on our NaBloPoMo journey. Check her out for both funny and great observational posts.

Okay, next one not so easy. A lot of the blogs I read are also read by a ton of other people and I'm thinking they are too high-falutin' to be responding to little ol' me and my measly little blog...dude, why am I talking like I'm in a spaghetti western all of a sudden? Anyway, feel free to check out my very favorite blogs by The Pioneer Woman, Dooce and I Am Bossy. But don't expect me to ask them to play along with my blog award. They're busy writing books and posting stuff that's actually interesting. So instead, I will pass this award on to a few real life people like me who just happen to blog.

Nicole from two pie r is someone I ran across while hitting the "Next Blog" button. I just stumbled upon her writing and really enjoyed her topics and insights. And her recipes make me hungry.

Carrie at Just Call Me SuperMom is someone I know in real life who has some really great and funny stories about parenting. She's gotten away from blogging lately, so I'm hoping this award might encourage her to post again.

Pam at Sidewalk Shoes has phenomenal recipes and pictures. If you also like cats and reading, check her out. She'll be right up your alley.

Lastly, Tea at Tea and Cookies. Not only does she write about great food, I find some of her posts very touching and poignant. I often tear up when I read her stuff.

You notice I read a lot of blogs that feature food. Big, big surprise.

Finally, ten honest things about me. Um...this is kind of hard because I feel the need to tell you ten things I haven't already written about. I'm pretty honest most of the time. Which often gets me in trouble since I am also very LOUD in my opinions. Anyway, I'll give it a shot.

1. I love avocados. Ripe ones, of course. Like LOVE love. (Is that a sentence?) I think they should be declared our National Fruit. And we can eat them as we sing the Star-Spangled Banner. Not joking.

2. I have reverse anorexia nervosa. I look in the mirror and think, "Damn, I look good!" For some reason, this does not work with photographs, which always make me say AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! And are the reason I am now back to my healthy eating plan.

3. I often get migraines, especially when I've not been very healthy. Which is why I have one right now. I had to take six Excedrin Migraine to make it hurt less. Even though you're not supposed to take more than two in 24 hours. Which is why I am kind of loopy right now. More than usual, I mean. And is probably why I'm writing in sentence fragments.

4. I truly believe the world would be a better place if I were in charge. Not that I want to be, because there are too many mean people in the world. I'm just saying things would be better if y'all would just do what I say. Like be kinder. And give your money to people who need it more than you. And bow down before me every time I walk in the room. Stuff like that.

5. I think exclamation points bring more excitement to my writing!!!! I use exclamation points so much, that I actually made up a song about them!!!!! I recorded it on my computer, but I can't figure out how to upload it for you. I'll let you know if I figure it out!!!!! I did mention I'm a music teacher, right?!?!?!?!!!!

6. I have very few true friends. I have many acquaintances. But the people I welcome into my heart are there forever and I would do anything for them. Which is why I'm really choosy about who I call friend.

7. I am the world's biggest procrastinator. No contest. I actually managed to put off the hosting of my own birthday party one year. My guests ended up decorating for me and I spent the entire time cooking the food I could have done ahead instead of enjoying the party. Why do I do this? Because I hate the idea of work. Not the actual work itself, I just have an intense reluctance to begin it. So. Lame.

8. I really like the colors red and pink. (Running out of ideas now.)

9. If I won the lottery I have an entire financial plan written out of how I would share my winnings with my family and friends, what I would invest in and what I would buy. Yes. It's actually in writing. But I never actually buy lottery tickets. Just like to dream, I guess.

10. If I ever lost my sense of taste, I would lose my will to live. I. Love. Food. I also really like writing one word sentences so you get the emphasis of how I'm saying it in my head. Just. Like. This. hee hee!

Whew! That is one long post. Way to go if you made it this far. Which I guess you did if you're still reading. If you're not still reading this, why am I still typing? If a tree fell in the forest and it hit Glenn Beck on the head, would anyone care? Oh, sorry. Just the Excedrin talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I. Love. Exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. A big shout out to my newest follower, eidolon_nexus. I have 5 real live followers now! (At least, I assume they're all alive.) I am so happy!!!!!!!!! Exclamation point!!!!!

Cooking Light Mondays: Lentil Stew with Ham and Greens

2009-11-23T22:46:00.000-08:00

image from www.myrecipes.com

Whoopee! Back with Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Mondays! You didn't think I'd forget my strikethrough name did ya?

So I was feeling all Autumn-like and decided to make a stick to your ribs kind of meal. For some strange reason I've been craving lentils lately. Weird, especially since I rarely eat them. I also needed a stovetop meal, as my oven currently only heats up to about 200 degrees. "Hey," you say, "your landlord should fix that!" To which I say, "I'm sure he would if I could manage to tell him it's broken." I'm just lazy like that sometimes.

Which brings us to another long Cooking Light recipe name. Not just Lentil Stew, but Lentil Stew with Ham and Greens. Only mine doesn't have ham in it. I decided to use turkey kielbasa instead because the online reviews said it had more flavor. It's also a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a big hunk of ham for $12.00. I also used sweet potatoes since I had them in my house. And the little reviewer people said I could. And what they say goes.

This was a really easy meal to put together and was way yummy. I ate some for lunch today and then wasn't even hungry for the pudding cup I brought. It was nice to have a hearty meal to get me through the afternoon, which also made me want to snack less...always good.

So let's get to it!

Technically, the hardest part of this was all the chopping since, as we know, I am a ridiculously slow chopper. But some things went in the pot and then cooked for a while, so it gave me time to keep chopping as things simmered. Anyway, first you heat up some olive oil, then throw in a chopped onion and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Mmmm, garlic! Let it cook down for about 5 minutes. Make sure to close your bedroom door so your clothes don't smell like garlic and onions. All. Day. Long. (sigh)

At which point it will look a little like the picture above. See my new Pampered Chef bamboo spoon? Not just wood, but bamboo! Ooooo. Ahhhh. Ohhhh. The pandas will be jealous! (Because pandas eat bamboo. Get it?)

Next we throw in flavorless Swanson's chicken broth, chopped up carrot, dried lentils and a few bay leaves. Bring to a boil. It will look like this. (If you stir it and take a picture at the same time while trying not to drop your camera into the pot.)

After it boils, let it simmer for 20 minutes. Which is when you can chop up the rest of the stuff you were too slow to get done earlier. Throw in the ham (or whatever), potato and greens. Use red swiss chard if you are cool and adventurous like me, especially if they don't have the regular green kind of greens at the store. Just red ones. Which makes them reds, I guess.

Again with the boil, then simmer. 15 minutes this time. When it looks like this...

...throw in diced tomatoes and some basil, thyme and pepper. Then, you guessed it, once more bring to a boil and simmer. And following the 5 minutes less every time pattern, only simmer for 10 minutes.

Ooo, simmering. With tomatoes. And little flecks of dried up stuff. Oh, so very unattractive!

When it's all said and done, you get a yummy bowl of hearty stew that just isn't that pretty. You could sprinkle some parsley on it, but that won't help much with the looks factor. Still, it's really good, so make some soon, and just close your eyes when you eat it.

Um, I guess with all my alterations it needs to be called "Lentil Stew with Kielbasa and Reds." Doesn't really work, though. Oh well. Here's the recipe. Except for pre-chopping, this should take around an hour. And it's pretty hard to screw it up. So enjoy, and let me know what you think if you make this homely (but still yummy!) dish.

Random Thoughts

2009-11-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

Here are my three positive thoughts for today. I've got 20 minutes to post, so down and dirty.

1. I went to see the movie "The Blind Side." It was WONDERFUL. I'm not kidding. Go see it. Super inspirational and made me want to be a better person through my actions, not just my words. And I LOVE Sandra Bullock. I plan to be her in my next life.

2. I think I might actually be on track to get back to my food and exercise plan this week. I actually COOKED. Real food and everything. I know, right? How long has it been since I did a Cooking Light Monday? Maybe April or something? Anyway, new one tomorrow, so come by to get the scoop. Of course I manage to get back on track the week of Thanksgiving. Um, yeah. So we'll see how that goes.

3. Four words: Three day work week! Actually, 2 and a half since we have early release on Wednesday. I am SO HAPPY! Hooray for time off!!!!!

And now I have something to write about on Tuesday, too, as I received my very first blogging award today! Yay! So exciting! Thanks, Susan! So at least a couple of days this week I will have real live (possibly even interesting!) stuff to share with you. Whoopee! Does anyone say "whoopee" anymore? No? Just me? 'Kay.

And on the 21st day...

2009-11-21T22:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it almost 3 weeks of NaBloMoPo without whining. But we are finally here. I have nothing today. Nada. Zip. I'm just posting so I don't miss a day. I'll be glad when it's done and I can just post when I want to. Although I'm glad I've gotten back in to blogging. It's nice to feel connected somewhere in the world. :-)

Facebook is Evil!!

2009-11-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

That's right. I said it. And I stand by it. I believe that Facebook was created simply to prevent humans from interacting in real life, and instead get them to spend HOURS playing inane games and "talking" to each other by typing. And using little emoticons. Like this :-P. (Mom, that's a little face sticking out it's tongue. Look sideways.)

It seduces you into thinking you're connecting with people, when really you just find out that someone's kid scored a goal in soccer or they bought a new vacuum cleaner. Which you didn't care about in the first place.

At least, I'm pretty sure that's what it's like. Not that I would spend countless wasted hours playing lame games on Facebook, or posting things no one wants to hear. Not me! I don't feed virtual fish or have a pretend farm! I would NEVER be constantly logged in, or always have the site open in one of my browser tabs. Really! Um, I mean...well, I...oh forget it. I have to go play Farm Town now.

p.s. Thanks to everyone for their positive lists from yesterday. It was fun to read your happy things. And a shout out to Blessed Rain, my newest visitor. Thanks for letting me know my random thoughts actually end up somewhere.

image from www.colorado.edu

All About Me!

2009-11-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Number one best thing about my blog...it's all about me!

I am trying to create a little more positive thinking in my life. So I'm going to list ten things that make me happy or that I am glad to have.

1. The world's most wonderful sister who is also my best friend.
2. Haagen Dazs ice cream
3. My sense of humor
4. Wonderful friends who visit my blog and leave me comments (hint hint!)
5. Flannel happy pants
6. Musicals
7. Afternoon tea
8. Hot men
9. Taste buds
10. Snowbear

Your turn. What makes you happy? Besides reading my blog, of course!

Bring Me Hot Cocoa!

2009-11-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

image from www.abc.net.au

...and another one of these blew in tonight. Getting so tired of the November storms. But if it keeps us from getting feet of the dreaded "s" word later this winter, I will deal with it. Now where's my cocoa? Get on it, people!

p.s. Hi Nichole!

Apology

2009-11-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

I realized yesterday that I did something I swore I would never do. I whined about one of my friends in my blog. Granted, I was mildly depressed, but I had promised myself when I started blogging that I wouldn't speak ill about the people in my life. Having experienced it first hand, I didn't want to put someone else in that position.

So I apologize my friend, even though you never read my blog. I feel badly that I put negative stuff about our relationship out into internetland. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly. It will never happen again.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program...

Pathetic Confession #5

2009-11-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

For some completely unknown reason, I was under the impression that flour had little to no calories. I'm not sure why I thought this. Maybe it's because I use it to make cakes and cookies and such, I assumed all the calories in them came from the sugar. Unfortunately, I found out recently that flour has a heck-a-bunch of calories. Like a whole lot. Which probably explains why I like to eat bread so much.

image from www.freevectors.com

A Gift for Laurie

2009-11-15T18:28:00.001-08:00

Ask, and you shall receive. Enjoy!

Real, Insightful, Heart-Rending Post

2009-11-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

image from www.iclibs.org

See? Do I follow through or what?

The other day, I mentioned that I stayed up late reading a blog. The one I got sucked into was the original one written by Julie Powell, from "Julie & Julia." After watching the movie, I wanted to know more about her and found her blog, which is still up in it's original format. It was so interesting in many ways.

First, it was strange to be reading about what things were like just six years ago, but not be able to remember what I was doing at that time. The war was just starting up and there was so much going on in New York. I kept thinking, what was I doing that month? Where was I and how was I feeling? It's such recent history, and yet I felt so removed from it. Strange.

Secondly, I really enjoyed Julie's writing style and sense of humor. But I kept asking myself what was so special about it? Why did it become such a big deal in such a short time? The only answers I can come up with are that blogging was relatively new and that she was in the right place at the right time. Although I enjoyed it thoroughly, I didn't see anything extraordinary about it. I read blogs just as funny/interesting as hers all the time.

Thirdly, it really bothered me that there were typos in her blog. I know she was just whipping stuff out, trying to post quickly in the time she had. I read my blog about 15 times before I hit send, checking the grammar, word choice, etc. I am so anal, I can't understand how she could be okay leaving up typos for all eternity. It would drive me crazy knowing my stuff isn't "just right." Dude, I need a life.

Which leads me to my final realization. I have no life. Other than work, I have nothing going right now. NOTHING. NADA. I used to be really involved in lots of outside activities, or at least connecting with my friends regularly. At this point, my life is really, really dull. It involves working, then coming home and sitting on my butt trying to be entertained, usually with the computer. This is not okay. I need to make a life for myself that I enjoy and even look forward to. I need outside interests. This may be one of the reasons I've felt so down lately. Now, I just need to figure out what some (cheap) outside interests could be. Ummm.....yeah. Okay, have to work on that one. I guess I will keep you posted as I think about what might make me happier than I am right now. Which shouldn't be that hard, right? Right?

Oh, and in case you're interested, here's Julie's blog. Be forewarned that there is much swearing and Republican bashing. Bon appetit!

Biff!

2009-11-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've got 10 minutes to post in order to meet the NaBloPoMo deadline. So, unfortunately, tonight it's another video. On the other hand, it's a funny video, so that makes it all okay!

This is the guy who played Biff in the Back to the Future series.

hee hee! Made me laugh at least.

Also, I am now up to five official readers! Whoo-hoo! (Hi Laurie!) Please leave me a comment if you're a lurker, and I will say howdy to you as well. I think I might have more than just 5 readers, according to the hit counter on my blog. Or it could just be one crazy person who visits my site over and over and over. To that person: Please don't kill me.

Okay, gotta hit send. I promise a real, insightful, heart-rending post tomorrow. Or at least a sincere effort.

Childhood "Memories"

2009-11-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

A friend recently posted an old Sesame Street clip on YouTube. Which then led to me doodling around looking up old Sesame Street and The Electric Company videos. I discovered something. There are some phrases that I say All The Time that I had no idea came from these childhood shows. Some I knew the reference for. But I have been saying "I remembered, I remembered" for years, and had no memory that it came from this:

Also, for all of you who have heard me say this about a million times, I am not crazy.

Finally, one of my favorite Sesame Street tunes which I sing all the time. I must have always hated 70's style artwork, though, because I have completely blocked the animation from my brain.

So glad I can now pinpoint when my brain cells began turning to mush.

1 2 3 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10, 11 twe-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-elve! (See, Monica, I didn't make this up!)

Pathetic Confession #4

2009-11-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I do this weird thing. I will stay up really late on a work night. Like REALLY late. Like I got an hour and a half of sleep last night late. And I am never doing anything of any value. Usually it involves watching infomercials or YouTube videos. Last night I was reading a year's worth of someone's blog (more on that tomorrow). And there is no sane reason for me to do this. The little voice in the back of my head is saying, "GO TO BED!" But the part of me that is mildly entertained just ignores it. I've even had to pee like crazy, and still won't get off the couch because if I do, I know it will cause me to stop doing whatever pointless activity I'm doing and actually get some sleep.

I have a theory on why this happens. Two actually. The first is that I am just a big whiny baby who likes to stay up late. But really I think it's that if I go to bed, it will much more quickly become tomorrow. And then I will have to deal with THINGS. Like laundry and groceries and cleaning the bathroom. And getting up early in the morning to go to work. Which I must say is REALLY hard to do when you've stayed up until 5 a. m. For. No. Good. Reason.

So, of course, I am super tired tonight and barely managed to do one load of laundry (which involves no less than 6 trips up or down the thirty-seven stairs to the basement and outside into the cold to reach it. (Oh, woe is me! Umm, I just had to refer to the dictionary for this statement. I originally typed "whoa is me." Duh.) Anyway, I have such a hard time facing up to stuff I just don't want to do. It's so much easier to bury myself in a book, or the computer or some lame TV. I keep thinking, hmm, I'm forty. When does the adult behavior show up? Because, really, I should be able to deal with my boring and tedious responsibilities by now and just get over it, right? No one ever died from washing a pot, did they?

Speaking of which, I have to go fold some clothes and go to bed. Early meeting tomorrow, and did I mention my hour and a half of sleep last night? Sigh. Some day when I grow up...

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

I pulled off the Veteran's Day assembly on Wednesday. But I was a nervous wreck and slept really poorly the night before. So by 10:15 am, when it was all said and done, I was wiped and just needed a nap. I think it is someone else's turn to be in charge next year.

My post tonight is the slide show I found on YouTube and used for our assembly. I watched a lot of them while trying to pick one. I knew this was the one for two reasons. The music is dead on, and I was crying about 45 seconds in.

Thank you, veterans, and to all of the current service men and women who keep us safe and free.

Oh, and congrats to me. This is my 100th post today. Yay.

Passion

2009-11-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

image from www.thenewwriters.wordpress.com

No, not that kind of passion. Get your mind out of the gutter! And grab mine for me while you're down there, will you? Although that kind wouldn't be too bad either...

Anyway, I mean this kind of passion:

image from www.livinglifeauthentically.com

And this kind:

image from www.knovamind.com

And especially this:

image from www.education.yahoo.net

I went to see "Julie and Julia" tonight. It was a great movie, very well done. And I loved how authentic the Julia Child parts were. I felt like I was in that time period with them. I also appreciated watching a film that featured two realistic marriages. So often I see movies in which a couple spends two hours trying to meet each other. We never see what happens afterwards. But in "Julie and Julia" we got to spy on two mature, strong and realistic relationships. I enjoyed that. And Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci...wow. Amazing job.

But what I found myself really thinking about as I left the theater was passion. Both the lead characters' stories revolved around finding that something we truly love doing. Not just something to keep us entertained for a little while or the latest hobby. But that which makes us complete...makes us want to fly out of bed in the morning because we can't wait to get to it.

I've always known that my passion is music. I love teaching and working with kids, but my life would not come to an end without them. However, if it ever came to be that I couldn't sing or listen to music I would rather just not live anymore. Music is a part of who I am and I cannot be without it for long. I feel so lucky to have a job that lets me combine what I enjoy with my true passion. And get paid well to do it!

So many times I wonder how people end up doing what they do. It seems many of us just end up somewhere random. We fall into something and stay because it's easier, or we need the money, or we just aren't sure where our passion really lies. I feel so badly for people who have to spend 8 hours a day doing something they don't love, and rarely experience their passion. I realize we can't all be professional sports stars or fashion designers. And I know that we need people in many professions that are going to be far from their dream job. But I so wish we lived in a world where money didn't matter as much as doing what makes us happy. In my utopia, we would all have what we need to get by, and not be constantly wanting more because we would be so happy in our chosen life.

Yes, I am dreaming up my happy place. I just wish everyone was as lucky as me to have found their true calling. Even though it often stresses me out, gives me headaches and just plain pisses me off sometimes, I am still one of the luckiest people I know.

I hope you experience your passion every day, too. No, not that kind! Or, well, maybe that kind, too!

I. Hate. Mondays.

2009-11-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know what's going on with Mondays this year. I swear I get a migraine every single time. I must be allergic to work. Maybe my doctor will write me a note and I won't have to go anymore.

Anyway, my head is aching and I have to finish preparing the power point presentation for the Veteran's Day assembly I am IN CHARGE OF which for some unknown reason I VOLUNTEERED to be IN CHARGE OF. I think this year might finally teach me to stop saying, "I'll do it!"

I'm hoping to see "Julie and Julia" tomorrow night, so I'll probably have a review for you. But tonight me and my headache are done.

p. s. Hi Nancy! I realized I don't ususally say "hi" to you so here ya go! Hug Diego for me! And James, too, I guess. :-)

I am Woman! Hear Me Roar! RAHR!

2009-11-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

The goat says RAHR!

image from www.abolitionist.com

I had a very productive day. I always feel better when I get stuff done. For example, I actually planned what I will eat tomorrow! And then bought groceries and packed my lunch so it would happen! Oooooo. And the clothes I'm wearing to work are hanging on my closet door! Aaaaaahhhh. Aren't you impressed? I am! And I finally found the fish in my tank and some of the floor in my living room! So exciting!

I like Sunday evenings because it's when I feel most inspired to clean and organize. I think it's partly because I know Monday is coming and I work well with deadlines. I'm also the most rested I'm going to be for the week. I rarely get anything done on Saturdays because I'm just so dang tired from the work week.

On Tuesday we have an assembly for Veteran's Day, which I am of course in charge of. I will be SO happy when that is done and I can move on the the 40 million other things on my list. I'm really looking forward to having Wednesday off. Thanks, veterans, for giving me the day off. I truly do appreciate it.

I'm actually starting to get excited about the holiday season and spending time with family and friends. We're already making plans for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm so glad to be feeling a bit better and more optimistic. I have to remember that the more I take care of myself and my home, the better I feel. I just need to make time for it instead of staying at school forever. Always working on that balance. The never ending battle!

Feeling Human Again

2009-11-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

Ha ha! I'm just going to get this post in under the wire.

I am feeling much better today. I had the chance to go out and be productive (and work with grown ups!) and also have some time to myself to goof around and do nothing. Not going to work today is also a part of it, I'm sure, even though I'm planning to spend some time on it tomorrow.

The best part was that I went out to dinner with my friend Jill (Hi Jill!) and we had such a good time! We went to Al Boccalino in Seattle, one of my favorite places. We had a wonderful meal and enough privacy to really talk and listen to each other. Afterwards we went back to her house and continued talking while we shared a pot of vanilla tea. It just felt so nice to talk and share and spend time together. Jill is such a good friend.

I wish I had time to tell you more, but I've got to get this post in before the NaBloPoMo deadline. I hope all four of you (up to four now!) have a wonderful weekend. More tomorrow!

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, and Hail, and Some Thunder...

2009-11-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know thunder doesn't fall on your head, but you get the idea. The weather is NASTY tonight. I was planning to go see this:

image from www.impaward.com

It's playing at our local second run theater. But I just couldn't bring myself to go out in this windy, cold, pouring-down-rain weather. So instead I'm going to write this and then hit the hay. Yes, it's currently 7:15 pm. I don't care. I'm tired.

So, some random thoughts for the evening. Yes, all my thoughts are random. And your point is...?

1. Sorry to be all weepy on you yesterday. All three of you (Hi Nancy!) don't need to worry about me. I am just having a hard time right now. But everything is cyclical, right? It will get better.

2. If God wanted us to be vegetarians, he wouldn't have made meat taste good. Not that I'm a huge meat eater, but come on...have you ever tasted bacon? If we weren't supposed to eat meat, bacon would not exist. I'm just sayin'....

3. Some of you (like my mom, Hi Mom!) have expressed concern about my posts regarding work. Let me just say that I really do love my job and I love the kids and staff I work with. What I'm not so keen on is the ridiculous amount of time I put into my job. I am constantly stressed and in a state of high adrenaline. This is what keeps me unhappy about going to my job because I know the stress cycle will begin again. I hate the feeling of constantly being behind and up against a deadline. Again, most of this I have created myself. I just don't know how to get out of it.

4. I think I am getting a zit on my chin, right under my lip. Probably from the greasy fast food I've been eating. I hate zits. Wah.

5. I am feeling a distinct gap in my friendships. One of my friends, whom I love dearly, has redefined her priorities lately, and they don't seem to include me. Don't worry, if you're reading this I am not talking about you. This particular friend doesn't read my blog. Case in point. Anyway, most of my friends have busy lives, are married and/or are far away. Not that they don't make time for me, I'm just saying I would LOVE to have a friend who I really connect with who is single and lives close by to do stuff with, or just to hang out with. For example, I would love to go with someone to see Julie and Julia, but I don't see that happening. It's just so much harder to make friends once you are a so called "grown up." When we were in school you got to meet so many different people. Now it's harder to find friends. I know I can, I just need to make the effort. Again, I'm whining about something under my control. But whining is so much easier than changing it!

Alright, I'm done with random thoughts. I will try to post something a little lighter this weekend. I never meant for this blog to be my emotional dumping ground. But unfortunately I have no where else to put my thoughts as of late. Sorry.

Have a wonderful (and dry!) weekend you three! :-)

Losing It

2009-11-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

I picked a really bad time to start blogging again. Because I'm just having a really crappy time right now, so I have nothing fun to say. Instead, I could tell you how I was almost late to work today because I sat on the couch and just didn't want to go. Or how unhappy I am with my life in general. Or that I cried on my hairdresser. I'm sure you are just THRILLED to hear about this stuff.

But then, I remember that no one is left reading this blog anyway, except my sister (Hi Monica!) and apparently Susan from A Slice of Life (Thanks, Susan.) And the reason I started this whole thing anyway was to say stuff that's in my head that has no place else to go. So here's my list of things I feel like saying that only I care about.

1. I really hate my Italian class. The instructor is going way too fast for me and doesn't translate enough. I'm already behind, but now feel like I'll never catch up.

2. I'm sick of being overwhelmed at work. I don't want to be in charge of so much stuff. ARGH!

3. I am lonely and need a date. Badly.

4. Or a friend who will listen to me and not talk AT me all the time. (Don't worry, if you're reading this I am not talking about you!)

5. Or at least a pet. That's not a fish. Which I'm pretty sure are all dead anyway since I haven't cleaned the tank in who knows how long.

6. I hate that my house is a giant messy pit, and the only place I want to be is in my bed. Where I am now.

7. I've completely stopped exercising and am eating horribly. I've gained back some of the weight I worked so hard to lose. I'm so afraid it will all come back.

8. Mostly, I hate that all of the stuff I just whined about is COMPLETELY under my control to change. I just can't seem to find the energy/motivation/willpower to change any of it. I'm tired of being a lazy, slightly depressed mess.

I am hoping that by the end of this month I will be able to look back and see how much better I feel and how much progress I've made in these areas. Because seriously, something's got to give. I can't keep crying on my service professionals. Maybe this actually IS a good time to blog, so I can really think about the stuff that's bugging me enough to do something about it. I hope.

Thanks for listening you two. Goodnight.

36 hours?

2009-11-04T21:46:00.000-08:00

Dude, could my posts be any more boring? Probably not. Sorry gang. This is one of the reasons I stopped blogging. It's hard to be happy (or at least fake happy) all the time. So you're getting the real me this month. Sorry about that.

The real me would like to request that we have 36 hour days from now on so I can at least have the possibility of getting everything done, and still get eight hours of sleep a night. Can someone arrange that for me? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Oh well. I should have a little more time tomorrow night. Hopefully I can post something remotely interesting. Or at least fake happy.

The Search for Balance

2009-11-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

photo from www.nyipl.org

You may have noticed a theme in my most recent posts. It seems that I am in a constant struggle for balance in my life. For some reason I have yet to figure out, I am only able to concentrate fully on one thing at a time. From about January to June it was my health and getting in better shape. Which was great, except for the fact that I fell completely behind at work. Like noticeably. Like my boss was asking me what was up. This was not good. So this year, I've been putting more time into work. Which means I've almost completely quit exercising. Which means I put in a twelve hour day today. Which means once again I am unable to do more than one thing at a time. Or at least do them both well.

I was hoping that blogging this month would force me to schedule my time a little better and get into a more regular routine, one that is a little more balanced (there's that magic word!) So far, not so much. But November is still young. We'll see how it goes. I still have hope. Although completely unfounded based on past events, I still have hope. Sigh.

So Much for Quality.

2009-11-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry all. I know I said I was going to post some deep, meaningful stuff or some such. But I have the world's largest headache that won't go away. I think I might be allergic to Mondays, as I seem to get this same one once a week. So I'll try again tomorrow when I'm not considering pulling out my eyes so they'll stop hurting. Yes, it's that bad. Going to bed now. Night.

NaBloPoMo 2009

2009-11-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again! I have decided to undertake blogging every day this month for the second year in a row. When I told my sister, she reminded me that I whined about doing this last year. However, I was also new to blogging and was getting kind of tired of it. As I haven't blogged regularly for almost a year, I'm hoping I won't get as burned out and that I can spend a more reasonable amount of time on it. (translation: not be obsessed with my blog being "perfect.")

My other goal is to only blog stuff that is worthy. A couple of times last year I posted videos or pictures as my entry. Even though they were funny, I would like to put a little more time into each one of my posts.

I'm hoping this will be one small step toward having a more balanced approach to my life by having to schedule myself a bit better. Or a whole lot better. Or at all.

Hope you enjoy the month! :-)

p.s. Looooook! Bigger text! Yay! My aging eyes can now read this.

I Need a Tissue For My Issue

2009-09-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I'm lame. I have become a once in a while blogger. I am easily distracted by the next thing coming down the pike. In my head, it sounds a little something like this:

Me: Wow, blogging is great! I feel so creative, and people like to read my stuff! This is the best. I'm going to blog every day for the rest of my life. I could become an online celebrity! I could get a book deal! Wow, this is...ooo, what's that shiny thing over there? (Runs off to something new.)

I'm checking in tonight because I'm dealing with something weird, and I figure since everyone has given up on my blog anyway, no one will judge me. I hope not too much, anyway.

School starts tomorrow. This will be the beginning of my seventeenth year as a teacher. And for the first time ever, I'm not excited. Not just not excited, but sad. And unhappy. And reluctant. I don't want to go to school. I don't want to teach any kids. I'm not looking forward to anything this year. And I don't know why.

Usually at some point during the summer I start to think about how the next year will look...who will be in my choir, how to teach a concept in a new way, how to organize my room. But not this summer. I never got to a place where I felt good about the coming year. I forced myself to go in and start working in my classroom, making plans, picking music. I figured eventually the excitement would kick in. But it hasn't yet. And it's 9:30 the night before. Instead I feel like crying. I've felt this way for three weeks. If I seriously start to think about school starting I tear up. Not that it takes much to make me cry, but this is different. It's more a cry of frustration and anger that I have to go back. This is not good.

I am hoping that seeing the kids tomorrow will make it all better. That their enthusiasm will be contagious and I will miraculously feel this weight lifting from me. I truly am wishing for that. Because otherwise I don't know how I'll make it through the year. I need to feel excited and energized and happy to do the kind of job I need to do and that the kids deserve. But I'm not there yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

I'll keep you posted...unless I see something shiny.

p.s. Has the text on this thing always been so small? Geesh, I can barely read it. I'll try to figure out how to make it bigger. And no comments about my 40-year-old eyes!

ALASKA!! Karaoke Queen

2009-07-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven’t been posting. I’ve been napping a lot in the afternoon because I’m not sleeping well. On the second night, we went to a karaoke deal in one of the little lounges so I could make my mom sing with me. I thought it would be fun. I went first and sang “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar. The guy in charge of the entertainment came up and asked me to sing in their Karaoke competition the next night. I’m not really a big karaoke girl...I think people take it too seriously, and it can become their whole identify. I have a life, so choose not to do the karaoke thing very often. But I agreed, thinking it was no big deal. It’s a cruise ship, after all.

So come the next night, I find out we’re in a much bigger lounge and there were a LOT of people coming to see it. I started to get super nervous. And then I had to go second to last, even more time to get nervous. I started to sympathize for all my students when they sing for our talent show. Anyway, I sang and didn’t die, though I thought I might pass out since I was so nervous I couldn’t breathe. I talk and sing in front of people all the time, but those are people from my school who love me anyway. This was a bunch of people I was going to be looking at for the next week. But I think I did okay. Here I am singing on the little stage.

Since I didn’t go to the initial meeting about the contest, I didn’t know they were going to pick the top three out of fourteen. I thought they’d pick more people. The judges all said I did “fantastic,” so I wasn’t too surprised when they called my name. Here I am looking happy that I got picked. I am competitive after all, and didn’t want to lose...losing sucks!

This is the mug I won. Whoo-hoo! So exciting.

THEN I found out we do the final round in the biggest theater. Oh, crap. So for the last few nights I have not been sleeping at all. I just lie there and stress out and rehearse in my head. I have vowed to never enter another karaoke competition. I am just not the kind of person who can deal with the stress of performing. I am so much happier helping my students perform their best than worrying about myself. I’m glad I did it, because I’ve learned more about myself. But never again!

Anyway, the final competition is at 4:00 p.m. Then it will all be over and I can relax and just enjoy the rest of the cruise. I’ll let you know how I do. Maybe I’ll get a keychain this time! Yow!

And by the way, I did get my mom to sing karaoke with me. She freaked out and couldn’t breathe either. So it must be hereditary!

UPDATE: I did not die at the performance. But I didn't win either. The winner did an absolutely hysterical rendition of "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond, complete with writhing 30-something male back up dancers, called The Accountants. He rightly deserved to win since it's all in fun, but I was very disappointed. And I didn't even get a keychain. (I did get a towel though.) NEVER AGAIN!!! :-)

ALASKA!! Day 1

2009-06-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Internetland!

Sorry I have been gone so long! I’ve been incredibly busy for the last two months. But school is finally out, and I am currently on vacation. HOORAY!

Ready to go!

In order to celebrate my 40th birthday, my mom offered to take me on an Alaskan Cruise. I, of course, jumped at the chance, and am currently sitting in a lounge on the m/s Westerdam of the Holland America Line. I have NO idea what the m/s stands for. At first I thought the ship was being feminist and it was Ms. But, no. Anyway, it costs big bucks to go online on the ship, so I am just popping in a few times this week to update you all on my trip. I thought it was free (HA!) and planned to blog each day, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case.

Yesterday was our first day on the boat. We had an eventful time getting to the pier because we took Hwy. 509 to get there and for those of you unfamiliar with the area, this road includes the First Avenue South Bridge. It’s a drawbridge, so when a tall ship passes through, they stop traffic and raise it up. No big deal, as it usually only adds a few minutes to the trip. Yesterday, however, the bridge decided to get stuck on its way back down. Traffic was completely halted. We weren’t too far into the back up, but we were sitting there for much longer than we would have liked. Some cars were turning around and driving the wrong way down the onramp. We decided not to risk it, and waited to see what would happen. In my head, I was planning how we could possibly get to Juneau to meet the ship on the third day. Mom had decided that if necessary, we could walk across the bridge and catch a cab. (It was only stuck a little bit up...we could have jumped it...maybe!) Anyway, it finally got fixed and we all breathed a sigh of relief. I had really been worried that we’d miss the boat. But the rest of our boarding was uneventful, except for me having to lug around my extremely heavy carry on. I had to bring my computer so I could communicate with you all!

Waiting to board.

The view from our room, looking at Elliot Bay Marina at Smith Cove.

After we got to our room and settled in a little bit, we ate lunch at the huge-amongous buffet. Everyone else was also chowing down, so it was a bit crowded, but okay. Then we had to assemble for our lifeboat drill. We got to don our ever so attractive life vests and gather in a specific place on the deck. They took roll for every room and called out the room number of everyone who hadn’t checked in.

This was the very efficient man who was organizing for our lifeboat (in the vest). He seemed very concerned that the people from room number 1072 didn’t check in. We knew this because he kept calling the number over and over and over. They never did show up. Oh well, I hope we don’t hit an iceberg because they will have no clue what to do. We also found out that, despite the women’s movement, there are still some perks to being a woman on a ship. All the men got forced to the back and the women (and children) went to the front so we could be saved first. Even a guy in a wheelchair had to move to the back. They weren’t kidding around with the rules!

One of the first things I noticed on the ship is that most of the service men and women are people of color. There are a ton of people (about 900 to be exact) who make up the crew, and the majority of them come from either Indonesia or The Philippines, and a few are from India. Everyone is very kind and patient and helpful, especially with all of us clueless people who didn’t read the directions and tied our life vests wrong.

In the evening we went to dinner at our assigned table. On the ship, you often share a table with strangers. Our dinner mates were Neil and his wife Colette. Neil is from Hawaii by way of the Bronx, and Colette is originally from Arizona. Neil was quite the talker (and still has the Bronx accent) and my mom kept pace with him, which really surprised me. I tend to clam up around people I don’t know well, but she was right in there keeping pace with the story telling. Colette and I did more listening than talking. It was interesting to see my mom in a chatty mode. She usually is a bit more reserved at parties and other social events. I think because it was just the four of us she felt more comfortable, and partly because her husband’s social nature has had an influence on her. (Hi Brian!) Apparently, she also felt comfortable enough to share some of my private information as well. Gee, thanks Mom!

For dinner, I didn’t take any pictures. I will try and do a better job tonight at our first formal meal. I had a scallop appetizer in a coconut cream sauce, chilled berry soup, a salmon entree and apple strudel for dessert. Mom had melon with prosciutto, an arugula salad, prime rib, and copied my apple strudel order. It all was very good, but nothing was an “Oh. My. God.” moment. Hopefully I will have one of those along the way. During dinner, we really started to notice that the ship was moving and grooving. We were out of Puget Sound and into deeper waters. Because our ship is smaller than some cruise ships, we could really feel it rolling. Sitting down made it the most noticeable. But as we walked around to explore the ship, we were weaving back and forth across the hallway as the ship tilted back and forth. I was a little worried about getting seasick, but as long as I don’t get too hungry, I’ve been okay so far. I’m just glad the weather has been calm, otherwise things might not look so good.

At 9:30 we went to the Vista Lounge to watch a show. Here I am, all dolled up and looking hot! Mom wanted to include the stage in the picture because...she is my mom.

We were thinking it was a broadway style deal, but mostly it was an introduction to the ship employees and introduced things to do on board. There were some silly game show style activities that included people from the audience, then a comedian did a short stand up session. And the one production number they did was pretty lame and extremely cheesy. I could have done without attending it. Hopefully their other productions will be better.

I am really looking forward to getting in to a port. Day 2 and 3 are spent at sea, so we’ll have to find ways to entertain ourselves until then. Stay tuned for more from Alaskan and Canadian waters...

Cooking Light Mondays: Fettucine and Tofu with Finger-Licking Peanut Sauce

2009-05-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's not Monday. Close enough. You're lucky I'm posting at all people. I am currently hanging out on the Washington Coast with the females in my family. Once a year we get together and rent a house to enjoy each other's company. It's awesome! Even though it's pouring down rain, we are having a great time. Anyway, I finally have a chunk of time to put up my most recent recipe for Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Mondays.

Don't let the tofu in this scare you off if you're not of an adventuresome nature. You can easily sub in chicken, pork or seafood instead. Though I loved it with the tofu and highly recommend it.

I loved this recipe for two reasons. It was easy and it was GOOD. Unlike the name states, I did not do any finger licking. The bowl, however, was magically clean after dinner. Hmmm. I wonder how that happened.

I have no process pictures for you as I've been informed you don't need to see how I cut carrots and that it's boring. So to appease the masses, I've just got a few shots of the finished product. (I was also hungry and in a hurry. So no pictures for you.)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chile paste with garlic
4 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces uncooked fettuccine
1 pound firm tofu, drained and cubed
1 cup (2-inch) sliced green onions
1 cup shredded carrot

Preparation

Combine first 8 ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until smooth, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

Cook pasta in boiling water 8 minutes, omitting salt and fat. Add tofu, onions, and carrot; drain. Place pasta mixture in a large bowl. Add peanut butter mixture; toss gently.

And here it is on Cooking Light if you want more info.

I didn't want to grate the carrots because I'm lazy. So instead I peeled long strips with a vegetable peeler. It worked great. I will definitely be making this again. The sauce really makes it. You can change the pasta, the vegies, the protein. Just don't change the sauce. (Except leave out some of the hot stuff if you're a wuss like me.)

Let me know how this turns out and what you thought. This is the first CL recipe I've reviewed and given my full recommendation. So I'd love to hear if you like it too. Enjoy!

Dooce!

2009-04-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel very lucky to live in Seattle (Okay, Tacoma. Close enough). Not today, while the rain is pouring down. But yesterday, a lot more so. One of the perks of living near a thriving, fore-thinking city is that sometimes cool people come to town. People like this:

What? You don't recognize her? I'm not surprised. Many people wouldn't. But if you have ever checked out the right side of this blog, you will see her listed under the title "People Way Smarter Than Me." This is Heather B. Armstrong. Otherwise known as Dooce.

Heather has been blogging for longer than I've known what a blog is. She has chronicled life at her crappy job, her engagement, leaving the Mormon faith, her marriage, losing her crappy job (because of her blog), motherhood and now her second pregnancy. All while dealing with chronic depression. And all with a wicked wit and amazing sense of humor. I've only been following her for about a year, but what I've read of hers is amazing. It's no wonder the blog opened the opportunity for her to write this:

image from dooce.com

So I was super excited to make the hour long drive up to North Seattle to listen to her read from her book and answer questions. Many, many other people had the same idea. There were at least 300 people in the audience, if not more.

The first thing that struck me was how much she moves when she talks. It was hard enough to get a decent picture with the terrible lighting and my less than ideal seat. It didn't help that she was constantly talking with her hands, making faces and sweeping her bangs off to the side. She was always in motion.

The second thing I realized is that she truly has no topic off limits. Heather told us things that I would never in a million years share with anyone, much less a room full of strangers. But it is precisely because she is so open that people flock to her and her website.

The third thing that occurred to me is that she is one of those people that THINGS HAPPEN TO. Do you know these people? I seem to know a lot of them. Maybe you are one! There are people who go through life and crazy stuff happens to them all the time. For no reason, something heavy will fall out of the sky into their pathway. Or a crazy person will walk up and give them $100. Just THINGS. THINGS that would never happen to me in a million years. The stories she can tell from just one of these THINGS left me gasping for air through my laughter.

One of the reasons I wanted to be there last night was because, in a way, I am just like her. I'm just a woman who wants to put my thoughts and feelings out into the world. I'm just an average person and so is she. It is crazy to think that one day she had this little blog, and the next day it was helping support her family and she had a book deal. Not that that's a direction I feel my life would ever take, but it's mind blowing to think that it can happen in the world. To a normal person.

The hardest part of the question and answer for me was when she spoke about her "hate mail." There are websites and people whose sole purpose in life is to "make her hurt," as she put it. She said she would only respond to that type of email or comment if she felt that person had enriched her life with their response. She had so much dignity about it. It leaves me speechless that people would go out of their way to cause pain to someone just because they don't agree with their view point. If you don't like it, don't read it! It was like they don't see her as a real person. She is real! She has feelings. She is just like you and me. I have absolutely no tolerance for that kind of injustice. Apparently, the latest slander is that she's not really pregnant, but just pretending to help boost book sales. PLEASE! Believe me, she is pregnant. And she looked hot, too! I wish I looked that good.

I had no qualms about standing in a very long line to get my book signed. I thought about what to say for the whole time I was waiting to see her. I came up with nothing of any consequence. Just a "thanks for coming here." I get really shy around people who are famous or who I am in awe of. She falls into both categories.

I am so glad I went to the reading and got to be in the same room for a while. If you haven't already, check out her website at www.dooce.com. You won't be sorry. At the very least, you won't be bored!

Me and Dooce!

Cooking Light Mondays: Cod Poached in Spicy Tomato Broth

2009-03-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

That's right, Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Mondays are back! Mostly because I made this one literally months ago and just never got around to posting it. But never mind. Here it is in all its easy-as-pie glory!

Put together all the stuff you need. Here we have garlic, kalamata olives, crushed red pepper, Italian Recipe diced tomatoes (yay, S&W!), olive oil, capers and some white wine hiding in the back. You can't get away from ME, wine! And thanks to The Pioneer Woman for giving me the idea of putting all the ingredients in one photo so I don't have to go on about them individually. Unless I want to.

So let's go! Heat up the oil and throw in some garlic you smooshed up. The recipe calls for bottled minced garlic, but I usually have fresh stuff on hand, and I love using my Pampered Chef garlic smoosher.

After a minute or so, throw in water, some of the wine, some of the crushed red pepper (not all of it. hot is bad) and capers. Drink some of the leftover wine.

Realize you were supposed to put the tomatoes in there, too. Oops. Darn wine. Anyway, put the tomatoes in and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Doesn't it look pretty? See all the steam? Ooooo. Tomato stuff.

Throw in your fish fillets cut up into chunks. It just dawned on me that the recipe doesn't say to cut up the fish. I guess that came out of my little brain. Oh well.

Put the lid on the great Calphalon pan your mom gave you. Let fish simmer for 5 minutes. Notice how dirty and beat up the ancient stove in your apartment is. Wish you had a new one. Realize you forgot to chop up the olives.

While fish is cooking, chop up the olives. Try to get a picture that doesn't make them look like raisins on crack. Drink some more wine.

Serve fish with some of the broth and a crusty french roll you heated up in the toaster oven. Sprinkle olives on top. Take pictures. Realize the roll soaked up a LOT of the broth and is now soggy. Swear a little. Eat it anyway. Say "Mmmm, this is good."

And there you have it. The VERY easy poached cod recipe from Cooking Light. Really, if it was any easier, I could have drunk the whole bottle of wine with it. Instead of just half.

Okay, three-quarters.

Pathetic Confession #3 and Apology

2009-03-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here's the thing. I have an obsessive personality. I find something that interests me, and it's all I can think about or focus on for an indiscriminate period of time. I can spend literally hours thinking about and researching the current infatuation. My brain wants to be completely immersed in it. Then I'm over it and I move on to the next thing that catches my fancy. Since he doesn't read my blog, I blame it on my Dad, who also demonstrates this trait.

Which leads me to the apology part. I am so sorry, internetland, to have neglected you for SO VERY LONG. I have heard your whining cries of neglect and am here to beg for your forgiveness and offer my most heartfelt apology for ditching you these last few months. I hope all five of you will find it in your hearts to give me another chance and not delete me from your Favorites, as has been frequently threatened the last few weeks. I am truly sorry for moving on to my next obsession and not taking you with me.

I have had to make some choices about how I am spending my time. Therefore, I will only be blogging about 3 times a week. More if something exciting comes up. I am truly trying to find more balance in my life, and spending an hour on the blog every night is just not working for me. I hope you will hang in there as I figure out how to share with you and still have time left for me. Thanks so much for your patience!

p.s. It's Spring Break this week. Whoo-hoo! So check in Monday for a new post.

Cooking Light Mondays: Diner Meatloaf Muffins

2009-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! It's time again for Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Monday! Maybe I should just officially change its name to that. Anyway, this week's recipe is Diner Meatloaf Muffins. In the March, 2006 issue, they did a "cooking class" segment on lots of ways to make meatloaf. I've been feeling the need for some comfort food lately with our freezing temperatures out here, and plus I've been craving hamburger. I know there are lots of better types of beef out there, but I am a hamburger girl. Love it!

This was a very simple recipe and luckily it came out VERY good. This is definitely a keeper. Not only did I love the flavor and texture, but I also managed to make it in under an hour. Even with chopping time involved. Let's make meatloaf!

Chop up a cup of onions and half a cup of carrots. This is a fine dice. Heat up a little olive oil and saute them with 2 garlic cloves mushed (I am too lazy to mince) and a teaspoon of oregano for two minutes. This smelled heavenly. I wanted to take a bath in this stuff. However, that would get me lots of alone time. Or institutional time. Whatever.

Set that aside to cool down a little bit. Then pull out your fat free Saltine Crackers which you forgot to buy and had to run to the store for had sitting in your cabinet. I know I could have bought store brand for this, but now I have 3 other sleeves of crackers that I will have to deal with. So I spent the big bucks and got the Nabisco ones. Expect more Saltine Cracker recipes in the near future.

Now for the fun part. Take 20 crackers (says the recipe...I needed 25) and smash them up until you have a cup of finely smooshed crackers. That's an official cooking term. Finely smooshed.

Okay, I'm lying. But you knew that.

My favorite method of smooshing is to put the smooshable object in a big Ziplock bag and have at it with a rolling pin. Anything heavy will do, but I try to use my rolling pin more than once a year for SOMETHING. Plus it's really fun to roll it all over the bag.

That's pretty much all the hard work for this dealie. Next, stick all of the ingredients in a big bowl. Here we have the one and a half pounds hamburger (93% lean), the vegie mix, crackers, ketchup, mustard, a couple of eggs, some Worcestershire sauce (wooster? wistersheer? how do you say this?) and a little bit of freshly ground pepper. Only a little because pepper is hot. It is too. I always seem to bite into a big piece of pepper. Ick. So add more if you like that kind of thing. Notice there's no added salt? It was totally fine without it. But I guess you could put some in at this point if you wanted to.

Make sure you use this kind of ketchup. It is the best. All others suck.

Heinz, need a spokesperson? Call me!

Now for the dirty part. Stick your hands in there and mush it around. Do this as little as possible, just until it's all blended. I speak from experience. Hamburger that has been overly mixed comes out dense and tough. And gross.

I know this looks yucky. But trust me, it's yummy!

No, I didn't taste it. I just know. I'm smart like that.

Now take a muffin tin and spray some cooking spray on there. Fill each tin with some of the meatloaf mix. I had to pat it in pretty good to get it all to fit. Then spread a few teaspoons of ketchup onto each one. You could skip this step if you don't like it, but it helps keep the top from drying out. Some of the reviewers on the Cooking Light website suggested using BBQ sauce instead. That would be good, too. Stick in the oven for 25 minutes at 350*.

Here are the cooked ones. I let them stand for 5 minutes while I took the pictures. I was worried that maybe they would overflow or grease would come out or something, so I cooked this on top of a rimmed cookie sheet and some foil. You know, like I was supposed to do for the Sticky Buns? But I didn't need to. I had no problems or drippage at all. I think the key here is to use the lowest possible amount of fat in your hamburger. These might be pretty nasty and greasy otherwise.

One serving of these is 2 "muffins." I served it with steamed zucchini and some orzo that I cooked in chicken broth. You know, Swanson's flavorless, healthy chicken broth. It worked fine for this and added a subtle flavor to the pasta.

Some of the website reviewers thought these were too moist. They are definitely very wet, but if you've ever had overmixed, dried out meatloaf you will appreciate these all the more. And the flavor actually tasted like sausage, I think because of the garlic and oregano. I wolfed these down and am looking forward to lunch tomorrow. This makes 6 servings, so I plan to freeze the leftovers individually and then put them in a Ziplock so I can pull them out when needed.

Oh, and why do these have the word "diner" in the title? Probably because they were doing a feature on meatloaf and needed different names for each one and that was the best they could do. Regardless of the name, make this recipe and enjoy!

Barefoot Bloggers: Easy Sticky Buns

2009-01-22T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Barefoot Blogger recipe for this week, brought to us by Melissa, is Easy Sticky Buns. And they were not kidding about the easy part. I threw these together and had it all done in under an hour. (It helps that there was no chopping involved.)

Unfortunately, I did these on the same day as my Cooking Light day, so I was tired and up way too late, so really no process photos for you. I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum.

Somehow, I had almost all the ingredients for this already in my house. Why did I have unsalted butter and puff pastry just lying around? I don't know. But I'm glad, as all I had to purchase was a small package of raisins. Here is the short version of how to make these.

1. Let puff pastry sit out for 40 minutes to defrost. Or 60 minutes. Or 75 minutes. Poke them to make sure they're not getting all dried out because you're slowly chopping stuff up for another recipe. They're okay? Good.
2. Hopefully remember to put 2 sticks of unsalted butter out so they will get to "room temperature," which I assume is not the 63 degrees my house typically stays at.
3. Nuke butter for a bit to soften more. Put a bunch of butter in the stand mixer. Add brown sugar. Beat to within an inch of its life. If it had one.
4. Plop a spoonful in each of the 12 muffin....holes? spots? Whatever. Sprinkle some (pre-chopped in the package) pecans in there, too.
5. Nuke a little more butter (because there wasn't quite enough in there to begin with) until melted, cool.
6. Unroll the puff pastry, brush on half the butter. Sprinkle with more brown sugar, (apparently not enough of that, either) cinnamon and raisins.
7. Roll up. Cut into 6 pieces. Put in muffin tin.
8. Repeat with other piece of puff pastry. Bake for 30 minutes. Inhale deeply. Mmmmm.
9. Wait 5 minutes. Flip pan over onto parchment paper and pop buns out of tin. Try really hard not to eat one.

Here are my ready to bake guys. Can you see how far they stuck up out of the pan? I thought maybe my muffin tin was too small, but it said to use a regular sized one. On the right is the butter/sugar mix with pecans on top.

Now, the directions said to put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put the muffin tin on top of it. I did that, but I didn't realize the cookie sheet should have edges. As this cooked, the butter/sugar melted all over the place and dripped off the pan. And onto my oven. Oops. I also think I cooked them a little too long. I should have checked them 5 minutes earlier, but I got distracted.

This is how they puffed up and settled into the holes? spots? Whatever.

Other than that, these turned out great. I took them to work the next day, and they seemed to go over well. I have to say, I didn't actually eat one. I know, how could I? But I am trying to behave myself right now, and almost 2 sticks of butter does not a light recipe make. I did taste one pecan with some of the caramel-type stuff and it was pretty good. I think these would have been more popular at work if I had served them warm, and if there weren't any raisins in them. Not everyone is a fan. I will probably make these again when I need this type of recipe for a group, but will definitely cut back on the total butter and nix the raisins.

Here is the full recipe, if you want to give it a shot:

Easy Sticky Buns from Ina Garten

Makes 12
We used to make really delicious sticky buns at Barefoot Contessa, but they took two days to make because the yeast dough needed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. I was dying to find a way to make them easier, so I decided to try baking them with Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough, instead. OMG are they good … and they’re really easy to make! Light, flaky dough filled with brown sugar, toasted pecans, and sweet raisins — my friends go crazy when I make these.

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces
1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted for the filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down.

Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon), and cool completely.

Cooking Light Mondays: Chicken Biryani

2009-01-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

Today's recipe is an Indian dish. Biryani (beer-YAH-nee according to my food dictionary) can be all sorts of combinations of meat (or not), spices, some vegetables and rice. I love to order this when I go to Gateway to India. Almost as much as I love the Chicken Korma. Almost. Anyway, when I saw a recipe for it in this month's issue of Cooking Light, I knew it would be up next for Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Mondays. Yes, I know the strike through is getting old. But it still makes me laugh. So it stays.

Standard disclaimer: My photos are out of focus. Sorry. Still waiting for the Birthday Fairy to bring me a camera like my friend Kathy's. Or until I steal hers.

This is supposed to be a 30 minute recipe. HA HA HA. They have obviously never met me and my pedantic chopping skills. It took me an hour to chop everything. I'm not kidding. I am the slowest chopper in the world. I think I'm too picky on how it looks. Not that it matters, since it all gets cooked up, but that doesn't cause me to go any faster. So here's all the stuff I chopped.

Onions

Plum tomatoes

Chicken breast (bawk bawk!)

Ginger (the spoon works great to scrape off the skin)

Cilantro (these Pampered Chef shears work great for this)

Garlic (okay, I didn't so much chop as squish)

Jalapeno

I use this little trick that I picked up somewhere for cutting peppers when you don't need the seeds or membranes. First of all, I put on one of these:

I learned the hard way a few years ago. If you get jalapeno juice on your hands, even if you've washed that hand thoroughly, rubbing your eye with said hand is a horrible idea. So now I'm better safe than sorry. Can you tell that I'm wearing it backwards? I must of lost/ruined the leftie. This is the righty turned around. Looks like my hand is on wrong.

I hold vertically and slice off the sides.

I get this without ever touching the seeds. My eyes are safe.

After all the chopping, I assembled the other ingredients.

Golden raisins

Garam masala

This is a mix of many different spices. Every one is different.

This is the first time I've purchased this so I wanted to know what it smelled like. I swear, I started salivating when I got a whiff. It smells exactly like an Indian restaurant. I wanted to eat some, but decided against it. I guess if I ever need a little pick me up, I will report to the spice rack.

Flavorless chicken broth (I don't want to be a spokesperson for Swanson)

The other ingredients were basmati rice, cumin, salt and sliced almonds and a lime for garnish. Here's how it all came together (once I finally finished all the chopping.)

Saute chicken for 3 minutes.

Add onion and jalapeno. Saute 3 more minutes.

Add ginger, garlic, garam masala, and cumin. Saute 30 seconds. Inhale deeply.

Add raisins, tomatoes, rice and broth. Stir up. Bring to a boil.

Cover, lower heat, simmer 15 minutes.

Stir in cilanto. Then you have this.

Unfortunately, this is not exactly what I was hoping for. If you see the picture of the recipe in the magazine, the rice is all fluffy and separated, the way rice is supposed to be. Mine was very, very mushy. There wasn't any water in the bottom, but the rice just wasn't the right texture. I ALWAYS have problems with rice. I either burn it or get it mushy, like this. Maybe I somehow insulted a gypsy, and she has put a rice cooking curse on me. Or maybe I just suck at something that couldn't be much easier.

On the whole, I liked this. However, it had much less flavor than I was expecting, especially with all those yummy spices. I've decided to blame the chicken broth for sucking up all the good flavor with its healthy flavorlessness. (Wow, I can't believe spell check is not screaming over the word "flavorlessness.") Sorry, Swanson, no love for you.

The recipe for Chicken Biryani is on the CL website if you'd like to try your hand at this dish. When I make it again, I will try chicken thighs even though I know they have more fat. The breast was just too dry for me. And maybe I can get lucky on the rice. I'm not sure what to do about the flavor problem. Maybe add another shot of spices after it cooks. You'd never know there was a jalapeno in there. I couldn't even taste the cilantro I added at the end, so I might up that, too. I really think this has potential. I'll work on it and get back to you. Or maybe I'll just get take out!

80's Angst

2009-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about lost love. Don't ask why...it's too depressing. Anyway, these songs keep coming back to me.

A Different Corner

I had never heard this one until recently. The man is Iggy Pop who I've heard of, but never listened to. And the woman is Kate Pierson, a member of the B-52's.

Candy

And can I just say, Iggy, please put on a shirt.

I know, I know. No more sad music. I just needed to get it out of my system. Now they can be stuck in YOUR head for a while.

Supper Club, DS, and the Big Hole

2009-01-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Aaaaannnnnnddddd, I'm back. That wasn't too bad, was it? Did all 5 of you survive without my thrilling comments to keep you entertained last week? Yeah. Anyway. This week will be better. After Wednesday my schedule lightens up a bit. I will be back with Shrink My Butt Cooking Light Mondays and will try to be more consistent. As long as I have something interesting to say. Well, at least I'll think it is.

To begin, I FINALLY got to go out for Dim Sum today. I have been looking for someone to go with me for almost a year. People would say, "Oh, yeah. We should do that." And then we didn't. Then my Supper Club decided to do a restaurant version of the group in which we are too lazy to cook and just go out to eat together. We went to the Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant in Kent. For the uninitiated, Dim Sum is basically lots of little servings of foods, like appetizers, brought out and guests choose what they'd like to try. You pay per plate that you select. We had a great big table and as soon as all of us were there they just started bringing cart after cart of the most yummy looking stuff. I didn't know what half of it was, but I didn't care. I love to try new food and have new experiences. As long as it tastes good, I'm in. There was a giant lazy susan in the middle and things kept flying by. You had to grab stuff quickly before someone else took it. I missed out on a couple of things that way. We probably should have asked for two dishes of stuff. But oh, well. I'm sure I will survive.

A couple of these photos have plates of half eaten food or are way out of focus. I'm tellin' ya, it was every man or woman for themselves. I snapped the pictures as quickly as I could before things disappeared.

Here's our big lazy susan loaded up with goodies.

Shrimp in a mildly spicy sauce. Deep fried, heads on, not peeled. We ate as is. Yum.

(No, I didn't eat the head. I popped it off. POP!)

What was left of the fried calamari before it completely disappeared.

This must have begun as a LARGE squid. The rings and tentacles were pretty big.

On top, chinese broccoli with a yummy sauce poured over it. Two remaining fried shrimp balls.

Can you tell we really like fried stuff?

Maura and Dan enjoying the steamed Shrimp Dumplings. These were my favorite.

Fresh, hot and tons of flavor. I could have had a whole bowl of these to myself.

I have no idea what this was. But this was the last one and they went fast.

It was like a very large rice noodle wrapped around shrimp. The sauce was poured over and the dish was very good. Again, I would have liked more than one of these.

Here we have on top some kind of pumpkin dessert.

The disembodied hand is grabbing a doughnut-type thing. I didn't get one,
but heard they were yummy.

Below are deep fried spring rolls. Maura rescued the last one for me before they all went.

On the right, top are a steamed pork dumpling (I think, they disappeared.)

Below that are baked hum bao.

A closer pic of the hum bao. I always think I like these, but I don't. The sauce is too sweet with the pork filling. I do like the outside of the steamed ones, but those didn't make it to our table.

A closer, fuzzier, picture of the pumpkin dessert. The outside was kind of gelatinous
and had the flavor of marshmallow. The inside reminded me of almond paste.
I liked it, but should have shared with someone. They were very rich.
And it didn't really taste like pumpkin. But still good.

We didn't try this but it was really fascinating to me.

A big wooden bucket full of a warm soy...beverage, maybe? It looked really neat.

We had a language barrier the whole time, so I never really knew what was what.
If you are a Dim Sum connoisseur, or just smarter than me, please write
and tell me what all these things are.
I am very curious about different cultures, especially the food.

Here's our demolished table afterwards. Look how big this sucker is!

There were more things than I could get photos of, sometimes because they never made it all the way around to me, sometimes because I was busy eating and enjoying. We also had clams in a black bean sauce, pork spare ribs, a beef dish I never saw, some kind of baked roll, don't know what that was. A couple of interesting desserts I did get to try. A fried sesame ball, which was batter wrapped around sweet bean paste, with sesame seeds on the outside, and the same type of thing that was green with a black bean paste inside. These were super sweet and I only ate half of one. I would have preferred more of the savory things, but I guess that's what I get for being near the end of the clockwise moving lazy susan.

All the happy eaters.

From left to right around the table:

Curt, Jennifer, Jill, Pat, Cheryl, Nancy, James, Maura and Dan

Do you see the look Curt, the guy on the left is giving me? I saw that face a lot. I don't know him well, but he didn't really get my take-pictures-of-everything-so-I-can-put-it-on-my-blog approach. Oh well, I'm a nerd. I get that face from people when I'm not taking pictures, too!

So after writing all this, I realize I need to go back to Dim Sum again. This time I want to try more things and eat less of the desserts. It seemed like the actual eating part just flew by. Fifteen minutes, done. Then we sat and talked, which was great. But I'd love to go with a smaller group where I could actually see the food and hear the servers and take more time to enjoy each dish. But other than that, it was fun and very yummy. And each of us only paid about $16 for the whole she-bang. That's including tax and tip. Quite a bargain. Dim Sum, anyone?

Okay, done with Dim Sum. NEXT!

Isn't this the cutest little purse? Don't you love it? I do!

Know what I keep in it?

This.

It's a Nintendo DS.

In case you are not a 10 year old boy, this is the updated version of a Gameboy. My students kept telling me, "I have a DS." And I kept saying, "A what?" Then one of my teacher friends showed me hers and the Brain Age game she plays on it. I was hooked. So I asked for one for Christmas.

This thing totally rocks. It has a stylus (fake pen) that you use to write or tap on the lower screen, and information is on the upper screen. For a lot of the games you turn it sideways, like a book. The handwriting recognition is fabulous. There are only a few letters that I write funny, so it doesn't always get them at first. I also picked up this awesome program called Personal Trainer: Cooking. It's got a ton of recipes and spells out with pictures how to put things together. And the voice recognition allows you to use it to cook without having to touch it (if your hands or sticky, or you're busy chopping or something.) It's pretty darn cool. Technology is amazing. And now, I can say, "I have a DS!" See, Nintendo, I could be a spokesperson for you guys, too. Call me!

AND FINALLY...

The Big Hole!

What are you talking about? you ask.

I am talking about this:

During the recent flooding, there were (I think) pumper trucks or some such thing working out in this area next to my house. I assumed there was just too much water and they were trying to get it out of a drain or something. Gosh, I sound intelligent. I should be a plumber.

Then earlier this week, I came home to a closed off street and this:

I finally got out in the daylight yesterday to get some close ups of how big this thing really is. I am assuming a pipe broke maybe?

I had to get a little too close for comfort on that last one. See how the pavement is broken off? Weird.

It isn't too big a deal. We just have to park on a different part of the street. Except...on Monday I started wondering, Hmmm, I wonder if they'll be done by Friday. Garbage Day. This thing is directly in front of our back alley, which is where they do recycling and garbage pick up. Guess whose trash is still sitting out behind the house? Yep. That would be ours. And it's not that they CAN'T get to the trash. They would have to drive the garbage truck backwards to get out of the alley again. Which is probably not very easy. But I think they just saw the barrier and didn't even try to get through. So I am a little annoyed about that.

If this thing isn't fixed by next week, I'm going to leave a very nice note stuck to the Caterpillar there, asking them if they might fill up the hole with all the trash we are accumulating.

p.s. Yes, I realize I have now broken my pledge not to post anything Long AND Boring. Only Long OR Boring. Oh, well. Too bad for you. You already read it.

Hello? Que Pasa?

2009-01-13T23:13:00.000-08:00

It is now Tuesday, and I have completely missed Cooking Light Monday. It looks like this week, it may end up as Cooking Light Thursday. I am completely drowning at work for the next 8 days. So posts will be few and far between. Sorry! But life happens. Please check back on the weekend when I should have more time to post something thoughtful. Or lame. Either way. :-)

My Fake Family

2009-01-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

When I was in my college choir, I sat in the soprano section, and the tenors sat behind us. We would always get in trouble for laughing because of the half-whispered comments that constantly came from one particular smarty-pants tenor behind us. This is how I met my friend Dave. He still cracks me up every time we're together. Dave, being the smart, smart man that he is, married a wonderful woman named Brenna, who is now my best friend. They have three crazy kids who keep them guessing every minute. This is my fake family.

I have played mom to all the kids, and Ben is my godson. Brenna is like a sister to me. And we always say that I am Dave's other wife, without benefits. They've been super busy lately, so we haven't seen each other much. I'm glad I had the chance to get together with them for a dinner/Christmas/birthday extravaganza this week.

Are you commenting on Facebook, Dave?

Brenna, looking at my Christmas present. Give it back already!

My godson, Ben. Now 13 and as tall as me. He's super smart and a voracious reader.

When Ben was around six months old, I was playing with him and pretended to eat his toes. I proceeded to cut my mouth on his super sharp toenails, which for some reason grow out, not up. His toenails could still certify as deadly weapons to this day.

Beware! Do NOT put these in your mouth! (Okay, that sounded weird.)

Matthew actually sat still for five seconds so I could get a picture.

I have always had a special place in my heart for this little one. Maybe it's because he's so funny. Or maybe it's because every time I come over, he full body tackles me and says "I love you, Stine!"

Claire is the youngest, and also the most girly girl you will ever meet.

She also thinks she is a cat. You're not a cat, Claire. Stop purring!

Claire wants to be in on the action. She likes to know what everyone is doing and be a part of it. This little social butterfly started getting phone calls from boys in second grade. I still don't get phone calls from boys. Except telemarketers.

Did you notice that Claire is wearing a ribbon from her presents? So is Brenna. Hooray, I have converted two more members to my decoration wearing cult! Here's my "wrist corsage" from that evening:

Finally, I want to brag on my Christmas present. On the outside of my GORGEOUSLY wrapped gift were these measuring spoons.

Aren't they cute? I've never had to measure a smidgen before.

(Okay, these aren't the actual spoons. But you get the idea.)

Inside was this fabulous and amazing book.

It's a dictionary of food items and terms. It is AWESOME! Who knew they made this thing? I am always annoyed when I look in the dictionary for a food word and it's not there. I love food and I love words and dictionaries. Does my fake family know me, or what? Thanks, guys!

Oh, and you may be wondering why there is a picture of a Twinkie at the start of this post. I can't tell you. I have no idea. "But I must know!" you say. Get used to disappointment.

Barefoot Bloggers: Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

2009-01-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

I have joined yet another cooking group. Someone stop her before she bakes again! As of this month, I am a member of the Barefoot Bloggers, who make two Ina Garten (also known as The Barefoot Contessa) recipes a month. I have two of her cookbooks, thanks to my brother Tim and sister-in-law Angela (thanks guys!) and I like that it's every other week, so not a huge commitment, but gets me in the kitchen.

The other day I made these lovely pancakes. Can you say "Christine has never cooked pancakes in butter before"? I had a heck of a time keeping these from burning. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)

I was excited about this recipe because I often put bananas on my pancakes. Sliced up with some maple syrup, and a few chopped pecans...heaven! It was very easy to put together. The very first time I try a recipe, I attempt to follow it exactly. Then if I don't like it, I know it was the recipe and not me doing something wrong. Then I can adjust from there or ditch it. So since I was following directions, I actually sifted my dry ingredients together. WHAT? You SIFTED? Yes, I sifted. Here's the proof.

My new sifter that I got at the kitchen store.

They made me stop playing with the handle because it was noisy and annoying. (But it's fun!)

Action shot! Yeah! Go, dry ingredients, go!

Next I put together the wet ingredients. I got to use my new Microplane grater (thanks again Tim and Angela!) to zest my lemon. It is so sharp! I was having a hard time getting the lemon to move across it and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized I was pressing WAY too hard on the lemon and it was getting stuck. I'm so used to using my crappy grater and pressing down hard to get it to work. This was a breeze once I clued in.

Ooo, shiny. (The grater, not the lemon.)

Of course, now I have a half naked lemon in my fridge. I'll have to find a recipe to use it. Maybe I can make lemon-flavored kale since that's still in my fridge, too.

So here are the wet ingredients all combined.

Yowza. So glad I took THIS thrilling picture.

I mixed up the wet and dry ingredients and got some...batter! Whoo-hoo!

Sorry, I am feeling like this was kind of a weird recipe to document. It's not like you don't know how to make pancakes. Or you've never seen batter before. But, oh well, we'll just keep going.

Finally I chopped up a banana. I was so happy, I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED to buy bananas a few days before making this. Usually I forget, then have to use unripe fruit, which is gross. But my bananas were perfect. Not green, but not yet turning brown, or mushy, or smelly, or all of the above. Can you tell I'm banana picky?

Go banana go. Go banana go. Go banana, go banana, go banana go!

(Sorry, had a cheerleading moment there.)

I heated some butter in the pan. Now as I mentioned before, I have no previous butter-pancake experience. When I was a child, we used bacon grease for frying. ACK! Arteries clogging! But it was soooooo good! Later on we switched to cooking spray or vegetable oil. So this whole butter thing threw me. But I was FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS like a good little girl.

After pouring in the batter, I added a spoonful of banana to each one. I don't think I've ever said "spoonful of banana" before. Sounds weird.

My only issue in making these was that I kept burning them, especially the edges. My stove is seriously old and doesn't cook super evenly, so that might be part of it. But I just couldn't seem to find the right temperature to actively cook them without scorching them. I will probably go back to oil or cooking spray next time.

So pretty! (Ignore the black edges. Stop looking. Stop it!)

I made them all beautiful, decided to add pecans because I love them so (my only deviation from the directions) and took a big bite. Bleh! Yuck! What is wrong with these pancakes? Oh my gosh. The bananas cooked. It didn't occur to me that the bananas would no longer be raw inside. DUH! Something about the texture and flavor of the cooked banana just didn't work for me in this. Too mushy or sweet compared to the sourness of the lemon and sour cream maybe? Or possibly, I am too used to having fresh bananas on my pancakes. I don't know. But I didn't really like them. I'm sure it's just a personal thing, and if you wanted to make these they might be great for you. But I made the rest of them without adding the banana pieces. I liked the flavor much better that way and they cooked a little more evenly. But I still burnt them. Darn it!

Check back in two weeks for another Barefoot Blogger creation. Until then, here's the recipe if you want to try them for yourself! But I should tell you. Lisa at Magic Sprinkles used the recipe analyzer on this, and it is definitely NOT in the Shrink My Butt Cooking Light category. Consider yourself warned.

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
recipe from Food Network

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Unsalted butter
2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
Pure maple syrup

Directions

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

Cooking Light Mondays: White Bean and Sausage Ragout

2009-01-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that the foods I've been posting for the last few months have not been exactly healthy. Or anywhere near it. More like the polar opposite of healthy. Seeing as it is a new year, I've decided to make more of an effort to eat better, and to actually cook at home with a plan, instead of "Hmm, I wonder what's in the freezer."

On this note, I am instituting Shrink My Butt Mondays Cooking Light Mondays. I love Cooking Light magazine and have been a subscriber for many years. I love to read the recipes and look at the pictures and say "Wow, I should make that." And then go out to eat. I am hoping that by making a commitment to posting on Monday, I will be required to make something healthy on the weekend that I can eat the rest of the week.

Which brings me to today's recipe: White Bean and Sausage Ragout with Tomatoes, Kale and Zucchini. Hey CL Magazine people, what is up with the ridiculously long names for your recipes? Must you put EVERY ingredient in the title? Anyway, I'm not going to write out the recipe, as it's already online. But I will take you through the process. This was my first experience trying to take photos while cooking (as opposed to baking) and it was a little challenging to get decent photos, so please excuse my lame pictorial.

Probably the hardest part of this recipe was chopping stuff, as I am a horrible chopper. I have zero knife skills, plus I'm a perfectionist, so it takes me way too long to cut stuff up. However, here are my zucchini slices. The recipe says to quarter them, but I started with really small zucchini, so I halved them.

Ooo, Ahhh, out of focus.

I also chopped a half cup of onion, smooshed three garlic cloves, and then tackled the kale. I've never actually cooked with, or eaten, kale before, so it was my big adventuresome moment for this recipe. My only previous experience with kale was when I worked at Dairy Queen as a teenager. We used it to line the salad bar so it would look pretty. But they would use the same kale over and over, and it started to stink really bad, which put me off it for...ever, I guess. It actually ended up being super easy to work with. I just rinsed, cut off the stems and chopped it up in big pieces. And it didn't stink at all.

Next, I sliced up some chicken sausage I picked up at Trader Joe's when I bought the almond meal for the Yule Log. Unfortunately, I got distracted by the apple part and didn't think about the sweet part. Oh, well. (Made with Pure Vermont Maple Syrup!)

I also had some S & W diced tomatoes,

and a couple cans of white beans.

By the way, if any one out there works for S&W, I would like to become your spokesperson. I love S&W stuff...great quality, reasonable prices. I even have previous commercial experience. Seriously. Call me. Hello?

Anyway, I would rather have had actual cannellini beans, but I couldn't find any. So these had to do.

After all the chopping and smooshing and rinsing and draining, it was time to put it all together.

Saute the sausage and onion in a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for 4 minutes, or until browned. (Can you see the pieces of apple in the sausage? Yum!)

I added the zucchini and garlic next, but forgot to take a picture. Anyway, cook that all up for 2 more minutes. Then add all the rest of the ingredients.

Then say, "Dude, how am I going to mix all this up?" Do your best to mix all this up. Bring to a boil, which is pretty hard to do since you can't actually see the liquid in the bottom. But try. Then cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Admire the Calphalon pan that your mom got you for your birthday. (Thanks, Mom!)

That's pretty much it. The only thing I would do differently is to cook it a little less. My kale got a little overcooked. But it was still good. Even the sugary sausage tasted okay in there, but I would try a different flavor next time around. The kale was much better than I expected. Not overpowering, and it kept its texture well, considering it was overdone.

Make some toast since you're out of any other bread. Put it all in the pretty Polish Pottery dish your dad got you for Christmas. (Thanks, Dad!) Eat. Try not to burn your tongue. Enjoy!

Baby Fish, Doot Doot, Doot, Doot

2009-01-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

Somehow, a baby fish has appeared in my fish tank. Not that I don't know where baby fish come from. In fact, I'm glad someone is getting some action around here.

I see babies in there every once in a while, but they tend to disappear within a few days. They either get eaten by the bigger fish or by this guy:

But this little one has been around for almost two weeks. I hate to jinx it by naming him (or her) but I think he/she just might make it. So please welcome to the tank: Baby Fishmouth

Please ignore the Scary Algae Problem.

No MORE!

2009-01-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today in the mail, I got an advertisement for this:

*picture from www.Magazine-Agent.com

The description includes the words: "Older women who can't relate to most young-and-trendy fashion and lifestyle magazines now have a publication that speaks to their concerns" and "More...will help you make the most of your middle years with style. "

ACK! ACK I say! I am not 40! I am definitely not OVER 40! Although my friend Kathy would point out that I am currently in my 40th year, I would have to say, "Shut up, Kathy!"

I am still in my 30's. For another seven weeks, I am in my 30's. And I choose to ignore all indications to the contrary.

Forty is old. I am not old. I do not feel old, or act old or (so I am told) look old. So I plan to go kicking and screaming into my next decade. Once it arrives, I will be forced to embrace it, as the alternative involves Botox and lots of lying. But until then, stay away from me Meredith Viera! Get lost Diane Keaton! I am not in my "middle years." I am still sixteen. I can still read Marie Claire if I want to!

Pathetic Confession #2

2009-01-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

I have an unhealthy obsession with Hostess Frosted Donettes. Which I refer to as Wax Doughnuts. They sold them in our college food service and I've been hooked ever since. Every time I go grocery shopping, these somehow sneak into my cart when I'm not looking. And then they jump in my mouth. Repeatedly. Bad, evil donettes. Get off my hips!

Go ahead people. Judge away.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009 everyone! I hope all five of you had a Dick-Clark-rockin' New Year's Eve and that you haven't broken any of your resolutions yet. My new year was pretty quiet, and included THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER, chick flicks, and my good friend Jill and her hubby, Paul.

*picture from www.iowawcc.org

I mention Jill a lot on my blog, usually in passing. But I want to brag about her for a minute. Jill is a "never say die" kind of gal. She hates stagnation and is always looking to mix things up. I think for the first six months of coming to her house, I never saw the furniture in the same place twice. She needs to keep things fresh, I think in an effort to feel she is moving forward with her life. As opposed to me, the Queen of Sameness and happy that way. She is a good influence on me in that respect. Case in point: Jill decided that she wanted to do the Polar Bear dip on New Year's day. She emailed our friend Kathy and I to see if we were interested. I think Kathy summed up our feelings best in an email reply that went a little something like this:

"cricket sounds"

Jill still wanted to do it, so I assumed she would. Then, she broke her foot. Again. Other foot this time. I swear, she has a double bogie hex on her feet. Anyway, I figured that would be the end of the Polar Bear experience this year. Silly me. She never even thought about not going. So this morning we hauled our cookies over to a large LAKE in WASHINGTON (which shall remain nameless) and when they did the countdown, there was Jill, carefully walking out into the freezing cold water as everyone else ran past. While she was just going in, most people were already running out. Because of her injury, she was in the water for twice as long as everyone else. And I was so proud of her.

Here she is, post-dip, and smiling all the way. When I asked her if she'd do it again, I got a resounding YES! She even got me thinking that I might be willing to start next year with a little freezing cold water. If I first get past the whole swimsuit in January thing. See why I love Jill? She makes me want to try new things, experience life and step WAY out of my comfort zone on occasion. Thanks, Jill, for being you! :-)

Okay, enough mushy stuff. On to more important things. FOOD!

We finally cut into my Buche de Noel (that's French for Log of Yule.) It looked so good! Jill had a serving plate that echoed the swirls on my log. I love this shot (minus the reflection of the flash.)

Oooh. Aaaah. Ohhhh. I'm so cool!

Finally, we cut it and I crossed my fingers. Again, it looked really good! I was very proud of my even layers. (Yay for pastry bags!)

Awesome, right? I was pretty proud that it turned out so well. And it actually tasted pretty good, too. I didn't like the dark icing because it was just too dark (bitter) for me. The ganache was also a bit much. Like I said, I'm not a dark chocolate person. But the other layers were all great. I especially liked the coconut crisp layer in the middle. When I ate it alone, it seemed too sweet. But as a part of the dessert it was REALLY good. Jill said she wanted to eat just that part. She mentioned wanting me to make the log for her birthday. I guess that gives me five months to talk her out of that idea.

Mmmmmm!

DB: French Yule Log

2008-12-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is! I completed my first Daring Bakers challenge! And they weren't kidding when they said "challenge." The first time I looked at the recipe I went, "Oh, boy. What have I done? Is it too late to back out?" This was not your average, everyday, roll up a cake, put some frosting on it, yule log. This is a frozen French concoction that involved no less than six separate recipes and 3 days to pull off. But I hung in there, and this was my result.

Gotta love the Jackson Pollack look.

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux . They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

I'm not going to write out all the many recipes for this. Check the links to the hosts' sites if you want more info.

That's the official part. Now for the what I thought part.

This was a pain in the butt to make. Thank goodness I had time off from school, otherwise I would have had to spend a whole weekend putting this together. I will never make it again. It's simply too much work for a dessert.

That being said, I'm glad I did it. I have now officially beaten egg whites to stiff peaks, piped stuff with a pastry bag, used a double boiler twice, made mousse with a Pate a Bombe (which I choose to pronounce "pat a bomb"...sorry French diction professor), made ganache, and discovered dacquoise (which I choose to pronounce correctly because it sounds cool. Say it with me...dah-kwah. Don't you feel so oo-la-la?) Of course, because it is a French recipe from French people and translated from French, it was fairly confusing and I had trouble with every step. And I'm usually good at this stuff. Let's review, shall we?

Note from the editor: (That's me, by the way.) My friend Brenna, the francophile, says it is pronounced dah-kwahz. With a Z sound on the end. Sorry Brenna. Sorry french people.

I started with the Creme Brulee layer. Because it was only one layer in a multi-layered dessert, I was working with really small quantities. Which meant when I poured this in the pan to cook, it was about half an inch high. I had read on the Daring Bakers forum that most people had trouble getting this to set because the translated temperature of 200 degrees F wasn't working. I doodled around online and decided to go with 275 degrees for an hour. Apparently this was too long, and I got distracted and didn't check it. So I ended up with overcooked brulee. Since this step required a $12 vanilla bean, I was not excited to remake it. I tasted it, and it actually wasn't too bad. I decided to go for it. Here it is in its frozen state:

See the little missing spot on the upper right corner? Mmmmm..

Next, I tackled the praline layer. This is really a misnomer, since I didn't want to come up with or make my own praline. So instead, I did a white chocolate/coconut variation. Did I mention that the original recipe was over 18 pages long? This was mostly because every layer had multiple variations and recipes for each one. Once I cut that all out, it was down to a manageable 12 pages. Whoopee! Anyway, this is basically white chocolate, toasted coconut, (which I almost burnt...who knew coconut toasted so fast?) butter and smooshed up Rice Krispies. I'm a little concerned that it won't cut well in the dessert. I tried to make it super thin, but I guess lots of people had it squish everything below when they tried to cut it. I probably should have broken it up. But I managed to cut it to size and I was happy, so I left it in one piece.

Next came my big fear. I was really worried about the chocolate mousse that basically holds this whole thing together. The recipe had really tiny quantities to work with and at one point there are about four things that have to happen at once. The Pate a Bombe is just whipped up egg yolks and a sugar syrup. It took FOREVER for my egg yolks to reach the right consistency. There were only 3 little yolks in my big KitchenAid stand mixer, and they barely got touched by the beater. I should have used my hand mixer, but I needed it to whip cream, which I think I over beat. Besides that, my chocolate seized up...I'm assuming that's what it means when it turns into a big blobby lump instead of being melted and smooth. Again, I had read about this on the DB forum and I remembered someone saying they added some more cream and just kept stirring. I also turned the heat up a bit and it smoothed out. The most tricky part was trying to make the sugar syrup. Thank goodness I have these:

You probably can't tell, but these are teeny tiny cooking tools. The pot is only one cup. Here it is in comparison to my one quart pot.

Isn't it cute?

Even using my 1 cup pot, it was pretty hard to get the candy thermometer to stay in it so I could get an accurate reading.

The mini measuring cup I just got from my sister for Christmas (Thanks, Monica!) and measures 1/4 cup at most. This came in really handy later when I had to measure 0.5 oz water. The French people forgot to translate that one.

Fuzzy picture, but look how cute!

After much stress and worry, the mousse came out fine. I will spare you the picture of the chocolate and gelatin mixture. Think mud and squished up Oreos and you're on the right track. But in the end, I had this:

Not bad, right? Shockingly, it was pretty smooth and held its texture. The best part was the Pate a Bombe. I had no idea that egg yolks and sugar could taste so good. Nice job French people.

The next step was the dacquoise (ooh-la-la!) My first chance to beat egg whites. "But wait," you say. "Are you telling me you've never beaten egg whites before? How is that possible?" Well, I say, I have this phobia. It's called toohardrecipeitis. Whenever I see the words "beat egg whites" or "grease and flour" or "pastry bag" I quickly turn to a new recipe. Because I read cookbooks like novels, I know what to do, I've just never done it before. Which is why I became a Daring Baker, to force myself out of my laziness comfort zone.

ANYWAY...I do digress. The dacquoise was the easiest part. I even got to make a trek to Trader Joe's for almond meal. (Does anyone have a use for leftover ground almonds?) I did have problems with the egg whites, having never whipped them before. I'm not totally sure what stiff peaks are supposed to look like, so I guessed. I had decided to put the dacquoise on the top and bottom of the log, so I doubled the recipe. Apparently I would have been okay with just one batch. Here are my top and bottom pieces.

This is a very light, almond flavored cake type dealie. Very yummy.

Since I had a bunch leftover, I baked up the rest of it for me to eat some other purpose. I forgot to take it out of the oven, so it cooked more than the other two. When I took it out, I realized I had undercooked the first two. Sigh. So I used the small one for the top of the log and used this one for the bottom piece.

Can you tell that this one is slightly darker? It was also crisper when it cooled down.

Here is the cakey deal in my old loaf pan fancy log mold. I cut it too short so I added a piece.

The whole mold thing was another big undertaking. There was much debate on the DB forum over what size pan to use. I just used what I had and crossed my fingers. It all worked out. Preparing the mold was also a project. After a trip to Office Max, I lined the pan with Saran Wrap and then cut some sheet protectors down to size and stuck them in there in an attempt at a smooth finish. I used double-sided tape to keep everything in place.

Are you getting tired yet? I am. Are we done? No? Okay. Are you sure? Okay. Moving on.

The last big piece of this was the ganache layer. This one was exciting because I got to pour hot cream into hot sugar. It boiled up to the very top of the pot. So exciting! It kept boiling for a couple of minutes after I turned off the heat. Very funky. I can't really complain about this layer. Not too eventful. I was just tired of the whole thing by then. It turned out well I think, again, never having made it I have no point of comparison. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so here's the empty bowl:

And here is some evidence that I actually piped the mousse and the ganache using a real live pastry bag and star tips that I had to buy for this endeavor.

Look how clean the pastry bag is...after squirting ganache all over the place! Aren't you impressed? Notice I am not showing you the picture of the bag I used for the mousse as I didn't remember the "fold the bag down when filling it" part and it looked like a tragic chocolate accident had occurred.

Finally. I'm done. I'm not? Oh, crap.

After spending the night in the freezer, I got to put chocolate icing on the log. (Did you catch that? It says that I spent the night in the freezer. Misplaced my modifier. Hate it when that happens.) Take Two: After the log spent the night in the freezer, I got to put chocolate icing on it.

This would be the icing, cooling. Which took a while because my awesome Le Crueset pot really keeps in the heat. FINALLY it was cool enough so I could do this:

I made a double batch of the icing because, once again, the DB forum said they had trouble getting it to cover completely. I got it all except one little spot in the back that I didn't see until it was too late. The only bad thing about the icing is that it stunk to high heaven. I've never used plain gelatin before, and let me tell you, it smells DISGUSTING. I looked up what it's made out of, and I totally understand why. So the icing kind of smells like chocolate guts. GROSS! I am hoping it will smell less when frozen.

I have always been deficient in presentation skills. Since this was such an involved creation, I didn't spend much time contemplating the decorations. I decided to melt a white chocolate bar and put some stripes or squiggles across it. Then I thought it would be cool to do some little star-type snowflakes. However, I used the ziplock baggie version of a pastry bag and cut the hole too big. So my white chocolate came glopping out everywhere instead of in nice lines.

Can you see the two spots I missed on the bottom left? Oh well!

Actually I meant to do this. Yeah, I wanted those big blobs. They look like leaves or flowers or something. Sure, I did it on purpose. I'm so artistic!

Tomorrow night I will be taking this to my friend Jill's house so we can fight over it celebrate New Year's Eve together. I'll take some pictures of the slices so you can see the inside, and I'll report back on how it tasted. Since I'm not a big chocolate dessert fan, I'm not overly hopeful, but you never know.

Are you still reading this? Wow, you are bored aren't you? Okay, I hereby promise never to write another post this long AND boring again. Long, yes. Boring, yes. But in future, I'll try not to combine the two. I promise! :-)

Christmas Fun

2008-12-29T22:34:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad I got to spend Christmas with my family. Since I went down a day early to avoid weather problems, (Ha! Take THAT snow!) I got to watch my sister's children open their presents. They were so cute in the matching PJ's that their mom and dad got them.

Here's Max opening his talking helmet:

It says things like "Warning, danger ahead," and "Code Red." Apparently, it does NOT say, "Danger Will Robinson!" so I said it over and over again to make up for the oversight.

Here's Kenzie with her "Just Like You" doll:

I think she's unwrapping the little earrings for her doll to wear. They didn't have cool stuff like this when I was a kid. I love that she's wearing one of the bows on her pajamas. I always wear some part of the wrapping accoutrement when I open presents. Glad to see she's crazy like me following my example. (Do I get bonus points for using "accoutrement" in that last sentence?)

Here's Madison checking out one of her books:

I somehow managed to chop off her head, so you can't see her new headband. It goes with her leg warmers. Leg warmers!! I guess everything truly does come back in style again, even if it shouldn't. I probably got such a bad angle on this because it was 7:00 a.m. and I was just too tired to get up off my chair for the picture taking. These three pics are the only decent ones I got, and they're not that great. But I was really really tired!!

After hanging out for a bit, we went over to my brother's house. They only live about a mile away. However, they are on a pretty good sized hill and it was so snowy and icy that no one could leave once they parked. There was a lot of chaining up and fancy maneuvering going on to get people home.

Here is my brother, Tim and his wife Angela:

Aren't they gorgeous? There was an uneven distribution of the good-looking genes in my family. As in they went to everyone but me. (But I got lots of the smart genes...or so I like to think!) Tim and Angela, of course, have beautiful children. After I ask them, hopefully I can post pics of their two boys, Carter and Bryce.

It suddenly dawned on me this year, that my brother is a foodie. I know he likes to cook and play around with recipes, but it never occurred to me that he really loves food. Part of this realization was from the fabulous dinner they served, which featured a Lamb Rib Crown Roast. I'd never had this cut of meat before, and it was AMAZING! It was perfectly cooked and they served it with an herb reduction. I must have eaten at least 4 pieces. I've never had lamb that was so tender before. Now I understand why they prepare Lamb Rib Chops on Top Chef all the time. They rock!

The other thing that made me realize Tim's foodie tendencies was this appetizer:

They made dates stuffed with marcona almonds and bleu cheese and wrapped them in bacon. I have always wanted to make this. But I was afraid of the dates, and it's a bit out of my price range (I'm playing the "poor teacher" card on this one.) They were SO GOOD!

Monica was the first to sample one, so I commemorated the occasion.

Monica showing off her bacon wrapped stuffed date.

Monica about to take a bite of her bacon wrapped stuffed date.

Monica making the "yum, this is a really good bacon wrapped stuffed date" face.

See what I mean about the good-looking genes? My sister is gorgeous! Back when I was young and skinny, people used to ask us if we were twins. HA HA HA! I wish!

Overall, it was a great Christmas. I hope your holiday was also filled with family, food and love.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My gift to you! Have the merriest of holidays!
Love, Christine

Oh, Fudge! (Oh, Toffee!)

2008-12-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Eve and after a change in plans, I am now happily entrenched at my sister's house. I wasn't supposed to come down until tomorrow, but there was a break in the weather and we decided it would be safest to travel today. I am so happy to be here and grateful that my sister was willing to take me a day earlier than planned so we could all be together...thanks Monica!

For the last few days I have been baking away. I'm not a big fan of making cookies. I think it's because you have to keep sticking batch after batch in the oven and it takes a while to be done. I'm much better with candy. It's done much more quickly. Plus I LOVE to follow directions. I've always loved to read directions and rules. Then you can break the ones that are dumb. Anyway, candy making is very persnickety and the better you follow the directions, the better it turns out. The only problem is that people get pretty annoyed when I don't bring them candy at Christmas. So I have to make over ten batches. So much for getting done quickly!

The fudge recipe I use is one I found online a few years back. I've had great success with it. Plus, the site has lots of helpful tips so it is pretty much fail proof if you read all the directions. I make Skaarup's Fantasia Fudge, just the standard recipe with walnuts. The peanut butter fudge is the same recipe, but it's listed on the variations page. You sub in peanut butter for the chocolate chips and cut out two tablespoons of butter. I use creamy peanut butter instead of the chunky because it's smoother. It's SO GOOD!!!!! The only bad thing about it is that I forgot to pack it, and now it is sitting in my fridge, not getting eaten by us. Poop!

I actually made this when it was still snowing and I feel like it came out a bit drier than normal. Usually our air is really moist and so is the fudge. I'm thinking that the drier air resulted in a less moist fudge. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I did remember to bring the toffee I've been making pretty much non-stop. There have been threats of leaving me out on the doorstep to freeze if I didn't bring it with me. The recipe is from my 1990 version of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook. It is fabulous!

Mmmm...doesn't that look good? My friends and family are lucky I don't eat it all before it ever makes it to them. This is even easier to make than the fudge. So if you're feeling so inclined, here's the recipe.

Toffee Butter Crunch

Ingredients:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds, toasted
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds, toasted

Directions:
Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil, extending foil over edges. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts in the pan. Butter sides of a heavy 2 quart saucepan. In saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium-high heat to boiling.
Clip candy thermometer to pan. Cook and stir over medium heat to 290 degrees, about 15 minutes. Watch carefully after 280* to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and pour mixture into prepared pan. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or till firm; sprinkle with chocolate pieces. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes. When softened, spread chocolate over mixture. Sprinkle with finely chopped nuts. Chill until firm. Lift candy out of pan, break into pieces. Store tightly covered. Makes about 1 1/2 pounds.

Then you'll have a big batch of this:

How come I never make this for myself? What's that hips and stomach? Oh, yeah. Now I remember.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!

Cute with Chris

2008-12-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

One of the sites I visit regularly is Cute with Chris. It's basically pictures of puppies and kittens and other disgustingly cute things that the host makes fun of. Chris's sense of humor is totally whacked out and generally off-color. They recently reposted this Christmas episode and I thought I would share it as there's no swearing or anything TOO disgusting. Except for cat barf. And maybe some questionable use of tinsel.

If you're not easily offended, go check it out. If you ARE easily offended, just stare at this for awhile.

The View from my Windows

2008-12-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

My mom reminded me that my digital camera can make short movies. Whoo-hoo!

Last night...

And this morning....

There's a car in there somewhere!

Snow Induced Cooking

2008-12-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what you can find in your kitchen/freezer when it's too snowy to go to the store. I swear, it WILL NOT STOP SNOWING! For anyone not from this area, this is not normal for us. I enjoy snow because usually it shows up, melts in a day or two, then bye-bye. I am ready for it to stop now! It has been going almost non-stop for 3 days straight. Yesterday I ventured out to my local neighborhood to do some Christmas shopping since it's only about 5 blocks away. I took my car because I'm worried about it sitting out in this cold weather not being run. (Plus I'm a lazy ass.) My car was covered when I left a few hours later.

Since it's too crazy to hit the store I thought about what food might be left in my house. I remembered there was some Bolognese sauce in my freezer from a big batch I made a few months ago. I poked around my pantry and found a half box of mostaccioli (that means "big pasta tubes" in English!) As it was boiling, I checked the box for how long to let it go and noticed a recipe for "Tuscan Pasta Bake" on the back. It was basically a meat sauce mixed with the pasta and cheese, then baked. I found some shredded mozzarella in my fridge (no blue mold or anything...how'd that happen?) and decided to go for it. I'm horrible at making up food, so this was a big leap for me. I heated up the sauce I already had and left out the Parmesan since I didn't have any (how'd that happen?) then baked the pasta and sauce for about 10 minutes uncovered because I ran out of foil (how'd that happen?) I threw the cheese on top and stuck it back in for 10 minutes more. While poking around in the freezer, I found a couple of flatbread things I'd bought a while back to try. I think they're made by the Boboli people. So I threw those in to bake at the same time. Here's how it all turned out.

It was so good! (How'd that happen?)

I used an 11 x 7 pan, but it's still a lot just for me. Guess I know what I'm eating for the rest of the week!

Pathetic Confession #1

2008-12-19T21:47:00.000-08:00

I am addicted to Hallmark made for TV movies. Ones with bad plots. That always have happy endings. And hot male leads. Especially Andrew McCarthy.

*picture from www.mylifetime.com

Feel free to judge me. I would.

Comfort Foods

2008-12-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

It didn't take snow for me to know it was officially winter. I figured it out when I started having a hankering for comfort foods. It all started when I was perusing Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and found a recipe for pinto beans. I wanted them NOW. I've never made beans except from a can or BBQ Baked Beans during the summer. But I wanted those beans. I knew right then I was in trouble. Since I've been (somewhat) snowed in, I made PW"s Beans and Cornbread a few nights ago. Unfortunately, I added too much water. So I took off the lid and let some of the liquid cook off. But then I got distracted, and cooked off too much of it. They were still good, but next time I'll keep a better eye on it. It came out a bit too thick for me. The cornbread is the recipe from the back of the Alber's box. Apparently PW doesn't believe in putting sugar in cornbread. Sacrilege! Although, the whole frying it in a pan part sounded awesome. Look, I even cut up some onions for garnish (and because it sounded good.) Go me!

The best part is that I had half a package of bacon left over. So for breakfast I had eggs over easy, toast, oranges and BACON! No pictures, too hungry. Plus cold eggs are gross.

Then I got a craving for Mac & Cheese with hot dogs. Not even homemade mac and cheese, but the stuff from the box. And the cheap quality hot dogs I got for free (after a school fund raiser) which I had in the freezer. This stuff got me through college, in addition to 10 cent top ramen and "tube biscuits" that cost four for a dollar.

Check out that florescent orange color. How scary is it that I ate this? Do you think my insides are now this color? The really scary part is that I ate the leftovers for breakfast. ACK!

Today at lunch it was time for toasted cheese and tomato soup. Yum!

Yep, those are apples in the sandwich. I started adding Granny Smith slices a few years ago and it is so good! I've also used pears on occasion. But I like the apples best because they aren't too sweet and really compliment the cheese flavor. They also get slightly warm but don't actually cook down. My cheese probably looks a little funky. I tend to buy the cheese made with 2% milk. I don't notice a flavor difference, but sometimes the texture is a little iffy. I've gotten used to buying it so it's what's in my house.

Ah, comfort food. Now you'll be with me until the end of time...or at least until I get to the gym to exercise you off my hips.