Christmas time!

I put up the tree last weekend.  Just a small one but that's all I need in this tiny apartment.  I flew down to Sacramento again last weekend for bookgroup, hair appointment and general family time.  Jane and I did the Christmas home tour which is always fun.  I'm posting a couple of photos.


My little tree



From the tour.  Punch bowls and cake stands.

Tree from the tour

This weekend...  the Nutcracker, Friends, crafts and toffee. 

Craft time

I got all crafty the past 2 weekends and created 2 wreaths.  Both are yarn wreaths.  They turned out so well that I'm going to  make some as Christmas gifts this year.  I started on a book wreath but it is going to take a bit longer.


yarn wreath




The beginning of a book wreath



Decided to cover my dinning room chairs.  Love the new fabric

Sacramento

Just a quick update because I didn't post last weekend.

Art work in the new Sacramento airport

Went to Sacramento for book group last Friday.  Love those ladies!  We read The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Really good.  I had heard the story all of my life but never read the book.  Different then I expected.  Oscar Wilde did not think highly of women that's for sure.   I bought the annotated version which was cool because it gave you all of this insight into his life.   It was a fun night as usual.
On Saturday I went with the Hastings to the Crocker museum for an exhibit on robots and other oddities.  It was a full day- Museum, Ann Tracy art show, John's work, Hair appointment.

Flew back home on Sunday.  On Monday we had a bake sale at work so I baked cookies on Sunday to donate.  Homemade oreos.  Easy recipe and they taste super similar to real oreo's.  The same texture and dark chocolate taste. 

Pumpkin Whoopie pies that I made the previous week.

This weekend.... it's craft time.   I'm making wreaths.  I'll post photo's on the next update.

Pigs in a blanket.

The dogs decided to help me change the sheets on the bed.  They are such good helper dogs!

Ice Cream

I've been on an ice cream kick lately.   Unfortunately that means eating it and not making it.  Might explain why my pants are a bit snug.  I picked up some beautiful pears at the store the other day and went in search of something to make.  I landed on Pear Ice cream by David Lebovitz.  He's one of my all time favorite chefs so I assumed it would be good.  It took me 3 days.  First day I made it and put it in the ice cream maker but...  it never froze up.  I let the maker run for 30 minutes.  Weird.  I decided I had not cooled down the custard enough before pouring it so I put the maker back in the freezer and refrigerated the custard again.  next day, I tried again.  Still it would not harden up.  I couldn't figure it out.  Then suddenly I remembered that the ice cream I've been eating never seems very hard.  It is always super soft and creamy.  I went and checked the temperature on my freezer and sure enough, it was set at the highest temperature.  Nothing was actually freezing all the way in there.  I'm surprised I haven't died from eating poorly frozen food.  (Not sure what I would die from but I'm sure there is some kind of bacteria growing.)  I re-set my freezer and put the maker back in.  Next day, I tried one more time.  This time it did freeze up but not super solid.  After all that work, I thought the ice cream was just okay.  It taste very fresh but didn't satisfy my taste buds.  At least I fixed the freezer :)

Fall in Seattle

Last weekend I got invited to an Apple Press party.  My cube mate, Patrice, held it at her house in Tacoma.   I picked up Kimberly and we drove down there mid day on Sunday.  Tacoma looks nice.  Patrice's neighborhood was adorable and reminded me of the East coast.  The house are all older and look a little like New England homes with big yards in the front.  Patrice had buckets of apples from her 2 trees in the backyard.  Her brother and several other friends were there and together we cut, pressed and strained apple juice for hours.  We ate German potato salad, macaroni salad, veggies and Bratwurst.  Kids were carving pumpkins and dogs were running around.  It was fun and very fall like.

I made an old fashioned Apple cake.  It was pretty good.  Very dense and moist.  It would probably be good served warmed with a scoop of ice cream.
Really nice day and fun to be outside.  Fall is here.  I'm worried it will be gone too fast.  High temp today...  48!

Rainy day

It's a rainy Saturday.  Not that unusual for Seattle.  I plan to clean, bake and watch bad TV.  The perfect Saturday.
Last weekend I made a lemon pound cake.  It turned out pretty good.  I made it because my cube mate, Patrice, loves lemon pound cake and she was such a big help for my meeting.  I wanted to say Thank you.  She invited Kimberly and myself to her house this weekend for an Apple crushing party.  Homemade Apple cider!  I am baking an Apple cake.

Here is the lemon cake photo and a beautiful cup of coffee I got from the cafe downstairs. (Yes... occasionally I do drink coffee places besides Starbucks.)  I'll post photo's from the Apple party tomorrow.

New start

My Meeting is over!  For the past 8 weeks I've been working non-stop on a large meeting for 350 field partners.  I happened last week and went very well.  All the hard work paid off.  I can now get back to my blog, facebook and other time wasting activities.  This weekend I've been in pajamas and have barely left the apartment. 
The international cooking dropped off a bit.  I was eating out so  much over the past 3 weeks that I feel gross and fat!  I think I ate more fast food in 3 weeks then I've eaten in a year. 

This weekend I fixed some nice fall dishes since it is 50 degrees outside and the leaves have all turned. The vegetable Galette has beets, sweet potatoes and Butternut squash.  3 of my favorite things in the whole world!  The apple salad is apple, avocado, blue cheese and pomegranate seeds.  Delicious.    

Autumn Vegetable Galette

I'll bet back to the international stuff soon... I promise. 

Apple salad

Greek fast food

The other day I was at the mall and starving.  In the food court was a Greek fast food place and I thought...  why not!  I love a good Gyro.  On the menu was a chicken Gyro.  I asked the guy working if it tasted like a regular Gyro and he said  "it taste like Chicken"  .  Smart Ass.  I ordered it.  That was probably a mistake.  It was not like a real Gyro.  They didn't put the yummy sauce that comes on a Gyro and instead they put some kind of weird  Curry Sauce on it.  What the heck?  That's not a Gyro.  

Not only was it not very tasty but it also upset my tummy a bit.  The only good thing was the fries.  They were the big fat meaty kind.   Oh well.  That's what you get when you eat fast food.  STAY AWAY.

Greece

I decided I would get more adventurous with my cooking and start trying  new dishes.  I'm going to work my way around the world to all the destinations I hope to visit someday.  I can do a little armchair traveling and expand my recipe collection at the same time. 
I spent the week trying to decide where to start.  Do I go in order of where I hope to visit or just go randomly.  My list kept changing of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to cook.  I was going to start in France since I've been to Paris and I know I want to go back and see the rest of France.  But, I always feel like French food is a bit heavy and must be paired with Red Wine.  We are having a bit of a heat wave in Seattle, that means in the 80's, and I can't imagine eating heavy food now.  Somehow I landed on Greece.  I've always wanted to see Greece.  The beautiful coast line, water, house, history, food.  What's not to love about it.  This is where I will start.

To get in the mood for diving into Greece, I started with some basic recipes.   Spanakopita, Greek salad and Greek Lemon cake.  The Greek salad was easy- Tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, lettuce and feta cheese.  Most salads would have olives included but I detest olives.  (I would probably not make a good Greek resident).  I made a little vinaigrette with red wine vinegar and olive oil and poured over it.  Delicious.  The Spanakopita was fun to make.  I found a good recipe on Cooks Illustrated.  I made the spinach/Feta mixture and laid out the phyllo dough.  Phyllo is  a pain to work with because it is so delicate.  Brushed each layer with butter and the top layers have a thin layer of cheese between each.  That is so they don't fall off after you bake it.  Turned out pretty good.  The only thing I would change is I would put less lemon juice in the spinach mix.  It was a bit too much.

The lemon cake was just okay.  To me it taste like your typical lemon pound cake.  The cake has 6 eggs in it.  You beat the egg white to stiff peaks and then fold them in.  I would have expected it to be lighter.  I'm wondering if I didn't beat them enough.   
Next time, I have a recipe for a chicken pie and honey cake!  Yum.

Wall art

I couldn't decide about art work for the big wall in the living room.  I ended up ordering this wall decal from ETSY.  It is very cool.  Plus, it means I don't have to put a hole in the wall.  Love it!

September in Seattle

Well, I've survived my first 2 months in Seattle.  I'm finally settled into the apartment, unpacked and starting to explore a bit.  Jane and Savannah came to visit last week which was great because it got me out and about as a tourist in my new city.  We did the space needle, pike place market, underground tour and Bainbridge island.  It was a fun and exhausting 3 days.  I made a commitment to myself that I have to hire a dog walker this week.  My guilt of the dogs in the apartment have kept me from doing anything.  I just always worry that I need to rush home.  Even if I just get a walker for 3 days a week, it means that I can go out after work 3 days a week. 

Considering I just moved to a new city, I feel kinda stuck in a rut.  I just go to work and come home.  I haven't been updating the blog or reading or exercising.  I think I need a project.  I've been thinking about traveling lately but I really can't afford to.  I've also been watching all of those favorite movies of mine about women who go somewhere and change their lives.  I love those movies.  there is Under the Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, Must Love dogs (okay, so she doesn't really go anywhere but she does change her life.).  I moved to Seattle but i haven't done anything to change my life.  I need to get busy.
I started making my travel list again.  I think for a while I will focus on being an armchair traveler.  I picked up several travel books recently and have them next to the bed.  I'll read , study and cook the places I want to go.  I realized I don't really cook much international stuff.  I tend to stick strictly to the CA cuisine or southern.  Of course I make spaghetti and lasagna but i doubt it is like the real stuff.  I can learn to cook a dish from each country I plan to see.  That will give me a project.  Now... if I can just stick with it! 

I'm including a couple of photo's from Jane's visit along with a delicious Peach Cobbler I made today. (See, more southern cooking!)  It was super easy and extremely tasty.

More later!

New Home

My new home

Travel dogs.  They had a 15 hour car ride.  Both did well thanks to some sleeping pills!

I know I've been out of touch and I owe a lot of updates.  Probably won't give it all right now but it's a start.  I moved to Seattle on July 5th.  I came up 2 weeks earlier to find a place to live, went home and packed and moved.  Within a 3 week period I had arrived.  It was exhausting.  Not only the move part but starting a new job and adjusting to life in an apartment.  I haven't lived in an apartment in over 20 years.  So far so good.   Here are some quick photo's to get you started and I promise to update more this weekend on life in the new city. 

The City



Starbucks headquarters



Seattle bound

Only have a minute to write.  I'm headed up to Seattle today to start the search for a place to live and to train for the new job!  It happened fast.  Just got home on Wednesday from visiting Mom and Dad.  It was a great visit.  Dad is doing really well and I felt like I got to spend quality time with both of them and I saw Aunt Kathy.  It's been years since I've seen her and it was really nice to catch up.    Posted these photo's on face book but thought I'd add a few here also.   I am going to try to update from Seattle if possible.  I'm having trouble with photo's on my laptop so not sure if I can put photo up while on the road.  Once I get settled up there, I plan to use the blog to keep everyone updated on my life in the Northwest.  Stay tuned!

Memorial Day

It is Memorial Day and I am wondering where this year has gone.  It will be June 1st on Wednesday and I don't know what happened to the first 5 months of the year.  I haven't accomplished several of the things I had planned.  - Organize the house- lose weight- pay off debt, etc.   BUT I have the rest of the year and it is all still within reach. 
I wrapped up the last week of travel in Burbank.  6 weeks total plus the one week previously in Florida.  That is a lot of travel.  The bad news is that it's not over with yet.  2 things happened last week which will change everything.

1- Dad had a heart attack.  He had triple by-pass surgery on Friday and is doing great.  I'm going to fly home to Virginia on Wednesday and stay for a week to help Mom.
2- I got the job in Seattle!  I start in 2 weeks.  That means packing the house, finding a place to live and moving. I probably won't do the actual move until July but I have to get started on planning.  I spent the weekend making list and getting started.  There is a lot to do.
I am excited about starting a new chapter.  A little scared but excited.  I can use this blog to share photo's and adventures in the new city.  But first I have to get there.
Stay tuned.

Snap shot Saturday

I know I owe a lot of updates but I've just completed week 6 of travel with one more to go.  It is hard to stay up on the blogs and do a job which requires hotel stay constantly.  I promise to get better.
In the meantime, here are some photo's from our Mothers Day Garden tour.

Jane and Suzi looking lovely on their day

The gnome garden

The potting shed in the Art Garden

A Mississippi Bottle tree.  It keeps the evil spirits away!

The Art Garden

Flying mushrooms

Enjoy

I'm back!!

I just got back from Florida this morning.  The one advantage of taking a 6 am flight is that I got home before noon CA time.  That means I have almost a weekend before heading back to work. 
Just a couple of updates from my trip
The Womens Foodservice Forum was great.  3 nice days of making new connections and taking leadership classes.  I met several great folks from Starbucks who I didn't know and found out a lot more about what is happening around the country.    Then on Wednesday it was off to West Palm Beach!!  My dear friend Joe picked me up and we drove across Florida to see Ms Georgia Handy.  It had been years since we had all be together.  We spent 3 nice days catching up and sitting on the beach.  Last time I saw Georgia her girls were little tiny things.  Now they are full grown kids!   Georgia is now making her living as a photographer and social media consultant.  That means she runs facebook pages for companies.  It is totally brilliant.  Companies pay her to update their facebook status and to build excitement around their events or products.  She convinced me to create a burger facebook page.  I tied it into the Burger blog.  I'll post more details on the blog and quick reviews on the facebook page.  I set up the facebook page and in the first 24 hours, I had 10 followers!!  How cool is that.  I'm going to try to figure out how to add the link to my blog and vice versa. 

Pool at my hotel in Orlando

The girls

I read 2 complete books on vacation and made it half way through 2 more.  I'll update the list on the side of this blog.   I keep track of all my books through Goodreads.  Feel free to find me there and send me a friend request.  http://www.goodreads.com/   

I ate some great food while I was gone.  Nothing fancy but lot's of fish.  Check out the Burger blog for my review of the fish sandwich.  It will eventually show up on the facebook page but I need to spread out my post.  Can't post everything the first day. 
Overall a great week but I'm glad to be home.  Next week....  back to LA!

success

Well, the first part of the job project is done.  I presented my project to my boss, the RD's and the Divisional vice president.  It went pretty well.  I would give it a B.  I felt like i really knew my subject and stayed pretty high level.  There is still some work to be done.  I felt really good just to have the presentation over with.  Now I have to follow up on all of the comments that everyone made.  But first.... I go to Florida for a week. 
3 days of work and 4 days of fun!  Can't wait.  Of course I had planned to lose 10 lbs before going and I lost 0.  Not so good.   I have got to get on track.  

This week I went down to LA for our partner event.  Howard Schultz was the speaker and I have to say it was pretty motivational.  I felt really proud to work for the company.  I plan to read his new book soon.... after I finish the other 5 books I've started.   I'm taking 4 with me to Florida.  We'll see how many I finish.

I plan to take lots of photo's while I'm gone and have plenty to share.  I'll try to update from vacation but not sure if I can add photo's from the laptop. 
I also plan to figure out next steps for me with weight loss and the job. 
Florida here I come!

Slow Sundays

It's another slow Sunday.  Literally slow.  I did very little all day.  I was out late last night because it was book group night.  We read The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle.  No one really liked it but I have to say that I thought it was a worthwhile read.  It was just super depressing.   It focused on a family in California and a family from Mexico who crossed the border and were just trying to survive.  Really a contrast in lives and how quickly a prejudice can form.  It was hard to read with all of the depressing news in the world these days and with the non-stop rain.  I made Margaritas which were fabulous!  I got the recipe from Martha Stewart because I heard Oprah say that Martha made the best margaritas.  I also made Tortilla soup.  First time to make it and it was really easy and good.  Book group is always so much fun.  I look forward to it each month. We ended up talking till after 11 pm.
I am in the middle of 3 other books so I need to settle down and finish them.  I'm almost done with Austenland.  I'm half way done with The Room.  And I'm maybe a quarter of the way done with Educating Alice.  I'm going to try to finish all 3 this week. 
I went to Yoga this morning.  I love that I'm getting stronger each week.  It makes me feel great.  I'm going to try to go 3 more times this week.  If I can go 3-4 times each week and walk at least 3-4 times a week, I'll be doing well.  I just have to get the eating under control.  The other night I ate an entire roll of GS cookies.  Ugghh.