Testing, testing...1...2...3...

This weekend I did some cupcake trials. I bought a couple of mini cupcake tins, some liners, and a few boxes of cake mix (because I am lazy and don't want to make everything from scratch).

First I made a batch of lemon cupcakes - I added lemon zest to the plain yellow cake mix, threw in some lemon juice in place of some of the water, and then made a simple glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar. The mini cupcakes turned out great - they cook in 13 minutes at 350, and cool in about 5-10 minutes, so they're ready to frost quickly. Unfortunately the frosting didn't hold up very well; it kind of melted into the cupcakes by the second day, so they looked all patchy and odd. I think I may have to switch to a buttercream frosting (ugh), but if I do that I'm hoping to find some passionfruit puree to use as flavoring. Mr Wonderful & I went to a catering/wedding fair event a while back that had a lemon/passionfruit cake sample we both loved, and I'd like to be able to reproduce it. It would require a bit more work though, as I'd have to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

I also tried making chocolate mini cupcakes. I used a Devil's Food flavor of cake mix and when I made the "plain" chocolate cupcakes, they tasted like nothing much. Even the kids didn't like them. However, I did also spice up some of the batter towards the end of the batch, with cinnamon, orange liqueur, and a bit of chili powder. The cinnamon flavor came through, but the orange and chili powder were completely lost. I think I may need to use cayenne instead of chili powder and only use the orange liqueur in the ganache. The ganache was a whole other story - my first try (with half the chocolate chips) turned out grainy & gross; I used Barefoot Contessa's method of melting the chocolate & cream in a double boiler. The second try turned out perfectly; in this instance, I heated the cream just until it boiled, then poured that over the chocolate chips and let it sit for a couple of minutes before whisking together. The cupcakes were super easy to frost with the ganache, too - you just dip them in and swirl a bit, then pull them out and the frosting is beautiful and glossy and smooth. Even better - they still look beautiful the next day. :)

A couple other updates: I found the perfect shoes on sale at Kohl's, ordered my bouquet & Mr Wonderful's boutonniere from a local florist (yay, white tulips!), and we figured out the music situation. Tomboy has a boombox that is battery-operated, has detachable speakers, and has an auxiliary input that accommodates an iPod. We tested it out last night, with batteries & everything, and it worked beautifully.

Mmmm...fooood.....

Mr Wonderful and I are now at the point in the wedding planning where we need to make a decision about a caterer. And the best part about this is that you get to run around meeting various caterers and tasting free food.

On Sunday, we went to a caterer-sponsored "wedding faire" kind of thing, where there's a few vendors hawking their wedding-related shit (like photographers, officiants, etc.) but mostly it was a way for the caterer to get a bunch of people in one room and show how awesome their buffet can be. And I gotta say...not so impressed with the food. The problem with a buffet is that it always feels like you're at Bob's Big Boy smorgasbord, and the food has been sitting around for a couple of hours and picked over by a few hundred people, even when there's only like 50 people in the room and they are constantly bringing out fresh food. It still LOOKS ghetto, no matter how much you pretty it up with fancy table linens and stuff. And it still pretty much tastes like cardboard, because they are serving food for the lowest common denominator. You know, you can't make anything too spicy, because people have varying levels of spice-tolerance. So everything ends up tasting pretty much the same.

We really only liked two things about the event: one was a table setup (flowers, napkins, etc.) that I took a picture of on my phone, and the other was a cake sample that was absolutely delicious: lemon cake with passionfruit buttercream. It sounded like an odd combination, but it was so light and bright and uplifting - really an excellent flavor combination.

Tonight we're heading out to Concord to meet with a caterer & do a tasting, and I'm in discussions with a couple of other caterers as well. It's difficult sometimes to schedule the meetings because Mr Wonderful works swing shift and when he's got the weekend off, we have the kids. So it's a bit of a shuffle, but the catering is the most important part of our wedding, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm willing to spend extra time and actually go out of my comfort zone and talk to people on the phone (gasp!). Truly, I hate talking on the phone. I'd so much rather email - you always have the option to revise your statement before the person actually sees it. I just feel so stupid when I have to talk about something - I can never get my thoughts straight before something dumb pops out of my mouth.

Anyway, so...caterers. Anyone have a caterer they've used for a special event and thought was absolutely fantastic?

Crazybusy

God, things have been so busy lately, I've barely had time to think. Quick recap here:

• Attended & helped organize a protest against Prop 8 in WC on the 15th
• Waged war on the pantry moths that had completely infested our dry goods cupboard; I think I've won but it may just be a lull in the battle
  
• Semi-regular dinner out with supervisor
• Fought off a cold
• Attended big Adobe conference in SF, 17th-19th (which entailed unfortunate late nights coupled with even more unfortunate early mornings in which I had to ride stupid BART into the city. Hello, two-hour commute!)
• Parent-teacher conference
• Thanksgiving dinner planning, including ordering the organic free-range turkey breast (even though it's just the four of us, and possibly Babydaddy, we will still have the requisite big turkey feast)
• Finished two sweaters (Sister's Christmas Present and my big green squishy Mmmmmalabrigo v-neck)
• Started a baby sweater
• Started and FINISHED a super-secret surprise Christmas present for someone (at least those long BART rides were good for something)
• Successfully kept myself from killing the kids so far (they're home a lot this month thanks to Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, staff in-service days and parent-teacher conferences)
• Finished most of my Christmas shopping
• Crazy busy with work stuff (being gone for three days at a conference does not help)

And this is just the last two weeks, mind you. AND, today is Mr Wonderful's birthday. Thankfully, he decided that what he really really wants for dinner is pizza and beer. I can totally deal with that. But what he wants for his present is to get his computer fixed. Ugh. The thing needs a new motherboard, if I remember correctly (it's been at least six months since it got fried), and probably a new processor and a couple of fans too. *sigh*

Things I still need to get done:

• Family picture for Christmas cards
• Order Christmas cards, and when they get here, address & send them out
• Thanksgiving
• Get paver stones to edge the patio (between cement patio & new sod)
• Finish baby sweater
• Sleep for fifteen years

On the plus side, I found out that you can order NyQuil-D through your neighborhood pharmacy. NyQuil-D is the original formulation of NyQuil, and contains the magical ingredients that knock you on your ass. I have ordered some and it should be ready to pick up along with my turkey tomorrow.

Slow Food Nation

In my big recap last week I forgot to mention my trip to San Francisco for the Slow Food Nation expo! Read all about it and check out my sad iPhone camera skilz here.

I gotta say, the South Beach thing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We're on day eight now, and while I definitely have moments where I'm craving carbs in a big way, for the most part, it's not a big deal. You don't ever have to be hungry on this diet; you can eat pretty much all you want, as long as it's on the "approved" list. I have eggs just about every morning for breakfast and it keeps me full for several hours.

One thing I was really worried about was beverages. Missing out on my Dr Pepper is tough, but it's not as bad as I thought because of two glorious products on your local grocery store's shelves. First: Crystal Light. I hadn't tried it in several years, and vaguely remembered a very saccharine-tasting faux-fruity Koolaid substitute. But it's really improved a lot; I've found four flavors that I really enjoy - Sunrise Orange, Cherry-Pomegranate, "Hydration" Mixed Berry, and the White Tea-Blueberry. And at only 10 calories each, that cuts a lot of calories out of my daily intake. Don't get me wrong, I don't drink these all day long. I drink a lot of water, too, and I have a cup of green tea in the mornings when I get up (no sugar, no milk). But the Crystal Light really helps when I'm craving a glass of juice or just something sweet to drink.

The other thing that's helped a lot is Coke Zero. I HATE HATE HATE Diet Coke. I know it's got its devotees, but I cannot stand the aftertaste and how it tastes all sickly-sweet. Coke Zero is made with a different sugar substitute, though, and if you drink it ice cold, it has NO aftertaste (somehow it gets a bit weird when it warms up a little). Love this stuff. And it works quite well for the daily afternoon caffeine boost. It's no Dr Pepper, for sure, but I think I can live with it.

Greetings from low-carb land

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of back-to-school prep, board meetings, PTA volunteer duties and all kinds of things. Rugrat started back to school last week, and he's already had a clash with his new teacher. Big surprise. The kid is nothing if not strong-willed, and when the teacher asked the class to lay out their math homework a certain way, he decided that HIS way was better because it used less paper. And proceeded to argue the point with the teacher. So we had a little phone conference yesterday, and of course Babydaddy and I hammered the point home that following instructions is just as important as getting the correct answers. I love my son like crazy, but honestly that kid is not an easy one to live with sometimes.

I'm editing the monthly PTA newsletter this year, as a way to stay more in touch with what's going on at Rugrat's school, and because it was something I could do from the couch. You know how I am about my couch. LOVE it. Anyway, this is a bit of an adventure; there's lots of people involved in submitting articles, reviewing the draft of the newsletter, and sending me changes. There are a few people who (I have been warned) are consistently difficult to deal with: late submitting articles, etc. I've laid down the line in the sand though; I have said that I can work on this on weekends only since I have a full-time job, and if the principal of the school doesn't get me her article on time, oh well. The world won't stop turning.

I am also on the board of a new project that my supervisor at work is starting up: Classes for Causes. The basic premise is that people will teach classes, and the proceeds from those classes will be donated to the charity of the teacher's choice. The site is currently in development but we will be rolling out the beta version very soon, because we're planning to have our pilot class at the end of October. Supervisor is holding the first class: Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing. I am considering teaching classes in knitting and creating your own cell phone ringtones. Mr Wonderful is even getting in on the act; he'll be teaching a course in self-defense. Anyway, we've had two board meetings so far, and as the Board Secretary, I am responsible for typing up the minutes. Which took like an hour and a half last night, because we had a three-hour Strategic Planning meeting on Tuesday. My eyes were BURNING by the time I shut down the computer.

And things have been crazy busy at work. I'm desperately trying to get on top of things, but there is just SO much right now. So I'm working like a demon, trying to get done by the end of the day, so I can pick up Rugrat or go to the gym and fix dinner.

Speaking of dinner, Mr Wonderful and I have started the South Beach diet. Essentially it's a low carb diet for the first two weeks (meat, veggies and lowfat dairy only), then you add in complex carbs (whole grains, fruit) for the second phase. We started the diet on Monday, which was interesting because we were gone all day - since it was Labor Day and we both had the day off (joy!) we took a day trip to the coast. A nice drive through Sebastopol and Guerneville, out to where the Russian River dumps out. We saw a bunch of seals frolicking in the water, skipped rocks in the river, watched the pelicans dive for fish, saw a paraglider (is that a word?) jump off a cliff and float down to the beach, and ate crunchy veggies with a vegetable/ricotta dip.

Phase one hasn't been that bad, actually, although I do miss Dr Pepper and chips. Crunchy salty things are my downfall, and I've been missing the faux-cheese flavored snacky foods. But we've stuck to the plan (on day five now!) and have each lost five pounds already. We took measurements (waist, chest, hips & thighs) at the beginning and will compare when we take measurements again at the end of phase one. I'm pretty excited about this; I didn't think I'd lose weight this fast, and it's a great incentive to keep going. I doubt it will continue falling off at this rate (it must be mostly water weight, right?), but it's great to have some validation.

But man, I would LOVE to have a piece of fruit right now. I can't believe how much I am craving fruit these days, now that I know I can't have it.

A summer cold

Last week Mr Wonderful came down with a nasty summer cold. I thought I'd escaped it, but apparently I wasn't so lucky...I started feeling it while I was driving home on Sunday, after dropping Rugrat off at summer camp. I just hope that he doesn't come down with it - what a disappointment it would be (not to mention a waste of money) if he had to come home early from camp!

As much as I hate being sick, at least I'm getting this cold thing out of the way while the kids are both gone (Tomboy's at her mom's this week) and before we head down for our vacation in Palm Springs next week. And I'm feeling much better today; yesterday was miserable but I got 10 hours of sleep the last two nights (thank you, NyQuil!) and have been drinking lots of liquids, so I'm feeling a bit better today. We'll see...it does tend to get worse as the day goes on, so I may be prematurely optimistic here, but I'm not as "out of it" today.

I know I've been lagging on posting here. That happens when I feel like I need to do a recap of something, and then I keep putting it off, and thinking that I can't blog about anything else until that is done. I'm talking about the camping trip we went on at the end of June, of course.

It was really very nice, and would have been ideal if it weren't for the damn mosquitoes. Rugrat got bitten so many times on his face that he looked like a boxer who'd just done ten rounds; his eye was swollen almost shut on the ride home. But other than the bugs, it was great. We spent a lot of time at the river nearby; I'd brought a huge inner tube (meant for pulling along behind a boat, so it was very sturdy) and we spent some lovely hours just floating in the water. Niece, of course, was absolutely ecstatic to be in the water - she's always been drawn to water, and would live her entire life in the water if she could. Mr Wonderful took Rugrat fishing for a little while, and I sat on the beach chatting with Sister and Brother-In-Law, knitting my cushy green v-neck sweater. You may think that wool and knitting needles are not appropriate for the beach, but hey, it's my vacation. I get to relax however I want. :)

And the food was glorious. I'd pre-made some Ribollita and some Mexican Chicken Chili before we left, and we also had hot dogs, eggs and bacon, biscuits, tacos, sandwich fixin's and snacks, plus lots of beer and soft drinks and water. Sister brought deviled eggs...mmmm....and they made us chicken-pineapple kabobs one night that were fantastic! Sister & BIL had gotten a really cool new camp stove; one side is a grill, the other is a regular burner, and it was very handy.

The best of the pictures of the camping trip are up on Flickr, if you're interested.

Oh, and let me leave you with this little snippet of conversation, overheard about 10 minutes after Sister & her family showed up:

Cousin: You suck!
Rugrat: No, you suck!
Cousin: We both suck!
Rugrat: Yeah, we both suck!

Corny

I got a book from the library the other day, called The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's all about what is really in our food, and how to make conscious choices about what you're eating. I'm not even a third into it yet and I am disgusted by the political-agricultural industry. Something like 75% of our food comes from corn - mainly from corn-fed animals and processed corn in processed foods (seems like just about every unpronouncable additive in processed foods comes from corn). I have been so horrified by the information in this book about cattle feedlots that I've made a decision to only buy meat and eggs from Kinder's, a local butcher shop that has only grass-grazed beef (no antibiotic shots either, according to the girl I talked to on the phone). I'll check to be sure, but I'm guessing that if they've got grass-fed beef they also have only free-range chicken and therefore free-range eggs as well. This decision is not only, or even mainly, about the mistreatment of the animals on the mass-produced meat farms, but about the quality of the meat. Corn-fed feedlot beef has more saturated fat and less Omega-3 fatty acids. And they wallow around in their own crap all day. Who wants to eat that?

Overenthusiastic

Apparently my skin is a leeetle bit overenthusiastic when it comes to healing. I went to the dermatologist this morning for what I hoped would be my final checkup, and she wasn't happy with my scar, because it's all puffy (Dad's comment yesterday: "I just thought it was a zit!" Nice.). So I'm going back next month for dermabrasion, to grind that puppy down. Ouch.

On the plus side, we had a lovely Father's Day yesterday. Babydaddy came over for dinner last night, as did my Dad. (Dad & Stepmom are up here visiting, because Stepmom's father just passed away. Very sad, but on the other hand, it was a nice surprise to be able to spend Father's Day with my dad.) Dad got to check out my scar firsthand and take pictures of Rugrat tearing around the court on his bicycle. I got to check on Dad's Thank-You Socks, to make sure they're turning out to be an appropriate size (so far, so good!). Then Mr Wonderful BBQed some steaks, and I sauteed some yummy local white corn (freshly cut off the cob!) and put together some tasty fruit & yogurt parfaits for dessert.

Oh yeah, and Dad & I tossed back a few glasses of scotch. Mmmm...Glenmorangie. There's just nothing quite as cool as (legally) drinking with your dad.

Requiem for a Funyun

I am horribly disappointed in the Frito-Lay company. Of all the products they make, they had to discontinue the Wasabi Funyuns? WHYYYYYY??? The Wasabi Funyuns were the epitome of snackage. They were the perfect delivery system for wasabi powder -- no overwhelming flavor of anything else (I'm looking at you, crappy wasabi potato chips), just crunchy fried wasabi goodness.

I first discovered the Wasabi Funyuns last July. I was visiting my sister up in Portland with Mr Wonderful and attending the drunktastic Oregon Brewers Festival ("Drink it, bitch!"). Mr Wonderful and I took a drive one day, crossing the Columbia river into Washington state. We stopped at a 7-Eleven and Mr Wonderful spied the acid green bag and thought he'd give it a try. Well, we couldn't shovel them down our throats fast enough.

Try though we might, we very rarely came across them again. At every convenience store, we'd check for the little bags of joy. Every grocery store, every drugstore, every place that might conceivably have them. Nothing. No love. Until last November, when Mr Wonderful and I were again on vacation, this time in SoCal. Down the street from my Mom's house, the local 7-Eleven had them. I grabbed half a dozen bags and would have cleaned them out totally, but Mr Wonderful convinced me that now they'd be showing up all over the place.

Back home in the bay area, we still couldn't find them. I found a stray bag once on while a trip up to the mountains to visit Mr Wonderful's sister, but nothing where we lived. (Why could we only get them while on vacation??) In desperation, I checked the Frito-Lay website, thinking that maybe I could email them to ask when they'd be in mass circulation. Turns out, Frito-Lay has a "snack finder" that will tell you the closest retail outlet that sells your preferred FL snack. The website claimed that Wasabi Funyuns were available in several convenience stores near Mr Wonderful's job, but he visited each one and could never find a bag. There were no listings in our town or closely neighboring towns.

And now...well, they're nowhere to be found. A phone call to the company confirms that Frito-Lay has stopped producing Wasabi Funyuns. And all I have to say to that is: OMGWTF??? Seriously? Wasabi Funyuns were the greatest snack evah! Y'all are evil and I am boycotting your crappy company until you bring them back.

BRING BACK THE WASABI FUNYUUUUUUNNNNNSS!!

Snow trip!

We took the kids to the snow this weekend. I'd been promising Rugrat that we'd go up to the snow, and when our plans to visit Mr Wonderful's sister this past weekend fell through, we decided to head up for an impromptu Tahoe trip instead.

This trip was all about the kids. We drove up Saturday morning without any real plan (where to stay, what exactly to do) other than "play in the snow." We found a cheap hotel room right after we got into town, and then headed out immediately to find a good hill to slide down on the orange disk we'd brought. Instead, we ended up going to Hansen's Tube & Saucer park, where for $20, Mr Wonderful and the kids slid down a couple of exciting snow slides (much like waterslides) in innertubes. Afterwards, we went out for pizza at Lake Tahoe Pizza Co., which was right across the street from our hotel. The food was great - their combo pizza had a layer of sauteed mushrooms underneath the cheese that was really fantastic.

After dinner, we went to Harrah's and I got $20 in tokens and let the kids play in the arcade for about an hour and a half. Finally, we went back to the hotel and crashed out. I can't really recommend the hotel (Apex) as Mr Wonderful and I were freezing all night, having decided to sleep with our respective kids in order to keep the peace, but at least the kids slept well.

The next morning we went to the Red Hut Waffle House and OMG. BEST. BREAKFAST. EVER! Really, all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Even the coffee was good. If you ever stay the night in South Lake Tahoe, be sure to check it out. It's on the lake side of the main drag, an unassuming little hole in the wall, and there will probably be a wait (we waited about 20 mins) but the wait is WORTH IT. They specialize in waffles (which Rugrat & Mr Wonderful both had) but we also had fantastic biscuits & gravy, perfectly cooked eggs (and I'm darn picky about my eggs) and the best bacon I've ever had in a restaurant. It was cooked slowly until perfectly crisp, and they were nice thick slices.

After that "righteous gut-packing" (™ Mr Wonderful), we headed back home, stopping for an hour in Strawberry, where the kids got to make good use of the orange disk, as well as the pink disk and the tie-dye sled we bought at KMart in Tahoe. I even went down the hill once! Everyone had a blast here, even Rugrat (who didn't much like sliding down the big hills, but made a fabulous snowchicken; kind of like a snowman, except...it's a chicken). More pictures are up on Flickr, of course. On our way home we stopped at the Silverfork Cafe. We'd stopped there on our way up, to grab some lunch and hit the bathroom, and their food was fantastic. Mr Wonderful and I split a steak taco (very large, with "two" tacos in the order that actually stretched to more like FOUR) on the way to Tahoe, and on the way home we decided to try the shrimp version. It was heavenly, and that tiny little cafe will be our official pitstop every time we hit Tahoe now.

New blog

I've set up a new food blog, Table For Two, since my passion for cooking just keeps growing. I figured it's time to give back to the food community, as I've been so inspired by those fabulous Internet chefs that graciously take the time to photograph their latest culinary masterpieces and pass on the secrets to us.

I've got to get better at taking digital photos though; the last one came out really blurry. :-P

Weekend notes

This weekend I got a bug up my butt about the yard. On Saturday, I spent five (!!) hours outside - weeding, putting down bark, cutting off dead leaves from the elephant ear plant thing near the front door (which left no leaves at all; we'll see if it survives), planting stuff in the pots in the backyard, and cutting back the fuschias on the other side of the front door that were also doing quite poorly thanks to the hard freeze we had a few weeks ago. On Sunday I had someone come out to dethatch and aerate the front lawn, and they will be reseeding it today. So at least the front yard will look presentable in a few weeks. I'm also definitely getting a gardening service, because God knows I don't mow often enough (or fertilize, or weed, or anything).

As a result of working my butt off on Saturday, I was pretty sore yesterday. But I dragged Rugrat out to get some new clothes (pants are a particular issue with him, as we have a hard time finding jeans that fit the length while still being small enough in the waist to fit his skinny bod), and to the grocery store. Rugrat's friend K came over for a little while to play, and when I told the kids that it was time for her to go home, Rugrat shouted "Oh, shit!" He is EIGHT. That is way too young to be cursing at the top of your lungs. Soooo...to punish him I made him not speak for an hour (and if you know my Rugrat, you know that this is very difficult for him, since he's a major chatterbox). I told him if I heard him curse again, he'd be getting his mouth washed out with soap. Of course it doesn't help that I'm a complete hypocrite and curse fairly often myself; when he brought this up I told him that when he is twenty-five years older than someone (as I am older than him) he can curse all he wants. Heh.

The weekend ended on a good note though, as we made homemade veggie pizza for dinner last night. I bought one of those thin-crust pizza shells, and we filled it with ranch dressing (instead of marinara, because neither of us like tomato sauce on our pizza), baby spinach, mushrooms, olives, marinated artichoke hearts, slivers of onion, garlic, and standard bagged "pizza mix" shredded cheese. Rugrat's side only had spinach & olives, but my side had all the goodies. And BOY was it good! It earned one and a half thumbs up from the Rugrat, although he said that next time he'd prefer it without the ranch dressing.

Party Jinx

I am pretty sure I have a party jinx. Whenever I throw a party, invite people over for a get-together, whatever...if it's not family, they don't come. I had ONE person come to the book club meeting last night. Three people emailed to cancel the morning OF the meeting (like they didn't know it was coming up? Even though they got a reminder email a week ago?). Two other people just didn't bother. Whatever.

I, of course, spent the better part of two days cooking & cleaning. I bought $40 worth of wine. I made fantastic food: caramelized onion & goat cheese tarts, prosciutto & gruyere pinwheels, stuffed mushrooms, lacy almond cookies with fresh fruit. And now? I have half a bottle of wine leftover in the fridge (because the one woman who showed up was 8 months pregnant and I had to drink the wine alone), and I gorged myself on mushrooms last night so I wouldn't have to throw them away. I have a couple of the onion & goat cheese things left, and I sent the other lady home with most of the remaining pinwheels, half the cookies, and all the fruit. It's not like I can just keep this stuff around - I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow, for the family reunion thing.

I am never throwing a party again. It's just not worth the stress.

It's the mooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the year

And why is it so wonderful, you ask? Because:

• Christmas trees & the "halls" are all decked with holiday cheer
  
• My Christmas shopping has been done for more than a week
• All presents are wrapped and ready to go
• All my cards have been sent out (about 50 - including color copies of the annual update & photos), with the exception of the one card that I need an air-mail stamp for, since it's going to Belgium
• All my holiday baking is done

This year I went all-out with the baking. I made a fruitcake (another one; I'm not counting the underbaked one I did a few weeks ago), two lemon pound cakes, peppermint candy-cane sugar cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, almond-orange and almond-raspberry jam thumbprints, break-n-bake chocolate chip cookies (OK, so not EVERYTHING was from scratch, so sue me), and the annual marshmallow fluff fudge. I thought about making shortbread cookies too, but that just kinda seemed like overkill. Heh.

Now all I have to do is pack up the goodies in tins for Rugrat's teachers and the neighbors, and I can officially sit down with a big ol' glass of wine and call it good. Whew!

Been a while

I know, it's been a while since my last post. So here's the update, in a nutshell:

Thanksgiving was wonderful, except for the fact that I had horrendous allergies all day and even after taking a dose of Benadryl they wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to nap (because that usually helps immensely) but I must have been too excited about seeing family & stuffing my face, because even with the Benadryl fog I couldn't sleep. The food was, of course, delish. And it was lovely to see my cousin Kelly and his girlfriend and baby. :)

A week later (last Thursday) was my company's annual Christmas party. We're a tiny little company so we all went to see Cirque du Soleil and then out to dinner afterwards in SF. Cirque du Soleil was REALLY cool - lots of amazing acrobatics and gorgeous costumes and just...theatrical spectacle, I guess. I was very impressed with the tightrope walker, who balanced way up high on a skinny little wire while hula-hooping about 20 hoops! Afterwards we went to a tiny Basque restaurant for dinner, and had an outstanding meal. Yay for French food!

Speaking of French food, I made a delicious French onion soup last night for dinner. I invited Babydaddy over for dinner, since I knew there would be plenty (and plus it's really, really good and I spent two hours making it, so I thought it would be nice to let someone else enjoy it, too). Yum. My newest addiction is Gruyere. I've been making toast for lunch, with melted Gruyere on top and some freshly ground pepper - for about the last week. Pretty soon I'll get sick of it (I hope! That stuff is expensive) but for now I'm content to scarf the yummy fattening melted cheese every day. Mmmm....cheese...

Also over the weekend, I made cookies and fruitcake. The fruitcake didn't turn out too well - apparently it wasn't cooked all the way on the bottom because half of it stuck in the pan (the NON-STICK pan) when I tried to pull it out. I guess my toothpicks just aren't long enough, because when I stuck it in after baking for 50 minutes, it came out clean. Next time I'll make fruitcake muffins instead. *sigh*

Mosquito Lounge

I tried a new restaurant last night: Mosquito Lounge, in Brentwood. First impression was good - yes, it's located in a tacky stripmall (not even a good stripmall, like the one with Barnes & Noble), but the decor was AWESOME. I absolutely love the atmosphere in that place. Unfortunately, the food sucked. First of all, they don't have any hard liquor, so my cosmo was made with sake, which...okay, it wasn't disgusting, but it wasn't great. Second, the actual food: I ordered crab cakes to start with, and then dragon prawns. Big servings, but ewww. The crab cakes were just warm, not hot. And they were all mushy like they'd used 90% bread crumbs and 10% Krab and seasonings, and then fried those lumps. The sauce was yummy, and the salad served with it was fine. But the "crab" cakes themselves were horrendous. Then, the shrimp. Dear God, is everything in this place fried? Because they were thinly covered with some kind of fried tempura batter or something. And they were overcooked (but at least they were hot!). Again, the sauce was yummy, but the main focus of the dish? Not so much.

So...I won't be going back.

It's like there's some kind of mental block here - the restaurants in the area are all either 1) boring and kinda gross chain restaurants or 2) great atmosphere, lousy food or 3) great food, lousy atmosphere. I went to Strings with Babydaddy and Rugrat last week (again, strip mall location), and the food was fantastic, but it felt like I was dining in a cafeteria. Babydaddy said he'd gone another day and sat on the other side of the restaurant, which was much more atmospheric. Whatever. It's not something I'd take someone to for a fancy dinner, but it's a damn sight better than Chili's.

Zippity doo dah

Dad & stepmom came over on Saturday for my birthday. I ran off to a seminar at the library on starting your own small business, and while I was gone, they started changing the switches and electrical outlets in the house. I don't mean that they started rewiring them so as to completely confound me, but that they switched the actual switches and outlets from nasty almond to a lovely, clean white. So...whee! I have all new outlets & switches, including GFCIs in the kitchen & bath (which were not there before, despite the violated building codes). Bitchin' birthday present, even if dad nearly gave himself a heart attack doing it all in one day. Seriously, I was hollerin' at him to TAKE A FRIGGIN BREAK ALREADY by the time he started on the upstairs rooms. He was turning purple and huffin' and puffin' every time he had to get back up off the floor.

I also got a fabulous birthday dinner of boeuf bourgignon and garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach with pine nuts and sultanas (golden raisins). And dessert: creme brulee. Who can resist that? In addition, I marinated myself in pinot noir and a good snort of that fabulous $200 scotch. Amazingly enough, I was NOT hung over the next day (may have something to do with the fact that I basically passed out at 9 PM and slept TWELVE HOURS).

And now I am 32. I was thinking the other day about how I could be on that old television show Thirtysomething now.

Haircut tonight! Will celebrate with something a little different - very long bangs (or very short layers) and at least four inches off the ends. My hair has gotten unwieldy, y'all. The last time I actually styled my hair (blow dry, curling iron, etc.) it took forever. I have at least four inches of incredibly dry ends that resemble straw. AND I woke up in the middle of the night a few times with my hair wrapped around my neck and trying to strangle me. I don't want my hair to be so long that it's strangling me. Seriously. And when I'm not laying down, the hair occasionally will wrap under my armpit and my head gets yanked to the side. That's just too long.

Yum!

Mmmmm...made the greatest dinner tonight! Roasted tiny potatoes and butternut squash soup. Thank god for Williams Sonoma!

Oh, and La Bicyclette merlot. Cheap and tasty, at $10/bottle!