A Week In The Life: Day 5

Friday was a good day where we didn't get home till after midnight.
Jimmy had a meeting in the city so of course i tagged along.

First on my agenda was lunch. Ironically, I found myself at the San Francisco Shopping Centre. mallfood? Seriously? With all of the great food in SF, I end up eating mall food. Well, this wasn't your normal food court. No Panda Express or Hotdog on a Stick. No siree, in fact, most of the vendors are bay area based. And your food is plated on real plates with real silverware. And the prices aren't any more than regular mall food. this chicken arugula salad with soda was $7. Truthfully though, as tasty it was, i wouldn't recommend it because you're still eating in a mall foodcourt when there are so many other great places with better views.

After lunch, I was walking on Powell Street towards Union Square and this truck pulled up with this huge crate. ummm...wonder what's in it?? Although, there were no vent holes, so who knows if it was serious or not. The marking on the box indicated that it was from the California Academy of Sciences though.

Did I leave my heart in San Francisco? Absolutely. And so did a lot of other people and artists. This particular heart was left in Union Square.


I recently heard about Britex Fabrics from some facebook chatter, so I had to pop in and check it out. 4 floors of fabric and notions. I was out of my league.

but was loving the eye candy. shhh...i saw the "No Photography" sign after i took this shot.

It was a gorgeous day to walk to Chinatown.

Kitty Kat graffiti in an alleyway on Pine Street.

After walking and window shopping for the last 2 hours, I ended up at the Museum Store at SFMoMA. Such fun stuff in that store.
There's a nice little cafe in the museum, too. I gave myself permission to enjoy a latte and cookie while people watching. I saved most of the cookie for Jimmy because I suspected he'd need a little energy pick-me up after his long meeting.

Yerba Buena Gardens is right next to SFMoMA. It was nearly 5pm, so I stayed nearby Jimmy's meeting, not knowing exactly how long he would be.

The sunny, almost warm (mid 60s) day beckoned the city dwellers to the large lawn at the gardens.


The tall Jukebox looking building is the Marriott. St. Patrick Church in the foreground was founded in 1851.


I bought a fun book at the museum store called "All Over Coffee". All Over Coffee is a featured strip in the SF Chronicle.
Jimmy's meeting lasted longer than expected. Originally I planned on waiting at Yerba Buena Gardens, but once the sun disappeared, it got cold fast. so i was thankful that the Marriott was nearby. I hung out in the lobby till I got a call from Jimmy that he was done.

But truthfully, our fun day was just starting.
Because the best part of the day was going to dinner at the Bowens.
And playing football with the kiddos.
Then tucking them in at bedtime.
And hanging out with Ed and Angie, talking till midnight.
Love that family like they are family.
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A Week In The Life: Day 4

um.
i got nothin'.
didn't break out the camera at all today.
because nothing noteworthy happened.
didn't even craft.
except I would have appreciated at least 4 hours of sleep last night. I guess that explains why I had a headache most of the day. duh! I just realized it's probably related.

But I'd love to share with you another one of my favorite snacks.
My cousin told me about these last year. or the year before. they are so delicious and the perfect size for that chocolate craving. At 90 calories, 6 grams of fat, 3 grams of fiber, you can have one a day and not feel guilty. And it's "a better way to get your daily probiotics." They're in the diary section of your grocery store near the yogurt.

In honor of earth day and my personal stance on bottled water:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Oh! A small victory ending in a little defeat-
I hadn't had any soda in over a month. I almost went 5 weeks without any caffeinated carbonated sugar (or aspartame in my case) brown liquids. But I admit that I had a diet coke with lunch today. and 2 refills. going back to the moderation plan pronto!

Alrighty, bring on Friday! I've got lots planned.
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A Week In The Life: Day 2

I get my allergy shots every Tuesday, so yipee...that was on my agenda today. I'm reading "The Book of Joe" by Jonathan Tropper thanks to Rosemary's recommendation. Only on chapter 6 because I'm the worlds slowest reader, but I love the story so far. After I get my shots, I have to wait 30 minutes in the office so they can monitor me in case I have a reaction. Prime reading time and I think I've bought 90% of my books for my Kindle in that office.

I also got my hair cut. I needed it. I haven't gotten it cut since June. I looked like Cousin Itt:I suppose I could show you an after, but really, it looks like all the other haircuts i've had before and ya'll don't really need to see that again. But can I just announce to the world that I love the woman who cuts my hair? And who else loves getting their hair washed at the salon?

Our nephew Derek celebrated his 24th birthday today.This is Jimmy and Derek in Muir Woods in 1995. oh how i love flashback photos. :D

Blog browsing today, while on Ali's, she linked to Lisa Leonard Designs, a jewelry designer.Love this very much.

Lastly, this is my new favorite snack - Fruit Sorbet by Jamba Juice:Picked it up at the grocery store yesterday. YUMMY! And only 70-90 calories, 1-2 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber. Which translates to only 1 weight watcher point if you care about keeping track of that sort of thing.

Hope you had a good Tuesday. Good night!
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Wontons

Every now and then I get a craving for my mom's wontons. They were yummy and believe it or not, Jimmy likes them. In fact, his whole family likes them. Trouble is, they are not good for you. I know I don't look like I am the picture of good health and nutrition, but even I know that eating deep fried food should not be consumed with much frequency. So I only make these once or twice a year.

the basic ingredients are simple: wonton wrappers, seasoned ground beef, water to use as glue and canola oil to fry. Please ignore the date on the wonton wrappers, this particular photo is from dec 06. but i forgot to take pics of the-before-frying-steps so went back to my archives. i really didn't serve my family wonton wrappers that expired in feb 07.

My ground beef is seasoned with unmeasured amounts of garlic powder, onion powder or 1/4 of an onion, pepper and soy sauce. If you want to follow my mom's tradition, you'd add MSG, too. But I avoid it because I ate enough of it growing up to last me 7 lifetimes.

I work on a plate, plop a wrapper down, a little bit of ground beef, again eyeballed so it's not too big that the wrapper will split when closed but not too small that you feel jipped out of a tasty meatball.

You'll want to fold the wrapper over the meatball, making it into a triangle. Slide your finger, that you've just dipped in water, around 2 of the edges to seal the triangle closed.

Here's the tricky part, and I don't really know how to write how to do it. But you want your wonton to look like this:All you do is hold the triangle in your non-dominant hand with the long edge (folded side) up. put a dab of water on the wrapper right next to the meatball then fold and pinch the other side up and sort of around the meatball so the back side of the wrapper hits that dab of water so you can pinch it so it's 'glued' together. Making sure the whole time that your wrapper doesn't split. And it depends on if you're left or right handed which side of the meatball you'll put the dab of water. If you're right handed, you'll put it on the left side of the meatball, left handed on the right side of the meatball.

Did you follow that? I knew you did.

If it's not working, then you can just fry them as triangles. Because it certainly can't be because you weren't able to follow my completely clear and understandable instructions.

Make the entire package of wrappers into wontons.

Fry these suckers in hot oil. They fry FAST. Sometimes, so fast, you'll wonder if the beef is cooked. I've never had even a slightly pink meatball, so don't fret how fast they fry. But turn your heat down if they're getting dark too fast. When it's golden on both sides, take it out and drain on a paper towel or wire rack if you're feeling fancy. The oil splatters A LOT so be careful and either wear an apron or an already ruined shirt.

Before you know it, you'll have a mountain of wontons ready to be gobbled up.

Serve with sweet and sour sauce. About a pound of ground beef will make a package of wontons. I think there are 40 wontons per package. Everyone eats a lot of them.
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Trying to break my diet coke addiction

Via: Online Schools
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World of Coca-Cola

One of my many, MANY vices is drinking a lot of soda. My soda of preference is a diet coke or diet pepsi. And Atlanta is home of Coca-Cola and in 2007 they opened a 60,000 square foot exhibition-attraction of all things Coca-Cola. It was both fantastically and grossly entertaining. Fantastic because the exhibits and movies - a 3D show and a cute animation, were well done, funny, colorful and carefree. But it was slightly gross, too because of how easily we (I) can be drawn to the sugary caffeinated addiction found in a 12oz can or 20oz bottle.

Admittedly, I really enjoyed my tour at the World of Coca-Cola. Not only do I drink Diet Coke, I also love pop culture. Throw in lots of colors and a couple of cute shows and I'll certainly consider it $15 well spent. But I felt guilty, too. Because I believe it's a problem how much we drink processed, sugared, caffeinated drinks. And I am so very much a part of the problem. So I may ask myself, 'what am I doing to address my guilt?' Um. Unfortunately, very little. I drink soda 3-5x a week, almost always over 12oz each time. I've tried only drinking it at home and not ordering it when we go out to eat. I succeeded for about 4 months, but once I fell off the wagon, well. You know that lack of fortitude I've talked about before? Yea, sticktoitiveness is not my strong suit. The only thing I can say I consistently do and have for a couple of years is that I never buy soda in plastic bottles. But that's another issue not to be discussed at this time. :)

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Midnight Train to Good Eats!

I love Atlanta!

I haven't even scratched the surface of this city, in fact, I've only explored part of downtown and took MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) one stop north for dinner...but it's enough for me to know that this is a might fine city. Not just the sights, but also the Good Eats (which...you may know, that Alton Brown is from Atlanta)!

Jimmy's here for a conference and I get to tag along. Lucky lucky me! But what that means is I'm on my own for the day while Jimmy's cooped up in the hotel conference room for 3 days. Thankfully, I get him back for dinner.

I have a little routine whenever I'm out exploring solo in a city I'm not familiar with. On the 1st day, I check to see if any of the sky-rises have a restaurant on their top floor that offer reasonably priced lunches, ie: under $15.

As luck would have it, just 2 blocks down from our hotel, the Westin has a revolving restaurant on the 73rd floor with soups, salads and sandwiches under $15. Whooo hooo!

So while I enjoyed my lunch, I took lots of photos and got a good baring of where everything was.
This is Georgia's Capitol Building. I'll share more photos in another post.

After lunch, I walked to Centennial Olympic Park, site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Then I went to the "World Of Coca-Cola". Both worthy of their own posts later.

Jimmy was out till 6:30 and was ravenous when he finally got out. They served bloody steak on top of some mashed potatoes for his lunch. He is not steak eater, especially when it's bloody. And he won't go out of his way to eat mashed potatoes, but will eat it if it's served. So at least he had some of the mashed potatoes that wasn't contaminated by the meat.

My cousin recommended Gladys Knight and Ron Winan's Chicken and Waffles. In most cases, Jimmy and I won't wait more than 15 minutes for a table. We're just impatient like that. But we had a 45 minute wait and it was so worth it.
I had the Chicken and Waffles, which was called "The Midnight Train"
and Jimmy had catfish and grits. We enjoyed it so much, we joked about going back on Sunday night for dinner. Tomorrow night, we might go back to the Westin and enjoy the nighttime views!

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Blackout in Chinatown and A Bit of Pukey Cuteness

Jimmy and I went to San Francisco for Valentine's. It was also the celebration of Chinese New Year.
So we were casually driving down Grant Ave, watching all the people, listening to the firecrackers,
and enjoying the sights and sounds of a busy Chinatown.

We heard sirens coming towards us, and as we approached an intersection, we saw the big fire truck quickly coming down the road so (of course) we waited for it.
It turned onto Grant Ave. right in front of us, barely missing that black car you see on the left.

Then stopped, blocking the road, so we patiently waited till we could move. What else could we do? Then another fire truck came up behind us, blocking us in from both ends. A fireman from the truck in back came to us and told us we had to back out, but right at that moment, the front truck moved forward just enough for us to squeeze by, so the fireman told us to go forward.

After we got past all the fire trucks, I said to Jimmy "Dang, I should have had my video camera out instead!" So even though I thought it was too late, I still took it out and start taking video as we continued down Grant Ave. I liked the sounds of the firecrackers.

So, we're casually driving down Grant Ave. again, enjoying the sites and sounds of the city. Then suddenly...

Blackness!

Well, this time, I got it all on video:

then:

Kinda cool, right?

Afterward, we went to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream, of course. And being Valentine's night, the line was longer than we'd ever seen it, but it moved pretty fast. Every time we get ice cream at Ghirardelli, we get it to go and walk to the cable car turn around on Hyde St and listen to the street performer. Then depending on where we parked, we walk along the waters edge at Aquatic Park. It's really quite romantic at night. Yep, even after 19 years of marriage, we can still find romance.



I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO (Tony Bennett)

The loveliness of Paris
Seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day
I've been terribly alone
And forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air
I don't care!
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me!
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Chocolately Goodness Birthday Cake

Ed and Angie's birthday's are separated by a few days, so when they invited us over Friday night to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, I asked if I could bring a cake to celebrate their special days.
I know I took this photo in a wonky angle, but I wanted to get Prince W watching his mom and dad blow out their candles.

Does that look like a flat cake to you? Well, it's suppose to be flat. Flat like a sheet. It's Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. I recommend you check out her recipe and all the step-by-step photos on her blog.

It's deliciously rich and the frosting is sinful. I followed her recipe exactly. Since she shows step-by-step photos, it's a really easy cake to make. It was the 1st time I've made it, but certainly won't be the last. In fact, I still have nearly a quart of buttermilk left, so I suspect I'll need to find another reason to make more before it expires.

But sometimes you just don't feel like eating chocolate cake.Sometimes, jello is much, much better than chocolate cake. Especially when it's served with a sweet smile and a twinkle in his eye.
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Lemon Yogurt Cake

A couple of years ago, our niece made this when we were in Southern California. It was delicious and the only reason I bought this cookbook. It's Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa at home".

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
* 1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
* 3 extra-large eggs
* 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Here's a link to the recipe on Food Network.

The first time I make any recipe, I almost always follow it precisely. If we like it, then the next time I'll make adjustments that suit us better.

It turned out ok, but my niece's was much better and lemony-er. It's a very dense cake/bread. If I make this again, I'd use nonfat or lowfat yogurt, not as much oil and more lemon. I made this loaf a week ago, and there's still over 1/2 a loaf left.

My sister-in-law, who happens to be niece's mom, makes a much better lemon cake and it's a 100x easier and yummier.
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Christmas Dinner

It could have been assumed that our Christmas dinner would have been a prim and proper event. Now it was pretty darn serious when we first started chowing down, because we were all ready to scarf the delicious prime rib, scalloped potatoes, homemade bread, salad, asparagus and corn. But after that initial silence of all 16 of us enjoying those first few bites, our silly spirits came back.
Jimmy took all of these photos. He took this cool shot of the food, table, serving & drinking hands and so on. I love the perspective. But you can also spot middle nephew hiding behind his glass while jimmy took the photo.

That started the shenannigans.

They boys pretended that they didn't want to get their photo taken.
Big Brother R "hides" behind his soda bottle. Such a cute shot, yes?

Youngest D 'struggles' with his cousin so he couldn't get his photo taken. lol!!!

Then it was time to pump everyone up with more sugar!Yummy Christmas cookies...because we weren't already wired enough!

What did you and your family have for Christmas dinner?
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That good kind of fall on your face tired {Daily December 23}

Whenever Steve's family comes up to visit, we're guaranteed an active time. It's great, because we're pretty sedentary, but we love doing stuff and being w/ the fam. Today we went sledding at Pinecrest Lake. It's the same lake we go to with them in the summer when we're in the boat, but it gets drained in the winter.

The boat launch makes a great slope for sledding.Steve and Middle J take a ride down the hill.

And Max, their mom, sleds down with Big Brother R.

The first 1/2 hr, Youngest D at 4 years old wouldn't even consider going on a sled. But once he took his 1st ride with dad, you couldn't get him off the hill. He even went down the sled by himself several times. Unfortunately, my camera battery died. boo on me for not recharging my battery. I know better.

We were there 3 hours and on the 1/2 hr ride home, all 3 boys passed out in the car, exhausted by all the fun and activity. We couldn't believe it was only 3:30 when we had to wake them up when we got home. It felt like 7pm. But they were hungry and cold! So we had some snacks and hot chocolate, stoked the fire then ordered pizza for dinner.

Max and Steve have always been very generous with their cooking whenever they come up to visit. They do 99.9% of the cooking. So tonight, I wanted to share one of my recipes that my mom passed down to me, fried wontons. Would you believe that Big Brother R wanted to help make them? Freakin' awesome I tell ya!

A couple hours after dinner, I overheard R whispering into his dads ear, "What's for dessert?" So I asked him, "Do you like chocolate covered pretzels?" He smiled and answered "Yes!" So, you guessed it...we made my famous Pretzel Kisses and his 2 younger brothers were so excited to help, too! I can't tell you how much I love seeing the grins on those boys. And then to have them want to do stuff that I like doing? You know that heart of mine? It grew three sizes larger. Altho, I hope it wasn't 2 sizes too small to start with!
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