I am very thankful..

Thanksgiving was a small affair at our home this year. Tina, Aaron, Maximus and I enjoyed dinner together and watched movies. I'm a bit of a tyrant in the kitchen and so I spent about 6 hours preparing dinner upstairs. I spent about 1/2 an hour downstairs with Tina and Aaron while they watched Fred Claus and then I went back upstairs to finish. I love cooking solo. I don't even mind helping out with dishes afterwards.

We had the regular dinner - turkey, mashed taters, cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls and yams. I baked the yams in the skin, cored them and mashed the insides with some butter, put them back in the skins and put a couple of mini marshmallows on top to roast some more. They rocked. I made brussels sprouts casserole instead of green bean casserole. I don't like green beans that much but dig on brussels sprouts. And gravy. MMMM gravy. Max even got some turkey in his meal that night. He kept me company in the kitchen most of the day, so he earned it.

After dinner we watched Hellboy 2 and rested our bellies. Then it was dessert, with a homemade apple tart and a TJ's pumpkin pie. I don't like pumpkin or pie that much, so I prefer to just buy it. But the tart was yummy, especially with the homemade caramel sauce on the top. I could just eat that caramel sauce with a spoon, it's that good.

I hope you and your families and friends all had a great Thanksgiving. Much love to you all!

Thanksgiving appetizer

As an appetizer for Thanksgiving I thought I would try this recipe that I found on the web from the Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York. Bacon wrapped spam cracker sandwiches. Basically, you take club crackers (try the whole wheat ones...they're better for you!) put a slice of bacon flavored spam in between and wrap them with bacon. They suggested using thinly sliced bacon but all I had was hickory bacon from Costco. I think the thin sliced bacon would work much better.

They came out allright. A little salty for me, but tasty. I had to soak up the bacon grease several times during the baking. These are not low fat, nor heart healthy, even with the whole wheat crackers!

Food, glorious food!

Some of you may have noticed that I love food. I love savoring flavors on my tongue. I love to cook and I love cooking utensils and new pots and going grocery shopping.

This weekend, although productive, wasn't too exciting. There was the Friday night laundry, Saturday morning run and the putzing around/reading Twilight that evening. This morning I met a friend for crepes and hit the farmers market then did some gardening. Not a whole lot of gourmet cooking. Except I did prep for the gravy for Thanksgiving. I baked some turkey legs/wings/necks with some carrots/garlic/onions/celery and then boiled it all down into stock for the gravy. Max will get the meat parts with his dinners for the next few days.

My whole point is that because I live such an exciting life, I want to tell you about a meal that I had recently that was divine. And my beloved husband, Aaron, made it. He found a recipe for carbonara that Rachael Ray makes for her husband. You can find it here.



Here he is, tossing the egg in with the hot pasta.

Beautiful Carbonara

Look how pretty, with my cute plates and the Boudin bread and salad. We cooked up some shrimp separately because the pancetta wasn't enough protein. And because shrimp are good. Especially when cooked with butter and garlic. Now look at the fullness of the pasta pan. You should have seen it shortly thereafter. Tina and her boyfriend came home from the gym - a little late and that's why we didn't set the table for them. Between the four of us we pretty much killed the whole thing. Even the salad. I think there was a piece of bread left. Obviously, I'm not the only one at my house that loves to eat!!

I heart running

I had the best run that I've had in a long time tonight. I felt like the wind. It was amazing. We had track workout, which I have always loved. 2000 meters/2 minute break/1600 meters/2 minute break/1200 meters/2 minute break/800 meters/2 lap cool down. I started the first rep with a 8.5 minute mile average then went down to a 8 minute mile average, down to 7.5 minute mile average and finished strong with a 6.5 minute mile average. Ooh-rah! That's right, baby, and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

I sincerely hope my good friend Smith doesn't read my blog. Because...I think I like it so much that I might do another season of TNT. The people are a lot of fun. We run! And then we eat! What is not to like about that? And, to be honest, the pain of the Nike Women's Half Marathon is fading away. I can barely remember the extreme pain I was in as I crossed the finish line. I mean, I think I was in extreme pain. It's kind of foggy. And the high that you get after exercising is heaven. I love it! I feel so good right now that I'm acting uber-silly. Both Aaron and Tina laughed at me numerous times tonight. But I have a huge smile on my face. Except my belly is so full from the absolutely scrumptious chicken that Aaron made tonight.

Get this... He looked up a recipe for baked barbecued chicken on the internet and then made it. It was succulent. It was divine. I wish I would have taken a photo for your viewing pleasure. Giant chicken bone-in breasts and baked potatoes and salad. Sigh. My belly is REALLY full and I only ate half of my dinner, thank goodness. I love my man.

So back to the running...What do you all think? Should I join TNT again? I'm thinking for next fall since I'll be in class this spring. But then again, maybe I should just do it. And I'm thinking of applying to be a mentor. I think it would be a lot of fun and the group really is terrific. Things to ponder in the next few weeks...

Wonderful Wednesday!

Aaron had the day off today so I decided to take today off as well. Now that it's the Holiday Season, he'll be working every weekend until January AND he only gets one day off a week. Poor fellow. Since we won't be seeing a lot of each other we thought it would be fun to have a day off together. We plan on doing it in December too, although we might be shopping that day!We slept in until 8:30! and then got up and had some coffee and changed into some running gear. We packed up the monkey and drove down to Almaden Quicksilver Park. We were going to do a short walk/hike/jog. Max has been limping on one of his paws and so we only did 2 1/2 miles. He did start limping towards the end of the run, so it's a good thing we keep it that way! Max had a great time and did a fabulous job on the trail. Of course, there were no other dogs or animals to distract him, but still...baby steps. We did let him off leash and he stayed close to us and didn't wander too far off the trail.

Isn't he such a handsome fellow?

Bacon Brownies

Doesn't that look scrumptious? A brownie, one of the most divine desserts on earth. It's gooey, chocolatey, melts on your tongue. And it has bacon.

"WHAT?" you might say. "Bacon? Are you nutso, or what?" Well, the answer is maybe. I saw this recipe on Bacon Today. It's a pretty good website, to tell the truth. It has a lot of very interesting information about what is going on in the Bacon World. Yes, I capitalize it. You know why? Because Bacon Is Important. It's delicious. It's savory. It's a bit of heaven on my tongue. After seeing this recipe I decided that I needed to try it. Why not? What's a little extra bacon in my life? And I was able to make a breakfast burrito this morning with some tasty bacon as well. Bacon for breakfast, check. Bacon for dessert, check. Oh, and I did add a little bacon grease to the onion while I was sauteing it for the Shepherd's Pie.

Here's the brownie mix with the bacon laid in it - ready to cut!

Hey, where did that bacon go? It's going in the oven!

Finished product.

The brownies weren't quite a hit. They weren't pushed away either. In fact, both Aaron and Tina ate every bite. They had a quizzical look on their faces while they were eating though. Hey, me too.

I cooked the bacon fully, but still soft. I think I would have preferred the bacon pieces a little crunchier. They said that it really didn't matter, that they would have preferred the brownies sans bacon, but that they would likely still eat the remaining brownies without taking the bits of bacon out. Myself, I thought that the smoky flavor combined with the sweetness of the chocolate was interesting. It was a good combination of sweet and savory but like I said previously, it needed to be crunchier. I think I would like chocolate covered bacon, as long as it was crispier than a cracker bacon. Kind of like one of those little boy crackers with the chocolate on them. They're French and they are Heavenly.

We still have some brownies left...come over and try one if you dare!

I'm the Luckiest Girl in the World

I have the best aunt EVER. My aunt came to visit in September from Japan. She speaks only Japanese. I speak English, French and just a tiny, tiny bit of Japanese. We hit it off fabulously, with a little help from my mother.

Just an aside, the aunts that I have in my life are terrific. Auntie Barb taught me to be a hostess. She could throw a party like none other and I love her to death. She opened up her home for my wedding. And the kinship that I saw at one time between Aaron's mother, Sharon and her two sisters was something that I really appreciated since my father has never been super close with his family. But meeting my mother's sister was something very, very special to me. For one, she LOVED Max. She would spend a lot of time with him, on his level. When someone loves your dog, you love them. How can you not? But back to what really connected me to my auntie, AKA Yoko Obachan... food.

It turns out Yoko Obachan is a terrific cook. She loves to cook and is a bit of a tyrant in the kitchen. (Sound like anyone you know? LOL!) Well, while she was here, Yoko Obachan taught me to cook a little. She showed me how to make authentic gyoza, which Aaron simply devoured. She made agadashi tofu which was divine. She made pickles and showed me a lot of tips and tricks. In short, I love her. She will forever be in my heart and you can bet your sweet petunias that I will learn Japanese and one day take a trip to Japan to visit and spend enough time with Yoko Obachan so that I can learn more from this amazing woman.

Before she left, Yoko Obachan gave me some money to thank me for having her and my parents for the 5 days or so that they stayed with us. I guess it's a Japanese custom to bring gifts for your host. She did that, bringing us presents and some delicious treats from Japan, including tea cups, Costella (sponge cake), home-made dried seaweed, seasoned seaweed, umeboshi (pickled plum) and numerous other items. My mother told me that she wanted me to use the money to buy some Le Creuset cookware. We had passed by a Sur la Table during one of our many excursions and we both stopped to window shop. My mother told me that Yoko Obachan had the full set. I told her that I was jealous! And so she left the money so that I could purchase some. Well, it's obviously been a couple of months since my family left and during that time I was able to save up some more money so that I could buy a set. And buy a set I did. See! It's right there, from top left to bottom... a bouillabaisse pan, some white mixing bowls that can go in the oven, an extra deep cast iron pan for braising, a sauce pan and a large au gratin dish with a silicone whisk and some new measuring spoons. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't cheap. But it was OH SO WORTH IT. I am in seventh heaven. I still caress the cookware, gaze at it lovingly. Aaron and Tina both think I'm just a little nuts. But I know there are those of you out there who know exactly what I'm talking about. They are simply beautiful and I will baby and love them for a long, long time. Sigh.

So anyway, I obviously needed to cook something in them, right? Friday night I had made a leg of lamb roast on the grill and mashed potatoes with sauteed asparagus. I made sure to make a lot. I mean A LOT. We had about 1/3 of the 5 pound lamb roast left and about 5 cups of plain mashed potatoes left. I had actually made an old friend's recipe for Shallot-Sage Smashed Potatoes sans sage but reserved a good amount of mashed potatoes before adding the shallot mixture. The Shallot-Sage Smashed Potatoes were a big hit. You can find the recipe here. Try it. And try some of the other recipes from Jamie and Jen's blog. You won't be disappointed!

Back to the story. Since I had that gorgeous au gratin pan, I thought...Shepherd's Pie. How perfect! How lovely! I could use TWO of my new pieces of cookware. Yahoo! I took the recipe from Joy of Cooking. I love that cookbook. It's fantabulous. When I first got married, I bought it because I thought it was required of a new bride. I opened it, looked through it and promptly thought, "What a crappy cookbook. There are no pictures!" Now, however, I love it. I love the fact that you can read all about the type of meat, vegetable, method of cooking, what have you. It's very informative and a huge resource to me.

This is the skillet, with onion, celery, carrot and a little EVOO.

After adding the chopped lamb and some flour, I put it in the gorgeous au gratin pan. Sigh.

Finished product.

Now mind you, this was a large pan. Aaron, Tina (our roommate, in case you didn't know) and I ate 4/5ths of this. I managed to hold myself to one serving, but Tins and Aaron went back for a second. It was very good. I forgot to make sure we had A-1 or Heinz 57 on hand though and so poor Aaron had to use Worcestershire Sauce. End result: Belly Full and Happy. Check!

So even though my Yoko Obachan doesn't know about my blog, let alone can't read English - Domo arigato Yoko Obachan. Anata no koto dai-suki desu.

Playing with fire

I have always been fascinated by fire. It seems to be alive, moving and glowing and hot. I love campfires and candles, gas ranges and barbeques. I like lighting matches and always tried to collect as many packs as I could from every place I went.

When I was a kid, I got in trouble for playing with matches. My sister had written a paper or something for school and used matches to burn the edges of the paper to make it look like it had been charred in a fire. I thought that was SO cool. I decided to play with some candles or some such thing and I got in trouble.

You have to understand that I was a great kid. Seriously. I got straight A's, played sports, worked hard. I didn't keep my room THAT clean, but that's what my sister (with a couple bucks from my allowance) was for - she helped out a ton, being the neater child and all. I didn't drink, smoke, do drugs. I lived to make my parents proud of me. So when I got in trouble, it was terrible. I was a very emotional child. Shoots, I think I still might be an emotional child! I could tear up at the drop of a hat.

On the day that I literally played with fire, my father caught me. He didn't yell or do anything mean. He just calmly told me that I needed to write a two page paper about why I shouldn't play with fire. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. What better punishment for me than to make me think about what I did wrong? Taking away TV - eh, who cares? But make me write a paper? Yes, sir! I really thought long and hard about what it meant to play with fire and I wrote the best paper I could. Unfortunately, I don't think my dad still has it. He gave me a lot of the stuff from school; report cards and test scores and whatnot. But I still think about that paper when I light candles and matches.

Isn't it funny the things that stick with you? I can't remember a lot of things from growing up, but that is one memory I can't imagine forgetting.

Tina rocks!

I just had to post this about my friend Tina. She plays rugby for the Berkeley All Blues and she is a rock star. She's #4 in the photo, scoring a try in the semi-finals for the US Club Championships being played this weekend in Florida. They beat the MN Valkyries 40-5 on Friday and are playing in the Championship game right now. It's still the first half but they're beating NY 17-0! Go Blues! And I hope Tins scores another try. She's definitely a rock star!

Edit: 11/10/08

I just read the story online and Tina got sin binned. Can't wait to hear it first hand. Congrats to the Berkeley All Blues on a national championship!!

Mawwiage is what bwings us togedda todaye...

Chaz and Desiree got married yesterday on a beautiful, stormy afternoon. It was quite spectacular. It had been cold and drizzly all morning. When the ceremony started it was really windy and then! The sun came out and shined. It was as if God had kissed them and blessed their marriage. Very cool. It stayed nice all through the photos and then became stormy and crazy during the reception...while we were all tucked away nicely inside the tent! By the time we left, the storm had ended and we had a nice safe trip back to San Jose. Aaron slept the entire way and I struggled to stay awake. I was very happy to pull into our driveway at 11 pm.

But the ceremony was very nice. I didn't get too nervous, just a little knee shaking while I spoke. Aaron said I was a little too quiet but I felt like I was talking really, really loud. He was standing behind all the rows of chairs though so maybe he was just too far away.

I'm very happy Des and Chaz are married. They make each other very happy. That makes me happy.

Des and Chaz are getting married!

Well, here I go. I'm sure Amber will be pleased that I'm finally posting photos! Here are Aaron, me, Des and Chaz out at the Little Red Hen in Napa. I thought originally that it was an antique shop but apparently it's a bar! We had a ton of fun up at their place. We brought Max up and he got to meet Trigger, Desiree's wild mustang. They were so cute together.

I do have a handsome puppy. He would keep running up to Trigger and cock his head and you could tell he was wondering what the heck Trigger was. I think he finally decided he was a really big dog because Max would do downward dog, bounce, bark a couple of times and then run back and forth trying to get Trig to play. Trigger was very calm, watched Max and kept eating.

We did have a lot of fun up in Napa. We went out to dinner Friday night and had a couple of drinks and did a little dancing. Then to Taco Bell and bed. Saturday morning we got up, had some coffee and poor Aaron went back down to SJ to go to work. =( Meanwhile, Chaz, Desiree and I met one of Chaz's friends at a little diner for some breakfast. But one of the best parts was meeting all of Desi's friends at a barbeque later that day at their house. I'm really excited for the wedding this weekend. My first time performing marriage rites! Holy heck...now that I start thinking about it, I'm getting a little nervous. I'm sure it'll be fine. I did get an A in public speaking! LOL!

Their ceremony should be beautiful. The vows they have chosen are very sweet and I'm looking forward to being a part of this big event. I so very much wish I could have been part of Desiree's life for the past 15 years. I feel like I've missed a lot of her life so far. I guess I should just look forward to the future that we will have together instead of this time that we've missed.