My dear cousin, Tracy, who i've only met a few times but am very close to sent me this today:
Friends
TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.
THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT BUT, WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.
THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH.
THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.
AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE.
THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,
YOU WROTE ON A STONE, WHY?"
THE OTHER FRIEND REPLIED
"WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE
WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT."
LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BLESSINGS IN STONE.
THEY SAY
IT TAKES A MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL
PERSON,
AN HOUR TO APPRECIATE THEM,
A DAY TO LOVE THEM,
BUT THEN AN ENTIRE LIFE TO FORGET THEM.
My friend Kyrsten never ceases to crack me up. She loves to send either amusing or touching forwards, not unlike my dad!
As a tribute to an inside joke about sending Christmas cards of herself with her puppy, Lilah, she sent me this:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=4d28ff59af0422703df01d8G06121514 (don't forget to turn the sound on)
If you happen to 'elf yourself', please send me the link b/c i want to see who, other than Kyrsten, will actually spend the time doing this.
My dad is the cutest man ever. He only forwards me emails relative to safety or fun/interactive. You can tell he's really getting into the spirit of the holidays with this one:
http://www.star28.net/snow.html
1. Type in your first name
2. Be patient and wait for a few seconds
3 Report back !
Not sure why the last instruction exists but this is a cute little 3 minute distraction.
Last weekend, my mom, sister and I celebrated Christmas in San Francisco. This has become a tradition that we all really look forward to. The purpose of Christmas in San Francisco is to get my mom out of Gig Harbor to see Jamie and me around the holidays. Now that Jamie is married and will share holidays with Joe and his family more often than not, my mom is desperately trying to go with the flow and accept the fact that there will be very few Christmas's when she has all of her children together.
Last Friday night we went to a very funky/trendy restaurant on Market between 5th and 6th, farmerbrown. If you like southern soul food with an upscale edge you simply must try this place. The neighborhood is a little shadesville as it's on the edge of the Tenderloin, but there is monitored parking behind the restaurant. One of their specialty items is friend chicken and macaroni and cheese. It was delic! I had the seafood jumbalaya which was also very good. The portions will definitely require a doggy bag, especially if you indulge in an appetizer such as the shrimp cakes or ribs.
I haven't stopped craving that mac n' cheese since I left. Here is the restaurant website: http://www.farmerbrownsf.com/index.html
Last Saturday I prepared a 6 course dinner for 9 friends. It was quite the undertaking but I figured there was no better way to jump into the holiday season. Although there were a lot of recipes that turned out well, this one was by far the crowd pleaser:
Creamy Carrot Soup w/ Fresh Ginger:
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 4 servings, with plenty of left
7 cups chicken, or vegetable stock
2 pounds fresh carrots, peeled
3 leeks, sliced in half lengthwise and thoroughly cleaned
1 yam, peeled
4 stalks celery
4 tablespoons butter
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pint heavy cream (optional)In a large pot, bring stock to a boil.
While stock is heating, chop all vegetables into small pieces (approximately 1/2-inch cubes).
In a saute pan, over medium-high heat, melt half of the butter.
Saute vegetables with ginger and nutmeg for approximately 15 minutes,
or until vegetables are browned. Add remaining butter as needed.
Add Sauteed vegetables to stock, reduce heat, cover with a lid, and simmer for 30 minutes.
Let cool to room temperature and then puree in a blender. Soup
should be thick and smooth. If you like your soup velvety smooth, pour
through a fine mesh strainer.
Add salt and pepper.
To serve, reheat, ladle into bowls, then drizzle 1 tablespoon of cream into each bowl and top w/ fresh ground black pepper. Serve in warmed bowls.
Now that it's officially winter, i'm planning to make one soup each week. This week, I'm making Lionel's favorite, cream of broccoli. Please feel free to pass along your favorite soup or winter/holiday recipe.
Yesterday I posted w/out knowing anything about this cookie recipe myth. Apparently it is infamous but i took a poll and about half the people were completely aware and half were like me, completely clueless. After all that, i heard the cookie recipe isn't even that good...go figure!
I received the following email today and thought i'd share it, mostly because i love a good cookie recipe. Read into the story behind it as much or little as you want:
A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a very
expensive store; i.e, they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00.
My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in
Dallas, and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are
such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus cookie." It was
so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe, and the
waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not, but you can buy the
recipe."
Well, I asked how much, and she responded, "Only two fifty - it's a
great deal!" I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my tab.
Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus
charge was $285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent
$9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the
bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe-$250.00." That was
outrageous!
I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it
was " two fifty", which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty
dollars" by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase.
Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.
They would not refund my money because, according to them, "What the
waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We
absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to the
Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the
state of Texas . I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau
and the Texas Attorney General's office for engaging in fraud.
I was basically told, "Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how
you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back."
I just said, Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250
worth of fun." I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie
lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe
from Neiman-Marcus...for free. She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do
this." I said, "Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you
ripped me off!" and slammed down the phone. So here it is!
Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I
paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another
penny off of this recipe!
NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)
2 cups butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the
butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour,
oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar,
and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.
If you can stomach the purchasing process, having a new car (well, new to me) is quite exciting. As i mentioned in my previous post, after nearly a year and a half, i am the proud owner of a car. Sadly, I left it in Seattle so i could have access to it over the Christmas holiday, but i have it nonetheless. Here are some pics of my 2005 Honda Civic SI:
It was so good to be back home for the Thanksgiving holiday despite the torrential rain and bitter cold. I bought a car, saw Teatro ZinZanni, karaoke'd with my dad, hung out with my family and friends and watched a lot of football. Needless to say, it was a trip to remember. I'm just glad i got out of there when i did (well, not really) because my hometown was hit with a major snowstorm. Those of you who watched Monday Night Football were witness to the downpour of snow.
Alexander broke a franchise record and carried the ball 40 times and rushed for 201 yards. It was one of those nights when i kept saying to myself, 'i'm so glad he's on our side'.
I was brought up in the small suburban town of Gig Harbor, WA. When I was 18, I couldn't wait to leave. Now that I am, well, older than 18 and have moved away and been out on my own for a significant amount of time, I genuinely like going back home, especially around the holidays.
Tomorrow I will brave SFO on the busiest travel day of the year to get back to my roots. Although my family's Thanksgiving celebration will consist only of my brother and mom (as opposed to the standard Big Fat Greek...insert holiday...Thanksgiving), I am glad to have some down time to relax and spend a whole day watching football (YES!).
To kindly remind me that this is going to be a very scaled down, my mom sent me the following attachment via email today:
Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm telling you in
advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a
few small changes:
Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag
luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done,
rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make. Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard.
The mud was their idea.
The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.
We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.
We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table
and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the chi ldren to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door.
Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is
unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread.Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance. Cheese Sauce stains.
Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints. You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.
I hope you aren't too disappointed that Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.And, just so you are forewarned, she probably won't come next year either.Happy Thanksgiving!!
Last Saturday, my friend Ali celebrated her 29th birthday at a bar in North Beach called SIP. We all had a VERY good time and of course got a little crazy...I mean, come on, 29 is huge!
Warning, attemting this particular dance move could lead to a soar neck (not that that happened to me or anything). Happy 29th Ali!
