cookie monster

I love Milano cookies - and love them even more now that they have Amaretto Milanos and Black & White Milanos! I love the taste of almond - Amaretto Sours are my favorite drink... which by the way Joyce - we need to make these for your sugar party!

she's a talker.. she's a talker...

Out of the mouths of babes. Make that, a spunky, impish, sassy, know-it-all 5 year old babe. The conversation on the way home from school is below, and I really wish you guys all knew her because if you did, you would know her tone and it would make this even funnier:

"Oh Mommy, today I moved to the purple table so I can do my work better and won't talk to my friends."

"What? Why? Who moved you? Did you get in trouble for talking again?"

"Noooooooo! Ms. _ _ _ _ moved me. She asked if I wanted to go to the blue table or the purple table and I picked the purple table so I can do my work and I won't talk to my friends."

I see a future career in marketing or sales for her.

never take pictures of a sleeping baby

I was only trying to take a picture of him sleeping with his head on his hands!

(I know that babies should sleep on their backs but now that he can roll over back and forth they say it's ok. Plus, when I flip him on his back, he'll flip back to his stomach again anyway.)

Farmer's Markets

I'm so food oriented - I love everything and anything that has to do with food. Grocery shopping, cooking, eating, dining out, cookbooks, the Wednesday food section in the newspaper... everything. I love going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday - the one they hold near us is pretty small but still a good way to get fresh and ripe fruits and vegetables.

The Pacific Coast Farmer's Market Association has great information on markets in northern California and a handy guide on what is in season now. I have a ton of strawberries that I need to figure out what to do with... I feel strawberry jam in my future.

Plantable Paper

For Mother's Day we all went to Roys for brunch. They always give the mothers a gift at the end of the meal, this year they gave out plantable cards: lavender, chili pepper and forget-me-nots. The paper actually has seeds in it - after soaking the paper in water and planting it, hopefully something will sprout and grow.

Mother's Day & Sisters

My sister sends me flowers every year for Mother's Day. It's funny that she always sends me something every year but I always forget so I never expect them and am always pleasantly surprised when they are delivered.

She knows me so well. She sent me tulips because she knows I don't like the smell of most flowers (roses, tiger lilies, etc.), plus tulips are my favorite flowers.

We lost our mother to cancer almost 22 years ago, so my sister has been somewhat of my mother figure all this time. I should've sent her flowers, but I'm not a big hallmark holiday type of person. By the way, I say "somewhat" because if she were reading this, she would laugh and say, "With your stubborn ass? Yeah right!"

Let's just say that I don't like to be told what to do - which negates the whole mother figure thing. heh.

Strike #2

If you knew my daughter, you would know which of the 3 above options was the cause. Need a hint? She doesn't need ADD medication and she can finish a week's worth of homework in one day if she wanted to... so that leaves... YES... TALKING TOO MUCH!!!

This is Kindergarten we're talking about! My daughter is what most would call "feisty" or "spunky."

I had to laugh at this letter (but not in front of her). Her reason for taking too long on the assignment?

"It was a lot of pages and I wanted to play."

Sigh.

one for the collection

I stood in line for 2 1/2 hours at Sur La Table in Santana Row to have THE Giada De Laurentiis sign my copy of her new cookbook Giada's Family Dinners (I even picked one up for Joyce!) and it was well worth it.

There were a TON of people waiting for her. The line for the book signing wrapped all the way around the building.

She started off with a short Q & A across the way in front of Left Bank and the first question asked happened to be the #1 question Giada claims she is always asked: "How do you stay so slim with all the food you cook and eat?" (Her answer: portion control, exercise and genetics.)

She is very petite, some would even say tiny. She's probably no more than 5'0" and her persona is exactly what you see on TV. Very sweet, very genuine. And yes, she is that pretty! Her husband was even on hand but I didn't snap a picture of him. She also had a film crew there, maybe I'll see my elbow on FoodNetwork soon! (JustJenn, Leslie & Nannette - if you guys are Giada fans, she'll be in your neck of the woods tomorrow 5/3/2006!)

practice what you preach

After I gave my husband a quick 2 minute lecture on bringing his lunch to work to save money, he wandered to the computer and saw the screen below. Oops!

"Oh, I can't buy a $2 burger but you can buy shoes?"

YOU KNOW IT.

baking when bored

I was bored this weekend. I still have to tackle April's Cake which I'll try to get to this weekend.

Soy sauce on your pancakes?

Never put syrup and soy sauce next to each other when you're about to eat pancakes.

mmmm-mushrooms

I love mushrooms.

I sauteed mushrooms and shallots along with my handy garlic paste in some olive oil and just ate it with fettucine and parmesan cheese. Yum!

making pizza

The kids are on spring break this week so to amuse them we had a pizza party. I used Wolfgang Puck's pizza dough recipe because I've always wanted to try making my own pizza dough.

My little sous chef helped knead the dough as you can see:

Here's the dough after kneading, before rising:


Here's the dough after 30 minutes of rising:

Me and the kids like our pizza plain - either cheese or mushrooms, no pepperoni, no meat.


The end result was pretty good - the dough was thick and soft, just the way I like it. I don't like thin or crunchy pizza dough. I saved the extra dough for the next time we are craving pizza because I think we've said goodbye to Round Table for good!

food food food

I went grocery shopping and one of the items I wanted to get was tomato paste in a tube (like the kind Giada De Laurentiis uses). The grocery store didn't have the tomato paste but they did have garlic paste in a tube! I bought it and instantly loved it. I like the taste of garlic but I hate handling it because my fingers will smell like garlic for two days straight. With the paste, I don't have that problem anymore.



I also bought a Limited Edition York Chocolate Truffle Mint Pattie. I'm a sucker for "limited editions" or new products. I just recently discovered the overseas versions of KitKats - banana, green tea, red wine, orange, strawberry, grape, maple syrup, and cherry blossom just to name a few. I wish we had more flavors than our boring American milk chocolate. People even sell them (and buy them) on eBay. I don't know if I trust buying candy from a stranger on the internet though. I haven't tried any of these yet but it's tempting. My husband might not understand if I spent $10.00 on a single candy bar though. (Unless it was that time of the month!)

That JustJenn is sneaky and crafty

I got a gifty box from JustJenn last month for my birthday - it arrived while I was out on business travel so my trusty housemates (aka the husband and kids) opened it and described the goodies to me on the phone. Then they presumably set everything aside for my return home.

When I got home from my business trip, I found a half eaten bag of pistachios (the hubby loved them, as did I) and a box of Mickeyroni and Cheese that I recently served up to the kids... and now, 3 weeks later, I found a customized notepad (that I didn't know about) that my "housemates" tucked away under the piles of junk on my desk.

I LOVE the notepad! Thank you Jenn! All you guys can order your own customized notepad at justjenndesigns.com.

I love Costco!

I love Costco. I love any store where you can buy electronics, office supplies, groceries, clothes, toiletries, toys, etc. all in the same store!

I just about squealed when I saw this Smashbox cosmetics pack selling for $19.99 at Costco. I snatched one up. When I go back, I may snatch up more for my sisters.

What does it come with?
Lipstick
Single Eye Shadow
Eye Shadow Duo
Blush
Lip Pencil
6 mini lipglosses
2 full size lipglosses
Undereye primer
Concealer

On another note, I think the person who invented the plastic case wrap box thing as pictured above should be shot. That wrinkle at the top of the box is from me trying to pry the f'er open. I STILL haven't gotten it open. Waiting for my husband with his big muscles and his power tools to open it.

cookie monster never had these!

I'm not a health food nut but I don't buy a lot of junk food like chips and cookies - (my kids are probably deprived). I don't consciously tell myself, "NO CHIPS!" - it's just something I never think about. Once in awhile I'll splurge and buy a box of cookies, but usually I'll just make cookies or cupcakes. Not only that, my daughter's Kindergarten teacher doesn't allow junk food (sweets) in her class. We were a bit turned off by this approach at first but I don't mind it anymore because it forces us to provide a healthy lunch for our kids.

At a birthday party this weekend, I discovered Barbara's Snackimals. They're sugar free and contain no transfat. Not only that, they TASTE GOOD. We had the oatmeal cookies which are also wheat free - I didn't even know these were "healthy cookies" until I ate the entire bag and read the nutirtion facts on the back.

Joyce, until your sugar binge party, you can pick these up at Whole Foods, maybe Trader Joes. :)

cookie monster never had these!

I'm not a health food nut but I don't buy a lot of junk food like chips and cookies - (my kids are probably deprived). I don't consciously tell myself, "NO CHIPS!" - it's just something I never think about. Once in awhile I'll splurge and buy a box of cookies, but usually I'll just make cookies or cupcakes. Not only that, my daughter's Kindergarten teacher doesn't allow junk food (sweets) in her class. We were a bit turned off by this approach at first but I don't mind it anymore because it forces us to provide a healthy lunch for our kids.

At a birthday party this weekend, I discovered Barbara's Snackimals. They're sugar free and contain no transfat. Not only that, they TASTE GOOD. We had the oatmeal cookies which are also wheat free - I didn't even know these were "healthy cookies" until I ate the entire bag and read the nutirtion facts on the back.

Joyce, until your sugar binge party, you can pick these up at Whole Foods, maybe Trader Joes. :)

5 on the 7th

Sally tagged me for this meme. I have been too busy at work to do anything interesting in my personal life so now I have something to blog about!

1. Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally?
I would take a mental break and space out (not think of anything) to clear my head.

2. Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it?
Toffee Nut Latte at Starbucks and a Madeleine.

3. Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already? (In other words, cull the junk, mentally at least.)
The huge gi-normous aquarium tank that my husband promised he would clean regularly which I knew he wouldn't because it was too big to handle (I'm waiting for the turtles to die), the junk in the backyard we've been lagging on calling 1-800-Got-Junk to get rid of, all the baby clothes Q outgrew in 6 short months, my husband's collection of video games that he doesn't play with but refuses to toss, and the kitchenette set with mismatched chairs.

4. Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?
Photos. Everything else is unimportant and replaceable. Well... maybe except my shoes. I'd like to keep my shoes.

5. Five words you love?
Mommy, Hallo! (the first word I hear when my husband walks through the door), Uncommon, Brilliant and Chocolate.

Since it's way past the 5th... I won't officially tag anyone, but you know who you are.

tender moments... sniff sniff...

NOT.

A line has been crossed. I am officially the parent of a troublemaker.

I'd like to point out that in my whole academic career my behavior has NEVER warranted a letter home to my parents. I'd also like to point out that this is KINDERGARTEN we're talking about. If she's acting up in Kindergarten, boy, am I in trouble.

I'm saving this bad boy for her scrapbook.