Apologies for being out of touch, both posting and reading. Life is, shall we say...happening right now, but I promise to get caught up when the dust settles!
Reblogged from a dear friend, who posted it on her Facebook.
Since the malls and the TV commercials are already gearing up for Christmas, I'd like to share this video that spoke to me. So far I've only bought one gift (which I think was pretty useful)... my family's not really a gift-giving family, which I'm fine with, and it's been a while since my friends and I have exchanged gifts, which I'm also fine with. I think the numbers were really what got me. Think about it...Last week Garry and I checked out Talbot's Toy Land in San Mateo. Impressive offerings for a relatively obscure (i.e. non-Toys-R-Us) establishment. I was pretty interested to see how different some of the toys were, like these Karito Kids line that features rather large dolls, each one hailing from a different country and wearing 'modern' outfits. Yes, what you see in the pictures is a pair of UGG boots on the surfer-chick doll from Australia. Yuck!
There was also this weird juxtaposition of super-traditional, anti-feminist Barbies to ultra-modern comic book hero action figures for girls. And of course, Ugly Dolls and SET, my favorite card game!
I appreciated going back in time and seeing some of my favorite toys:
- Original 1983 Edition My Little Ponies. I still have Cotton Candy around somewhere.
- Calico Critters... I had the bunny cotton-tail family I think.
- Breyer horses. I always wanted, not just one, but a whole bunch of these gorgeous horse models. My friend Sara had a whole herd of horses plus the full farm and paddock set-up (I was so envious and thought she was so spoiled).
A nice trip down memory lane. All we actually bought, though, was a kite for windy days!
PS. I realize this post is ironic in light of the previous post.
Same stars. I think this one is even funnier though.
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
There's a chill in the air, which means we all pull out the storage bins housing our fall/winter gear. And after coming in from the bitter cold, what happens to all our hapless outerwear? We need someplace to hang it, of course. One thing I love about the free-standing coat rack is that it is absolutely open to interpretation and imagination. It's possible to achieve a very wide variance in form while staying true to the original purpose. They are structural and sculptural, and add such a striking design element to your hallway/entryway. Here are some interesting ones I found, from the ultra-modern to the tastefully traditional to the wild and whimsical. I think my favorites are 13 and 31.
Burning question: Why do girls tend to demonize their exes, while guys tend to romanticize theirs?
Follow-up: I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that women are often rationalizing the reasons for breaking up long before they actually go through with the breakup.
Behold, homemade chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup and bananas!I only tried making pancakes from scratch once before. I've been meaning to try Reggie's Rule-of-1 pancakes for a while, and I finally did this morning. Results: decidedly superior to the store-bought mix (even TJ's!). I actually didn't use a whole egg, but rather all egg whites, because I had them left over from the eggnog I made. And I 1.5x'd the recipe. Other than that--no changes.
The texture was perfectly fluffy but the pancakes had a sort of bland taste... I wonder if using buttermilk or even just adding a bit of salt would make any difference in flavor.
I had almost 1 dozen egg whites to use up after I used the yolks in my eggnog. The other day I was at Costco and saw egg white quiches and knew that's exactly what I wanted to make, esp. since I had an extra pastry shell in the freezer.
I was very vigilant about the pastry shell this time--I pulled it out halfway through baking to poke out the air bubbles forming. I sauteed broccoli, onions, and mushrooms before adding them to the bottom of the pastry shell. Sprinkled goat cheese, then laid out 6 slices of canadian bacon on top, and then poured in my egg/milk mixture. Next time I would use more egg and less milk, again. Topped with the rest of the goat cheese and a bit of mozarella. Turned out a beautiful golden brown!
This was the last bit of leftover turkey, from the second Thanksgiving dinner we had with Garry's family, which we used to make... pizza! I forgot to take a picture of the turkey sandwich I made this afternoon (turkey, cranberry sauce, La Brea Bakery bread, and vegetable tian).
It was not really planned. Garry had a couple friends who wanted to get In-n-Out but I was like, hey, we have all this stuff in the fridge, and I looked and realized we had everything we needed to make two scrumptious pizzas:
In the Fridge
- Leftover turkey
- Cut up broccoli (part of the crudite I was going to serve with my aioli that broke)
- Canadian bacon (I used part of it to make a quiche, pictures forthcoming)
- Mushrooms (also from the quiche I made)
In the Freezer
- Pizza sauce
- Pepperoni (from the last pizza-making party)
- Frozen artichokes from TJ's--something I always like to have around
- Shredded mozzarella, parmesan and crumbled gorgonzola
Ours was very nicely assembled--the only problem was that the mushrooms leeched so much liquid that it came out all watery. After sopping it up with a paper towel though, it was perfectly tasty: half was turkey/artichoke/broccoli and the other half was canadian bacon/mushroom/broccoli.
Garry's friends made a monstrosity with all of the above ingredients, plus pepperoni, a sprinkling of gorgonzola and even a stuffed crust on one side!
