.:: y'om say'n? word. ::.

.:: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 ::.

christmas wishlist part 2:

4. action sampler
5. nike free running shoes

:: joyCleeP 10:42 AM [+] ::
...

my thanksgiving weekend, in pictures...

first, the bird:

brining the bird


before and after!


a most delicious conclusion...chocolate pecan pie!


and other things keeping me busy:

E's baby hat project! my contribution of 20 baby hats...


and a little something i made for E's birthday...


and the finale...now that thanksgiving is over, ppl are going a little nuts with the decorations. apparently our neighborhood has a contest. here's last year's winner!

not the best picture, i was trying to be discreet...

:: joyCleeP 11:14 AM [+] ::
...

must see this!! i can only dream of being able to snowboard that well...but then i guess if i could snowboard that well, i'd be pro. :)

:: joyCleeP 10:12 AM [+] ::
...

i ventured out to the scrapbook store by our house this weekend, and was very pleased with what i found! they even had hello kitty paper!! still trying to figure out a page to do with it...hehe. they have a great variety and selection, and of course the super friendly service. i'm kinda worried tho because i'm a bit behind in my holiday planning... still have to make cards and gifts, and it's already thanksgiving!!

speaking of thanksgiving, we had already planned to just stay out here for our first thanksgiving. our friends C&C invited us to their house, but i told W that i'd rather just have a nice quiet dinner with the two of us. and as much as we like hanging out with C&C, C's family and family friends will be there, and i just didn't want to barge in on their family dinner. so...the menu. well, at first, the thought of preparing an entire turkey dinner for 2 people sounded a bit much. but i really really loooooove thanksgiving food. so i'm biting the bullet and going all out, just on a smaller scale. i bought a small 10-pounder, which should feed us for a week, and all the fixens. except there was one important ingredient i could not find at the safeway here...canned pumpkin! how do ppl make pumpkin pie without canned pumpkin? i was planning to make my delicious chocolate pecan pie, which has sort of become a tradition for us now, but i wanted to make pumpkin bread and pumpkin pancakes. but i guess i'll have to think of something else. strange.

ppl are already putting up christmas lights. we passed a house with a christmas tree already! now that we have the perfect christmas tree window right in front of our house, i really want to get a christmas tree. but i don't want a real one, a fake one will do. i just wish they weren't so fake looking, and so expensive! do ppl really spend almost $500 for a fake tree? we'll see if we get a tree this year. i'm already feeling overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to decorate the place.

:: joyCleeP 9:49 AM [+] ::
...

okay, maybe it's a bit early, but i've started making my christmas wishlist...

1. new laptop. this ancient vaio drives me nuts...it's so slooooooow.
2. new cell phone. my current phone is possessed. it only rings when it wants to, and the battery lasts about 30 minutes when i'm talking, and about 1-2 days when i'm not. i've had it for like 4 years already, it's time to get a new one. i'm leaning toward this one but still waiting for the price to go down some more.
3. karaoke revolution party, combining karaoke revolution and DDR! what's not to like?!

so one of W's requirements for moving out here was to have at least a couple race tracks to do track days. we were happy to not only find several near us, but also to find that NASA was starting up and needed people! last night was the initial meeting to talk about what NASA is and what the future of NASA here in denver would be. i'm really excited, i hope interest sparks and more and more people join. i'm gonna go door to door now and promote. haha, j/k...it's freezing outside!

:: joyCleeP 8:44 AM [+] ::
...

i love living in a place that has snow! i love sitting in my kitchen, with a hot cup of coffee, looking out the window and seeing blue skies and rooftops covered with snow. we only had a couple inches of snow overnight. today's high will be 33. currently, it's 18 degrees. whoa, that's pretty cold. well, at least for this california girl. and remember, just a few days ago it was almost 80 degrees!

:: joyCleeP 9:04 AM [+] ::
...

3 delicious new discoveries

#1 i've discovered a great new tea! during my last trip to cost plus, i came across this, a fusion of green tea and pomegranite juice. a double dose of antioxidants! yea! and it's very good, especially with a dallop of honey. altho mighty leaf's green tea tropical is still my most favorite tea, it's not cheap, and i can't find it cheap anywhere. so until that happens, i only buy it when i feel like splurgin. :P

#2 while standing in line to check out at linens 'n things,
this caught my eye! years and years ago, a coworker brought back the most amazing caramel corn from hawaii. it was caramel corn covered with chocolate, and dusted with powdered sugar, with chocolate covered macadamia nuts thrown in the mix. i was in heaven! when i saw the moose munch, i just about fell over. and yes, it was gooooood.

#3 when we lived in the bay area, our favorite local brand salsa was casa sanchez, i think it was made in south city actually. well, we had a feeling we wouldn't be able to find casa sanchez out here, and were on a mission to find a new favorite salsa. and we found it! whole foods has great local products, and we found a really great salsa, blue moose, that made us forget all about casa sanchez! there's nothing like a great salsa!

that's all for now, must go back to playing DDR extreme with my new eye toy! whee!!

:: joyCleeP 2:20 PM [+] ::
...

food talk

i think my current favorite vegetable is swiss chard. it's soooo yummy. the first time i had it was when i was working at the ritz-carlton and i can't remember why but i was eating at the restaurant, navio. i remember i had the lamb with fingerling potatoes and swiss chard. sooooo gooooooood. that was my first experience with swiss chard, and knowing the executive chef, i asked how he prepares it. "oh, it's so easy" he says and he was right! one bunch will feed 2 people. it's like spinach, it wilts down to nothing. i buy the green variety, but have yet to try the red or rainbow. rinse the bunch(es) in cold water. hold it by the stem, so the leaves are downward, and with your knife, just slice along the rib and discard the rib. i like to cut mine into smaller but still very leafy pieces. throw them into a hot sautee pan with a bit of olive oil and cook til wilted. add salt, pepper and minced garlic, and voila! that's it! swiss chard has a great flavor all on its own, so you don't have to do much to it. i could eat a whole bowl of swiss chard. mmm...

i made it last night with pan seared pork chops that i topped with some leftover chimichurri sauce from mark bittman's the minimalist cooks dinner:

3/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp salt

whisk together in small bowl to blend. let stand at room temp 1-2 hours to blend flavors. great on pork, lamb chops, steak, or chicken. delicious!

and thanks to e's recommendation, just got all about braising and can't wait to start braising! but i need to get a larger french oven first. and might pick up a braiser while i'm at it. :) whee! i love new kitchen toys!

:: joyCleeP 9:05 AM [+] ::
...

we changed out all the cabinet door knobs and drawer pulls in our kitchen, and it made such a HUGE difference!! i love my kitchen! well, i already loved it, but now it's even more loveable. instead of horrid shiny gold knobs, we have beautiful satin chrome knobs and half moon pulls. just lovely.

a former coworker of mine used to tell me that i shouldn't love inanimate objects, that i should only love people because people love you back (well, most of the time). example, i love my kitchen, but my kitchen will never love me back. whenever he'd slip and say "i love my new treo phone" i'd laugh and say "oh, B, but your phone will never love you back..." *chuckles*

this morning i added a little bit of torani hazelnut syrup to my morning cup of coffee...mmmm...delicious.

:: joyCleeP 8:56 AM [+] ::
...

i can't wait for rent, the movie!! if only i could find someone here to go watch it with me... it's one of my favorite musicals, so i have very high expectations for the movie, which i know i shouldn't. but i still can't wait. :)

one of my favorite new tv shows is grey's anatomy. and i especially love the soundtrack. i've discovered 3 great new bands because of the show: tegan and sara, the eames era and inara george. and of course the postal service. and thanks to rhapsody i can listen to them whenever i want! i'm telling you, rhapsody is my new favorite thing of all time. i love discovering new music.

:: joyCleeP 11:07 AM [+] ::
...

they have automated self-checkout machines everywhere here. i used a little automated kiosk to send my packages at the post office yesterday. it was very easy and convenient. i hear even mcdonald's is self automated. is this the wave of the future??? no social interaction for services? just punch in a few buttons in a machine and you're done? hmm...i don't know how i feel about that.

:: joyCleeP 11:48 AM [+] ::
...

oh no!!! my amazon wish list has somehow disappeared! *poof* all the books i wanted to read are gone! :( this sucks. do they have expiration dates? but i only created it like 6 months ago...hrm...this sucks!

:: joyCleeP 9:54 AM [+] ::
...