New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's eve.

1 year ago I decided to see if I could blog everyday for a year.

Well, it worked! I stuck with it. It's a far cry from the diaries I'd start and stop while growing up.

I have some ambitions for another blog.....still in the works. Until then, I'll probably continue to update this one.

Check back tomorrow for a year in review. I'd have posted it today....but I've been WAY too busy.

Holiday Bowl!

We're off to the holiday bowl.

But that's neither here nor there.

I learned something interesting from my sis this past week. I have this horrible tendency to overeat. To the point of nausea. It's a problem. I did this on Christmas. But my sister told me to do Child's Pose - from yoga. I did it for about 30 seconds and I was a new person! I had room for dessert! Try it.

And here are a few pictures of Mochi :-)

No pictures

But it was still awesome! We got to see all the original costumes and props from the movies. There was even a "sorting hat" at the beginning. All the little kids wanted to be in Gryffindor (duh) - so we heard that sorting song quite a few times. Thankfully we had a hufflepuff and ravenclaw wanabe so we eventually heard all of them. But no takers for Slytherin....but let's be real. Who wants to be in Slytherin?

There was a little kid there - probably 10ish - dressed to the nines. And by nines, I mean Harry Potter. Adorable. He even paid up for the listening device.

At the end you can buy all sorts of cool HP gear. I really want a scarf....but I'm not going to pay $40 for a scarf. I'm gonna ebay that ish.

The best part was the wands. Stace and I walk over to the wands and she picks one up and goes, "B, that's the elder wand. The most powerful wand in the world!"

All yours for a low price of $55. But really, can you put a price on that kind of power? I think not.

Harry Potter!

Today we are off to the Pacific Science Center - the greatest place to take kids in Seattle (kids both young and old).

They have a Harry Potter exhibit going on right now. I anticipate awesomeness. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Pics to follow.

Oops!

I'm not sure if yesterday was the first day I missed this past year...but hey, what can you do?

I spent the evening of the 26th doing something WAY more important than blogging. I spent about 2 hours playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii. This has got to be the most hilarious game. At the very least, it's hilarious to watch whoever is playing.

Maybe Nick will take a video of the antics so I can post an embarassing clip of myself trying to dance with a wii remote in my right hand.

I recommend it.

The Art of Racing in the.....

Wind and rain.

That's what happens in Seattle.

I had to try out my new heart rate monitor, so I headed outside for a little post-Christmas jog.

What's funny, is that were at least a dozen other walkers/runners out this morning. Sure, it's raining. But that's par for the course here.

I enjoy it and I MELT in the CA heat. So it was good times for me.

I took a "test" at work that helps you estimate your max heart rate. You can adjust your training to be at different percentages of your max heart rate - thus optimizing your total workout. It seems like a good idea. I'll give it a try in 2011. BTW - the test you have to take to determine your maximum heart rate is super sucky for about 20 minutes. You basically exert yourself as hard as possible and hope you don't die of a heart attack.

Merry Christmas!

Hopefully no one is reading this today :-) You should be hanging out with your family.

But just in case you do, here's a little something something.

Mochi, "helping" us change the sheets.

Christmas Giving

Last Sunday Nick and I volunteered at the Family Giving Tree. I'm not trying to toot my own horn AT ALL - we should have volunteered longer and/or brought more toys, but maybe net year - and maybe we'll bring more people.

In any case. It's a pretty impressive operation. Less fortunate kids write down what they'd like for Christmas - clothes and toys typically. This information gets put on a tag and those tags get distributed throughout the bay area (with a large number in Silicon Valley - good call, those guys are loaded).

When all of the clothes and toys are purchased, they are delivered to a large warehouse in San Jose. And that's where we helped out. For one minute, you have to pretend like you are a 10 year old child and you just walked into the world's largest toy store. Literally. there are toys all over the place. It's incredible. This is the tail end of the operation and I still had to stack 20 identical Tonka Trucks - Nick had the remote control cars (and 1 remote control dinosaurs). There were barbies everywhere and enough pillow pets to make any 6 year old scream.

I ended up working in the clothing section - they wanted someone who could fold clothes well, and apparently I looked like I could.

It was a great way to spend Sunday, helping fulfill kids' Christmas wishes.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Salted Caramels

Remember those caramels I made a few days ago?

I decided to make salted caramels with the extra caramel.

I wanted to make them extra tasty, so I melted some dark chocolate frangos. I added a little wax to help it harden and add some shine.

I cut the caramels into bite sized pieces and put them in the freezer. Then I dipped them in the chocolate and put them on wax paper. I put a little sprinkle of sea salt on half. You only need 1 or 2 granules of sea salt to get the salty flavor.

All in all - they were pretty tasty!

Patty Cake

If you haven't seen this, it will make you laugh. Nick sent it to me. I laughed out loud.

Crab Cakes

I made crab cakes for a Christmas party.

My dad tried out almost every recipe in the Tom Douglas crab cake cookbook, and landed on his favorite. I changed it slightly.

1lb lump crab meat (costco)

1/2 c thinly slice scallions (green onions)

1/4 c finely chopped red pepper

1 c mayo

2 tsp grated and peeled fresh ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix

Then fold in 1/2 cup coconut (I use sweetened even thought the recipe calls for unsweetened...rebel) and 1/2 cup panko (asian bread crumbs)

I was making these for a party, so I wanted them to be bite sized. I used a cookie scoop so that they were all the same size. Make little patties and then put them on a cooling rack (allows for good air circulation).

Refrigerate for 30 minuts +

Remove, dip in a combo of panko and UNSWEETENED coconut (if you use sweetened you have to be careful that the coconut doesn't burn. I found that the unsweetened on the outside was fine.

Pan fry. Serve with lime and sweet chili sauce.

Beer Exchange

The beer exchange is an awesome little tradition that Nick's family started - before Nick could drink. It has somewhat evolved over the years, but pretty much results in each +21 year old male members of the family taking 12 bottles of beer home.

We decided to bring the tradition to California, and the first (annual?) beer exchange took place this past weekend.

7 guys each brought 6 beers a piece. The beers were lined up against the wall and each person took a turn picking out their beer - kinda like the draft.

Lots of concentration goes into each pick.

But in the end, I think all the boys were happy with what they got.

Caramels!

The caramels I made last week during cookiepalooza were a big hit and a few people have requested the recipe.

What's great about this recipe is that it's all in the microwave. You can make caramels over the stove but it involves a lot of stirring and a lot of temperature watching. It's almost fool-proof in the microwave.

You need a glass bowl - microwave safe. I didn't have one so I used a large pyrex casserole. It worked ok - splashed butter over the edge a few times. Nothing a sponge and some soapy water can't fix.

Here's the finished product - prior to wrapping.

Nick, enjoying the bowl remnants.

The most "annoying" part of the whole process is wrapping the caramels. Mine turned out a little on the soft side, so I froze the whole thing and then began cutting the caramel into strips and pulling each strip out of the tray. Then each strip gets cut into bite sized pieces and wrapped in a square of wax paper. We wrapped them while watched Rudolph (the old claymation movie). It went by pretty quick.

CARMELS

1 c light corn syrup
2 cubes butter, softened
2½ c Brown sugar
1 can Sweetened condensed milk
1/8 t Salt
1 t Vanilla

Generously butter 7x11 glass casserole dish. Set aside.
In a 3 qt bowl (glass or ceramic - not plastic or metal) mix all ingredients
together. Stir to mix well.

Heat 5 min on HIGH --- Remove, whisk 2 minutes until butter is mixed in.
Heat 5 min more on HIGH --- Remove, beat with whisk for 1 minute until well
mixed. Heat 8 min on HIGH --- Remove, whisk, pour into 7-1/2x11-3/4 buttered
casserole. Cool overnight.
Cut (**) & wrap diagonally in wax paper (3"x3" squares ***)

** cut caramels into 3/8" strips, then 10-20 pieces per strip.
*** wax paper - 15 pieces of 12" squares of wax paper yield 240 3x3 squares

(microwave) makes ~ 20 dozen

Clean Eating

Let me tell you about November. Also known as the month without vegetables.

Here's how it went.

Weeks 1 and 2 were spent in Cabo and Nor Cal. Eating out for almost every meal. So even if we had vegetables, they were likely fried, dripping with dressing or "candied."

Week 3 was Thanksgiving and let's be real, everything had at least 1 stick of butter. And I'm pretty sure that potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread casserole and green beans with french onion soup, doesn't count.

Week 4 was spent in Kansas City - the BBQ capital of the world. Well, probably not....but we had a lot of BBQ. I tried to have a salad 1 day for lunch....bad idea. My body didn't know how to process all the fiber. Ha!

So now that it's almost time to eat nothing but cookies, I thought I'd put Nick and I on a "clean eating" diet. I got a clean eating cookbook, and it's basically just recipes with lots of fresh ingredients and nothing processed.

We had pasta pomodoro tonight. It's a fancy way of saying "make your own spaghetti sauce" - but whatever. Pretty tasty and way less salt than a can of sauce.

Starts of with some onion, garlic and 2 lbs of roma tomatoes in a pan. Then you kind of puree it a bit. Then add some spices and some chicken.

Top it off with flat leaf parsley and a little goat cheese and you're set!

And after such a healthy meal, we had a peanut butter cookie with a snickers inside for dessert :-)

I love my Mochi

We take Mochi to a parking lot behind our house to play fetch.

And by "fetch" - I mean - throw the ball and sometimes get it back.

Either way, he enjoys himself.

When he's ready to go home, he lays down and we know he's had enough exercise for the day.

The Nutcracker

My grandma started taking me to the Nutcracker when I was VERY little. I loved it!

As I grew older, I appreciated it more, and now I really enjoy seeing a show. A show put on by Pacific Northwest Ballet, that is.

See, here's the problem. PNB puts on a really good show. The dancers are awesome - but that goes without saying. What I've always enjoyed has been the gorgeous sets. Growing up seeing this version of the nutcracker, I've never known anything different. I assumed all sets were designed by Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are).

Doesn't the "Tiger" look familiar? Very reminiscent of the book.

I saw my first non-PNB Nutcracker a few years ago when I saw San Francisco Ballet's performance. The dancers were beautiful and the music always puts you in the mood for the holidays....but it wasn't the same.

I haven't seen the Nutcracker since.

But tonight, I'm headed to a local performance. I take adult ballet at a studio here in Livermore. The studio puts on the performance at a local theater. The theater is quite nice and I hear it's a good performance. I'm mildly put off by the cost of the ticket. I won't say how much it is....but I could actually get a slightly cheaper ticket in the upper level section at Mccaw Hall.

I'm going in with an open mind and will obviously enjoy myself. But when it comes to the Nutcracker....nothing beats PNB.

Best Christmas Performance Ever

Epic Scrabble Moment

Words aren't my strong point. But I still play scrabble with Nick. It's fun and it keeps my brain exercised.

I had a pretty epic moment while we were on the honeymoon.

Let me set this up for you. On a previous turn, I had "TOXIN." A good use of the letter "X."

On my next turn, I made TOXIN plural and landed on the triple word score while simultaneously spelling "SHAVE" and landed the "V" on a double letter score.

So "TOXINS" by itself is a 13 point word - triple word score that shit and it becomes 39!

Oh but wait, it gets better.

"SHAVE" earns me 15 points on its own, thanks to that double letter score with the "V". Triple word score equals 45 points!

That's right. 1 turn with a total of 84 points!

Best turn ever. I won. Nick was sad. But let's be real, there's no coming back after a turn like that.

Cookiepalooza!

My friends, Lisa and Brooke, came over on Saturday for a HUGE cookie making party.

It lasted literally all day, and we came away with a nice little stash of goodies!

Santa Surprises - Peanut butter cookie with a snickers in the middle

Ginger Snaps

Chocolate chip M&M cookies

Sandwich Cookies

Caramels

Brittle

Pretzels dipped in caramel and chocolate

Playing with my new camera.

Taste Tester Extraordinare!

Seriously, Macys?

Do you know what a Frango is?

It's a very delightful little treat, originally sold by the Frederick and Nelson Department store - where I got all my Santa pictures taken until they closed. It's a northwest thing.

They use to come in all different flavors - mint being the typical favorite.

So why am I talking about frangos? Well, I had a little run in with a Macys sales lady and I thought I'd share it.

My grandma has a major sweet tooth and she LOVES raspberry frangos. It's kind of cute because everyone in the family knows she loves them but when she opens a package on Christmas she always says, "Oh, my. How did you know this was my favorite?" Or something like that.

Naturally, Nick gets these for her every year.

I was at a Macys a few weeks ago and asked about Raspberry Frangos. The salesperson said they didn't have any! Uh oh.

Yesterday I checked online and not only do they still have some, but they were on sale for almost 25% off! My lucky day!

So I headed to Macys on Sunday. Yes yes, not the brightest....but I had some last minute shopping to get done.

I roll into the Macys and I'm pointed to the 1 lb. box of raspberry frangos. Bingo!

So I go to check out.....hmm.....full price. I casually mention that they are on sale online, and inquire whether they are also on sale in the store. Here's what transpired:

Me: Hmm, they were on sale on your website.

Macys Lady: Well, they don't ring up on sale here.

Me: Hmm, ok. Well, can I use one of my Macys coupons for 20% off.

Macys Lady: Actually, you'll have to use your macys credit card. And you don't need the coupon.

Me: Ok. Here you go.

Macys Lady: Hmm, I guess they aren't eligible for the 20% off.

Me: Um....ok.

Macys Lady reads the contents of the box and says: Eew, Raspberry Dark Chocolate, that seems way too sweet. (when you picture her saying this, imagine it was in the rudest tone possible)

Me: ***silence***

Macys Lady hands me my receipt and I take it from her hand and walk out.

Who says that? Let's think about this for a moment. Let's think about how this message would be communicated depending on what she was selling.

Skinny Jeans

"Enjoy your purchase, but it's not gonna make you look any skinnier."

Makeup Lady

"That color is UGLY, enjoy!"

Perfume Lady

"You'll smell foul, but thanks for stopping by!"

Tis the season.....but seriously? She could have been a little nicer.

Canon S95

Nick got me a camera 2 years ago for Christmas. It was an awesome little guy and I took it everywhere!

These days, I want to take better pictures. So I thought about getting a snazzy DSLR.....but let's be real....I'm not that professional. And I just can't see myself taking such a large camera with me. But I wanted something a little nicer than your typical point and shoot.

This year, Nick got me a new "point and shoot." It's a Canon S95. It does all sorts of fancy things.

I took some pictures with my old camera and the new one, so that I could see the difference.

The top one is the new camera - no editing. The bottom is the old camera - "I'm feeling lucky" editing on Picasa. It takes EXCELLENT low light photos.

Playing with the macro while I was cutting grapes. Again, no editing on the top (new camera) and a little editing on the bottom - old camera.

Top is the new camera, bottom is the old. This has a much shallower depth of field option. Probably the best on a point and shoot...at least that's what I'll tell myself.

Thanks n!

Nebraska = Poor Sports

I love Husky Volleyball. I love volleyball in general, but college volleyball is thrilling!

The Huskies played Nebraska last night during the NCAA seminfinals (in Seattle). Nebraska was ranked #2....huskies were unranked. But whatevs.

Turns out, those unranked huskies did a little number to those huskers and came out victorious. Then guess what, Jim - the awesomest coach ever - and poor-sport-mcgee-coach-of-the-huskers had some words during the "congratulatory" shake after the game. The Nebraska coach commented that they got a bad call, apparently insinuating that the Huskies only won because of that. Boo! Who does that (or maybe it happens often)? Either way, Jim had to be "held back" by some others as he tried to answer back.

This would have been awesome to see. Jim is so mild mannered, nothing could make this guy get upset.

Huskies play Cal tonight....football was victorious earlier this year, and I vaguely remember seeing an awesome volleyball victory against Cal a few years ago in Hec Ed. I've got my fingers crossed. And crossed even more that there is another husky victory against Nebraska on the 30th!

The long sleeved t-shirt

The most underrated item in your wardrobe.

I have lots of short sleeved t-shirts. They always give them to you during high school, college, anytime you volunteer, races etc.

But what I don't have are the long sleeved t-shirts. They are such a money item of clothing.

It's perfect for those mildly cool days when a sweatshirt would be overkill.

Or, it's great as a shirt with no coat situation.

In any case..I'm wearing my one from Freshman or Sophomore year of high school. It's still in a wearable condition. But I'm on the hunt for the next great long-sleeved t-shirt.

Best dessert ever

The other day my mom was telling me about this recipe. Well, she was actually telling me about the final product, which led me to request the recipe.

It sounded SUPER easy and delicious. So I made it the other night.

Here's what it consists of:

Saltine Crackers

(1/2 cup) Granulated Sugar

(1/2 cup) Brown Sugar

(2 Sticks) Butter

(1 bag) Chocolate

(~1.5 Cups) Slivered Almonds

Can't go wrong there!

First, you line a jelly roll pan with foil. Then line up saltine crackers on the foil. I filled the pan as much as I possibly could. The crackers fit nicely.

Mix the sugars and butter together in a pan. Melt and bring to a boil and stirring until frothy (~250 degrees F). Pour it over the crackers (I had to spread it a little to get it to coat all the crackers).

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. My oven was a little too hot (I think). So I will probably turn it down and keep an eye on it at about 7-8 minutes. To make sure it doesn't burn.

Pull it out of the oven and pour a bag of chocolate chips over the top. Spread the chocolate.

Pour a bag of almonds over the chocolate and press into the chocolate. I also toasted the almonds....because toasted almonds are awesome.

Stick it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. I finished just as Glee was starting and we were eating it before the show was over.

Here's what it looks like when you pull it from the oven. Crack it into manageable sized pieces and enjoy.

But I know you're wondering, how in the world does Bryn know that this is the best dessert EVER?

Well, first, I couldn't stop eating it. So I decided to take 75% of it to work. I take a lot of goodies to work and most people never say anything - thank you or tell me how they like it. About half the opposite commented on how delicious this was. 2 guys even asked for the recipe. I was told it's a mix between an almond roca and a heath bar. And I know how much almond roca costs. And this doesn't get stuck in your teeth as much.

Basically, it's the easiest dessert I've ever made. And it's gotten better reviews than all of my cupcakes, cakes and pies that I've brought into work. So from now on, this is all I'm bringing in :-)

Cookie Tags

I decided that I needed to start baking again. The kitchen aid mixer was getting a little dusty.

I pulled ou my trusty sugar cookie recipe (thanks, Beth!) and my new cookie cutter set (thanks, Cath!).

I decided to try something a little more adventurous than normal. Normal being - cut out different shaped cookies and decorate with colored frosting.

I decided to try "flooding". What does this mean? Well, it means that you pipe a relatively "thick" line of frosting around the edge of the cookie, and then fill it in with a more diluted frosting. The end effect *should* be a perfectly smooth frosting job. I think it will take some time getting the consistencies just right, but all in all, it wasn't too bad.

Then, I thought it would be fun to pipe some designs. Designs quickly turned to names, which quickly turned to first initials. Whatever. My piping skills need some practice.

Then I added some holly for a final touch.

Then I tied them to the presents like tags. They were eaten shortly after the gifts were open (how green of us).

Kindle?

Everyone had a kindle in Cabo. I haven't decided if I'm going to jump on the kindle bandwagon just yet, but I'm definitely leaning towards doing so.

Here are the pros:

1. Great for travel

2. Keeps the bookshelf clutter down

3. Cool gadget

Cons?

1. Can't borrow books from the library.....the Kindle will only read PDFs.....most library eBooks are EPUB (although some are PDF). The Nook will play these.

2. Inability to "share" - I just let my friend read Hunger Games. Can't easily do this on a Kindle.

Anyone have one and care to chime in?

Speaking of Eating

Have you ever dipped french fries in a milk shake or ice cream cone?

I was surprised at the number of co-workers that had never tried this out.

It's the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

It can be done with McDonald's fries and a milk shake or you can get fancy with more gourmet fries and frozen yogurt.

The fries should have a cross sectional area of less than 1cm^2. And should be on the crispy side. I would recommend either vanilla or chocolate or a swirl for the dipping flavors.

It's the bomb.

Super Hero Power

To be fair, I guess it's not really a power. More like an ability.

But if world hunger and peace had already been figured out, I'd want the ability to eat whatever I want and not get full or fat.

Not getting full is key. I'd actually trade limited weight gain for the absence of fullness.

I really like to eat. But I get full too fast.

Equally awesome

Hunger Games is the first in a trilogy. It definitely leaves you wanting more at the end. So I obviously needed it.

I did my best to be economical and get it at the library.....but it was already checked out. So I used my Border's coupon to get 50% off. Then, I needed a little something extra for my Amazon cart - I mean, $25 purchase for free shipping - so I bought the third.

Then, I had a trip to Kansas City for work. This meant 2 - 4 hr plane rides.

Naturally, I killed them both.

They were quite good. I suggest them both. Honestly, I couldn't put them down.

Apple Cup Time

I love apples.

I think my favorite pie is an apple pie. Actually, it's probably the sour cream apple pie we had on Thanksgiving.

Since we are from Washington, the "big game" each year is between UW (huskies) and WSU (cougars).

Unfortunately, it's one of those games where ANYTHING can happen. Like, ANYTHING. So you can never discount either team. Regardless of how hopeless their season may be...cough....WSU....cough.

So let's cross our fingers and hope that they play a good game today.

GO DAWGS!

Born to Run

I just read Born to Run.

You'd think it would be kinda lame, but it's actually REALLY good. It's so good, it makes you think you can go and run 50 miles. No big deal. It also convinces you that running barefoot is a good idea.

Nick did a nice little review of the book.

But yeah. If I can't put it down and it makes me actually want to run. I call it a win.

Hunger Games

I love to read books meant for middle school kids. They aren't too deep, but have enough hidden meaning that I can feel good about myself - it's not PURE fluff like Twilight (but pretty darn close, and don't get me wrong, Team Jacob all the way). There's a guy at work with a middle school aged daughter, so I get tips on books from him.

He recommended Hunger Games, and then someone at the wedding actually had it available to borrow! I jumped on it and LOVED IT!! I couldn't put it down.

The story follows Katniss, a young girl living in a post-apocalyptic world. Each year the Capitol holds the hunger games, where one boy and one girl from each district (there are 12) are chosen to fight to the death.....you can see where this is going but I won't spoil it for you.

It reads incredibly fast and I've already started the 2nd book in the trilogy. Pick it up. You'll like it.

Other books I like (so you can get a feel for the stuff I'm into) - Harry Potter (I enjoyed all of them but liked the 2nd book the least), the Twilight books, The Giver (and the other 2 in the "trilogy"), Sookie Stackhouse books (vampire theme?), Freakonomics, Dan Brown stuff...you get the drift.

Best Weekend Ever: V

On the day of the wedding, my friends helped me get ready. I really have great friends.

Lisa did my nails....she's better than any salon you'll ever go to. And Caresse, Melinda and Beth hooked it up with massages. It was incredible. Better than being at a salon.

They even got me lunch - because they were very concerned that I wouldn't eat.

A good time was had by all (but especially me). Thanks, ladies! You're the best.