Ho Ho Humbug!

Thursday was Thanksgiving, tomorrow is December 1 and I'm just not in the holiday spirit this season.  Thursday was great. I woke up, cooked my butt off all day and had a really nice time. But then Friday came. Eric had to go to work, I was stuck at home. We got my car back (it's bearings are going and we can't afford to fix it just yet). Saturday, Eric wasn't feeling well so he slept a lot. We debated over having to do laundry, etc. Today, Eric had to go back to work. I've been watching football and putting the ornaments on the tree. I actually set up the tree on Friday but didn't feel like decorating it. I didn't feel like decorating it today either, but figured I had to. I went with minimal ornaments this year, but brought out some old friends who have to go on the tree.

I don't know what it is this year. Just not feeling it. Could be that we're still having some financial difficulty and that there won't be any presents under the tree. Could be that it was 85 and sunny on Thanksgiving. Could be that I am just a humbug this year. I'm not sure. I don't like feeling this way. I'd rather be thrilled that there is peppermint ice cream in the stores. That homes smell like cookies and warmth. That 'tis the season and that giving is better than receiving. I'm just not feeling it.

There is hope. I mean, walking home from the subway, I'm happy to look at other people's lights and decorations. I'm sure once I see "Rudolph" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus" I'll feel better. Next weekend (while Eric works both Saturday and Sunday), I'll make cookies, using recipes from my great grandmother, written in her handwriting. It's going to be cooler this week, so I'll be able to wear sweaters and a jacket.  I'll keep you updated.

Cooking All Weekend

I do cook during the work week, but it's usually something quick. Pasta, burgers, frozen pizza. Nothing that requires a lot of effort and is fairly quick to cook, because I'm usually tired after working and sometimes Eric doesn't get home until after 9pm and who wants to prepare a huge meal at that hour?

So I'm spending this weekend cooking. I got up early and went to the grocery store. No one in Hollywood wakes up before 10pm and with the Hollywood Film Awards last night, people were sleeping in more than usual. Eric really likes a Sunday Night Dinner so I had decided yesterday I would make a pot roast. Now my pot roast is made using a recipe my Mom used to use in the 60's. It's simple but so good. It's one of Eric's favorite meals but what kills him is that you have to cook it low and slow, so after about an hour in the oven, the smells of pot roast begin to fill the apartment and it's another 4-5 hours before we can eat it. It drives him nuts. Eric is working tomorrow so he won't have to be around the smell which is another reason I chose to make it. It's also great to have meat, veggies, and gravy all cooking in one pan. Makes for easier clean-up.

For those of you who follow me regularly, you know my goal has been to cook for Chris Hardwick and Benedict Cumberbatch. Well, yesterday on Twitter, I invited Chris Hardwick to dinner and one of my "foodie" followers suggested I make cajun shrimp. Chris has yet to respond to any invitation, but it's good to practice. So tonight, I'm making cajun shrimp pasta. I'm also baking my chocolate filled cupcakes that Eric enjoyed so much last weekend, and I cooked up a cubed steak sandwich for myself for lunch.

I will have to do the dishes many times this weekend. I will wash the same measuring cups, plates, bowls, pans, etc several times and each time I won't mind at all. Cooking helps me relax, helps me take my mind off whatever other bullshit is going on in my life. Cooking to me, is love. I like to share my cooking with others and have them enjoy what I make.

So while others of you may be out shopping, or going to movies, or other things...I will spend the weekend covered in chocolate, spices, and dish soap, and will love every minute of it!

TGIF!

It's Friday. Now that I'm older, that has different meanings. When I was young, it was the end of the school week, it meant we got to eat out, or as I got older, go to a movie with friends because I didn't have to get up and go to school the next day. In college it meant time for a pep rally before the football game on Saturday. Date night. Time to drink.

I still like to eat out on Fridays after cooking all week. I also like unwinding from the work week and realizing that I have 2 days off from traffic nightmares. It also still means college football the next day, although I will admit I don't watch as much college ball as I do the pros.

The big differences now is that Friday night is just another night. I still wake up at 6am on Saturday morning, only instead of going to work or school, I now have errands to do. I have to go do laundry, or go to the grocery store before it gets too crowded. Friday is just another day now. Especially when Eric works on weekends so we don't have two days off together. I now really enjoy going to bed early on a Friday night.

So let Rebecca Black and Katy Perry have their "Friday" and "Last Friday Night", I'll be grateful that I'm home for a few days.

One Year Later

It has officially been a year since we pulled the U-Haul into the driveway in Pasadena and started our California adventure. We've struggled, had some unexpected setbacks and losses but in the end we're still here. We both have jobs. We're paying our bills on time. We've explored a little bit of Southern California. Had some nice experiences and some not so nice experiences.

In this next year, I'd love to make some new friends, explore more of what the area has to offer and to help Eric get on his path to fulfilling his lifelong dream. (I'd also like to get California license plates for the car).

So we probably didn't think we'd be where we are now after 365 days, but to be honest, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I Was Kicked to Death By My Own Horse

Luckily it was just in the video game I was playing. I used to love video games when I was younger and a couple of years ago we got a PlayStation 3 so Eric and I could watch blu-rays and kick each other's butts in Madden. With us not having much spare money these days, a few weeks ago I went to Best Buy and bought a new video game to entertain myself while Eric was working weekends. Also, the guys I work with were talking about how fun the new games are. I picked "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion". It had been awarded "game of the year" and all that and sounded like fun. A quest to get an heir back to his throne after his father dies. When I first purchased the game I played for an entire afternoon and finally made it out of the castle to begin my quest. I also made it to the next town and was able to get a horse. Well at the end of that first day I kept getting attacked by wolves and dying so I just gave up.

Today I was watching the Northwestern/Michigan game and found it really boring so I thought I'd try my hand at Oblivion again. I tried to remember how to fight and got thrown in jail for stealing something...but luckily my horse was still where I left him outside a pub. So I rode him to the next village and left him outside the gates while I explored. I left the village from a different entrance than the one I had entered and a woman tried to sell me another horse. I didn't have enough gold so I left. But seeing that the horse was outside, I stole this new horse and galloped off to where my next quest was. On the journey a wolf appeared and the horse and I killed it. Me with my sword, him with his hooves. There was also some small troll-like creature attacking us and by the time I had killed him...my horse was gone. I figured he ran off somewhere. Oh well, guess I'd walk. I didn't get very far when my horse galloped up, reared several times and proceeded to kick me to death. The game kept telling me to push the X to ride the horse but it wasn't working and soon I was face down, bleeding to death on the side of the road. I figured that maybe it was a good time to stop playing. When your own horse turns on you, it's time to go.

I'll return to the game tomorrow or some other time and see if I can find a calmer, more gentle horse that wants to help me. In the meantime, I'll be playing golf on the PlayStation. Much less violent and no horses allowed.

Slacker

Wow! I haven't posted since Sunday. I hate it when that happens. Even when I promised that I would write every day even if it was just a sentence. Maybe it was Daylight Savings Time ending. Maybe it was getting home later due to idiots driving without their lights on and not realizing it's DARK outside now. Maybe it was just laziness. I'm not going to make any excuses. Just see it as a setback and move forward.

I've been tired this week. The week started out well, I walked home from the subway station again, was up to 110 squats and could almost do 50 seconds of planking. But I've not done any of that the past couple of days and now I feel lazy. I have to get back in the groove tomorrow.

So I've written something now and still have lots of ideas for topics so I have no shortage of subjects to write about. Tomorrow it's back on the horse.

'Tis The Season

For cooking things, lots of things. Now, I'm just as upset as everyone else with Christmas commercials being run before Halloween and everyone seemingly skipping over Thanksgiving to rush towards Christmas...but I am grateful that now is the season when I LOVE to cook. Thanksgiving is a great day in my house. I'm up early and even if it's just me and Eric for dinner, I will still make a turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and all the other things. I love to do that and I love having leftovers.  Then comes the baking. I love pulling out the cards in my great-grandmother's handwriting to make her Scottish Shortbread, Almond Crescents and Bourbon Butter Cookies. I also love making an elaborate Christmas Eve dinner. Then turning around and doing another one for Christmas day. I like making New Years Day breakfast.  I'm just happy. My parents loved to cook and transferred this love down to me.

So hopefully soon there will be many photos and recipes and stories of my holiday cooking.

No Tricks or Treats

Our new apartment building has several families living in it. A lot of these families have children so we decided to buy a big bag of candy for Halloween. We bought it last weekend and were very careful not to break into it ourselves and eat all the candy before Halloween. I got home around 6 tonight, changed clothes, grabbed the bag of candy and prepared for knocks on our door or the ringing of our doorbell. Not one knock. Not one ring. I think a lot of the families drove to a more "residential" neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. Oh well. More M & M's,  Snickers, Twix and Starbursts for us. Watch...next year we won't buy any candy and have lots of costumed characters show up.