bonjour mes amis!

le long temps aucun voient. désolé je vous ai négligé tout très longtemps. c'a été un été le plus difficile pour moi. car les saisons décalent, j'essayerai de signaler plus souvent. je ne veux pas que les huit de vous que lu me s'inquiètent!

have you ever been driving down the road, a sole location in mind when stopped at a light you feel an inexplicable feeling that you need to make a u-turn and go into that antique(or whatever) shop?

today after i left the allergy and asthma office, i was heading to my usual pharmacy to get my prescriptions filled (yeah, another month of antibiotics and prednisone. :(). i passed this place called "the antique colony". my friend NSM always seems to have such good luck in antique shops. finding gorgeous wine/champagne glasses and such. well, friends... i made that u-turn. even though i don't have any money. i figured it couldn't hurt to look.

if i found something NSM or Mrs. L might be interested in i could text them a picture. i walked slowly through the shop. i am not an expert but things seemed to be priced kind of high. maybe it's so you can bargain with them???

anyway, i turned and crossed the aisle into a stall on the other side and that's when it happened. i fell in love. my palms grew sweaty, my head felt dizzy. i swear i think i might have even drooled a little. how sad is that? i stood for a few minutes with my hand on the glass of the case door. wishing i could touch it. alas, the door was locked. i looked at the price once or twice. my first thought was one of sadness. it was way too much! way out of my price range, even if i had money to spend. i walk away dejectedly and continue my browsing through the rest of the store. and then find myself standing again in front of the locked case staring at it. i wonder if they have layaway. do antique stores even do that?

as i decide to fall back to my usual pattern of "if it is still here when i have the money, then it was meant to be mine" i walk away. the man at the counter stops me. we talk about my find. he wants to see what i am talking about. i lead him over to the case and point. then he says, "the owner was just here, but i can call her for you". so, we call and only get voice mail. "its ok,", i say. and start to leave. i was actually in my car looking at a text message when he came running out of the store and stopped me. the owner was on the phone. we negotiated a 15% discount and 3 month layaway. after i pay the first payment of $88.28 i leave the store happy. now i only have to wait until november for it to be mine.

what is it you ask?

it is the sweetest pink dessert set on the planet. 10 cups, saucers, dessert plates, creamer and sugar. it was made by the tuscan company in england. it is the "most perfect for me" china in all the world." being the pink girl that i am.

i am not even kidding you... this china is screaming out to me for a tea party. with a lovely chocolate cake sliced upon its delicate plates. how could i leave the store without it? when it was already telling me how to use it.

the most adorable things, EVER!

these cupcakes are the cutest things ever!

because everyone is asking...

Ziploc Omelets
1. Crack 2 eggs into the quart size Ziploc bag (not more than 2) shake to combine them.
2. Put out a variety of ingredients such as: Cheeses, Ham, Onions, Green Peppers, Tomatoes, Hash Browns, Salsa, Etc.
3. Each guest adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag and shake the bag to mix them well.
4. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up
5. Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.
You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot.
If you have more omelets, make another pot of boiling water.
6. Cut the bags and the omelet will roll out easily.
Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

timing is everything...

i chose saturday to launch my business because it coincided with my annual neighborhood block party.

i made a spicy chicken salad for the potluck. and then caught grief from my neighbors for not entering the chili cookoff this year.

after everyone had eaten i carried around a tray of chocolated dipped strawberries that i had made along with a basket of my cards and brochures. i talked to everyone at the party. at some point the proverbial light bulb went off over my head and i approached the real estate lady that lives across the street from us. she is a hard core realtor. one of the most known in the area and one of the highest earners. after i offered her a strawberry i said "wouldn't my services make a great closing gift for your clients?" her mouth flew open, she said "what a great idea!" reached into my basket and took about ten of my cards. then yesterday roommate L ordered a pound of the salad i had made. and last night when i went to sbux one of the baristas asked me about giving her some classes.

how cool is that?!!!

it's time for the big announcement!

ladies and gentlemen; i give you,

Gourmet Girl, your personal chef!

good new, bad news, stuff and nonsense...

first the good news: in the war between my body and iron, my body has won this round. at my check up last week, i was expecting my iron levels to be down but they were up from my visit in march. march level was 12.8 and last week i was 13.3 so maybe something has finally kicked in within my body and started breaking down iron and absorbing it.

the bad news: i got laid off today. i am a little bit bummed about it but then i found out that the leprechaun got laid off too, so i guess what goes around really does come around. i would also like to believe that this is the universe's way of kicking me in the ass and telling me that when i make my big announcement on saturday that things are going to go well with it.

stuff: on saturday i will be making a big announcement.

nonsense: on sunday night i stayed up until 10:00 pm making my version of a "mock hostess cupcake" as a challenge from someone at work. a third person at work had brought in some that they had bought at a local bakery that were supposed to be really delicious. i tried mine and my first thought was that the ganache on the top was WAY too thick. it was almost two inches thick(ick!). the cake itself was leaden. it sat like a brick in my stomach all the rest of the day. so when faced with this challenge i was quite confident that i could beat it. i used my family's special chocolate cake recipe as the base for the cupcake. i made a simple white buttercream for the filling, and a bittersweet chocolate ganache for the topping. the squirlyques on the top were an icing trick i learned in my cake class.

the result to me is that the cake was light and fluffy. much better than the challenger. my cream filling was a little too thick but it tasted better. my thinner ganache was better than the piled high ganache.

scale of 1-5

category competitor barbie
ganache 2 4
cream 3 4
cake 1 5
total 6 13

winner = barbie!

random things...

first... i know this looks like a picture of me smiling. but it's not. it's really a picture of me freezing and my teeth chattering at the mandatory fun on saturday.

next, thanks to an intern and a clinician who refused to give up and let me live in pain we are FINALLY making some progress toward getting my back better. last week they started treating me with electric stimulation,

cryopak ice

and the cold laser

then a side posture adjustment.

where i had previously been an 11 on a scale of 1-10 this morning i am about a 5 on a scale of 1-10! yippee!

and finally... i was talking with my niece on satuday night. we were sitting across from each other at IHOP perusing the menu. she was talking about some hamburger with a fried egg on it. so i told her about this ladies brunch show i saw paula deen do once where she made these breakfast burgers that had krispy kreme donuts for the bun, a fried hamburger patty, a fried egg, bacon, and then another krispy kreme donut on the top.

i can feel my arteries hardening even as i type this. and she looks me right in the face and says paula who?

sunday...

is someone's birthday! please go and wish her a happy one...

i'll be attempting to make her a cake that looks similar to the one pictured above.

some fun new things...

this is just about the coolest attachment ever. it's called the side swipe blade.


this is pretty cool too and makes me want a WII even more...
cooking mama cook off.

pressie from my boss...

at least this year he put some thought into the gift.

it's a very cool book and there are others in the series... 500 appetizers, 500 cupcakes, 500 soups, 500 cookies. i can only imagine that 500 salads can't be far behind.

even the bookstores are mocking me...

last night i had to run in to barnes and noble to pick up a roll of this really gorgeous wrapping paper that i needed for a project i am working on.

my first stop was the restroom, so i rushed through the store to the back without even so much as a glance at any book or magazine.

when i came out of the restroom and was heading for the front of the store where the wrapping paper was located. the first book i noticed was called "the seven sins of chocolate"

notice the cover (sorry, cell phone pic) is covered with dragees.

do you live outside of california?

send dragees! please!!! i'm begging you.

some stupid lawyer here in our great state sued more than 20 retailers and distributers to get dragees banned from the state because they have trace amounts of silver in them. forget about the fact that you would have to consume about 150 semi trucks full of them in a year to have any adverse reaction.

i can't even order them on the internet because they won't ship to california. :(

how the hell am i supposed to decorate my snowflake cookies????

ok, now i'm just scaring myself...

this is what i did tonight.

peppermint bark

candied pecans

almond bark

peanut brittle

i intend to bag up a little of each of these and give them to the coworkers that i like as gifts. that is.... if they make it to work. :)

the next time i say i don't like pecans, somebody smack me please.

has anyone else tried this?

the Reynolds Handi-vac? this thing is awesome. and WAY cheaper than one of those food saver machines.

i got my for something like $9.62 at Target. try it, you'll like it.

do you have a...

comfort food?

lately, i have been feeling down due to stress at work and that makes me crave the comfort of my mother's cooking. of course with her being gone, i have to count on my memory to make the things that i love taste the way i remember them tasting when she cooked them.

on sunday night i made hamburger stroganoff. this is something my mother cooked all the time on cold winter nights. i have my own recipe down pat but it is based on hers. most people serve it over wide egg noodles but for me, it's all about the texture. i like mine with brown rice and peas. i remember when my mom and i worked together she would pack us a lunch from leftovers and if it was the day after a stroganoff dinner we would often have it heated up over a piece of white bread.

something else that always gives me a cozy feeling is the cole slaw my mom used to make. if fact that cole slaw is what brought me and one of my brothers back in touch after a long estrangement. he was missing my mom and called me to see if i knew how to make mom's cole slaw. he knew that if anyone in the family would know how to make it, it was me.

i made a batch of it a week or so ago and really enjoyed it. in fact, i might have to make some tonight!

autumn pie...

these are some pictures of the process of making the pastry leaves for the top of my "AWARD WINNING" pumpkin pie.

yay me!!!!!

my pumpkin pie won!!!!! go barbie, go barbie!!!! i won a $25 gift certificate for fandango. how cool is that! i love movies!

my entry in the pumpkin pie contest at work today...

what's in your pantry?

my friend Morven over at food art and random thoughts posted about having recently read an article on what one should have in their pantry.

i share my kitchen space with two other people so i only have one small-ish cupboard for use as a pantry. as pretty much the only one in the house that cooks, this drives me insane... but what can i do. we have to be "fair" and share everything.

this is what my "pantry" looks like.


Morven asks "what is the most unusual item in your pantry?"
my answer: chanterelle pate'

somehow i went from someone that hated to cook after having cooked for my family since the age of seven to being the girl with five different kinds of flour, four different kinds of honey, three different kinds of balsamic vinegar, two different kinds of peanut butter, a container of chanterelle pate (and a partridge in a pear tree...) in her pantry.

so, what's in yours?

iron chef masaharu morimoto...

i snuck out of work a few minutes early this afternoon so that i could get to santana row by 5:00pm. my friend mrs. L had told me that the iron chef was going to be at sur la table for a book signing. she was unable to make it due to a prior commitment so i went in her stead.

this first picture is from the cooking demo that chef morimoto did.

this picture is from the book signing portion of the night. i was number 3 in line. when i thanked him in japanese, he got a huge smile on his face and shook my hand again and said "thank you so much..." :) how cool is that?