oh yes, i even made myself one

they have all been given out! well, most of them. the ones that haven't don't read this anyways. (at least, i don't think they do, and if they do - hi dad! hi ellen! hi harry! stop reading unless you want your gift spoiled!) so i can finally post pictures of the christmas gifts i made this year. keep in mind that i am nowhere near as talented and creative as some others out there, namely jaimey, whose creativity and cleverness and resourcefulness i envy, possibly even more than i envy my sister's sense of humor and closet and shoe collection. or at least as much.

at some point this year my mother picked up the perfect mix and sent it to me, which at the time i thought was a little random, but then the november issue of cooking light had this mix recipe in it, and it just looked so pretty that i thought i can do that! which is usually how my crafty obsessions endeavors start anyway. i also hoped people would appreciate that in a recession we were giving them one less thing to pay for: a dinner on us, and hopefully a fun evening of cooking together. they were cost-effective for us (especially since i had to do 15+ gift bags, between my family, brian's family, work, friends, and our two lovely neighbors) which is also nice when money is tight like it is now. on the other hand, they were a bit labor-intensive with all that measuring, mixing, swearing when i realize i am out of something i thought i had, running to the grocery store more than once, bagging, ribbon-tying, and labeling. and of course, the recipes for each mix were included. so i guess it all evens out, what i didn't spend in money i more than made up for in time and energy and love, cue sappy music.

cozy caribbean dinner: black bean soup, corn bread, and red stripe beer. in many of the dinners the spices were bagged separately from the rest of the mix.


southwestern chili dinner: chili, corn bread, and a festive striped dishtowel


new england dinner: boston baked beans, heirloom brown bread, and molasses


winter night dinner: split pea soup, honey whole wheat bread, honey and jam, apple cider, and mulling spice


single guy's baking: whole wheat beer bread, beer, and jam


warm drinks: mocha coffee, cappuccino, spiced tea, minted citrus tea, spiced cranberry cider, and a mug


another winter night dinner: bean soup, honey whole wheat bread, honey, and jam


i don't know what happened to the pictures of the other two i took, the cajun dinner (red beans & rice, french baguettes, and louisiana hot sauce) and the italian dinner (mushroom risotto & chianti). they seem to have disappeared which is not surprising given my [nonexistant] technological prowess. that is also unfortunate because i gave them away also. the one i saved for myself was the bean soup, which sounded so darn good to me, and now brian knows why we have little bits of 86 different kinds of beans leftover in our pantry.

a very merry christmas

how was your christmas?

mine was wonderful - my family was all here. not for long enough, of course. i would have everyone in my family and brian's family live within a mile of our house if i could, so i could see them all the time. (would i hate that after a while? it sounds so nice at the moment.) my mom drove up with my grandparents and picked up my sister in san francisco on the 23rd, and left on 26th. it was really only two days, because they got here the evening of the 23rd and left the morning of the 26th. not even the requisite three days (fish and family). mil was with us for four days so that was nice even if my other family had to leave so soon.

that was the best part about christmas. the second best part was finding out we are having a little girl. the third best was the goodies. grandma brought her famous pumpkin bread which is gone now of course. mom made a tea ring (gone) and cranberry scones, also gone. and of course we had scores of christmas cookies.

last but not least were the gifts, though that is my least favorite part about christmas i think. personally i vastly prefer thanksgiving to christmas on the holiday scale, because the shopping stress is removed. thanksgiving to me is just about the perfect holiday: good food shared with beloved friends and family. i get very stressed and anxious trying to come up with that "perfect gift" for everyone and i always seem to fall short and i hate it. i try to make up for it with good meals and try to create an environment where everyone is happy. maybe that is why i get so stressed, because i spend a lot of energy trying to please everyone.

as far as gifts go, my friends and family were more than generous this year and i think i really fell short in return. my sister gave me a beautiful handbag and some gorgeous earrings and mil gave me some really cute maternity sweaters, so now i am a chic pregnant girl instead of just a fat one. my mother made me a cute apron set and also gave me a knife sharpener which i have to highly recommend, it is so easy to use and works so well. and my husband... well, he always spoils me more than he should and more than we can afford, but i love him anyways, and he is the one whose christmas i wish i could have made more perfect. i love you, sweetie, and i'm glad i get to spend every christmas with you.

merry christmas!

2008 threw us some curves:
changed our jobs, moved to the 'burbs,
landed in "--- -----," bought our first home.
whaddya know, we won't be alone –
the roster's expanding with baby on the way.
our littlest giant will be arriving in may!

the best time i've had for someone else's birthday

thank you for all the well wishes - our trip to capitola was so nice. short, but it was really nice to get a change of scenery and away from the "pressure" of our regular life, even if that pressure is just the kitchen floor waiting to be mopped.

it took us about 2½ hours to get there from our house - 144 miles. we didn't hit any traffic and it was a nice clear drive. that drive over the santa cruz mountains on highway 17 is so pretty too. i think the only thing that would have made the drive better would have been if i didn't keep missing the turns. we had to take eight different freeways to get there and i missed one or two. fortunately brian napped for most of the ride so i didn't have to hear about my lame-brain navigation.

we stayed overnight at the capitola inn, which is up on a little hill. i think it overlooks the ocean, but our room was in the back with a view of the trees. it didn't matter much to us because we were not in the room for very long. because it was mil's birthday, we went to dinner at shadowbrook, a beautiful restaurant built into a hillside. there is a hillevator to take you up and down the hill from the parking lot to the restaurant below, which of course i loved. i'm easily pleased like that. i had creamy artichoke soup for an appetizer (the recipe is on the website!) while everyone else had calamari (i don't eat seafood) and then i had grilled mushrooms for dinner. it was quite a filling dish and one of the most delicious things i think i have ever had.


the next day we had breakfast at a diner down on the beach. this was my view out the window as i ate my eggs:





of course, we couldn't leave without some pictures to remember us by. if only ron and brian could get their camera-phones to work.




then we walked around "downtown" capitola which was pretty cute and quaint. there was a candy store that sold jelly bellies by the pound. i love jelly bellies, especially the peach and pear flavors. there was a new pomegranate flavor also that i had never seen, which was so delicious. i highly recommend it on its own or with peach.

we did some window shopping and then it started sprinkling. we weren't really that interested in braving the rain, so we decided to go get some coffees. we went back to shadowbrook to sit by the fire. by the time we got there the sprinkles had let up but it was still chilly. brian and i still wanted to see it in the daytime though, so we walked down the hill instead of taking the hillevator. it is kind of a steep walk which we knew, because we had walked up the night before after dinner. they have a beautiful herb garden, which would be heaven to me. i would love to have an herb garden like that, but i don't have that kind of backyard space.


after enjoying our coffee we made our way to our respective homes. i think i missed every turnoff that i was supposed to take and we had to turn around and go back a couple times. fortunately we were feeling relaxed and generous from our weekend so it just ended up being an adventure and not a frustration. i guess that is pregnant brain for you, not noticing where you are going until you are passing your exit.


all in all, that was the best birthday of mil's that i have ever had, and i hope she has a lot more.

t.g.i.f.

this has been the week from h3ll. why oh why are there weeks like that? why me? why us? we have been slogging on through the messes and all i can think is thank heaven i get to sleep in tomorrow.

monday night the bank deposited my paycheck into the wrong account. we did not discover it until tuesday when i checked online and found my account $330 overdrawn.

wednesday evening we came home from work to find water all over the kitchen floor, apparently from the dishwasher having been run earlier in the day.

brian has had a h3llish week at work, even more stress than usual.

last night, at 10pm, a server/processor banged (not knocked - banged) on our front door to serve us a summons for a bad debt. only, they didn't want to serve us but rather the previous owners, who have not lived in our house since at least early march. these debt collectors have harassed us before and apparently do not understand that these people don't live here anymore. they also don't like to do their homework, as we have advised them numerous times that if they check the county records they will see that the house was sold to us and we have an owner-occupied property tax exemption because we're not renting our house to the previous owners. the repo man has showed up a couple of times to repossess their car, even though we continue to tell them that the people they are looking for are not here and we don't know who they are or where they might be. (obviously, these people were not good at paying their bills, since their house was foreclosed on.) last night the processor actually left the summons on our doorstep because he was apparently "required" to leave it at the house. i want to mail it back to the collection agency it came from but i don't want to pay for it. how do you send something c.o.d.? and why does my husband have to deal with this at 10pm??

(because he is my wonderful hero and tries to protect me, and doesn't want me dealing with strangers at our house at night - not that i blame him!)

i am so thankful that we will be here this weekend. we are spending the weekend away with mil for her birthday, and i think after this week we could really use a change of scenery.

today i am thankful

1. that in some small way, i can (usually) make my husband's day better. tuesday was a stressful crap day for him at work, and he was cranky and irritated when he came home, but i had fresh crab for dinner and that made his evening. yesterday was another stressful day, and i was able to give him a little massage and make him a yummy dinner, and i think he was able to relax. i'm certainly far from the perfect wife, and it's not all sunshine and roses, but i'd like to think that coming home at night is not as stressful for him as leaving in the morning is.

2. for answered prayers, even when my faith is weak.

3. for my family, who are coming to our home for christmas this year. (our first christmas in the new house!) i am especially thankful in that by my age, who hasn't lost someone? my grandparents are 83 and 90 and still going strong, which is just amazing to me. i have not lost anyone. it is amazing and a blessing.

a bit out of practice, apparently.

the other thing i did this weekend while kerry was here was make a batch of soap. i also made another last night, and if not for the fact that i ran out of olive and coconut oils, i would make a third tomorrow night. my mother requested soap for christmas because she bought some that gave her a horrible rash and mine do not. nice.

kerry also got a brief lesson on soapmaking. here it is: soap is made through a chemical reaction called saponification, in which weak fatty acids are turned to soap in the presence of a strong base. oil (olive, coconut, canola, corn, shea butter, whatever) is made of weak fatty acids. lye (NaOH) is that strong base. just like fight club. which, by the way, has that fabulous line: "we were selling rich women their own fat a$$es back to them." what a great movie.

soap is uber-easy to make. i use the cold-process method: melt all your oils together, mix the NaOH with water, let it all cool to about the same temperature (about 115º), and mix the two together. stir stir stir (i use a stick blender) until it becomes about the consistency of cream soup. this point is called trace, and when soap traces then it is time to add all the special things. herbs, essential oils, colorants, etc. then you pour it into a mold - you can use anything. i use a wooden slab mold with a silicone liner from upland which i absolutely love (it prescores the bars for easy cutting) but in the past i have used pringles cans, tupperwares, shoeboxes, muffin tins, you name it.

when soap goes in the mold it is only about 60-70% saponified, which means there is some unreacted oil and unreacted NaOH floating around. the mold needs to be insulated, because the saponification process is an exothermic reaction (meaning it gives off heat - remember high school chemistry?) and that heat needs to be conserved to continue the reaction so the soap is fully saponified. so you wrap the mold with towels and put it in a warm (or not cold) place. my wooden mold is actually a great insulator so i don't have to insulate; i just pop the mold in the oven (off) after i've warmed it a little. let it sit for about 2 days and then pop it out of the mold, cut into bars, and let it cure for 4-6 weeks to allow the water weight to dry from the bars. curing is not 100% necessary but it helps give the bar a nicer feel and it doesn't dissolve as fast in the shower.

the tricky part comes when working with the additives, usually. herbs and things like oatmeal are not too much of a problem because they don't react with anything. they just kind of hang out and look pretty and act all nice and exfoliating in the shower. nor are colorants much of a problem; you either mix them in thoroughly for even color or not so much for a swirly look. the thing to watch out most for is the things that will react: milk, honey, and especially essential and fragrance oils. milk and honey will increase the temperature of the reaction; milk also discolors tan to brown, depending on the quantity and when it's added.

most eo's and fo's are relatively stable, but some are not so much. some you have to be very careful with because they have a low flash point. (not so much of a problem in cold-process soap, since the temperatures are lower; in other methods it can be.) others - namely the musk i used in conjunction with other scents last night - can have a tendency to accelerate trace, which means your soap gets very gloppy very quickly and is hard to work with.

and here is the crux of this very long, very involved post: i completely forgot last night to check if any of my scents acted funny. usually i know how they will behave, but this one i don't use very often and completely forgot about. my soap got so gloppy so quickly that i could barely get it out of the pot and into the mold. and then i checked bramble berry's website and read this: "this fragrance accelerates trace in a dramatic fashion. do not water discount with this fragrance and be prepared to work quickly with the fragrance."

oops.

i'll post photos soon, because the one i did on sunday turned out really pretty, and i really like it.