Does anyone out there need an old, but perfectly good boombox? Our spring cleaning turned up a few things we’re ready to get rid of, and this boombox, my very first CD player ever, is one of them. It’s actually a CD/radio/tape player, so it has that retro feel. It’s pretty big, about 2 feet long. You can comment or email me if you want it, otherwise, it’s going to Goodwill…
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I love my shoes
Now, I love my job, but after five or six hours of standing on hard tiled floors, I was coming home with an achy lower back and tired feet. I had been wearing my Nike Shox, and I figured they would do the job, but not so. By Saturday afternoon, I sounded like I was 40 years older than I am…every time I bent over or sat down or got up, I would “ooooh” or “umph.”
So Saturday evening I went shopping for shoes. I really wanted a pair of Pony 400ms, but I knew they wouldn’t solve the problem. Same for the Pumas, Diesels, and Steve Maddens (but oh how cute they are!). I decided to look past fashion and go for comfort. (Who ever heard of such a thing?)
Maybe I looked waaaaay past fashion…I present to you…my Crocs. I love my Crocs. At first glance, they may seem…well…hideous. But they sort of grow on you. They’re super comfortable and ultra-light (they only weigh a few ounces), and after a little research, I found out that they’re slip resistant and anti-microbial (no smelly feet!). They have massaging little squishies on the soles, and holes on top for ventilation. I looked at the grey, brown, and black ones, since they were a little less unusual, but another woman who was also shopping for Crocs made an excellent point when she said, “They’re crazy shoes! You’ve gotta get a crazy color!” I thought this was very true. There’s no hiding this shoe’s funkiness. So I picked orange. (Although I am thinking of getting a black pair to wear around town…)
You’ve gotta try them! Even if you hate how they look, you just have to feel the little squishies under your feet. I’m still cooking five or six hours a day, but no backaches, no tired feet, no “umphs.” Well, maybe my feet are a little tired (wouldn’t want to convince Justin I never need a foot massage)…
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My love-hate relationship with my computer
Just a post to say…I hate computers! I just wrote up a whole blog with several links and a photo and everything, but somehow it’s gone, not saved, nowhere to be found. So you all have to wait to read another exciting post until I have the patience to try it again.
Ugh. Computers. I think I’ll surf the web now.
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Saveur Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival
Two whole days of gluttony on the shores of Town Lake…what more could you ask for? Justin, Leti and I rode our bikes to the festival on Saturday, and spent the first part of the day getting oriented. There was so much to see, hear, and eat!The music stage boasted bands such as Fastball, South Austin Jug Band, Kelly Willis, and The Gourds, and next to it, the Central Market Cooking Stage hosted chefs from Central Market doing cooking demos. The biggest stage was the Saveur stage, on which Wolfgang Puck, Tyler Florence, and Todd English showed their stuff. The Flavors of Texas tent offered cooking demos from local chefs as well as wine tastings from local wineries. There was a book-signing tent where the celebrities could hang out and meet fans, and booths from Starbucks, Central Market, and Stubbs offering snacks or meals (although Starbucks was the coolest, because they gave away free cups of Frappuccinos and lemonades). The Gathering of Wagons area was hosted by the Texas Beef Council, and offered dishes from local chefs featuring…you guessed it…beef. And finally, The Big Taste was a huge row of tents housing vendors, restaurants, and wineries that gave out samples of their wares.
Saturday afternoon we watched a short demo from the chef/owner of La Traviata (the Italian restaurant we took my niece Kourtney to on her 14th birthday). She showed how to make her Bolognese sauce, which she uses in her lasagna at the restaurant. We got to sample some, and it was sooooo good! It takes 8 hours to cook, and includes veal, pork, beef, and bacon, so I doubt we’ll be cooking it any time soon, but we’ll definitely be visiting La Traviata again. We also sampled a wine from Grape Creek Vineyard, and though I can’t remember which one it was, it was pretty good (meaning I didn’t wrinkle my nose too much).
We checked out the beef section, and tasted chili, sausage, barbecue, and short ribs. We made our way to the Big Taste, and sampled chocolate silk pie and key lime pie from Dave and Busters, kettle corn, pheasant terrine (yuck), chocolate dipped strawberries, focaccia, a Columbian soup from Dona Emilia’s (we are sooo going there soon), smoked salmon, onion jam, Thai noodles, iced coffee, hibiscus lemonade, numerous wines, and lots of other things I can’t remember. Afterward, we were stuffed, so we sat down to listen to Kelly Willis for a bit before riding back home.
Sunday was a little more relaxing. We got to the festival a little earlier and staked out great seats in the Saveur tent. First was Wolfgang Puck, cooking up his Mongolian Lamb from his restaurant, Chinois. He was very entertaining, told a lot of jokes, and seemed like a nice guy. The lamb (pictured above) was sooo good. Yes I ate lamb. Yes I ate Leti’s, too.
Next up was a showdown between two celebrity chef/local hero teams. On one side was Tyler Florence and Mayor Will Wynn. On the other was David Bull (chef at the Driskill) and Ray Benson. The two chefs got a basket of goodies they had to use to come up with a couple of dishes in about 30 minutes. There was a lot of cheating, a lot of trash-talking, and a whole lot of fun going on. Although Tyler Florence definitely was a crowd-pleaser, it was David Bull’s team that won the showdown.
We stayed to watch Claudine Pepin and her husband, Roland Wesin (chef at Rivers Restaurant in Portland, Oregon) create potato blini with apple compote and cured salmon. They were fun to watch, but the sample was just so-so.
After this, we headed back to the Big Taste for more chocolate silk pie, plus bacon-wrapped shrimp from the Oasis, scrumptious dark chocolate-chambord fondue with pound cake, brownies, and strawberries from the Melting Pot (another place we want to visit), more kettle corn, sticky toffee pudding, and a few other things that again, I can’t remember. We stopped at the beef spot again to taste sausage, then sat down to watch the Gourds belt out some tunes.
All in all, the festival was a lot of fun, and I’ll know next time to stick to the Saveur tent for well-planned, entertaining demos. I’ll also wear sunscreen.
Most of the food was great, some of it was not so great, and I’m guessing a lot of the wines were good (but since I’m not a wine-drinker, I can’t say for sure). I ate so many animals this weekend, but I did say little prayers for them and tried not to waste a bit of them. Which probably explains my stomach ache on Sunday night…
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A day in the life of a happy person
Yesterday I rode my bike to the bed and breakfast, to see whether it would be do-able for me. I was there in 15 minutes. How cool is that? It was a great ride, too…it’s still not excruciatingly hot outside, so it was nice and cool, and the breeze was perfect. On the way back, I stopped to snap this picture.
So what goes on during a normal workday for a bed and breakfast cook? Well, let me tell you. You get up early. Very early. You drive (or bike) to work, alone on the roads, excited about cooking and chopping and serving and creating. You walk through the gate of a gorgeous property, punch in the access code on the door of a beautiful home, and step onto the hardwood floors. At this point, you look around you, grateful for the series of strange events that brought you here. You walk into the kitchen, flip the switch, put away your things, and slip on an apron.
Breakfast is served at 7:30, so you have a little over an hour to get things done. You preheat the oven, set out the newspaper, turn on the hot plate and the water for tea, check the coffee pot, and get to cooking. First comes the bacon…thick, perfectly marbled slabs of meat, laying side by side on a professional baking sheet. Then the hot foods…maybe a raspberry-stuffed French toast or a quiche that was prepared the day before and just needs to be popped in the oven. You set out yogurt, butter, cream cheese, milk, juice, water, bagels, English muffins, cream for the coffee, and jellies. You slice up fruit and arrange a fruit plate, and set it on the buffet. You check on the bacon and oven foods, and maybe start preparing banana-pecan pancakes or almond crepes. You heat up the syrup, check everything again, and set out the hot items.
As the guests walk in to the dining room, quiet and thoughtful with morning dreaminess, you greet them and point them toward the buffet. You go back to the kitchen to clean up and start preparations for the next day. Maybe you saute vegetables for a quiche, or maybe you slice French bread for a baked French toast. You might make a few batches of cookie dough, or bake a few to set out on the mantle for afternoon snacks. Throughout all of this, you check on the guests, clear away plates, and replenish anything that has been gobbled up. At the end of the breakfast service, you clear away everything, put the food away, sneak in snack of the remnants of quiche, French toast, or crepes, and clean, clean, clean. By noon, you’re done, breakfast for tomorrow is probably already prepped, and freshly baked cookies (maybe chocolate chip, maybe peanut-chocolate, maybe toffee-oatmeal) are on the mantle.
You walk out the door into the sunshine, smile, and hop back in your car (or on your bike) for a quick ride home to a nice hot shower. By this time, it’s time for lunch, and you have the rest of the day to research recipes, read a book, clean the house, or maybe write up a blog.
It’s funny to me that some of you may read this and know that you would never want to wake up early, cook and clean, and come home smelling like bacon. But I’ve dreamed of this forever, and now that I’m here, it’s as perfect as spring flowers.