College football is my favorite season...

...and it begins tomorrow! I am so excited I can hardly contain it. A few years back Matt bought a "vintage" Cal shirt with Oski Wow-Wow on it. he use to wear it on the Friday before games. Because its grey and not blue he never wore it to games. But, despite the shirt's color pitfalls, it does make the perfect Friday before the game shirt. And to be quite honest, I was always really jealous when our comrades, with pitchers of Beat the Clock beer in them, would compliment Matt.

Today marks the first Friday before a Cal game of the 2010 season, so imagine my surprise this morning when Matt mentioned that he had no idea of what to wear. Dumbfounded I asked, what about Oski Wow-Wow? That's when he reminded me of the tragedy that started to occur last season. You see, each Friday the shirt was getting snugger and snugger (not because Matt was getting bigger, the shirt was just shrinking and he wasn't shrinking with it). Even though he knew what the outcome would be,he tried the shirt on this AM with hopes of some sort of miracle that would deem the fit socially acceptable. And it was! If Matt was an 18 year old female college coed in a wet t-shirt contest during spring break.

Because, in Matt's eyes, I only weigh 20 lbs less than him, the next logical thing to do was try it on myself to see if it fit. And it did! And I don't even look like I'm trying out for a wet t-shirt contest! So, I am now left to carry on the tradition (until he buys a new one in a bigger size so that we have yet another thing we have to worry about making us look like twins). And while I may not get to fill myself full of 5 dollar pitchers before 5, I still have just as much Cal spirit and excitement for tomorrow's game.

GO BEARS, BEAT THE AGGIES!

p.s. don't worry about Matt, his new tradition is this really ugly pair of blue and gold argyle socks he accidently bought from J. Crew and has been saving for today.

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If you ever read a post about what we cook...

...you know that it most likely involved garlic (except our Indian Taco Truck Burritos). Well, this weekend is the Gilroy Garlic Festival! So this afternoon Matt and I will be driving down to Gilroy (yipee for driving half of your daily commute on the weekend!) to partake in the festival. Even though both of us grew up fairly close to the festival, neither of us has ever been. But I know for one thing, if Gilroy knows anything thing, they know garlic! There was nothing better to put a smile on my face when I was having to drive up to Burlingame than to drive through Gilroy and smell the garlic...mmm...

I was wearing a brown shirt...

... on Saturday when I was leaving to go get my hair cut. I had just gotten back from the gym, and was rushing to shower before the appointment. When I left (with my brown shirt on) Matt was still at home. When I got back (still wearing my brown shirt) Matt wasn't home. About 10 minutes later, he returned from the gym and took a shower. I didn't pay much attention to him. Awhile later, after the shower had been off for about 15 minutes I got up to go talk to him. That's when I saw it, he was wearing a brown shirt! Whatever right? Except his brown shirt was the exact same brown as mine! Not wanting to be one of *those* couples (our pants were a pretty similar shade as well) one of us was going to have to change. And some how it was decided that I, the one who had been wearing her brown shirt for 3 hours, who had already been out in public, was going to have to be the one who changed.

It wouldn't have been that bad if this had been the first time it's happened, but no, it's happened before, and not with the brown shirt! You see, we both have gray chords, and one casual Friday when I was living in PG I wore them to work. That night Matt shows up at my door wearing his! And once again they are wayyyy too close in color to safely be worn out in public by a dating couple, so once again I had to change (that time under the pretense that it was my apartment so I had more to choose from).

In all, I just want to wear my clothes without the risk of being matchy-matchy with Matt!

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Today I ordered a Southwest burger...

...but ended up with a blue cheese burger. Eh. The blue cheese burger was good, but when you are thinking of all that jack, bacon, guacamole, excellence all combined in your mouth, it falls short. I know I could have sent it back, but it was crowded and I would have felt weird. It got me thinking though, when is it appropriate to send things back? I mean, they were in the wrong. I clearly (read with an emphasis on the 'ear') ordered the Southwest burger, they even said "Southwest burger?" when they brought it to us, but once I bit in I knew they were wrong. Of course, if I were allergic, hated, or had some other extreme reason as to why I shouldn't eat what is in front of me I would say something. But usually once it's in front of me I leave it be. I don't send back steak that is under cooked (and never over cooked, I mean, what could they do with that?) but I know I have the right to. And I also know that I should. If I don't, what is to prevent that from happening again?

I think about this in comparison to my job. Customers request something from me and I provide it to them. If I don't provide them exactly what they requested they would 'send it back' (this of course ignores the fact that I would not have a job if I didn't give the customers what they wanted...but go with me on this one.) So why don't I ever send food back?

Or, light bulb moment!, if I ordered something online and they sent me the wrong thing, guess what I would do? Yup, I'd send it back! But again, not with the food.

Anyways, I think the reason is two-fold. The first being that I don't want to wait any longer. I waited to get seated, I waited to order my drink, I waited for my drink, I waited to order my food, and I waited for my food. The last thing I want to do is wait for the waiter (ha, pun!) to come by and ask how my food is so that I can complain that it wasn't right and send it back. Do you know what that would get me? More of a wait! And besides, I hate eating alone, so that would provide some awkward time where my company has their food and we're waiting for my food to be corrected.

The second reason is that it is such a waste of food. I know that once that food has touched my table it isn't getting placed anywhere besides the garbage. I learned this at a Red Robin at a young age (this is also the time I learned that you could not sit at the bar unless you were over 21, NO MATTER WHAT even if you are 8 and with both of your parents, who I might add, were over 21). We ordered our food around the same time the table behind us did. The waiter came out with the food, put it on our table and then realized it was actually the other tables order. The waiter picked up the food, took it over to the table, and my God, that father at the other table had a hissy fit because "THAT FOOD TOUCHED THEIR TABLE AND THIS IS UNSANITARY!". Anyways, I don't know the validity of that, but ever since then I imagine that they are going to throw away my untouched burger before considering giving it to the homeless man behind the dumpster.

And that is another thing I don't understand, I mean the guy is just going to dig through the dumpster later to get it, so why not be nice and give it to him before, oh say, it doesn't sit in a pile of garbage. Some of you might think that this is an ignorant statement, and I am generalizing the homeless population and ignoring the true issues at hand, but truth be told, I've witnessed this happening more times than not. I have seen countless homeless people dig through trashcans in Berkeley and pull from them discarded to-go containers only to precede to  eat the contents. So yes this happens, yes its bad, and that is why I am saying that if I knew this discarded, incorrectly placed on my table, burger would go to a homeless person I wouldn't feel as bad about sending it back. But it doesn't, so I eat it.

So there you have it. My unprofessional assessment of why I don't send my food back.

Completely unrelated, halfway through this post Maddie came by and demanded my attention. I think she wanted me to mention her on this blog that is suppose to be about a girl and her cat. So as I promised her, here is her shout out!

This is she...

...or I am her? I have an appointment to get my hair cut on Saturday. They called me today to remind me about my appointment. This usually never happens because I hardly ever get my hair cut. Ever since I left Santa Rosa, and thus left Marsha as my stylist, I've had such a hard time bringing myself to do anything with my hair. Well maybe it's not so much that I don't trust others to cut my hair (highlighting is a different story which is why I am now a half and half swirl) but more so that mommy doesn't pay any more :-). This would also explain why I only ever really get my hair cut on vacation...hmm...

Anyways, back on track. Today the salon called to confirm my appointment for 10:45 on Saturday. They asked for Miranda. I don't even remember what I said, but it got me thinking. When I am at work I always answer the phone "Hello, this is Miranda". It's suppose to be "Company Name, this is Miranda" but because I don't know the difference between my internal and external ringers, it just feels silly to answer an internal call (which a majority of mine are, by the way) with "Company Name, this is Miranda", so I stick to a simple "Hello, this is Miranda." I mean, really I even feel silly with the whole "this is Miranda" thing, because they are calling me, at my extension, so they should know who I am. And besides, we have a switch board which 1. confirms I don't need "Company Name" in my greeting, because the switch board already says that, and 2. I don't need my name because the caller either needs to ask for my extension or for me directly by name. The only time they wouldn't know my name is if they had the wrong extension, and thus weren't trying to get a hold of me anyways, or they are internal and dialed the wrong extension. But whatever, these decisions are not up to me, and I was told that no matter what, at the least I need to answer with "Hello, this is Miranda" so that is what I do.

But not on my personal phone! Never! I would feel so silly saying "Hello, this is Miranda" when I pick up my cell phone. I mean come on. So on these rare occasions when someone calls about confirming an appointment or whatever and asks for Miranda I never know how to respond. Do I say, 'This is her." or do I say, "I am she"? I think I tend more towards the "This is her," but there is something weird about seeing it typed out because I realize that the whole "This is her" this is in the third person. I don't usually talk about myself in the third person.

So there you have it. This is what was running through my head as I bobbed up and down on the elliptical this evening.

And so it begins...

...again, and about 3 months late. I believe my last post was about packing, but yet I never posted about the reults. Rest asured blog readers (mom and Matt) that I did finish packing, moving, and unpacking. Although I'm pretty certain you were aware of that.

In other news, this is a pretty substantual-less blog, nothing of importance other than announcing my return (most likely followed by my recurring absence). On a positive for this blog note however, I do have a blogger app for my Evo 4G so maybe I'll be posting more during my non-driving days in carpool. That also means posts riddled with huge spelling and grammatical errors...

Maybe I'll be back later to catch up on the back log of posts. But then again, maybe not.

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I'm embrassed to say...

...that I just packed up the last of my food. The other night I cleaned out the refrigerator which was pretty nasty, and the only edible food left was:

1. Frozen Amy's Cheese Enchiladas (my dinner for that night)
2. Maple Syrup
3. 5 beers (an assortment left over from our $8 Trader Joe's grab bag)
4. 1 club soda
5. 3 tonic waters
6. 1 water purifier (with no water in it and an expired filter)

You might notice the only food in there was my frozen enchilada dinner for that night...sad. Today I finished packing my pantry food, here is what wasn't stale or expired:

1. Brown sugar
2. Powdered sugar
3. Pastry flour
4. Dried coconut
5. Vegetable oil
6. Vanilla extract
7. Baking powder
8. 1 can of green beans
9. 1 packet of instant oatmeal
10. Olive oil
11. Sea salt
12. Course salt in salt grinder
13. Pepper in a pepper grinder
14. Saffron

And last but not least, the bag of pretzels I am eating while taking a break from the ever ending things that need to be packed in my kitchen.

Oh, don't worry...TOMORROW IS MOVING DAY!

Today was to mark day 10...

...of my Amish friendship bread. After my co-worker made the bread twice, she offered one of the starters to me. I was really excited because the breads she had brought in were really good, but my bread was doomed from the start.

Let me first point out that I am a bit grossed out by the Amish friendship bread starters. I mean, there is milk in there, and it's not even suppose to be refrigerated? But like I said, the co-worker's was really good and I hadn't gotten sick so I got over it. On day 6 you are suppose to add a cup of flour, a cup of milk and a cup of sugar. I was happy because for once I had milk in the refrigerator, but I soon realized I was a bit screwed. You see, after I added the milk and the flour I started to measure out the sugar, and what did I have but only half the required amount. Thinking I am being sly, I figure what the heck I'll make up the difference with brown sugar...

...I don't know how this would have effected the bread because I ended up throwing the starter away. See, this was my weekend to drive up and visit Matt, so I needed to bring my starter with me. Being the brilliant Cal graduate that I am, I decided that the starter would be fine sitting in my car parked in sun for 8 hours. By the time I got up to Burlingame Matt questioned the validity of the starter. Starting to see his point, I decided to smell the starter. Clearly something was off, and since we will be moving in less than a week I didn't want to risk us getting sick off of it. Actually, I didn't want to risk other people getting sick off of it and to think I have absolutely no cooking credibility.

At least I can get another one at work tomorrow. And this time, I wont leave it in the sun.

By the time we got back from Santa Cruz...

...we were sun burnt and tired, but still not hungry due to those breakfast burritos. Because it was so warm that day we came home and enjoyed a nice glass of Pimm's No. 1 and 7-up. Over our Pimm's we discussed what we wanted for dinner. We knew we didn't want anything too heavy, but sushi was out because of how expensive it can get. After looking through Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's nothing caught our eye. Then one of us (I'd like to take the credit for the idea) had the idea to make Indian Taco Truck Burritos.

The Indian Taco Truck Burrito comes from Curry Up Now that Matt and I frequent in Burlingame. These burritos are the best Indian Taco Truck Burritos I've ever had (granted, they are also the only Indian Taco Truck Burritos I've ever had, but I think that nothing will ever compare.) Thinking back, it's because of this that our meal was doomed to fail.

We spent quite awhile in Trader Joe's looking for the perfect contents of our burrito. We settled on the yellow curry chicken, some frozen rice, some frozen chaana masala, whole wheat wraps and vegetable samosas. Here are all the ingredients in their glory.

 

Now, the burritos weren't that bad. In fact, the chicken and the channa masla were good (but not taco truck good) and complemented each other really nicely. The problem was the rice. The picture on the bag and the contents of the bag didn't really align. Most concerning was the color. See what I mean? That's not a normal curry color...

  

It's not so much that I judge my food on the color. I am all about giving my food the benefit of the doubt, but the flavor wasn't right either. The rice had apple and raisins in it, which we thought had the potential to combat some of the spiciness of the chicken and chaana, but that wasn't the case. Over all, the rice had a really weak flavor and was the weak link in our burritos.

Here's the chicken. We used our grill pan to grill it, and it only took a few minutes on each side to be cooked thoroughly. We had so much chicken (remember, we weren't even that hungry to begin with) that we saved some for lunch on Sunday. The chicken still had good flavor the next day.

 

 

Once all was said an done we constructed our burritos. At least they photograph nicely!

 

I think that we will probably make these again, but next time figure out an alternative for the rice. And as for the vegetable samosas? They held their own! 

Now off to pack. On the packing agenda for tonight? Getting rid of all those stupid mailers and other pieces of random papers that have accumulated over the last 10 months as well as boxing up all those little odds and ends that I have.

Oh, and what's a cooking post without Maddie meowing? Well, here you go!

I don't actually know if it's windy in Kansas...

...but today I feel like I am there. It's really windy here today. Windy and stormy. It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Last night I was on the brink of sleep, that period where you are still semi-conscious but really only ever know it if something startles you out of it, when it started hailing. I seriously thought that my little concrete apartment was under attack, and that the window above my bed was going to shatter. Then I realized what was going on, snuggled Maddie a little closer, and went on my merry way to sleep land.

This weekend Matt and I went to Santa Cruz to hang out. Neither of us had been there in a long time and since the weather was suppose to be nice we thought why not? And the weather was nice. Too nice almost. We both got burnt. Which made me think of peeling tomatoes.

It's weird how one day (Saturday) can be the warmest day in months, and not four days later (Tuesday) it's hailing. I am usually a big proponent of the winter and the weather that it brings, but even I get sick of the wet after awhile. And besides, when it's cold all I want to do is cuddle up and craft, not take out the garbage and recycling that is generated from packing. And so here I am reminiscing about four days ago, wondering if it will ever be possible for me to get sun burned again.

We started our morning off by going to First Awakenings in Pacific Grove, right off of Cannery Row. It's actually in the Tin Cannery, who would have thought it!? For those of you who don't know, the Tin Cannery is an outlet 'mall' in PG/Monterey that use to be, well, a tin cannery. I use the term 'mall' loosely however because the Tin Cannery has a Sock Company, Rebook Outlet, an Izod and a candy store. There is also a boxing gym and glow-in-the-dark mini golf. Exciting right? Back on track... Matt and I both got breakfast burritos (his chorizo, mine bacon, ham and sausage), coffee and orange juice. Tasty.

Afterward, we headed back up to downtown PG where the Kelley-Moore Paints is. Our new landlords let us know the color of our living room wall (head for the beach) and we were looking for the paint chip so that we could find other paint chips that complement it. We found a few and headed on towards Santa Cruz.

When we got to Santa Cruz we magically found downtown (Matt doesn't believe in GPS) and walked around for awhile. It made me really miss Berkeley. We found a local Whole Foods type of store where we bought Maddie an organic catnip carrot. Her favorite toys are her banana and her lion head and this new toy is the combination of what we think she likes most about them (shape of the banana, color of the lion head.)

After we finished exploring the downtown area we decided to go find the Boardwalk. We dove down the street, and when we realized how close we had been parked to the Boardwalk we drove back to our parking spot and decided to walk. We walked along the Pier and then along the beach. It was lovely. Matt forgot his camera in the car.

While we were walking along the beach we had seen some cool looking houses off in the distance, and so our next destination was to find them. Too bad we hit traffic. So we changed our plan and ended up on Hwy 1 North where we found the tiny town of Davenport. Davenport was really tiny (my guess smaller than Minkler) but they had this one place described as 'Bakery, Bar and Grill'. Since we had massive breakfast burritos for breakfast we weren't hungry and we just used Davenport as a turn around so we could start back South. I now wish we'd stopped.

We got back to Santa Cruz and I wasn't ready to go home. I saw a sign for the University of Santa Cruz campus and so I asked Matt if we could go see it. As we were driving we saw signs advertising a plant sell put on by the arboretum. Finally we remembered the camera.

Here I am with my lovely sunburn. And some plants I liked. Matt thought they looked like weeds.

 

And here I am with the view from the plant sell parking lot. It's pretty amazing.

Yes, that's the water in the distance, running into the skyline.

That's enough reminiscing for now, stay tuned for our adventure home! And now I am off to go pack box number 2...and ponder how the wind was strong enough to pick up Dorothy on her bike, but not to blow Toto out of the basket...

When did this blog become...

...about Matt? Finally the webmaster tool got its act together and gave me the list of my true top keywords...not just a list of the most commonly used HTML on my site. And my top key word? Matt. What!? This was suppose to be about cats, cupcakes and crafts. Not Matt! Matt doesn't even like crafts! I have to bribe him  with coffee to even get him to consider going to the craft store. Luckily for me, once we move to Mountain View (16 days!) there is a fabric store in the same shopping center as Trader Joe's, BevMo, and Target (plus a Walmart and a load more of other useful stores.)

Back to the move. Sixteen days and I.CANNOT.WAIT! Not only will I get to live with both Matt and Maddie again, but the list of things to do is endless. Here's a preview:

1. Garden crafts. We recently bought a book on herbs, and it has many creative ways to pot the plants. Currently in the works: re-purposing a basil olive oil tin into a lemon basil planter.
2. Chalk board crafts. Since our landlords are letting us paint the apartment, I really wanted to paint a strip of the wall -- in what will be the office -- with chalk board paint (especially since I found a recipe to create our own!) However, we don't really know how this kind of paint will act if it needs to get painted over, and since we don't own the place, we decided it would be best if I just paint some wood or metal and hang it. We are thinking white chalkboard with black/colored chalk.
3. Cooking and baking. My kitchen will be stocked with everything I could possibly dream of so that I can cook and bake my heart out. Now I only need to make friends to share it with... 
4. Sewing classes. I saw that there is a quilting and sewing store in Sunnyvale. I looked it up and they have sewing classes! Of course I'll probably be in the class with the 12 year olds, but who cares. Maybe their moms will want to be my friend. Or maybe they will just befriend me so that I babysit. Either way, at least I'll have someone besides Matt to share my food with.

Maybe with all these new activities I can finally stop talking about Matt in my blog and some more relevant word (or at least Maddie) will claim that top keyword spot. Now off to pack so that I can actually move come the day!

Theme parties are always popular...

...among the college crowd. We once had a party whose theme was 'Shaken not Stirred' where you were to either come as your favorite 007 character, or your favorite drink. I chose to go as a margarita, not because it was my favorite drink, but rather because I had a brilliant idea for a costume, or so I thought. I was wrapped in Saran-Wrap (the green kind) with a long strand of fake pearls around the top. Viola. Upon further review, I should have gone as Bond. And then maybe I also wouldn't have to pay taxes...

Anyways, I thought about this the other night when we had White Russians after dinner. You see, a couple of girls went to this party as a White Russian as a nod to their heritage (or because it was easy.) Matt and I both enjoy White Russians, but usually tend to drink Black Russians due to a lack of having heavy cream on hand. But alas Matt made lobster raviolis in a vodka cream sauce (Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's) earlier that week and had heavy cream left.

The recipe we used came from Esquire Drinks Database. We don't use Kahlua but rather Borghetti (we use to the Starbuck's Coffee Liqueur but have not been able to find it lately so we had to venture to BevMo to find a suitable alternative.) This particular night we decided to add both vanilla extract and ground cinnamon to the drink. We topped them off with some finely ground coffee beans.

 

I like how they turned out. Matt thought they could do with either the cinnamon or vanilla, but not both. Regardless, paired with Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Cookie and Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwhiches it made a nice end to a nice day.

We got a slow start...

...on Saturday. I was in Burlingame and we had big plans to have croissant sandwiches for breakfast before heading over to Ikea to start of list of things to get for the new apartment in 3 weeks. We didn't wake up until 9:30, and by the time the coffee and breakfast sandwiches were made and consumed, it was almost 10:30. I was off my game that morning and wasn't really in the mood to try to plan that night's meal. That, and I was preoccupied handling raw bacon. Because of this, after breakfast we decided to look for a recipe together. It's been awhile since we've used the crock-pot so we decided to head over to crockpot365 to find a recipe. We settled on the John McCain Rib Recipe. To complete the meal, we decided to make the iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing from Ad Hoc at Home. Besides, we still had a lot of  bacon in the fridge.

While the cast iron skillet was being seasoned with bacon grease in the oven, we headed over to Mollie Stone's where we got 2.22 lbs of beef back ribs, a young (at least little) head of iceberg lettuce, 4 plum tomatoes, and sadly, croutons and bottled salad dressing. You see the Ad Hoc recipe has you making your own dressing, however we just weren't in the mood to buy all of the extra ingredients, especially so close to the move. The recipe also calls for homemade brioche croutons, but after looking at both Mollie Stones and Copenhagen Bakery we couldn't find brioche buns and gave up. I guess that's why Ad Hoc also has you make your own brioche...

When we got back to Matt's apartment he started working on the dry rub. The only modification (besides the adjustments for the amount of meat we had) was to add a bit of red pepper flakes.We forgot that we were low on pepper, and this rub took the pepper to the grave. Here is the dry rub, and the raw rubbed ribs in the crock-pot. Isn't raw meat appealing?

During this I was working on the tomatoes for the salad. They are considered slow roasted tomatoes, baking in a 200 degree oven for 5-6 hours.

I never could have guessed how gross peeled tomatoes would feel.

First, you start by using a paring knife to cut out the core of the tomato. I had to get crafty here (see, I told you this was a craft blog!). Of course the paring knife was in my apartment. I only had an 8-inch chef knife and a chopstick to work with. I had to use the very tip of the chef knife to cut and the chopstick to poke around and scoop out the core. It worked...at least it worked well enough.

 

I never said it looked pretty. After they are cored and scored you put them in boiling water until they start to peel. Transfer them to an ice bath and let cool. Then you get to peel them. This is the really gross part. Two of them were really easy to peel because I had scored them well, the other two not so much. I swear it felt like peeling a sunburn. And I never want to think of my food in relation to dead epidermis. And once I got that thought in my head, I couldn't shake it.

 

Once I got over it and finished peeling (props to Matt he peeled one whole one!) they got sliced in half, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Because we ran out of black pepper in creating the rub, we used lemon pepper. Here they are right before going into the oven, and once we took them out. 

 

Roasting them this way really concentrates the flavor. They can be stored in a container in the fridge for up to a week. The end product is delicious, despite the process of getting there.

 

Since we had 7 hours to kill we eventually made it over to Ikea. And Nordstrom Rack. And Barnes and Noble. And Crate and Barrel. And Williams Sonoma. And Ana's Furniture. And Pottery Barn.

Finally, around 8 o'clock we got to eat dinner. But not before we cooked up our second batch of bacon of the day for the salads. Despite failing with the dressing and croutons, it was still a pretty awesome salad.

 

We completed the meal with  focaccia rolls and Bogle Old Vine. And we both agreed that this was one of the best meals we've made in a long time. Plans are already in the making to use pork ribs with fennel added to the rub.

There is a blue jay in my yard...

...that sits on the fence and taunts poor little Maddie during her outside time. Maddie is an indoor cat who absolutely loves to eat clovers and because I love her, I let her go outside (highly supervised) to eat clovers. Since spring has sprung, the blue jays are out in full force sitting there starring and squawking at Maddie.. It's quite annoying. And Maddie just sits there and chatters at it. I'm sure she would attempt to attack it if I weren't so quick to usher her in once the stare down starts, but really I don't need to deal with a dead bird, or more likely a pecked cat.

Last time I was home my mom was in the middle of re-decorating her bathroom. She had found a craft on a blog that made these little three dimension birds out of scrapbook paper. Needless to say, those things turned out really ugly. That blogger? She must be a paper magician. I felt like I just got fooled into buying something from an infomercial, and all I had to show for it were gluey hands. Anyways, these paper birds were adapted to a fabric version...and were suppose to be easier. So out of curiosity my mom went and found the original fabric pattern...harder my ass! The patter can be found at Spool Sewing.

I must still be learning, because my bird was no where near as cute as the examples on Spool Sewing's sight (so much better than my lame paper one though!)...but it works, especially for my purpose. Because, unlike my mom who wanted her's to decorate, I wanted mine to give to Maddie. I wanted to make a cat toy. And I did. I decided to use some of the leftover fabric from the apron I made for my mom. I used the red fabric for the body and the fortune cookie fabric for the belly.  Unfortunately, the camera is still dead so no pictures of it today. Don't fret though, one day there will be photographic evidence, as I plan to make some more! And I may even include homegrown catnip in those!

But what's a post without a picture? Here's Maddie. She's a cat.

I am not the neatest person...

...and that is why when Matt comes to visit we don't spend much time cooking in my apartment. It also doesn't help that my oven can barely fit a small cookie sheet. And when I say barely I mean that if I put the cookie sheet in length wise, the door just shuts, and the edges of the pan just squeak by without touching the side of the oven. You can only imagine the type of stove that comes along with that...

On those rare occasions when we do decide to cook something in my apartment it's pretty basic. Not only is my stove on the miniature side, Matt got all of our good spices and cookware when we had to split our belongings up (don't feel bad for me, I got the TV and the bed.) This particular day we were both in the mood for a light meal. It was about 4 o'clock on a Sunday, and if you know anything about Pacific Grove then you know that this means any type of cafe or coffee shop where we would get the type of thing we were looking for would be closed (we actually found this out the hard way once which ended with us at McDonald's.) This time around however we decided to go to Trader Joe's. Matt and I love TJ's, it's where most of our weekly supplies come from. They provide a nice balance of ready-made and frozen foods. There aren't a lot of different brands to choose from, but that's O.K with me because I could really care less which of the 15 brands of whole grain rice I end up with.

Wondering though the frozen food section we spotted scallops wrapped in maple glazed bacon (!) and some BBQ chicken skewers. What a perfect combo for a light meal! But something was missing, and those somethings were my beloved carbohydrates. Matt wanted biscuits which I personally though disrupted the flow of the whole 'light meal' thing, and I wasn't providing any better suggestions so we were stumped. That's when we saw the pizza dough. TJ's has 3 types of pizza dough: plain, garlic herb and whole wheat and Matt and I are no strangers to it (stay tuned!) That's when it hit me, we should make bread sticks! So here it is, my guide to making semi-homemade bread sticks, maybe one day we'll actually make the dough:

The thing about TJ's pizza dough is that it's really sticky. To prepare we use a generous amount of flour on our really tiny cutting board (just so you can feel sorry for us, this cutting board is the exact same size as the amount of counter space we had in our Berkeley apartment, I kid you not!) and I flour up my hands so that the dough wont stick to them (learned that the hard way...)

 

After the dough (for these we chose the garlic herb) is finally out of the plastic bag, lay it out on the well floured cutting board. Douse the rolling pin in flour and roll the dough out so that it is the thickness you desire. I have no pictures of the rolling...but I do have a picture of the aftermath. Behold,

 

After the dough is all rolled out, cut it into strips. I decided to use the pizza cutter because it seemed easier than my knife (and it was!)

 

You'll need an even number of strips but i t doesn't really matter if there is an even or odd number after this initial cut because you can always cut one in half and make a smaller stick. It is also a good idea to get the strips you'll be matching to be relatively close in size. Now comes the hard part. I didn't really think through the whole keeping the cheese between the strips while twisting thing, so it took a bit of trial and error to get it to work. What works in the end  is to sprinkle cheese on each piece (we chose the 4 Italian cheese blend.) Since the matching strips are likely next to each other, I pinch the touching sides of the strips together. Then fold one strip over so that the cheese is sandwiched between the two dough strips and pinch all the remaining edges down so there is a little dough pillow filled with cheese. This makes it so much easier to twist the dough. We wanted ours to be extra twisty so that's what we did.

   

Never one to be left out, Maddie wanted to help. Although really, I think she was more hoping for a piece of falling cheese than anything else. That, or she just wanted attention.

 

Once all of the sticks are constructed and twisted to your desired amount of twist, drizzle some olive oil over the sticks. We used a silicon brush to brush the olive oil on. After this sprinkle a bit more cheese on top. No worries if there is extra cheese on the pan, cheese crisps (especially Parmesan!) are delicious, hence why the sprinkling extra cheese on the top.

 

See how tiny that baking sheet is!? That's the size of my whole oven! Now the sticks are ready to be baked. I don't remember what we baked them at, I think it was 350, nor do I remember how long, but I am a firm believer in 'you know your oven so figure it out.' What I will say is, they are done when the tops are golden and the cheese on the outside is crispy but not burnt. They should come out looking like these

  

When all is said and done enjoy your meal!

 

But of course don't forget to share...

 

It should come as no suprise...

... that Matt and I like to make our own coffee. And, no I don't mean drip coffee. Nope, no thank you, not for us. Every morning Matt gets up, scoops an appropriate amount of our whole beans (which are kept in an air tight container, thank you very much) into our Breville BCG450XL Conical Burr Grinder. You see, it's all about the beans. Freshly ground beans makes all the difference. We chose the burr grinder because it grinds the beans much more evenly.  While all this is going on, purified water is boiling in our old percolator. I don't really think there is a reason behind us using the percolator to boil water (compared to say, I don't know, a pot and stove) except for the fact that's how we used to make coffee, and when we graduated to the French press, Matt was living in his fraternity house and didn't have easy access to the stove? Or because we are never ones to let something go to waste and it's a lot easier to pour the water into the press from the percolator spout? I don't know, not my deal. When all is said and done, the ground beans go into the press, water is poured on top, etc. etc. etc. Of course, there is technique to it all, but that's kinda like grandma's super secret recipe. I'm not going to share. Actually, I can't share because it's more like Matt's super secret recipe.

Back to the topic at hand though. Throughout our relationship our coffee brewing techniques have evolved. First there was the percolator, then came the French press, and now introducing the Moka pot! I have to admit that for the longest time I thought it was a 'mocha pot' but I shortly realized my bad. For awhile we've wanted to make our own lattes, espressos, cappuccinos, etc. but didn't want to shell out the money for an at home barista set. And honestly, we didn't even really want one because they seem to be way more work than benefit, and the espresso, is it even that good? So after doing some research Matt settled for the Moka pot (which doesn't exactly produce espresso, but something very similar.)

We are still getting use to the Moka pot. We are having a hard time getting our stove and the Moka pot to work together -- the water heats up either too quickly or way too slowly. But we're getting there. Another issue we've run into is we opted for the larger pot because we figured with all those dinner parties we are sure to be hosting in our new apartment we'll want to make sure we are able to make enough to share. The only problem? Due to the physics behind it all, you have to make a whole pot every time. This leaves Matt and me a whole lot of really strong coffee. And for as much as we love coffee, we're not in college any more, and have no desire to participate in the caffeine challenge (how much coffee can you consume in 1 day?). This means we don't practice with the Moka pot very often.

But when we do, look at what we get to consume:

Let me point out we also bought a milk frother to go along with our Moka pot. I mean after all, what is espresso like coffee without steamed and frothed milk? These lattes were especially delicious as they included a tablespoon of granulated sugar as well as a shot of coffee liquor.  

With our nice new kitchen...

...we'll be sure to make more dinner's like this. A few weeks back Matt bought Ad Hoc at Home. This cook book is nothing shy of amazing. These aren't the simplest recipes, but they are well worth the extra work. Matt and I love to cook together. Usually during the week we would cook a simple but good meal using Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's or some modification there within. The weekends were the time for a more in-depth recipe we wanted to try from a few of our other cookbooks (don't worry, I'm sure I'll mention them at some point.) Although we aren't able to cook together every night right now due to our current living situation (soon to change!) we still try to make amazing meals when I come up and visit.

Matt is a breakfast boy. He eats breakfast every single day. His breakfast food of choice is usually an egg. Now, I never was an egg fan. Some things happened in my past that caused me to loathe the egg for as long as I can remember, but like most of my other tastes, that changed when I met Matt. This boy makes a mean egg. Because of this, and because every time I make an egg I choose to scrabble it so it resembles Maddie's food more than it does an egg, Matt makes the breakfast. Since pouring the orange juice doesn't take as long as cooking the eggs, I am expected to do other productive things during the breakfast preparation (I learned long ago that using Facebook wasn't considered productive.) The alternative is, I get to go through the cookbooks and figure out which cooking journey we will  partake in that night.

A few weeks ago we wanted chicken. The problem with Ad Hoc is that a lot of chicken recipes require you to brine the chicken for more hours than we had available. But then I saw it! The Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs. Not only did the recipe sound delicious but it requires the use of an oven-proof skillet. For a long time we've wanted to purchase a cast iron skillet, but haven't really had a reason to. But now we did! After doing a bit of research we decided to buy a Lodge Logic cast iron skillet. Not only did we buy a skillet to cook our chicken in, but I also got a miniature one to make amazing chocolate chip cookies in! Stay tuned...

Anyways, we absolutely love our Lodge Logic skillet. It takes some getting use to, but let me tell you most of Matt's meals since have some how managed to incorporate the skillet. And I mean, when it makes your meals look like this why wouldn't you?

Note: It tastes even better!

I know I said I was done going MIA...

...but that was before Matt and I made a big decision. I got my job offer a little less than a year ago. At that time both Matt and myself were gearing up for the real world. We were about to graduate and neither one of us had a clue what we were going to do with those Berkeley degrees. At that point we made the decision to look for jobs where we could find them, we'd deal with the consequences of potentially living 1000 miles away later. Fast forward. It's 2 days before graduation and still neither one of us had a job. We both had an 8 am final that day, and it was decided that when we were done we'd meet at the apartment to celebrate. Celebrate we did. And while we were celebrating my phone rang. Big deal...I mean I have only been waiting for my phone to ring since April 3 when I interviewed (Note: this celebration? It took place May 20). And as soon as I saw the caller ID I knew. I knew that that 831 would seal my fate. I was offered a job in the 831.

Matt at this point still did not have a job, but he grew up in the 831. His parents still lived in the 831. This was going to be perfect! Fast forward some more. The week before I was to start my job in the 831, Matt got a job in San Francisco. Oh fate, you are a funny funny thing. Matt moved up and I moved down. One weekend I'd drive up to visit Matt, the next he down to visit Maddie and me. And that's how we've lived our lives for the past 10 months. So finally, with the end of my lease approaching (Matt's has been month to month since January) we made the decision. WE. ARE. MOVING.

So my excuse for being MIA is that for the last couple of weeks is that I have been diligently checking Craigslist. We finally settled on a two bedroom one bath in Mountain View and signed a lease last Sunday. The place is pretty perfect for our needs, but all the details will unfold as I start to post more. For now, here is my Microsoft Paint (oh how I love thee!) attempt at showing how the apartment is laid out.

Please note: The apartment is on the second floor. And the blanks are doors. And the green are windows. And that this is not to scale (I tried?). And it may not even be laid out like this (I tried to remember as much as I could but I don't score high in the memory arena)

I met Matt at a Denny's in LA...

...when we were freshmen in college. We were there with a school group to watch the Cal - UCLA game. After the game everybody went back to the Denny's located in the Motel's parking lot for dinner. Long story short, we ended up at the same table. He ordered a cookies 'n creme milkshake and some type of meat (he says burger, I say 4 meats platter...) and I ordered pancakes. The pancakes I had been craving since I had left for college 2 months before. The pancakes that I had never really craved before (I was more of a waffles girl), but have since craved every Sunday morning.

The cupcakes I made on Saturday reminded me of pancakes. They are the Maple Pecan Cupcake, from no other than Cupcake Heaven, but I prefer to call them the Pancake Cupcake. And with that amount of maple, how could you not!? These were also the perfect cupcakes to make because I only needed to buy eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup and pecans to be able to make them! Of course it wasn't until we got home from Whole Foods Market that I realized that the book suggested to stay away from the dark amber syrups, and I am sure you all can figure out which one we had bought at the store...

 Here I am folding in the sifted flour and the roughly chopped pecans. For both of the previous recipes I've made I have felt like the cupcakes have been a little dense. I had been beating the flour in so I thought that might be the reason why. I also realized that the flour I have been using is 100% Whole Wheat Flour. Matt suggested this might be causing the odd texture because he heard from the pastry chef at Crossroads (Cal's Dining Hall) that whole wheat is hard to bake with. But whatever, the bag said pastry flour on it so I am sticking to my folding flour theory. And where was Maddie during all of this?

I still laugh at this every time I see it. As I mentioned before, the recipe suggested using the lighter amber maple syrup because of something to do with the color or something of the finished product...I think they turned out light enough!

 

You might notice how raggedy my oven mittens are. So, while you're over at Amazon.com buying me More Than a Hobby: How a $600 Startup Became America's Home and Craft Superstore you can also buy me a pair of Calphalon Twill Thumb Mitt, Black Licorice. 

While the cupcakes were cooling on the rack it was time to make the caramelized pecan toppers. I have yet to decorate the cupcakes because I felt like they already had so much going on. But how could I pass up the caramelized pecan toppers? They seemed so integral to the integrity of the cupcake! Again we deviate from the recipe because despite Matt's many warnings I may or may not (well I did) burn the caramel. Oh well, if Ici is allowed to have burnt caramel icecream, then I am allowed to make burnt caramel pecans!

 

The frosting was a buttery maple (do you see the pancake connection yet!?). One the cupcakes were frosted and the candies were cooled, the finish product was produced.

 

These were by far my favorite cupcakes. Whether it was because I cooked the a few minutes less than suggested, or because the shifted flour was folded in, the texture did seem to improve.

Because presentation is everything, for Valentine's Day my mom sent be this wonderful little cupcake stand. First here is Maddie checking it out... then here it is with a cupcake standing on it. I am sure this stand will be making an appearance in many more posts.

Please note the giant bowl of hazelnuts in the background. Those are still left over from the last batch of cupcakes. I still have not mastered the nut machines at Whole Foods, but I did not buy nearly as many pecans this time.

And finally, because Matt decided we needed a 'daily' Maddie meowing picture (so typical Maddie!) here you go:

At least Matt has a carmera...

...so that when he comes to visit I get to have a photographer for my cupcakes and crafts. Yes, in true form, we did make cupcakes while Matt was here this weekend. But more importantly (well maybe not...) I now have photographic evidence of the apron I mentioned in my previous post. Without further adieu,

 Why yes, those are fortune cookies! And no, no I did not wear this while baking the cupcakes because I have my own cupcake apron (but there may or may not be some grey cat hair on it...I'll lint roll that for you mom before I transfer possession of the apron to you...)

Well there you have it, the proof is in the pudding (or the fortune cookies for that matter). I think I may have accidentally made the apron too small because I was having so much fun pulling the thread and scrunching up the fabric but we will have to see.

And now, since I know the suspense is killing you, I will inform you that you have to wait until tomorrow to find out what kind of cupcakes I made this weekend! But really, you're probably just interested in seeing Matt's mad photography skills. Or Maddie. Because honestly, if Maddie weren't so cute, you'd have no reason to read.