a p r i l . 2 0 2 3

no foolin' 

     on the first, I drove to The City and watched one of my theatre friends from Grand Hotel performing in this Sondheim musical, in which I've also performed.  

     on Sunday I made brunch - orange ricotta and berry filled crepes! 

     I stayed in the bay area for work and to attend a team meeting celebratory dinner.  I'm certainly not going to turn down an excellent meal that someone else is hosting!  while I'm not a huge fan of all seafood - we enjoyed a seafood tower appetizer - and the two other times I had oysters I didn't care for them, we did have my favorite shellfish - lobsters and shrimp - and the champagne mignionette dressing made the difference with these oysters.  and the steak with truffle butter was amazing!  

     Easter weekend, we're starting the garden.  Craig had the putting green installed on Friday.  the garden wall took about a week before that, and it run three sides of the green along all the fence lines. 

This tool has been making things easier. 

the new home for the tiki torches, along the retaining wall where we can't install electricity. 

this will be sunflowers and snow peas.  should be pretty!

     Easter dinner of honey-baked ham, and I made curry yams and steamed asparagus, and reheated some of Craig's risotto.  it was a great way to end a great day of planting, renewing.  while planting, I had listened to the online Easter service from the Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria BC.  what a lovely inspiring message! 

     tiki torches came on. It's a lovely evening!

     and on Tuesday they delivered the fire pit and sofa sectional.

it's 5 o'clock!

     another brunch experiment... I made crumpets!  our mom made them once when we were kids and never again, so I always thought it must be labor intensive or time consuming.  it was only a little of both so I can see me making these again.  

     my favorite cajun vendor stopped making my favorite etouffee mix a few years ago, so I'm still trying to find another mix for when I don't want to make it from scratch.  this one is a famous brand, and instead of seafood I made it with beef and andouille sausage.  it was pretty good!  the bev is a hurricane look-alike made with vodka and a fruity mixer. 

     I signed up for another work cooking break with our cafeteria head chef.   for Earth Day, we made a plant based salad bowl, but I added Nashville hot shrimp so we had a little more protein.  and Craig just loved the Green Goddess dressing which apparently isn't available in stores any more.  this may have been our first meal around the fire pit! 

     using up the last of the Easter ham, and eating the last of the lentil soup that I had made with the ham's bone. 

      another virtual cooking opportunity, with our truffle shuffle and Next Level Chef Tucker.  this was her pan-seared scallops with tabouleh salad.  of course, it was phenomenal. 

     since we started planting on Easter, we've had a few more plants appear.  it is so exciting to see new life spring out of our planters. 

     sunflowers and snap peas, next to and behind the fountain.  the sunflowers came in my souvenir tin of bird and bee seeds from Monticello, so these are very special founding father seeds! 

all three citrus trees are blooming like crazy.

and the Disneyland Rose is so close to budding!

     Craig had scheduled a golf game so I picked a movie that I wanted to see that also opened that weekend.  Chevalier is about a composer, swordsman and lover who was nearly erased from history by Napoleon.  he was also the illegitimate son of a slave and a landowner who rose to great prominence in France before and during their revolution.  it's an incredible true story, and this movie is a beautiful, funny, infuriating and eventually uplifting telling of his story.  I got a tasty bev, the Showtime, to enjoy for my Sunday brunch matinee. 

     for Admin Professionals Day we were treated to pizza and had two of our execs come in to give inspirational talks.  Then near the end of the hour, our CEO surprised us with a quick drop-in, a group photo and a few selfies! 

   

m a r c h . 2 0 2 3

definitely coming in like a lion!

     the weather has been historic!  flooding, monsoonal rains, debilitating winds, and record-breaking volumes of snow in the mountains.  it even snowed on Santa Cruz beach!  it's been terrifying and marvelous at the same time.  we've been very fortunate that we've only lost power for a few hours a couple times, and nothing has been destroyed around the house.  and the best news is for most of Cali the drought may be over!!

     on one of my weekly trips to the bay area, the drive down was fine but the drive home took five hours through driving, torrential rain.  drove 30 miles an hour most of the way home.  and since I had to be in the office on that day, I had to bite the bullet and make the trip.  the third week I took the train, because my car died (at a stop light at a busy intersection!*) so Craig had to take me to the train station and pick me up at night.  that was a long day!  on the ride down, the bridge was up at Benicia to let the shipping traffic go through so we were stuck for more than 30 minutes.  good thing I didn't have any meetings/calls first thing! 

     * ugh!  that was a nightmare - I just wanted to make a quick run to the grocer to pick up items for cooking Craig's birthday dinner.  as I was sitting at the busy stop light - which of course I missed and had to sit through the three minute cycle - when it was my turn to go the car wouldn't.  it had died - check engine light (which had never appeared before).  several tries to restart failed.  luckily two men in cars behind me offered to push me off the road - thank goodness!  then the tow truck driver arrived quicker than the 100 minute estimate.  he was a gem, and calmed me down, and gave me good advice about what he thought could be wrong.  he charged my battery enough to get me up on the flatbed, drove me to a AAA service center near home, drove it off the truck, then watched it with me for about five minutes to see if it would keep the charge.  since it did, he said he could either leave it there and drive me home, or follow me while I drove it home to make sure I'd be okay.  so I drove it home!  he was such a lifesaver <3  when I took it to the Chevy dealership on the following Saturday, they were lovely people too, who sounded like they wouldn't steer me wrong or try to gouge me.  they determined it was indeed the battery and it was ready the same day, but I had started the live cooking class already, so wouldn't pick it up until Monday. 

     my theatre event for the month was a doozy.  I have wanted to see this show for years, and it was finally in SF.  I drove down to Antioch and caught BART, and went to see SIX the Musical at the Orpheum.  I knew the music was tremendous already, but to hear the dialogue between songs pulled the whole story together.  of course they take a few liberties with the storytelling, but the key points were accurate, and it was a feel-good woman-power rocker that all ages can enjoy!  costumes were amazing, and I've got a few ideas I may use for a future Halloween costume for me!  

     we also watched the Oscars together.  I like to watch to see the beautiful - and the crazy - gowns and tuxes.  there were a lot of well-deserving nominees, and many of the speeches made me cry.  there were even reunions between Indy Jones and Short Round, and Scorpion King and Brendan Frasier!  and the In Memoriam song and Gaga's song from Maverick were moving as well.   it was a good night, and I made stir fry. 

     in fact I took lots of turns cooking dinner, and scones for breakfasts.  with the purchase of the electric wok last month (with an Amazon gift card from my team) I did a LOT of stir-frying, since it's quick and easy and low carbs/points for my diet.  I bought two boxes of the sweet potato glass noodles that taste good and are good for me. 

     

     I did make a couple hi-maintenance meals too.  I pulled out the Julia Child cookbook and made her Gigot a la Moutarde, or Herbal Mustard Coating Roast of Lamb (Leg).  the sides were asparagus and brussels sprouts air-fried and tossed in sherry cooking wine and white balsamic vinegar, and a home-made rice pilaf with pecans!  

     with another gift card from my Ops manager, I bought an electric crepe iron, and took a whack at making some jam crepes, which were delicious!  

     we both were having cravings for collard greens, so I made some spicey greens and ham, with corn bread made with fresh corn in the batter!  

     for Craig's pi day birthday, I baked an apple pie with the Cafe Chef at work over our lunch hour in a virtual cooking class.  and for dinner I made the Truffle Shuffle lemon ricotta gnocchi, and a chicken marsala recipe that has been successful in the past.  

 

     Janet coordinated that we would cook Pork Belly Adobo at the same time - but in our separate kitchens.  our Truffle chef is in a competition tv show with the famous chef Gordon, so we're cooking with a famous Michelin chef!  here are my kitchen tools, mise en place.

     the class was a lot of fun, and Janet and I both got spotlighted several times during the class - called out by a Michelin chef!!! :-O - and our meals turned out perfectly.  I ended up making a veg to go with our adobo and rice; I air-fried asparagus and julienned red onions, then tossed them with sherry cooking wine and balsamic vinegar at the very end of the cooking time.  Craig and I ate every morsel.

     webinars this month were few but fabulous.  the White House webinar was about the presidents who made trips to Disney lands before, during or after their terms.  and a podcast I've followed since the beginning finally wrapped up; the family annihilator in the South was sentenced to life.  I felt along with the podcasters the sense of relief that justice was served when we weren't convinced it would be.  absolute power corrupts absolutely; and that trend must be stopped.  

     near the end of the month, at 5 o'clock on a Friday, our CEO passed along the news that our last founder had passed away earlier in the day, having lived 94 successful and fruitful years.  I never got to meet him, as he has lived in Hawaii during all my years at the company.  the following Monday I went into the office and took pictures with some of the paintings, artwork and items in our Museum.  Plus I took a picture of our front courtyard with our new logo which was updated in the last few weeks. 

 

this is made entirely of keyboard keys! 

Office, ready for him to use.