Mah Man

*Pretend I posted this in December, since that’s when I wrote it. It just took me 3.86794 months to get my act together and add pictures.*

So, about mah man. I mean, ya he’s always saved lives but now he gets to pull bodies (and pets) from burning buildings and extract people from smashed up vehicles. And he gets to do it looking like this:

So serious…

For the cat in the tree, he probably wouldn’t need the mask:

Just a ladder

Isn’t he hunky?

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Mah man is a smokin’ hot firefighter now *hardy-har-har* with the City of Santee. I got to go to his little graduation where they put on a demonstration of what they’d learned in the academy. I was really glad I was able to see it all because I couldn’t really imagine what he was going through in the weeks before. He said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Harder than USMC boot camp.

Anywho, after the demo, the new guys got “stuff” to make them official after the City Clerk had them take an oath.

We got a tour of the training station, the trucks, etc. Lastly, the resident firefighters got up on the roof with big buckets of water, had the newbies pose for a picture down below and drenched them. Poor skinny guys were freezing their tails off after:

Ian wasn’t thrilled about starting this job. He was comfortable doing the paramedic thing and having to be a probationary firefighter now for the next year isn’t very exciting. But now that he’s gotten through the worst of it, he seems to have a better take on it. There is a huge sense of pride and commerodery amongst the guys (and one gal I believe). I know he’s going to do well and enjoy his new work family! I’m really happy for him.

**Update** Now that he’s been there for a few months, he’s getting ready for his first big test in April. It’s 2 days long with both written and practical skills portions. He’s pretty nervous but I know he’ll do great because he makes time to study in between hours of video-gaming. Dork.

King Cupcakes

My friend April brought these to Momma-C’s baby shower and they were SO good! Then she posted the recipe on her blog and I got to make them myself. Whohoo! I don’t have a mini muffin tray so I had to make them standard size. Which was fine, but for whatever reason, I just feel like having the itty-bitty bites makes them taste better. Or maybe tiny just means I can eat more and not feel so bad? I asked for a mini tray for my b-day… If I get one, I’m making them again, right away, since Ian took the last batch to work and I only got one. *tear*

FYI – “King” just means that it’s a mild banana cake with peanut butter frosting. Get it? Like the King’s fave? Uh huh.

CSA

I was super excited to finally pick up my first CSA box last night! If you aren’t yet aware, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. There are all sorts of local farms offering programs that make it easy for us to eat nutritiously, organically, adventurously and cost-effectively. I just love the idea of getting quality produce that is chemical-free and straight from my neighborhood farm.

I decided to do a trial run the large box, every two weeks with Be Wise Ranch. They had the most convenient pick-up location for me on the way home from work but I’ve heard great things about many other programs as well.

Here’s what I got this week:

4 avocados
4 oranges
3 grapefruit
4 pounds strawberries
8 carrots
1 head broccoli
6 small red bell peppers
2 bunches asparagus
1 bunch cilantro
1 bag spring mix
2 more heads of lettuce varieties
1 bunch of dandelion greens
1 mysterious bag of unknown roots…

Only weird thing to me is the dandelion greens, but hey – we’re being adventurous right? I’ve found that you can cook them up like chard or something so I’ll have to give it a try. Oh, and as for the mystery bag, I think they’re probably radishes but I thought radishes were more round.

What do you think? Please confirm that these are radishes, por favor…

Overall, I’m very happy with the contents and look forward to using up all our goodies and having fun in the kitchen with ingredients we wouldn’t have ordinarily tried. I’ll update again after we’ve gone through it all and can attest to the quality, and the size of box for the two of us. It’s a LOT of food, especially greens, but I’m hoping I’ll just be motivated to eat better so that it doesn’t go to waste.

Frisco

I was sent to the Oracle headquarters in San Francisco last week, for 5 days of training on Primavera. Ian had a few days off so I flew up early, he joined me, and we spent the weekend exploring the city. We were too cheap to stay the extra nights at the hotel my company was putting me up in for the week, so we stayed at Fisherman's Warf and it was perfect.

We flew in late Friday night, checked in to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express) and went to dinner in Ghiradelli Square. The pub we found provided me with a cool beverage and THE best meal I may have ever had. It was buttery, garlicy shrimp with all it's juicey juices, poured over some toasty sourdough chunks to soak it all in. I still think about it at least every other day.

That night, Ian just HAD to finish the Harry Potter movie he'd started on the plane, so he layed in bed with his headphones and mini DVD player. I thought it was funny (unfortunately, all of these pictures are from my phone):

The next day we explored the warf and went to Alcatraz.

Had to get some chowder in a bread bowl.

Alcatraz

Tour

Ian poppin' a squat in jail

Once we got back from prison island, we met up with one of Ian's old military buddies at Pier 39. The wait at Bubba Gump Shrimp was rather long, but fortunately, Forest was there to entertain us. And give us chocolate.

Ian and Forest really hit is off

On Sunday we moved to the Financial District where I'd be statying at the Hyatt Regency for the week. It was so fancy schmancy! I felt like such a yuppie getting to stay there. lol. Ian stayed through Tuesday morning so he could feel yuppie too.

Overall, the week of training was pleasent. I learned a lot, got to eat at many good places, enjoyed the hotel and had plenty of time to relax. It was great to get home on Friday though!

Here is the Ferry Building. Inside, they have all these specialty shops so for dinner one night, I picked up some crusty bread, fancy cheeses, apples, wine and chocolate. I realized that I am not a fancy cheese person soon thereafter. I thought I would puke at the smell of it. Ick! Waste of $20... But here was the nice spread I made for myself (the apples, wine and chocolate were still good. ha!):

A guy from my training class recommended this restaraunt, the Tadich Grill. I guess it's the oldest establishment in SF, going back to 1850 or so. It was a neat little place, mostly made up of this super long bar. I ordered the cioppino and it was super delish. Nice meal to bid farewell by to the city.

Blog Awards!

I’ve been nominated for the ‘I love your blog’ award by a few gracious friends! I know my blog is certainly not award-worthy but I feel honored and special, just the same. Thanks ladies!






Rules:- Post award on your blog- Link the person who has given you the award- Pass the award to 15 other blogs you’ve discovered- Remember to contact the bloggers you’ve nominated


Here are the blogs I choose to give this award to:

First, just a few of my inspiring friends...
Pretty As Peaches for makeup, fashion and everything pretty
Divine Health on her journey to veganism
Spontaneous Truth for lots of recipes and fun crafty things
Melissa McClure, wedding photographer extrodinaire
Love Invites for the custom, unique and beautiful invitations



And the rest of my nominees...
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Post Secret
My Very Worst Date
Perez Hilton
Get Rich Slowly
Young House Love
Sleep Talkin' Man
Another Pint Please
Censational Girl
Awkward Family Photos

MrBeer and a Carboy

I’ve got so many wildly entertaining blogs in the works and I’m trying to get it together! Let’s go back a couple weeks and see what my husband has been up to…

What do you know?!? BEER

Because Ian often likes to do what everyone else is doing, he decided he would brew his own beer. Hmm, that makes me think – everyone else is having babies too and yet he hasn’t really mentioned that one. Weird. Anyway, I guess home brew is popular amongst many of his fellow firefighters and he wanted in on the action.

Ian and Clint broached the subject of home brewing to me (you can refer to me as “boss” in this scenario, if you’d like) and I wasn’t entirely on board. I had bought Ian a MrBeer kit a few years back and he’d only ever used it once.

Here’s what a cute little MrBeer kit looks like:

But now he was wanting/wishing/demanding/asking/stating/call-it-what-you-will- to spend more mullah in order to move on to bigger and badder home brew kits. Was this just going to be a single day, costly hobby exploration? I was skeptical but alas, the boys had it all figured out. They would split all the start-up and material costs and share in their rewarding product. They ventured to Home Brew Mart and bought this stuff:



Everything you need to brew at home, in addition to a giant pot and some glass bottles.

And then the saga continues. I came home two Friday’s ago to a stinky-as-hell house! Boy did it reek. This is the smell of “cooked” beer I was told. Mmmmk…

Here they are cooking. Or should I refer to it as brewing at this point? Who knows.

Note that the most important rule in brewing is that you must be drinking a beer as you work. This was explained to me in a very serious fashion.

And here it is cooling off outside before it goes into the dark insides of a closet to ferment for a couple weeks or so.

They have since made an additional batch with MrBeer and bottled both. Once bottled, the beer must sit for an additional week+ while it gets carbonated. The MrBeer stuff was actually ready first and we have gotten to try it! Ian says he didn’t do something quite right with this one but I very much enjoyed it, actually. It was a little too sweet, he said. Soon we will be able to taste the big batch! I think my blog is going to have many future post about brewing beer. Hopefully that’s not too boring.

SF Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these sugar-free chocolate cupcakes over the weekend. I was going to dinner with my family and since my aunt always has to watch us eat dessert, I thought I'd try out these SF cakes for her.

They weren't amazing and yet I still ate two. Imagine that. The cake was what you'd expect for using Splenda, but something was weird about the frosting. It was super tangy. I don't think you'd want to make these unless you HAD to. Catch my drift? It's not like they're "healthy" or anything, so given the choice, I'll stick with the real sugary stuff.

I actually don't know what my aunt thought of them since I left before she found room in her tum tum to try. I suppose in a world where you are unable to indulge in the sweetness, maybe they tasted amazing? Or not. I'll have to report back.

Good news is, I got to play with my cheap-o camera and had a little fun. I changed some settings and managed to get this picture:

I realize I am no pro but hey, I think the pic looks sort of fancy for someone with zero skillz!

**Update** Talked to my aunt and the official consensus is that these are gross. LOL. So, I wouldn't recommend you try them, as they look better than they taste. Maybe I'll take Helena's suggestion and try again with a different sweetener, like the agave necter.

Family Fun

A couple weeks ago we had my parents over for dinner, along with Ian's mom and stepdad. Ian smoked his best tri-tip yet, and I prepared a few other delights to go along with it. Pioneer Woman recipes of course!

Mom and I:

Clint, Dad and Leslie, Ian's mom:

Ian and Brett, his stepdad:

Ian, Brett, Clint:

RE: MEAT

Ian prepared a rub using a recipe I found for East of Santa Maria Tri-tip . This guy's blog is a good one for manly man food. I love the name -- Patio Daddio BBQ =)

RE: BAKED BEANS

I made these once before and they were ok. The next day, though, they were GREAT! Something about the refrigerating, and sitting overnight just did wonders. Therefore, Ian requested that these be made a day ahead and re-heated prior to the big reveal. It was perfect. He so smart! For PW's bacon topped bean goodness, click here for the recipe and step-by-step instructions.

RE: BREAD

I'd been wanting to try PW's Buttered Rosemary Rolls for a while. Unfortunately, these didn't quite work out for me. I have a feeling it was user error of some sort and I will try again some time. I believe there is still potential here.

RE: SALAD

Just a simple caesar, our fave.

The spread:

And after dinner we scarfed down Girl Scout cookies and played some poker!

On The Wings of Love

How cheesy was that tagline? LOL I can’t believe they played that song in the background of every episode of this season’s The Bachelor. Although I did have a tendency to belt it out and then laugh hysterically. I guess it added to the fun times, watching another horrid rendition on how one supposedly finds true love out of a pool of 25 skanky hobags.

I may have watched the very first season, but aside from that, this was the first in which I was sucked in and watched the show in its entirety. I kind of thought the last two girls were both wrong – Vienna’s fake and unfriendly attitude was the complete opposite of Tenley’s overly sweet and annoying niceness. It was a lose-lose for Jake.

Why do I feel so compelled to watch these shows? Now I am committed to watching Allie on next season’s Bachelorette. AND, even though I’m more of a SYTYCD fan, I will have to see DWTS this time around. How could I pass up crybaby Jake, Kate Gosslin, Pam Anderson AND Shannon Doherty? Hellz no! I’m in it for the long haul now…

PS – Kate’s second fake hair attempt is much better now, agreed?