More from October

October has been beautiful back here in Iowa. We've had pretty major fluctuations in temperatures from the high 30s to the mid- 70s and the trees have just been gorgeous.

Went in to Chicago to see a Bears game and hit the museums. Our seats were awesome and the Bears showed us a good time.

I've also been enjoying my 2nd job teaching high school English. Check out my multi-screened office. Obnoxious huh?

Mom and Dad's house is coming right along. John's been working on stringing all the phone and internet cables and the doors and windows are all in place. I'll make sure to grab some pictures next time I'm there for my next blog post.

Birthday Weekend

I've finally recovered enough from last weekend to get this post up. My friend Ashley flew in from CA on Friday night just in time for the Amana Colonies Oktoberfest. My boyfriend Dustin's birthday was Thursday so we were out to the festival to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of our friends from Cedar Rapids.   As you can tell by his smile and the size of his beer we had quite a lot of fun that night.

The next day we were celebrating my birthday so we headed out to the Tabor Wine Festival. It was a gorgeous day and I was so lucky to be surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world.

L to R Dustin, Dena, Ashley, Dad, Mom, Hannah and Finn.



To round out the weekend we drove to the Sutliff Cider Company to enjoy more sunshine, live music and some fantastic hard and soft cider. (The hard cider is alcoholic and the soft cider is more like a sparkling apple juice.) They also have pure cider this time of year which is exactly as the name implies. It tasted amazing and since it's only available for a short time we took a little jug home with us for later.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. I am extremely touched by all of the birthday wishes I received throughout the weekend too. I've been missing my California friends and family a lot and it was great to hear from so many of them this weekend. (I'm king of hoping they'll see how much fun we have back here and will want to join in next year?!)

An evening in the kitchen

So I had the whole night off all alone in my apartment. Lit candles, played my favorite music, and got cooking!

Stage 1: Shrimp Pomodoro from Chaos in the Kitchen needed less pasta (and the pasta needed to be cooked a bit longer) more wine, tomatoes and pepper flakes helped and I even added mushrooms. Great flavors and no fattening sauce!

Stage 2: Baguette - My first attempt to make my own baguette. It tasted wonderful, but was a little denser than others I've had. I think I needed to roll it less and I used active yeast instead of instant yeast.  (See photo.)

Stage 3: French Muffins from Velvet Lava Cafe (also pictured) They also turned out wonderful and were even better when they were warm.

Ended the night with a little yoga and slept like a baby.

Super Soups

My aunt Roxy made an amazing spicy chicken soup when I was up visiting her in Auberry, CA. I was taken by the recipe and the cookbook it came from and instead of re-writing the recipe (which I had already started to do) she ordered the book for me. This book is amazing! Last weekend I made two recipes from it: 1) Creamy Corn Bisque with Crab and Leeks and 2) Green Bean, Cherry Tomato and Bacon Salad. I spent most of the morning wandering around a local Farmer's Market searching for ingredients. I found fresh honey cream (I think) sweet corn, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, green beans, leeks, garlic, and a couple of huge cantaloupes. The rest of the ingredients came from Hy-Vee including the artifical crab meat from behind the meat counter. While the recipes listed a MUCH shorter preparation time otherwise they were simple to follow. I added a little more pepper flakes to the soup to spice it up a bit - my audience tends to like things REALLY spicy - but otherwise the recipes were flawless.

Tonight, I'm trying homemade pizza from this website. I'll try to remember to take some pictures this time. Bon Appetit!

WEFEST 2011

We traveled up to Detroit Lakes - an 8 hour trip - to WeFest last week. It was an amazing line-up of Country musicians from the Charlie Daniels Band to Sugarland I enjoyed all of them. Now if only the concert was a little closer to home I'd be game to go again next year when Alabama headlines.

Becoming a Foodie

I'm re-reading French Women Don't Get Fat. I love this book. I am a non-dieter. I hate the way my life (in the past) revolved around counting fat/calories/fiber etc. I was constantly disappointed and bored to death with my saltines and Lean Cuisines. I love the way she (Mireille Guiliano) describes food: the smells, textures, pairings w/ wine etc. I also love the philosophy of not looking at food or eating as enemies.

Now the obstacles:

• learning to cook,
• learning to appreciate subtle tastes,
• and learning to appreciate good food.

Well I do LOVE to learn so I'm excited to get started on this adventure. (Helps that I'm surrounded by good cooks - my mother, grandmother, father, brother, aunts, roommate, and boyfriend are all excellent mentors.)

I also have a Merit Badge Blog and cooking is badge #28 so look for some upcoming blog crossover.

July Catch-Up

I'm not sure how it happened, but it's the end of July already.

This month I have:

• fought to get my driver's license
• fought to get my license plates
• met Hannah's new baby girl Wren
• saw my friend Diane and her family
• laughed hysterically with Hannah and Jill
• had dinner with Mom and Dad - repeatedly
• traveled to Somerset, WI to go camping/tubing with friends
• met lots of wonderful Kirkwood employees
• learned some cooking techniques
• searched for apartments/houses - failure so far
• spent time with my new someone getting to know him better
• started some tomato plants - results to be posted later
• saw Harry Potter 7 - Part 2 - bawled my eyes out

So far I've been far busier than I had planned and a little down time wouldn't hurt, so of course I'm heading to Anamosa this weekend and going up to Detriot Lakes, MN to Wefest next Tues-Sun. Wish me luck....I'm pretty sure I'm going to need it.

I am pretty desperately missing my friends back in CA. I very much appreciate the text messages, phone calls, wall posts, heytells, etc. Thank you!

I've included a picture of Hannah's oldest son Owen holding his new baby sister Wren.

Chicago - June 26th

Instead of doing a summer party for the bank the employees took a bus into Chicago. Some went in for the Taste of Chicago, others did the Shed Aquarium, museums, or shopping. Mom, Dad and I went to the Taste and then decided to take an Archictectural Cruise of Chicago. It was a wonderful day of amazing sites and great food.

New Chapter

Starting this blog over again. I'm moving back to Iowa after 8 years in California. Wow....time flies when you're having fun.

I leave this Thursday and I'm getting pretty sad about leaving everyone. Good thing my mom is flying out to drive back with me.

More to come, but this is where it will be.

~M.A.