I'm not sure this gift would go over too well here on the Central Coast of California where we don't get snow, but I'm sure someone who lives nearthe mountains would enjoy it. I used to have a sled like this one and had a fantastic time racing down the hills when I lived in Cle Elum, WA. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time!
Well, our annual Toys for Tots campaign didn't do so well this year. I'm not sure if it's the economy or the fact that our usual Toys for Tots party organizer is out, but we ended up with only a handful of toys for the tots.
In past years we've made the charitable toy gathering a big party where we'd draw names of our coworkers who were each assigned a random child's age (for example: Lisa-Marie, age 12), and would buy a toy based on that. We'd wrap them up and having them sitting on the back counter for everyone to see (and wonder what it is!) until our party where we'd each open our "gifts" as well as have festive refreshments and listen to Christmas music.
This year, however, our party organizer is out, so we skipped the party and just bought toys to display on the back counter in the hopes that people coming in would see them and want to bring in toys as well. It's worked pretty well in the past.
I only hope it's enough.
Another sign for the art studio in downtown Paso Robles. I peeked in the window and saw they have everything from oil and watercolour paintings, sculptures, pottery and jewelry. It looks fun and I wish I'd had more time to go explore inside.
This evening I finally went and saw Breaking Dawn, Part One with my friend Amber. The movie was awesome, and I can't wait for Part Two! Before meeting up at the theater, I wandered around downtown Paso Robles and discovered this awesome new art studio/gallery. I didn't have time to go inside, but plan to do so one day soon!
The salmon for this dish was suppoed to have corriander seed rubbed on it, but I don't have corriander seed and was unable to find any corriander seed, so I just did a quick herb, salt and pepper rub instead. The Swiss chard was prepared according to the recipe in the November/December issue of Clean Eating magazine, though. The meals was delicious and really easy to prepare!
For some Furlough Friday fun my mom and I went to lunch at the new Colby Jack's location in the Carlton Hotel in Atascadero. We had been to the old Colby Jack's location by the Post Office, but we'd never eaten IN the Carlton Hotel before, so even though it was the same restaurant, we considered it a "new" dining experience. The place is gorgeous - of course it was built and designed to be an uber fancy-pants restaurant - and the food was fantastic! I had the grilled portobello sandwich (pictured above) with the split pea soup - both of which were amazingly delicious! - and my mom had the stacked turkey sandwich also with the soup. The meal came with a cute little dessert muffin that was also quite yummy! Oh, and they had the BEST iced tea either of us has ever had!
It's no secret that my all-time favourite magazine out right now is Clean Eating. I love it more than Lucky, which is saying a LOT, believe me! I came across the premier issue back in the winter of 2008 when I was on one of my many diet and fitness kicks, and within a few days I mailed in the post card for a subscription. The recipes are yummy (with an exception or two, of course, but that might've been chef's error), and some of them are pretty easy, while others are difficult and most of them are time consuming. I mean, all that cleaning and chopping of fresh veggies takes forEVER! But, it's worth it in the end when you can serve a healthy, delicious meal!
Now normally I just make the main dishes (though I've done the occasinal side dish), and I usually just skim over the included bonus recipe cards, but for some reason the Snow Peas with Sweet and Sour Dressing caught my eye, and since I had everything in my cupboard except the snow peas, it was a quick and easy veggie side for my salmon dinner.
Some day I hope to get truly organized and make more recipes from these magazines
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Well, I tried to get into The Night Circus again after finishing Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (which is an AWESOME book, btw!), but I couldn't, so I dug a little deeper into Nicky (my nook) and found Allison Hewitt is Trapped by Madeleine Roux which I'd downloaded a while ago and thought I'd give it a shot. Yup, I'm back to zombies!! Enjoy this teaser from page 35:
We posit that there are two kinds of zombies; Groaners and Floaters. They're both dangerous, for obvious reasons, but they're actually quite different. Groaners are loud, they groan (duh) and moan and squeal as they come for you. They're faster, more determined more desperate. Floaters are arguably more dangerous because they're quiet, weirdly quiet, and they can sneak up on you.
One of our Christmas traditions is to have eggnog and gingerbread man cookies when we decorate. I may not have done much decorating this year, but it was enough to require cookies and nog! (holly border courtesy of picnik.com.)