Twenty Four At Heart

Eat Your Vegetables and Other Words of Wisdom

Yesterday afternoon I sent an inquiry out on Facebook and Twitter while I was at the grocery store.  (This is newsworthy in itself because I'm rarely on Facebook.)

Tell me about kale.  I've never had it.  Would it be good in vegetable soup?

I also texted my friend Nike to ask her if I should put kale in the soup I was about to make because she used to drink kale shakes for breakfast every single day.  (Therefore she ought to know a lot about kale, right?)  

I was NOT prepared for the outpouring of pro-kale feedback I ended up getting on Twitter and Facebook.  (By the way, Nike also said I should buy it but she was more concerned with whether or not I could join her for shoe shopping ....) 

I bought kale as a result of all your positive feedback.

I added it to the vegetable soup I made for dinner last night.

I liked kale.

My son liked kale too.  He ate FIVE bowls of soup.  (He's a teen boy, and he loves homemade soup.  I can't entirely credit kale for his soup-appetite.)

Now, I already KNEW kale is very healthy, packed with nutrients, etc.  I'm very educated about healthy foods.  (After all, I do live in California - the land of health freaks.  I was also raised by two incredibly health-conscious parents long before "eating healthy" was fashionable.)

But ...?

I had a perception of kale tasting bitter and being gag-worthy.

Maybe my perception was formed years ago when Nike used to tell me about choking down drinking her morning kale shakes?  Maybe hearing her stories permanently scarred my psyche?

In any case, I'm glad I finally tried it.  I like it enough to make it a regular part of my family's diet.  Several people shared links with me to their favorite kale recipes and I plan on trying them as I get my kale-bearings.

Do you like kale?

How do you cook it?

Do you have a vegetable you refuse to even try?

I still won't eat turnips.

Why not?

Well, my dad used to go on and on about how terrible they were.  My mom never served them as a result.  I've never had a turnip, but if my dad (who's a total foodie) hates turnips that much then surely I would hate them too, right?

Do you have a vegetable you HAVE tried but vehemently dislike?

For instance, I'm glad I tried kale and I can now say I like it.

However, I've tried lima beans and I HATE them.

I don't like peas at all either.  Bleh!

Well ...?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Orange County's Farmer's Market

Last week, I mentioned the Orange County Great Park hosts a Farmer's Market every Sunday.

Not long after I wrote that post, I got a request to please stop by the Farmer's Market for a visit.

So, I did.

I ended up having a great time, in spite of the heat wave (!!) we're experiencing right now. 

Jalapenos for sale at the Farmer's Market.

It was nice to see so much locally grown produce.  

Some of it came from right here in Orange County, and some of it was imported from an hour or two away.  (In Southern California terms, an hour or two hour drive is not far at all.)

I came home with some very sweet, white, corn.

Fresh corn on the cob.

Produce tastes so much better when it's freshly picked.

Some of the signs at the Farmer's Market made me laugh.

Got Nuts?  Roasted peanut sign.

The man selling roasted peanuts laughed at me as I took the above photo of his sign.

Walking around the Farmer's Market made me hungry.  A lot of the vendors were giving out sample of their produce/food.  It was a good thing too.  My breakfast consisted of their "samples."

Everyone seemed more than eager to have me take photos and write about them.

I couldn't resist indulging when I saw cupcakes from my favorite OC bake shop for sale.

Meringue Bake Shop at OC Farmer's Market.

There's nothing wrong with having a cupcake for breakfast, is there?  (Honestly, having one of their cupcakes makes a trip to the Farmer's Market worthwhile all in itself.)  I'd show you a photo of a cupcake, but ... ahem, some random 16 year old boy might have inhaled them the moment I got home.  

Meringue Bake Shop also sells "push cakes" which are amazing.

I've got more to share with you about my morning at the Farmer's Market, but I'm going to save it for future posts.

(For example, I might have found myself 400 feet up in the air, tethered by a rope, at one point.)

I'll definitely make future trips to the market.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of products for sale.

I also really appreciated how much effort the vendors took to gain the attention of their customers.

Funny sign on the fruit at the Farmer's Market.

I'm not exaggerating when I say I brought home some of the best fruit I've ever tasted. 

I'm wondering why it took me so long to visit?

© Twenty Four At Heart

The Best Homemade Barbecue Sauce EVER!

I'm not a food blogger, but occasionally I can't help but share a great recipe.  

I especially like easy recipes.

This summer I've been making batches of homemade BBQ sauce to use on chicken, turkey, tri-tip, ribs, etc.

I originally got this recipe off of Food Network, but I've modified it a few times over.

As is, it makes a huge batch.  It's perfect if you're hosting a barbecue (or cook-out as some of you call it).  If not, you might want to cut the recipe in half.

Twenty Four's Famous BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

Fresh Thyme (about a handful)

2 slices bacon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 onion, chopped finely

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses  (I use a bit less because I don't like my sauce quite so sweet.)

4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons dry mustard

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

Freshly ground pepper

* Red chili pepper flakes are optional for those of you who like to make things spicy.

Directions:

Wrap the thyme bundle with one or two pieces of bacon and tie with twine.  (If you don't have twine you can use a shoe lace.  An unused shoe lace would be preferable.)

Heat a little of the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the thyme bundle and heat for about five minutes.  (You just want to render the fat enough to get the flavor of the bacon and thyme!)

Remove the thyme bundle.  Admire your handy-work at tying bundles before you throw it away.

Stir in the onion and garlic and heat slowly for around five minutes.  (Don't brown the onion and garlic, but DO enjoy how yummy your kitchen now smells.)

Add all the remaining ingredients and stir. 

Heat on low.  Cook slowly for around 20 minutes.

Baste with some of the sauce, and reserve a portion for serving.

Delicious!

P.S.  I was just kidding about the shoe lace.  

© Twenty Four At Heart

Sure, I'll Take Your Gift

If you stopped by yesterday, I'm sure it was clear I was in a lot of pain.  In hindsight, it's amazing I was even able to write.  I was on a LOT of medication.

I'm happy to report the new pain med (Nucynta) worked pretty well for me once I took it Tuesday night. (More so than morphine and without the BLEH feeling morphine gives me.)  I think I may have, finally, found the "right" pain med for my body/my injuries.  It makes me very "wifty" though. (Wifty = lightheaded/foggy-brained, etc.)

Currently I'm sticking to my old meds during the day so I can drive/get things done and just using the Nucynta in the evenings.

Anyway, I'm not quite back to normal pain-wise but I'm getting better and I think I'm over the worst of this flare-up.  (I'm sure all that stuff the doc injected into me is starting to work it's magic too.)

In the midst of all that pain and bleh! on Tuesday, I came home to find a large cooler had been delivered to our front door by UPS.  

Imagine my surprise when I opened the cooler and something waved at me!

Inside were four live (!!) lobsters, four large crab cakes, and a huge bag of fresh mussels.

The cooler was sent as a thank you gift to our family.

 We've had a lot of visitors this summer and we keep getting the most amazing "thank you" gifts.  (Just a few days prior a bourbon chocolate cake was delivered to our house.)

I couldn't have held my "real" camera if I tried on Tuesday, but I did manage to take a few iPhone photos for you:

Lobsters on ice

The lobsters were packed with "seaweed" and ice.  I was a little worried about cooking them, but they went calmly into the pot.  (I thought they might put up a fight or something!)

It was the first time I'd ever cooked mussels.

Steaming mussels

They were fabulous.  I'll be honest, I've never really liked mussels.  I don't know if New England has a different type of mussel?  They were much milder in flavor than what I've experienced in Southern California.

Boiling lobsters

Bright red shells and curled tails mean the lobsters are done cooking.

Crab cake, corn, lobster (mussels not yet on the plate)

It made for a delicious dinner.  

It was also so nice not to have to come up with a dinner idea when I was in so much pain.  The decision was made for me.  I asked my boys to lift the heavy pots which made everything very easy despite my out of control pain level that evening.  

Now I find myself wishing a cooler with dinner in it would show up on my doorstep every day ....

© Twenty Four At Heart

Stopping In To Say Aloha

Aloha!

I wanted to check in today from Hawaii.

I've been here several days now and I've done a lot of ...

Nothing.

That's right - nothing.

I used to come here a lot on business, and I've seen all the tourist sights multiple times.

I feel no guilt, whatsoever, doing nothing.

I've been catching up on some much needed sleep, swimming in some of the most beautiful water on the planet, reading when I feel like it, taking fewer photos than I thought I'd take (but still a lot), eating delectable foods regardless of their carb and/or calorie count, and drinking way too much alcohol - beginning fairly early in the day.

Yes, I'm having the perfect vacation.

* Appetizers on our lanai at sunset. *

Our weather has been perfect so far.

Yesterday I had banana macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup for breakfast.  As an aside, I don't like pancakes and never have.  These particular pancakes are the only ones I'll eat - ever.  They were delicious.  (Although, I think I only ate one because they're very filling.)  When I finished my pancake(s), I began humming Jack Johnson's song Banana Pancakes and I don't think I stopped for the remainder of the day.

I followed up the pancake(s) with a pretty strenuous hike.  I'm making an effort to exercise every morning since there are so many beautiful places to walk/hike here.

As always, we're surrounded by zillions of huge sea turtles.  (We stay at a cove with a very high sea turtle population.)  For those of you who have never seen a sea turtle, it's hard to imagine how big they are.  Some of them get up to 400 pounds.

I love the sea turtles.

In fact, I honestly feel some sort of weird spiritual kinship with them.

They're beautiful animals, graceful, serene ... majestic.

* Coming up for air *

My Internet connection here is spotty at best, but I'll try to pop in for updates as I can.  In the meantime, I'm taking photos of some pretty cool sights to share with you in future posts.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Rainier Cherries

Rainier cherries are, perhaps, one of the most delicious things of summer.

And I'm not (normally) in love with cherries.

I don't know if they're available outside the west coast?

They're both red and yellow swirled together, with crisp yellow flesh when you bite into them.

Rainier cherries are grown in the state of Washington.  

They have a very short season of availability, so I'm quick to buy them when I see them.

Our recent house guests had never experienced Rainier cherries before.  They couldn't get enough of them.  (Seriously, I was buying more on a daily basis!)

Each round cherry is filled with delectable juicy, sweet, goodness.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Savoy, Lime and Cilantro Coleslaw

I made this recipe the other night on Father's Day.  

It's a nice side dish to enjoy with your barbeque (or cook-out, or grilling experience ... depending on where you live and what terminology you use.)

My entire family really enjoyed it.

We barbequed some fresh teriyaki salmon and yams to go with it.  (And yes, we sliced up the yams and grilled them.  We pretty much grill everything at our house.)  

It's easy to make ahead of time, just don't put the dressing on until just prior to serving.  (I think the dressing is better when made a little ahead of time and chilled anyway.)

I got the original recipe from the Food Network Magazine courtesy of Tyler Florence.  I've made a few slight changes to it.

It's printed below with the variations I made.

(I've also included a few other possible options.)

 

Ingredients

• 1 head Savoy cabbage
• 4-6 green onions depending on your preference
• 3/4 bunch fresh cilantro, torn
• 1/2 cup "light" sour cream  (you can use regular or nonfat if you want)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used regular, but you can use any version you prefer)
• 2 teaspoons sugar (or honey or Splenda equivalent)
• 2 limes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

(If you want to add some spice, you can also add a few red pepper flakes.  If you love nuts, you can toss a handful of your favorites in for a little added crunch.  If you hate mayo and/or sour cream try yogurt instead.)

Directions

Cut the cabbage so you have thin ribbons. Cut the green onions long so the pieces are similar in shape to the cabbage. Toss the cabbage, green onions and cilantro in a large salad bowl.

Make the dressing by combining the sour cream, mayonnaise, sugar and the zest of the limes in a medium bowl.

Just before serving, pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and toss to combine. 

Season with salt and pepper and finish with a squeeze (or two, or three?) of lime juice.  

I didn't use all the dressing when I made it because I prefer a lighter taste.  The amount of dressing you use will depend on your taste preferences. 

Yum, yum.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Valentine's 2011

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

I have to admit, Valentine's isn't my favorite holiday.  It isn't, however, my least favorite holiday either.  (My least favorite holiday is New Year's Eve.)

Briefcase is out of town on business today, so we celebrated over the weekend.

First, on Saturday afternoon we checked into the Fairmont hotel in Newport Beach.  I had bought a Groupon for a discounted rate at the Fairmont and given it to Briefcase as a gift at Christmas time.  In turn, he saved it and booked the room for Valentine's weekend. 

We enjoyed dinner at my favorite restaurant, Mastros.  Mastros is very (!!) expensive, so we usually only visit once in a great while for special occasions.  (And no, we don't normally consider Valentine's Day Mastros-worthy.)  By expensive, I mean it is easy to drop $300 on dinner for two ... without even purchasing a bottle of wine.  

In fact, Mastros has a $7,400 bottle of wine on their menu if you feel like splurging.

Many locals consider Mastros the best restaurant in Orange County.  In fact, there are actually two Mastros here (one is a steakhouse and the other is an "ocean club").  And oh, how I love to people-watch every time we make a visit to either one of them!

We began our meal with martinis and a Seafood Tower.  By the way, the martinis at Mastros will set you back about $18 a pop, but they bring a martini shaker to your table for refills and "one" drink ends up generously providing you with, at least, TWO martinis.

Being a total lightweight with alcohol, I was more than a little tipsy.

(The above photo was taken with my iPhone.)

I love the presentation of the Seafood Tower.

You pick what you'd like in the tower, and it's served to you on ice and dry ice which creates an amazing, dramatic, effect.  Our tower was small because there were only two of us to share it.  It was made up of a half dozen oysters, two large prawns and two crab claws.  It was a perfect appetizer.  In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we will probably return at some point and make a "dinner" out of cocktails and a slightly larger tower.  Really, it would be plenty of food to make a meal of just that.

Dinner consisted of a salad - which we shared, a bone in filet, and sauteed spinach.  Portions are large at Mastros so we always share sides and salads.  Briefcase ordered a much bigger steak than I did, but we both agreed Mastros serves the most delicious steaks we've ever enjoyed.  Service, as always, was impeccable.  As we were delighting in our dinner, live music was playing.  It made for a very nice evening.

For dessert, we decided to indulge in Mastros famous Butter Cake which is to die for.  We shared the dessert and didn't come close to finishing it.  Yes, I felt guilty for splurging on a carb-laden dessert, but have I mentioned we rarely get a night at Mastros?  If there's ever a time to fall off your diet, it's when you're there.  

After dinner, we watched Burlesque which we both enjoyed.  I had been wanting to see it and was worried it would bore Briefcase to death.  However, the movie is filled with scantily clad women shaking their stuff.  He was anything but bored.  I think riveted might be a better word.

On Sunday morning, we left the hotel and enjoyed a fairly quick breakfast.

At that point, it seemed like a good time to enjoy the beautiful day.  We were close to Little Corona, so we stopped in for some beach time.

I'll have more pictures of Little Corona in future posts, but suffice it to say it was a spectacular, warm, sunshine-y day.  We walked and hiked for a long time.  What a wonderful way to end the weekend.

© Twenty Four At Heart 

Tea Time

I'm wavering off my normal blogging path today to discuss tea.  

Ages ago, when I had only one reader, I wrote a post about tea. 

To be honest, I barely remember it myself.

I drink coffee every morning, but I like tea too.  The weather is so warm here, a lot of time tea means a glass of iced tea for lunch.  I'll often make a cup of hot tea when I'm writing or editing photos.

Tea has a lot of health benefits.  I think a lot of us know that, but how many of us really drink it (especially here in the United States)?  

I've always been a tea drinker, but I increased my tea consumption a lot after being diagnosed with melanoma (the deadliest form of skin cancer) several years back.  Tea, green tea in particular, is an "anti-cancer" beverage.  It has been over six years now, with no cancer recurrence.  I'm not sure if that can be completely attributed to my tea drinking or not, but I think the health benefits of tea are real.

I'm sure I don't drink as much tea as I'm "supposed to," but I know I drink more than most of my friends and family members.  My son, PR, loves tea too and drinks a cup most nights as he works on homework.

In recent months, I've been drinking less tea than normal.  Over the last two weeks, I got my butt kicked by The Plague.  On Friday, I went down to my favorite tea shop and said, "Help! Make me well!"

They fixed me a large cup of tea which was a blend of four different teas.  

The four teas were:  

•  Silver Yin Zhen Pearls which is a white tea.  It's supposed to detoxify your body and provide antioxidants.  I needed to be detoxified, did I mention I've had The Plague?

•  Gyokuro Imperial which is a green tea.  Green teas are rich in antioxidants, may prevent some cancers, and help boost the immune system.  My immune system was in need of some serious boosting.

•  Peppermint which helps with many ailments including sore throats, headaches, and pain.  I'm not a big fan of peppermint flavored things, but it's very healing.  (Also, I think most people like the flavor of peppermint - I'm just weird!)

•  Honeybush Vanilla which is an herbal tea (blend) rich in vitamins and antioxidants.

Three of the teas listed above steep together for 5 minutes.  The Gyokuro Imperial is added in for just the last 45 seconds of steeping time.  

I'm not kidding, I started feeling better that afternoon.  My sore throat decreased in severity, my coughing lessened ... I just felt better.

Coincidence?

Probably.

And yet, it re-motivated me to increase my tea consumption.

Did you know Rooibos tea can help with allergies and colds?

Or that Oolong tea boosts your metabolism, causes you to process carbohydrates faster, and may help with weight loss?  (By the way, Jasmine Oolong is one of my all-time favorite teas.)

Different teas have different health benefits.  I find the science behind tea fascinating.

I'm fortunate to have an amazing tea shop close by.  

The shop is also very expensive.  But?  I haven't found better tea, or a better selection of tea, anywhere.  When I buy tea, I store it in air-tight tins.  The tea stays fresh for a year if it's stored this way.  If you leave your tea sitting out, it won't stay fresh.

My husband cringes when he sees the receipts from the tea shop.  (He doesn't drink tea, ever, so the only thing my tea habit represents to him is less money.)

The positive?

A tin of tea lasts so long, I don't need to buy it very often.  I suppose, when you look at it THAT way, it isn't as expensive as it first appears.  I usually only stock up on teas once a year.

I ended up making a second trip back to the tea shop yesterday.  I decided to purchase the four "get well" teas they steeped together for me last Friday.  I want to have them here for myself, and my family, in the future.  Three of them are great preventative medicine.  I intend to drink them on a regular basis - either individually or steeped together.

This isn't a sponsored post, but I know inquiring minds will want to know.  I buy my tea at a local Teavana store.  I sometimes use a teapot, but I most often steep my tea in their Perfect TeaMaker which I love.  (It's also a great conversation starter - everyone who sees how it works falls in love with it.)  

I also use Teavana tins for storing my tea because I don't want to spend the money to buy high quality tea and have it lose its health benefits before I steep it.  (I buy the cheap Teavana tins vs. the more expensive decorative ones.)  When I run out of tea, I take my tins into the store to have them refilled.  This saves me from having to buy more tins for storage.

I look at my tea purchases as an investment in health.  Drinking tea is an investment in me.

And now, I'm curious.

Are you a tea drinker?

And if so, what's your favorite tea?

© Twenty Four At Heart 

In-N-Out

I wish all of you had an In-N-Out restaurant near you.

I grew up with one in my neighborhood. 

On the way home from the Rose Parade, Briefcase and I were really hungry and decided to stop in for a burger.

Most of us Californians are pretty snobby about insisting In-N-Out makes the best restaurant burgers available.  The chain has been gradually spreading outside of California.

If you've never been to one, try to find an opportunity to pay a visit.

There are people who feel it's worth a trip to California just to eat there.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Kitchen Mayhem

**  I will be hosting another holiday giveaway TOMORROW!  Be sure and stop by!  **

**  The winner of the Stella & Dot necklace is:  Mary Lu with comment #74  **

**  The winner of the LeAine Dehmer Clinical Skincare Starter Kit is:  Hallie with comment #30  **

I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for years.  The first few times I took on such a monumental cooking task, I worried excessively about making everything perfect.  The table centerpiece, the food, the timing of the dishes, the desserts - everything needed to be perfect or I felt like a failure.

One good thing about the car accident?

My perfectionism has gone right out the window.

When things go wrong, I no longer worry (much) about it.  Life goes on, and most of the things we worry about on a day to day basis aren't really of much lasting importance anyway.

This year, more things went wrong in preparation for Thanksgiving than any other year. 

To start with, every year I've used a recipe for roasting my turkey which has been handed down through generations.  It doesn't require brining the turkey.  It's delicious.

This year, I bought a 23 pound, free range, antibiotic free, hormone free, super natural turkey.  It was allowed to live a fun turkey life before someone killed it for my dinner.  (A carefree turkey life also resulted in it being the most expensive turkey on the face of the earth.)  

The day before I cooked it, I started reading more and more about the need to brine free range turkeys since they aren't injected with all the crap the regular store bought turkeys are.  I started worrying I might ruin the most expensive turkey on earth if I prepared it the way I've prepared a zillion other turkeys before it.

Twitter friends began giving me advice on their favorite turkey brine recipes.  I've never brined a turkey before.  I put the big, gigantic, turkey in a huge brining bag.  I might have overfilled the bag with too much brine.

Then, as I went to seal the bag something went wrong and brine came rushing out all over me.  I was drenched in turkey brine.  (And yes, I do mean drenched!)  I hastily mopped brine off the counter top, the floor, and myself - all the while musing how juicy, tender, and tasty I would be the next day.  Fortunately, I was able to salvage enough of the brine to still soak the turkey overnight.

Thanksgiving morning found me busy making oyster stuffing.  My stuffing recipe takes quite a long time to make, and it needs to be made before the turkey can go in the oven since I stuff the turkey with it.

When I pulled out the cans of oysters I bought, I realized they were not actually oysters at all.  Somehow, I had mistakenly bought clams instead.

I quickly dressed and bolted to the grocery store (sans makeup or brushed hair) to buy the needed oysters.  Of course, looking like a total disaster meant I ran into numerous people I knew while there.  By the time I got home and made the stuffing, I was running an hour behind schedule.

As I worked on the stuffing, I asked Briefcase if he could change a light bulb for me.  My kitchen has recessed lighting and a bulb had burned out.  A minute later, I heard the crash of splintering glass and Briefcase swearing profusely.  While standing on a ladder, he had dropped the bulb and it had shattered everywhere on impact.  Briefcase began cleaning up splinters of broken glass.

At this point, I began to giggle.

What else could go wrong?

Well, it turns out - plenty.

I got the turkey in the oven, but I had leftover stuffing.

I pulled out my, one and only, really nice (Emile Henry) ceramic casserole dish to put the remainder of the stuffing in.  As I did so, I realized *someone* had thrown another heavy dish on top of it in the cupboard and broken it.  Briefly, I mourned the dish.  I have other casserole dishes, but this was my only nice company-worthy one.  I transported it to the trashcan, all the while reminding myself it's only a casserole dish.  There was a story behind that dish, however, and I felt like I was discarding an old friend.

I began working on the next side dish which was sweet potatoes.  I had three cans of sweet potatoes to open.  (No, I wasn't using fresh - don't judge me, I'm three weeks post-surgery.)  

I opened the first two cans.  When I placed the third can in our can opener, it EXPLODED.

And yes, I mean EXPLODED!!

"Light syrup" became an eight foot geyser rupturing out of the can.  It coated my stove, my kitchen cabinets (reaching up to the ceiling), my coffee maker, the floor, and ME.  Everything within eight feet, in every direction, was coated with sticky syrup.  It was ALIVE, I swear it was!  I've never seen anything like it in my life.

I had a toxic can of sweet potatoes (with a good code date) on my hands and it wouldn't stop spewing sticky syrup over everything.  I held the can at arms length, yelling at it to STOP!

How does that happen?

RC came running in to see what was happening.  I handed him some money and begged him to make our second trip to the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning to buy more sweet potatoes.  While he did, I began scrubbing down myself, and the entire sticky kitchen.  When he returned, I was still tackling the viscid mess.

Awhile later, the sweet potatoes caught on fire.  I'm not joking.  Huge 18 to 24 inch flames were lighting up my kitchen!  We managed to extinguish them fairly quickly.  I discarded the burned parts and managed to salvage the dish without it affecting the flavor.  There's nothing like an extinguished kitchen fire on Thanksgiving to make you feel grateful.  (After all, we did save the house from burning down.)

Oh - also, there was one more thing!

I bought two cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory this year.  (I don't do this normally - but again, three weeks post surgery!)  When I picked them up at the restaurant, they told me to keep them frozen until one hour before serving.  "Just set them on the counter an hour prior to serving and they'll be perfect," said the cute little 19 year old at the counter.

Wrong!

I pulled them out TWO HOURS prior to serving and they were still frozen as hard as rocks when it was time to serve dessert.  They did taste very good the next day with leftovers, however.  (A couple bites of frozen cheesecake goes pretty nicely with coffee anyway.)

In spite of it all, the turkey ended up being the best tasting turkey I've ever prepared.  In addition, although my timing in the kitchen got screwed up, all the side dishes turned out fabulously.  We did end up having a later meal than originally planned which meant more Wine Time before dinner.  With enough wine, no one really cares what time they eat or whether or not everything is exactly perfect.

Now it's your turn.

Make me feel better.  (Please?!)

What holiday kitchen disasters have you experienced?

© Twenty Four At Heart 

Aaaand The Holiday Season Begins

I've been cooking a lot the last few days in preparation for Thanksgiving.

My arm isn't in very good shape, three weeks out from Surgery #8, so I'm trying to make a few dishes ahead of time.  It will make Thursday a little easier on my arm.  (And easier on Briefcase, who isn't very comfortable in the kitchen, but IS willing to help out when asked.)

Yesterday, I made The World's Best Cranberries.

Today I'll be baking cornbread.

My oldest son is home from college this week.  When he's home, our house is also filled with all of his friends because our house has always been the "hang-out" house.  I love having a house filled with a lot of people, and my younger son loves having his older brother home.  

Our home is noisy and chaotic, but filled with laughter too.

For the first time ever, my daughter won't be here for Thanksgiving.  (She's coming home for three weeks at Christmas and it just didn't make sense with her class/work schedule to fly across country for Thanksgiving too.)  I'll be sad not to have her here, but she's been calling so often for recipe and cooking advice, it's ALMOST like she's here.

Here's what's on the menu at our house for Thanksgiving this year:

Turkey (fresh/free range/antibiotic free)

Oyster Stuffing  (the recipe dates back generations in my family and I'd be kicked out of the family if I made any other type!)

The World's Best Cranberries  (I'm very humble about this recipe, can you tell?)

Mashed Potatoes

Giblet Gravy

Green Beans Amandine

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage  (This is the German side of my family making an appearance on the plate.)

Sweet Potato Bake  I vary the ingredients of this recipe every year, depending on my mood the day I'm making it.  

Cornbread

Pumpkin Cheesecake (I don't like traditional pumpkin pie - gasp!)

Also, there's always a lot of wine involved on Thanksgiving.

Believe it or not, I'm actually cutting back on the number of dishes I'm serving this year.  Both of my boys, and Briefcase, have committed to helping with chopping/lifting/arm work in the kitchen.

Will you be cooking tomorrow?

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Call Me The Hulk

Have you ever taken prednisone?

It's a steroid, and it has all sorts of horrible side effects.

One of the most common side effects is bloating and weight gain.  In part, prednisone makes you gain weight because it dramatically increases hunger.

The key word in the above sentence being dramatically.

When I was rushed to the emergency room of our local hospital due to a severe (and completely preventable) allergic reaction, I was given massive doses of prednisone to save my life.

I appreciate that ....!

Yes, I really do.

On the other hand, you can't stop taking prednisone cold turkey.  Since I was put on such a massive dose, I have to be very slowly, gradually, weaned off of it.

Over the course of about six weeks.

SIX WEEKS!

Six weeks of feeling jittery, nervous, not sleeping (ugh!), having my *girly* cycle all effed up, along with numerous other unpleasant side effects in addition to being ravenously hungry.

I'm not a toothpick thin woman to start with.  I'm curvy.  I do (normally) eat fairly healthy foods - after all I'm a born and bred Californian and health is important here.  

But now?

If it's edible, it's fair game.

Also?

I'm not allowed to exercise for two months.

Can you say recipe for disaster?

I might have eaten the couch the other day, things are THAT bad.

PR came home from school one afternoon and pulled out a brand new carton of chocolate chip ice cream from the freezer.  He opened it up, looked inside and said matter of factly, "Wow, Mom you really did some damage to this!"

I had a momentary flashback of holding the carton on my lap and eating directly from it as fast as I could with a spoon.

"Is there any left?" I queried as he scurried away with the carton.

I rarely ever even think about ice cream - what has happened to me?

Last weekend I woke up and made a loaf of banana bread.  Two big slices, warm from the oven, were delicious with my morning coffee.  I followed it up in the afternoon by making a dinner of meatloaf, creamy mashed potatoes, and provencal vegetables.  I ate hearty portions of everything.

By hearty, I mean about three times more than I normally eat.

It was delicious, by the way.

Everything sounds good to me, and even if it doesn't sound good - I'm starving give it to me anyway!  To give you an idea, even when I was pregnant with my kids, I never ate as much as I have been lately.

It's like the worst case of PMS induced hunger, imaginable.

I can't seem to stop myself.

In an attempt to have some semblance of control, I've tried filling the house with healthy things to choose from.  I snack on baby carrots and hummus, or crisp gala apples.

The problem is, I'm still eating large quantities.

Also?

If it's edible and it's within five miles of me, it's fair game - healthy or not.

I'm currently a prednisone-influenced out of control eater.

It's easy to say "Well, just stop eating."

It's easy to say that, that is, if you've never been on massive quantities of prednisone.

Don't mess with me and my food, ya hear?

**  Posts about dieting to follow, sometime in January **

© Twenty Four At Heart

What I Learned While In The South

I spent the last few days in the south visiting my son's college.  It was a whirlwind, extremely action-packed, trip.  I was even asked to be Frat Photographer for a busy weekend of fraternity events.  Who am I to say no to a bunch of Frat Boys decked out in collared shirts and ties?

As background, I've spent very little time in the south so everything there is a novelty to me.  In addition, when I was in college, I went to UC Santa Barbara.  My ex-campus sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean - a completely different type of campus life than my son's.  (As an example, UCSB has no football team, but they do have an exceptional surf team.)  The Greek life at UCSB was almost non-existent when I was a student there.  Fraternity life is, therefore, not something I've been exposed to.

The last few days, along with photographing campus and fraternity life, I was also busy experiencing as much of my surroundings as possible.  Here are some of my random thoughts and observations (some of them were jotted down as I had them):

•  Sitting next to a sick, sneezing, person is inevitable on an all day flight.  And yes, you will come home with a cold as a result.

•  I like collard greens, but do they always have so much salt on them?

•  I do NOT like grits - at all.

•  If you take a few college boys out to dinner you will be astonished at the amount of food consumed.

•  Four boys - TEN baskets of homemade rolls before dinner!

•  I have not outgrown beer pong, but I still don't care for beer bongs.

•  People in the south are SO nice!

•  I think I would have a lot more women friends if I lived in the South vs. The OC.

•  Frat boys are cute, and - very polite ... at least, to me.

•  I prefer my tea unsweetened.  I'm sorry.

•  Tailgating at college football games is a lot of fun.

•  Frat houses are disgusting even when they've been "cleaned up" just for your arrival.

•  There aren't a lot of botoxed and plastic people in the south.  People are so real.  So refreshing!

•  When a fraternity buys wine as a special treat, in anticipation of your arrival, you will force yourself to choke it down even though it's being poured from a bag.

•  With enough time, you won't care what the wine tastes like.

•  Your head WILL hurt from drinking bagged wine the next day.

•  Never use a bathroom in a fraternity.  (Not even the woman's bathroom.)

•  Hearing frat boys talk about their love/sex lives will make you giggle and giggle, because - really?

•  My body is not used to fried food and it makes me feel sick.

•  There are some damn smart people in college these days.  I was impressed!

•  Your toes will freeze at night if you wear flip flops to the football game.

•  You will be the only one in the entire, gigantic, football stadium wearing flip-flops.

•  College girls are wearing lots of short dresses/skirts and cowboy boots in the south.

•  College girls are AFTER the frat boys!

•  I could live on biscuits every morning for breakfast.  Yum!

•  Trees, trees, and MORE trees!  Beautiful!

•  I think it's "freezing" when the weather is in the 60's, but everyone there told me it was an amazing, warm, fall day.

•  I like the feeling of "brisk" evenings.  It feels very fall-ish.

•  Trees are beginning to "turn" in the south.  I wish I could come back in a couple weeks and see them at their prettiest.

•  Frat parties?  Are so ... frat party-ish.  And yes, I really DID attend one for several hours!

•  For the return flight home I was seated by an ahem-er.  Ahem!  Ahem!  Four and a half hours of ahem-ing!  It was BRUTAL.

•  On the other side of me, a man took his shoes off for the entire flight.  His feet stunk!

•  I hate flying!

•  It never gets easier to say good-bye to your kids. 

•  * Sob! *

© Twenty Four At Heart

It's a Good Sign When ...

* Warning:  Reading today's post might make you inclined to go off your healthy, low-carb, eating plan. *

I haven't found better Mexican food anywhere in the United States than what we have here in Southern California.  (My apologies to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona but there's a huge difference!)

You know it's a good sign when one of your favorite Mexican restaurants lets you take snapshots while they make their delicious homemade tortillas.

(Excuse the photo quality on these.  I was so excited they allowed me to do this, I whipped my point and shoot out of my purse and took a few hurried snapshots!)

The dough is made earlier in the day and rolled into balls.

Each tortilla begins as one of these dough-balls.

The tortillas are then rolled out in a lot of flour so they don't stick.

She was a perfectionist.  Each tortilla needed to be an exact thickness and shape.

Once the tortillas are shaped perfectly, it's time to cook them.

Many of the tortillas are fried and made into chips.  The rest are served hot to accompany a patron's meal.

Throw in some fresh salsa and a margarita or two and ...

Did I mention ... delicious?!

© Twenty Four At Heart

J. P. Licks

Am I the only one thinking ...

J.P. must be very popular?!

(P.S.  I'll be back to "normal" posting by Monday - whatever that is!)

© Twenty Four At Heart

My Latest Project

Today's subject is outside the realm of my normal blogging material, but I'm going to share it anyway.

Wait ...

Do I ever have normal blogging material?

I think not.

In which case ... it doesn't really matter, does it?

I'm in the midst of an emotional two weeks right now.

We put my son on a plane for college last Saturday.  I bawled, and bawled, and bawled.

This is his second year in college.  You'd think I'd be used to saying good-bye, but if you're a parent who has ever sent your kid to live 3,000 miles away, you know there is no such thing as getting used to it.  My son stored most of his belongings with college friends prior to summer break so he didn't need us to fly back with him and help him get settled this year.

My daughter, however, will be departing this week to ALSO live 3,000 miles away for school.  Of course, she's going to be in an entirely different state than my son because they have to make things as difficult and as expensive for their parents as possible.  I will be taking my youngest son (still at home) back east later this week to help get her moved into her apartment.  I will do the supervising and my fifteen year old son will do the lifting.

What?

I only have one working arm.

Having two kids move to the other side of the country within a ten day time span has been emotional chaos, plain and simple.

Two years ago, with the best of intentions, I bought a family recipe book for my daughter.  She was in her first college apartment and the timing seemed appropriate for a gift related to cooking.

It's a beautiful book.  You're supposed to fill it up with family recipes to share with those you love.

Hmmm ... I see nothing in the above photo about eating a low-carb diet?

This particular book came with beautiful recipe cards, lined pages, and tab dividers to make it easy to compile.

My only complaint about the book I chose, is there are simply not enough pages in it.  Yesterday, I ordered a few sets of page refills so I'll be able to add more recipes in the future.

Many years ago, my mom gave me a similar book and I treasure it to this day.  I love that the recipes are in her handwriting.  I love the time she took to put the book together for me.  The book itself, makes me feel cherished.  I also use it more than any other cookbook I've ever owned.  The recipes are full of comfort and familiarity, warmth and love.

And yet ...

The book I bought for my own daughter has sat here, untouched, for two years.

Once I purchased the book, I quickly realized the amount of writing that would be involved.  I wanted to write the recipes in my own handwriting, as my mother did for me, not type them.  It's hard to explain, but seeing the recipes in my mom's handwriting is almost like hearing her speak.  I wanted to give the same gift to my daughter.

I quickly realized the project would involve more than my injured arm was capable of at the time.  I've learned to do many things left-handed since my accident, but writing is not one of them.  Although my right hand is not damaged, it takes arm-power to move my hand for any length of time.  I'm in very short supply of arm power.

In fact, I think it would be accurate to say I have NO arm power.

My daughter's cookbook has been left abandoned, filling me with the guilt of unfulfilled promises.

She leaves this week.

I decided I would get the book done prior to her departure come hell or high water.  I set a goal to work on the book every day until she leaves.  I even bought an archival quality, waterproof, fade proof, non-bleeding (all that!!) pen and I'm working diligently on her recipe book.  I'm slowly making progress, despite taking frequent breaks whenever my arm rebels.

I hope someday this cookbook will mean as much to her as the one from my mother now means to me.

This book is truly a labor of love.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Seriously? Did You Just Do That?

I was in the grocery store last week when an incident took place I just can't shake.

I had gathered all the needed groceries in my cart, stood in line at the check-out stand, and it was finally my turn to be rung up by the cashier.

Midway through scanning my items, the cashier sneezed.

This was no ordinary sneeze, this was a big, wet, clearly-sick, juicy, snot-spraying, completely un-contained sneeze.  It scattered mucus particles all over my groceries.

Did I mention a lot of what I was buying was produce?

(Being on a healthy eating kick, and all ....)

Um, gross?

As I recoiled in revulsion, the cashier just went right on scanning my groceries.  She didn't apologize, say "excuse me" or even acknowledge she had just sprayed my fruit and vegetables with a coating of germy green slime.

I felt my stomach turn, and I resisted the urge to bolt from the store leaving all the groceries behind, unpaid for.

It got worse, if that's possible, before I left.

Once all my items were scanned, I paid using my bank card.

While the transaction was processing, the cashier grabbed a kleenex and began blowing her nose.

This was no ordinary nose blowing.

This was a BIG.DEAL. 

It began with actual nose blowing (of epic proportions), and concluded with fingers slightly covered with tissue digging deep into her nostrils in search of giant morsels.

I tried to look away, but the horror I was witnessing kept me riveted.

Suddenly, she tossed the snot-covered tissue into a trashcan at her feet, grabbed my receipt out of the cash register with her unwashed hands, and handed it to me saying, "Have a nice day."

She immediately began processing/handling the grocery order of the woman behind me in line.  She never washed her hands or used any type of hand sanitizer.  

It's now a week later and I still can't seem to scrub the horror of the experience from my brain cells.

What would you have done?

Should I have refused the groceries?

Should I have made a comment to her?

Should I have reported the disgusting-ness to her boss?

© Twenty Four At Heart

My Favorite NYC Photo

On Saturday, fourteen of us cabbed to John's Pizzeria for the most incredible New York pizza.  I'm still having visions of pizza dancing in my head.  (My visions might make me drool just a little bit, but I didn't just say type admit that.)

On the way to John's, I sat up front with the cabbie.

He scared me.

At first.

And then?

He didn't.

His initial gruffness turned to cautious friendliness, followed by outright delight.

His name is Spiro. 

This photo of Spiro is my favorite photo out of the zillions I took during my six days in NYC.

Everything about it says "New York" to me.

Thank you Spiro, so much, for allowing me to photograph you!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Birds of a Feather

A lot of the piers at our beaches have drinking fountains on them.

If fishing is allowed, they also have sinks and faucets for the fishermen/women to clean their fish. 

Believe it or not, I've seen people drink from the fish-cleaning faucets oftentimes too.

Personally, I think I'll continue to take my Sigg bottle with me for drinking my margaritas vodka water at the beach.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Greek Chicken Kabobs

I've got an insanely busy schedule over the next ten days.  I'll fill you in on WHY it's so chaotic in upcoming posts.  For today, due to a lack of writing time, I'm going to share one of my new favorite recipes.

These kabobs are perfect on the grill, perfect for entertaining, and can be put together to marinate a full day ahead of time.  I made them on Memorial Day and they disappeared at record speed.  Trust me, this is a delicious, super flavorful, recipe - and healthy too!

Recipe by:  Christine Avanti

Greek Chicken Kabobs

1 & 1/2 lb. skinless, boneless breasts cut into 1 inch pieces

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon dried mint (available in spice aisle)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 bunch fresh mint

1 red onion cut into 1 inch pieces

8 - 12 inch skewers

(I doubled the recipe because I have two teen boys at home right now and they eat an amazing quantity of food.) 

Mix chicken, 1 Tablespoon olive oil, garlic, dried mint, oregano, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.  Cover and marinate for 30 minutes minimum and up to 24 hours.  (I marinate mine for a full 24 hours for amazing flavor!)

Whisk remaining 1 Tablespoon olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl.

Preheat the grill to a medium-high heat.

Alternate chicken, onion, and fresh mint leaves on skewers.  About 5 pieces of chicken should be on each skewer once you're done.  You may want to lightly sprinkle the skewers with additional salt and pepper at this point, but they don't need much.

Baste the skewers with the lemon and oil mixture as they cook on the grill.

Enjoy!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Not A Bad Weekend

I'm writing this through a bit of a blur.

I overdid it with my swimming over the weekend so now I'm under the influence of pain meds.

It was SO worth it though.  I love being in the pool.  I got a little too enthused, I suppose, and tried to increase the use of my arm faster than I should have.  I'll feel better in a few days.  I'll take it easy until then, but I'm sure I'll be back in the pool every day regardless.

(If nothing else, I'll be seeing the pain management doc this afternoon and I'm sure he'll be interested in checking me out.)

Um, I didn't mean he will be checking ME out, I meant he will be checking my ARM out.

Although, I don't know - maybe he will be checking me out?  

I'll let you know either way.

So, let me give you a quick recap of the last few days ...

I'm firing the new PT.

Yes, I am.  

I gave her three tries and we are not a good match.  

First of all, she has not yet touched me - at all.  Each visit, she hands me a piece of paper showing me things to do when I get home and that's my pt session.  After she hands me a paper, she explains the paper to me for a good thirty minutes.  Not one paper has shown me anything I haven't already been doing for nearly four years.  Also, every exercise she's handed me a paper on is an activity I moved past long ago ... the activities are way too easy (immediate post-surgery type of activities).  

Aren't physical therapists supposed to be hands on?

And yes, I've tried communicating my thoughts/needs/frustrations to her but she doesn't seem to hear me.

Second, she talks to me as if I'm three.  I.Can't.Handle.It!

Third, she informed me I'm an "overachiever" and told me I'm expecting way too much out of myself.

(The Torturer just spewed coffee all over himself reading that!)

I may be an overachiever in some areas of my life.  My pain levels, however, keep my overachieving in check regarding my arm.  She, however, expects nothing from me and seems to think I should also expect nothing from myself.

You know me better than that, don't you?

If I don't think I'm ever going to make improvements - who the hell will?

Anyway - enough said ...

I need a new PT.

And no, I don't yet know who it will be or where I will find him/her.

I think I need a him though.  I like men.

Moving on -

It was hot here this weekend.  I managed to get a lot of things done this weekend (being the overachiever that I am), but when I wasn't busy overachieving this pretty much sums up my weekend:

 

I bought two $19 rafts at Costco.  They're so comfortable and they even have a place to hold my lemonade and vodka ice water.  It's very relaxing after I'm tuckered out from swimming.

Have I mentioned we have the happiest Golden Retriever in the world?

I think we do.

I must have thrown his football for him a few hundred times this weekend.

The weekend ended on a nice note.  We had a couple gift cards to Fleming's Steakhouse in Newport Beach so Briefcase, the two boys, and I enjoyed a great dinner there on Sunday night.  I ordered king crab legs (no butter - just lemon juice) and grilled asparagus.  It was low carb, low fat, healthy and delicious.  I really felt like enjoying a glass of wine with dinner, but I couldn't mix alcohol with the pain meds I needed on Sunday.  Oh well!  

(As an aside, Fleming's has a Bikinitini on their menu - it's a martini with only 99 calories.  I love the name they chose!)

What should I do to celebrate when I hit the twenty pound weight loss mark?  I'm not there yet, but hopefully I will be soon.  I'm all about rewarding myself - it keeps me motivated.

I need ideas/suggestions though.

What do you think?  

What would you consider a good (not too expensive) reward?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Lunch With Neil

I've mentioned my friend, Neil Kramer, on Twenty Four At Heart a few times.  He writes a blog called Citizen of the Month.  Many of you know Neil ... or know OF Neil.  If you've been reading here long enough, you may even remember Neil guest posted for me once upon a time while I was away on a trip.

Neil is a big, famous, screenwriter in real life.  Sometimes he lives in New York, and sometimes Neil lives in the Los Angeles area.  He's bi-coastal.

Neil was one of the first "big" bloggers to acknowledge my arrival in the blogosphere.  I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow we became friends.  Last summer we spent a lot of time hanging out together in Chicago.  Since then we've continued to stay in touch.  You might remember, I saw Neil not long ago at a bloggers meet-up in Laguna Beach.

In any case, Neil is living in L.A. at the moment.  Yesterday I drove up to meet him for lunch.  We were going to meet at a Japanese restaurant.

Um ...

Except - I got lost.

Yes, I've lived in Southern California my entire life.  And no, Neil has not.  That's why I offered to drive up to see him.  So, ya know, he wouldn't get lost.

* Ahem *

And yes, I do have a navigation system in my car.  And no, I didn't program it because I didn't think I needed to.  And then once I was lost, I couldn't program it because I drive with one working arm and .....

Anyway -

I called Neil from the car and he got quite a laugh at my expense.

He had me get off the freeway at the next exit (I had already driven well past the exit I was supposed to take) and directed me to meet him at a coffee shop a few blocks away.  He said he'd be about ten minutes behind me.

I found our new meeting spot, no problem.  I'm a smart driver like that!

L.A. is so L.A.  If you've never spent time in Los Angeles, you won't understand that statement, but if you have - you will.

Pann's was built in 1958 and it still has a 50's feel to it.  

Let's take a closer look at their sign:

  

After a short wait, Neil arrived.  We, of course, chatted nonstop.  There was a lot to get caught up on even though we seem to be in constant, daily, communication.

For instance, Neil told me about researching professional, Orgasmic French kissing which is supposed to be much more exciting than nonprofessional, non-orgasmic French kissing.  Mind you, Neil has only been researching it so far, he hasn't yet gone into PFK (professional French kissing) training.  

Did you click on the Orgasmic French Kissing link?

Neil is a thinker.  Neil thinks about things I would never think about and he thinks about them in a way I would never think about them.  (And I mean every word of that as a compliment.)

All in all, I think Neil is a very interesting person, which is why I enjoy his friendship so much.

 

My lunch reminded me of what I love most about blogging -

Friends like Neil.  

Friends I never would have met if not for the Internet.

Technology has brought some wonderful people into my life.

Like you!

And you ... and you ... and you!

© Twenty Four At Heart

The Holiday Weekend

If you are reading this on Tuesday morning, you might be interested to know I've parked myself at the Money Town Starbucks for a couple hours.  I'll be writing (and Tweeting) about what I observe while I'm there and hopefully have it published for tomorrow's post.  

If you live in South Orange County and are familiar with the Money Town Starbucks, please stop by and say hello if you have the chance.  I think I'll be arriving there sometime around 8 a.m. and staying for about two hours.

I really enjoyed my holiday weekend.  I hope you did too!

I had all three of my kids home for the first half of the long weekend.  For those of you who still have young kids, let me tell you it's quite a treat as they get older and you're able to have them all at home at the very same time.

I'm having a hard time believing this myself, but I'm now the mom of a 21 year old!

How the hell did THAT happen?

I gave birth as a three year old, that's how.

It's a miracle, plain and simple!

We spent the weekend celebrating my daughter's birthday.  Celebrating involved a lot of tequila.  Yes, I even did a few celebratory shots.  (And no, I did not take any pain meds while drinking!)

I asked my daughter, "How can you be 21 when I'm only 24?"

She asked, "Mom, aren't you supposed to embrace getting older?"

I replied, "I suppose I will once I DO get older, but I'm still 24!"

She might have rolled her eyes and laughed.

(It must be tough explaining to your friends that your mom is only three years older than you.)

So, this is what I did over the last few days.

Beach - San Clemente this time:

 

Lunch at Fisherman's:

Margaritas at our favorite Mexican restaurant:

(Sorry, I had to cut everyone else out of this photo - and yes, this was straight from the beach, hence I look terrible!)

Not pictured:  Tequila shots, dancing on table tops (you think I'm kidding?) and other forms of My Mom's Not a Great Role Model behavior.

Isn't it great when your kids get old enough so you can be an immature adult with them?  

Ice cream birthday cake (I've blurred her name out of the photo):

Sipping coffee on our deck staring at my mountains:

 

A lot of time poolside:

I was very excited because I found a low-carb margarita mix which I enjoyed over the weekend.  (So many people have asked me about this already on Twitter.  It's made by Finest Call and is available at BevMo.)  

I also made myself my own low-carb single serving cake which only had 6 carbs in it.  Tequila doesn't have any carbs, although it does have calories and like all alcohol, it slows weight loss substantially.  However, considering the weekend of partying and fun, I think I did quite well on my new low-carb style of eating.  I didn't lose an ounce, but I didn't gain an ounce either and I consider that a success.

(By the way, I made the BEST dinner on the grill for Memorial Day - I may have to share the two recipes I used sometime soon.  Nom nom nom!!!)

I also loved being back in the pool for the first time in months.  The pool is the one place where I can move my arm a little more freely.  It becomes weightless and the water lifts it for me.  I love being in the pool because I feel "normal" again.

My arm is really weak and I've lost a lot of ground in both my strength and my range of motion.  On Sunday I could only swim two laps (using a modified breaststroke) which is terrible, even for me.  I grabbed a kick-board so I could rest my arm, and kicked my way through several more laps.  

The good news?  I was only a little sore from my first attempt at swimming this year.  Maybe the new pain medication is beginning to kick in?!  Let's hope!

Yesterday, I tried round two of swimming.  I did quite a few more laps than the first day.  And yes, I'm hurting a little more now, but still - much less than what I would expect for that level of activity.

I know it's too soon to know for sure ....

I'm afraid to even say this ... but I'm cautiously - hopeful.  

Please, please, please let this medication work for me!  

Please, please, please let this be a new beginning!

I'll be in the pool nearly every day for the next several months so I will continue to work on re-building strength in my arm.

All in all, it was a great holiday weekend.  

Did you do anything fun and/or exciting for your weekend?  

I'm nosy - I want to hear all about it!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Time Off

I'm taking a little time off over this holiday weekend.

So far, it's involved a lot of tequila and not much else.

I hope you're having a great weekend too!

I'll be back soon!

© Twenty Four At Heart 

Steak Salad

I rarely post recipes, but when I do they get so many page views I go cross eyed.

This week, I'm very busy with family coming in and out of town.  In addition, my daughter has a birthday we will be celebrating towards the end of the week.  In other words, writing time isn't easy to come by.

I thought I'd share one of my family's favorite recipes for Steak Salad with you today.  It also happens to be low-carb, although that wasn't a factor for me when I first began making it many years ago. 

If there are ingredients you don't care for, feel free to substitute ones you like instead.  Also, I always eyeball quantities instead of using exact measurements.  However, today, I'm providing you with the exact measurements called for in the original recipe.  Please don't ask me where the original recipe came from - I've had it so long, I have no idea!

(I am nothing, if not a very flexible, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, type of cook.)

Steak Salad:

 

The Salad Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

A dash of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

** Mix all of the ingredients except the blue cheese together in a small bowl until well mixed.  Add blue cheese crumbs and refrigerate.

The Salad:

2 - 8 oz. rib eye steaks

6 cups torn salad greens

Cherry tomatoes

1 carrot thinly sliced or grated

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/4 cup sliced stuffed green olives

* Grill the steaks and slice them thin and into not-too-big pieces.  Arrange the lettuce, tomatoes, carrot, onion and olives in a bowl.  Top with steak slices (hot or cold depending on your preference) and dressing.

Bon appetit!

© Twenty Four At Heart

F*$&ing Diet Plateau!

I'm pissed off and cranky.

I admit, part of my crankiness is the skyrocketing pain I've been experiencing the last few days.  I'm seeing a pain management specialist this afternoon - I'm hoping he'll be able to help me.  I'm in very bad shape right now pain-wise.  I find myself holding my breath because it hurts to breathe.  Yes, it is THAT bad.  I haven't had this severe of pain for awhile.  It's not fun - not fun at all.

The biggest contributing factor to my crankiness, however, is this damn diet I'm on.

I've now completed three full weeks on my diet (Lindora).  I'm a couple days into my fourth week.

The first ten days went better than expected.  I dropped eleven pounds and over five inches.

I was so (!) happy (!) and enthusiastic!

In the two-plus weeks since then?

Not one pound.

NOT ONE POUND!

I want to throw things in frustration.

I haven't varied off the diet by even one nibble.

Yes, I'm continuing to exercise.

And even stranger still, (to me anyway) - I'm still in ketosis which means my body is burning fat.  I'm shrinking, but I'm not losing weight.

WTF?

Lindora is a very low calorie, low fat, low carb diet.  I'm being monitored by a doctor which is something I chose due to my insulin resistance.

The folks at Lindora tell me weight loss plateaus are normal.  My brain might be able to grasp that fact on one level, but my frustration is mounting anyway.  

Also, how can my body be burning fat (which the ketosis sticks clearly show it's doing), but my actual weight isn't changing?

Lindora has a four day "plateau diet" for people with stubborn bodies like mine.

I thought I'd share it with you today so you can see how miserable these four days are.

Breakfast:

1 egg or egg beaters equivalent (boiled or poached)

1/2 grapefruit

Snack: 

Protein 1 serving (boiled egg or no-fat string cheese, as an example)

Lunch:  

3 1/2 oz white fish

1/2 cup cooked spinach

1/2 grapefruit

Snack:  

Protein 1 serving (same as above)

Dinner:

3 1/2 oz white fish

1/2 cup cooked spinach

1/2 grapefruit

Snack:

Protein 1 serving (same as above)

At Bedtime:

1 cup hot lemon water

The same menu is repeated for three days.  (I'm on Day #3 right now.)  I feel like I'm going to gag at the very thought of fish.

On the fourth day, you take away the grapefruit and spinach and have six protein servings throughout the day.

By day five, the plateau is supposed to be broken.

Or possibly, at that point you're in jail for committing violence on anyone in your vicinity?

I need encouragement.  I need help for my frustration.  

Have you ever successfully broken through a dieting plateau?

Have you ever gotten so frustrated by a plateau you threw something?

Just wondering, because I'm *almost* to that point .....

© Twenty Four At Heart

Boring You On A Semi-Regular Basis

I promise I won't be writing about this topic every week.  I also promise an update on some Money Town characters tomorrow.

Seriously, I promise.

On the other hand, a lot of you have written to me asking questions about one of my recent posts.  Enough of you, in fact, to make me think I might as well answer you all at one time vs. emailing the same information out several times.

I'm referring to my recent discovery regarding being insulin resistance.

Healthy eating, and health in regard to diet, seems to be a hot issue for many people lately.

Several of you wanted to know what I'm doing regarding the low-carb eating style my doctor informed me I need to adopt.  Initially, I wasn't going to go into details, but like I said ... people are asking - so here goes.

I plan on adopting a low-carb lifestyle for the remainder of my life because blah, blah, blah insulin resistant.  I know, without a doubt, I'll have days when I fall off the wagon and eat things I shouldn't.  I also know, unequivocally, I don't want to add any health problems to the already overwhelming issue of my arm.  I think I have a pretty good attitude, in that, I'm not expecting perfection out of myself, but I have fully accepted and embraced this as a lifestyle change.

In other words, I'm not approaching this as a "diet" to lose weight ... 

For me, it has to be a permanent way of life.

That being said, I would like to get back to a healthy weight as I go through the transition with my eating habits.  

My doctor suggested I try Lindora.  Lindora is a low-carb diet plan.  Lindora has diet centers you can go to.  They also have the option of an online program instead, or an at-home plan.  Because I'm insulin resistant, I opted for checking in at one of their diet centers twice a week.  I did this because it allows me to be monitored by a doctor and my insulin levels, etc. are being checked.

I am, in no way, suggesting Lindora is the right diet/eating plan for you, or anyone else.  However, it seems to be exactly what I need right now based on both my insulin resistance and my desire to get back to my pre-accident weight.  

The first three days on the Lindora plan are pretty much three days of hell.  They are "protein days" with very few carbs and very few calories.  The idea is to get your body into ketosis which is the state when your body begins burning your own fat for energy.  

On the first day of my new eating habits, I was convinced my stomach was eating itself in its desperation for food.  On my second day, I felt horrible.  I guess I was going through carb-withdrawals or something.  I had a horrendous headache and ... ugh!  By the end of day three, my body was officially in ketosis and I felt great.  

And I do mean GREAT!

Lindora has me eating a low carb, low calorie, low fat and high protein very balanced food plan six days a week.  Portions are small, but I'm not feeling hungry.  A positive side effect of being in ketosis is a decrease in appetite.  One day a week, I follow the Lindora guidelines for a "protein day" to keep my body in ketosis.  I'm not taking any diet pills or drugs.

This plan is different from the Atkins diet which so many people are familiar with.  High fat/high calorie foods aren't permitted.  To me, this makes sense.  Calories in have to be less than calories out in order to lose weight, right? 

By the way, I have the metabolism of a snail.  Many people can eat much more, but I have to limit my body to 55-65 healthy carbs a day in order to remain in ketosis.  (Ketone sticks are used to check for ketosis each day.)  I discovered how few carbs my body will tolerate early within my first week on Lindora.  In a way, it sucks.  On the other hand, the positive is, I now know what I need to do.  It's so much easier to accept than banging my head against a wall repeatedly - which is what I've been doing for the last four years.

I have more energy than I've had in years.  I really can't get over it.  I've since learned, being insulin resistant makes many people feel tired a lot of the time.  I don't think I even realized I was lacking in energy until I saw a dramatic, positive, change by cutting out the carbs.  I have energy to burn and I absolutely love feeling this way!  Feeling high-energy is a great incentive for me to keep up with the low-carb lifestyle.

In addition to feeling much better, I'm already seeing a weight loss.

I lost over seven pounds in the first week!  I realize, when a person's body adjusts to a new diet most of the initial weight loss is simply water weight.  Regardless, it feels much better to have seven less pounds on my body.  I hope to continue losing at a rate of one or two pounds per week although I'm sure I'll have weeks where my body plateaus.  

Yes, I'm exercising.  I work out for at least 30 minutes on my elliptical, or walk at least 5 of every 7 days.  This isn't something new for me.  What is new, is my increased energy level and the fact I'm actually *finally* losing weight.  Before, I felt like I was doing everything right, but I got no results.

I'm also skipping alcohol for the time being.  I'm not much of a drinker anyway so it isn't hard for me.  After my accident, I was on pain meds for two and a half years nonstop.  I couldn't mix the (very!) heavy narcotics with alcohol so I stopped drinking.  In recent months, alcohol has been an occasional indulgence.  Yes, I will be able to drink again ... but right now I'm choosing not to.  I want to give my body every advantage in adjusting to my new lifestyle.  Alcohol metabolizes as sugar and slows the metabolism.  My metabolism is plenty slow all on its own.

Maybe after a couple weeks I'll reward myself with a shot of tequila glass of wine?

Speaking of rewards, I decided I would build an incentive program into my weight loss.  I'm still in the planning stages ... but basically, I'm treating myself a little bit for every five pounds lost.  I'm making a list of (non-food) rewards.  Maybe a new pair of costume jewelry earrings, or a pedicure, or two hours at the beach with my camera ... little bonuses to keep me motivated to stay on track.  

To be honest, I thought I would need these rewards to make my transition easier.  Now that I'm actually doing this, I'm finding my increased energy level, and the fact I feel so much better, is probably all the incentive I need.  Nonetheless, I promised myself rewards and who am I to break a promise?

Someone wrote in and asked what types of food I'm eating.  As an example, one night this week I had a chicken breast fillet which I baked with a low-carb teriyaki sauce on it.  I sauteed some fresh spinach and mushrooms with a little onion and garlic as a side dish.  I also had a salad with a low-carb balsamic dressing on it.  Dessert was a small bowl of fresh strawberries from my favorite roadside strawberry stand.  I was not at all hungry and everything really was delicious.

As a side note, the next morning I threw some of the leftover vegetables into an omelette.

By the way, Lindora does offer diet foods for sale but most of them make me gag.  I've opted to teach myself how to stay within their nutritional guidelines using real food.  (The exception being my first three hell protein days.)  

For one thing, real food tastes much better.  It leaves me more satisfied and more likely to stay on track.  For another, I'm in this for the long term.  I need to become accustom to what I can prepare and enjoy on a daily basis.  

Quick fixes aren't what I'm looking for.

A lot of my readers recommended The South Beach Diet.  I've picked up one of their cookbooks and it looks as if some of their recipes are compatible with the Lindora program.  I'll be experimenting with recipes more and more as I become accustom to living on a low-carb diet.

I think that covers most of the questions I've gotten so far.  I love hearing about the experiences you, or your family members, have had so please continue to share your stories.  I find my readers to be such a wealth of information.  I learn so much from your comments and emails!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Bloggers at Las Brisas

There's a restaurant called Las Brisas perched on a bluff in Laguna Beach.  They have a very popular outdoor bar, in addition to a fairly swanky indoor restaurant.  It's a favorite place for Orange County folks to bring out of town guests.

Why?

Well, the view has a lot to do with it. 

Las Brisas could not be more "Orange County."  The people-watching there is always incredible too.  (Particularly in the summer when no one in the bar wears much in the way of clothing.)

Last Wednesday night, I arrived at Las Brisas to meet up with a few other bloggers.  The event was organized as part of Bossy's No Book Tour.  (For the two one of you who don't know Bossy, she is a humor blogger.) 

Humor.  

As in, she is funny all the time, whereas, I just think I'm funny some of the time.

This is what Las Brisas looks like from inside the restaurant at night:

 

This is what our group looked like after everyone had drunk a little wine and/or a few margaritas.

I stole borrowed this group photo from Bossy.  I'm sure she doesn't mind I wrote all over it. 

Isn't Bossy gorgeous? 

I was the last one to arrive.  I had been sitting in the cold and rain for three hours watching my cold turn into pneumonia son's baseball game.  Why they didn't call the game is beyond me.  It was nice to arrive at Las Brisas and see the ocean storming though.  I love the beach during a storm.

Despite arriving late, and feeling very rushed and flustered, I quickly settled in and had fun.

 

Who, me?

Can you imagine me having fun?

By the way, I'm not sure who I stole that last photo from.  It might have been on Bossy's camera too.

What could be better for a stormy night by the sea than a bowl of soup?

Ok, I admit, it does look like something one of my dogs yakked up.

It was some sort of hominy something-or-other, and also, sort of Mexican-ish.

Guess what?

It was delicious.  Absolutely fantastic!  I would order it again in a minute. 

I really enjoyed meeting some new people and also getting caught up with a few old friends.  Bossy will have to come visit Orange County more often so we have an excuse to celebrate again.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Life's Simple Pleasures

A few years ago, while vacationing in Maui, I fell in love with Chocolate Macadamia Nut Coffee from The Coffee Store.  Every year, when we'd return to Maui, I'd buy some to bring home with me.  I tried other flavors, but for me - it always came back to this one.

I don't know what took me so long, but I finally realized I could enjoy my favorite coffee year round.  I now order it online and it arrives in big five pound bags on my doorstep a few days later.  

 

This just came yesterday.  I spent the last week drinking "normal" coffee as I waited for it to arrive.  Next time I'll order sooner so I don't run out.  If you're a coffee drinker, you might want to treat yourself.  You can order it in smaller one pound bags if you want.  You can also order it ground or get the whole beans.  I buy the whole beans and grind them as I use them.

Periodically it goes on sale or they have specials where they waive the shipping charges.  I always stock up when I can get it a little cheaper.

Yum!

Sitting outside on our deck or patio and sipping this in the mornings is truly one of my favorite moments of the day.

© Twenty Four At Heart   

I'm Blaming My Friends, Part III

Isn't it about time I conclude this story?

I think so.

When I left off last week, I was at a bar named K'ya in Laguna Beach with a few girlfriends.

We drank a couple mojitos, possibly got a little carried away taking photos of random strangers at the bar, met a few "relatively harmless" men, and then decided to leave.

On the way out, we ran into some music makers.  They could barely contain their laughter as Nike began shimmying and dancing in front of them.  They also seemed to think it was pretty funny I was taking their pictures.  

They might have thought we were a *little* tipsy. 

Nike wanted to make one more stop before it was time to head to the Laguna Playhouse.

230 Forest Avenue is not just an address.  It's also the name of a popular restaurant/bar in Laguna Beach.  Unlike K'ya, 230 Forest Avenue doesn't have an ocean view.  230 does have great food though.

As we walked to 230, we passed this VW bug:

  

A closer look at the sign on the windshield revealed this:

The sign Dee is holding says, "If you like what you see contribute to me.  I'm a work in progress.  Donate through sunroof and see what becomes of me."

We did not toss any money through the sunroof.

Instead, we entered 230 Forest Avenue and ordered another mojito and a host of appetizers to share as our evening meal.

I don't think any of us were feeling any pain at this point in the evening.

After a few bites at 230, it was time to go see The Second City perform Can You Be More Pacific?  We walked a couple blocks to the theater.  (I might have taken off my heels and walked the few blocks barefoot due to blisters on my feet.  It's a beach town - no one noticed!)

As we entered, we were handed our programs.

Let's take a closer look at how the program portrays Orange County women.

First of all, her body is a navel orange.  (See her navel?)  She's got big, over-sized, filled lips, designer sunglasses, platinum blonde hair, jewelry on her wrist, and manicured nails.  

It looks pretty accurate to me. 

The performance was great and made for a perfect ending to a fantastic girl's night out.

There's no reason to bring up the horrific hangover/headache I had the next morning, is there?

I didn't think so ....

© Twenty Four At Heart

From Germany With Love

** I will be hosting a giveaway, tomorrow, on Wednesday!  Please make sure to stop by! **

Awhile back, one of my readers, Anne (who lives in Germany), contacted me.  She'll be in the United States in May and was wondering if we could meet.  We've corresponded a few times trying to work out the details.

I was delighted when she emailed me about two weeks ago to inform me she had sent a package to me.

I'm not much better than a child as far as surprises (!) and packages (!) and presents (!) go.

I've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to see what my surprise might be.

Finally, this arrived:

Inside I found this:

There was a very nice letter in the pretty flowered envelope.  

Also?

There was German chocolate.

And then?

There was more chocolate.

But what's in the pretty box?

Well, do you remember awhile back, I shared with you some Fun Facts?  One of them, was about rubbing your hands on stainless steel after cooking with garlic or onions to make the strong odor completely disappear from your skin.  (This was a tip from my friend MrLady.)

Shortly after reading my post, Anne found Stainless Steel Soap in one of her local stores and thought of me.

How clever is that?

You set the "soap" in it's little black soap dish in your kitchen.  I put mine right by my sink.  After cooking with garlic or onions, you rub your hands on the "soap" and it eliminates the smell from your hands. 

This means I don't have to get all friendly with my stainless refrigerator anymore.  (Or rub my hands on a knife (!) as some of my readers mentioned they do.)

Better yet, unlike real soap, the stainless steel soap will last forever.

I'm thrilled with my surprises.

(I know some of you might be interested in purchasing Stainless Steel Soap also.  If you are, you can find a few brands to choose from on Amazon by clicking here.)

Thank you, Anne, for your thoughtfulness!

I hope everything works out so we are able to meet in person in May.

xo

© Twenty Four At Heart

I'm Blaming My Friends, Part I

* I will be hosting a giveaway this Wednesday!  Make sure to stop by and join in the fun! *

A few of my friends and I decided to go to the Laguna Playhouse one night last week to see The Second City perform Can You Be More Pacific?

Can You Be More Pacific? is a show consisting of a series of short skits/improvs spoofing Orange County.  It was hilarious.  I highly recommend it to all of my Orange County readers.  (Well, all of you who have a sense of humor!)  As a writer who is constantly making fun of the Orange County lifestyle, I truly appreciated the great acting and humor of the performances.

The show didn't start until 8 p.m., but my friend, Nike, thought we should start our evening around 4:00 in the afternoon.  

What can I say?

She likes to have a good time.

We parked on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway for those of you who don't live here) and walked a block or two to our first destination.

Walking along Pacific Coast Highway looks like this:

(Excuse the crappy photo quality - all of today's photos were taken with a very old point and shoot, and in many of them the photographer was inebriated.)

A drunk photographer is a shocking and very disturbing thing!

It only took a few minutes to spot our first destination.

We were headed to K'ya.  It's pronounced k-eye-a.

I think.

After ascending a couple flights of stairs we, too, were on the rooftop.

We were at the bar, but the seating area for people who actually want to eat food while they're at K'ya looks like this:

The bar crowd looked more like this:

Well, you did want to see a typical OC woman, didn't you?

Notice the mega-carat diamond studs in her ears, the designer sunglasses, the perfectly french-manicured nails and the bleached blonde hair.  

Oh wait, don't forget the excessive cleavage which is probably store-bought if she's like the majority of women here.

There's more too!

Check out the lips!

Do you think they're natural?

And what about her hair piece?  Do you think that's natural? 

 

How did I get off on this tangent?

My apologies.

I get a lot of people asking for photos of Orange County folks, and this woman is pretty typical.

She's probably a very nice person.

Anyway ...

With my back to the ocean, the view from K'ya looked like this:

 

Very pretty, but, of course, I faced towards the men ocean while we were there.

My friend, Nike, suggested we kick off the night with mojitos.

I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I was forced to agree.

And really?

That mojito is just the beginning of this story ......

(Part II will post on Thursday.  Also, I posted a few other photos of our girl's night out over the weekend.  If you missed them, you might want to scroll back and take a look.)  

© Twenty Four At Heart

Adrift in Chocolate

This isn't what I was going to write about today, at all.

No, I'm supposed to be dieting, remember?

Hmmm ... I think I blew it already.

My daughter returned safely from her spring break trip and is now back at college.  

Did you know I gave birth to her when I was only a toddler?

It's true.

It might have been a miracle.

Anyway ...

While she was gone she visited Finland, Russia, Belgium, and Estonia.

Some of you live in those very places.

She had a great time and returned with gifts.

These Belgian chocolates are tiny, little, slivers of melting deliciousness!

She brought an entire box of them home.  They are pure, rich, sweet, goodness. 

I have readers in Belgium.  I'd just like each and every one of them to know I can be bribed with chocolate.

It's a terrible weakness.  

Especially when I have PMS.

She also brought home chocolate waffles.  I had never heard of chocolate waffles before.

They are about three inches across ... about the size of a large American cookie.  They're crisp like a cookie also.  They were made by Dumon Chocolatier and they're to die for.  Honestly, they are perhaps the best treat I've ever experienced.  Someone needs to hide them from me because I absolutely can't resist them.  I could eat a bazillion of them in one sitting - they are that good!

I think maybe they're just cookies in a waffle shape?

Also?

I really need to do some traveling.  I haven't been to Europe in years.  Her photos brought back all sorts of memories.  The hotel she stayed at in Belgium was right on a canal.

Belgium is nothing like Orange County.

Of course, no place is like Orange County.

I live in a strange little bubble filled with sunshine, beautiful beaches, and plastic real-life Barbies.

Please send chocolate!

(I better go exercise now ....)

© Twenty Four At Heart

Beautiful Day at the Beach

I'm continuing on with my overbooked, totally insane, chaotic week.

I'm exhausted and it's only Wednesday.

My son, PR, turns 15 today!

Woo hoo!  

We make a big deal out of birthdays at our house.  It's my fault.  I put a lot of stress on myself to make a BIG DEAL out of every birthday in our family.  I want people to make a big deal out of my birthday too.  I believe everyone deserves their very own day to feel like the truly special person they are.

On a totally separate note, I have the funniest story to tell you!  You will laugh your ass off ... unless it offends you, but I don't think my readers are easily offended.  Otherwise, you wouldn't be my readers, right?  Except for the one woman who wrote me one day to say she had been reading 24 "for a really long time" but I deeply offend her on a regular basis and she wouldn't be coming back to read "ever again."  She had never commented or emailed before so I never knew she was there in the first place.  It was hard to feel heartbroken over THAT loss.

In any case, I can't wait to tell you my funny story.  I need to find some time to sit down uninterrupted so I can write it up.

Maybe tomorrow?

If not?

Soon.

Very, very soon!

Yesterday I was running around Orange County like a chicken with its head cut off all day.  For most of the day, I dragged my oldest son around with me.  He's only home for one week and if I can't be home with him while he's here, I like him to come with me so I can spend time with him.  He actually doesn't mind, which shocks the hell out of me.

Anyway, we stopped for lunch at the pier in San Clemente while we were out and about.

 

I forgot to bring my most-loved camera, but I did have my point and shoot in my purse.  I was glad I had it with me, because it was a beautiful day. 

I'm going to indulge myself in a little bitch session here and say these photos don't really do the scene justice.  I can't believe the difference a camera can make in picture quality ... I've gotten spoiled by my other camera. 

But ... any photo to share the day with you, is better than no photo, right?

We shared a bucket of steamed clams for lunch.  I tried to sneak a photo in when the waiter turned his back.

 

After lunch, we went for a walk on the beach.  There's nothing like sand between my toes to make me relax.  We only had a little time, but we enjoyed every minute of it.  It was sunny and pretty, but windy.  The wind created a lot of white caps on the ocean.  I was glad I wasn't out on a boat yesterday because the water was really rough.

 

In less than two hours our lunch and walk were done.  It was a short break in an otherwise chaotic week, which made it all the more special.  As the rest of my week carries forward, I know I'll think back on the time we took for this little break with a sigh.

 

What did you do last time you were able to grab an hour or two to enjoy yourself and/or relax?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Strawberry Season

Every year, I get so excited when the first roadside strawberry stands begin appearing around Orange County.  Believe it or not, a lot of strawberries are grown right here.  The strawberries bought at the stands are so much better than those found in the grocery stores.  This year the stands were up in February as they usually are, but due to a lot of rainy weather, the berries didn't really arrive until March.

And now they have .....

 

Recipes which include strawberries are swirling in my head.  You can find my favorite Strawberry Salad recipe posted here.

© Twenty Four At Heart

A Touch of New Orleans in The OC

Last weekend, like many of you, I went to a Super Bowl party.  

The party was a neighborhood block party and our friends, Keith and Kelly, were involved in hosting it.  There were at least 150 people at the party, probably more.  Keith and Kelly have a neighbor who moved to Orange County from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home.  He's converted their entire neighborhood into Saints fans.

It had rained all day on Saturday, but Super Bowl Sunday was a beautiful day.  I took a few snapshots with my handy point-and-shoot so I could share the day with you.

 

There was a three hour New Orleans/Mardi Gras style party before the Super Bowl game even began.  We were running late and missed a lot of it, but we did arrive in time to hear Bennie and the Swamp Gators, an authentic cajun zydeco band, play.  They were great!

 

There were ice chests all over the place filled with beer and other drinks.  There were also tables up and down the street covered with endless amounts of food.

What kind of food?

Well, they had a shrimp boil, a few big pots of jambalaya, crawdads, and a lot more.

 

We enjoyed a taste of New Orleans right here in Orange County.

They also had "bounce houses" set up for the young kids in the neighborhood.

 

The funniest moment of the party occurred when we were all hanging out on the street at halftime.  A very drunk woman was talking to my friend's husband, Joe.  As we approached she realized my friend, Diane, was his wife.  She apologized to Diane for "flirting" with her husband.  Diane laughed it off and said, "Go right ahead, he probably loves it."  Joe made a quick exit, rolling his eyes, as the inebriated woman proceeded to gab (on and on) to us.

I thought the woman was not only out of her mind drunk, but also, very offensive and bigoted from the comments she was making.  I walked away from her very quickly.  A few minutes later Diane was giving me the "save me" signal, but I hesitated ... contemplating whether I dare subject myself to the obnoxious woman again.  A moment later, I saw Diane practically run into a nearby home to escape the woman. 

It turns out the woman, who was married, had told Diane how attracted she was to Diane's husband Joe.  Then she commented on Diane's "beautiful blue eyes" and began coming on to her ... including trying to touch her.  She made it clear she was interested in both sexes, and "everyone hooks up with everyone else at Super Bowl parties anyway, don't they?  So it doesn't really matter ...."

There's just nothing like a drunk swinger at a neighborhood, family, block party.  And before all of you blame this incident on Orange County or California, I think it's important to let you know the Drunk Swinger Woman was from Wisconsin.

I suppose drunk swingers can be found almost anywhere?

A few of my (non-swinger) friends were nice ( perhaps drunk?) enough to agree to be photographed for Twenty Four At Heart.  Along the top row of the collage below, you will see from left to right:  Keith (our host), Shannon, and Ray.

 

That might be me in the picture at the bottom of the collage.  I had a little to drink before I started posing with the blow up Saints player.   I don't want to hear any jokes about Roxxxy or blow up dolls, okay?  (Besides, at this point in the party I think the Saints blow-up guy was looking pretty good to me.)

© Twenty Four At Heart

Santa Barbara Weekend - Part I

I'm safely back in Orange County after a treacherous drive home yesterday.  Driving for hours through such a big storm was intense.  I watched a car spin out of control in front of me on the freeway, colliding head-on with another car, bringing traffic to a halt.  It brought all my car accident anxieties to the surface again.

And yet, it was a wonderful weekend.

Saturday morning, I left The OC around 8 a.m. to drive up the coast.  Along the way, I stopped to visit with my niece, Undomestic Diva, and her three holy terrors adorable boys.  (Just joking about the holy terror part.  I love them - really, I do!)  

I arrived in Santa Barbara just before lunchtime.  It was a beautiful day.

I met a friend for lunch at La Super Rica, which is purportedly Julia Child's (and Oprah's?)  favorite Mexican restaurant.  It's a little dive, with a long line, and some cheap, but excellent, authentic Mexican food.  I would imagine Julia Child and Oprah don't have to wait in line when they go there.  While waiting outside, forever, to get in - I got very sunburned.  It was a little overcast when I left Orange County and I hadn't thought to put sunscreen on.

 

After lunch my friend and I walked, and walked, and walked, for miles.  I was enjoying the ocean, the sand and the beautiful day.

Next came a few hours of shopping downtown.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a Lush store has opened in Santa Barbara.  I've only ordered from them online before.  It was great to see all their products on display.  My skin has been very dry lately, so I ended up purchasing a pot of Dream Cream.

We visited a lot of stores, although we were mainly just window shopping.

(Except, ahem, I also stopped into Victoria's Secret to pick up a few ... things.)

Before I knew it, it was evening time.  At this point, I'd been on my feet for hours.  We stopped at Arigato for a very light dinner of sushi.  I've mentioned Arigato before.  It's my favorite sushi restaurant absolutely anywhere.  If you ever find yourself visiting, make sure to order their Tiger Roll.  

After dinner, we walked around downtown for awhile longer.  Eventually I made my way to my hotel.  After unpacking, it didn't take long to fall fast asleep to the sound of waves crashing outside my room.  It couldn't have been a nicer Saturday.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Tupelo Honey

** I'm giving away twelve Twenty Four At Heart 2010 Calendars.  You can enter to win one until 8 p.m. Pacific Time tonight by clicking here.  Winners will be announced tomorrow. **

Are you a Foodie?

Are you a Van Morrison fan?

I love, love, love many of the old Van Morrison tunes, including Tupelo Honey.

Here are the lyrics of the first verse in the song:

You can take all the tea in China

Put it in a big brown bag for me

Sail right around the seven oceans

Drop it straight into the deep blue sea

She's as sweet as Tupelo Honey

She's an angel of the first degree

She's as sweet as Tupelo Honey

Just like honey from a bee.

Have you ever tried Tupelo Honey?  Do you even know what it is?  I'm sure most of my southern readers are familiar with it.

I might be the only person on earth who was clueless?

I'll be honest, I hadn't ever thought twice about it.  Who thinks about honey?  Hearing Van Morrison sing about Tupelo Honey was the extent of my knowledge.  Living in California, it's not something we often (ever?) see here.

For the holidays, we received a bottle of Tupelo Honey and a box of raw honeycomb.

  
I baked some fresh biscuits for breakfast the day after Christmas.  My family smothered the hot-from-the-oven biscuits with butter and honey.  They oohed and aahed and told me it was the best honey they've ever had.  

Since then, I've learned a little about Tupelo Honey.  To make Tupelo Honey, the bees need nectar from Tupelo blossoms.  I guess that makes sense, but I didn't even realize there were Tupelo trees.  (I do have several palm trees at my house, however.)  The Tupelo trees, apparently, only bloom for a very short time each year making Tupelo honey in very short supply.

The special nectar from the Tupelo blossoms gives the honey a unique flavor, and unlike other honeys, it won't ever crystallize.  Honey-makers (is that what they're called?) worldwide consider Tupelo Honey the "gold standard" of the honey industry.

Who knew?  Everyone but me?

(And now I've got the Tupelo Honey lyrics stuck in my head for the day!)

© Twenty Four At Heart

San Clemente

** If you're one of the many people who have emailed me in the last several weeks, I can assure you I've read your email.  Most likely, I haven't yet responded to it and for that, I apologize.  I have visitors here for one more week.  I will be doing my best to get caught up with all of you in the next two weeks.  Thank you for your patience! **

Many of my virtual friends, around the world, have been sharing with me stories of winter.  They tell me stories of temperatures I've never experienced in my life (-49F anyone?).  I think maybe once, when I was in the mountains on a ski trip, I might have experienced 32 F/0 C.  In fact, I think a few little flakes swirled through the air and I got really excited because it was snowing.  

So, um, sorry - but that's all I know about cold weather.

However, since many of you are currently experiencing cold, I thought you might like to read about warm.

I woke up Sunday morning sweating.  

Aren't I attractive?

It was 77F/25C downstairs in our house, which means the bedrooms upstairs had to be at least 80F.  My house gets full morning sun and it heats up quickly in warm weather.

We decided to drive to San Clemente for breakfast at Fisherman's.  It's a quick drive from where I live and it promised to be a beautiful beach day.

I was not disappointed.

It was a spectacular morning.  

There were some big waves and we watched the surfers as we ate.  The waves would crash so hard against the pilings under the restaurant, the table would shake.  Ocean spray, from the crashing waves, shot up high enough to mist my feet through the planks of the floor.  (Tip: always wear flip flops if you plan to eat outdoors at Fisherman's.) 

This was the view straight in front of me while seated at my table:

PR was facing the opposite direction.  This is the view from where he sat:

 

We walked down the pier which is currently under (re)construction.  I wanted to get a photo looking back towards the town.  San Clemente is nestled in the hills and comes right down to the beach.

  

There were a lot of pelicans diving for food.  I have a weakness for pelicans.  They've only recently been removed from the endangered list.  In ideal conditions, pelicans can live up to 30 years.  Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder for them to find "ideal" conditions.

Sadly, this pelican, perched on top of a pier building, had a piece of fishing line entangled near his beak.  Although the sight of the fishing line upset me, it didn't seem to faze him as he relaxed in the sun.  (He was staring at me, can you tell?)

 

We walked up and down the beach for a long time.  

 

It felt nice to be out on such a wonderful day.  Everyone we saw was enjoying themselves and had a smile on their face.

 

I convinced myself I was burning up thousands of calories with every step I took.

We walked, and we walked, until we ran out of sand.

© Twenty Four At Heart 

Fattigman Cookies

I spent yesterday baking.

And baking.

And making some treats which needed no baking at all.

I had help but, nevertheless, it was an epic accomplishment with my bum arm.  I produced several types of goodies, but there was one particular treat I was thrilled to be preparing.

For the first time since my car accident, I made fattigman.  (Pronounced, at least by me, as fot-a-min.)

What is fattigman?  It's a, sort-of, diamond shaped, traditional, Norwegian cookie.  Cooks often whip them up at Christmas time, but they're not exclusively a "Christmas cookie."  You can make fattigman anytime you want.  In Scandinavia, they're also known as Poor Man Cookies.

One other important fact, fattigman are fried to create a light, crispy, exterior.

Yes, I said fried.  No, I don't own a deep fryer.  (I live in California, remember?  We're all about healthy eating here.)  I just fry fattigman in a regular old pan.

I'm an improviser.

Before you dismiss fattigman based on the terrible sin of being a fried food, can I just say ... nom, nom, nom?!!

Also?

Some foods are made to be splurged on once a year.

My mom used to make fattigman cookies around the holidays.  I've always loved them even though mine never come out perfectly shaped.  They're so different from most cookies.  They aren't overly sweet, but they have just enough sweetness to be satisfying when you're craving a little sumpin-sumpin.  (They're also very good with coffee or hot tea.)

I mentioned fattigman on Twitter and it generated several requests for me to post about these delicious treats.  There are many variations to fattigman recipes, but here's the one that has been handed down in my family:

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

4 Tablespoons cream (heavy cream not half and half!)

1/4 cup (1 stick) melted butter

1 pinch of salt

4 cups of flour (plus some extra flour for rolling the dough)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cardamom (you can substitute a mix of cinnamon/nutmeg if you can't find cardamom)

Powdered sugar

Oil for deep frying

Directions:

You will need two bowls.

In one bowl beat the eggs.  

Add in the sugar, continuing to beat the mixture.  Next, add in the cream and melted butter.  

 

Beat until the ingredients are well mixed.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ones until well mixed.  The dough will be sticky.  Add in more flour until the dough is soft and ready to be rolled.

Roll the dough very thin.  (Thank you to my daughter for helping out with this part!)

 

Cut the dough into diamonds.  (There is a special fattigman cutter you can buy, or you can just use a pizza cutter like we did - or you can even use a table knife to cut the dough into diamonds.)

 

Cut a slit in the middle of each diamond strip and pull one end through the slit.  

 

Fry briefly - they cook very quickly.  They should be a light golden color.  (Seriously, you need to watch them closely or they'll burn.  Not that I would know anything about that ....)

Allow the cookies to drain and cool on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels.  Finally, sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Voila!  

 

Fattigman cookies!  

(My son was inhaling them as fast as I could make them.)

© Twenty Four At Heart

Cold Turkey?

This was (one of) our desserts for Thanksgiving yesterday:

 

It's a round cake on it's side decorated as a turkey.  Yes, we also had the traditional array of pies available, but the turkey cake stole the show.  What creative cake decorating!

We had a great day with too much food and lots of family time.  Our air conditioner was running all day because temperatures were in the mid 80's here yesterday (about 29.4C).  With the ovens heating up the house also, air conditioning became a must.

Today we've moved on to leftovers.  There's nothing better than a turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving also!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

** Thank you everyone for your support.  My son is in surgery today for a triplane ankle fracture which is a very serious break.  I will post an update on how the surgery went as soon as I'm able.  In the meantime, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the prayers and positive thoughts you've sent his way!  **

Many of  you have requested I re-post my (very famous) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe again this year.  I'm happy to do so.  They're easy to make!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 15oz. can pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups quick cooking oats

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

12 oz. chocolate chips* 

* chips can be semi-sweet, milk chocolate or a combination of both *

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars in a large bowl.  

Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla.  

In a separate bowl combine the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Gradually add dried ingredients to the creamed mixture.

If you would like some plain pumpkin cookies (which, by the way, are excellent with coffee for breakfast!) you can remove some of the dough at this point before adding the chocolate chips in. 

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon large tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 -12 minutes.

Cool on baking rack.

These are excellent warm out of the oven.  You can also warm them for a few seconds in the microwave the next day to make the chocolate all melty and yummy again.  

The recipe makes a large quantity!

Enjoy!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Requested Recipe

The funny thing about writing on the Internet is that people assume I know what I'm writing about.  Ha!  Isn't that funny?  Hellooooooooooo out there ... you can write on the Internet knowing absolutely nothing at all.

Last weekend I posted some pictures I took while making homemade chicken noodle soup for my sick son.  I couldn't believe how many requests I got for my recipe.

What makes you think it tasted good?

Oh, but it did!  

Homemade soup is something I do well.  The problem is, I don't think I've ever made any type of soup the same way twice.  I wing it with whatever ingredients I have handy.  My "recipe" is really no more than just a general outline.

I also always make big batches of soup so I can freeze the leftovers for another night.  

I really suggest taking two days to make chicken noodle soup.  On the first day, make just the stock/broth.  On the second day, turn the stock into soup.  Breaking it into two days allows you to chill the broth overnight.  The fat will rise to the top and harden and be easy to remove before you make it into soup.  This makes your soup healthier and taste better at the same time. 

Step 1:  Chicken Stock

You will need:

* A large stock pot

* Lots of chicken thighs OR a whole chicken (don't use breasts they dry out) 

* Carrots - unpeeled, cut into chunks

* Celery - cut into chunks

* Onions - peeled and quartered 

* Parsley

* A bay leaf if you have one handy

* Chicken bouillon (I use 1-2 tablespoons for a huge pot)

* Black peppercorns  (4 -8)

* Salts:  I use a combination of Kosher Salt, Celery Salt and Jane's Mixed Up Salt

* Sometimes I'll use a clove or two of garlic in the broth, but not always.

Why haven't I listed specific quantities?  It varies depending on the size of your pot and your individual tastes.

Place all the ingredients in your stockpot.  Add water until the pot is almost full and bring to a boil.  Simmer uncovered for 2-4 hours depending on how much time you have.  Strain the entire contents of your stock pot through a colander.  

I throw out all the solids at this point. 

Why?

The chicken and vegetables have lost the majority of their flavor by cooking for so long.  All that flavor has been transferred to the broth.  I know some people de-bone the now flavorless chicken and use it in chicken tacos, chicken enchiladas or make chicken salad from it.  That is fine if you understand the chicken will not have much taste.  It will need to be mixed with other ingredients that drown out it's lack of flavor.  

Do not use the chicken or vegetables you used to make the stock in your soup!

Refrigerate the stock overnight.  After it has chilled, remove the fat which has hardened and surfaced to the top of your container.  If you made a lot you can use some of it for soup now and freeze some of it to use on a different day.

Step 2:  Chicken Noodle Soup

You will need:

* A large pot

* The chicken stock you already made - fat removed 

* Chicken (thighs have more flavor but you can use breasts if you want)

* Wide egg noodles

* Celery 

* Carrots 

* Onions

* Fresh Parsley (dice small)

* Olive oil

* Kosher salt, Celery Salt and Jane's Mixed Up Salt

* Fresh ground pepper

All of the ingredients for the soup are optional except for the pot, water, salt, and chicken.  If you don't like an ingredient, substitute in something you do like instead or simply omit the item.

(I chop all the veggies it into bite size chunks unless specified otherwise, but you can dice them smaller if you prefer.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Rub the chicken lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with the salt(s) and ground pepper and roast until done.

When the chicken has cooled enough, remove the meat.  Throw the bones and skin away.  You can either dice up the chicken meat or shred it.  I usually shred mine.

Simmer the chicken stock adding in the celery, carrots, and onion.  Simmer for about 20 minutes if your vegetables are in big chunks, less if you diced them small.  Add a couple cups of noodles.  Continue to simmer.

Season with salt(s) and pepper to taste.

When the vegetables and noodles are tender add in the chicken meat and parsley.  Heat through.

Taste and adjust the seasonings if you need to before serving.

Again, it's up to you to decide quantities.  Do you like soup with more salt or less?  Do you like it thick and chunky like a stew, or do you prefer it as broth with just a few wisps of chicken floating in it?

Serve with a loaf of fresh hot bread and a crisp green salad for a perfect fall/winter meal.

Enjoy!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Better Than Medicine

My son, PR, is turning the corner and feeling better.  H1N1 be damned!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Maui Revisited

I spent my Saturday morning sipping Chocolate Macadamia Nut Coffeee on our patio.  I became addicted to it while in Hawaii last summer and now I have it shipped over to California.  Big five pound bags of whole beans arrive and I grind just enough for one pot each day.  Another bag is currently on it's way but today I used the last of what we have in the house.  I started thinking back on last summer.  Then I started rifling through photos from our vacation.  My breath was taken away by this photo of a sunset on Maui.  I thought you might like to see it too.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Be Still My Heart

I know, I know ... I swore I was done traveling.  I told you how glad I was to be home after four weeks and four time zones.

I meant every word of it.

Then the fires came to Southern California.  Smoke filled the air choking my lungs.  Temperatures soared as a heat wave perpetuated the fire danger and my discomfort.  My daughter suggested we sneak away for a couple nights of girl time in Santa Barbara.  I hesitated for all of five minutes before booking a hotel.  This is our final celebration of summer.

Those of you who have read Twenty Four At Heart for any length of time know that this place, Santa Barbara, is tied to my heart like no other.  This is where I come when I'm upset and want to be alone.  This is where I come on girl weekends.  This is the place where my heart and soul feels at peace.

I arrived yesterday afternoon.  Santa Barbara is a bike friendly city.  There are bike paths everywhere.  My favorite run right along the beach.

Some things about this town never change.  The fact that bikes rule over cars is one of them.

The beauty of the mountains from the beach is another.

Having dinner at my favorite Sushi restaurant is one more.  I will cry if this restaurant ever closes.

Arigato Sushi was named best Japanese restaurant in the city this year.  The recognition is well deserved.  I can't imagine coming to Santa Barbara and not visiting.  It is truly one of my favorite haunts.

It will only be a short visit this time, but sigh ... my heart is so at peace here.

© Twenty Four At Heart

Feeling Festive - Giveaway!

While I was in North Carolina I picked up a few things for an end-of-the-summer giveaway.  I fell in love with all things Anne Taintor.  Anne Taintor products make me laugh.  (I particularly want to buy myself one of their flasks.)  

This is what I have to give away today to one winner:

Two packages of Vintage Anne Taintor Coasters.  There are six coasters in a package.  The designs vary but here are two examples:

 

And my favorite:

 

The coasters make me laugh.  I hate to part with them, but I will.  In addition, it seems only fitting to throw in a package of Cocktail Umbrellas to go with the coasters.  

Here are the (very simple) rules:

Leave me a comment - any comment about anything!

You get one entry per comment.

You may comment as many times as you'd like.

Comments will be closed at 9 p.m. Pacific time tonight.

A Random Number Generator will be used to pick the winner.

The winner will be announced in tomorrow's post.

Good luck!

© Twenty Four At Heart

Girl Time in Charlotte, NC

I'm back in Orange County.  I'm trying to get caught up from nearly a month of traveling.  It's been hectic.  I've been in four different time zones in the last four weeks.  My body doesn't know what the hell I'm doing.  

Last Friday morning I said good-bye to my son, RC, as I left him at his dorm.  I cried.  I know he'll be fine.  It's just a mom thing.  It's not easy to take care of a child for 18 years and then drop him off 3,000 miles away.  I then drove Briefcase to the airport and saw him off to California.  I drove down to Charlotte from there.

The entire reason I went to Charlotte was to meet up with a few of my readers who have become online friends.  The nicest people in the world stop by here for a few minutes each day.  Many of them take the time to leave comments or send me emails while they're at it.  In the dinosaur days these people would have been called pen pals.  I like to call them friends.  

Each of these ladies traveled a minimum of two hours to our central meeting spot.  Not only that ... they showed up bearing gifts.  Such nice people!

[L to R: Angela (from NC), me, Renee (from NC), Linda (from South Carolina), Di (from Virginia)]

I'd like to inject here my theory that southern accents are contagious.  If I were around these ladies for more than a few days I'd probably have a southern accent for life.

We met at a restaurant called Roosters.  Obviously, I'd never been there before.  It had been highly recommended.  Maybe it's a great place to go for entrees, but their happy hour (appetizer) menu left a lot to be desired.  Who would have thought a place called Rooster's would be putting on airs trying to be fancy?

Five very hungry women ... and this is what we got.  I really was just hoping for a burger.  Wouldn't you think they'd at least offer chicken sandwiches in a place called Roosters?  We tried a couple other things too.  For the most part?  Bleh!

Despite the food, which left a lot to be desired, I think everyone had a good time.  I know I did.  

One of the greatest moments for me, was getting my hands on a couple of huge cocks.

Instead of huge should I say well endowed?

The meet-up gave me an opportunity to get to know all of these great women a little bit better.  It gave them the opportunity to meet the "real" me and ask any questions they wanted to.  

In response to one question, I tried to explain I just have the oddest luck.

"I don't really walk around like this," I said as I pulled the front of my top down to expose my bra and breasts.

At that very moment, Fernando, our waiter, came around the corner and found himself face to face with my exposed chest.  The ladies erupted in laughter as I turned the deepest shade of red.  Fernando became an instant friend.

(That's how it works.  If I show you my breasts, accidentally or not, you have to be my friend!)

The next day (Saturday) a few of us spent the morning at the, very nice, South Park Mall.  I went to my first Dillards and later had exactly one sip of Sweet Tea.  I liked Dillards a lot more than I liked Sweet Tea ... which is really, really, sweet!

I flew home Saturday night.  My youngest son, PR, surprised me and accompanied Briefcase up to LAX to pick me up.  My daughter surprised me by being home from her college when I arrived back to our house.  I think they were both worried about me being sad after the North Carolina drop off.  It made me feel very loved.

I got home just in time.  Briefcase's birthday was on Sunday.  He might have had some highly acrobatic husbandly expectations for his birthday.  There's never a moment to slow down and rest, is there?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Hawaii - Day 9

On Day #9 in Hawaii we made a morning trip to our local grocery store.  Briefcase wanted to buy a flashlight and extra bottled water in case Hurricane Felicia knocks out the power here.  Right now we're hearing the island of Hawaii and Maui (where we are) are the two islands that will be hit the hardest.

We picked up some saltine crackers and peanut butter to have on hand "just in case" also.  I don't think we'll need any of it, but I suppose it's better to be safe.  I also stopped into my favorite little coffee shop to buy some chocolate-macadamia nut coffee beans to take home with us.  To my dismay they were completely out of stock and not expecting more until after we depart.

I was disappointed.  I love my chocolate macadamia nut coffee in the morning.

Next, we made our way to Kaanapali Beach.  We were on a mission for an adventure.  We paid an exorbitant amount of money to rent three sea doos.  A small boat took us out to a loading station out in the ocean.  We donned life jackets, made a note of the very choppy water (hurricane coming!), and boarded our sea doos.

RC had a sea doo to himself.  That was a good thing because he's a maniac with the spins and turns and tricks.  PR and Briefcase shared one and took turns driving.  My daughter TR and I also shared one.  Originally I was going to have one of my own, but if the sea doo were to capsize I wouldn't be able to upright it with my bum arm.  Also, if I were to fall off it might be difficult to pull myself back on without help.  I'm so uncoordinated with just my left arm.  

We had a blast.  A photographer took over one hundred photos of us and some of them came out great.  My family, as you already know, doesn't want to have their pictures put on Twenty Four At Heart so I can't show them to you.  Also?  My thighs could not be cropped out of the photos where I'm actually riding on the sea doo and that is truly a terrible thing.  I would never subject you to seeing that.  Suffice it to say, we had a great time.

We arrived back to our condo in the afternoon.  We swam in our cove for awhile and said hello to the turtles.  By the way, I've fallen in love with a wooden turtle (which is also a box) that is a decoration in our condo.  It looks like this:

I don't know what kind of wood he's made out of.  Possibly mango?  When the box opens it looks like this:

I'm love this turtle!  I've tried to find one like him and I've been unsuccessful.  I've even thought of kidnapping him and leaving behind a ransom note for the owners of the condo.  Alas, I don't want to be arrested for turtle-napping so I'll have to leave him behind when we return home.  

After showers we embarked on a beautiful one hour drive to our favorite restaurant on Maui.  We drove along the coast for a long time and then we headed inland for awhile.  We passed a lot of sugar cane fields.

Eventually we emerged on the opposite coast.  It didn't take long after that to reach our destination.

I love Mama's Fish House, but I have to warn you the place is outrageously expensive.  It's a special treat to come here for a visit when we're in Hawaii.  Most of the entrees run $40 - $50+ and a mai tai will set you back $16.  Salads, etc. are all additional.

Why was the restaurant packed even on a Sunday evening in our bad economy?  The food is absolutely amazing and the atmosphere can't be beat.  People make reservations weeks (and sometimes months) ahead of time to dine at Mama's Fish House.

The restaurant looks out at a small, but beautiful beach.  We arrived just prior to sunset.

To add to the ambiance the restaurant has staged torches along with another prop on the beach.

We walked from the beach on a path to the restaurant entrance.

Despite having a reservation we had a short wait for our table.   We sat on a bench by some tiki men while we waited.

We all ordered different entrees so we could share and sample different things.  The most unusual presentation was the Moi (fish) PR ordered.  The fish is cooked and served whole.  I swear it was staring at me across the table.

For dessert we ordered a Black Pearl which is chocolate mousse served inside a wafer "shell."

To be honest, we ordered it more just to SEE it than to eat it.  We were absolutely full from our dinner at that point.

Afterwards, we walked on the beach for a little while.  The stars were spectacular.  Then we got in the car and drove for an hour to get home.  It was a wonderful day.

© Twenty Four At Heart