Pages, Pucks and Pantry

The Oscars and Food

I'll be honest with you Marge...there hasn't been a lot of cooking going on in our house. Well...I take that back, meals are being cooked, food is being eaten, but there hasn't been much of trying of new recipes. It's been roasted chicken, shrimp (and crab and tuna and salmon) salads. Crock pots full of mystery meats found in the bowels of the freezer covered with jars of sauce found in the pantry. Leftover roasted veggies tossed together to make a soup. Mortadella (and salami and chicken) sandwiches. It's also been eating out. Food trucks. Restaurants. Grabbing pre-cooked meals from the deli section of our grocery store.

And while work has been kicking my butt for weeks I can't blame that on the lack of culinary experimentation in our house. No, the culprit can be described in two words.

The Oscars.

You see, last year was a bit of a trying year and nights out to go watch a movie (or nights in renting one) were few and far between. Mr. L and I suddenly realized come the end of January that we hadn't seen even one movie of the nine Oscar nominated best pictures. I knew this wouldn't do. So we set out to rectify the situation.

One of the first things we realized in our Oscar movie viewing adventure was that only one of the movies nominated was on DVD or available for download on AppleTV/Direct TV. Which meant going out to the movie theaters* and lots of figuring out movie times that fit into our already busy schedule. This also meant quick meals before movie show times (and with lots of these movies being 2 1/2 hours long meant we really did need to eat dinner first. I admit, I think there was one night where a large buttered popcorn was dinner. I also think quite a few movie hot dogs were consumed. But we managed to get a few good sushi dinners in beforehand too). 

We also, along with the best picture movies, tried to see as many other nominated movies that we could. We spent nights watching Looper and Skyfall. The Pirates! Band of Misfits (we were able to catch  Brave in the theater when it originally came out). We even were able to watch all of the Live Action Shorts (our favorite was Death of a Shadow) and three of the animated shorts (Head Over Heals stole our hearts). And just to add to what we ended up calling "The Oscar Movie Death March" we also watched The Kings Speech since we had failed to see that a few years ago (we still need to see The Artist).

It was the morning of the Oscars that I suddenly realized that though I had seen every single nominated best picture and quite a few other movies, I hadn't really thought about what to make or bring to the annual Oscar party. I had a ton of ideas, I'd even started a list of possible contributions months ago, but time just sort of got away from me. So it was a quick trip to the grocery store before heading to the party to pick up the two items you see in the photo above (we even splurged and bought some European butter to go with the French bread). I think the signs helped.

It was interesting to see all the nominated movies in such a short time frame. I think it made it much easier to compare between all of them (though we hopefully will not be doing this compacted watching schedule ever again). My favorite movie? Life of Pi, but I was not disappointed that Argo won. Least favorite? Beasts of the Southern Wild. Most surprising? Django Unchained (which I thought I would hate but really liked). Amour was extremely difficult for me since I had just watched my mom deteriorate like that. Though we liked Les Miserables, the theater we saw it in had the most horrible sound system, the film was full of scratches and I swear there was only a quarter of an inch of padding in the seat. Not the best viewing experience and I'm sure that affected our thoughts on the movie. The one movie I didn't see that I wanted before the Oscars was The Impossible since my Aunt** said Watts performance was wonderful. 

So, honestly, there just hasn't been much time to fulfill one of my favorite hobbies...perusing my cookbooks and picking out recipes to try. Of course two other factors have put a bit of a damper on my cooking...the fact that every Wednesday a food truck shows up down the street from where we live. Hard to resist just being able to walk to the truck once we are both home from work. And I also have to give big props to Mr. L, who, for the past month or so, has taken up the "food" responsibility every other week (that means he plans, shops and cooks breakfast, lunch and dinners for that week). It's giving me a bit of a breather with my current crazy work life.

Which doesn't mean I haven't still been collecting recipes to try. Cookbooks have been bought, dishes have been pinned, recipes have been torn out of magazines and blog foods have been bookmarked. I've had this insane desire for days to hole myself up and do some baking. It's my week to cook so I think it's time to do some cooking! And maybe watch a movie or two....

*Seriously expensive going out to movies these days. Especially if you add on popcorn, soda and a hot dog. Cost of two tickets was from twenty to twenty five bucks. A large popcorn and soda was another twelve to fifteen dollars. Maybe eight bucks for a hot dog. Yikes.

**My Aunt is a movie watching pro. She goes at least once or twice a week to the theater. When she's home she probably watches at least a movie a night on the TV (between Netflix and the movie channels she says there is always something interesting to see).

It's a New Year

So, it's a new year, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, that I'm very, very glad, 2012 is over. Not my favorite year. Lets just move on.

One thing I recently realized is that I haven't been frequenting the many food blogs I've come to love over the years. This lack of knowledge of what my fellow bloggers have been doing came to the forefront this past week when I started getting notifications of "The Ten Best Recipes on My Blog in 2012" posts. And when perusing all these posts, realizing I hadn't seen any of the dishes portrayed. Also realizing that I wanted to make about 85 percent of the recipes I was coming across! It was a good year last year in the food blogging world, I'm just sorry I missed it. But I'll be honest with you, I'm not going to even begin to try to catch up. Since I follow some of my favorite food bloggers on Pinterest, I know that some of those missed recipes have probably been marked, but the rest? We'll just start from here on in, shall we? In other words, lets just move on.

PAGES - Ahh yes, Scrapbooking. Didn't do much of that last year either. I did go on a nice 3 day excursion to scrap at a store in the Sacramento area...only to have it close down a few months after I was there. And I did start and stop and start various versions of Project 365 which turned into Project Life. But in a crazy "don't you already have too much on your plate" moment, I decided that documenting moments of my life to share and be able to look back on later in life was important to me. So I've started (again) Project Life. But without all the pressure to actually do it every day. I left that for Project Life Dinner. Where I take a photo of every dinner meal I have for an entire year. No really. Those of you familiar with Project Life are probably a bit gobsmacked right now. "Is she kidding?"..."TWO??". Yes, two Project Life's going on at the same time. Oh and I plan on also doing some traditional layouts this year. I suggest someone get that straight jacket cleaned. I might need it by 2014.

PUCKS - One of the cruelest things that happened to my Mom in the last six months of her life was not being able to watch her beloved Sharks play. Even if it was on TV or listening to the radio, she wanted to be able to experience one last Sharks game before she left us. She'd ask all the time "Is the lockout over?". I'm still completely pissed at the owners and players for taking that away from my Mom and I know it's that little thing that will stay with me for quite a long time. That being said, no, I am not boycotting the shortened season. I've already bought and paid for those games, I'm certainly going to go to them (or ones I can't sell anyway). The Sharks keyboard pictured? When I saw that in December I almost cried. It would have been the perfect Christmas gift for my Mom. It would have tickled her teal as she loved anything Sharks related. So Mr. L and I bought it and brought it home. We consider it her Christmas gift to us.

PANTRY - There are two people who used to read my blog religiously...my Grandma W and my Mom. But where my Grandma just read and sometimes made dishes I posted, my mom was an active participant. She not only posted comments on most dishes, she was an integral part of the taste testing team. Always honest with her reviews, she had no problem telling me when a dish didn't meet her standards. She was always passing on recipes she thought I should make and if you ever left a comment on Pages, Pucks, and Pantry, you can be sure she went and checked out your blog. 

And though I know I will make new food memories with family and friends it is that shared history that  there is no longer a connection with that I will miss most. Like the first time I had lamb (Mom and I had splurged and gone on a bus trip to a 49er game that included dinner. Alas, the lamb was bad as in get sick bad and Mom never ate lamb again). Or the time when I was about ten on a road trip to Florida where I scarfed down a roadside sold mango only to have my mouth break out in blisters (not fun). There was the time Mom and I kept ordering plate after plate of the all you can eat fried shrimp in Louisiana, my Grandparents looking on in horror at our gluttony. The Thanksgiving when I was in my early teens where Mom and I, being alone of the holiday, went to a local french restaurant and had a Christmas Story experience by being the only ones in the place (they did serve a french version of roast turkey). I can talk about these experiences, but there is no longer anyone who can provide details I might not remember, or share the laughter that comes with insides jokes revolving around these memories.

Food and eating isn't something that you can compartmentalize until your heart heals. You can't ignore food until something as simple as a crab cake doesn't flood you with so many memories you feel you'll burst. You eat. And you cook. And you remember. And you build new food memories that, when you're alone and no ones looking, you smile at, with the knowledge that Mom would have loved to have heard about your new little food adventure.

So this blog continues. I admit, it's a bit hard to get back into the blogging routine. It's not that I haven't been cooking, collecting more cookbooks or visiting new restaurants, it's just that I haven't been taking notes or photographs or even thinking about capturing the food part of my life. The documentation just hasn't been done. Other priorities and pastimes have taken over the time and energy that used to be used for blogging. But the honest truth? I've missed it. I've missed the connection with other bloggers, the excitement of wondering whether a recipe will turn out or not, the kick in the butt to open one of my gazillion cookbooks and try something new. So the blog continues. Maybe this will be the year that I finally get someone to give it a good overhaul and a new look. Or not. Let's just move on.

My Mom "Roz" 1934-2012

My Mom passed away a few days ago. It wasn't unexpected since we knew last year that the lung cancer she was in remission from for twelve years had returned. Mom was a trooper these last few months, referring to her life as a great adventure, and that this was just another part of that adventure.

There will be no services per her request, and per her request her remains will be scattered at sea next spring. And as she heads out on her last adventure, she will be wearing her beloved Sharks jersey.

I will miss you Mom. Every day.

The End of The London Olympics

I always feel like I need some time to decompress after the Olympics, time to get back into my normal routine. During the Olympics my days are usually spent trying to avoid news outlets and any online spoilers (almost impossible in this social media age). Nights are spent in front of the TV trying to absorb the multitude of information that gets crunched in the "prime time" telecast. Chores like laundry or vacuuming are regulated to "next week", magazines and books remain unread on the counter, beloved TV shows rack up unwatched on the DVR, the craft room sits silent, and the cats look forlornly at their toys wondering when the big people will play with them again. Dinners tend to be quick and usually revolve around food from where the Olympics are taking place. It's pretty much Olympics, morning, noon and night at our house.

This time around was a bit different. Due to a multitude of events, I completely missed most of the Olympics this year. It got to the point that I would purposely look for who won what events during the day so that night, once I could actually sit down and watch a bit of the broadcast, I knew where to fast forward to check out the good parts. Someone won an event by a mile? Probably fast forwarded right through it. But if a race or event was a close one, even if it was between two countries I'd never even heard of, I'd try to watch the final bit, just to get a feel for the excitement.

The thing I missed most during these Olympics were the little glimpses into the town the Olympics are held in that even local news stations usually show. You know, where they go meet folks from a tiny town near the big event and show what they eat, what they do in their spare time, and what they wear. That to me is a big part of the Olympics, not only watching the events but learning about a new part of the world.

I was able to try out some interesting British foods (there are several I still haven't posted about) and cook some really good British recipes (which I hope to get up on the blog in the next several weeks), but trips to the local pubs for a Black and Tan or Fish and Chips went by the wayside.

But when I was able to get in the spirit, I had a jolly old time. I love the fact that the Olympics for me, isn't always about who wins, or if an American is on the podium (though trust me, I do root heartily for my USA). Even with the limited watching time, I did have some favorite moments.

*My favorite athlete during the Olympics? For some unknown reason, Mo Farah. Never heard of him before. Became an instant fan after watching in the 10,000 and rooted like crazy for him in the 5,000. I wanted him to run more races! Go Mo! Go Mo! When I found out his wife is carrying twins and is expected to deliver within weeks, it made it all Mo Better :)

*I admit, I'm not a big fan of track and field. It's usually the last sport I pay attention to and can't remember really truly rooting for someone since Dwight Stone back in the day. But man the women's track team had me cheering like crazy. From the dogged determination on the face of Jetter, to the jubilant smile that was shown on the face of Barrett when she won the silver in the high jump, the USA track women caught my attention and made me proud.

*Oscar Pistorius. Asked by 19 year old from Grenada to trade bibs (ultimate sign of respect).  Said teenager goes on to win his countries first ever medal (a gold). Chills.

*Bolt. Didn't know, didn't watch, didn't care. Never been a fan. Not sure why but I think I prefer my Olympic athletes a bit more modest in their accomplishments. Just because you are the fastest man, doesn't mean you are the best athlete in the world. I'd prefer to spend time with Pistorius or Kirani James from Granada than Bolt any day.

*Those damn Mom commercials got me every time.

*The whole Bond thing during the opening ceremonies? Priceless.

*Yes, I did care What Kate Wore. I also paid attention to the tight little swim trucks and the very tight clothing on some of the male athletes that showed much more than was respectable. Though I didn't have a problem with the whites the USA athletes wore during the closing ceremonies, I had a huge problem with the big polo logo! (and that they were made in China...sigh).

*My favorite gold after Mo? David Boudia. The final in the platform diving was nerve wracking and yes, I think Tom Doyle is adorable.

*I really didn't have a problem with NBC's basic broadcast (though get rid of Seacrest-he seemed bored and uninterested on what was going on). There was plenty of broadcasting on the many channels that we could DVR and watch, we just didn't have the time. I did have a big problem that there was no Ann Curry. I also had a problem with NBC for not giving us the entire closing ceremonies! No Davies or Kate Bush? WRONG!

*I know there are those that really disliked the music during the closing ceremonies. They wanted something "more". Well to me, that was an ultimate concert, I knew every one of the bands or singers, yes even One Direction, and would have given anything to have actually been there.

*I had a friend in the closing ceremonies. It was fun to read about his secret practices, to see some of the photos he snuck out of the venue before that evenings show.  If you paid attention to the folks on the green truck during the closing ceremonies, you probably saw a brief glimpse of him.

There were of course many more highlights during the London games, from medals in archery (I took classes in high school way before it was Hunger Games cool), to Gabby, Phelps, USA women's soccer, beach volleyball...there were a whole lot of USA medals and a whole lot of stories to go with each and every one of the athletes that competed during the games. Though I didn't get to fully immerse myself into these summer games (note to self: do not plan a major garage sale and participating in an out of town Color Run during any Olympic goings on) I still had much joy watching what I could.

And yes, I'm already trying to see if I have any Russian Cookbooks for the 2014 Winter Games and am taking a quick look at Brazilian foods for 2016.  This has turned into a fun tradition at Olympic time. And you do realize that the winter games are only 18 months away?!

 

Happy Birthday Mom!

My Mom turns 78 today.  This is a photo of her with a sassy haircut and awesome sunglasses taken last year.

Happy Birthday Mom, I love you!

The Olympics, London, and Food

It all started four years ago when Mr. L and I sat down to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. We were hungry, so it only seemed appropriate that we had Chinese food for dinner. The fact that we didn't want to miss a minute of the festivities led to us ordering enough Chinese food for at least ten people and feasting on it for days. It occurred to me that with all the Chinese cookbooks I had, I should have been cooking from them during those Olympics. I vowed that the next Olympics, I would use my vast collection of cookbooks to find recipes representing the country the games were held in.

Which led me to the Vancouver Winter Olympics two years ago. Only I didn't own any Canadian cookbooks so I had to go out and buy one. Yes, an excuse to go buy another cookbook. But I managed to find several wonderful recipes during those Olympics: Butter Tarts in Phyllo Dough and Tourtiere Turnovers which came from the A Taste of Canada cookbook.

Which leads us to these summer Olympic Games in London. Now I have never been to London so I don't have any personal recollections of foods like I did from Canada. I've been to British Pubs. Many actually. And I'm quite fond of Black and Tans though I don't like beer (go figure). And there was all that hoopla last year when there was this wedding in London and I went all out with all things British. But I've never stepped foot on British soil. Mr. L has visited. Even my mother has been there. She lived there for several years. Graduated from high school from there actually. She was even there 60 years ago when Queen Elizabeth was crowned! It was fun listening to her stories about that event during the recent Jubilee. And I still have the tea towel my Grandma W gave me from her trip to London the week after Charles wed Diana (I also still have the vinyl recording of the event she bought me at some shop in London).

But when it comes to British food, the only things that really came to mind were...well...bland food. That and Indian Food (not so bland). Cucumber sandwiches. Pease Pudding and Porridge Pie. Scones. No matter, I had plenty of cookbooks from British authors that I could cook from. Nigella Lawson. Jamie Oliver. But when I started looking through those cookbooks, I began to wonder. Is this really British food? Or were these recipes "dumbed down" a bit for Americans? Should I be cooking "authentic" food from the British Isles? And then do I include foods from Ireland? Scotland? Knowing how popular Indian food is in England, do I include that too?

Obviously I didn't know much about so called British food, so off I went in search of some answers. Just what is considered British food?  How authentic are recipes?  Would I ever have enough guts to try Black Pudding? (ahem, that's probably a no on that one). And then I realized I was spending far more time researching about England and food and far less time actually cooking said food. So I decided that during these 2012 London Olympics, I'm going to be cooking from cookbooks by British authors and cookbooks about British food (no matter how Americanized they might be). I'll probably leave out foods of Ireland and Scotland (though I'm tempted to make Scotch Eggs again) but I won't rule out a run to the nearest Indian restaurant to try out a version of Tika Masala.

I did find a very interesting book called Eating For Britain (A Journey into the Heart and Belly of a Nation). Alas I wish I was able to get a copy of it sooner as it's an interesting look at exactly what constitutes British Food. I've started reading it but I have a feeling lots of tv watching of the games will curtail me finishing it anytime soon.

I was completely bummed to find out that the local British store here has closed. As you can see by the photo, when I went there a year ago to stock up for the Royal Wedding, I found quite a few wonderful British items to try. I have a friend scoping out the local Aussie store to see if they carry any interesting British foods I might want to try. I also found quite a few items at my local Cost Plus (World Market) store which we'll be trying over the course of the next couple of weeks

Yes, I did buy a couple of new British food cookbooks to go with the cookbooks I already have. One which has become a favorite...so many things to try...and one which I probably will never cook from as the recipes were from professional chefs in London and a bit more complicated than normal.

Using Eat Your Books, I was able to find British recipes included in many of the non-British cookbooks I own (16 recipes for Yorkshire pudding, one even from my Colorado regional cookbook). Except for a few exceptions, I'm trying to make the recipes that come from British authors and cookbooks and not use recipes from other sources. The big task has been to actually narrow the number of recipes down to a manageable quantity. Who knew I'd find so many interesting British recipes to try!?

Hopefully, you too, have caught Olympic fever. And hopefully, maybe sometime during the next few weeks, you'll find yourself having some British food, even if it's just a spot of tea. Feel free to leave links to any posts you have if you've made some British dish for these games.

All I know, is that in two years the Winter Olympics will be held in Russia and two years after that the Summer Olympics will be held in Brazil. I think I need to start planning food festivities now!

We Turn Five

Imagine my surprise when the holiday weekend was over and I suddenly realized that my blog had turned five. Imagine my being even more surprised when I went to look up what I said last year on this blogs fourth anniversary and realized I'd completely forgotten and hadn't even mentioned it. Life does seem to get in the way at times doesn't it?

But, I still enjoy blogging. I still greatly enjoy all things food whether it's looking through all my cookbooks, checking out my favorite food blogs, reading all my food magazines (there are so many but I still miss Gourmet), cooking with my Mom or trying out new restaurants in the area. Oh and cooking...yeah, still enjoy that too (grin).

I still haven't changed this blog much in the design department since I first started. I keep saying "next year" and well, after five years maybe it actually is next year? If I can just find someone who knows about Typepad blogs to help (I'll even pay a nominal fee!) maybe that will happen. And I have two new cameras that I'm hoping to have time to learn and experiment with...alas, the light or lack of natural light, hasn't changed much in my kitchen which continues to be a problem. Not to mention two cats who just don't seem to understand why they can't be involved with food photos!

Thanks to all of you that have commented and those that have just read my posts and gone away. Thank you to those that have tried recipes I've posted, bought cookbooks I've highlighted or tasted recipes I've cooked. Thank you to those that have helped with Typepad/Facebook/Twitter/iPhone problems, have mentored me on food blogging, given me recipes to try or sent articles for me to feature. Thank you for being a part of my blog life. Thank you for just making this adventure I'm on a ton of fun.

5th Wedding Anniversary

We became Mr. and Mrs. L five years ago today.

Photo taken on our honeymoon. Sunset in Tahiti.

I Pin Therefore I Am

Hi, my name is Mrs. L and I'm addicted to Pinterest.

Of course it's not my fault. Because though I say I'm addicted to Pinterest, I'm actually addicted to recipes. Which made me addicted to Pinterest. It's a vicious circle, I know. Pinterest is just a way for me to easily keep track of the recipes I want to make while also sharing them with friends...or complete strangers.

I had planned on starting a "Cooking with Pinterest" series on April 1st. But then I figured you would all think it was some sort of April Fools joke.  Though I had most of the posts written all I really needed to do was some spell checking, adding some links and cleaning up a bit of the talkies. So I started to finish that chore when, gees this shouldn't be too hard to figure out, I got lost looking at stuff on Pinterest. It was there that I found my post about Pinterest...well, not my post, but the post I was attempting to write about my addiction, Pinterest and how to use it. Only Taste and Tell had done a much better job with much better photos. So I went back to the drawing board, scrapped most of what I was going to say and kinda started over. (You can read Taste and Tell's 12 Things to Avoid When Pinning here. Full disclosure, I'm a huge fan of Deborahs food blog and pretty much pin anything she makes!).

The next few days of posts are pretty much me centric...cuz what you really need to do to understand how to properly pin on Pinterest is check out Taste and Tells post here. I will divulge some of my rantings and ravings though, mostly because it was already written and I hate to waste the writing time. And I really am cooking things I've found on Pinterest (or pinned from the various blogs I follow) so that will be coming up soon too.

The thing is I've been doing my own version of Pinterest for a long time with much less success. Which is why I was so completely taken by Pinterest once I started to use it. So, let me first explain why I'm so addicted.

I collect recipes. When they are in cookbooks, said cookbooks are easy to organize in bookcases. When they are in magazines, they are easy to stack on the floor (for example all Gourmet magazines, lined up, chronologically-lacking floor space you will find them all boxed up in the garage). If they are recipes pulled out of a magazine, they are put in binders by type of food (or would be if I was Martha Stewart which, because I'm not, those pages are basically piled in boxes). But keeping track of recipes that I find online on blogs or manufactures websites? That gets a bit tricky.

At first, I started bookmarking on my computer, all the recipes I found that I thought looked interesting. That started pretty much once I figured how to bookmark things oh so many years ago. In a short time I had a very long list of bookmarked recipes with no way to figure out which one was which. Then I tried putting the bookmarks on my computer in folders by foods. That lasted about a year before again, way way to many bookmarks. Somewhere along the line I was actually writing the web links into a memo book...yeah, that didn't last long either. I then, in a very OCD moment, concocted an excel file, divided it into different foods groups, made columns for the recipe title, what blog it came from, the date of the post and then the url (warned you it was a bit OCD). Since that filled up quickly I ended up with an excel file for each year. So I now have many different excel folders by year, full of recipes by type. Up until Pinterest, that's how I organized recipes I found on blogs or the interwebs.

But it was still hard to really find a recipe. If I wanted to make that noodle dish that had some shrimp and barbecued pork in it, was it under shrimp? Pork? Noodles? And then I would have to go through all the shrimp dishes, hoping that the name of the dish was something like Shrimp and Pork and Noodle Dish. If the name of the dish didn't jump out at me, well then I had to click on a gazillion urls, hoping to find that specific dish that I was looking for. And of course go through each year's excel file unless I could remember what year I had found the recipe. Which of course was never the first excel file I would look through.

Pinterest is a way to bookmark the recipes I'm enamored with and organize them quite easily. Pinterest also lets me organize these recipes by using photos of the dish, instead of the recipe name or the sometimes completely worthless web link. I found that it's much easier for me to look at a photo and remember a recipe and be intrigued enough to try the recipe out than it was just by looking at the name of said recipe (probably why I relate to cookbooks with photos).

Pinterest is just like having a bunch of cork idea boards (bulletin boards) on the walls of your kitchen. You come across a recipe in a magazine for Strawberry Shortcake on a Stick. You cut it out and take a thumbtack (or pushpin) and pin it to the cork board you have designated for food. You might have a separate bulletin board up where you tack up photos of kitchens remodels you'd love to do, or a board where you tack up photos of places you'd like to visit someday. Pinterest just does all that on the computer for you so that your kitchen has more room for all those gadgets you seem to pick up at Sur La Table.

So for me, having a place where I can "bookmark" all these recipes I want to try is like the best organizational gift ever. Now if I'm trying to find that stupid recipe that has shrimp and pork and noodles I can quickly scan the photos on any of the boards that I think I might have pinned it and find the recipe*. If I want to make a chicken dish this weekend, I can scan the photos of the recipes I've "pinned" to my Poultry board and see which recipe fits the bill. And I, along with most "pinners" don't just use Pinterest for recipes. Homeschoolers use it to pin interesting projects to do with their kids. Women getting married might have different boards for dresses they might want to try along with different invitations they've found on the net they might use. I have a friend who collects batman images because he's such a fan, a friend who pins books she wants to read, one who pins scrapbook layouts to use as sketches, and even the friend who pins hot guys that she hopes to meet some day. You can pretty much pin whatever strikes your fancy.

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board, where you can keep all the ideas that make you laugh, ideas that inspire you or feed your creativity, in one place and Pinterest lets you share all those ideas with friends and strangers. Your favorite blog (be it food or something else) might have a link to their pins, so next time your surfing around, you can find some awesome ideas by checking their Pinterest boards.

You can check out my Pinterest boards here. (and yes, I need to figure out how to get that Pinterest link in the sidelines on my own blog!). I do plan on a few more posts explaining my boards, why and how I pin and what I'm cooking from Pinterest in the next couple of days.

But more importantly, to learn how to use Pinterest correctly, please check out Taste and Tells post here. To learn more about Pinterest in general go here. Need an invitation, just let me know.

Now excuse me while I go see if there are any new ideas to pin on my friends Pinterest boards!

 *As an FYI, that recipe is called Singapore Rice Noodles and can be found here.

 

Christmas Cookbook Bonanza

Since I collect cookbooks, I love getting them as Christmas presents. Every year I usually find one or two under the Christmas tree. This year though, was an absolute bonanza!

I received new cookbooks, old cookbooks, used cookbooks and pamphlets that I know must have had a special place in someones collection. Several had been on my want list for some time (I think my Amazon wish list of cookbooks is about fourteen pages long).

But my favorite this year, which came from my Aunt and Uncle in Oregon, wasn't a true cookbook...it was an envelope which had some Nut Tree recipes inside which brought back a ton of memories of my childhood.

Now unless you had to drive Hwy 80 between San Francisco and Sacramento years ago, or lived near Davis, California, you probably have no idea what Nut Tree is or actually was. Started in 1921 as a roadside fruit stand, the Nut Tree became a must stop on the way to and from my Grandmas. It had a restaurant, bakery, a gift shop, toy shop, giant wooden animals to play on and a little train that you could line up to take rides around the area.

Now as a kid, it was always fun to stop at the Nut tree for cookies, riding the train and climbing on the animals. But it was the restaurant that always made me feel special. With my Grandma living in Davis, if we wanted a "grown up meal" (mostly lunch for us as kids but there were some dinners) you got dressed up and went to the Nut Tree Restaurant. Supposedly the restaurant was one of the first places to serve "California Cuisine" which to me back then meant lots of wonderful fresh fruit and vegetable plates. Standing in line on the ramp I was always full of anticipation at dining with the adults and it was always a special treat to be able to eat there.

Unfortunately Nut Tree as I knew it, closed down in 1996. There is currently a "Nut Tree Plaza" where the old place stood, which is nothing like the original...it's now full of chain retail shops and restaurants that have none of the charm of the old Nut Tree.

I love the fact that this simple envelope of recipes (16 all together) could bring back so many wonderful memories, not only of time spent with family and friends as a kid, but of wonderful meals  and food (anyone remember the pink chocolate covered strawberries they used to sell?).

I plan on getting out these little recipe cards this summer and making myself a giant Nut Tree meal. In the meantime, I think the plethora of cookbooks I received over the holidays will keep me knee deep in new recipes to try!