Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Happy New Year

Ahh, a New Year and new beginnings. I always love the first of the year. I'm usually still perusing all the cookbooks I've received as gifts over the holidays (and lets be honest, looking at the ones I bought myself too).  Of course the recipes I bookmark tend to be of the "healthier" variety...you know...for all those workouts I'm going to be doing (and lets be honest, I will go to the gym, just maybe not as much as I should) and for all that weight I plan on losing to be a more healthier me (and lets be honest, though I will eat healthier I'm sure there will be food that will be deep fried).  But, like Spring or the start of the school year, the first few days of the new year bring promises of change. And of course all those New Year resolutions. Which one may or may not follow.

PAGES - I changed the way I scrapbooked last year. Gone are the days of 12 x 12 layouts, now I'm all about Project Life Scrapbooking. Though I didn't keep up with it as much as I wanted to last year, I did come up with a system that works for me and I got more scrapping done than usual. One of the projects I'm continuing to tackle is going through all my Grandmothers travel scrapbooks...dismantling them, taking out all the photos of folks we don't know and trying to condense each one (there were something like 50 albums to start) into three or four pages of photos and information. It's a labor of love where I hope to have one or two scrapbooks the family can look through that shows all of my Grandmothers travels over her 94 year lifetime.

PUCKS - My Sharks still drive me crazy, but I wear teal colored glasses and every year I believe that this will be the year the Sharks make it all the way. We started the new year off by watching the Winter Classic and being thankful that we live in a temperate climate where playing hockey in blizzards is something to only watch on TV.  I can only hope that come June, I'm still watching my boys, wearing teal and winning games. And just for reference, no, I don't plan on buying this years new jerseys...I like them, but I think the large amount of Sharks jerseys I currently own should go into rotation for several years before I buy a new one.

PANTRY - I can't lie to you Marge, 2013 wasn't an easy year for me. Still trying to get used to my Mom not being here. Still trying to figure out a way to enjoy some of the things that had to be put aside for the years that I was taking care of her. For me this coming year won't be about a lot of change, as quite frankly, I've had too much of that over the past few years. And I'm not doing standard cooking resolutions like I have in previous years, except to maybe try to catch up on some of the resolutions I made and never accomplished in previous years. I think this year, when it comes to cooking, I'm just going to "be". Go wherever my cooking sensibilities take me. That may mean trying all sorts of new techniques. It may mean just lots of grilled cheese sandwiches (on white bread even!).  No pressure this year. No trying to keep the blog up, no trying to follow all my favorite food blogs because heaven forbid I may miss an incredible recipe. This may mean eating out more often or cooking more at home.  Just letting my cooking life "be" may mean not even looking at my cookbooks this year. I just don't know. And you know what? That's okay. Sometimes I feel that we are all trying to be these great cooks, trying new things, trying to post them before  someone else does, being on the cutting edge of what food is hip or what restaurants we should be eating at, spending more time online and plugged in than in front of the stove or sitting down enjoying a meal with our loved ones. So this coming year I have no idea what I'll be cooking or eating, I just know that I will slowly be learning to enjoy it more.

Though, I do know me well. I'll probably still continue to photograph my dinners and text them to my sister.  And not picking up a cookbook for a year? Yeah, very unlikely. I guess though, I'm just saying that I'm not going to worry about much this year.  I'm going to let my cooking and eating this year kind of take me wherever it wants to go. And that in itself, is kinda exciting don't you think?

Happy New Year. And may your cooking take you where ever you want it to go this year.

 

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.

Halloween - October 3, 2012

There are witches and then there are steampunk witches. If you don't know about Steampunk, do a search, because I think it's going to be the next big thing. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some steampunk costumes around your neighborhood this year.

But though steampunk is gaining popularity in the mainstream, finding Halloween versions, not to mention something I could use on a scrapbook page, is quite a different story. So I was very surprised when I found out that Inkadinkado (an online stamping store) carried a line of steampunk Halloween stamps. Score!

In addition to this Steampunk Witch stamp (3" x 2.25" and sells for $10.99) they sell a Steampunk Spider and a Steampunk "Boo".

I think I just may make my own Halloween cards to send out next year!

Scrapbooking - Christmas Cards Layout 2010

It's become tradition for me every year to take bits of each Christmas card I receive and make a layout with those pieces along with the card that we sent out. Last year I completed the layout by April (you can check it out here), this year I didn't finish until November!

We actually received less traditional Christmas cards last year and more photo cards, which isn't a bad thing, I just can't figure out how to make a layout with them!

Scrapbooking - December Daily

I have no idea what insanity entered my mind and made me decide that I was going to try Ali Edwards December Daily album. I mean really, I'm usually so dang stressed during the holidays with everything I have to do that adding one more item to my list of things to do should probably send me over the edge.

But...I went and started it anway (So maybe I'm about to go over the edge, look out below!!!). I made the album as simple as I could. I used leftover cardstock and scrapbook paper. I used embellishments out of my stash. I used stickers that I probably picked up during the stone age. I tried not to sweat about making the thing "cute" or "edgy" or "prefect" or "magazine worthy" or anything other than "get the dang book made". It helped that I started this process at the end of October. Of course I didn't finish putting the pages together until last night.

The idea of the December Daily album is to every day, print out a photo and journal about that day so that immediately after the holidays you have a completed album documenting the days leading up to Christmas.  The trick is to have the album and it's 25 blank pages done before December 1st so that you aren't spending time trying to create the page every night... you just plop down your photo and journal and the entry for the day is done. At the end of the season, your holiday album will be complete (I actually made mine 26 days as we celebrate Boxing Day in our household).

A December Daily album isn't something that I plan on doing every year. Without kids, decorations and such, don't really change much every year. Maybe I'll do one every five years to see what might change or if we move, I might make one sooner since a different space to put out all my Christmas stuff would change it up a bit. But I look forward to documenting the season so I'm able to reflect back on the holidays sometime in the future when my memory might not be that good, and bring back the special feelings and fun of this time of year.

Oh and technically I'm not actually done and ready on this first day. See the cover of my album is one of those acrylic types. That came with a thin plastic cover that you are supposed to remove before using. Which I didn't remove. Therefor the couple hours I spent stamping, dating and embellishing last night went to waste. I figure Ali won't be too mad at me if I wait until after the holidays to finish the cover.

The photos are of the back sides of some of the pre-done pages. Don't ask me why I photographed the backs and not the fronts. Photos were taken on my iPhone. For more information about December Daily check out Ali Edwards project blog here.

Answers To Questions

Yes, that is Tiggher in the middle of the table in the kitchen. No, we no longer set the table ahead of time. Don't think we haven't tried to keep her off the table. Firm voices, squirting with water...nothing keeps her from her nice little spot in the sun. We've watched her literally jump on the table and move salt and pepper shakers and vases, just so she has a spot to stretch out on. No we do not feed her at the table nor do we feed her any people food. She has just decided the middle of the table, where the sun shines and she can look out on the world, is HER spot. We are just her staff. We comply.

For the first anniversary of this blog I answered some questions that I periodically got from readers. I figured it may be time to answer some again.

What's up with the name of the blog? Is it a food blog, a hockey blog or what? Though the blog is mainly about food (Pantry), I do occasionally post about hockey (Pucks), and scrapbooking (Pages). Since I've recently started participating in a monthly scrap group and have a specific scrap project I'm working on, you might see more scrap related posts. As for hockey, ahem. I had my breath held this year because I thought maybe it was "THIS YEAR". But alas. It wasn't. I'm still mourning. But yes, especially during the playoffs, there are some posts about hockey now and then.

What's the point of your blog? In a nutshell? To get me to cook. Since, like Julia Child, I kinda started cooking late in life and I'm a bit behind the cooking curve. I have a large, immense, gigantic, way to big cookbook collection that I'm trying to cook from. The goal is to cook at least one dish from each cookbook. Let's just say if I was to cook one recipe a week for the rest of my life, I still might not make it through my collection. 

Why haven't you updated the header/put a link to your Twitter account/done an RSS feed etc.? Time. Or lack of it. Also, some of the food blogs I follow are so crowded with this that and the other that I find it distracting. I'm trying to keep this blog simple. That being said, I do hope to be able to get some better functionality stuff going in the coming year. 

Do you take your own photos?   Of the meals I cook yes. Usually I just plate the dish and take it with the lights on the stove if there is no natural light. I take most of the hockey photos and scrap photos.  If the photo isn't mine, I try to give sources. I use Wikipedia a lot for generic photos. Every once in a while Mr. L will take the photo (usually when I've done something stupid, like burned my hand on a pot).

What kind of camera do you use?    Though I have a Canon Rebel XT, I currently use a little Canon PowerShot SD1100 which I am NOT fond of. We're looking for a new Canon that's more like my old SD950. I take photos in auto mode. I do not use a tripod. I rarely photoshop my food photos and if I do it's usually just the "auto correct" key.

Who do you cook for?  Mostly Mr. L and my mom. I do take some things into work to my assistant and every once in a while I get enough courage to take something I've made to a potluck.

Do you throw big dinner parties? In my mind? Yes. Constantly. I'm the Queen of Entertaining. In real life? Not so much. In fact, rarely.

How many cookbooks do you own?   Um. A Lot. Too many. More than I could ever use. Yeah, that answer is another post entirely. I can't tell you the count without trying to justify the answer! 

How do you chose the recipes you make from cookbooks?  There is no set way. Sometimes, if there is an interesting National Day, I may look through my books trying to find a recipe that has that ingredient. More often than not, I just pick up a cookbook and try to find something to cook. Sometimes this is easy as only a handful of recipes pop out at me. Other times it's a gargantuan task as I want to make everything in the book. Sometimes it's by default...I may be in an "orzo" phase so those are the recipes that stand out and scream to be cooked. Or maybe I've been cooking a lot of meat dishes and look for a fish dish. I may make a dish because it's something I know my mom can eat. Sometimes (most of the time) I'm really tired and busy and want to make something simple. Or maybe I just got off the scale and all those delicious fattening recipes just remind me of extra inches on my hips so I try to go low-cal. Currently I only have access to about one sixth of my cookbook collection so I try to find things in the cookbooks that are available in the house.

How often do you buy new cookbooks?  I never buy new cookbooks. Never. Really. They just show up on my doorstep. Yeah, that's the ticket, they just show up asking to come inside and be part of my collection. Yeah...be sure to tell Mr. L that if you ever run into him. Yeah, tell him you give me cookbooks, that's why new ones are in the house. Seriously, they are like rabbits, they just multiply.

Why didn't you learn to cook earlier?   See cookbook question. That will be answered when I get enough guts to post about my cookbook collection.

What cooking magazines do you subscribe to?   HAHAHAHA. Just a couple. Bon Appetit . Gourmet if it was still in publication. And Food and Wine. Oh and Savour. Of course Cooks Illustrated. Fine Cooking. The New Food Network magazine. Food Everyday. Cooking LIght. Should I include Sunset Magazine since I cut out the recipes?  And Martha Stewart Living? Better Homes and Garden?...and...well, maybe the question should have been which cooking magazines I DON'T subscribe to!

Do you ever eat out at restaurants? You talk about them, why don't you review them?   Honestly we do eat out a fair amount, especially when we travel. I've felt a bit uneasy about restaurant reviews since I'm not an expert. That being said, since I enjoy reading others reviews and use them to find interesting places to eat, I think I might start posting my own. I've done a few here and there though. See question below.

Do you take photos of the food you eat in restaurants? If it's breakfast or lunch I'll do it. If it's outside eating I'll do it. If it's some sort of fast food place, I'll do it. But I really don't have the courage to whip out my camera in the middle of a nice restaurant. That's probably one of the reasons I haven't reviewed some of the great places we've been to (i.e. Manresa)...I have no photos to go along with the review. But who knows, maybe I'll figure out a way.

Do you eat a lot of fast food? It may seem that way, but we honestly don't. That doesn't mean we don't talk about it. And I'm always game to try something new if a fast food restaurant advertises it.

Why don't you post more Small Plates with the National Food Days? Time. Or lack of it. Sound familiar? I try to Tweet the National Days so if you are interested you can follow me there.

Do you come up with the National Days for Small Plates?   No, these are actual real days. I don't make any of them up. Yes, there really is a "Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day", a "Crab Meat Newburg Day" and a "Take Your Pants for a Walk Day".

Where do you find these days?   Just do an Internet search. There are a ton of places that list most of the food days and plenty of the off the wall days. Even places that send out e-cards list special or strange days.

Do you cook everything on the National Days?   I do see what days are coming up during the month and see if they work into my meal plan. The problem is, life sometimes gets in the way and it may be several days after the National Day that I actually cook with that ingredient. Because of this I rarely post a National Days recipe until quite a while later.

Just how old are you anyway?   Like I'm going to tell you that.

Is Mr. L a real person? Why yes, yes he is. Thank you for asking.

Why don't you use real names or post photographs of yourself?   Because we are actually government spies...no wait, we are in the witness protection program...no wait, we are complete paranoid freaks...no wait...we're aliens from the planet Karmactuan!  You may catch photos of us in you pay attention, and most of you know our names anyway, but we like a little air of mystery.

Do you go to all the Sharks games?   I used to. For many, many years a group of us went to every pre-season game, every home game, the playoffs, various road trip games and yes, even to some practices. And I watched or listened to every road game on the TV or radio. There was no life outside of hockey. Then there was the lockout and I found Mr. L and other things in life started happening. I still have season tickets. This past year for various reasons, we didn't go to many regular season games but plan on rectifying that this coming season.

What did you think of the Sharks losing to the Hawks in the playoffs? Lalalalalalala, I can't hear you...... But as an FYI, I am rooting for the Hawks over the Flyers. Sorry, but I just can't let go of the Pronger hatred. 

Are you caught up with your scrapbooks? Are you out of your mind?

Do you ever scrap?   Not as much as I'd like to but having a couple of monthly groups to get together with is helping. I have a major scrap project I'm trying to work on which means even less time to do normal scrap pages. But I am trying to carve out some time to keep that up.

Well, I think that's all the questions I remember people asking over the last year or so. If you can think of something else, just let me know and I'll try to answer in the comments.

Happy National Scrapbook Day

I never know what to do with all the Christmas cards we receive each year. The photo cards are easy as some go up on the refrigerator until the next holiday season and the rest are incorporated into our photo albums. Certain cards I put back with all the Christmas stuff as they will be incorporated into present wrapping next year. But the rest of the cards? I've always hated to just throw them out.

I've seen versions of this in scrapbook magazines over the years and have always wanted to try it. I took a square punch and punched a square from each Christmas card we received. I also put the Christmas card we sent out, uncut, on the left hand side, with what the card said inside, underneath. I wish I had been doing this every year. I think it would be cool to see how cards change over the years. It also gives me a place to record the Christmas card we send out.

All items are from cards we received except for 'Holiday Cards 2009' which are letter stickers of unknown manufacturer and the Believe, Joy, Present buttons which were some embellishments I had in my stash. Bazzill white cardstock.

Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Every once in a while (if the Hockey Gods are nice to me), my three passions intercept.Tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day (Pages), the Sharks are currently in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs (Pucks) and, as always, I'm all about the food (Pantry). If recipes haven't been posted on the blog lately it's because I've been busy planning pages to spend National Scrapbook Day scrapbooking with some girlfriends or I've been watching (nail biting, holding my breath) the Sharks play. That doesn't mean I haven't been cooking or that there isn't food involved. We've checked out a new pizza place and had a nice wine dinner at Zanottos. Mr. L has been making his own beef jerky and I've had my hand at making some crockpot chocolate candy (which around here is now known as the Chocolate Peanut Candy Crack).

If you are a regular reader of this blog, don't be surprised that there might be more hockey and scrapbooking related posts for a while. Fingers crossed that the hockey continues through June. Oh and that little scamp in the photo? Our cat Tiggher. She snuck up on the table while I was taking photos. Luckily she didn't make off with any of the beef jerky. It's good enough I would have fought her for it.

Scrapbooking - Mom's Advent Calendar

Every year I fill a Christmas countdown calendar full of daily treats and sayings for Mr. L. It's a fun way to be a bit more personal during the holidays and to provide a nice little treat every day. I have a cardboard calendar I bought at Starbucks (little boxes in the shape of a tree) and a wooden one with little drawers that swing open from Target.

Last year, upon seeing the one I had done for Mr. L, my mom commented that she too, would love a daily treat. So this year I figured I'd make her a countdown calendar of her own. I spent several days creating the calendar and then went and bought many different bags of candy.Since my mom is a diabetic, I bought special sugar free candy, each individually wrapped.

The entire countdown calendar is about 9" x 9" with each little treat box being about an inch and a half. I covered the outside areas with scrap paper (I did not cover the inside or sides of the individual boxes). The numbers used as dates were provided in the countdown box kit from Karen Foster. The paper used is Basic Grey. Doo Dads were from my stash and the Christmas balls on the top came from Michaels.

And while this seems all great and good, and a terrific little present to give mom at the start of the month, I found out I had made a tactical error. All that sugar free candy, each individually wrapped? Didn't fit in the little boxes. Seriously, none of them. So yesterday I presented my mother with this great Christmas countdown calendar and a separate bag of candy. With instructions that instead of opening the cute little boxes everyday, she had to reach into the bag and get a piece of candy. Not exactly what I had in mind. Next year I have to find her sugar free candy that fits!

Karen Foster Countdown Calendar, Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses Collection Pack

Note: The countdown calendar comes with a little template to use to cut out scrap paper to fit the front of the individual boxes. I did not notice this template until I had already cut out all the finger holes for each piece of scrap paper...

And the Winners Are.....

Hello. Let me introduce myself. I'm Tiggher and I'm a new addition to the Mr. and Mrs. L household. I understand there was a contest going on and I was asked to chose winners. A contest to win books. I like books. I like to chew on books. In fact, if it's made out of paper or has paper in it I consider it a perfect chew toy! Newspapers, magazines...such wonderful things to play with! And since my humans are so tired (something to do with the fact that they aren't nocturnal like me and they don't feel the need to get up at 5:30 AM to play with their tails) I guess I can muster up the energy to help them out.

So mama human took these little delicious pieces of papers that had numbers on them and dangled them in front of me. It was my job to snag a piece of paper. Of course I think I was supposed to give the papers back once I picked one but I had much more fun biting it and playing with it. You should have seen my momma human chasing me around the living room trying to get those pieces of paper back. And I got to do it three times! This little girl loves making her humans get some exercise.

Mama human says that she'll do some formal introductions to me soon. I'm just a very happy little kitten that is glad that she was rescued from the pound by my new family.

Cooking Winner- bmk

Scrapbooking Winner - Chef Barbie

Hockey Winner - Robin Trellis

So the winners just need to e-mail my mama human at hkydiva at yahoo dot com with their addresses. I'll try to get the packages out in a few weeks. Congrats!

Cooking #9

Scrapbooking #1

Hockey #3