Birthday Weekend...

So my birthday this year was pretty mellow, but I got some god eats to report!

Friday night Becks and I hit Prime Cut Cafe.  Our birthdays are near each other and we like to just go out and celebrate ourselves and split the bill. Done.  Happy Birthday.  No fuss no muss.  I've been here before and have always liked it and I forget that have a pretty good happy hour!  They also have great wine!  So - I got myself a yummy filet Mignon taco, their ridiculously good deviled eggs and some greasy onion straws.  We chatted and had a lovely evening.

Saturday I had planned to see the show my friend directed over at Stages.  It was an early showing (5pm) so I text T and asked if we probably wanted to eat after?  She text back saying we should try this new wine bar that opened in Fullerton first, then show, then dinner at the Anaheim Packing House!  Um Ok!!

So - 3:30pm I arrive early of course and the wine bar is right next door to this great little store called Roadkill Ranch.  Um hi millions of clothing that I love.  4pm I waltzed into Vino Nostra, the wine bar I'm meeting T at with a giant shopping bag full.  She laughed.  They have flights a week I guess, so the flight that week was 1 white and 3 reds.  Shockingly I liked the white the best!  T started calling the events of the day my birthday extravaganzas and showed me how to "tweet" a picture and proceeded to "tweet" my behalf saying 1st stop of Jami's Birthday Extravaganza!

 I promptly bought the white.  Yes a white!  Then the guy told us about this Pinot Noir that was quite good - he gave us a taste - and it was called scratchpad.  The label comes with a charcoal pencil and you can write on it!  T got so excited but ended up writing on a Chardonnay!  Whoops!  So I bought that for her upcoming birthday and she got me my very own Pinot Scratchpad with a lovely note!  Another bottle I'll defiantly keep after I drink it!

After this we headed to the show!  Very funny!  It was modeled after The Breakfast Club but in the Shakespeare style of language.  Very cute and very original.  Jill my friend the director did a great job!

Off we were to Anaheim Packing House!  This seems to be the new thing around here.  It's quite similar to Oxbow Market that Libby and I visited a few times when we were up in Napa.  It's a bunch of food places (lots of food truck peeps) in sort of like an indoor mall setting.  There are places to sit at a lot of them, but some you just pick up your food then wander off and try to find a spot in the area.  The place was PACKED.  It was a Saturday night, and I really would like to come back on a weeknight and really check it out.  T gave me the run down on most of the places and we did a sweep of the upstairs and downstairs before making a decision.  We landed at Kettle Bar.  Honestly it was the only place we could get a seat.

Super cool though!  We sat at the bar that faced the kettles.  It was really cool to watch the chefs making all the yummies in the metal bowls.  Total trip.  Very unique.  The wine was very good!  I got myself some oysters and they were delish!  We also split some garlic fries that were divine.  I ordered the ciopinno.  Very yummy and full of fish, mussels, shrimp and squid.  I couldn't eat the squid though.  It kept wiggling at me so they always got pushed aside.  We devoured our meals and had a fun waiter.

We rolled out of there fat and happy and T suggested Gypsy Den.  I had no idea there was one in Anaheim!  I've been to the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana one many times but what do ya know!!!  We popped a squat at the bar.  T got a latte and myself another wine.  We chatted with the super cool bartender whom I thought I may have had a connection with and so did T but dude mentioned a girlfriend.  Doh!  I really am clueless. But alas a lovely wind down time and we even got to see some of the Disneyland fireworks!  A perfectly lovely evening for sure!

Sunday brought Twisted Vine.  My friend Bob has joined the wine club there and always brings me as his guest for the pick up party.  I have finally decided to join because it's such a great deal!!  $120 quarterly.  (I can make payments!)  You get 4 wines (you can choose all reds, all whites or mix) and you get a pick up party.  This pick up party you can bring a guest too, you get food and you get to taste all the wines you're getting!  Rad right?!  So - I gave in and joined!

It was a super fun evening but unfortunately I have no will power when it comes to yummy foods and with all what I had already eaten over the weekend, then the heavy cream based yummies from here and quite a bit of wine - my ass woke up on my actual birthday sicker than a dog.  Ooops.  This old ass 39 year old cannot eat what I want in excess anymore!  So my birthday was spent in bed recovering all Monday.  Oh well, my own doing!

The whole day though I was getting texts and calls and my FB was blowing up.  Below are some of my favorites:

Do you think my friends know me? :)

A few days later I had a belated birthday dinner with my best friend in the whole world and her darling daughter who is the closest do a daughter I'll ever have!  We hit up Shiki and the owner brought me cake and a cute pen for my birthday!  Libby and Hailey showered me with "warm" presents since my place is so cold - socks, slipper, a wine glass.  Love em all!

So a Happy Birthday to me indeed!

Deflowering my kitchen...

As most of you who know me personally know - I don't cook.  I mean really - don't cook.  Like ever.  There are contraptions used in the kitchen I'm still not sure what they are.  When I got divorced and my ex husband and I were dividing up our belongings the kitchen divide went like this:

Ex: "Do you want this?"
Me: "What's that?"
Ex: "Ok, I'll take it."

Ex: "Do you want this?"
Me: "Is that a kitchen utensil?!"
Ex: "Ok mine."

We had about 25 of these exchanges.

I grew up with my mom.  I love my mom to pieces, but she was never much of a cook. (I love you mom but seriously I still have nightmares about that meatloaf).  Our dinners mostly consisted of the nightmare meatloaf, porcupine balls (meat balls with rice sticking out of them) and waffles.  So my foodies sense didn't really develop until I got older and started eating out. A lot.  In my mother's defense though she was an outstanding baker.  I used to love to help her make cookies.  I'd shape the dough or knead it or play in the flour or decorate them after, etc.  She made the most amazing breads, cookies, muffins etc.  I also remember watching how long it took. And the amount of work she put in.  So my lack of cooking skills is a combination of not growing up around a lot of it and pure laziness.

When I married, my husband cooked.  When I divorced, I lived with my dear friend Mark who was the ultimate bachelor and our refrigerator was always empty except for beer, condiments and left overs from take out food.  Our freezer on the other hand was jam packed full of microwavables.

When the 2008 economy crash took my job and sent me back home to live with my mother, she had broadened her cooking a bit and she always cooked.  When my gramma landed in the hospital one Thanksgiving and my mom told me I had to make stuffing and she started to explain how to do it I had stop and ask her what a casserole dish was we both pretty much thought I was a hopeless cause.

If someone wasn't cooking for me I ate out.  Plus I'm always friggin hungry and I don't want to take the time to cook something.

This was my life up until my last move into my current residence.

I now live alone.  No husbands, no roomates and eating out is getting costly.  So - I was introduced to Pinterest.  I started trying little simple things - like fancy sandwiches.  I'm not going to lie, the 1st year in a half or so of living here I ate a lot of fancy sandwiches.  Well - here comes last December and a cold snap from hell.  Yes I know, I'm in SoCal, but when you live in a shipping crate like thing with no insulation and the nights drop into the 40's and I get up in the morning and can see my own fucking breathe and my phone tells me it's 32 degrees in my bedroom - that's damn cold.

After about a week of this I was trying to find ways to stay warm.  My multiple space heaters weren't doing the trick and I remember when my mom used to bake and how warm the house was and it smelled so yummy and I thought...hmmmmm.

Christmas was coming up and I figured I'd make the Tastefully Simple Chocolate Pound Cake I had a mix for.  I can do this.  I have a loaf pan from the Tastefully Simple party so why not?  Plus if it wasn't perfect I was going to put raspberries and cool whip on top of it anyway...sort of dull the bad taste?  I was terrified but I tackled it.  And guess what - DELICIOUS!

It was a bit of a cheat because it was a mix, but I did have to mix in eggs and a few other things!

A few days later the damn cold was getting colder and I noticed some rotting bananas I hadn't gotten around to eating and I still had left over chocolate chips from the Peanut Butter Balls I had made for our Xmas Cookie Exchange and..well...Pinterest.

I found a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.  Now this was from scratch people!  Like all ingredients and stuff!!   I of course had to go to the store to buy friggin everything it needs because I don't own things like sugar, flour and butter (I did find Vegan Butter!) and away I went.  And guess what - I DID IT!

And they were good!!!  I couldn't believe it!

Here's the recipe: Banana Muffins

Now, I'm not a fan at how long it takes and how much work goes into it.  My kitchen is also the size of a closet with no counter space so I have to do some pretty creative work arounds.  So - this won't be a common thing I don't think.

But I'm doing it randomly!

Another cold snap hit not long after and I thought I'd try muffins again.  The recipe I found called for apple chunks but I used apple sauce instead and BAM:

AWESOME!

These were by far my favorite.  So good!  Everyone that tasted them raved about them which made me glow.  Here's the recipe: Apple Muffins


A few weeks ago I thought I'd attempt a bread.  I do have that loaf pan....

So I made a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf and guess what:

Holy moist delciousness!!!!

Here's the recipe: Pumpkin Bread

So I'm now starting to feel pretty confident that I can actually bake!  I stick to the recipe and amounts sort of.  For instance when I scoop out a tablespoon I don't measure it perfect it's more like "Yea that looks fine."  And I don't own a half cup thing so I always just fill my 1 cup thing half way - ish.  There are also times when I think "maybe I didn't put enough of that in so here - another bit won't matter..."

So this week I thought I'd attempt a non-dairy alfredo sauce so I could make some pasta that I could eat for a few days.

I busted my ass in the kitchen cooking, simmering (I had to look up what simmer actually was), stirring and trying to make this work.  Um...Fail.  The sauce was like water.  I kept throwing in my flour and stirring more thinking it would help but nope.  It never got thick.  Defeated, I stuck my finger in for a taste.  Well, it tasted ok.  So I poured it on my pasta which of course pooled at the bottom of the bowl and then I pretty much would smoosh the penne in the water sauce trying to soak up a flavor.  It was a sad site.  I stuck the rest in the fridge thinking it would thicken overnight but the next day it looked like a weird paste and smelled funny.  So - major fail there.

I then was going to try Lemon Bars because I was trying to do that warm lemon water thing every morning and realized it's just too damn nasty and wasn't doing anything so F that nonsense.  But I have these extra lemons...so....

I looked up a recipe.  I had to ask my mom what Lemon Zest was.  Who knew it was the peel!?  Fascinating.  I headed to Target to buy a grater and guess what - it said on the label - great for Lemon Zesting!  I guess this is a thing.

I started in making the bars and this was becoming much more work than I had originally anticipated.  I didn't know what a 9x13 baking pan was exactly, and me taking out the tape measure and measuring what I did have wasn't quite helping so again my mom comes to the rescue and drops off one of her old ones for me to use.  I can hear her silent laughter and head shaking from here.  So with my new pan I'm having to smoosh the crust into it.  It's like playdough.  Did I mention no counter space?  I almost launched the pan at my cats 3 times as I'm trying to to this delicate balance of partially on a table and partially on my leg since there's no room and smoosh this stuff in there.  Then you have to make a whole separate bowl for the lemon part!!  Lord.

Here I go.  This was not going well.  The damn eggs kept breaking weird and half the time I was fishing egg shells out of the bowl.  Unfortunately there's a little bugger I couldn't get so I'm hoping that's the bar I bite into and not someone I give it too.  Sigh.  Move on.  I start the Lemon Zesting process.  I zest part of my thumb right off.  Thank GAWD it didn't make it into the bowl.  Jesus.  I continue after I've bandaged my thumb.  I launch the lemons multiple times in the process.  Good lord.  Mind you my cats are sitting there watching me with curiosity and confusion.  I swear they're laughing at me.  Then I start to squeeze the lemon juice into the bowl when every 2 seconds a seed falls in.  DAMMIT!  I certainly hope I got all the seeds out.

Finally into the oven it goes.  Later on my house starts to smell like lemons.  Yummy!  I pull it out and it doesn't look anything like the picture.  Oh hell.  I stare at it for a moment slightly heartbroken and also want to cry because I don't have any powered sugar like I thought I did to sprinkle on top and maybe hide the weird looking bar.  The picture has it looking like a jelly, mine is not a jelly.  It's baked.  I'm confused.  BUT, I taste a piece and it's really good!

I bring a bar over to my landlady to try and her neighbor is also there and shares it.  They love it!  Yay!!  So it may not be pretty (Hence no photo) but it's super tasty!  I can't wait to give some to my dad tomorrow since I know he looooooooooooooooooves lemon stuff!

Here's the recipe: Lemon Bars

So ladies and gents - Hell has officially frozen over.  Jami is baking.  I'm not sure about the whole cooking thing - I did try something in the crock pot a few weeks back that didn't quite work  as well so we'll see.  But - on to new adventures!

Insane Inflatable 5K...

Someone dropped this on my page a while ago saying it was right up my alley.  It sounded fun, especially being on Valentines Day!  Since I am a solo - let's do something fun right!?

I created a team and appropriately called the team Love Bugs.  My description was "Well, it is Valentines Day..."  Plus this was a silly 5K so the perfect type to wear a costume which I hadn't done in a while!

Holly was the 1st to sign up, followed quickly by Robin and Taylor.  Then Maryanne jumped on board and Fatima last minute.  A perfectly fun group!  Not everyone dressed up, but everyone at least threw on some red in spirit!

Robin, Taylor and I carpooled and met right up with Holly.  While we were waiting for the rest of the crew we took this adorable picture:

Part of Team Love Bug

The rest of the crew showed up and I took a few shots of the race area before we started:

Not too many people dressed up which was a little disappointing, but there were a few.  You can see in the above picture some Trojan like fellows.  Then there was this adorable team called Bacon and Eggs:

We did our group team shot:

I love us!

Then of course I love jumping pictures so most everyone humored me.  Holly/Robin:

Robin/Maryanne - um precious!

And of course Taylor and I.  I do feel we are the best jumpers! Ha ha!

Then it was time to start!

Holly's ready!

You start right off on a slide.  It's a bit tough to slide down a slide when you're wearing shorts and there's nothing to help you like water or oil or something.  So I think most everyone got a bit of a butt burn if you were in shorts.

Then off we went.  Now, I haven't been working out to my full potential.  Due to some sickies, some doctor dilemmas and appointments and rehearsals my work outs have not been regular.  Especially - cardio.  My lungs are still pissed from getting the plague last month and that cough is still hanging on.  So needless to say I wasn't even jogging.  Robin had been in a car accident the day before, she's ok but was a bit sore, and I was worried about Taylor's old sprained ankle he forgot to brace being in uneven sand.  So - we all took it pretty easy.  This was the perfect race to do so!  I don't think there were very many super athletic folks on this run.

The next "obstacle" was similar to tires but of course inflatable!

Trotting and walking along:

 I seem to be doing this weird prissy walk as you can see here in a shot captured by Maryanne.  I think it was the unevenness of the sand.  Ha ha!

Shadow play:

Did I mention that it was an absolutely gorgeous friggin day!!!!

Then there was this thing you crawled under and was full of giant balls!!  Fatima and Maryanne were waiting for us and bombarded us as we came in.  Hilarious!

Love the laughter going on here!

There were a couple of wacky jumpy things that were super fun.  I swear it's like bounce houses for adults!

I just love to pose!

A giant airplane slide.

Now here is where I realized a bummer.  After this particular one because you were on it a bit longer than the ones before, I landed on the sand and realized I was dizzy.  My over-sensitive motion issue was kicking in.  I panicked slightly at 1st, thinking I was going to have one of my attacks, get sick and be ruined.  Luckily I never got sick, just a little dizzy.  But - this made me have to really speed through the obstacles as quickly as I could.  No lingering for me or I would get hit with the sickies.  The bummer was I did feel slightly "off" the rest of the day but I was just super thankful and grateful I didn't hit the point of no return.  Because dammit these were fun!!!!
 
Here was another one that you sort went under and over through.

Um - how adorable is Maryanne!

 At end of the one above was another slide thing that I accidentally did a flip off of.   It was pretty impressive and I know I couldn't repeat it if I tried! Ha ha!!  Funny enough, I was looking through some of the coverage and found this picture of myself from the Huntington Beach Independent!

Another big slide!

This one below is one of my favorite pictures of the day!

Then we kind of hopped along this big one.  I hopped across super quick, afraid to get sick but got this awesome shot of Robin:

Then the last one was the big ol slide!

Thank Gawd I was wearing shorts!

 After the 1000 foot drop slide you were done!  Then you were handed a Tee Shirt and a Medal!  I was so stoked to get a medal because usually these wacky fun races you don't get one!

After the race all of us sans Fatima headed to Killarneys for some mimosas, bloody marys and breakfast!  It was perfect!  A gorgeous day, down at the beach, yummy food and booze and a great group!  I wish we could have stayed down there all day!

I would totally do this race again!  I had so much fun and I'm pretty sure everyone else did too!!  This is a fun run I would be down for!  I hope they come back!