New Year!

Just wanted to give a quick update:

Christmas was great this year; all of Sarah's decorations + 2 cartons of egg nog + lots of Christmas music at home + several "fun" trips to the mall= feeling like Christmas.

New Years Eve was spent with friends again and I won second place in the 80's attire contest; I was going for the Marty McFly outfit, but couldn't get a red sleeveless vest.

Lastly, the thing that I am most excited about right now (which is what actually prompted me to do this update) is that I got all my grades from this last semester; five A's and one B! Not too shabby. :) Five more classes next semester, two in the summer and I will be done (which is 213 days from today, but who's counting?)

More Apt. pictures...

2nd Annual Cookie Exchange

I had a cookie-exchange party last year that went so well that I decided to do it again this year. My other friends have stolen the big holidays (Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, etc.), so I decided to stick my own event in during the middle of the month of December. I went kinda crazy and obsessive decorating the house for the party. Note: cutting hundreds of snowflakes out of cover stock is rather hard on the knuckles. There were supposed to be 8 attendees, but two of them ended up sending cookies and flaking on the party. Because I am a kind-hearted soul, we exchanged their cookies for them and carried on. I was rather pleased with the selection and quality that showed up this year, and I'm definitely going to carry on the tradition for the next Christmas season. In the meantime, Sean and I have a tray full of cookies to devour.

P.S. I got an awesome cheese to serve with rustic bread as an appetizer. It came from the Nugget Market and is called "Fromager D'Affinois." It's creamy and mild, with just a slight bit of saltiness. I'm in love with this cheese.

SNOW IN CITRUS HEIGHTS!

Sarah and I went for a walk around the mall last night and I thought it was starting to rain on us. The rain was blowing around, so I just figured it was a light rain. But, it was the first hint of snow to come! Very cool.

The school semester is almost over for me; December 17th is the last day. Thanksgiving was great this year; we had dinner with Mom & Dad Kenney, and then on Sunday we had dinner with friends. We also had a surprise birthday party for Sarah's grandma & Kaidence's first birthday party the same day up in Smartville; Nana was definitely surprised.









Hmmm, what else? We put up our tree on Saturday and finished decorating our house for the holidays yesterday. I told Sarah that the last few Christmases went by too fast, so we had to make sure that: the tree was up in time, Christmas music is playing at home, & we need to take frequent trips to the mall to soak in the experience. So far, so good.

We Live!

I had no idea it had been almost two months since our last post. There's a lot of stuff I can't remember that's happened in the past couple of months, so I'll just focus on our trip to Oregon two weekends ago. I don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to break it down in the form of awards:

Best Provision of a Comfy Guest-Room Experience: Patrick & Mary

Worst Cheese & Ice-Cream Tour: Tillamook Cheese & Ice Cream Factory

Best Made-Up Car Game: Sarah, for "Follow Words" (I just named it)

Best Made-Up Car Game Save: Mary, for "caseworker"

Best Use of the Word "House" to End a Made-Up Car Game: Patrick

Best Assassination Scenario: Patrick

Best Catch-Phrase Partners: Mary & Sarah

Best Catch-Phrase Answers: Patrick, for "Jib-jab! Sad!" and Sean, for "Red kryptonite! Blue pants!"

Best Scenery: The State of Oregon

Recent Weekends

Two weekends ago we went to San Francisco to see the "Tut" exhibit at the De Young museum in San Francisco (note: we hate San Francisco; it's a dirty, frustrating city). My parents gave Sean tickets for his birthday, and the exhibit was really interesting. After having wandered through the museum looking at artifacts and art from South America (from the A.D. time period), seeing what the Egyptians were doing in the B.C.'s was amazing. Most of what we were looking at came from 1450-1300 B.C., and the artistry was incredible. Also, did any of you know that there were actually five boxes surrounding King Tut, not just the one sarcophagus? I didn't remember that from my sixth-grade unit on ancient Egypt. Alas, there aren't any pictures, because photography isn't allowed inside the exhibit.

Last weekend (i.e. a couple days ago) I made some curtains for our kitchen. That's right--I MADE CURTAINS! Previous to my weekend project, the only thing I had ever sewn--ever--was one button back onto my favorite peacoat. I had received a small (read: beginner's) sewing machine for my college graduation, so I decided to put it to use. Steve likes to get up on the counter in our kitchen, which means we either leave the blinds up all the time or he messes them up. We've been leaving them up, but that means potential naked exposure (the kitchen window practically looks right into our bedroom at the back of the apartment). So, curtains. Or sew curtains. Either way, I made them. They are nowhere near perfect; in fact, I'm probably going to make some more in a different fabric. However, the important thing is that I finished them, and they are curtain-like enough that they'll do for now. Sean was kind enough to say that he likes them, but I'm not happy enough with them to post photos just yet.

The Rest of August

Sean actually got to have three birthdays this year. We did a Scandia video game/batting cages/minicar race birthday on the Sunday before his birthday with my side of the family (plus Becky & Roshni), then we did a small gathering on Sean's actual birthday with some friends, then we did another family birthday dinner with Sean's side of the family Friday night. Scandia was fun, although they didn't have any air-conditioning inside the arcade. My mom and dad played a first-person shooter together--my mom played with a rather disgusted look on her face (which was awesome). I made Sean's new favorite burger, the Andouille-Beef burger, for his "friend" birthday, and it was generally agreed that they're very tasty.




A couple weekends ago, we took Friday off and went up to Eureka through Sunday. The goals of our journey were thus: to escape the searing heat of Sacramento; to visit Sean's family; and to explore the area's outdoor wonders. The weekend started off with a sense of doom hanging over our heads, because we almost got into three accidents on the way up and because Nate convinced Shelly we were coming on a different weekend (hence, they were not expecting us when we called to say we were 20 minutes away). So: Nate got in trouble and Shelly was a good sport, and everything turned out great (except for everyone else being out of town for a funeral). They led us on all sorts of adventures in the greater Eureka area and generally impressed us with how close they are to all sorts of natural beauty. One of the highlights of the trip was their sewage treatment plant/bird sanctuary. Seriously. You should check it out if you're ever in the area. It was an exhausting weekend (Nate and Shelly have energy to spare when it comes to walking), but super fun. The one disappoint is that apparently local Humboldt County coffee shops can't make a good iced white mocha; we had to give in and just go to Starbucks. Oh well.



To make our August even more exciting, we drove down to San Diego for a quick baby-shower (for my friend Naju)/visit the Martas trip. We had a bunch of fun hanging out with Sharon, Isaac, and Reece at the Wild Animal Park (amazing), and it was great to see my still-skinny-except-for-her-baby-bump friend. We rounded out the day by watching a movie with Sharon & Jake--an unintentionally hilarious stealth-Christian movie that provided ample opportunity for commentary. It was really sad when we left the next day, because Isaac was crying and saying he wanted to go to Sacramento with us. It almost made me cry, too. He drew me a picture later, so I guess all is well now.



That's about it. I decided to not post every new recipe I make, because some of them have been complete flops. However, I made a quick dessert with some leftover berries I had from the farmers' market, and it turned out really well. Here you go (courtesy of Alton Brown):



individual berry crisps
(serves 4)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (about 5 ounces)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, or pecans)
• 1 1/2 cups crushed crackers, gingersnaps, or cereal
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
• 12 ounces fresh or frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries work well)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

directions

1. Place the flour, sugar, nuts, and crackers in a large mixing bowl; combine.
2. Work the butter into the dry ingredients, using your hands or a pastry blender, until it is crumbly.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and 1/2 cup of the crisp mixture in a medium bowl; stir gently to combine.
4. Divide the mixture evenly among 4 small (7-8 oz.) ramekins. Top each ramekin with 1/2 cup of the remaining crisp topping.
5. Place ramekins on a sheet pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until fruit is bubbling and topping is browned. Allow to cool 15 minutes before serving.

rating: 5/5 (I decided to change my response system so I wouldn't have to remember what people said....)

critique:
I can't imagine using crackers in this recipe, and I probably wouldn't recommend it. I used cornflakes, and it turned out great. Although the recipe doesn't mention it, this dessert pairs well with some good vanilla ice cream.