Yesterday the sun finally came out for the first time in at least a week. I begged Eric to get in the car and go for a drive so we could watch the sun set on the lake. Beautiful ending to a beautiful day.
This is just near our house
I jumped out of the car before we made it out of our subdivision. It was just magical.
Downtown Tahoe City
This photo was from inside the car on the drive through town.
Somehow my husband talked me into making matzo ball soup. I thought hey no biggie, just make chicken stock and then make some matzo balls, piece of cake. Well in my search for a recipe I found that this is something that mere mortals attempt and fail. Oh crap! I am not Jewish, although married to one, we just found out that a great grandmother was secretly Jewish, who knew? So here I am a gentile, trying to make homemade matzo ball soup. So I mentioned on my facebook that I was going to attempt it and my wonderful friend from 9th grade sent me her recipe! She is so wonderful and so far so good.
I made the Chicken Stock last night and used the chicken for green enchiladas! Yum! Then I put the stock in the fridge overnight to cool. Today while making the matzo ball recipe, I used the schmaltz(?) or hardened chicken fat from the stock to add fat to my matzo balls. Pretty slick. Anyway then tonight all I have to do is heat up the stock, add some veggies and cook the matzo balls! Happy New Year to us!
Here is the recipe from my friend Cori that I used.
Chicken Stock
Once everything is in pot, fill with water until it covers the chicken/everything in the pot.
-Add some salt and pepper to taste.
-Bring to boil on stove top.
-Once boiling, turn down heat to simmer, cover pot and leave for 2 hours.
-Once done, cool completely then carefully remove chix (it will fall apart) remove veggies and save they are absolutely delicious to eat!
-Strain liquid and viola you have chicken soup.
-You must consume within 3-5 days if refrigerated if you want to save it freezes beautifully.
And the Matzo Balls
Combine all ingredients together and place in fridge for an hour or more. Once you have chilled the mixture, form the Mazto balls (not too big or small). Get about 4 quarts of Chicken soup boiling then turn down to simmer, carefully drop in the Matzo balls. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes, they should be floating not sinking…light and fluffy not hard as a rock!
Best of luck! And Happy 2010
I’ll tell you what, I have had a very interesting 9 days traveling around the Midwest. It was like an ordained trip for me to spend in the loving arms of my friends and family and to spend a significant amount of time alone for the first time in 7 months. It was such a great time of healing the past and reconnecting with myself, I want to do this every year. The only down side is a lot of time in airports and on airplanes.
I started my trip in Denver and got to see my best friends from High School. We had so much fun being silly and girly, we got pedicures and ate Halloween candy and had a blast. Next I moved on to Kansas City to visit my brother (see post below) and not only cleared the air with him after 2 years of not talking. But also cleared the air with his wife who I had not really talked to in years. I also got to see my old manager Ben who did not really like me a whole lot the last time I talked to him. But we had a really lovely time having drinks and remembering what a great time we used to have.
Then it was on to Omaha for some time with old friends. I helped Mel and Lindsey make up, I talked to my favorite people, Pastor Ty and Terri. And I spent a lot of time letting go of Caffeine Dreams. It looks awful which almost makes it easier not to be there anymore. It doesn’t feel like my shop anymore because I would never have let it get into such disrepair. I spent time with all the people who helped make my business fun and who I loved for a long time. There is nothing like the feeling of letting go. letting go of the stupid mistakes that we made because we were young and immature. Letting go of the bitterness that I had towards the people who did not take our selling CD well, and letting go of the bad crap with my brother. I am on a new path, from now on I am only going to have healthy relationships. I can’t do it any other way. I promise myself a new life with healthy friends. Also every time I feel scared to do or try something, I need to ask myself “why am I scared to do this thing?” and I’m finding that the more I think about it the more I realize that I am scared of what other people think, just talking myself out of it. But I have the power to talk myself into it too. I promise myself that I will try. Try for a new life, Amber, the past is over…thank god!
*phoenix airport Nov 8, 2009
I came to the Midwest because I was going to give my brother a piece of my mind. Who does he think he is anyway not returning my phone calls and emails? I wanted to let him know that I was tired of his bullshit and that he needed to have a relationship with me or else! I was terrified to bring up the subject once I finally got here though. I kept waiting for the right moment and then just like I knew it would, the right moment presented itself. We were trapped in the car on the way home and I just blurted out that I had some things to talk to him about. He said “let’s hear it” with an eager anticipation that I was hoping for but not really expecting. He is so open to talk about his recovery that I was like, “oh crap, what have I done”.
What I did was not give him a piece of my mind, but listen to a piece of his. I really feel like he is getting better and using healthy language. His life is really hard and serious right now as he learns to conquer his addiction and build a new life. He explained it to me as this really heavy trench coat that he has to wear everyday and some days he would like to take it off, if only for a moment. But working on sobriety means wearing it all the time, even in 90 degree weather. And so for now he must struggle and rebuild relationships with everyone in his life.
I explained that I really want a relationship with him and that I didn’t want to go another 2 years with the same relationship we have now. And he said that he would make an effort to connect with me if I would make an effort to learn about addiction and recovery. So I guess I need a book or to go to a 12 step meeting to let him know that I support and care about his recovery and his life. I can’t say whether or not I’ll make it to a meeting but I can definitely read a book. For right now our relationship is going to be a little one sided since his recovery is all consuming. The way he talkes to me has very little grace, but I know that he is in a world of pain right now and that I can have enough grace for the both of us.
So I get a gold star for confronting my brother, for listening to what he had to say and deciding to make an effort to repair our relationship.
I can’t even begin to describe all the awful things we have eaten in the last 3 weeks as we traveled around the countryside. There was the fish and chips, the fried bread, chips, bacon sandwiches, chips, pasta, and more chips. And that’s the short list. I only got sick once though. On the plus side there is seafood everywhere! I have had so many mussels, clams, and other mysterious crustaceans here, lovely fish stews and soups and I love it.
But I can say that I am so so grateful to have a kitchen again. Granted I only have one shelf in the refrigerator and I have to walk quite a ways to go to the market, but it is a kitchen none the less. I made yummy lentil, bean and barley soup last night that totally hit the spot on a chilly English evening. I am adapting to tea with milk and sugar, which I have to admit is pretty yummy. Although probably not that good for me, as I am consuming 4-5 per day. Oops. But hey I did give up coffee and alcohol so I guess having tea as a vice is pretty tame.
But despite the bad rap that English food gets, I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised by most of the food here. I’ve had very little food that didn’t taste good, never mind if it was nutritious. We found a place today that serves pancakes with syrup! Holy moly! This is like finding a needle in a haystack, most cafe’s etc. here only serve what is known as a “full english” or a “fry up” breakfast. This monstrosity of a meal includes, fried eggs, toast, fried tomato, grilled mushrooms, sausage, fatty bacon, hashbrowns and of all things baked beans! Oh wait I almost forgot, the black pudding. Blech! Beans for breakfast is just wrong. I am dying for potatoes and eggs or pancakes or waffles. . . . yumm. But for now I am being a good girl and making eggs and toast, fresh fruit and gluten-free muesli. But it is very tempting here because there are several fabulous restaurants just begging me to try them.
Bacon sandwich
Here are some more photos of Brighton and our house. Not much new to report except that my butt is very grateful for our new office chairs.
Light switches, separate hot/cold faucets, central heating, flat screen TV’s, low flush toilets and public trash bins. These are things that the Brits need to work on. So far those are my only gripes, well almost. The weather has been surprisingly mild. Yesterday I was hot, who whoulda thunk. We went on a mission to find a 2nd hand furniture store up the street yesterday afternoon. Walked for 20 min to find an empty store, bugger. But out of that journey we ended up in the “cool” part of town rather unexpectedly. No one told us this was even here. We found a organic healthy fluff store, the mother-load of clothing stores, and tons of cool local cafes. The area is huge too. I found my clothing store. I should have known that all the clothes I like are British and I should have come with the clothes on my back and bought everything here. In one store I found Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Lindberg, G-Raw, Merc and Penguin. WTF… This place has been shear torture so far. Good clothes and old Land Rover Defender 110s everywhere. And the 110s aren’t $80k, they are cheap.
We went online shopping yesterday, which was a real task. We bought 2 desks, 2 chairs and a new bed frame from Ikea. £40 for delivery, ouch. But, I have no way of picking it all up so… £40 it is. But all that for £230. Not too shabby. We are working on a kitchen table with a bench seat at the moment. Not ideal, but there is internet and power so it will do for now.
Ikea Desk and Chair
new bed for us
We found a great little market called the Taj about 15min walk from here. They have good produce and all kinds of cool ethnic food. We tried to buy fish from the fishmonger yesterday, but we made a bad choice and got frozen swordfish. Was fishy. We have to get used to the local fishies. Plaice, haddock and mackerel.
It’s 4pm. The work day begins.
Here are a few pics of our house in Brighton. I think it is fab. We do need a cleaning lady to come since neither of our new housemates are very tidy. But here you can get an idea of our new pad. The only slightly difficult part is that this great house is on top of a rather LONG hill. My calf muscles have not quite adjusted. But between the hill and the 3 flights of stairs, I should be in great shape by the end of the summer.
Oh the holy terror that is the giggle loop. I’ll let Jeffrey explain. . .
So this evening we went to a choir performance by one of our new housemates. Jessie was singing the Passion according to the gospel of Mark at her church, St. Luke’s Anglican church. I have not been in a traditional church in sometime and it was both terrifying and exciting at the same time. The choir was good but very solemn. And then “Jesus” got up to sing. . . and did he ever. He trilled his “R’s” and shook when he sang. Then the other guy got up for his solo and did the same, very committed to the part. And then came the giggles. I squeezed Eric’s hand when “Jesus” tried to jump an octave and didn’t quite make it. I started to snicker, then I felt Eric shaking with laughter. I could barely control myself. I was shaking and holding my hands over my face so that hopefully no one could tell I was crying from laughter. I finally stopped only to start back up again as I could feel Eric still shaking from laughter. He finally ignored me and started reading some random flyer that he found so that he could concentrate on something else. It took everything in my body to keep from bursting out in laughter, oh man that sucked and was so much fun at the same time. I love it!
We made it! But just barely. . . .
We packed and brought with us 4 suitcases of 70lbs each because that’s what the airline said we could bring. We brought our computer monitors, almost ever piece of clothing I own, and 10 pairs of shoes. And of course my sizable MAC collection. I thought it was great how much stuff I was able to bring, until I met up with the English train/subway system. People in Europe don’t pack giant 30″ bags, they pack these minuscule little roller bags that I swear can’t hold more that a pair of socks and a toothbrush. And so because of our enormous bags not only are we instantly labeled “Americans” but we are also forced to navigate the underground with no elevators.
So at the beginning of our trip we decided to put 2 of the 4 bags into a storage facility at the train station so that we only had to lug around 2 huge bags while we toured the countryside. It was still miserable with our huge bags, every time the train approached I got a little pit in my stomach as I tried to figure out where the luggage rack was and how not to block all the travelers looking pissed and in a hurry. Every hotel room we stayed in was on the second or third floor and none had elevators, so again we lugged our bags up the stairs. So yesterday we went to get the other bags out of storage and £96 later we were headed to the Tube and back to our hotel. The Tube is soooo anti-luggage and anti-handicap for that matter there are absolutely NO elevators. So as we dragged them down the stairs at one station, we had to lug them up 4 flights of stairs at the next stop. I am never-ever doing that again. Never. Next time we are going to shell out the £50 and get a taxi.
Ugh, but needless to say us and all 4 of our bags arrived in Brighton tonight to a mad house and more stairs. The couple who are renting out their house to us were here packing up their house to leave in the morning and their 3 kids were running around plus the other 2 women we will be living with for the next several months. Our rooms are on the 4th? floor and so we carried our bags up yet another 3 flights of stairs. We have 2 attached rooms with 2 beds, the one room is huge and perfect for our workspace. Can’t wait to get settled in.
