Adorable snowman faces!

   Anne's son, Will, whipped up these cookies for Amy's first day. They are nearly as charming as Will himself! :)

Christmas with the Godsy's

   Joni and Alan generously invited me over to their home today for Christmas dinner with Alan's family. And four Border Collies. And a weenie. (Can you imagine if I had smuggled the Shibas in there? Hello, chaos! But the five dogs were well-behaved and had a blast.)

   Joni was my second supervisor at Hallmark, nearly 14 years ago, when I was still painting in season kids' cards. We hit it off due to our love of animals, the outdoors, and artwork, and sometimes I think we might actually be related...

   I brought the Santa hat & reindeer antlers that I picked up for the Hallmark photo shoot, and they were a big hit with the Borders. Joni and I both whipped out our cameras to catch the fun...

Kayla rocked the antlers like she was born with 'em!

Lil' Asher finally acquiesced to wearing the hat. Good boy!

Happy Mr. Wager is 12 years old, but handsome as ever!

Little Snoopy is tuckered out! (Look at his cute back legs!)

Aww, the guys look tuckered out too.  Chili coma!  :)

   Joni made delicious homemade chipotle chili, cheddar-jalapeno-cornbread muffins, and green bean casserole. All was so good... and especially the cream cheesy-cherry dessert. Yum! Everything was perfect: a fun, low-key, food-filled, laugh-filled, pet-filled holiday afternoon with bright sunlight streaming in the windows. They welcomed me as if I were family. Proof that even when things don't go as planned (Christmas in Ohio), good surprises await. Thanks, Joni!

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

Q: What's this?

A: Not a scene you want to come home to.

   Very curious about how my short little Taylor managed to get all the way up on my countertop and pull down a full plate of mint-chocolate-chocolate chip cookies & a piece of Mary Ann's Texas sheet cake that was way back against the wall. (But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since I myself scaled a 10-12' wall in the Ruckus.) This boy's back legs are like coiled springs.
   Hitting this height is a new low for him... And this is the THIRD dish he has broken recently in his gluttonous pursuits. This was my favorite sushi-serving platter, so I put the dogs right outside & am leaving them out (yes, in the pouring rain!) to prevent me from breaking THEM into little pieces...
   This little incident has unequivocally proven that chocolate is both a stimulant and an aphrodisiac for dogs. Because Taylor has been a total spaz all night, howling, whining, pouncing, throwing toys, and then following Aki around, humping her until she gets pissed off and roars & snaps at him, then once she settles... coming back for another round. It was a LONG night! And Taylor woke me up periodically, getting into things and chewing them up.

   I swear to Dog that IF I ever have children, they will NOT be eating any sugar, because my nerves can't handle any more than a hopped-up Shiba Inu. He is a TERROR!!!

Dinner Experiment

   Some of dishes that Britten concocted last night inspired me to come up with my own version tonight, so I stopped at Trader Joe's this afternoon to procure the ingredients. Roasted pork cutlets with sweet & spicy chili sauce and matchstick Granny Smith apple & mango (this would make a great wrap with Romaine lettuce too); fresh tofu with ginger-soy gyoza dressing, and purple potato latkes with spicy peanut sauce. For dessert, Mary Ann's homemade Texas sheet cake. Kinda fun to play without a playbook and cross your fingers, and everything was soooo good... I'll make this one again for sure!
   Reminds me of a quote I read this week that I love, from one of my favorite chefs, who just happens to be local. And a genius: "Expectations are the death of pure experience."  — Jonathan Justus

A Very Britten Christmas

   Britten's annual birthday/Christmas party was tonight, and she outdid herself by whipping up about 1000 different incredible homemade appetizers on the spot. My favorites may have been the bacon-wrapped baked potatoes with spicy peanut sauce...

   I learned how to make potato latkes and got to pitch in. Chocolate croissants, hot brie toasts, crab puffs, artichoke dip, fontina-stuffed mushrooms, mango salsa, homemade flour de sel caramels, sangria, wine, mead... I think I consumed at least 18,000 calories! She and Rich are great hosts and we had a blast. (Rich was in rare form, wearing his Santa hat and cracking me up with crazy cop stories.) 

   Maybe next time we'll try out her birthday gift from one of her students: yogarrific gingerbread cookies!

   Actually, this baker's site where the cookie cutters can be purchased is very cool, too. Love this dog cake!

Christmas Came Early! My Birthday Too!

Maureen, you are so good-slash-evil. Best cookies ever!!!

Tad, your new screen printed board game rocks!!!

Donna, I am SO excited to own one of your squirrel mosaics!!!

All in one day? I'm gonna get spoiled!  ;)

CooCoo for Cocoa Cookies

   I was still too sick and feverish to go in to work today, though I was feeling a little better. I've been getting a lot of work done on my trusty laptop, and have pretty much spent the last three days on the couch with no human contact.

   I definitely wasn't up to going for our usual walks, so even the dogs were bored.

   I decided that what I needed to perk myself up was to bake up a batch of chocolate-chocolate chip-mint cookies. Ben just shared the recipe with me, and I already had all of the ingredients at home.
   This turned out to be both a good and bad idea. Good because they were quick and easy to make, gave me a different activity for a little while, and I froze half the batter so it would be easy to bake up some more later. Bad because they are FREAKIN' DELICIOUS, and I first had to restrain myself from devouring all the batter, and then from devouring all the soft, warm cookies as they came out of the oven. These are the cookie equivalent to crack.*

  *Granted, I haven't actually tried crack, and don't plan to, but from what I hear, it's addictive. And crack's got nothing on these cookies!!!

Good Fortune

   Okay, here's a fortune cookie that I like. I'm totally good with difficult as long as I know it'll be worth it.  :)

Fate... again?

    As the shuttle picked me up at 5 am (shudder) to take me to the Oakland airport, I boarded and settled next to a friendly-looking woman who was clearly perkier in the early morning than me. She introduced herself as Pam, which of course made me do a bit of a double-take, based on meeting another Pam on a Supershuttle almost exactly a year ago.

   I spent the whole shuttle ride and the couple of hours prior to boarding the airplane talking with Pam. We sat and drank our coffee and ate our delicious breakfast croissant sandwiches (take THAT, Radisson!)

   Pam was friendly, fun, and frankly, fascinating. Some of my favorite "f" words! She lives with her husband and a sweet dog, and has spent more than 30 years (I think that's what she said, but she looked too young for that to be possible!) as a cardiac nurse at Johns Hopkins medical center in Baltimore. She's getting her Master's degree now, in her free time. She was in San Francisco for a medical conference, and talked about how excellent the continuing training and education opportunities are at JH. (To which I nodded, because that's one thing we all love about Hallmark!) She also has an 18 year old daughter who loves the outdoors and wants to study art. So I had fun telling her all about my day of hiking in Muir Woods.

   As before, I'm not sure what will come out of this interaction, but I got the distinct feeling that SOMETHING would. I just hope this doesn't mean I'll be at JH for heart surgery someday—no offense!!!  :)

   So to sum up my San Francisco adventure, I will quote the fortune that I received after my Thai lunch on Saturday with Tiffany, which is that "You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you." 

   I already am, and I hope that I will continue to be, and believe me: I am grateful for every single one.

Random Hallmark moments: Happy Birthday, Camille!

   Today is Camille's birthday, and her adoring fans brought copious amounts of delicious treats and left them in piles on the table outside our offices. Lexie made some especially addictive chocolate-chocolate chip cookies that I grazed on all day long (they go well with morning coffee, an after-lunch snack, and a late afternoon snack, FYI). I told Lexie how awesome they are and how evil she is for leaving them near me, and she left THIS on my desk when I was off at a meeting. She is so nice-slash-evil!!! 

   Camille got a lot of great cards, but I couldn't find what I needed in our selection and had to make them myself: mini snowboarding Camille & Roxy (with their names on their boards in Japanese, just because it's cool).

Christmas in LA: Food Aplenty

   C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me. I kinda felt guilty for eating the dough before Kelley had a chance to bake it. Kinda.

   "What's that, Mr. President? You say you need 40 dozen meticulously-hand-decorated sugar cookies, STAT?"

"I'm on it!!!"

Good enough to eat!

   Suzanne's buckeyes freakin' rock! Do non-Ohioans eat these too? They may be the most delicious thing ever (especially Suzanne's recipe), and I have tasted many delicious things, so I don't say that lightly. We'll call these "First Breakfast."

   Followed by Second Breakfast, a yummy frittata. (Aka, the easiest and yummiest way to use up all the odd & ends in the fridge.)

   Another fridge-cleaning exercise produces a super-delicious grilled salmon, avocado, artichoke, roasted onion, roasted brussels sprouts, goat cheese and balsamic salad:

   And the homemade pizzas for dinner didn't last long...

Kristin & Eric approve!

Mr. Cool's Hot Cookies, round 2

   Andy brought another batch of his delectable cookies to me yesterday, and all were varieties that I had never tried before! From top left: Kickerdoodles, Hot Mama Ginger Spice, Southwestern Chocolate Chip with Pecans, and Hot Cha Chai. How incredible do these look? Like a home-baked Pantone cookie chart.

   This morning I sampled the chai & the ginger cookies with my coffee. They both really packed a punch!!! It's such a great surprise to bite into what looks like a "regular" cookie, to taste the sweetness & the unique flavor, and then to have the spiciness sneak up on you. Bravo! I'm saving the other two for later this weekend, to savor them all in due time...

Mr. Cool's Hot Cookies

   My friend Andy Cool makes the best cookies ever. He's been working on a cookbook, "Mr. Cool's Hot Cookies," so named because all of the 50+ recipes include a kick. This week he brought some lime jalapeno sugar cookies, and orange habanero cookies. He gave me several of each, so I savored them throughout the weekend, and soon realized that the longer they sit around, the hotter they get! Andy said even if you make the dough & freeze it, the peppers continue to do their work & you end up with super-hot dough. 
   Thanks for the treats, Andy! (And everyone else, make sure you look him up on Facebook!)

すてきなステーキとすばらしいブロッコリ！

I made sauteed portobello & onions, with roasted garlic hot chili oil...

And another round of "broccoli of the gods..."

And grilled the Pièce de résistance, the marinated steak!

...Oh, who am I kidding? The broccoli was the best part!!! I made 3 large heads of broccoli and they were gone in 2 days. I am the broccoli monster. Cookie Monster ain't got nuthin' on me!

Here comes the circus

My friend Andre's blog post about circus elephants just got picked up on the PETA site! Before you attend another circus that incorporates animals, please read it. Makes you think!

2 surprises in one day, & it's not even my birthday!!!

Not only did Andre leave me TWO freshly-baked amaretti crisps, but I also just received my SCUBA diver certification card in the mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anywhere in the world that has water, here I come!*

*Unless it's cold. Or dark & murky. Or has things that will eat me.

Monday surprise!

Is there anything better than coming to your desk & finding a delicious cookie? It seems the obvious answer would be, "No. No there isn't." But there IS, because this cookie is not only delicious, it was also baked by one of my most favoritest people, Andre. He is raising money for his annual AIDS walk through 4/24, and you can donate here if you're so inclined. (He's baking ALL 175 cookies, in Martha Stewart's cookie book since he met his fundraising goal!!!) For the record, I also dig that it looks like a sea urchin (which I hopefully will be seeing live soon on some Scuba dives. Sea urchins, not cookies. Nobody likes a wet cookie!). But I DO like fresh urchin! What was I talking about?
Follow the cookie madness here. (Blog is guranteed calorie-free.)

I just realized what else these remind me of: Cascoon, from Pokemon! And while I'm on the subject of Pokemon, enjoy this gallery of some of the most incredible character designs ever.

cookie fight

We just had a very exciting moment here in Shoebox: Renee offered a cookie (chocolate with butterscotch chips) to me or Steve. So at my suggestion, we arm-wrestled for it. I'm ashamed at how easily he beat me. It took about a tenth of a nanosecond and he had my arm on the table. But I successfully guilted him into sharing the cookie. Renee got it all on video.