Kitchen Krazy!

Yesterday afternoon, Tabitha, Bonnie, Paula and I went to volunteer at a Family Center. I had found a place in Maplewood through Catholic Charities that serves as temporary housing for about 50 families. We went to help in the kitchen serving the dinner meal. Well we all arrived on time at 4:30 and went to the kitchen to wait for the regular volunteer cooks to show. Dinner was supposed to be served at 5:30 so we had an hour to get ready. So we sat and waited, and yet no cooks. At 5:00 I thought I had better go check at the front desk to see what was up. The lady at the front desk thought that we were the cooks for the night, and told me to just put together a meal! Wow! We immediately went to work figuring out what we were going to make. We decided on Spaghetti with meat, salad, watermelon, corn, dinner rolls and cookies. The four of us really pulled it off! Everything was ready to be served at 6:00pm. The families began to come in and we enjoyed meeting them and at the same time they were very helpful to us, especially if we forgot to put something out. Afterwards we cleaned up and were on our way. It was really a fun adventure for us all, and we agreed that we would definitely go back again! I especially loved it because it was very reminiscent of working in the kitchen in New Hampshire at His Mansion. I love the fast pace of thinking on your toes and having the challenge of making sure a large number of people get fed. I think this just really solidifies the fact that i love cooking for people and I really want to get back to working in a kitchen. In the Christian world, there is always talk of feeding people's souls, and I would agree, but at the same time, I believe wholeheartedly in feeding people's bodies.

Like our hair nets?!

Er dir oys es harts

I am on the hunt! I just ran out of my favorite garbage bags! I don't know if they make them anymore! Oh the horror! or as I like to say, Oh the Hora! (Even though it has nothing to do with a traditional Jewish wedding dance) Anyway, I had these garbage bags since around 2000. They come 100 to a bag and they are perfect for bathroom waste baskets. They are Ruffies Color Scents 8 gallon med. garbage bags. I had the Tranquil Vanilla scent, even though I thought they smelled like a Dreamsicle... very pleasant. So why am I writing about garbage bags? Who knows, it's a Saturday morning and I am lamenting over the fact that I can't find these bags anywhere!

I could go on and on, but if anyone finds a bag of Ruffies, I will be your new best friend!

Yesterday, I worked a half day and brought home my 4 beautifully bodacious zucchini's... I'm so excited to start cooking\baking with them! Yesterday I also got together with someone I hadn't seen in almost 5 months. It was great to get her caught up to speed with what has been happening in my life... and it was freeing to say, 5 months ago I was someone else, and now, I'm not who I was.

There is healing and growth with time... God is good.

So world, Er dir oys es harts! (Eat your heart out).

After that I made my way over to the east side of St. Paul to hang with my favorite home slices, Kyle & Kelly. Kelly out did herself once again with a fabulous dinner of Jalapeno Cheddar Brats, Stuffed Piquillo Peppers, and Fresh Corn Salad. See her blog about the details: http://vlachmytastebudsoff.blogspot.com/ It was all soooo good! For dessert Kyle got me my all time favorite cookie from Turtle Bread Bakery; a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookie! Yum Yum Yum! Very thoughtful of Kyle, I must say! After dinner we watched Harold & Kumar go to White Castle. Oh so very funny! As if that movie wasn't exciting enough, we decided to go out on the town... First we went to Candyland to get some sweets... and then we decided to go see the 35w bridge. WE ended up walking around the Stone Arch Bridge, and laughing and annoying Kyle with our MN history ignorance.

I couldn't see much of the bridge, so it was hard to say what I was feeling, although I just kept thinking about how often I used to use that bridge and now this. My heart still goes out to all those families dealing with their losses... Peace & Blessings.

Zowie Zucchini!!!

One of the nice ladies in the office gave some of her HUMONGOUS Zucchini!! I plan on making a whole plethora of Zucchini based foods! MEOWCCHINI!
(fyi, the cucumber in the pic is full size!)

ABBA is Amazing!

Hey George, you're cute!

Sarah and I went out for Calzones last night... John's Pizza has the best! So we split a delicious artichoke heart & portabella mushroom calzone. I love going to John's with Sarah... We have great conversation and the scenery isn't bad either, i.e., the group of police officers that are always there! Meow! Afterwards we took a nice walk around Lake Como.. now since I live near Lake Como, I knew that there were bad storms that ripped through the area, I mean duh! a huge tree fell on my building! But I didn't know how badly the storm damage was until I walked around the lake. It looked like a war zone! Massive trees, ripped up from the roots, branches lying everywhere, trees lopped in half, (Hey Tommy, can you get me my Loppahs so I can cut the Popplah), hey a shout out to my favorite home show, This Old House!
Anyway, it was a real disaster area at the lake, but as Kelly's says, "It's mother nature's way of pruning." A similar storm came through the area a few years back. I had the sheer pleasure of driving through it! It was amazing and scary all at once... and i loved every minute of it!

PUKE=MEOW!

Bad things=Puke
Good things=Meow

But when your friends start using "PUKE" in their lexicon that is a big phat MEOW!

Name Change

Yesterday I met up with Michelle (Tina) at Macy's Mpls, downtown store. We did some chattin' and shoe shoppin'... I found 2 pairs of shoes, but now I think I splurged too much and I think I might return them! Even though they were on clearance, I really am trying to be good with my money. Anyway, after shoe shopping, we went to Sawatdee in Uptown for our favorite meal, Jalapeno Wontons, Chicken Paid Thai and a bottle of wine. However, we noticed something slightly off about Sawatdee, it is no longer SAWATDEE!!! It now goes by Uptown Thai Chili. We tried not to freak out, so we asked a server and he said, that for some reason the owner of this Sawatdee is not affiliated with the other ones. But for years he kept the name until recently. The server assured us that everything was the same, same menu, food & chef. WHOOO WHEEE! I personally think that of all the Sawatdees in the Twin Cities, the Uptown one is the best. So I would've been sad if anything changed. I guess i can handle a name change.
Anyway, we enjoyed our meal and Michelle showed me pics of her recent trip to Israel\Palestine. Her boyfriend Ahmed, is Palestinian, so they went to visit his family in Jerusalem. Ahmed is a Jerusalem Palestinian, and the Palestinians in Jerusalem have a lot more rights and freedoms in Israel. Unlike the West Bank or Gaza Strip Palestinians, whom are pretty much stuck in their settlements. Michelle said it was very sad to see... I real eye-opener for her. She also showed me pics of her travels including a trip into Jordan's Petra (one of the new eight wonders of the world). Her pictures were amazing and beautiful! I hope to go travel there myself one day.

I have been aching to travel, it has been way too long since I've been on a big adventure! I really want to go to Uruguay. I read an article on it a couple of years ago and i fell in love with this country. Right now it is cheap to go there, because it is winter... who cares! Count me in!