My boss got me a gorgeous scarf for Christmas! She chose this box because she said that she thought it looked like a move that I would make:

Here's a fun little Santa cake that I got to decorate:

I came across one of my all time favorite Christmas photos that I randomly had in a box of stuff that I brought up North with me: David, Grossmutter and Me circa I'm not sure what year but a long long time ago when we were little bubbas!

Started off the morning with homemade cinnamon rolls from SCRATCH from the boss boss! A consolation prize still for our hard work on our 3-tier dummy from Thanksgiving:

And then I came home to find these on my front porch from my PJ boss back in Vegas!

Rain, rain, more rain and...HAIL! Not the best picture but you can kind of get an idea of the pea-sized hail from the other day:

The hole in my closet is slowly but surely getting larger and it doesn't look like the rain is stopping anytime soon! Perhaps they should have fixed it when I told them over a month ago...now it's the size of a softball:


I've tried two recipes lately. The first one was Pasta with Bacon and Cauliflower. It was absolutely delicious! It was nice because there was no heavy sauce. The pecorino cheese creates a creaminess that is just enough. The second recipe I tried was Spinach and Parmesan Dip for our employee potluck at work. It definitely was quick and easy and pretty tasty however Mom's recipe is definitely better! We also had our manager's dinner at Rose Pistola in the city. We had a pre-fixe menu that was served family style. Appetizers were Crispy Squash Chips with Paprika & Garlic and Bruschetta with Stracchino, Pear, Crispy Prosciutto & Truffle Honey. Both were very delicious. For salad we had Roasted Beets, Grilled Treviso, Mandarins & Ricotta Salata, Chopped Salad with Point Reyes Blue Cheese Vinaigrette and Treviso with Persimmon, Candied Pecans, Pomegranate & Honey-Champagne Vinaigrette. The first two were my favorite and the persimmons were delicious in the last salad. For the main course we shared 2 pizzas: Roasted Peppers, Olives & Goat Cheese and Pepperoni, Oregano & Red Onion which were both delicious. We also had Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter & Sage which was very good too. Hungry yet?! And for dessert, Chocolate Truffle Tart & Eggnog Crème Brûlée and an apple tart with cranberry gelato which I preferred. The owners announced that next year everyone will be eligible for health benefits! Very exciting news. Now I will feel like I have a grown-up job! They also gave us a $100 gift certificate to Nordstrom (which I'm thinking I need to invest in a new rain coat!) and our Executive Baker gave her culinary managers a gift certificate for pedicures and these amazing slipper socks:

I can't wait to see the look on the face of TSA as I walk through airport security in these! Countdown until I get to see my family: EJ=3 days, Mom/Dad/David/Grandma/Grandpa/Hank/Holly/Gibby Goo=5 days!

Being a financially responsible adult stinks sometimes. After talking logistics with EJ about him coming up here for the manager party on Monday, we decided that it just didn't make sense and it was too much money just for a dinner. Sigh. Instead, we'll wait a couple of more days and I can see him in Vegas. EJ usually brings the pups with him to Vegas when he goes to visit and stays with his Dad and step-mom. However, apparently it was a little too much at the house for Thanksgiving and the pups weren't invited back. I'll have to wait until the 26th to see them. Luckily my Dad and brother are amazing and are willing to take the pups in for a couple of days until we get back into LA. We're going to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for Christmas Eve and Christmas so it will be easier to meet up with our friends. We were able to get an amazing price for the rooms (as if you expected anything less from me!) through Vegas.com. It will be kind of odd since this will be the first year I will not go to church either on Christmas Eve or Christmas and it will be the first year that I will wake up in a hotel room in Vegas with no Christmas tree or stockings (I knew I should have packed the Christmas stuff from El Segundo and brought it up North with me and then I could have brought it to Vegas!) I guess there is a firsts for everything and all I have to be grateful for is that I will be with family and friends.
A while back my Dad had given me one of the first avocados off the tree in his backyard. I love the story of this avocado tree (although I don't tell it nearly as well as Dad does). Grossmutter and Grossvater had just moved into their house and a man came to the front door selling avocado trees. Grossmutter didn't want to get it because it was too expensive but Grossvater convinced her that it would be ok. Uncle Gary and Dad buried their old rusty bumpers from cars underneath the tree and there has been a lot of love and time put into the tree becoming as grand as it is today (not to mention protecting the precious avocados with a BB gun from those pesky squirrels...don't call PETA!) I think that's what makes these avocados a "Hess" avocado...not a Hass or Fuerte...because these avocados have an amazing taste and texture unlike any other avocado you have ever eaten. Good job Dad on loving and harvesting this year!
On a side note (pun intended...Mom and Dad aren't you glad that my English degree is coming into use?!), this ice cream sandwich is absolutely delicious! I convinced myself to buy them since they originate from San Francisco and was glad that I did. Although, consequently, I was at Zumba and yoga today to burn off the calories! Anyway, I had a great day off from work today and totally slept in like a lazy bum (I won't even tell you until when for fear of making you extremely jealous!) Since I won't get to see EJ for another week, we've been chatting via FaceTime for Macs. It's kind of like Skype except you don't have to pay and as long as one person has an Iphone (this would be EJ...hopefully me too in February!) you can use FaceTime. He guided me through the process of using the broiler on my stove (hey, bakers don't use broilers, ok?!) and as a result my little studio is filled with smoke but the ultimate result was delicious. No recipe here, other than perhaps a bit of copyright infringement on my previous employer Beach Pizza, but it was a bed of lettuce with a chicken breast sprinkled with mozzarella cheese and ranch dressing. Thank goodness for technology (I'm sure that comment will come back to bite me at some point, but for now, I stand by it!) so I could show EJ the smoke coming out of the oven and to have him reassure me that I wasn't going to burn the place down (although if I DID burn it down, at least I have renter's insurance!) I hope all is well with you my readers and for my family: I love you and miss you and can't wait to see you soon!

Update #1: The girl from work that messed up the cookies ended up calling me the following day to apologize which I thought was very professional of her and very appreciated. Update #2: I finally tried the Plum Island Sound Clam Chowder from Cooking Light and was a little hesitant at first. The recipe calls for canned clams which kind of creeps me out (I'm not sure why because I totally eat tuna out of a can!) but the price of fresh clams was a little out of my budget. The bottled clam juice also threw me for a loop but I thought I would be adventurous. I'm not too comfortable cooking fish (that's EJ's specialty) so I wasn't sure how this recipe was going to turn out. Minus the Dutch Oven portion of the recipe, I followed everything else and it actually did turn out quite delicious. Nothing like the fresh clam chowder you get in the city but this will suffice for rainy days. Update #3: We didn't win the cinnamon roll contest. We calculated that we had a total of 4 orders that referenced our cake and cupcakes and we lost by 1. The Newport Beach store beat us but at least everyone now knows that our store is a contender although we may be the underdogs! Update #4: I decided to splurge and get my hair semi-professionally done at a beauty school in San Rafael. I was tired of using boxed dye and thought that their prices were reasonable. Needless to say, I should have gone on a day where I hadn't been up since 4am because my appointment was at 6pm and I didn't leave until after 9pm! All they did was a full head of highlights which would normally take about half the time but since they are students they have to stop and have the instructor check everything. Overall, I would probably go back but just on a day where I could sit still for 3 hours and not fall asleep! Update #5: There is a creepy cat (not Eek-like AT ALL!) that likes to walk on the roof in the middle of night and move the rocks around. Here is a picture of the culprit:

Update #6: I did some Christmas shopping and didn't even spend any money! My debit card collects points every time I use it and then I can redeem them for various items. I decided to see what I could get with my points and was able to order 2 things off of Dad's list, 1 thing off of Mom's list, 1 thing off of EJ's list and even a book for myself. I didn't even have to pay for shipping either! Once again, I was pretty impressed with myself. Update #7: I ate my first candy cane of the holiday season. I was trying to get into the holiday spirit but haven't really been able to yet because I missed setting up the Christmas tree (although Grandpa I heard you did a great job and I can't wait to see it!) or hanging the Christmas lights or even just being with family. I can't wait for the next week to hurry by because EJ is going to come up and visit and be my "guest" to the manager's holiday dinner (by this time I won't have seen him for a whole month!) and then it will only be a couple of more days after that until Vegas and then finally Home with the family.

Today was a much needed and a well deserved day off. I started off my day by switching car insurance for EJ and ultimately saving him $40 a month...I'm a great girlfriend, aren't I?! I headed to the Larkspur Farmer's Market and bought some green beans and broccoli and then headed to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials and ingredients for this week's recipe: clam chowder. Then, I headed over the Richmond Bridge to visit with Kim and Eric. I went with them to Bed Bath & Beyond while they registered for their wedding. What a process! We worked up an appetite and headed to eat some Pho and then went through the drive-thru dairy to get an ice cream cone. I helped Kim get together the paperwork for the bridesmaid dresses in Periwinkle and then sent out an Evite for the Bachelorette Party. EJ sent me a ridiculous video from home that made me a little homesick:

The past couple of days at work have been teaching me a great deal of lessons in micro-managing. Yesterday, our baker goofed on one of our cupcakes and it wasn't until the CFO came in and ATE one of them that we found out something was very wrong. This was frustrating to me because 1) the baker knows that she is supposed to try one of every cupcake to make sure that everything is right 2) the people frosting the cupcakes should have noticed that they were not up to par and should not have frosted them 3) I failed to micro-manage and did not check the quality of the product before we opened for the day. Today I got a phone call from my baker at 5am saying she had a flat tire but that AAA was on the way. I told her to keep me posted. She called me back 10 minutes later to tell me that they wouldn't be there until 5:40. I got dressed and headed into work to get the bake started (I wasn't scheduled to come in until 9am but I wasn't about to have the day start off where we would be constantly playing catch up.) I left at 6:30am and came home and went back to sleep for a little bit and then went back to work. The baker made sure to taste the cupcakes this morning and then I thought we were off to a good start. I made sure to micro-manage the girls when they were decorating the cakes because there have been issues with "birthday" being mis-spelled or forgetting to pipe a boarder or just not following directions. I let one girl do a special cookie order that needed to be decorated with black royal icing (powdered sugar and egg whites) and have an inscription written on them. That's where things went wrong. I didn't check her final product and the Executive Baker came into the store and noticed that the inscription was done in buttercream. I have no idea why this girl would have used buttercream instead of royal icing. The cookies could not be saved and we had to cut new ones to bake and frost for the order to be picked up tomorrow. Needless to say I am glad that today is Friday and that I have tomorrow off. Micro-managing seems to be the management style that I am going to have to adopt from now on because I can't seem to rely on my team to work independently. My job would be easier if I could clone myself, fire the others and then hire more of me! Anyway, Mom and Dad I'm sure you have some good advice (because you always do!) that you'll give me about this situation the next time I talk to you but for now, here are my latest cakes:

Wow, I can't believe it is December 1st already! Thanksgiving flew by and I know Christmas and New Years will be here sooner than I know it. Dad gave me an Advent calendar the last time I came home to visit. The Advent calendar was traditionally given to my brother and me by Grossmutter every year until she passed away. It was really thoughtful of Dad to buy one for us this year. Being away from home for the holidays isn't the easiest but it's small touches like this that remind me of what an amazing family I have...thanks Dad, I love you and miss you!

Just a random thought that I had today: I don't know why I didn't look into taking a Greyhound bus home to visit! I tend to find out my work schedule only a week at a time which makes it difficult to book a reasonably priced flight. However, I just checked and there is a Greyhound stop in San Rafael (about 10 minutes North) and it would generally only take 8 hours to get to LA and I wouldn't be the one driving! I will explore this option further once I find out my schedule for next week and see if they are so kind to grant me with another weekend off. I have this weekend off as well but will be visiting with Kim and Eric and helping them with whatever wedding stuff they want help with and venturing over to Benicia for an adventure. Here are two cakes that I did today. This one was a FULL sheet cake. Now that's a lot of cake! (Sorry, I couldn't figure out why the picture isn't the right side up!)

And here is a totally radical cake! Careful not to look to long at it or else it might make you nauseous!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! I have finally emerged from pie shell madness :) Needless to say, last week was filled with 12 hour days and a couple of nightmares about pies but other than that everything went fairly smooth for such a big holiday. Susan, the owner of the bakery, was in our store on Wednesday for pie pick ups and was very happy with the way the day went *pats myself on the back!* until about 4pm when the store in the city was mysteriously missing 14 pumpkin pies! We double, triple, quadruple count the pies for this specific reason and still to this day have no idea what happened. Luckily, we had just the right amount of pie shells and had just finished making new filling and were able to bake them right away so they could get to the city hopefully before the customers arrived to pick them up. I wish I could have been with my family for Thanksgiving but it just wasn't feasible. Thanksgiving day was actually not too bad though. Two other managers from work were also not going home so we all got together at one manager's apartment because she cooked the turkey (thank goodness because she was the only one that did the actual culinary part of culinary school!) and made stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. The other manager made a sweet potato casserole and a corn souffle. I was in charge of appetizers which was brie and crackers, shrimp cocktail, strawberries with marshmallow puff, and a new recipe I tried Parmesan-Scallion Pastry Pinwheels. They were really easy to make and actually quite delicious for being so simple. Ultimately, I ate way too much but slept like a rock that night (probably a combination of exhaustion and food coma!) I didn't have to be at work until 7:30am on Friday so I threw caution to the wind and braved the Black Friday shopping! First stop, 5am Sports Authority. I bought myself a new pair of warm fuzzy boots that were $30 (half off!) It has been pretty chilly here lately. My car even lets me know when it's cold because it *dings* and then a picture of a little snowflake appears on my dashboard! Next stop, Target. Nothing too exciting. Just bought a new duvet cover. Cashier commented that it was odd I was buying sheets and not electronics. Guess it was busier earlier but I didn't have to wait very long in any lines (or get violent with anyone for that matter!) Next stop, the mall in San Rafael that I had no idea existed until not too long ago. Kohl's wasn't that crowded and I grabbed 4 new bath towels for a grand total of $11 with tax. Walked over to Zumiez to get a new hat for EJ and then half off a hat for myself (I got complimented on my hat the next night which ultimately confirmed that it was a fantastic purchase!) Then I headed down to Mill Valley to Best Buy to get a new electric tooth brush that was $30 off (I have a mail in rebate form for $10 so it's pretty much like I got it for half the price!) and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond only to be disappointed in their sheet selection and left the store with water filters instead. Stopped at Starbucks to get an eggnog latte and a bagel and then headed into work. Yup, all that in 2.5 hours :) Impressed, aren't you? Here is a picture of a Jedi Lego-man cake that I did recently although I think it looks a little bit more like a Beatle Lego-man:

And here is the 3-tier dummy cake that I did for Christmas. The bottom tier is a ring of gingerbread people and each one is named after someone on our team:

This week's recipe wasn't too much of a recipe. I saw a delicious picture that was chicken breaded with French's French Fried Onions. However, it was very disappointing and not "better than breadcrumbs" like it claimed. When I headed out to work at 7:30 this morning, there was frost on my car! Thank goodness for seat warmers :)

We rolled a LOT of pie shells today to get ready for Thanksgiving. Thank goodness we don't have roll them out by hand! Here's a fun cake of a seahorse that I decorated today:

Here is a cute picture of Holly Monster that EJ sent me! She likes to burrow into the covers and peaks her nose out to say goodbye when EJ leaves for school:

Thursday was our quarterly employee appreciation lunch. They bought us food from Sol Food in San Rafael. We had Tostones Con Mojo and Maduros which were both plantains. I didn't really care for either of them. However, their salad with lemon-garlic dressing was absolutely addicting and so was their chicken. They hired a new HR lady named Lisa who was very thoughtful and wrote everyone a "Thanks a Million" envelope filled with a Lottery quick pick and scratcher. Neither one won but it was the thought that counted and was appreciated. Everyone also was able to pick out of a grab bag of giftcards and I drew out a $10 Whole Foods card that I can't wait to use for a nice home cooked meal with EJ!
Thursday and Friday were pretty hectic days at work. Lots of orders for pies are coming in already for Thanksgiving and we are in a pie shell making frenzy on top of our increased holiday daily production of buttercreams, cakes, cookies, etc.
Yesterday was my day off so I treated myself to a new pair of work jeans from Old Navy for $11 and a new belt from Target to hold up my other jeans for $7! I also treated myself to an hour massage because I feel like I've been working really hard and deserved to spoil myself. I also decided that I deserved a hair trim since I haven't had one since August and splurged $30 on that as well. One of my best friends from college and her fiance that lives in Pleasanton, came across the Richmond Bridge to have dinner with me last night. Kim and Eric met me at my apartment and we walked to Pizzeria Picco. The pizza was absolutely delicious! We ordered the Cannondale pizza with marinara sauce and house made sausage, roasted peppers, roasted onion, mozzarella and basil as well as the Della Santa with broccoli di ciccio, roasted peppers,roasted onion, roasted garlic and mozzarella. For dessert we each ordered a different soft serve ice cream that was delicious as well. It was the perfect ending to the day.
The bakery is usually closed on Sundays but both NorCal stores had to meet at our store today to do training. I decided to go to Donut Alley before work to start myself off with a healthy spread of donuts and coffee. The donuts were some of the best that I've had in a long time. However, the owner claimed to have the best apple fritter but I'm not sure that it can compete with one from Randy's Donuts! It will suffice until I can get back to LA to taste test. Anyways, back to training, a lot of the staff is new so it was good to go over various procedures and to ask questions and to make sure that everyone was on the same page. There were even some new things that I learned today which were very helpful. I can't wait to make it through this week and get to LA and vist! I've been missing this:

The recipe I tried this week was Taco Pork Skillet from Kraft. Pork tenderloin was a little pricey in the store so I opted for loin pieces which ended up working perfectly because the recipe calls to cut the pork into strips anyways! Also, I couldn't find the Taco Bell Taco seasoning so I went will good ol' trusty Lawry's taco seasoning. This recipe was very good and perfect for the cold weather we've been having here lately! Here are a couple of photos that were on Mom's camera from this past weekend that Grandpa downloaded for her and then emailed to us:

I got to do the 3-tier cake dummy for our store this month. All styrofoam! We were issued a challenge between all the stores that whichever store got the most orders based off of their dummy cake, would win homemade cinnamon buns from our Executive Head Baker! Our store is pretty competitive and together we came up with the idea to do a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving cake with a matching cupcake dummy display. I'll keep you posted WHEN we win!

I survived Giants madness and The World Series! Congratulations to the Giants for winning and ending the cupcake craziness. A fun side note: Brian "The Beard" Wilson apparently stopped by the store in the city and paid for everyone's sweets that was there! He caused quite a commotion and there were lots of photos taken but no one has stopped into our location yet. Last week ended with great news: I got promoted to Assistant Head Baker! That means I've just been promoted TWICE within 2 months. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself! The previous AHB put in her two weeks notice to go take care of her family which naturally opened the position to me. I was glad to accept and further my career. It was perfect timing because Mom, Dad, and David came into town this past weekend to visit me. We were celebrating an early birthday for Dad and being together for the 4th anniversary of Grossvater passing away.

Saturday night we ate at Guy Fieri's restaurant in Santa Rosa called Johnny Garlic's since Dad is a huge fan of Guy. Dinner was great. Sunday we headed into the city and checked out AT&T Park where the Giants play. We had a clam chowder sourdough bread bowl lunch at Boudin Bakery on the wharf. It was raining pretty good all day which put a little damper on our site seeing but the most important part was that we were spending time together as a family. Fam Bam, thanks for a great weekend! I love you lots!

This week's recipe that I tried was for Rich French Onion Soup. It sounded like a good idea since it had been raining and cold. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as great as it sounded. There isn't much too it but it just didn't have as much flavor as some other French Onion Soups I've had in the past. The one additional that I did like to this soup was its use of fresh thyme leaves. It was the only thing that saved this soup in my opinion! (Well that and the cheese!) This week was pretty crazy at work between getting ready for Halloween and with the Giants being in the World Series. There was an article in the Marin Independent Journal about the bakery and the special cupcakes we were doing for Giants fans. This is what I've learned from these cupcakes: apparently, a panda is the mascot for the Giants; People Love Timmy and Buster; I should "Fear The Beard" of their closing pitcher Brian Wilson who has dyed his beard jet black. These cupcakes have been an unbelievable success/stress for us but it's getting us ready for the busy holiday season! Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday and I can't wait for it to get here. I don't know where I'll be this year for it but I know that I will be with friends and family of sorts and perhaps have to have an extended Thanksgiving celebration which my mom has done in the past and cooked a second dinner at a later date just for me! I'm a lucky girl.

My day off from work started with my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the holiday season from Starbucks. On one of my last walks in Manhattan Beach with my friend Katie and her adorable baby Heidi, a man in Starbucks had given me a free drink coupon and I decided to use it today. I headed into the city to SOMA, which I learned means "south of Market" street. I had received an email from Yelp in regard to a free mobile spa event that they were hosting. They had me at free cupcakes! They were from Taste of Happiness which specializes in gluten-free cupcakes. I had never had a gluten-free cupcake to my knowledge and it surprisingly wasn't bad. This mobile spa was also offering free massages and bang trims. Since I currently do not have any bangs (and I was really only going for the massage anyways!), I opted for the massage from Suchada. My massage therapist proceeded to laugh and tell me that I had "a lot of knots" and then handed me her business card. It was a good but too quick of a 15 minute chair massage. Then, I headed over to Tartine Bakery and tried the lemon cream tart and the croque monsieur with smoked turkey that had been recommended to me by some co-workers. They had to heat up my sandwich and gave me my dessert first while I was waiting. Needless to say, the tart was demolished by the time my sandwich arrived. Life's uncertain, right?! I should always eat dessert first! And again for your viewing pleasure, a full sheet cake from this past weekend...MAZEL TOV!

I tend to behind on trends. Zumba became popular in the early 2000's and here I am, 2010, finally getting around to trying a class last week! If you haven't figured it out by now, I like to try new things and I'll usually try them at least once or twice. Last week I had an absolute blast with this class. It makes me reflect back upon my cheerleading days and the different choreography which was always interesting to me. Some of the moves are a little difficult to catch on to at first but this is a no pressure kind of class where as long as you're still moving and having a good time that's all that matters. Today I went to my second Zumba class and had a sweaty blast again! I think I will continue to check out these Zumba classes now that I know why they are so popular! And for your viewing pleasure: a Halloween inspired Birthday cake that I decorated at work today!

Food is such an important part of my life. My family tends to find recipes in various cookbooks, magazines, etc. and rip them out and then put them in a folder "to try." These folders start to get full and thus I've decided to make a commitment to trying a new recipe from the folder each week. Last week was a chicken, rice and vegetable stir fry that was extremely disappointing as the picture looked very appetizing. The recipe also called for Kraft Greek Dressing which was nearly impossible to find and resulted in many trips to multiple grocery stores before finding it. This week I tried Root Beer Baked Beans from Bon Appetit magazine. All the ingredients sounded delicious and smelled delicious but as it started to all go together in a pot, I wasn't too sure about it anymore. It was worth the wait though! However, I think I will be eating beans for lunch and dinner for the next couple of days (I would probably cut the recipe in half next time.) Here's the recipe for quick review:

Ingredients

• 4 slices applewood-smoked bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained
• 1 1/2 cups root beer (preferably artisanal)
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large ovenproof pot over medium heat until crisp, stirring occasionally. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels. Add onions to drippings in pot; cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Add beans, root beer, vinegar, molasses, tomato paste, mustard, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper; mix. Stir in bacon; bring to boil. Transfer to oven; bake uncovered until liquid thickens, about 30 minutes.

And for you Grandma, here is the sodium content!

Nutritional Information

One serving contains the following:
Calories (kcal) 250.7
%Calories from Fat 12.0
Fat (g) 3.3
Saturated Fat (g) 0.6
Cholesterol (mg) 4.4
Carbohydrates (g) 45.3
Dietary Fiber (g) 9.1
Total Sugars (g) 15.9
Net Carbs (g) 36.3
Protein (g) 11.6
Sodium (mg) 368.1

Let me know if anybody decides to try this recipe and how it turns out for you :) I'm not sure what next week's recipe is going to be yet but I know there are a lot to choose from from the folder!

I survived my first 2 weeks in Northern California! I found a cute little studio in Larkspur which is 2 miles away from work...gotta love the commute! EJ helped me get settled in and we were able to explore San Francisco for a couple of days before I officially had to start work. I've pretty much been working at least an hour of overtime every day which will be great for the paycheck! Management has already expressed to me how much they appreciate me moving up here and that they are really grateful which helps me to believe that I made the right decision to move up here. I wasn't able to really pack any furniture for the move so I ended up buying a futon. The picture doesn't do it justice (it is VERY comfortable to sleep on!) I didn't have an internet connection for the first week I was here, hence no updated blog, but I've finally gotten around to filling you in on how it is going so far. The first week was the hardest because I missed my friends and family and the pups and it was incredibly lonely. There were definitely some tears involved. This weekend I had some friends come into town for the Nike Women's Half Marathon. I decided that I would join them despite not having trained for it. However, I've been working out regularly after work since I don't have much else to do (no tv at the studio either! I have to watch all my horrible reality television shows on the internet!) It was an amazing experience and I would legitimately register to do it next year instead of crashing it. I didn't get to cross the finish line and get the Tiffany's necklace at the end but it was still exciting to know that I completed 13ish miles (3 of which happened to be in the rain) in 3 hours and 40 minutes! I feel surprisingly good and am ready to start the work week off tomorrow. I randomly have this upcoming weekend off and will be roadtripping to LA to visit friends and family!

This past weekend I flew into Oakland with my aunt and my mom to check out Northern California. Being the super saver that I am, I was able to get us a rental car for the weekend for $14 a day from Avis! The guy at the counter tried to up-sell us from our Chevy Aveo to which we declined. Thank goodness we only had this car for two days because it is a grade A P.O.S! Pretty much, one of my friends put it this way when I described the noise that it made when we would start it up: "if it sounds like there is some sort of animal in the motor, you should probably get a different car." Well, we ended up driving 275 miles over our stay and we survived...shocking!

We stayed at Best Western in Corte Madera which was a great location to get on and off the freeway to do all of our scouting. A lot of the places we checked from Craigslist were not in a safe looking area (since I'll be living by myself for about 6 months!) There were 3 potential places that I would like to live: 2 in Novato, which is about 15 minutes away and 1 in Larkspur which is 2 miles away from work. The only negative point for Larkspur is that the studio doesn't allow pets which means the Beagles wouldn't be able to come with me. On Monday, we drove into San Francisco city and stopped at the Buena Vista and had virgin Irish Coffee drinks. Then we made our way over the bridge into Oakland and hopped on a plane back to L.A.

Here are the key players:

Holly a.k.a Hollymonster or Beagleson (Beagleson because she looks like she is half beagle and half daschund!) She's a lover and a snuggler and gets carsick easily.




Hank a.k.a. Hanky: named after #44 Hank Gathers from Loyola Marymount University's early 90's basketball team. Hank is a nuzzler and loves to run agility courses.



Gibson a.k.a Gibby, Gibby Goo, Frankenstein. Reverse Brindle Boxer that recently made his way to our home. Likes to chew shoes and be a pain in my ass. So ugly he's cute.









EJ, my boyfriend of almost 2 years. We met in Las Vegas and moved to Los Angeles so he could go to film school and so I could continue my career in baking. I just received a promotion to shift supervisor but it involves moving to Northern California. So our new journey begins while I move up north for 6 months while EJ finishes school down in LA.