All Grown Up

When I was younger, maybe 10 years ago or so, I started dreaming of having an amazing bar. As an avid cocktail lover, I envisioned the day when I would have all the necessary ingredients for incredible things at my fingertips. I imagined coming home after a long day of work, mixing something delicious, and relaxing on my veranda surrounded by flowers that I had grown myself, before flitting around the garden and picking the vegetables I would make for dinner.

Well, a fair bunch of that didn't happen.... partly because I work from home, partly because I live in a desert and partly because I'm not really one to, well, flit. I also don't have a veranda.

But I do have a bar! As I was going through some photos I found a picture of my lovely bar from back in April, when I had just come back from Napa and stocked up on a bunch of wine. I had a few bottles of liquor, just the basics, but nothing too extensive.

I just went and counted and back then I had 24 different bottles hanging out on top of the bar. Maybe it's a little more extensive than I thought.

Which makes it even crazier now that I get to show the expansion I've made. I, um, well, now there are 40 bottles.

And a dual zoned wine fridge.

And a spare rack for overflow wine that's young and needs to age a little.

Yeah.

Okay. So. What was my point?

Ah yes! My new sort of plan. I'm giving myself a little challenge. I want to try my hand at cocktail making more frequently. So I'm going to try really hard in the new year to make a different cocktail every week or two with a different liquor from my bar. I've got a couple ready to go and I'll hopefully have those up soon. In the meantime, happy holidays and here is a picture of a cute puppy to distract you from the lack of recipes in this post.

(By the way, my boyfriend, procurer of the dual zoned wine fridge, has major brownie points for winning Christmas with that quite fantastic item this year).

Life After

It's weird working for myself again. I'm still finding my groove and figuring out how it all fits together. Doing voice overs full time is certainly not something I ever expected to be doing, and if you had told me that would be my job two years ago I would have laughed in your face.

I work 7 days a week, but my time commitment is greatly reduced. I was working between 75 and 80 hours a week before. Now I'm probably closer to 30, which is quite lovely.

I certainly am enjoying being well rested and not running a million miles an hour. It's Sunday afternoon and I've spent the morning cooking brunch, reading Food and Wine Magazine, and hitting up the Farmers Market. It's a nice nice little life.

First things first, this guy and I bought a house. It's actually the house we were renting. The landlord wanted to sell it, and we called dibs. It's nice that it is ours now. We are slowly doing the things we've wanted to do to it for a while. We're about to rip out 5 palm trees, and overhaul the backyard. I'm optimistic yet nervous!

 

Zoe is getting pretty big now. Here she is being an excellent studio puppy. She likes to hang out by my editing chair while I'm in my sound booth recording. She's 7 months old now and still an absolute joy.

And the obligatory food type picture. And awesome Farmers Market haul of Bok Choy, Broccoli, Summer Squash, Green Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Beet and Spaghetti Squash. $21 well spent. I'm looking forward to playing with it! I nearly died when I saw Green Tomatoes.

I've actually got a couple of food posts in the works. Crazy, right?

44, 2, 4, 2

Here is a list of things, mostly featuring numbers.


I have 44 more shows until I finish with the Circus and work as a full time voice over artist and (hopefully) have the time to get back to the gym and the kitchen.

I have 2 dogs now. One more than I had two months ago. Zoe is incredible.


I spent 4 nights in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico with my amazing boyfriend.

We've been together two years now.

I can't stop listening to "Flaws" by Bastille.

I've eaten at a few more excellent restaurants in Las Vegas, that were on my bucket list. The Sweet Corn Chowder at Heritage Steak is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.

My world is so very beautifully full.

Simple Summer Sangria

Ah the end of May. Here in Nevada the mercury is already over a hundred degrees on many days, and it's time for light fruity cocktails, salads from the garden, and catching up on trashy TV.

My fabulous other half built me a garden this year and it's filled with herbs and radishes and salad greens and zucchini and strawberries. I'm so excited for my tomatoes to come along so I can eat them like apples!

I have to share this Sangria recipe, because it's really delightful and I'm swooning over it. It's perfect for the Summer, and I have a feeling it's going to be a found quite frequently in my fridge. It's also wonderfully simple to make.

I know it sounds odd, but buy cheap wine for this. An inexpensive sweet and fruity red would be perfect. I think the one I used was about $4.50.

Simple Summer Sangria

1 bottle fruity red wine
2 Oranges
1 Lemon
1/3 Cup Triple Sec
A Handful of Mint Leaves

Slice on orange, and then juice the other. Slice the lemon. Place the fruit in a carafe or pitcher with the mint. Pour over the triple sec, then the bottle of wine. Stir. Chill.

Serve over ice, try not to break a wine glass in the process.

Makes 4 glasses.

Avocado Baked Eggs

I'm a wee bit into Pinterest.

In my defense, I got in on the game pretty early. It's odd though because I've had mixed results with recipes found on them. Now I kind of just use it as a way to come up with ideas, to be inspired. How to make recipes better is a big part of it. I have a really bad habit of needed to tweak everything.

I love avocados. I love baked eggs. It seemed like a good idea to pair the two together, and I've seen this idea knocking around for quite some time.

The credit for this recipe, and the recipe itself can be found here. It's a good solid recipe, but here's what you should change. Basically all you're doing is scooping out a little extra of the center of the avocado, cracking an egg in it, seasoning it, and chucking it unceremoniously into an oven.

It's good, but it's a little under-seasoned as is. So here are two ways to fix it.

First idea: Season the avocado first with salt and pepper, then put in the egg and season that too.

Second idea: Joe gets credit for this. Bacon bits in the hole before the avocado goes in would add some really really nice flavor and texture to the dish. I'm quite proud of him for making that one up.

If you make this just for yourself, avocado is pretty kick ass just mashed up on some whole wheat toast with some salt and pepper and perhaps a drizzle of olive oil (if you're feeling glamorous).

I think if I had to live off "thing that come on bread and crackers", I could.

The Mother of All Catch Up Posts

Yes. I've been gone a while. I make no guarantees regarding how back I am but how about we remain cautiously optimistic, okay? Okay.

This is the mother of all catch up posts. Ready?

Here we go.

My super gorgeous guy had a birthday in September.

I discovered Gilcrease Orchard, a pick your own farm in Las Vegas, which is insane....thanks to my lovely friend Jordyn (she of the re-styling my wardrobe).

Joe and I ate at Joe's Crab Shack for no particular reason that I can remember.... I just like the lights.

We started the process of building my new recording studio.

I picked my first pumpkin... mid October I'm guessing.

 The acoustic foam for my studio got laid down... part purple just for fun.

Because we needed it done so we could move in together. Which we did, and it's awesome.

The lovely Tree created a Thanksgiving feast that was particularly spectacular.

I headed home for a few days to spend time with the family right before Christmas. Yes, my parents live in a Windmill. Yes, it's as cool as it sounds.

Speaking of Christmas.....

Snowboarding adventures continued.

The most delicious Loaded Cornbread was consumed in Mammoth, California.

Joe started school, and I suck at taking pictures of lamb in our kitchen.

So now, I'm spending a lot of time working on my voice over career. I'm doing quite well, having used it to pay off all my credit card debt and become a much happier, more financially stable person. The big project up right now is the garden. We have a nice garden since we rent a house, and we're turning it into something a bit more special. We're going to be trying our hand at growing our own vegetables. I'm going to work on getting back to cooking and writing more (in my copious free time, of course).

My friend Tree is growing a baby and he's almost ready to come on out, so I'll sure that will be a point of interest soon.

So yeah. I think we're now on the same page.  Let's see what happens next!