Lucy Lucia

She is...

2011-11-06T17:23:00.000-06:00

She

Dynamo!

Peppermint Mocha Cookies or Why Butter is your Best Friend and Worst Enemy

2011-10-31T14:53:00.000-05:00

My dear friend, Leah and her husband Brian, live in Kimmswick - about 30 minutes outside of St. Louis. Each year, on the day that the town hosts the Apple Butter Festival, Leah and Brian have a cookout at their house, which is right in the middle of the action. As usual, I wanted to bake something to bring over and as usual I turned to Cook's Illustrated for guidance. I settled on a peppermint mocha cookie (as Leah pointed out - it would go awesome with hot chocolate!) and so, last Saturday morning I tried my hand at these simple cookies.

The sky was blue, the birds were chirping and it was a beautiful 60 degrees outside. I had no indication that the day held a baking disaster! ha! As usual, I am exaggerating. However, let me take the time to point out, yet again, why butter and it's temperature are so vital! So here I am, minding my own business creaming butter with sugar - it's a lovely consistency - fluffy and light. At this point, the directions read "add COOLED esspresso" to the butter and sugar. I dip the tip of my finger in the esspresso and notice that the water is actually still quite warm. I think to myself, "hmm too warm. The butter will melt." I then pop the measuring cup full esspresso in the freezer and decide to go do some laundry while the mixture cools. I come back about 10 minutes later and find the esspresso water to be very cold. I then just dumped it right on in to the bowl and proceeded to try and mix the esspresso with the butter...to no avail. The butter became tiny little lumps in the bowl.

Oh goodness. This is when a normal baker would just scrap the mess and start over. Not I. I was committed to mixing these ingredients together if it was the last thing I do! After adding the flour and dutch process cocoa the dough seemed to look normal again. It sure tasted fine! So I decided to roll the dough in to balls and bake it up. I assumed the balls were supposed to flatten out in the oven as they baked. No such luck! Instead, the cookie balls were just like they were before I put them in. Okay. So, I think about it for a couple of minutes and like any pro baker I decide to fake it 'till I make it. I took the rest of the pre-rolled dough balls and flattened them with a serving spoon!

What resulted from all of these kookie cookie cooking techniques is something akin to a chocolate biscotti than a moist, chewy cookie. Sigh. The crushed peppermints and peppermint flavored icing really saved the day though, and as you can see below, the kids loved it!

The moral of the story: never, ever, take your butter for granted!

Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Cake

2011-10-25T13:39:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I have posted any of my cooking/baking forays. Last Saturday I had a dinner party in honor of a co-worker who is leaving. As requested by the group, I made my (Cook's Illustrated's) deep dish pizza and it turned out beautifully. For dessert, I decided to try my hand at making a Chocolate Mousse cake, because it just sounded awesome. And it was.

This recipe needs about 13 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate. Apprently the terms are interchangeable. Something I was not aware of at the time I made the cake. I considered making a grocery store run to buy come chocolate with bittwersweet on the lable, but instead threw caution to the wind and used the Ghiradelli semi-sweet baking bars I had stored away. They worked just fine!

This recipe does not use any flour or tradiational leavening agent. Instead, it uses whipped egg whites - not my favorite method. I've always found that to be a very unstable component. I can never quite manage to "fold" egg whites well enough. I either fold them too much and then render them useless or not enough.

But I folded the melted chocolate and egg whites as gingerly as I could. Cook's Illustrated mentioned to me that they included brown sugar in the egg whites to give them a bit more stamina, so maybe that helped me out this time around? Regardless, the next step to this cake was to bake it in a water bath! The cake needs to bake in an intensely humid environment to form correctly.

Again, this was a first for me. Aside from freaking out that I had not sealed the pan well enough - if you look closely you may be able to make out the 3 layers of tin foil I wrapped around that puppy - the process was a breeze. Mousse cakes take a while to form once they're finished baking so the finished product bares little to resemblance to what comes out of the oven - a tall, puffy cake. It took about 6 hours for the cake to "settle" or deflate and then chill in the refriderator to the correct consistency.

It's a humble little thing really. At first glance it resembles a dry looking brownie, but oh.my.goodness. The rich chocolate flavor it out of this world and the moist, smooth texture is a total surprise. One of my co-workers remarked that it tasted like a $15 dessert you get at a fancy restaraunt. It was so true! My family, after sampling the leftovers, has already requested this cake for Halloween - I'll be on the look out then, for some fun pumpkin faces I can put on it!

Family Fotogs

2011-10-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

It's getting to that time of year again where moms who are "on the ball" start putting together their family Christmas cards. My sister Aili, isn't one of them. Ha! She and I have been tossing around the idea of taking family portraits for a while now, however, and the Holidays are right around the corner so today was the day to get these shots!

Oh my we got some beautiful photos too!

I took 425 pictures in about 30 minutes. Crazy! I think we got about 50 usable ones, regardless, the kids certainly deserved their reward - cookies and cream ice cream after the photo shoot!

Zootastic

2011-10-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

I went to the St. Louis Zoo on Columbus day with the fam. I love how close we can get to the animals! I'm not quite so appreciative of the smell, however.

How cute is that little owl!? He was so tiny!

I didn't find this Toucan particularly cute, strange more like it. I thought it was kind of creepy cool how you could see his eyes bulging on either side of his head.

Curious

2011-10-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

I took my two nieces out in my parent's backyard today, so I could practice taking portraits on my camera. I got about 5 usable shots out of about 50, but hey, those 5 look awesome. It was hard keeping these two curious little minds on task though, and I had to take a picture of an acorn that the littlest one found. They both were fascinated by the tiny crack in the nut!

Starry Starry Night

2011-09-14T23:06:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of time on my hands right now. I'm finishing day 3 of my radiation treatment and have been quarantined in a room in the basement of my parent's house. Really, the room is perfect: internet connection, TV and DVD player and plenty of books. Tonight I got a bit restless and decided to try my hand at photographing star trails. I had no idea what they were until my friend asked me about them and I started looking in to it. Star trails are essentially long photo exposures of the movement of the rotation of the earth as evidenced by the "trails" that stars create in a still photograph. So I set my camera, but on "bulb" and set the exposure for 5 and a half minutes - more than enough time to catch the movement of the earth that we can never really feel. It was a nice way to spend the evening. Tomorrow I'll shoot for longer exposures and we'll just have to see what I get!

Nighttime Visions

2011-08-30T10:34:00.000-05:00

At night, when I am having trouble sleeping, I do one thing: envision what I would do to my house if I had unlimited funds! ha! I am hoping that this year I will be able to re-do my kitchen and these are my inspiration photos. They have their own file folder on my computer...

Can you see a theme? Sigh. One of these days I'll have my own itsy bitsy white kitchen!

Cancer Shmancer

2011-08-17T23:22:00.000-05:00

So. I barely know what to say. About two weeks before leaving for our trip to Spain, I visited an endocrinologist who promptly pointed out that I had "something" on my thyroid. We waited to biopsy the "something" until after our trip and I pushed it out of my mind. I had googled thyroid nodule and saw the statistic that 95% of all nodules on a thyroid are benign and assumed I would be part of that group. Well, I'm not. I found out that the results of the biopsy were positive for cancer on my way home from visiting my friend, Laura. Fast forward about 3 weeks and I am now writing this post, at home, after having my entire thyroid and several lymph-nodes removed from my neck.

I have many things to be grateful for. (1) The cancer I have is one of the most curable forms of cancer (2) the relapse rate is very low (3) no chemo, although I will have radiation (4) my family and (5) my friends. I have been blown away over the past few days how much the people in my life care about me! I've received, flowers, cards, books, magazines, emails, texts, phone calls, etc. all asking me how I was doing and how they can help. I have to say, just hearing everyone's love and knowing that so many people are praying for me is enough. I am thankful to God for His provision and strength during this time and while the next several weeks are going to be hard, as my body depletes its stores of thyroid hormone in preparation for the radioiodine treatment, I will try to remember to be grateful again.

So to all of my dear friends, I love you all very much and you have made this yucky situation infinitely more bearable than it would have been otherwise.

Barcelona: Day Nine

2011-08-03T16:21:00.000-05:00

We woke up bright and early on our last day in Spain. Our intention was to spend the day in the Eixample district, but not before visiting the Joan Miro museum on the opposite side of the city. This is one of the things I love about public transportation; our detour to Montjuic did not add any significant time travel-wise to our day. The metro system is fast, easy and cheap.

After taking the funicular to the top of Montjuic (no way I was going to climb that), we arrived at the Miro museum and had a lovely time enjoying a large collection of the artist's works. I do believe that the museum houses many more of Miro's significant works, unlike the Picasso museum. Again, NO FOTOS, but were able to snap away to our hearts content at the sculptures by Miro outside the building.

Being a lover of modern art (I know that just sounds insufferable, right?), I enjoyed seeing the unexpected and Miro just has that down. From gigantic wool wall hanging, monolithic sculptures and teeny tiny paintings you never know what you are going to see from one corner to the next. It was a delightful way to spend the morning.

And then it off to another corner of the city to see the Sagrada Familia. I will be honest with you. I hate Gaudi. Yes, it is true. I have seen many photos of this work in progress and this is what I think every time I see it..."UGLY UGLY UGLY". In fact, I disliked it enough to put it on the very last day of our trip so that I could avoid it for as long as possible.

But I could not, in good conscience, skip seeing the cathedral all together as my traveler's heart would be sad that I had knowingly skipped a renowed UNESCO World Heritage Site. And I just cannot do that.

So we went.

Here is the melty chaos in all of its glory.

Once we got to the other side, which I had never seen pictured, I kind of tilted my head and though, "hey that's kind of cool."

Instead of the typical sculptural overload you see in most cathedrals, this side of the building had refreshingly few. Instead of being overwhlemed, I was able to take in each individual tableu and understand exactly what it was depicting.

See what I mean?

And then I walked inside...

and my heart grew three sizes a la the Grinch. IT.WAS.STUNNING.

Not to sound too flippant about the beautiful Cathedrals I've visited, but really, after the first couple they all start to blend together. Not this place. I will say that I think it was the most beautiful cathedral I have ever visited. ever.

The Sagrada Familia is still under construction. While much of the interior has been completed, you can still see evidence of work that needs to be done in the incomplete stained glass windows. My father visited several years ago and when he came, it still didn't have a roof! It has come a long way.

Those windows that have been completed are light, airy and just beautiful. Again, in contrast to the typical cathedral with it's thick panes, these glass windows allowed the light to flow right in to the building.

The staircases pictured below were incomplete and were cordoned off, but from what you can see aren't hey lovely?!

The tour of the church grounds don't stop with the cathedral. Gaudi designed a little school for the benefit of the artisan's children and it is still there, although it has now been coverted to a museum. The Sagrada Familia is financed entirely by the entry fees of the tourists who come and visit. It should be completed in about 30 years...which is exciting. It will be in my lifetime. And I will come back to see it finished. What a day that will be!

After our tour, we strolled in the park across from the cathedral and grabbed a wonderfully inexpensive lunch. As were walking by, I noticed this street with its cutie pie curved trees. I wonder how they got them to grow like that?

After lunch we made our way to see another of Antoni Gaudi's creations; Parc Guell.

Intended to be the beginning of a high income housing development, Parc Guell flopped. According to Rick Steves, none of the social elite wanted to live so far out from the city center. But as a park? A success!

Aha! Now here is some more of the Dr. Seuss-like architecture I have come to expect from Gaudi (which rhymes with gaudy).

Still, it was whimsical and sweet. Gaudi never seemed to take himself too seriously.

Parc Guell is located at ome of the highest vantage points in the Barcelona, and my goodness, you get rewarded with some spectacular views of the city. You can see all the way to the mediterranean.

Antoni Gaudi's house, which is located inside the park, is suprisingly understated. I thought it would look like a melting cupcake, but no - I thought it was charming.

The grounds are covered in these covered rocky colonades.

He intended them to become an outdoor market for the residents of the housing development.

What Caroline and I enjoyed the most, was taking in the views and resting in the shade. Up this high the breeze was cool and brisk.

I am including the photo below as an example of the non-tourist parts of town. These blog posts are full of the lovely gothic architecture of the old city, but this is how much of Barcelona looks. Simple and utiliarian.

Back in the cute part of town, we settled in for our last dinner in Barcelona, and my was it a feast!

Barcelona at dusk is just beginning to come to life. Families, dogs and friends were all about enjoying the relative coolness of the evening.

Below I make Caroline and Leanne pose inder the rmains of a Roman aqueduct.

In this particular plaza, about a 3 minutes walk from our hotel, it was also possible to see the remains of the Roman fortefied walls. It is astonishing to me sometimes to be so casually confronted by history.

After treating ouselves to some more ice cream, we headed back to our hotel to begin the long re-packing process. The next morning we had an early brekfast and headed right over to the airport to begin the long, tedious journey home. Leanne was happy that the airport police let her pack her huge knife (this was quite the drama) and I was happy that all six of my heavy ceramic plates made it home in one piece! Of course I had to hand carry them the entire time. Caroline remained smug on the way home, with her carry on and tiny mementos.

We had the time of our lives on this trip and I am so thankful I was able to spend it with my sisters!

Barcelona: Day Eight

2011-07-28T10:21:00.001-05:00

I don't think I ever posted a photo of our hotel from the outside - so here it is (above)! It's actually located on the second floor, so let me tell you, it was really fun dragging 50 pounds of luggage up there! But it was a lovely place, clean, and we had sweet wooden window covers that we could open to step out on our teeny tiny balconies. Our room is the balcony on the second floor all the way to the left.

We were accross the street from one of Spain's most famous markets, La Boqueria, so that morning we hopped on over to enjoy the sights and to have breakfast.

I have an endless amount of photos of the market! It almost seemed like a movie set, you know, where everything is so perfect looking that it is almost a caricature of itself. But no, it was all real and it was just so much fun to poke around. Leanne (below) couldn't stop herself from purchasing some of the more exotic looking fruits.

We found a great little restaraunt towards the back of the market and treated ourselves to some more breakfast sandwiches. The servers here asked us a question that we became used to hearing:

Spanish Person: Where are you from?

Us: We're from the U.S.

Spanish Person: No, I mean where are you really from?

Us: We were born in Costa Rica.

Spanish Person: (with a knowing nod) Ohhh. Yes, I thought so.

I guess they could tell that we (to varying degrees) looked somewhat more ethnic? I think we must have had this type of conversation about a dozen times, no kidding! I also included a photo of Leanne (below) searching for change in her makeshift plastic sandwich bag. While we were careful not to carry huge amount of cash on ourselves, the money belts became a real bother (not to mention sweat catcher) and we began using what we could for wallets. I purchased a small change purse at a museum in Madrid. Leanne, being ever thrifty, stuck with her bag!

The architecture of the buildings in the Gothis Quarter was just lovely. I inlcuded the photo below just to show you some of the pretty ironwork that was all over this city.

Our next stop for the day was the City History Museum of Barcelona. This place was a real treat! We learned about the original founding of the city by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus (Julius Caesar's nephew), who settled Roman legionnaires on the land as payment for their tours of service. The sign below declares the name of the College of Barcin founded by Emporer Augustus near 14 A.D. Now, Barcelona had been settled before this, but it was the Romans who made it in to a city.

After doing some some excavations under Plaza del Rei - historians found the remains of the original Roman city. Barci or Barcin was originally enclosed on all four sides by walls and it comprises what is now called the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.

The Roman ruins are about 2 stories under the street and are just fascinating! Pictured below are the remains of some columns to one of the first Christian church built in Barcelona.

Even on the topside, it is possible to see the remains of the orginal Roman fortifications including some Roman aqueducts!

After our tour of the city's underbelly, we strolled around and came upon one of the many pastry shops sprinlked around town. I popped in to have my daily dose of the awesome deliciousness that is the chocolate croissant. Now, I fell in love with these in Paris. I am thinking of proposing marriage to the criossants in Spain. Feast your eyes below, please.

Yes. Yes. That would be melty chocolate on the inside AND on the outside. Goodness gracious.

5 minutes later, this is all that remains.

We made our way to the next museum on our list, the Picasso Museum! We were all excited to see this place, and it did not dissapoint! Again, the demon "no foto!" reared it's ugly head, so I have nothing to show you of the intertior of the museum (which was lovely), but above you can see that the museum is located in a small little street.

We were actually worried that we had gone in the wrong direction, but no, there is no grand entrance to mark the museum. Picasso's paintings are displayed in the remains of a wealthy merchant's home. Pictured above and below, we are posing in the interior courtyard of the museum. I learned so much about Picasso. Now, I already know he is considered a genious, but I have to say that seeing paintings that would already be considered masterworks completed by Picasso when he was twelve or fourteen, sure put things in to perspective! The other neat connection we learned about was Picasso's love and esteem for Diego Velazquez and his painting Las Meninas (which we saw in Madrid!). He spent many hours in the Prado studying the painting and painted his own cubist versions of the masterwork himself, which were on display at the museum.

I just saw this door while we were walking around, isn't it neat?!

The door above, was the entrance to this darling street. I wish I had taken a little more time with this photo, as it is actually pretty blurred when you expand it to full size.

Next on our list was a visit to the Chocolate Museum! And sure enough, our ticktes came with little chocolate bars we could enjoy as we walked around.

On the whole, the museum isn't worth more than a half hour or so of your time. But if you skip it, you would miss out on these kooky all chocolate sculptures! Apparently, the chocolate guild creates these chocolate sculptures to be displayed during Christmas holidays and afterward, they are retired to the museum.

Yes, this chocolate Pieta is life sized!

Our next stop was a visit to Santa Maria del Mar - a cathedral built by the wealthy fishing merchants of Barcelona. The church closes down between 1pm and 4 pm, so we had to wait a few minutes to get in. As you can see we wiled away the time with cat naps and examining photos.

The church is a modest one, compared to Seville's or Toldeo's cathedrals, but I liked the stained glass and how you could actually see its reflections on the stones! Many stained glass windows are almost too thick to actually let the sunshine in.

I am going to take a moment to congratulate myself on purchasing Red Maps yet again for this trip. Easy to read, compact, and wear resistant these maps saved us several times from getting hopelessly lost. I would recommend them to anyone! Picture below, is just a simple street light...that looks like art. Sigh.

After our long day we walked back to our hotel to enjoy some reading time on the balcony. It looks quite bright outside, but it is close to 8:30 pm or so in the evening at this point!

And then we saw a somewhat creepy looking looking protest forming up in the plaza outside our hotel!

It actually wasn't all that creepy, protesters were holding up signs like "Our Jobs Are Not For Sale!" After deciphering their t-shirts, Caroline and I deduced that these were telephone union workers protesting layoffs. I know that Spain is facing serious economic woes and this just made it all that more clear.

We have a lovely dinner close the hotel and called it a night!

Sitges: Day Seven

2011-07-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

Seven days in to our trip we decided to take a vacation! ha! Actually, most museums and attractions are closed on Mondays, so with very little to do in the city we escaped to the beach! Sitges (see-shuz) is a popular resort town about 30 minutes south of Barcelona.

Our plan that day was to do nothing but read, swim and eat. Sounds great, right? It was!

Sitges itself, is a cutie pie little town with plenty of shops and restaraunts lining the streets.

The weather was perfect, it was probably about 85 degrees with a warm breeze.

We rented some umbrellas and reclining chairs and staked out our little peice of the beach. Below, Leanne holds the remains of the jelly fish. Yes, we were interested but kind of grossed out as well.

There's not much to say about a day spent relaxing. Oh! Except for the fact that going topless is very common, so being surrounded by semi-nude bathers was interesting! Caroline had a hard time understanding moms running after their kids without tops on, but hey, to each their own! And no, none of us engaged in the local practice, we remained as covered up as any puritanical American.

On our way home, we misread the information at the train depot and ended up getting on the wrong train. I cannot emphasize enough how nerve wracking it can be when trying to figure out transportation! Thankfully, we were going in the right direction, so we just waited for the next stop, got off, and then waited for the correct train to stop by. Sounds simple, I know, but it involved tropping around an unfamiliar train station and trying to find a list of which trains go where! We were so relived when the next train went straight to our train station in Barcelona!

Once home from the beach, we again strolled around Barcelona enjoying the street performers.

The photo below is as close as we came to bullfighting in Spain.

Barcelona: Day Six

2011-07-19T10:41:00.000-05:00

Now, I know that Spain is a dry place, but I was really surpsied at just how dry it really is. I took this photo about an 2 hours east of Madrid as we were on the train headed to Barcelona. It's just straight up desert, and a gray, chalky looking desert to boot. I am writing about this, by the way, because I didn't take any photos of us mugging for the camera in a train station, which would have been the perfect intro for this post. Instead I have one photo of the desert, so that's what you get!

After the 3 hour train trip, we arrive in Barcelona! One of the first things we did after checking in to our hotel was grab some grub. Leanne is smiling below, but it is totally fake. She is always more food-adventurous than either me or Caroline and this time her gamble did not pay off! She paid about $5 for a teeny tiny empanada and was not happy about it!

Our hotel was just off Las Ramblas in the Barri Gotic (or the Gothic Quater), so we were located right in the action. We decided to go on a Rick Steve's "walking tour" of Las Ramblas...and it was several minutes before I realized that we were walking in the opposite direction. Sigh.

Las Ramblas is the bustling heart of Barcelona. It is full of street performers, restaraunts, little shops and shady trees.

We walked all the way down to the waterfront and saw that there were 1 1/2 hour cruises of the waterfront leaving in about 15 minutes! What a great idea! I wondered why Rick Steves left them out of the book?

And soon found my answer...most of the "tour" is of the industrialized harbour. Lovely, no?

The graffittied wave breaks were our favorite. Caroline feigns enthusiasm below.

After our boat tour we worked our way back up to the metro station.

We decided to just wander for a bit and peeked in to the church (Santa Maria del Pí) next to our hotel located on the Plaza del Pi (Plaza of the Pine tree). The church dates from 1319!

While researching Barcelona, I found out about their "Magic Fountains" - what sounded like a somewhat cheesy fountain light show. Perfect. The magic foutain shows only ran on weekends and that night was our only opportunity, so we hiked it out to Montjuic. Of the Barcelona metro stations I only have this to say; air conditioning. I was sweating bullets by the time we made it out to the southwest side of the city.

Our first sight upon exiting the metro station, was a couple of 6 foot tall, naked, but covered in beads, party girls. I am not kidding! Anyways, there were huge crowds milling around and we soon saw signs letting us know that it was the Gay Pride Festival! We had to get through all those folks to the lovely Catalan Art Museum you see pictured above! Pictured below you can the HUGE crowds we had to walk through! It was just crazy!

But we eventually made it up and were able to enjoy the lovely Magic Fountains! The fountains were contructed in 1929 for an exposition and even then their light show was a hit!

We absolutely loved it!!

After the show, we made our way back to Las Ramblas for a dinner we had been waiting a long time for! Paella!! We were so excited to try out some fresh seafood. The calamari was delicious,

but I have to be honest. As mouthwatering at the paella looked, I was not a fan. All the seafood in Barcelona is fresh and cooked whole. That means lots of bones...which I hate. I don't know why, but it just freaks me out to have to eat and then slowly pull bones out of your mouth! Anyways, the girls chowed down and did justice to that meal, even if I couldn't.

And so ended our first day in Barcelona!

Madrid: Day Five

2011-07-14T09:48:00.002-05:00

When we arrived back to hotel after Toledo, I mentioned that we didn't have to get up at any specific time the next morning (nothing opened until 10 am) to manage what I had listed on our itinerary. Caroline perked up and said, "Well then lets sleep in and not set the alarm clock!" I thought that sounded like a great idea and sure enough were in bed and snoring by 11:30 that night...only to wake up at NOON the next day. I write that in capital letters, because that's exactly what it felt like in my head when Caroline announced the time. As in: "IT'S NOON AND YOU JUST SLEPT AWAY AN ENTIRE MORNING IN MADRID, YOU FOOL!" I had a bit of a freak out about that squandered time, when Caroline gently reminded me that we slept 13 hours because our bodies probably needed it. I nodded and calmed down. She would continue to say this the rest of the day. "Boy! I sure am glad our bodies got rested today! Right, Lucy?" or "I just feel so refreshed getting all that sleep last night!" Eventually, her subtle brainwashing worked its magic and I began to believe her. It helped that we were able to see everything anyway and that this day became one of our favorites of the entire trip.

Our afternoon began with a visit to Spain's answer to Versailles: the Palacio Real de Madrid. It was built in the 1730's and it is still the official Royal residence of the current King of Spain, Juan Carlos. Of course, he and his family only use the palace for state occasions. It was built in the neo-classical or baroque style (depends on which pamphlet you read!) and is pretty gaudy. But aren't all palaces?

I was foiled again by the "no fotos!" signs all over the palace. Ugh! I did sneak some though, so what you see below is what I got. We started our tour by visiting the Royal pharmacy, which was actually quite extensive and super interesting. All of the original canisters are there to see and some of glass containers still have creepy looking stuff within.

I will say that I enjoyed the tour of this palace more than Versailles. Strictly on the basis of the interior tour, however, in terms of the exterior and the grounds, Versailles still wins in my book.The Palacio Real was fully furnished, so it made it so easy to imagine past Kings and Queens living in those rooms! I particularly enjoyed seeing the throne room! King Juan Carlos still uses it to this day to formally welcome state visitors.

Another treat during our tour was the Stradivarious room, which housed the only known quartet of violins designed by Stradivarious as a set in the entire world. So that was special!

I am including the photo as an example of ads we saw all over Madrid, advertising the "Treasures of Polonia" exhibit at the Royal Palace. Looking at the ads, I thought "hmmm, Polonia...that must have been a past Queen of Spain." So, when we get to the the admissions desk at the Palace, I tell the girls that they should also buy the extra ticket to go see Queen Polonia's treasures and they did. And we went. And Polonia ain't no Queen of Spain. Polonia is Spanish for Poland. Yes. Poland. So we paid extra to see the "treasures" of Poland, which frankly, I didn't really care about. Although, there was a painting of a noblewoman (the one in the advertisments) by Leonardo Da Vinci, so I thought that made the exhibition worth it.

After the palace we began making our way to the metro station. We were headed to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and on our way, passed this ornate and much photographed white building. As far as I can tell, it is the Ministry of Agriculture and is not open for tours or visitors. If you google Madrid and look at the images though, you will see this building all over the place.

SIGH! Again, no photos allowed. I will tell you however, that we really enjoyed this museum. The Thyssen is actually the private collection of the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon and his heirs. In 1992, the family decided to open a museum in Spain and eventually sold the paintings to the Spanish government. It is also considered the finest private collection of paintings ever assembled. What makes the Thyssen special, is that you can literally walk through time, as the paintings are all displayed in chronological order. The museum begins with the Visigoths and ends with Pollock. Amazing.

The folks in Madrid are wizards at creating comfortable outdoor spaces on even the most hot days. The Thyssen's outdoor cafe was a delight. Large fans with water sprays were located in each corner creating a lovely cooling breeze - I could have stayed there all day!

But it was not to be. We had something we had to get back to Palaza for...like this creepy street performer!

Just joking. Caroline and I had discussed making reservations to see live Flamenco dancing before leaving for our trip, and that morning we decided that this would be the perfect ending to our visit to Madrid.

But not before stopping by the San Miguel market again to enjoy the atmostphere and buy some treats!

After mush discussion and reading in our dear Rick Steves guide books, we decided on Las Carboneras, a little restaraunt that also featured live flamenco.

And it became the absolute highlight of our entire trip to Spain.

Please forgive the amount of photos. I just couldn't choose between them. The dancing, the music and the emotion from the performers was just overwhelming.

Caroline and I found ourselves close to tears several times. There is just something about the music that just catches you up!

If ever a flamneco dance troupe finds its way to St. Louis, I will be there quick as a flash.

On our way home, we enjoyed a paseo (a walk) and just lingered here and there enjoying the energy of Spain.

There were street performers everywhere, these fellows in particular were so talented!

I took the photo (badly exposed!) below to show you the crowds walking around at 10:30 at night. Literally thousands of people out for a stroll, dinner or ice cream.

Which is what we too decided to get on our way home.

And so passed our last night in Madrid. The next morning we were to get up and head over to the Atocha staition for our 3 hour trip to Barcelona!

Toledo: Day Four

2011-07-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

On our fourth day in Spain we made our way to the Atocha train station in Madrid and hopped on to another super fast AVE train bound for Toledo! Thankfully, Toldeo is located only about 30 minutes south of Madrid, so it was a quick ride over. Above, is a photo of Toledo's train station built in 1919!

The city of Toledo is quite large, but for the purposes of our trip we stuck to the old city located within the fortified city walls on top of steep hill (or small mountain? I can't decide!) which is surrounded on three sides by a river. Walking around this city, is literally like walking back in time. Most of the city buildings and streets date somewhere between 1000 and 1300 A.D., and the streets still retain their quirky, twists and turns! In order to protect its citizens, the city of Toledo built thick defensive walls around the town, they are still standing today and the only way in or out of the old city is through the Puertas or doors in the wall.

We arrived in Toldeo around 10 in the morning, ready to see the sights...but not before having another yummy morning sandwich!

The city streets in Toledo are narrow, lined with shops and full of cute little old ladies carrying their groceries.

On our way to see the Cathedral, we noticed that the town had hung up canvas down the city streets surrounding the church. This provided us with much needed shade later in the afternoon, and is something for which we were very greatful! You can see in the photo below that the buildings accross from the Cathedral were hung with garlands made out of rosemary, so again the air smelled wonderful. Leanne informed me over the weekend, that I was wrong about the "Saint's Day" in my post about Sevilla, it was instead, the celebration of Corpus Christi and I assume that it was the same case in Toledo.

The Cathedral itself, is hemmed in on all sides by buildings, there is no plaza where the front doors are, so it took us a bit to find the correct front door! They all looked very similar.

Once inside this gothic cathedral, though, it quickly distinguished itself! Photography was not allowed in the interior and I dutifully kept the lens cap on. After a few minutes I noticed several brazen tourists walking around with their cameras right out there for all to see, snapping away. None of the security gaurds offered a peep of protest, so I smuggled a few photos anyway! Although I tried to be as surreptitious about it as I could, and I felt guilty about taking more than just a handful. Anyway, the feature that really made this cathedral stand out was the "el transparente" - which is just nuts. NUTS!

Apparently the townsfolk decided that they wanted more light for the church, which makes sense, the interior was pretty dim. So some artisans cut a hole in the roof, and then proceeded to create a baroque mess of angels, cherubs, saints, sinners and prophets. The light from the hole shines down on to the back side of the altar, and it is blah blah blah. I can never actually make all of that stuff out. Regardless, it was mighty impressive and totally out of tune with the rest of the church which was fairly subdude in its gothic-ness.

Once we finished with the Cathedral, we began making our way around the maze of streets determined to find an old Jewish synagog....and then we saw these monsters (pictured above)! Now when I was a wee one living in Costa Rica, I was absolutely petrified of these larger than life figures, and I am still totally unnerved by seeing them out on display!

Toledo is most famous for its knives, swords and other such killing instruments. ha! Toledo steel blades used to be the last word in luxury though and the knife makers today still try to keep their art alive. Pictured below, Leanne smiles as we enter the shop of a skilled artisan. She bought a hand made pocket knife from this fellow.

Toledo is also known for their marzipan and the nuns of the covent of San Clemente, who still make the sweet and sell it to townsfolk. They have a cutie pie little window display at their shop showing all the steps to makin the pretty finished product. If you wish to buy some, a nun comes to the door and then takes your money and hands you some marzipan! I wish I liked this sweet treat because it surely look good, but I cannot stand the stuff.

After trooping around for about half an hour (and buying way too many ceramic plates), we finally made our to the now abandoned Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca. Toledo is widely known as the Spanish melting pot. Jews, Muslims and Christians all called this town home and all lived together in relative tolerance. For like, a few years. Or at least just long enough for their artistic styles to blend together and what you get is a Jewish synagog that looks like it should be a Sultan's palace...

and that's what Santa Maria Blanca (built in 1203 A.D.) looks like. Unfortunately, in the 16th century all of the Jews in the country were ordered to be expelled - there are only 3 synagogs remaining in the entire country from before that time, and Toledo has 2 of them. Eventually, the synagog was transformed in to a Christian church, and then in recent times, has been converted to a museum. It was lovely with its many arches.

We were feeling peckish by this point and stumbled upon a tree covered plaza with outdoor seating from 4 restaraunts. We enjoyed our crispy breads and yes...this wonderful chocolate filled crepe!!!

Below, Leanne smiles triumphant after finding and buying a HUGE artisan knife. Now, it was handmade, super sharp and very impressive...and also cost us no end of trouble when we tried to go home. But that story is for another day. On this day at least, Caroline and I were happy she found it.

I thought that the Toledo countryside looked much like I would think Italy might. My friend Katie, who recently spent time in Italy confirms that it does!

Goodness, this day was also quite hot. However, as long as we practiced "shade hopping" we were doing just fine. After reseting up at little park and taking some "we were here photos", we visited the second synagog in Toledo.

The Sinagoga El Transito, which houses the Sephardic Museum. This synagog, built in 1336 A.D. (!) was again, completed by Muslim artisans. All around the building you can see arabic writing citing the psalms.

Again, the Jewish population did not keep their synagog for long before they were expelled from Toledo. The building then became at various times, a hospital, a church and miltary headquarters during the Napoleonic wars. Now it is a museum, documenting the Jewish faith the in Spain.

To tell you the truth, I am a bit disapointed in my photos of Toledo. They really don't do it justice. Every nook, every cranny was just totally charming. Even their snack stands (below) are cute!

Once we made it home to Madrid, we enjoyed another late dinner of utter deliciousnes.

Caroline fell in love with the sangrias in Spain!

Sevilla: Day Three

2011-07-07T10:11:00.000-05:00

Goodness, what can I say about Sevilla? This town was probably one of the more spectacular places I have ever been, and it was also one of the hottest! Sevilla is located about 2 hrs and 30 min south of Madrid using a high speed AVE train. Prior to the building of the high speed rail lines it could take as long as 6 hours to get to Sevilla, so I was thankful for the speed.

We got up bright and early, around 6:30 am to make sure we were ready for our 8:30 am train. We bought some bocadillos (french bread sandwiches) and orange juice for the ride, yours truly may have bought another chocolate croissant, but just pretend you didn't hear that.

The ride south offered plenty of pretty vistas, like this cutie Andalusian hill town surrounded by sunflower fields!

Sevilla is a town that doesn't pull any punches. Everything is big, ornate and certain to overwhelm you. When we hopped out of the taxi close to the historic city center, we heard what sounded like hundreds of bells ringing from the Giralda Bell tower, and it just seemed totally unreal.

We learned soon after that today was Saint Christopher's Day (I think?) and that there was to be a procession and special masses to celebrate. As we were making our way to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, also known as the Sevilla Cathedral, the air became perfumed with rosemary. All around us hung garlands of rosemary and folks were carrying big armfuls of the stuff. I'm glad rosemary is one of my favorite herbs!

The cathedral is one of the 3rd largest in the world, after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, and St. Paul's Cathedral in London. And it was no joke, people! In fact it was so big, that I found it impossible to photograph - I could never get the whole building in the frame!

We felt quite lucky to come on such a special day and especially enjoyed looking at the processions going on within the church.

We were also treated to organ some organ music and my goodness, it was so loud your whole body vibrated with the music!

Now we come to the part where we didn't feel so lucky, since it was a special Saint's Day, much of the church interior was blocked off from the tourists, so we weren't able to see the altar, or Christopher Columbus' tomb, which was something I was really looking forward to seeing! We had to console ourselves, then, with ol' Columbus' son's gravesite, below.

I a happy to report that we were entirely unmolested throughout the duration of our trip to Spain. By that, I mean that there were no pickpocketing incidents (good ol' Rick had me wearing a money belt and sweating bullets when I got on the metro for the first time), our purses were secure and nothing was taken by sticky fingered street urchins. However, that does not include that rare breed of swindler; the Gypsy palm reader! I was approched outside the Cathedral by a nice looking lady holding what I thought was Rosemary sprigs - she gave me some, I took it, thinking that this was in observance of the Saint's Day. She then grabbed my hand and proceeded to read my palm. I am thrilled to tell you that I will live a looooong healthy life...marry the love of my life....and be happy forever. Yeah. Right. Anyway, afterward she demanded 5 euro, I took out what pocket change I had, thrust it at her and walked away saying "Nada mas!" Caroline wasn't so lucky. She was also waylaid and after her palm reading and a benediction, the gypsy demanded 20 euro! She haggled at her so much that Caroline just thrust a 20 euro bill at her and ran off. Below is her rueful expression after being swindled. Oh well. You can't win them all.

After the Cathedral, we visited the Alcazar. It was originally a Moorish fortress (ca. 913 A.D.) with tall walls surrounding the entire sturcture, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As the story goes, Pedro the Cruel (ca. 1350s) saw the gorgeous grounds of the Alhambra in Granada and was determined to build a palace of equal magnificence. So he hired muslim artisans to design and embellish his palace and what we have is some of the finest remaining examples of what is now called the mudejar style in architecture.

Various Kings and Queens have added on to the palace as the years passed. To this day, King Juan Carlos of Spain stays in the palace when he is in residence in Sevilla.

Much of the script on the walls is in arabic, calling King Pedro "Sultan Pedro".

Looking up on to the ceiling, this was our first indication that we were not going to be visiting your typical, stuffy old palace.

I cannot begin to describe how intricate all of the decorative work was like on the walls, the ceilings, the floors - it was just everywhere.

What makes this palace interesting, culturally, is that the mudejar artisans also included images of living things in to the walls of the palace. Below, you can just make out peacocks and twining vines. While it was against their beliefs to create images of living things, the workmen seemed to bend the rules when creating their deocrations for a Christian king.

The palace gardens where a revelation to me! I was not expecting them to be so lovely. First, we would come upon a grove of orange trees, then a fountain, we'd walk up a coule of steps to another garden, this time with vines and a sitting alcove, and so on and so on. All of these "outdoor rooms" spilling in to one another and leading to views prettier than the next.

I was getting pretty warm by this time, and again, I marveled at how cool and dry the interior rooms where in the palace. It was at least 20 degrees cooler than it was outside. Below is the Patio De Las Doncellas (Patio of the Maidens), apparently, rumor had it that the original Sultans who lived in the Alcazar would require 20 maidens as a sacrifice each year from the surrounding provinces. They would be herded in here and then dispersed to various other Sultans. Of course, this is untrue, but this slander was used to whip up anger towards the Moors when they ruled over Spain.

Undernieth the palace, one Queen had a system of rain filled baths built. In the coolness of the basements the water would stay cold even on the hottest day. While we were visiting, the baths had been drained for some restoration work, but they are otherwise always full of water. The holes in the walls you can see in the back are foutains that usually pour water in to the pools.

After visting the Alcazar, we went on a Rick Steves guided walking tour of the old Jewish Quarter. It was just full of old world charm!

After our walking tour, we made our way to one of the few restaraunts open in the late afternoon for some dinner. Our waitress was a dear and wanted to practice her English with us, so we chatted a bit about how much we had enjoyed visting her town. I was considering visiting a few other sites and asked her what she thought about us going to see the river. Her eyes flew open in alarm and she said "But you cannot go out walking in this heat! It's 40 degrees outside!" Now, I do not know how to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit
off the top of my head so I just nodded like I knew what she was talking about. By the time we finished our wonderful tapas dinner (picture below) we were too full and drowsy to make the hike to a plaza I was thinking of visiting. Which is all well and good, on the way home on the train I discovered that Caroline's phone had a converter program and when I typed in 40 degrees Celsius, I found it that it was 104 degree Fahrenheit! No wonder we were so wiped on the train home!

Madrid: Day Two

2011-07-06T14:18:00.002-05:00

We woke up on day two ready and rested. Before heading out into Madrid we stopped by Garbo, a lovely restaraunt and cafe located in Plaza del Carmen, right across from our hotel. I had this delicious bacon sandwhich. The Spanish people love their pork products. I am not kidding; cured, smoked, honeyed, or what have you, pork is this country's national food.

Being unaccustomed to riding public transit, facing the metro for the first time is always a bit intimidating. After buying our metro passes, we soon found that we had nothing to worry about. Madrid's underground metro system was wonderful; easy to navigate, clean and safe.

Our first visit for the day was to Madrid's modern art museum, the Reina Sofia. From the outside, it looked like quite the dump, a bland front building covered in its share of graffitti. After consulting Rick Steves, I learned that it is actually an old mental institution, and that the bars covering the upper story windows are to keep people from throwing themselves out. Okay, then!

The interior, on the other hand, was great! We first spent some time with these Richard Serra sculptures...

and then enjoyed one of the more kookie retrospectives I have seen. It was about the artist Yayoi Kusama, and it was awesome.

I think that this exhibition had one of my absolute favorite experiential art pieces called Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life (2011). This was a room that Kusama created specifically for the museum. The ceiling and the walls were mirrored, the floor filled with water (and just a small path left for the viewer to walk through) and about a thousand individually hanging lights.

I took several photographs of the room from various positions and it was neat to see people gasp as they walked in to the doorway and then hesitate, since the effect of all those reflections create the feeling that you are walking out in to empty space.

It was one of those moments that just take you by surprise and leave you happy to be alive.

Kusama is famous for her objects covered in, ahem, protrusions and/or polka dots. Interestingly, the artist voluntarily committed herself several years ago to a mental asylum in Japan and she is still there happily working on her art and leaving for art shows as she wishes.

The Reina Sofia lays claim to what is considered the national painting of Spain; Picasso's Guernica. I was so very excited to see this painting, however, the museum does not allow photography of any of its permanent collection, so the closest I can get you is that sign above. Sigh. I learned so much about Picasso on this trip, mostly at the Picasso museum in Barcelona, but what a way to begin!

After relaxing in the courtyard of the muesum grounds, we made our way to the Royal Botannical Gardens, located next to the Prado Museum. Leanne worked at the Missouri Botannical Gradens last summer for an internship, so she was in a particular position to enjoy the grounds.

Spain's museums are not on speaking terms with cameras, even ones without flash. So I am sure you can imagin my chagrin when I had to muzzle my little buddy while standing in front of some of the world's most famous paintings. At the Prado we saw some truly beautiful paintings by Botticelli, Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez. But it was Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights that really wowed us!

Let us take a short break to enjoy Mr. Croissant stuffed with Chocolate and his best friend Sir Chocolate Pudding Cake. They were great company and departed all too soon.

After visiting the Prado, we hopped our way over to Retiro Park, the quintessential Madrid hangout spot. I was very excited to see the grounds and they did not dissapoint.

Full of families, ice cream, romantic boaters and dogs this park was a people watching dream. It reminded me quite strongly of Tuileries Gardens in Paris, with its neatly trimmed trees, and casual cafes dotting the park.

Doesn't Caroline look great? This is my favorite picture of her from the trip.

As we were making our out of the park, I remembered that I had forgotten to visit the Crystal Palace located further inside the park. Caroline, being ever patient with me, let me hike it all the way back in so I could photograph this building.

It was just as lovely as I read it would be. I was very anoyed however, to see this large ramp/slide set up inside the structure. It totally got in the way of some good photos. I learned later, as I was looking up an artist on the Reina Sofia website, that this was a public art installation funded by the museum. Oh well.

After the park we headed home, enjoyed a spectacular dinner and called it a night. The photo below is our plaza near sunset.

Madrid: Day One

2011-07-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

Okay folks! Well, we (myself and my sisters Caroline and Leanne) are back from Spain and we had a wonderful time. On my last trip to Europe, I had grand plans to create a scrapbook of the trip. It's been two years and I have yet to do anything at all with the photos. My blog posts of Paris then, became the scrapbook and it's one I have visited several times in past couple of years when I felt nostalgic. So, these blog posts about our trip are as much for me (and my poor memory) as it is for you lovely blog readers. I hope you enjoy them!

The less said about our plane trip to Spain, the better. I hate hate hate, long plane trips. Long and boring, I do not posses the happy ability to sleep through flights so I was thrilled to get off the plane and start our adventure! In order to save on costs, we decided to fly in and out of Barcelona - which meant that we needed to hop on the RENFE high speed train bound for Madrid right after the flight. My sister Caroline, has no problem at all sleeping on public transport and spent the majority of the 3 hour train ride asleep, I read more of my book.

Planning for this trip was quite the undertaking, and I turned to the very helpful, always reliable Rick Steves for assistance and he didn't let us down. I made reservations at hotels that he recommended and they were both perfect for our budget and our needs! After arriving in Madrid, we checked in to our hotel, freshened up and stepped right back out for a cup of coffee. Our hotel is located right in the heart of Madrid, about a 3 minute walk to Puerta del Sol - the heart of the city.

A couple of weeks before we left for Spain, we heard reports about large scale (but peaceful) demonstrations being held at the Puerta del Sol by the young members of the country protesting the worsening economic conditions in the country. As much as 40% of Spanish citizens under the age of 35 are unemployed, so there is definite cause for their dissatisfaction. Anyway, by the time we arrived, the large demonstrations had stopped (since local elections were over), but there were still a few folks camped out on the plaza keeping this topic alive. The white sign with the red writing pictured below reads: "the voice of the people is never illegal".

Our first evening was to be a low key walking tour of Puerta del Sol and its surrounding streets. On our way we passed this lovely lovely lovely little book store attached to the side of a building. The photo below is one of my favorites of the entire trip and I took it about 30 minutes in to our stroll.

Madrid in June is hot folks. Wide open plazas with baking concrete doesn't really sound like a recipe for a happy trip, right? The saving grace then, was the cooling breezes. It was a dry heat, not soppy and humid, which is really made things bearable - when in the shade, it felt 15-20 degrees cooler than in the sun and we quickly learned the walking tactic we called "shade hopping".

Or maybe we would just roll up our pants and let them soak up the refreshing cooolness of a nearby fountain!

On our way back up the the Plaza Mayor, we spotted the San Miguel market! It's one of the oldest in Madrid - but was recently refurbished, so it does not have your typical market ambience.

On one side the butchers and the grocers, on the other side, tapas bars, confectioners and a little book store!

It was a lively hot spot for Madrilenos and we left with our mouths watering.

We had dinner at an outdoor cafe instead of the market, since the lines there were quite long. After a delicious dinner we walked back to our hotel and practically passed out. Just like the last time we crossed this many time zones, we stayed awake for about 30 hours before sleeping again, and just like the last time, it worked like a charm and we didn't suffer from any jet lag at all. Thank goodness!

Tourist in My Own City

2011-06-15T11:27:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago old high school friend from Dallas, Rachael, contacted me over facebook to let me know she was going to be in the area and would I have time for a visit? Of course, I said "yes!" and plans were born for Rachael to drive over from Kansas City to spend the weekend in St. Louis.

What made it so fun for me, though, was that Rachael and I haven't spoken in a good 15 years! We wrote each other letters (this was before the days everyone used email!) through our first couple of years of college and then lost touch. How lovely, then, to reconnect with a friend and spend time getting to know each other again.

Rachael is a Foreign Service Oficer for the Department of State and goodness, did I enjoy hearing all about her travel adventures.

We spent last Saturday visiting the Arch, I bought tickets to go to the top ahead of time, having learned my lesson the last time I visited and sadly learned that tickets sell out quickly (sorry Laura!). The little cabins are no place for the claustrophobic, and getting to the top was an experience. After the arch I took Rachael to the Soulard Farmer's Market, where we found this totally cute tiny donut machine and don't you want to try one?! Well, we did and they were delicious!

After our teeny tiny desserts, we made our way to Bogart's BBQ, and enjoyed some of the best BBQ available in St. Louis. Below, I will give you a behind the scenes look at food photography. Impressive, no?

After lunch I dragged Rachael to one of my favorite Art Museums in St. Louis, the Pulitzer Foundation For the Arts. Unfortunately, they do not allow photography inside the building, so no luck there. But we did enjoy walking in to the wonderful Richard Serra sculpture in the courtyard and relaxed a bit when we visited the reflecting pool.

Overall I had a wonderful time reconnecting with an old friend and visiting some of my favorite St. Louis spots. It reminds me that I live in a pretty cool place.

Well, it's 5 days and counting until I leave with my two sisters to visit Spain! Until then, Adios!

Visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens...

2011-05-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

2011-05-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

Recognize this house????

Nope? What if I added this picture...

Yep, it's the American Gothic house! It located in rural Iowa, which just happened to be where my sister went to school. A couple of weeks ago I trooped up with the fam to watch her graduate and on our way home we stopped by this place. It was a bit surreal. But super fun to see!

Congrats Leanne on your graduation! I am excited to see what's in store for you!

Playing with Light

2011-05-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

So I've been reading up on light grafitti and thought I would experiment over the weekend - the red light is a pointer pen light that I use to entertain the cats. I am actually standing right in front of the camera waving the pen around, it's just too dark to catch me in the picture. I am definitely going to try that again! Maybe next time I'll try to write out some words!

Team USA 2022

2011-04-24T16:35:00.000-05:00

One of the family babies started gymnastics classes this Spring. It is perfect for this little one, since she is made of movement and energy!

Hey, Mary Lou Retton had to start somewhere! I'm thinking of buying her some Olympics posters for her bedroom...ha!

And as is all Canessa tradition, we followed up the good work with a delicious trip to a Bakery, where the kids kicked off their galoshes and enjoyed some yummy treats.

I hope you all had a happy Easter weekend!

64 days and counting...

2011-04-18T15:07:00.001-05:00

until I am here (Toledo):

And here (Madrid):

And here (Barcelona):

I am very excited!!

Freezing the weekend

2011-04-03T19:27:00.001-05:00

Night Owl

2011-03-22T21:31:00.001-05:00

I was on spring break last week (how awesome is it that I still get spring break?!) and was determined to get out there and practice using my camera. I got as far as my deck. ha!

Above, is the city view from my deck. I love it.

The helpful folks on our local new station announced that the moon was going to be in perigee to the earth over the weekend. I, like many photo folks, decided that I was going to take a picture of the "supermoon". Unfortunately, we had some mild and annoying storms move in and I thought there was no way I would get to see it.

And this is where the night owl part comes in. You see, I am a natural night owl that is forced to live like a morning person in order to make a living. On long breaks like the one I had last week, my penchant for 2 am nights reasserts itself. This time it came in handy and I was able to get some frankly somewhat "meh" photos of the supermoon as the storm clouds were breaking up. I could hardly tell the difference between a regular moon and the super one we were supposed to see that night, but I'm glad I stayed up late!

A happy weekend

2011-02-28T15:01:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine got married this weekend, and it reminds me that you don't need a lot of extras when you have love!

Le Sigh

2011-02-10T12:56:00.000-06:00

I am tired. Tired of ice and snow and grey skies. I would rather be here:

Doing this:

Or this:

Le Sigh!

Freezing February

2011-02-04T13:41:00.000-06:00

Saint Louis got a big dose of yucky winter weather recently. I think the snowfall total so far this year is 22.8 inches. Anyways, the college shut down for a couple of days this week, and I took advantage of the lull between the freezing rain and sleet to go out and snap a few photos. It's amazing that something that looks so pretty can be so terribly annoying!

Archer is just dropping in to say "Hi". If you're wondering why Darcy is rarely pictured here, it's because he has too much dignity, intelligence and poise to stoop to wacky poses. Seriously, Archer was just hanging out with me on the couch like that. I HAD to get a photo.

Holiday Happenings

2010-12-29T11:56:00.007-06:00

So, I found out about this photo websharing site called dropbox where you can store tons of files, video, photos etc. The free version is super fast and covenient and I am now using them to post photos to this blog. The one problem I've found so far, is that each picture posts as its own individual post as opposed to one nice, neat long photo blog post. Oh well, right now the convenience factor is heavily outweighing the desire I have for everything to be "neat and tidy".Anyways, I hope your Christmas was a great one! Mine so far has been lovely. Our family kicked off the holiday festivities by driving out to St. Charles and enjoying the decorated historic district.

2010-12-29T11:56:00.005-06:00

It was freezing, but totally worth it to see actual Carolers walking around. There were also some historically accurate Santas and such walking around - I'm not sure why, but watching people in costume acting like Santa makes me uncomfortable. Like, I know they are fake, and they know that I know they are fake, but I still have to smile and pretend that they aren't? Ugh, I just tried to avoid them.

2010-12-29T11:55:00.005-06:00

I especially enjoyed how the lights melted little holes in the snow - this is my parent's walkway.

2010-12-29T11:55:00.004-06:00

On Christmas Eve morning snow started to fall and by the evening we has a good 3-5 inches on the ground. I loved how Christmas lights looked in the snow!!

2010-12-29T11:54:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone! This New Year's my best friend, Shalyn, is coming in to town and we have decided to go over the top and cook a 4 course French meal out of Julia Child's cookbook. I'll post the results both good and bad here afterwards!

The Little Apple

2010-12-18T15:01:00.003-06:00

2010-12-18T14:52:00.004-06:00

My last work day was this Friday and I now have a glorious 17 days off for the Holidays. I'll be spending my time reading and playing around with my camera! Oh ya!

A Sunday in

2010-12-12T15:40:00.008-06:00

This is what it looked like outside. So my sister and I decided to stay inside and in order not to go mad with boredom we - Painted (Caroline painted, I watched)

Read books
And made pizza.

p.s., pizza isn't so good when you forget to add salt to the dough. :(

Better Late?

2010-12-05T21:18:00.004-06:00

than never right? I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My mom always goes all out on holiday dinners...

The kids even got their own table, the candle made them feel grownup! I think.

In other news, after two years insulin free, Darcy's diabetes is back and we've had to resume insulin shots. He's doing great now that his blood sugars are down and I'm hopeful we'll get him in to remission soon. You all should have seen the look on the pharmacists face when I came to pick up a prescription for "Darcy the Cat" as he is now in the Walgreen's system!

Chicago Deep Dish

2010-11-21T16:07:00.007-06:00

Caroline and I had our neighbor and friend, Julia, over for dinner Saturday. Goodness, I miss having her (and Dave!) living across the hall, watching Lost, having impromptu dinners and just hanging out. Julia, thanks for coming out and for making your delicious dessert! As for the rest of you (all 3 or 4 of you - ha!), this pizza recipe is a cinch! Make it and get ready to be very pleased! Email me if you want the particulars!

Al Fin

2010-11-14T21:01:00.006-06:00

So, I decided to go out and finally purchase a DSLR - a Canon Rebel T1i - and my new best friend. I want to spend the next several months getting aqcuainted with this camera, so I can take gorgeous photos when I go to Spain this summer!

So be prepared for many, many test shots of my pets. I apologize in advance.

I knew it was going to be a good weekend...

2010-11-01T10:10:00.001-05:00

when I came home on Friday to these lovely flowers on the dining table. Caroline told me to look at the card and this is what I saw:

Thank you to my beautiful friend Lauren for making my day!

Good Morning!

2010-10-14T08:45:00.004-05:00

From my deck this morning. I am absolutely loving our crisp fall mornings!

Something's in the air...

2010-10-08T12:52:00.006-05:00

Sooo, I hopped over to JAPRA's blog last week and saw this post and the neatest little mushroom around. Now, I'm thinking that must have stuck to my subconscious, because I couldn't stop thinking about them when I was trolling for recipes on the Cook's Illustrated website. Then I post my lasagna, JAPRA posts again how she's been thinking about them, cooking them and is podering going on a Fungi Foray (mushroom hunting forest walk). Then...I click on Smitten Kitchen and see THIS! Coincidence? I think not.

Wild Mushroom Lasagna

2010-10-05T08:42:00.006-05:00

About once a month or so I like to invite my parents over for dinner and movie. I use these get-togethers as an opportunity to try out new recipes and last Friday night was no exception. This time around, I found a recipe for Wild Mushroom Lasagna that just sounded amazing. I cleaned out our local grocery store of just about all of their portobellos, porcini, oyster, chantarelle, cremini and shitake mushrooms - about 4 pounds of it and goodness, they take a while to clean, de-stem and chop!

After all of that prep-work, cooking the mushrooms is pretty straighforward: broil the portobello caps, cook the rest of the mushrooms in a pan with butter salt and pepper, add some vermouth, flour, nutmeg, garlic and milk and you've got a delicious creamy smokey mushroom sauce. Layer the sauce and mushrooms between no boil noodles and add whole milk mozzarela mixed with parmesan and wha la! I have to say that the lasagna was absolutely delicious, and very, very rich so you won't need more that 1 serving to be satisfied. It also reheats like a champ!

This recipe was from Cook's Illustrated.

Lemon Layer Cake: 2 Lucy Lucia: 0

2010-09-27T09:41:00.005-05:00

Well, for the second time, I've tried to make this devil of a cake. Pictured above, it looks passable. Pictured below, you can see it in all of its "Leaning Tower of Pisa-ness". It's that tricky lemon curd. It fools you in to thinking that it's firm enough to hold up the layers and then it laughs at you and starts to bulge out the sides. sigh.

I still have an unending love for all things lemon flavored though, and it was quite yummy.

Lemon Layer Cake

2010-09-23T10:54:00.003-05:00

So this is what I'm going to try my hand at on Saturday. We'll see who comes out the victor!
I know this isn't much of a post, but I was becoming rather tired of being reminded my age every time I checked this blog. ha!

Wherein I turn 33

2010-09-09T15:57:00.011-05:00

While I'd like to say that these chocolates are for me, they are actually in celebration of my cousin Yvonne and her husband, Griff's visit to Saint Louie last weekend.

If I have guests coming in to visit, the first place my mind goes to is "what can I make for dessert"? Thanks to Cook's Illustrated (which has earned my undying devotion, by the way) I found an recipe for a Chocolate and Caramel Walnut tart. I love tarts. I love chocolate and hey, why not try my hand at making caramel?! Pictured above, we have the suagr water boiling away. Below, the finished caramel coating freshly roasted walnuts. Yum.

For double the yum, the bottom layer of the tart is caramel and coarsly chopped walnuts....

covered with about 16 ounces of chocolate ganache. DELICIOUS! Also, the tart keeps in the refrigerator very well - I made it Friday night and we didn't eat it until Sunday. So if you're in need of a make ahead dessert, you're in luck.

Yvonne is one of my favorite cousins. We had a blast a couple of years ago when we went to Costa Rica together to hang out on the beach and then spent time with relatives. She is the funniest, sweetest and most loving person I have ever met. Fitting then, that she also married the funniest, sweetest most loving husband I have ever met!

We spent the afternoon window shopping at the loop.

Griffin then treated us to a surprise dinner at home. I told you he was sweet, right?!

That evening we met up with friends at Sasha's on Shaw, a lovely wine bar in Tower Grove. My sister Aili and her husband Mike were able to make it out, so the evening was perfect!

Sunday, as usual was spent with the family. We enjoyed Chicago style deep dish pizzas (again, delicious and courtesy of Cook's Illustrated) and yummy chocolate cake. What a weekend! Yvonne and Griff, you are welcome here any day of the week!

Door County in pictures

2010-07-28T10:46:00.007-05:00

I miss my own cooking

2010-07-20T10:24:00.003-05:00

I'm serious. Things have been busy lately, which leaves me no time to cook yummy dinners like these enchiladas verdes I made for my mom (pictured below helping me skin some roasted poblano peppers) and my sister a couple of weeks ago.

Tomatillos are awesome and I love to take the skin off and stick 'em in a food processor...you'll get the best sauce around.

My thanks to Sandra, who inspired this recipe with her amazing chicken tostadas for lunch while I was on my staycation. Few things are better than talking with a friend in the kitchen getting a meal together, is there?

On a side note, so much for staycation this summer. In a couple of days I'm headed up to Door County, Wisconsin with the family. I've heard that the cheese curds are not to be missed and that there are some lovely lighthouses to be found around Lake Michigan. I've never been to this part of the country, so if you have any suggestions about what to see and do I am all ears!

Sister Trip 2010 - Memphis

2010-07-12T09:24:00.022-05:00

Every year we Canessa sisters like to get away for a weekend and spend time together. This year we needed something close and chose Memphis, Tennesee, since none of us has actually visited before. And although we see eachother every few days, there is something special about leaving town for the weekend to be goofy! Our first stop on our way south was for dinner at Lambert's. They are the "home of the throwed rolls", and grammatical errors aside, it's one fun and delicious place.

Leanne is our baby sister. We look for opportunities whenever we can to reinforce this idea.

This is just one of the many rolls that were handed to us. No throwing at our table. My family suffers from performance anxiety and every time the roll throwing guy came around we averted our eyes. You know, like in high school when you didn't want your name called!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to make our way to the historic Elmwood Cemetery.

Just make your way to this totally adorable house to rent an audio tour - it's $10 and totally worth it. The cemetery was stunning, sweet and peaceful.

And full of Crape Murtles, which is our favorite tree (our childhood home was chock full of them).

After our cemetery tour, we made our way to the National Civil Rights Museum which is attatched to the Lorraine Hotel, the hotel where Dr. Martin Luthor King was assassinated.

It was a somber place, but so full of amazing, interactive exhibits - it is a must if you ever visit Memphis.

After the museum, we had lunch and then made our way toward Beal street - meh. We aren't a drinking and carousing sort of folk, so we opted for a trolley tour of the riverfront to walking around with huge plastic beer containers.

After taking in the sights we were ready for dinner and tried to go to Rendezvous Ribs, a place the Travel Channel had assured us was the best place in town for BBQ. Apparently they told a bunch of other people too because the wait was over an hour to be seated.

So we ended up at Texas de Brazil .

As you can see we were super sad about it.

The next morning we caught the Peabody Ducks - it's quite the quirkey Memphis tradition and we had a ton of fun shopping in the lobby. Because that's what sister trips are about, you know.

Our next and last stop was the Victorian Village and the Woodruff-Fontaine house - this photo is from their website. It was a super cute house built on Millionaire's row in downtown Memphis in 1870.

Our tour was hosted by one of the ladies who belonged to the Association for the Preservation of Tennesee Antiquities. Which just sounds super Southern, right?!

The home has been furnished by donations from various members and are all original to the time period. The Association was currently exhibiting their collection of period wedding dresses. Totally neat and totally creepy at the same time. I asked our tour guide how the ghosts felt about having visitors tromping through the house and she calmly told me that she had never seen or felt any ghosts. Well, I'm sure they are too well mannered to bother anyone anyway.

On a side note, you too could have your name placed on the back of this wreath! All you have to do is donate some of your hair. Yes, it is made ENTIRELY OF HAIR.

After our tour we made our way to Neely's BBQ - of Down Home with the Neely's on Food Network fame! It lived up to the hype and we had some delicious BBQ sandwiches.

After lunch we were back on the road home. The trip was uneventful until we ran in to a huge storm and we all started discussing the relative advantages and disadvantages of getting out of the car and in a ditch when the tornado inevitably came in our direction.

Thankfully, we never had to face that decision. Aili was at the wheel and like all first borns, was calm, cool, collected and got us safely home. Next year, I'm thinking Chicago!

the 4th with the Fam

2010-07-07T11:18:00.004-05:00

Summer Vacation

2010-06-28T10:53:00.004-05:00

This is where I've spent the majority of the past week. Since I have spent much time and money getting my home updated and decorated I decided not to go on any crazy vacations (i.e., leave the country) this summer and planned on staying home and having a "staycation" instead. And you know what? It was great having the time to spend with new church friends on a weekend trip to Chicago, having old friends over to swim and meeting up with good friends at new places in the evenings. Next year though, it's a trip to Florence and the Italian coast or BUST!

Lovely Weekend

2010-05-24T10:39:00.006-05:00

This seems to be the season for buying property. Elena, my dear friend, is getting married in two weeks but the celebration is starting earlier - she and her fiance purchased their first home in St. Charles and naturally, I had to stop by to offer my felicitations and just generally poke about. I cannot wait to sit on that front porch sipping iced tea!

My brother-in-law was asked to play at his old high school fundraiser, so later that evening I trooped out to Vianney with Aili, Mike and kids to rock out! Above, Joe awaits his St. Louis style pizza. At most fairs and carnivals accross the country you'll find the typical corn dogs, hamburgers and hotdogs for sale. In St. Louis you'll also find pizza, pasta, toasted ravioli and bread to go along with it. Hey, south St. Louis wasn't populated by Italians for nothing.

Cotton Candy is the perfect dessert after pizza, right?!

Sunday evening was even better when I visited a new friend's home for a delicious dinner to celebrate the Lost finale. I baked a lemon pound cake with cream cheese icing as a dessert - all in all, a meal that did justice to the occasion. Lost, you've been a great show, I've still got my questions, but at least you're all happy. Next week, my cousin's wedding in Oklahoma! I love road trips!

Rain

2010-05-18T08:37:00.002-05:00

We've been experiencing all sorts of rain these past several days. The Mississippi is starting to flood a little bit as I've seen on my commute to work as I cross over to Illinois. It's kind of amazing that it all starts because there are a lot of these individual rain droplets right?! Here are a few that didn't quite make it to a river and landed instead on my geraniums.

This and that...

2010-05-10T09:25:00.002-05:00

So, it's been a little over a week, now, in my new home. For Mother's Day I decided to make Key Lime pie for my mom because at the Canessa's house everything is celebrated with food. ha! Can I just say how much I am enjoying having a counter that is wider than 2 feet! I can fit everything I need on the counter now!! yay!

In other news, Darcy seems to be adjusting quite well to his new surroundings...

Celebration

2010-04-26T09:54:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday mom! We love you! (She's also never going to see this...my mom and blogs have just a passing acquaintance.)

Ugh

2010-04-20T09:36:00.005-05:00

Moving isn't very fun. Last night, Caroline and I sorted through 4 years of accumulated stuff in our basement which seemed like it took forever. On the bright side, city scavengers will hit the jackpot if they stop at our curb: there you will find a gently used folding chair, a used computer monitor, and my first set of pots and pans that I bought for about $40 in graduate school.

On the even brighter side, we're hiring movers this time instead of using the backs of my family members which are free (thanks family for all of the previous moves!). I was full of gratitude to these movers by the way, when I was packing 6 huge boxes of books and am so thankful that I will not be the one moving them!

A Babler Park day

2010-04-14T10:07:00.004-05:00

Parks are great for picnics...

Throwing rocks (or sticks) in a creek and seeing who makes the biggest splash.

And creeks are great for getting cool on a hot spring day!

My strange new world

2010-04-09T10:46:00.002-05:00

Of homeownership! Yesterday I signed about 2,000 papers and officially became the owner of this lovely little condo on Bluebird Terrace. I love it!

Laura comes to town...

2010-03-26T09:35:00.016-05:00

This is Laura. We've gone to school together since the 1st grade and we actually knew about each other since the 3rd grade. We have proof - since we both crossed out the other's face in our respective yearbooks. Apparently, we weren't on good terms at the time. Then 7th grade band rolled around and we've been close friends ever since.

We've kept in touch through the years, sometimes only talking once every couple of months to talking every week. What never changed was how much I love having her in my life and how rich our long friendship has become. So, to celebrate 20 plus years of friendship and to just plain old hang out, Laura drove all the way over to St. Louis from Tulsa last weekend and we had us a grand ol'time.

I promised Laura a long time ago that when she visited, we would go on a ghost tour. Now, ghost tours are actually more like historical walking tours and can be super fun. Unfortunately, March is still considered iffy weather-wise for outdoor walking tours, so I came up with the next best thing - a haunted tour of St. Louis' Lemp Mansion. It's actually very well documented as a haunted house and I was excited if somewhat apprehensive about seeing an actual ghost.

Well, we really didn't need to be worried. The mansion itself is, of course, super spooky and full of creaking boards, creepy paintings and stuffy rooms. The "orb" above is the only ghost-ish thing we caught on camera. Now, we photographed a ton of them though, so make of that what you will. Apparently, the guides didn't think much of it since they just shrugged when we showed them.

So, while we didn't actually see anything scary it was fun nonetheless to walk around a dark creepy house for a few hours!

Potential visitors be warned: I will fill your entire day with kitschy tourist activities, since that is pretty much what we have to offer in St. Louis. Starting with the fabulous (and non-kitschy) Soulard Farmer's Market. It's the oldest Farmer's Market west of the Mississippi, having been established in 1779. And it is just so much fun!

It's still a traditional market, with a butcher's shop, spice shop and cute grocery in the interior.

And the produce! Oh my, everything looked delicious!

We met a local soap maker and had a great time picking out various bars. I bought a "shampoo" soap, which I have yet to try but have high hopes for.

Laura and I most enjoyed this tiny, adorable little spice shop. I bought a large bottle of imported extra virgin olive oil (for $11!!) and some chicory coffee. Laura nabbed some chicken spices and some coffee as well.

Many of the sellers informed me that the best shopping days are Saturdays and Sundays, so I will be making another visit very soon!

After our visit to the market, I dragged Laura to the St. Louis Arch. She had never been and is scared of heights...PERFECT! Apparently, rides to the top are much in demand since they were sold out for the next two days. Meh, that was fine with us.

After lunch at Laclede's Landing, we decided to visit a wax museum. I had only ever been to a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and so I was curious what this one would be all about.

Apparently not much. It was quite the kooky place.

After relaxing a bit from our day, Laura and I met went out to Sasha's with my sister, Caroline and her friend Lauren. Sasha's is a lovely little wine bar that offers tappas to go with the wine...

like this delicious "cheese from around the world" plate. The cheese was gone in about 5 minutes.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and just talking with friends. The following day Laura I spent hanging out with my family and enjoyed a very low-key evening.

Laura, I love you lots! Thanks to Brent and Avery for letting you go for a few days and I hope that we can make this a yearly tradition!!

7 reasons to go to the Zoo

2010-03-22T09:34:00.013-05:00

1. Holding hands with a 20 month old while crossing the street.

2. Watching Meerkats watch you.

3. Seeing sea otters swim.

4. Hello, funnel cake!

5. Long, meaningful talks.

6. Riding the train.

7. Coming home with new, stuffed friends.

Away in a manger

2010-03-07T13:25:00.006-06:00

My 4 year old niece, Mara, created an impromptu manger scene last Sunday. In case you were wondering, Mary is the Lizard sitting on top of the mouse and Joseph is the caramel horse in the middle. Also pictured, my favorite purple haired My Little Pony - she came with the ice cream shop I received as a birthday gift when I was 10 years old. I had no idea it was still here. I suppose children can sniff out toys like bloodhounds!

Remembering

2010-03-06T15:32:00.006-06:00

Meh. I'm going to apologize for not blogging much - I've been busy and uninspired to take out the camera. It's been a good friend to me, but we're hitting that part of winter where I just don't think I can take any more cold days and I was beginning to feel like a zombie. Thankfully, it's 57 degrees today and I've been reading outside and enjoying the sunshine. Which made me remember warmer days...vacation days and I decided to photograph the mementos I have bought or received as gifts and displayed in my home from various trips, large and small.

Below is a photo in my hallway of a huge family trip to Costa Rica. We are posing beneath to the entrance of a church in the town my grandmother grew up in.

Above is a series of postcards I collected on my first (as in completely self-funded) mini-vacation with my best friend, Shalyn. We visited New Orleans and stayed the French Quarter for a few days over spring break. Goodness, I miss beignets and coffee.

Above is a series of watercolors my sister bought for me while she lived in Germany for 6 months. These were from a visit to Venice and were painted by an artist she met on the street.

These tiny tea cups are from China. My dad spent six months there for his job and he brought back some truly lovely things for his myself and my sisters.

This is probably one of my favorite mementos. It's a small replica of one of Rodin's sculptures that I bought at the Rodin Museum in Paris. Don't let its diminuitive size fool you, it weighs a ton, at least 10-13 pounds which will feel like 75 when you carry it around for about 15 hours while walking around Paris. I also had to hand carry it home, since adding it to my luggage made it too heavy and would have added a $150 fine. So, yeah, it's my favorite - since it's covered in my blood, sweat and tears. ha!

What kind of mementos do you have?

The search is over

2010-02-15T12:02:00.001-06:00

I've found my little place! The owner accepted my offer this Sunday while I was hanging out with the family, so we celebrated by going out to Sears and looking at ovens. ha! Goodness, I have a lot to do between now and April.

Baby it's cold outside...

2010-02-08T08:38:00.004-06:00

When the snow is falling and the wind is a blowin - homemade hot chocolate always hits the spot! Things around here have been pretty busy. I've decided to purchase a little home for myself and have been occupied with looking at places on the weekends and getting everything together for homeownership. The good news is that I've found a lovely condo in midtown and will be making an offer this week, the bad news is my nerves are going to be going crazy waiting to see if my offer will be accepted. So...anyone have a friend who works at Lowe's and who's loose with the employee discount??

Word to the wise...

2010-01-21T16:11:00.004-06:00

In non-photo related news, I would like to recommend Things Mean A Lot an absolutely marvelous book blog for my fellow bibliophiles. Her name is Nymeth, she's an aspiring librarian and I would love to have a cup of coffee with her. So, if you're looking for a new book to add to your "to read" list, check her blog out and enjoy her book reviews. I've added about 25 books so far and counting...

Foggy, Foggy Night

2010-01-18T21:15:00.001-06:00

Snow Day!!

2010-01-07T12:33:00.003-06:00

So, St. Louis has been experiencing the coldest weather we've had in a decade (as is much of the rest of the country). Add strong winds and sticky snow and you've got a bonus snow day from heaven. I love working in education! Anyways, I was happily baking some homemade blueberry muffins and Caroline was reading on the couch when we received a phone call from our land lord letting us know that a major water main had burst up our street and that we should move our cars.

We scrambled about, putting on our winter gear over our pajammas. Hey - you'd still be in your pjs if you got a bonus day off work too! Thankfully my car was already parked on the other side of the street. Caroline was not so lucky and had to drive it out of the mini-river we had going and through the wet, slick snow. It actually took her a while to get out!

Here's Caroline fording the water. It was actually quite deep! Well, now that that little kerfuffle is over, we'll just get back to our lazy day routine...

Christmas!

2010-01-03T21:28:00.005-06:00

One of the many things I love about my job is that I still get a Christmas break along with the students. I had a wonderful holiday and had many wonderful dinners with friends and time with family. I did not however, remember to bring my camera with me on most days. So here's a tiny bit of my Christmas break - beginning with my two favorite holiday ornaments.

On Christmas eve, my family traditonally attends my parent's church to attend their candlelight service.

And what's cuter than seeing a one and a half year old in pink pants learning to ice skate...or really just being held over the ice by her dad. It was great going out to the skating rink and watching the kids learn to skate!

It was a lovely break. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

The Pear and Almond Tart

2009-12-14T09:46:00.007-06:00

For those of you who read this blog, I promise, this is not turning in to an exclusive baking blog. I just can't seem to help it! It's all I've been doing lately that would warrant a photo as it's been quite cold outside. So bear with me please and I will try to take some non-foodie photos in the near future.

My parents were hosting a large Christmas party at their home this past weekend and with all the other dishes my mom was making she had no time for dessert, so she asked me to make a Pear tart to "go with" the pork loin she was fix'n. I went in to deep research mode and found a recipe for a pear and almond tart through, you guessed it, Cook's Illustrated. It was quite the process and I learned quite a bit about what to do and not do when making tarts. Yes, this tart required an entire bottle of white wine to poach the pears.

Add in a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, lemon rind and peppercorns and you have a delicious juice soaking in to the pears. I was sad I had to throw it away and it seemed like a waste. I think you should be able to add some gelatin to the wine and use it as a glaze at the least.

Here's the what the tart looks like when the shortbread dough is being par-baked. It's kind of like catching someone with rollers in their hair and face cream on, right?!

The frangipane is made up of pureed almonds, butter, eggs and sugar. And it tastes awesome.

After the pears had soaked in the juice, you take 'em out pat their little bottoms dry and slice them up.

Here it is - and all I can see when I look at it is the HUGE space between the pears since I miscalculated the spacing when setting this pears in to the frangipane. And freinds, let me tell you, there is no going back once those pears have been placed. Believe me, I tried. From all reports, though, everyone enjoyed the tart! ya!

Sur La Table

2009-12-11T10:51:00.001-06:00

Oh. No. I am in trouble.

Evil has a Cousin

2009-11-28T11:50:00.002-06:00

So, we have very intrepid squirrels as you can see in this post. You'd think they would jump off a window ledge featuring two very large and very agitated cats, but no, they stay and swish their tails at danger.

Apple Pie Pie Pie

2009-11-28T11:40:00.007-06:00

For Thanksgiving dinner I volunteered to bake an apple pie. I thought it was time to try my hand at a lattice top as I had bought a lovely pie crimper the week before at Cornucopia. I took the above photo as a thank you to my friend Katie - who gave me this wonderful cook book stand for my birthday.

I love visiting Penzeys Spices - a local spice shop in downtown Maplewood. When I was there last time, I saw this small container of freeze dried lemon peel. After talking to the store folks, these lemon peels just need about 15 minutes soaking in water in order to be resconstituted and used in baking. I thought I would give this a try and it worked beautifully.

It took me a while to get used to pie dough that didn't really look like dough. When it looks like sand, that's when you know that you're on the right track.

Gala apples did the trick and stayed tender without being mushy. I think I over did it on the cinnamon this time...it's just so hard to believe that there can ever be "too much" cinnamon. Right?!

I tell you. Parchment paper is my best friend, and it makes rolling out the dough so much easier.

I was so happy that the pie crust didn't end up charred and inedible! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Farmer's Market

2009-11-24T10:39:00.006-06:00

We had beautiful weather in St. Louis last Saturday. So, to the Farmer's Market in Kirkwood I went. It was the frist day of their transition to an outdoor Christmas Market so I was eager to see what goodies they had on display and met up with my mother and younger sister, Leanne.

It was mostly kitschy stuff like this wooden fellow below.

While the decorations were a bit of a disapointment, the small covered market was not! I was just full of yummy treats. Like the crushed peppermint candies that would be perfect for my holiday cookies.

My sister, Leanne (home from college for the week!), had quite the time choosing between all of the homemade jams.

After lunch, my mom led me to the promised land...also known as Cornucopia. It was full of specialty baking and cooking supplies. Hello. I love you, adorable square tart pan.

Hello, ridiculously expensive cast iron enamelware - want to come home with me?

Jury Duty

2009-11-18T22:12:00.005-06:00

So, a couple of months ago, I received a letter in the mail from the St. Louis City Courts letting me know that I had been selected for jury duty and that I was to report to the court house on Nov. 18th in order to serve. I was super excited! I just think that the opportunity to serve on a jury would be the neatest thing! The night before, I had packed a bag of fun things in order to keep myself entertained - that would include the lastest issue of House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart's Cooking School and my current fiction book. Perfect!

My excitement quickly turned to dismay that morning when I discovered that I was lost downtown and couldn't seem to find the building I was supposed to report to. Thankfully, I happened to run in to my new Jury Duty Best Friend as I was getting out of my car. She was just as lost as I was and between the two of use we were able to figure out that we were to report to the Court building (picture above). I thought it looks a bit like the Ghostbusters building, right?!

After about 5 minutes, Hannah and I discovered that we had several friends in common and bonded over family blogs. We both passed the first stage of the jury selection for a huge class-action lawsuit and will be hanging out again on Nov. 30th for further interviews of potential jury members. So, overall, it was a long, boring, different, wierd day. And it was so much more fun to spend it with a new friend!

What Say You?

2009-11-09T15:14:00.002-06:00

So, I was posting a comment on Just a Plane Ride Away (the always fabulous expat blog) about how I was considering the purchase of a new set of dishes and that I was looking at "Friendly Village" which is a set of everyday plates from Wedgewood. This whole set is on sale for $99! I know that I would have found these dishes completely atrocious just a few years ago...so why have I bookmarked the site to look at the photo? WHY? I think I love it.

Boo!!

2009-11-01T17:35:00.006-06:00

I hope your Halloween was a happy one! Our family decided to visit Aili and Mike's house for dinner and taking the kids out for trick or treating.

My sister is a great cook - we enjoyed some seriously fantastic chili (perfect for a cold autum night) and totally cutie pumpkin cookies!

Joseph decided that he wanted to be Cyborg, a DC comics superhero in Teen Titans. I thought he was dressed up like a character from the movie Tron! If you look closely, Mara is bundled up on the couch in the background. A few hours before we arrived she started feeling sick, so she missed out on trick or treating this year.

Miss Baby Elena, however, came to the rescue in her pink super girl outfit to save the day and get some candy for her sick older sister!!

People, I am telling you, I almost melted in to a puddle of love this little girl is so sweet, and brave and spunky and funny and just awesome. It was her first Halloween and it was great to be there for it! After the kids went to bed we enjoyed a marginally scary movie. All in all a great Halloween! Thanks Aili for a great dinner!!

Miscellania...

2009-10-26T12:12:00.004-05:00

So, I've been getting a hard time for my sporadic posting from family members. I had a lovely weekend but left my camera in its perch and have nothing new to offer. The photo above, I took at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The exhibition at the time was on all things female and the piece in the photo is an orthroscopic voyage through the female reproductive system. Interesting and slightly repellant, no?

Comfy Friday

2009-10-17T18:15:00.009-05:00

Having spent the prior weekend in Chicago and it being horribly wet and cold outside, I elected to spend last Friday night at home. Caroline was out for the night and I planned on some much needed downtime. I get home around 6 in the evenings on most weeknights, add in working out, shower, errands etc., and it's usually 7:45 pm or so before I can eat dinner. Needless to say, weekeday dinners are slapdash and rarely homecooked. This Friday would be different, so first and foremost, my plan revolved around baking some fresh bread (above), and I must say, the almost no-knead bread is very flexible!

I cleaned the house, since a clean home always makes me feel peaceful and then enjoyed reading my current book while the bread was baking.

I'm not sure why exactly, but the Charlie Brown Christmas album always makes me feel so cozy!

45 minutes later I had my fresh and delicious loaf on a cooling rack while I set to work on the shredded chicken. Darcy (below) decided that he needed to supervise said kitchen activities...

Once the meal was served, both Archer and Darcy began circling my chair like a pair of meowing sharks.

Darcy, being slightly more canny than poor, obvious Archer, took the "peak over the adjoining chair" tactic. Knowing, of course, that he looks ridiculously cute as he tries to be surreptitious. He's got eyes only for that chicken.

Below, is the compromise we worked out. As long as he wasn't actually on the table, he could sit politely and watch me eat the chicken alfredo. Below is his imploring "feed me some o' that chicken please" look.

After dinner it was time to relax and enjoy a good movie. And yes, those juvenile socks are mine...and they are super comfy I tell ya!

Chicago Bound

2009-10-05T19:00:00.035-05:00

So we (my friends and I) have been collectively throwing around the idea of a girl's weekend trip to Chicago since last year. This September we started rumbling again about how nice it would be to get out of town again and it just so happened that our friend Leah was going to Chicago for a Saturday Shakespear workshop on the 3rd of October. Our weekend getaway was born...

We left St. Louis at 4 o'clock on the nose and arrived in Chicago around 9:30 ish pm. Not wanting to waste precious Chicago time we changed out of our travel clothes and tried to fix ourselves into something decent. Oh, and did I mention that it was about 45 degrees outside? Yes it was, so our adventuring around Chicago that evening went as far as the bar next door. They served a mean cheesecake!

The next morning Caroline, Elena and I had a leisurely breaksfast at a nice little hole-in-the-wall on our way to the Art Institute of Chicago (Leah was attending the teacher's workshop, so unfortunately, could not be with us that morning).

Elena resurrected that old battle-axe the "slash proof" purse, our reliable friend over this summer's Paris trip. We also enjoyed seeing this replica (below) of Winged Victory - the original we saw in the Louvre.

The forecast called for rain most of the day, so we decided to take advantage of the sun and strolled around Grant Park (which was hosting a Country Music Festival).

On our way to see the Buckingham Fountain, we passed the Congress Hotel. We were very close to booking a room here, as they were priced well and its location was fantastic - until I looked it up on TripAdvisor and found out it was the MOST HAUNTED HOTEL in all of Chicago. I thought it would spooky fun to stay at a haunted hotel, but Caroline protested and Leah and I found a perfectly regular business hotel to stay in instead. Anyways, it DOES look haunted doesn't it?!

The girls (all of whom had visited Chicago before) were eager for me to see Lake Michigan. It was beautiful! Buckingham fountain was also very impressive. It's best to stay out of the way of the prevailing winds, though, as my misted glasses could testify to.

After walking the shorefront, we made our way back to the Art Institute and enjoyed their impressive collection of impressionist art!! Elena, as usual, was in heaven and enjoyed the collection of Monet Haystacks on one of the walls, while Caroline and I explored a bit more.

It was really great to see this world-famous Seurat.

And I love, love, love Renoir and his amazing use of color.

The painting (above) was one of our favorites. It's called The Song of the Lark and was pianted by Jules-Adolph Breton in 1884. We had never heard of this artist before, but everyone kind of gasped when we saw this painting on the wall. I thought it was wonderful.

After visiting the art museum, we made our way to Millenium park, full of fun and funky outdoor art. Like the "bean". Apparently it is quite the tradition to get your photo taken in its reflection and we were no different. I was surprised (below) at how little our reflections were distorted.

One of the things I really appreciated about Chicago as we were walking around, was the extent of their public art. It was just everywhere! You can tell that this is a city that values its artists and their contribution to public spaces.

After visiting the parks, we started making our way north on Michigan Avenue in order to meet Leah for a late afternoon lunch. On our way we crossed the river and also saw what little evidence remained of Chicago's hopes to be an Olympic host city (below).

After meeting up with Leah, we had a delicious Spanish lunch, stopped at a Chicago bakery for pain au chocolat (my favorite) and coffee. We spent the rest of the afternoon and in to the evening strolling Michigan Avenue and going shopping. It began raining in earnest at this time, so I have no photos as I didn't want to get my camera wet.

After trudging home the 2 miles sopping wet and exhausted, we decided to take a two hour break before getting back out in the city. Elena and I had originally planned on taking an evening river/lake cruise of Chicago and then watching the fireworks from the boat as well. Sadly, it was (1) too cold and (2) too wet to make this feasible and so we had to come up with another idea. Elena (home to all good ideas) suggested that we go see Second City. Once we agreed on that, the rest of the evening just fell in to place.

We made our way through the still soggy streets to have what many consider to be the quintessential Chicago meal...

Giordano's "stuffed" pizza. The wait to get in to one of these joints is usually a couple of hours, but we must have visited during the witching hour, because we got seated immediately.

Which gave us all the more time to enjoy the most delicious, decadent, over-the-top pizza I have ever had. I am not kidding, you could scoop up the melted mozzarella with a fork. It was heaven.

Which didn't keep us away, however, from making our next engagement - Second City etc!

Second City is an improv/comedy group and is considered the proving grounds for many Saturday Night Live actors (Tina Fey, John Candy, Chris Farly, Bill Murray, etc). Illustrious claims notwithstanding, I was mildly concerned since I am not a huge fan of stand up comedy and imagined strained, awkward jokes falling flat and me being embarrassed for the performers. Thankfully this was not the case. Second City "Stud Turkel's Not Working" was the absolute highlight of our trip! The show started at 11 o'clock and we didn't get out until 1:30 in the morning. And it was worth every bit of lost sleep!

The next morning, perhaps not so birght eyed and bushy tailed, we made our way to the Shedd Aquarium.

On our way to the aquariam we walked the shore of Lake Michigan. The scenery was lovely, or at least those part of the walk that wasn't covered in duck grossness.

The Shedd Aquarium was truly amazing. It was just so cool to see all of these rare animals!

Like this guy from the amazon!

The biggest treat by far, was being able to see the beluga whales! They were just so majestic. We were able to watch a training session for the whales, and below, one of the belugas is rising out of the water to give his trainer a high-five.

I promise that I will not go overboard with the photos I took at the aquarium....but look at those jellyfish! And that crazy sea horse (below)!

We left the aquarium after a few hours and then got back in the car to head home. It was a whirlwind trip to Chicago and the next time I go I would definitely want at least 4-5 days to really get to see this city, but it was a blast nontheless. Shout out to Leah for driving, and the rest of the girls for a wonderful weekend!!

Makeup Party

2009-09-27T17:04:00.010-05:00

Last weekend, I attended my first Bare Minerals makeup consultation and party at one of their shops at a local mall. The store was not open to customers yet, so we had plenty of individualized attention.

Sally is the older sister to two of my closest friends, Hannah and Leah. She won a free makeup party in a contest and invited me and all of her friends to come. Here's a little known fact: Sally was our dorm Student Advisor when I was a freshman in college. Back then it was mostly Sally threatening me and Hannah (and our friends) with "write ups" or something for being too loud and Hannah threatening to tell their mom if she did. Hilarious!

I stopped wearing makeup on a regular basis when I started college; my morning beauty routine consists of washing my face and putting on moisterizer. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy a good 'ol face polishing with a makeup artist, though. In fact, I love people putting my makeup on, as all my friends can attest to on various Saturday nights before we go out. I will plead ignorance and then ask them to put on my eyeshadow etc., and they humor me.

Although I haven't incorporated makeup into my daily routine, I have a fascination with anything skincare related. You should see the amount of skin creams, micro-exfoliators, face masks and pore minimizing toners hanging out in my medicine cabinet. It's ridiculous.

I did end up purchasing this lip gloss, it's called "sugar plum" and at $15 it was probably the most affordable thing in the store. Beauty doesn't come cheap, right? Thanks Sally for a fun Sunday morning!!

And What Would This Be??

2009-09-22T19:31:00.003-05:00

...my first loaf of homemade bread!! Ya! The crust was fabulously crunchy and it tasted great. Of course a 3 year old could do it as long as you have a dutch oven, which I bought specifically so I could do this recipe.

Balloon Glow!!

2009-09-21T21:57:00.005-05:00

Last Friday, Caroline and I went to Forest Park to see the Balloon Glow in Forest Park. Every year, the night before the Forest Park Balloon Race, the participants fill their balloons and allow the public to get up close to these amazing balloons.

The crowds were pretty thick, which made walking around the park a little difficult. It was amazing though, to see the fires shoot up in to the balloons. It lit up the entire area.

It was increadible how hot it was around the balloon baskets. The gas fires would shoot up a good 15 feet in to the balloon and it was just mesmerizing. We met up with our friend Elena and her boyfriend, David. The balloon glow was followed by fireworks and we had a great time eating corn dogs and watching the show!

Clayton Art Fair

2009-09-13T20:14:00.010-05:00

My sister and I decided to go to the Clayton Art Fair this past Saturday.

Aside from the fact that most people can't actually afford to purchase most of the artwork, it was neat to see. The little Andean dancers in the photo above are actually about 2 inches tall. The detail was amazing!

It's not every day you get to see life size metal dancers in the air!

Caroline actually did splurge and she bought an absolutely gorgeous silver necklace. It's her early birthday present to herself, and we should all be able to give ourselves birthday presents every once in a while!