it's time to go offal

Top Chef is most certainly my favorite reality show.  Hand's down.  I've seen all 9 seasons of the original, 2 seasons of Desserts & 3 seasons of Masters.  The new season of Masters started this week and ohmygod Chris Costentino is a cheftestant!!!!!! 

He's mah faaayvorite.  He co-owns Incanto is San Francisco.  They have a Leg of Beast feast that I've been dying for.  I need to find 5 other people who are willing to shell out $55 bucks each for dinner tho. Chris is one of the biggest fans of Offal & has a site about it called Offal Good.  I reallllly want to go to Incanto.

The thing about Top Chef is that it's a real cooking contest.  It's not super drama filled (tho there's always a bit of that), but it really is all about the cooking and there are some dang talented chefs competing.  Top Chef Masters is harder because I always know at least 50% of the chefs competing.  Not personally of course, I'm just not that cool (shocking, right?).

If Chris doesn't win I'll be devastated.  Kind of like when he lost The Next Iron Chef.  He should've had that win!

Anyhoo...I have nothing else to say on the matter at this time.

things that made me happy this week

This week has been a pretty good week.  I've felt relatively good all week (thanks to the bijillions of medications I'm taking).  And I finally feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that the end of the tunnel isn't as far away as it felt last week!

These are some of the things that contributed to my yay week:

Ok so this wasn't necessarily a yay thing.  All of a sudden a nice little crack showed up on the screen of my iPhone.  When I say 'showed up' I mean to say mysteriously.  I didn't drop the phone or anything and the strangest part was that the crack was on the inside!  You couldn't feel the crack on the outside glass of the screen.  And where it was situated was directly over the phone icon in that corner making it very difficult to make calls (or choose the letter 'v' when playing Hanging with Friends with my sister).

So Ray called Apple and they said that any crack in the screen voided the warranty and it would cost somewhere around $250 to get a replacement phone.  BOOOOO.

We went over to the Apple store to get someone to take a look at it.  The guy looked at it and said it was a single line crack and was probably a manufacturer's defect (though he'd never seen anything like it) and replaced my phone for free!  Whew!

So here's my yay phone picture!

Notice....no crack!

After the discovery of the sugar free awesome Oreos I didn't really think anything would be as wonderful.  I was wrong.  I've been splurging on Skinny Cow products (which are delicious), but they still contain about 10-12 grams of sugar per serving.  We found these at the grocery store and they only have 3 grams.  I tried one out suspiciously, sure they would taste like iced milk or something horrid like that.  I was wrong.  They're rich and creamy and completely wonderful.  Yay chocolate fudge bars that won't spike my sugar!!

For some reason this week I've been especially infatuated with my Hermione book mark.  I love it.

I realllllly good after dinner glucose level!  Yay!

My friend recently joined up with Wildtree food products so being the awesome friend I am I went to the party, tasted some food and purchased said food.  Apparently, grapeseed oil is fabulous for you.  Even better than olive oil.  So I got some to try and used it for the first time the other night.  I used it on my steaks and to saute the spinach, mushrooms & green beans.  It was so good!  If you can find a Wildtree rep in your area you should tackle them and get some of this stuff.  They have a bunch of different infused oils too (like bacon!), but I really liked this Roasted Garlic one and felt like it would be the most versatile.

And last but not least, my favorite yay thing of the week.  Crystal Light's little drink packet thingys.  I started with Iced Tea with Lemon and enjoyed it.  I also got some Green Tea with Lemon and Honey and I liked it (though not as much as the Ice Tea with Lemon).  Then I tried the Orange one and really liked it so I thought I'd try some other fruit ones.  Today I got Strawberry, Fruit Punch, Pomegranate Lemonade & Pomegranate Cherry.  So far I've tried the Fruit Punch and LOVE IT.  I'm not a big drinker of the plain water.  I will drink it and do, but sometimes I just want something with flavor and since I really shouldn't be drinking soda or fruit juice these are the perfect subs for me.

So there you have it!  Stuff that's made this week a little more sunshiney for me!  Is there anything that's brightened your week??

tea time

I love, love tea.  Mostly I alternate between Earl Gray with cream and sugar and a blend of Jasmine Green Tea and Rooibos Tropica from Teavana.  Here’s how you can make my perfect tea.  You’ll need to take a trip to Teavana first and pick up a few things, but it will be sooooooo worth it!

Heat your water to 175°.

The Rooibos Tropica I get from Teavana, the Jasmine we get from an Asian market in San Jose.  This was ridiculously cheap compared to buying it at Teavana and it’s still super good.

Teavana sells German Rock Cane Sugar.  In my opinion it is what makes everything soooooo perfect.

This is the large Perfect Tea Maker.  It makes about 3.5 cups.  It’s much easier than using any other kind of steeper.  Believe me, we’ve tried ‘em all.

Making a cup for both Ray and I it takes 3 scoops of each the Jasmine, the Rooibos & the sugar.

Add the water.

Let it steep for 3 minutes.

The best thing about the Perfect Tea Maker is that you just set it on top of your cup and the liquid comes out straining all by itself!

Now go and enjoy your perfect cup of tea!

project 365, week 13

Woo hoo!  Three whole months done!  I must admit, this last month was trying.  I was just not in the mood very often to take pictures, but I stuck through it and now we start a whole new month!

3.28.11 – The first thing that I’ve craved so far this pregnancy.  Yummy, buttery, salty goodness!

3.29.11 – I was desperate to finish the 6 books I’d started the week before and set aside.  Some I loved (Divine By Mistake by PC Cast, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay), some were okay (Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Tell No One by Harlan Coben and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon) and some I hated (Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton), but I finished them!

3.30.11 – This guy and his neighbor are currently camped out right outside our backdoor.  Needless to say, that plug in the background?  It’s never getting plugged back in again.

3.31.11 – This is my favorite photo this week, maybe even this month.  I just loved the colors and the depth of field I got here.  Yep, patting myself on the back, pretty proud here.

4.1.11 – Cowboy dress up day at school.  I got her the hat, she provided the paper bag vest and napkin bandana.

4.2.11 – Waiting for our table at The Old Spaghetti Factory downtown I snapped this picture of the stained glass window and brick wall outside using Instagram on my phone.  I really loved the way it turned out.

4.3.11 – The last yellow hibiscus in my in-laws’ yard.  They have a couple of other colors too, but I’m drawn to the yellow ones.

Happy week everyone!