The Real Texas Chili to beat off the chilly weather

I used to work with a woman who was a wonderful cook.  I stole every recipe I could wrest from her grasp.  I even tracked her down about 5 years after I stopped working with her just so that I could get more recipes from her.  Unfortunately, I've lost contact with Myra over the years but there are a few recipes that I still hadn't tried [and it's been almost 10 years since I last stalked her].

Whenever the weather starts to turn nippy in LA [that would be 68 degrees or below] I start craving a hot bowl of Chili over rice.  I like the recipe I've been using for years [ground beef, tomatoes, onions, beans] but the recipe for thick chunks of chuck steak chili was crying my name.  Luckily, I still had this recipe from Myra that I never tried.

After doing some detective work, I figured out that this recipe was from Craig Claiborne, food editor at the New York Times [published in Family Circle June 1975].  I received a huge crockpot for Christmas so I really wanted to give it a try.  I wanted the meat to fall apart tender. It was wonderful, juicy, and had a great spiciness to it...just comforting enough to ward off the cold [served over a bed of rice, of course].

adapted from Real Texas Chili

by Craig Claiborne

3 pounds boneless chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 to 6 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon leaf oregano

2 cans [13 3/4 ounces each] beef broth

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Optional:

1 can [15 ounces] pinto beans

1 cup airy sour cream

1 lime, cut into wedges

1. Heat oil in a 4 quart pot or heavy bottom pan over medium heat.

2. Add beef, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon until meat changes color but does not brown.

3. Lower heat, stir in garlic.

4. Combine chili powder, cumin, and flour. Sprinkle meat with chili mixture, stirring until meat is evenly coated. Crumble oregano over meat.

5. Place beef mixture into crockpot, set on low

6. Add 1 1/2 cans of the broth and stir until liquid is well- blended.  Add salt and pepper [and beans if desired].

7. Cook on low until meat is fork tender [took me about 6 hours]

8. Cool thoroughly, cover and refrigerate overnight to ripen flavor.

Reheat and serve with garnish. [I couldn't wait.  and my garnish was rice.] 

Japanese New Year's

Every year from the time I was born [and before, since I'm the youngest grandchild], my first [and sometimes second] cousins would come together and celebrate the New Year's Japanese style with an Osechi Ryori.  When my grandmother was still alive, she, my mom, and my aunts would cook for days before hand to prepare the bountiful meal, each dish symbolic of something.

Over the past 10 years or so, my brother has been hosting our New Year's day party, inviting his in-laws, friends, and more recently, our clan of cousins.  My poor mom is still in charge of preparing the Japanese Osechi for the legion of people who attend the party.  I decided that it was time for me to step up and act like an adult [ie, no New Year's Eve partying for me] and help my arthritic mom out with the preparations.

I will be leaving my home at 5:30am on the 31st to head down to the LA Fish Company to pick up all of our sashimi and seafood with my brother & dad.  I get a little overwhelmed  and unfocused whenever I'm down there. The temptation to pick up a pound of masago or 10 pounds of tasty oysters is sometimes too much for me to bear.  Luckily, my brother giving me the evil looks of death really puts an end to my unrealistic hopes and dreams.

Unfortunately, because I've been facebooking so many of the things I've been making over the past several months, I've gotten myself into a situation where I promised many baked goods to appear at the New Year's Party.  For the first time at our New Year's party, I will be making a dessert table filled with goodies like SavorySweetLife Bacon Caramel Pecan Bars, Tartelette's Dark Truffles, La Fuji Mama's Caramels, The Pioneer Woman's no knead dinner rolls [my nephew's request], my own LAUSD Coffee Cake, Meyer Lemon Mini Cupcakes, and whatever else my teeeny little brain can bake up on Wednesday. 

But one thing that I have to remember is that it's not all about the food [and booze, gotta toast in the New Year's with Sake!] but about my [extended] family and friends.  This year, we're expecting all of my family members, ALL of my cousins and their kids, both of my brother's-in-law's families, friends of family, former high school friends, etc etc.  I feel so incredibly grateful for the abundance that we get to share! 

Happy New Year's from my family to yours, wishing you a very healthy, prosperous, and blessed 2010!

or as my people say it:

"Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu.  Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"
[Happy New Year.  I hope to rely upon you this year as well!]

Winning Recipe: Bacon Caramel Pecan Bar

Just a quick update this Monday morning.

Thanks to Alice at Savory Sweet Life, I was won one of 3 prizes for our company bake off! Just check this photo out...oooeeeey, gooooeeey bacon-y deliciousness.  Bacon Caramel Pecan Bar and here's the recipe.

My Pres who was one of 3 voters at the blind tasting [he asked which one was mine so he could vote against it] was not amused when I jumped up & down and pranced down the walk way to wrest my prize from out of his death grip.  He said, "bacon?? that's gratuitous!"  

So what?  I won. Thanks, Alice.

Whole Grain Challah with Cranberries and Orange Zest

Oh my gosh. This is technically my 3rd time working with yeast. For the purposes of this post, we will not revisit my old high school Chem 101 phobia of yeast.  I just had a great time with this particular recipe.  It was easy enough for me to do, a newbie in the bread baking world.  I've made bread from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book Artisan Bread in 5 and that was a [tasty] breeze as well! 

I wish I could say that I took photos step by step but sadly, I did not.  I barely clicked off my finished shot before I devoured [no pun intended] half the loaf.  I can, however, mentally recall the steps.  Well, at least the parts I was questioning.  You know how I love my questions. [for recipe, please visit our host, Big Black Dog]

 

Step 1:  Decide to half the recipe since I knew if I made the full 4 loaves, I'd eat it all and it would just show up on my @$$.  Mix in all the dry ingredients and realize that I kept the same amount of yeast as in the regular recipe.  CAREFULLY scraped out what I thought was 1/2 the amount of yeast.

Step 2:  Mix in the wet ingredients.  But wait. ..the regular recipe calls for 3  large eggs.  So, what?? Am I supposed to use HALF an egg? what the heck was I supposed to do with the other half?? Hmm...looked at the egg carton that said JUMBO on it.  Maybe that would qualify has 1-1/2 LARGE eggs...Ok, ONE jumbo egg, coming right up [and if it looked too dry, I'd just throw in another 1/2 a jumbo egg].

Step 3: Let it rest...2 hours later I'm nearly having a heart attack because it hadn't risen.  Oh wait. I forgot. It's really cold in LA right now...and subsequently in my house [YES, 40 degree weather IS cold for us in the City of Angels] as well.  I threw it into my oven and let it rise.

Step 4: Darn, too late to bake the bread tonight.  Stuck it into the fridge.

Step 5: Pull dough out of the container and and start rolling it out.  3/4".  Hmmmm...that sounds really small.  Or maybe it's that whole perception of what 3/4" really is.  I'm going with what I think looks right.

Step 6: Read the directions to braid.  Ok, I'm NOT retarded.  I know how to braid.  What do they mean not move the center strand?? how do you braid without moving the center strand?? HUH??  Hmmmm...I'm braiding it like I do my hair...if I still braided my hair, that is.

Step 7: Let rise IN MY OVEN [I'm dumb but at least I try not to repeat my mistakes] for 45 minutes.  In which time, I sat around waiting for the bread to rise.  No solutions to world peace, no christmas cards, no gift wrapping. Just sat and waaaaaiiiiited.

Step 8: Take the loaf out of the oven & pre-heated....waiting some more.  BEEEEP! oven is ready so I throw the bread in.  3 minutes later, I RUN back to the kitchen to pull out the bread to brush on the forgotten egg wash.  

Step 9: Wait another 30 minutes in which time I watched "Sing Off". Man. This is good stuff. I wish I could sing.

Step 10: Pull the loaf out of the oven and plate it. Take 3 photos and can not WAIT to dig into the bread.  I did not even wait 5 minutes for it to cool off.

I saw on Bread365 blog that she made cinnamon rolls out of them. TOTALLY going to do that! brills.  My co-workers may be getting a special treat tomorrow...If i don't eat it all first.  I'm such a little piggy.

 

Mochi Tsuki...

I remember being a little girl barely able to see over the floured table that my mom, her friend [Mrs S], and Mrs S's sister in law working quickly and efficiently rolling balls of mochi.  I tried to "help" by making a mess of everything I touched [ahhh...some things never change]. 

Over the years, I had gotten quite good at rolling the mochi but began to hate going.  The thought of having to stand and work from 6:30am to the late afternoon nearly sucked the life out of my body.  I stopped going from college years through to...well, this year.  My mom asked me if I could come in the morning to give them a hand.  Selfish brat that I am, all I could think of was, "I guess I could add that to my blog!"

I laughed when I got there and saw a girl who was a little younger than I was when I first started to help, tearing and pulling the mochi.  I recognized that boredom  that was beginning to set in.  I also saw her throwing some un-prepared mochi on to the prepared table.  I silently and stealthily pulled them off the table to redo while she wasn't looking.

The mochi that we made today will be used for the New Year's Ozoni which I will be posting a little later.  I'm still in a mad dash for Christmas cookies and stuff.  I forgot how much work it was. I have to give Mrs S' sons, Jack and Jesse a lot of credit.  They've been doing this every year for about 40 years without fail, helping their dad.  Now that their dad's gone, it's fully their responsibility to take it over.

Step 1: wash the rice and then set it in a steamer:

Step 2: Either pound or set the cooked rice through the machine [we're old...pounding mochi is WAY too much work for us]. On average, they have to run the rice through the machine abour 3 times:

Step 3:  Bring the mochi in to the house, dump on the well floured [with mochiko] table:

Step 4: Knead the mochi [much like bread dough]:

Step 5: Pull off large golf ball sized balls of mochi.

Step 6: take mochi and start pulling from outside edges, leaving the center are thicker than the edges.  Burn fingers on the heat of the mochi, playing hot potato with it.  The mochi is hot but still stretchable while it is hot...once it cools down it's a lot harder and stickier to work with. 

Step 7: If you are making mochi with Anko, take a ball of an and place it in the center.  Pull the edges together and twist the mochi together.  Sorry- i really wish I had taken photos of this but my mom & mrs S, while hysterically funny, are taskmasters and they don't have time for my photo snapping nonsense.

Two other types of mochi: one with beans:

and one with yomogi [mugwort] from my backyard:

Ok, i have to admit, I was tired, my back was sore, but I really had a great time talking about the past with my mom, Mrs S, Sharon [PTA mom from my elementary school...mother of 2 of the meanest boys EVER], along with the future generation of mochi kids!

Caramel Chex Mix

I have to say one of the easiest and most tasty things I make during the holiday season is Caramel Chex Mix.  When I bring this tasty treat into work, it's demolished within minutes.  I can sit down and eat this whole batch myself but I don't because I really need to fill those darn gift baskets with bulky items.

Caramel Chex Mix

On stove-top:

1 cup     Butter

1 cup     Light brown sugar

1/4 cup  dark karo corn syrup

Boil the above ingredients in a heavy saucepan

Stir continually while maintaining a constant boil for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in:

1/2 tsp    vanilla extract

1/8 tsp    baking soda

Mixture will get frothy

Pour mixture over:

6 generous cups popped popcorn [i use the unsalted/unbuttered one]

4 generous cups of Rice Chex

2 generous cups of Cheerios

1 generous cup of nuts [almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, whatever you like]

Stir well to coat and place in 9 x 13 or larger baking pan. Alice from Savory Sweet Life had this BRILLIANT idea of throwing the popcorn/cereal items into a large paper shopping bag, pouring the mixture over it and shaking it up in the bag!!

Bake in oven at 250 degrees for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Cool on wax or parchment paper.

Pistachio Cranberry Cookie

Ok, i guess the ingredients listing is a no brainer, right??  I mean, I pretty much spelled it out on my title.  Yup, that's me...marketing GENIUS.

I've been trying to come up with a cookie recipe that would win me $100. I'm not sure if this one will do it but judging from the 5 or 6 different batches that I've come up with, each one of them have been devoured by the office crew with a big thumbs up.  Then again, they're not voting.  My Prez is.  I'm also submitting this to my company's flower blog today [hence the Christmas product you see in the background!]

***UPDATE***
Ok, I've been totally asleep at the wheel.  I've discovered that In Jennie's Kitchen is co-hosting the 12 Days of Sharing to help end childhood hunger [as well as Rachael at LaFujiMama]!! For my 3 friends who actually read/follow my blog, I hope you'll consider helping end childhood hunger by clicking on the link below and making a donation to a very worthy cause.  None of us have had to suffer through hunger [clearly, as you've seen my expansive butt] and many of you have children - can you imagine them hungry for longer than a few hours?

If my entry wins in the Bake Off at work, I'll be donating the winning to Share Our Strength!

Shortbread

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp powdered sugar

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup ground pistachio [use 2 tbsp of the powdered sugar and ground with a food processor]

1/4 cup chopped cranberries

zest of one orange

Pinch salt

Optional Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup semi chocolate chips, melted [micro or over double broiler]

Cream together butter and powdered sugar.  Add salt, flour and pistachio flour and mix until crumbly.  Add chopped cranberries & zest of orange.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.  I used a tart pan for mine since it spreads so much.  You can also add the chocolate ganache to sweeten the deal!

LAUSD Coffee Cake

A couple of months ago, I hosted a brunch for a few of my friends from high school [well, technically we've all known each other since elementary school].  One of my friends brought a coffee cake to the brunch.  All of us were slowly eating it because it tasted so darned familiar.

"I've had this before..." i said, "but I can't figure out WHERE."

Jana smiled at me and said, "think down memory lane...it's a recipe from a long, long time ago."

Judy shouted, "OH MY GOSH, this is the coffee cake recipe from junior high school!! I used to eat this all the time!"

When she said "all the time", she wasn't kidding - we all did.  It was our go-to snack/breakfast during recess.  You know...back in the day when calories didn't mean anything because you could burn it off by simply breathing.

I've been craving this coffee cake so I thought I'd do a nice thing and make some for my co-workers [who sadly, can not burn off the calories from this coffee cake just by breathing...but don't tell them I said that!].

LAUSD Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Adapted from LAUSD

CAKE INGREDIENTS

3 ¾ cups all purpose flour

½ cup plus 2 Tbsp nonfat dry milk

1¼ tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1½ tsp cinnamon

3½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp vinegar

1½ cups water

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp butter

1¼ cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

TOPPING INGREDIENTS

¾ cup plus 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

¼ cup plus 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

¼ cup granulated sugar

dash salt

¼ + 1/8 tsp cinnamon

¼ + 1/8 tsp nutmeg

¼ cup butter

CAKE:

Combine flour, dry milk, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

Combine vinegar and water in measuring cup. Set aside.

In mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on low speed until blended. Add eggs and continue to blend on low speed for 1 minute.

While mixer is on low speed, add dry ingredients alternately with water and vinegar to butter-sugar mixture. Scrape down bowl, then blend on medium speed for 1 additional minute.

TOPPING:

Sift together all ingredients except butter into a bowl, set aside. Cream butter in mixing bowl, adding the dry ingredients until topping is crumbly.

Evenly divide batter between 2 greased 9-by-9-inch pans. Spread ¾ cup topping evenly over batter in each pan. Bake in preheated 375° oven until tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of cake (about 45 to 55 minutes).

Makes 18 servings.

Happy Thanksgiving Disasters

I had finished the cranberry sauce, the dough for the dinner rolls, candied yams, apple pie and was waiting on the pumpkin pie when disaster struck.  Have you guys ever seen what a pumpkin pie looks like upside down on the floor??

Well, now you have. It looks like BARF.

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.

* No family members were hurt during the filming of this disaster.  Although my dad came pretty close [if we lived under the same roof] when I heard him laughing hysterically in the background while I was crying to my mommy.

* No real tears were shed in the making of this pie 'cuz there ain't no cryin' in the kitchen.  Even though I came very, very close.  A nice fennel by the name of Colloquial Cook gave me words of encouragement that helped me carry on.  Thanks, C!

Suzi's Cookies & Cream

I'm not a big fan of mousses, parfaits, or anything like that.  This week has been insane for me [as it is with many people throughout America] so when I first heard of the office potluck, my first inclination was not to participate. That is, until my friend and colleague, Suzi, from Oklahoma City decided to send me her recipe for Cookies and Cream.  She promised it'd be a guaranteed hit.

I was skeptical at first but it was an easy recipe so I thought, "why not??"  To my surprise,  I nearly licked the bowl clean as I was making it.  And the best part??  This no fuss dessert was one of the most popular one out there! So you have a last minute potluck to go to?  Need something easy and cheap?  Here it is!

Suzi's Cookies and Cream

3 boxes French Vanilla Instant Pudding Mixes [3.5 ounce box]

3 cups of Milk [come on, use whole milk]

2 tubs Cool Whip

8 oz Cream Cheese

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 package Oreo cookies

Mix well, the French Vanilla Instant Pudding packets with milk & Cool Whip.  Chill for 30 minutes.

Soften Cream Cheese and mix with powdered sugar.  Combine the two mixtures together. Sprinkle with bag of crushed Oreo cookies as desired.

Serve in glass or clear cup & enjoy!

The Pioneer Woman Book Signing, Los Angeles Edition

I didn't even know about Food, Home, Photog blogger Ree Drummond's book signing until Saturday night when I saw it tweeted by @WhatsGabyCookin. I had a copy of Ree's book that just needed to be signed.  The only thing is that I've never waited in line for anything other than a Sample Sale. I just don't do lines very well unless I know for fact that I'm going to get a HUGE bargain on something. It was with surprise that I found myself waiting in line for over 2 1/2 hours to get The Pioneer Woman to sign my book for me.

Step 1: secure seats. actually, step 1 was arriving an hour early, buying a couple more books, and getting the "pink" wristband [aka Group 2]. Then it was to secure seats. I was lucky that there were just a couple of seats left.  The person next to me asked if I had a blog to which I replied, "blog?? what blog?? no, I don't have a blog..."

Step 2: take really, really blurry photos of Ree as she walks in because I don't want to stand and block anyone's view.  *SIGH* [Ree is the glamorous reddish/brown one, not the hairy one]

Step 3: Stop myself from asking questions so as to not attract attention to myself during Q & A. Although she did sing "No Business like Show Business" for a clip.  A clip that I unfortunately was not quick enough to get on tape. 

Step 4: Belatedly realize that I should not have secured a seat so far up front because now I'm at the back of the Group 2 line.  Hmmm...how long could it take to get through a couple hundred people [halfway point shown below, about 1 1/2 hours into event]?

Step 5: near the front of the line only to see the wave getting started by the lunatics behind me [just kidding guys...you were super cool...if a little nutty!].

Step 6: Finally get to take my photo with Ree, when I attack her in a bear hug

Step 7: Am amazed by the fact that she actually remembers my name considering that we met only once before.  I can barely remember my brothers' names.  She asked me if I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to come down to the signing.  Well, not so much but it was all worth it!  And I finally got some Christmas and birthday shopping off my list of things to do!

Chocolatey Chocolate Cookie

I'm about 3 weeks away from a Bake Off Challenge at my work.  Prize is a $100 gift certificate.  I can't lose this.  I need to win.  For no other reason than I'm just that kind of person.  I'm searching through my recipe box and am ramped up to be in a frenzy of baking.

I used to work with this wonderful cook/baker/entertainer at my first job out of college.  I don't know where she got this recipe but I love this, especially after I added some toffee bits to it.  Even one of my VPs at my office, who would rather swallow his tongue than compliment me, said that he liked this cookie [no, really...he likes me...he just doesn't realize it quite yet].

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tbl milk

8 squares (8 oz) semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1 cup toffee bits (like Heath)

Adjust oven racks to divide oven into thirds. preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie with parchment paper. Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa together; set aside.

Beat butter in mixer bowl until softened. Beat in vanilla and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and milk. With mixer at low speed, add dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate and toffee. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, no more than six on each sheet. With fork dipped in water, flatten tops slightly to 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake 2 sheets at a time 14 to 15 minutes, switching position of pans halfway through, until lightly browned but still soft. Let cookies stand on sheets 1 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes 32 cookies.

Top 5 Reasons to visit Lisbon, Portugal

I had no idea what to expect when I first hit the "purchase" button on my flight to Lisbon [and returning from Barcelona].  Lisbon had been on my "places to visit" list mostly because I didn't know a proliferation of people who'd actually been there.

So, on to my Top 5 reasons [in no particular order]:

Reason #1: An interesting way to tour around Lisbon - Go Tours

They've got GoCar Tours in Lisbon [as well as a few other cities around the world].  I was interested in doing something I haven't done before. I'm constantly searching for new [for me] fun ways to experience new locations. I found the GoCar Tours site after a quick search on the internet and was immediately intrigued - the bonus? They had a special promotion for bloggers who take this tour for the first time!

I've never even ridden a scooter before but there I was tooling around in a foreign country in a bright yellow amped up, souped up go-cart!  Belem was my chosen destination and what a fun [if not a bit too bumpy due to potholes and cobblestones] way it was to experience the trip.  I like the convenience of those big hop on/hop off tour buses in that they hit the major sites that I want to see but they are SO incredibly boring, I end up falling asleep on them.  The GoCar was hands on and was a thrilling way to view parts of the city [not to mention that it was easy to find a spot to park it!]. 

One piece of advice: Be sure you rent for several hours instead of the 90 minutes that I did.  I regretted not having more time to play around the city on that thing. 

Reason #2: The food and wine

I didn't delve too much, technically, into the wine scene in Lisbon.  I just drank and enjoyed [and drank a LOT more].  I found out that a lot of the producers have such a small lot that they don't ship out their wines outside of Portugal.  Those hoarders. 

The seafood in Lisbon was fantastic.  Fresh, interesting and grilled so perfectly - crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside - that I thought it was deep fried.  The sardines were HUGE.  I mean...how do they find sardines so huge? I thought they grew in a can with mustard or various other spices. 

One of the Porto wine stores I visited [and subsequently bought stuff from] informed me that the Portuguese olive oil was complex and excellent.  I tried some of it and was duly impressed, right along with some of the cheese selection he offered.  He proudly shared that Portugal has some of the best quality cheeses, wines, olive oils, and meats around. 

Reason #3: The beauty of the city

I am not a museum person.  I walk through museums looking at paintings on the walls, appreciating the complexities of light, texture, and precision of the art.  It's very rare that these 2 dimensional object d'art will inspire me to linger longer than a few minutes.  Instead, what inspires me most are the buildings and nature...everything that this 3 dimensional world can offer!

So it should come as no shock that most of the time was spent meandering around the city, walking around, and getting lost [we got lost a lot. unusually so].  I carefully walked throughout the city since I had this very bad habit of spraining my ankles whenever I walk on flat pavement so you know that cobblestone was a personal joy for me.  I loved looking at the beautiful tiles on the walls and the interesting cobblestone artwork.  There's just nothing like it.

Reason #4: The people

Everywhere I went, the people were so warm and friendly.  Portuguese is very difficult to pronounce.  Luckily, it wasn't an issue since so many people had a rudimentary grasp of English. 

Everywhere we went, people were so willing to share their heritage and knowledge with me that I felt like I was missing out by not staying longer in the country. 

Reason #5: The value

The cost to play in Lisbon was an outstanding value.  We had some very great meals for $30.  I loved hearing that my breakfasts only cost me $5 - something I rarely hear when I travel in Europe.  The cost to get in to various attractions and transportation were also a lot more reasonable than in other parts of Europe. 

All in all, I wish that I had spent more time traveling throughout Portugal than just the one city.  The people are friendly, there's a lot of wonderful food to eat, the architecture is awe inspiring, and Lisbon just took my breath away...

Postcards from vacation...

I am compulsive about printing out labels with addresses of my friends and family.  That's usually one of the first things I print out and it's the 2nd thing I take care of on my vacation. So you can imagine how horrified I was when I realized that I totally forgot to print out and bring my labels.  I decided to send postcards via my blog, generic though it may have to be. Please fill in the blanks where instructed...

Dear [fill in your name]:

Greetings from [Lisbon or Barcelona]! I hope you're having as great a time in Los Angeles as I am in [Lisbon or Barcelona].  I've been having a fantastic time here - eating, walking, shooting photos, cooking, and shopping. 

I really wish you could be here [unless you're someone I'd rather not be around] with me sharing [well, having your own] cup of chocolat & churros.  I never knew a cup of chocolate could be so thick.

You would have loved the cooking class Carrie & I took at Cook & Taste [unless you hate to cook].  In spite of my squeamishness from the monkfish that really, really grossed me out, I feel pretty confident that I can make paella [I was the one who made the fish stock...i KNOW i can make THAT]!  I'll tell you more about this class later. 

Tonight is my last night in Barcelona, so I'd better get packed and ready to go out.  I know I'll never be able to pack after a night of food & drinks.  I look forward to seeing you when I get home [unless I don't normally see you, in which case I won't]!

With Much Love [unless I hate you...]

Jen