Insanely Cool Thanksgiving Cupcakes

I think I'll have to make these. They are HILARIOUS!

You can find the recipe here on FamilyFun.com: Click here

If you do end up making these, or anything else equally entertaining, please let me know how they turned out.

MMMMmmmm...Wine

My husband and I went up to Santa Ynez wine country (Lompoc and Los Olivos) this weekend with friends. We drank a lot of great wine, and ate A LOT of wonderful food. Like a few other times, we headed out very early on Friday morning so that we could get to Ellen's Danish Pancake House to fill up on their glorious pancakes before drinking the rest of the day. (Ugh, when is lunch?) I highly recommend getting their "2x2" Danish Pancake special...2 Danish pancakes and two eggs. I also enjoy getting a hot chocolate (with a tower of real whipped cream) and a side of Polska Kielbasa. MMMM...good eats.

We visited with a couple of winemakers that we have met with before (Loring and Ampelos). Loring's fall mailing list orders just opened up yesterday. We're still trying to figure out how much we want (lots). Ampelos has a lovely pinot noir rosé this time around - we picked up a couple of bottles. What I really liked about their rosé is its sweet floral scent and crisp finish. It's not too overly sweet of a rosé. We also met Chad Melville, one of the winemakers of Samsara Wine (and yes, he's related to the Melville Wine family). He has a couple of very nice wines that were great fun to try.

The surprise wine of the weekend was Palmina. Not typical of winemakers in this part of California, Plamina makes Italian style wines. And they do a GREAT job of it. Tasting room manager Hether Briggs hosted a private tasting for seven of us on Saturday before their official open at 11:00 a.m. (yes, we were drinking vino at 10:00 a.m., perfect). These are all excellent food wines. While tasting, we were enjoying sopressetta, dry parmesan and bread sticks. We left with six bottles (Malvaisia Bianca, Tocai Friulano, Barbera, Dolcetto, Savoia and a rosé). We also joined their Stagioni Wine Club.

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed another visit to Mattei's Tavern for dinner in Los Olivos (it was Brian's first time there). They have the best steak EVER. So, of course everyone at the table got that. So funny. First, I started with the puree of summer corn soup. My main course was t heir 6 oz. prime fillet with caramelized onion potato gratin with a stilton cheese-port wine sauce. To. Die. For. For dessert I enjoyed their apricot raspberry almond crisp with vanilla ice cream. The apricots were amazing (came from the huge tree outside from where we were sitting). MMMMMMmmm.....steak!!!!!!! This is a "must visit" if you're headed out to the Solvang/Buellton/Santa Ynez/Los Olivos area. Make sure to call ahead for reservations.

Olive You

Again, posting while I'm hungry. I'm sitting here waiting for my husband to finish up work so that we can scurry off to get dinner and then go to the movies at The Arclight.

I'm feeling sick today (summer cold coming on), and for some reason I decided to Google "sick cookies" and in a round about way, I stumbled upon Jumbo Empanadas' site where I found this amazing recipe for Deep Fried Olives. Yup. Beautiful jumbo green olives stuffed with Maytag blue cheese, breaded and then deep fried. It sounds like heaven.

Reminds me a bit of this crazy green olive appetizers my parents used to make on special occasions (birthdays, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve). Basically, it's a Spanish olive surrounded by a cheesy dough and then baked. MMMMMMM...I need me some of those right about now.

Alas, maybe I'll satiate my hunger w/ a medium-rare burger from the Arclight Café. Y up, that should do it. Maybe that will cure my cold too.

Bon Weekend.

How cute are these????!!?!!?!

I just love these Farm Iced Mini Cookies from Williams-Sonoma. Can't you just taste their brightly-colored sugary goodness?

They somewhat remind me of Mother's Circus Animal Cookies. MMMMmmm.... I could really go for some of those right now. (I really need to NOT post when I'm hungry.)

[Added 08/07: My husband told me this last weekend that his ex-girlfriend's family used to manufacture the Mother's Circus Animal Cookies. Too bad they got rid of that factory.]

Hope Floats

I just wanted to say "hello" to the person in the dark blue Toyota Matrix w/ the Texas plate and Beaumont frame who passed by me on the 110 south through Downtown this morning. I wanted to send this cordial greeting to you because your old Kerry / Edwards bumper sticker made me smile.

I wish there were more people like you in Texas.

HOLY COW

I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I have last posted. My, my, my how time flies.

In a nutshell, since then:

• I celebrated my birthday; and I'm about to do so again (:::sigh:::)
• My middle sister and her finance FINALLY settled on a wedding date (thankfully after the holidays, with enough time to plan for a wedding, and after she graduates from grad school this May)
• After three years, I left my old gig mid-September
• Just HOURS after leaving my old job, I flew to Chicago for a freelance gig for a few days (moolah)
• Started a new gig a week after my old one
• Visited w/ the hubby and friends in NYC in November
• After two years, I finally got a replacement digital camera (last one got stolen; long story)
• I made Luxe status within only three months time (if you know what this is, you know how crazy this is to accomplish in such a short time)
• I had an 84.5 hour work week over seven day straight time period (only to continue working the regular five day work week afterwards)
• I've been busy helping my sister plan her wedding
• I FINALLY figured out what that financial stuff I was touting the past three years really means to someone in My Next Stage
• My husband and I bought a 52 bottle wine fridge, and it's already full
• I'm excited about my concert outings this upcoming summer at the Hollywood Bowl and at Dodger Stadium (THE POLICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

That's it! I'll try to do a better job of posting.