Heh..

I've been talking to some of my friends and family out in California.. I guess Fall hasn't showed it's beautiful face over there yet since they've been dealing with some ridiculously high heat. I mean, our Summers normally don't hit till about late August / early September..lasts about a month, then levels out to Fall till February. My Dad says that California has a "Sprumfater" season. Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter all smashed into one without having to fully commit to each individual season, which is pretty accurate. I guess you consider our "Winter" when we have a thick marine layer and the temp stays about 60*.. 50* at the lowest.

I acquired this pic off of Stefanie's blog since she's been melting in San Luis Obispo for the last few days. Temps like this make me happy I'm no longer at Vandenberg since the base housing there DOES NOT have A/C and the sun beat directly into our house..there was no relief during some pretty nasty heat waves. 

So, for all of my beloved California peeps.. this is for you....THIS, is what I have for the next week in lovely Belgium :)

I'm excited because I can officially rock my UGG boots without overheating, all of my winter jackets are coming out of the closet and I have a few more on the way (thanks to Old Navy), my winter tops are making some appearances...ahhhh... I love Belgium :)

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Oui oui, non?

If you know me, you know I'm rather fond of cooking. Hell, I even sell for Pampered Chef because I love their products so much. Truth be told, I think I own about 90% of their catalog.. and I'm only missing 10% since they recently came out with more new stuff..thanks for that.

I have almost all of the Executive Cookware pieces (except 3 things) from Pampered Chef. As much as I love.. I mean..LOVE.. their cookware, I've been eyeballing some Le Creuset stuff. Sure, I have the Deep Covered Baker and that could be considered a dutch oven, but it doesn't really hold much when it comes to making stews :

Sure, I could use my 12 qt Stockpot, but the base isn't really large enough for when I wanna cook meat (like a slow cooker). It holds tons of liquid though.... it's my "go to" guy whenever I make my loaded potato chowder (Eric says it's in our wedding vows in fine fine print that I'm required to make it in massive amounts for him).

Now... to the whole point of this blog :)

I've been on a mission to get some Le Creuset. I already own one piece of their stuff, which I absolutely love even though it's not a baking thing. It's a Mortar & Pestle:

 I had originally picked up a Mortar & Pestle in Germany several months ago. As much as I love it, the inside part where you grind stuff doesn't have enough "texture" to grip when I try to crush ingredients (it took FOREVER to crush some Coriander a few weeks ago). I finally broke down and started researching a bit considering my kitchen is a serious investment to me. I thoroughly enjoy cooking and if things can make it easier and faster for me to cook great stuff, then I'll get it. So, I finally came across a store here that had some Le Creuset goodies.. and had the Mortar & Pestle that I was looking for :) It's made of stoneware (fabulous!) and the interior has a nice grit to it. LOVE IT!

In our home, we watch A LOT of cooking shows. I guess I can blame my weight gain on that? Ha.. Not only that, but I really enjoy reading food blogs to give me some idea's on how I can switch some recipes up in the house. If Eric had his way, all we'd eat is chicken and white rice..no flavor. Bleh. Some of our favorite shows to watch are "Good Eats" and "Barefoot Contessa" , plus I normally get The Food Network and Clean Eating magazine. There's two blogs I really recommend for ideas: Closet Cooking and The Pioneer Woman. More than anything, I absolutely LOVE The Pioneer Woman because she comes up with things that are completely "do-able" for working moms or people who have busy life styles. Not to mention, her humor in her blogs are awesome and I love her photography :)

Throughout all of the cooking stuff I've watched and read , I constantly see them using a Le Creuset Dutch Oven. When I watched "Chef Academy", Chef Novelli constantly used one.. Barefoot Contessa uses one quite frequently and even Pioneer Woman has one on the cover of her cookbook. 

Here's some information about the product (I'm eye-balling a 7.25 quart Dutch Oven):

Ideal for cooking and re-heating risotto, soups, stew, chowders and for simmering or slow-cooking foods. This Round Dutch oven from Le Creuset comes with a secure lid that seals in all the moisture and flavor. It retains heat well and is beautiful enough to bring right to the table as you serve. Features sturdy, cast handles on sides so you can lift and carry with ease. Safe to use with metal utensils. Oven-safe to 450 degrees F.

About Le Creuset…
Since 1925, artisans have been crafting Le Creuset cookware in the French village of Fresnoy Le Grand. Each piece of Le Creuset cast iron cookware is handcast, polished, double enamel-coated and then fired, resulting in some of the finest quality cookware available. Cast iron is one of the best materials for distributing heat gently and thoroughly and is ideal for induction ranges. The strong enamel coating will not absorb odors or flavors, and is easy to clean. Heavy lids securely seal in moisture and flavor. Le Creuset cookware comes in a variety of sizes, colors and styles to match any kitchen and cooking preference. So lasting, you'll pass your Le Creuset on to the next generation of promising cooks.

Capacity : 7.25-qt.

Cleaning & Care : Dishwasher Safe, Hand wash Recommended

Diameter : 11-in.

Height : 5.5-in.

Material : Enameled Cast Iron

Origin : France

Special Features : Oven Safe to 450°F

Warranty : Limited Lifetime

I'm pretty much sold on buying one. It just comes down to when I'll make a trip over to France to check out their factory (how many people get to say that?!?). Word on the street is that they have an outlet there where you're able to score some pretty sweet deals on their stuff, but it's a hit and miss thing since it's a small shop. They may or may not have the color I'm looking for. Since I like having funky things, there's no real color scheme to my kitchen, lol. I mean, I have chilli pepper plates from Poland, random teapots from England and mugs from Bavaria. There's no theme and my colors are very eclectic. I'm torn between the Kiwi green or the Caribbean blue..both are really pretty and funky.

As long as I'm day dreaming.. anyone willing to buy this kitchen for me? Please? I gave you three different options, so I'm trying to be accommodating to your finances :)  

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Ummmmm.....

 

Ummmm... I have no idea where those "Cookie" inserts came from, nor can I figure out how to get rid of them :(

Epic. Fail. 

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Busy Busy Tizzy Dizzy

Good grief. I haven't blogged in almost two weeks. Shame on me!! I've been busy between work, a Pampered Chef Show and working some more. I all honesty, I started a blog last weekend, but I have severe "Shiney Syndrome" and it obviously never got posted. Sadness.

Anyway, here's a post! :D

I had received an email yesterday from a local antique place I like to go to since they get some pretty cool / random stuff in there. I mean, if I had unlimited funds and a 6,000 sq ft home that required furnishing .. I'd be purchasing all of my furniture from there since they have UH-mazing.. hand carded buffets, dining room tables, wardrobes... uhhh.. just all around gorgeous stuff that has to have seen some serious history. When I was scanning through their site, a really pretty mirror caught my eye and I was pretty determined to get it since it was only €30 .. it converts to roughly $39. GIVEN, the picture on the site made it look huge.. so I thought it was a STEAL of a deal! So, I contacted my usual partner in crime when it came to antique stalking, Barb, and we made a date to storm the place today since I actually had the day off. 

Here's the gorgeous view I had first thing this morning:

Seriously.. I love my life in Belgium :) I'm kinda dreading the day when we get Orders back to the States. Sure, I'm an American and I should be an eager lil' beaver to go back to my country.. but in all honesty, I like it here better.

Anyway, onto the antique adventure. We got there a lil before opening, but they had the warehouse doors open already so we strolled on in and started checking out some of the new things. The gal I had been emailing regarding the mirror pointed me in the right direction to find it (this warehouse is massive), so we figured we'd just make our way up there while checking out all the different sections. I haven't been to there in quite some time, so it was interesting in seeing some of the new goodies. After pillaging for about an hour, I ended up with a coat rack, some trogs and a really cool / funky bucket. I didn't get the mirror I originally went there for since on the site....the mirror seemed ALOT larger, but it was actually pretty dinky. There was a second mirror I had my eye on, but alas, it was dinky as well.. wasn't worth blowing €70 on when all of the goodies I got totaled €82. 

Here's the coat rack I got.. I was originally looking for a coat rack wall mount (they're pretty cool cause they have carved figures in them), but the walls here are really hard to drill into since they use brick and concrete rather than wood and dry wall like we're used to in the States:

 

I know you're probably thinking, "It's green. Why did you get a green coat rack?". Well, I had originally picked out one that was a dark wood color, but it was a lil shorter and didn't have a section for umbrella's. Not only that, but it wasn't as stable as this one. I can look past it's quirky color considering I can always repaint it to something else...but the green just makes me kinda laugh since it's obviously such a random color to have, lol.

When we went over and checked out the Trogs (Belgian troughs) since I told Stef I'd find one for her since she's diggin' the one I have at my house. I snagged two pretty good ones.. one is perfectly round and would make a great fruit bowl (which it's currently sitting on my kitchen table with goodies in it), and the one for her is a lighter color with scalloped handles. Now, I washed mine once I got home considering I was planning on putting fruits and such in it.. when I bought it, it was a dark almost mahogany color...but after I washed it, it faded :( It's like all the color bled out of the wood.. so now I gotta find some kinda color staining wax and re-stain it :( SADNESS!

Here's the one I picked up for Stef.. the bananas are there to show how big it is, lol

 

My last goody was this lil random bucket. It's seriously random, but I loved it! You can tell it used to be some other kinda design, but who ever had it before repainted it. It's pretty beat to hell, but it gives it personality. The lid comes off in two pieces, even the handle pops off if need be.. not bad for €10! I ended up getting it so I could put all of my LUSH bath bombs in it for storage rather than keeping them all in a plastic bag, LOL. When Eric got home and I showed him, he even admitted it looked pretty cool (for a bucket). 

Luckily, we hammered out our shopping pretty fast considering I was already back home by 11 o'clock :)

Tomorrow we're having a silent auction on base, so I opted to donate some baked goods since the proceeds would go towards the upcoming Christmas party..even though I won't be attending. I figured I'd make an Oreo Cake as well as some Banana Nut Bread. The bread was simple enough to make since I had been practicing the last week or two on it.. so, I hammered our two loafs of that. Done deal! The Oreo cake, though.. I had never made before. It just looked good, lol.

 

Cake

12 creme filled chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped

1 pkg white cake mix

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup sour cream

3 egg whites

2 Tbls vegetable oil

Icing

6 creme filled chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

3 Tbls butter or margarine, softened

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray Stoneware Fluted Pan with nonstick cooking spray. For cake, coarsely chop cookies using Crinkle Cutter; set aside. Combine cake mix, water, sour cream, egg whites and oil in Classic Batter Bowl; mix according to package directions.

2. Pour half of batter into pan. Sprinkle chopped cookies evenly over top of batter but not touching sides of pan. Spoon remaining batter over cookies.

3. Bake 50-55 minutes or until Cake Tester inserted near center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Loosen cake from sides and center tube of pan. Invert onto Nonstick Cooling Rack; remove pan. Cool completely.

4. For icing, coarsely chop cookies; set aside. Combine powdered sugar, sour cream and butter in Small Batter Bowl; beat until smooth. Ice top of cake allowing some to flow down the sides. Sprinkle top with cookies. Let stand until icing is set. Cut into slices. Store leftover cake, covered, in refrigerator.

I ended up making two of these..one for the auction and another for us at the house. Just to give you fair warning, this is a VERY decadent cake. VERY VERY VERY decadent. I hardly ever eat cake and this is making my blood sugar go through the roof. It'd delicious and something I'd definitely recommend for pot lucks, BBQ's and such... good grief, it's a ton of sugar, lol. I'm surprised how good it is considering it has sour cream in it, lol.

So, there ya go. I blogged :) YAY ME!!

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Fall Baby

 

I love Fall. Absolutely love it. I dunno if it's because I'm a Fall baby and I feel that it's possibly the best season ever.. or it's because I know my birthday is right around the corner. I dunno. I'm a fan of the leaves changing color, the cold weather, the rain / snow.. I love it all. Fireside "dates" with my husband and enjoying cups of hot chocolate while cuddled on the couch. 

Since it's officially Fall now... it was about time I actually put my decorations up. Eric wasn't too thrilled about it considering he's a scrooge about holidays and such. OH WELL!! Bwahahahaaa

I went on eBay about two weeks ago on the search for Putka Pods. They're like lil mini pumpkins that you can use for decorations. Normally, I stalk for things on Etsy since I like helping out creative peeps, but in all honesty...some of 'em were asking WAY too much for a small bag of these lil' guys. I ended up paying $10 for a 2lb bag....I know, it sounds like alot, but it was just enough to fill two hurricanes and my trog :) It had Putka Pods, Rose Hips and Cinnamon Sticks (yes, it smells very fall-y).

Once my lil pods arrived, I could "officially" put up the rest of my decorations. I say that because..come on.. you know how it is. You have something particular in mind you wanna do and I wanted to make sure I filled up my trog and hurricanes to go with the rest of the decor. 

Eric referred to this as my "Shrine", lol

My little "Welcome" sign in the foyer

Once my stuff from Scentsy shows up, I'll be unstoppable. I'm talking in terms of : Autumn Sunset, Pumpkin Roll, Cinnamon...oh yes.. my house will smell very delicious. And..oh so Fall-y.

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Visitor

It's late in the evening here in good ol' Belgium. Why am I up so late? 

Because of this lil ball of cuteness:

We were letting the dogs out one last time for the evening since they have this habit of waking us up at two in the morning. Well, they found this lil gal and went ape shit..barking up a storm and freaked her out. Once we got the dogs back inside, I was able to investigate our lil visitor a lil closer since I actually used to own a hedgie years ago, named Rocky...although he looked different from this one since he was a small African pygmy.

I slapped on some old oven mitts, picked her up and started massaging her spine so she'd relax a lil. After about ten minutes, she finally loosened up enough to let us get a peek at her cute lil face:

 She chilled long enough to eat a couple tiny pieces of chicken that I happened to have that was left over from the enchilada's I made (without sauce, of course). Once she had enough, she rolled back into a tight lil ball since she wasn't feeling all that social. 

 Eric ended up naming her "Rosalee" for some reason, lol. He names everything, even a freakishly large spider that hangs out on our back porch (his name is Henry). Just from holding Rosalee, she was a chunkster and had to have weighed around 2lbs (ish)..but that's because she's probably getting ready for hibernation.As much as I wanted to keep her, I think her boyfriend was rootin' around outside in the hedges looking for her, hahaa. When we were out there saving her from the dogs, I heard something rustling around..odds are, it was her mate.

So, now she's once again in our backyard..snortin' and shufflin' her way through the great outdoors.

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Homework

John has been back in school for about two weeks now..and out of his six classes, one of them is Photography.

He came home the other day with a list of different things he has to take pictures of over this coming semester. Luckily, we live in an area where he has alot of opportunities to get pictures of these particular things (this is the syllabis that his teacher gave him to use) : 

 1. Use of line - Lines guide the eye such as sidewalks or paths or window panes. Lines could be the area where light meets shadow or a path of color in a flower bed. The lines do not have to be the object of the picture.

2. Use of texture - Texture is not a structural element like line or shape, but it add to a photo. Structure added feelings of hardness, softness, sharpness or slippery.

3. Shape or pattern - Round, square, triangles, etc, or repeating patterns.

4. Light and shadow - Combine light and shadow. Use back lighting to get light and dark, side lighting to get long shadows. We are looking for a shot with both dimly lit and brightly lit objects. Try black and white. 

5. Motion - Move the camera while you shoot a moving object for a blurry back round. Use slow speed or shoot in dim light. The photo should indicate something in motion. 

6. Perspective - Shoot from different angles than normal - get low, get high, shoot from behind or above things. 

7. Things - Objects; animals, houses, toys, playgrounds

8. Places - Document some of your travel or places in your town like parks, buildings, stores, Main Street, etc.

9. People - You may not photograph other students at school. Examples: family, crowds people watching parades or watching animals at the zoo. 

10. Events - Carnivals, school games, ceremonies, concerts, Christmas markets. 

11. Breaking the rules - Placement of objects, exposure, focus, etc. 

12. Color themes - Look for colorful objects, be creative. 

13. Black & White - Some of you can use your cameras to create black and white photos. You can also use Photoshop. Good black and whites have areas of a good range of tones from dark black to white. 

14. Landscapes - The countryside or cities in the distance. Think space with lines. Pay attention to where you place objects like trees or buildings in the photo. 

Extra Fun: Try to find numbers and letters in nature and photograph them.  

So, after reading that layout in terms of his pictures.. we ventured out around our neighborhood yesterday and let him go crazy with the camera. Once he was all finished, I scanned through his pictures and here's the best ones for two topics:

 Objects (picture 1)

Objects (picture 2)

Scenery (picture 1)

Scenery (picture 2)

Not bad for a 13 year old, eh? :)

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Moo.

This is going to be a completely random blog..but it popped into my head cause I was in my backyard not too long ago and I could hear the ever so loud call of the heard of...Belgian Blues.

Being from California, I'm used to the good ol' fashioned dairy cow. They're your typical kinda cow..ya know, the one you see in the "Happy cows come from California" commercials. 

Hell, on a rare occasion, you'd see a Jersey Cow:

After living in Belgium for the past year and a half, I strongly believe that the Belgians motto is "Go big or go home".  Ladies and Gentlemen...I present you with...the Belgian Blue:

Wait..here's a video that'll actually help explain these things:

When I say these things are huge, I mean they're like the Schwarzenegger of cows. I mean, I feel bad for 'em because they are SO muscular, they have a hard time getting up when they've laid out in the sun for a while. If the cow is ready to give birth, they actually get the baby out via C-Section since the cow literally can't give birth naturally due to all the muscle. Rather sad, if you think about it.

The Belgian Blues are "naturally" that large, even though it's been bred that way over a hundred something years. They have double the lean meat, which is why a lot of the farmers like 'em since they make more profit. 

When we first arrived, I was freaked out by the sheer size of these things since they're everywhere. Even the babies are massive!  They look as if they were pumping iron in the womb or something. I guess it makes you think twice if you say "Holy Cow!"...now when that term comes to mind, I instantly think of one of these beef cakes:

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Bad Ju Ju

Ever have one of those days where everything seems to be against you? Ya know, as if "fate" isn't wanting to allow you to carry out some plans that you had in mind for the day?

Well, that was a good chunk of today, lol.

Barb and I had decided last night that we were going to hit up Aachen, Germany today since she was wanting to go there for some Starbucks mugs she needed to pick up for some friends. While we were there, I was just going to pick up some bath bombs for Eric since he got hooked on the sea salt ones for his back in addition to some other goodies..

The following are the series of events that happened:

* First thing.. I rolled out of bed and when I was opening the bedroom door, I jammed my big toe on the edge of the door. Hurt like hell..who needs coffee after that? Not me!

* While I'm showering, I hit a slick spot and almost biffed it through the glass. Instead, I smacked my head on the wall. Awesome!

* Right before I leave the house, I usually let my fur babies out for one last "hoo-rah" in the grass before I lock 'em up. Well, it's like they know I wanted to go somewhere, so they took their time. Normally, they don't do that. They run out, drop trow then scamper back inside cause they love sleeping on their pillows..not today, of course. I had to track Macie down since she decided to run down the driveway towards the front of the house to play with the mail man (she never does that). Izzy and Cali actually behaved and went inside without any problems... Cole, on the other hand, laid down behind one of the tires of my truck and refused to move. It's like he gained 50lbs cause I couldnt get him to budge, and he insisted on not moving!! Thanks, fatass! Once I finally got him out from under the tire, he ran off in an entirely different direction of where he was supposed to go..he kept running away! Lil turd did everything in his power to make me run late.

* Once all the dogs were accounted for, I locked up the house and hopped in my truck. Turned the ignition on and ....nothing. My truck wouldn't start. Seriously? I sat there for a minute and lovingly told my Xterra, "Baby, I love you. Please, don't let me down"....turned the ignition again and she fired right up. YESSSSS!!

* Got stuck behind 4 different tractors. Thanks, Belgium.

* I end up taking a side road, which happens to be fairly narrow. While I'm motorin', there's an oncoming motorcyclist who is kinda leaning into my lane. So, I move over to the right a lil bit since I don't want to risk hitting him. Well, instead of hitting the guy, my side mirror smacks a side mirror of a van that was parked awkwardly on the side of the road. I..umm...think his mirror was ok. I just kept trucking. It's a Belgian thing...I know my mirror was fine...eeekkk....

Once I make it to Barbs house, she met me out in the drive way and she said she was having the same kinda morning I was having..as if we werent supposed to go anywhere. The whole "bad vibes" type of thing. SHUSH! lol. We hopped in her van and made our way up to Germany. Nothing bad happened on the way there (thank god), although we noticed that once we reached the Netherlands / Germany border and there was tons of backed up traffic on the other side of the highway. Didn't really think anything about it since we weren't stuck in traffic...therefor, didn't apply to us.

We get to Aachen, parked and made our way over to the shopping centrum. I assaulted the Lush store and then we headed on over to Starbucks since Barb was needing to pick some mugs up for some fellow collectors back in the states. Once she finished paying for the mugs, we were making our way to the sliding glass door where we saw two lil kids..I'd say around 3 years old... hanging out. They were literally pressing themselves up against the glass and what not. Well, when we got near the door, they automatically opened ..the little boy had his hand pressed against the glass (which slid to the side) and his hand got smushed / stuck between the moving glass and the standing piece. At first, it didn't register what happened until the kid saw Barbs face (which looked like OH MY GOSH!) then he began freaking out and screaming. The little girl got startled and began to scream as well, even though her hand wasnt smushed like her partner...Barb went over and tried moving the door back, which caused the kid to freak out even further! His mother finally realized "Oh hey, that's my kid screaming", got up and unsmushed his hand and snatched him away. The other mother of the little girl picked her up and calmed her down.. all the while, people are staring at us / them like "How dare you ruin our coffee". LOL. After all that excitement, we figured it'd be best that we headed on home since we were tempting fate.

Remember the traffic I mentioned a lil bit ago? The traffic we saw on the border? Well. It was still there. In fact, it was a border control check. Normally, we wouldn't be concerned, but Barb happened to not have her International Drivers License, nor did I have my Belgian ID. So, as we're sitting in traffic and getting more and more stressed about "Oh god. We're in trouble. Oh god, they're gonna search us. OH GOD". As we got to the check point where a Police officer was directing traffic, he pointed us in the direction where there were even more cops, strip points and such... we were freaking out, to be honest. We followed the other cars that had been pointed towards the same area ... just when we thought they were gonna have us pull into a parking spot to question us, they ended up dismissing us so we could hop back onto the highway to head home. THAAAANK GOD!! Huge sigh of relief!!!


After all was said and done, we made it back safely to Barbs house...no accidents, nothing missing (except some sanity), and we pretty much swore we'll listen to our inner "warnings" about a potentially bad day. LOL

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