Restaurant Ware

I'm a sucker for restaurant ware. Do I really need it, no. All of my kitchen stuff is packed up and living with no bowls it's just a little inconvenient. While I was down in Carmel I found these at the Branches Thrift store for $1.75 each. It was a little more than I wanted to pay but I don't find them too often. 

Good Luck - Moon Rising

The moon coming through the big oak tree in the backyard of the Carmel house. I've been visiting a lot of open houses while here and I have to say all the homes have been show stoppers. I was asking Henk if he would buy a "sprinkle" house here when he got older. He said yes, he loves sprinkles. I'm sure he thinks we're talking about donuts.  :)

It been a very good week for me. Starting the week off  with find another rare item I love,  the perfect beach weather with the low tides and a bakery that doesn't cost an arm and leg. I like to think about my full moon rising is making it happen. :) 

Sweet Reba Bakery Is It Worth a Visit?

I was told there was a new bakery (new to me) in the Crossroads shopping center down here in Carmel, Sweet Reba. They gave it rave reviews but they are very positive people and love everything so I was skeptical. :)  

I stopped by to check it out as soon as I got into town.  They had three gluten free items which I picked up to review. In my world if you can bake something GF well, you know what you're doing. I then ask for them to pick something, knowing it was going to be reviewed. Being that they mostly have cookies, I was surprised they picked a slice of chocolate cake. Their prices are fair for being in Carmel and a tourist town.  It's a very friendly shop and worth a stop if you just want a little something sweet that doesn't break the bank. 

Peanut Butter Cookie - $3.50 It was good but with only a few ingredients I would expect to be good.

Lemon Bar - $3.50 Sorry I had it upside down in the photo, it was much prettier in person. It was the best of the bunch. Chewy and lemony.  Had a nice powder sugar icing. 

Carrot/Spice? Coffee Cake Muffin with a Cream Cheese filling. - $3.50. This one was interesting and different from the normal GF offerings. It was good but not to my taste.  Happy I tried it but I won't get it again. 

So to the Chocolate Cake  Slice - $5.00 (?) The cake part was good but the frosting and filling was just a little bit off. This wouldn't have been what I would have picked to be reviewed. The frosting also had chucks of something (maybe cream cheese?) that wasn't blended well or that's their style.  You can sort of see in the picture.  And yes my stomach said it was a really bad idea to sample the cake. I can normally tolerate one slice of cake but this one sent me over the edge. It's not the bakery's fault as I knew I was taking a risk. 

Perfect Beach Day

I wasn't planning on spending the whole weekend at the Carmel house. I couldn't get all my stuff back home after the holidays. This week opened up so I came down. When I found out the extreme low tides were happening in the afternoon. I decided to stay a few extra days.  I love walking during low tide as it's easier and most people for some reason don't walk that far out. It was the perfect combination of warm sunny weather and a low tide. On one of my walks, there were a ton of seagulls on the beach. I've never seen this many on the shore before let alone on a busy weekend. Lots of people and dogs. I was able to get really close (not afraid of the people) when I thought it would be great if they all flew up at the same time. Out of no where a small dog took care of it. 

 

When it was meant to be.

As I was packing up to move a few months ago, I decided to sell my Dresden Petite Choses Holiday Wreath. I had found it at an auction house in a junk lot several years ago. It had cheap green garland wrapped around it so there wasn't much interest in it from other dealers.  I was sad to let it go but with all the packing I had to do, it was time to sell it. :(

One of the things you learn when you're a picker is not to show any excitement over things, because it will draw too much attention for other resellers. While I was at the HD getting ready for intake (when donations come in) this wreath was sitting on top of the pile. I let out a little squeal that made my co worker look up in surprise. I squirreled it away until the end of the day. It just feels like it was meant to be in my life, that it came back to me. Not sure if this was the one I sold or a different one as these are very hard to find. 

No more WiFi

As soon as I got back home from Carmel, I went to babysit Sumo for a few days. When I saw this hat at the HD, I just had to get it for him. I send pictures to his family just to let them know things are going well. Overall he's a good sport about letting me dress him up. The video is even funnier. 

I decided to cancel my wifi when it almost double in price. Since I'm rarely home and don't sell on WhatNot anymore, I didn't see the need for it. .  So far I haven't missed it too much. Blogging and watching movies is pretty much what I can't do at home. Right now I'm down at the Carmel house (again) picking up what I couldn't pack in my car after the holidays. 

Soup Making and Beans

My daughter is really into making soup (bean soup) and it's one of the few things the boys will eat without making a fuss. So that means I ended up with a lot of soup making ingredients! Think Costco size of everything. I tackled making a jalapeño and white bean soup. Now that I have an immersion blender, it makes it much easier. I would have taken a picture of it as it turned out very tasty but it's a dish that doesn't photograph well. :)

I'm still unpacking from Carmel and trying to get things organized. There is a flicker of hope I may have found a place so for News Years, I ate a lot of black beans. It's a Japanese thing for  good in the upcoming year.  

Third World Problems

I asked for a Apple watch for Christmas. There was a very practical reason since I'm not a very high tech type. A friend fell while walking her dog and emergency services were notified of her location. It did save her life. It made me realize I should get a watch especially since I plan to do more hiking in the hills. It was an Apple watch Christmas as everyone else upgraded their watches. Starting from the top down, the watches were passed down to younger family members. There were cables and chargers all over the house for the various devices. The newer iPhones now have a different charger which means I have to carry multiple cables, very much a third would problem.

Today I'm closing up the Carmel house. I've spent the last week packing up everything to either storage or sell off. The past few days have been cleaning and washing all the bedding. The washing alone took a whole day as things have to be bone dry. The damp weather here makes things go moldy quickly. The kitchen takes the longest to clean. Trying to clean a very old stove top and oven is almost impossible. Hopefully I'll get everything done today and head home. It's been wonderful being here for two months with my family for the holidays!

Hoping for a better year and finding a place to call home. 

 

Out of the box Christmas stockings - 2024

Several months ago I was lucky enough to walk into Trader Joe's when they were stocking the mini totes. At the time I didn't know how popular they were. We decided to save them and use them for our Christmas stockings. Really turned out very nice and something that can be used year round. :) 

Monarch Butterflies

 It has been raining for most of the week but there was one day that was nice and sunny. We made the quick trip to the Monarch butterfly reserve in Pacific Grove. It was still a little chilly so the few butterflies there weren't too active. The population is scary low and almost on the endangered list. 

A little creative time

Squeezed in a little creative time while the boys are off visiting friends in San Jose. I've started to pack up the craft supplies so while I had the paint out decide to paint some things for the Gnome village in the neighborhood. We've been picking up driftwood and rocks at the beach so I started making little dioramas. This year the oak trees are dropping a ton of acorns so I made little people. I know my little creations won't last long once placed outside but it was fun trying to not make the face look like a scary clown. 

I got brave and painted a Santa on one of the driftwood pieces. The eyes are still a little wonky but I think it adds character. At least is doesn't look like a crazy clown serial killer. :) 

Cookbook Reading - yeah it's a thing

With all the new to me cookbooks in the house you would think one of them would have a recipes for pork tenderloin. Nope, had to look up Alton Brown's bbq recipe that I have made in the past. After dinner I remembered the Milk Street recipe that is very good and I have made many times but it's pan fried. The stove top here isn't level so makes cooking anything challenging. It also requires more spices than I have here. 

Mother's Best cookbook looks good and it got me to thinking want recipes would a Japanese American family add. The MB book is the more traditional middle America comfort food. I did like reading where the recipes came from or the story behind it so for me it was a fun read.  

I also have a copy of the cookbook Lush Life and I found some editing errors right off the bat. If you know me, the written word isn't my thing at all. But when I see errors that should have been caught, makes we wonder. The index in the back has a lot of errors which made me wonder how good were the recipes. So I googled the reviews, which were all 5 stars but one. I read them and all the five star reviews loved the photography of the book, which is nice but none of them had actually cooked anything from it. The one star review agreed the photos were nice but the recipes were just meh. This is one book that's going back to the thrift store. If you just like looking at pictures of food then maybe this is a book for you.