Monthly Archives: February 2014

Sumo Mandarin

Today, after we picked up the glambaby, we stopped by the grocery store to get a couple of things. While we were in one aisle we saw a picture of a peach and she thought it was an apple. So I thought we should go over to the fruit to see if we could find a peach to show her the difference.

There were no peaches but there were these:

sumo_mandarin1

Sumo Mandarin Oranges.

They are kind of ugly but the glambaby was attracted to it. We looked at all of the oranges and she decided she wanted to take this one home with us.

sumo_mandarin2

We opened it up at lunch and I ws a little worried about it because one section tore and it looked like it could be dry and tasteless.

But it wasn’t! I twas delicious and sweet. It was kind of pricey and it was definitely ugly but it was a nice treat.

IMG_5916Have you ever eaten a fruit that surprised you in its taste?

 

2014 #SMTulsa Conference

smtulsa

The #SMTulsa Conference is coming up in less than a month now and I hope you’re making plans to attend.

This will be my first time at the conference and I’m honored to also be speaking on Thursday a.m. about the importance of having a social CV.

I’m super de duper excited my session is one of the first so we can get all that out of the way and I can hang out in the other fabu ย sessions being offered!

I’m really looking forward to seeing my friend Becky McCray, who will be the keynote speaker, and meeting other twitter friends that are also on the speakers roster.

The conference is March 20-21 at the Aloft Hotel in Downtown Tulsa. Click here to get all the info you need to register for the conference.

See you there!

Almond Fauxsants

Back before Christmas, I was discussing Almond Croissants with my friend Gini Dietrich. You see, I haven’t been able to find an almond croissant in this state since we moved here. Gini said we should try and make almond croissants over the holiday break and then check in and see how it went.

convo

After commenting on the release of her new bookย the other dayย (Yay! Can’t wait to read it!), I asked her if she had made the croissants.

croissant

I was laughing. We had also watched all five seasons of Breaking Bad and it’s as good a reason as any for why I hadn’t tried to make the croissants yet, either.

I finally decided that I was going to give it a whirl. I used this recipe. It looked easy enough.

But I’m here to tell you that they are NOT croissants. I’d call them Almond Fauxsants. ๐Ÿ˜‰

fauxsant_closw

The dough is somewhere between a biscuit and a bread dough. I knew it as soon as I touched it this a.m.

Upon reflection, I can see clearly that this could not have ended up as a croissant because adding yeast to the dough would make it doughy, bready. Not flaky.

Back in the day, when we lived in Saudi, we had a friend named Ko. Ko made croissants one day. He told us that he folded and folded and folded butter into the flour. This, I can see, would make a flaky croissant.

Anyway, I tried to make these look like croissants but I skipped the egg wash and the almond sprinkle on top. I’ll save that for when I figure out how to make real croissants. ๐Ÿ™‚

fauxsant_tray

PS – These “tasted” like almond croissants because of the almond filling I used for the insides. But I could have avoided the whole bready vs flaky thing by just eating it off the spoon. ๐Ÿ˜‰

PSS – I guess I cant really cross 107 – Make almond croissants off of my goals list since these were not really almond croissants. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Book Review: How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly In Love

How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in LoveHow I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love by Ken Baker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book! I laughed all the way through it, something I very much enjoy in a book.

Emery is a 16, overweight girl in a family of “beautiful people”. The family seems to be coming apart, the dad always gone, when Emery stumbles on the fact that their house is about to be foreclosed on. Because she wants to help her family, she agrees to do a reality show where she will lose 50 lbs in 50 days.

The journey through the days with Emery is up and down. She finds she’s famous, she finds betrayal, and after almost succumbing to what society thinks she should be, she finds that she can still be herself which is the most important thing.

Emery is a smart, sassy girl. I highly recommend this book! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Book Review: The Chase

The Chase (O'Hare and Fox, #2)The Chase by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I LOVED this book! Funny and fast moving.

I have read some of Janet Evanovich’s numbered series books and have enjoyed them as well. After reading the first one out of order, I started back at the beginning but got derailed.

This is the second book in a series and I haven’t read the first book, either, but I will.

I loved the Kate O’hare character. She reminds me of a good friend of mine who loves to eat. I loved the idea of the FBI working with a convicted thief to fight crime. I laughed out loud at many of the things in the book and some of the things Kate et. al got up to were spectacular.

I highly recommend this book. Fun! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Book Review: The Countess Conspiracy

The Countess Conspiracy (Brothers Sinister, #3)The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first book I ever read by Courtney Milan was The Heiress Effect. I wasn’t sure I would like it, being historical romance but I love it. That’s why I decided to read The Countess Conspiracy which I also loved.

I loved that Sebastian who was a well known ladies man, had loved Violet almost his whole life and he finally got around to telling her. I loved the story of a woman, finally secure enough in herself to take credit for her amazing genius even though woman of that time period were considered a lesser class of person.

This was a wonderful book and I look forward to reading another of this author’s books in the future. ๐Ÿ™‚

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The Zoo!

Yesterday we took Geoff, Nikki and the Glambaby to the Tulsa Zoo!

zoo

We’ve lived here, more or less, for around 11 years and have never been to the zoo. At Woodland Hills Mall there is a big advertisement for the Zoo and every time we walk past it, the Glambaby has to stop and look at it and talk about it. We’ve been waiting for it to be warm enough to go.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! It was around 64 degrees and sunny. There were very few people there so it was comfortable all the way around.

The Glambaby really wanted to see an elephant and a monkey. And she got her wish.

elephant

The monkeys got crazy!

We rode the train around to the other size of the zoo.

train

We ate lunch at the McCaw Landing Grille inside the zoo and had some very tasty burgers!

We then visited the slides. The glambaby, supreme slide lover, saw them as we went to lunch and we promised her we’d slide when we were finished eating. We played on the playground for quite a while until she got so sleepy it was time to go.

teetertotter

We didn’t get to the giraffes or the carousel (which looks amazing!) or the petting zoo. I hope we’ll get a chance to go back soon. ย We had so much fun! ๐Ÿ™‚

Coffee Rubbed Steak

I have found something else to do with my Eight O’Clock Coffee. Coffee Rubbed Steak!

coffee

I found this recipe in my travels through the interwebs and it looked delicious.

I made it for dinner last night. After grinding the coffee very finely, I mixed the rest of the spices with it and rubbed it into both sides of the meat.

spices

It didn’t say in the recipe to do this but I did this a couple of hours before I planned to cook the steak, then covered and put it in the refrigerator. Also, although we normally don’t add sugar to things, I did add the 1/2 TBS of brown sugar because it wasn’t very much and I wanted to taste what the original recipe ended up like before modifying it.

I then cooked the steak on the stove top for five minutes on either side. It was done with a little pink in the center.

pan

I’ve never cooked a steak in a pan before and I was worried about how juicy it would end up but it was fabulous!

The taste of the rub was good, the level of juiciness was good. I couldn’t noticeably discern a strong coffee flavor but the combination of the spices with the coffee was wonderful.

I served the steak with my famous roasted baby carrots and mashed cauliflower. Delish!

dinner

 

Book Review: Don’t Even Think About It

Don't Even Think About ItDon’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book! It’s the first of Sarah Mlynowski’s YA books I’ve ever read but I’ve loved her adult books.

The story here of high school kids developing ESP from a flu shot is kind of far flung but it was funny and sweet and sad. I liked the characters and how the decided in the end to band together and keep the ESP even when they were offered an antidote by the CDC.

Not quite believable in a real life situation but very definitely readable. I didn’t put it down! ๐Ÿ™‚

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