Race day blues

Today was our first race of the season out at Thunderhill in Willows. We were up and on the road this morning at 7:30 am. Unfortunately, although it was sunny, it was also really windy. Not our favorite conditions. Chris had one practice session and one race qualifying session before lunch. Both of which went without incident which is half the battle. The first race was at 12:30 pm and while he finished the race, this is how he came back to the pits;
After much researching,
He finally decided the best way to solve the problem was...
A four piece meal from KFC and a nice cold beer. A disappointing finish to the day, but we'll be back on the track again soon. Right after we fit my car with race tires....

Wacky weather

We went from a beautiful, warm weekend to a cold, rainy, and windy work week. Yesterday's weather was particularly delightful. It would go from partly sunny to sideways rain to pelting hail within minutes of each other. I had gone to Holiday during my lunch break and it was clear when I left, but started hailing like a demon on my drive back to work. I sat in my car and tried to wait it out since I'd worn open toed shoes.
But no such luck.
Thankfully today the weather started drying up since we have our first race of the season tomorrow in Willows. While I was at Upper Crust this morning getting a birthday dessert for a friend, I picked up an assorted package of day-olds for breakfast in the morning on the way to the track.
A chocolate croissant, lemon-cranberry scone, bear claw and pecan roll. I'm not sure I'm going to share any of these...

When I got home I had a delivery from Barnes and Noble of a recipe box I'd ordered for a bridal shower I have on Saturday. On old friend of Sarah, Poppy and mine's, Dawn, is getting married in June and her shower is this weekend. Since I never see Dawn anymore, I'm not sure what her tastes are, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with this.
It comes with some pre-printed recipes and then a bunch of blank cards for friends and family to fill out. Where was this before I had the bright idea of scrapbooking the last recipe box??

Tonight for dinner I made a recipe out of my Eating Well for two that Jessica didn't think I'd like (I'll be making every recipe in it to prove her wrong). It was sausage, potatoes and homemade kraut. Good idea for the night before the race, or brilliant idea??
It was the first time I'd ever used fresh fennel bulb and I found it fascinating that it smelled just like black licorice. Freaky!

Score: Adults -2, Kids -0

This is the second time that we've babysat Connor and Andrew and once again we prevailed. We used our skills of treachery to trick them into having fun. How could we lose with an action packed line up of a walk to the undeveloped park down the street,
Followed by a little movie watching and some brownie eating and goofing around,
Then we played a little Thomas the Train, letting Andrew win everytime of course,
Capping off the evening with a little Sprouts television on the kiddie tube. Some Dragon Tales and RubbaDubs. C and Todd came and got them at about 8:45 pm which is good because we were quickly wearing down. Apparently three hours is the noise and entertainment limit for old fogies such as ourselves.

My little helper

The reins to the kitchen and all dinner duties this weekend were handed off to the Canadian. He's always asking for a turn, but I'm such a back seat cook that I can't stand not knowing what bad ideas he's brewing up under that little fro of his. This little concoction was all his idea. Chicken tenders with a fruit glaze made with mustard and pepperoncinis. I can't explain it, but it was really good.
His other treat was lowfat mini meatloaves he found online. Really they were mini shredded veggie loaves with a splash of hamburger, but they did the trick.
And for dessert, a kitchen full of dishes.
At least it was worth it.

Gold Nuggy Days

This weekend is Gold Nugget Days up in Paradise. I wanted to go because there was going to be a jewelry booth there that I'd seen at the Home & Garden show in Chico. After breakfast and stopping for money we got up to town just after 10:00 am. I had Chris park on Almond so that we wouldn't have to give the Catholics any money to park and we'd be able to get out if we wanted to leave before the parade was over. There were so-so booths, but I finally found my jewelry booth at the next to last one we looked at, all the way up by Longs.
I settled on two necklace and earring sets. One brown one;
And a silver one;
Once I was done shopping we headed down the Skyway on the sidewalk keeping our eyes peeled for C. and the boys. She'd told me where she'd be close to parade time and sure enough we caught up with her around 11:00 am right where she said she'd be.
The boys were settle in their front row lawn chairs waiting for the parade to start.
Andrew was being especially bashful today and hiding from Uncle Chris and his annoying camera.
Right before the parade started, Chris and I ran up to the basketball court to grab some grub settling on the Rotary Club's burger booth as it had the smallest line. While waiting for my gardenburger we checked out the new fountains that were installed infront of the newly remodeled rec center.
Really cool. We took bets how long it would be until punk children would start stealing the blue rocks. After our tasty, freshly bbq'd lunch we were settled down and ready to get our parade on.
Here is a mini photo montage of the parade in all it's glory.

One of our favorites, high-schoolers dressed in old style basketball uniforms (short and tight) playing live music and hawking tickets for their sports fundraiser.
And the last float we stayed for before our butts completely fell asleep.
We left at about 1:15 pm and were able to easily sneak out of town off of Almond St. While we did have fun, my need to watch the parade has been fulfilled for at least the next ten years. And my need to co-mingle with the highly tattooed, scantily clad locals had been met for an even longer time.

As seen on TV

I had a long and hideous work week this past week. I was having to send out code violation notices to people who don't have garbage service which just means that they all call me the day they get their notice and bitch to me about our unconstitutional laws and blah, blah, blah. Just get the service and please don't call me. Ever.

Wednesday was "Denim Day" as part of April's Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It's in regards to an Italian court case in the early 90's where a rape case was overturned because the victim was wearing jeans and it was reasoned that jeans couldn't be removed with the victim's help, thereby making it consensual. The Clerk's Office sent out a reminder email to the ladies at work and most of us remembered to wear our jeans that day. Luckily, I had one pair of stretch jeans I got in Chicago that I was able to get on so I could get a sticker, too.
Not a lot of new recipes this week, mainly just leftovers, but I did remember to snap a pic of the Moroccan (i.e. cinnamon) chicken with olives over couscous we made.
I spy a tomato sauce with onion, bell pepper, Italian parsley and almonds. It's been a couple of days, but that sounds right.

While I was shopping this morning I found a brand of baked beans that Chris and I had seen on a show about how things are made. They showed how the beans are hand cooked in these big old fashioned kettles from a hundred years ago. So of course I had to get a can. I'll have some leftover kielbasa later in the week we can throw in with it.

I also ran over to Costco today since I had a great coupon for some of my juices, and while there found a variety pack of Sam Adams for the Canadian.
We'll see how they stack up against Sierra Nevada....

Games and grub

New recipes and new board games were the name of the game this weekend. First up was a risotto with scallops, sun-dried tomatoes and arugula.
What made it really tasty was a little bit of finely grated pinky.
Operator error while using the microplane to grate fresh parmesan. Yowzers! Second recipe was a baked tuna pasta with veggies and a cheese sauce.
While we both liked it, it was time consuming because everything had to cooked before it was baked. I am not about spending hours and hours in the kitchen. I'm a 5 ingredient/30 minute girl. Thankfully the leftovers will be speedy in the microwave.

At bunko last week, one of the gals gave me her 20th Anniversary Trivial Pursuit (Ben) game. She said the questions were too new and they didn't know any of them. I had just assumed it was a recent release, but a few questions into the game and we realized that the year 2001 was a common theme in a lot of the questions. Looking at the box, we found out the game was actually from 2002. A year/time period neither one of us were particularly paying attention to the world.
Notice who's got all her pies?? Almost two hours later I took the game with the answer "The Big Lebowski". Yeah, I've still got it!

I spent a (very) little time in my craft room today and got started on my 2010 scrapbook album. My first layout was about my favorite bakery, The Upper Crust.
Mmmm.....warm coconut scones sound so good right now.

The tempura experience

The Canadian asked for a chance to do some tempura this weekend, so I obliged and bought him his requested veggies; carrots, green beans, mushrooms, zucchinis and green onions.
For lunch today we transformed our kitchen in to an assembly line of veggies, hot oil, and Canadians.
We had two dipping sauces, one ranch and one soy/teriyaki sauce. Both delicious with each of the vegetables.
Nothing like a plate o' fried veggies to get you ready for a nap.

Stinkiest place on earth

Chris and I joined forces this morning to run errands, the first one being to Harbor Freight to pick up some new ramps for the trailer so that we can get the race car in and out easier.
I hate Harbor Freight. It is the stinkiest place in the whole wide world. It reeks of poorly ventilated Chinese made crap. And that's being generous.

On the way home we stopped at K-Mart so that I could finally get a new glass measuring cup to replace the one I broke weeks ago. I've been to Wal-Mart on three different occasions and they've been out of the 2-cup capacity every time. I didn't realize how popular they were!? While there, we found a really cool Corningware ceramic 20 oz capacity mug with a super snug thick plastic vented lid to heat up my lunch soups in. I've been using the glass Pyrex bowls with plastic lids, but they leak in my lunch bag every time, grrr!

We're both homebodies this weekend. A co-worker gave us The Hurt Locker to watch and we've got lots of racing to keep up busy. Plus, Chris actually has a race at the end of the month so he needs to spend some garage time getting RalphVee ready. I brought home a stack of planning books to study. I'm supposed to be getting a promotion to Asst. Planner by the end of the year and I need to brush up/learn more about California planning law. My boss is also trying to get me into some of the UC Davis Extension planning classes, but they're pricey and the town is poor, so we'll see.
I'd be way more motivated if they were cookbooks....