The saga of Flat Stanley

Chris and I are hosting "Flat Stanley" for two weeks as part of my nephew Tyler's class project where they are reading the Flat Stanley book about a boy who is squished "as flat as a pancake" when a bulletin board falls on him. Because Flat Stanley is so flat he's able to fit in an envelope as be mailed to different places for exciting adventures.

Our job is to dress Flat Stanley to reflect where he visited and to take him on adventures (while taking photos) to write about and send back to Tyler's class. So prepare yourself for recaps of Flat Stanley's time here in Chico.

Brew club Christmas party

Tonight was our brew club Christmas party out in Durham at the house of one of the members.It was a potluck so we brought some chicken caesar pasta salad I bought from Safeway and then repackaged into one of my own bowls so that nobody was the wiser. It was also a gift exchange so we each brought a gift bag with a 22 oz beer, a bag of chocolate crunch beer brittle made with Sierra Nevada pale ale, and a beer magazine.

After dinner we started out gift exchange. The Canadian's number was called first and his chosen gift turned out to be a beer bread mix.

When it was my turn I stole our neighbor, Cathy's, gift of three He'Brew ales, a bag of chocolate grain, and a large jar of malt extract.

But about three turns later somebody stole it from me! So I stole somebody else's magnum of Anchor Steam  2010 holiday ale. 

We got out of there around 9:00 p.m. which is much better than we feared. Our group gets really rowdy and disorganized after about the second drink, but everyone must have been on their best behavior tonight. Good  grub and good prizes - can't ask for much more than that! 

A different kind of pizza

One of my favorite foods I've had to ease up on because of the wheat is pizza. I've found some decent frozen gluten free pizzas on a rice crust, but decided to a try something new tonight. I found a polenta pizza recipe in one of my Weight Watcher cookbooks that has you overlap slices of a tube of refrigerated polenta in a circle and bake it under the broiler to firm it up before topping it with ricotta, mozzarella and tomatoes.

It was really good and even the Canadian liked it. I mean it's not the same as a bread crust, but it's very tasty for what it is.

Girls' Christmas Party

In all of her newly discovered time as a recent retiree, Kari planned a Christmas party for all the ladies at work both past and present. All we were asked to do was bring a present not over $10. It could be funny, white elephant, naughty, anything you wanted. Kari supplied the grub which turned out to be chips and dip and chimichangas with some margaritas and sangria to wash it all down. For entertainment we played bingo on old style wood boards.

First to get bingo got to pick a gift from under the Christmas tree and open it in front of everyone since the next person to win could steal the gift or pick a new one.

When I finally won I choose a gift wrapped in what looked like a Chinese takeout box and found this little cutie inside.

A ceramic kitchen pig with a scrubber in his mouth. Cute and useful! As exciting as winning was, it was nothing compared to the anticipation of somebody choosing my gift from under the tree. I didn't have to wait long until somebody was tempted by my cute gift bag and was greeted to....

Edible pasties!! Hahahaha!! And just my luck that the exact person I wanted to win it, did. She was laughing hysterically while turning bright red in embarrassment. Then of course it had to get passed around for everybody to get a good laugh out of. The best part was that somebody else got the blame for buying them. Nobody suspected sweet, innocent me. :) 

To wind up the evening Kari treated us to homemade margarita ice cream (made without an ice cream maker!) and brownies. I had a blast and brought home lots of loot (I also won the last game and more prizes) to commemorate my crushing victories!

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi madre!

Today my mom became part of an elite group in our society - those old enough to be eligible for a senior discount. To celebrate such a monumental occasion Chris and I took her out to lunch at Hula's, where I failed to cash in on her elderly savings, and then whisked her off to Corning to Lucero Olive Oil where we sampled oils and vinegars and had a personal mill tour.

Mom and I getting ready to dig into our steaming bowls of meat and veggies.

Yesterday was the Winter Crush at Lucero where they did a special Meyer lemon and mandarin orange oil press hosting over 1500 people, so in contrast, we had the whole place to ourselves today.

Mom and the Canadian sampling different flavors of olive oil. There were mini dispensers for every flavor oil and vinegar to sample as well as wheat thins with which to dip in the samples.

I went straight to the tapanade samples. Lemon artichoke, roasted tomato, black olive, and green olive tapanades. Lemon artichoke was the clear favorite with all of us and both mom and I ended up with a jar. We're taking our jar with us up to the 'rents for our little Christmas festivities.

They had some times listed for mill tours, but the gal in the tasting room said those were for yesterday when they had so many people and that she would take us on a little tour whenever we wanted. The tour basically consisted of going in the neighboring building and listening to her tell us about their operations while looking at some photos on the wall. But it was still interesting to hear how their olive oil is made. And the special Meyer lemon and mandarin orange oils they'd just made smelled wonderful! They throw the fruits in whole during the press so all of the essential oils from the rinds put off the most amazing aroma and flavor. Mom picked up small bottles of each for home.

Back at home we ended our afternoon with some generous slices of lemon meringue pie which is mom's favorite even though I think meringue is the devil. Then I pointed at the door and told the old lady to get out, but sung like Jesus in the Jesus Christ Superstar when he's kicking all the vendors out of the temple square. Or at least that's how I wish I'd done it. That would have been so much cooler.

Lemon cheesecake

I haven't been making baked goods on Sunday for work for a couple of weeks now. Mainly because there aren't enough people left at work to eat them all, but also because I really shouldn't be eating them with all their sinister wheat flour. Instead I've been experimenting with gluten-free baked goods for Chris and I. This weekend I took a regular mini lemon cheesecake recipe from the Baking Bites website and easily converted the gingersnap crust to a gluten-free gingersnap crust with cookies from Trader Joe's.

They're made in a regular size muffin tin and are the perfect single serving portion. We've already talked about trying the recipe with a chocolate cookie crust and mixing coffee in the cheesecake batter for a mocha cheesecake. Mmmmm.....

Besides enjoying cute little cheesecakes, I've been busy wrapping, wrapping, wrapping. We apparently did all our online Christmas shopping at once because we just received a plethora of delivery boxes at our front door. Family will have no problem spotting our gifts because I realized I'm still using the same wrapping paper I've been using for at least the last 6 years! Apparently they're never-ending rolls!

When bad ideas happen to good people

This house has been puked on with lights. Too much of a good thing.

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