Dear Valentine

Dear Valentine,

I hope we always have this much fun together.

I love you! XOXO

Sonoma State of Mind

About five minutes after I wrote the last blog post about new year's resolutions, I decided to act fast.  I stared at the page for 27 seconds before I decided to do something about #10 on the list.  Before we both knew it, two weekend getaways had been booked.  Hey, I take this resolution business seriously.

A couple Saturdays ago, we woke up on a beautiful San Francisco morning and headed less than an hour north to stunning Sonoma wine country.  We passed through miles of vineyards before landing at our first stop, Ravens Wood Winery. I love their slogan: unadulterated, unapologetic, unfussy, unwimpy.  The wine was delicious and we had fun chatting with the guy at the tasting bar about all things food and zinfandel.

We had a tasty lunch in "downtown" Sonoma which is an adorable old town square vibe with NO Starbucks in sight! Perfection.  Even more perfect were the two snack plates we picked out to fill our tummies and soak up the wine: fingerling potatoes served with an olive oil and herb infused goat cheese dipping sauce (hello favorite things) and fire roasted piquillo peppers filled with fresh chevre, chopped pistachios, honey, orange zest and a little EVOO for good measure.  Phew.  Heaven in a few bites.

That night, and the real reason for our trip, we paid a visit to Sur la Table, where we'd been given a gift certificate for a cooking class over a year ago (thanks Mom and Dad Degnan).  The class theme was "Moroccan Date Night" and it was amazing!  We created kitchen perfection in the form of olive and orange salad, saffron chicken, crispy flatbread and tasty Moroccan almond cookies.  I always enjoy cooking classes but the thing I love the most (besides cooking a gourmet meal and having all the dishes done for us!) is the simple reminder that food is a pretty incredible thing when done right.  Fresh herbs, unique spices, preserved lemons, and slow cooking make one helluva difference.

We finished off the night with a bottle of wine at our hotel and woke up the next morning to enjoy breakfast, coffee, and a leisurely drive home through Sausalito to enjoy the crystal-clear bay views.  All in all, a perfect way to spend 24 hours!

The following weekend we joined a group of friends in Lake Tahoe.  Neither of us had been before so it was a total treat, minus the no-snow factor.  I'll save that for another blog post :)

I Resolve.

I'm not one to faithfully make resolutions at the start of each year, but since my sister pointed out my lack of blogging lately, I thought I'd document 15 of the thoughts-turned-resolutions that have been percolating over the last couple of days.

In 2012, I resolve to...
1. Try one new recipe each week.
2. Bake more, even if that means I'm pawning the goods off at work so we don't eat them ourselves :)
3. Make the most of my evenings by working out in the morning as much as possible to get it out of the way.
4. Pick up the phone a little more often (not to check Facebook or Twitter, but to actually dial some numbers and have some old-fashioned conversation)
5. Say what's on my mind before it turns in to something way messier than it ever needed to be (been working on this one all my life it seems).
6. Intentionally carve out time in my day for the gym, rather than allow it to be an afterthought.
7. Continue enriching my skills by taking on personal projects for fun. Working on a little something right now actually...
8. Go to the movies more than twice. Ha!
9. Take advantage of the stunning outdoors in San Francisco, even when it rains.  Cuz that aint gonna change in 2012...
10. Book a few weekend getaways before our calendars fill up, rather than saying we never have time to go away.
11. Get my photos organized and (gasp!) even print a few for albums.
12. Blog more.  Stop shying away from it. Writing is better than worrying!
13. Make real plans for a beachy vacation; don't just daydream about it. :)
14. Get authentically involved in a local charity (not the one that pays my bills!)
15. Choose gratitude in the hard moments. Let go of what doesn't matter to make room for what does.

C is for Cookie

Next week is the first annual cookie bake-off at work and yours truly has offered to bake a bajillion cookies so that I don't have to be one of the "tasters" and eat my weight in sugar, flour and chocolate.  I need a little help deciding what to bake, so I'm taking a poll - cast your vote in the comments section and I might just send some your way ;)
Edited to add: yes, I said post your vote in the comments section... not Twitter, G-chat and texts.  That means no cookies for Jess, Hillary, and Julia :)

1.  Mom's mint brownies that look a little something like this (and always, always get eaten faster than you can say "miss piggy"):

2. White chocolate dipped cranberry cookies (another "Mom" special... can you see I have big shoes to fill?):

3. Chocolate pecan bars (a la guess who?):

4. "Over-the-top" Reese's Peanut Butter cookies (because nothing is better than chunks of PB cups inside a cookie)

(images via www.realmomkitchen.com and www.drinkwaterkitchen.com)

(i'm HUNGRY!)

Photo Dump

While I sit here developing carpel tunnel syndrome from being connected to my computer like an umbilical cord, I thought I'd give a little visual update of life in San Francisco over the last few weeks.

top row:

neighborhood flower shop

cold hands at work (pre-apartment heat)

first rosh hashanah in san francisco

middle row:

exploring the castro

shopping cart adventures at costco

todd's birthday beerfest

HOLY cow smell! 

bottom row:

fabulous lunch at zuni cafe (minus the clams that squirmed their way through my insides)

colorful san francisco

incredible live music at bridge school benefit

The Only Thing Constant is Change

I guess you could say that the past two months have been full of more changes than constants, so it's rather fitting that my blog has undergone a change of its own (How do you like it? Thank you, Danielle Moss!)

In the middle of August, I quit my job of nearly 7 years to relocate to San Francisco.  It was probably one of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made, because the job was more than just, well, a job.  I was doing what I loved to do under some challenging circumstances, but the point is that it was comfortable.  My parents lived 10 minutes down the road, I had friends all around, I was a newlywed, and life was good. Yes, there were moments of severe panic in the six weeks it took to finish things up at work, pack up our first home (and by home I mean two-bedroom rental) and begin the job search in a less-than-thriving economy.  Oh, there were moments. But slowly I began to realize that people - our parents, family and friends - were far more concerned about this change than we were, and all for good reason.  We were the ones making this conscious choice to leap in to the (unemployed) unknown.  We were the ones who had to make it happen for ourselves.  I was determined to turn all of that worrying energy in to positive energy. Afterall, life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

I’m writing this blog post while I sit in a bustling coffee shop on Chestnut Street.  All around me, there are business meetings taking place, freelancers doing “office” work, mommies (and some very pregnant mommies-to-be), and other people.  Ordinary people doing ordinary people things… like grabbing a mid-day cappuccino, catching up with friends and brainstorming big ideas.  The point is, I love this city life, and didn’t realize how much it makes my heart sing until I moved right on in and became one of these people.  After this, I’ll join two of my college friends for happy hour in celebration of it being Tuesday.  Because that’s what ordinary people do… they get together on a random Tuesday to celebrate life in between all the big stuff.

November is one of my favorite months of the year... so aside from my little blog, I think, pray and hope that other, bigger changes are ahead.  Changes that come in the form of employment. :)  For now, I'm enjoying this life and trying to relish in every minute of unemployed bliss.  I know that one day soon I'll regret all the fear, worry and anxiety that could so easily overcome me if I let it, so I'm doing my best to rise above it.   If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it.  Go out and get busy. -Dale Carnegie

I Just Spent 10 Minutes on www.someecards.com