My Water Post For Today.
My favorite area of the Pacific, is along the Central Coast of California.
Cambria is where my Husband and I thought we might purchase land and then someday, retire. But along came my son and that home and my money, went out the window.
I still love looking at the rocks and the water, especially at sunset, in that rugged area of the coast.
Enjoy.
Things have been heating up in the Steely Dan world.
After we had a message from Steve Lukather of Toto, earlier in the week, it became clear that something was up.
2 days later, here is the first official word.
Read it straight from Steely Dan.
By the way, it seems that this may be your last chance to see Keith Carlock drum with Steely Dan.
He joins Toto full time, after the tour ends. A great loss for the boys.
This fan, is excited, as always. :-)
Yes, my son and I did feel the earthquake last night at around 9PM. It was just a quick jolt, but they felt it pretty decent in Orange County, where my Husband and I spent Thursday evening.
We are both extremely glad it waited until Friday to happen.
Speaking of being in Orange County, here is my review of the Huell Howser Exhibit, that we saw on Thursday. You can view it HERE.
Oh and check it out! I finally got a donate button that doesn't talk about marrying us. Woot!
My Husband and I attended the premiere of the new Huell Howser life story on Thursday evening. More on that over the weekend.
For now, since it is past my bedtime, you get a photo my Husband took of me, inside the Huell Howser archive.
I can't tell for sure if any of those tapes were numbered by me, but they probably were. See, we had to slightly change the numbering, when we got our traffic system in the late 90's. So that muddied the water. A re-label would wipe out my work. :-)
Anyway, the bottom line is, that this is the first time I spent some time with tapes I had handled, back in the day. It felt weird to reacquaint myself with them, outside KCET.
After I thought about it a bit, it felt good and it felt right. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
The museum and the archive are open as of this Saturday and you can tour during business hours.
Worth a trip, if you are a Huell Fan...Hint, Hint, Hint.
I have a DVD copy of the Dukes of September, but I have not had time to watch it, yet.
Since this month has been the March Pledge Drive on PBS, the Great Performances show has aired on several stations, recently.
The up-shoot of all that is, that in it's first week of release the DVD is at Number 1 on Billboard Music Video's list.
To this Steely Dan fan, that is great news.
You can read the entire article, HERE.
The other day my son and his friends were playing Risk in our dining room. That usually relegates my cat to the bedroom. Her choice, not ours.
I feel bad for her, but if that makes her more comfortable, then that is OK by us.
I went into the bedroom and though she checked me out, she decided I was no threat (what a surprise) and she went right back to sleep.
So I took a photo of her sleeping.
I love it.
I hope cat lovers do, too.
This cake was anything but simple. It took quite a bit of effort to make and it made quite a mess, but after it sat in the fridge overnight, it did taste much better then the first evening. So I call it a success.
Simple Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
3 oz. - unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 stick - unsalted butter
2 1/4 c. - light brown sugar, packed
3 - eggs
1 1/2 tsp. - vanilla extract
2 tsp. - baking soda
1/2 tsp. - salt
2 1/4 c. - sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
1 c. - sour cream
1 c. - boiling water
Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350˚. Butter and lightly flour 2 - 9 inch layer pans (mine were 8 inch and they overflowed, so be careful and don't use all the batter). (Easy removal: butter pans, line pan bottoms with parchment paper, butter top of paper and lightly flour, shake out excess flour)
SIFT Swans Down once, measure; set aside.
MELT unsweetened chocolate in small microwave-safe bowl; stirring at 30 second intervals until melted (no longer than 1 minute). Stir until smooth; set aside to cool.
CREAM butter until smooth in large bowl. Add brown sugar and eggs. Beat with mixer till light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and chocolate, then baking soda and salt.
ADD flour alternately with sour cream, beating until smooth. Pour in boiling water next, stirring with spoon till blended. (batter will be very thin)
POUR into 2 - 9 inch layer prepared pans, or 3 - 8inch pans. Note: you will not have enough frosting for the 3 pans, so either increase the amount of frosting, or don't use the 3rd pan of cake. 2 - 8 inch pans of cake was plenty tall enough for my family. If I had noticed that my pans were small, I would have made a couple of cupcakes, to use the excess batter. You might want to try that.
BAKE about 20 - 25 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.
COOL in pans approximately 10 - 15 minutes. Remove cake layers and place on rack to complete cooling.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
2 oz.unsweetened chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 c. confectioners sugar
PLACE chocolate in bowl, microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring well after each interval (approximately 1 minute total cooking time). Let cool for 30 minutes.
BEAT butter and chocolate mixture with mixer until smooth in large bowl. Add vanilla extract and milk. Gradually add sugar, beating well until all is blended. If needed, add more milk to achieve correct spreading consistency. Once smooth, do not continue to beat.
FROST cake immediately.
Recipes are from Swans Down website. The frosting recipe is under the kids category.
My Water Post For Today.
I was looking back at old photos in the late 1980's and besides finding the subjects for future posts for my class project, I found a few really wonderful photos of my sister and several posts worthy to be highlighted as a water post. This is the first one.
I never, absolutely never tire of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge.
This was taken, I believe in August of 1989, a few months before the Loma Prieta Earthquake on October 17th of the same year.
We were on our way down from Canada, Washington and Oregon and only spent the evening in San Francisco. It rewarded us with an outstanding sunset that evening. Well worth our visit.
I hope you enjoy.
Spring came this week and with the arrival of the season, I see that my irises have arrived. They bloom on the side of the house, so I cut them all (look how many I have this year) and brought them into the house, to enjoy.
I also have 2 pink tulips, but I did not bring them into the house, because I can see them from the bay window in the kitchen and I believe they will do better outside.
I don't have much, but what I do have is nice right now. I am just worried we will not be able to water them enough this summer. :-(
So I will enjoy them while I can.
When my son was away in Ohio, his car was tested over several days, on a dynamometer. A video came out the other day, that shows some of what went on, during the week he was away.
Of course I saw him a few times in the video, usually near his CSULA car. :-)
Check it out, HERE, if you have a few minutes.
From what I heard, 2 out of the six cars tested that week had catastrophic failures, that caused them to pack up and go home, early.
Thankfully, my son's car did just fine.
The car has returned to LA and the countdown to the start of the final competition in Michigan has begun. Just over 2 months, til they get together in Milford.
They still have a lot to do before then.
The other day I showed you my back-up photo for my Integrated Media class.
If you missed it, you can check it out, HERE.
Well, here is the one I forwarded on to my teacher.
It is still not great, but I guess it does what he needs it to do.
Me, Gary and a post that I wrote about the project.
It it goes online, I will definitely link to it.
Living in Southern California brings all sorts of produce to the workplace. Oranges, Lemons, Grapefruits (though since Huell Howser passed away, we don't get those anymore) plums and avocados.
The engineer who has the avocado tree, brings people 2 avocados, to enjoy each year. It is a lovely ritual and I feel so honored to be on his list of people to give some to.
This year they came the week of the Superbowl...but it was just not enough time to get them ripe for guacamole. It can take these babies up to a week to ripen and if you know avocados, you don't want to try to eat them when they are still hard.
So we enjoyed them the week after the Superbowl. :-)
It's been a unsettling couple of months at work.
First we had revelations (via an All Staff meeting in January) that my workplace has been bleeding money for the past 2 years. In good news, according to the Board of Directors meeting I attended a week ago, we are on track to have a 2.5 million surplus at the end of Fiscal Year 13, which is in June. That is down from 3.7 million that they projected, but still better then being 7 and 12 million in the hole, as our finances were for FY 11 and FY 12.
That said, our President calls another All Staff meeting on Tuesday and announces that he has decided to retire. He has given the board ample time to do an executive search and is confident that a replacement will be in place, as of July or August. In plenty of time for him to leave in September, for our 50th Anniversary.
So that is what is going on at work. What I am eternally thankful for, is the fact that there was a lull in the drama, while I was 3,000 miles away at school.
I am not sure what I would be thinking, if I was not back in my cubie at work.
Who knows what the future holds for me and for KCET.
More to come.
My Water Post For Today.
I love the moment when you are walking out onto a pier and you suddenly find yourself at the edge of the sea.
You can hear the waves crashing below you and most times, I will stop and just take in all the wonderfulness that the sea brings.
Nice that I don't have to worry about getting wet, too.
It is Santa Barbara, if you had any doubt.
I hope you enjoy and so sorry for the delay.
Note: My Water Post will appear on Tuesday this week.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!!
I was reading my Facebook page on Sunday morning and PBS mentioned that they had many "unusual" recipes for St. Patrick's Day.
Well, I am one for a new experience, so I checked them out. This one spoke to me. A soda bread with oats inside.
I am told it will give the bread a bit of a crunch.
So, I baked it and we will test it with our Corned Beef Sunday evening.
You still have time to go out and buy some Buttermilk, to try this out. :-)
Irish Oatmeal Soda Bread
Ingredients
4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup old fashioned oats {plus more for sprinkling}
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups well-shaken buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, sugar and salt.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until no more large clumps exist.
Combine the lightly beaten egg with the buttermilk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix. Dough will be wet!
Using wet hands, form a large shaggy ball of dough and place on a parchment paper lined sheet tray.
Cut an “x” in the center of the loaf with a knife and sprinkle oats on top.
Bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
