Random weekend highlights and My Kitchen Monday: Agua de Jamica

This weekend was again fairly relaxing. Nothing too interesting happening here on the west coast. We had lunch with some friends to say farewell to a couple from church who are moving to Chile to be missionaries. They will be missed!

My husband had to work on Saturday for a few hours to finalize some things before the quarter end on Monday morning. Inside I was kinda bummed since the weekends are the times that we get to spend more time together but it reminded me how blessed I am to have a hard-working, motivated,  and determined husband. I am very thankful!

While my husband was working I finally decided to make hibiscus "water" from my recipe book, "Pati's Mexican Table." I have had the dried flowers for weeks and just couldn't find the time to make the concentrate. It really only takes about 20 minutes to make but I finally found extra time to make it! You can find the recipe here. Definitely give this recipe a try!

Fall is here!

I love fall time! Last Sunday was the first day of Autumn. I've been able to tell becasue it seems a bit colder in the mornings, even though during the day the weather is pretty nice and warm. I love this time of the season when the air is crisp and cool, leaves start turning red, yellow and orange, and I can get out my light sweaters and leather boots. It is always kinda chilly where I live but fall does seem a little different. Maybe because I know it's fall and we are supposed to be having those temperatures? I've been in the mood for all things pumpkin lately...pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes...etc. I even thought about making pumpkin frozen yogurt! So, last night I brought out my HARVEST decor and decorated my house with little, painted, wooden pumpkins, my pumpkin wreath and my Harvest sign. I also bought some sort of dark red flower/weed bouquet, (not sure what they are) but I thought it was a great bouquet for my table.

I've also been drinking hot tea in the morning after my walk to work from the train station. I found this Tazo hot tea at the store, baked cinnamon apple! It's a perfect flavor for mornings and it makes me excited it's fall :)

What have you been doing to get ready for fall?

My Kitchen Monday: Simple Hummus

Hope you all had a restful weekend. My husband and I pretty much did nothing all Saturday, I should have been cleaning my house but it was nice to just relax. It was raining quite a bit so it seemed like a good day to just vedge out on the couch.

For this week's My Kitchen Monday I made a plain Hummus dip. I bought some hummus from my local market that was really good made with eggplant, garbanzo beans and other yummy spices. The dip has a super strong flavor but it is amazing! I thought I would try to first make a simple hummus with some garbanzo beans that have been in my pantry for quite a while.

I first brined a bag of garbanzo beans overnight.  I then boiled the beans until they were soft. The temperature of your stove must be on medium heat because if the heat is too high the beans will break open. After the beans are soft, I used my blender to blend the beans until they were smooth. Squeeze of half a lemon, a garlic clove, about a tsp of cumin, and a bit of olive oil into the beans and mix well...I am not sure of the measurements exactly, I just did it by taste. Just for a FYI: I learned from my book called "The Science of Good Cooking" (by the same authors from the TV show America's Test Kitchen), that brining the beans before boiling them helps keep the whole bean intact rather than the skin breaking or the bean exploding so it is always a good idea to add salt to your soaking water.  Overall I think it was a pretty good but I think next time I will try something a bit more exotic in flavor so it is not as plain.

My Kitchen Monday: Pumpkin Pancakes

It is Monday again which means it's time to post a new recipe! I should be posting something Mexican since today is their Independence Day! I think it's common to have pozole, tamales, chile nogadas, or chile relleno? I have made pozole from a Pati's Mexican Table recipe in the past but I didn't think about making it until this morning. Instead I made a nice brunch on Saturday morning to help get us ready for fall. I like making a nice breakfast for us on Saturday mornings because it is the only day I don't have to wake up early and rush around to get ready for work or church. I made Pumpkin Pancakes! I was really excited to make these pancakes but I was a little disappointed with the recipe (I got the recipe here). The taste of the pancakes were amazing, but it was difficult to not have the middle uncooked because of the pumpkin puree. They also were not very fluffy and I like a fluffy pancake. I did not make the maple whipped cream, I just served them with syrup and pecans.  I halved the recipe and still had too many left over, I think I ended up making 13 mini pancakes! I think I am going to keep trying to find a good, fluffy, pumpkin pancake recipe for this upcoming fall season, but overall the flavor of the pancakes were very good.

Back

I have thought about buying a posture corrector for quite some time. My back feels sore and tired daily especially at my desk at work and once I get home. My husband tries to help me by rolling my shoulders back or pushing my shoulder blades in but it is now just the way my body is if I don't actually think about correcting myself. I know it sounds silly but it does take effort to correct my shoulders and shoulder blades and hold them there. I even get tired if I hold them like that too long. My should blades actually hit the back of the chair before my back does, that is how bad it has gotten!
 I've been to the doctor about it and the chiropracter a few times but their responses are never a guarantee that it will fix my problem or they said just to think about it all the time and roll my shoulders back. This does not really work well because the problem is it's now a habit so I don't think about it...ever. I am not sure how it started, some people say that it is laziness or embarassment of chest size or height growth while I was young. Any of those things could have played a part in my posture, I really don't know. Whatever the reason that started this needs to be reversed because I don't want to be one of those elderly women with a hunchback and can barely lift my upper body. As I think about it more and look at myself in the mirror my shoulder blades now stick out and my shoulders roll in, it is not a pretty sight especially since when I slouch my tummy looks like it is sticking out which I am fairly thin so it shouldn't look like that. I have finally decided to buy a posture corrector, actually my husband thinks I should buy 2 and try both types to see which one helps more. They are not extremely expensive so I think I am going to try and see if it helps. I will wear them probably on weekends and on week nights, not sure if I would want to wear them at work. I hope that I have not made this posture and upper body form permanent!

Here are a few of my options I have found online on amazon.com, there are not very many choices that have good ratings so I hope to find a good one that works. Wish me luck!

amazon.com

Appreciation

It's nice to be appreciated for what I do each day! I sometimes feel like my job has no real impact on families, at least the way I would like to impact them. I see myself either working with ESL students or working with families to reach goals and to help them have better lives by educating them on nutrition, parenting, parent involvment, and learning more about child development. Yesterday I received this sweet thank you note from a client. I know this mother has gone through a lot so it is nice that she took the time to send it to me.

Last weekend

Beautiful Sunset

This weekend was pretty busy for us. On Saturday alone we had two parties that we went to. We first headed southeast for my husband's work family picnic. We then headed over to Santa Cruz for a friend's 30th birthday BBQ. We had a lot of fun eating and playing soccer and bocce. It was really hot at the work picnic but the beach was semi cool. By the time the sun started going down the fog started to roll in so we started our bond fire to warm up. Definitely not "jump in the ocean" type weather. But I seem to forget sometimes how close we are to the beach and how we should take advantage of it more often when it's warm! Just need to be sure to always bring a sweater or jacket!

While the sun was shining!

My Kitchen Monday: Kohlrouladen

For this week's My Kitchen Monday I chose to make something from my German heritage. I made a recipe from my mom's kitchen. My mom used to make this often as I grew up, it is her rendition of a German dish called Kohlrouladen which as I read from google are cabbage rolls. My mom makes cabbage with meatballs and puts it over mashed potatoes - Which seems  easier to make than rolling meat and other ingredients up in cabbage leaves. So how do you make this yummy dish do you ask? Well... First you make meatballs and fry them until cooked, you can do this with ground beef, salt, pepper, egg, and breadcrumbs. I did not have breadcrumbs so I made it the Mexican way that I learned from Pati's Mexican Cooking and made it with my short grain brown rice- set aside. Then you cut thin slices of cabbage and cook them in a frying pan  with a little bit of oil or spray oil, bay leaf, a few allspice, and chicken broth. Cook until almost tender, then add the meatballs and let simmer to soak up the flavors and the cabbage is fully cooked. As you make the cabbage and meatballs, prepare potatoes to be mashed and add your favorite ingredients. I usually just add a little bit of butter, salt, pepper, milk, and garlic powder but I know my mom usually adds some dill and maybe a few other spices...and you are done! Serve the cabbage on the potatoes.

Labor Day

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. My husband and I were looking for things to do close to home. Saturday we didn't do too much, we relaxed at home the majority of the day. Sunday we went to a Brazilian Festival in the afternoon that we found on  http://sf.funcheap.com/ We listened to Brazilian music and watched traditional dancing as we ate some very rich chocolate truffles!

On Monday we woke up fairly early to beat the heat to run at Lands End. We have been to Lands End before but never hiked the whole trail. We mixed my love for hiking and my husband's love for running together and jogged the trail. Before we began our run we parked our car a bit from the trail head and decided to take a "short cut" down the side of the steep hill. We had some laughs as I hung from a branch like a monkey, it was pretty slippery, and we both thought maybe we should have just walked to the beginning instead of almost sliding all the way down the hill!

The views are great and you can take the trail from the Presidio to the Cliff House, which is probably a few miles one way.

A quick pic at one of the vista points

Golden Gate Bridge, right before the sun came out and the fog cleared

My Kitchen Monday: Bruschetta

Next weekend we are going to a friend's birthday BBQ on the beach. I decided I would try out the side I was going to bring to the party to make sure it tastes good. I am bringing bruschetta and since I've never made it before I thought I should do a test run. I found a recipe online from The Pioneer Woman. It went over well at my house, the only thing I would add is some sort of cheese, maybe a thin slice of mozzarella. I also did not use as much butter for the bread to make it a bit more healthy, 8 Tbl seemed like a lot to me! You can find the recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/01/bruschetta/