Oops.

I think it's been at least 3 weeks since my last post.  I meant to keep up, but things got so crazy that I had to let some stuff go and blogging was one of the things that I didn't get to.  Oh well!  I finished classes but we still had our final paper due the following weekend for our Building the Service-Profit Connection class and we hadn't even picked a topic!  I'm glad I was able to team up with a partner for that... it was a lot of work and we spent forever on it (including staying until 11pm at the Tanner Building on a Friday night!) but it was a lot of fun and we absolutely ROCKED that class. (We're actually planning to go present our recommendations to the company we used.) Then once that was done, I had two entire scrapbooks to finish as Christmas gifts and only 4 days until I went home.  No pressure (rolling my eyes).  I got them done - I even managed to take pictures so I'll post them soon.

Anyway, I guess I'll start with the most recent and work backward.  It's probably pretty obvious that I have a deep and abiding love for all things food. Food television, food books, cooking food and especially eating food.  So naturally, I need to support my food passion with lots and lots of toys.  This ranges from kitchen accessories, more dishes than any one person really needs and lots of fun little appliances (like my Cuisinart 5-way Griddler that I got for Christmas.  Yay!!!)  This also includes knives.  I've spent years pulling together my little collection of professional kitchen knives. When I first started, I didn't really know what I was doing, but I still knew enough to get some J.A. Henckel knives to start out.  I've since expanded and now my 20-slot block is about full.  Part of this was over Christmas when Mom and I were getting Christmas food at Costco and Gunter Wilhelm was there doing a roadshow.  Does it really need to be said that I bought knives?  I'd actually been shopping for a good chef's knife for quite a while and I was so glad I hadn't bought the one I was eyeing.  They had amazing prices on what are actually really excellent knives.  I might have bought one or two.  Or three.  And a diamond sharpening blade.  Maybe.

So on Christmas Eve I made my favorite TexMex Chicken & Bean Soup as part of our traditional soup & sandwich buffet (I'll have to share the recipe sometime... I've made it 3 times in the last month and I LOVE it.  So does everyone who's tried it.)  I had to use my knives.  It was so much fun. 

I will point out that these photos are for posing purposes only and I do not actually hold the knife this way when cutting.  I swear.

That bad boy is my new 10" chef's knife (I also got an 8") and I adore both of them.  They slice through everything just like butter.  We were testing them out before we bought them and the guy at the booth told my mom she's not allowed to use the ones she bought my dad without knife skills classes... she needs to learn "the claw."  lol.  Fortunately, I passed muster during the trial phase.

This brings me to today's adventure.  I finally did something I've been meaning to do forever, but I had been saving it as a reward for hitting another major health & fitness goal.  I went up to Sur la Table at the Gateway and took a class in knife skills.  It was super fun!  (We learned "the claw."  It's actually what they call it!)  We spent two hours learning the proper way to hold knives, lots of different basic cuts - cutting herbs, vegetables... learning the grid method and the rock 'n roll (that's what he called it).  The chef teaching the class actually commented on my technique several times... he said I'm really good!  The time flew and then we were out learning about caring for knives and how to hone, etc... and I noticed that they had a very excellent price on a new Henckel 6" prep knife.  So yeah.  Filled the last slot in my block.  lol.  (And I'll say, usually Amazon has the best prices on Henckels, but this price was even better and I got another 10% on top of that.  Sweet, right?)  I'd also been looking for a good cutting board and they had some nice-sized ones at decent prices so I picked up a 24"x17" anti-bacterial maple.  I came home and used both of them to make dinner - fabulous mini pizzas and spiced, roasted parsnip spears for a little light snacking.  Yummy.  But I digress.  The knife cuts like a dream and I love it!

So, going backward to last weekend, Melody and her family were here visiting... yay!  We hadn't seen each other for 2 years so it was great to have time to catch up.  Unfortunately, Mel got sick so we didn't get to play as much as we wanted, but we hit Paradise Cafe and Noodles a few times (I finally had to put the cookies in the freezer... too much temptation!) and we got a chance to hang out and watch movies and do a little shopping.  We all gathered at Jason and Candice's for New Year's Eve and it was a blast. There was definitely some yummy snacking involved as Angelina and Logan happily demonstrate here:

I got coerced into joining the guys to round out the instruments in Rock Band (not that they had to try too hard.  I love it!)

I have no idea what Dustin and I were doing here.  But it was fun!

Angelina wanted to try.  It wasn't too bad for a first stab by a 10-year old!

And then midnight arrived.  Celebration ensued.

And, one of Melody's traditions that I always enjoy doing when we're together on New Year's is that once the new year starts, you write down twelve goals and eat one grape for each goal.  We all made our lists and ate our grapes. 

Whew.  I think this post is long enough.  I'm still working on getting together all the Christmas and scrapbook photos, but I'll try and get those up asap (because I know the family has been checking frequently to see if I've stopped slacking.  lol.)

Happy New Year!  Here's to a fabulous 2011.