So far...

So far we have:
1. had a lovely visit with Kate and Nick, Pablo's people. We were so pleased to find that we had a LOT in common and plenty to chat about. Nick and Denis had a nice jam session as Nick has a few couple of guitars around the house and is keen to improve on his finger picking skills.
2. met the famous Pablo - he didn't want to change his aloof internet celebrity status, so he stayed a bit aloof, but we did sneak a little pat in and had some photo ops.
3. went to the street market with Nick, Kate and Christine - we did our part to support the Tasmanian economy and got some particular Tasmanian souvenirs.
4. went to morning home church with Nick, Kate, Christine and Mike. This turned out to be our only chance to get to meet Mike and I think he felt a bit there "by request", but it was great to meet him and get to visit even though it was short. We did get to spend more time with Christine since she came to pick us up at the airport, went to the market and also to church.
5. travelled North to Launceston (Hobart and Launceston are the major cities of Tassie) to meet some friends of friends. We saw emus and wallabies on the property of a friend of theirs. Many of the wallabies had joeys in their pouches and I was able to get some pictures.
6. went to Toronga Zoo with Ruth, Nixter, D, E and Ruth's mum. D and Denis became fast friends - so cute! D thinks Denis is too cool!
7. had a nice dinner interview by Ruth's boy's. They guessed things they thought were true of America and we provided verification. :o)
8. attended Bible Study led by AB - it was nice to meet some of the young people in their church.
9. Stayed overnight in downtown Sydney - we've ridden the fast ferry to the historic section of town. We also met Nixter for chocolate near her work.

Still to come: the 30 minute ferry ride to Manly beach which will get us great views of the opera house and the bridge, a day in the Blue Mountains and meeting Rodeoclown and fam, seeing the Aussie rules Football final with Scott and Nix, picnic with friends in the park and Hunter Valley overnight trip. Yay!! I'm getting some good pics. I'll be sure to get ones of people, except I totally forgot to get any pics with Mike and Christine!

Putting my lessons to use

Last summer I made salsa and had some problems with it. Well, I did learn my lessons this year:

1. real cilantro
2. a nice new bigger food processer
3. plenty of jalapenos.
= much better this time around. :o)

Walking again

I'm still on the committee to help plan the annual fundraiser walk for the American Diabetes Association and I'm walking to raise funds again this year. The walk is October 11th and I'm not exactly looking forward to how busy the next month is going to be. I've got some extra work projects going and planning our big Sydney trip. As soon as we get back, my feet will hit the grounds running because the walk is only 1 week after.

In case you are not aware of all that the ADA does, I'll summarize. They work to benefit people with all types of diabetes (type 1, type 2 and gestational) in three main areas:
1. Legal and political advocacy - Workers can have reasonable accommodations to be able to take their blood glucose readings, insulin and eat when necessary without discrimination. Children with diabetes should be able to safely participate in all school activities. Health insurance should help to pay for the costly care of diabetes. The ADA lobbies in DC for these sorts of rights and offer legal help to individuals who have been treated unfairly.
2. Education and professional leadership - The ADA authors an extensive informative website as well as many brochures about diabetes treatment, self-care and prevention. They also lead the way for appropriate treatment, providing professional conferences and guidelines for adequate care.
3. Research - the ADA helps to fund all kinds of research, some investigating best treatment for all types of diabetes, others searching for a cure. Yes, they do support, lobby for and fund stem cell research, both adult and embryonic. This is the one area that I do not agree with, but I feel that it is a very small piece of what they do.

If you would like to pledge to sponsor me for the walk, you can go here. Thanks

Low fat, low calorie - who me?

I found this cookbook on sale at Safeway a couple of weeks ago, so I took a look at it. Have you heard of Hungry Girl? It actually started out as a small email newsletter produced by a gal named Lisa Lillien and sent to a group of her friends. It grew into a website devoted to finding low calorie, low fat foods that actually taste good - "guilt-free" cooking.

Now I must say that I have never been one to buy non-fat versions of food. I have switched to the "low-fat" version of some foods, but I'm really hopelessly addicted to creamy, cheesy, fattening foods. The nonfat version of these things just never taste right, so I don't get them.

Well, the idea of this book is to combine different non-fat products to make them taste a bit better than the sum of their parts. Often, they are also hidden underneath something more flavorful so that distracts you from the non-fat food.

Anyway, my goal is not really to eat completely out of this book. But I'd like to replace some of my splurge foods (fettucini alfredo, sausage mcmuffin with egg) with some Hungry Girl "splurges". She's got lots of suggestions for avoiding high calorie foods at restaurants and at work too.

Here is the recipe for the faux fudge that I made last night:

Ingredients:

2 cups canned pure pumpkin

1 box Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies Mix (the 18.3-oz. Family Size box)

2 tbsp. reduced fat peanut butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine pumpkin with the brownie mix in a large bowl; stir until smooth (do not add anything else). Spray a small baking pan (8" X 8" work best - no larger!) with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the mixture. Spoon 2 tbsp. of Better ‘n Peanut Butter (room temperature) on top and use a knife to swirl peanut butter around. Cook for approximately 35 minutes. The batter will remain very thick and fudgy, and it should look undercooked. Remove from oven. Cover with aluminum foil and let cool in fridge for a couple of hours. Cut into 36 squares and serve.

Serving Size: 1 piece (approx. 1.3 oz.) Calories: 63, Fat: 1g, Sodium: 56mg, Carbs: 13.5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugars: 9g, Protein: 1g

Garlic - Mmmmm....

So, once you have grown your garlic and harvested it, you are supposed to hang it up to dry in a cool place. Where do you hang it when you live in an area that is 90-100 degrees for most of the summer? The garage is too hot and we have a small house.

How about the broom closet?!

It's been hanging in the closet ever since we harvested it about 5 weeks ago. It's perfect now and I'm loving cooking with it. The cloves are so perfect and white - no ugly bruises or rotting areas like what I buy in the store. And the heads are nice and big!

What have I been doing for the last month?

Well, over a month now. For goodness sake, I can't believe it's been so long. Here's a bit of an update on what's been happening:
1. We spent our one week vacation in Portland. It was fun and relaxing. We stayed at our second McMennamin's hotel, the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. It did not have private bathrooms and we were very surprised to find that the shared baths were all single full baths. We were expecting dorm style shower rooms. We also went on a dinner cruise with our friend AMG, heard a free concert in Pioneer Courthouse Square - The Dimes, a Portland band was really good.
2. Two days after we came home from Portland, I developed a respiratory infection that I may have caught from AMG's husband... :o( I had a fever of 102 and took antibiotics for 10 days. The respiratory infection then set off my asthma which is normally almost non-existent. It was definitely not a good time to be sick from work because several of my coworkers were at a big conference in Washington D.C. and I was scheduled to work Mon-Fri. I wound up working just Tues and Wed. I think it was a good 3 weeks before I was fully well again.
3. I've been doing work helping plan our local American Diabetes Association fund-raiser walk in October. It's just around the corner, so it's time to really knuckle down and do some work. So I've been spending some of my days off making phone calls and running errands.
4. We've been nailing down all our plans for the Sydney trip - we've got our passports and travel authorities, hotel reservations, flights, itinerary is set. I can't believe it's just over 3 weeks away now.
5. I recorded most of the Olympics on NBC and watched a lot of it. I still haven't finished it all off - I've got about 2 days of events left to watch!
6. I found a cookbook on sale at the supermarket that intrigued me. It's all low cal/low fat recipes and I've been trying to replace some of my high fat indulgences with these recipes. I'll have to write more about that in another post.
7. And yes, I must admit, I've still been playing Packrat on Facebook a bit more than I'd like to admit.

Reading them again

I haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia in years and I thought it was high time to enjoy them again. I asked for the all-in-one volume for my birthday last year, but hadn't started reading it yet until a few weeks ago. In the past, I've read them in the order in which they were released, but this volume is in "chronological order" as the events unfold in Narnia. I'm up to the third book which is A Horse and His Boy.

I'm sure that I've read these books at least twice through in the past, but I'm surprised at how much of the details I had completely forgotten. Everything is familiar to me, but I can't remember how the different storylines will come together in the end. I still really enjoy C. S. Lewis' humor sprinkled through out.

New post label

I've added a label to my list called "Tracy 101". I added that label to the posts I've written that tell more details about who I am so that new readers can quickly learn more about me. It can also come in handy for those who want to cram for the "Tracy quiz" on Facebook. :o)

Getting Serious

It's time to get serious about planning our Sydney trip in September. I bought these two books for us to get some ideas. The one on the left is by Eyewitness Travel and it's just a "down and dirty" reference with lists of restaurants, hotels, sights, etc, grouped my neighborhood. I thought it would be good to take with us when we are out and about. The one on the right is the Lonely Planet book which is more in depth. I liked it because it includes info about some good day trips outside the city as well as within the city.

We've decided that we're going to head straight for Tasmania upon arrival in Australia. I haven't booked our tickets yet, but we should be able to fly to and from Tas for about $200 each round-trip. While in Tassie, we'll visit the cyber-famous Mike and Christine as well as Pablo's devoted human staff members Kate and Nick. They've suggested that we go to the Salamanca Market on Saturday. We'll also likely visit some acquaintances in the city of Launceston which is just 2 hours north of Hobart.

Once we return to Sydney, Ruth has very sweetly offered to help plan our itinerary to maximize the time and what we can see and do. Here is our list of planned stuff so far:

1. Meet and have some sort of party/mixer with as many of the following people as possible: Ruth and family, Nixter, Craig, Ian (Rodeoclown) and family and Erin.
2. Attend church and hear AB preach.
   
3. Go to Toronga Zoo with Ruth and the kids
4. Take the ferry to Manly Beach (this ferry goes under the harbor bridge and past the opera house) and perhaps a ferry that goes deep into the bay.
5. See the Blue Mountains area
6. Visit "The Rocks" historic neighborhood
7. Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley

I hope that won't be too much to fit into 8 days. It is amazing how quickly a 2 week vacation can just disappear when you start planning all you want to do.

My Wordle

Thanks to Kristina for telling us about this website. This is the "Wordle" created from the RSS feed of my blog.