Winds in the east, mist comin' in....

like something is brewing, about to begin, can't put me finger on what lies in store, but I feel what's to happen all happened before.
- Bert (Mary Poppins)

Those words spoken by Bert (whether played by Dick Van Dyke or by Gavin Lee - on stage) always give me the goosebumps! They're so exciting and welcoming. A great start to a story, especially one as magical as Mary Poppins!

Amazingly enough, well I guess I shouldn't be too amazed as it was Disney producing it, Mary Poppins the stage play was just as full of magic and wonder and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as the original movie. And, if possible it even brought P.L. Travers' character of Mary back to the story, at least I think it struck a great balance between the book and the film Marys.

The play was a dream! It was phenomenal, it was amazing, for lack of any better words it was indeed completely Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!! Or perhaps it was Practically perfect in every way which made going to see it quite the Jolly Holiday! :-D

The staging and set design made me and my fellow theatre-minded flattie drool. From a flat-looking Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane that opened into a doll-house-esque set which by a snap of his fingers and a flick of his wrist, Bert, the real one in control of the story, could send across the stage. That's something else, the way in which they broke the 4th wall with Bert's knowing looks or "hey, see what I can do" nods to the audience made for a truly fun/interactive sort of atmosphere.

I'd keep going and tell you all about all of it, but I'll wait until next week to add the special parts as I don't want to give any of the most amazing parts away to those of you who may be going to see it before it leaves LA! I highly suggest going to see it! It's sooo worth it!

new location!

Hi everyone, yep, I've moved. Sorry about the lack of fore-warning. It was a sudden decision. The move is in part due to the fact that I want to start working on branding "words words words" as something other than my blog. It will, hopefully, be the name of the bookstore I want to open, so I figure I'd eliminate one thing out on the web that is title as such but has little to nothing to do with my bookstore. So, find me here, now! :D Thanks!

so...apparently I haven't updated this in a while!

Sorry, no new pictures of fun baked goods to share today, although I did reprise the Chocolate-Earl Grey Cake for my lovely flattie's birthday. This time it was a 3-tiered, star-shaped cake instead of being bundt and was frosted with cream cheese frosting and dusted with purple "sanding sugar". It was a hit, of course! Personally I think a lighter flavored frosting is best to compliment the Chocolate-Earl Grey tones, just because cream cheese, or even the brown-butter frosting nearly, over-shadow the other flavors. Oh, and I made a non-baked recipe: a veggie-chili! So yummy! Oh, but I wasn't going to talk about my latest culinary escapades, I was going to share the story of what's going on right now in my life.

Oh, happy new year, by the way! I just realized that I haven't posted on here since then. Well, I guess I'll start there, at the beginning of the new year.

I finally did what I've been talking about/wanting to do for quite a while: I spent New Year's Eve camping out along the Tournament of Roses Parade route in order to have a great viewing spot for said event the morning of the New Year! Of course, I was not alone in this endeavor, for most of the evening I was accompanied by my friends Rusty and Tori, as well as all of the families and youth groups and others who were also on the street with us. After she got off of work, after we'd all rung-in the new year at midnight, my flattie and her boyfriend (well, I guess when they got there he wasn't her boyfriend yet...but that changed that night/morning) showed up! And despite expecting to not be able to sleep, I fell asleep around 3-ish and then woke up just around sunrise. And despite the lack of sleep, and the sun in our faces, we thoroughly enjoyed the parade!

This next part requires a bit of a preface. A year ago I was working for ThinkinBig Communications, a PR Firm/event planners-coordinators/well, let's be honest ThinkinBig is awesome and does it all (mostly because we've got such an amazing Principal - Lorraine). Well, last year's Christmas present from ThinkinBig to all of our clients/associates/various connections was I am not a Paper Cup along with an explanation of a "resolution revolution". Here's the explanation:

"'The Experiment: What's the word? A resolution revolution'

New Year's resolutions have never worked for me, especially in a world of information overload. It's another list that gets lost before January ends. That's why in Y2K some friends and I committed to a WORD for the year. A single word or short phrase that would be the compass, true north, filter and driving force for the year ahead. One you want to own. One you remember. One that inspired you, makes you think, grow and learn.

For example, my JUMP year I ran a marathon, took bigger risks in business, and learned new ways of relating to the most important people in my life. Another year, PAUSE inspired me to take time to read, to build margin in my schedule, and to be quicker to listen and slower to speak.

In a year of DOWNTURN, UNCERTAINTY, CHANGE and BAILOUT, we need more GOOD, HOPE and PERSPECTIVE. The power of a single word can shift opinions, change events, reshape habits...

-Lorraine O'Keefe
principal, ThinkinBig Communications"

So, last year I tried to pick a word and it didn't work the way I'd hoped. Mostly because I picked a word that sounded better than really choosing something based on meaning. So this year I intended to really spend time thinking about the word I'd choose for the year. Based on a lot of things I'd been thinking about lately, about life and getting outside my comfort zone, and well, Beauty and the Beast...or at least a song from it...wanting adventure in the great wide somewhere...and just when I was deciding that my word should be adventure, I was reminded of a French phrase often used by the Doctor (as portrayed by David Tennant): allons-y. Below is my explanation of allons-y:

allons {a-like in apple+llons-like you're gonna say long but you don't get to the ng and you don't pronounce the s if there's not a vowel following the word} from the french verb aller meaning in the infinitive "to go", this is the nous {new} or "we" conjugation meaning: we go.

y {like you're saying the letter "e"} a french clitic (think like the English "an", "a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level." - thanks wikipedia) taking the place of a location-in other words, generally meaning "there".

allons-y {a-like in apple+llon-like you're gonna say long but you only sorta get to the ng+s-which is more like a sound between s and z+y-like you're saying the letter "e"} a two-word french phrase meaning let's go = my word/phrase for the year as it encapsulates carpe diem attitude that necessitates more than just me, alone "going"...in community and with God on this adventure.

So, this is all the preface to what I really meant to update you about.

Going back to before New Year's, again: for about a month or so I've had this ad show up on Facebook and as with most of the ads on Facebook, I ignored it. Well, I ignored it to the best of my ability. But it was advertising studying in Scotland! If you know me, you know I'd find that difficult to ignore. But I convinced myself that it wasn't really aimed at me. Instead it was supposed to be aimed at people who needed to do their undergrad studies...or so I assumed. A few weeks ago I was shown the error of my assumption as the wording of the ad changed to: Get your Masters in a year at a Scottish University. They knew how to get to me. I clicked on the link, however wary that it may be something strange or dangerous, or fake. I read, I opened new tabs of information from the different Universities where this scholarship would be accepted. I favored St. Andrews, but they had the usual sounding/looking programs that I'd seen other places that would be mildly fascinating, but weren't necessarily something I'd prefer to study. So, I moved on to the other schools, and in amongst the University of Aberdeen's taught programmes, I found it! A programme for me on The Novel! And I don't mean novel as in new and interesting things which may be called novel. No, it's that now-common form of literature that hasn't been around as long as we may like to think. That form that was belittled, along with its readers, as being silly and frivolous near its inception, but has since been associated with great works of literature, and the "intelligentsia". And so, I am working on an application to the University of Aberdeen to work on an MLitt in "The Novel". If I get in (and can raise the funds) I'll be leaving for Scotland in the Fall to commence my graduate studies. (!!!!!!!!!) If not, however, I'll be here still, happy to know that I have found an interesting programme of study and that I've applied for grad school, and working hard to get words words words (the bookstore) set-up!

Well, there you have it! There's my update. Please be praying for me in this new adventure of applying for grad school - primarily for God's will in all of this, but also for my sanity as I try to pull everything together for the application, and whatever may or may not come after. Thank you!

the picture post:

Here you go, as promised, various pictures of the previous adventures. Unfortunately I took this one with my phone so it's sideways, but you can see what the cup pies looked like at least. Apple was a hit. These were all that were left after the party, and there was only one after the end of the work day! :-D

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the English Toffee, but those who got some can verify its existence (even if it did only exist for a brief period of time - which seemed briefer still after it was given out, sorry to the spouses of my co-workers who never saw any (-; ).

Ok, so I called this the picture post and there are already a lot more words than pictures, alas, what can I saw, the blogs title is words, words, words. :-) Speaking of blog names and whatnot. I'll warn you again before and after I move, but I'll be moving blogs. It's not that I don't like this one, it's just that when Becky and I decided to name our bookstore-to-come words words words, I realized that I already had something named along those lines and I want to work, in this coming year, on the branding for that, therefore I figured keeping a blog with a similar name that isn't entirely related probably wasn't the best idea for business-to-come.

Perhaps while I'm still not posting pictures I should at least tell of some of the other things I've since crafted in the kitchen but neglected to take pictures of. The first of which being the main dish for my Christmas Eve dinner with my immediate family. I re-made a recipe I've made before from the amazing Real Simple recipe box I have. It's a pan-seared chicken dish with potatoes and I used tarragon this time instead of any of the other herbs I could have used, and this amazing dry white wine sauce! A couple days after Christmas, because I was feeling in the mood for French Onion soup, I found in my new "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Childs, a delightful recipe for such a soup. It was phenomenal - then again, I'm a tad biased. Adria can be the judge, as she's the only other person who had some. Then, tonight, I made for my flattie, Stephen, and myself, some amazing hot chocolate straight out of my new Disney Dessert cookbook. :-) Anyway, that's it for now on my cooking escapades. I'm sure there'll be more later to tell of.

another adventure in baking! :)

so there will be pictures posted soon of the finished product for the apple cup pies (or as my friend, Beth, accidentally typed one day: cuppies!).

Last night, after searching Target for a candy thermometer and only finding a bulky one that's also for frying things, and buying 3 lbs. of Hershey's chocolate from Costco, I went home and made - drum roll goes here - the Hann Family Christmas thing which I will be giving as presents to friends and co-workers (so if you fall into one of those groups and don't want to know, stop reading! ;-) no seriously stop now if you don't want to know because if you read any further any surprise may be ruined and well, I warned you)............more continued drum roll-ing.....................................English Toffee! yay! :D This is my first year making it, and so far it's turning out just fine! Of course I've been around for the making of it for years and years and years and years, and I may have helped stir the melting chocolate before, but this is the first time I'm making it all on my own. It was kinda scary last night, too; trying to not burn the butter/sugar concoction beyond recognition, but also trying to get it to the correct temperature, all the while trying to keep my apartments smoke detector from going off, oh and watching Planet of the Dead (one of the special episodes of Doctor Who that came out this last year) and of course my pot of butter/sugar to be toffee was smoking the most during the most intense moments of the show giving me appropriately epic music!

I have one batch made - nearly- (this is the batch for all those folks I know who are allergic to nuts as it's just going to be chocolate and toffee) as it has one side covered in chocolate and tonight I'll be flipping it over to cover the other side with chocolate. So there ya go. I'll have to take some pictures to show all of you what it looks like!

another baking adventure!

Tonight was my only really free night this week as tomorrow I'm fortunate enough to get to go with my roommate to the Disneyland Cast Member Christmas Party, Wednesday night is, of course, the musical discussion group, and Thursday night is lifegroup. You're probably saying: ok, Janelle but there's still Friday night! and you'd be right if not for the facts that: a. I'm flying home on Friday night to go visit mom and dad; and b. what I needed a free night for was for the pie I'm supposed to bring to the Registrar's Office Annual Christmas Party happening on Friday! So tonight I decided I'd get things prepared!

<- these 5.5 filled cupcake molds make up the last 5.5 of 17.5 of the now-ready-to-be-filled crust I made tonight. Unfortunately (mostly because my hands were covered in flour) I didn't take pictures of the dough making or rolling out step in the process. However I have high hopes for the results of this crust as it had one of the best textures of unbaked crust I've made yet! So here's hoping! Another quick "unfortunately": unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't have quite enough dough to go around and it takes such a long time rolling out the mini-crusts to go into the cup-cake pans that by the time I realized this, it was too late for me to make more. Fortunately, someone else is also bringing pie to the Christmas party, so it's not just up to me. But I feel kinda bad because cup-pies are individual sorts of things and if I don't have enough then there will be people who miss out! Maybe I'll have to find some time to make enough more crust to fill the remaining 6.5 cup-cake molds as well as make tops for the whole lot of 'em. Ok, well onto the next part: filling.

<- I don't know if you can see her there, but right behind the apple on that marvelously torturous-looking device is my fellow baker and roommate, Laura. Tonight she was busy making gingerbread while I was working away on my apples! Ok, back to the subject. The apples. Thanks to a co-worker's generous sister I was able to borrow an apple corer, peeler, slicer and I really thing I should feel guilty for how easy it made the project. Fortunately I only feel like I should feel guilty as I had enough other things to get done there isn't much guilt slipping through. But as you can see in the photo it rather perfectly peels the apple and turns it into a happy little apple slinky! Since I'm making cup-pies I went from there and cut most of the apples into quarters, a few into eighths, so that the filling would fit into each little pie.

This is a picture of the filling in action! Just in between adding the tablespoon of flour and putting in the cinnamon! Mmmmmm! Hopefully it will taste just as good as it looks!

There's a lot involved in the beautiful process that is baking and I found out tonight that one of those things is being good at arranging spaces! The nice thing is that I have all of this done. The hard part is that now I have to wait until Thursday night to put it together and bake it. So, right now I made some interesting choices and re-arranged a whole 2 shelves in the refrigerator just to make room for the pie crusts in their cup-pie pans and the filling (which has been safely stowed in a nice little Tupperware container). I'll let you know how things go! Oh, and I need to remember to go buy the Gruyère! I intend to make these cup-pies worth of the "Pie Hole" and Charlotte Charles of Pushing Daisies! :-D. I'll leave you with that until the conclusion of this story. Until then,

Linus.

the finished product!

That, my friends, is a chocolate-earl grey cake! And it tastes amazing! Not only did it turn out wonderfully, it also was a blast to make!

I picked this recipe because it sounded like something I'd love. It's chocolate and it's tea! How can you go wrong?

The morning in question, after I signed off of the computer, I walked to my nearby Henry's Market (which is amazing) and purchased those ingredients we didn't have at home. When I got back to my apartment I began to preheat the oven and steep the tea and I was about to start melting the chocolate when I realized that although any of our pots would have worked it would be best in a double boiler. Alas, I do not have one, so I ran out to my car and zipped over to Target. From there, while standing in the aisle with a double boiler in one hand and a pyrex bowl in the other I call my mom - that source of amazing cooking wisdom - to ask her opinion on melting chocolate. With years of making English Toffee for Christmas she knows a thing or two about melting chocolate. However she informs me that she recently found out from one of San Francisco's best pastry chefs that the way to melt chocolate is in the microwave. So I go with the pyrex bowl and return home!

Upon returning home, I decide that having White Christmas on in the background would only make my cake that much better. So after hitting play, I start melting the chocolate in 10sec intervals in the microwave...for the most part everything went well. Thanks to Becky who purchased an electric hand mixer for the apartment last month I was able to get everything mixed well. When everything was mixed together, however the directions said to pour the batter into the pan...and well the batter didn't seem like it would easily pour. In fact it felt more like a mousse in texture than cake batter. The airy but slightly stiff mixture. But I spooned it into the pan and set it to bake for the requisite 50min after double and triple checking that I'd added every ingredient and not too much of one thing or another. After cleaning all of my utensils and dishes and counters, I decided that a cake like this, despite the recipe calling for just a dusting of powdered sugar, deserved a well thought out topping. So I found a recipe for a browned butter frosting and worked on that! Mmmmm! Once the cake was done, I let it cool a little while and then lightly poured the frosting on top and then I melted more chocolate to drizzle over that! It has been amazing!

The flavors within one bite are many and amazing. It's moist and although you'd expect the chocolate to be strong it's nicely soft with the earl grey notes playing throughout! And then with the almost toffee-ish flavored frosting and dark chocolate on top it's one fun mix of flavors! I wish I could send you a slice so you could try it yourself! In lieu of that I'll just post another picture.