Living the Justopian Life

Finally!

It wasn’t the Blizzard of the Century here, but it was a winter storm and we did get measurable snow and I did have to grip the wheel on my way home from dinner at a friend’s house last night as the snow started to fall and accumulate on the roads.

That’s not good. How was I going to activate the light change without the button being available? The light only changes for pedestrians. Yikes!

I was very happy. Well, I wasn’t happy in the first moments of my drive when I had a little fishtail action in my light, little, not very snow-worthy car on the way home, but once I got upstairs and tucked into the couch in front of the tube, looking out at the snow-sprinkled windows with PJ’s on and a nice glow in the fireplace, I had a big smile on my face.

See the beady little red lights there? They stayed red because I couldn’t get to the button to have the light change. Thankfully, there weren’t many cars on the icy roads!

I am sad today though. Yes, there’s still snow out there, but I’m sure that although it’s the first, it will also be the last time this year. I do want to move to paradise in a place like Belize or Cebu or St. Lucia, but I also have the need to live somewhere north, where the ground is white until the spring thaw shows it’s face months later.

I am sad because in the past 24 months I’ve flown to both Portland, Maine and Buffalo, New York for job interviews and didn’t land either one. Either of those two places would have given me the snow I’m looking for. Well that, and a great job and a new experience. Ok, enough lamenting over what could have been and onto today’s cooking extravaganza. Oh, and did I mention … They were cool jobs, each with Time Warner Cable, managing call centers. That’s where my heart lives. Ok, back to snow and food.

Starting with Cheddar Crackers.

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I saw a post on Foodgawker the other day that made my mouth water. Hmmm… so many of the posts on Foodgawker make me drool, but when I hit the link behind the photo and saw how easy it was to make the Cheddar Crackers featured, I ran right into the kitchen to whip up a batch. The dough has to chill, so I put it together before I went out and knew it would be waiting for me in the morning.

They are delicious and it’s impossible to resist eating more than a couple at a time! Darn you Foodgawker!!

Dinner

And then it was time to think about dinner. Actually, I didn’t need to think about it. The night before during dinner at my friend’s house I decided I just had to have Milanesa Napolitana. Hillary made a traditional Bolivian meal, from Bolivian lemonade to Flan that was DEElicious. But the main course was milanesa-like and it made me crave more.

I had a great time. It was a wonderful opportunity to really get to know people I’d only met or worked with briefly at the store. Dinner was fabulous, the setting was beautiful and the people were fun. We heard stories of work that wasn’t related to the online world I lived for so long and we had some good laughs. I can’t wait to do it again; maybe an Asian feast at my house next time?

Filed under: Food, How To