I swear to Julia I was not intentionally NOT posting. Things got hectic:

We went to the Olympics, had Valentine’s Day, came back from Vancouver, then Paul left for Indonesia the next day….and now I’m attempting to clean up the mayham that ensued during that whole time, plus eat and cook all the food in Paul’s condo so it doesn’t go to waste. I’m doing pretty good so far!

Thursday night I had the girls over for burrito buffet night complete with two kinds of leftover cake. (and yes, I took some crappy pictures which I’ll share in a post later.)

Last night I had ANOTHER girls’ night with Danae (we go WAY back) and of course, I took tons of pictures of our Asian bonanza. Yes. Asian. Bo-nanza!

So you’ll see those pictures coming up too, and I’ll link to the places we got everything from, fear not.

The biggest adventure was our Valentine’s Day dinner, at my new favorite Vancouver spot, The Corner Suite, which I’ll be doing a whole SERIES of posts on over the course of the next week or so, so please do come back to read that!

BUT, first, I’m going to post about what I did today: ‘Green Lake+’ run, and then the CPG cafe (you’re asking “Siiri, WTF is the CPG?!” ).  Well, to find out, you’ll have to read the next post! That’ll be posting tomorrow, so in the meantime, know that I’m here, at Paul’s condo, eating all this food with friends, and plan to take MORE pictures of those things.

Here’s what I’m attempting to cook this weekend:

Oatmeal rasin cookies (with some special extras)

Scalloped potatoe thingy (what?!) with puff pastry (or something)

Roasted broccoli (sp? gawd, I’m awful at spelling, sorry DAD, I know you’re reading totally embarassed by that) with crispy shallots

Yam fries and roasted onions (or maybe carmelized???)

Organic Beef stew (YES PLEASE)

Apple tart

Then, on Wednesday morning, before even the birds get up to get the worms, I’m going to CHICAGO BABY!!!!! To see this one:

I’m going with these ladies:

And so there will be MANY food adventures I can’t wait to share with you, write about, and figure out how to make on my own at home, without the fuss and recipe, and of course let you, my fabulous 3 readers share in the spoils of learning how to cook some wonderful food at home for yourselves too!

So, ready? Because here I go! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning, and Happy Monday to all you cooking kittens out there! (well, let’s be honest, I hate mornings and Mondays, so it’s not that great for me, but I’m sure not everyone shares my affliction).

We have drawn our random winning numbers for last weeks’ Starbucks VIA Ready Brew sweepstakes, and our five lucky winners are:

Hester Serebrin
Rachel Wilsey
Kelly Casteel
Kat Mitchel
Liz Fawthrop

Congratulations, ladies!

You each have 24 hours to contact me with a mailing address (or drop off address if you’re here in Seattle).

If you didn’t win this time around, fear not! I have more tricks up my sleeves in coming weeks and months, so you’ll have other chances to hit the big time!

Hey guys! Just a reminder that today is Friday, which makes it the final day to enter to win the Starbucks VIA Ready Brew cocktail swag bag sweepstakes! (That is really a mouthful, right?)

Just look at my post from this Monday, and follow the directions! You have till 5pm Pacific Time tonight to enter!

Good luck!

Happy Monday Morning, all my fellow food lovers, cooks, friends, bloggers and readers!

As promised, today begins another giveaway.  And what could be better on an early Monday morning than a giveaway filled with……

COFFEE!!!!!!

That’s right, this weeks giveaway is brought to you from our faithful Seattle coffee house, maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called Starbucks.

(copyright Starbucks)

THAT’S RIGHT!!!!!  This week, 5 lucky readers will win Cocktail swag bags from Starbucks including:

2 boxes of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew
1 Chromed out Martini shaker
2 Stemless, red bottomed martini glasses
1 Set of Starbucks VIA Mix off cocktail recipes

Plus, a handwritten congratulations note from yours truly!

So here’s the deal.  Wanna enter the Sweepstakes?  It’s easy as 1,2,3!

1. Go to http://www.starbucks.com/via/occasion/recipes/ and find your favorite recipe that uses VIA as an ingredient.
2. Come back to the blog (doesn’t matter which post, as long as it’s from this week) and leave me a comment with the link to your favorite recipe and tell me what you like about it!
3. All comments left between 1/25/10 (12pm PST) and 1/29/10 (5pm PST) will be entered into a randomized electronic drawing.
4. 5 winners will be chosen this time around, and I’ll post their name next Monday.  They have 24 hours to email me after that with their contact information before I pick a new randomized winner.

If you have any questions, simply leave a comment and I’ll respond ASAP.

Good luck, and impress me with your recipe choices! I can’t wait to start giving stuff away!!!!!

Because seriously, if I don’t write it down somewhere, I’m bound to forget:

• White chili (for Rose Bowl chow down on Friday day)
• Pork Rolls (from my previous post: cinnamon buns and bacon)
• baked-fried chicken (tonight at our friends’ house for dinner)

Now, I saw last night in the fridge that I have an OLD half loaf of gluten free corn bread that’s been in there for ahhhhhhh, I’d say about 4 weeks. What do we think? Is it still usable for something? Or do I toss it?  I’m trying to think of some sort of bread pudding…..but I don’t know. Any suggestions??

Hi guys! Sorry if it seems I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth recently. Of course with Thanksgiving, we were all occupied for a handful of days. And now that we’re back in the swing of things, at least for the next few weeks, I’m a busy bee!

I have been attending events, cooking, baking and asking lots of questions, and with those activities, I’ve been taking pictures and videos to share.

Of course, that means I have to upload it all. I’ve been making progress on it, but it’s been a long process for some reason (YouTube was slow, etc.).

So, I’ve got some great posts coming up, this week and next, and hope that you enjoy what I’ve been up to.

I would love to put a call out there to anyone reading to ask for potential guest posts for the holiday season.  Things I’d like to see guest posts on could include:

• Holiday tradition dishes
• Dumpster dishes you always end up making post holidays
• Your “go-to” dish or appetizer you take to parties
• Plans to eat somewhere cool this season
• Questions about how to cut corners on time and money when cooking for parties or groups this season
• Whatever else you can think of!

So, stay tuned, and please let me know if you have something you’d like me to do a post on, or if you would like to do a guest post with me!

I love this time of year, and can’t wait to show you all I’m up to!

-Siiri