SymiGoddess

Greenling Quickfire Round 14

2012-02-09T13:37:00.003-06:00

The amount of fun I have had week after week with this little challenge has been exponentially growing with each new box. And once again this week is no exception. Upon arriving home I discovered a surprise waiting with me Greenling box. An awesome box of goodies from Greenling and an awesome note to let me know they read this blog. Totally made my night! My daughter thought it was super cool

Greenling Quickfire Round 11-13

2012-02-02T22:02:00.002-06:00

I know... I know... I was supposed to be doing this every week and keep up with each episode and make a corresponding dinner using my weekly Surprise Me ingredient from Greenling. and then the holidays happened and then vacations... So what's my excuse this time? Trust me it's a good one. I was out of the country on a cruise with the band Weezer! But this week I'm finally getting caught up

Greenling Quickfire Round 10

2012-01-11T21:16:00.000-06:00

Tonight's Greenling Surprise Me item was Watermelon radish! I love this veggie and pick them up any time I see them at farmers's markets or at the grocery. Round and encased in a pale green, thin skin, the watermelon radish has pinkish-red flesh, with a mild, sweet flavor. I love to pickle these radishes, but since I had already used that approach with the breakfast radishes on a previous

Greenling Quickfire Round 8-9

2012-01-04T22:20:00.003-06:00

So once again a holiday interferes with my Top Chef Quickfire Greenling Challenge - well sort of. I spent the holidays in Dallas, TX this year. And as of Dec 2011 there was no Greenling service in the DFW area. So I had to drive my box of fresh awesomeness to my amazing hosts's house to make my weekly dish. I used the russet potatoes and local kale to make my family's favorite passed down

Greenling Quickfire Round Seven

2011-12-14T19:01:00.000-06:00

Tonight's Greenling box had a repeat Surprise Me item. The Sunflower Sprouts reappeared in my box! This was not a bad thing at all - who doesn't love a repeat of one of their favorites. But it would be cheating to remake the same dish, so I decided to add a twist and try to use my farmstead box items as well. The Greenling Farmstead box is a collection of items for $15 - "A selection of

Greenling Quickfire Round Six

2011-12-07T21:16:00.001-06:00

I have been looking forward to tonight's Greenling box and Surprise Me Quickfire challenge all day and once again the Surprise me item was a fantastic one. Acorn Squash! And a huge one at that! With the cold snap passing through tonight's dish was a crazy easy decision, I decided to make a roasted acorn squash soup. Roasting an acorn squash is super easy. Slice in half, scrape out the seeds

Greenling Quickfire Round 4-5

2011-12-01T21:13:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving vacation put a delay in my blogging and Quickfire challenge, but I made sure to play catch up this week with a fantastic yummy ingredient. This week's Greenling Box Surprise Me item was Sunflower Sprouts! Sunflower sprouts are baby sunflowers. They make an inexpensive and tasty nutritional addition to any salad or green smoothie. Fresh, crunchy, and slightly nutty in

Greenling Quickfire Round Three

2011-11-16T19:31:00.015-06:00

Tonight's Surprise Me Greenling ingredient is Carrot Radishes! A super fun vegetable with a spicy crunch and kick. My inspiration for tonight's dish is primarily based on finding these yummy sweet potato and buckwheat noodles at the local HEB. I love asian veggies over soba noodles and decided tonight would be a fun chance to try out some fun new ingredients. I started the dish

Greenling Quickfire Round Two

2011-11-09T18:11:00.009-06:00

Today's box was packed full of yummy treats. The Surprise Me ingredient from Greenling was one of my favorite fun vegetables. Dragon Tongue Beans!The tender and superbly delicious 7-inch pods are whiteish yellow, with amazing purple streaks! They taste similar to a long green bean but with a slightly spicier kick. I couldn't wait to throw them into a yummy dish.I also had a beautiful acorn squash

Greenling Quickfire Round One

2011-11-02T18:33:00.030-05:00

I've been reluctant to post in my blog since the whole Bravo fallout thing happened. Since that post, Bravo confirmed to the delight of many that they were indeed filming the next season of Top Chef in our beloved Texas. I didn't intend to "break the story" and I'm not even quite sure I did. But after countless requests for interviews and comments I've been successful avoiding the press and

The night Bravo told me to stop tweeting

2011-06-29T16:10:00.005-05:00

The back story.... I love Top Chef. I have seen every episode of every season, I have attended multiple live events and when I travel I eat at the restaurants of both the judges and contestants. Last night I made plans to attend one of my favorite types of local events - a Beer Pairing Dinner at Luke. I am a foodie and I Facebook and tweet most everything I eat, so my phone was

It's a new dawn...

2011-03-08T14:28:00.001-06:00

So a quick catch up from the previous post... I'm so behind ;) Surgery was a complete success - clean margins, tumor completely removed and no need for post surgery radiation. I'm told I'll make a full recovery. The scar is massive (at least to me) but is well hidden by my hair and so far no one seems to notice any real difference unless I point it out and say "hey check out my huge scar!" Life

"My Last Supper"

2011-01-02T21:19:00.000-06:00

Two weeks ago I got news that a small bump behind my ear was a little more than a bump. In fact it was a tumor. The kind that we later discovered that Adam Yauch had and survived. (ironic fate for a Beastie Boys fan) The options were few, leave it (not a good outlook) or treat it and the treatment is surgery. The surgery will leave a scar from the top of my ear, down my neck and a dent in the

Balls!

2010-12-10T11:06:00.002-06:00

It's that wonderful time of year again! Yes, Holiday Cookie exchange - where you sacrifice just a few nights of sanity and your kitchen and come home with more cookies than you can eat for the rest of the year. I love my job, for many reasons, but the fact that I work with a ton of talented bakers who enjoy these kinds of mass production as much as I do really is amazing. This will be my 5th

Julie/Julia Iron Chef Stone Oak

2010-11-12T08:21:00.000-06:00

Last night, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the first Alamo DraftHouse Iron Chef event outside of Austin. If you know me, then you know that one of the only things I love as much as food is a good movie, so when the DraftHouse combines my two favorite loves - I am there!It's never been a question "should I make the drive to Austin". So now that they are bringing these events closer to

Hatch Fantastic

2010-08-29T18:15:00.000-05:00

Every year since we moved to the great state of Texas, we make the annual trip to Central Market (aka Gucci Grocery) for the Hatch Festival.These green peppers are the most amazing thing. Hot or mild they have such an amazing flavor that can be used in dishes savory or sweet. Each year I buy a full case, set some aside to roast, freeze others to supply my kitchen for the rest of the year - and

Beer Love

2010-07-14T11:30:00.006-05:00

Last night I ventured out to a Tweetup for #beericecream at FreeTail Brewing. I figured it would kill 3 birds with one stone. 1) I had not yet been to FreeTail 2) I have been meaning to get out and mingle with San Antonio people 3) um, beer ice cream? yes! The beer ice cream was yummy, and so was the Broken Promise Pale Ale. My only disappointment for the night was that they did not have an IPA

DUK #13

2010-06-25T15:15:00.002-05:00

So if you thought I was giddy over MY FIRST DUK, prepare yourself. When I found out I would get the chance to host a second I nearly passed out at work :) So what was different this time around? A lot! For starters, I wasn't a nervous wreck for the days preceding - and with the arrival of my iPhone4 that morning I was actually quite distracted! I took the day of off to enjoy my time and relax

Run Baby Run

2010-05-12T23:37:00.003-05:00

I used to be the girl who only ran when she was being chased. I started running after a good friend inspired me to try a 10K trail run. Looking back I guess I should have started with a 5K, but I am also an overachiever. With just 2 short weeks I to train I pulled out some sneakers with a trace of tread left on them and started running laps in my neighborhood. Much to my surprise, I did finish

OMGWTFBBQ!

2010-04-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

quick update on cool stuffs from recent times: Still working on my Flying Saucer Gold plate for 200 beers.I have made it to 146 and counting.Summer is a great time for trying new beer I am loving The Pinkus Organic line Still in love with any and all Avery and Abita Beers (plus it's strawberry harvest season) - Abita Dinner at Bin 555 was delish can't wait for the next one! And Real Ale in

Are you RegE?

2010-04-09T10:20:00.002-05:00

Pun stolen from employee announcement. Please don't "pun"-ish me :) If you work in the banking industry, by now you should be knee deep in Reg E preparations. What is Reg E? The Federal Reserve Board has issued new rules for Regulation E which will give consumers the right to limit the overdraft costs associated with ATM and one-time debit card transactions by giving consent or opting-in

Lost 6x2

2010-02-09T10:22:00.000-06:00

It wouldn't be a new season of Lost without a Dharma Party!

DUK #6

2010-02-09T10:15:00.001-06:00

Thanks to the ease and speed of Facebook, sometimes I forget to update major milestones at the blog level. I already have an app that feeds twitter into FB, now if they could just port my FB into full blog posts I would be set - no such iPhone app? Oh well. I guess I will have to just do a summary pic presentation :) DUK #6 - "Dady Underground Kitchen" Chef Jason Dady has been one of my local

My Foodie Resume

2010-01-25T12:16:00.004-06:00

In honor of this Thursday’s culinary experience in my home, partly to explain why I am humbled and honored to be a part of such an evening, I thought I would draw up the 5 W’s of my foodie resume… Who: Me – “a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment, especially good food and drink.” – aka foodie Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, foodies differ from gourmets in that

Bacon for Christmas

2009-12-09T10:51:00.003-06:00

This year I am experimenting for the holiday cookie exchange.For your consideration, Bacon cookies and Bacon Fudge!bacon chocolate chip cookies chocolate chip cookies (Nestle Toll House Recipe)2 1/4 cups flour1 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt1 cup salted butter, softened3/4 cup white sugar3/4 cup brown sugar1 tsp vanilla2 eggs12 oz toll house semi-sweet chocolate morselscandied bacon1 pckg thick cut

Neurotoxins

2009-11-18T13:52:00.003-06:00

Some people consider me high-maintenance when it comes to what I eat, but there is a reason behind it. Living with a life threatening food allergy is rough.SO I make the most of it and and enjoy food that is safe for me in it's finest forms.A few years back, after a close call with Anaphylaxis, I was diagnosed with a deathly allergy to MSG. MSG and/or Monosodium Glutamate is a food additive that

The Cake Is A Lie

2009-10-23T10:14:00.003-05:00

In honor of the annual IT Dept BBQ I made a binary 01100011011000010110101101100101I thought about going for the full "The cake is a Lie" in binary on the cake, but I work in possibly the most un-geeky IT department of all time, to put that much effort into my culinary art project. Perhaps I will play the GlaDOS song while serving the cake? Wait, no one but me plays video games here... Hrm..."

Disasters

2009-10-16T14:36:00.002-05:00

It’s been some time since I’ve posted, and for good reason. We had a real life disaster exercise last week. A hardware issue rendered our system lifeless and although we did everything we could, we were still down for appx 24 hours. No data loss (thanks to some creative knowledge on how to recover missing files) but I still went without sleep for 40 straight hours to complete the recovery process

2009-09-21T16:08:00.001-05:00

swfobject.embedSWF("http://apps.lls.org/Apps360//genericWidget.swf", "etoolsFundraiserWidget", "184", "250", "9.0.0", "http://apps.lls.org/Apps360//expressInstall.swf", { programGroupName:"LTN", constituentID:"1603672095", eventID:"4044" } , {bgcolor:"#ffffff"});

Conference Memories

2009-08-25T13:40:00.013-05:00

In honor of tomorrow's virtual SEC, I figured I would reminisce over conferences of the past. So many great memories and so many pictures to choose from, I narrowed down to some of my favs in the past 4 years.Meeting Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and being heckled by Gilbert Godfrey is somewhere near the top of the list. I really did like him in Aladdin!There has always been an ongoing Star Wars theme for

Warped Birthday Cakes

2009-08-05T10:54:00.005-05:00

Today is the birthday party for a dear friend with a rather warped sense of humor. I couldn't decide between a zombie baby or a cat litter cake, so I made both for tonight's party at the Saucer.Zombie Baby cake was inspired from the time Josh etched RIP into a cake at work because e thought it was a tombstone cake, come to find out it was a cradle cake for a baby shower at his office.The cake is

cake

2009-08-03T16:03:00.006-05:00

Not so little known factoid about me...My prior career was in the event/wedding planning industry. I used to bake wedding cakes, sew wedding dresses, create floral arrangements, and cater parties. At some point in the late nineties I gave it all up for coding and haven't really looked back since. Dealing with a computer is way easier than putting up with a BrideZilla.Nonetheless, I get cravings

Tastes like RepGen

2009-06-05T14:07:00.010-05:00

If you know me.. you know that the two non-human loves of my life are code and food. So is it really all that surprising that I spend a great deal of time posting randomly on those two subjects?A few years back the two merged and became RG - FOOD. A specfile html decision engine for lunch determination. Lately I have been consumed with other more relevant projects at work, so I use my twitter and

random

2009-05-07T13:27:00.000-05:00

Don't get me started about the shoe blocking.. I got blocked shoe shopping in PA during symeast. Shoe store blocking is just wrong!And no, not moonlighting..."Adele Services" is the actual merchant... I saw it come up on Digg.com a few months backhttp://digg.com/odd_stuff/Adele_ServicesThey are trying to steal my name :-P There can be only one.Although I could be convinced to leave programming

Airline madness

2009-04-17T13:31:00.002-05:00

Not sure how well blog and iPhone work together without an app, but with who knows how much time on my hands, why not try?American airlines had cancelled all flights into SA this afternoon. After flying in from philly, I was planning for the worst. The turbulence on the first flight was by far the worst I have ever experienced. We were coming up out of our seats and banging around for the last 30

Themed suites for SymEast

2009-04-14T12:56:00.004-05:00

How do you top a trip to sun studios in Memphis, TN?check out this link: fanatsy suitesThe hotel has 20 "themed" rooms.Some how the symeast group seems to have been placed in the majority of them.I am in one of the 20 for the next 2 nights, switching to another theme on Thursday thanks to the front desk staff. Should make for an interesting week. I think we'll be doing room tours later so

One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead

2009-04-14T09:34:00.004-05:00

Okay, so it was Monday and not Saturday, but I did finally make it to Zipperhead. Crash Bang Boom has actually been moved around the corner, but the signature zipper ants are still on South Street.There was very little Dead Milkmen memorabilia, but I did pick up a few cute souvenirs. One Saturday I took a walk to ZipperheadI met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead Punk rock girlPlease

Wine Tasting with Maynard James Keenan

2009-03-27T19:28:00.006-05:00

This morning I went out early to grab a ticket for the Maynard Wine event at the local Whole Foods. They only had 500 tickets and I was able to get #291.The set up was Whole foods would be selling Maynard's wines and offering signing in a private room for the first 500 people. Key points of interest leading up to the event:#1 Maynard's wines are very hard to get a hold of. If you want to buy them

Ada Lovelace Day - Barbara Fraire

2009-03-24T08:49:00.006-05:00

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron is widely known in modern times simply as Ada Lovelace. She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs—that is,

non-distracting alpha

2009-03-09T11:29:00.003-05:00

After spending a week dedicating my brain to the efforts of release testing, I had a realization of just how distracted office life is. Prior to my arrival at my current employer, I was telecommuting and enjoying the associated super-productivity. When I made the job switch, I continued the super productivity, but it took much more effort and longer hours.I enjoy being in the office, I am a

My Gaiman History

2009-02-07T10:43:00.006-06:00

Last night I re-confirmed one of my own beliefs. Neil Gaiman is one of the greatest modern storytellers.For me it started in 1989. I was wandering through a comic book shop and saw the beautiful artwork of Sandman Issue #1. I was instantly hooked. I was a faithful reader and collector of the series through 1996. My collection survived my brother twice; once when he burned my issue 8A (the rare

Lost Party!!!

2009-01-21T09:09:00.007-06:00

In preparation for tonight's Lost Viewing party, I decided to work on some craft projectsI found labels for some of the foods on the web, and made some others using photoshop.The Boarding Pass Shiraz is very close to Oceanic Flight style.. so no labeling was required there.I had thought about doing mini liquor airplane bottles for cocktails, but didn't have the time to get to the liquor store

urban hacking / space invaders

2009-01-14T08:38:00.002-06:00

Closing Branches

2009-01-14T08:31:00.003-06:00

I was shocked to read this headline this morning:CoastHills Federal Credit Union shutting down two branchesIt looks like there will be no layoffs for the employees, but this is a definite sign of the economy.

floating point binary

2009-01-08T19:05:00.003-06:00

a) Click on the link – if it’s from Jim so it HAS to be safe b) Ignore the email and continue monitoring the Woot-Off in the hopes at snagging a bag o’crap c) Think about how you’ll

tilted twister

2008-12-05T17:15:00.002-06:00

Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is a Lego mindstorms kit and the blueprints to this robot. The blueprints are found here: http://www.tiltedtwister.com/ so that saves you some time. – I just need the legos and a Hitechnic Color Sensor for the scanner arm modification. I have been good all year. Please reference the snippet from the feature article below, copied from the

CNN has the droids you are looking for

2008-11-05T14:06:00.001-06:00

If you were watching election coverage last night, you might have caught the “hologram” appearance of reporter Jessica Yellin. While not actually a true hologram, it was amusing to watch. The anchors were not really speaking to three-dimensional projected images, but rather empty space. The images were simply added in to the images being sent to your home TV, in much the same way

Halloween Candy Code

2008-11-03T11:57:00.002-06:00

If you find hobo code amusing try this: http://www.cockeyed.com/archive/candy_code/candy_code.html Teach your kids to how to label the houses (sidewalks) as they trick or treat next year.

Sugar Plum Fairy!! The shoes!

2008-10-31T14:40:00.001-05:00

Almost forgot my favorite part! SHOES! Happy Halloween!

Sugar Plum Fairy!

2008-10-31T14:39:00.001-05:00

zombies!

2008-10-30T11:41:00.004-05:00

This is my new favorite pumpkin decoration!

MySpace/Facebook and Credit Unions

2008-10-20T15:31:00.001-05:00

My $.02 As a CU employee - creating a MySpace/Facebook page for the CU is a great idea. Over 70% of 15 to 34 year olds are using MySpace/Facebook. Why not go for the target market where they spend the majority of their time. MySpace is the most trafficked website in the US. Keep it current, not sales-pitchy, and relevant to the age demographic and it could do wonders for your deposit and

Durian Party 2008!

2008-10-20T12:43:00.001-05:00

Wiki: The durian (pronounced /ˈdʊəriən/)[1] is the fruit of trees from the genus Durio belonging to the Malvaceae, a large family which includes hibiscus, okra, cotton, mallows, and linden trees. Widely known and revered in Southeast Asia as the "King of Fruits", the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow up to 30

Utah

2008-10-20T08:34:00.001-05:00

It was wonderful seeing my BFF in Utah. I just wish I could have stayed longer, or that it didn’t require airlines to see each other. Maybe one of these days we’ll get around to residing within driving distance of one another. Short summary – CATS was a lot of fun… all-day-spa-day was super excellent… baby Greta is such a cutie and such a good baby!!!... I miss having cats… ART!!! - George

lava lamp +chocolate syrup = bad google search

2008-10-08T10:53:00.001-05:00

Lesson learned today: Do not look up craft instructions at work. lava lamp + chocolate syrup +google search = nasty results All I wanted to know is what they used the chocolate syrup for in the lava lamp project. I was guessing to counter balance an oil substance, but couldn’t figure out why they weren’t using a corn syrup or similar substance instead. All I got were a bunch of

Emperor Palpatine for US Energy Secretary

2008-09-30T13:26:00.002-05:00

Article on Death Star Firepower: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam/DeathStar.html The article works out how much energy had to be in the beam that blew up Alderaan. Long story short, something in the range of 10^32 joules is necessary to blow apart a planet. A joule is one watt-second, so considering that the beam struck Alderaan for about one second in Episode IV, that means

Recession - It's a Tarp

2008-09-30T10:52:00.001-05:00

I Can, Yan Can, Can You?

2008-09-17T08:41:00.003-05:00

Monday evening, right before bedtime, Mimi casually calls to tell me that Martin Yan was going to be teaching an extra class at the Cooking School Tuesday night and did I want to go? Was that a rhetorical question?! Of course I wanted to go. I've been watching Yan Can Cook since I can't remember when, and the chance to meet the puckish culinary celebrity in person seemed almost too good to

Girls Gone Geek

2008-09-12T16:47:00.002-05:00

Asked and Answered… 1) Why do geek girls find geek guys attractive? Does it go beyond the ill-fitting clothes, the recent stench of stale pizza and spilled mountain dew, and the CRT radiation-burned eyeballs? It’s all in the brains... and weird obsessive behavior is often a plus. You know, like the need to play the same level in a video game over and over until they've killed every

Star Wars - rodent style

2008-09-12T15:17:00.002-05:00

I couldn’t resist.

McCain can't use email?

2008-09-12T14:30:00.001-05:00

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1789003018 How important is it these days that the president of the united states to know how to use a computer/email?

Need more cowbell?

2008-09-11T10:38:00.002-05:00

http://www.morecowbell.dj/ Get more cowbell in all your favorite music!

hurricane

2008-09-10T14:03:00.002-05:00

Office Procedures Concerning Storm and Office Closings As we watch the progress of the storm, the following are thefirm's guidelines based upon the hurricane's intensity:Hurricane Category #1No excuse for being late. Leave earlier to give extra time toavoid fallen trees and limbs.Hurricane Category #2Due to the horizontal rain, you may wear jeans.Hurricane Category #3Whereas most of the area

Client Conference Summary

2008-09-03T21:40:00.010-05:00

So here's my not so brief summary of last week...Left for San Diego on Monday morning. Flight was okay, nothing special. Arrived in San Diego around 11am, grabbed a cab and learned cell phones while driving are now illegal in San Diego. Watching the cabbie try to conceal it was amusing.Arrived and checked in and realized I was super hungry. Lucky for me my people knew people and those people knew

Ocean City, MD and pet peeve #211

2008-08-25T10:00:00.010-05:00

There is a difference between a variant spelling and a misspelling -- a dictionary will only record a spelling as variant if it appears in edited prose often enough that it's clear the editors are accepting it and not just overlooking it.That being said the word "diricted" is not a variant of the word directed and should not be use in the sign shown here. Nor should it have been used on the other

foodie!

2008-08-10T12:41:00.003-05:00

In case you were wondering what I do when I am not coding. The menu I served for a dinner party last night. I spent all day in the kitchen to avoid homework :) Note my hand painted watercolor menus and the mysterious missing 6th course. It made for a very fun evening followed by Apples to Apples and Karaoke. August 9, 2008