Status: HITCHED!

Stories and more photos to come....

Computer Planning

I never thought I'd be spending so much time in front of the computer while doing this wedding planning business. I thought I'd be out shopping, and running errands, and carrying my little notebook around with me, but no... I am on the computer probably more then I'm physically doing anything.

Between my lists (OHHH MY LISTS), and email communications, and IM'ing with my friends working through details and keeping me with perspective and calm, I hardly have time for the running of the errands. I mean I have shopped plenty! But I'll spend about 6-10 hours on the computer around the physical errands and such.

I am on the phone quite a bit, usually ironing things out after I send a particularly snippy email to a family member (or ALL of my family members). And just this week I'm working through the details a lot with my friends that are helping us this weekend, but still, most communications is via email or IM.

Such a different world these days.

An Exellent way to check things off the list

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my good friend Liz. She is VERY good at the wedding planning ideas, and has done the flowers for a number of weddings, including her own. Miss Liz was going to do the flowers for my wedding as well, but along came a spider that sat down beside her, and BAM... she'd due to have a baby ANY DAY NOW!

So Liz has been sharing with me her wisdom, she painted a very cute blue band around MANY terra cotta pots we are using as favors/table decorations, and we even went through her storage tubs of wedding flower doing stuff. Hopefully she'll get to come with me to the FlowerMart tomorrow to pick of the LOADS of flowers I'm picking up tomorrow, but alas, we'll see what the Doctor says today.

Since Liz is on Maternity leave, and I've taken this week off for wedding planning fun, we decided to have a day together since that won't happen much in the next year. We were still able to check off some much needed items off my lists, AND we got to spend a great day together. She didn't get her usual maternity leave mid-day nap, but we did get the toes done, a trip to Costco in, AND we had a yummy breakfast and later, ice cream sundaes.

It was quite the lovely day!

(I tried to get a photo of my very cute toes with there little special wedding day design on them, but I decided that feet are hard to photograph. Especially my funny lookin' toes. or "Tingers" as some call them. Rather long, and the big toes are shorter then the rest. Well I thought they were lookin' pretty cute until the camera got a hold of them. FYI - close up of toes... not cute! So I have spared you all the sight. I'm going to go exfoliate my feet and moisturize my cuticles now.)

Did you remember the milk?

Wooooo Weeee!
This was gonna be a totally busy weekend, but I continued on the procrastination train a little bit longer.

BUT... I did get some very important things done.

LISTS!
LOTS AND LOTS OF LISTS.

Since we are doing the whole low budget, laid-back kinda thing, and we just so happen to be also taking photos before the festivities, so we have no time to help in the set-up of the site. Luckily, I have a VERY lovely crew of friends who are helping us out by giving us their whole day to do the dirty work, so everyone can come and have a great time. FRIENDS ARE PRICELESS!

So these friends get their own list. A very long list. They get a packout list, and a todo list, and I therefore have a shopping list to get everything for said packout list. I will then put together everything in that packout list, and have everything labeled and packed up in clear tubs, of course in like dutied categories.

Example: Everything for the cake table - in this lovely tub here, Extras for the "comfort trailer" - why they are all over there in that tub.

I spent a few years as a caterer, so I learned the goodness of the list, and the organized tubs.

I also of course have a list of things to do around the house, you know like put away all of the shower gifts I received and Eric decided he must spread them ALL OUT so he can see them all, and then of course try the kitchen gadgets. Plus we'd like to shampoo the carpets so the in-laws don't have to see all of the cat puke stains. I mean, the stains will still be there and will re-appear within a week, but at least they don't have to KNOW they are there.

Yes, yes, I realize my list of wedding specific things is about oh....50-60 long, and that's after checking off what I did today, and likely the carpet shampooing isn't going to seem quite so important come Thursday when the in-laws fly into town, but you know... I still want it on there just in case I have a few spare hours to blow.

To help me wrangle my todo lists, I have employed the help of a very helpful tool.
Remember the Milk dot com
I had seen a co-worker of mine use it to track those little things I usually put on post-it notes, which then end up scattered about my desk and inevitably lost right when I need it.

Remember the Milk has a mobile version so I can enter tasks and check my lists on my phone, and a handy dandy reminder system as well, so I get IM's, text messages on my phone, and/or emails with all the things that are due that day. Another great plug-in is the component that lives on my iGoogle page (just above my Google Reader where I check in on all of your lovely blogs when I have a moment). The web app is currently in BETA, and it has some usability issues, but having a tool that allows me to dump my brain, organize it a tad, and then allows me to re-organize it after I've had to sleep and can think more clearly, and then let's me print out my checklists by priority and day the task is due... I'm loving it!

Long live the list!

What was it?!?!?!

Don't you hate it when you think of something you need to do, and it seemed important and something that shouldn't be left out at the time, but you thought... 'I'll take care of it later.'

And then you forget, but you still remember that there was something you should add to your mental or physical list of things to do.

Yea, that's how I feel right now as I sit here trying to make that list.

Sitting Here Thinking... Not Doing (or Sleeping)

So today yesterday was my last day of work for three whole weeks.
Oh sure, you'd think I'd be thrilled and run out of that office as fast I could, right?
Well, instead I continued to work until rather late into the night. I fused about with some troubling findings for a long time before I gave in that I wasn't going to resolve it without some help, so I finally wrote down what I was dealing with and pawned it off to my lead for him to deal with. That was around 10pm I think.

Then I kinda putzed about, making sure statuses were documented, and cups were washed (no one wants to come back from vacation to a dirty tea cup!). I chatted online with some friends, one whom I was supposed to be at her house at 9pm, and then finally wrote my "Out of Office" email and packed up to head home.

I'm pretty sure part of my procrastination to come home was the realization that once I left, I would be 100% focused on the Wedding. No more work stuff to distract me. For the last few months I could always wait until tomorrow to do something, or the next week, or wait for a few months to pass. But now? It's here.

It's not that I'm nervous about getting married (although the whole "Mrs." thing is kinda making me feel all old and grown up, which is scary), but I am more apprehensive about actually having to finish this journey called wedding planning. Totally excited about the actual day, but for some reason, this particular week holds more apprehension.

Have I bitten off more then I can handle?
I mean, this is not your normal wedding. It is VERY do it yourselfy! And thankfully I have a number of friends who have volunteered to do lots of the "doing". But still... I am not as organized as I like to be on a project of any size, and I can no longer put anything off.

Sure I know it will be a beautiful day no matter what, and that the most important thing at the end of the day is that I have married my best friend, that stuff I get. I know things will happen, items will be forgotten, and since all of the essentials have been taken care there really isn't much left to actually do (besides cleaning this pig sty as the in-laws and Eric's friends have NEVER been here!). I know I will forget some tasks and about 50% will be de-prioritized and simply fall off the radar.

But right now I just need a list. Not an overly obsessive list, but at least something for me to start prioritizing and checking things off. Something to get these tasks out of my head so I can get some perspective and some sleep. What's the use of all of those painful skin creams, bootcamp squats, and denying myself pasta, if I don't get the sleep I need to keep me healthy and eyes de-puffed!?

Flowers ordered.... CHECK!

This morning I spent some time trying to pick out just WHICH white rose I wanted to use to add to the arsenal of other white flowers I'm using for our cake and other floral type decorations. Thankfully I had gone to the San Francisco FlowerMart with my good friend Liz a few months ago, and she shared her wisdom on which vendors she has used, and which flowers she thought would hold up best that day.

I met a few of the rose specialist vendors, and decided who I was going to use. William Sakai, of Sakai Brother Roses, was a great help, even though I only got to talk to him via voice mail tag. With his help, I settled on ordering domestic Akito Roses (that's one in the picture up there). They will join forces with white freesia, stock, daisies, Fuji mums, Hydrangeas, lisianthus, dendrobium orchids, and some token blue hydrangeas.

All of my flowers are now ordered, and will be ready for me to pick up next Wednesday when I get to fill my call up to the BRIM with all of the pretty pretty flowers. (someone remind me to take an extra Claritin that day!)

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Yadda Yadda Yadda, Wedding, blah blah blah...

So being the non-girly girl I am who wears very little make-up, if any, I have gone a little overboard on how I'm going to look on the day of my wedding.

I have been getting facials. I have been buying expensive products. I have even scheduled to have eyelash extensions so I can cry without the mascara running down my face.

The most stupid move I made was to try to lighten the spots I have on my left cheek (I drive a lot and have more sun damage on that side then the right), and to lessen the frequency of millia popping up. My millia tend to stick around for at least 6 months, so if I could stop them from forming and could even speed up the healing of those I already have, I thought it would be great to do this before the wedding!

SO DUMB!
Now I have a rash everywhere I put these new products (mainly AHA creams) I bought to reduce the stupid little white bumps and the barely noticable brown spots (well I see them, but most people wouldn't say they were any big deal). I'm assuming that the rash is due to the creams, but it could also be a combination of some planning stress and the creams.

So now I'm itchy, and my previously pretty smooth skin is all bumpy and it's spreading. BRILLIANT!

Do I sound Bridezilla'ish now? I'm starting to feel it. Stupid vanity!

I miss blogging!

Eee Gads!
It's been a long time!

I actually started this post 2 weeks ago, but didn't get beyond those 2 lines up there, before my attention was pulled back to work or some other more pressing matter.

I had originally thought I would get to blog all about the wedding planning process. I'd post photos of events and write about all of the fun wedding goodness (and some of the bad), but no.... I have had no time! I don't really have time for this one, but sometimes a girl just has to put her foot down and do a little nonessential writing to ease her mind and to help her process her thoughts.

I have continued to take pictures for the blog, and keep having thoughts through the day of ... I should write about that for the blog! But alas.... no writing as been done, and the pictures haven't gotten out of my camera.

For those that don't know, I'm getting married next weekend. Less then 2 weeks away.
Am I nervous about getting married? not at all.
About the logistics of the day? TOTALLY!
About what it will be like going from a 3 letter last name to a 7 letter, oddly spelled and pronounced last name? FREAKED OUT!
About the fact that I still don't have everything hammered down and smoothed out? I'm dealing.

But in the end I am thrilled to be marrying my best friend and partner, and very much looking forward to starting down a path that is new, scary, thrilling and full of twists and turns, but knowing that I have someone to hold my hand all the way through is the best part of all.

Honeymoon cottage, BOOKED

Right after I booked our flight to Kauai, I started rethinking that plan and wished I had booked it for a longer stay. A few days passed and I called the airline just to see how much it would cost to change our outbound flight... the cost basically doubled, so I became much more ok with 1 week in Kauai instead of 1.5. Now we're thinking we'll do something local for a few days after the wedding, and before leaving for Kauai. Maybe I'll get my time in Yosemite after all!

So last night I sent off that final decision email to the owner of a cottage we are going to rent on the North East side of Kauai. I used a number of vacation rental websites, and had emailed many agents and property owners. I looked at so many ads and listings, and many were already booked. We narrowed down the available options and discussed, and discussed until we picked one. Way too many options out there... phew!

The next honeymoon task is to get a guide book (Tracy recommended a good one), and then decide on what we really want to do there, get those things booked and then the rest of the time there will be just chilling out. In fact, Eric has requested more chilling and less doing. He's probably right. I only have a few things that I really want to do and they are a kayaking/hiking tour, and visiting various areas of the island but no specific activities. Maybe just a drive and wander kind of thing, no real agenda.

Now, if only I had all of my wedding invites out, I might actually be able to sit back and relax. Maybe tonight I'll actually work on some of those higher priority tasks instead of the fun ones. Sometimes it's just so hard to stick to the priorities.


If anyone out there has ANY suggestions about Kauai... Bring it!

Jury Duty

Today I am hanging out at our County Superior Court, I have been summoned for Jury Duty.

I have been eligible to serve for many years, and have been summoned 3 times. This is the first time I have actually had to appear. So far I am still hanging out in the waiting room and thankfully there is Internet Access. What a great time to research honeymoon accommodations, chat online with my friends and catch up on some bloggy reading. I suppose I could do some work too, as I came prepared to catch up on some well avoided tasks, but what fun is that? Maybe I'll pull that out when I get bored with the Internet... HA!

So far it's been 3.5 hours, only one group has been called and many people are sleeping. Kinda amusing really.

Update - I didn't get picked to go on a panel. Just sat around until a judge came in to dismiss us.

Honeymoon BOOKED

Money is tight in our household with Eric starting up a business, our recent travels for family events, and trying to get things in order to sell our place and buy a new place closer to my work. Oh yea, and the wedding too.

So we had decided not to honeymoon. But then my boss said YOU MUST GO ON A HONEYMOON! So he is forcing me to at least take an extra week off past my wedding planning week, and family time week, so that maybe, just maybe we might go on a honeymoon too.

In order to cut down on some costs, we talked about backpacking in Yosemite, since Yosemite is actually where I wanted to have our wedding in the first place, but logistically that was a big headache. But then I have been wanting to vacation in Hawaii for a really long time and when else is it a perfect time to splurge on a Hawaii vacation then for a Honeymoon?

So I did it. Without much consultation with Eric (but with permission from him to just do it when I found something), I booked our flight and car for Hawaii.

I'm a little dizzy now as I only spent about an hour researching flights and even in that time I saw the prices go up, so I just bit the bullet and did it. I guess now I need to find us a place to stay....

EEEEEeeeeee!

Tracking

Ok, I just have to give praise to the wonders of the Internet and how it opens up vast channels of information, particularly for those of us which are just a touch controlling and like to know what is happening with their stuff at all times. The particular bit of technology with I am currently very pleased with is the joys of tracking packages.

Sure, sure, tracking the traffic or where my lovey is on his journey on a plane is fine too, but don't you just love that you can click on a little link to find out where your particular package is on its route to a loved one you are gifting, or perhaps that special little gift to yourself you just can't wait to have in your very own hands.

Lately I have been shipping lots of things around for the wedding and such and I will be the first to admit that I LOVE CONTROL (which I am learning to reign in these days before I explode). I love that I can go to a site to see that my mosquito netting to shield the cake from Oak leaves is now in Mesquite, TX and should be arriving at my office on Friday. Or I can call Eric's aunt to let her know that FedEx left her granddaughter's dress by her front door, since she usually goes into her house through her garage.

LOVE IT!

Boot camp is kickin’ my booty

Alright, I did it. I gave in to the pressures of the wedding day diets and workouts. I actually gave in a few months ago, and I said I would write about it, but I didn't. If I wrote about it, then I would be somehow more accountable. More accountable then just me knowing. When Tracy of The Starshine Report announced her Operation String Bikini, I thought, ok I'll do it too. I'll announce my goals and talk about it on my blog too. But I didn't. I didn't know if I could stick to it.

It has already been about a year since I started being more mindful of what I eat. I try to be aware of my portions and what my body needs. I grew up in a home of food = love, and 'you better clean that plate', so I have an unhealthy view of portions. This has been a big battle, especially since my Eric has a fast metabolism and does manual labor so he's working off all of those calories he eats. Me, I sit in a car/train, then I sit at a desk, just to return to the car/train to get my arse to the couch as fast as I can.

Eric started running with me last year on the weekends, but I never stuck to it consistently. Each time I would make some progress and would be able to go a little further, I'd miss a day and bam, there goes the routine and there went any progress I had made. I didn't know how to push myself. How to hold myself accountable for a goal of # of sit-ups or minutes to run, and hell no I wasn't doing any pushups or upper body work in general. But I was continuing to not be happy with my "squish" as I would call it. You know that squish in the chest area, next to the armpits? Yea, that squish. The squish that is so attractive in tank tops and GASP! strapless dresses (you know, like those wedding dress types).

So I got on the all knowing internet in search of some help. Some motivation. Guess what? There are people you can pay to motivate you to be in pain! Yup, I signed up for an all women, morning boot camp. Last month I went 3-4 days a week, getting up at 4:30am, to workout with a bunch of woman in the dark at a park for an hour. They took our measurements, weight, and then kicked our butts. We ran timed miles and counted situps, and I don't want to talk about the number of squats performed. For the first week I walked funny. Really funny. But then the second week I was able to recover more quickly, the third week it actually felt good. And then that forth week? well my brother came to town and then I went out of town and there went the diet and the working out 3-4 times a week. Seriously, chips and beer came into my house for the first time in a long time and if they are there.... I will eat them.

When I came back from vacation to New Orleans (I'll write about that later), I had my post-camp evaluation. I had lost all of 0.5 pounds. ugh. My thighs, actually went UP an inch, and everything else was about the same. But the skin fold test.... huh, I lost 2.9% body fat. Not great, but that's something right? And my chest squish? Had the biggest change of any of those measurements. So maybe I need to get back on that wagon, because although the scale may not know it, I know that I can run further and do more sit-ups, and push-ups? well I can do a few now. I have missed the first two days of camp this month, and tomorrow is the timed mile. I think I'm actually excited and want to see if I can come in any faster then when I started.

Here's to kicking some booty to the curb!

Update - DRAT! It was totally raining this morning and that was all the excuse I needed to not get up early to go run.

And My Commute Gets Worse

Ohhh wee, I feel like I'm bitching a lot!

On Sunday morning, a gasoline tanker crashed and burned on a freeway in the SF Bay Area. Thankfully no one was killed, and the driver of the tanker walked away with 2nd degree burns. The heat of the fire exceeded the limits the freeway structure could withstand and the steel supports melted. This little mishap is now costing the state millions of dollars to fix and from a completely selfish standpoint... TOTALLY SUCKS as now I HAVE to take the train into work which is about 2 hours each way including walking. If I get there early there is a shuttle from the station to my office park, but that still means getting to the train station by 7am, and some mornings I'm just not that with it.

The part of the freeway which collapsed onto another freeway was my way home. It was also the way home for 10's of thousands of people everyday. I decided I didn't want to even try to use the train system come Monday morning as I thought it would be complete chaos. The state officials thought it would be as well, so they made all public transportation free for the day.

So yesterday I opted to work from home and forgo the free transportation. FYI - Mondays are not a good work from home day for me becuse I have a hard time convincing myself that it's not still the weekend. So now as I sit here on the train, riding into work, I am officially FREAKING OUT at the amount of work I have to do today, and I have to train a new hire to boot. At least on the train I suddenly have a few hours to spend writing. Lucky you people!

Really, I'll try not to bitch quite so much tomorrow. (although I've already written a few posts today so there might be about a week of whiny writing).

CHEERS!

The Dress

Finding the dress can be painful and joyous, hot and exhausting, and a whole lot of fun. For me, it was 2 weekends of time with my mom and girlfriends, and being totally cool standing around half naked and laughing a lot.

The first day at the first salon I tried on MANY dresses. I had a consultant who was great at listening to me and running around finding dresses for me to look at and try on. She was very efficient and knew her stuff. Amongst the thousands of dresses, she pulled out THE DRESS.

It's a little different, but very now. It's simple, but with just enough adornment. It's shaped so I'm not freaking out about my bumps, lumps and "squish". I fell in love with it... but still had to look at some "cheaper" options, so off to David's Bridal I went the next day.

There I was shocked by the bright white lights. The large number of brides and prom goers in this very large showroom. But there were a few dresses I thought looked pretty good on me... and they were so much less money then the one at the fancy bridal salon.

After another weekend of re-trying on my narrowed down list of 3, I could only visualize myself in the fancy, well fitting, slightly different dress which I clearly loved more then the others. I had figured this would happen and had already scheduled an appointment to get my measurements and order the dress... you know just in case.

The day before my appointment I was to order the dress, I went to the designer's website and found that MY DRESS had been discontinued. Slightly worried, I went to my appointment to order my dress. I mentioned the discontinued status on the website to my consultant, and a wash of worry came over her face. She said, "Then you aren't going to get your dress." Oh well that made me feel better! But I just smile and try to not freak out because I could always fall back on the David's Bridal dress and I was also pretty sure the bridal salon would not be needed this discontinued dress anymore and I could probably have it altered to fit and maybe might even get a discount to help cover the cost of the needed alterations.

After my consultant calls the designer, argues with her boss about why the dress was still on the floor, she asks me to try on the dress one more time to see if I could buy the stock dress. Amazingly it fits perfectly! My consultant continues to apologize and comment on how calm I am. Since calm is far from being my middle name, I am actually pretty amazed too. But what was I going to do. Maybe I should have pitched a fit, because I didn't get the discount I had hoped for, but since I'm no haggler, I paid for the dress and checked it off my list.

Now, the dress has been cleaned and mostly repaired, and is hanging in a closet at my parent's house. The lacing for the corset back is not the original lacing, so I'm having a new one made. My good friend, Amy, has a dress by the same designer so she has sent me her lacing to see if it will work for my dress as well which I will try out at my first alteration appointment this Thursday.

Hopefully I'll continue this calm about my dress through the next few months. What can I do, right?

Ohhhh!

I guess this has been out there for a few weeks, and y'all have probably already seen it, but I got such a kick out of it this morning that I just had to share it.

Hi!

I'm tired.
So much to say, so little time.
I don't know when I'll get time to catch up on all of the reading that has been backing up, but I guess that is what I should expect for going and getting all busy and stuff for over a month.

A brief synopsis of the past 5 weeks:

• Wedding site - check
  
• Wedding dress - check - hanging in the closet and waiting to be altered
  
• Wedding cake - check
  
• Wedding caterer - check
  
• Wedding website - check
• Wedding photos - check
  
• Wedding invites - 75% checked - mailing this weekend
  
• Wedding dress workout kick my ass weekday 5:30am bootcamp - check, check, and will check some more
  
• Wedding flowers - will be checked when I do them the day before and hopefully they won't be forgotten and make it to the site, because that would REALLY SUCK
  
• Wedding music - 5% checked, but will be asking my friends to help out with this one
  
• Wedding wine - been tasting and sipping and researching and asking anyone that might have an opinion (people totally have opinions)
  
• Wedding hair and make-up - appointment made, and idea pictures in hand
• Wedding day get ready and wedding night hotel room - argh... not checked
• Rehearsal plans - kinda checked but may change because I'm not thrilled with the dinner location
• Day After Brunch plans - also kinda checked, but may change because I love the location but they don't allow reservations so that might be tricky
• Organizing and Communicating with Family and Friends who are travelling - this wasn't my task, but thanks to the wedding website, its much more checked now then it was before
• Letting go of my control freak nature and asking my friends to help me since we are doing a budget wedding and need all the help we can get - well..... I'd say I am doing much better then expected

Did I mention I'm getting married in June and I didn't start planning ANYTHING until about 5 weeks ago? Yup, the last post I published would mark the start of my brain going from thinking about the day to actually making it happen. The day after that post I had my first bridal dress excursion and then I've had little sleep ever since. Of course I've also been slammed at work, which has become a sort of lovely daily vacation from the wedding planning, although it's never fully out of my thoughts. I am having a blast with every moment of it all... well maybe not every moment. Eric and I have had some interesting "discussions", but overall things are going great!

Oh, and some of you might have noticed some cupcake pictures over there in the sidebar. A childhood friend of mine contacted me about making the dessert for a bridal shower she was co-hosting. They turned out really well, and mighty tasty too! So cute that Eric said, We should make the mini ones for our wedding ..... that turned into another one of those "interesting discussions".

Mythological Fun

Thanks for the quiz Beanzzz!

You Are a Phoenix

Driven and ambitious, you tend to acquire material success easily. You have grand schemes - both for your own life and for changing the whole world. You are a great leader, and you have no problem taking the reigns. However, you aren't all business. You also have great talents for performing and visual arts.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! I'll get back to posting this weekend... maybe.

Taking the Laptop into the Kitchen

Last night I was chatting with my friend about how much we enjoy food blogs. There are so many of them out there, and many really well written, and even better are the photographs that these authors share with us. How do they make their own food, in their own kitchens look so good? * Mental Note* Consider the natural lighting in the kitchen when looking for a new house.

I love food.
I love to make food.
I love to read about food.
I love to talk about food.
I even love to clean up after making food (but I have an aversion to cleaning up before making food, so lately not much food making has happened)
and of course I love to eat food.
I also give a large percentage of my income to the bank which funded my food education, so I am bitterly reminded twice a month of my love for food.

On my nightstand you will find more cookbooks and food magazines, then you will fiction. Hmm, actually there is no fiction there at all right now. Yes, a few Bridal Mags, and a self-help book or two, but mainly anything I read is about food.

If I had more time, I'd read more food blogs, but I can't keep up with the blogs that I read now.

Most of my bloggy friends also enjoy food, and many occasionally do a little food post, and even though they don't do it everyday, the pictures and the story and of course the recipe always make me want to run home to make that dish that night (or go to their house and ask them to make it for me).

So, as a little incentive to try my hand at food blogging, and to get my little arse back into the kitchen, I am going to take my friend's suggestion and try to do a food post every two weeks. Likely on the weekend. We'll see how it goes.

I'm excited because I'm terrible at writing down my recipes. I work on one for a while, adjusting here and there, but never write it down. And then a year goes by and I have no idea how I made that special treat. So maybe this will help me take the time to get it all down.

Warning: I will likely say a pinch of this, or season to taste, or cook until done.... but you'll get used that. Savory cooking is not an exact science for me, ever! I'll try to do better with sweets preparations, but I'm not promising anything.