catiecake.

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Not so much with the sleeping

Dear Kittens,

There's a conference call going on right now and so there's no sleeping in the Anchev house. It's never good timing for anyone when a customer has a serious issue, but this doesn't happen very often. And it's hot to listen to your husband be aewsome at his job.

The other great thing is getting to listen to all the different accents of the various people on the so called bridge. Also the endless clickety clack of computer keys and rattling of papers.

ENTERTAINING

Lv. C

From The Bed

Dear Kittens,

1. Our camera seems to be broken. Wah!

2. I had a great day today. I helped make dragons for Chinese New Year. The assignment included coming up with powers and weaknesses for your dragon. The boys in my mom's class are totally and wonderfully digusted by girl things. So I said my dragon's powers were love and friendship. My dragon's weakness is cookies. The boys gagged and sputtered. However, they were very impressed with the manicure and pedicure I gave my dragon.

3. Tomorrow is going to be a great day. I don't have any social engagements and a giant pile of laundry. Hello, Serendipity.

And now I sleep.

Love, Catie

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Target

Dear Kittens,

Today I went to Target. Mostly I needed M&M's, paper towels and toile paper. I came home with those things and a cake mix, cans of frosting, mascara, toothpaste, deodorant, 3 scarves and lotion. The scarves are super cute! Expect to see them in my self portraits soon.

The M&M's I use for decoration. I have three glass jars that sit on a self in what serves as our entry way. I fill them with different candy. Right now I have delicious lemon drops- seriously, these are some of the best lemon drops I've ever had, gumdrops and the Valentine colored peanut M&Ms. The thing is- it's a great way to get a shot of color into your decor pretty cheaply. We do dip into these jars, but not a lot, thankfully. It makes me really happy when our guests do.

I know tons of people who find great things at the so called Dollar Spot at Target. I am not one of those people. In fact, I have found exactly three things worth buying at the Dollar Spot. Two things were Halloween themed dishes I bought a few years ago and then then last week I found some cute goodie bags. You know what I find at Target? Scarves! Really cute scarves.

The cake mix and cans of frosting are for cupcakes I'm bringing to my mom's classroom tomorrow. I bring a treat every single time I go to her classroom, which is usually once a month. I could bring healthier snacks, but I don't and here's why- these kids do not all come from loving homes where they are well cared for. And while an apple would be a healthier choice, a cupcake seems- you know- sweeter. Plus, I think the kids like that I make the cupcakes for them. One time I bought them some cupcakes from the supermarket and while they ate them, they were disappointed that I didn't make them myself.

Tomorrow I drive to Vallejo to work on an art project with the kids for Chinese New Year.  I'm looking forward to it.

Love,
Catie

Dinners and Cats.

Dear Kittens!

The report:

FOOD

We made it a better part of a week without going out to dinner! Yay us. I cooked Monday thru Friday, I just don't have a photo for Monday and you've already seen Tuesday.

Wednesday night I made beef and vegetable soup. Instead of using fresh vegetables that are not from California, I used frozen vegetables that were grown in California. I feel like such a smartypants for remembering about frozen vegetables. I used 2 pounds of beef cut up for stew, then cut into bite size pieces and browned in the soup pot, some low sodium beef broth, a can of whole tomatoes squished by hand (and the tomato juice) frozen artichoke hearts, frozen peppers, green beans, a little bit of frozen corn, a few cloves of garlic (I put the garlic in once the soup was going) and I seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, summer savory and a bit of dried basil.

Thursday night we had oven roasted salmon and fennel, orange and green olive salad on the side. For the salmon I put salt and pepper on the filet, and cooked it skin side down on a piece of parchment paper. 400 degrees for 15 minutes and the fish was perfect. The fennel was sliced very thinly (stalks discarded), I supremed the orange and ideally would've like to pit the green olives, but my pitter was too small to manage the olives, so we just ate them as they were. It was very good and the orange, fennel and olive combo was very nice.

Friday night was left over soup and paninis. Andy did a ham and brie panini, I did goat cheese, turkey and roasted peppers. My sandwich was not very good. I wish I had stuck to my normal turkey and cheddar (and tomatoes when in season) with spicy mustard.

OTHER

Ther e has been lots of rain lately and this does not make the cats happy. In fact, the cats get all restless and accusatory when it's raining. Last night Petey and Seamus came home soaked from playing outside. Andy and I grabbed 2 beach towels and wrapped them up. Seamus LOVE this. He immediately starts purring and looking all squinty eyed.

Lately Petey has been sleeping with me, which is nice, except when Petey sleeps with you, he likes to sleep SUPER close. So I spend the whole night moving him away from me so I can get comfortable and then as soon as I'm settled he moves right back into place. I love that he loves me, I just wish he wouldn't love me a teensy bit less.

Love,
Catie

My New Love

Andy bought me a new phone around Christmastime. It's a Motorola Q9 and it's what I'm using to type this post. I love my new phone so much I can barely stand it.
I will be back later with food pictures at least one recipe and maybe even cat story or two.

Love, Catie

Home Cooking

Dear Kittens,

I have, yet again, fallen behind in my blogging duties! I will confess that lately my Internet attention has been going elsewhere, but I hate not writing here, so I'm going to do better.

The niece and nephew were over last weekend. The Wii got an awesome work out. I keep thinking that I will actually have to plan activities once those kids get their own Wii. We went to the tidepools to look and poke at stuff and we hung out. It was a really nice visit and I hope we get to have them back before too much longer.

Children at the beach:

Two nights ago Andy Anchev announced that he was sick of eating out. Honestly- I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did because we've been eating out A LOT lately. Armed with a well crafted list, we went to the market together last night. I love our market. It's locally owned and even though the store is small and sometimes "cozy" I think that's part of the charm of this place. Plus, they have the best produce, excellent customer service and the selection is usually awesome. It's nice when someone goes to the market with me because sometimes waiting in line at the deli or butcher counters can be a long wait and if it's crowded I can get the rest of my shopping done while another person fills our deli and butcher orders. Our trip was a successs and now I am promising to you to show you photos of our dinners for the next few nights.

Tuesday Night's Dinner:

All of this (one night) cooking at home is making me feel like a really good wifey. This morning I made Andy a breakfast to go. I made a grilled ham and brie sandwich and a cut up orange. I made myself a smoothie (1/4 cup of orange juice, blueberries, strawberries and All Bran Bran Buds, 1/2 cup plain yogurt. Blend until delicious). I actually do not blend the bran buds because I like them to stay crunchy.

Expect soup! Fish! Paninis! And other stuff!

Right now I'm baking a pie. A PIE!

Love,

Catie

Visiting Kittens

Dear Kittens,

Our nice and nephew are visiting this weekend. They are, without exception, the easiest guests ever. First of all- their parents do not eat much fast food, so fast food is a treat to them. Secondly, the boy kid just wants to play the Wii and have his Uncle Andy take him for delicious Cambodian food or really anything with shrimp. The girl child is a tiny bit more complicated only because she would rather Do Things. With the exception of ice skating, I am totally down for Doing Things. Today we're going to visit the tide pools in Santa Cruz. I think Breeana and I will take a trip to the mall to look at/shop for makeup and Andy wanted Jared to help him a Bulgarian pickled vegetable salad that we love to have in the winter.

It's funny how these kids have changed so much through the years. Of course I did not expect them to stay as they were when they were wee, but some of the changes have been dramatic. Like Jared- he's gone from not talking to Andy at all (I think he was slightly intimidated by him) to pretty much nonstop talking to Uncle Andy. And Breeana who went from nonstop talking to being the sort of kid that will sneak of to read a book. It makes me excited to see the sort of adults they will become. Already they both have very good sense of humor, they both like animals and they have interesting insights into the world around them.

I'm sorry that we do not get to spend more time with the kids, but distance and busy lives prevents more visits. For right now, I'm grateful that they're still happy to come and look forward to it and always bring lots of their stuff to share with us.

Time for the showering and what not!

Love,
Catie

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