Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Willow at Christmas

Look at my little girl. She was so good. She only held still for a second so Bobby snapped the picture fast. Her face looks like "Take the picture NOW!, I'm only doing this for a minute." Then, she dragged the hat and beard all over the house. I think she was trying to destroy it in case we had more photos to shoot. Little cutie.

Cold as ever here in Chicagoland. The rest of the week will be in the minus degree at night. Man - it's a cold cold January.

February is right around the corner though and I'm turning 50 this year. WOW! I feel 25 though. Well... sometimes.

Monday, January 17, 2011

MasterChef

Well... I had an incredible experience on December 5th, 2010. I auditioned for Masterchef Season 2 in downtown Chicago. Weeks before, I filled out an application on-line to audition and then thought about not going as it was one of the coldest days. But, the Wednesday before, the casting company called to invite me to attend and bring my dish. Well... Cold or not I though why not? Sounded like fun. I thought it was a big deal to get invited but they invited hundreds of others as well. Made me go which I am glad I did. The experience was priceless.

I arrived downtown at 8:00am. The slotted time was 9:00am so I thought I'd get a coffee and wait around the corner from the School. As I'm sitting and sipping my coffee, I see dozens of folks with wagons, coolers, bags and food wrapped in blankets. I thought , oh my gosh! There will be hundreds in line. So I hustled out and stood in line. Again, I thought I was special with my 9:00am time slot. Didn't matter. I still had to wait my turn. I was given number 175.

I was ushered in, picture taken and then the wait. I won't go into details. We had to step back outside for a photo and the film crew was there filming Graham Elliot. So it was a lot of back outside, inside, back out and then wait.

15 of us were taken to a room and we had minutes to plate our dish. I brought a spice cake with some Bavarian cream and some cookies. My plate looked minuscule compared to all the others. The rules stated that it was to be served room temperature. It was so cold that day so I thought a cake would be the best.

Long story short, I made it all the way that day to the end! I was walking on cloud nine. OH MY GOSH! I won today!! I couldn't believe it. I think I was happy for a month just because I made it.

I then had to do a on camera interview two days later. If I would of had the same attitude that I had on Sunday, I might of had a better chance. But I think I was nervous and didn't have the "I Don't care how this goes" attitude that I had on Sunday. It was fun but I wasn't what they were looking for. I think I knew that day I wasn't going to be picked.

But, they were calling all the winners in January. So for about a month, my imagination was getting the better of me. Hollywood and all the glamor was all I thought about. Christmas and New Years were a blur.

January 14th was the date. I didn't get the call. My Dad said I wasn't crazy enough.

It's OK. I has a winner for a day. The chef that tasted my food liked it so that in itself is winning. I wish I knew his name because he made my day.

Thanks for reading. I was a MasterChef hopeful. HA HA Me and 10,000 others. Bless you all.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Dessert Rose

It's the middle of winter and this Dessert Rose is blooming. I grew this plant from seed and it's 6 years old now. Wow! It amazes me every year. I don't understand why it blooms now. It is supposed to be dormant in the winter.

Winter in Chicago - I have to enjoy my indoor plants until gardening season opens up again. The seed catalogs are coming in now everyday. I'm designing it in my head and as always, want to expand to include more vegetables. I had plans to tame it down and to add more perennials but I love fresh vegetables and think I will need to expand to include more.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone.

Nothing much to report. Will post more later.