Guess who Abby helped today at D&D?

Thats right, its Oscar winning actress Hillary Swank. If you have been under a rock she is from the movies Boys Don't Cry, and Million Dollar Baby. She and her husband came into D and D today and I helped them pick out 3 cheese and 2 meats, although the meats were just for the husband.

I think that this is hands down the most exciting celebrity citing yet. David pointed out that she too was in a karate kid movie, the last one I think.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!
Lots of love
Abby

Celebrities

There were two exciting celebrity sightings this weekend. Abby and I saw Martin Kove on Friday night. For those of you who don't know who that is, you may know him better as John Kreese, sensei of Cobra Kai Dojo in The Karate Kid. (Fear does not exist in this dojo! Pain does not exist in this dojo! Defeat does not exist in this dojo!)



Let me say that I was having a crappy day of Christmas time retail hell, and seeing this guy really cheered me up. Abby had no idea who she was and was not nearly as amused as I was.

The second sighting was today. Abby had off, but I got to help Joe Montana with cheese, olives, and pate. He was very nice and unassuming. I was still more excited about John Kreese. What can I say, I've always been a Packers fan.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas.
David

2/3 of the way through the CIA!

Weeks 19-20

These last two weeks have flown by as they tend to as Christmas gets closer. Even as I write this with the screen door open in a T-shirt, I have a hard believing that it’s the 22nd of December. It’s hard to get into the holiday spirit when it’s sunny and 55 outside. David and I finally got our Christmas cards out, and all of our shopping and candy making is finally done.

School was interesting these last two weeks. My instructor and the teaching assistants are having a power struggle, ending with the chef director getting involved. It made for a uncomfortable learning environment for the last two weeks, with lots of lectures about us leaking our instructors dislike for the teaching assistants to the teaching assistants. Talk about unprofessional behavior! Besides that the class went well, we made mole, tamales, ceviche, Peruvian popcorn (which pops on the inside, not the outside, kind of like a corn nut) and lots of other fun foods of the Americas.

The most interesting part of the week was on Tuesday when we had a “snow day”. The winery up the road for the CIA blew an electrical transformer, so the CIA was without power. It’s not safe to cook only by using emergency flood lighting, so we were sent home early. By 8:30 I was back home and David and I were able to do some last minute Christmas shopping and had lunch at a brewery in Santa Rosa. It was a great day off.

I’m really looking forward to coming home for Christmas, even if it is for a few minutes. I hope everyone has a great Christmas season.

Xoxox
Abby

Week 18

Week 18, 19, and 20 are “Cuisines of the Americas”. Week 18 we cooked food from the US, southern, northeastern, pacific northwest, mid west, etc. The food was fun to make and the lectures are pretty interesting. I have a new instructor, Chef Ken, who is also my next door neighbor. He is a pretty interesting guy. Tons of fun, and a good teacher.

David and I had fun last week as well, we made Christmas cookies, and TOM AND JERRY MIX!!! It is super yummy and we have been drinking one pretty much every night. They make us feel all warm and fuzzy and Christmas-y which is hard to do in CA. Its still pretty warm out, 60 degrees and sunny today. The palm trees make it hard to feel Christmas-y as well. We’ll keep listening to Christmas music and drinking Tom and Jerry’s until we get into the Holiday spirit. My class Christmas party is on Saturday night, at our house. It should be fun and put us both in the holiday spirit.

Dave and I also went to the redwoods on Saturday. The photos are on the post below. We had a blast. It was too fun.

Lots of love to all
Abby

Photos!

Here are some pics from the last two weeks...


These two are of the mustard grass blooming between the vines.



This is our Christmas tree.



Abby made the star, David strung the popcorn, and all of the corks are ones we liberated during our time here in Napa. Not too bad, huh?

Here is a picture from last Saturday's trip to see the redwoods at the Muir Woods. (By the way, Andy, it's much safer and more fun during daylight.)


It's kind of hard to get a sense of the size from the picture, but trust me, they're really big.

David