Pumpkin’s galore!

So I am going to do a food post today. I am loving that it is fall and pumpkins are in season. This week is the first time it is really feeling fall like here. Frosty mornings with sunshine during the day but staying chilly. I love it because the sounds of people crunching leaves as they walk.

So this past weekend I had a pumpkin party to attend and needed to make something to take. I decided to make something I never had before. I have heard of the new fad of whoopie pies and decided to try them out. I used Food Gawker to look for recipes and found several that sounded amazing. I ended up finding a recipe from Libby’s who makes canned pumpkin. The recipe seemed easy enough. I was warned that whoopie pies expand a lot (which I have now learned isn’t true). Knowing that messed with my sizing at first because I made them small. I also used canned cream cheese frosting instead of making it. The pies turn out sweeter with canned frosting so keep that in mind. I think I made all of them in an hour or so. They were a big hit with my friends and everyone loved the idea. I think whoopie pies are now my go to dessert to make.

finished product

 

Tonight I decided to make Pumpkin Mac and Cheese to use up the pumpkin from the whoopie pies. This was the first time I had ever made mac and cheese from scratch and first time adding pumpkin. Overall it was good. I think I would have not used pre shredded cheese if I were to do it again. I just didn’t know if there was a grater at my apartment and there wasn’t.  I had to grate some of the cheese on a microplane which didn’t work very well. It is a nice twist on traditional mac and cheese. I need to make some chicken to go with it I think to add a protein. But overall it turned out good.

Tomorrow to finish the can of pumpkin I may try making Pumpkin Cornbread or something else.

Television season up until now

So now I haven’t been posting lately since work has been a little busy lately but now is my chance.

The season has been moving right along and shows are starting to get picked up and cancelled. The first victim of this season wasn’t that much of a surprise as it wasn’t getting many ratings and that was “The Playboy Club” on NBC. I can say I never watched the show the description just didn’t draw me in. I had a friend who liked it but haven’t heard him being to upset from the cancellation. Now the cancellations are starting to roll in. NBC also ended Free Agents which is another show I never watched, H8ter on CW which was a stupid sounding show. In a society that is trying to deal with bullying why would you create a show about people not liking celebrities. CBS has cancelled How to be a Gentlemen which was not a funny show in my opinion. And finally ABC has cancelled the redo of Charlies Angels. I didn’t watch this either. So far I haven’t been upset with the cancellations. I am so use to getting into a show and then seeing it end up cancelled. Who knows what will be joining this list but for Fall 2011 it seems most shows are going strong.

Now for the exciting season pickups. CW picked up all of their new shows this season Ringer, The Secret Circle and Hart of Dixie are all sticking around until spring. Ringer is a great show but I haven’t got to watch lately with it being up against other shows I like. I plan to catch up on it soon. CBS has picked up a full season of 2 Broke Girls. Great show worth your time for sure. NBC picked full seasons of Whitney and Up All Night. While Fox has ordered a full season of New Girl. ABC has ordered full seasons of Suburgatory and my fall favorite Revenge. I am so excited that we get to enjoy a full season of Revenge. It is an addicting show that after 1 episode you want to see the next.

One show that has yet to premiere that I am excited for is NBC’s Grimm. It is a cop drama but if the Grimm fairy tales were real. It is set and filmed here in Portland which is really exciting. The costumers have been coming to my store to buy wardrobe for the show. That is exciting to know that stuff I sold is going to be on TV. Grimm premieres Friday October 28th on NBC.

Revenge, and Pan Am

So here is some of my reviews almost a week late. I am such a slacker. First of all I am loving lots of shows but having a hard time connecting to them because I don’t much outside of the pilots because that is all of the promos we have seen.

First is one of my favorite shows of the season Revenge. The show is about Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) who moves to the Southampton to seek revenge on the people who helped destroy her family. Her father was ruined over something he didn’t do. She lost him and her life so now she has returned to get even. Only no one remembers her except for one guy Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann). In the first episode she rents her old house from a couple who is having marriage issues. They are the first victims of her revenge when she discovers that the woman is having an affair with the neighbors husband. The neighbor is Victoria Grayson the queen of the Southamptons. Emily makes sure to ask how the ladies husband was knowing it was really Victoria’s husband. It causes Victoria to oust the “friend” and setting it up for Emily to buy the beach house.

The show is beautifully shot and a great story line. We all have people we would love to get revenge on at somepoint in our lives. We can almost live through Emily with her revenge. I have high hopes for the show. After the first episode I was left wanting more and more. I am addicted and won’t be missing it at all. Revenge airs on ABC at 10pm.

Pan Am is another new ABC show. It was getting lots of buzz heading into the premier episode on Sunday night. It is taking the time slot that Brothers and Sisters use to live in. Pan Am is beautifully shot and the music arrangement of the show is amazing. It is a period piece about the people who use to make Pan Am the way to fly. Even though it is set in a time when smoking on airplanes and in airports were normal you will not see it happening on the show. That is one thing ABC has not allowed during this show. They have said you will see people in the background with “nicotine sticks” in their hands but that is all.

Pan Am is created by Jack Orman who helped produce ER and JAG. The show stars Christina Ricci as Maggie one of the main stewardesses. The show was a real slow start to me. I was lost part way through as to some of the characters and who they really were. The show used flashbacks to help with the story line but I kept getting lost and finding they didn’t help me understand the characters any better. By the second half of the episode I was more into it and excited to see how it plays out. The buzz is still there after the premiere episode and I feel it has a lot of potential and hope the show continues along that path. ABC has done a good job with this season creating shows people want to watch and lets just hope they don’t cancel or ruin them. I have a hard time forgiving them still for the cancellation of Pushing Daisies. So this is me trying to let them have another chance with me.

More reviews to follow tonight when I get off work and can actually have time to write.

Glee and New Girl

So I am a day behind and have so much tv to catch up on. I have 6 shows from Wednesday night to watch since I was doing sales set at work overnight. I am finally going to write about the new season of Glee and the show New Girl.

So this is season 3 of Glee. I am a big fan of the show and have loved it from the start. Love the music and the talent. This season picked up after the summer when The New Directions lost at Nationals because of the kiss between Finn and Rachael. I was super excited for this episode and won’t say I was dissapointed just not fully satisfied. We knew coming into the season that Sam (Chord Overstreet) was not coming back this season. I had also heard that Ashley Fink’s Lauren was leaving the group as well. So when the group got together for the first time Sam was gone, Lauren was gone and Quinn was gone. She chose to quit Glee to be a rebel now. Love her pink hair though very edgy. So Mr Shue gets purple pianos to encourage his group to sing a song whenever they see them. We get a new character coming in who sadly can’t sing but feels she is amazing. Blaine also transfers to McKinley High. I am glad that Kurt will get more time with him. I liked the episode but felt like there was a mass exitist from it and so it left people scrambling to connect again. Next week looks good with the return of Rachaels real mom and Quinns baby. I will stand by Glee and wait to see how this season goes.

Right after glee was the new show New Girl. I was really excited because it looked funny. Jessica (Zooey Deschanel) is looking for a new place to live after finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her. Her charater is a mess with the breakup and her own craziness. She is a quirky girl who likes to sing randomly about what she is doing. She moves in with 3 guys she met online. The show was funny but they showed all of those clips in the commercials ahead of time. It leaves me worried about the rest of the season since we have no idea where it is going to go now since everything we had see of it before hand was shown to us in the previews. There really wasn’t many other funny moments in the show that weren’t shown ahead of time. I am going to give it some more time. Unlike networks I feel a show needs a few episodes to hit a stride with people and to get fans.

I plan to get caught up on X Factor, Revenge and Law and Order SVU (doing this one since a main character has left the show).

New TV season

So it finally hit me what I can blog about. Why not something I really love. Television!!!

So last night was the start of the new season of Two and a Half Men. This is the season after Charlie Sheen was fired. I have never been much of a fan of the show but decided to watch to see how they treated Charlie leaving and the introduction of Ashton Kutcher. I must say it was a big let down. The funeral scene was predicted long ago and not overly funny. I then was disappointed in how they introduced Ashton. It wasn’t thought out as he just appeared out of no where. I found his character to be to similar to Alan in his neediness and then just like Charlie in his actions with women. The way they are making him stay was not that thought out either. The laugh tracks were overdone and annoying. The best parts of the entire show were when John Stamos and Dharma and Greg were looking at Charlies house. They were a nice surprise. Overall the episode left much to be desired. I was hoping for more and left with less. I won’t be watching the rest of the season.

A nice surprise of the night was 2 Broke Girls. The commercials looked good and I wasn’t disappointed. I laughed a lot during the show. It looks like the show has potential and I hope it continues to be well.

Where were you?

So I figured this would be a good post for me. It is crazy that 10 years ago the worst attack on the US occurred. I don’t really remember how I found out exactly what was happening. It was my freshman year of high school. We were in our first or second week of school. I think my mom came into my room and woke me up telling me to turn on the TV. I remember turning on the TV and wondering what is this? This just seems fake. It looked like a bad promo for a movie. I sat there in awe watching the events unfold live.

It was a hard day to actually keep going with your life. I had been to NYC for my first time in March of 2001. I saw the towers. We never got super close to them but I have photos of them. It was really traumatic to see them and know that they were gone. I slowly got ready for school and talked on the phone with friends who were calling to talk about it. I finished getting ready for school after watching the towers collapsing to the ground. It was just shocking to see something like this happen. I lived close to the school and so I would walk. As I walked down the road to school I just kept looking to my right towards the east and just expecting to see the giant plumes of smoke. I lived over 3000 miles away but felt like I was right there and should be able to see the smoke. It just makes you feel like you are right there. That day at school wasn’t very normal. With the attacks on NY and DC and then a student in my school being a very serious car accident the day was interupted with updates. I had friends who didn’t come into school that day either because of the fear of what was going on by their parents. I think it was for the best that I went to school so I didnt sit around and see the news coverage all day.

That was a time I remeber how different television was. I feel like it was almost a week before TV started to return to “normal”. Well as normal as it could after these events. The coverage of the amount of death really upset me. I do remember my dad sending my brother and I to the gas station with all the cars to fill the tanks full and the gas cans. No one knew what was going to happen so we figured it was best to be prepared. I remember trying to sleep that night but instead being up most of the night puking. I was scared that something would happen to us. At 14 I didn’t know what was really going on. I just knew someone had done something to our country. The rest of that week is a blur.

The next week I stayed home one day sick because I was still shaken up. I remember as TV returned to normal but it was not the same. Everyone was somber. This was just an awe inspiring event that I will remember forever. The idea of looking east and seeing the smoke still sticks with me. I have never felt that way again.

The one song that sticks too is Alan Jackson’s “Where were you“

I later found out I had 2 relatives who were very close to the attacks. One of the relatives was across the street from the Pentagon and watched in the reflection of someones glasses the plane hit the Pentagon. The other relative worked in the World Trade Centers as a sign language interpreter. She was at home at the time of the attacks but was scheduled to be there later in the day. She heard the booms and then the sounds of papers fluttering at her apartment. Both relatives got extremely lucky to not be in the direct path.

In 2006 I got the chance to go back to NYC for my first time again. It was also my first flight since the events. It was nerve wracking because I had the fear in me still. When in NY we went to Ground Zero. I just was shocked at the giant hole in the ground. I didn’t expect it to be so giant. NY was not much different to me in 2006 as opposed to pre 9-11 in 2001. NY felt like the same city.

This year has been amazing thinking how much time has actually passed. I didn’t know how much work had been done to the grounds with the building of the memorial and tower. The memorial is amazing. I am really anxious to get to go visit it and see the changes from 2006. I think leaving the footprints of the towers is amazing. It makes people feel like they can connect with it more knowing where they stood. The ideas they put into the memorial is amazing too. With the names around the waterfalls in bronze they are temperature controled. So they will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. That is thinking of every detail for the families.

If you feel the want or need to rewatch the tv shows from that day archive.org has a September 11th archive.

This is a day we will never forget and will always honor those who lost their lives.

So where were you?

Restarting again

So I guess it is time I update this. I plan to this week start with posting a couple times. I am going to do a redesign of the look as well. I am still not sure what I want to blog about but I figured I will start with stuff I know and love. This is sorta going back to how this blog was started a year ago and that is with food. I plan to talk about food and eating healthy. I also plan to include hiking destinations and tips. I am hoping people will enjoy my stuff. I also may post more photos showing off some of my photography. I am trying to get into what I enjoy right now since I haven’t got a new job yet and life is really getting me down. I am trying to stay positive and just keep going.

Holding Hands against Hate

On May 29th a great event was help here in Portland. It was called Hands Across Hawthorn Bridge *Holding Hands in Solidarity*. The event was to help show that people in Portland will not let some people bully everyone into not being themselves.

This event was in response to an event that happened the week before. Two gay men were walking across the Hawthorn Bridge holding hands enjoying the night. As they left the bridge to walk along the East bank Esplanade a group of men jumped them. They said the guys were speaking another language as they beat them. One of the guys was able to get away and call 911. As the men realized the cops were being called they ran off. The two guys were not hurt to badly but very shaken up. Here is a link to the story from local TV station KATU.

I know that this happens daily all over the world but knowing it happens right here in Portland shakes you up. What is worse is knowing people stood there and watched it happen and didn’t do anything to stop the attack. I don’t know how I would respond to an event like that but I would at least dial 911. Portland has had a big issue with homelessness and gangs here lately but hate crimes just don’t happen much. Portland is a “safe” city in my opinion because everyone is so open minded here. It is just sickening to know these 2 were attacked for doing something so innocent as holding hands.

That is what spawned this event. All of the local gay groups in Portland helped to sponsor this event. It appeared on Facebook roughly 3 days before it was scheduled and drew thoughts of people. I had plans to attend but then hurt my knee at work so didn’t want to hurt it more. I had friends who attended and said the event was amazing. I did watch Facebook as photos were being posted. It is just an amazing feeling knowing that so many people in Portland care and will stand up to show support. This wasn’t an easy task to get so many people either with it being a holiday weekend and the Portland Rose Festival going on.

All of the local TV stations did stories about the event but KATU went well above and beyond their call and did an exceptional piece on the event. They had the story as the lead story on the 11pm news as well. The other stations either buried it in the newscast or didn’t do more than a minute on the story. Here is a link to KATU’s amazing piece.

Photo of the people lining the bridge. They lined both sides of it. This photo was taken by my friend Matt and is used with his permission.

What the event was about. Matt and his bf Travis holding hands. This photo taken and used with permission by Matt.

Photo of the crowd at the rally before lining the bridge.  Photo is taken from Facebook. More photos can be found along with this one at the link.

This is a link to Byron Beck‘s website and his writeup about the event.

I know that people aren’t going to always be excepting of others and want to actually hurt others but it is nice to know there are great people out there who will stand up and not let it happen in peace. The attack is one reason I am still leery about holding hands in public. I am scared people will judge me but I do feel better with knowing others would be there to show support if anything ever were to happen. We should all be able to show affection to the person we love whether gay or straight.

Life

I haven’t blogged in almost 2 weeks. I guess I haven’t felt like I have had much to say actually. I have just been trying to find more work. I found out I have to make a good faith payment on some of my student loans and that adds up to over $400. I don’t have have anywhere near that type of money. I am just getting super stressed about it and it is causing mental breakdowns. I wish things would just work out for me.

I have applied for several jobs this week. I have 4 applications in with 24 hour fitness. One with a local radio station and like 6 out with different tv stations. I am hoping one of these will work out. I am not sure what else to do at this point. I am thinking about applying to other cities like Seattle but am just not sure how I can afford a move at this point. I don’t want to move just because of the friends I have met here. I haven’t seen them much lately which sucks and makes me feel worse.

I did get to finally hang out with someone I hadn’t seen since November. It was good to get to go walk around Portland with someone. I am really missing having friends who have wanted to hang out. It was nice having a friend live with me because I always had someone to hang out with. It also makes it hard because he is currently away and has been for a month. I have missed having someone so close. I think it has made me want to date someone and having them around all the time. I didn’t care about giving up stuff I use to do because it is nice having real company rather than just people online.

I hope to continue to update this but I am just having a hard time right now.

Day #30!!!: What is the best thing in your life right now?

WOW I did it. Today is day 30 and I have finished my challenge. I now have a lot of work to do on this blog to keep going. I am not sure what my niche is right now so that makes it hard to know what to blog about. I get more views now but still lack comments from people. I don’t know what people actually are thinking of my writings.

Now onto today’s topic. There is a lot going wrong with my life right now but I am not going to let those get down. The best thing I have going for me right now is my friends. I have many new friends who I enjoy spending time with or talking to. I have always had a hard time making friends and so getting a large group of them is nice. I feel like I am not alone all the time now knowing I can chat with them.

Another thing I have going for me is that I can do whatever I want right now. I don’t have a career yet so I can go into whatever line of work I wanted to. I am trying to look at the positive from losing out on a position at the place I interned for and using it as a positive. It has taken me a week to realize that but I now feel better. I will try to keep this glass half full look at things.