Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures from this year's xmas with my family:

Bittersweet holidays

Hi there...lots has happened since my last post. First of all, I want to thank everyone for my birthday posts and emails, they made my day =)
Christmas and birthday were bittersweet this year. I drove up north on the 22nd, and on the 23rd my nana went to the hospital due to intestinal problems she has been having for a few months. On the 24th we found out she probably had CDIF, a bacterial infection in intestines due to being on antibiotics for so long (she was on cipro for about 3 months earlier this year). We were all releaved, since CDIF, although severe, could be cured with antibiotics. My nana ordered us all to have a fun xmas without her, so we did. It was a huge xmas this year, with all my aunts and cousins present. We were only missing my nana, pa, and uncle (who was with my grandparents). Scott enjoyed his first Vetterli xmas, and even made the gravy in place of nana. I got a new sweater and a floor lamp to replace my broken one.
On the 26th, we found out the CDIF tests came back negative, and that they had found tumors in the colon, so it was colon cancer. We still celebrated my birthday that night at a Mexican restaurant in Pleasanton (scoping it out for our rehearsal dinner). I celebrated my b-day with my parents, brothers, Scott, and childhood friend Haley and her mom Pam (close family friends). We drank many margaritas, and at one point in the evening Scott and Pam burst into a duet of song at the table. It was a nice aversion from thinking about colon cancer.
The next day was my real birthday, the 27th. We drove home, stopping in Claremont to visit my nana at the hospital. My dad flew down the same day to join my uncle who was already there. My aunts drove and flew in also that day. She had a surgery scheduled for today (Fri.) to remove a tumor. It was nice to see nana, and she seemed very positive about the whole thing. We brought her some xmas presents and visited for awhile before heading back to the oc. Surgery was this morning, and my dad called around lunchtime to annouce the surgery went very well, tumor is out, and it looks like the cancer has not spread, although we won't know for sure for about a week or so. Now nana has a surgery to recover from, but it looks like she is out of danger now. Thank goodness, she has a wedding to attend exactly 6 months from today...
Lots of you know my nana, so send your happy thoughts her way =)

The Rockettes!

Scott's mom treated us to see the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular in Orange County on Wednesday night. I have never seen them before, since I think this is the first time they are playing in venues other than Radio City Music Hall in NY. They are here for about 3 weeks, and I think all the shows are sold out. The show really put us in the Christmas spirit, as it was all xmas songs and narrated by none other than Santa. It was amazing to see the line of Rockettes stretch across the whole stage and the kicks were impeccably perfect. Wow. Their kicking puts my kick-boxing kicks to shame. They are very inspirational for getting your legs in shape...although unfortunately I will have to resign my dreams of ever being a Rockette since your have to be atleast 5'7" tall. Maybe I can be an elf in next year's show =) The show ended with a living nativity scene, complete with live sheep and camels. It really didn't have anything to do with the rest of the show, the Rockettes weren't even invloved in it, but it was beautiful nonetheless. But I do wish the Rockettes would've come out one more time at the end, like maybe the nativity scene members could have torn off their robes and formed a line for one more kick.
Oh, and this was fun...before the show we pre-ordered champagne for intermission, so instead of standing in line at the bar during the break, our glasses were ready to drink with our name on it. Very VIP!
Tonight I am celebrating xmas with Scott's mom, sister Kelly, brother Jeff, and Jeff's girlfriend Carolina. I will try to do a quick post tomorrow morning before I head up north for xmas. I will be back in socal on Dec. 27th (my b-day!!). Scott is flying up on Christmas Day to spend the holiday with my family...this is the first time we will ever be spending Christmas Day together =)

Finals and stuff

Wow, its been a busy few weeks, hence the sparse and short blogging. Last week was finals week, and I only had 2, but I found it challenging to fit extra studying time into my schedule. My first final (Screening & Therapeutic Processes for Speech) I scored over 100% (yes, I am fully aware of my nerdiness thanks to Scott's reminders), and my second final was Human Diseases, which I hardly studied for and was really insanely difficult. Basically the teacher took questions from all the tests we have taken over the semester and randomly compsed them into the final, so it would ask a question about multiple sclerosis, then one about diabetes, then one about arthritis. No rhyme or reason to it. We'll see how I did on that one, although I only needed 53% to get a B in the class.
Other than finals, I have been attending xmas parties, 1 for Spectrum Languages (my spanish tutoring company) and the annual holiday luncheon at Sepulveda Elementary School. And Scott and I had a few birthdays to attend last week for our friends Sam and Mike. For Sam's birthday Scott experimented with a new cheesecake flavor, Oreo cookie, with a cookie crust and cookies in the batter. It was delicious, but in my opinion, not as tasty as the one with whole blackberries in the batter.
As for wedding planning, we have decided to make our own invitations from this wonderful store in South Coast Plaza called Paper Source. More on this later though, we are still perfecting the craft. Maid of Honor Carla and I both have January off from school, so HOPEFULLY we will master the art of invitation making then.
I am going to end my post with a picture of our Christams lights. Scott went a little crazy this year. You have to put the picture into context...we are in an apartment complex and no one has lights up except some neighbors across the way, and they only have 2 strands...we have 10...

O, Christmas Tree!

Christmas is offically here in the tiny Vetterli-McCarthy home! Our tree is up, decorations are out, and we've already watched classic seasonal favorites such as Elf and Christmas Vacation. Our cat Cleo thinks the tree is there specifically for her, she sleeps under it, removes the ornaments, and meows until we turn the lights on. We have moved her bed under it for the season =)
She is also very interested in all the Christmas decorations and had made it her mission to "hunt" them. Here she is ready to pounce on a red glitter ball...

Thanksgiving Part Duex

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we celebrated the feast again with Scott's brother Jeff, his girlfriend Carolina, and their neighbors. Jeff lives in a little complex of 4 houses, lovingly deemed "the compound". Scott used to live there, and I lived there for a couple months before Scott and I moved to our present abode. Our friends Brian and Chris own "the compound" and I think that most of our friends have lived there at one point or another. It is not the nicest place in town, it really needs a lot of TLC, but the rent is cheap, and the neighbors are great. We ate a full T-day dinner of turkey, mached potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, butternut squash, and I brought a persimmon gingerbread.
The brothers McCarthy.
Zoey, Jeff's macaw.

Thanksgiving Traditions

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Nana & Pa's house in Claremont. I spent the day with my grandparents, parents, 2 brothers, and my Aunt Janet. We had Nana's traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which consists of: turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potato casserole (my favorite, a concoction of mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, and butter), creamed onions, peas, cranberry sauce, cranberry ice, rolls, olives, and cream-cheese stuffed celery. I was in charge of the stuffed celery, not a culinary masterpiece, but rather a quirky tradition that happens to be delicious. Basically, I spread pumpkin flavored cream cheese inside celery. Everything was delicious. Our beverage of choice was Beajoulais Noveau (another family tradition.) My dad carves the turkey.
The food on the table.
My parents serving their dinner.
We finished the night with pumpkin, apple and pecan pies while watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (not a tradition...but no other good movies were on).
Bright and early the next morning, my mom, Aunt Janet and I voyaged to South Coast Plaza for our traditional "day after Thanksgiving shopping trip". Nana did not join us this year since she was not feeling well, but she gave us her list and we shopped for her..it's fun spending someone else's money! Our trip is very fine-tuned, from years of day-after shopping adventures. We arrive at 8:30, park right up front. Then we try to hit all the big stores before noon, when they have store-wide specials like "25% until noon". We successfully navigated these sales at H&M, Macy's Anne Taylor, Nordstrom, and others. At 12:30, we break for lunch. This year we ate at Marche Moderne, a new French Bistro in the mall. Scott and I had an amazing dinner there a few months back. The lunch was awesome too. I had mini burgers with carmelized onions, truffle oil, and some sort of cheese on a brioche bun. My mom and aunt had tarts with proscuitto, gruyere, and other goodies on it. We enjoyed lunch with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. After our pampering meal, we were ready again to fight the crowds and and hit a few more stores before heading back to Claremont. This year, in addition to xmas shopping, my mom bought a mother-of-the-bride outfit (not one of those horrible dress/jacket things they sell at bridal shops), Aunt Janet bought a dress for the wedding, and we checked out Bridesmaid dresses at Ann Taylor (Devon...take note). Once back in Claremont, Pa made us martinis to calm our tired feet, and we ate leftovers for dinner.
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lara...she lives!

Last weekend, Lara came out of the woodwork and made a trek to southern CA. She came out for a nerd convention (ok, really some nueropsychology thing in Long Beach, but even Lara admits its pretty nerdy). Actually, its pretty impressive, she presented a poster on a study she did about memory. She flew in Thursday and left Monday, spending Thursday and Sunday nights on my couch. We did a lot of catching up on Thursday while cooking pollo saltado (a Peruvian dish of chicken, rice AND french fries) and drinking Parducci wine, and on Sunday we couldn't resist the call of South Coast Plaza, so spent the day there, and upon Lara'a request we went out to sushi for dinner (she says Boston sushi does not compare to CA). We have some lovely pictures of stuffing huge sushi rolls into our mouths...coming soon.
Rumor is that Lara will re-start her blog this summer...

Mille Crepes

With the season changing to fall, the kitchen beckons to Scott and me. Actually, it is NOT fall here with the 90 degree weather, and the reason the kitchen is beckoning is because we are too poor to go out and eat. Anyway, after flipping through the new Dean & Deluca holiday catalog, we were inspired to make a "chestnut mille crepes" cake. This cake is featured in Dean & Deluca year after year ( www.deandeluca.com ), selling for $110. It is made at an exclusive bakery in NYC called Lady M Confectioners. They do not like to give out the recipe, so after some internet searches and cookbook references we came up with a recipe that supposedly is very similar to Lady M's (although we will never know since we have never tasted the real thing.)
Basically, the cake is 20 layers of crepes, with a chestnut pastry crem filling between each and every crepe. When finished, the top is torched ala creme brulee style for a crunchy caramel layer. It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. First we made crepe batter and let it sit before making 20 perfect crepes. Scott was the official crepe-maker (and they were all perfect). Then we made chestnut pastry cream. First I boiled and peeled the chestnuts and pureed them with a little oil. The pastry cream is a super healthy mixture of butter, egg yolks, sugar, millk, and vanilla. After heating the cream and cooling the cream and adding the chestnut puree, we then added a whole load of whipped cream to it (I know, you can feel your ateries clogging). So next we meticulously layered crepe/cream/crepe/cream twenty times, making sure the cream layers were thin and even. Whew! The result was worth it...it was awesome, definetely more pastry-like than cake-like. Mmmmmm...we'll make it again soon!

How to make a Muffaletta...by Holly & Scott

This is the second installment in "Scott & Holly's How-To Cooking". First we showed how to make a pork roulade, and this time we are making a muffaletta. A muffaletta is a traditional New Orleans sandwich. Scott says the best place to get one is at The Central Grocery in the French Quarter (talk to Frank). This sandwich is huge and meaty and cheesy and has an olive salad on it. This recipe is pretty close to the original Scott remembers.
First, you need to make the salad. The salad consists of 2 tall skinny jars of green olives, 1 can black olives, 1 jar cocktail onions, 1 large jar gardiniera mix (this is an Italian pickled mix of cauliflower, carrots, and peppercinis...it is sold in the olive section), and about 1/4 cup rinsed capers, 1 large carrot (chopped) and 2 stalks celery (chopped), garlic (8 cloves chopped), dried italian seasoning mix (1 1/2 Tbsp), and olive oil (1/4 cup).
Take the green olives and gently smash them in between fingers (you want them to be whole, but slightly flattened). Next, add the black olives, onions, gardineira mix (reserve the juice), capers, carrots, celery, garlic, and italian seasoning. Break up the cauliflower in the gardiniera mix with your fingers so it is roughly the same size as the olives. Add a steady stream of olive oil and mix everything together. To balance out the oil, add a little of the reserved gardiniera juice (a couple tablespoons). If you like spicy food, add some tabasco sauce now. Let the salad sit while you prepare the rest of the muffaletta.
For the sandwich you need: swiss cheese, provolone cheese, french-style ham, and mortadella. We bought all the meat and cheese pre-sliced at the deli. For the bread, find an Italian loaf. We used a large flat ciabatta from Boudins. Slice the loaf in 2 and spoon some liquid from the salad onto 1 side. On the same side, layer the provolone and then the swiss cheese. Next comes the ham and mortadella. On the other slice, pile on the salad (it won't all fit, you will have some salad for leftovers). Carefully flip the cheese/meat side onto the salad side. Slice and serve. You don't need a big slice, it is very filling. Our loaf could feed 8-10 people. Scott says Barq's rootbeer is the perfect pairing. Have fun and enjoy =)

Happy Halloween!

Cooking with Lemons

Our lemon tree was drooping with ripe lemons last week, and after Scott did a little garden pruning, their were about 25 lemons in the ground. Not wanting to see them go bad, we spent the rest of the day cooking with lemons. Here is our lemon menu (not really a menu since we didn't eat all these dishes at one meal):
Holly's lemon chicken
Scott's lemon sorbet
Holly's lemon meringue pie
Scott's perserved lemons
Here is a quick overview of the dishes:
Lemon chicken: I pounded out 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts and dredged them in flour. Next, I browned them on the stove and removed from the pan. I added chicken broth, lemon juice,lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and a little onion to the pan. I simmered the sauce to thicken it, then added the chicken back into the sauce to coat and serve. It was very lemony tasty!
Lemon sorbet: Scott mixed lemon juice, sugar, water and lemon zest until dissolved. Then he whisked in 2 egg whites and poured it all in the ice cream maker. Easy! The egg whites add air to the mixture so it doesn't freeze solid like ice. Mmmm, I am still enjoying this in the freezer.
Lemon Meringue Pie: If you want to make it, look it up in Joy of Cooking, that is what I used =)
Preserved Lemons: This is like salt-curing a lemon, which mellows the acidity of the lemon. It takes about 2 weeks to make these. Scott halved the lemons (skin stays on), and filled a mason jar with them. Next he mixed equal parts salt and sugar and filled the space between the lemons in the jar. Finally, he poured in lemon juice, and shook the jar until everything was combined. It is sitting in the fridge now, we can try them next week. Preserved lemons are great with chicken, salads, fish, in rice, and is popular in Moroccan and Meditterean dishes. Here's the pie and preserved lemons.

SoCal on FIRE!!!

The whole southern CA is on fire!!!! There are fires in: Malibu, Canyon Country, Irvine, Devore, Lake Arrowhead, Green Valley Lake, and several in San Diego. The Santa Anas are really STRONG, and trees are falling all over the place too. The winds are mostly blowing toward the ocean, so all the smoke from the Irvine fire (directly east of me) is blowing directly over my apartment. To make matters worse, it is about 90 degrees today, but we have to keep all the doors and windows closed due to smoke. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for the safety of Brian and Nichole's lake house in Arrowhead. I'll keep everyone updated...

Saturday bike(less) ride

The weather in southern CA is beautiful this weekend...clear, sunny and warm. It is perfect fall bike riding weather. With that in mind, Scott and I awoke this morning..only to find our bikes STOLEN! We have been keeping our bikes locked on our front patio, but this morning only the cut lock was there =( We called the police and filed a report, and found out we were the 3rd bike theft that week in our apartment complex. So now we are bikeless until atleast next summer...maybe we should register for new bikes for our wedding =)
Because we were bikeless, we DROVE to the swap meet this morning at the fairgrounds with our friend Chris. The OC Swap Meet is quite a scene. Only here can you find slews of knock-off Marc Jacobs bags, Playboy clothes for your dog, triple habanero flavored beef jerky, and a $90,999 Maserati. They even sell a gas-powered blender that is controlled by a Harley handlebar. We thought we might be able to find our stolen bikes for sale here, but had no luck.
Scott and Chris tasting the habanero beef jerky.

This cracked me up...the name of the shop is D cups and DD's! I guess there is a demand for this in the OC with all the plastic surgery. You really can't go wrong spending a Saturday morning at the swap meet.

Arizona

Scott and I took off again on another weekend road trip (I'm getting tired of these now, I can't wait until this weekend with no plans). This time we traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona for Jamie & Renata's wedding (these are Scott's friends). I have never been to Arizona, so I was excited for this trip. We went with our friends Brain, Nichole, and Chris. There were 5 of us, and I was lucky enough to get the middle seat in the backseat for the whole 7 hour drive =) Nicole and I say hi to Bob Big Boy in Barstow!
The drive was beautiful and took us through the desert, and then up the mountain to Flagstaff. Flagstaff is at 7000 ft (I think), so it is not hot there like the rest of Arizona. The town is a small mountain/college town, home to Northern Arizona University. Alumnae Chris Wilson gave us a lovely walking tour of the campus and downtown. The Aspen trees were changing colors, something us Cali people don't get to witness.
The first night in town, we attended Jamie & Renata's rehearsal dinner, a very fancy sit-down dinner at a country club. Then we hit a bar with a band downtown. The next morning we walked all around Flagstaff, then went to the wedding. The wedding was on top of a mountain at a ski resort lodge. Scott and I lookin' good in our jackets...it was freezing!!
It was so cold up there it started snowing before the ceremony! I was wearing a dress and black sandals...not ready for the weather! The weather cleared and the sun shone for the ceremony, and then we scrambled inside for warmth in the reception room. At the reception: Me, Nicole, Brian & Chris
There was a rustic charm to the room, and it was decorated with twigs, single stems of red flowers (don't know what they're called) and hand blown glass vases on each table. The favors were Native American dream catchers at each place. I got a blue on and Scott's was orange. During the party, the bride and groom came around to each table and announced that the person who has the orange dream catcher gets to take home the hand blown vase in the centerpiece...how fun! I feel like we won something, these things sell for big bucks at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach.
The next morning the 5 of us loaded into the car and made the 7 hour trip home, where I get to stay now =)
***Pictures coming soon...blogger won't let me load them right now

Northern CA

Scott and I traveled up to my hometown of Walnut Creek in Northern CA this past weekend to visit my parents, see family, and attend to wedding things. On our drive up north, we stopped by Murrieta's Well Winery in Livermore (our wedding venue) for a quick wine tasting pit stop, before our grand arrival in Walnut Creek.
Upon arriving Friday afternoon, we promptly changed into coordinating outfits (dark jeans, black shoes, sand shirts) and headed to the open space in the hills for our engagement photo shooot. I've never done a photo shoot before, and it was so much fun! We did a bunch of poses, and half the time I couldn't stop laughing, especially when we had to pose nose to nose =)
Friday night we enjoyed dinner at home with parents, and brothers Jason and Max. Saturday morning Scott and I met my high school friend Nina for breakfast and then had an appointment to meet with a florist. We talked for 2 hours about wedding flowers! I think I spent about half of that time reminding the florist I do NOT want huge centerpieces that spew flowers up, down and all around.
Saturday night my whole family reunited for my Aunt Janet's 50th birthday celebration. The Vetterli's know how to announce a party! My grandparents flew up from Claremont, Aunt Janet, boyfriend Judd, and cousins Julianna and Christian flew in from Park City, Utah (and Julianna and Christian's grandparents from the Bay Area); Auntie Anne and cousin Hank from Twaine Hart, Uncle Dick and Kim, my brothers, and parents. This is my Uncle Dick, Aunt Kim, and Auntie Anne. Uncle Dick is going to marry us in June. There were 18 of us in all! My grandparents brought Mexican food from a local restaurant and my dad was in charge of margarita preparation. This is a very serious job, involving stimutaneous blending in 2 blenders. Once we were all happily satiated with margaritas, we ate a feast of tamales, enchiladas, burritos, beans, rice, and a healthy salad (I'm not sure how the healthy food made it onto the table). It was a fun night, and was repeated in the morning at brunch in Lafayette at a restaurant called Chow (sans margartitas, but the same crowd).
After brunch, Scott and I drove to Berkeley to meet up with Kelly (Scott's sister) and her boyfriend Levi (we were the first in the family to meet him). We wandered around Telegraph Ave, had a few beers and browsed through Ameoba Records. It was a short visit, since Scott and I had dinner plans with my grandma Marianne that night in Walnut Creek. My brothers (Jason and Max) at dinner with grandma Marianne.
Finally, we drove home on Monday, and made it back to the OC in time for kickboxing! Next weekend we take off again, this time to Flagstaff, Arizona for a wedding.