Home, Sweet Home

Well, on Saturday, I started a new chapter of life titled "Living on my own in the REAL WORLD."

Aaaah, I have been waiting for this move for almost one year. In all honesty, the past year has been wonderful and a huge blessing. I do not regret living with my parents (and living rent free) one bit. I love them. That being said, I am now pretty content (and excited) to be leaving the house that has been home for 23 years and making a new home!

I love my independence and freedom. Coming and going as I please, inviting friends over to "my" place, music playing all day, furniture arranged the way I want, my own pictures hanging on the wall, a fridge stocked with my food, and a kitchen ready for my own cooking and baking! I. cannot. wait. And I don't have to. :)

Today I met a celebrity.

No big deal.

Okay, it was kind of a big deal.

A long line that wrapped around the block, pounds of pasta cooked, hundreds of mini pesto crostinis eaten, hundreds of cookbooks signed, and a buzz of excitement that lasted for a solid 3 hours. It was pretty exciting.

Giada de Laurentiis came to Santa Barbara. And I got a picture with her. :)

An apple a day...

...literally. For the past month, I have been given an apple every single school day by one of my students. Without fail, every morning, Kimberly walks in with a cheerful "Good morning, Mrs. Heinz" (yes, she says Mrs. and it is cute), heads straight to my desk, sets down an apple, and says "I brought you an apple!". Every day.

And every day I have brought home the apples, stuck them in my fridge and wondered what in the world I was going to do with them...so today, those apples turned into apple crisp.

An apple a day keeps the teacher happy and baking, I guess.

Favorites

I work at Williams-Sonoma on the weekends...yes, I have been called a workaholic (teacher by day, sales associate by weekend)...but I love working at WS and I LOVE the discount. Win, win.

It is tempting to buy everything in sight.

But I hold myself back. Or at least, I try to hold myself back.

Here are a few items that have me reaching, or wanting to reach, for my white card (discount) and credit card (payment of choice):

.

All Clad d5 Stainless Steel

(everytime I sell pieces to the customer, I convince myself that I need to own these pots/pans someday soon)

DuraClear Pitcher

(removeable insert for ice so your margarita doesn't get watered down...)

Best pasta sauce...and perfect for pizza, too.

Set of Glass Bowls

Heritage Bundt Cake Pan

Certainty.

"There are two things that are certain in life. Death and taxes."

...

Re-told by the Heinz family?
"There are three things that are certain in life. Death, taxes, and daily dessert."
Seriously. Have you ever come over and not found dessert in our house? Living on my own is going to be rough.

Quote

When completing their "Me" poems, the students had to complete the sentence "I am afraid of _____".
Alice's response? "I am afraid of killer clowns, the dark, and alien ships that look like the circus."

Colo-RAD-o

Today marks the conclusion of my spring break. Tomorrow, I return to the classroom and there I will stay until summer sets me free...although, the freedom will only last for two weeks, and then I will teach summer school, but let's not talk about that.

I will miss what was Spring Break 2010. One week of travel, friends, late nights, "wild child" activities, concerts, sun, and relaxation. Bliss.
For 4 of my 8 days off, I was in beautiful Denver, Colorado. If I didn't love the beach so much, I would move to the Denver area in a heartbeat. Here's to the fabulous food eaten in Denver: Osteria Marco and Snooze. I am almost drooling just remembering them...

Osteria Marco is an Italian restaurant with fabulous "eat as you go" atmosphere, homemade cheeses and cured meats, good wine, and unique bar seating. It was a random find (thanks to a kind restaurant bouncer) but it was one place I would definitely re-visit. My advice? Go to downtown Denver, wander around until it is dark, find this little snack of a restaurant, sit at the L-shaped bar, and order the pastrami panini. Oh, and make sure you have a friend with you...convince them to order the butternut squash pizza so you can have a piece or two (it is heavenly).
Snooze is a hoppin' breakfast restaurant that I wish I could somehow transplant to Santa Barbara. Actually, for the sake of my clothes fitting, perhaps I don't want it nearby. If you are in Denver, you HAVE to eat here. It is inexpensive, you get to drink out of cute yellow coffee mugs, the Guatemalean coffee is out of this world (or country?), the circular booths are super fun, and the food is fantastic. Pancakes? The best I have ever eaten. When I have a free weekend morning, I plan on recreating the cherry cobbler pancake and I hope that I can recreate something that tastes as good as Snooze's, otherwise I really might have to ditch the beach and head east.