Can we say unseasonal weather?

Ok, I am not complaining about the unseasonal warm we've had this month. I've loved the sunny, 60 degree days as much as the next warmblooded southerner, but it's beginning to just feel odd. Not to mention the dozens of thunderstorms (and no 10-day snow!). Here's the latest "active advisory from the NWS:"

From Weather Underground:

The cold front associated with the low pressure system will cross
central North Carolina late tonight. A band of showers and
possibly a thunderstorm or two will occur ahead of the front.
Where the heavier showers and storms occur... wind gusts up to 50
mph may occur. These type of winds will be capable of Downing tree
limbs.

While the winds aloft favor the possibility for severe
thunderstorms... it appears that the airmass will lack the
needed instability to trigger and sustain severe thunderstorms.
However... if the air over central North Carolina is able to become
even slightly unstable... then scattered severe thunderstorms would
become a better possibility. Damaging straight line winds up to 70
mph and isolated tornadoes would be the primary severe weather
threats."

At least the ski slopes in WNC have snow - at Hawksnest this morning:

See more cool webcams of the slopes here.

Recent Culinary Adventures

Paul picked out an awesome Christmas/birthday gift for me [us]. For this instance, I was fine with it being a “combined” gift for both, especially since it was MULTIPLE pieces that combined, weigh nearly as much as me (ok, not really, but it seems that way).

The most awesome culinary gift thus far – a set of “Le Creuset” cookware (even cooler than our kitchen knives). After watching hours and hours of Food TV – with the likes of Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Tyler Florence, and now Emeril (just got into him), he knew we needed to “kick it up a notch” in our cookware.

He got me a 9 piece set – 9, really heavy pieces of cookware! From the biggest, a 16 quart stockpot to the 'smallest', a really cool Candle Warming Trivet, I could not believe my eyes. So cool! This is their most popular item, the "Round French Oven," (in case you don't know what Le Creuset is and didn't take the time to read all about it on the website above, here's a quick run down)



On New Year’s Eve, we knew we wanted to stay home and have a quiet evening. It was time to break out the cookware. Paul really wanted to try out beef stew (Emeril’s recipe here) , so we stocked up on the ingredients and got ready to cook. It took long enough to cut up all the veggies, season and sauté the beef to finally get to this:

Closed pot on stove


Looking good....


It took a few tastings by Paul



Stirrings by me



And we can’t forget the cornbread, the sidekick to beef stew…


And finally time to eat!


Needless to say it was wonderful, a little peppery, but wonderful! We loved the new Le Cruset cookware – it cooked like a DREAM.

And for tonight, I was put in charge of making roast (although its like summer outside...). Roast in the crock-pot, to sit and simmer for 10 hours. YUM. Since it looked so good this morning; with its red potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and spices, I had to take a picture.

Trip to the GA Aquarium and birthday

The Georgia Aquarium opened on November 23rd as the World’s Largest Aquarium. With 8 million gallons of fresh and marine water, and more than 100,000 animals representing 500 species from around the globe, we knew it was going to be a great experience.


Mom and Dad just before we entered the line to enter

We went on Tues, December 27th along with at least 10-15,000 other people! It was PACKED. It is a really neat place, but my vote for the best aquarium in the Southeast is for Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

The GA Aquarium has a few unique features that make it stand out from the rest (and apparently draw HUGE crowds). First, they are the largest in the world. And second, they have a 2 whale sharks (not whales at all, just really HUGE sharks). They are cool. Ralph and Norman, as they are called, are fairly young and will one day be about 40 feet long and weigh 15 tons. They thankfully aren't interested in eating any of the fish in their HGUE tank.



A neat feature is a tunnel through this huge tank. Between the huge schools of fish, sting and mana rays and all kinds of sharks, it's a good thing they have a moving sidewalk of sorts to keep the crowds moving. Here's a picture of a guitar shark - an odd mix of a ray & shark


I always love watching the jellies - it was too crazy to stand and watch for more than a few seconds, but I was able to get a decent picture of a sea nettle. Beautiful creatures - but so dangerous!




And here are 2 more pictures from dinner at "On Main" in Old Towne Conyers (about 45-to an hour from my parents house). It was worth the long drive, squished in the backseat of the civic with mom and mema.

Taking pictures of food is fun... my dinner was...

Macadamia Crusted Tuna - Seared with pineapple-papaya compote over wasabi mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas. It was DIVINE! I also had a great wine, a Mark West Pinot Noir. It was delicious.


And finally a picture of my only girl cousin[Miranda], my grandmother and me before dinner.

Back from trip to Atlanta

(Free chocolate cake for my 26th birthday after a WONDERFUL meal at "On Main" in Conyers, GA.)

We're back from Georgia. It was a good trip despite the long drive there, trips to the hospital and getting sick. We had a great time, really! It was a lot different than years past, but overall we had a great time visiting with my parents and family. I hope to post a few more pictures and give a little more narration of our trip.


Me and "Raleigh" (mom & dad's adopted cat)- he isn't real keen on 'hugs'