I'll Be Home for Christmas...

Except I won't be.

It also doesn't look like it is worth it for my family to come out here after Christmas to visit me either. I assumed there would be no way in Hell I'd be able to take a month off around Christmas being the low man on the totem pole at my new job, but I never imagined that from a week or so before Christmas all the way to the beginning of February would be off limits! But they are. I also found out that although I may only be scheduled for 20 hours a week, I won't ever be able to bang those out over, say, three 7 hour shifts; I'll be expected to work five 4 hour shifts. So if my family came out, I wouldn't be able to take a week or two off, like I was planning, to hang out and maybe go to Tasmania or drive the Great Ocean Road with them and I also wouldn't be able to get my work done early in the week on the other weeks they are here and then have Thursday and Friday to play tour guide.

I was so upset when I found this out on Tuesday. I've never not had a Christmas with my family to begin with, but I had prepared myself for that, and thought I'd just have a later Christmas celebration with them*, and then to find out that that wasn't really even an option, I wanted to cry. Then a few people in my training group start talking about how they were told we weren't allowed to take any time off over the next 12 months of our contract, I really did start to cry when I called MOTH on my lunch break to fill him in! I talked to the trainer later that afternoon and the good news is is that we are allowed to take vacation after we have been at the company for 6 months so yesterday I got her to block out most of May for me and that is when I will be going home. I can't believe I will have to wait a year (from when I flew out here) to see my family again, but I guess it's better than not being able to see them for a year and 3 months!

So yeah, not a good start to the week really, but I'm trying to deal with it and a lot can happen between now and December so we'll see what happens. On a positive, I already got paid on Wednesday and will be using part of that money to buy some more work clothes this weekend since I've realized 1) I don't have a ton of clothes to begin with and 2) Hardly any of the stuff I do have is "work wear". Tomorrow or Sunday MOTH and I are hopefully going to go have a look at a family friend's mother's car and hopefully it will be the one for me. All I know so far is that it's a late 90s Subaru, it's an automatic, and the price is right. MOTH and I have said for years now that we want a Subaru Outback when we can afford one so it'll be sweet to start working our way up through the Subaru models now!

*MOTH's immediate family doesn't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons so it's not a situation where you can say "Suck it up D, lots of people have to rotate Christmas between each spouse's family," there just won't be a Christmas celebration at all, at least not with his parents or brother, though I'm hoping he'll still want to celebrate with me.

Let Me Entertain You

The girls at work were laughing today about how I handle calling in to the FedEx call center. I started my day fairly jovial, but challenged the call center people when I needed to (i.e. "My sister works at Trader Joe's so I know they aren't closed at 4pm on a Wednesday night so why didn't my package get delivered?") and progressed to being a little less jovial through out the day (i.e. "That's Bash St. as in I'll bash your head in" which I swear I said in a laughing way and a "Why did you put me on hold to enter information about my file when you haven't even asked me what I'm calling about and therefore have nothing to enter?" which was said in a not so joking manner). Everyone was giving me the side eye like I was crazy or laughing as they listened in to my calls and were also impressed that I found out that I was talking to people in call centers in El Salvador, Chihuahua Mexico, and Chicago, as they said they had never talked to anyone from FedEx outside the States before. At least I'm making their day and mine more entertaining. If I have to sit for a few hours a day on the phone with FedEx I may as well amuse myself while I do it!

On an unrelated note: I really feel like I'm living in the country here. On my drive home tonight I heard this on the traffic report- "Watch for a deer darting in and out of traffic near the Porter Street exit"!!

On another unrelated note, but to catch you all up with what's been going on over the past few days- Boyfriend arrived safe and sound yesterday and is still pretty exhausted from his big journey. He and Dad "treasure hunted" today and came back with about 2 dollars worth of coins and they also went to Costco so he had a true typical day around here.

It was great to finally have him here and to just be hanging out again. Me, Mom, and Dad took him out to dinner at a Mexican food place around here and Boyfriend was already practicing his Spanish that was provided on a placemat. When we got home, Nae was waiting to welcome him back, too, so I think he had a really nice first night back with all of us.

This weekend we are going up the mountain to cut down our Christmas tree and go to the boat parade at Santa Cruz Harbor...it should all be really fun and festive!

The Way You Squeeze My Lemon...

Happy Black Friday to everyone! Hope you went out and bought lots of stuff you didn't really need/want, but got it anyway because the deal was too good to pass up :) Or maybe, instead, you stayed home/in bed all day still in a food coma? I had trouble sleeping last night, probably because I was too full and was really tired when it was time to get up for work this morning.Nae's food was amazing, as expected. The big highlight for me was this spinach salad with apples and candied pecans with a citrus vingarette that Nae whipped up both last night and tonight. I could eat that salad all day, everyday. I've got a dark picture of it, but it really doesn't do it justice.

I think she got her recipe inspiration from something she saw on the Food Network website and then tweaked it by adding some fresh squeezed orange juice in to the dressing, as well as some lemon zest and rather than doing the walnuts, she did the candied pecans instead.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5 ounces baby spinach leaves (about 5 cups lightly packed)
• 1 Granny Smith apple
• 1 tablespoon of orange juice
• Pinch of orange zest
• Candied pecans

In a small bowl whisk together the oil, vinegar, mustard, orange juice and zest. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss the spinach with the dressing until evenly coated then divide the spinach among 4 serving plates. Core the apple and slice it into matchsticks. Sprinkle a quarter of the apple pieces on top of each salad. Follow with the pecan pieces. Serve immediately.

She also made up a double batch of lemon bars and I had a peak at the website she was consulting while making it and it was from another Food Network friend, Emeril! These are always a big hit, but seem pretty time consuming as you have to squeeze and zest lots of lemons (my job yesterday) and bake the bottom layer before you then rebake it with the lemon layer added. Here is the recipe and a picture from the site, as well as a picture of our slice (can you spot the difference in picture quality? haha)

I thought this lemon looked kindof neat after it had been zested.

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks), plus 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon salt plus a pinch
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice, strained
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons limoncello, or other lemon-flavored liqueur, optional

Directions

Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with 2 teaspoons of the butter and line with 1 sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Butter the top of this sheet of paper with 1 teaspoon of the remaining butter and then lay a second sheet of parchment or waxed paper crosswise over the first sheet. The parchment should be cut large enough so that the sides are even with the top of the baking dish; this extra paper will function as handles to help you remove the lemon squares from the pan later. Set pan aside.

In a large bowl combine 1 3/4 cups of the flour, 2/3 cup of the confectioners' sugar, the cornstarch, and 3/4 teaspoon of the salt and mix thoroughly. Cut the remaining 12 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using your hands, 2 forks, or a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer the butter-flour mixture to the prepared baking dish and press into an even 1/4-inch layer along the bottom and partly up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the crust is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the crust until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

While the crust is baking, assemble the filling by combining the eggs, granulated sugar, flour, and lemon zest in a medium bowl and whisking until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, milk, limoncello, and remaining pinch of salt and mix well.

When the crust is golden brown, remove it from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Stir the lemon mixture again, then pour onto the warm crust. Bake until the filling is set, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Grasp the waxed paper that lines the 2 longest sides of the baking dish and remove thebars from the pan by pulling up gently. The entire dessert should easily dislodge and come away from the pan.

Transfer to a cutting board and, using a clean knife, cut into squares, wiping knife after each cut. Place a small amount of confectioners' sugar into a small sieve, and sprinkle the bars with the sugar. Serve immediately, or refrigerate, wrapped with plastic wrap, up to 2 days, until ready to serve.

And just in case you aren't sick to death of turkey and all Thanksgiving related goodness, here are pictures of our dinner last night:

Sorry about the glare, I didn't even notice it until uploading it earlier and it's the only picture of a full plate I got.

I Eat the Turkey and I Take a Nap

Nae is just getting started in the kitchen now. She's been prepping for the last few days and the turkey has been brining away. On the menu tonight are: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (homemade and the good stuff that retains the shape of the can), herb mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and/or pineapple, homemade bread rolls, spinach salad with candy walnuts apples and orange zest, sauteed brussle sprouts, baked apples and for dessert lemon bars, vegan pumpkin pie (Nae's making it special for one of her roommates), or cream cheese pie. Did I mention there are only 4 of us?!? We have enough food to feed the neighborhood! Nae is a really good cook so I don't mind eating her leftovers for the next 5 days. I'll get some pictures later. I asked Nae for her recipes because everything she made last year turned out amazingly, but she said "Why do you want to steal my secret family recipes (that I got from Food Network)?" so we'll have to see if she comes around to sharing later. I think she is going to at least share her lemon bar recipe with me so I'll post that up with pics in the next few days. I'm really hoping she gives me her turkey brine recipe because she only started doing it last year and last year's turkey was the best I've ever had!

In other news, work has been going well. Everyone in the office is super nice. The work is fairly repetitive, but it makes the day fly by! Yesterday I got to taste test a new cookie flavor they are trying to perfect. It was good, but not quite there yet. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I was also able to grab a couple fresh cookies to bring home to the family last night- regular chocolate chip and chocolate chip macadamia...so darn good! We also have in a dark chocolate, walnut, and cherry cookie right now that one of the girls brought up for me to try because they are that good that they don't last long! I thought I wasn't working tomorrow and had planned to hit the Black Friday sales with Nae and Mom down in Monterrey, but I've been asked to come in from like 10-4 tomorrow so I'll be missing out on the shopping. A little bummed because it would be nice to hang out with them, but on the other hand I really need the money and could've told work that I wasn't available if I had really wanted to.

Yesterday I also learned that the homeless in Santa Cruz must have it pretty good. I went down to the beach on my lunch break to sit and watch the water while I ate my sandwich. I was pretty full after having one half and as it was a sandwich from Trader Joe's, the other half was still nicely wrapped, so I decided rather than let it go to waste I'd find a homeless person (there are normally tons downtown) and offer it to them. I hadn't even gotten away from the beach when I saw an older lady with a backpack on and a cardboard sign taped to her back that said "Need Food". I did a u-turn and rolled down my window and asked her if she'd like my sandwich. She said she was weird about people touching her food and she couldn't tell how fresh it was so no. My jaw just about hit the floor. She obviously wasn't that hungry! I brought it back to work and one of the ladies there happily had it, instead.

Only 6 more sleeps until Boyfriend gets here! I don't know how people do the long distance thing. I miss him like crazy, but then we get on the phone or a video chat online and have nothing exciting to tell each other. Boyfriend has also been on a tight deadline to get a new website up for Clinique and so he has been stressed, tired, grumpy, and not very talkative in general. There are times we talk and I just want to strangle him and I'm sure he wants to strangle me, haha! It's so funny because in real life we hardly ever fight or get super snippy with each other. I can't wait to have him here and get back to "happy couple" status.

Edited to Add: Just wanted to say a Happy Thanksgiving to all those Expats living in Australia and other places around the world! Hope you had a good one and were able to eat something that reminded you a little of home.