holiday

Hello October, Hello (and goodbye) Dublin

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of October- this year is flying by and we’re already in the midst of the -Ber months! 

The last month has been AMAZING.  I finished my role and delivered a great strategy, went to an amazing leadership conference, had the best time in Dublin, and had Thomas’s first Communion- and once again I have a bit of free time which means, more COOKIES!

First of all, Dublin.

I’m super lucky that I feel absolutely at home in three places around the world- Washington, Sydney, and Dublin.  Despite never actually living there, it’s a place that feels so familiar and so easy for me.  I have best friends there and really close friends, and it’s a place that always fills my cup.  So much so, that I would love to move there one day.  I don’t know if it will ever happen, but when I make a list of pros and cons, the list of pros is VERY long and the list of cons is VERY short.  (The weather and actually moving anywhere is stressful!)  But it was a fabulous trip, with fabulous people and I loved every moment of it! I know Ireland isn’t known for it’s food but honestly, the butter, bread and the seafood chowder are all next level! Irish butter- so good! I could go on about it for hours!

Secondly, Cookies.

Now that my contract has finished and my next one is TBC – I should find out this week!  I have time on my hands which is both weird and familiar.  Weird because I feel like the last 8 months have been go go go, and familiar because, well it’s like last year but without the mental anguish of being made redundant.  Plus, I’m far more into cookies than I was last year.  I can’t believe it’s been over a year that I’ve been baking every week.  Part of me wants to branch out and do something new, the other part of me has really painted myself into the cookie corner.  It’s expected now and it’s hard to disappoint people.  Plus, I’m not taking requests…. Which is really where I’m coming unstuck!

So this week, because I supposedly have “time” on my hands- even though I feel super busy!  I”ve baked nearly every day.  

Monday was Brown Butter Nilla Wafers from Christina Tosi’s All About Cookies Book.

Tuesday was Potato Chip Sandies- also from Christina Tosi and I also had to start on my request for the week- Apple Crumble Cookies from Andy Cooks.  These are A LOT of work but I’m looking forward to them!  Yesterday I made the dough and apple topping, tomorrow I need to make the crumble and bake them.  A lot of work but I think they will be yummy!

Next week I’ll likely do brown butter chocolate chip cookies– stay tuned!!!

Back to life, Back to reality….

~ stephzuniga ~ 1 Comment

So the holiday is over.  I’m back at work now, which as a contractor is not such a bad thing, but from next week, real life kicks back in.    Laundry will have to be done on the weekends only, meals will have to be planned, groceries bought on Sunday afternoon (don’t ask why, it just seems better than buying them on a Saturday.)  No more fluffing around, hanging out with the yummy mummies at the grocery store on a Tuesday at 2pm, no more watching the American Today show until 11am on 7Two.  I’m back to being a working girl (no, not that type, the kind in the office) and my time won’t be my own.  Sad Face.  

The first two weeks back were like a holiday from being on holidays, kind of nice and new  but now that I’m back from Christmas break with no breaks in sight until May, it’s a bit weird.  As in, weird that I’m expecting to go in every day regardless of what else I’d like to do.  See, as much as my wallet would scream otherwise, I’m not cut out for this working malarkey.    I’ve decided that I much prefer blogging and cooking and sunning and well, not working.  So now I have to figure out how to make this happen.

Hmmmm….let’s brainstorm:

1)       I could win the lotto……the chances of me winning lotto would be about the same odds as getting hit by lightning…..on a sunny day, I never buy lottery tickets because I hate the idea of flushing money down the toilet.

2)      I could marry well and by well I mean super rich…..  not looking good for this one either. The Runner is wonderful, lovely, and amazing, but his last name is not Trump, Kennedy, Schwarznegger, or de Rothschild.  Nor does his name start with Prince, Baron, or Count.  He doesn’t even have a weird name like wealthy or famous parents give their child, like Jogger or Sunshine or Marsanne or Oval….And I’m quite a big fan of The Runner so I think I’ll keep him.

3)      I could invent something fabulous…..nope, can’t think of anything either and if I could, I wouldn’t put it on the internet just yet….but if you have any ideas, please send them to herunsicook@gmail.com– no really, please do.

4)      I could have a portfolio of high interest investments enabling me to live off the interest and their yields, dividends, blah blah……  not going to happen without 1,2,or 3.

5)      I could do something I love- like maybe figuring out how to make money from blogging and write a cookbook, have a TV show, or a range of table linens, cheese graters, and other things that people will give as Secret Santa gifts…..working on this one.

But seriously, if anyone does have any ideas for me, let me know.  My mother, who is wonderful and amazing and possibly the only one besides The Runner who reads this blog—(by the way, I know The Runner only reads it to make sure I’m not oversharing about him).  Anyway, my Mother sent me two cookbooks for Christmas which are both Awesome with a Capital A because they both started out as blogs- Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and Dinner: A love Story.    Dinner: A Love Story I read in one sitting from cover to cover, it’s brilliant and I highly highly highly recommend it.  (I will write more about it at some stage because it’s great. )   But really it got me thinking, it’s not too far fetched to think that maybe I could make money doing something I love, like entertaining, party planning, writing, cooking- so maybe I should finally make 2013 the year  that I do it!  Life’s too short to not have a go at what you love, and I think I just need to give myself a big push—or possibly strap myself to someone else who is jumping out of a plane like they do for tandem skydiving!  Right, so there you have it, back to work and the reality of office living, but also here’s to kicking off the planning for how to be amazing and successful in my own right doing what I love!  

Fingers crossed for 2013!