Have you seen What’s Up, Tiger Lily? If not, you should. It’s a superb Woody Allen comedy centering around the search for a secret egg salad recipe.

Today, I lived out my own version of What’s Up, Tiger Lily. You see, every time Earl and I head up north to go skiing, we eat egg salad sandwiches on the drive up. It’s a tradition stemming back from the very first ski weekend we took to Quechee, Vermont from New York City together. Earl was coming to meet what was almost my entire family- parents, sister, brother in law and two nieces all for the first time. When I picked him up on a Friday after work in the Jeep (back when she was still spiffy and not all busted) at his apartment at 98th & West End, his arms were overflowing with not only ski gear, but a bag of egg salad sandwiches and snacks for the drive.

“Egg salad?!” I scoffed, having never tried in my life, “Yuck! That’s disgusting! Who eats that?” My father had ingrained in me (I think this was some wacky holdover from the 50s) that egg salad sandwiches were “for dweebs” and “gross.” So I’d never really gave them a whirl.

“Suit yourself, more for me,” responded Earl as he dove into his. Somewhere up the Jersey pike he offered me a bite. Practically holding my nose, I tentatively ventured a nosh. “Woah! That’s pretty good,” came my response as I chewed. Luckily, my sandwich had yet to be devoured so I got to scarf it in pleasure and have been an egg salad convert ever since. We used to eat them almost every weekend during the winter, especially when we drove up north. Later when we moved together on the Upper East Side, we still would head all the way over to Lennys Bagels on the west side (99th and Broadway, to be exact) to grab some.

I even converted a few others to egg salad afterwards! Every Friday during Lent I would bring in two egg salad sandwiches to the Private Equity Firm where I worked and share one with the admin. Formerly a strictly chicken salad gal, she RAVED over them and quickly became a convert.

Once we moved to San Francisco, Earl and I spent many sad days longing for those Lennys Egg Salad sandwiches. Out here in California, they just don’t know how to make em. There’s always too much dill, or celery, drowning in mayo, or other junk. One time I even tried one with RANCH DRESSING!!! Can you believe it!?! My theory is that San Francisco (and California in general) needs more Jews. We already went through this with Matzoh ball soup- here the same problem is rearing its head.

Today, as we were packing our bags to go skiing and I was contemplating what we would eat for dinner on the drive, I reached the end of my rope. Just like I learned with matzoh ball soup, the only way to get decent egg salad out here in this stupid city is going to be to make my own. That’s IT! I’m calling Lennys!!

I called Lennys and sweet talked the manager into giving me their egg salad recipe this afternoon. My lips are sealed and I can’t post the recipe on this blog, however I will tell you that it’s deceptively simple. Idiotically simple. I’m making them right now (the eggs are cooling as I type this) and I can’t wait to see how closely my sandwiches replicate the Gold Standard. I was a little wary with bread, but went to the hippy grocery store and got the freshest, fluffiest, thickest sliced cracked wheat bread I could get my hands on.

I will end this post by saying hopefully they come out well, and that if you are ever in New York City (or happen to be there right now) to get your butt over to Lennys on the upper west side and please scarf down an egg salad sandwich in my honor.

Pretty low key night around here. A few camphone photos:

I received my new running shoes in the mail today! This is exciting because it’s the first time I’ve bought myself shoes in over two years (mandatory EMT work boots don’t count). Yay, employment! There seem to be so many “basics” that I scrimped on while unemployed that I almost have a backlog of necessary boring life items to procure. Linus was kind enough to model my new kicks. I’ve been using these Brooks Trance running sneakers for several years. Absolutely love them, tho for a while they kept redesigning them to be more and more ugly. Each year I would buy the new model and they just kept getting worse looking. Was happy to find a model online that wasn’t horrendous- check out the steezy orange! Also, I found them online for $79- and free shipping, whereas normally at the store they run $140ish. Nice.

After his modeling stint (which he clearly didn’t enjoy), Linus got a treated to a nap in the bed (which he enjoyed).

While hounds and nerds slept, I wrassled up a tuna casserole for dinner. This recipe is an oldie, originating from my Aunt’s mother. Pretty basic- tuna, egg noodles, peas, cream of mushroom soup, and some milk. I added celery, mushrooms, a little lemon thyme and two diced hardboiled eggs… stemming off my my (#1FAVORITE MEAL OF ALL TIME) mother’s chicken casserole recipe. The top is a mixture of crushed potato chips and cheese. Not the healthiest meal in the world, but certainly scrumptious comfort food at its finest!

Lucy enjoyed staking out the shoebox as her new snooze spot, with added bonus of being the first to crinkle the sneaker-wrapping paper.

All in all, nothing big to report. I’m working the 6am-6pm shift tomorrow with a really cool partner. I’ve been enjoying the 6-6 shift- you don’t have to get up *too* early (set my alarm for 4:45am, which seems a heck of a lot easier to stomach than 3:45am for the 5-5… must be psychological), but you still get off in time to do stuff at night (gym!). We’ve been having some crazy interesting calls as of late. My Monday shift seemed to be a magnet for cranky patients. Everyone we transported was in a really bad mood!

Other goings ons: taking the Corvette back on Thursday and as a thank-you present to my uncle for letting us borrow it I am taking him out to dinner (Dennys! the man likes what he likes) and a movie of his choice. Apparently he *loves* to go to the movies, although my aunt hates going, so he has no one to go with. Hmm… that is a familiar situation We had lots of fun driving the ‘vette this weekend- we took it up Highway 1 and along the coast to Stinson Beach. It was surprising how many people will pull over on a windy road and let a corvette pass! My uncle did give me specific instructions to “drive it like a Corvette is meant to be driven” and we took him up on it. Earl’s head hit the ceiling when he was driving which was mildly amusing for me. Apparently 6′4 people aren’t meant for Corvettes. The Jeep is back from the shop but will be going right back in a few weeks when our budget is ready to dole out for the next round of slated repairs. Blegh.

*yawn* Well I am off to read, write in my journal, and pass out. Horray for not doing the dishes. Corgi BART and Corvette pics to come
Yours in casserole fandom,
C

In an effort to kick my butt back into shape, at the advice of a wise man on TGR, I am attempting to hike or run at least one peak or park every single week. The additional benefit of this exercise is that it has me learning about and discovering a plethora of cool places here in the San Francisco bay area (and eventually, beyond!), and of course getting my dog out for some fun and exercise in the woods. Yes. *ahem* Because… as you know, the dog allowed himself to get really fat and out of shape over the past year. The dog was a little more concerned with his career change than working out and the dog didn’t use his period of unemployment as well as he could have to exercise during his free time and stay healthy. Well, good for the dog (now), because now that the dog has a stable job that not only pays the bills but that he really loves, the dog is finally motivated to get back at it, utilize his time outside of work wisely, and to get healthy again. Yay, dog.

In a “getting out of a rut” workout advice thread someone posted over on TGR, one of our members suggested to hike a new peak every single week. This struck me as a BRILLIANT idea, and I have adopted as a goal moving forward. I plan to either hike or run these peaks and report about them here with photos and write up once I return. As often as possible, I will try to bring a friend along for company and conversation, and of course bring ze woof!

Here is my first “Peak a Week” Report, which was the towering Mount Sutro in San Francisco, a staggering 908 feet. Linus and I hiked Mt. Sutro with our friend Andrea, who is here from Germany. Andrea’s husband, Matthias, is Earl’s former coworker. Andrea is sorting through some visa/work study/internship issues right now from her German university, and until that comes through she is generally free in the days, which works out wonderfully with my oddball EMT schedule. It makes her the perfect hiking partner for a Tuesday morning hike!

Linus and I walked over to the UCSF area where Andrea and Matthias live. Mt. Sutro is located right behind UCSF. Despite having lived there for a few months and having been avid hikers in Germany (this couple has hiked all over the alps!) neither Andrea or Mattius have explored Mt. Sutro yet. Perfect!

We walked up Willard Ave and followed this beautiful staircase to the trailhead. San Francisco is filled with gorgeous staircases, which I am discovering and attempting to document here. This one off of Willard was covered in green moss and particularly enchanting.

The view from the staircase was sweeping. You can see downtown all the way to SOMA.

Once on the trail, it went up and up. Not at too steep a pace- this would be the perfect place to come for a woodland jog.

Looping through Eucalyptus groves. I’ve heard that Mount Sutro is so infrequently used because most citizens of San Francisco think it belongs to UCSF and is off limits. That’s unfortunate, because it’s such a peaceful, serene escape. Then again, the less people who use these trails the better condition they’re in and the more isolated they feel. We didn’t pass a single person on our hike through this little forest.

At the top, there was a little meadow. The meadow was underwhelming- you could say our summit was anticlimactic.

The meadow was mostly filled with dead plants- must be a lot nicer in the spring when everything is in bloom. Plus, there really was no view to be had because it was all blocked by trees. Linus had a good time, though!

Andrea smiling on the way down. I asked her if San Francisco’s “Mount Sutro” compared to anything she’d hiked in the Alps. She laughed.

We came across this little glen with a shrine inside.

It was pretty faded, so you couldn’t really read it, but appears to be an old Native American of some sort.

Look at all the green! These green vines completely filled this valley. Looking at this photo, can you believe you are in the middle of a city?

And back down! If you look to Linus’ left, you can see the wine barrel signpost. Wine barrel furniture adaptations are HUGE trend in this city. I’ve seen about a dozen just in our neighborhood. Sort of bourgeois chic.

Final view from the staircase. It turned into a very grey day! Our skyscape is so dull due to the overcast. Still, not a bad little urban hike and nice catching up with a friend. We capped of our day with some coffees and salads at Boulange de Cole. It was chilly and almost rainy by the afternoon so we had an enjoyable time parking ourselves in a cozy booth to warm up.

Coming up: Amy and I tackle Mount Tam, Linus and I at Skyline Ridge, Edgewood Park and then beyond. I found a few Bay Area hiking websites (this one and this one in particular are great resources; I’m sure there is some overlap, however between the two of them there are almost 500 hikes!). If I do a peak a week, I should be done exploring all the hiking around here in about 9 years. Shesh.

As always, I am mega behind on uploading photos from my camera and catching my dear readers up on them and what I have been up to. Please accept my apologies, and I hope you enjoy the following smorgashboard, which dates alllllll the way back to Halloween! Ack

For Halloween, we threw a bit of an impromptu dinner party for our friends Matt and Amy, then we walked down over to Belvedere Street and hit up a bunch of spots on the party circuit.
Matt Preparing the drinks. We served Stone Fences, which are a mixture of whiskey and apple cider.

Dinner was great- we made pumpkin fritters from this recipe. Amy actually ended up cooking most of the fritters while I rushed around and got in my costume (Earl and I were running late coming from the gym).
Amy fries up some fritters

The (still steaming) fritters! They’re basically a thicker pumpkin pancake. Served with cinnamon sugar (optional maple syrup, for those with a fierce sweet tooth).

Even though Amy did most of the cooking, I somehow managed to pose taking credit for them in this photo. Doesn’t it look like *I* cooked them in this photo?

Amy and Matt getting ready to hit the down. Look at those abs on that woman! That is what being a semi-pro level triathlete will get you, apparently Amy is rocking my old latex cop uniform (a holdover from undergrad sorority days) which I coerced her into wearing.

The handsome knight of my heart and his unicorn steed. The “unicorn” didn’t last very long on the streets as he was a little overstimulated with everyone running around trick or treating. This was basically a pre-party walk! He got walked home and hung out while we hit the town.

Bustiers and pizza. Pepperoni, naturally.

Matt, Andrea and Mattius (Andrea was a tree, if you can’t tell)

Bearded lady! The theme of the first party we were at was Old-Timey Carnival. These people pulled out ALL the stops!

Here is the woman who gets shot out of the cannon.

En route to our second party, I was assaulted by a very naughty (and perverted) cookie monster! If you can’t tell, I was a dragon, same as last year.

By our third party of the evening, Amy and Matt had gone home and I had converted into a devilish dragon. The full-face dragon mask, while a lovely work of art, made it hard to consume beverages. Here we are with our ski friend Spencer, who is a music journalist and gets to interview all kinds of stars.

We were certainly tuckered out after this evening. Let’s slide right into Thanksgiving, shall we?

For Thanksgiving, we went out to my wonderful Aunt Mimi’s house in Pleasanton, CA. My friend Amy, who is from CT though going to Stamford for their PA program right now, came with us as she wasn’t going home to see her family.

I lobbied Amy to meet me at my Aunt’s house early, at 9:30am, so we could do this awesome 30 mile ride through Palomares Canyon loop.

Ride starts out on Foothill Drive- look at the peaceful serenity of this beautiful road! Who says there are no fall colors in California?

Amy’s self-portrait on the hill. She doesn’t even look like she’s breathing hard! This girl is a machine.

Amy spent a *LOT* of time waiting for me to get my out-of-shape butt up this hill. Eons. She was bored enough not only to mess around with taking self portraits, but also to take this amusing video:

On the way up Palomares Canyon, Amy (who is holding the camera) spots this sign. What does it MEAN? Looks like a drunk guy crossing the street, right?

At the summit! This is a long, slow climb. Amy actually got a flat tire here from parking in the gravel.

Back from our ride and showered up, we are greeted by quite a spread.

Hey! Down here! Lemme have some! I’ll take some! Don’t want that stuffing? Just a little crumb?

Post meal scritches lead to corgi grins.

Bellies full, Earl and I pile onto the couch to zonk out for a bit.

Reading the Chronicle today while sipping a coffee with Linus at my feet, I was inspired by this article about a Grandmother who cooks meals for the homeless despite having lost her apartment and also this letter to the editor by a 12 year old detailing all the ways she has given back- collecting old coats, raising $$ for foster kids and putting up decorations. In fact, here’s the letter in its entirety:

What the holidays mean

In response to the editorial “Attention, shoppers” (Dec. 1), I was glad to read the last paragraph “and don’t forget about others this season.”

This season I have helped out by collecting coats for the needy at One Warm Coat, helped stock the San Francisco Food Bank, raised money by selling nuts for my Girl Scout troop that enabled us to buy toys for kids in foster care for Christmas, and this weekend I will be decorating Ocean Avenue with ribbons on the parking meters.

Please tell all your readers that some people really need their help this season, and don’t take everything for granted. This holiday season is not only about gifts and shopping.

DOREEN PACINI, age 12, 7th grade

So, when it comes to the spirit of the holidays and helping my fellow man, I’m getting schooled by an evicted Granny and a 7th grader.  Time to fix that.  “We should really do something,” I thought.  Yes, I volunteer at in the Emergency Department once a week at the SFGH Trauma Center, however that is relatively self-serving as it directly relates to my career and possibly future med school applications.

And the very nature of my job nowadays is helping others, but come on… I get PAID for that! I want to do more.

So- what should we do? What can I do? We could take a cue from Granny, and cook a bunch of meals and bring them to the homeless. But to be honest, after getting assaulted and almost stabbed by a crazy guy in the Tenderloin last week, I am not very inclined to be out interacting with a bunch of possibly crazy junkies. Perhaps a touch of PTSD in that, but… :shudder: I am not really up for it right now.

My friend Elaine carries around Cliff bars in her purse at all times and distributes them whenever she walks by a homeless person. Maybe I could do something like that- get a couple of boxes of Cliff bars and dole them out. I’d rather do something more, and as I said, I’m not very down to be initiating interactions with random homeless people.

I could go through all my old clothes and bring them to the Salvation Army. But I do that almost once a year already, so things are pretty weeded out at this point- especially because for the while I wasn’t working we were too broke to buy any new clothes!

Hmm, hmm…

Well, a few minutes of google searching led me to this site, which lists volunteer opportunities in various cities, and has some specific holiday volunteer opportunities. As a certified health care worker, looks like I could dole out swine flu shots to the needy.  And this place looks great, however they need people on Fridays, and I work all day on Fridays. Argh, work schedule rules out a bunch of stuff because I just had to bypass about 5 other things that wanted people on weekends.

Ooh! I found something- wrapping gifts for needy kids. I love wrapping. And they need people on MTW right before Christmas. This could be good.

Oh and here’s another- bringing meals to lonely elderly on Christmas Day. That works as well.

Alright- I just called both those last two places and signed up!   The nerd begrudgingly agreed to deliver meals with me on Christmas morning as well.  (He balks, however I suspect under that indifferent interior he is a big softie).

me: oh hey how about doing this? delivering meals to lonely elderly on christmas morning?

Earl: if you want

me: dont be so enthusiastic

Hurrah!   This is gonna be great.  What about you?  Any ideas for helping others this holiday season?  Are you inspired to do something?

Yesterday Earl and I ambled about Alamo Square Park (and I showed him the great coffee shop) which I discovered on a jog a few weeks ago.

After some brief prodding, Earl agreed to pose for this cheesy photo op- probably one of the most photographed spots in San Francisco, in front of the gorgeous skyline and iconic Painted Ladies.

The weather was just so beautiful out and the sky SO blue! How could I pass this shot up?

Felt like a bit of a tourist snapping this. Next time we head over to this park, we should bring a blanket, a paper, wine, cheese and chocolates and just camp out for a bit.

Btw- Alamo Square park has a pretty great dog park, although I’ve NEVER been there when there hasn’t been some doofus with an unneutered pitbull letting is snap/growl and REALLY aggressively play with other dogs. I’ve seen about four all out dog fights there. So normally we don’t let Linus play in that part and take him to the other side and throw the ball for him. Bit of a bummer…

ps- weighed myself after lifting at the gym today and am at the lowest weight I’ve been since we’ve moved out to the west coast!! Loving the new job, losing weight, good things are happening all abound!

Love these shots of Linus playing fetch on Tank Hill!

Earl and I headed over there a few weekends ago on a gorgeous, sunny fall day. Tank Hill is a stone’s throw from our apartment; it’s a shame we’d never explored it. I plan to mosey over with a corgi, a coffee and a newspaper again soon.

Tank Hill would have been a stupendous place to have watched tonight’s meteor shower, however we are both totally EXHAUSTED and can barely muster the energy to look out the window for meteors, let alone schlep a blanket and some wine up a big hill.

I start new job on Friday!! WHOOO. Been busy these past couple days getting my uniform(s) fitted, uniform voucher, MORE blood work done (ugh) and filling out W-4s. Everything is coming together.

For the record, we live squarely in “you’re just going to get mugged.”

Nothing terrifying about our day- making slow cooker brisket! This is a grass-fed brisket we got from Chaffin Farms earlier this fall that has been sitting our freezer waiting for a lazy, cold day.

I was catching up with my sister Kelly yesterday after my final, and she was telling me how she spent all day roasting a stew in her crockpot. I was inspired by her fall recipe to break out the brisket.
The B side

Now it’s in the crock pot stewing with some rootbeer, soy sauce, tabasco sauce, brown sugar, garlic, onions, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, bay leaves, a can of diced tomatoes, cayenne pepper and paprika. A bastardization of this recipe (based on what we had in the house). Also, our crock pot is on the small side, so the potatoes, carrots and celery are going to get cooked separately. Some days I wish I had a MASSIVE crock pot. The bummer of having a small one is that it’s hard to make food for the whole week in it. Ours barely fit this brisket, the sauce and some onions!

Exciting news: Yesterday I found out that I passed both my finals! YAY Graduation ceremony (and of course, a big party) is next Thursday. Then, for a while I am going to just concentrate on just doing a good job at my new job and volunteering at the ER. No more juggling work and student, at least for a few months. My next plan is to take a phlebotomy and EKG tech class, but probably around February… I want to get my new work schedule a little more dialed in before trying to juggle. Very very happy school is over and I did well

Linus and I discovered this cute little coffee shop on a walk through our ‘hood today. While I ordered a tea and bagel with hummus, he made some new friends.

He’s actually met the two big Swiss Mountain Dogs before at the dog park (unless there is another pair of giant Swiss Mountain Dogs that live in the neighborhood), though I’m not sure any of them remembered.

while picking up some Matzoh Meal at House of Bagels on Geary this morning, I spy:

wow! a little bit’a Manhattan right here in San Francisco. Maybe this city ain’t *all* that bad.
I brought home a few surprisingly good bagels and- how could I resist- a black and white cookie
also on the shopping list for today:
- a bottle of Jim Beam (half for cooking a maple hazelnut pie for thanksgiving and half for making Stone Fence cocktails this evening!)
- some cooked pumpkin for pumpkin fritters which I’m making for tonight’s Halloween-themed dinner