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Recipe: beef sushi roll

There is just over a day left to enter the drawing for the Kyocera ceramic knife. I’m impressed with the turnout – so many people who love to flirt with danger! Nice.

Yesterday was my last day of tele class. I’m happy to get my time back, but also a little sad because it was so much more than just improving my tele skills. The good thing is that we have plans beyond class. Alpha chicks rule.

our group minus two

By the time we were done on the mountain, the snow was coming down fast in large fluffy flakes. It was a great day, but it wasn’t over. We all met up afterward for drinks and appetizers and to see Bode, our instructor’s 8 month old border collie. Bode (named for Bode Miller) is already a superstar and he is going to take the agility competitions by storm. It’s quite amazing to be around such an intelligent dog (and then later I went home to Kaweah, Dog of Simple Brain).

let’s play tug

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Recipe: tora no maki roll

Thanksgiving is about food, loved ones, and giving thanks. We have the food in spades, loved ones too – although we’re not with friends or family today. And then there is the thanks. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I got my breast cancer diagnosis just over a year ago, right before Thanksgiving. We were waiting for biopsy results and so Thanksgiving was a bit of a bust. While we had a quiet holiday that year – just me, Jeremy, and the dog – the uncertainty of our future and of my life hung heavily over the day. There was no point in crying, no point in making any plans because all we could do was wait and keep a level head about it. It was surreal, but at the same time I would rather it be me than anyone else I cared about. My treatments turned the past year on its head. Jeremy and I forged through it together, but chemotherapy was an incredibly isolating, dismal, freakish experience: physically, emotionally. While I pride myself in my ability to reach from within for the strength to plod through shitty times, I could not have gotten through it on my own.

I thank every day that I have Jeremy in my life. I will be forever grateful to those loved ones who were there for me when I needed them most. I’m thankful for my tele betties who gave me something to look forward to each week when I began my chemo. I’m thankful for my awesome physicians, nurses, radiation techs, and PT. I’m thankful for the incredible friends I have made (and even met!) through this blog and for all of the use real butter readers who make me laugh and cry and laugh some more. And lastly, I am thankful to be alive and relatively well. Well enough to hit the slope today…

getting my tele legs back this morning

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Recipe: not so special roll

When Jeremy and I moved in together after I graduated from college, I cooked a lot… but I didn’t cook. There wasn’t much need to because we lived within spitting distance of more authentic ethnic dining establishments than I could shake a stick at. We were spoiled rotten. And all of the ethnic grocery stores in LA made it just as easy to get some of the homestyle goodies to take home and heat up. Very nice.

sushi rice

special nori from japan, courtesy of joyce

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