Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures Across the USA

Thank you to everyone for wishing me a happy birthday. I work with the best people - this German chocolate cake they surprised me with is so tall that it didn't even fit in its bakery box! They said that's not how you cut a cake. I said I'm old now so can cut a cake any damn way I please.  Stabby-style it is. My amazing work peeps (am I now too old to call my friends 'peeps'...) prepared an Italian birthday feast for us to share in our break room.  Fancy organic salad, a lasagna made from scratch (even the sauce - go Christie!), and ooey gooey, cheese-filled breadsticks.   Nothing can top that, right? Somehow the food was topped! I stepped away from my desk for a moment and when I returned, there was a tiny gift bag. Inside was a pair of Maggie Simpson socks. I ripped off my boring, professional black socks and swapped them for the pink and yellow cartoon baby socks. If you don't know, I love The Simpsons. And if you don't know that, we've clearly never...

Sexy Nerd is building us a new kitchen island. Boring! Have I mentioned it's also a beautiful air hockey table? If I can think it up, he can build it. We're a good team. Especially because I hate to get my hands dirty or do any sort of physical labor. My grandma says I've always been a pampered pup. Thank goodness for my Sexy Nerd! Unique Kitchen Island: Air Hockey Table Does it look like real walnut? He is VERY patient - this project requires 2,120 tiny, perfectly spaced holes. Each hole for the air hockey table really is teensie. To me, they look like they might be too small, so of course I asked Sexy Nerd, What if the holes are too small? "I'll go back and redrill each of them a little bigger." VERY patient indeed. Hang in there, Sexy Nerd. Only 2,090 of these too-small holes to go!

Remember the 1963 GMC truck we purchased after attending the Street Rod Nationals? SN has been diligently restoring this disaster of a vehicle, which is currently in pieces scattered around our garage and yard. I thought you might enjoy seeing Before photos. Restoration of a 1963 GMC Truck What were we thinking? Meet our old farm truck, 'The Lawn Ornament'. We love the turquoise and even the rust. Well, maybe not all the rust - don't use the side step or it will snap right off! Originally purchased by a New Mexico railroad worker on Christmas Eve of 1962, our GMC truck came fully loaded with all the bells and whistles. While cleaning it out, SN found decades of mementos, including the original paperwork, lipstick, wine glasses...and shotgun bullets in the glove box. Automotive safety standards were a *little* different back in the 1960s. The leaky gas tank was located inside the cab, directly behind the seat. Relocating it to pretty much anywhere else is on SN's To Do ...

Are we in the post-Covid world? The annual Taos Winter Wine Festival is finally back! If you love wine, raise your hand glass. It's a gourmet celebration and it's happening February 3rd-6th, 2022 in the gorgeous Taos Ski Valley, NM. With nearly all events cancelled in 2020 and 2021, here's an article from the last time SN and I attended a Taos wine festival, waaay back in 2019: I am so sad while writing this blog post, which is full of photos from the third annual T a os Summer Wine Festival , held in the breathtaking New Mexico mountains. We had the best time, eating gourmet food and toasting new friends at the ski resort, but... ...we don't get to go to the Taos Summer Wine Festival again for an entire year. :'( Photos from the 2017 and 2018 Taos Summer Wine Festivals For the first time in 3 years, we didn't have to make a mad dash to scramble 3 hours to the Taos Ski Valley in time for dinner. My husband and I were actually able to take the ...