Santa Barbara and Solvang

Mini vacation

6 inches and counting

I made a vow last year that I was gonna donate something I own for good cause. Since I don't like needles and I don't have good veins, donating blood was not an option. Kidney was not negotiable either. Ha. That's why I decided to let me hair grow and donate it to either Pantene Beautiful Lengths or Wigs for Kids.

Unlike donating blood which only last for minutes, prepping for hair donation is a looooooong process. Patience is a must. I've been trying to grow my hair for 2 years now and I'm still few inches short from their required length. Solely because they wont accept layered hair. And I have multiple layers. Darn.

And so I asked somebody at work to trim my hair just so i can get rid of some layers. (I also didn't want to pay $$ for a simple cut in a salon. Yes, im very cheap).

Maintaining long hair can be a pain sometimes. I consume more shampoo and drying it takes forever. (probably because I don't blow-dry... I don't have one). But the thought of donating it for a good cause makes it worthwhile.

I'm 3 to 4 more inches away from my goal :)

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Magnets

My hubby and I spent a great amount of time browsing at the magnet section. 

Here's why:

Basil-Feta Vinaigrette

Ingredients: fresh basil, feta cheese, fresh garlic, crushed red pepper, sesame oil, rice vinegar, extra virgin olive oil

Toss everything in the blender, then adjust ingredients to taste.

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Update: I don't know what's wrong with my iphone blogger, the photos look crappy :(
Update II: fixed it! :)

Feta cheese dip

Ingredients:

Feta cheese, cream cheese, mayo, garlic, basil, dill, oregano

Serve with celery sticks or pita chips

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Greek food + Book club

I always wanted to be part of a book club, ever since I was a kid. So I was thrilled when my very good friend, Samantha, started one late last year. There's six of us in the group (my hubby being the newly recruited member. Yay). We each picked a book for our reading list, then once a month our little book club meets. We just checked off "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini and "Brave New World" by A. Huxley from our list.

Now food plays an important role in our meetings. Good food just brings people together and makes this world a better place, right? We'll find any excuse just so we can have a feast, and a book club meeting is a legit reason to get our grub on. We try to come up with a theme for each meeting and last night's was Greek.

Below are some snapshots from our mini greek smorgasbord. I wish i can take credit for the yummy food but I'm not that great of a cook yet. I did prepare the Caprese Salad, experimented on Basil-Feta Vinaigrette and made the Feta cheese dip :)

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Happy new year!

New year's eve at work.

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