Chef Hamlett

Trout from Cafe Claude in San Francisco

I have decided to dedicate myself to becoming a better cook and baker! 

I LOVE food.  I really enjoy eating at great restaurants but in this dismal economy, eating out was one of the first things I decided to give up in an effort to be more financially responsible. Because of that I decided that I should motivate myself to become a better cook.  While I was home in NYC I rummaged through all of my mom's old cooking magazines and took the recipes that I thought would be cool, and put them my new cooking binder.  I have also acquired a brand new food processor thanks to my mom, which no doubt will be used to slice, dice, and mince new and fun ingredients.  

My dream is to become one of those cooks that can sprinkle a little of this and a touch of that and voilla!  I have an amazing dish. However, I am taking baby steps and will start using the recipes that I have in my binder, and maybe borrowing some cookbooks from the library.  There is a great farmers market in San Luis on Thursday evenings that I will utilize for great fresh products and  I'll chronicle my dishes and let you know how they turn out.  Here's to not burning down my kitchen! 

Happenings

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks! 

I had a great time going home.  Going home is always a mixture of stress, happiness, comfort, and love.  There is an urgent need to want to see all my friends, spend time with my family, and spend time alone.    From hanging in candy shops with college friends, to dinners and updates with best friends, to shopping time with my mom, I had a really great trip and I was happy to be back in my hometown.

By the time my trip was over I was very ready to return to my new home and unpack and get settled.  The chaos of boxes and stuff everywhere in my apartment was definitely overwhelming and challenging and I just wanted to be done.   It took me a few days but I was able to put everything in its place and I am currently blogging in my living room  and loving my apartment!

 The other big part about setting up in a new place is meeting new people.  In the past few years I have become a lot more introverted and shy, so meeting new people is stressful and sometimes overwhelming.  Over the past couple of weeks I have gotten the opportunity to get to know my new coworkers in both work and social settings.  This has been quite an experience! Everyone is so different and brings different qualities to the table.  It's been fun hearing their stories and little by little letting them get to know me and my story.  I think it's been about two weeks now and I would say I am starting to warm up to people and the fun, sassy side of Alana is beginning to show.  I am always a work in progress so being in big group settings will always be a little weird and uncomfortable for me, but the people here are great and I think this will be a really fun year socially and professionally.  

New Home

Monday was the big day. It was my last day at my job and then RSlo and I packed up my stuff and took off. I had given a lot of thought to what it would it feel like to say goodbye to my coworkers, they were so wonderful and supportive when I made the decision to to move on. I was thrown a really fun pool party, and they put together a wonderful scrap book for me filled with inside jokes, pictures, and well wishes, so my last day was definitely very emotional. I was reminded of the year and all that I had learned and how much I have grown since I moved to San Jose.

I had given so much thought to what it would be like to say my goodbyes and leave San Jose, however I hadn't thought about what it would be like to be in a new place. I spent Tuesday unpacking all of my stuff (there are way too many boxes), and getting accustomed to this big change. I realized that in a couple of days I will be meeting new people and creating new relationships and that this is definitely the beginning of a new chapter. The best part of the day was at 5 pm when RSlo got off of work and we had dinner together. He cooked a great meal and it was nice to eat together, we didn't really have much to talk about since we had seen each other most of the day, but I wanted to appreciate the moment since I also know what it feels like to not have that time together. Our fun was short lived as I headed to the airport Tuesday evening to catch my flight back to NYC, but I can't wait to be back, unpack all of my stuff and get settled.