Interesting San Fran Facts

Just traveled back from an awesome trip to San Fran and am recovering from sensory overload. My brain is still swimming in the memory of the views, the food, awesome Fall weather. As I get back into the swing of things as an Innkeeper this week, I'll start daydreaming about this city while I'm cleaning and doing laundry.

In the meantime, here are a few intersting tid bits I plan to hide in my factoid arsenal for the next round of Trivial Pursuit in downtown Mount Dora at the Goblin Market. I tweeted them yesterday for #TravelTuesday. In case you missed it ... enjoy!

#1: The crookedest street is not Lombard Street, it is Vermont Avenue between 22nd and 23rd.

#2 San Francisco cable cars are the only moving National Historic Landmark.

#3 Alcatraz means pelican in Spanish.

#4 Mission Dolores is the oldest building in San Francisco, built in 1791.

#5: The Chinese Fortune Cookie was invented by Makato Hagiwara whose family operated the Japanese Tea Garden.

#6: San Francisco is built on 43 hills.

#7: Irish coffee was invented in San Francisco. YUM!

#8: Denim jeans were invented in San Francisco for the Gold Rush miners.

#9: Coppola wrote large portions of The Godfather Trilogy in Caffe Trieste, the 1st San Fran coffee shop

And the Final and most HILARIOUS fact about San Fransisco ...

#10 ... it was originally called Yerba Buena Cove. Good Herb. Seriously! That phrase as a totally different meaning this day and age. LOL!

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Oregon Bounty

As much as I love a hot and steamy cup of joe ... it's time I end my relationship with coffee and move on to some smooth and seductive pinot noir.

I created a little video submission for Oregon Bounty's "Cuisine-ternship."

In it you'll learn a little about me, a little about my town, and hopefully drool over the finest glass (or two!) of wine I've had in awhile.

Enjoy! Forward along to your friends!

Fall Favorites

It's FALLLLLLL! The inner child in me just looked up at the sky, closed her eyes and fell back into pile of leaves as tall as she is ... creating a huge mess in the yard while smiling ear to ear. :o)

But I live in Florida. There are no leaves changing color and it's still hot and sticky outside. So the only way for me to tune in to my favorite season is to decorate the house, turn up the AC and start baking.

I've been giving my oven a workout ... and ... now I need to give myself a workout to burn off some of these calories I've been earning in the kitchen!

These are just a couple of the Fall Recipes I'll be posting on Inn The Kitchen this season ... and they happen to be my favorites.

Starting with the Autumn Sangria. This concoction for spirited sinfulness was given to me by my dear friend Maranda a couple of years ago when I had a group of girls over for a party. She brought over a big punch bowl of Autumn Sangria and immediately was everyone's favorite person in the room. The dangerous thing about this sangria is that it tastes so sweet and cinnamony (is that a word?) that you forget that it has lots of wine in it. An hour or two later you're all giggly and smiling wondering, "why the heck is everything so funny?!" It's just the merlot talkin.
Autumn Sangria

My next favorite recipe of this season is Christpher's Inn Own Bowl Pumpkin Bread. Although, I can never seem to get it all done in one bowl. But you could if you tried! It has nearly equal parts sugar to the flour ... so as you can imagine you'd probably be wanting to make a date with your dentist after a couple of slices of the moist and decedent pumpkin bread.

One Bowl Pumpkin Bread

And the final fall recipe shout-out for today is the Sweet Potato Muffins. This recipe was sent to me from the Beaufort Inn and is a healthy escape from the norm. They're sweet and every bit as fall flavored as the pumpkin bread with big chunks of orange sweet potato, cranberries and walnuts. But sweetened with honey and filling with fiber from flax seed, they'll be a little nicer to your waistline. It usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to whip these up, not including cook time. But I just did it in under 4 minutes on the show Daytime this week. Aaaaah, the magic of TV. Wish I could sprinkle some of that on my normal schedule!

Sweet Potato Muffins

Balancing Act

I don't know how Mom's do it. Divide their attention and love equally among their children. Seems like a tough balancing act. I have two blogs ... and I can't even split my attention between the two ... let alone add real children to the mix!

Inn The Kitchen has been receiving all the love while little ole Innside Story has been left cold in the corner. Small twinge of guilt. Mea Culpa.

I promise to be more diligent in spreading the love, and spending some time writing about things outside of the kitchen. PROMISE!

Great Monday Morning Laughs

I usually hate getting chain letters and spam email, but when one of my friends sent me the following I was so glad I opened it instead of immediately dragging it to the trash.

It had me laughing so hard I nearly spewed coffee all over my keyboard. This is going to be a great week if I had that kind of belly buster moment first thing Monday morning. Not to mention ... the week started with a holiday so it's going to only be a short little while till the next weekend.

Have you ever said the right thing ... the wrong way ... and ended up with a hysterical Freudian slip? Well, here are 5 that will make you feel better about anything you could have ever possibly said!

Think before you speak ...

Testimony #1: I walked into a hair salon with my husband and 3 kids in tow and asked loudly, "How much do you charge for a shampoo and a blow job?" I turned around and walked back out and never went back. My husband didn't say a word.

Testimony #2: I was at the golf store comparing different kinds of golf balls. I was unhappy with the women's type I had been using. After browsing for several minutes I was approached by one of the good-looking gentlemen who works at the store. He asked if he could help me. Without thinking, I looked at him and said, "I think I like playing with men's balls

Testimony #3: My sister and I were at the mall and passed by a store that sold a variety of candy and nuts. As we were looking at the display case, a boy behind the counter asked if we needed any help. I replied, 'No, I'm just looking at your nuts. My sister started to laugh hysterically. The boy grinned, and I turned beet-red and walked away.

Testimony #4: While in line at the bank one afternoon, my toddler decided to release pent-up energy and ran amok. I was finally able to grab hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other patrons. I told her that if she did not start behaving 'right now' she would be punished. To my horror, she looked me in the eye and said in a voice just as threatening, 'If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma that I saw you kissing Daddy's pee-pee last night!' The silence was deafening after this enlightening exchange. Even the tellers stopped what they were doing. I mustered up the last of my dignity and walked out of the bank with my daughter in tow. The last thing I heard when the door closed behind me, were screams of laughter.

Testimony #5: Have you ever asked your child a question too many times? My three-year-old son had a lot of problems with potty training and I was on him constantly. One day we stopped at Taco Bell for a quick lunch, in between errands It was very busy, with a full dining room. While enjoying my taco, I smelled something funny, so of course I checked my seven-month-old daughter, she was clean. Then I realized that Danny had not asked to go potty in a while. I asked him if he needed to go, and he said 'No'. I kept thinking 'Oh Lord, that child has had an accident, and I don't have any clothes with me.' Then I said, 'Danny, are you SURE you didn't have an accident?' 'No,' he replied. I just KNEW that he must have had an accident, because the smell was getting worse. Soooooo, I asked one more time, 'Danny did you have an accident ? This time he jumped up, yanked down his pants, bent over, spread his cheeks and yelled 'SEE MOM, IT'S JUST FARTS!!' While 30 people nearly choked to death on their tacos laughing, he calmly pulled up his pants and sat down. An old couple made me feel better, thanking me for the best laugh they'd ever had!

Bonus: This had most of the state of Michigan laughing for 2 days and a very embarrassed female news anchor who will, in the future, likely think before she speaks. What happens when you predict snow but don't get any! We had a female news anchor that, the day after it was supposed to have snowed and didn't, turned to the weatherman and asked: 'So Bob, where's that 8 inches you promised me last night?' Not only did HE have to leave the set, but half the crew did too they were laughing so hard!

Now, didn't that crack you up? Pass it on to someone you know who needs a laugh and remember we all say things we don't really mean, so think before you speak!!!!!


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Packin up the kitchen ...

The dust has settled ...

the photos are hung ...

and there is something much more fresh and tasty than cold leftover pizza for breakfast during this move!

My Inn The Kitchen blog has moved to WordPress. While the neighborhood here at Blogger has been warm and friendly, we just needed room to grow.

Check out it's new home at www.InnTheKitchen.com

--Rachelle

Grocery Wars

After a hot cup of coffee and some homemade scones, my friend Jaden shared this with Brian and I this morning. Thank goodness it was after the coffee ... or else I might have stained her rug spewing in laughter.

This is looks like an oldie, but it's new to me so I'll have to share. It combines some clever writing ... with fresh produce and some guys that looked like they had way too much fun in the making of this video.

Behold, Grocery Wars ...