This is a picture of me on a bridge, among the trees, wearing sporty shorts in Seattle.

This picture tells you a few things:

I’m not in a kitchen.  I’m really excited about not being in a kitchen.  My sister let me borrow her running shorts so I didn’t have to wear my bright purple yoga pants…. and I’m wearing a fashion scarf because I want to look cute even when I’m hiking four miles up a mountain.

Aaand.. I have several versions of this picture where my arms are raised too high, exposing a little belly.  I’ve spared myself the shame of sharing those.

Let me show you what my Seattle times look like.  Wanna see?  Rad.

That’s my little sister Lauren, my Mama, and my big sister Launa.

When the four of us are together, we laugh… a lot.

Ps-  cat butt.

We laugh and we joke about eating ice cream for dinner…. then we eat ice cream.

ps- Crown Royal on top of the fridge.

We eat ice cream while my mom tells us the story of how she was a door to door saleswoman for like… three hours.. until she had a panic attack and quit.

Meet Lauren’s cat Charles.  He’s quite the gentleman.

Launa loves to garden.  More than once I found her out back riffling through the apartment building’s commnity garden.

She planted tomato plants for the apartment.  So sweet… she’s also dang pretty.

Chives and lettuce.  Could someone please make some Buttermilk Ranch so we can tame this garden?

Can I show you more pictures of plants?  Are you annoyed yet?

These are my favorite flowers.  Hydrangeas.  They make me want to get married.  I dunno… hard to explain.

We went for a hike.

We went for a four mile hike up a mountain…

past some gorgeous waterfalls…

… and up and up and up thousands… no millions of stairs.

My sister stopped for text message breaks.  Is that normal?

After over two hours of lugging my thighs up that mountain, we made it to Lake Serene, where…

I promptly sat my ass down and devoured this bag of M&Ms.  Fact.

Also… I don’t want to talk about my hair.  At all.

Is that a chipmunk?  Dang this little guy was cute.  I threw him an almond and he was ready to take me home to meet his family.  He was smitten.

Are those hunks?

I threw almonds at them.  I didn’t get the same response.

Just hunks.

Oh!

I stopped by the Cakespy Shop!

At Cakespy, everything is cute and most things are pink.  Also… farts and rainbows meet.

Jessie of Cakespy is so sweet and lovely.  She painted a battle between cupcakes and pie on her shop wall.  She’s also tiny… and I felt like a giant.

Then Lauren and I ate Ice Cream at Molly Moon’s.  Get Out!  So crazy good!

I also can’t get over how crazy pretty this girl is.

This Goat Milk Blueberry Frozen Yogurt made my life.  Also… sorry to creep you out with my weirdo bendy finger.

I’m at the Pillsbury Bake Off in Orlando, Florida.  There are 100 finalists here… dicing, slicing, frying, baking and otherwise stressing out in a giant hotel ballroom.  At stake?  One.  Million.  Dollars.  In their faces?   Cameras.  Lots of cameras.  

Me?  I’m not baking.  Not baking a thing.  Thank heavens.  I’m not a competitive baker.  Just the thought of competitive food production makes me want to crumble.

The 93 women and 7 men competing here  at the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake Off are champions.  Cooking with this sort of pressure and media is a looooong way from home cooking.  

Want to see what this whole shindig looks like?  It’s serious business.  

Camera crews, lighting dudes, sound men and journalist ladies all gear up for the four hour long competition over breakfast.  

Hardcore branding.  Hardcore advertising.  Mega sponsorship.  Loads of contestants and family and annoying bloggers like me milling about.  

Pre Bake Off… some dudes are giving me camera envy.  

Know what the Bake Off has taught me?   That husbands are super awesome!  Here’s one hubby taking a picture of his wife’s finished product slot.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve overheard between anxious husbands.  Tender moments.  Serious tenderness. 

There are cameras exactly everywhere.  

Before the grand entrance of the hundred contestants, the ballroom smells like new ovens and photographers.  It’s complex.  

Moms.  Sisters.  Grandmas.  Husbands.  All getting ready for the entrance of the BakeOff-ers.  

Blue aprons.  Finalist ribbons.  Smiling faces.  I think I might me almost as nervous as they are. How utterly self indulgent of me. 

You’re pretty and you’re baking.  Go!  Fight!  Win!

Super concentration.  

Every competitors cabinets are stocked with the exact ingredients they need for their recipe.  Whomever stocked these cabinets… I’d like to hire you to be my permanent sous chef.  Please and thank you.

Um… this lady looks like she might be peeking at her neighbors work.  Is that allowed? 

There are plenty of little gentlemen like this cheering on their mothers.  Kinda precious.  

Also… old man elbow.  These things can’t be avoided.  

There’s a lot going on back there. 

And there’s a lot going out here.  

So… no pressure or anything.  I know you’re trying to win a million dollars, but it’s interview time.  

Just look at how graceful and lovely JoAnn is.  Pretty smile.  Hands clasped.  Finalist ribbon gleaming in the camera lights.  These people are lovely and gracious home cooks.  Their families are buzzing with excitement.  It’s such an exhilirating event to be a part of.  

Four winners are being announced later tonight.  The grand prize winner of the Pillsbury Bake Off is being announced live on Oprah tomorrow afternoon.  Whaat!?  Yea.  Crazytown.  That’s happening.  

Thank you to Pillsbury for generously flying to to Orlando to take dorky pictures of your grand Bake Off. That sure was swell of you.  

Bread.  Love.  Bread.  

I’m on a tiny bit of a vacation these days.  Tiny.  Seriously.  Also… I’m kinda still working, but that’s mostly because I can’t help myself.

While I’m away… sort of away, I want to show what I love.  Can I share a bit with you?

Here’s one thing!  I love that you can now sign up to get my rambling posts in your email inbox.  Kinda sweet, right?  Just drop your email in the little “subscribe me!” box to the left.  Oooooh technology.  You’re rad. 

Freya Art and Design.  I love her prints, like the one above.  Colorful and playfully designed with a touch of thoughtful innocence.  I dig it.  

I recently got an email from 12 year old Catherine in Nova Scotia.  Catherine.  Thank you for your email.  You’re super sweet and I wanna squeeze you till you squeak.  Seriously.  I’m glad you like the Old School Brownie recipe.  It’s a real winner…. so are you.

I have serious affection for Beckie of Movies of Myself.  Why?  Well… she’s hilarious and approachable and real.  Aaaand, she plays a huge part in determining my musical taste.  Thank you Beckie.  I wouldn’t sound even the least bit cool trying to talk about music without you.   You’ve got taste girl!

I think I would love love love this Zuni Cafe Cookbook.  I went to Zuni Cafe in San Francisco last weekend.  Holy Heck!  Their food is a dream, but really…. this Bloody Mary set my world right.  It was divine.

You know what I also like quite a bit?  You.  I’m thinking about doing another Ask Joy the Baker session…. ok, mostly because I’m terrible at responding to individual emails.  What do you think about that?

Coming this week:  Pancakes.  I ride a bike in clippy shoes… to be explained.  And Ask Joy the Baker- burning questions answered.

Can we take a few moments to discuss my spur of the moment, Monday afternoon, high speed trip to Napa?

Napa seems to be in a perpetual state of sunshine.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  There are grapes everywhere.  If not actually growing from the earth, then engraved into the side of a freeway overpass, or painted on…. um… every available space in Napa.  Turns out they’re really into grapes.

Can I be honest?  Napa was a little too uppity, snootypants for my taste.  I know just enough about wine to make my way through a conversation about tannins and acid, grape varietals, oak aging and whatever other terms wine people drop…. but I don’t think good wine should be all about the secret, and unapproachable language of wine.

I discovered, in these few hours in Napa, that the beauty of wine is all in the land.  See, it’s the land that creates the beautiful grapes.  It’s the land that’s beautifully adored and so carefully tended.  It’s the careful love of soil that creates such beauty up in wine country.  The care is evident in the carefully places acres and rows of grapevines.  It’s lovely to see the earth adored for what it can produce.  I feel like the story should be about the people and the land… not about fruit forward mouth feels… or whatever.

Here’s the deal:

The looking.  The strolling out in the sun.  The lazy walks through the tall grass of the vineyards… that’s free.

The tastings and the wine… so very far from affordable.  Do I sound like I’m looking for a free ride?  It’s not that, it’s just that a $65 bottle of wine is outside, way outside, my wallet’s comfort zone.  Fact.

I need your help.  I need your wine country guidance.  Where’s the wine with spunk?  Where’s the wine with story?  Where’s the wine that will make me want to give three cheers to Napa.  Let’s go there this spring.  Seriously, we’ll make it a party!

Five hours in Napa… ready, set, GO!

Drink wine.  Talk about tannins, body, oak barrels and finish.  Blah Blah Blaaaaahs.

Stomp around the vineyards like you own the joint (pictured above).

And stop by Fatted Calf to talk about how approachable and awesome American charcuterie can be.

More later!  Right now I’ve got more ground to stomp, and a plane to catch.

I’m in Seattle this weekend.

I’m sticking to a strict schedule of walking around in the cold, eating warm spinach Piroshkies, and enjoying friends, cocktails and Seattle times.

Here’s what my life looks like right now.

Super seats on a wall just outside Pike Place Market.

We found a wall of gum.  Literally a wall of gum.

By we, I mean Simon and I.

Incidentially, that wall of gum had my name written gummed in it.  Really?  Yea… could I make this stuff up?

I’m a sucker for a good used book store.

Then there’s Starbucks.  They’re exactly everywhere.

The Starbucks makes sense, considering this chilly, foggy goodness.

Hope you have a comfy, cozy weekend!  More later!