Super Cute !

Isn't this adorable? My friend Ann and her kids made it for me and delivered it. A pumpkin shaped cookie with a hidden treat inside!! One with M&M's and one with candy corn. Thanks Ann !!

Distribution Center

Effective today, I have a new location to park at work. It is a lot farther than before as they have moved all employee parking to one area (south corner of the center). We now have to use our scan badge to exit the employee parking and enter the distribution center lot. And we have to continue using our scan badge to enter specific doors within the center. We even have to use our scan badge to exit the lot and enter the employee parking. I'm hoping the extra exercise will give me some health benefits, but it will be interesting during the winter rains/snow falls. I had to buy some work slacks (as I won't be wearing high heels and dresses anymore) and some "sensible" work shoes.

Greenbluff with Marcie

We started calling our events with Marcie our Quarterly activities. We did a summer activity together and decided we needed a fall one as well. We met Marcie and her family and went to Greenbluff. This year we went to a different farm than we normally do called Hidden Acres and had a great time. We rode a wagon around the farm, petted the farm animals, checked out the little store and had a caramel apple. They even had places to take photos near the hay maze. And because it was a rainy day, they had an outdoor fire going. Here are some fun pictures!

Diversity Diner - Take #2

As a reminder, I have two districts at work. So the Diversity Diner that was on October 10th was only for Spokane District. Today was our contest for Columbia. However, I was still feeling a little anxious from the last event so asked not to be a judge for Columbia. I found a sub, but was able to run downstairs for the Spokane portion of the contest. (The other areas were Wenatchee and Moses Lake).

The Spokane area one had samples of Pierogies, Nacho stuffed shells, Spanish Gazpacho and Breakfast Cookies. The breakfast cookies were my personal favorite, but all were delicious. Below is the recipe for the Breakfast Cookies.

BREAKFAST COOKIES
2 eggs
2 cubes of butter (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
1 & 1/2 c. brown sugar
Mix above items in a bowl with an electric beater for a couple minutes.

In another bowl combine the following ingredients.
1 & 1/2 c. wheat flour
1 & 1/4 c. oatmeal (quick oats)
1/3 c. ground wheat germ
1/3 c. wheat bran
1/3 c. flax seed
1 tsp. baking soda

Combine the dry mixture with the liquid mixture. Stir well then add chocolate chips and/or raisins.
Bake 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.

Sesame Chicken

SESAME CHICKEN
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 TB brown sugar
2 TB toasted sesame oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 TB soy sauce
1 TB white vinegar
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 TB flour
1 TB olive oil
2 to 3 TB toasted sesame seeds
Fresh or frozen green beans, steamed
Cooked rice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. in a bowl, whisk together chicken stock, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, garlic cloves, soy sauce and vinegar. Set aside.

Heat a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Toss chicken with salt, pepper and flour. Add olive oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil to skillet, and once hot, add chicken in a single layer. Cook until seared and golden on one side, then flip and cook until golden again, about 2-3 minutes. Pour chicken stock mixture over top and toss to coat. Turn off heat. Place skillet in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and add sesame seeds and steamed beans. Serve over rice.

Jersey Boys

We got a call earlier this week from some friends who had 2 extra tickets to Jersey Boys and were looking to give them away. We took them up on the offer and went on a date night. We started out our evening trying to pick a great place to go to dinner. We were standing in line at Luigi's, but realized the wait to be seated would not allow us to eat and get to the performance in time. As we were leaving we started talking to an older couple. They had driven up from Pullman for him to have a medical appointment and were looking for a place to have dinner. They too thought the wait at Luigi's was long so we started explaining the choices in walking distance. They asked us where we were headed - and we told them we were going to Azteca a Mexican restaurant a block away. They asked if they could "Tag a long" so we walked with them to the restaurant and got to know them a bit. How fun!

After dinner we headed to the INB performing arts center to see the Broadway production of Jersey Boys. We had not heard much about the show before going. It was the story about The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. "This is the story of how four blue-collar kids become one of the greatest successes in pop music history. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were 30." The music was great and the story line interesting, but "oh my" the language! I was amazed at how many times they could say a bad word in one sentence. It is a pity that some producers think adding bad language makes it more believable or real somehow. I certainly did not need the reminder they were blue-collar and from Jersey.

Women's Conference

Safeway has an Eastern Washington Women's Networking group and they sponsored a conference for any female employee to attend. They brought in a motivational speaker who spoke on stress and how to stop trying to do it all. They had a presentation on the educational reimbursement program and two employees who are currently utilizing the program gave their experiences. They provided a light lunch and we were able to spend time visiting. After lunch we heard from our human resource representatives on gender communication. And finally we heard from a financial planner who answered questions ranging from saving for retirement to how much insurance to carry. It was a great event and I was glad to be able to help (a little) on the preparations.

Below is a picture of my friend from Yakima (on the left) who got to attend. Dee has the same job I have but for the Yakima District Manager. Below that is a picture of me with my two district managers. Sorry for the bad quality of pictures - Audrey had to take them off a video as the person who took the pictures and created the video deleted the pictures by accident. So this is better than nothing...