Ladies to remember

The beauty of Red Butte, Salt Lake City

As we crank into November, it dawns on me that I did two major bucket-listy things this year. I drove cross-country (ok, just 50% of the way, but all new territory), and I went on a multi-city European vacation. Go me!

On travel I try not to pick up physical keepsakes. One or two small, beautiful/practical/unique things is understandable. But if I don't stumble on them naturally, or if I don't pull the trigger when in range, no biggie. I hardly kick myself for this minimalism very long.

What I know I'll always have are a few amateur pictures. Pictures that I'm so excited to capture, even though I know they have little chance of being framed. I'm really photographing a future memory jog. Oh yeah, I was there! That was beautiful!

This blog post will serve to jog a couple memories, but what about the rest?

Saying goodbye to Copenhagen

I believe the concept I'm grasping at is scrapbooking. Or scrapblogging rather.

I'm afraid the excuses I will use to not scrapbook will be plentiful.

Crème brûlée acquired

Ever since I saw Amélie and her passion for cracking the top of crème brûlée with a teaspoon some ten odd years ago, I knew I had a new food for my bucket list. Sure bucket lists are supposed to be for BIG things, but orgasmic vanilla custards are big things. This was an odd compulsion for me, as I'm known more for my salt tooth than sweet tooth. But the promise of texture, the allure of the single serving, and my firm stance that vanilla conquers chocolate only in the realm of pudding, all pointed to this being a dessert worthy of fixation.

Fast forward to last Thursday and not one but TWO bucket items were crossed off my list - I attended a culture-filled book reading/signing and then ate this divine dessert. Truth be told I may have eaten crème brûlée once before at a wedding, but wedding desserts don't count and the recollection is so faint I can't be sure it even happened. I was probably high on white zin at the time. Pure class.

So back to last Thursday, I was that geek at a restaurant taking a picture of her food. My first instinct was to say, why isn't this in a round dish? And then I cracked it. And now I need to go buy a blow torch.

Oval heaven