Bacon Tomato Cheese Toasts

Today I made some awesome bacon cheese tomato toast thingies that were practically amazing, and I wanted to share them. I found the recipe on Foodnetwork.com, and I kind of made some changes to make them more to my liking. You should try them. They're kind of a really special version of a BLT.

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato
• salt
• 8 strips bacon
• 4 slices thick bread
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup grated part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tbls dried parsley)
• 1/2 small zucchini, very thinly sliced
• pepper

Preheat the oven to 400. (I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to preheat the oven. I'm really glad when recipes remind me at the BEGINNING of the instructions rather than the END.)

Core the tomato and slice it as thinly as possible. Drain the slices in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Let them hang out in the colander while you do everything else.

Cook the bacon in a pan till they're crispy and reserve the drippings. Use 1 tablespoon of the drippings at a time to toast the bread on one side in the same pan. Put the bread on a baking sheet toast-side down. (The recipe calls for texas toast or really thick sandwich bread, but I didn't have any. So I just used nice wheat bread. I think it would be amazing on some thicker sourdough bread.)

Combine the cheeses, mayo, and parsley (you can also add 5 chopped scallions here, but I didn't). Spread it on the toasts, reserving 1/3 cup. Crumble the bacon on top. Pat the tomatoes dry with a paper towel, and layer them along with the zucchini slices on top. Then put the reserved cheese on top and season with pepper.

Bake 15-20 minutes and eat!

And wow. They are super delicious! Eat them while they're warm.

Lord of Chaos

Finished another book. Really, this series is amazing and I'm totally hooked.


A couple days ago I only had 2 chapters left, but I knew I needed time to sit down and read it all at once so I could focus and not miss anything. The ends of these books generally have some sort of battle or complicated something-or-other going on that needs the reader's full attention. So I put it off--yeah, not sure if that was the best idea. I was supposed to finish it yesterday on my lunch break but ended up having 13 pages left when the clock hit 12:55 and I still wasn't back at work yet.

Seriously, that kind of stuff shatters worlds.

I had to wait all the way until 11:00 to finish, and I was dying the whole day!

But now I'm in the next book and I'm okay again, so don't fret.

1. The Eye of the World
2. The Great Hunt
3. The Dragon Reborn
4. The Shadow Rising
5. The Fires of Heaven
6. Lord of Chaos
7. The Crown of Swords
8. The Path of Daggers
9. Winter's Heart
10. Crossroads of Twilight
11. Knife of Dreams
12. A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm (part 1) (this one comes out in November!)
13. A Memory of Light: Shifting Winds (part 2)
14. A Memory of Light: Tarmon Gai'don (part 3)

Robert Jordan, the author, died a few years ago after finishing the 11th book, and everyone was pretty worried that the series would never get finished. He still had one more book to write to tie everything up. I was oblivious to all of this at the time, of course. But his editor (and wife) got someone to put all his notes together and finish up the last book. It is so much info that they are making 3 entire books out of it. Needless to say, Trevor is freaking out with impatience. I'm excited, but I'm just relishing all that I have left to read. I read Harry Potter waaaaaay too fast and it was over so quickly. I'm taking my time with this one.

Priscilla Ahn

I got to go see Priscilla Ahn last night and it was awesome! Robyn went with me because Trevor is sort of...banned...from going inside the Murray Theater. Um, long story.

It was pretty super hot in there.



It was really awesome to see her personality, and to hear her voice in real life. She was a little sick, but you could barely tell. This was the first concert I've ever been to that I chose to go to all by myself that wasn't choral or a musical or something. I've been to tons of concerts for Trevor, but not one of my own.

Her band was just 2 people for bass and keyboards/glockenspiel and backup vocals here and there. They blended really well :)



She used a lot of instruments! She did guitar, harmonica, ukulele, and kazoo.




She also does a lot of loops--like, she'll record one part and then play it over while singing a harmony on top, and then again with another harmony. It's SO awesome because obviously she can blend with her own voice really well.


We were pretty close--the show wasn't that big, only about 150 people. So our seats were great.

I recorded a few videos. I realized halfway through that I don't have the software to rotate my videos, so they're on their sides... Oh well, it's all about her voice anyways :) Sorry they're shaky; I was trying to watch her and not really paying that much attention to the camera. Can you blame me?

Dream. The loop was broken on this one so she didn't do her cool voice blendy thing. Still really good though.

Wallflower. This is one of my favorite songs of hers.

This one's called Moonbeam, it's a cover. It's so mellow and nice.

This is called the Boob Song and the description before it drops the F bomb and a few other less destructive bombs so don't listen to that part if you don't want to hear. It's a silly song about her fiance's ex-girlfriend. She uses the kazoo.

Um...What I do all day.

So, lots of people ask what I do, and, because I don't really know how to explain in a short sentence what it is I actually do all day, I usually tell them "I'm an administrative assistant at a financial planning firm" (which sounds so boring). But, as I'm sure is the case with MANY administrative assistants, my job is much more than that. I'm actually fairly proud of what our company does, and pretty satisfied with my job. Being the multi-functioning do-everythinger at the office is pretty great compared to a lot of other jobs because I have a pretty good amount of variety and challenge in my work.

I've really wanted my family to know what I do for a long time, and since you all love me enough to read my blog--you can learn about it too :)



The basics: The company I work for is called Velocity Financial. We're called that because we believe in the concept of "velocities of money," or rather, getting more than one use out of your money, to say it in the most concise way possible. We used to be called Velocity Philosophy, but that's just REALLY hard to say. My boss started doing this thing called LEAP a few years back. I'm not even going to try to explain what LEAP is in my own words, so here's what their website says:

"For over 30 years, The LEAP SYSTEM has helped people to achieve happier, wealthier, and more successful financial lives. This is accomplished by focusing on the strategic positioning and flow of your money. Through the use of a proprietary financial "power tool" called the PS&G Model , you will have a more holistic way to analyze your financial situation and develop a very dynamic approach to achieving an effective and efficient financial life for you and your family."

My boss is an agent of The LEAP SYSTEM and helps people be happier because their finances are happier. I'm not the one who teaches our clients financial strategies, so I don't think I'll go into much more than that.

So THEN, a year or so ago, my boss started thinking up this even BETTER process to give our clients an even MORE expanded and complete financial analysis, and created our own unique process called Thrive.

I really enjoyed being a part of the team while we were developing Thrive. I feel like what my employer does is something I can be proud of. Our website says this:

"Each life is individual, with different opportunities, different dreams, different obstacles. But one desire is universal: to know that your life is everything it can be.
This is what it means to Thrive.
It's a process through which you learn how to maximize your growth while minimizing your risk. It's a pattern of effective personal and financial steps that activate all the energy and resources in your life. It's a plan that gains velocity as you see uncertainty turn into confidence.
It's making the most of you.
Thrive. More than just living."

So basically, we take our clients through a financial process, and I'm the one who does a lot of the background work, like preparing handouts, letters, reminder cards, etc. And also, preparing our software scenarios. We use software that allows our clients to see everything about their financial world at once--and how those decisions integrate, and how they can be coordinated to save the most money, and get the most return. In the last year or so, I've been doing a lot of training to get better at the software so our advisors don't have to spend so much time inputting details. Sounds boring, I know. And sometimes it is--but I learn A LOT about finances.

Lately I've been able to incorporate a lot of my interest in creativity--like crafty or visual things. The owner had professionals work on getting the initial design, but I've been able to help with all the little things. I got to design and make up packages to give to clients, as well as help design our agreements and extra handouts. It's been so satisfying seeing everything we've been working on come together in a visually pleasing way that matches and coordinates with everything.



I also do underwriting for life insurance. A part of what we do helps people protect themselves, their families, their business, whatever, with life insurance. I'm licensed to sell insurance, even though I don't, and I'm the one who takes their application and helps get the underwriter what they need to make a decision. There's a lot of paperwork and rules--and I LOVE IT :) I like checklists and systems, and underwriting just fits my fancy.

I get to interact with our clients a lot, and be the one who helps them follow up on all the things they need to do. So I really get to see them succeed at becoming more secure. Over the last two years, I feel like my role at the business has become a pretty important part. So even though there are hard days and may be slow times or my boss might be having a bad day or something, overall, I like what we do for people.

I hope that doesn't sound like a plug for my work :) Really, I just wanted to say a little bit about what I do all day every day. It's weird, I'm at work as much as I'm at home, but I rarely talk about it anywhere but at work. I wonder how many people are like that...