Highlights over the past few days

-delicious berries
-endive salad with radishes
-asparagus
-fancy coffee this morning
-inadvertently matching my sweater to my plaid shirt
-lots of dog walks
-cold crisp windy weather that reminds me of Maine
-rosy wind burned cheeks that make me feel so alive
-cat cuddles
-dinner cooked by my Bunny
-a recipe for red velvet black and white cookies I cannot wait to try this weekend
-some wine and baileys for this weekend
-happy coffee with a dear friend ("happy" meaning it has alcohol in it)
-planning for New York trip
-not buying anything selfish (I don't do that a lot anyway, but my Love and I had a long talk tonight about money and our finances. While he wants me to treat myself more than I do, we are both focusing on the bigger picture and the most important things. When it comes down to it I'd rather have a vacation with my Love every couple of weeks or months than a new shirt or lipstick once a week.)
-an unexpectedly awesome radio station discovery
-detox tea
-cuddling

Trying not to fall asleep

But it's not totally working. Might go take a walk in the bracing winter air to freshen me up. Must. Not. Succumb.

Last weekend in February

This weekend was so relaxing and wonderful. The highlight (other than simply being together, aww) was going to a drag show. Yes, that's right. I feel like I've finally become a true Mississippian in that I like trying new things, being outside enjoying the weather, and watching car races. It was really rather exciting. We were so close that sometimes you could feel the cars as they drove by! They were so rumbly and fast! We drank beer (on a Sunday no less!) and ate ribs and fried catfish and just had a heck of a time. I cannot wait to go back!

Vroom vroom!

One is my coffee and one is my tea (I couldn't decide which I wanted most, so I went with both).

These pancakes I made twice. I was craving pancakes in the worst way and managed to make glorious ones on Saturday morning. They were the best I had ever made and even my Love agreed. But, it turns out, all was not well that morning. Our syrup had turned. How that happens, I do not know. It was special imported Vermont Grade B maple syrup (um, the good stuff that is impossible to find here and that is my most favorite and the most delicious!) given to us by a friend who lives in Vermont and taps his own trees. And it was spoilt. We didn't realize it, we poured it all over our pancakes, and then our pancakes were spoilt as well. It was so very sad. I had made green eggs (eggs, onions and spinach scrambled together) to go along with the pancakes so we just ate those while inside I cried. After a refreshing nap I went to the grocery store to get, well, groceries. Sunday morning I made those dang pancakes again (and honestly, I worked out all the kinks and these were even better than the first round) and we feasted! They were crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. I had heated up some frozen mixed berries with a bit of lemon juice and brown sugar, and added a wee slurry of cornstarch to thicken it up, and we ate those and other fruits along with our dang two day pancakes. Worth it. They were worth it. But folks, check your syrup.

This is just a picture of some blooms I saw while walking the dog. So gorgeous right!?! It's almost spring here! Yay!

Friday!

No plans whatsoever this weekend and that is great news! I want to sleep in, drink lots of coffee, walk all over the place, maybe splurge on a meal out or a dress, drink wine, and talk and laugh with the Love of my life.

Tonight I will be cleaning out the fridge and making a spinach and assorted vegetable frittata with roasted cabbage and Parmesan toast. Or perhaps making eggs Florentine sandwiches. Who knows. All I know is we have a new bottle of wine to try and we get to spend the evening together, so it's going to be great.

In other (completely unrelated) news, I looked through the vince new arrivals this week and I wasn't tempted. Which is a really good thing. Because vince is sorta my weakness. I still want these pants though:

These are the cropped leather leggings available at vince.com and fine retailers everywhere. Aren't they pretty much the single greatest pant you've ever seen? I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing the cut of Vince pants are and how flattering the cropped leg is. Seriously. I have a suede jacket of theirs that is the thinnest and most beautifully cut jacket I own so I imagine these pants are like butter. They will probably make-out hardcore with my legs and I would love every second of it. I will need to save my pennies for a while years to afford them. But man will I then wear them with ever. y. thing. Which I'd sort of have to to justify buying them. Black leather pants in the Mississippi summer? Why yes of course. Your point? Cost per wear man, cost per wear.

Thankful

Sometimes (especially lately) I get too bogged down in, for lack of a better phrase, the negativity. It seems like there's so much in this world that wants to break your heart, crush your spirit, squash your good ideas, etc. Today I'm being gentle with myself and reminding myself with a little visual list of how much good there is in the world, and especially in my little corner of it. I shouldn't need a list, but sometimes it helps me to have a concrete thing I can read, touch, or taste.

my husband, for now and forever

all the animals, furry goobers

crocuses and daffodils coming up everywhere

a sunny day

the little lettuce plant growing in the sidewalk crack where I work, it makes me smile every day

my family

the girls trip to New York in April

lunch with a friend

the female cardinal outside the window this morning

a cup of sweet tea with cream

getting dressed up tomorrow night to celebrate my husband and his business partner

bright pink lipstick

that my parents are in Disneyland right now

my beloved and talented Brother Unit

the godiva chocolate I had last week

sleeping in an extra five minutes this morning (and, ok, well, most mornings)

a great pen with a super fine tip

soy lattes

a glass of wine

fresh sheets

how my Love is psychic and understands me better than I understand myself

balloons

the pretty red roses on the counter right now

baking cookies and wrapping them up with sunshine yellow tissue-paper to give to friends

helping others

when the animals sleep together with paws or noses or backs touching, it makes my heart melt

tomato season at the farmers market

smiling

having a job with insurance and vacation and sick days

photobooths

that the trees will soon be in bloom for spring

the weekend coming up in a few short days

yoga

possibilities

soft oversized sweaters

seeing the ballet next month

getting to explore Savannah a bit on a work trip next month (April is, apparently, a big month for me?)

a modest life lived richly

a detox tea I just ordered that my friend swears will give me the best glow ever (and tastes delicious!)

bakeries

my freshly painted nails

saving money for a treat

long dinners with dear friends

the fancy coffee I am going to splurge on tomorrow morning

bright red ballet flats

that my Dearheart did our taxes last night (and we get money back MAYBE for the first time EVER!)

that I don't work at the restaurant anymore

that I have the power to change my future and my current state

I am happy

I am healthy

I am present today

and I am loved.



16-17

We cooked up a big pot of spicy sausage and lentil soup for dinner on Friday night. It was exactly what we didn't know we needed. On Saturday a dear friend came over and (after sleeping in and walking the dog) we proceeded to get our cook on. We gathered wine and groceries and set to work prepping and cooking everything for bi bim bap, Japanese roll cake, and panna cotta.

The Japanese roll cake she had brought over before and my Love and I both flipped for it. He is not a big sweets eater but had two helpings. He also requested it for his birthday cake. (Sadly, that did not happen. Next year!) Those are two huge compliments and I knew I needed to get that recipe! Our friend did better than just the recipe, she came over and made it with me. This time we opted for a coconut rum and blueberry spiked whipped cream filling instead of strawberries. It came out beautifully and I cannot wait to experiment with fillings and cake flavors. With the dinner of bi bim bap we made a super simple salad of endive with a dollop of goat cheese and julienned cucumber on top, drizzled with a peanut sesame dressing she whipped up before she came. It was perfect. And will be made again and again in our house. We topped the bi bim bap with carrot, bell pepper, chopped up endive, spinach, zucchini, marinated pork, and an egg. The extra glutinous rice was cooked in a donabe borrowed for the occasion, and it was really perfect.

The only semi-fail was the panna cotta. It set-ish. Not as firm as we wanted or expected. It strangely acted like a liquid but didn't roll off of the spoon. The flavor was fabulous, but it just wasn't firm like we had wanted.

Sunday my Love made a seafood lasagna to take to our friends house. Obviously, he killed it.

The cake being assembled.

A busy happy counter.

Bi bim bap. (seaweed added after this picture taken.)

Zee beautiful table.

Nom.

Mixed in all good.

cake!

Messed up

A bunch of posts made it up last night. My mobile blogger app has been on the fritz and as a result, when it was fixed, everything was thrown up all at once. Apologies.

Happy VD

Godiva strawberry truffle (thanks awesome work person who sent these!) and an iced soy latte made me feel super Valentines-y and happy this afternoon.

Side note: I work in nutrition (in a rather removed way, and I do not possess a dietetics degree or have any previous experience in nutrition) and it is HILARIOUS to me the amount of totally awesome junk food we get sent! I've never worked in a place with such unhealthy (but delicious! And my favorite!) snacks. This is the third time we have gotten Godivas sent to work, and countless other times we have gotten mini brownies, cookies, exotic candies, etc. I am not complaining, it just makes me laugh every single time it happens.

Weekend kickoff

Involving homemade chicken liver pate, Godiva chocolates, and red wine. Just some little nibbles while I get dinner ready. Although if it were just me I'd probably opt to make a meal out of only those things. (And in fact....I have).

Un PC VD

So wildly inappropriate.

Valentines Day

We're not super cheesy in our house. Actually. One of us is not super cheesy (hint: it's not me) so Valentines Day is always a low-key affair. I cannot lie, I adore V Day. I just do. Have since I was a kid. As someone who loves the colors red and pink and white, crafts, candy, flowers, stuffed animals, and hearts, it was sort of a holiday made for me. (In my head I sort of think of it as Lulu's Day. Not that it's all about me, far from it, but just that it means the world gets to enjoy everything that I think is so fun. If it were really Lulu's Day there would also be prosecco, cheese, puppies, kittens, and naps. Which, if you think about it, a good Valentine's Day really should have a few of those things in it anwyay.)

Anyhoo. Every year I get super pumped because I just love it. Even when I was single, it was a special day. This year I was the most low-key ever. We were cooking dinner for friends and I had gotten a few cards for my Love that were around the house. In the morning I went and bought him a fancy coffee drink. Thoughtful, inexpensive, and appropriate.

Little did I know but it was game set and fucking MATCH for my Love. He killed it. Killed it deaaaad. Behold his shenanigans:




Not pictured is a GORGEOUS bouquet of roses and a delicious seafood lasagna, chicken liver pate (my favorite!) bruschetta, arugula salad, and sauteed radishes. It was insane.

I helped out by creating themed drinks. Some prosecco, a splash of pom juice to give it some color (I prefer prosecco over rose, but you could totally just use rose) and a wee strawberry heart. DONE!

Came home

To this yumminess courtesy of the most thought Love ever! White asparagus with butter, sea salt, lemon zest, and parm.

Best. Snack. EVER!

Pizza

Last night I fought exhaustion and made a sweet potato and broccoli rabe pizza with a cauliflower crust. I have many friends with gluten intolerance and thought I'd test this recipe out for when they visit. It was really tasty, but I think that's more to my mad kitchen cooking skillz than anything else. For some reason I feel cauliflower always needs some spice, so I always throw in a chili garlic mix. I also upped the garlic way more in the crust and added more salt than they called for and omitted many of the herbs because it seemed like too much (tablespoons of oregano, thyme, sage, that's a lot of herb!) and added more varieties of cheese. Instead of fontina I used Parmesan, extra sharp cheddar, and goat cheese. In the end we really enjoyed it but I feel as though we could have simply cooked all the vegetables as sides, made a badass veggie plate, and had the same flavors in about a third of the time. So there you go. Also? No picture because I was using a gigantic pan and burned myself and dropped the pizza (relatively unscathed) to the floor. It then looked like throw up but did taste really good!

Busy

Conference at work and research all weekend. Wishing for some marzipan candy and a latte tomorrow, will settle for Irish breakfast tea since no coffee shop is open before I get to work. Busy week!

Pic is of extreme dog cuddling Sunday morning. That pooch does not mess around.

2/6/2013

Today was super busy at work, lots o meetings and paperwork, which I quite like as being busy makes the time fly. In the afternoon I met up with one of my dearest friends who was in town for a mere twenty hours to hear her favorite author read. She brought her boyfriend (so gentlemanly and charming and lovely!) we met up for a quick coffee at the local bookstore. It was one of the best iced lattes of my life! Naturally it was most likely the company enhancing the flavor, but it was a dang good coffee.

Tomorrow is already Thursday. Huzzah!

so perfect

This photo from the sartorialist.com is pretty much my dream outfit. Junya Watanabe, you killed it. The striped socks, the loose-legged pants that show off some ankle, the oversized but perfectly fitted through the shoulders coat. Yes. Yes please.

The Final Birthday Weekend

This past weekend finished up the month o'birthdays we have in our family. We had hibachi and ice cream cake and made it a weekend of good food and lots of family time. My Father Unit surprised my Mother Unit (it was her birthday weekend) with a gift that was unexpectedly one for the whole family. My Mother is amazing and perfect and delightful (as most mothers tend to be, but I'm biased and think mine is a particularly superior specimen) and loves nothing more than when the whole family is together. Knowing this my Father Unit bought us ALL tickets to go see/hear Elton John in concert! Wooo!!!!! I know it's not cool but I. LOVE. Elton. John. Pretty sure my love is genetic as my Mother does as well. So in March we will all be going to hear EJ in honor of my Mothers birth.

Saturday I took the pup on a long long walk and returned home to start cooking. Friend N came by to celebrate a day of baking. She had a few things she wanted to make for a Superbowl party and I had a few recipes I had been wanting to try out, so we decided to cook together as there's nothing more fun than that. I greeted her with a piping hot cup of doctored coffee (mmmmm frangelico) since she had just gotten off of work AND braved the grocery store. After fortifying ourselves we set to work baking cupcakes, a gluten free peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. We are both big huge gluten fans, but I found this recipe and thought it looked so good I had to try it. Also many dear friends have issues with gluten, so it's nice to have something delicious and indulgent and quick in the repertoire for when they come over. We moved on from happy coffee to modified Stokes 75's. To make frozen stemless martini glass, good gin, one ice cube, fresh lemon juice, splash of st. germaine, fill up to the top with something sparkly---we used a vino verde because that was what we had on hand, and zest a little lemon on top. Voila. Alcoholic but deeeelightful! At which point my Love came home and started working on dinner! I had started some french onion soup before N came over and we planned on having that with a nicoise salad. However, after my Love poached the cod in an insane lemon, garlic, tomato, caper, sauce of love, we decided it might be better over pasta. So we had a nicoise inspired pasta with cod and lots of olives, capers, egg, cheese, and tomatoes. It was absolutely perfect. The perfect end to a sweet and delicious day.

Sunday my Love headed out of town for business and I enjoyed an afternoon yoga class and another long walk with the dog. After picking up supplies I headed to my parents house to cook dinner for the family. Originally we were going to make cuban sandwiches, rice, beans, a mixed salad, and plantains. By "we" I really meant "my husband" and since he was out of town I decided not to risk ruining a perfectly good pork loin. I am both intimidated by meat, and overwhelmed with the idea of cooking it. It is usually overdone and terrible. When my husband is in Alaska in the summers for his work I rarely have meat in the house and in fact inadvertently stick to a mostly vegetarian diet. (Hummus is my chicken. I eat it almost every night.) So, anyway, no pork is what I am getting at. Instead I made a beef and broccoli rape stir fry I've made before and it turned out perfectly. For dessert we had insanely delicious ice cream cake that made me feel like I was six. It was awesome. Additionally, to cement my "I am occasionally a good daughter" status, I made my parents a pot of french onion too. It's their favorite and I had talked about it before but we either ate the leftovers before we could share, or we didn't make enough to save. So I made dinner for later in the week for them. Since I'd perfected it the day before, it turned out really well.

This week I want to make some soup (perhaps not french onion, but then again if it ain't broke why fix it?) splurge on a fancy coffee, walk the dog as much as possible, and start planning a vegetable garden with my Love.

Next week we are starting our wine club. The wine club is me, my boo, and our friend N. We will be having Bi Bim Bap night (N's recipe is stellar I've heard. And she is obsessed with Korean food and has been there, so she is super legit in our book.) and drinking some insanely delicious and expensive wine. My theory is to recognize good wine you have to have experienced it. So, we are starting a super geeky club (notebooks involved, as are non-ironic ---because they are necessary for sight---glasses) wherein we taste two really nice bottles of wine every two weeks or so and enjoy them with fine food and scintillating conversations (the ONLY kind of conversation we know how to have.) I just need to work on getting over my aversion to spending more than $15 on a bottle of wine.  .  .  .

Delicious additions to the pasta.

Cod poaching away in happy sauce.

The stack of deliciousness. Pasta, cod, tomato goodness, eggs, olives, oh my.

Happy table!

 

The handsomest Brother Unit carrying the ice cream cake he hunted down and purchased because he is the SWEETEST and BEST brother in the WORLD!

Amen

The week is almost over. Hooray and yay and yippee.

Thank you someecards for summing up my evening.