Adrienne tagged me in the 11 questions game… So here are my answers! 

1. If you could bring back one TV show that’s not on anymore, what would it be? Everwood or Gilmore Girls

2. What’s your favorite hair product? Big Sexy Hair Dry Shampoo

3. What’s your number one dream vacation spot that you haven’t been to? England and Belgium! Also France. Okay, I can’t pick just one.

4. What’s your least favorite book you’ve read in the past year? Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs. I actually tossed it in the trash.

5. Describe your perfect Saturday. Breakfast with Tim and Marco at Gillwood’s, uninterrupted reading time after. A walk with Marco so we can look at bugs, Giugni’s sandwiches for a picnic at our favorite park, play time, and then a nice afternoon nap for  everyone! A massage at a nice spa, a good movie with Marco and Tim, and drinks at a fun wine bar with Tim while Marco hangs out with a very nice, lovely, awesome friend willing to babysit?? Ha ha

6. What is one food you really hate? Mayonnaise. DISGUSTING.

7. Show a picture of any room in your dream home.  One of my many kitchen inspirations…

8. Who is your best friend and why? Tim is my best friend; I love our conversations, and when I need help, he’s there to support me. Plus, I like his smell.  

9. Crayons, markers or colored pencils? oil pastels!

10. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? It depends on the situation; I think in general I’m an introvert, but given the right group of people (or enough girly drinks), I think I become more talkative, friendly 

11. How old will you be on your next birthday? 28, a mere slip of a girl…ha ha

I’m leaving this open to anyone who wants to answer my 11 questions…

1. Your favorite author?
2. What’s your go-to meal for dinner parties / get-togethers?
3. Do you wear vintage, or is ‘used’ clothing too ick?
4. What’s your favorite Easter candy?
5. What social media do you use most?
6. Best musical instrument (I can’t decide if I love the steel guitar or violin more)?
7. Musicals: love ‘em or hate ‘em?
8. Showers or baths?
9. Fold your laundry or leave it in a pile until it’s time to wear it?
10. Do you eat breakfast every day?
11.  How often do you wash your hair?

I set myself a goal for the week: to cook dinner every night – not just heating things up, but to actually prepare something each night.

So, how did I do?? Pretty well, I think! (All pictures taken with the iPhone)

SATURDAY

Garbanzo beans, garlic and sundried tomatoes, pureed to create a delicious hummus. served warm with whole wheat pita bread

‘Mexican’ kale chips! Kale that I tossed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of Trader Joe’s taco seasoning mix, then baked. Perfectly crispy yet not too crunchy

SUNDAY

 Three tablespoons of Olivier’s Tandoori Curry sauce with firm tofu that I’d seared in olive oil until it turned golden, served over Trader Joe’s Thai Jasmine rice and Trader Joe’s naan – DELICIOUS!

MONDAY

Mini-frittatas! Modified from a recipe in Food & Wine Magazine – instead of baking in the saute pan like the recipe suggested, I put the egg, garlic, and broccoli mixture into a muffin tin and baked them that way. I don’t eat scrambled/fried/boiled eggs (only baked into cakes and cookies, lol), so this was a Timmy specific meal. He REALLY liked these – I thought there’d be enough for his breakfast, but he ate all of them.

Same night: yogurt pops for dessert! low-fat all organic strawberry yogurt, to which i added sliced strawberries, then poured into popsicle molds and stuck in the freezer. It was a good texture, and super tasty! Marco loved it

TUESDAY

Vegetarian enchiladas, ole! Bell peppers, onions, garlic and mushrooms inside those tasty tortillas. I made Marco a vegetarian refried bean and cheese burrito – after spreading the beans on the tortilla and adding the cheese, I pan seared it for a minute on each side to hold it together and lightly crisp the outside.

WEDNESDAY

Avocado fries – modified from this recipe, which I found on Pinterest. I used whole wheat flour instead of white, and did not sprinkle with parmesan; I sprinkled the panko’d avocados with sea salt prior to placing in the oven. Served with Trader Joe’s Chickenless Mandarin Orange (just like their mandarin orange chicken, but with soy nuggets) and barley rice.

THURSDAY

grilled cheese with white truffle oil – fontina cheese, arugula, caramelized onions and sourdough brushed with white truffle oil. I figured chips would be good, so I made more kale chips, this time with garlic and sea salt.

For Marco’s palate, I had to make concessions, so he had an aged-cheddar panini sans truffle oil.

What should I make tonight!?

P.S. Just because I HAVE to share this, these are the cupcakes I made last week for a company baby shower/bridal shower luncheon in honor of two of our employees (one having a baby and one getting married, duh). It was a Mexican themed potluck, so these were my contributions:

Margarita and Spicy Chocolate cupcakes!

Dark chocolate cake with cayenne pepper, dark chocolate buttercream, chili pepper and spicy chocolate bar for garnish

Jose Cuervo margarita mix cupcake with lime buttercream and a freshly sliced lime

Splendid in my tummy.

I didn’t take a ton of photos on this trip – but here’s a few snaps for posterity.

A quick meal at the airport Gordon Biersch before our flight to Portland – He was so cute and cozy in his jammies! We arrived in Portland around 11 after an annoying delay at SFO, and when we got to Christopher’s house it was after midnight. We headed to bed to get some rest. Marco never sleeps in our room; from our first day home at the hospital he’s been in his own crib. Anyway, we were all sharing a guest room. Marco was in a pack’n'play, but he would wake up and see us as soon as dawn broke (the blinds weren’t so good at blocking early morning light). Ugh!

The first morning was spent having a delicious breakfast at Original Hotcake’s, which had excellent pancakes and french toast. Christopher and I fed quarters into the jukebox and picked a good mix of our favorites to serenade all of us while we ate.

Next up, a musical journey to Music Millenium! It was a beautiful day – sunny and not too chilly.

…aka the best record store I’ve ever been to!

Such a ham, he kept saying “Cheese!” so we’d take his picture!

The cool ceiling inside the record store

I bought a bunch of vinyls here, and was so impressed by how friendly and knowledgeable the staff was. No snobbery, just…I guess I’d call ‘em ‘music appreciators’, or something. Anyway, it was awesome.

Our next stop was Powell’s, or, as I like to call it, Mecca.

I grabbed a delicious cappuccino from the coffee shop inside the book store (I needed a MAP to get around this store! It was so flipping cool!), then walked around with a shopping basket, skipping, bouncing, and otherwise enjoying myself.

Marco was so excited…we spent 45 minutes in the children’s section, reading books (and replacing Marco’s discards, ha ha). Oh, and yes, he did wear his Curious George ‘Book Worm’ tee shirt! Most appropriate.

I was even a super Portland tourist and bought Colin Meloy’s book!

To close out our Portland day, we headed to Voodoo Donuts to enjoy a sugar rush.

OMG soo good!

Back at Christopher’s house, we enjoyed delicious homemade pesto and watched some old Steve Martin movies.

The next day, we got up early (thanks to Marco), and watched episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine. After a quick breakfast, we drove up to Multnomah Falls (in typical Oregon fashion, the weather was cold and rainy). Marco was impressed by the water.

I was impressed by the ginormous cookie purchased at the snack bar…

Well, Marco was interested in that too, lol

We drove all around the falls, and listened to The Decemberists (Christopher became a fan! I did right by you, Portland).

A quick stop to see the view at Vista House

To finish our day, we stopped at Blockbuster and picked up ‘Young Adult’ and ’50/50′ (review of those to come later). Christopher and Debbie made a hodgepodge of snacks for dinner, including homemade hummus and homemade vegetarian refried beans.

Our final morning, we tried to sleep in, but failed. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but it was also nice to come home – and get sleep!

Keep Portland weird, people!

Who’s excited that The Pierces latest album will FINALLY be available stateside (march 26th)?! ME!

Am i right!? So sad, however, that they make it to the US to tour for the first time in 4 years, and it’s with Coldplay – meaning, Coldplay ticket prices, and in a gigantic arena. PHOOEY.

Here’s my latest DIY project - a freshly baked diaper cake!

Last weekend, I attended Adrienne’s baby shower! I’d decided to bring a diaper cake as part of my gift, and even though I’d never made one before, I kind of had an idea from one of my own baby shower gifts, so I hoped I’d be able to duplicate it. To complicate, we couldn’t remember what was used as a base for each layer.

 Tim was pretty sure that it had been held together with hot glue, but I was worried it would ruin the diapers. I decided on rubber bands instead. As the base, I started with the Diaper Genie Elite refills. Tim and I rolled two 40 ct packs of size 1 diapers, and 1 60 count pack of size 1-2 diapers. After each was rolled and rubber banded, we then snapped them together with the bands; one diaper next to the other, using the same band it already had – continuing until we had a ring of diapers to fit around the base.

I snuck some of the goodies they’d registered for into each ring.  The bottom ring actually ended up being three layers wide, the second was two layers, and so forth.

Then, I placed some burp cloths onto each layer to spruce it up a bit

Finally, I added some ribbon and little felt ducks that I’d found at World Market, and the topper was a bath toy that was just too cute not to include!

I forgot to snap a picture, but Tim constructed a cardboard base for me by stapling two layers of cardboard together, and cutting them into a circle, therby creating a ‘platter’ for the ‘cake’. It was perfect! I drove with this in the front seat of my car for two hours, and it didn’t move an inch.

It was easy once we figured out a system, just time consuming; the project took about 3 hours from start to finish. After I’d finished, I realized I should’ve just looked on Pinterest for a complete how-to, but it was fun to devise our own way! It was definitely nice to see the reactions it got from other guests, and especially the beautiful mama!

My delicious and nutritious, super hearty pasta dish. Easy to make, just a little time-consuming.  Serves 6 (or 4 with leftovers for lunch

2 zucchini, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 garlic bulb
3 cups chopped tomatoes
2 cans of artichoke hearts (optional)
2 large chicken breasts, thinly sliced into strips (optional, I made without)
1 box of whole-wheat spaghetti noodles (or fresh noodles)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Shaved Parmegiano Reggiano

First, slice your zucchini, onions, peel your garlic cloves (I used one whole bulb, but this is a LOT), and chop your tomatoes. I used Pearl and Roma tomatoes for this sauce, as they were the only tomatoes that looked good.  Timesaver:  you can use two cans of unsalted canned tomatoes; especially helpful if you don’t live in an area that has easy access to fresh tomatoes year-round. 

Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a heavy pan over medium heat, and saute your onions and garlic together, just until they start to become transluscent.  Remove from the pan, and place into a bowl for use later on. Do not rinse the pan, but add 1 tablespoon of EVOO.

If you’d like to add some meat to this dish, this is when I would add the chicken to the pan, cooking just until no longer pink in the center. 

Toss the zucchini into the pan over medium heat, and saute just until starting to turn golden. Remove, and place in the same bowl as the onions and garlic.

Now, add a smidge more EVOO, and place your tomatoes in the pan. Cover and stew over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes.

Then, add the zucchini, onions, garlic, and now is a good time to add artichoke hearts, if you decided against the chicken.

Stir occasionally, and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes.

While this is simmering, go ahead and start the water boiling in a large pot for your noodles. Salt the water well. When boiling, add your noodles and cook until you’ve reached the desired level of tenderness.  Strain the noodles, and toss the noodles into the pan of sauce. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Sprinkle with shaved parmegiano, serve and enjoy!

Umm, also, last night I made butter!! Seriously…look:

Yep. I MADE BUTTER, which basically makes me a cooking ninja. Not really, it is flipping easy, but go with me on this. 

I made my own butter and I cannot wait to smear it on some croissants for breakfast! Also, am going to make honey butter and cheddar biscuits.

This is kind of a weird music rant. Stick around if you’ve got some thoughts to share. I have a tendency to ramble; try to overlook

A few weeks ago, I was shown the clip of Lana Del Rey’s truly terrible performance on SNL. What the heck was that!? I know that she supposedly has stage fright, but…wow. Pretty bad.

I’d heard from a few people whose musical opinions I respect, that I shouldn’t decide based on this poor performance. I gave Lana a fair shake, and tried the recorded version instead. I thought Hmmm…not so bad. Actually, I kind of like it. Okay – so I do like the song.

In the interest of musical experiments and fairness, I gave the entire album a listen. Mehhhh.  ’Born to Die’ and ‘Diet Mountain Dew’ are ok tracks, along with the aforementioned ‘Video Games’.  She doesn’t sing well in the low, throaty, speak-sing voice she’s trying to use to appear sexy. When she’s actually singing in her natural voice, it’s not bad, but it isn’t exciting. Tim and I have agreed that if someone else were to sing these songs, they’d be really good; with Lizzie/Lana behind them, nothing really hits you hard enough to evoke a pure response. So…I guess I would say that there’s great song-writing and producing talent evident, but she might want to pass these off to someone else. I don’t need a perfect voice (I like a bit of grit sometimes), but here it’s like all the moaning is supposed to mean something…but it doesn’t.  It’s just not thrilling. I don’t hate it.

Live performances are a big part of the music experience, at least for me, so I know that I would never spend money a ticket to see her perform; it still says something when you can’t sing in front of your fans. The good news is, with time and practice, she’ll probably get the hang of it.

A friend and I got into a discussion about Ms Lana aka Lizzie Grant before I’d heard the music – and at the end of it, I felt like I’d mostly been a girl. By that I mean that maybe I was treating her like a bitchy girl would treat a ‘rival’; in a different way than I’d discuss a male musician. Look, it’s not to say that I would’ve been a huge David Bowie fan back in the 70s, and he did basically the same thing, performing as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, in order to create a different sound. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not compairing the two musically. I like David Bowie now, but back then, it might not have really worked for me. I guess I just feel like I might not have said the same thing if we were talking about him.

Does my inital dislike really all come down to how I feel about women in general? How much of a feminist can I be if I dismissed a female artist for doing what is, in actuality, the same thing I admire in a male musician? But then…I get to thinking even MORE about it. Why does all of it bother me? If I REALLY step back and take a look, isn’t EVERY very successful musician’s persona a part of their mystique? Bob Dylan has created himself as so many different characters in his career that they made a movie about it. It’s a fool’s game to try and decipher which musicians are ‘real’ and which aren’t. Every artist has started as one sound and ended as another – it’s part of the evolution of music, a critical step in the careers of every intelligent artist.

I might be over-thinking it (I usually do), but this seemingly simple subject turned my thoughts to something more serious. Weird how that happens.

What’s funny is, I am fully aware that by writing this post, and subsequently publishing it on my blog, I am adding to the hype I’m trying to avoid. I’ve somehow become a part of a mass-media objective to propel her into the stars, even with my very small readership; I’ve contributed to the words written about her. In the end, her album has done what it was seemingly meant to do, which is to get people talking. Mission accomplished.

You’ve probably seen these floating around – so flipping hilarious. Nothing like a good YouTube video to bring a smile to a rough couple of weeks.

Sh*t Fashion Girls Say – Part One

Sh*t Fashion Gilrs Say – Part Two

Lately, I’ve been a bit of a mad scientist in the kitchen (working on new recipes, messing with old ones, and sometimes making things up on the fly).  Here’s a few tidbits to nibble on (heh heh)

A special chicken pasta dish that was such a huge hit I will be posting the recipe here soon (as well as whipping up a vegetarian version so that I can eat it!):

Rice balls – based on the recipe from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious, but with slight modifications. Instead of just brown rice, I used a mixture of brown, red, and barley; the recipe also calls for chicken or turkey, which I left out, and I used crushed whole wheat garlic croutons instead of wheat breadcrumbs.

SO FLIPPING GOOD. Basically arancini, but healthier. It contains sweet potato and broccoli purees, which give an awesome flavor to the cheese.

For Valentine’s Day, I made Rice Krispy treats dipped in vanilla candy coating for my coworkers; I used food coloring to make it pink. Then I shook some candy sprinkles to make them cute. They disappeared very quickly from the break room!

I made the Rice Krispy treats with a jar Marshmallow Creme, instead of regular marshmallows, as there is no gelatin included (making it vegetarian-friendly). The texture of the bars was perfect, and even the next day were perfectly chewy. I also recently found a recipe on Pinterest for homemade marshmallow fluff, which I can’t wait to try!

I had plenty of candy dip left over, so I dipped a basket full of strawberries for Tim. We had these as our special Valentine’s dessert

We’d been hoarding a block of Bellavitano Espresso cheese, and I finally experimented with it by making a quick panini. Baguette with genovese pesto, Robusto gouda and the Bellavitano, grilled. OMG DELICIOUS. Also had mixed greens tossed with gorgonzola, tomatoes, garlic EVOO and my favorite Olivier barrel aged Balsamic Vinegar.

At the end of December, I read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I didn’t love this story. The main character, Madeleine, was self-absorbed, over-privileged and uninspiring. Eugenides, usually so brilliant in exposing a character’s layers over time, failed to peel back enough to make me care about her.

I can’t remember all of the thoughts I had on this novel, so I may have to come back to this one later.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I’ve read a great deal of Margaret Atwood, and those of you that have read The Robber Bride or Cats Eye can understand my devotion to her stories. The female characters are written with a hundred facets, never fully understood but complete in their humanity. You can recognize something in them; even the most vile of characters contain something you’ve seen in the mirror.

I would not go into this novel expecting a solution to the core mystery (it is based on true events; a wealthy man and his housekeeper were murdered, possibly by the maid and her supposed lover, the stable boy). I am sure that Atwood has her own opinion of what happened, but she takes care not to share that with the reader. The story is told in flashback partially by the maid, Grace Marks (convicted of the murder), whilst she is in a psychiatric prison; the second narrator is a psychiatrist, Simon Jordan, who has become interested in the case and conducts exploratory interviews with Grace.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone that wishes to read this; but I felt it was a little too pat. I wanted a definitive explanation for the events, and instead you are left to determine for yourself – which can work for some stories;  I didn’t think it worked here. Viewed alone as Grace’s version of the story, supplied by her own truths and fictions, it is an interesting character study. Leave it at that and you can enjoy it.

After these, I zipped through three or four Agatha Christie Poirot novels (for the 100th time, LOL).  Then, I was ready for a new read, so I started The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse edited by Jack Zipes

 I’ve read Siddartha about 20 times; it is one of my favorite novels. This collection features 22 of his most fantastical concoctions, all told with the same simple yet romantic prose.  The translation wasn’t perfect – I am willing to bet that some of the magic was lost (yet another reason to learn German!). But, the stories are interesting and some are thought-provoking; ‘If the War Continues’ and ‘Strange News from another Planet’ are especially relevant for today’s political and social climate.

From fairy tales to a novel about storytellers seemed a natural enough transistion, so now I’m reading The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine . So far…very good.