David and I both love to cook and we adore having a kitchen where we can comfortably cook together now. The problem is we sometimes get stuck in the rut of cooking the same dishes over and over again. In an attempt to switch things up, we decided to very simply make a Monday-Saturday loose menu so we can start planning meals a little earlier. Here's the breakdown:
Mondays are going to be vegan/raw. Tonight I am making raw zucchini pasta with walnut pesto.
Tuesdays are going to be a mix of what's seasonal, combined with American dishes.
Wednesdays we are going to experiment with making a different ethnic dish each week. Last week David made Indian food and I'm so happy we're starting to attempt more exotic ethnic dishes at home, rather than just go out for dinner. Thursdays we will incorporate seafood. When we moved to Oregon I began eating seafood again since it so regional and fresh. Friday is our homemade pizza night. David's gotten really good at making dough and we love making different varieties of pizzas. Last friday he made a WONDERFUL mexican pizza with blackbeans, tomatoes and lots of yummy cilantro. Saturdays are going to be our special dinner nights. David will be splurging on some sort of meat and I'll either be having some sort of yummy substitute: seitan, tempeh, or maybe even seafood. Sundays we will either be using up leftovers from the week, or maybe making one of my big pots of homemade soup. I love making a big pot of cabbage soup, spanish garlic soup, or potato soup and having leftovers for the week. I am really excited to structure our meals more. I think it will be so much easier to plan now at the farmers markets and grocery stores, AND it will be a good way for us to add more variety. How do you like to plan your weeks meals?
If you are in the market for a pet and happen to live in the Portland, Oregon area, I cannot stress enough how wonderful PixieProject.org is! They a non-profit, no-kill facility, that offers a really fresh approach to pet adoption. They were warm and friendly and super helpful and made sure we went home with the right animal for us. We are so very happy to a pet again.
This is Miss Gypsy Rosalee Sloan. She's a 1.5yr old cat. She was a young momma. She was brought into the shelter and then had three babies... they were all adopted quickly but she wasn't. When we went in we immediately fell in love with her, she's little and pretty and quiet and has such a sweet disposition. She likes her belly rubbed and being held. What a wonderful little cat. So happy with our choice and for Pixie Project being so great!
Made wonderful yam, white bean and cilantro salad and quinoa burgers topped with olives, pickles and blue cheese. FANTASTIC! Happy Friday. What's your favorite Friday night meal?
i love new york... but lots of the same things i love love love about new york... i don't love so much. i love the people and the size and the culture and the craziness and the neighborhoods, and and and....
i don't love not being able to get to see those people and places and things as easily as i wish i could. you know what i mean? like sometimes it takes hours to get from one neighborhood to another and a train could be down or a bus just decides to stop or it's freakishly hot and the concrete emanates more heat and then you just want to lie in your bathtub in cold water.... but you probably don't have a bathtub because your bathrooms too small for a bathtub and then if you do have a bathtub you share it with four roommates...
sound familiar?
i do miss things about new york... especially friends and culture. but most days it still feels a little 'meh to me. i'm happy to be in portland but mannnn do i wanna meet some more folks and man do i hope there is more culture than what i see so far.
anyways, it's pretty lovely to be here with my best friend and husband in a rad apartment that we love... where i can take a bath if i want.
I made this lovely vegetarian lasagna this weekend for a little birthday gathering... It's a little bit of a process to make, but boy does it take splendid! Check it out when you can. You won't be disappointed.
Playing catch up this week after a whirlwind 72 hours in Vegas... A few things: 1). 72 hours in Vegas seems to be PLENTY of Vegas time..... though I would have liked to get even more sun on this pasty body of mine. 2). Turning 30 was pretty OK. We had fun, but for some reason the 30 reality was a big horse pill for this lady to swallow. After examining photos from the trip I am convinced new crows feet popped up overnight. SERIOUSLY...
But it was good. Won a little money, had some drinks, explored with my hubby and generally enjoyed seeing some (HOT) sun!
I'll write a full wrap up this week, including recommendations for where to check out!
Getting ready to head out of Portland and off to Vegas for my birthday weekend. While I'm sad that I won't get to share my birthday with friends, I am excited to be heading for sunshine! We are doing the trip on a mega budget... but nothing could make me happier right now than a pool and a cocktail!
I would say if there was one major aspect of the way my life was shaped in my 20's, it would be music. It was what I did, where I went, what I gobbled up in magazines and the internet and radio. I worked at the radio station, booked bands, went to concert after concert after concert.... it was my life style. It made the great times greater and the bad times tolerable.
Below are a list of the bands that really shaped both me and my taste, in well... everything.
Radiohead - a constant in my life... since probably 1995... Stop Whispering (93) is still in my top 10 songs of all time. There was a time when I was sitting at my desk job in Ada, Mi and I'd request Stop Whispering on an almost daily basis, to the KEXP - John in the Morning show in Seattle, WA. That was in 2003/2004. It made everything good. Sleater-Kinney - they made every girl feel like she could be a bad-ass rockstar. They still make me feel that way. Now, if only I could play an instrument...or sing.... Iron & Wine - Sam Beam has the voice of an angel. Or at least, that's what I want my angels to sound like. I remember my first Iron & Wine concert... it makes you just want to hold hands with whoevers next to you, then maybe after the show you can go look at stars in the back of a pickup truck or something... I wish I had more Iron & Wine in my life when I was a teenager and less Metallica... but that's a whole other story. Jenny Lewis - I feel like Jenny Lewis is the girl/woman every girl/woman wants to be. She's lovely and has great style and she's a kick ass songwriter and can wear sequined get-ups and still look hot. We can't all pull off the sequins, thank you very much. Interpol, my transition music.... almost every heartbreak included these fellas, I drowned in them. Antony & the Johnsons... ... this was my Brooklyn soundtrack... all the time, over and over and over and over. it kills me. Throw on some of this stuff, crank the heat, fry some polish food and I feel like I'm home.
And then comes Sigur Ros... Sigur Ros touches my very soul, I swear they do. Their concerts are a religious experience. I have never in my life had a band that can bring me to tears like them... and it's in a good way. It's haunting almost. The first time I saw them live was a life changing experience.... How many things can you say that about? Maybe it's the fact that I have no idea what they are saying, maybe it's because they just know exactly what crushes me... but they do it... When I am overstressed or just having a terrible day, they are my calming potion. No anti-anxiety meds needed... just give me some of them.
Another Game Changer: Elliott Smith
some of the most lovely and sad and wonderful songs. ever.
The New Year - delish, just delish
and last but not least... Conor Oberst, Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk... and well, every other entity he's preformed in... Yes Yes Yes... I know, I'm sure you've made fun of me, but well I cannot help myself. I've seen him play in probably 10 states. I think he's one of the very very best song writers of my generation and I don't take that comment lightly. His lyrics have spoken to me like nothing else. Maybe it's just my love for skinny, dirty, indie rockerish boys... but since 2000 his music has been such a big part of my life... I would be lying if I didn't say I had secretly hoped when I moved to New York I would be bump into him in the East Village and we'd become fast friends... All I know is that to date, my favorite concert ever was him in Pittsburgh. It probably 2003 and we were at a tiny club and there were only about 50 of us there. Jim James and M. Ward opened for him. They all played the show together and had just started touring together and it was magical. M.Ward is still one of the most amazing guitar players I've ever seen. I was in the front row and the whole show was a little.... hmmm... DIY. Things kept breaking and going wrong, but they all rolled with it... and it was heaven.
Conor used to get such a bad wrap... back in the day he had terrible stage fright, so he'd usually drink way to much, til he was comfortable on stage and then he'd wreck the show... I thought it was charming. Regardless... charming or no, his song writing is masterful. I won't take it back no matter how much fun is poked...
I feel like after reading all this, you probably think I am some sad and lonesome person. Please don't get me wrong, I love love love poppy fun dance music too... these were just the bands that, if I had to give away all my music and keep a handful, these are it.. They changed the way I look at music. That's all.
All over the web i've seen the lists. You know the ones. The 30 before your 30 lists. I contemplated doing one myself. Then poof, here we are. I'm 6 days away. 6 days from being 30. What did I want to accomplish? Is it enough? Should I run like hell this week and try to fit everything in?
Some folks are telling me that your 30's are ideal. Most of those people are 30. Don't get me wrong, I think they hold a lot of promise, it's just WOW.... how quickly we made it here. Wasn't it last week that I had permed bangs and tight-rolled jeans? Wasn't it yesterday that we packed my parents van and headed to NYC in the sweltering August heat, so that I could move into a Brooklyn roach infested apartment that smelled like perogies? Wasn't it just today that I walked down the streets of Portland, wondering how these people got to be so hip? (wait ok it was).
The point is, it's here. So to embrace the change, I've started a new space. To write, to vent, to self-medicate. I will pour myself another cup of coffee and focus on a few things today. Decide how to spend my last week in my 20's.
In the mean time, here' my very random: LIFE BEFORE THIRTY LIST: survived a childhood in a town of 500, made amazing-life-long-friends, perfected a rhubarb pie, lived in Germany, milked a cow, visited Paris, dyed my hair pink, sold my art to someone I don't know, adopted a dog, married my best friend, played in the Costa Rican rain, ate fried green tomatoes, drove across the country in a van that shouldn't have made it, started my life over in multiple states, won first prize in a costume contest, celebrated multiple birthdays on a boat, had a first date at an art museum, listened to an Orchestra play outside of La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, hit the jackpot in atlantic city, stood with my toes in the sand in montauk, survived bedbugs without losing my mind, went to the longest bar in the world in Ireland, stayed in the Annie Oakley Suite, took a burlesque class, watched fireworks from a NYC rooftop, camped in the desert with 2 of my best girl friends, ate fabulous dinners in the littlest most bizarre indian restaurant with my favorite people, was a bartender in new york, set off an alarm and made the police come, got a restraining order against someone, spoke in front of hundreds of people, taught crafts to a group of little 4-Hers, volunteered for Special Olympics, ate tapas on a boat in spain, hit a home run.
