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Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Friday



Happy Friday!

Midweek I started to have a bad feeling and the last couple days have been strange. I don't know where it came from, but I'm hoping it all shakes by the end of the day so the weekend is nice.

I'm running my first 5k on Halloween.

Have fun and be safe!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

sugar scrub


Today was stressful.

Stressful days call AT LEAST for a run or a bubble bath. Preferably both.

I got home from work after dark, so I tossed the run but decided that a bath with some treat would be nice.

I threw together my own sugar scrub:

1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sesame oil (would have preferred grapeseed or almond, but I don't have any)
4 drops peppermint essential oil
4 drops chamomile essential oil



(sesame oil isn't nearly as thin as other oils. It was nice, but very oily.)

This is a nice site for some ideas for salt and sugar scrubs: sugar and salt scrubs

Saturday, October 23, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEELEY!!

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Happy Birthday Keeley!

One of my best friends, Keeley, is in her second year of law school and has made time every night to make a nice, often fancy, meal. Baking her own breads (feta artichoke), making her own pies (usually hand-whipping her own whip cream), and cooking things I've never even heard of. I'll never understand how she has made time to do this with the million things she's involved in with school..on top of just being a law student.

Happy birthday to the cutest homemaker I know! Meg and I felt that the appropriate gift to buy you would be..

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a subscription to Martha Stewart's magazine. Your first issue should come soon.

We love you!!! Happy Birthday!! Love, Meg and Mon

Friday, October 22, 2010

Happy Friday!

Friday, October 15, 2010

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I'm running late and can't find a happy friday that I haven't used before :/


Tomorrow I'll make a happy weekend picture.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

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Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza
5 ounces fingerling potatoes
Cornmeal (for sprinkling)
Pizza Dough
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 garlic clove, pressed
4 green onions, thinly sliced, divided
1 1/3 cups grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese (about 6 ounces)
4 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
8 ounces asparagus, trimmed, each spear cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 2- to 3-inch pieces
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place potatoes in small saucepan. Add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Sprinkle with salt. Bring to boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Cool. Cut potatoes into thin slices.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Sprinkle rimless baking sheet with cornmeal. Roll and stretch pizza dough to 16x11-inch oval. Transfer to baking sheet. Mix 1 tablespoon olive oil and garlic in small bowl. Brush garlic oil over dough. Sprinkle 3/4 of green onions over, then mozzarella, leaving 1/2-inch plain border. Top with potato slices and goat cheese. Toss asparagus and 1 tablespoon oil in medium bowl. Scatter asparagus over pizza. Sprinkle with Parmesan, then lightly with salt and generously with pepper.

Bake pizza until crust is browned and asparagus is tender, about 18 minutes. Transfer to cutting board. Sprinkle with remaining green onions. Cut into pieces.


** Note if you aren't using raw dough (our local grocery store sells awesome partially baked pizza dough), then the timing will be off and your crust will become really crispy before your asparagus is roasted. You'd probably want to cook your asapargus for a couple minutes before putting onto the pizza you put in the oven. Your baking time would probably cut down to around 12 minutes. ***


(Recipe: Bon Appétit, May 2009, by Jeanne Thiel Kelley)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

ACL > weekend of crafts

This weekend was Austin City Limits. I didn't buy tickets ahead of time because they sold out really quickly last spring.. And they are really expensive ($185 for 3 day).

I had Friday off from work and could hear the festival through the windows at my house and that morning I went for a run down to Zilker Park (where the festival is). The energy beaming from the whole thing was sort of contagious and I was really itchy to go.

Friday came and went and Saturday I was hit with the bug harder and pretty much had to go. I convinced Meg to come with me Saturday so we spent most of the afternoon searching/meeting up with people to buy tickets from.

So all the crafty things I thought I might do this weekend are now post-poned.
(Meg and I actually had some things planned to make, went to Michael's, and inside Michael's is where I flipped out about wanting to go to ACL and couldn't think about anything else).

<3

Friday, October 8, 2010

friday WOOT

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Monday, October 4, 2010

organizing our fridge

Eric and I started keeping a log of our fridge contents. He had a little chalkboard so we hung it above our oven.

Tonight's grocery bill was SUPER high...I'm not sure what happened, but neither one of us could say no to anything tasty - so we ended up at home with 2 different types of juices, 3 different kinds of soups, and tons of produce...among other things!

Our attempt to not let things go bad:

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Sunday, October 3, 2010

farm veggies

Saturday afternoon Meg and I volunteered at a local farm, Green Gate Farms.

Green Gate is one of the local farms where you can get a farmshare from in Austin. Meg and I have been considering signing up for a farmshare and splitting the goods each week. (If you're unfamiliar with farmshares, you pay and pick up a box from a farmer every week full of the current veggies/fruits/flowers/herbs that are ready at their farm).

You can actually sign up to volunteer for a couple hours on some farms and then get a discount on your weekly farmshare. Meg and I are interested in doing this in the future, so we thought we'd link up with a local farm and start volunteering some.

We helped de-clove garlics for growing, we planted some cloves to grow, and we helped set up a small irrigation system. We both don't know much about gardening and farming, so we're hoping to learn a lot through our volunteering. (I actually didn't know that a new garlic plant would grow if you stick a clove of garlic underground).

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After volunteering, one of the farm owners loaded Meg and I up on zucchini, pattypan squash, hot peppers, garlic, okra and cucumbers.

That night Eric and I made whole wheat organic linguini with the sauteed zucchini, pattypan squash, garlic and onions. We used olive oil, parmesan cheese, fresh squeezed lemon juice and sea salt for the sauce. Delicious!

I've never had pattypan squash before. It's really good.

Look how cute the zucchini is! It's ribbed, so when it's sliced it has these adorable ridges:

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pattypan squash:

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Today I sauteed some more of the squash and some spinach and made a sandwich on chia bread. (Newest love = Chia bread. So yummy)

Eric got me into putting dijon mustard on the outside of your bread (along with a little butter) before making pressed sandwiches (or grilled cheese).

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Friday, October 1, 2010

Happy Friday!

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(you may recognize this one...I made it a while back)