Cute Picture of the Year

Leila on her new bike

Pantry List (Whole and Natural)

This is for my best friend Kristen who recently asked me how to stock her pantry. She is finally a grown up (with a master's degree, congratulations) and wants to start cooking. Here are the things I can't live without to get you started:

Non-perishables

• Canned or dried beans (black, pinto, white, garbanzo). Making dried beans is actually really easy and if bought in bulk can be extremely inexpensive.
  
• Oils (Extra Virgin, Olive Oil, Toasted Sesame Seed, Walnut, Grape seed)
• Canned tomatoes
• Soy sauce (Shoyu)
• Vinegar (Balsamic, Brown Rice, Apple Cider)
• Tahini
• Pasta (it's great to have this on hand!)
• Nuts and seeds (Walnuts, Almonds, Pepitas)
• Canned Roasted Peppers (good in most soups)
• Vegetable stock (always keep 2 on hand)
• Grains (brown rice, white rice, wild rice, polenta, quinoa, bulgur, oats, barley). Buy in the bulk section and it's also fairly inexpensive.
• Pasta Sauce
• Agave nectar
• Cane Juice Sugar
• Flour (white all purpose, whole wheat wheat, bread flour)
• Tea (black, green, herbal)
• Yeast (making a loaf of bread or some quick rolls is easier than you think)
• Baking powder and baking soda
• Unsweetened Cocoanut Milk (for soups, curries etc.)

Spices

• Bay Leaf
• Cardamom
  
• Cumin
• Cinnamon
• Coriander
• Ginger (fresh ginger can be stored in the freezer)
• Nutmeg
• Oregano
  
• Black pepper
• Sea Salt
• Thyme
• Sage
• Rosemary
  
• Curry
  
• Garam Masala
• Chili Powder
• Smoked Paprika

Perishables

• Lemons
• Garlic
• Eggs
• Milk (we drink rice milk, its nonperishable until opened)
• Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Onions (red, white, yellow, shallots)
• Butter
• Mustard
• Frozen Peas
• Frozen Peppers
• Seasonal Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (I've done some homework for you, Kristen)

There you have it, my pantry. It's good to try to buy a few staples each week until the entire pantry is built. With these ingredients, the possibilities are endless and you will never have to go to Carl's Junior again. You're my best friend, Merry Christmas!

Chard and White Bean Soup

I finally finished my BTSA portfolio and now I can officially start my vacation. To kick it off I made an "end of the month" soup that was absolutely wonderful! End of the month soup consists of whatever you find in your pantry or fridge, and this one was especially delicious!

End of the month soup: White Bean and Chard

3 Large Chard Leaves with Stems (ribboned)

1 Can of White Beans

1 Package of Vegetable Broth

1 Large Leek (sliced)

3 Potatoes (peeled and chopped)

1/2 Yellow Onion (chopped)

1 Tablespoon Chopped Thyme

Sea Salt

Olive Oil

Pepper

Place broth and potatoes and a pinch of salt in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. While you wait for the potatoes to cook, brown the onions and leek in a small frying pan with a bit of olive oil and salt. Once potatoes are boiling add the leek, onions, beans and thyme to the pot. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Once potatoes begin to soften add the chard and continue to cook until chard is wilted and potatoes are soft. Serve with toasted almonds or parmesan cheese on top! 

I hope you try this recipe because it was so delicious! I'll post photos my next big endeavor: vegan christmas dinner! 

Planned Menu:

Roasted Butternut Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing

Vanilla Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

Yeast Rolls

Mixed Greens 

Butternut Squash and Honey Pie

It's the end of the semester...

and I am brain dead. enjoy this wonderful song.

My House is Cold, VERY COLD!!

Last year at this time...

I was listening to Brandi Carlile and reading Into the Wild. 

What were you into last year?

Online Survey

I was attempting to take an online survey this morning. They asked for my age, you were supposed to choose one: 18-24, 25-40, 40-70. For years I've been choosing 18-24, NOW I'M LUMPED WITH THE 40 YEAR OLDS! I'm getting old. So now it's time to embrace it, I'm going to go buy some polyester pants.

Twilight = FAIL!!!!!!!

I love well made movies. Twilight was in no way a well made movie. I'm no expert in film but I know a crappy film when I see it. In addition, as a quote unquote fan of the book, I felt completely unindulged and nearly insulted. 

The top 5 things that were wrong with the movie adaptation of Twilight. 

5. All the vampire parts were cheesy, overacted and poorly portrayed with the slight (very slight) exception of the actor who played Edward Cullen. Example a. The sexy raver? bad vampires (horrible actors, horrible costumes, horrible casting). These characters should have been much more dark and scary and much less euro trash discotec. I could give about 15 other examples, but I probably have better things to do.

4. The entire La Push scene was bad. The casting for Jacob was effeminate and his character wasn't developed at all. And surfing...really? For being such a major character in the rest of the books I think more character development should have been utilized in this film.

3.  The movie, from a film stand point, wasn't cohesive, fluid or well made. First, there were some beautiful angles and scenes that were well made. Other scenes were again, extremely cheesy (flying up trees, HUGE 360 shots, the baseball scene, the "fight" scene). The throwback scenes were bad, really bad. Obviously, I'm not film critic but there were a few scenes that were just embarrassing to watch. 

2. Rather then a major motion picture, it seemed like a Mormon made for t.v. movie. 

1. THEY DIDN'T INDULGE THE FANS! For having such a HUGE fan base they could have done so much more. I think they were banking on the fact that nearly all the fans are teenage girls and they could just throw a couple kissing scenes and flash a few chest hairs of Edward and all the fans would be satisfied. If you look at any major movie adaptation of a popular series (obviously we look at Harry Potter for an example) they always indulge the fans. I was neither satisfied nor indulged. 

I guess that concludes my rant. Sorry to those of you who loved it, but it could have been and should have been so much better. 

Thanksgiving Break

oh yeah it's the real deal.

Currently: Fighting off the dreaded cold

I'm in the middle of the fight of my life. I've been OD'ing on tea, sleep and vitamin C; and to be completely honest I believe I'm winning. There's something to be said for licking a cold early on, battling it before all the symptoms set in. It will be a relaxing weekend, I plan on sleeping and eating and then sleeping some more. I'm fully equipped to spend the weekend in doors. I have a great book that I need to finish, Easter Parade from Netflix to watch and a whole cabinet full of adagio tea. I should be sick more often, this is like a vacation. Say a prayer that I kick this thing before it's too late.

Simple food and a lovely weekend

I've been cooking a lot lately.  Alice Waters has inspired me. Her take on cooking is classic, yet innovative at the same time. It's refreshing when you find an author who's ideas align with your own. I thought I would share her cooking principles with you, hopefully you will be inspired as well.

• Eat Locally & Sustainably
• Eat Seasonally
• Shop at Farmer's Markets
• Plant a Garden
• Conserve, Compost & Recycle
• Cook Simply, Engaging all your Senses
• Cook Together*
• Eat Together*
• Remember Food is Precious

Inspired by her book I have started to get back into the kitchen, making simple, fresh dishes utilizing our delicious CSA. Jeff is enjoying it. This is when I wish that I had a good camera, the food I've been making has been beautiful and delicious. Here's a list of the meals we've been eating, I wish I had photos!

• Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta with Fresh Herbs
• White Bean & Tomato Soup with Toasted Pepitas
• Potato and Leek Soup
• Fresh Baked Bread
• Creamy Arugula, Apple and Barley Salad
• Lots of Roasted Vegetables

On Deck Recipes

• Moroccan Carrot Salad with Ginger
• Brussels Sprout & Apple Satay
• Home Brew
• Persimmon Cookies
• Savory Horseradish Bread Pudding

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Birthdays & New Cookbook!

I had a lovely birthday! Thanks to everyone who was involved in the week-long celebration. I got a number of wonderful gifts, here is a summary: 1. Monty Python on DVD, 2. New Slippies, 3. 1/2 a Chicken Pizziola and a Diet Coke, 4. Subway gift card, 5. Roses, 6. 2 Trees, 7. Balloons, 8. Candy and the best....well, maybe second best (what can compare to 1/2 a sandwich) is a new cookbook. It's wonderful! For foodie types, you must check out Alice Water's The Art of Simple Foods. It's beautifully illustrated and full of wonderful, simple food to try. Can't wait to start cooking.

Monday Blues

This school year has been especially trying. The last few weeks have been extremely difficult to get through. The new subject matter is difficult to comprehend and exceptionally difficult to explain to a 17 year old with no background in business. Coupled with a terribly written textbook, it could be the perfect storm. Thinking back, about this time last year I was dealing with the same feelings about my SDAIE class; feeling completely inept, unprepared and ineffective. Although our department is wonderful, I still feel quite alone. This lag between labor day and veterans day is very long, as Penner says, "it's the dog days of fall". Will it ever end? Any words of wisdom to help get me through?

Greetings Earthlings...here's another kristen eharmony video.

Good Reads

Good Reads

Good reads is a great site! You should join. Here is my latest book review:

Living Your Strengths: Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community by Albert L. Winseman

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Great concept and I really enjoyed finding out what my strengths were. But the rest of the book lacked practical application.


View all my reviews.

Kristen's E*Harmony Video

Here it is folks, Kristen's famous e*harmony video. Enjoy

 

i wear the pants...or at least i'm earning them.

for those of you who don't know, jeff had surgery on thursday. he had a lovely little growth on his knee that started to bother him after his stp bike ride this summer; on thursday they removed the little bugger. jeff is going to be off his feet for a little while. he should be walking normally within a week, but until then, i'm in charge! today i mowed the lawn, all by myself. i know,  you're all truly amazed. i don't know if i'm going to regret posting this, because now all those husbands out there are aware that it can be done by a woman. it took me a while and i'm sure it's not half as good as jeff could have done (cough cough), but it's liberating none the less. i also washed the car, planted a rosemary bush, took out the trash, turned the compost, killed an enormous black widow and now i'm relaxing with a beer. my, how the roles have reversed. this is what jeff has been up to for the passed few days (refer to photo). lots of video games, movies and the always interesting internet to examine. other then that, everything is going along. school is good and very busy. earlier this week i was thinking that perhaps a 24 year old should be doing something that is less stressful, like maybe i should be a part time barista or a server at a restaurant. teaching is sure taking up a lot of my time. maybe i'll go into landscaping, i have experience, you know.

Update

The passed few days have been somewhat of a fall teaser. The weather has been unbelievably wonderful (high of 90 degrees?) and you can smell fall in the air. School has officially started, so that means I will be MIA for the next 8 months. I am attempting to not become a hermit, but I can't make any promises. There are other things in life now that are bringing out the hermit in me. I started reading the Twilight series and for those of you who have read it or are currently reading it, you know exactly how deep the obsession runs. I've had to start limiting the amount of time I spend reading it (2-3 hours a day?). With the combination of school starting, the heat, and Twilight, it has left little time for working on the house. But, I thought I would include the little progress we have made; so here's a current list of what we have accomplished thus far: 1. We have painted another wall in the living room (2 down, 2 to go). 2. Mike finished stripping the paint off the fireplace (goooo Mike). 3. Jeff cleaned out the garage and hooked up the dryer. He's getting quite good at killing black widows, by the way. 4. We've picked out the design and color palette for the house, now we have to implement that. 5. Jeff cleaned out boy room, so he, Matt and Phil can escape from womankind and play music and the wii without girlfriend/wife interference. All in all, pretty productive month. The next month will be fun (painting the exterior!!!). It will look like a different house! Photos to come! 

Econ overload

In the passed 2 days I have been attempting to learn everything I will be teaching in my AP Econ class, through a course at UC Riverside. 8 hours of econ a day is quite excessive, at the 4 hour mark I was done; my brain was full with little room for more knowledge. Now I am going back to read a chapter of the book that I was completely confused by. Perhaps it is because I am not a math person, or perhaps I am not sharp enough to handle all of this information (or perhaps both), but I am about ready to explode. To unwind I decided to explore the Ontario Mills Mall/Outlets, probably the biggest mall on the west coast. I walked around for about 2 hours, wandering in and out of stores. This place is like a casino, no windows and limited natural light. I don't know if it was the best thing to do to unwind, maybe a glass of wine would have been better. Maybe I just need some sleep. My plan tomorrow is to get a pedicure then go see Pineapple Express, I figure that it will be dumb and funny, both of which I am in need of. Toodles. 

House Before:

As many of you know, Jeff and I are in the process of restoring an old house. It was built in 1946, so it has lots of character and lots that needs to be fixed. In our first month here we have painted 1 room, started stripping off the paint from the fireplace, completely ripped out all the "volunteer" plants that were in the front and back yard, replaced the sprinklers and have started designing the landscape. It has been a long month but we're going strong. Our goal for the year is to have the exterior done: new paint (we're thinking green?), and new landscaping. Here are a few pictures of the house now and a few pics from Phil's bible study birthday celebration. 

Funniest thing...

Dr. Horrible's Sing a long Blog might just be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Second only to Thunderant, of course, which makes me laugh everytime. Check both out on itunes and get a good laugh. 

Quote

As summer comes to a close I am starting to feel overwhelmed. The house is coming along, little by little, but the list of things to do keeps getting longer and longer. The daunting thought of school starting is also lingering in my mind. The summer has been lovely, but as usual, it has gone by far too fast. I'm at the point where I don't know where to start.  I was looking for inspiration and I found a pretty good quote to get me going. "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." -Emerson

Ali: 1, Yucca: 0

Today I dug up our beautiful yucca plant (a.k.a. Satan's plant) that was growing in the front yard. Luckily the roots weren't very deep so it only took me about an hour. I think it may come back, but when it does I'll be ready for it. (Insert evil laugh here). The house is coming along. We spend a couple hours a day on it, and slowly but surely it's coming together. In a bit I'll be headed off to Steph and Jerry's Wedding. Should be fun and hot. Not Paris Hilton hot but sweating in the 102 degree heat hot. 

Pictures from our trip...f-yeah

Here are a few pics from our recent trip...

Vita Cafe: Thai Corn Cakes

Oregon Cheese Plate

We're so dang beautiful

Driving forever...

We attempted to entertain ourselves

Jeff finishing his 200 mile ride

Stumptown Roasters

Best Breakfast of My LIFE!

Portland Adventures

Enjoying every minute of our long awaited vacation. Jeff is in Seattle, gearing up for his first big ride. Tomorrow morning he starts his trek to Oregon via bike, he is going to love it. Meanwhile I have been soaking up this beautiful city, and falling more and more in love with it as the days go on. We're staying at a fantastic hotel (Kennedy School) and the food here is fantastic! Today was a fabulous day pack full of wonderful happenings. It was wonderful to see Sean and Mckay, and to realize just how much I miss Mckay and her wonderful spirit. I hope to see more of you guys in the coming years. You know we're all just a short flight away! I'm stoked for the next few days, to eat new and exciting foods, find new and exciting places and to see interesting mismatched people. While we were walking to dinner Mike commented that being here is kind of like being transported to another planet. I'd say a good planet. Ciao for now.

Sloppy Phils Tonight

We had two of the most lovely people to dinner tonight, Phil and Des (excellent adventures). They are two of the most interesting and wonderful people we have come across in a long time. Phil is a vegetarian and Jeff and I are not big meat eaters anyway so I made a delicious concoction out of ingredients that I had in the fridge. I call them "Sloppy Phils", a vegetarian take on sloppy joes. Instead of ground meat I used firm tofu and added spices and dice tomatoes. I served them on left over hamburger buns from the 4th of July, that I toasted with garlic butter. Then I topped them with grilled onions. They were quite divine. I keep forgetting that I have a camera or I would have taken a picture of them, dang. Eating like this makes me forget that it's 106 out. 

A New Week

Greetings. 

Well we survived our first week in the monster house. I was trying to think of anything else that could possibly go wrong and I think that everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. But, the plumbing is fixed ($300 later). The broken sprinklers are fixed (thanks to Jeff) and we even painted a room. Jeff thinks that the 2 cans of paint didn't quite match up so there are a few darker spots, but I think it looks lovely. Now I'm trying to plan my day so that I don't have to stay in this hot house. I'm thinking of going to the library,  Norstrom, the tailor and maybe just hanging out in a coffee shop with a couple books. I love being a housewife! The reason the house is hot is not because we have no a/c it's because I'm afraid our old a/c unit is going to cost us a ton of money to run. The way the a/c was put in was very dumb, it takes about 12 hours to cool the house down. So I think I'll just tough out the 106 degrees elsewhere. Can't wait to go on our vacation to Portland on Tuesday! Mckay and Sean, see ya soon!

One good thing: New CSA

Lots of Potatoes, Apricots, Lettuce, Red Onion, Cantaloupe, etc. Going to attempt to make the grilled potato salad, should be delish! 

Home Ownership Lesson #3

Don't turn on the sprinklers...ever. Should we start calling this cute little place monster house?

Home Ownership Lesson #2

Always buy a home warranty. They come in handy when you decide to do laundry and your tub and toilet over flow. It's ok I probably didn't need that shower anyway. Ah the joys of an old house. 

Home Ownership Lesson #1

Cast iron is not as forgiving as porcelain. Don't believe me? Just ask my poor glass... :(

The first day of the rest of my life...

Yes, today is my last day of summer school. With 15 minutes left until the bell rings I am waiting in anticipation until it's over. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful class, but I am in need of a break. We moved into the new homestead on Saturday and are getting settled. It went smoothly but I must say I don't want to move again for a very very long time. I hate not knowing where anything is. In addition, I love that we have a cute old house, but I don't love all that cute old houses entail. Broken plugs, extremely large black widows, wrong outlets, short cabinets etc. Thank God that grandpa is handy and lives around the corner. It should be an exciting summer. 

My first official day off.

Although school is still in session, I decided to take one of my confidential days off. It seems like a good time. Kids are watching a video, we're starting to pack up three years worth of crap and memories in our tiny 500 square foot apartment and I feel like I'm finally getting out of my first year teacher funk. Today was the first day that I ran in about 2 months. Last summer, before school started, I was running everyday and feeling great. But once school started, the exhaustion set in and I needed lots and lots of sleep. Today I ran a little over a mile. It was great! I can't wait to do it tomorrow! Today is also CSA day, I wonder what our little box will give us today. I hope that today is a preview as to what is to come for the next 2 months. 

CSA Blog

Hello World,
Each week my husband and I get a box full of delicious local organic produce. It is my goal to post a photo/recipe of all the wonderful dishes that I create!