Sharks, Salmon, and Spiced Carrots

 

Saturday I had an impromptu visit to Goodwill where I picked up this 99 cent treasure. Jaws is one of my favorite movies and I could not resist this tourist trap impulse buy. I will be using it for eating ice cream...yes I eat ice cream from cups and mugs. Unlike bowls, mugs have handles so your fingers do not freeze off while trying to enjoy your creamy load of fantasticness.

 

Tonight I tried a new way of cooking salmon, it was good but not great. Even in a sealed foil packet the salmon was drier than usual. I may try to make some sort of salmon spread that I found on foodily to rescue the leftovers.

 

To accompany the salmon I made spiced sautéed carrots; they were better than the salmon and had an unexpected flavor. Spiced with cumin and cinnamon, they were smoky and mildly sweet, I may add a touch more salt and garlic the next time around. They were very light on the oil. I'm all about adding more vegetables to my diet, especially carrots. What is your favorite vegetable recipe? Please share it and perhaps I will try it and feature it!

Whirlwind, what a week

 

What a week. They say one of the only constants in life is change. They were right. The other constant in life is God, and that's how I know everything is going the way it is supposed to. The best way to respond to change is by grabbing hold of it and letting go all in the same instant, like a great weight has landed on your shoulders but somehow you know that it will soon pass through you into space. 

 

I will spare you anymore metaphors and move on to lighter matters. Congrats to MaryAnne at lifeathaven, that was the best phone message ever! I also got the magazine sent to press and saw my friends Jared and Stephanie Bartman in concert and they were excellent as always and Henry was a wiggle worm but he clearly stole the show. The string quartet were magical and everyone brought their best to the table, not to mention the fact that this concert was BYOB and there was one table in particular that brought their best booze to the table and were very giggly. Also kudos to Denim Dragons and your freaky masks but great tunes.

Renee, I'm holding true and working my way through the book. I'm so proud of this meal, ginger teriyaki chicken and smashed spinach and garlic potatoes. MMMMMmmmmmmmm. I will be eating on this for a while. It really feels good to eat real food for a change. 

Happy Record Store Day!

 

There is just something about vinyl, the tactile feel, the odd eye-grabbing album art, and yes that 1970s-sandalwood-incense-plucked-straight-from-a-woodpaneled-basement smell. This is the first time I truly celebrated Record Store Day (sans Jack White, I guess he was too busy being an ambassador or something to come to Illinois). My friend Luke happens to be a big time vinyl collector so we met up at Co-Op Records in East Peoria where we quickly learned that you need to be in line before the dawn has cracked if you want to get that elusive Blind Melon record that the store - correction, the city - only ordered one copy of. Our trek included not one but FOUR local record stores because we're hard core like that. EP Co-Op, Peoria Co-Op, Pekin Co-Op, and Ribbon Records in downtown Peoria which I think was my favorite for quirk value, hence I will be going back. You meet some interesting characters along the way as well and it's cool to hear what everyone is after.

 

Here was my haul, I really wasn't looking for anything too specific so I plucked some Guess Who for my dad for Father's Day and the Spiral Starecase and Steve Martin are mine all mine. I know you are jealous, you are just playing it cool. I was pleasantly surprised to find this 8x10 portrait of Steve still in the sleeve!

Here is my friend's haul, 15 total. He was most pleased with Nick Drake and The White Stripes. Quite the eclectic array. He even asked me to make him stop before his spending got out of hand, but as I've learned from shopping with Carrie of Swanky Lady Vintage, no amount of hand slapping can deter someone from a good bargain. I may have to borrow a few.

 

It was a beautiful, sunny spring day, a little chilly in the morning, but it warmed up as the day progressed. One of those days where you can't help but take the backroads, turn up the Radiohead B-Sides, and sing away in your best Thom Yorke voice. 

On a new recipe and home improvement kick

This soup was soooooooo good, it didn't last long. I started working my way through Get Cooking by Mollie Katzen, (thank you Renee!). Her recipes are easy and really good and you don't have to have tons of expensive fancypants ingredients like saffron and organic gluten free vegan unicorn oil (okay I made that up but it probably exists). Above is the Cuban Black Bean soup, I was sold as soon as I say black beans and cilantro in the recipe. It's fantastic with tortilla chips and a dash of cheese.

Before last night I had never had eggplant before, I think I will be buying it again. These are Panko Crusted Eggplant Cutlets. I added to the recipe a little--garlic, parmesan, oregano. These are so good! I like the fact that eggplant is not super soggy or juicy, it is mild and drier which means it fries and bakes well. I foresee eating the leftovers for lunch. My parents were more skeptical, they came over last night while I was cooking and my dad refused to try one saying it looked like a fried cucumber ha ha. Oh well, more for me.

 

It's been a productive week, wrapped up a web job, designed the Peoria Historic Tour of Homes brochure, and did my taxes! As I've mentioned before, I am working my way through a long list of home improvements and I got to check one off my list last night! I got a new bedroom light!!! Only $30 at Lowes, it really brightens up my bedroom. A little good design goes a long way :) What is your favorite piece of design in your home?

Eastertide, spring on the wing, and adventures on the horizon

Sorry it's a little late in coming but Happy Easter Everyone!!! We're still in the octave right? So it's legit. I had a wonderful Easter weekend, I'm in two different choirs and we sang every day, it was splendid to hear the jubilant songs return, but most of all it was good to take a step out of the world and focus on spiritual matters. When Easter comes around, it's like falling in love with God all over again and knowing that He never ends. In the past year I've experienced moments of great joy, the kind of joy that pierces your soul but ties everything together with an unbreakable golden thread. I found this feather stuck to the elbow of my coat the other day and the sight of it just puts me at peace.

You are never too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny, okay I get visits from this little guy every day and he blesses my home with homemade black jellybeans in abundance (word of warning, don't eat them!). My mom still likes to give me an Easter basket, and hey who says no to free candy. Although, I had a major Fringe moment, I gave my mom a bouquet of tulips for Easter and guess what was in my basket? Red Vines. Those faithful few of you who watched the show will know the significance. 

 

Though I'm trying to eat a bit healthier I couldn't resist making this, after all the brie was expiring, see I had an excuse. It was so delicious and so easy, brie baked in crescent roll dough! My friend MaryAnne at lifeathaven.wordpress.com made me a jar of homemade mulberry jam. MaryAnne I apologize for waiting so long to open it ha ha! but whenever I thought of mulberries I would think of bird poop on the farm but the jam was delicious with the brie :) Also my friend Renee gifted me a lovely cookbook when I moved into my new house and I've decided to work my way through it Julia Child style, because there are so many healthy recipes in it that would spice up my diet more, thank you Renee.

As far as recent adventures, they have been relatively low key but memorable. I had a really beautiful and deep conversation about the nature of art through the eyes of faith, cafeteria food, travel, and the seeds of ideas that have the potential to bring change to the world with a friend that I met last summer. It's those kind of conversations that linger with you for days and replay in your mind. So many conversations are electronic these days that I savor the face to face encounters. I also got to catch up with a college friend last night that I hadn't hung out with in almost a year and our night was filled excellent food, The Hobbit, playing records, laughing at old photos and simply enjoying each other's company. Then came this morning's adventure, after barely any sleep I made it to an estate sale at 7:30 in the morning with my cousin in crime, Carrie of swankyladyvintage.etsy.com. We were giggling the entire time. Above are the treasures that I found, she found a crazy load of vintage swizzle sticks among other wonders. But we laughed the hardest at the Salvation Army run we made after the sale where we happened upon...adult...footie...pajamas, the worst part, we bought them. We plan to do a Macklemore inspired photo with them, they were too good to pass up. Even the cashier thought no one would buy them, but of course she was wrong. She admired our jovial sport and told us to "keep on laughing". 

Looking ahead, with my Indiana Jones hat in tow, with the warmer weather I foresee road trips, hijinks, bonfires, and the great unknown. The best thing about this hat is not that it was $2, it's that it makes me want to drive up to one of my friends say "Get in the car, there's no time to waste" and screech tires to make our future into something spontaneous and worthy of talking about for years to come. So I ask you, what is your next adventure?