summer salads

summer salads

6.30.2013

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't been cooking .... pretty much at all.

There are probably a few reasons for this of which none are really valid. Sometimes an english muffin just feels right and sometimes I don't feel like doing dishes and sometimes it's just too warm out.

For example, one night this week I bought buffalo chicken at the market while I was grabbing milk. Then I ate it cold with blue cheese sauce. It just felt like the right decision.

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prepping for 30

prepping for 30

6.29.2013

In about a month I will be turning 30.

That means I'll have been around for 3 complete runs of the series Friends - which was on for 10 seasons. I've been thinking about turning the big 3 times 10 for about 8 months I would say. I've even gone so far as to take what I would call my "birthday trip" several months in advance of my actual birthday.

Earlier this week my sister asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I said nothing. Not as in, I had no response but more that my response was actually nothing. I'm happy to attend other people's parties but it makes me feel weird to have a party all just for me. I don't like to work on my birthday and thankfully since this year the 27th falls on a weekend, I can save myself a vacation day. I plan on spending the day eating all of my favorite things, adding layers of sunblock to my skin, taking a bike ride to the beach for dunks in the ocean and hopefully getting the perfect beach hair just in time to eat birthday cake. I haven't planned for rain, so if someone could arrange this weather forecast I'd appreciate it.

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english muffin bread

english muffin bread

6.16.2013

This is a story of how I killed the yeast and brought it back to life. There is only one picture of the entire thing because I was quite convinced the entire time it was a slow moving car accident.

Over the past few weeks, I have been attempting to purge my apartment of things that I don't need. It isn't that I don't love my stuff, it's just that there is too much of it and I don't need it. Example? Red flannel sheets. I have moved them from apartment to apartment for 5 years. I have used them once.

As part of all this purging, I have accumulated quite a few recipes that I've torn out of magazines. The pile that I have at my apartment is nothing compared to the pile I have stashed at my parents' house. In an effort to love it or leave it, I figured I'd give this english muffin recipe I found in the WSJ a shot. The timing was perfect. I was out of carbs in my apartment, it was raining, and I had some flexibility in my schedule for experimenting.

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living for the blooms

living for the blooms

6.12.2013

There was most certainly a point in my life when I considered flowers a waste of money.

While I most certainly meant that at the time, it could not be further from the truth now.

Yesterday I bought myself these peonies from Trader Joes along with some other necessities like naan, frozen tuna steaks, and dehydrated snap peas. Obvious things. While I managed to avoid buying mini peanut butter cups, I was not leaving TJs without these gems.

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love note.

love note.

6.07.2013

Two years ago I met someone who told me they collected postcards off eBay. Vintage postcards of their favorite place in the world, Christmas Cove. Instantly I was intrigued and thought it was an amazing idea ... and also like the most romantic thing ever.

If you don't think so, you must have a heart of stone.

Pretty immediately after I got back from loving on Maine (link, link, link), I filled my eBay wish list with old postcards of Minot. My favorite place.

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french macarons

french macarons

I've always been a little enchanted by macarons. They are one of those things that just scream simple elegance - which perhaps is the opposite of how I would describe myself. You look at them and they are just marvelous. Plus, ever since that morning in Chicago ... I couldn't get these suckers out of my head. The idea of paying $2+ for something that is gone in less than 4 bites seems like a project I want to conquer.

I did a bit of research on how to best make macaroons before I got started. My key takeaways? There are a million theories and beliefs about what makes the best macaroon and that you absolutely must do it that way.

• aging egg whites for 24+ hours
• double sifting flour and powdered sugar
• whacking the baking sheet against the table

But, honestly.... this blog post I just found (after I made them myself) really sums all the myths up. I had spent the previous 4 or 5 days reading a few different posts over and over and then pretty much tossed them all aside and completely when I got down to business. It wasn't a conscious decision truly, it was more that I had "aged" my egg whites while I had an afternoon in Southie and hated the idea that I would have just wasted 3 eggs. Plus, I had made the trip to Polcari's for almond flour.... so that's what led me to attempting macarons for the first time after 8pm on a Monday evening.

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