Flavor Explosions

If it isn't blatantly obvious, I have been really sick for the last four days. Today, I finally started feeling a little bit better. I took a mid-day nyquil-infused coma nap, and woke up feeling like a new person. I could breath. I didn't sound like Marcell the Shell. I still wasn't 100 percent, but I was definitely past 65 percent. YES!

I was slightly excited to eat something that wasn't soup. My first choice? An amazing orange. It was amazing. So amazing, I decided to immortalize it:

It really was.

Now, I'm back to another nyquil-infused coma. Tomorrow, I will go to work, eat oranges and feel at least 75 percent better! Yahoo! Also--new blog design tomorrow...stay tuned!

Brown Paper Bag meets Glitter Unicorn Princess, achieved?

The first of the month is quickly approaching, meaning that I need to finish my redesign. Not to make excuses, but I am: I'm still super sick. I just can't shake this thing. I got a lot worse today, the demon moved from my sinuses to my chest and is doing double-dutch jump rope with my esophagus.

I needed to get a head start on -at least- the new banner. To refresh your memory, I was going for a 'brown-paper-bag-meets-glitter-unicorn-princess' theme. Here's what I designed:

Brown-paper-bag-meets-tape-crafting-princess?

I give myself a C+ on this one, with extra credit for using Photoshop for something other than editing photos (I despise this practice, but I did it anyway. Pretty cool tape, eh?) I like the color, and I semi-like the type, it's just not perfect. I also didn't achieve 'glitter.' I tried--but I am not good enough with non-photos in Photoshop to really get the 'ooo shiny' part of glitter. I'm going to try again tomorrow night, we'll see!

I'm off to bed. I've slept through about 21 of the last 24 hours with a quick break to the doctor for him to tell me the most frustrating words a doctor says to you: "It's a virus, fluids and sleep." Doesn't this make you want to scream? Hey: If Newt Gingrich thinks it's worth our tax-payer dollars to build a human colony on the moon, let's throw some [more] money at a virus killer!


Speaking of tax-payer dollars: If you live in Oregon, make sure you vote/drop off your ballot by tomorrow [Jan 31] at 8:00pm.

Semi-Instant Cold Cure

This is what my last two days have been like:

800am: Wake up, gasp for air. Throat closing. This isn't going to be good.
803am: Chug Dayquil. Go back to bed. Wait for relief.
815am: Google cold remedies. Laugh at hippies. Wait for Dayquil to work.
821am: Dayquil still hasn't kicked in. Think about hippy remedy.
835am: In Dayquil fog. Can't tell if I feel better. Start gargling salt water (damn hippies.)
901am: Turn on Bravo. Ugh, It's a Brad Brad World is on. Watch it anyway.
920am: Western medicine isn't working. Eastern medicine isn't working. Ugh
959am: Start thinking of Southern Medicine cures. Whisky?
1001am: Start thinking of Northern Medicine cures. Vodka?
1002am: Immediately start practicing Northern & Southern Medicine, exclusively.
330pm: Nice husband tries cure via Car Show. Won't buy me my Volvo. Why am I here?
530pm: In N/S medicine fog. Turn on Bravo. Ugh, Top Chef: Texas? Seriously? Watch it anyway.

800pm: See Drew Brees Nyquil commercial. I want to go to there. Take Nyquil (S. Medicine, obvi.)
802pm: Fall into Nyquil coma. YESSS.

...and repeat.

Today I'm a little worse than yesterday, which isn't very reassuring. In hopes of feeling better, and cleaning out my sinuses, I made some super spicy soup. Only problem? I do not want to leave my apt in this condition, so I could only use things I already had.

So here's what I had to work with (not to bad):

Ignore the Ginger Beer, I didn't cook with it.

I had some great bell peppers, left-over curry paste, coconut milk, random veggies and all the fixings for a pretty great soup.

First, I put all the veggies in the pot with a little garlic, olive oil and ginger. Then I covered the pot and sat down for about 5 minutes. Ugh.

I only added veggies that I could eat without
chopping them more than twice. Yes.

By the time I stopped being dizzy, the veggies were done. Hooray! Then I added a can of coconut milk, some water, and a little Better than Bouillon.  After that heated up a bit, I put in a big ol spoonful of curry paste (more than I usually would because I wanted this to be SPAH-ICY.) For more kick, I put in a healthy amount of red chili flakes. yummo.

Pretty good for only 3 minutes of active cooking.

At the end I added a little cilantro I had left over from something else. And here's what I came up with:

I almost exclusively eat soup with those big spoons you get from
Chinese/Pho restaurants. It tastes better, seriously.

It was perfect. Exactly what I needed for my soul, even if it wasn't an instant cure to this nasty cold.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is better! Also, if interested, here are my N/S Medicine Cold Remedies:

The 'Kill me Now!' Hot Toddy

I love Jeremiah Weed Whisky. It's not too bitey (technical term) and is pretty rea$onable. I also like to use Jasmine Tea in my Toddy's, just adds a little bit of fancy. 

For this drink, just fill the bottom of your glass with honey (I use a 3 second squirt), and whiskey. Brew the Tea a little strong, and fill the rest of the glass. Mix well, and add lemon to taste. yummo!

Love you, Southern Medicine.

'The Other Nyquil' Vodka Soda

This is just a plain'ol vodka Soda, but I added some great Edleflower-Lemon Syrup. So yummy. 

Used The Penguin again. So worth it.

I made it just like a plain ol' vodka tonic. But, in sync with Northern Medicine, I doubled the vodka.

Good night.

I swear I'm not an alcoholic. This is probably more alcohol than I've consumed in 2012 all together, but hey, I'm sick.

Sick.

I had big plans for an amazing project for today.  It was going to be epic.

I was derailed:

Couldn't get the colors quite right.
Hey. I'm sick.

Mixing it up.

I made the executive decision that I would re-design the look of the blog at the beginning of every month. Why? Because I'm the boss. That's why.

I went with a very masculine-lumber jack-meets-DIY-hipster for January. So for February, I wanted to add a little feminine-glitter-unicorn-princess-meets-brownpaperbag twist. Here is what I'm starting with:

It still needs some work, but I like where it's going.
I need to add a lot more unicorn princess glitter.

Coffee + Pork = CRAZY DELICIOUS

Happy Thursday, all! Today started out a little suspect, but promptly had an attitude check and turned into an awesome day.

Today's awesomeness was topped off with possibly the most amazing pulled pork ever. I got my recipe from an awesome blog, Budget Bytes. Some of my most favorite recipes come from this great blog. My favorite part? The author uses healthy + cheap recipes. Most servings are under $3. Also, most recipes can be fixed in under a half hour, or made ahead of time in the slow cooker. I could write a blog about how much I love her blog. But, I won't.

Her tutorial for making pulled pork is much better than anything I can do. So here it is!

And here's how my little pork butt turned out:

Yummo!

I gave Ben a choice of how he wants to eat the pulled pork. The kid is absolutely downright addicted to Chipotle, so naturally, he chose burritos.

I tried to chose toppings that were a little out-of-the-ordinary. Key word: tried.

I basically fixed the usual, BUT I added pineapple. We used lettuce, lime, guac, pineapple, onion and [of course] lots of hot sauce. 

I always use my good friend Emilie's recipe for guacamole.
She didn't necessarily give me the recipe, but I stalked her when
she made it enough times to steal the recipe.

This dinner took about 20 minutes of my undivided attention--that's it. And the pineapple on the tacos were a game changer--so good.

Affirmation

Or...in other words:

#SOTU

I wouldn't call myself a political junkie. I would, however, call myself a communication strategy junkie (CSJ). Being a CSJ, I love the State of the Union Address. Seriously.

Doesn't matter the president, or the actual state of this great country of ours. I. Love. It.  I love the constant eruptions of applause. I love when the speaker of the house is of an opposing party, and you can tell they want to roll their eyes sooo bad (I'm looking at you Pelosi and Boehner!) I love Joe Biden constantly picking his nose. I especially love a good 'stick-it-to-em' line (doesn't matter who 'em is.)

Political leanings aside, Obama is a great speaker. He's had his off times (*cough-two years-cough*) but when he is on, Obama is ON. Tonight he was definitely ON. He almost reminded me of a campaign-era Obama, you know, the one a majority of us voted for? He and his speech writing team are crafting geniuses. They know how to deliver a message, and make you feel something. He is king of the one-two punch lines, and giving a message that resonates with everyone (that is, until his opponents and critics clear the fog and realize they disagree with the guy.) "The defining issue of our time" anyone? *Shiver*

There were a lot of great lines to inspire tonight's project; a few of them were:

"The legitimate object of government, is to do for the people whatever 

they need to have done, but which they can not do, 

at all, or can not do, so well, for themselves." -Abraham Lincoln

"... They understood they were part of something larger; 

that they were contributing to a story of success that every American 

had a chance to share -- the basic American promise that if you worked hard, 

you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids

to college, and put a little away for retirement. The defining issue of our time is how to 

keep that promise alive." (talking about his grandparents)

"On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse....

We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. 

And tonight, the American auto industry is back." 

(talking about resurgence of American automakers after the bailout)

But, I instead chose the most awkward moment in the speech. The failed punch line. The awkward claps. Then, the most awesome "yeah, I just said it" smile from the POTUS. It was awesome.

"I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk"
(In relation to a ridiculous EPA regulation. Unfortunately,
the joke epically flopped, and Mr. Obama knew it. High five to Mrs. O
for the epic 'Seriously?' face. My husband knows that face well, too.)

My other favorite part of tonight's SOTU? ABC's #SOTU advertisement at the bottom of the screen. Oh, social media. You really have taken over the world.

Design Challenge.

Today, I pulled a card out of the idea jar: "design something using only your iPad." I have never done anything design related with my handy dandy iPad, so this seemed like a fun project.

I started by browsing for an app that would be challenging, yet fun to draw on. After going through several apps, I settled on Fontify, an awesome app where you use letters to create figures. I love to do this on my computer, so I inferred that I would have triple the amount of fun on my iPad.

Welp. It was fun. But damn, it was frustrating. I'm so used to having an arsenal of features and choices when I design. With Fontify, you get the choice of a dozen fonts, black, and can only rotate and resize figures. If you want to reflect, modify anchors or line up your letters on a grid--you're out of luck.

But, it was still fun. It was a real challenge. I gave myself two separate assignments: First, make a design using only one letter (randomly chosen letter, randomly chosen font.) Then, create an animal out of a randomly chosen letter.

Sorry for the ad, to get rid of it I have to buy the app.
I'm cheap, so here's a screen shot.

Started with that big ol' n

Started with an exclamation point.

Capturing Wedding Details.

Ben and I recently celebrated our quarter-year anniversary, and what a busy three months its been. So busy, in fact, that I have yet to finish going through wedding photos and hanging up pictures. I went to a great bridal shower today, and it got me motivated to finally do something with the pile of wedding stuff I have sitting on my dining room table.

I want to do a wall collage that mixes pictures with our guest book and a couple details I saved; my veil, Ben's boutonniere, a program, etc. Here are the things I want to capture:

My beautiful veil, made by my Mom.
Photo Credit: Katy Weaver Photography

This picture of my sister/MOH, Megan holding a bouquet.
Photo Credit: Katy Weaver Photography

My bouquet (dried.) I might not include this,
because it doesn't look great dried. 
Photo Credit: Katy Weaver Photography

Our super cute guest book.
Photo Credit: Blake James Photography & Katy Weaver Photography

We all are a little weird.
Photo Credit: Blake James Photography & Katy Weaver Photography

Super neat boutonnieres.
Photo Credit: Blake James Photography & Katy Weaver Photography

So today, I made a plan for these. I am going to get different sized shadow boxes for the boutoneire and veil, and arrange a mixture of frames and canvas prints. Here's the layout:

MMMmmmMMM. Mustard.

I will put this together later this week, probably on Wednesday. Stay tuned!

Put a bow on it.

As a good friend pointed out to me, I forgot to post yesterday. But, that doesn't mean I didn't do anything! Sorry :)

In the past, I have spent a lot of time thinking about or making gifts. But when it becomes time to wrap it, or package it I fall completely short. In preparation to give a lovely bride her gift, I spent a lot of time packaging u napkin cupcakes from earlier in the week.

I went out and bought a cake box (gotta love a theme!) I wanted to stick with the ribbon I used to wrap the cupcakes, and I spent a while planning how to make it pretty, without making it impossible to open.

Here was the final product:

Just Dance.

After some crazy creative driving techniques driving up to Seattle, my creative brain is a little fatigued.

Tonight, I dance with my BFF/sister-in-law Emily.

I don't have time for this, either.

Every once in a while, someone will make the statement to me, "Your new years resolution is neato.  I don't have the time to do something like that." (I'm paraphrasing.) Usually I give a, "Yeah...life is so busy blahdy blah." My real answer? "ME NEITHER."

Tonight, after working a full day, after-work appointments, and a meeting at church, I got home at 9pm. When I got home, I still had to eat dinner, start some laundry for a quick trip to Seattle, and start packing for Seattle. I also need to sleep early because I have a bootcamp-style workout tomorrow morning at 6am, to be quickly followed by a full day at work and driving up to Seattle.

I do not have time for this.

But, I didn't go into this project thinking it would be easy. I knew there were days that I needed a break. I knew there were days that I would have to force it. But, I also knew that I needed this. I love this project, and rain, shine or SNOMG, I will make time for this project.

In the sake of being able to wake up tomorrow at 5am for my class, tonight's project was something on the tip of my tongue. I also gave myself a 15 minute time-limit to complete.

After the weatherama the PNW has endured this week, I thought they deserved a quick logo. First, I started with Seattle's brave trek through the snow/ice/wind:

Quite possibly the most common Status Update I have seen this week.

And one for Portland's attempt at a weather event this week:

 Messy, messy.

Fun-due!

Ben and I love to have people over, and today we had a blast with our friends Cassie and Kaitlyn!

One of our favorite things to do is FUNDUE!

Tonight's post is short, but here was our spread. Email me if you want a recipe--it was delish!

It's [almost] Wedding Season!

Ta Da! Cupcake Napkins!

Wedding season is coming up in a short five months, meaning the next five months are filled with fun engagement parties, bridal showers and [my favorite] bachelorette parties. In the next weekend, I get to attend both an engagement party and a bridal shower. I wanted to think of a special gift for the bridal shower this weekend, and started mining around on Pinterest last week. I found a lot of neat tutorials for towel cakes. Then, I saw a cute little tutorial for washcloth cupcakes:

I decided to put my own spin on it, and make cloth napkin cupcakes on a nice serving platter. Here's how I did it:

I used two different color napkins, I took some hints from their wedding colors (purple, silver) and added green for another pop of color.  I ironed the napkins so they would be a little easier to fold and twist.

Then, I folded the green napkins in thirds, then in thirds again.

So, maybe my ironing skills weren't great...

Then, I twisted and fastened with a pretty pin.

I call this color, Sleepy Olive. So soothing. 

I took the white napkin and tightly rolled it, then twisted it like a cinnamon roll.

I put a pin in the middle just to help with the twisting.

Then, I was able to shape it like frosting and fasted it with a pretty pin.

Yummo.

Then, I connected the 'cake' with the 'frosting' with another pretty pin.

I used 2 pins to make sure they stayed connected.

I decorated them with ribbon, twine and beads I had laying around (I have so much of this stuff post-wedding.) And...

Pretty, Pretty!

I love the lace ribbon & twine combination.

  I'm excited to think of a neat way to wrap these...hmm.... Another project for another day.

Me and Jenny goes together like peas & carrots.

Today, I challenged myself to illustrate something. My illustration skills aren't great, so I wanted to start easy and simple. I also wanted to make something for one of my friends getting married this summer (I won't say who, so I won't ruin the surprise.)

So here it goes:

I love Forest Gump, and I love peas with faces on them.
But, surprisingly, I don't think I like to eat peas with carrots.

I almost put pajamas on the bananas,
but that would be too much cute.


...and the one that ties it all together.

I made these 5x5 small prints. I figure I can make a 3 panel print out of them, or maybe even make a couple more (salt + pepper, wasabi + sushi?) and make a set of coasters.

I had a lot of fun with these today. It was definitely an amateur attempt at illustration, but I have to start somewhere, right?

Terrifying.

Today's project came via the idea jar, "Make something you are terrified of."

I wasn't feeling too brave today, so I decided to interpret this as, "Cook something with an ingredient you're terrified of messing up."

For me, this is Brussels Sprouts.

Terrifying, right?

In my 24 years, I've had two kinds of brussels sprouts; life-changing-melt-in-your-mouth-amazing, and horrible-awful-no-good-very-bad-tastes-like-fire. So naturally, I am terrified of making the latter. But, since I live in trendy Portlandia, and brussels sprouts were deemed one of the 'trendiest' vegetables of 2012 by Eating Well magazine, I need to master the BS before I get excommunicated.

I found a recipe from my favorite iPhone App for cooking (How to Cook Everything) that seemed easy enough, and I embarked on my terrifying cooking adventure.

The recipe said to 'trim and half' the sprouts. I'm guessing this is what it meant:

AHHHHHH!!

I heated a pan with olive oil, then put the BS cut-side-down. After a minute or so, I tossed them with some garlic, salt and pepper. Then put it into a 450-degree oven. I gave them a quick toss every 5 minutes until they cooked for about 30 minutes.

I wasn't exactly sure if my pans are oven-safe.
Another terrifying part of this process.

They came out like this:

My first thought? Damn.

At this point, I was scared shitless. Basically, I thought I burned them, and made the horrible-awful-no-good-very-bad-tastes-like-fire version of brussels sprouts. I decided to keep going, just in case and tossed them with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

They were a part of Ben and I's monthly 'special' dinner. We always try to do something special for the 15th of the month to celebrate the 'little anniversaries' since we got married in October. This month marked 3 months. Feels so weird starting over on the anniversaries, especially since we've been dating officially for about 9.5 years...

Here was the dinner:

I also made steak--something I'm terrified of touching.
Overall, this was a terrifying dinner.

And you know what? The brussels sprouts were freakin' awesome. Seriously. I could have had an entire plate of them. They were amazing.

As I was eating dinner tonight, I realized something about this project; this is just as much about creating things as it is about getting me out of my comfort zone. I have become so good at staying within the brackets of 'what I'm good at' that I have rarely stepped outside it. I've noticed this especially since graduating in 2009. It's almost like I was constantly forced to do things that fell outside of the realm of what I was good at while I was in school, that I instantly rebelled and became complacent in where I was once I graduated. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but you get the gist.

So tonight, I made brussels sprouts. I didn't change the world. I didn't solve any major problem. I didn't even necessarily do anything difficult. But, I did something that I wouldn't have done last month. And, for what it's worth, it felt good. It felt good because I succeeded.

Through this project, I guarantee I'm going to take a risk and epically fail. Somehow, I need to learn how to be OK with that, and not be afraid of how it turns out. I put a few ideas in my idea jar tonight of things that I would like to improve on, but are typically outside my brackets of what I'm good add. Stay tuned.

Thanks all, have a great week.

Ginger.

Today, I'm totally on a ginger kick. (read: not kicking Gingers, I think that was ruled a hate crime.) I went grocery shopping and not only bought about a pound of ginger, but also a 4-pack of ginger beer. Then, I got home and decided I was going to make some home-made ginger ale. yummo.

I bought Ben a Penguin for Christmas; a totally frivolous soda-water maker that we use every day (seriously.) For the past month we have been experimenting with different syrups/drink combinations, and today I decided to try to make ginger ale syrup.

Here's how I did it:

I put a cup of sugar, cup of water and a cup of chopped up fresh ginger in a pot and boiled it for a really long time (I got sidetracked watching the 49ers v. Saints, so I boiled it for about as long as the third quarter was, my guess: 30 minutes?) then I let it sit and steep for another 30 minutes or so.

If I was on a cooking show, they would make lots of
comments about how my knife skills are 'lacking.' Psh.

I wish I had a finer strainer, but this worked pretty well.

mmm. Mushy, sugary ginger.

Now, the fun part. I made soda water using this little guy:

If you're going to buy a totally frivolous soda maker, buy The Penguin.
He's cute, uses glass bottles and whistles when your soda is done.

mixed about 3 spoonfuls of the syrup to about 6 oz of water.

There's my ugly counter-tops, again. Sick.

It tastes pretty good. It is definitely different than your typical store-bought ginger ale--but I think I like this much better. It tastes awesome with a little lemon [and gin.]

Back to the football game. Currently, Tebow is totally not Tebowing It for my Broncos. I really hope this changes ASAP.