With a year wrapping up and Thanksgiving just around the bend, I’ve lately found myself thinking about many a thing short and sweet.
Things like:
Quick trips with one’s family and my mom too. She’s the itty bitty one in the picture … Continue reading
There are some things I won’t do.
Base jump, skydive, eat baby octopi.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. I have eaten baby octopi, but in my defense, I had no idea they’d actually be baby octopi, look like they did, or come with my seaweed salad. I should have sent it back the moment I realized the horror, but didn’t want to be rude, and it almost killed me.
I came close to hurling at least half a dozen times that day. True fact. Continue reading
These days, I am consistently amazed by the kindness of so-called strangers.
Particularly, strangers of the food blogging-kind.
United together over the commonality of whirring food processors, natural light, clicking keyboards and all things food, we solitarily create away, often unawares that there’s a whole brother and sisterhood of people out there just like us.
The word “community” gets tossed around a lot in the blog and foodie-spheres and as much as I consider myself an eternal realistic optimist, I’ve also managed to rub up against some cynicism that’s stuck to me like a barnacle on the tail of a whale. Continue reading
I have a terrible habit of waiting too long to eat. Usually by the time I do, I’m pouring ketchup on my shoe.
When I do that, things tend to go down like this:
Stage One
I notice I’m hungry, but too engrossed (okay, obsessed) in whatever it is I’m doing and forget. Yup. Forget.
Stage Two
I notice that I’m really hungry and think for a moment this time that I should do something about it but — much like a squirrel — I get distracted and then forget. Some more. But — unlike a squirrel — I don’t go get me some nuts. Continue reading
Friends? Confession.
I’m kinda one of Those People.
Those People who have a thing about people laying down on their unmade beds with the same jeans they happened to wear out into the world all day.
Just the thought turns me into an eye-ticking germaphobe. Maybe it’s the years of riding public transportation but it skeeves me out like no other.
The way I see it, you never know what your butt has been in. Continue reading
Ah, fall.
The very word conjures up visions of fallen leaves in glorious color.
Cozy fires crackling in the fireplace.
Fluffy, puffy comforters.
Best-ever sleeping weather.
And … colds.
Yup, it’s official. I’m sick. And not just me, but poor Christopher too. And his mom back in Minnesota. Continue reading
Image from BaronBob.Com
Happy Friday, everyone!
First and foremost, thank you to all who responded to my last post (and giveaway) so far!
All your thank you entries were so touching, and I am so glad that you decided to share them. I know that those you chose to thank, absolutely, positively had their days made.
Speaking of giveaways, it’s now officially underway! Don’t forget — if you are interested in entering — to make sure to do so no later than 11:59pm PST on Monday, October 8, 2012. Don’t want you to miss out!
Okay, a few upcoming, important things to let you know about: Continue reading
I love you guys. I really do.
I love that you stop by during your busy days to read what I write, look at the pictures I take, and leave some love for me to find.
Like benevolent fairies that put the Tooth Fairy to shame, you take time out of your own lives to touch a big part of mine, and for that I thank you.
There was a time not so long ago, where I wondered if anyone read my blog, when four out of the five hits I received in a day were my own. Continue reading
This past weekend, the honey and I hightailed it to Seattle for a movie night and super-dinner get-together over my brother Niko’s house.
Replete with the best of friends — Sarah and Jon — we celebrated over salmon, mashed potatoes, caprese salad and wine and finished it all off with the best chocolate cupcakes ever (you rock, Sarah)!
I don’t have a picture of them ’cause they’re in my tummy.
We shaked our bon-bon, had a dance off, repeatedly tried not to accidentally step on the cat, and sang a very loud, out-of-tune rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” to Jon. Baring the early birthday tune, pretty much “the usual” for us. Continue reading
Life’s little successes.
Life is all about celebrating them — the little yet huge milestones in life that most often pass unnoticed without a single “woot!”
We often think that successes are all massive ones, like when we:
But it’s the little successes that add up to a whole tanker-full and that often matter the most.
Let me elaborate. Continue reading
I love pauses.
I didn’t always.
Okay, maybe I should explain.
I used to be afraid of the pauses between sentences, in conversations between two people.
Specifically, between boys I was just getting to know and kind of liked, and people I really wanted to like me.
I used to fill those natural spaces in conversation like one would grout a tub — filling every crack, making sure not a single inch of space remained. Continue reading
There are days when nothing seems to work out right.
It all started with biscuits that turned into scones, but not before they looked like cow pies.
Tasty ones, I’ll give ’em that, but they did not look right. And they photographed even worse.
Being a blogger of all things food can have it’s challenges.
There are days when:
With Fall just around the corner, Summer becomes much more important.
We in the Pacific Northwest wait for it like some wait for Christmas.
We hold our breath, afraid that if we blink a few too many times — due to the what-the-what-is-that?! blinding orb in the sky — we might miss it.
It arrives crazy-fashionably late, like a flaxen-haired princess on the back of a chariot. All too soon, her ride turns the corner and we find ourselves holding a half-eaten corn dog and nothing but a faint, Vitamin-D memory of her. Continue reading
I must admit, Tuesdays are not my favorite thing.
It’s the day of the week when the Lawn People come to tend to my apartment complex’s green stuff.
They descend upon it like a swarm of weed-whacking locusts and hang out from 8:00am – 3:00pm to drive me nuts, and make me want to go jiu jitsu on the next nearest living thing.
They add to the already omnipresent noise of yowling little toddler residents, and the frenzied “Go potty, come on, go potty, go potty…don’t eat that!” of dog-crazy people waiting for their dogs to poop just below my kitchen window.
I know that the Lawn People are here to at least make things pretty for me, but it all just makes me want to go ballistic. Continue reading
Today we’re wrapping up with our final 5 on our list of Top 15 Things Every Small Kitchen Must Have.
*sniff*
Okay, I’m done…
You’ve waited long enough, so let’s get right to ’em!
10. Your most-used items all within arms’ reach. This includes your spices, oils, and go-to utensils that you find yourself using all the time. ‘Cause, let’s face it, you don’t want to be digging through a cluttered drawer in the middle of flipping pancakes.
11. A cook that cleans and “puts away” as they go. Almost as huge as Tyler Florence‘s clean counter space concept (see Part II). When Niko and I were real little, my mom would put on an Ernie and Bert album so we could “pick it up and put it away, put it away, put it away”. Continue reading
Small Kitchen Chronicles 