Friday, February 11, 2011

(minus)365 :: Day 42

Whoa! Look who's back... it's the girl who wants to get rid of a lot of stuff. Decided to suck up being so sleepy & get something done tonight. This was the easiest thing on my list. Heh. So here's more stuff I'm kicking outta my house:


61. Candle holders - these used to have mesh covers but one broke & then I was gonna craft up something new. But never did.
62. Hanging star candle holder - This used to have a stand & a glass in the middle... no idea what happened to them.
63. Paper towel holder - it holds paper towels.
64. Canisters - these are cute & I thought about taking the decorative stickers off but then I saw that your not suppose to put food right in them. WTF?
65. Cocktail shaker - For the holidays when your regular cocktail shaker isn't fancy enough!
66. More candlesticks
67. A book on conscious eating & a repair guide to the car I donated last year.
68. Photo snow globes - These were all the rage in 1997!
69. Little decorative box - too many of these around here.
70. Trivial Pursuit - I've only played this once w/my old friends who gave it to me.


71. Another little pile of clothes - there will be so many more clothes. Trust.
72. Two more bags - and prolly more purses.
73. Snoopy hook rug kit - Another craft that I'm probably never gonna do.
74. Wine rack - the wine bottles don't sit centered on this... I'm like Monk about stuff like that.
75. Workout video - I gave this weight bar to my brother so I don't need the video. Also... video.
76. Book - I got this for graduation. From high school. It's bible-ly. I am not.
77. DVR remote - no more DVR so I don't need no remote for one.
78. iZone Polaroid camera - I was sooo excited to find this & with film (1 photo) still in it. Little mini Polaroids. I switched out the batteries and well, it didn't work. :(
79. Manny Ramirez beanie bear - Bought this when the Indians were really good & still had good players. Manny broke some sort of record the night I bought it.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I like you

Someone asked me recently what my favorite personal blogs are but I totally blanked on all but 2 when I tried to answer. So I promised a little list... and now 3 weeks later, here it is!

Now, before I begin, let me say: I'm horrible at expressing, in coherent words, what exactly I like about stuff (people, movies, books, art, etc). Or why I like it. Unless, "it's awesome," "it's cool," or "it's really interesting" are good descriptors. I am a woman of few words, I guess. Not surprisingly, I really hate being described by other people, because I usually feel people are missing the nuances & complexities of my personality. And the nuances & complexities are the best part of people, IMHO. So, I'm not even gonna pretend to know everything about the people behind these blogs. Blogs are just a peek into people's lives & personalities... and usually a carefully edited peek. For whatever reason, I like these blogs best. They are the blogs that I scan Reader for first. And I'm usually not disappointed.

Yeah... so, without commentary, here's a list:
I feel like I'm missing a couple but it's hard to make sense of my Reader in it's 600+ blog current state. Maybe, I need to organize a bit. :)

    Saturday, February 5, 2011

    Your Daily Cholesterol

    You may have heard that the government people put out some new dietary guidelines this week... Eat less food. Eat more veggies/fruits/whole grains, yada yada yada. Your basic common sense stuff that many Americans (including me quite a lot of my life) choose to ignore. The government will also ignore this data by continuing to subsidize crops (like corn & soy) that are mostly broken down & added into cheap nasty (but often delicious) overly processed foods. And by green-lighting any GMO thing some gross corporation I will not name comes up with, which will spread around & make life harder for the organic food industry. But, I'm not here to bitch about our broken food industry. I'm here to share with you a little sandwich I invented* that laughs in the face of the gov's recommended daily cholesterol consumption (< 300mg/day).

    Now on a daily basis, I don't eat a lot of high cholesterol foods (meat, dairy, eggs). So I think it's perfectly reasonable to splurge a little on the weekend, as long as you're aware that it's splurging. (side note: I just realized my shirt is on inside out - go me!) And this sandwich is my Saturday brunch splurge.

    Let's look at the ingredients:


    Simple enough, eh?
    • Onion ciabattini (from West Point Market)
    • 2 eggs (organic free range - local if you got 'em)
    • Smoked hot pepper cheddar cheese (shredded) (from West Point Market)
    • Oh, and butter (I use light butter)
    Sometimes, I only use one egg. And you could easily just use eggs whites. There are many ways to vary this to make it a bit less heart-deadly. But this is the way I originally made it, so this is what I wanted to share w/you. Here's what you do... fry your eggs (or scramble them, whatever you prefer). When I first break the eggs onto my griddle, I sort of corral them into a rectangle shape w/a spatula until they set. While the first side of the egg is cooking, slice the ciabattini bread in half (1 sandwich is only half the size of that bread in the photo above) & then slice it down the center lengthwise to make it 2 pieces of bread. Butter the outside of the bread & shred a little cheese. Flip your egg to let the other side cook & sprinkle the cheese on top of the already cooked side. When the egg is done, fold it over so that the cheese is in the center, all melty & delicious like. Now grill the buttered side of the bread & build your sandwich. The end result will look something like this:



    It's DIVINE. Trust. Don't even think about the cholesterol, just enjoy it.


    *it sounds so dumb to say you "invented" something that is essentially 3 ingredients... but I guess there's a million ways to make a breakfast sandwich & it's all how you vary those simple ingredients, right?

    Thursday, February 3, 2011

    Foodz

    I'm still going strong w/my vegetarian weekdays, here are some meals I have made in the past two weeks:

    Spiced Lentil Tacos from Self Magazine - I have made these before and I highly recommend them. I don't miss the meat at all. The taco shells I already had in my pantry were unfortunately stale so I ate this like nachos instead. The sour cream mixture is great but for the most part, I left it off. Very delicious.

    Quick Chickpea Curry from Everyday Food - Another recipe I've enjoyed before. Last time, I made couscous to serve it over but this time I picked up some whole grain naan bread to go with it. I refuse to use HFCS-tainted ketchup for anything other the occasional hot dog, so I substituted regular tomato sauce. I also used a pinch of cinnamon instead of the cinnamon stick, and no cloves (cause I didn't have any). Oh, plus extra curry powder & some cumin. Delicious.

    Sweet Potato & Quinoa Salad from Mark Bittman - I made this tonight. My first Bittman recipe! Which is odd, because I read (and loved) his book, Food Matters, which is full of recipes. And his old NYT column, which was full of recipes. This is super simple to make & soooooo good. I did the balsamic vinegar in the dressing. Fresh, light, just pure YUM.

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011

    Oh... hey.

    I swear I haven't forgotten about my (minus)365 challenge. I have a pile of stuff waiting to be photographed but I've been busy w/work, shoveling my driveway, playing ball w/puppies, cooking delicious food, & other junk. Plus I bought a Roku so I've been busy watching things on Netflix. Hee.

    Anywho, I'll try to get some photos up this weekend and get back on track. I'll also be posting more bathroom inspiration and a list of my favorite blogs. Sure, I could have just done one of those things instead of writing this, but where's the fun in that? I am also still working on closet makeover #1.:P

    Oh, and I changed my template (again) & haven't finished adding/adjusting things. I'm trying to decide what to add to the footer... there's room for 4 lists. So, I'm mulling that over in my frozen brain.