Snacky dinner. Cute puppies. Cold lizard.

Today wasn't a hungry day. For dinner I had a couple of steamed baby artichokes with some tasty sauce I made with mayo, creme fraiche, salt & pepper, and lemon juice...

... and a BLT! I can't remember the last time I had one. Jewish Rye bread (what can I say?) with romaine lettuce, fresh tomato, and Applegate Farms organic bacon. Applegate Farms is great, their smoked bacon is uncured and has no added nitrates. Their pigs are fed a vegetarian diet and aren't treated with antibiotics or growth hormones.

Here are some obligatory pictures of the Westies. You're not tired of them yet, are you?
=)

Maggie being terrifying!

Malo being pathetic.

There was a very cold and miserable looking lizard on my porch. I almost wanted to bring it inside, but then I remembered that they are outside every night, and they seem to be doing fine. Poor Bill. Not that this lizard had anything to do with a chimney. I don't even have a chimney. Alice in Wonderland? Anyone?

I did my grocery shopping today and got some great things. Be on the lookout for blogs involving shrimp, calamari, filet mignon, leeks, and other assorted fabulousness.

Sunday breakfast and some sushi pictures.

I wanted a smoothie this morning. I don't own a blender. I do, however, own a food processor. I used that instead and didn't have any issues.
I haven't made a smoothie in I don't know how long, but I have this protein powder that is disgusting on it's own. It needed some friends and a trip to a food processor.
I started with a banana (organic and free trade certified, of course).

I also added 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter, a dash of vanilla extract, plain soy milk, 1 scoop of the chocolate flavored whey protein, and some ice.

It was amazing. I just might make another one for lunch. Before anyone thinks, "It's SO bad to just have a smoothie for lunch, blah blah blah" keep in mind that this thing has about 405 calories.

The Slippery Mermaid! On Thursday, Brittany, Bethany, and I went out for sushi. Bethany sent me the pictures this morning (I had forgotten my camera) and now I'll share them here. Some of them are blurry and I'm sorry, but it isn't the sort of place for repeated photo taking.
My plate:

Merry Mermaid (background) - Scallops, shrimp, bacon, scallions, and spicy mayo inside; outside smoked salmon.
Psycho Mermaid (foreground) - Shrimp tempura roll topped with spicy baked crab salad and drizzled with eel sauce.
Brittany's plate:
(look how happy she is!)

Dixie Roll (background) - Tuna, bacon, cream cheese, topped with spicy mayo.
Dragon Roll (foreground) - Spicy tuna, cucumber, and tempura crunch inside; tuna, avocado, eel, tobiko, spicy mayo and red chili sauce outside.
Bethany's plate:

Raider Roll- Seared steak and avocado. Fish? No. Delicious? Yes.
We all shared our rolls, and had some edamame before our entrees. I love this place. And these girls!

Mushrooms and Broccoli, and a nod to Salinger.

I'm tired.

That being said, I made myself a delicious vegetarian dinner tonight.
Polenta (Squee!) with mushroom cream sauce made with the fresh organic Shiitake mushrooms I bought at Ever'Man, along with some broccoli cooked with red pepper flakes, lemon zest, and garlic.
Stop underlining the word 'Shiitake' in red computer, it isn't spelled wrong. Not to mention that it's a proper noun and can be spelled however it wants.

I blanched the broccoli very quickly, then drained it and sauteed it in olive oil along with the previously stated ingredients. It was awesome, and I'll be making it again for sure.

On to a more somber topic.
As most of you hopefully already know, the world lost American author Jerome David Salinger on Wednesday, January 27th. J.D. Salinger wrote the hugely influential The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, as well as several novellas.
The Catcher in the Rye opened up the whole world of American literature to me. Franny and Zooey is always in my car as my "if I stop by a coffee shop and want to read something" book. While his list of works is short, they were all incredibly well written and he will be missed.
Salinger died at age 91, and hadn't given an interview of any kind since 1980, and his last original work was published back in 1965. He was known for his reclusive nature, and it's nice to know that he lived a peaceful, calm, long life.
To reference Holden Caulfield, it's still crummy. (If you get that, good. If not, don't worry about it.)
“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”
-J.D. Salinger

Lunch!

This is going to be a short post, I need to get ready for work.
Today I wanted to have something new and interesting for lunch.
That new and interesting thing involved shallots, green grapes, and lemon supremes.

Here's my lunch!
Chicken paillards with a sauce of lemon juice, butter, olive oil, dijon mustard, chicken stock, shallots, lemon supremes, and grapes. Garnished with pink peppercorns and fresh parsley and served with some crispy fries.

Delicious! I'm off to go learn cold bar at Starbucks, have a great Saturday everybody.

♥

Pretties

Today Angelina and I took a trip to Pensacola to go to the mall, Ever'Man, and the Navy base.
Good times.
Some of the loot:

Fabulous smelling Bath & Body Works Lemongrass and Cardamom body lotion, and the soap (olive and coriander!) that Angelina surprised me with this morning! Look at the little bird nest! I'm in love with them ♥

Braden's room is done up with jungle animals. I saw these little animal washcloths and had to get them for Bethany.

Thank you Starbucks, for making me purchase ugly shoes. I had to get leather, non-slip, black shoes that covered my whole foot. Yuck I hate them! But they're perfect for work, hahaha.
At Ever'Man, the greatest grocery store on the planet, I found some little patty pan squash and creme fraiche.
Bliss.

heeheeheeheehee

Giant Scary Bird

Apparently I cannot go more than a day without having a lengthy discussion with Angelina.

Today the discussion(s) was over some tasty homemade creamy tomato soup a la Angelina.
Followed by leftover apple crisp, naturally.

Happy little fruits roasting away in the oven.

Soup! It was so good, creamy and delicious with an amazingly fresh tomato taste. Nice job Angelina.
Just so everyone knows, Angelina does a great John Wayne walk. Just ask her.
(I had to edit this photo to make this sharper, he was far away.)
This is the great blue heron of death that stalks the outside of her house. He watches you and then comes down to eat your koi named Robertalby.
For serious.

Tomorrow Angelina and I are taking a little jaunt out to Pensacola and then Brittany and hopefully Bethany (of Team Poese) will be dining on sushi. Angelina, of course you're invited.
=)

Work at the Bux has been going well, I'm still in training so there's a lot of paperwork to be done. I have bar training this weekend, can't wait.

Lazy Tuesday

I didn't work today. I won't say when I finally got out of bed, but my my did I sleep in. I'm not even sorry.
Today I took the Westies to the dog park along with Angelina and her two pups, Bella and Mika.
The dogs had a great time, but I forgot my camera so I don't have a pictures of their shenanigans, and that's a shame.

Malo and Maggie fell asleep in the car on they way home, they were that tired. Now they're both laying on the couch. I wanted something vegetarian for dinner, so I made some roasted fingerling potatoes, green beans, and an awesome salad of tomatoes and cucumbers with some Knorr Salad Kronung (it's German) dressing.

Green beans and tomatoes are probably some of the best foods ever.

Bon Lundi ♥

This past weekend was great. On Saturday I went to Destin to get my hair cut by the fabulous Amy at the Aveda salon in the commons. Team Poese came with, and we had a lot of fun strolling around, drinking coffee, eating sandwiches and jumping my effing car. Yeah, long story. Everything seems okay now though.

Sunday Angelina and I went to Starbucks and then decided that we wanted Sushi. We went to The Slippery Mermaid, a place that Angelina recommended. So. Good.
Fo' Reals.
I had the Merry Mermaid and the .... something Sunset. It was amazing. The Merry Mermaid is a roll that has shrimp and scallops, and then spicy tuna is wrapped around the rice and topped with a teeny blob of spicy mayo. And did I mention that there is just a tiny bit of bacon? Bacon.
I am awesome and thoughtful and did not bring my camera. I will next time. Because oh, there will be a next time.

Today was my first day of work at Starbucks. =)
It was fun, mostly paperwork and basic barista training type stuff. I'm off tomorrow and then work again Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
I worked today from 0730-1130. When I got home, I wanted to make something good for lunch, so I made a quick puttanesca sauce and threw that over some fresh pasta. The sauce is simple to make and it's made from ingredients that I always have on hand: Tomatoes, onion, garlic, Kalamata olives, capers, anchovies, and olive oil.

At around 6 this afternoon I headed over to Angelina's house for dinner. She made amazing (from scratch) chicken Alfredo over fettuccine, a gorgeous Caesar salad with fresh made croutons, and the queen mother of all desserts.

Apple Crisp. Amazing crunchy topping, complete with homemade whipped cream, as she had a cream charger. Where has this woman been my whole life?
I brought over some lavender-fleur de sel caramel sauce that I made the other day. I'll be posting the recipe for that, as well as the Lavender Chocolate Brownies that I made for Bethany at Ever So Sweet sometime very soon. I'm such a slacker.

And now for a a quick meet and greet with Angelina and her furry puppy kids.

This is Mika. She is a midget, but has no idea. She wants to be the alpha dog.
And here we have Bella. She's a sweet little babykins, at only 2 years old. Don't excite her. Trust me. She also has no concept of how large she is.
And this is Angelina. Doesn't she have a pretty smile?
It is now 2 am! We seem to lose track of time when we're hanging out, and then we get surprised, like, "HAS IT SERIOUSLY BEEN 7 HOURS?!"
It's funny. I'm going to bed.
Dog park tomorrow!

Chicken Tagine and Long Conversations

Tonight Angelina came over and I cooked.
And cooked and cooked and cooked.
I tend to prepare food for my guests with no thought given to allergies or personal preference.
Tonight in my meal I used chickpeas, eggplant, olives, and preserved lemon peel, to name a few things.
Angelina loved it! Which made me very happy, considering that I've really only ever cooked my little heart out for a select few people.

Sorry, it's blurry.
I made a tagine of chicken with olives and preserved lemon, stewed eggplant with tomatoes and chickpeas, and couscous. It was fabulous, if I do say so myself.
Angelina and I hung out for (I sh*t you not) about 7 hours, drinking tea and talking about life and love and everything in between. It's funny, because it doesn't feel like that long when you're actually engaged in conversation. Our first telephone conversation lasted 5 hours, I think we just might be 'hang out for an extended period of time and not get bored' people. Good.
Oh, and tonight I think a began mending a very important friendship that had been nearly broken. And that made me happy.

There were also some clovers in my Italian parsley.
It was strange.

Friday!

On Monday I start working at the Bux.

Cripes I can't wait.

Just thought I'd share that.

Am I the only person that gets genuine joy from cleaning her house? I always hear people groaning about housework. What gives? You live in your house, don't you want it clean? Smelling pretty? Sparkly? Well, I do.
I love vacuuming. I mean, I seriously love it. Seeing lines in my carpet from my Dirt Devil (can't wait to upgrade to a Dyson) makes me breathe a little easier. I vacuum every day. Sometimes twice a day. Shut up, I have pets and allergies.
I find that having a routine makes it more enjoyable. Mondays and Thursdays are bed linens days. Other laundry is done every third day. Vacuuming and dusting are done daily, as well as wiping down kitchen cabinets and surfaces. I organize my pantry, deep clean my fridge, and wash my windows monthly.I recieved this book from Ricky for Christmas. I've been wanting it forever! It's full of great advice, green cleaning product recipes, and tons of helpful hints about keeping your home shiny happy. In the words of our Earth Mother Goddess Martha, "It's a good thing."
=)

Funtastic Thursday

Allow me to start this off by telling you that my home phone has been down since the middle of yesterday because Mediacom is awful, so that's cool. Luckily we have a Google Phone, and I was able to text my friend from it. Thank goodness I married a geek! ♥

Angelina (my long lost family member) and I went to see Up In The Air this afternoon. If you haven't seen it, go take care of that. That's all I have to say on the matter.Before the lovely film we enjoyed some tall skinny cinnamon dolce lattes and perused the mall.
That's a picture of me being really excited about the effing Twilight garbage in Hot Topic. We laughed. Heartily.
Seriously, you have no idea how ridiculously out of place we looked in Hot Topic. Pretty awesome.
We then stopped by the glorious Publix and did a little grocery shopping.
It's hilarious hanging out with Angelina. We both love and hate the same things, so it's good, and I don't have to feel like an ass when I say something mean. =)
Wow I just really looked at that picture. They really make Twilight duvet covers? What the hell is wrong with people.

oh my jeez

I can't wait to get my next tattoo.

How cute are these? I really like the bow one, but I already have a bow tattoo... I dunno though... I haven't decided on colors, and what's with the cherries? I get the symbolism but when was the last time you saw a cupcake with a cherry on it? It's not a sundae people. Maybe something with lavender flowers on it. I have no idea. I just know that I'm getting another tattoo, and it's going to be a cupcake. =)