I just took the most amazing walk at city park.
In between the police sirens, chainsaws and planes flying over head I allowed myself to get lost in a whole other world. I got about 1/2 mile into the walk when it started to rain and my tedious bothersome exercise became a peaceful relaxing journey full of life and beauty. I slowed my pace to a stroll and really started to take in my surroundings. The hypnotizing sound of the rain splashing on the leafs. The wonderfully intoxicating aroma of the wild flowers growing on either side of the path. The abundant life growing from a ground full of leaves of seasons passed and fallen branches. I saw two perfectly curved vines intertwined to form the shape of an eye creating the perfect frame for the trees and water beyond.
From the young fragile saplings to the towering sturdy trees providing temporary coverage from the rain, I took everything in. I saw art. I saw beauty. I felt tranquility. I closed my eyes and looked to the sky as I walked and felt the rain hit my face. I smiled.
The rain continues as I sit here on the wet grass under the low lying coverage of a tree. Lillie is exploring the field in front of me. Bright yellow buttercups grow to my right. I don't want to to leave. But alas, I have lasagna waiting at my moms house.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
No One Likes Detours
Well, it's been almost a month since my last entry. (Unless you count my awful anti-love rant that has since been removed. Sorry folks, it was a bad week. haha) I have a ton of stuff I could write about, but I'm sure no one wants to read a novel about my July activities so I'll just give a quick recap, more for the future me then anything else.
(There is a quality entry after all these pictures, skip ahead if you'd like)
(There is a quality entry after all these pictures, skip ahead if you'd like)
I had people over for the 4th of July. It was fun.
I had fresh bruschetta and watermelon martinis with mom one day.
I went to Mystic Aquarium with a couple friends. It was a really fun summer day trip. After Mystic we grabbed food in Narragansett, drove around enjoying the beautiful weather and finished the night at Fat Belly's in Warwick where I enjoyed a delicious Strawberry Milkshake Martini! Yum!
There was a crazy storm one afternoon and a large portion of one of my trees broke and fell into the street. Fortunately it didn't damage anything. And since it was blocking the street the city came and took care of it for me :)
Lillie and I hid in my room...
Last weekend I went to a friend's bridal shower. The theme was vintage tea party and I went all out getting dressed up. I curled my hair, applied vintage makeup and bought a dress. I'd like to practice my vintage look and maybe do it more often. Unfortunately the baby blue contacts I wore that day I can't wear anymore. I had bought them along with purple and green pairs online and one of them did some nice damage to my eyes and one even got infected. So...no more awesome colored eyes for me :(
Her mom did a wonderful job with everything. The table looked beautiful and she went to antique stores to get all the tea sets she used for the table and as favors. I LOVE the one with the yellow flowers!
And finally, step two of the beer brewing process (bottling) is complete! We chose the name Spontaneous Bierleichen (German for "beer corpse") since it's an Oktoberfest, we spontaneously decided to brew it and if you drink too much you'll become a beer corpse! (I guess...?) Honestly, I probably won't even like the beer. I'm not a big fan of Oktoberfest. But it was still fun to be part of the brewing process.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Summer Vacation 2012
Well, the rest of my vacation was even more fabulous then the beginning of it. I was able to shift my thinking and priorities and get myself out of that little mental rut I was in. I cooked, spent time outside, played games, saw friends and just relaxed. I really needed this break from work and I went back in Saturday with a positive attitude.
I find it amusing that on my vacation from the kitchen I was most excited to cook. I guess food and cooking is a bigger passion for me then I like to admit. First I was craving meatballs, so I found a recipe for Italian Turkey Meatballs and made them at like 9pm on Monday night. I wasn't even hungry by the time they were done, but they came out delicious. I definitely couldn't tell they were turkey.
My next cooking project was Chocolate Mint Bars. It was a two day process (mostly because I started at like 8 at night), and mine didn't come out like the picture on the website but they sure were yummy! Though I'm not sure how healthy they really were despite coming from the Cooking Light website. The base of the bar was a cake type mix made from scratch. Once that was baked and cooled the mint layer was added, then a glaze (butter and chocolate...where's the light part of this?). I still have some, I should probably throw them away but come on now. There are starving children in Africa!! (That's good justification right?)
The next morning I made myself a brunch fit for a queen! (I woke up too late for breakfast) I'm a huge fan of quiche but it is NOT a healthy dish. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a 1/2 egg, 1/2 cream omelet inside a pie crust. Delicious, but not figure friendly. So I found a recipe for Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Feta Quiche. It uses bread stick dough instead of pie crust (I just can't get into the whole crustless quiche thing. It just isn't the same), skim milk instead of cream and substituted egg whites for a couple of the eggs. It was really good for being a "light" version. I ate it all week! (Well I ate all these things all week. What else was I supposed to do with it?)
All these recipes were great, but the one I was looking forward to from the moment I saw it was Oven "Fried" Pickles with Skinny Herb Buttermilk Ranch Dip. I'm sorry to say I was pretty disappointed in them. The dip was amazing, but the pickles were only so-so. The first batch of breading was ridiculously salty (probably our mistake, not the recipes), and while the second batch was better, they still weren't that great. They were nice and crispy which can be hard to do with mock fried items, and we still ate most of them but they just didn't live up to the hype I had created about them.
So even with a week full of all this yummy food, not counting calories and not exercising I still somehow managed to lose 1 pound during my vacation week. I think the key was that since I wasn't around food like I am at work it was on my mind less and therefore I ate less. At the end of the week I went shopping for some dresses and jeans at TJ Maxx. I was so excited when I realized I can wear an XL dress and 16 jeans now! That mean's I no longer have to shop in the plus size departments/stores! Anyone who has ever been where I am knows how much of a big deal that is. Size is just a number, but not having to shop in the "fat girls" section anymore is AWESOME!
So after that little victory I decided to try on this little black dress that has been hanging in my room as motivation for months. I had bought it off eBay years ago and it never fit since apparently Japanese sizes are WAY different then American sizes (makes sense in hindsight). I zipped it up, and it fit perfectly. I was so happy I cried. I literally welled up with tears and cried while I was looking at myself in the mirror. I can't believe after all these years of hanging in my closet or from my curtain rod I can finally wear this dress. I can't wait to have somewhere to wear it!
The rest of my week included a nice day at Colt State Park, mini golf, smoking hookah, playing Arkham Horror with a group of dorks (love you guys!), and breakfast and a day by the pool with a friend I hadn't seen in years. It was great to catch up and try to remend a friendship I had destroyed by being distant and too caught up in my relationship at the time to keep the friendship going.
I finished the week off on Friday with girls night! We went to Centro Martini for drinks and appetizers then went to see Magic Mike. The food and martinis were awesome but the movie, not so much. I know the main objective of the movie was to attract horny swooning ladies by getting a bunch of hotties to dance around on stage. And that part of the movie was great, but the story line sucked and the dancing got old after the first 30 minutes or so. Don't get me wrong, I loved watching Channing Tatum thrusting and gyrating on the big screen but it was not worth the price of a movie ticket.
Saturday I got to watch 2 local singer songwritters perform in a friends back yard. It was a gorgeous night and the music was great. Yesterday I got to take part in the first step of the beer brewing process. Luckily the guy I was helping knew what he was doing because it was pretty involved. I'm excited to see what the finished product is going to be! It makes me want to make my own wine or something now.
So yea, that was a lot of stuff to squeeze into one entry, but I just couldn't get myself to stop living life long enough to sit down and type until now! And now I have a crap load of chores to catch up on since I slacked all week. But that's what vacations are for!
I find it amusing that on my vacation from the kitchen I was most excited to cook. I guess food and cooking is a bigger passion for me then I like to admit. First I was craving meatballs, so I found a recipe for Italian Turkey Meatballs and made them at like 9pm on Monday night. I wasn't even hungry by the time they were done, but they came out delicious. I definitely couldn't tell they were turkey. 
My next cooking project was Chocolate Mint Bars. It was a two day process (mostly because I started at like 8 at night), and mine didn't come out like the picture on the website but they sure were yummy! Though I'm not sure how healthy they really were despite coming from the Cooking Light website. The base of the bar was a cake type mix made from scratch. Once that was baked and cooled the mint layer was added, then a glaze (butter and chocolate...where's the light part of this?). I still have some, I should probably throw them away but come on now. There are starving children in Africa!! (That's good justification right?)
The next morning I made myself a brunch fit for a queen! (I woke up too late for breakfast) I'm a huge fan of quiche but it is NOT a healthy dish. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a 1/2 egg, 1/2 cream omelet inside a pie crust. Delicious, but not figure friendly. So I found a recipe for Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Feta Quiche. It uses bread stick dough instead of pie crust (I just can't get into the whole crustless quiche thing. It just isn't the same), skim milk instead of cream and substituted egg whites for a couple of the eggs. It was really good for being a "light" version. I ate it all week! (Well I ate all these things all week. What else was I supposed to do with it?)
All these recipes were great, but the one I was looking forward to from the moment I saw it was Oven "Fried" Pickles with Skinny Herb Buttermilk Ranch Dip. I'm sorry to say I was pretty disappointed in them. The dip was amazing, but the pickles were only so-so. The first batch of breading was ridiculously salty (probably our mistake, not the recipes), and while the second batch was better, they still weren't that great. They were nice and crispy which can be hard to do with mock fried items, and we still ate most of them but they just didn't live up to the hype I had created about them.So even with a week full of all this yummy food, not counting calories and not exercising I still somehow managed to lose 1 pound during my vacation week. I think the key was that since I wasn't around food like I am at work it was on my mind less and therefore I ate less. At the end of the week I went shopping for some dresses and jeans at TJ Maxx. I was so excited when I realized I can wear an XL dress and 16 jeans now! That mean's I no longer have to shop in the plus size departments/stores! Anyone who has ever been where I am knows how much of a big deal that is. Size is just a number, but not having to shop in the "fat girls" section anymore is AWESOME!
So after that little victory I decided to try on this little black dress that has been hanging in my room as motivation for months. I had bought it off eBay years ago and it never fit since apparently Japanese sizes are WAY different then American sizes (makes sense in hindsight). I zipped it up, and it fit perfectly. I was so happy I cried. I literally welled up with tears and cried while I was looking at myself in the mirror. I can't believe after all these years of hanging in my closet or from my curtain rod I can finally wear this dress. I can't wait to have somewhere to wear it!The rest of my week included a nice day at Colt State Park, mini golf, smoking hookah, playing Arkham Horror with a group of dorks (love you guys!), and breakfast and a day by the pool with a friend I hadn't seen in years. It was great to catch up and try to remend a friendship I had destroyed by being distant and too caught up in my relationship at the time to keep the friendship going.
I finished the week off on Friday with girls night! We went to Centro Martini for drinks and appetizers then went to see Magic Mike. The food and martinis were awesome but the movie, not so much. I know the main objective of the movie was to attract horny swooning ladies by getting a bunch of hotties to dance around on stage. And that part of the movie was great, but the story line sucked and the dancing got old after the first 30 minutes or so. Don't get me wrong, I loved watching Channing Tatum thrusting and gyrating on the big screen but it was not worth the price of a movie ticket.Saturday I got to watch 2 local singer songwritters perform in a friends back yard. It was a gorgeous night and the music was great. Yesterday I got to take part in the first step of the beer brewing process. Luckily the guy I was helping knew what he was doing because it was pretty involved. I'm excited to see what the finished product is going to be! It makes me want to make my own wine or something now.
So yea, that was a lot of stuff to squeeze into one entry, but I just couldn't get myself to stop living life long enough to sit down and type until now! And now I have a crap load of chores to catch up on since I slacked all week. But that's what vacations are for!
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