Sweet!

After a grueling day of work, starting long before I'm normally even out of bed, I was thrilled to get home this afternoon and find that my copy of Small Plates and Sweet Treats, the first cookbook from my favorite culinary blogger Aran Goyoaga, had arrived a full 2 weeks ahead of schedule!  I immediately plopped down on my couch and started tagging recipes.  I can't wait to start trying them out!  Some of my favorites are warm roasted brussels sprout, black quinoa, pear & crispy chorizo salad, roasted parsnip & apple soup with mustard croutons, vanilla bean & cardamom baked arroz con leche, strawberry & pistachio crumble galettes, roasted apricots with rosemary-lemon ice cream, grilled corn & herb chowder, and peach & buttermilk sherbet.  And those aren't even all of the recipes I tagged...

Gaudy Granny

It all started with the navy cardigan with sequined lobsters - for some reason I was going through a major lobster=quirky design phase and so I fell in love with the sequined lobster cardigan.  But since it was sold out, I went the google search route to see if I could find another.  And then began my Markus Lupfer sequined sweater obsession.  It's kind of ridiculous, really.  They remind me of the sweaters my fabulous great grandma used to wear down in Miami with her teased hair, heavy green/purple/blue eye shadow and large cocktail rings.  She could totally pull it off, but she was also a part of the 80-year-old Miami set.  Me, a 30-something living in Houston?  If I was totally confident and owned the look, maybe.  I don't know that I could pull that type of attitude off on a regular basis, though, so for $400 per sweater it wasn't something I was ready to invest in.

All of that has now changed.  My favorite DIY inspiration blog has come up with a fantastic Markus Lupfer inspired sweater DIY and I'm completely and totally obsessed.  I plan to snag a sweater from Target or Old Navy first chance I get, stock up on some sequined trim, and then go wild!  I'm thinking maybe an astronaut, a fox, or a flower like the dahlias in yesterday's post.  Or maybe all of them since this project is WAY more affordable than the original!!!

(Markus Lupfer sweaters from here, here, and here)

Hello Overtime

As has become the standard, when I went to Central Market yesterday my bill topped $100, partially due to my flower obsession - I simply had to spend $15 on these gorgeous dahlias (it could have been worse...).  Well this week is going to keep me in flowers for a while because it's only Monday and I'm already pretty sure I'll have around 8-10 hours of overtime by the week's end due to system issues that arose this morning and the SpaceX-1 capsule which is going to dock with the international space station on Wednesday.  On Thursday alone I have to be at work at 3 AM to support hatch opening and I know I have to stay until at least 3 PM to support a meeting.  Ugh, right?  Good thing I made good use of my time this past weekend!

 Friday night I went out to Little Big's for dinner (and an AWESOME butterscotch milkshake - I usually don't even like butterscotch!).  The chili cheese fries were pretty phenomenal too.  After that we made our way west a bit and hit up 300 Houston for some semi-classy bowling. 

We played three games and FINALLY on the third I managed to break 100 (barely...).  We had a lot of fun, but apparently bowling uses muscles I don't frequently use, because my back and butt muscles have been sore since I woke up on Saturday morning.  I'm so out of shape.  Saturday I did some cleaning, finished up a couple of projects around the house like whipping up some carrot marmalade for part of B's birthday gift, watched some tv, and finally made my way out of the house for B's birthday extravaganza.  We had burgers (again!) at Tooky's, followed by drinks at Fatty's (obviously a classy establishment) where I sucked at pool and did so-so at the plastic dart machines.  We got sick of the bad darts and took the party back to B and J's house for some more - real - darts and some hot tubbing! 

On Sunday, J and B picked me up and we headed into the city for the Houston Greek Festival!  We ate some delicious souvlaki, partook in the dinner plates which consisted of pasticcio, spanakopita (my favorite - it was SO GOOD!), tiropita which is a cheese pie made with puff pastry, and greek meatballs call keftedes.  All of it got washed down with some Greek wine.  After that we perused the festival market and I picked up some food items like rose water and fig jam as well as some gorgeous bowls, one of which is now holding bracelets on my dresser.  After that we hit up Central Market and then headed back home.  Later that evening I went back over to their house for a pumpkin fest complete with yummy pumpkin stew and sinful pumpkin muffins that are filled with a sweet spiced cream cheese mixture and topped with a spiced crumble.  They're really almost cupcakes and so B and I have dubbed them muff-cakes.... 

Have a Lovely Weekend!

My mom saw my post earlier this week about missing Chicago and home and autumn and so she snapped this picture for me of one of the trees on the street where I grew up in all of it's orange and crimson glory!  So sweet!  I may not be able to enjoy any brisk fall weather this weekend (although this coming Sunday the weather in Houston will drop to a whopping 54 at night and only 72 during the day - woohoo!  Too bad we jump back up into the 80's a few days later....), but I will be enjoying my weekend nonetheless.  My current plans include dinner and bowling tonight with friends and B's birthday celebration tomorrow.  I'm also hoping to make my way into town for a Central Market binge and to swing by the Houston Greek Festival!

What about you?  Any fun plans?

All Alone in the Night

Did you know that there actually is some gravity at the orbital distance at which the ISS travels (over 200 miles from the Earth's surface)?  So why do the astronauts perceive their little home in space to be a "weightless" environment?  How does the ISS remain "floating" above the Earth?  Well the ISS isn't actually floating in space - it's falling.  Say what?  The reason that the ISS manages to fall but never plummet into the Earth's surface is that it is actually propelled through space at a fast enough speed so that it "falls" AROUND the Earth, and therefore orbits it!  And the fact that the ISS creates this falling orbit is what also creates the artificial or perceived weightless environment that the astronauts experience.  So how fast does the ISS have to travel in order to fall around the Earth?  Over 17,000 miles per hour!!!  Think of all of this as you watch today's Increasing the Awesome video...

(picture and videos by NASA, original video from here)

Missing Home

Don't get me wrong, my life here in Houston is terrific.  But I just miss Chicago, my friends in Chicago, my family, and home.  Thanksgiving is only a month and a half away and I can't wait to fly in to Midway, spend 5 minutes in the terminal bundling my warm-weather-acclimated body up in several layers and brave my way out into the brisk November air to meet up with my parents at the car.  The weather here has definitely been feeling decidedly fall-ish, but it's nothing like being back up in Chicago this time of year.  Counting down the weeks!

(photo from here)

Cut It Out

The phrase "cut it out" will forever remind me of Uncle Joey from Full House...  and now the baby twins from the show are wealthy, business owning adults who dress like hobbits/witches.  I feel old.  I also have been feeling icky lately due to digestive distress.  My stomach officially hates me.  So I've decided to go on an another elimination diet to cut out the sugar, processed grains, soy, corn, red meat, etc. from my diet.  I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record on these elimination diet posts, but they really do work wonders on my digestive system and they also have the benefit of increasing my energy.  I'm thinking this time I'm going to try making it into a longer term diet change, with the occasional cheat allowed (I can't manage without cheese and chocolate...)  Here's a list of the official cans and can'ts of the diet:

I know it looks like a ridiculous and complicated list, but it's actually pretty easy when you cut it down to the basic principle: eat low fat meats, fruits, veggies, beans, and nuts and avoid processed foods.  I started my diet last night and got pretty creative with some new recipes that turned out absolutely delicious.

The bowl on the left is curried lentil soup with chopped turkey bacon (all natural of course) which I ate last night for dinner along with a side salad of spinach and arugula topped with avocado, green onion, toasted pine nuts and a drizzle of a natural honey mustard dressing.  The dish on the right is a red kuri squash, gala apple and quinoa savory crumble.  I was feeling a little iffy on that one, a little worried about how a savory crumble would taste.  But I just ate that for lunch today and it was surprisingly delicious!  You can get the recipe for the crumble here.  The curried lentil soup recipe is listed below as it was a variation on an Alton Brown split pea soup recipe.  It was RIDICULOUSLY easy to make and super tasty.

Curried Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
• 12 ounces dried red lentils (though yellow lentils or green or yellow split peas would also work)
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp each onion and garlic powders
• 4 slices applegate turkey bacon, cooked til crispy then chopped

Directions

1. Place the oil into a 4 to 6-quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Once heated, add the onion and a generous pinch of salt and sweat for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and continue to sweat for an additional 1 to 2 minutes, making certain not to allow onions or garlic to brown.
3. Add the lentils, chicken broth, salt and pepper (maybe a tsp each to start) and curry powder. 
4. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook at a simmer until the lentils are tender and not holding their shape any longer, approximately 35-45 minutes. 
5. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Using care and a stick blender, puree the soup until the desired consistency.   I just randomly dunked mine into the soup a couple of times and pulsed because I still wanted a little texture.  Watch out for hot splatters.
6. Serve up in a bowl and top with some chopped turkey bacon.

Enjoy!

(list of cans and can'ts from here)

Eventful Weekend

My weekend in Austin didn't go exactly how I expected.  Even so, I had a lot of fun, as usual.  The weather was what changed plans around a bit.  So instead of having to wander around by myself on Saturday, we hit up Taverna for an awesome brunch (garlic toast, eggwhites, and sauasage with truffle oil and $1 bellinis!) and and then headed to the Alamo Drafthouse on Lamar where we saw Looper and I indulged in a tasty peanut butter chocolate shake for desert.  Looper was really good. Joseph Gordon Levitt played a terrific role - between the prosthetics and the way he managed to mimic Bruce Willis's mannerisms, it was uncanny.  Sunday was filled with Round Rock Donuts (SOOOO good!), mimosas, and football.  I headed home in the afternoon and got back just in time to eat dinner and watch the season 7 premiere of Dexter over at J and B's house.  This season is definitely shaping up to be interesting and I can't wait to see what happens next week!!!

(pic of Alamo from here and bellini from here)