reason #159

There are many reasons why I love working from home. Last week I discovered another one.

One afternoon I decided that I wanted to try a recipe for a warm salad made with sweet potatoes, red onions, and chickpeas. Considering that Michael will only eat one of the three previously mentioned ingredients, I had no intention of making it for dinner. In fact, he gives me such a hard time about any kind of beans that I’ve stopped trying to sneak them into things. By being home for lunch, I can make all the gross-but-good-for-you meals involving beans, eggplant, sweet potatoes, and squash that I want.  I was in heaven this week when I ate beans and rice for lunch every day. (Maybe my idea of luxury needs to be slightly refined. Hmm…)

The salad turned out great. I changed it quite a bit from the original recipe (which called for butternut squash, tahini and mint, none of which I had on hand.) I’m really bad about measuring, and I made this last week so I might be forgetting something, but here’s my best guess at what I did.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad, serves about 4

3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 a red onion, diced

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

fresh basil, chopped

2 tbs olive oil

1-2 tbs balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper to taste

Coat the sweet potato cubes in 1/2 of the olive oil (about 1 tbs) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 375 for about 35-45 minutes. After the sweet potatoes are done, combine them in a bowl with the chickpeas and red onions. In a medium bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar and the other tbs. of olive oil (can use flaxseed oil if desired) along with the basil and additional pepper. Drizzle over the potato/chickpea mixture. The salad is great warm or cold.

it’s about time

Finally, after many, MANY months my wheel is back where it belongs. I have had such a good time this week playing with clay out in the barn. Fresh inspiration from a friend was just what I needed to get myself back out there.

Candle holders

  Casserole Dish

Holm.Making

It saddens me to say that I haven’t done much pottery of late. Actually, I’ve done nothing since mid-summer. But, I am determined to address this problem and plan to get out there, move some things around, clean out my space, and start throwing again. Especially with this nice weather- I can’t let this time slip by.

Although I haven’t done any pottery, I have found other outlets for my creativity.

I go through phases with sewing. Until recently, I hadn’t sewn anything that wasn’t intended for someone else. I bought this material off the internet (my first foray into purchasing material without actually holding it in my hands.) I had originally intended to use it to cover some cushions, but it didn’t look quite right in the living room. So, I thought a nice, long skirt was in order. It’s very basic, but sometimes that is exactly what I need.

Much to my husband’s delight (and my waist’s dismay) I’ve gotten back into baking. I’m probably the last person to jump on this train, but the book  Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day has captured my heart. I think I’ve made pizza at least once a week for the last month. I’ve also made cinnamon buns, miniature loafs, and countless rolls.

Even before we started remodeling the kitchen, I knew I wanted a place where I could write quotes, bible verses, etc. I originally thought I would incorporate a chalk board of some type, but after we finished the kitchen, there just doesn’t seem to be a good place to put one. One advantage of having a tin backsplash is that magnets “stick” to it. Using some cardstock, fabric, a sewing machine, and my beloved button magnets, I fashioned a pretty good alternative. A bit more time-intensive, perhaps, but they fit me better I think.

too much?

Michael is making amazing progress on the kitchen. After months of building cabinets, installing appliances, doing electrical work (and other boring stuff), we’re almost ready to do the fun stuff! If you’ve never built a kitchen from scratch (and really, how many of you would be that crazy??), you might not realize how many different stages there are or long everything takes (or how most everything requires a power tool that makes me nervous). But now—NOW—we are ready to start picking the wall color, the ceiling color and, most importantly, the photos that will hang on the walls. Finally- it’s MY turn!!

The living room is a lilac color. If you haven’t seen it in person, you might be wondering why I picked purple. Sometimes I wonder why I picked purple- it’s not like it’s my favorite color. I don’t even HAVE a favorite color. But, now that 1/4 of the wall space of my entire house is painted purple, I feel committed to making it work. Since you can see through the kitchen to the dining room and living room, I’d like all three rooms to feel tied together.

And so, that is how I came up with the idea of lining the walls of my kitchen with photos of purple foods. The photos above were taken on a recent trip to the Farmer’s Market- eggplant, (purple!) peppers, and red onions.  I’m hoping to include grapes, plums, blackberries/blueberries, red wine, and maybe even beets and radishes. I had a pretty cool shot of some red cabbages, but Michael said they looked like weird alien brains. He’s not entirely convinced that photos of purple foods is what our kitchen needs… he thinks the house may have reached its limit for the amount of purple it can pull off. Too much purple? Never.

Yin and Yang

Alert, curious, active, and adventurous

Sleepy, lazy, and the biggest scaredy cat I’ve ever seen

30

On a recent visit to my parent’s house, my mom gave me an envelope with an assortment of pictures from my childhood.   This is me at age 3. I have very clear memories of how much I loved that dress. I think I wore it several times a week. I was pretty cute, I’ll admit it.

This is me at age 10. The 80’s were not kind to me. For goodness sake- I am wearing TEDDY BEAR EARRINGS! And you cannot possibly imagine what it took to make my bangs look like that. I do look happy in this picture… perhaps someone saw my sweatshirt, took extreme pity on me, and gave me a hug?

Things did not improve for me in middle school. This is me at 13. We had a dress code, which looking back now, I am very grateful for. Who knows what I would have turned up in. I seem to have given up on the perm by this point, but I’m not quite ready to lay down the curling iron or my hairspray. I also seem a bit suspicious of the photographer (or perhaps I just caught sight of myself in a mirror?)

This is me at 23, when I married Michael. Much better, yes?

 

I turn 30 in two weeks. That seems like a lot of years. I’ve always looked forward to getting older- I’m not sure why. When I was younger, it probably had something to do with the fact that I would eventually be able to wear makeup and drive. Now, I’m excited about getting older because I’m looking forward to (hopefully) becoming wiser and kinder. Growing older means living out my days with the most amazing man I know; growing and learning together. I can’t imagine a more lovely thing to look forward to.

thursday night in the country

Michael and I were delighted to have some good friends joined us as we set ablaze a massive pile of construction waste. We’ve needed to burn the pile for quite some time, but we’ve been waiting for the weather to cooperate. We don’t have any malls and the nearest grocery store is 10 minutes away, but you just can’t do this in Cary, you know?