On Things I’ve Done and Things to Come…

Fell off the wagon there for a bit. Never fear – I wasn’t in a bad place in life or anything, just needed a break from the routine 🙂

So let’s talk about the things I’ve been doing! As usual, I’m going to go over the media I’ve consumed since I last updated:

Television

And by television I mean Netflix. Season three of House of Cards was finished in just two sittings. That’s a new record for me – season two took three days. I loved it just as much as I’ve loved the other seasons and I’m excited (and terrified) to see what happens next.

I finished all the seasons of Parenthood that are available on Netflix and still love it. I’m hoping the final season is on Hulu or something (because I don’t steal media, y’all) because I’m really bad at waiting for these things to be made available.

Upon learning that I had seen almost all the Parenthood there was to be seen, I decided to start up Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. As a big fan of Tina Fey and Ellie Kemper, I had high expectations and they were exceeded! I laughed out loud so many times at this show, even more than I did during 30 Rock. That being said, if you’re not a 30 Rock fan you probably won’t be super into this – the pacing and writing are very similar and the nonsensical nature of 30 Rock is very much present in this one. Kemper is like Erin from The Office but older and smarter (believe it or not) as the titular character and her roommate, Titus, was probably my favorite part of the show.

The dude and I have been watching a lot of Adventure Time lately and it never fails to disappoint. We recently played Adventure Time Munchkin for the first time as well, and I think I enjoy it even more than regular Munchkin.

Books

I started a new book challenge through HabitRPG that’s a lot more robust than my initial one. I’m still trying to get 26 books in for 2015, but this list is much more than 26 so we’ll see if I can log even more! I finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and absolutely loved it – it’s incredibly well written and even those that aren’t interested in history can easily get sucked into it. At the same time, it’s so heartbreaking that I don’t think I could watch the movie based on it. I also finished California by Edan Lepucki and loved that as well. I needed something slightly lighter after Unbroken and was really into the dystopian setting of this one. The first half slowly draws you in and when you hit the turning point, you won’t be able to put it down.

I’m currently reading Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan and it’s compelling and terrifying all at once. As I’ve been reading it, I’ve thought, “Oh wow, I’ve caught myself doing that too…am I losing it?” But as I’ve read on and her condition worsens, it becomes clear that I am not. Told from Cahalan’s point of view that is often pieced together through doctor’s notes, first hand accounts by family and friends, and videos, it’s a unique look into what I think is a common fear of completely losing your mind.

Movies

I have seen two movies since I last wrote: the new Spongebob Squarepants movie and This is the End. As a 26-year-old, I preferred the former SO MUCH MORE than the latter. the Spongebob movie was a wonderful 90 minutes of nostalgia and cheap, childish laughs. This is the End felt like it was three hours long and Craig Robinson was its only saving grace.

Food

My week of Pinterest recipes was a hit! I unfortunately didn’t save the list of things that I made but most were very easy and will find their way into my “go-to meals.” I received two cookbooks for my birthday: the Runner’s World cookbook and Ina Garten’s Make It Ahead cookbook. I made my first RW recipe tonight: Southern Unfried Chicken. Having been a health nut in college – and a huge fan of Hungry Girl – I am quite familiar with “faux-frying,” or “baking” as most would call it. This recipe intrigued me because you marinate the chicken in a buttermilk and hot sauce marinade before breading it in a mix of bread crumbs and spices. It packed quite a bit of heat, and though I’m not fooling anyone in trying to pass baked chicken off as fried, it was really tasty without making me feel like crap for eating it. I haven’t tried anything from Ina’s book yet, but I think it will definitely come in handy when I host get-togethers!

What’s Coming Up

For starters, a whole bunch of weddings. Five weddings. I’m super excited for all of them. On top of that, I’ll be signing up for my fourth half marathon in about two weeks, so I’ve been trying to get myself a little healthier and perhaps even a little bit in shape before training starts. I have this awful habit of really letting myself go between major races and I blame most of it on winter (particularly this winter that was insanely cold).

I’ve also got a few trips planned to visit my parents, the dude’s parents, and maybe some distant friends here and there.

Basically, starting next month I am going to be pretty freaking busy. But I promise to make time to update here now and then. Thanks for following!

On Foods and Pins…

Like any basic white girl, I have an obsession with Pinterest. When I first got off the “waiting list” to have an account (is that a thing that even happens anymore?), I spent hours – HOURS – pinning everything I could in hopes that what I pinned would start to permeate into my own life. That’s probably what any pinner hopes for as they pin photos of beautiful, expensive kitchens, dream weddings filled with mason jars, and intense workouts that promise flat abs in just a week.

Yes, my Pinterest account includes all of these things, and I’m not ashamed of it. Yes, I have over 40 wedding pins and I’m not even engaged (though being in a five-year relationship does give me some reason to pin such things). My beauty boards feature long, Kate Middleton-esque hairstyles and the perfect smokey eye that I’ll never be able to use anywhere. My DIY board includes crafts I’ll never actually get around to doing – and most would probably end up as fodder for a “Pinterest Fails” blog anyhow.

But my food board…yeah my food board is pretty sweet. I recently realized that I had tons of recipes pinned and that I rarely ever tried any of them. Considering I have enough food smarts at this point to not be duped by a recipe that seems too good to be true, I have a lot of faith in my food board. When I made my grocery list last week, I decided it was time to tackle some of these recipes and I haven’t been disappointed yet.

Last week I started with a Spaghetti Squash Carbonara…and…ok so this one did not turn out as expected. First of all, we went shopping at Trader Joe’s and since spaghetti squash is not in season, it wasn’t in the store. So I decided to use the recipe and use regular pasta. And then as I read through the recipe I decided to find a different one and ended up with Tyler Florence’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara. I trust Tyler Florence. However, did you guys know that carbonara is actually kind of a difficult thing to make? I was less stressed out making chocolate zabaglione than I was making carbonara sauce. So after you cook some pancetta or bacon, you take it out and quickly saute some garlic in the fat, then you’re supposed to put the cooked spaghetti into this mixture, then add this raw egg and parmesan cheese mixture you’ve whisked together, all while cooking the eggs but not scrambling them. I didn’t trust myself to get the sauce cooked with the pasta in the pan first, so of course I threw the egg/cheese mixture in and my eggs partially scrambled. And then I added too much salt because I didn’t realize that the kosher salt I usually use had been replaced with a very fine sea salt. It’s the little things.

Regardless, we still ate the pasta and it was not the worst thing I ever made. This week has been a much bigger success so far.

After making a classic beef bourginion on Sunday that I can almost make in my sleep, I decided to try an easier recipe for Monday: Hoisin Shrimp. Trader Joe’s failed me again in not having hoisin sauce for this one, so I went with their Soyaki sauce because I know it’s good. After whisking together the sauce the recipe laid out, I wasn’t happy with the sweetness of it, so I added a pinch of brown sugar to it and a dollop (like, the most dollop-y dollop that’s ever dolloped) of barbeque sauce to it. It was delicious. I regret nothing. And really, if you know me and followed my old food blog from college and beyond, me having to substitute a bunch of things in a recipe should come as no surprise.

Tonight, I opted for BLT Salads from my favorite food blog, How Sweet It Is. I ended up using spring mix in place of butter lettuce because, yes, Trader Joe’s didn’t have butter lettuce. And in typical avocado fashion, the avocado I bought for this recipe went bad by the time I wanted to use it today. Avocado is the most fickle of fruits. I kept everything else the same and devoured this salad. Then again, I’ll pretty much find anything delicious if it has bacon in it.

Tomorrow night’s Pinterest recipe will be Easy Lemon Chicken, which I plan on serving up with some asparagus (because I’m desperate for spring) or some broccoli. Or who even knows. It does look pretty easy, and I was actually planning on making it tonight, but I tried to thaw my chicken the way you’re “supposed to” (in the fridge) and I put it there last night and it still wasn’t ready at 6pm tonight.

Anyhow, if you guy are pinners as well and want to see what kind of life I wish I lived and all the projects I wish I had the energy and skills to take on, you can follow me here 🙂

And not to be all Livejournal-y, but I listened to Songza’s Vintage Rock Instrumentals playlist while writing this, and I recommend it if you’re looking for something a little different while trying to be creative.