Giving into sickness and a happy update

Well, fooey. After feeling a bit funny all day yesterday, I awoke straight-up sick at 2 AM this morning. I managed to get some more sleep after an hour or so of feeling restless and awful, but this morning I wandered around like a zombie and then realized I had a fever and that, yeah, I'm sick. Not just a mild little bug; I'm sick. 

It's been ages since I've actually been sick. I think my commitment to regular exercise has strengthened my immune system significantly over the past couple years, but I just couldn't escape this bug.

Since college, I've always had a problem with resting when sick. I never skipped a college class due to illness, but I was sick several times during that period. I'm definitely a mind over matter type of person when it comes to physical discomfort. I always thought of it as somewhat of a virtue, but the way it prolongs illness makes it seem more like a flaw.

Already today I've done too much, even though I've been home nursing myself with honey-loaded tea. I woke up and got to work on my homework, did some dishes, called my bank, and started my laundry, and right now I'm doing a blog post. None of those tasks requires much exertion, but I'm already feeling weary and worn out. So, I vow after I finish this last load of laundry, I'm done. On the couch, TV on, tea in hand. DONE.

....but I'm still going to class tomorrow.

In memory of healthier times, here is a photo from our weekend: we set up a little candle-lit dinner on our balcony Friday night in an effort to be a bit more romantic. It was nice, if a bit chilly, but we had blankets and smiles and wine. Lovely evening <3

I almost forgot to mention, last night I found out I was accepted into my Masters program! I'll soon be on the way to becoming a librarian! Hurrah!

Two Simple Salad Dressing Recipes

 Before I get to the recipes, I have some creepy news. I'm fairly certain someone broke into my car over the weekend. The other morning when I was heading out to class, I opened my door to find CDs strewn about the passengers side and my ashtray, center console and cigarette lighter/adapter thingy all opened. The good news is, whoever it was did not take or damage anything (I even checked that my spare was still there.) What I think and hope happened was that they saw my auxiliary cord sitting there, figured there was an iPod or phone inside and wanted to swipe it for some quick cash.

The paranoid me is worried that they were scoping it out for something later (car theft or burglary). Thankfully, I don't leave any schedules, keys, or valuables inside my car, but it's so creepy to know some jerk was sitting in my car and trying to rip me off. After getting my car stolen last year, I've wised up a bit and I always lock my steering wheel and put on "the club" after I park., but I guess there's not much I can do to protect against break-ins.

I'm just really fed up with city living. It's loud, I can't run around here, and stupid stuff like this happens. I think this will be the year we move out of Midtown, which is sad in some ways, but it will be nice to not have strange people sleeping outside the stairwell door, trying to break into our cars or going through our trash.

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Onto happier news! When I got home from class on Tuesday, I got to work on our latest farm fresh delivery. We got radishes in our shipment, and I learned that you can use radish greens in pesto as well!

I used most of the radishes in this Spicy Radish Relish (which we had on our fish tacos last night), but I saved a couple to snack on. That's when I got the idea to develop a Peanut Ginger dressing to dip veggies and use on salad.

I thought it was a funny coincidence when I saw Elsie from A Beautiful Mess had done a post on making your own salad dressings, as I had this post in the works since Tuesday. I guess it's just a salad dressing kind of week in blogland!

The great thing about making your own dressings is that you know exactly what is going into them: there are no surprise hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup (unless you add those I guess) and you can easily control the amount of fat and calories.

So here is my recipe for Peanut Ginger Vinaigrette as well as my go-to Balsamic Dijon Dressing. I wrote these dressings in "parts," so that you can make as much or as little at a time as you like. As a simple guide, 1 Tablespoon per part will yield approximately one serving. Hope that makes sense...

Peanut Ginger Vinaigrette
 

Ingredients:
-2 Parts Rice Vinegar
-1 Part Natural Peanut Butter
-1 Part Honey
-1/2 Part Minced Ginger
-1/4 Part Lemon Juice

Begin by gradually mixing rice vinegar into peanut butter until mixture is smooth and liquid. Then, using whisk add lemon juice, ginger, and honey until well mixed.

This is a great dressing for Asian style salads, for an interesting slaw, or as a dip for crudites.

A note on using honey: generally speaking, you don't want to mix in honey if you are planning to keep the dressing for more than a couple days, as it tends to crystallize and make your dressing all lumpy and weird. You can substitute white sugar, or you can keep the mix without honey in the fridge and mix the honey into dressing in a separate bowl immediately before each use.

Meg's Simple Balsamic Dijon

This is the recipe I use most often. I mix it up, make it sweeter and more or less oily/vinegary by tweaking the amounts depending on what I'm craving or what else is in my salad. Feel free to tweak any or all of the proportions :)

Ingredients:
-1 Part Balsamic Vinegar
-1 Part Dijon Mustard
-1/2 Part Olive Oil
-1/2 Part Honey/Sugar
-Pinch of Salt
-Pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar, olive oil, and mustard together until smooth. Add sugar, salt and pepper. This dressing usually requires re-whisking before each use.

My favorite use for this dressing is on Spring greens with diced Fuji apples, walnuts, and goat cheese.

Happy Eating!!

Busier than normal

I've been un/underemployed for far too long. So long that last week, which was not very busy to a normal person, felt pretty darn busy to me.

I started my two classes last week, Intro to Computer Science and Intro to the Library. They both seem fairly straightforward, but more work-intensive than I anticipated, so the good news is I'm sure I will be learning.

I'm excited to be back in school and happy to be learning things that I can use in my future career. Still, the first few classes were less than riveting, although I did get some serious doodling done:

Last weekend we celebrated my husbands birthday. I woke up on Sunday and baked him his favorite type of cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I think successfully baking a cake is one of the best ways to start a day. Seriously, how can you be grouchy after that?

I'm pretty proud of my first successful from-scratch cake:

I tried to write his name, but it got all blobby and turned into a heart.  And then I put chocolate shavings on it because chocolate.

On Sunday evening we walked over to Tuli Bistro, just a few blocks from our apartment, and ordered from their Dine Downtown Menu. I have no pictures of our dinner, however, as that restaurant is almost pitch black. I could barely read the menu. Still, it was absolutely delicious, and we enjoyed double dessert that evening.

Then Monday night I made purple stroganoff. I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but it was definitely more purple than stroganoff should be. A very nice pastel lilac, to be precise.

That's about it for now. I know I've been blogging a lot about food lately, but food is good.

Fill in the Blank Friday -- January 13th, 2012

The collage above shows a few snaps from my colorful January. Our Farm Fresh produce is definitely brightening up our apartment, just check out the beautiful hue on that Mandarin orange juice.

1.   The last thing I ate was  a piece of pizza :x For breakfast. It was that or Mike's sugar-filled cereal, so I think I made the best choice. I usually would eat toast for breakfast, but we have no bread.

2.   The last song I listened to was This Side of the Blue by Joanna Newsom. Ms. Newsom has definitely been an acquired taste for me, but at the moment I'm smitten.

3.  Using the letters in my name I can spell  [Meg] Gem. Margaret yields more results: rat, great, garter, gram, tram, gamer, germ, team.

4.  If I had to dress in one color for the rest of my life I would pick   maybe...cream? Is that boring? I just feel like it looks best on me. Other colors tend to wash me out.

5.  If you were to look in my bag right now you'd find  my new journal that my momma got me for Christmas, my wallet, my old library badge because I can't bear to get rid of it, some feminine products, a reusable shopping bag, and a few stray advils because the bottle spilled in my bag. I keep finding them. I like to keep chapstick in my bag, but Mike usually steals it. 

6.  When I finish filling in the blanks I'm going to  start my day's knitting. I've got 4 days until my classes start, and I want to finish these damn socks. I also need to go to the store to buy some cake flour for Mr. Mike's birthday this weekend.

7.  My all time favorite song to dance to is Everybody's Gonna Be Happy by the Kinks. Who could resist dancing to that?

A Foodie's Paradise + Carrot Greens Pesto Recipe

This arrived at our door today. It's a our first CSA delivery. We had been meaning to sign up for ages, but just never got around to it. So I decided that signing up would be my one New Years Resolution, even though I said I wasn't making any.

I'm already in love. I broke into the box as soon as I woke up this morning (our delivery must happen at the break of dawn) and got to work rinsing, chopping, and refrigerating my fresh produce.

This is one reason why I love living in California. I have freshly picked mandarin oranges in winter. I didn't realize it until recent years, but eating is easy here. It's making my sister, who just moved to Illinois, insanely jealous that I'm receiving fresh organic produce in January.

A bunch of carrots was included in the box, and I realized I had no idea what one usually does with carrot greens. I googled and found that the best use for us would be to make a pesto, so here is my own recipe for carrot green pesto.

Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures; I didn't anticipate posting this until after I made and consumed some of it.

Carrot Greens Pesto

Ingredients:
- 1 bunch carrot greens
- A few sprigs of Italian parsley
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 T. pine nuts
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1 T. grated parmesan cheese
- 1 T. vegetable stock (more if pesto seems too dry)
- A squeeze of lemon juice
-  Salt + pepper to taste

If desired, separate leaves from stems of carrot greens and parsley and discard stems. I don't mind stems in my pesto, because it's all being ground up anyway, but do as you please. Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until pesto reaches desired consistency.

As with any recipe, tweak to your tastes. Use less olive oil, no cheese and more stock for a lower fat sauce, or omit the cheese to make it vegan.

This sauce will keep for a few days, so refrigerate and use for pasta, sandwiches, or even serve it over fish or chicken.

Serving suggestion:

Instead of using on pasta, spoon pesto over pearled barley and fresh arugula. Garnish with pine nuts or fresh Italian parsley.

Civic duty ruins knitting schedule

Last week was a bit annoying. I was called in for jury duty, which normally means a day of sitting around, watching bad videos, and listening to an idle (maybe retired?) judge talk for a half hour or so about how exciting it is to be a juror. It's our civic duty, and one that I usually don't mind. I've been called three times, and only voting for 5 years now. Conveniently, Sacramento has an online/call-in system where they let you know whether or not you even have to go down to the courthouse.

Well, I had to go. My first thought was "Finally I can get some knitting done!" Except they don't allow knitting needles in the courthouse. Drat. Well, then I can get some reading done. Nope.

Around 10 I got called onto a panel, meaning I was to be part of the jury pool for a trial. It was a bit exciting and interesting for the first couple hours, and the judge told us the trial was only to last 3 days at most. Well, the jury selection lasted 2 days, all because the lawyers couldn't decide on a couple alternates.

That meant that we all had to go back for a second day of jury duty. Through the whole process, I just wanted them to call me up to talk to me, and they would say, "Oh. I see your husband is a lawyer. The people would like to thank and excuse juror number x." As much as I like to think I would make a good juror, I know that a prosecutor would never let me on a jury. But I was never called up, and Ispent the whole time in the audience observing others meekly answering questions.

Anyway, the whole thing was a funny role reversal for me and Mike, because for once he didn't have court in the morning and I did. It also left my brain a bit fried, and I was thankful to spend Friday night amongst some lovely ladies watching chick-flicks at the home of The Literary Foodie.

When I saw this Lagunitas brew, Lagunitas Sucks, I instantly identified with them. The box explains that Lagunitas was unable to brew their favorite holiday beer this year, so they are packaging the same beer they already had with an apology and an explanation of why they suck.

Well, I feel similarly like a disappointment. Last week was supposed to be the time for me to finish knitting Christmas presents. And really, they were supposed to be done no later than 12/25/11. I'm a bad, bad crafter, I know, and here I am making excuses again. Maybe when I send out the gifts I will write on the box "Meg SUCKS -- Here is your overdue Christmas present."

So, I have three socks left. Think I can get them done before my classes start next week?

Retrospective

With over a hundred posts, and with many of them being not exactly what I would consider quality blogging, it's hard for me to gather my thoughts and my posts for a retrospective. In part, I feel proud of what my blog has evolved into. Another part of me is constantly critical of my writing and the subjects I choose. I don't have a precise directive for this blog, which means that from month to month, week to week, post to post my blog feels different. I like the freedom to post what I want, but blogger's block sometimes has me wishing I just had a craft blog, a fashion blog, an art blog, a cooking blog, or...I dunno, a cat blog. 

For me, there have been two competing concerns: is this interesting to someone else and is this true to who I am as a person? I wish that these two overlapped more often, and they do more than I think, but the truth is that image and honesty are often at odds. I see so many bloggers who post perfect pictures of perfect houses, people, children, etc. and just bask in their perfection. It seems apparent to me that they don't really live that life, but then again, blogs are public spaces, not diaries. I know that a blog is really a projection, not a documentary. I sincerely appreciated Delirious Rhapsody's recent post on this subject, on faking it, because she articulated exactly what I've been thinking as I have navigated my way through Blogland. I admire her so much for her realness on her blog, and her example helps me to forgive myself for being a real person, who doesn't quite know how to operate a fancy camera and who sometimes has to clean cat puke off the floor.

But I digress...what I really want to say is thank you. Thank you for reading, for permitting me to post whiny, whiny entries, thank you for posting kind comments. I have enjoyed my first year of 'real' blogging more than I ever imagined I would. It is always a struggle for me to know what to post, and every time I receive any sort of feedback, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing that someone thought for a moment about something I wrote.

I love reading comments from random strangers, then heading over to their blogs to read about their lives. In fact, I've found some of my favorite blogs that way. Even though I have just a small following, I know that I have quality people who read what I write and who stick around even when I'm not particularly interesting. I even appreciate those who stop in for just a bit to see what this blog is all about.

So with that very long introduction, here are a few of my favorite posts from this year:

In January, I posted a tutorial for my handmade bridesmaids cards. Looking back, the formatting and photographs are just awful, but this post still gets some of the most traffic on my blog.

In March I was wrapping up my Art + Art History Workshop Series at the library, which left me and my blog a bit scatterbrained, but proved to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I didn't talk about it much here, but I made connections with library patrons through teaching them about my passions and learned a lot about myself and my abilities along the way.

You can see my practice Ink and Wash paintings here. That was probably my most successful class.

I completed and sent out our Save the Dates in April, using artist block, lino cut tools, Powerpoint and a little ingenuity. I loved learning a cool new subtractive technique, especially after my ceramics experience.

By May, I was struggling to design our invitations. My first concept was quite cool, but didn't quite fit with everything else. I'm still happy to have had the chance to learn a little bit about Illustrator, and I still love my graphic.

My invite re-redesign ended up being just what I never knew I wanted, and I began work on our paper rose centerpieces in July.

I got a bit carried away with those roses during the August Break, but it turns out they were just what the wedding needed. I've heard from countless people who have held onto my roses, whether they have a centerpiece on their kitchen table or just a rose or two on their mantle.

October was our wedding, and I went down a few days early to ready everything. I updated briefly when my Wish Tree came together, and got a bit stressed about the inclement weather leading up to our wedding day. But, the clouds cleared and everything came together.

Iceland turned out to be the perfect honeymoon spot for these two cat-lovers.

In November, I said thank you to all the special people in my life. It was the perfect moment to stop and reflect on the love and kindness of those around me. We shared a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner with The Literary Foodie, her husband and her neighbor, and each of us dared to try a slice of Sauerkraut Cream Pie after chowing down on some seriously delicious dinner dishes.

Last month, I power-sewed three stockings for my cousins' children and watched more bad Christmas movies than I care to recount.

I also hosted my very first, albeit small, giveaway and cooked the craziest squash dish ever.

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Although I spent the first day of the new year shut-in with a relentless headache, I'm optimistic about the coming year: I'll be taking classes, playing with my new serger, and continuing to pursue the things I love doing. This year I'm not setting resolutions. I don't think I've ever set a realistic or achievable resolution for myself; they are always vague and unattainable. But I realize that simply by deciding I want something, I get it done, regardless of the time of year. In 2008 I just stopped and said to myself, "I'm going to start running. I'll probably lose weight." I never even said to anyone that I wanted to lose weight or be healthier. I just did it: over the course of 9 months, I dropped 25 pounds and started running every day.

The point is, I know what I want and realistically can attain. So this year, I'm letting myself just do instead of plan on doing.