How utopia must smell

Strawberry mania is over for the summer and boy did I get manic this year. 

To make a special strawberry sauce that toast screams for (a), I simmered blended and chopped strawberries with some sugar and lemon zest and vanilla (I think) until it was thick and irresistible. I tried to go easy on the sugar and with an error ended up going medium with the sugar (can no longer estimate). Then in smaller bowls I made flavored subsets of strawberry heaven: Lime, Balsamic, Mint, …Vanilla, Black Pepper…. I think that’s it. I froze this in ice cube trays labeled with flavor initials using a Sharpie (b).

(a) This texture of pureed and chunky strawberry was noticeably delicious. (b) Think of all the uses!

Oh – but some days before this I was part of an experiment to make strawberry + blueberry + herb sauce. Damn was that herbazing! I was thrilled with how easy and effective it is to impart herb flavors simply by steeping fresh clean herbs in a hot sugary sauce for however long. We used basil mostly, and some rosemary I think. A couple of times I added a tablespoon or so of this to otherwise boring rice and sauteed veggies and DAMN.

Oh – and some days after this I made an all fruit smoothie with strawberries, pear, banana, lemon juice, and I think that’s it, and then froze it in ice cube trays. BEST smoothie ice cube addition ever. This too I must remember - hence this indelible blog post.

Asparagus green and asparagus purple

Green and purple together get a bad rap for being "Barney colors", and that's a shame. This green and this purple together sometimes makes me think of slightly older, hippyish moms wearing baggy A-line t-shirts with a crazy knit vest on top.

green to purple to heaven

Together these two colors are vibrant and luscious yet grounding, certainly pleasing to any hippy mom. They make me think of wet grass on a fall evening. They make me think of jewel-tone velvet chairs. And asparagus green and purple, well that makes me think of the day I realized I could eat it raw. A magical day! May I never forget it.

Tuxedo me

One of my favorite outfits on Carrie is early in season 6 when she’s introducing her new Jack Berger to her friends. It’s a white tuxedo jacket over a vintage light yellow mickey mouse t-shirt. I’m no crazy mickey mouse advocate, so this look is not one I’d copy too literally, but damn if I don’t now want an array of well-tailored silky and sleek tuxedo jackets. I assure you I already have the vintage tee collection.

But speaking of season 6 of SATC, this is the season where the hair, make-up, and wardrobe stylists finally resolved their apparent feud and let the cast members look their very best. Carrie is seen glowing in outfit after outfit due to them working with her natural colors and assets. It’s like they “got the colors done" on each of the four stars and then actually took these lessons to stage. Bravo!

Love this haircut and color too. Wonder what it’d do for me…. 

Later on in this episode you see that she’s pairing this with skintight black leather pants and she looks HAWT.

Scheduling

I love a schedule. I like making it. I like looking at it. I like the paper. I like the ink color. I like the font I can strike in neat invisible lines.

I like the idea of sticking to it.

Here's the new proposed blogging schedule:

((Hold on, OMG, the sappy soapy bullshit Food Network Star is pumping right now is making me want to hurl. And how could you pick that kid over Ippy?! There's a lot of sexual tension and touching on that show. I'd stay close to Alton.))

I think I can manage one decently ranty/wordy/opinion post per week and a smaller simpler post as well.

Now can I settle on regularly scheduled release days?

Baby steps...

Day in the life

What a lovely day. I wonder what I should do next.

Morning Glory (AKA my nemesis)

Mystery plants in gardens can be cool. When they're good, we call them "volunteers". When they're bad, I call them Morning Glory.

I let Morning Glory volunteer a couple years ago thinking it was a volunteer pea. It wasn't until I watered in the early morning one time that I noticed the vibrant, lovely purple flowers. Aha! This is Morning Glory!

Fast forward to the next summer. Morning.Glory.Sproutlings.EVERYWHERE!

I hate you.

I'm about 99% positive this is Morning Glory. The first 2 leaves always look like butterfly wings and the next two are pointed. After this it's a foot tall and after that it's winding around your ankles and after that it's gone to seed to drive you crazy next year.

The only blessing about this beautiful weed is how easy (and satisfying) it is to pluck them from the soil. If you're creepy and gross, like me, weeding these little suckers is akin to acnephilia. (I had no idea that term existed -- I just googled "joy of picking or popping things out".)

Care packages, Part 2

Some of you may be thinking, but what should I put in the care package?

Care packages contain lots of simple things that are just delightful to receive. Receiving just one thing is a gift. This is a care package. Food is easiest - think indulgent snacks, healthy snacks, tea or coffee, done. Or jazz it up a notch with some extra delightful things, like a small book or crafty notebook, or natural body care items. Choose small luxuries over expensive trinkets. Something you can only get where you are, something your friend misses, like “Dottie’s Homemade Licorice”, is perfection. 

But but but!! You cannot skimp on the card. The card in a care package can be any kind at all - I prefer beautiful blank ones – but it must have a personal message. I know this causes some people anxiety and I have advice:  Don’t overthink it. Speak from the heart.

Finally, the crucial step - get your ass to the post office.

Sunset

I used to have this balcony that overlooked a famous bridge - I could see the tip of it on a rare clear day. The sun would set behind the bridge every day and like clockwork, it would be beautiful.

I'm not one to wear these colors or even decorate my surroundings with too much of them, but damn if they aren't mystical and magnificent together at the end of a long warm day, beginning of a slow cool evening.

One of my goals in life is to become a morning person, so that I can stalk the sky's beauty twice a day instead of just once. One day....

Favorite place to buy cheese

Trader-fuckin-joe’s!

Trader Joe’s is one of my reasons for living, so it comes as no surprise that it’s also my go-to place for some food items. Besides the extreme luxury of living next to a real cheese store, Trader Joe’s is a great place to buy cheese. There are good prices and a really wide selection, nicely explained even in little descriptive notecards. Lovely. 

Two of at least six different kinds of cheese in my fridge right now. I don't mess around with cheese.

My favorites include the Grated Parmigiano Reggiano (a, above), the newish Asiago with Rosemary crust, goat cheese anything – especially those little single serves, and this new one, Unexpected Cheddar (b). The Unexpected Cheddar is my Cheese of the Year candidate so far. I could eat it by the brick! The parm reg (a) has a nice sharp nutty flavor. I like to douse it along with good olive oil, fresh lemon, and s&p on the Trader Joe’s whole wheat curly pasta. Oh so easy and good.

Thank you, Trader Joe’s!

Care packages

When did people get too cool to send care packages? Sending a care package to your kid when they’re away at college is totally normal – sending one to a random person you love is totally not. Why is this?

I ask the question because today my little sister, the lovingest of all who love, sent me a care package. Well, actually she sent it last week but today I got it, looked at it smiling for a while, opened it, and then cried.

Crying is a totally new thing to me in the last 3-4 years. As a teenager I patently never cried. As a kid I cried as little as little girl possible. But now the water comes forth practically uncontrollably! It’s usually for happiness or a lost feeling. Does this happen to everyone? I digress.

Send a loved one a care package. If they’re anything like me, they won’t even know how much they’ve been needing one.

Rooms of my dreamhouse - Powder room (half bath)

One of the places my mind likes to go is to my dreamhouse. I can craft this place in my head for hours. It’s two stories high with a fully functioning basement, so 3 total levels. There are porches and gardens outside and nooks and crannies inside. Each square foot has a color and purpose.

The guest bathroom on the main level is a relatively small enclosure that everyone at one time or another finds themself in. I like dramatic and simple guest baths -- super clean, like I’m at a hotel, and a little bit dark, like it could be in the movie Clue. It needs wonderful lighting so that everyone looks spectacular, yet proper storage for bandages and isopropanol.

Enter – Damask. I scoured the Sherwin Williams wallpaper website for affordable, dramatic, and dark wallpapers for my dream guest bathroom. Damn was that annoying. I then paired these with simple and modern, slightly organic bathroom fixtures to keep the room from entering Dallas.

It was easy to find million dollar wallpaper that would look amazing in such a room. I, however, was set on finding affordable stuff, so I rifled through the Sherwin Williams site. The search function there is a total joke -- I couldn't even copy the URL's of these swatches individually! But if I remember correctly they are all "Damask". 

I went to home depot to look for sinks and found just a few things on the more modern side. I have no recollection of how I ended up finding this light fixture. And lastly, I just knew that Overstock.com would be a good place for mirrors.

What do you think (I wonder)? I'm envisioning a super cozy, fun, and memorable place to take a wiz in my dreamhouse.