Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Zucchini Season

[maybe this is a food blog]

1. The old standby: sliced zucchini sauteed with onion, garlic, basil.

2. Zucchini coins breaded (egg, maseca, s&p, fennel), sprayed with olive oil, and baked. Served as a side.

3. Garlic, onion, olive oil, grated summer squash, lemon rind. (This is my favorite. I used it as a pasta sauce.)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

On Repeat



Sort of weird? Mostly awesome.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Food Blog

Dear Alea:

Bruschetta (olive oil, grilled, rubbed with raw garlic)+ricotta cheese, honey and lemon zest.

Red peppers (olive oil+garlic)

Halloumi (+lemon juice and basil)

Tempeh (soy-ginger-garlic marinade)

Pineapple (brown sugar-cinnamon-cayenne)

Carmel corn puffs (can't get these out of my head)

S'mores pizza.


You are a culinary genius.

Way to be born!

Best of the Week

This week I've been thinking about my thesis. Or rather I've been rethinking my thesis. A couple of new people asked me what it's about and, in explaining to them, I got back to some fundamentals.

I'm interested in wandering. I'm interested in home.

It's weird to me that everything always comes back to a cluster of themes, no matter what I'm studying or thinking about. Wandering. Home. Connection/sublimation/unity. Which are all, of course, related and maybe all have something to do with God and his love and how we relate to him. Maybe?

So I talked to my committee chair about the changes and she was very enthusiastic. My thesis isn't going to be one that changes the world and I'm ok with that. I'm excited I get to write about things that interest me entirely.

And it's going to be a sort of intense week--I had a goal to finish my prospectus by the beginning of August and if I push it I can sort of do it--but, I started working on my thesis for 2 hours every-ish day in May or June, and it's really helped. I waste some days and don't go some days, but now that it gets down to doing, I feel confident that I can. As a friend of my noticed: "If you work on a hard thing every day it gets done-er." Miraculous feeling, but not.

So meeting with my adviser was a best of my week? The (quiet, maybe I'll start writing and will find it's unfounded) confidence I can get this done.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

I have feelings

about food blogs. Not all of them. If you're a good photographer, for instance, then your food blog is probably great. Because pretty food is always a good idea. But it's hard to describe food in an engaging way. Mmm. It was delicious. Struggle.

That being said. Sometimes I absolutely delight myself. Like right now. And my dinner guest hasn't joined me yet. And if I don't tell someone about how smart I am I'm probably going to explode. So this is me food-blogging it up:

Zucchini stuffed with Moroccan-style red lentils and quinoa (so cinnamon, tumeric, cumin, plus the zucchini middle, sweet potato and onion and tomato) and topped with a masa-garlic crumble? And I'm going to spritz it with a lemon I stole from my roommate who is in Peru (and you can't blame a girl for stealing a lemon. I'll replace it)?

Radish-apple-onion salad dressed with green-curry-coconut-milk?

Mmm. It was delicious. (Or rather. I can only imagine this is going to go well.)

Thanks for indulging me.

Toodles.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Best of the Week

Intensely awesome conversations.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Best of the Week

[This post is also about how awesome my life is in the summer in Provo.]

Night walks in Provo are my favorite, in part, because they feel absolutely safe and familiar. I get to a place where I feel like I've been walking in Provo at night forever. I recognize old houses and landmarks and there's the glow of the known. But. I also like night walks because they're sort of wild and a little dangerous. And the streets I know in the day look differently at night. Unexpected sounds make my heart beat faster.

The combo, right?

And the stars. I love the stars.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I love my life.

So. I might at some point blog about something other than how awesome my life is. But I feel like I've had a really great run this last month or so. And that doesn't always happen. And I've got to make the most of it.

Monday. Started early and angry. I, naively, promised my family that I'd stake out a spot on the parade route. How hard could defending some curb space be? But ke vs. the sleep-deprived rugby player and ke vs. the couch-toting dad are not fights you want to see. Or not fights I wanted to see at least. Then my family started coming, which was great and helpful, but my family is not a morning family and I wasn't sure how to handle two handfuls of grumpy kids and my siblings uncertain of how we'd all fit in my little spot...so I took off. While I was off wandering gorgeous 4th of July Provo (and breaking my Diet Coke fast. It was entirely, deeply, nauseatingly worth it) Rachel and Jeremy took on the couch-toting dad and I came back to happy kids and a comfy chair and my mom passing around blueberry-lemon french toast casserole. With fluffy whip. Yum. And the parade was great. And my friends came by which I loved. Love.

Then a good chat with Annie and Maren. Then a nap.

Then I woke up an entirely new girl. I want to learn things! And be succesful! And squeeze all possible awesomeness out of this gorgeous summer!

So I planned my week and graded some papers.

Then FHE took place in canoes and a kayak (I love firsts. Kayaking? Check.) The sun was going down and we were dowsed in bug spray and the river was deep and calm and with the trees I felt like I was jungle cruising somewhere. Just incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Then I convinced a friend to go swimming at Campus Plaza in our (my) clothes. Then I went to bed.

I feel like I've always been a proponent of summer in Provo, but summer in Provo has never really worked out. Either I'm working jobs that I hate (catering+EFY anyone?) or kissing boys all night every night (=guilty, tired, grumpy summers) or have too much unstructured time and things go poorly. This summer, though, is so great so far.

Anyway. We should probably play some time.

Loves, ke.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Best of the Week

My best of the week was that my internet was broken all day Sunday which meant that instead of posting I spent my Sunday lounging in unseasonably temperate weather with my nephews, getting worked at Boggle (This frustrates me to no end. I should be great at word games, I always think, and am not), and otherwise enjoying my independence.

Also Saturday was a great day and night (talk to me about long wandery conversations some time) (and matches) (and fireworks). Also I spent more time walking on Thursday than I did sitting, and more time outside than in and more times with friends (and long wandery conversation) than not.

Also The Last Airbender? I think it was all on purpose--the bad acting and wooden dialogue etc, I closed my eyes I would've thought it was anime. Mr. Shyamalan did try and overstuff the plot, but--and it was beautiful and for kids and I really liked it.

Today, alas, fits into next week's best. So. You'll have to wait.