kitchen experiments and other things

Okra is possibly the most underrated pizza topping of all time. No, really. I mean it. I don't think I've ever heard of okra as a pizza topping, but I had some that I needed to use, and so voila - my okra-mushroom pizza creation. Flatbread spread with chipotle salsa and topped with cheddar-jack cheese, okra, and slices of portobello mushroom. Baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Super easy, fast, and yummy! 

Didn't do anything to the veggies except sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt!

Grad school has officially started and I am most definitely going to be the busiest I've ever been in my entire life. But that's fantastic for me, because I love being busy. I thrive on busy. I breathe busy. I'm so excited to be busy! Yes I know how ridiculous that sounds. 

Today I'm thankful for: Ten Have, fresh vegetables, and an awesome run (3 miles with a 9:47 average pace!). I also thought it was Monday for a second...which is a good thing, right? My week will seem like it's over faster? Something like that. 

Oh and this is an awesome blog full of inspirational photos and quotes, so go check it out for some happiness! 

All smiles, 
b

A cure for your Monday doldrums: 

spicy peanut kale bowl

I rarely buy fresh greens because I live by myself and it's damn near impossible to consume a bag of greens by yourself before it spoils. However, this recipe for a spicy peanut kale bowl sounded too good not to attempt. It also sounded like a perfect healthy detox lunch after consuming copious amounts of fried food at the Wilson County Fair last night. I had already started the day with a mango-carrot juice-coconut water-mint smoothie (highly recommended), so kale seemed like a reasonable next step.

Mmm, the fried fair fantasticality of a funnel cake.

I made my way to Whole Foods this morning and bought what I needed for this attempt, including my first-ever bunch of fresh kale (omnomnom!). If there's one thing I've learned since I've started to make lots of different dishes from scratch, it's that cooking can seem expensive. This is especially true when you're trying a new genre of food that uses oils, butters, and spices that you probably don't have sitting around your kitchen. But in reality, if you're cooking a lot of different kinds of food, you're going to need things like rice vinegar, tahini, and cayenne. So it's usually worthwhile to buy it, because once you have things like that you won't have to restock for a looong time.

I made a few modifications to her recipe, out of a mix of cheapness and personal preference:

• nixed the tamari and just used soy sauce (it calls for both)
• only used fresh ginger instead of both fresh and pickled
• bought rice vinegar but subbed safflower oil for sesame oil
• subbed dried cilantro for fresh cilantro
• subbed maple syrup for the agave
• for the rice bowl part of the recipe, I sauteed some garlic in the pan before adding the onions and mushrooms.

mise en place (cue dramatic music)

sauté-ing away!

Both the salad by itself and the portobello-infused rice bowl were delicious! I kept nomming on the salad while I was preparing the rice bowl...it's a miracle there was any left to put with the rice, it was so tasty!

the finished product

I'm not sure there's much I'd do differently here! I forgot to add the little bit of lemon juice to the spicy peanut ginger sauce, but I'm also not sure it made a whole lot of difference in the end product because it's infused with so many spices! Speaking of that sauce, it's so tasty that it'd be worth whipping up a bunch to use as a salad dressing or maybe even a marinade! 

ready for its close-up!

Happy nomming, 

b

true love at the fair

 

It's been a long (but great!) day. Goats fed, sheep herded, pigs raced, fried pie consumed, fiddle fiddled...county fair success. Time for some shut-eye! 

All smiles, 

 b

happy friday!

Things I am happy about today and excited for in the near future:

• I just made a yummy homemade pizza out of flatbread and Mexican-blend cheese and chipotle salsa from World Market (one of my favorite places in the universe!). Enjoyed it with a Sam Adams Summer Ale.
• I'm grateful for being at Belmont and being a part of the music community there. Being back in school is a little strange, but it feels good! I'm excited to be a graduate student. Here's to a fabulous Fall 2012!
• My puppy is keeping me good company on this lovely late summer evening. He's enjoying chewing on a rawhide so much - it makes me happy to see him so happy!

One of the reasons my Friday night (and every night!) is fabulous.

• One of my 2012 goals was to become a better cook. I love food, and I love making food, so I want to make learning new recipes a bigger part of my life! In case you missed it, I made delicious sweet potato-avocado veggie burgers last week. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt this spicy peanut portobello kale rice bowl. Stay tuned!
• I'm fiddling at the Wilson County Fair tomorrow! I'm really excited for this. I'll be double-fiddling with the phenomenal Greg Hallums. He's one of my favorite people and favorite musicians in the universe.

I leave you tonight with this adorably-beyond-adorable video of a sleepy kitten and puppy. Have a fabulous weekend! 

All smiles, 
b

love this.

monday night goodness

Two things I wanted to share! 

 One, a Miranda Lambert song that is absolutely beautiful and that I'd never heard before tonight even though it's a couple years old. 

And secondly, the cutest things that ever happened, from buzzfeed. 

All smiles, 
b

meeting a hero

We all have heros. (If you don't, you should!) One of mine is Tristan Prettyman. For her music, and for her person. I've followed her tumblr for a few years now and she's such an inspiration. She has such a graceful personality and I have so much respect for her. I happened to be on twitter yesterday afternoon and I discovered she was playing at 3rd and Lindsley last night - I had no idea! Before last night I'd never had a chance to see her live - she was FABULOUS. I was kind of terrified because she's such a role model to me (and to so many others!) and sometimes people who sound great on their albums can't hold a tune live. But her voice was lovely and the show was great. 

I really really REALLY wanted to meet her, so naturally I snuck to the backstage area and introduced myself. She was a sweetheart and we chatted for a little bit. I don't get starstruck or even excited too easily, but meeting Tristan was definitely an exception to this.

Tristan and me :-)

I told her I was an aspiring singer-songwriter and she said she wanted to hear my stuff - I sent her a link to some scratch demos this morning. Who knows if she'll actually listen...I hope she does! At any rate, her autograph is definitely getting framed and going up on my bedroom's wall-of-inspiration. Woo!

What a great way to wrap up the weekend and ring in a new week! Oh and if y'all don't know Tristan's music, GO CHECK HER OUT. Pronto! She's releasing a new album at the end of September. Her single "My Oh My" is available for download on iTunes and you can see the official video here! 

All smiles, 
b  

yoga and giant anteaters

Someday, I'll be able to do this. Someday.

Had a great practice at Hot Yoga Plus this morning. It was the Bikram series, which I'd never done before (I usually do vinyasa flow, but I have a Groupon that expires soon for HYP). When I first started yoga a couple years ago, I started with hot yoga, but my normal studio here in Nashville is not a hot yoga studio. I love yoga in general, but I do enjoy the added heat element and it felt good to be back on the mat in a heated room that allows for extra stretching and extra detox. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here (80 and mostly sunny), so Brooklyn and I went to the Nashville Zoo. It was my first time there as well, barring once when I was just a wee tot, and I was actually impressed by their setup. I had also never seen a giant anteater before - dude, those things are so awesome in real life! I want one. Look how cute they are. Loooook!

I'm sexy and I know it.

 To yoga, and anteaters! Happy Saturday, everyone. 

All smiles, 
b

the world in a peach

I had an awesome run this morning, an awesome cowrite session this afternoon, and I'm going to have an awesome night with some awesome ladies. So I leave you with the happiness of a freshly bitten peach. 

The nectarine, and curious peach/

Into my hands themselves do reach. (Andrew Marvell)

 

Happy weekend everyone! 

All smiles, 
b

kleenex musings

 

I was at my grandmother's house in Kentucky last weekend. She passed away a year ago this October, so my dad and his siblings are in the midst of the tough and frustrating process that is dealing with her estate (my grandfather, her husband of 70+ years, is also deceased). At any rate, I inherited some baking dishes and other kitchen odds, and whilst packing I threw in a box of kleenex to help buffer the breakables. 

It was fortuitous timing, as I ran out of kleenex in my apartment yesterday. It turns out this box of kleenex is almost 30 years old. It's older than me, folks! How on earth does one manage to use so little kleenex that they only have to buy a new box every 30 years? And yet, this typifies my grandmother to a T. She grew up during the Depression and learned to make the most of everything. Having this kleenex box around reminds me of her, and that makes me happy. 

My grandma's Kleenex 20th anniversary box. 1964-1984!

It really is the little things. I always try and find a kleenex box that makes me happy, even if it costs an extra 50 cents. If my kleenex box makes me crack a smile every time I see it (which is multiple times a day), then that to me is totally worth the extra two quarters. For example, the boxes that just ran out. I kept the chick around even after it was empty, but I finally recycled them both yesterday.

How could you not smile at these!

They even had little tails :-)

   
All smiles,
b

why i run

 

I love running. I'm a pretty intense person, and pounding the sidewalks with Drake or Ke$ha (admit it, they're on your running playlist, too) works wonders for me in terms of blowing off steam. I do better all the way around when I run - I'm happier, nicer, more patient. It's good for me, and it's good for everyone that has to deal with me. 

Anyway. A couple weeks ago I did something I've been mulling over for a few years now: I started a half marathon training plan. Legit started. It's a challenge, especially because I have exercise-induced asthma. But I love challenges. Nothing feels better to me than pushing myself to to something I previously thought impossible. The training is going well. I had been running only sporadically when I first started, but now I'm doing 3 miles in a cool 30 minutes. 

Or at least I was until today. My run was awful today. Purely awful. The training called for 30 minutes "easy" today, aka running at a pace where you're able to easily hold a conversation the whole time. Mile one was fine, but the other 1.66 miles (I didn't even make it to 3) were PAINFUL. And the thing was, I was being awful to myself. Why is this hard for you? This shouldn't be hard for you. What happened? I glared at my phone and made faces that I'm sure were infinitely amusing to people driving by. 

Then I stopped. Just be nice to yourself. I said that out loud. And then I felt a little better. So what if not every run is great? So what if not every run is progress? Sometimes you gotta go backward to go forward, right? I had a horrible night's sleep last night. It threw me off this morning. I did my training anyway, so that's accomplishment enough! I have a rest day tomorrow. But Friday I'll lace up, hit the road, and I'll kick its butt - without trash talking myself to death. End of story! 

An unrelated anecdote from walking the dog this morning:

Neighbor: "That is the cutest dog!"

Me: "Thanks. He's friendly...just hyper sometimes."

Neighbor: "I understand. My grandson is like that."

All smiles,

b

sweet potato-avocado veggie burgers

These veggie burgers made life fabulous this evening. Dinner was scrumptious (and easy!). I added chipotle mustard to the seasoning mix and grape tomatoes on the side. Went great with a glass of dry white wine! Recipe here.

All smiles,

b