blue moon busy beaver

I have been a busy beaver over the past week. I'm trying to figure out whether I have time to do my half marathon training and not flunk out of grad school. I faceplanted into concrete at the very beginning of my Thursday run, and the last mile of said run was in pouring rain (go ahead and laugh...I am! now, at least). I got two parking tickets for the same thing (backing into a space - I had no idea you couldn't do it the first time...the second time I just wasn't thinking, obviously) but I think (I hope!!) I've learned my lesson. I made kale chips and lemon bars and confetti vegetable pasta sauce. I lost a water bottle at orchestra rehearsal. I discovered there were anchovies in my carrot juice - going to be reading juice labels very carefully from now on. I had an early morning debate about the public education system in Nashville. I saw The Bourne Legacy (not sure I'd recommend it...wait until it's out on Netflix or something). I had breakfast at The Pancake Pantry with my cousin and wife, who just moved to Nashville from New Haven. 

The confetti vegetable sauce - zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, and mascarpone cheese. This recipe is from NestMeg (go check out her blog, it's awesome and will most likely make your stomach growl). It was easy to make and pretty sure it's officially my favorite pasta sauce ever.

The sky was really pretty on Thursday night, so that brightened my mood some after my bad run. That and I got a veggie burrito bowl from Chipotle, omnomnom.

   

Ooooof. I am thankful for a long weekend. Last night I sat outside with my pup and enjoyed the blue moon and just didn't think for a while. This morning I went to power flow and I'm feeling much more centered, energized, and ready to enjoy the weekend.

The "blue moon" from yesterday night - there won't be another for three years!

I'm off to the Franklin Jazz Festival to soak up some awesome live music. 

All smiles, 
b

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

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

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