All Done

Well, it's all over. All done. Yesterday was so much harder than I thought it was - it was very busy, and I kept thinking at the last minute of more kids I didn't get the chance to see and say goodbye to. There are a couple of kids - two girls, two boys - I feel extremely close with, and saying goodbye to them was torture. After giving one of them a hug, I teared up and then was in tears on and off the rest of the afternoon, culminating in some awkward sobs while saying goodbye to coworkers. Awkward. It was about infinity times harder than I thought to leave a job I have been so desperately trying to get away from for so many months.

BUT! But. Enough about that. It's over and done and now I am enjoying a three day weekend before starting my new job on Tuesday. Special long weekend activities involve: reading, laundry, cleaning, blogging, having breakfast on Monday with my friend Kyle, and possibly taking myself to see the last Harry Potter movie in the theater. I am currently rereading all of the Harry Potter books - gosh, they are just so good! I just read the first one last week and I got the second one from the library yesterday. I'm sure I will have that one done by the end of the weekend. What are you reading right now?

In other news ... I'm on Pinterest and it's so fabulous. Click here to follow my Pinboards. I also run the Pinterest page for Fantabulously Frugal Weddings, so if you want to see a bunch of beautiful wedding inspiration, click here and follow us too!

That's all for now ... must get back to my Saturday tasks of making roasted tomato soup (recipe to follow if it's tasty) and watching Party Down on Netflix. :)

CSA Week 5. I think?

Happy Friday! What is everyone doing for Memorial Day weekend? Matt and I are hopping in the car tomorrow morning and driving to South Haven, MI, where we will spend a long weekend with my parents to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We are really looking forward to getting away for a few days (even though it sucks making yet another long drive with gas prices as high as they are) (can you believe how expensive it is to fill your tank? holy moly!).

Anyway! My dad had to work tonight, and I had to work today, so our long weekend is running from Saturday-Tuesday. I took Tuesday off of work and I am realllllly looking forward to the three day work week. School is almost out (THANK GOD) and I'm trying to stay calm and not focused on the 6 (S-I-X) students I had in court yesterday morning. OY.

Since we aren't leaving until tomorrow, we had time to go pick up our veggies this afternoon! Here's what we ended up with:

Salad greens (no close-up because by now, you know what lettuce looks like) ...
... some adorable little radishes ...

... garlic scapes (ever heard of them?) ...

... and glorious, glorious shiitake mushrooms. MY FAVORITE. Yessssss!!!

I was in the mood for a light little evening snack, so I chopped up the radishes and made a little radish salad. For those of you who are wondering, radish salad = radishes + olive oil + sea salt. The end.
It was good, I guess, if you're into radishes. To be honest, I'm really not. But the mushrooms? Oh yeah, baby. I love them so much.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, friends! xxoo

More CSA Cooking!

Things I need to work on:

1. Cleaning

2. Laundry

3. Working out

4. My food photography skillz ... or lack thereof.

I am seriously almost embarrassed to post these photos. Food bloggers seem to have the most amazing food photographs ... so perhaps my new goal will be to work on that! I think the first stop towards achieving beautiful food photographs is to use natural light.

Whoops.

Well, here is tonight's dinner, somewhat courtesy of my CSA:

It consisted of eggs, Laughing Cow light swiss cheese wedges, caramelized onions and mushrooms, and wilted beet greens. On the side: a piece of that soggy sesame bread we got (don't worry, it's not soggy anymore) toasted with some Maranatha almond butter.

It looks incredibly ... brown and boring and stuff. But in reality, it was delicious!!!! Pinky swear.

I also roasted the beets and now they are marinating overnight with some onions in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and a drizzle of honey.

Here is the worst photo ever of my bowl of beets. It's so dark!

I picked up some organic strawberries today and they looked so perfect that we had to eat some right away. So, for dessert: vanilla bean ice cream with strawberries, drizzled with this chocolate balsamic vinegar. Which was absolutely incredibly amazing.

Mmmmm.

Tomorrow for lunch: greens with the marinated beets and some feta. CSAs RULE!

CSA Week 1: Kale. And Kale. And some other stuff.

I seem to have lost some of my food photography skillz since last summer ... I will try to work on making my veggies prettier. :)

Matt and I drove to pick up our very first CSA share of the season on Friday, and I was so very excited! Except that it was pouring rain. And our (cardboard) box of food sits outside in someone's driveway for pickup. And when I got there, I saw that there was a loaf of bread inside. In a paper bag. A very, very wet loaf of bread. But hey, there it is! You can almost see it. This week, we received:

-Kale! Some really curly small-leaf kale. I forgot to take a photo of it before I made it into kale chips (recipe below) - which are in that plastic bag in the last photo.

-More kale! A different kind of kale. I forgot to get it out of the fridge for the photo, so just imagine MORE KALE.

-A half loaf of soggy sesame seed bread. Okay, it didn't end up being very soggy, and tasted very good heated up with some almond butter. Yums.

-BEETS!!!! Yes, I really am that excited about the darn beets. I used to think I hated beets ... then I got some in last year's CSA, learned how to roast them, and realized that they are one of my new favorite things. These beets are pretty weeny, but I am looking forward to roasting them tomorrow and having them with some salad. Yums.

-Greens - beautiful, beautiful salad greens. Seriously - don't they look fresh and delicious? I cannot wait to make myself a good salad Monday for dinner while Matt is at a decades-long group meeting for grad school.

Last year, the CSA share started kind of weak, with only salad stuff and other greens, and gained momentum as the growing season progressed. I am really looking forward to all of this deliciousness!

I got lots of kale last year, and never really knew what to do with it. Unfortunately, a lot of it went bad before I figured out what to do. But not this year! I am determined to not let ANY of this produce go bad. I had heard about kale chips last summer, but just never got around to making them. But since I had not one, but TWO giant bunches of kale, I decided to give it a shot yesterday. I went with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

kale (duh)

extra virgin olive oil (I used spray evoo because that's all I had on hand - worked great)

sea salt

aaaand of course I added a little garlic as well

Preheat oven to 300.

Wash and dry kale in a salad spinner to get out all the moisture (I had done this the night before, so the kale was nice and dry already). Cut or rip into bite-size pieces, removing the thick stems. Toss in olive oil, sea salt and whatever other herbs/spices you would like, and lay on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Or not. I am out of parchment paper so I didn't use any, but I guess that would have been easier for clean-up.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes - and wow, I was really surprised about how fantastic they are. They really satisfy the salty chip craving - only it's kale! Which is amazingly good for you, and has a ton of health benefits. I am hooked, and I'll definitely be using the pounds and pounds of kale we get this spring to make kale chips!

Superbowl Party!

Well, we really partied it up tonight for the Superbowl! If by "partied it up," you mean had our neighbor besties over with their beautiful three week old daughter, Madeline.

On the menu: Spinach Feta Dip, Grilled Beer and Cheese Paninis, and Mini Football Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing.

Aren't the little brownies adorable?!

This one is a bit too dark, but I had to throw in a photo of sweet little Madeline!
Oh, and the Superbowl? Welllll to be honest, I didn't really have an opinion about it, but I HAVE loved the commercials. And now? It's bedtime. :)

Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

Okay, I realize that it's probably a little late for a Thanksgiving recipe swap, but I am late in reading my blogs (per usual) and just came across b.e.g.'s recipe swap post. I usually make my grandma's chocolate chip pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but this year I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate bourbon pecan pie to try something new.

Instead, I will post the recipe for one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions - noodle kugel!!!!!! Now, I realize a lot of you probably aren't familiar with kugel. What can I say? It's a Jew thing. :) My parents always make kugel for Thanksgiving, and this year I thought I would make it to take over to my in-laws for dinner tomorrow. Kugel is basically a baked noodle pudding type deal. I know it might sound weird, but the main ingredients are egg noodles, eggs, cream cheese, butter, and sugar. CLEARLY you can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium egg noodles (I always use the No-Yolks)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened (I always use Neufchatel cheese)

1 1/4 cups sugar

8 eggs, well beaten

4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

dash salt

Topping:

2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and mix well. Blend in eggs. Add milk, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Add noodles and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of noodles. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until nicely browned and crusty on top. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Just give this a shot - trust me, you will love it. Even though it is kinda sweet, I serve it as a Thanksgiving side. Enjoy!

Football food?

I was SO excited to watch the first Michigan football game of the season yesterday! And while I thought about making some tailgate food for myself, in the end ... all my beautiful fresh veggies won me over. The other day, Kyle showed me this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for roasted carrot and avocado salad, and ... I wanted it!

First, I took my beautiful carrots and scrubbed them clean ... and then I peeled them because they were still kinda dirty.

I chopped them up into 1-2 inch segments and threw them in this pretty red bowl.
Then, tossed them with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper...

Preheated the oven to 400* and threw them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Okay, this is actually a roasting pan. But you know ... whatevs.
Around 35 minutes later, they looked all pretty and tasty and browned, like this!
I put the carrots in a bowl, sliced half an avocado and threw it on top ... then cut a lemon in half and squeezed it over the carrots and avocado. Drizzled with more olive oil, threw a little more salt and pepper on top ...
... and, ta da! DELICIOUSNESS! This was really, really, really good.
The flavors were really interesting - I don't think I've ever had avocado and carrots together before. YUM. My only regret was that I didn't get more carrots from the farmer's market. They're all gone now!

Is dairy the enemy?

Lately, I've had a lot of difficulties with dairy. Stomach issues that I won't get into because you know ... I'm a lady and all. It's really been bumming me out. I started taking lactaid pills with dairy but it does not completely take care of the issues. Plus, half the time, I forget.

Here's the thing. Like most people, I love things like ... cheese and yogurt. Ice cream. Dairy stuff.

But you know what? No matter how much I love dairy stuff, I love feeling good even better. So I am going to go completely dairy-free for the next few weeks and see what happens. Do any of you avoid dairy? What are your tricks? I am going to pick up some stuff like hummus to use on sandwiches instead of cheese, and some almond milk. I want to stay away from soy as well - I had a soy latte this morning and I got just as sick as I get with dairy. PLUS I got a migraine. So - no dairy, no soy. I need help!

If you're dairy free, I'd LOVE some tips. What do you like to eat instead of dairy stuff?

*image found here*

Watermelon Gazpacho

Despite the fact that Lucy thinks that soup should only be hot, I completely disagree and have been known to enjoy many cold soups. A couple of months ago, I came across this amazing recipe for watermelon gazpacho. I was intrigued, and I must admit that it sounded amazing. There was a big watermelon in my CSA share last week, and another one this week, so I decided I finally had enough watermelon to make it! I altered the original recipe a bit (of course ... don't I always?) since I didn't have all the ingredients and also, I don't really like cilantro.

Ingredients

3 cups of seeded watermelon blended

2 cups of watermelon diced

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

2 cups of seeded and peeled cucumber, diced (I didn't seed the cucumbers and somehow, I survived)

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tsp minced ginger (totally forgot to put this in!)

1/2 a seeded and minced jalapeno, if you like spicy (I left this out, although I know it would have been tasty!)

handful of fresh cilantro leaves (I didn't use them)

juice from one lime (I also didn't use this ... forgot to get a lime!)

lime peel from one lime (ditto)

salt and pepper

Just mix everything together and chill in the fridge. Serves 4-5 ... or 1, over a course of many days. :)

So ... my watermelon gazpacho was pretty basic, since I didn't put in any of the fun stuff - I left out cilantro and jalapeno and forgot the ginger and lime stuff. Oh well. I did add some very finely diced onion, and I really felt like that intensified the flavor.

The verdict? AMAZING. I had a bowl of it right when I made it, then threw the rest in the fridge. Aaaand I just had another bowl. It is such a great, crisp, cool, refreshing summer treat! And OH so healthy. Plus it looks pretty! See?

I am really sorry I keep forgetting to take photos of my CSA shares. I suck. This week, I got ... a watermelon, peaches, tomatoes, potatoes, a cucumber, and some goat cheese. And this morning, Kyle and I went to the farmer's market and I picked up some onions, leeks, and more cucumbers. And - an entire chicken! It has been roasting in the slow cooker all day with some onion, potatoes, and fresh sage from my little herb garden. It smells AMAZING and it may not be done until around 10pm, but I will be eating delicious roasted chicken for the rest of the week!

Tomorrow, I am off to Holiday World with some of my SILs and their kids. I am so excited! I haven't been to an amusement park of any kind in YEARS, and this one has a huge water park. Yay for a day being a kid! I hope y'all have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Farmer's Market Finds!

Can you handle how much I have posted over the past 2 days? No? Me either. Ha!

Today was a beautiful day (okay, it still is!) and I headed to the farmer's market this morning. Serious growing season has definitely begun! Look what I found:

Lettuce, shiitake mushrooms, beautiful tomatoes ...

... Amish-grown peaches, cippolini onions, and beets.
For all of this (plus a bottle of water and bbq pulled pork sandwich for me!), I paid only $22! And everything looks so beautiful.

In my previous life of a person who was not very experimental with veggies, I didn't like beets. But the other day, I had some beets on a salad from a salad bar and I thought they were mighty tasty. So, I picked up some beets at the market and then looked up this tasty sounding recipe for Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts and Goat Cheese.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts

2 teaspoons olive oil

dash salt

dash pepper

6 medium beets, trimmed and washed (I only used 2 - because there is only one of me!)

1/3 cup thinly sliced red onions (I used one sliced cippolini onion)

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I only used about 2)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I just threw in a dash of apple cider vinegar)

3/4 teaspoon salt (I just threw in a little bit)

1/4 teaspoon sugar (I just put in a little honey)

dash of black pepper

1/2 lb fresh spinach leaves (I just used my farmer's market lettuce)

3 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Okay. Clearly I changed pretty much every part of this recipe. But that's not the point.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees - toss the walnuts with the olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven for around 7-10 minutes. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool.

Wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil and place on a cookie sheet. Roast in the oven (still at 350 degrees) for about an hour and a half. Take them out and let cool for about 20 minutes. Then, run under cold water and peel the skins off. Chop into pieces, throw them in a mixing bowl with the onion.

Then, mix the dressing up and throw it in the bowl with the beet/onion mixture. Let sit out at room temperature for at least one hour. Then - serve over lettuce with goat cheese and throw the walnuts on top. Delish! I also drizzled some of the, um, beet juice/dressing on top. Look how pretty it is - hot pink!

Anyway, this was so freaking delicious that I gobbled it up. And then gobbled up a second serving. Quick, go make this!!!

Weekend, and Scary Pool

Hello folks! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend ... I certainly did. Lisa came to visit, and we had a great time doing pretty much nothing. It was in the humid mid-90s pretty much the entire time, so we spent as much time as possible ... inside. Watching movies.

For the record? DO NOT see the movie "Dear John." It was freaking horrible. Also, I don't really recommend "When in Rome." It was stupid, and Lisa slept through it. But whatevs.

We did have a fun time at the Taste of Bloomington, which was going on Saturday. It was so, so, so, so hot, so we didn't really last very long. But we had the most incredible bbq pulled pork (Fatman's - it was so good we went back there for dinner!) and this great watermelon and feta salad. Oh, and crostini with lemon ricotta, basil and a drizzle of honey. YUM!!!

So, that was fun.

Are y'all having a good summer? Do you have jobs that change over the summer (i.e. jobs in education), or do your jobs generally stay the same? I am so happy to work in education after working in a hospital (no vacations, ever!). While I still work throughout the summer, I go down to 24 hours a week, and it's much more relaxed. So even though I don't have my summers off, it still feels like a break.

One thing we're doing this summer is helping out at an afternoon program for teens - a safe, structured place they can go hang out, have some healthy food, etc. It's located at an apartment complex. Last week, I went with a couple kids to the apartment pool and dangled my feet in the water while they swam. Until ... we noticed 3 (THREE) ticks in the water. Oh. And a CONDOM. Puke. Pool time ended pretty quickly after that.

So ... what's the weirdest thing you have found in a pool?

What's cooking ...

I've been making lots of veggie stuff from my CSA share (Matt informed me I should stop referring to it as "my box." Giggle.) and I thought I would post a couple of things!

First of all ... the world's most boring looking plate. Sauteed spinach with garlic, olive oil and a touch of sea salt, and roasted radishes. Yes, this is what I had for dinner the other night. I have decided that radishes are better raw - they had a great little kick to them. But then I roasted them and they turned kind of ... boring. And mushy and tasteless. So, that's a bummer. For future reference ... just eat them whole, or sliced in a salad. :) The spinach, however, was fabulous.

Last night I made something really tasty, I thought - pasta with arugula pesto and cherry tomatoes. I had a ton of arugula and found a few great recipes for arugula pesto. I combined them and came up with this:
Yum! Pretty, right? Here is how I made the pesto:

Ingredients:

4-5 cups of arugula, trimmed

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup fresh parmesan, shredded

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I just cut a lemon in half and squeezed the juice out of only one half)

salt and pepper

1/3 cup olive oil with some water

Directions:

Throw everything but the olive oil/water into a food processor and combine until well minced. Then, through the little food chute of the processor, pour the olive oil and water in slowly while the ingredients are still mixing.

Um, that's it. It is seriously that easy - and WAY delicious. My friend Kyle came over for dinner and we (unsuccessfully) attempted to make gluten-free pasta. It failed and we had to make regular pasta. Oh well! I tossed the pasta with about 3 tablespoons of the pesto, added a little more fresh parmesan, and about 2 cups of halved cherry tomatoes. DELISH! I highly recommend!

I have also been making this tasty salad - I got the idea from my new favorite food blog, Kath Eats Real Food. Everything this girl eats/makes looks so fresh and delicious! I stole one of her salad ideas and I am a little obsessed.

First, make some simple salad dressing - combine olive oil, honey and sea salt (I also throw in some pepper). Then, toss it with some salad greens. Add some tomatoes, avocado, and sauteed mushrooms. And that's it. Great, delicious flavors in there!

So, that's what I've been eating these days. Do you have any tasty recipes for me to try?

CSA Week 2

Yesterday, I picked up (or rather, my friend Kyle picked up and brought to me) my 2nd CSA share. So exciting!!! My share from last Friday lasted through the entire week, and I ate something from my box every single day. It was fabulous! I started looking forward to my new box on Wednesday - wondering what would be in there, if it would be as tasty and fresh as last week, what I would make with it ... yadda yadda yadda.

So! Without further ado, here is a pretty green photo of this week's CSA share!

Some more beautiful, tasty spinach - this was SO AMAZING last week and I can't wait to make lots more this week!
Arugula. DELICIOUS! Arugula is one of my absolute favorites - it's so great in a sandwich. This arugula in particular is really really peppery - I had a little piece last night while I was cleaning it up, and it really packs a punch!
More salad greens. Yum!
Radishes. I have never been a huge fan, but I found a great recipe for some roasted radishes that I think I will try.
A few stalks of swiss chard - these were in Kyle's box, but she graciously shared with me. Yum!
I also got a great wedge of cheese called Flora from The Swiss Connection, a dairy farm in Clay City, Indiana. And no, I have no idea where Clay City is. But I checked out their website, and here is a little blurb about why their cheese is different:

In the early 90's we began converting our farm to a more natural, pasture-based system. We carefully monitored the cows' grazing habits to produce the highest quality pasture, and the animals' calving cycles were moved to the springtime, maximizing the use of lush spring grasses.

Unlike most dairy farms, we use only pasture to feed our cows. We use absolutely no grain supplementation. All milk cows are moved to fresh grass two times a day. The lush spring forage growth coincides with the cows' high nutritional requirements at calving, and the "dry period" is during the winter when forage quality is lower. The cattle graze all year, even in the winter when hay supplements their diet.

I got a cheese they call "Flora." From the Swiss Connection website, again: We have renamed our Gouda cheese to reflect the living nature of soils unique to our farm. The many different microorganisms, fungi, earthworms, etc. that populate the soil are termed "flora." The name Flora is a reflection of where this wonderful cheese flavor comes from.

So, basically it's fancy gouda or something. I had a little bite last night, and it is SO SO GOOD.

Anyway, after spending half the night washing and drying my new produce, I realized that I really, REALLY need a salad spinner. Because this is what my kitchen looked like:

And it's really hard to dry lettuce with towels. End of story.

This week, I promise to do a better job taking photos and recording what I make with everything!

Randoms

I've been meaning to blog all week, but ... for some reason it just hasn't happened! So, here is a bunch of random stuff that's been happening this week.

1. I'm way behind on my tv watching this week (too much walking and reading, bad Shaina! ha!), but can I just say how much I LOVE Parenthood? And Glee. And Modern Family. And Cougar Town. And Parks and Rec. These shows are all really really fantastic. Do you watch any of these? Which one is your favorite?

2. I guess it's been awhile since I've updated you about Matt, but he's currently in Kuwait and has been there for about a week now. We have been able to video Skype once and talk on google chat a few other times. It's a little crazy how far away he seems ... plus there's the whole 7 hour time difference. Communication is definitely a little challenging, but I think we'll be able to get used to it. There's still a possibility that he may be able to get R and R in August, but it's not for sure. Think some happy thoughts that I will be able to see my husband in another three months!!!

3. My 1/2 marathon training has officially begun, and I'm feeling great. I had a great run today and I'm really feeling confident that when September 12 comes, I'll be ready!

4. I went to a hippie babycatcher the other day (one might call her a midwife) because I have been looking for a new ob/gyn-type, one that I would feel comfortable with delivering my as-of-yet-unconceived baby. I have been really unhappy with the two ob/gyns I have seen since moving to Bloomington, so I thought I would go in a different direction. The doctors I have seen have been very negative about my endometriosis and my chances of getting pregnant. They have admonished me for not trying to get pregnant two years ago - when I was neither married nor ready to even think about babies. So anyway, a lot of people in Bloomington recommended this particular midwife (perhaps because everyone here is a hippie?) so I thought I'd give her a shot. Turns out, I love her and she is my new "doctor." She was very positive about me getting pregnant, and suggested a couple of dietary changes to help things along. First of all, she suggested cutting down on dairy - and making sure that whatever dairy I eat is organic. I love milk - and I refuse to cut down on that. So I'm currently drinking organic milk and trying to cut down on cheese and yogurt. She also recommended that I cut out all gluten/wheat/flour - and informed me that there is a strong connection with gluten allergies/sensitivities and endometriosis and infertility. I looked it up on the interwebz - it's supposedly the real deal. Now ... cutting out gluten seems extremely difficult to me, so I'm not going 100% gluten-free. But I am going to try and make a serious effort to avoid gluten when possible. We'll see how it goes!

5. Tomorrow is Friday, thank goodness, which means that it's time for CSA Box #2! I can't wait to see what we get. Although I'm pretty sure we'll get more salad stuff, since it's kind of like ... salad growing season. Or whatever. Either way, I'm excited for new fresh veggies!

Well, that's all I can think of right now. Hope everyone is having a great week!

(Second) Best. Omelet. Ever.

So after posting my pretty vegetable photos, b.e.g. wanted some photos of things I have cooked with said veggies! Sadly, I didn't take any photos ... up until tonight. When I made the (second) best omelet ever.

When I went to Michigan for spring break in March, I went out to a great little breakfast spot in Ferndale with my parents called Toast. While I usually order sweet breakfasty/brunchy items, for some reason that day I was really craving an omelet. So, I ordered what ended up being the best omelet EVER. MMMMMM. I think it was called the Parisienne (but I could be totally wrong), and the filling was: caramelized onions, sauteed spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese. And oh my gosh, every bite was like heaven! Since then, I have attempted to recreate this omelet several times in my own home, but I never have the right ingredients.

And, I still didn't tonight. But I had most of them. My ingredients: caramelized onions and shiitake mushrooms, sauteed spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and one wedge of Lite Swiss Laughing Cow cheese. Sidenote: veggies from my box included the spinach and the mushrooms. The remaining ingredients I already had in the fridge/pantry.

First, I caramelized the mushrooms and onions by sauteing (that just looks weird!) them in about 1 tbsp of olive oil. After the onions were soft, I added 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and a dash of sugar. I let them cook on low for awhile. Then I added the spinach right at the end of the omelet-making process - because it cooks so quickly. Oh, and I tossed in some sun-dried tomatoes too after rehydrating them for a few minutes in a cup of really hot water.

I whisked 2 (brown, organic) eggs together with a little bit of water and threw them in another saute pan. This is where I usually eff up the omelets - I always flip too soon and it is a total disaster. I tried to let this one cook slow and low for awhile, and then put 3/4 of the filling in, along with one roughly "sliced" wedge of Laughing Cow cheese.
And then ... I flipped. Hmmmm. I guess I still haven't figured out how to make an omelet. Okay, so it's not pretty, but ... it's cooked.
I threw it on the plate and topped it with the rest of the veggies. Still not pretty. And don't worry, that is a small plate, not a dinner plate. It wasn't that big. But OH MY GOSH it was amazing!!!!!!!
If you like these ingredients ... go out. Buy them. Make this. Your taste buds will thank you!

CSA Week 1

On Friday afternoon, I picked up my very first CSA box! A couple of months ago, I signed up for a 25 week share of veggies from a local organic farm - and I have been (impatiently) waiting for the spring season to begin. I thought this would be a fun (?) weekly blog feature, so here goes! In this week's box was:

Spinach...

Pea shoots...
Shiitake mushrooms...
Green onions...
...and salad greens.
Doesn't everything look beautiful? There is nothing like fresh veggies straight from the farm. So far, I have made pea shoots sauteed with olive oil, garlic and vinegar, wilted spinach with mushrooms, a big beautiful green salad with caramelized mushrooms, and sauteed spinach with garlic and golden raisins.

I will be picking up my veggie box every Friday afternoon - cannot wait to see what I get next!

Florida!

Okay, so I didn't get around to blogging last night. Mostly because my friend Kyle and I went out for the most amazing dinner. And then I came home and just ... didn't feel like it. I have been a little down since I got home from seeing Matt - happy and down, all at the same time. Does that make sense?

SO. Florida!!! I didn't take many photos, so here's what I've got. We stayed in a hotel in Mississippi after I picked him up, and then Thursday morning we grabbed some breakfast and drove to Destin. It took about 3.5 hours - a really easy drive through some really crappy parts of Mississippi and Alabama. We grabbed lunch at a place on the beach, which was fantastic! Then for dinner, we went for amazing sushi at Osaka. We got the "Sushi Love Boat for 2" which was a lot of fun - we didn't have to order anything, the chefs just make what they want and throw it on a boat! Yummy! LOOK at all of that beautiful sushi:

Holy crap. It was absolutely amazing. The sushi was SO fresh and delicious - really, really incredible. And yeah. It didn't take us very long to finish it off. YUM.
On Friday, we went to the beach in the morning - it was SO beautiful. The water was just gorgeous and crystal clear. And I didn't bring my camera, so I have no photos of that perfect water. On Saturday, it was kinda stormy and the rest of the time, the water was really murky. Bummer! We decided to take a small 1/2-day trip to Seaside, Florida. Seaside is ... really really creepy. It's this little town someone created with a bunch of houses that basically look the same, clustered around this weird town square with little shops and restaurants. I wanted to check it out because it seemed cute, in theory ... but once we were there, it was a little weird. We had some great grilled shrimp burritos, grabbed coffee, and then went off the beaten path to wander around the "neighborhood." It was totally empty ... like, NO ONE was around. Just us. We started joking that it was a great backdrop for a horror movie. Last night, I was talking to my friend Catherine about it, and she told me that Seaside is where The Truman Show was filmed! which makes OH so much sense. Anyway, we checked out the beach on this very stormy, cloudy, windy day:

Matt was SO happy to get some good coffee after months of Army crap!
It was real, real windy. I like this photo but it really looks like I have a combover. Which is awkward.
On Sunday, it was nice and sunny and beautiful again - after brunch at Another Broken Egg Cafe (bananas foster french toast!), we headed back down to the beach.
Also another unfortunate windy photo of the two of us.
Sunday night: dinner at the Old Bay Steamer. MMMMMMMMM. We had a big platter with shrimp, crab legs, and lobster tails. OH MY GOSH IT WAS AMAZING!!! Seriously, the seafood down there was so incredible.
I caught this pretty funny photo of Matt - I had given up several crab legs ago, but he soldiered on and finished everything by himself!
Ew, this is so gross. It's our ... waste pail. EW.
On Monday, before saying goodbye to Destin and heading back to Mississippi, we went BACK to the beach. So beautiful - look at that white sand! I couldn't pull myself away.
So, we drove to a different part of the beach and I got some blood orange and lemon sorbet. Absolutely perfect and refreshing.
And, finally, saying goodbye to the beach. Sad face.
We drove back to Mississippi, went out to dinner, and hung out at the hotel until around 10:30pm, when we left and I drove him back to Shelby. Saying goodbye was tough - I definitely had a little breakdown. But it was a lot easier than saying goodbye the first time - especially knowing that we should be able to see each other in another 3-4 months when Matt (hopefully) gets R & R. We had to drive all around Shelby because they moved into a new building while Matt was on pass (of course), so we had to find the new building. And then move all of Matt's stuff from the old building to the new building. You know, classic Army. I got about 3.5 hours of sleep, woke up at 4am Tuesday to catch a flight out of one of the weirdest, smallest airport I have ever been to (that is going to be a separate blog post!) and eventually I made it back to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis airport is relatively new (I think it's only been open about a year?) and this was the first time I have flown out of it. I think it is the nicest airport I have ever been to! Plus, there was a Sephora vending machine!
Have y'all ever seen this anywhere else? This is the first time I have seen something this amazing. The airport also had a Vera Bradley store, and a bunch of other really neat stuff.

Anyway! So, that was my trip. It feels good to be home, but I'm back to sleepless nights. I got so used to falling asleep with Matt again, that I'm all thrown off. I haven't had a good night of sleep since Sunday ... and I'm really hoping that I'm back to normal by this weekend. I could really use it!