Dear Anthropolgie,
Why do you torture me with your super cute flats with pompoms that cost $98.00? I hate you. Where's my credit card?

Laura

I need to rock

When we first bought our house I was so excited to have a front porch because that meant that I could have a porch swing. As long as I can remember I have wanted to have a house with a porch swing. I found one that I loved a while back but decided to look around a little more and of course it is no longer available. I found this one at Pottery Barn. The price is reasonable and it looks like good construction. I am not sure about the ropes vs. chains. I think the first one I found had chains. Also, I wanted to get an unfinished one so that I could paint it a bright color, if I buy this one I will not paint it because the finish is so nice. But I guess that is okay.

After spending a week on a porch in a rocking chair on vacation I decided that maybe I don't need a swing, maybe a couple of rocking chairs will work. They don't require that I drill into the ceiling of the porch and they take up a little less space than the swing. The problem is that the price range is so wide and apparently so is the quality. Every where I look I find people that are pleased with their rocking chairs and people that say they are crappy construction. I don't want to spend a fortune on rocking chairs, but I also don't want to have them fall apart.

I also found this little bench at Pottery Barn and kind of liked it too. The pros are that Wade can sit on it when he plays guitar unlike the rocking chairs with arms on either side. That was his main complaint about the rocking chairs. But it is the most expensive of the options (even on sale) and, well, it doesn't rock. Then while searching for swings I found this, it is a swing lounger. Basically a bed on a swing. This is probably my dream swing but it doesn't make much sense for the front porch of a little bungalow. Someday though....on the back porch of our house by the ocean...a girl can dream.
Advice? Opinions? I am leaning towards a swing because I know I can find one that is well made and not break the bank. But, those rocking chairs sure look cute and it was really nice to use them on vacation. I need help.

Ouch

I had a “friend” chew me out the other day and it has taken me a few days to recover from the blow. I don’t feel that I did anything wrong, but I know that in every situation there is something to learn, something that I can take from it to help me be a better individual or a better friend. I think what I learned from this is to listen to my gut and act on how I am feeling sooner rather than later. This friendship should have ended long ago, the only thing we had in common was the age of our children and I knew that from the start but I felt guilty for not giving her a chance. And I felt guilty because she is a single Mom and was struggling. Now I feel guilty for not stopping it sooner to avoid hurt feelings. Another lesson, guilt is not a reason to stay in a relationship. So that is that…now I am leaning on my friends to remind me that I am not all those awful things she said to me because no matter how much confidence you have in yourself taking blow after blow from a person that speaks not in logic but in anger, can do a little damage.
On a more positive note my Week of No TV has been great. I worked on recovering our chairs last night and am almost finished with my book. I do miss The Daily Show and the Cobert Report a little, but it is worth it for the free time. Also, last night I knocked #23 off of the list. I told the story on the bean blog.

Meme

I was tagged for a meme and I almost didn't do it because my life is not that interesting and I think this particular meme calls attention to that. But, they are just so fun...I can't resist them. I still fill out the email one that has been circulating the Internet since 1998. So here goes. Pretend that it is exciting, okay?
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What were you doing 10 years ago? Hum. 10 years ago I was living up on campus in this tiny apartment with my friend Sarah. I had just finished what I call "The drunk period" (1996-1997...man those were good times), had an annoying ex boyfriend making trouble for me, was getting ready to start back at KU for the second time and had just started dating this guy, named Wade. He was cute.
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What are 5 things on your to-do list for today?
-Pick up Rolling Prairie
-Clean my bathroom
-Paint the dining room table
-Play with Henry
-Mail Annie's package
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Snacks you enjoy: I am a terrible snacker, mostly because I don't have an off switch. A snack is a little something one may enjoy on occasion....not me...I will eat the whole bag, box, bowl, whatever. My favorite "snacks" are Red Hot Blue chips and a avocado chopped into little pieces. I also enjoy yogurt covered raisins from the Merc bulk section, but I have to buy a small bag or I will eat them all.
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Things you would do if you were a billionaire: I would move...immediately. I would sell my house and move. I'd pay off people's debts, donate, yata yata yata... Then I would go to pastry chef school and I would open my own bakery. I asked the mister this last night and he said he would be on-board with a lifetime of surfing, playing music and eating baked goods. Oh, and I would have and adopt lots of babies and travel around the world.
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Places you have lived:Lawrence, Kansas --this is the part that makes me look extra boring.
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Jobs you have had: Pharmacist assistant, stockroom worker, nursery worker, accounting assistant, biller, maid.

You Rebel

Did you know that on June 29, 1964 the first television remote was manufactured? And they have been destroying the lives of able-bodied people ever sense. I am baffled by the amount of time one can lose in front of the TV and the number of people that watch TV for hours on end and feel fine about it. I guess that is good, I mean at least they have a way to relax. I am barely able to sit through a movie without doing something else. It drives my hubby crazy. I have to knit or do sudoku or make a grocery list or have my lap-top out while the TV is on. Without something to do with my hands I either get antsy or fall asleep. And then there is the guilt. I spend an hour watching TV and feel guilty for days for wasting that hour. Personally, I could do without cable entirely if it wasn't cheaper to get the package bundled with our Internet service.
Neither the mister nor myself find much good in TV and we try to keep it off. We especially restrict it for Henry...did you know that the average kid watches 4.7 hours of TV a day and 20 hours a week playing video games. This is shocking to me. We will never buy a video game system for our child, poor deprived kid. We will take him to arcades though, if they still have those.
Anyway, in "honor" of the 44 anniversary of the device that allows us all to sit in the same place for hours at a time without thinking or speaking to our family members I am declaring this The Week of No TV. And to help me through those moments where the desire for laziness seems overwhelming I have pulled out all the books that I have purchased over the past few months and not yet read and set them on the table where the remotes usually sit. Maybe next week I will be able to post a book review. First up David Sedaris.

Sneak Peak

I only got 5 of the 10 yards of Ivory Sketchbook that I ordered for the dining room chairs. Apparently it is a popular fabric. So much for originality....oh well. I am using those 5 yards to recover the seat cushions. I will cover the seat backs when I receive the other 5 yards. I had been throwing around the idea of painting the table another color but I decided to stick with the white and paint the walls a bright blue color. Kinda like this-
You can't tell from my picture but the fabric for my chairs has a blue in it. See-
We are going to paint the cabinets, moldings and bookshelves, white. Tile the kitchen back splash with white subway tiles and put in dark grey concrete counter tops. We bought this oven with part of our stimulus check.

I think by this winter we will have our kitchen finished and we can move on to the study. It's a good thing we only have 6 rooms in our tiny house :)

Renewal

It has only been a week but I am missing my life at the beach house. The time I spent on Folly Beach was really a celebration of summertime: fresh food, feeling the sunshine on your bare shoulders, family, windblown hair, the smell of sunscreen, bare feet, ice cream, sunshine until 9 pm, afternoon thunderstorms, driving with the windows down, freckles on my sister’s nose, sleeping with the windows open, talking into fans, sand castles, sweat, staying up late, saltwater kisses from a little boy, bright pink toenail polish, birthday cake, big sun hats, wildflowers, sun tea, lazy days, road trips. I am trying to find a way to get back there....permanently.

On the drive back to Kansas the mister and I pulled out the atlas to search for a place on the East coast that would fit our needs. Our list:

1. Somewhere that has weather that allows us to spend some time outside every day.
2. Somewhere that has options for recreation that are things we want to do and are within 15 minutes from our house.
3. Somewhere close to the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean is like truth serum for me. If I feel sad, it makes me cry. If I feel happy, the joy bubbles up in my stomach and makes me want to sing. It is like being drunk or a really good song, it just exaggerates my feelings. I love it.
4. Somewhere that is relatively close to my family. I miss my sisters and can't imagine life too far away from my parents.
5. Somewhere with dynamic, diverse, open minded, progressive, creative people.
6. Somewhere with great restaurants.
7. Somewhere that needs a cupcake shop :)

8. Somewhere with a university

9. Somewhere with coffee shops that aren't Starbucks and a downtown area that is not a mall. No mall at all would be fine with us.

10. Somewhere with good surfing (more for the mister than me on that one, but I do think he is dead sexy on a surf board so I am keeping it on the list)

11. Somewhere that isn't too touristy

12. Somewhere with good schools, preferably Montessori.

13. Somewhere that we could afford a little house. I don't need a crazy 3 million dollar beach house (although I wouldn't turn it down) but a little 3 bedroom bungalow is right up our alley.

So far Wilmington NC fits the bill. We are planning a vacation...eh, I mean a trip to do research on that area...in the fall.

Hey. Guess what. On our vacation I was able to cross #2, #5, a little bit of #27 and #28 with a slight adjustment off of the list. So far I am doing okay on #6 but failing miserably on #’s 4, 7, 8, 14 and 18. Oh and #30 is much harder than you think. Less than 2 months to finish the other 25 or so left on the list. I am thinking a few of them might make it on to my 31 In my 31st Year list. I guess it is good that I get an extra "thing" each year. And just so you know, #31 on the list is "Get back to the beach".

A break

I am taking a little break. I've got some stuff to work out. It might be a couple of days or a couple of weeks, I don't know.

Walnut-Basil Pesto Day 2

Pesto on sandwiches is really really great. For this I just cut up some of our favorite veggies-zucchini, yellow squash, artichokes, red bell peppers, baby portabella mushrooms, asparagus, spinach and onions-mixed them in a bowl with a little olive oil and sea salt and then cooked them in a hot cast iron skillet until they were nice and brown. Then I took a chiabatta loaf, cut it into sandwich size slices, spread some pesto on the top, filled the bottom with the veggies, put it on a cookie sheet and baked it at 300 for about 10 minutes. Just to warm it all up. After I got it out of the oven I spread some sundried tomato mayo on the bottom slice on the bread and served it up with roasted garlic couscous (from a box). To make the sundried tomato mayo just mix a cup of mayo (I like vegonase) with a few chopped up sundried tomatos and 2 small cloves of finely minced garlic and some salt and pepper. It is great on every kind of sandwich we have tried. Including Faken' Bacon BLT's...but that is a recipe for another day. I hope you try this and enjoy. It is a great way to get all your little green dots, Miss Candy :)

For Lisa

Happy Spring!

Pesto

I mentioned a few days ago that eating less meat is a great way to do something positive for the environment. Well, a friend of mine emailed me and mentioned that she doesn't know many vegetarian meals and asked for some of my favorites. Of course, I am happy to share them, hopefully you will try them and let me know what you think.

Walnut-Basil Pesto is a favorite in our house. This recipe is based off of one from "The Omega Diet". It is healthy due to all of the "good" fats from the olive oil and walnuts. But more than that it tastes great and is super easy. You don't need much pesto to flavor your pasta so this recipe will make enough for at least two meals. You can freeze whatever you have left and then just leave it on the counter for a few minutes to defrost the next time you want to use it.

Walnut-Basil Pesto

2 cups packed basil leaves

1/3 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

2 small cloves of garlic, minced or crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Place basil, walnuts, garlic and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times. Once all the ingredients are chopped turn the food processor on and stream in the olive oil. Blend until finely chopped and well combined.

2. Just before serving add about 2 tbsp of hot pasta water from the cooked pasta to the pesto. (Only add the pasta water to the pesto that you plan to eat right away. Separate any pesto that you want to save for later).

3. Mix it with pasta and enjoy. My favorite pasta to eat this with is tortellini but it is also great on whole wheat pastas, the strong flavor of the pesto covers up much of the wheat flavor in the whole wheat pasta (if that bothers you).

I usually serve my pasta with garlic bread and salad and then plan to have roasted veggie sandwiches later that same week because this pesto is great on a sandwich. I will post pictures of the sandwiches later. I hope you like this pesto recipe.

Coming up

Our house is right by Folly Pier, a favorite surfing spot on Folly Beach. Surfing! YAY!

Heavy

Life feels heavy today. Cyclones and earthquakes and wildfires and volcanoes and gay bashing and loss. What I might say on this blog seems irrelevant and minuscule. I suppose this is why people pray, to have a place to put all the heartache and sadness so that they can move on to worrying about things like gas prices and parking spots. In a way I am secretly glad that gas is so expensive. Yes, listening to people fret about it and complain is so tiresome and frustrating...but it is clear to me that it is the ONLY way that some people will even think about their energy consumption. People that have not put one thought or effort into thinking about their contribution to our global crisis that is causing, I believe, catastrophic events like what has happened in China and Burma these past weeks, are now thinking about taking the bus or carpooling or buying a hybrid car. It makes me sad to know that money is what it takes to make people care about our planet and the gas prices have hit my family just as hard as everyone elses, but I will deal with it if it means that people will act and live in a way that is better for the planet. I want there to be something here for my grandchildren.
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On that note did you know that reducing your red meat/dairy consumption by 20% will reduce your carbon footprint as much as driving a hybrid car. 20% That is what, 2 less burgers a week and maybe a salad one night instead of a supreme pizza.

Anticipation

Peonies are so fantastic. Every morning I look at them and feel certain that they are going to bloom today. I think to myself- that bloom could not possibly get any bigger-and then it does. They are so full and their color peeking through the top is so bright, it just looks delicious. Seriously...I have an overwhelming urge to eat them.
My Mom never planted peonies in her garden growing up, I'm not sure why. So this is my first spring with a peony and I have already decided that next spring the walkway to our back door will be lined on both sides with peonies. Right now we have 3 bushes, I think we need 2 more on the East side and 5 on the West side of the walk way. This time next year it is going to be awesome.

A Chocolate Send Off

I made chocolate cupcakes tonight for my coworker Shawn. Her last day is tomorrow and she loves chocolate. There is a whole lotta chocolate going on here. At first I was thinking I should have made a double batch so that everyone could have 2, but after trying my "test" cupcake I can't imagine that someone could eat more than one. They are fantastically rich.

This is a new recipe. I planned on topping the cupcakes with a chocolate ganache icing. Ganache is the really smooth chocolate in the center of a truffle and it makes a fantastic icing. But I couldn't get it to set up. So I put it in the fridge and threw together a chocolate buttercream. After icing all the cupcakes and wrapping them to store for the night I opened the fridge and found a bowl of perfectly set ganache . So, it looks like I am going to be making some more chocolate cupcakes tomorrow night. Anyone have a birthday this weekend?

Weekend

I did a lot of chores this weekend. Mowing and laundry and...blah blah blah. But I found some time to play with rick-rack. I made a little this and a little that and have been working on a top secret something....which I can show you pictures of after May 19th :) Until then here is a little sneak peak.

Geeking out

Everybody has something that they geek out about. My husband geeks out about Star Track. I geek out about NPR. Today on What Do You Know? they mentioned Lawrence KS. I feel famous.

Last night I had a dream that my older sister was renewing her vows with her husband and I was the matron of honor and she made us wear these awful navy blue silk suits. In my dream I was so tired that I fell asleep on the stage and slept through the entire ceremony and reception. Once I finally woke up (in my dream) I was sitting on the stage by myself and ran to the reception only to find out that they had eaten all of the coconut cake that was shaped like an electric guitar.

Wade dreamt that he had to put a fitted sheet on a huge mattress and he was complaining because he can’t ever get a fitted sheet to fit a normal sized mattress.

An invitation for dinner

When you are on a whole foods diet springtime is the best time of the year. Everything that I want to eat is fresh, available at the farmers market or Rolling Prairie and I get to cook it with my kitchen window open (not really related to whole foods but yay for spring). This is without a doubt our families favorite dinner. I took pictures of it last night because I am trying to get better at macro photography (but there is only so much you can do with a crappy digital camera). And because I couldn't resist, everything looked so fresh and tasty. We like to eat it with a sparkling limeade or clementine sorbet for dessert. Will you come over some time?

Happy Earth Day

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. "
Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952
German Jewish diarist (1929 - 1945)

What are you doing for the planet today?