A giant free plug for Paper Source

Being in a new city without knowing a lot of people leaves you 1. with quite a bit of time on your hands and 2. quite bored. So I decided to take a class! I figured it would be a good way to meet others interested in what I like, to learn something new and have a fun evening that doesn't involve The Office reruns and stir fry. :)

I signed up for an Upcycling class at the local Paper Source - I love creating, crafts and cards - oh and I love the earth (reusing, reducing and recycling) so what better class that one where you use scraps and used materials to create beautiful cards to send to friends and family.

I had a blast - 3 hours of cutting and gluing and sparkling = my idea of heaven! It was also fun to use a bunch of tools that I don't have, like a boning knife, edge rounder, different stamps, etc. Here are some of the cards I made during the class as well as some that I made at home this weekend! Enjoy - and remember, sending a homemade card means so much to people. :)

Sending to a dear friend who is headed off to Italy this summer - so excited for her!

Sticky foam squares do wonders - on this card, I raised two of the bird cases and made them sparkly - just fun!

A Mother's Day card for my boyfriend's mom - I also learned how to make envelope liners which add an extra POP to personalizing cards! :)

Mother's Day card for my momma and envelope liner.

Not sure if you can see the sparkle, but I love this card.. Also, I used the same pictures of the red bicycle from a calendar that hard a large picture and a small picture. Creative, reusing, perfect.

Love Vespas! Also, the same concept as above, I used the outside of a calendar to make an envelope and the inside I used on the card!

Also raised the Vespa up using foam squres!

Up close picture of the 3D bird using foam squares.

Up close of the bird cages using foam squares.

I needed to send some Thank You's this week and decided to try my hand at making my own. Love how these turned out - all you need are flat cards, a bike stamp and a "thank you" stamp. Super simple!

All supplies can be found at Paper Source, or anywhere that cards, envelopes, glue, tape and foam squares are sold. I am addicted and can't wait to send folks these personalized, hand made cards. :) I hope you are getting inspired to create and send a little note of love to someone who could use it, or maybe take a class and get excited about something. :) Cheers!

Peekaboo by train

I adore this series of photos. Just am absolutely biased - I love these. :) I hope you enjoy too!

Can cats be studly?

Yes, yes, they can. 

Since I have been moving so much, my cat of almost 10 years has been staying with my mom - can't wait to get him back! :) I snapped a few photos of him (and all his studliness) when I was home. :)

A long trip home..

I know, I know - it happened. I warned you, I lose interest in things quickly and swiftly. :(

Well, I am back! Partly inspired by a friend's blog that is going STRONG: The Busy Bee Writes - and partly inspired by some fun photos I've been taking lately.. 

I just spent 2.5 weeks in Missouri visiting friends and my mom in St Louis, Columbia, the Lake of the Ozarks and Kansas City. Having just moved back, I have missed certain things about the midwest - super kind people, barns, good food, and the natural beauty that surrounds us always in the midwest. :) Most people may beg to disagree, but I think it's important to stop, look around and really take in the beauty that surrounds us.

Here are some photos of my recent long trip home...

You will thank me later: Chocolate Kiss Cookies

Heeellllllo? Hellllllooooooo? Is anyone out there?

For a girl who picks up and drops things as quickly as hot potatoes, I gotta say I'm proud that I am continuing to update - even if I'm not sure anyone is reading. So shoot me a comment if you are!

Although, according to my Blogger data, someone was referred to this blog because they searched "depressing valentine's day cards" on Google.. I hope you found what you were looking for!

I am still working on my valentine's day packages and had really high hopes of making all sorts of different cookies to send to friends - I even purchased enough baking ingredients to make three different types of cookies. Then, I made these and it was all over. Done. I don't think I will ever make anything else again. And we are eating most of them so very few friends are getting them this go-around. :-/ I am all about life being easy and these could not get easier! And if you love peanut butter and chocolate, especially together, you'll be in heaven. Thank me later. :)

One batch makes about 24, so I made one batch and then immediately made a second batch. Here is the recipe for one batch, but feel free to double or triple accordingly

You will need: 1 cup smooth peanut butter (1/2 of a jar), 1 cup sugar, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 24 Hershey kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and peanut butter until creamy and fluffy ("It's so fluffy, I could die!!" from Despicable Me always comes to mind).

Add egg and vanilla, and mix until you get a soft dough.

Roll 1 and 1/4 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Unwrap the 24 (or so) Hershey kisses that you will be using.

When you take them out of the oven, immediately press a Hershey kiss into the center, leave to cool for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Oh my gosh, so ridiculously yummy, and they are best the night that you make them as the chocolate is incredibly soft. Enjoy.

Life should be easy.

I believe it: life should be easy.

Or, at least, life should not be hard. So I just popped in the oven 12 mini-strawberry and lemon pies (of course I had to add lemon, I am addicted to lemon) which has so far taken 5 hours to make! This is not easy, this is hard, and probably the last time that I will make mini pies (until mincemeat pie season, because I want to try those). Anyway, those pies = next blog = 30min/pie each = whoever eats them better love them.

So I wanted to post a quick and easy recipe, complete opposite of what I did today. We have had stir fry chicken and veggies with rice two days this week - which is a testament to how amazing (and easy!) it is. Potentially one of my favorite meals ever - and those are two days per week that we are not eating pizza (which my boyfriend would eat 7 days a week if there was enough pizza in the world).


You need: veggies (whatever you like - I use white onion, carrots, celery and green pepper), chicken (or tofu or another meat or you can take the protein out, I am flexible with what you decide to make for yourself), rice and about two table spoons of oil (I love this recipe with peanut oil but we didn't have it so we used regular olive oil).

Choppy chop chop - Get your oil warming in a pan (usually medium or medium/high), add thinly sliced onion and let those fry up beautifully as you chop the other veggies.

 

At the same time, start your rice. To be honest, I never cook the rice, because I usually burn it or it all sticks, so the boyfriend makes the rice, perfect, every time, I don't know how he does it. My best suggestion is to follow the package instructions (you have ever right to close this tab and never return to my blog again - "she is telling me to follow the directions on my own package, useless!" I understand.) Moving on.

When your onions are starting to caramelize and are completely soft, add your other veggies to the pan. (The picture above looks like my veggies were pretty chunky but in fact, the carrots were slivered width wise into 1/6ths - I say the thinner the better for all stirfry veggies.)

In a separate pan, start your proteins. Although I prefer fresh, we had only frozen chicken breasts available so I took enough for two hearty servings out and grilled them up (on medium). 

See the veggies, chicken, and rice, all living harmoniously on one stove?

Once the chicken is cooked (or no longer frozen, ugh), chop it up in quarter size pieces and toss it on in with the veggies. Don't be shy. Your veggies should be softening up nicely and the onions will be caramelizing beautifully.

The chicken will pick up the oil from the pan and start searing nicely with the veggie flavors. Leave frying for another 10 minutes. 

Just pile that deliciousness on top of the rice - I like to add a little soy sauce, and voila, life could not get easier!

I am wishing you a wonderful and *easy* day! Cheers. 

Splashes of Color

Being in Pleasantville-esque Naperville, I spend my days surrounded by home schooled kids (at the library) and stay-at-home moms (at Starbucks) - not that there's anything wrong with that! But it strikes me as amusing, since I know if I were in the middle of any large city (DC, Chicago), I would see much more of the homeless and unemployed hipster variety.

Being unemployed is a two sided coin - it blows hard. But on the other hand, you have time and mental space to read, explore blogging, try new recipes, try new adventures (which you know I love) and really focus on my core. What, at my core, am I about? What, at my core, do I want to do with my life? Who am I - at my core, without my description words or my job or my apartment or even my relationships - who am I?

To snap you out of my hamster wheel of self-discovery, I invite you to read Unemployed in your 20's. When in a new city, it is always helpful to ask friends if they have friends in said new city that they will share with you. My best friend shared two of her Chicago-based friends with me (isn't she nice?!) One I will tell you about later. The other is the writer of this aptly titled blog, Kill Your 20's and will make you giggle. We have our second playdate on Wednesday, because adult interaction is important 1. when unemployed, 2. when stuck in your own hamster wheel of self-discovery, 3. when new to a city and 4. for not becoming mistaken for one of those home schooled kids at the library. 

So I am taking my unemployment spin (second in a year and a half - don't judge me) to really dig into what I love to do - and that, my friends, is photography. I will write more later, but I wanted to liven up this blog with some photographs that aren't of peas and bacon. So please enjoy, some splashes of color on this dreary Chicagoland Thursday in January. :)

Said hipsters.

Too many questions here - but I am thinking of inventing expandable sponge ships that you insert in an empty wine bottle, drop some water in and voila, the sponge ship grows to full ship-in-a-bottle size.

She really would.

So happy and colorful.

From the title above - I just love how the bald albino ladies are posing.

I call this ladies who lunch, but perhaps it's actually "unemployed play date ladies"?

Loosen up your buttons baby. No really, I love the playfulness of this store's window design.

Door 'stopper' in an old row house in DC.

Absolutely love old furniture with so much character.

Mind Blowing Blackberry Cobbler

So the pasta last night was good yet not mind-blowing but the dessert I made was as phenomenal as any cobbler, tart or even pie that I have ever had.

First, a shout out to a dear (and amazing) friend of mine who has a great blog of her own: The Busy Bee Writes. After spending about two hours yesterday catching up on her blog, I got 1. Hungry and 2. Inspired. So thank you, B, for always asking to see more of my photos and for your inspirational blog. I think this is one of the reasons people blog - to stay connected with those who are not close. :) Also, she is always adding amazing and healthy recipes!

This is such a simple recipe! We had a couple of packages of blackberries in the fridge (thanks to a great sale at the store) so with my chaperon's help (you know, starts with G, ends with -oogle), I found this simple and delicious recipe.

You will need: 8 inch square baking dish, 4 cups of blackberries, 1 tablespoon (or more) lemon juice, 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour and 6 tablespoons of butter. 

Pop that oven up to 375 degrees and grease the baking dish (I didn't do this and trust me, our dish soap and sponge is  hating me today).. Sprinkle the blackberries on the bottom of the dish and squeeze the lemon juice over the top (I prefer real lemon over packaged lemon juice and I used half of a large lemon, which is more than the 1 tablespoon from the recipe but I think it turned out better).

In a bowl, combine the egg, sugar and flour and then sprinkle over the fruit. Melt the butter and drizzle over the mixture and fruit. Bake for 35 minutes or until browned and bubbly, then let sit for 10 min. 


VOILA! YUM! Phenomenal blackberry cobbler. Between three of us, it was gone by the end of the night. I will definitely be making this again, and again, and again. :) Hope you enjoy!

Bowtie Pasta with Bacon and Peas

The whole reason we were at the grocery store last night was to get cream - for a pasta dish that I had found on the blog The Bitten Word. These guys are amazing - however, unlike them, I get all of my ideas from the internet, and my chaperon is Google.

I am not a great cook. Our staple foods when I was a kid were scrambled eggs (often for Thanksgiving - hello, British mother) and pasta carbonara (hello British mother who lived in Italy for many years). So I can make some mean scrambled eggs and pasta carbonara. But not a lot else. And for years - through college where I don't remember what I ate, through my 'working but poor eating only ramen and popcorn' phase, and then when I could actually afford food so 'I just ate out all the time' phase - I just never cooked.

Now I am dating a man who loves cooking, and he's good at it too. To his chagrin (love that word), he has opened pandora's box for me. Now I want to cook! All the time, not just at night, multiple courses, cook, cook cook. We actually get into tiffs about who gets to cook that night - so like we learned in kindergarten, we now take turns. Cooking at home helps with the budget (we're on a tight one), helps with stress (he has a stressful job, my lack of job is stressful) and it's fun to book!

I am also dating a man who did not grow up on my hearty egg and bacon pasta diet (same man as above, I'm not dating multiple men) - and he finds my pasta carbonara to be a bit heavy and greasy. Normally I say "his bad" and make it anyway, but I decided to find something similar but different. With my chaperon by my side, I stumbled across this recipe for Pasta with Bacon and Peas. Being that we had almost everything in the pantry meant that the $3 spent on cream was worth it.

First, I fried the bacon on medium heat. Shout out to THE BACON HOUSE in DC - you will not find this place on yelp as it is the glorious apartment of four of my friends who eat bacon like it is going out of style. These are also four of the fittest people you will ever meet, so I am skeptical of anyone who says bacon is bad for you. 

   

When the bacon was done, I lifted it out of the bacon grease and put it to the side draining on paper towels. I started boiling the water for my pasta - I chose a bowtie pasta instead of the angel hair that was recommended because that's what we had and name one person who doesn't love bowtie pasta! It's just fun.

I then put a lot of frozen peas in the frying pan (still full of bacon grease) and sizzled those up a bit while my pasta water was getting going. I don't the the recipe called for a lot of peas but I like pilling my dishes full of veggies - I like to think it evens out the fabulous pile of bacon seen above. When the peas had soaked up much of the grease and when I put the pasta in the water (with a handful of salt that I don't let anyone see), I added a cup of cream and stirred almost continuously. Adding the bacon back to the sauce a few minutes before the pasta is done will warm the little pieces back up.

When the pasta was done (usually on the low side of the prep time to make sure it's al dente), I drained most of it but used about 3/4 a cup of pasta water and added it slowly to the sauce.

Mix everything together and VOILA!

It was good - and yummy, and I had two bowls but not mind-blowing. So I am going to think about how I can make it even better. Will let you know if I make chances. :)