a blog about life, family and kicking ass.

While it may seem like I make a lot of fun things for dinner, or maybe it doesn’t seem like that, I guess I have no idea how it seems. Whatever.  I have days that I just can’t figure out what to do for dinner and/or I don’t feel like putting in a lot of effort.  Typically, though, we always have broccoli and cauliflower in the fridge.  So, my go to meal is often a roasted vegetable and chicken/fish/shrimp/pasta, and a salad.  I thought I hated cauliflower.  I don’t think I even ate it until last year or so, I was that afraid of it.  It’s all about HOW you cook it, meaning it must be cooked (for me at least).  I’m no raw vegetable fan.  Now the second thing I paired it with may seem like it was difficult, but it was not!  I have been enthralled with my new Vietnamese cookbook.  It is very detailed and makes it seem effortless.  While it isn’t quite as effort-less as I imagined, it is fun to explore different tastes and techniques.  Lemongrass beef skewers, what’s not to like about that name?  Well, first off I had no lemongrass.  So I didn’t really quite make the recipe, no big deal.  Whatever I did made tasted real good.   [click to continue…]

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I don’t frequent Starbucks much anymore, for various reasons, but namely to save money and save myself from mediocre coffee. But, I have gone to the 5 mile Starbucks a few times, and every time it has been the same worker, and we have had the exact same conversation x three. It goes like this:

Him:  ”Hey! How’s it going today!”
Me:     “Fine, thanks.”
Him:   “What’s Cupcake Royale (noticing a sticker on our car)?”
Me:      ”Oh, it’s a cupcake place in Seattle.”
Him:   “Oh cool, are you from Seattle?”
me:       “Yeah, we lived in West Seattle.”
Him:    ”Oh, I’m from Seattle too.  That’s downtown, right?”
Me:       “Uh,not really. Where are you from?”
Him:     “Oh, cool.  I’m from Shoreline.”

Let’s begin at the beginning. It all started out bad (besides being able to sleep in till 815, I know). I steamed my milk like every day, pushed my espresso button, only to hear the sound of grinding air. Ugh! I don’t ask for much in life. I don’t buy expensive clothes or color my hair, but I need a latte, daily.  Soon after, I found myself cursing and cranky.  After sending my husband this nasty text,

“I’m mad at you x2 for not getting coffee beans, now there is a snow storm and I have no coffee!  You need to keep me happy or I will go crazy!”

In MY defense, I am not a lunatic, and he did forget to buy coffee beans while on his totally awesome bachelor trip to Seattle.  So I did what any normal person would do.  I structured my entire day around getting a latte and finding some damn coffee beans.  Naturally my first attempt was thwarted, as Rocket Bakery was out of espresso beans. OUT OF ESPRESSO BEANS!  Who is out of espresso?!  Don’t you know it is Monday, and I’m tired and cranky after working the weekend!  So I was forced, really, against my will, to go to Starbucks.  Forced.

When Andy got home last night and I had sufficiently told him about how cranky, and might I say LAME, I was today, he recounted his day.  He says, “Well first I stopped by the 5 mile Starbucks to get a coffee, and had the most annoying barista…”

Stop right there, I say, I know exactly who you’re talking about.

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Us on our walk today.  Chilly.  It lasted 5 minutes before Addy got bored and wanted to go back.  We tried.  Please excuse O’s ridiculous hat, I’m just cheap.

As some of you know, and I blogged about, Andy was gone for 2 weeks in Seattle having the time of his life. For all the years that Andy gave up being a bachelor, he more than made up for it those last two weeks (excluding the wild sex). I am a very nice woman.  But really, I have a newfound respect for single parents, doing it alone ain’t no party. He came back last Sunday, and it has been really nice (which is probably the lamest way to describe it).

Having a partner/husband/SO is a funny thing. You spend so much time with this one person. I have known Andy over 10 years now, and married for seven going on eight. There are times you get so fed up with the other person, or times where all you can do is fight, but yet, for us it keeps getting better (the marriage not the fighting). You see at some point we reached that crucial stage, the one where Andy exclaims, “What the heck is in your teeth!” Or “You’re really gonna wear that.” And you know what, that’s the stuff that makes me smile.  Knowing that someone is looking out for me, teeth and all.

Yep, that’s true love.

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Oh. My. Goodness. What a very, very long day today was. Did I say how much I like Kate Nash’s (s**t) song? This day was made so much better when I was able to come home and eat this meal. Hearty, delicious and healthy, this meal was incredible. One of the best parts, it was made yesterday, refrigerated, and then somebody just popped it into the slow cooker to reheat. But really, just like Deb said, you can’t eat this soup without the crema. The crema made it worthwhile and delectable.   And the toasted cumin added in — you must toast!  Cumin can be a bit much for me sometimes, but the cumin seeds were light and accented it wonderfully. Now, I must take a black bean vacation. Highlight number 2, Bonnie had some friends over and her friend Dee mixed up some wicked margaritas. Yep, that’s the way to end a day. Like my photos? Courtesy of, my phone. I specifically like how I artfully doused my soup in cream with a strange likening to a crustacean. I never said I was a professional.

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I eat in phases, I’ve always done this. Sometimes it will be a bagel sandwich every day for months, or once it was a pretty serious Kale phase, that I’m now thinking of renewing. Then there are the egg phases, where my breakfast is always an egg, always. My current breakfast victim is oatmeal studded with walnuts and pears, and I’ve been doing this for longer than I can remember. All this to say, I’m not very creative from day to day in what I eat for breakfast.  Since I’m doing a little black bean “segment,” I will share a former breakfast obsession that I was eating for a while.  Let me preface, because I am sure you were wondering, I’m a girl who needs protein. Coffee and toast just leave me hungry in an hour, well so does oatmeal but I still eat it anyway. This meal, though, is nice and light and very satisfying. If you like or love beans, this is for you. Seriously.

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Yesterday was a great day.  Andy was finally home, it has definitely been nice to have a second parent again.  We had a great day riding carousels, eating cookies, and running around Neato Burrito playing free pin ball (thanks Tim).  We came home and actually took a nap, my first in a very long time. Or maybe we just passed out from exhaustion, it doesn’t really matter.  It was 51 outside, the warmth was literally lulling us to sleep.

After gorging on burritos, quesadillas and olympia, a nice light meal for dinner was definitely in order.  I love, love, love cauliflower — roasted, steamed or baked in a gratin, I love it all.  So, I needed to try this soup.   Thankfully it did not have heavy cream in it, because frankly I just don’t need any more cream right now.  Rest easy my friends, I also had caesar salad with homemade dressing and toasted pecans. Then I had two chocolate chip cookies.

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I think i was sufficiently confusing in this post.  Did I use canned beans or dry beans?  I don’t think you be able to tell by reading this.  So I’ve edited.  Here it is:  I eat a lot of black beans in my life.  For the most part I eat canned since a) they taste pretty equivalent and b) I cannot remember to get them out the night before to soak.  And yes, I have tried quick soaking them followed by a cooking phase, but this never seems to work like intended or as quick as it should, I’m just too impatient (yes, I have tried a crock pot too!). But this time I tried again with dry beans and did the old fashion soak. Anyway, I love black beans in all their simplicity.  I cooked them the other night and paired them with a less than impressive carne asada dish, but it was the beans that were the standout.  I am eager to make a black bean soup again or a black bean burger, and very soon I will share my other favorite way to eat black beans for breakfast.

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As a kid my dad tried to institute a NYE ritual where we ate a dish from a different culture, or at least something new. I’m not sure how many years we actuallly did it, but I distinctly remember some sauerkraut that was wholeheartedly undervalued. I would eat it now dad, I swear. So, taking this idea very liberally I made a French dish of sorts. Ok, ok it’s not really that French but it was good. I’m no Julia Child, no marrow bones and liver for me. But nothing says happy new year like some steaming hot soup, right? After tasting this soup, (Ina’s provencal vegetable soup), at my friends house on this glorious night, I needed to make it, like I need more caramel corn in my life. Despite the fact that I didn’t have tomato paste, and my pistou tasted more like pesto, It was great. And who cares about tomato paste anyway? Half the recipes that call for it, ask for like a tablespoon or teaspoon and I just cannot bring myself to throw away any more food. On a whim I tossed in a handful of yellow split peas and added some chopped zucchini, using up whatever vegetables were in need of eating, satisfying my internal leftoverist desires. It doesn’t hurt that I served it with my new favorite bread of all time. I skipped the bleu cheese this time and they were just as good, maybe even better.

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