Ten Good Things (in no particular order)

A friend recently wrote about 10 good things that she's thankful for, and it inspired me to do the same:

1. Baby girl smiles - they're the best!

2. A husband who says, "Are you going to get a pedicure? That's what girls do when it's spring."

3. Blossoming trees, particularly cherry trees, even though they make me sneeze. But they are like cotton candy for the eyes!

4. The idea of planting a garden

5. Planning a trip to Florida to introduce BG to her aunts & uncle

6. Getting the itch to craft again

7. Dreaming of visiting Hilo soon

8. Happiness over inexpensive cute new t-shirts from gap

9. Excitement of a friend's husband returning from several months in Afghanistan and him finally getting to meet his ADORABLE son

10. Starting to get the house in order again after being sick and traveling

{bonus} Getting 8 consecutive hours of sleep a night!

I didn't realize

... how close we live to the grocery store until I went outside tonight and heard the Salvation Army bellringer from my back yard.

... that Peppermint Stick "ice cream" had come out for the season already. You bet I'm all over that. And it's technically "dairy dessert" - much like a Frosty. Can someone tell me why it's not "ice cream"?

New Favorite Blog!

I have a new favorite blog to read and drool over - Annie's Eats!

She's about to become a doctor and still has time to make fabulous, beautiful food. Her recipes range from easy (Caprese Tarts) to a little more complicated, fancy cakes. Everything that I've tried from her blog has been delicious. Check it out!

What I needed to hear...

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

Cool things!!

I'm an advocate of playing with your food - check out these plates. How much fun are they!?!?!

Also, I was thinking about having tomato soup for lunch at work. But then there's no grilled cheese, so there goes half of the fun. But then I found these - Toastabags! Do you think they'd work? A bag that makes grilled cheese in a toaster? It's almost too good to imagine. But think of the possibilities if it did work - peanut butter, marshmallows, chocolate, banana! mmmm!

It's the little things...

My desk at work is Steelcase. That makes me happy. It's like a piece of home right here. Love it.

The secret's out of the box: Pandora!

I've heard of Pandora for a while now. I used to listen at my work back when I was at George Washington University... ah, the memories. Now that I have a desk to sit at regularly again, I have made Pandora part of my daily life!

What is Pandora? Well, it's a free radio station that you create. So what you do is sign up (for free) and put in your favorite artist or song. I put in Jack Johnson. All day long they play me Jack Johnson-esque songs. I listen to Ben Harper, John Mayer, and several chill artists, including Jack Johnson. It's great. I also created a "Michael Buble" station and I listened to that all day today. Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Harry Connick, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Norah Jones - it was fabulous just to listen to things that fit my mood. And no commercials! Yay!

I love it. Pandora.com friends! You can too! I have yet to figure out how to get a good Hawaiian music station, but it's definitely worth it :)

My new favorite...

Buttered Linguine with Romano, Tomatoes, and Basil - from Confections of a FoodieBride

1/2 lb Linguine
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp basil, chopped/chiffonade
3/4 cup Pecorino Romano, finely grated
Salt, to taste

Cook pasta 6-8 minutes, or until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water before draining.

Toss hot pasta in a large bowl with butter, pepper, tomatoes, basil, and cheese. Add 1/4 cup pasta water and toss to moisten. Add additional water if necessary. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Yields: 3 servings (entree)
Source: Heavily revised from Everyday Pasta, 2007


Julie's notes:

• I used pre-grated Parmesan (the kind in a green "can") once in a pinch, and it worked ok, not great.
• I like to let the pasta cool just a little before adding the cheese. I found I got lumpy, stringy, melted cheese otherwise. I like sprinkling it on just before serving.
  

A boring old recipe...

I know recipes can be a little boring to read, but hey, this one is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I think it's well worth having stored in your google reader for a rainy day.

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries with Rosemary and Garlic - as seen on Pinch My Salt

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 small clove of garlic, peeled
2 T. olive oil
2 medium sweet potatoes

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Using a mortar and pestle, mash together the garlic, salt, and rosemary to form a paste. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, put ingredients into a small bowl and mash the garlic, rosemary and salt against the side of the bowl with a fork. It takes a bit more effort, but you’ll be able to work it into a paste.
3. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil and garlic paste; set aside.
4. Scrub sweet potatoes and cut off any blemishes that you wouldn’t want to eat. Slice the sweet potatoes lengthwise into 1/2 inch pieces. Stacking two pieces together, cut potatoes into 1/2 inch strips. Do the same with remaining potato.
5. Put potato strips into a large bowl; Add oil mixture and toss well until all potatoes are well coated.
6. Spread potatoes out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (the parchment is optional, but makes for easier clean up!). If you don’t use parchment, make sure to grease the baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or some extra olive oil.
7. Roast potatoes for 30-35 minutes, checking every ten minutes and rotating the pan for even browning. Every once in a while check to see if the potatoes are browning too much on the bottom. If that’s the case, turn them over. I didn’t have that problem, but you never know! Keep a careful watch towards the end and remove as soon as the smallest pieces just barely start to blacken on the ends.

yield: two servings

Recipe notes: Two medium sweet potatoes will serve 2-3 people as an appetizer. I think you could toss in one more potato without needing any more garlic paste or oil. But if you are cooking for a crowd, double all the ingredients and plan on using two baking sheets. Remember to keep the potatoes in one layer and don’t crowd them too much or they won’t brown evenly. These fries are best served right out of the oven!

Julie's notes: I never seem to have rosemary, so I add in whatever spices I seem to have in the house - namely my "mixed herbs" which are mainly oregano, parsley, and basil. And they're all dried. Also, I have substituted sea salt for kosher. I always end up using more oil as well, and then the oil ends up on the pan in the middle of baking and the fries end up soggy in one area. Lessons from that - use a pan with sides and use the right amount of oil!

Favorite things: Oz-style

Rove.
Yup, there it is. We love the television show Rove. So funny. Except for the blonde. She's not funny. I could deliver jokes better than her. But everyone else is good. Too bad it's only once a week. Yesterday the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was on. Unfortunately, it wasn't as funny as when Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were on.

See Glass
Cute designs out of glass. We got my mother-in-law one for her birthday and I'm lobbying to get one for mine. :)

Marie B Jewellry
Australian flowers pressed into jewellry. How adorable. Also something I bought for a birthday present for an in-law.

The Esplanade Market
Sunday afternoons, there is a craft market right by the beach in St. Kilda. It has tons of good stuff (like See Glass and Marie B Jewellry)

Mark Laricchia, Philip Greenwood, Matt Irwin, Linda Macaulay
All local Melbourne photographers/artists who sell at the Esplanade Market

The Western Bulldogs
My footie team :) Ha! We tried to support our team as best we could, in the short time we were aware of them. Unfortunately, they just lost in the semi-finals. But they're still our team!

These are a few of my favorite things...

J Caroline Creative - They have tons of cute fabrics, including Modern Flora by Jessica Jones (of how about orange) and Michael Miller's Hula Hut fabric. I get inspired just going on to their website.



Sig Zane Designs - Sig Zane is from Hilo and has the most fabulous designs! You can check out how he designs his fabric by watching this video. All of his clothes are distinctly Hawaiian, but without the cheese. I miss walking into the beautiful, newly-renovated shop for some eye candy.




USAA - It's amazing in and of itself that I like a bank. And I LOVE ours. Seriously, USAA is fantastic. We use them for almost everything! And it's open to civilians too - check it out.



Island Goddess Lipgloss
Great product with a fabulous scent. I love that stuff, and carry at least one in every purse. It's just wonderful.




Honey Girl Swimsuits
Some are cut a bit too small for me, but they're really cute (see example above)! She uses adorable prints... oh, this site in and of itself is enough to make me want to lose the extra weight I've gained since we left Hawai'i.



Etsy!
I love Etsy! So much fun to look... I could spend a whole lot of money on there. Just search the world "hula" and pretty much everything you end up with (minus the hula hoops) is on my favorite's list. Some of my favorite things are over in that box to the left.




Paloma's Nest (on etsy)
I bought one of these little bowls as a wedding present (it had their names and wedding date on it) and was totally adorable. How cute would it be for a ring dish by the sink?



Pillow Modern - ok, so you got me. I haven't actually bought anything from there. But, I know the owner and her husband, and they're cool. If I needed (aka was allowed) to buy pillows, I would buy them here. So cute!

Mmmm... sorry, Junior

We tried this recipe for Sautéed Garlic Asparagus tonight and really liked it. We had really skinny asparagus, so I only cooked it 5-6 minutes, and it was delicious!

Cute Baby Things

This site has a bunch of cute baby booties and blankets. We don't need them... but if you do, all of the money goes to a family adopting a baby from Ethiopia - sounds like a good idea to me!