…has begun!
here's hoping for one sweet ride!
after months and months of pondering/musing/wondering about new-beginnings — the newest one starts now!
nearly 4 months of round-the-country-travel to explore the interconnections between food and communities, food and families, food and the american experience…
join me here
http://greetseatsandtreats.wordpress.com/
SO SO SO MANY HUGS — and so so SO many wishes for new beginnings for us all!
click here —
http://greetseatsandtreats.wordpress.com/
and PLEASE HELP ME NAME THE greets.eats.andtreats. CAR!!!!!
thank you thank you thank you 
so so so many hugs!!!!!
here she is!!!
HOORAY!!!!!!!!
its finally coming together!
(thanks to the unending-carpentry-and-home-improvement-skills-of-amazing-friend-t, the kitchen tiling job is now offically COMPLETE — and i could NOT BE happier with how it turned out — i cant stop looking at the pleasantly-shiny-little-gems-of-tile!!!)
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so our first struggle last night was trying to get the outlets to lie flush with the tile. this proved trickier than we-so-thought, as the outlet boxes in this 1960′s unit are significantly smaller than 2010 standards, thus our valiant attempts at attaching an outlet-extender-box failed miserably…
(i know all this home-improvement-lingo is making me sound very educated. be not swayed. this took lots of google-diy-searching and many-many-lowes-convos before we realized how simple, yet futile, this process really was…)
the answer?
t's GENIUS idea! add the washers! pop out the outlets SUPER EASILY! FABULOUS!!
so a few washers later, and without even having to pull out any hairs in frustration,
we were ready for the final stage – the grout!
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and only an hour or so of grouting and sponging and grouting and sponging and sponging some more and finessing later – we were done!
and so so so darn satisfied with the results!
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total stats:
total time spent on project: ~5 hours
pounds of grout whipped up: 10
pounds of grout acutally used: more like 4
gallons of water used to wipe all that grout residue off the lovely blue nuggets: best guess might top 20
times we felt like tilling superstars: countless!
notice that finessed grout work around the outlets pre-cover.... t is a machine!
and so yet another project is ticked off the pre-what-are-you-hungry-for-tour-check-list!
doesnt it just feel kinda satisfying to finally check off those things that have been looming over you for ages?!?
do ya’ll have things on your lists that you just been dying to finally finish?!?!
feel free to share — maybe people have great ideas on how to finally ‘just-do-it’!!!!
so how did we celebrate? we made burgers...duh!! (burgers for me are SUCH signs of summer.... do y'all have foods that are just so quintessentially summer?!??!)
‘love is like a poisonous mushroom -
you never know if its the real thing until its too late…’
b.balance
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check out this weeks video:
creamy mushroom soup with spinach/mushroom wonton cups!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQVaJDRPMbk
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luckily -
our mushrooms today are PERFECTLY edible –
woodsy, rich, creamy, and full of scrumptious flavor!!!
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now, i know mushrooms are not everyones cup of tea — and if you dont like them….well then, maybe this isnt the most ideal recipe for you….
but if you DO like mushrooms, i think you will adore this combo – creamy soup, crunchy wonton cups —-
a lovely duo, for sure
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(mushrooms are a tricky veggie to cook sometimes. if you undercook them, they still taste kinda raw. and if you overcook them, they turn incredibly tough. and the worst-ever-mushroom-cooking-option is steaming — they turn out slimy and slippery and absolutely disgusting. you really want a deep, lovely, golden brown. then they are rich and pleasant tasting, and work wonderfully in flavoring the soup. dont be scared to really let them get brown, but just make sure you pull ‘em off the heat before they scorch!!!)
ENJOY THIS WEEKS SOUP, FRIENDS!!!
let me know if you try it — i’d love to hear your thoughts!!!
BIG BIG HUGS!!!
its been a day of GREAT SUCCESS —
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…for i FINALLY had my day to plead my case with the judge and summon all my courage and charm to convince him that i need a deferral.
that, while i am VERY excited to serve my community when i get back in august, the next two months are just simply not going to work for me.
that i just could not reschedule my journey-of-greets-and-treats at this short notice…
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and friends – JUSTICE PREVAILED
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the jury system in our wee-precious-small-town is an incredibly personal one.
you meet every other potentail juror (all 130-ish of us!) by name.
you meet every staffer (including judge, bailiff, sheriff and deputy sheriff, the man who validates your parking, the clerk of court,…i could keep going) by name.
you watch a FABULOUS (please PLEASE note my sarcasm!) video that had been created no later than 1987.
and, after two hours of fun, you have the incredibly personal opportunity to plead your cause. to the judge. from the defendant stand. there is something amazingly terrifying about the whole ordeal.
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but friends, all my fears of asking-for-what-i-need were put aside as i quakingly-but-bravely asked for permission to defer my service to august. the judge, a kindly man, gazed back, exhausted from listening to enough sob-stories for one day, and waved his solomon-like-hand – granting me the beloved golden-ticket to summer freedom. i could not have been more grateful.
and so we march onward -
counting down the days,
ticking off the checklist,
crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s…
one day closer to the next amazing new beginning…
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(and yes, all these photos are of our local courthouse. sometimes i forget how blessed i am to live in such a gorgeous corner of our country. i mean, architecturally ALONE it is stunning – not to mention the natural splendor…
wow – i kinda sound like the tourist board….
‘come visit virginia!’
‘virginia is for lovers’
…tragic…)
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SO SO SO MANY HUGS —- how is EVERYONE doing out there?!?! enjoying this GORGEOUS weather today??? anyone get to do fun things (instead of having to sit in a courthouse all afternoon!?!??!?!) ?? tell me EVERYTHING!!!
i dont really know what it means to ‘be ready’ — how does one ever know these things? how do we decide when things are ‘ready’?
when the microwave beeps?
when the dishwasher is full?
when the oven timer dings?
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when i was little we measured time in tv show segments – like, ‘collier, we will be there in two little-house-on-the-prairies’ or ‘if you can just wait three full-houses we will be able to do that’ — as a wee-one, there was something so calming in knowing ‘exactly’ how long i’d have to wait to have the next great adventure.
now, as an adult, sometimes i’d rather not know. cause when you know, you kinda have to be ready…
but in:
24 greys anatomys + 24 glees + 12 private practices + 12 biggest losers +
24 saved by the bells + 24 dinner impossibles
the next new beginning begins. and i ‘think’ i’m kinda ready…
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life is so funny. you plan and you plan and you plan again, and then you realize that even your best planning is really just your best guessing. and you think and you think and you think some more, and then you realize that your best thinking is really just your best-est wishing.
and so you go with your best guess. and your biggest wish. and you leap.
and you know that even when it’s scary or it’s lonely or it’s quiet, there will be just enough snacks to keep you happy, and just enough diet cokes to keep you quenched, and just enough hugs to remind you that life is NOTHING if not a grand adventure.
so you jump and dance in the puddles.
and you sing the songs you dont even know the words to.
and you bake cupcakes with those you love.
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and you take each new adventure one day at a time.
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(i cannot tell you how excited to share this next phase of life with you all —
feel free to start checking out http://greetseatsandtreats.wordpress.com/ for all the stories and pictures!!)
one million hugs, as always!
…why not go twice??
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so last night lovely-friend-t and i set off to discover unchartered territories
(or really, just to enjoy some outdoor-music-and-perhaps-a-bag-of-popcorn at the fridays-after-five charlottesville festivities…) –
what we found was a SEA of what-felt-like-millions of people – babies, the elderly, so so many dogs, women with children on leashes, drunk drooling people – i mean, you name it, they were there…
and the ‘band’, whilst loud, included an electric guitar and a bobbing-flute.
not really my cup of tea, unfortunately.
and needless to say — me + large unruly crowds = not so much fun.
so what do we do, you might ask?
GO EAT. duh!
AND EAT WE DID
(sorry these pics are so grainy - we only had the wee blackberry to snap these shots!)
yes - the cup is larger than my head. never EVER a good idea to eat anything bigger than your own noggin....
so we stumbled to belmont bbq – a lovely little local landmark – a teeny tiny building housing some of the yummiest bar-b-que i have ever tasted (and being raised in the south, i-do-know-me some amazing bar-b-que…) – moist, tender, super flavorful, and so darn juicy you almost didnt even need the gallon-of-sweet-tea that so lovingly adorned the tables…
they smoke their own meat.
they make their own side dishes.
they even brew their own tea.
but perhaps MOST excitingly – they offer a meal…called…. THE SLOP BUCKET.
and you best believe that is what tyler and i got
(we have come to learn to trust our instincts and order the most-strangest-thing on the menu. this technique has yet to let us down…)
so many layers of love...
the slop bucket included the following:
1) a GINORMOUS (see above photo) white styrofoam cup (i know, i too wish it had been biodegradable…one fight at a time, friends…)
2) layer 1: cheesy hashbrown potato casserole
3) layer 2: the most succulent pulled pork you can imagine
4) layer 3: BBQ baked beans
5) layer 4: cole slaw
6) all smothered with sauce of your choice (and they have both tomato and vinegar based sauces – BEST OF BOTH BBQ WORLDS!!!)
so last night t and i shared said-slop-bucket. it took us about half an hour, but we were finally able to polish it off. luckily we had walked to dinner. even with the 30-minutes-of-cardiovascular-exercise exerted to get us home, i still had to take a tums to quell the intense feeing-of-fullness.
and yet, this afternoon, yours truly bellied up to the counter once again to have YET ANOTHER bucket-of-slop for lunch. why, you might ask. stupid, you might say. oh HECK no. AMAZING. (this time i had learned…i got the small. and though i gave it a valiant effort, i didnt feel but so bad when i couldn’t lick the ‘vat’ clean…)
close, but no cigar.
(lovely-friend-laura had it as well. she is also a new convert. one by one they fall!)
i figured i needed to get as much amazing bbq in as possible before i head out on the great-american-journey. there will be LOTS of time spent in the north/northwest – and i’m scared i will long for the days of roasted pig and sweet tea.
in those moments i’ll just lovingly remember the slop bucket, and all will be right in the world…
such words of wisdom!
there are restaurants that are great because their food tastes so so so good.
and there are restaurants that are great because they care so deeply about their community.
and then there are restaurants that are SUPER great because their food tastes so so good BECAUSE they care so deeply about their local community.
northstar restaurant, in columbus ohio, is one of those super special restaurants.
kurt thought his mug would be a precious addition to this shot - you be the judge...
old-roommate-kurt and i grabbed a wee lunch at this lovely-little-luncheonette (and dinner-ette, i guess!) on my way out of town earlier this week – and on such a GORGEOUS afternoon i was expecting the outdoor patio to be swarming with lunch-time-gatherers, but it was actually quite subdued and relaxing – a wonderful way to end a wonderful ‘pre-grand-adventure’ quick vacay
and here is kurt's AMAZING lunch sans his grin - does that salad in the background not look amazing?!?! so so fresh - and SO SO chocked-full of diggable-yummies (like locally sourced hard-boiled eggs and fresh picked radishes and local-bacon cooked so crispy you could hear it crackle from across the patio!)
i, on the other hand, could not resist this delectable bbq chicken flatbread (they are so kind not to call it pizza to make you feel slightly better about your culinary decision making) -- i kinda wish the red peppers had been roasted to deepen their flavor and soften them up a wee little bit...but overall a scrumptious choice!
yet while the food is amazingly lovely here – perhaps the loveliest aspect of this corner-restaurant concept is their commitment to leaving as small a footprint on the earth as possible – keenly realizing that (even from the most business-minded-focus) a dead world will not grow any profit… they choose cotton for their tees and hats from sustainable-cotton-growers. they source as many locally grown veggies and meats and fruits as possible. all their take-out containers are completely recyclable. if there is a way to be kind and loving to our earth, and to the columbus community, they find a way.
i am so impressed.
and perhaps the best part is that it is these choices that make their restaurant so successful – people are spilling out the doors to eat here. people are LINED UP to work here. and people cannot wait to return for their next scrumptious scone or memorable meal. in such a beautiful way, everybody wins – the growers, the eaters, and the entrepreneurs. what a model…
and as you can see - we nearly cleaned our plates
i couldnt leave these out -
look at those TINY LITTLE CANDIED KEY LIMES —-
too cute
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and so so so easy to do:
1) bring one cup sugar and one cup water to a boil. plop in your sliced key limes and let boil gently for 10/15 minutes (watch closely – i burned my first batch cause i got cocky and thought i had everything under control! haha! please….you do NOT want your sugar to brown. if it does, just go ahead and throw it all away and start again. you will thank me. you DO NOT want to eat burnt sugared limes. gross…)
2) pull out of the hot syrup with a slotted spoon and place on a cooling rack to cool for a few minutes.
3) when cool enough to touch, drag the limes through a bowl of sugar to get that ‘crystalized’ look.
4) put back on that cooling rack and let dry completely.
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DONE! could that be any simpler?!?!
(and you can eat them – just make sure you wash the limes well before you cut them!!)
ok – no more posts today – i promise!!!
HUGS ONE THOUSAND TIMES!
…so why not make MORE CUPCAKES!?!?!?!?!?
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(before i started this ‘love-to-begin-again-year-of-new-adventures, i didnt even know i liked cupcakes. in fact, i dont think i did.
so so often they were dry.
and covered with that horrible gritty-you-can-feel-the-sugar-grinding-between-your-molars frosting.
tragic.
but this year has taught me that cupcakes can be AWESOME… like BEYOND awesome – light, tender, uber-flavorful, and wee-tiny if so desired…
i kinda cant get enough of them now…)
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key lime cupcakes.
key lime cream-cheese frosting.
super easy. super bright. super springy.
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and perhaps best of all – only two bites!!!
bitty-bitty!!
and NO GUILT for enjoying a big-ole-handful of ‘em!
HAPPY THURSDAY friends – hope you all are having ‘sweet’ days
(hahahahahahahaha)
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