Life is more than the Cubicle

Tonight I had my friend Carla over for dinner and to watch the movie Janapar that I got from the world domination summit.

I decided, since it was a wanderlust kind of movie, to make an international menu with thai roast chicken, indian rice, jicama and orange salad and a japanese steamed rice cake for dessert. I used recipes from 3 different cookbooks; I was quite proud of myself

Oh, but before I go into that dinner, here's a picture of the goat cheese souffle that I made from The Art of Simple Cooking. Yay!


Oh and I made braised pork spare ribs because I couldn't find beef and what not and so on



I made two cakes: one with matcha powder and one that was regular (coconut milk, sugar, flour)





Explosion...It also tasted like chemical death

So I tried again with a cleaned out pot, new cookie cutter and watched this one carefully. It looked great! Except for when I cut into the super-heated-chemical-death-matcha-powder one and discovered that it was still raw inside.








Oh darling, let's be adventurers

It's been a pretty sparse 2 months for food. Not sure what I've been eating. We probably shouldn't go down that road, it won't end well.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my camera and computer that I haven't uploaded yet.

I don't remember when I made this meal. OH, the time stamp says March. OOPS. Apparently I never uploaded them. I think this meal was born out of necessity (as all meals are nowadays). I think I bought some naan and broccolini and sausages and made mini pizzas




Then for the fourth of July, I made appetizers for a BBQ at church which included a gigantic batch of mini cornbread muffins



And a somen/veggie salad and potato salad which I don't have pictures of since I ran out of time to document.

Today, I had to figure out what to do with the leftover cornbreads (probably at least 40 of them left), so I crumbled up about 30 of them to make a cornbread and chicken baked thing. Pretty tasty

I think I need a cooking challenge to get myself through to the end of the year. Otherwise I'm going to be making more meals like this. Good thing I'm only cooking for myself so no judgment there :D

Day 3 dawned the same as day 2 with Starbucks...I KNOW. Ugh

First speaker of the day was Gretchen Rubin who spoke about self knowledge and this very intriguing topic on expectation types. There were 4 (upholder, questioner, rebel and obliger) and I have no idea what I am but it was awesome to hear about how each group responds to expectations and what motivates them.

Saturday morning brought on long lines at Starbucks (I know...I know...in the land of Portland, I should have found something better but a tight schedule requires compromise okay?). After I got my breakfast, I walked to the theatre to find one of the longest lines I've seen in a very long time, it wrapped around the block. Thankfully, I found a friend and was able to get into the theatre pretty quickly


We were welcomed by an awesome welcome committee and copious high fives, then took our seats inside the theatre. The morning flew by with wonderful presentations by Nancy Duarte about captivating stories and Darren Rowse about getting the dreams out of your head.




After that, we heard Bob Moore speak about how he created Bob's Red Mill and then proceeded to give away the majority share of his company to his employees via ESOP. Wow.

"Entrepreneurship is being responsible for your business and your people" - Bob Moore

Then came a break for lunch and it was back to the food trucks for some delicious Indian food for only $6. It was a mountain of food and so affordable!


After the talks, we made our way to the waterfront to board a river cruise and spent a fantastic two hours enjoying the scenery, conversations and sunset.

I ended up with a pretty awesome group and multiple bottles of prosecco.

Again, all pictures, unless noted, are property of Armosa Studios. Master set can be found here

I almost can't believe that I'm back at home and in my bed writing this post already. The weekend just flew by and was so jam-packed with inspiration, community and love that I might need to decompress from it for a few weeks.

I flew in Friday morning, sadly too late for the World Float world record, and checked into the Paramount.


They broke the world record for floating chain of people. Seriously awesome.

Early registration was happening at this time so I went to pick up my nametag and swag bag which was full of awesome stuff. Then I made my way over to the food truck gathering to get lunch


I ended up ordering the Kelsey which was a grilled cheese sandwich with pesto. So so so so so good. The cheese was melty and gooey and I think I had dreams about it that night. After lunch, I headed over to Powell's city of books which is my idea of heaven. Browsed the stacks for a while and left with 3 books. I thought I showed a good amount of restraint to not buy the entire store out.

Then I headed over to Deschutes to grab a beer, journal and rest my footsies. Little did I know that I would meet a fantastic group of fellow WDSers who adopted me into their group.

After our beers, we headed up to the theatre to board buses to go to the opening party at the Portland Zoo.


There was a giant open stage where we listened to a band called March the Fourth who played and performed for us. There were also various food stations for yummy treats. We stayed until it got pretty chilly and headed back to the hotel for our only early night in.

What a great start to the weekend!

All pictures, unless noted, are property of Armosa Studios. Master set can be found here