Life is more than the Cubicle

Beer bottles and Veggies

This weekend was so much fun. Steve and Joyce hosted a pig roast and we got to cook up and eat a whole pig...and gorge ourselves on pasta all day long.

They also let me collect the beer bottles from the event so I can finally brew a batch of beer. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning and removing the labels off of all of the bottles. 52 to be exact. Thanks everyone for the beer bottles!

Bottles in my drying rack

Soaking in the sink

For dinner/this week of food I made a butternut squash and onion tart and lavash hummus and veggie wraps. Everything is inadvertently vegetarian this week

Before going in the oven. Cooked and pureed the squash. Caramelized some onions. Made the pie shell, froze it then blind baked it.

Also made a buttery crumb topping (didn't have bread crumbs so I used panko)

Done baking!

Lavash wraps with carrots, radishes, cucumber and alfalfa sprouts and some homemade hummus

Dinner!

I'm playing around with editing my pictures using the Olympus software that came with my camera but honestly, editing RAW takes forever...I might not have the patience for it...

8:44 PM
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Diary of a Long Work Weekend

It's another 7 day-er

Saturday:

8am: arrived at work

11:30am: lunch and 1 diet doctor pepper

4:30 - home

Sunday:

8am: arrived at work

10am: 1 diet doctor pepper

10:30am: lunch (don't judge, I was hungry)

5pm: ate a plum

6pm: drove home

7pm: dinner (with wine...shhhhhhhh)

8:30pm: popcorn

10:20pm: coffee #1. realized I don't have any sugar....used powdered sugar....I know you're judging, so stop being judge-y .....OH just remembered that I have splenda in the cabinet. damn it

10:32pm: powdered sugar in coffee is kind of disgusting. ugh. that goes on the list of bad decisions made

10:45pm: DVR is now completely watched, backlog of shows is finally clear, switching over to watch Knowing with Nick Cage. Doomsday movie...appropriate

11:52pm: holy shit this movie is CRAZY, there are subway trains smooshing people! and Nick Cage is kind of really ripped, wow...

1am: Knowing is over...now watching a weird film about vampires and the circus

1:30am: coffee #2

3am: ugh, screw it. nap time

the tough part about this project....the knowledge that I'll probably have to start all over again tomorrow morning (o' . ' )o o(' . 'o) o(x_x)o

2:45 AM
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Heat, Cookies and Japanese Food

It's been a pretty long week already. I took a Bikram yoga class on monday night and it kicked my butt. Yoga is hard enough as it is but yoga in a room heated to 105 is pretty difficult. I can barely walk today because my muscles are so sore and tight. That meant that I should have gone again tonight, except for the fact that I left work at 7pm and had no food in my fridge (I sense a recurring theme here...)

Then Tuesday I had a day trip out to Arizona. Woke up at 4am in order to catch a 6:20am flight. Funny part is that there is a flying curfew so planes are not even allowed to take off until 6:30am. So then why am I on a flight that's at 6:20 which boards at 5:50? I have no idea. Could have slept in. Arizona was hot as usual, about 113. Funny fact that they shut down their airport if it reaches 120 because planes can't take off since there's no lift. Interesting! Sat through an all day meeting and then meandered back to the airport at 4pm and arrived home at 6pm.

It was pretty trippy to realize that I had woken up in California, spent the whole day in Arizona and was going back to sleep in my bed in California that same night.

Freaky.

I cooked a bit, so this is what I accomplished.

It's going to be another 7 day work week so this will probably be the last time I eat something decent for a while

I don't remember when I made these but I wanted cookies and I had about the right amount of ingredients so I decided to give it a try.

Turns out, that doesn't work so well..

They came out as big flat pancakes

Tonight I made a few dishes with the things I did have in my fridge which included oyakudon, miso soup and pork tenderloin with plum chutney (I didn't eat ALL of this food, the fuller bowls just looked prettier)

The miso soup is dashi stock with white miso paste boiled and then with tofu, mushrooms and spinach added in

The tenderloin is wrapped in prosciutto and then baked (because I don't have a grill) and I made a plum chutney with onions, sugar, apple cider vinegar, spices and plums

And the oyakudon is leeks, onions, chicken breast and egg over rice

yummies

Oh crap, I also baked a blueberry coffee cake but didn't take pictures. Dang it! Guess I'll just have to make another one!! :D

11:29 PM
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Veggies, Fried Chicken and Fog

I'm FINALLY done with my gigantic work project. I can't even begin to express how wonderful it feels to be done and back to a normal schedule. Unfortunately, I still have a ton of work to do but at least I can leave every day at 5pm and to me, that's a vacation in itself.

So this is the first night that I've been able to cook. I've mostly just been eating restaurant meals and I jumped at the chance to make some good food for myself.

All dishes are from the cookbook Veganomicon

The first is a dish called Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca

Long name

It consisted of a black bean mixture which is black beans, red wine, corn, spices and garlic

It also includes spaghetti squash but I couldn't find that at the store so I used butternut squash instead

The final piece is the tropical salsa fresca and it's basically a tropical fruit (pineapple, mango or papaya)

I needed protein and some good fat (not chips) in my system so I baked a halibut filet

Final product!

I also made a corn chowder with basil and tomato

Final product!

(the lighting really sucks..)

The last piece was saffron-garlic rice

It had a base of onion and garlic

Along with a vegetable broth flavored with saffron threads

So much better than sandwiches!

Oh, salame was on sale so I had to indulge with some blue cheese and wine :D

A few weeks ago when I got back from Europe, Matt and I headed up to San Francisco to watch American Idiot

It was fantastic and we hung out for a bit in the city. We had drinks at an Irish pub and then went to Farmerbrowns for fried chicken!!

I die.. so good

We took 280 back which has some of the best scenery as you head to the city and back. I absolutely love watching the fog roll over the hills. So cool and a little trippy like a slow motion non-harmful tsunami of water vapor.

I think I had a bit too much wine

11:25 PM
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Pre-Contiki California Celebration

Ugh, I hate being out of order, but what can you do? Life is not perfect (first world problems)

ANYWAY

Before I left for my 3 week party-palooza that was Europe, Matt and I went for a last California Hurrah to Monterey

The weather was gorgeous as per California usually is..

This was, "pull over I need my camera!"

I realize that I take pictures slightly off-center. Guess I just have a gangster left lean

We were shooting for Julia Pfeiffer state park I believe but decided to hit up Andrew Molera instead. This was also "practice" for Europe but the 5 miles we hiked this day was peanuts compared to Europe...

Trying to be artsy-fartsy..

This was an abandoned workers quarters that was on the way to the beach

Little bit of a haunted vibe, no?

Freshwater river that flowed into the sea beyond

Hiking the bluffs atop the sea

I love my state

Except this...I do NOT love this... Holy balls this was a big wasps nest

9:51 AM
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Cooking Extravaganza!

Since I was gone for 3 weeks, I came home to an empty fridge. I also took the day off work to cook and do laundry. Of course being an eager beaver overachiever, I made 3 dishes. Was going to make 4 but I'm a little tuckered out

Breakfast: Spinach Strata

baby spinach, cheese, bread, eggs, milk and lemon zest