Salad and lots of dorky dancing

Because I have champagne taste on a beer budget (as mom would say), I had to slash the grocery list from lofty goals and ingredients like goat cheese, salmon, and nori.............. to PB&J... which is what I have actually been eating all week (although delicous, not necessarily blog-innovation worthy, even on my remedial level). My shifting of priorities was for a good cause, I promise. Multiple Chriopractor visits this month so I can turn my head to the left (and dance the robot out of choice and not necessity in the future), a SUPER fabulous bday party weekend out of town with some old sorority peeps, and some new summer threads (don't judge... the banana boat has gone to my head and caused poor fiscal summer-related decisions). So behold, yesterday's lunch combo that impressed myself and my low standards.

Feta/Watermelon Salad:

• Watermelon
• Feta
• Spinach
• Balsalmic Vinagar

And finally, because all I do recap weekends on here anyway, a photo summary of my very favorite weekend of June '09 (too early to say that?) Starting with a trip to see my H.S. BFF -- seriously the funniest person I've ever known. It was good times. She acts/speaks/thinks just like Liz Lemon. Further reinforcing my thoughts that Tina Fey and I would be BFF in real life.

Saturday was a Birthday party and night out with old friends in a random college town that was not our own. A few girls live in KC and a few live in the STL, so we decided to meet in the middle for a birthday bonanza. It did not dissapoint.With some besties.... Heart them big time! (Nin I know you're reading this ;) They even indulged in my LOVE of headband that evening and request to be called Blair Waldorf.After making a spectacle at a number of establishments, and making the cab/van driver take us through the drive thru (i was good, minus the handful of onion rings I stole) obviously we came home and put on our favorite sorority songs. Good thing I have a playlist entitled: 'delta zeta' which has every girl's favorite madonna, whitney, cindy lauper, pat benettar, britney, etc. tunes.

.... DANCE PARTAY!

Hilarious.

In very exciting, non-weekend-related news.... word on the street is that my favorite food aunt is further guiding me along the light and way of the cooking world by supplying me with the following:

How great would THAT be? Hope everyone's Thursday is BANANAS (you know, in a good way).

Flo Rida... Holla!

Goood morrow my peoples! Flo Rida.... the location (as opposed to the rapper, and yes i totally spelled it that way on purpose) is where i have been hiding out all week/weekend. Despite the fact that I am mostly all work and little play... behold the BEAUTEOUS view from out the window:


Which obviously leads to this... (high SPF? check and check)


Though I obviously couldn't cook, I sure was eating... HEY OH. The most healthful and food blog related eats were when I tracked down this beauty of a restaurant I had heard so much about (okay actually it was only 2 miles from my hotel, but still, i was determined). This place is AMAZING!

• All seasonal and fresh foods (hence, the name)
• Everything is under 500 calories
• There are no fryers in the entire restaurant and they don't use butter (i'm not sure how that works with their completely delicious shot glass size desserts, but kudos restaurant)
• hands down the best place i went all week (including local buttery seafood places where the taste of the food was crazy delicious.... a la red vines and mr. pibb)

My companion for dinner was a friend from college, then we went to a dive bar on the beach... LOVED it! Early flight though, so it was fun... with time and drink limitations.

Before I left KC, in addition to a super fun rehearsal dinner that john was in (well he was in the wedding too, but i had to miss that to travel :( Anyway one of my besties flew in from Denver, and we.... OBVIOUSLY... had a dance party. The caption to this beauty below might read something like.... oh no... walk out the door... don't come around here.. you're not welcome anymore..

A more composed pic:

AHHH love. Can't wait to GET BACK! I have the best girls weekend in history happening, school starts tomorrow (okay okay, can totally put that off longer)..

by the way: did anyone hear Al Roker's HILARIOUS joke just now about coffee and all the single lattes? (beyonce style). Total highlight of my morning. Well, that and having an A boarding pass.

Tood-le-loo

And I'm Spent..

This weekend was fabulous. Emily and I had plans to spend the day trolling for treasures at flea markets, etc. .... until we realized it was going to be 90+ degrees and sunny. Pool-side margaritas trumped anything else we could think of (we did stop at a garage sale as we got lost on the way to the pool... so that counts.. right?)
Too bad I'm Irish and invariably end up looking like this:

Many hours later........ DANCE PARTY (and no emily and john are not getting sucked into a sci-fi black hole in space or morphed into anything.... my hands were just shaking and i was too lazy to get out the real camera, and instead used the low res iphone camera)

Sunday John and I watched Milk.... loved it. How lucky is my generation to have not been really (i mean really) persecuted? Deep thoughts.

Also we won tickets to a comedy club nearby to see hanging with Mr. Cooper (ironically, john and i had seen him there a few years ago)... i heart comedy.

So last night I felt it was my blog duty to make some things I hadn't yet made. So.... I tried my hand at Granola

• rolled oats


• sesame seed


• almonds


• brown sugar


• salt


• cinnamon


• ginger


• applesauce


• honey


• canola oil

My entire apartment smelled like baking applesauce.... yum.

The lumpy mass below is my attempt at a hot pocket feast. After my failed martha attempt a few weeks ago, I decided it would be fun to try making different kinds of hot pockets. I've been asking my OH-SO knowledgeable food aunt Anne dough questions so I can make my own healthy whole grain stuff from scratch. However..... because this is an all around new attempt (however simple in its nature) I thought I would remove potential for it to fail on the first time (let's be real here). So... pillsbury pizza dough it is. BTW, how annoying is it they don't have a multigrain option? The uber processed was less desirable, admittedly, but... here we are.

My first attempt was a 'veggie' pizza HP (hp = hot pocket, not harry potter.. or hewlett packer) anyway i added spaghetti sauce with peppers, mushrooms and part skim mozz cheese shreds.

the next one was cheddar cheese with broccoli and cauliflower.

Then tex-mex-ish (yeehaw!) and had corn, peppers, black beans and cheddar

Then swiss with chopped turkey and spinach.

All together now (ignore the one on the bottom left, it's ugly and was a scrap one). So what IS the difference between a Lean/Hot pocket and a Calzone and a Pizzone? Marketing? Square versus half-circle shape? Can I call these Lauren Pockets? I do really like pockets.

So I baked these according to the dough directions (10-15 min?) and hope to be eating these bad boys all week.

Jerry's Thoughts:

• get a rolling pin. (What is it that is so difficult about dough? It's a sticky, unmanageable concoction that is impossible to spread without poking fingerholes).... the dough was way too thick, and I'm guessing the famed kitchen tool would be helpful in the future


• do NOT use spaghetti sauce. For all things spaghetti/marinara spag. sauce has always worked (a tomato is a tomato is a tomato, right?... wrong). This time it was leaking out corners and pretty much dissolved during baking. TOMATO PASTE is where it's at next time people, tomato paste


• just make the homemade stuff.... all of that carby processed stuff finds plenty of other ways into my diet (re: margarita weekends), when I'm home cooking and experimenting the least I can do opt for the fresher/healthier stuff.


• That Heidi and Spencer make me want to gouge my eyes out. That if i'm a celebrity get me out of here' is on every monday night all summer, then I'm throwing my TV out the window.... onto the street... from the fourth floor. OI.

Special shout out to Anne/Grandma/Mom who went to the most FABULOUS little artist's colony in Wisconsin where yours truly was born. So Jealous... want to go back. Hope you ladies had a wonderful road trip!!

More shout outs (what is this a radio station?) HAPPY 18th Birthday to my SEESTER! She totally doesn't read this blog, but she is SO wonderful.

Hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC week thus far!

So there i was.... minding my own business....

Okay, not to get all iphone on you, but I have been reunited with itunes (we were on a money saving/no additional computer memory hiatus for a few months) and it . is . Glorious.

So last night after watching a PBS documentary on 'In The Heights' the AMAZING Broadway musical, I proceeded to download a bunch of showtunes that I love (we didn't have cable or neighbors growing up, and mom would rent us musicals from the library.. I am a fan) .... and itunes suggested I download a Song from 'A Chorus Line'. Now, itunes knows my musical tastes pretty well by now. However.... How they KNEW I was in a summer theater workshop as a kid and performed this very act (at both a theater and the county fair) I will never know. Well played itunes/stalking, well played.

So there I was... on my way back from lunch and listening to my new sweet musical tunes and I get excited to start pretending to tap dance to 'one singular sensation' when this came on instead....



WHAT??????? I accidentally downloaded the GERMAN VERSION of the song by accident. MWAHAHAH.... It sounded a lot less appealing. Kind of harsh actually. Oh those mean-sounding Germans.


So then... I got to thinking. Where did I see a picture from that very song/performance? And then I looked around. And then....randomly... for no reason whatsoever, I located said picture at my desk. My desk? My bewilderment is the internet's gain. Check out my SWEET cumberbun and bowtie (I'm second from the right... with approximately the same haircut i have now)

But again, for no apparent reason, I have the second photo in this series at my desk also (which is WAY better by the way).

Behold my brother now (or at least what you can find as his FB profile pic)

And Brother then. In front. Yes that one.

Oh what his former Navy shipmates would say. Also, for kicks.... (and because this is supposed to be a food blog for crying out loud) I took a photo of lunch. Note I took a page out of brooke's blog to try to create art via ketchup. Too bad that stuff came out so quickly instead of a margarita glass I made a gametime decision to do a pointy blob.

Ahhh art. Interpret, if you will. Is it a flower? Is it a sun? Is it a self portrait of a grow-your-own-boyfriend doll? (shout out to kostas). Art is love people, art is love.

Technology Upgrades and a Staycation

Happy post-Memorial Day! Oh man... as someone who semi-lives out of my car/suitcase, it feels pretty strange to be staying in town the one weekend where everyone and their dog is traveling to a lake or 3-day weekend destination. John and I had a very grown up weekend (nearly everything we did had more old people and families than kids our own age). I always am wanting to experience what my own city has, so John and I decided to have a KC tourist-themed weekend.

But first, let's start with the most exciting thing that happened this week/year/century/A.D.. Perhaps you've seen me cruising around town looking like this: Well... after four years, I thought perhaps it was time to upgrade (yes, it is possible to have a phone that long, and yes, i felt like Oprah would be proud of how 'simple' my life is with my lack of technology). Behold the cell from 2005:

Behold, the cell as of Thursday evening:

TA-DA!!!! I solemnly swear not to be one of those obnoxious i-phone people who insist their device is the answer to everything and bring it up in nearly every conversation *cough* my brother *cough* BUT... it is great. After just 2 days I had four pages of apps. Yowza.

Satuday was all abou the Great American BBQ festival. Too bad it turned out to be the red headed step child of KC's HUGE bbq festival (the american royal) in the fall. Is it bad that it made John and I missed how classy the state fair was?

It had a lot of old-timey root beer. I love things that are old-timey. Do you see where it says deep fried twinkies on the sign? awesome... and gross... but still awesome. I resisted. Does that make me awesome?

We didn't stay long because it was 90+ degrees (creeping up in boy band territory) and on miles of hot asphalt. Also we walked right past the free samples place and it was closed by the time we figured out where it was. Ahhhh nuts. There was a country-esque band playing that was good.... but kind of hilarious in their name/marketing pitch. Miss Major and her Minor Mood Swings (or something to that effect) that stressed how much SASS they had. Awesome. I love these country festivals. (and below for your viewing pleasure, a not so photogenic photo of two heat exhausted people)

Sunday we hit up the World War I Museum. It's the only WWI Museum in the country (there's not even one in DC, isn't that crazy?) and let me tell you, it's awesome. It ranks right up there with Museums/Memorials on the Mall... if not outshining them. We only gave ourselves an hour to go through, but spent the whole time saying we need to come back when we have 10 hours. Good stuff, people.

Then John and I had a picnic in-between Union Station and the Liberty Memorial/WWI Museum. The Kansas City Symphony played as they shot fireworks off from behind the memorial. It was really neat... (minus when the 50,000 people there... no seriously, that's how many they estimated, tried to leave the same parking garages at the same time)

There was a lot of saluting and paying tribute to the troops. I kind of felt like I was cheating on the fourth of July with these moments.

Monday was a Royals Game. BOO they lost. 9 to nothing. And it rained. However the new stadium renovations look AWESOME.

Then we tried to go to the renovated movie theater a few blocks from my apartment. They've got recliners and all you can eat seats and we were STOKED. However, the show was sold out. So... obviously... we went for redbox and a trip to the bakery down the street.

And then John fell in love with Red Velvet Cake.

YUM.

Hope your holiday weekend was fabulous!! :) I'm getting a facial tonight (woohoo) and then this week will be cooking up a storm. A healthy storm. A Hurricane of vegetables and other good things. Eh?

Getting my hair did and business as usual

I've probably mentioned how important philanthropy is to me. It's all about the little people... and the children. The sick, the elderly, the list of people not allowed in the hot tub, etc. etc.

So obviously the reason I wasn't around to cook this weekend was for all of my charitable cancer pub crawling.

Last week I did make a baked eggplant parmish dish (minus any breading, frying, etc.. it was mostly just homemade sauce and mozz cheese).

I sliced and rinsed the eggplant, salted and drained for 30 minutes. Like PRO I might add. Then I made a homemade spaghetti sauce using the following:

• tiny can tomato sauce


• regular can crushed tomatoes


• 2 Tablespoons-ish of chopped Kalamato Olives


• Mushrooms (the rest of the gourmet mix from the martha disaster last week)


• Zucchini


• lots of italian seasoning


• some crushed red pepper

I'm no mathmatician but that = awesome

(HA .. i kill me)

I baked it for an indeterminante amount of time and a few minutes before taking it out I dangerously stuck my hand in the oven (forgetting that I have been accident prone to ovens for about 26 years now) and narrowly missed burning off my had for melting cheese.

It would've been worth it... it was delicous (had it with LOTS of corn on the cob and steamed kale... btw... steamed kale, kind of bleh).

Also I CUT 12 INCHES OFF OF MY HAIR ON THURSDAY. DO YOU WANT ME TO STOP SHOUTING? Whew. Alright i guess there was sort of a spoiler in the CFC pics above. So.. I have no idea what the heck to do with it. Regret is a strong word, because I love short hair... but I am clueless. On the other hand, bobby pins and I have become bery good friends over the last week or so.

Oh yeah, and I'm in CHICAGO all week (YAY).. except I'm just working and not really being cool (boooo). Hope you're week is awesome sauce, or as homegirl brooke would say, BOSSY.

love your faces

Yet Another Installment of 'Lauren Cannot Bake'

Or maybe, lauren has zero cooking intuition and common sense. Oi. So there is this recipe from Martha Stewart that is categorized as easy. Psshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhah, right. For a ROCKET scientist.

I was enthused by my new free time on Monday nights (and i got to watch gossip girl for the first time in forever, i had no idea what was going on but still enjoyed it and was inspired to wear more pearls and headbands), and my new ingredient: the grourmet mushroom mix. Cremini, Shitake, and yellow something or other made the list. They looked so fancy and interesting... I was already proud of myself.

I purchased the phyllo dough and immediately dumped it on my counter (which was a lightly floured surface, direction #1... followed). I then immediately proceeded to unroll it, even as it broke into pieces. I rechecked the directions... it was supposed to be thawed (direction #2 not followed). AH NUTS.

So I decided to toss the most hopelessly broken sheets and try to double/triple/quadruple up the semi broken ones for good measure in holding it together. I put the mushroom/onion mix in the corners and tried to wet/crease the sides to fold. Note to self: not pretty. So not pretty.



On the baking sheet... trying their best to make it work... bless their little hearts.

See Martha's picture:See the burnt flaky mess of mine below. The saving grace for my appetite was the sauteed zucchini and the corn on the cob (with lime juice and sea salt... a little DELICIOUS and tangy tip I picked up from the fatfreevegan.. i'll never go back to butter... seriously)

Two forkfulls into it and I was in a pit of slightly burnt flakes. Newsflash, I used way too many sheets at once (thanks a lot for specifying martha) and apparently my oven was too hot. too hot for the hot tub. too hot for my mushroom hotpockets.

.... and then i gave up.

*sigh*

And then Peyton died or something on One Tree Hill. It was a stressful time in my apartment.