Spectacular Succulents

A few weeks ago, we helped our good friend Michael celebrate his 40th birthday at his mexican fiesta! It was such a rad party complete with a Mariachi band, two piñatas, a lucha libre server, and a bicycle-powered margarita machine!! To see some photos from the party (including me working for my margarita) check out Michael and Maren's blog! To thank him for being born (because we are all so lucky he was!), I made him a succulent terrarium straight from our garden. 

I also plucked some of my very favorites from our yard and put them into this lovely flower dish that I got for Christmas. It has spikes in the bottom, so you push the stems into the spikes, fill the bottom with water and without much effort the flowers, or in this case succulents, can simply soak up the sunlight and and brighten up the living room.

In the spirit of spring cleaning, I recently repotted a bunch of succulents in the backyard to give them more room to breathe. I rearranged all of the pots, cleaned them up a bit, and added some dimension with some pot stands, tree stumps, and painted crates (from our wedding!). Also, you can see the bottles on sticks with yellow flowers in the background - these are also from our wedding. They lined the aisles at the ceremony and I have finally dusted them off from the garage and put them to good use outside! They really give the backyard a cheerful feel.

Family Pie

Last Fall, I harvested our green apples, peeled, sliced, and combined them with some brown sugar and cinnamon, bagged up a few batches and and put them in the freezer. A couple of months ago I tried making an apple pie using a Pilsbury crust and a crumble topping but the pie turned out like apple sauce with a mushy crust. Bleh! Steve told me that his mom makes the best pie crust, so she emailed it to me, and I tried the recipe last weekend. This pie turned out divine!!! It was the perfect consistency, gooey in the middle, flakey on the top and crispy at the edges. Add a little fancy vanilla ice cream to create a party!

Here's Steve's mom's pie crust recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 6 - 7 tablespoons ice water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 pinch of baking powder

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Cut shortening into mixture with pastry blender (I didn't have a pastry blender so I improvised and used a bowl scraper thingy) until pieces are about bean to pea size. Add water one tablespoon at a time and gently mix with a fork. When the dough is all moistened, gather it up with your hands into a ball. Divide in half.....roll to about 1/8" thick. If I have time, I sometimes divide the dough into two balls, wrap in saran wrap and put in fridge for a while. (Not necessary, though).

I use unbleached flour, Crisco yellow butter-flavored shortening, and ice water. The flour, be it unbleached or regular really isn't important, but I think the other two things are. The one time I didn't use the yellow Crisco, I was disappointed, so I always use it.

Side Note: I've never used shortening before and I bought mine before I read this carefully. I am not sure the difference between yellow and not yellow...is this the container color or the actual color of the shortening? Anyway, I bought a blue container of Crisco and the shortening was white, so I guess I used the wrong one, but it was still yummy! 

Okay, back to recipe! I put ice cubes in a cup with the water before I start so the water gets very cold. Salt is important taste.

This makes a large amount for a double crust pie, but I like to be sure I have enough....hate coming up short. I just throw away any extra pieces. If you want just a single crust, just cut the recipe in half.

With a double crust, I always brush the top crust with a little milk and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees, or bake until its golden brown!

Enjoy!!

Sparkle

Got this beauty today:

And this sink yesterday:

Weeeee!

 

Food Allergy Strikes Again

I haven't had a food allergy incident for an entire year and I was beginning to think it was because I've avoided Reisling, my self-diagnosed culprit. Well, that all changed last night. I made dinner which consisted of:

• Roast turkey (breasts and thighs baked in the oven) - seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, and fresh sage, with a Knorr vegetable bouillon cube and a cup of water.
• Mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, butter, and whole milk.
• Gravy - made from pan drippings from turkey, whole milk, and corn starch.
• Salad - mixed greens, tomato, Gala apple, kidney beans, soy-ginger wonton strips, avocado
• whole milk to drink

All of this food is completely normal for me to eat. The only ingredient listed that I don't consume on a regular basis is the fresh sage. But, I have had it before and didn't get a reaction. I haven't had a glass of any type of wine in about a week.

 

My reaction started as it usually does 30-60 minutes after I eat with a bad stomach ache. Piercing stomach pain and diarreah along with nausea. Followed by an itchy throat, runny nose, hives on my chest and stomach (only three this time!), and a barely-swollen bottom lip.

 

I took one Bendryl and symptoms went away almost immediately. Then, sleep.

 

What gives?!

Music is Love

Last May, as part of my Happiness Project, my goal was to plan to go to a concert. A few months later Steve's buddy from SB called and invited us to see Wilco in Avila Beach. The sunshine, ice cold beer, ocean view venue, good friends, and amazing music reinvigorated my love for live shows. I often search for acts as far as LA, San Francisco and everywhere in between to check off the shows that are on my "must see before I die" list. Some of my fondest life memories involve live music. 

Like when my fellow Muir Hall girls and I acted like teenagers in San Jose at the N'SYNC show.

Or when RachO and I made matching t-shirts to witness the glory that is Coldplay.

Or how about the power of John Mayer, bringing my mom and I together two summers in a row. 

I remember belting out "just a day, just an ordinary day" alongside my new friend Helya during the  Vanessa Carlton show at Cal Poly...and that time we saw Jason Mraz before he was anyone.

Like our first date to see Mountain Goats at the Steynberg Gallery, sitting cross-legged on the floor with Steve's arms wrapped around me and being completely shocked that this cool guy wanted to show me affection in public! 

And when Death Cab's energy filled our souls and Steve finally understood my obsession.

Or that time Steve and I got "tore" in San Francisco at the wacky of Montreal show.

Or that time Steve and I ate the worst pizza in the world before a Blonde Redhead show in Anaheim.

And drinking in the sweet sound of Nickel Creek as it mirrored my feelings of young love. 

Like when we fell in love in Chicago while bouncing from Yo La Tengo to Snow Patrol to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and My Morning Jacket. Not knowing at the time that the sounds, beats, words, and rhythms would make a permanent impression in our minds and our hearts. 

There are more, but all of that is to say that in this life, I want to do the things that truly make me happy and going to see shows is one of those things! 

So, it started with my friend Kara (who has exquisite musical taste) when she was visiting last year and asked, "if you could see any artist live, who would it be?" My first reaction was Sufjan Stevens of course. Second came Mumford and Sons who I think would be SO MUCH FUN to see live. Like really, really fun! I want to dance to that banjo! Well fast forward 6 months and I get an email from Kara linking me to Bonnaroo. If you haven't already looked, Bonnaroos's line up is insanely good this year and guess who it includes? MUMFORD! Among so many other amazing artists - Passion Pit, The Lumineers, Beach House, Glen Hansard, I can go on and on and on and on and on. AND ON! I was this close <> to buying plane tickets to Tennessee. But, after much deliberation, Steve and I felt like we should stick to our already planned vacation plans and save the money and vacation days for Alaska. So that night, as I sat around like a lump, super sad about not going on this adventure with Music-Master Kara, no Mumford, and no dancing to that banjo, we found out that Sufjan Stevens was playing in LA! Not his regular stuff, but still Sufjan Stevens LIVE, only a few hours away. So we got tickets immediately and my heart felt a little better. And then learned that Kara works near the venue, so DRINKS with KARA before SUFJAN! My Heart!

And then, the other day I was browsing around on Instagram and came across a picture of a ticket stub to The Postal Service at Madonna Inn in SLO. WHAT THE HECK! How did I not know about this?! (For those of you who don't know, Ben Gibbard is the brains and voice behind Death Cab For Cutie AND The Postal Service, so this is SERIOUS). I immediately went online to find tickets, and they were SOLD OUT. My heart burst. So I googled some more and found some on Stub Hub. Completely over-priced, but hey, we don't even have to leave town or take time off work, so I had no choice...and lookie!

And guess what else? John Mayer is going to be at the Mid State Fair in July so you know where my mom and I and two very giant margaritas will be!! 

I have to say that Kara's question and email really sparked something in me to get back in touch with this wonderful, wonderful art form. And my cute mom is constantly looking at shows, so keep it up, Mom, because you are really good at planning things like "John Mayer Week" :) 

Live music is like medicine. Have you ever not smiled while watching live music? And remember, with music comes dancing, and you can't be mad when you are dancing!!! Thank you, Kara, and I promise one day we will see a show together! 

Just Because

My sweet husband surprised me with flowers today when I got home from work. This is the first time Steve has bought me flowers, and I am not saying that so that you feel sorry for me, or think badly of him. I am posting about it so that I never ever forget how it felt when I saw this miracle on the kitchen counter. Today is a special day! No reason. No "holiday". Flowers just because he loves me. Today we are really celebrating love. And I love that!

I think the best part about getting these flowers is imagining the process. Bashful, sweet Steve wandering around the flower section, choosing a flower, then a color, paying for them,  searching for a vase, trimming the stems, arranging them, and putting them on display. All for me. Crazy. It is such a small, wonderful thing, but so huge at the same time.

And as I smelled every single rose my eyes welled up and my cheeks hurt from smiling so big and I couldn't explain in words how happy such a simple gesture made me. Thank you, my LOVE!!!!!

Shiny and New

The bathroom floor is in! The tiles are 12' by 24' gray porcelain. It turned out so lovely thanks to Steve's hard work and attention to detail.

We picked out a vanity style, wood, and stain at a local cabinet and design store, so if all goes as planned, we'll order it next week and it will arrive in about 3-4 weeks.

And we've finally settled on using concrete for the vanity top with a rectangular under-mount porcelain sink. We visited the concrete shop today in Oceano and the shop owner gave us a tour of the process, which is simply amazing. There are so many different things you can do with concrete including adding little bits of phosphorescent rock for a glow-in-the-dark effect! The rocks are mixed in with the concrete and the finished product looks similar to pieces of recycled glass that you see in counter tops these days. Then, just like solar, you charge up the stone with light, and then it glows in the dark! We tried out a few samples of blue, green, and teal glow colors. Awesome! The shop owner said he put some of the pieces in his kids bathroom countertop. What a great idea for kids! I don't think we'll go the glow-in-the-dark route for our bathroom, but we are thinking about getting a leaf stencil in the concrete. Stay tuned!

We still have to tile the face of the tub as you can see in the photo above, but that's it for the tiling. Steve will install a fan and vent, new lighting, and new fixtures, then we're good to go! I am hoping for a grand re-opening of Dwight Hotel sometime late April.