Poco-Cocoa

Things & Stuff

  • Sunday Pasta

    So I’m a huge fan of Ai’s blog, and I noticed that she uses avocado in lots of new (to me) ways. She makes avocado pasta every now and then, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I just cooked some angel hair pasta in salted water, then tossed it with a bit of butter and a diced avocado, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was pretty darn awesome. Thanks, Ai!

    Today we slept in, and I talked to my mama on the phone for a while. She’s having a garage sale next weekend, and it reminded me that I really  need to go through all my possessions and pare down. We live in a tiny space (450 square feet), and I think we’ve filled it to the limit. It actually doesn’t look too cluttered, but it feels cluttered.

    I’ve started getting rid of paper clutter by scanning in stuff – receipts and magazine pages and recipes and such. I’ve got piles of pages torn from magazines that never get used because they end up in a big folder that I never go through. So I’m scanning them in and organizing them in my Evernote. (Man, I love Evernote.)

    Otherwise, we’re just getting everything ready for Justin’s surgery tomorrow. We have to be at the surgery center by 5:30 a.m. That’s brutal. But he should be ready to come home by 10:00 a.m., and then we’ll somehow get him to the bed and set up his Machine. He has this huge contraption that moves his knee in tiny tiny movements, and he has to do it for 8 hours every day. He’s going to go crazy laying in bed that long, he’s such an active guy. Still, I know we’ll both be glad to know that his knee is on its way to recovery.

    Also, I meant to share these photos from our visit to Sweet Berry Farm’s harvest festival last weekend. They were all taken with my Yashica.

    Hope you have a great weekend!

    October 17, 2010
    Everyday Life
    Canon Rebel T1i, edibles, Justin, Yashica FRII
  • A few things.

    (1)

    Here’s my haircut! Taking this photo reminded me that I used to take a daily photo at Daily Mugshot. I might start doing it again, because I’m vain like that. 🙂 Actually, it’s neat to see how my hair/clothes/home changes over time, too.

    (2)

    Last night we had SUCH a great time. We walked downtown and had a drink and deviled eggs and sweet fried shrimp at the bar at Lamberts, and we met up with my friend Jason. We hadn’t seen him in three months, so it was great to catch up. Then we walked to Imperia and sat in the bar and had a drink and some edamame and some nigiri (mmmm, fatty salmon). We played a game with the waitress called “Guess what this leaf is on the bottom of the plate.” Justin even tasted it to see if he could figure it out. It was bamboo. I don’t think you’re supposed to eat bamboo. The waitress gave us free sake as a prize for Justin’s bravery. Then we walked over to Annie’s Cafe and had a drink and a calamari salad. We hadn’t been there since my friend David stopped working there. It was still good, but not as wonderful as when David was behind the bar. Then we walked home. I think walking-restaurant-hopping dates are the bomb.

    (3)

    Today I ran a bajillion errands and Justin attempted to fix the dishwasher. It didn’t work, so I think we’ll be hand-washing for a while. I like the idea of getting rid of that big piece of machinery in our kitchen – we don’t have a built-in dishwasher, it’s a little portable one, and it takes up precious counter space. I already have plans for that counter space…

    (4)

    Tonight we’re going to drive around town in my friend Jason’s old jeep. We might go to Mount Bonnell and check out the view from the top. And then we’ll go to Dairy Queen, because Jason loves Dairy Queen. I think I will get an Oreo Blizzard, in honor of my dad, who loves Oreo Blizzards.

    (5)

    Justin is having knee surgery on Monday. He tore his ACL a couple of months ago, and we thought he could get by without surgery, but he’s just not able to play basketball and tennis, two things that he loves. So surgery it is. I’m nervous, because he’ll be under anesthesia, and he’s not so great with anesthesia. Also, he’s very stubborn and I’m worried he will push himself too hard too soon. I have no idea how I’m going to get him up the stairs after the surgery. Of course he thinks it will be no problem, because he’ll be just fine and dandy to hop up the stairs that day. We’ll see.

    (6)

    This is my new favorite video EVER. I’ve watched it like eleventy-one times already. I just love the way she talks.

     

    (7)

    I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

    October 16, 2010
    Everyday Life
    fun finds, me
  • Thankful Thursday

    I’m sleepy already, and it’s only 8:30 p.m. I was planning to bake tonight, but I’m not sure I’ll get to that. I did make a simple dinner of ciabatta topped with tomatoes, Gruyere, salt and black pepper, toasted in the oven and served with a simple red leaf lettuce salad. I realized today that I’m completely overwhelmed with cooking. There are so many things I want to make! Old favorite recipes, things I saved in Evernote months ago, things from cookbooks and blogs and ideas in my head. It’s hard to pick out which things I want to make first.

    So! Here is what I’m thankful for on this lovely October day:

    • Justin’s amazing ability to listen to me talk about Life’s Great Mysteries every night
    • Sleep
    • Semi-sweet chocolate chips
    • Coworkers who are just really great people
    • Brunch plans with the boys
    • Cool autumn weather
    • The sound of high school football games from the stadium a few blocks away
    • My cameras
    • Finishing the book
    • The public library
    • Nigel Slater
    • My cookbook collection
    • A haircut that at first I wasn’t sure about but now I really like
    • Pumpkins
    • Having a friendly, well-stocked grocery store just a block or two away from home
    • The man who bags my groceries and is always so friendly and offers to carry my bags out for me
    • That Justin took the time to keep researching audio players so that on Music Mondays, I can upload our music rather than look for youtube videos of the songs. He found one! And I immediately uploaded one of my current favorites:

    Josh Rouse – Flight Attendant

    Happy Thursday, everybody!

    October 14, 2010
    Everyday Life
    musings, Yashica FRII
  • Done.

    So I submitted my manuscript. Just like that, with the push of a button, it was done. Three months of late nights and early mornings, of weekends spent at the computer, of exhaustion and stress, over, just like that. I expected more fanfare, I guess. Like maybe a little unicorn should have pranced across my screen singing, “You did it! You did it!”

    There are still editor’s queries to answer, and licensing agreements to collect, but the biggest part is over. Looking back on the experience, there were definite good things and bad things. The stress was unbearable. Having a full-time job while writing a book in three months is just NOT a feasible plan. I needed more time… at the end of every day, I felt like crying and screaming out, “I just need more time today!”

    But experiencing all those restaurants, meeting all those chefs and owners and cooks and waitstaff, and tasting all that food was wonderful. Now there are a zillion MORE places I love in Austin, which makes choosing a restaurant for dinner infinitely harder.

    That’s the other thing – I get to CHOOSE which restaurant I want to go to now. I don’t have to try a new place at every meal. If I want to go to FINO every week, that’s okay! If I want to order the same dish every time, that’s okay! Research is over! I can eat at my old favorite places! I can order just one thing! Crazy talk. Seriously.

    Tonight for dinner we talked about going out for sushi. But in the end, I just wanted to stay home. So I had a toasted English muffin topped with fried eggs and avocado. For dinner. At home. It was perfection.

    I just can’t believe it’s done. My worries have switched from “What if I don’t finish?” to “What if people don’t like it?” But it’s out of my hands now. I did my very best in the short amount of time I was given. And now I can go back to life.

    Although the book took up so much of my daily life that I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now. What was I doing before this all started? I think I was working on my photography skills. I was learning French. I was watching movies and doing crossword puzzles.

    So tonight, after my fried eggs and avocado, we sat on the couch and watched Sherlock Holmes. And then we talked, and I whined about life for a while, and then I got out my favorite book ever: The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. And life began again.

    October 13, 2010
    Everyday Life
    musings
  • October 13

    We watched a movie. It’s been so long since I’ve just watched a movie.

    October 13, 2010
    Everyday Life
    Yashica FRII
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