Poco-Cocoa – Page 165 – Things & Stuff

Helllllooooooo!!
(Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode, with the belly-button girl? “Hellloooooo!”)

Hi friends. I’ve been gone. I’ve been tumbling off and on (it’s so fun!), but mostly, I’ve been away from the computer. Yikes! I have hundreds of unread posts in my Google Reader, and I’m afraid I have no idea what you all have been up to. I haven’t tweeted in 9 days. I only just noticed that I had unread comments today… so sorry about that!

Here’s a rundown of my recent goings-on:
- I’ve been sick. I’ve had a lingering cold for-like-ever, and I’m tired of it! Cough cough, sniffle sniffle. It makes me exhausted every day, and plus it’s just annoying. So I finally decided to go see my doctor tomorrow to make sure there’s no funny business.
- I haven’t been cooking. Partially because I have been sick and icky, and partially because I’ve been lazy. We’ve eaten out entirely too much this month, and now it’s time to get back in the kitchen! I’m excited because my Farmhouse Delivery next week is supposed to include watermelon and basil and tomatoes and corn… hooray for summer produce!
- Speaking of summer, it’s been HOT. I don’t like hot.
- So I think I told you that I got a promotion, but last week was my first real week in my new position. I’ve moved across the building, where everything is just a little bit different. Not bad-different, just different. I’m learning how to juggle more projects, and how to let go of others. It’s been challenging, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. It seems like before I know it, people are saying goodnight, and it’s already after 5:00, and I’m still plugging away. It’s good to be busy, but it’s also tiring.
- Justin has been working nonstop on “renovating” the garage into a studio. Now it has actual walls and ceiling tiles, and a couple of desks for his design work and my sewing. It even has a little air conditioner! We want to get a couple of table easels and some paint, because I recently discovered that I like painting! He even made a little partition in the front for parking our scooters. All this on top of his regular “chores”… as a work-from-home husband, he keeps the house clean, the kitties fed, the litterbox cleaned, the bed made… He’s just cool like that, and no, you can’t have him.
- Probably most exciting, my friend Andy came over to revamp my closet. She is just starting a styling business, and she’s brilliant. She waltzed into my bedroom, took everything out of my closet, put outfits together like I never had imagined I could, accessorized everything with items I already had, and made suggestions for items to look for. We took photos of the outfits, and now I just flip through my Evernote every day to pick out what I feel like wearing – no stress at all. I have gotten more compliments at work this week than I can count! Who knew that I had such great pieces in my closet, just waiting to be thrown together? Who knew that I have inadvertently bought SEVEN black dresses? (I hereby solemnly swear that I will not buy black dresses…) Who knew that getting dressed could be so fun? Once she gets her website up, I’ll definitely point you Austinites in her direction. Seriously, folks, she rocks.
So, that’s what’s been up in my world. Change, and illness, and fashion, and life. I hope you all have been well, too!
June 11, 2009

Random Thoughts
Tumbling…

… over here at the moment. A nice break from food blogging. 🙂

June 1, 2009

Fun stuff
Summer sweets

I love it when you find old favorite recipes that you haven’t made in a while… they seem twice as good when you do get around to making them. For example, this lovely Chocolate Eclair Icebox Dessert:

I use this recipe, except that I double the amount of ganache. I usually have some ganache left over, but a single recipe of it just isn’t quite enough. 🙂

It’s perfect for potlucks and summer gatherings… like this little hot dog tasting we attended a couple of weeks back. It was so much fun! We tasted 15 different kinds of hot dogs to figure out which ones we liked best. After all that salty goodness, we needed something sweet and refreshing, and this dessert did the trick.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

May 27, 2009

Recipes
Pork with tomatillos, and the full-court press

So we made this a while back and I forgot to post it. It’s so very good, especially when pork tenderloin is on sale at Central Market for an unbelievably low price per pound. 🙂

You can find the recipe here.

Also, I read this article last night (in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep), and it was so good that I read again today with Justin. It’s essentially about using the full-court press in basketball. Now I don’t know much about basketball, because I never played it, but this article is so inspiring. It elaborates on how underdogs can win by playing by their own rules… not in a malicious way, but just acknowledging their weaknesses and extending a huge effort. Just as David triumphed over Goliath because he used a slingshot instead of a sword, as he “should” have done. I know I’m not explaining this correctly, so I do hope you have time to read the article, but…

How many things in life can we accomplish if we decide not to play by society’s rules and conventions? What if we didn’t know that in order to be an artist you have to spend years in art school? Or that in order to be a great writer you have to have read all classic literature and taken writing classes and such? Or that to be successful you have to make a lot of money and own a fancy car? Or that to be beautiful you have to look like a runway model? Or that to be happy you need to chase the American Dream? What if we just put a great amount of effort into something we wanted, and played by our own rules? Maybe by now I’d be an actress. Or a poet. Or a musician. Maybe I still can be those things.

I just love finding nuggets of inspiration like this. I’ve always believed that I can do anything I decide to do, whether that be going to med school or learning to sew, but I have also been hindered by society’s rules and preconceived notions about those things. What if I threw all that out the window and just did it? If I didn’t know what “good art” looks like? If I didn’t know what society’s definition of “success” is?

Sorry for the rambling today… I think my excitement over this and my thoughts are moving too quickly for me to put into words. Seriously, read the article. 🙂

May 26, 2009

Random Thoughts, Recipes
Ode to Farmhouse Delivery

I am having difficulty finding the words to express how much I love Farmhouse Delivery. Every week, I go online, choose a basket of produce, add some local eggs or meats or cheeses, maybe some fresh breads or honey or jams, local olive oil or mushrooms or limes… and voila, groceries are done.

Every Tuesday I come home from work to a crate of fresh produce on my doorstep. Everything is beautiful and alive and delicious. I get an email the night before telling me what to expect in my crate and a few pages of recipes for using up that produce. It might say something like: golden beets – roast until tender and serve with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. Can it get more simple and wonderful than this?

So I’ve been cooking again… not specific recipes or gourmet meals, just good, simple, home-cooked food with fresh produce.

Things like…

Pasta tossed with swiss chard and onions, turkey bacon, parmesan and a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Or that same chard mixture loaded on to a slice of rosemary focaccia.

Or pasta tossed with mushrooms, leeks and Texas pecans.

Or roasted beets drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, sprinkled with goat cheese and Texas pecans.

Or a bowl of Fredericksburg peaches, tart local blackberries, and soft ripe pears.

Or a Sunday breakfast of homemade waffles topped with Fredericksburg peaches sauteed in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

And next week? Sweet corn and blueberries. It just doesn’t get any better than this. 🙂

May 24, 2009

Austin, Edibles

Helllllooooooo!!

Tumbling…

Summer sweets

Pork with tomatillos, and the full-court press

Ode to Farmhouse Delivery