Stress

Stress = no brain power or motivation
Stress = gaining another pound this week
Stress = unproductive workdays
Stress = fatigue and leg pain that I call my stress pains
Stress = cranky Jess

Hopefully I'll feel a little more up to this tomorrow...
Still love you all though! Valentine's Day is coming up - here is a little something different for that. My friend's circus troupe from college - Vassar's Barefoot Monkey's - twirling fire.

Love the Lists

Yes, it's a list. This is how my brain works, so get used to it! Some of my favorite things: NY sports, shopping, eating and crafting!

1) Super Bowl
Super Bowl weekend turned out better than I could have imagined: YEAH GIANTS! I was so surprised they won, but then again, I irrationally hate Boston teams (this comes from being a die-hard Yankees fan) so I was thrilled! I don't really have much else to say about yesterday, except that I ate way too much and fell off my healthy eating wagon. A couple of friends at work and I have been using SparkPeople to lose weight and I love the site! It has a nutritional tracker, exercise track/plan and tons of articles and supportive people. It isn't just for people who are trying to lose weight either; you can also choose the option to "get healthy" and it gives you all kind of support for that as well.

2) New Purchases
Craft stores with Kate = trouble. I spent way more than I meant! I will admit that it was stuff I needed, but I'm not used to the price tag that comes with crafting + I'm way too addicted to fun crafting stuff to enter those stores without buying too much anyway!3) Food
I didn't take a picture but I've just got to share this lentil soup recipe. Nick and I have made it twice but somehow I always forgot to get my camera involved. It is from Epicurious and it was so delicious. I would eat it everyday! I highly recommend it- if you don't want to eat vegetarian, I'm sure it would be good with some sausage or bacon in it!
Below is the recipe edited for how we made it (to find the full recipe, click on the link above):

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra–virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery stalks
1 cup chopped carrots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups (or more) vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups lentils, rinsed, drained
1 14 1/2–ounce can diced tomatoes in juice *Italian style

Preparation
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, lentils, and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 35 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (mostly solids) to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to soup in pan; thin soup with more broth by 1/4 cupfuls, if too thick. Season with salt, pepper, and a splash of *lemon, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls.

Enjoy with corn bread!

4) Love the hat!
Almost done with the hat! I just need to thread a piece of yarn on the top and pull, but you can get a perfectly good idea from this WIP picture. The color is actually a little darker than that but I couldn't get it quite right with photoshop.

Thanks

I just wanted to throw up a quick post and say thanks to everyone who has supported the change and commented recently!

Of course, I love my friends (Dianna, Jean, Beth, Kate, Jacki, Jill, Emily and Danny who have been reading along with me - and I didn't even know it!) and I really appreciate Beki and Angie for checking out my site because I'm in love with both of their blogs!

I had tried to write emails to both, but wasn't paying attention to the actual address when I responded to the comments. I'm sure they didn't go anywhere... but I just wanted to let you know, I am reading the comments and I really appreciate the thoughts!

East Coast Loving

Here are some pictures from Christmas of my favorite people. This is a picture heavy post! It is also random because blogger won't let me move my pictures around!

My first kitty- Pepper, she's a bitch... can't you tell?

My mom and me

My dad and me - doing the face we always do every picture

Rusty - my baby catMolly - Nick's eldest niece... soon to be mine as well!

Annika and Toby - Nick's niece and nephew

The Fizzys - that is what my high school friends call ourselves, playing the game that Danny made up - CHEN , best game ever!Annika- cutie pootie!

Grace - the new niece in the family!

Kacy - reading along with her Grammy

Pizza - done right

New York Pizza. Portofino's to be exact... If you are ever in Westchester, NY- get off 684 at the Goldens Bridge exit, up (1 minute or so) Route 22 to an A&P shopping center. Seriously- check it out.


How can you pass this up? It needed two plates to hold the whole thing. Not only is it huge, it is DELICIOUS! Slice of pizza + drink = 5 dollars. Can't beat that. I can't even type in full sentences because this has me drooling all over again and I can't think! Tomorrow I'll post some of my favorite people in NY... it isn't all just about the pizza, you know!

Third Times a Charm

So this is going to have to be quick because I just did 1 1/2 hours worth of extra work and now I want to go to bed (yeah I know, I'm 23 and its 9:20). A couple of exciting things happened today:
1) Got a haircut - Finally I can take my poor hair out of a ponytail!
2) Got the new work laptop - Currently writing on it. Useful for blogging, not useful for when I feel like I need to do extra work (note the first sentence!)

I don't know if any of my friends have noticed that not only do I write with lists all the time, but I also speak them. When I'm talking I'll say, "well a) blah blah blah and b) blah blah blah". I should really try to catch myself on that, because I'm sure most people don't care about these random points that I think I need to make! I think it is related to the fact that I don't normally think before I speak and as Nick (my fiancee for anyone who is just joining in) just pointed out, I organize my thoughts while I'm speaking them as opposed to ordering them in my head first. Ah well. It makes it interesting right?

I don't have a picture because my desktop computer is slowly breaking down and is a total pain to turn on and off - but check below for the new flickr account I opened. It has those flower pictures (with others) that I've posted for the last 2 days. Good night!

Grandma's Machine - The First Project

FINALLY! I have had a bunch of fabric, thread, sewing machine, and ideas...but not a lot of confidence. Before Christmas, I decided to stop being a big wuss - IT'S OK TO FAIL! Therefore, this beauty was born for a Christmas present for my mom. I got the tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew! and it was super easy and relatively cheap.

My mom said she has been using it every night on her poor stressed out neck. My dad had surgery at the beginning of January and he wasn't allowed to drive or really move all that much for a long time. For my active, home-fixing dad- this was torture! Hopefully he won't be using this therapy pad, because he had surgery to get rid of the pain in his neck! By the way, I asked my mom to guess where I bought it and she said Bed, Bath and Beyond. When I told her I made it, she was shocked! I guess that means I did a good job!

Another thought about the change in the blog- I was worried about my title. It was perfect for a pure food blog, but now that this is a mixture I was concerned that it would sound weird. Then I thought about the way I think and act. Which is in a frenzy. At all times. So I think this will fit just fine!

I have a couple of crafting ideas on my plate (as well as getting up those food posts I owe).
1) 3/4 done with a cool scarf- I'll have a picture at some point!
2) 1/2 done with a hat- My first hat! I started this weekend after Bethro took me to knitting stores in SF. I really loved Noe Knits. It was cozy and the people were really friendly and helpful. I'll definitely go back there again! We tried to go to Greenwich Yarn but they were closed on Sundays! Boo! I'll try there again too because it is the closest one out of the three we visited.
3) 0% done with a bag- Just in the idea stage. I was planning on using the Quilters Complete Guide to make a patchwork type bag but after seeing the bags made by Artsy-Crafty Babe, I'm thinking of buying one of those patterns and trying my hand at that.
4) 0% done with Las Vegas scrapbook (or any scrapbook for that matter) - My mom bought me some great supplies for Christmas- a paper cutter, picture rounder, and double-sided adhesive tape. I have a decent amount of paper but somehow the pictures are still on the computer - not ordered. That's the first step and hopefully I'll be able to get somewhere next weekend!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures that I've taken. I have a crazy Chinese parchment obsession!

The Change

For my few readers out there- I've made a big change in the blog!

1) Physical appearance - colors, template, banner, etc.
2) Content - Last weekend I had a blogger epiphany. I realized the reason I don't write on this blog everyday -- I don't only love food. Duh. I have lots of other interests and loves and I feel constricted to writing about food since that is what I set out to do. I read a lot of other talented women's blogs this weekend (sorry guys, you just can't represent!) and they inspired me to really use this as a jumping point. I've wanted to get reacquainted with my photography, start crafting (sewing, scrapbooking and knitting more) and I want to just write like myself, instead of feeling like I need to be someone I'm not.

So there it is. The beginning of the beginning, I guess...

Sick as a Dog

Well... starting Thursday evening, straight through to today, I've been in one position on my couch, going through 2 entire rolls of toilet paper (yeah I know, I should buy some tissues). My family uses the phrase- sick as a dog and I just realized that I have no idea where that would come from. So of course, I googled it! I got several doggie health websites but I managed to find an answer that I thought was interesting (whether it's right or not... that's a different story).

"The earliest known usage of "sick as a dog'' dates back to 1705. It has been suggested that the phrase originated from the fact that dogs, being domesticated, are the most common animal we've seen vomiting besides ourselves. Our intimate relationships with dogs have also allowed for many other "dog'' phrases like "every dog has his day'' and the straightforward "you can't teach an old dog new tricks.'' British English has sometimes employed similar phrases involving other animals - "sick as a horse'' and, yes, "sick as a cat'' - but "sick as a dog'' is the only choice in American English.

A surprising variant that has become popular in Britain in the past several decades is "sick as a parrot,'' which typically describes someone who is very disappointed or disgusted rather than physically sick. Parrots aren't especially known for being either sick or disappointed, and no one knows exactly how this phrase originated. (One theory traces it to a famous Monty Python sketch involving a dead parrot.) It was first recorded in 1979, and it has been popular in the years since, especially among British athletes describing their extreme disappointment over losing a match."

So I'm finally feeling good enough to sit up with a work loaner laptop in my lap. Unfortunately, all my pictures are still on my camera which would need to be plugged into my personal desktop, which requires me to sit up for more than 5 minutes at a time....just not going to happen today! I thought I would throw in a post about a) how sick I feel so you can feel sorry for me :) Is it working? b) what is to come in the next week or so...

1) Some left over posts from last year of various yummy meals
2) Dianna's request: what you need in your kitchen
3) Christmas
4) Some new meals that I've made this year

I hope you enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to my 3-4 faithful readers! This is literally the beginning of the new year. I have a new attitude towards food and several new books to help me along! You'll definitely be seeing a lot more posts (with the same terrible photography) soon. I figured I should get up one on the first day of the New Year. So Happy New Year!