1.28.2012

Roasted Kale

I wanted a salty snack the other night, but didn't want anything carby and heavy, so I decided to make these crispy roasted kale chips. Simple to make and full of that salty, vinegary flavor that greens tend to have. 

Preheat oven to 250. Chop kale into chip size pieces. Arrange kale pieces on a sheet tray in a single layer, this is vital if you want all the kale to get crispy. Drizzle olive oil and sea salt atop the kale and roast in the oven for half an hour. Enjoy.

P.S. All types of kale work for this, but I've found lacinato (also known as Tuscan, Black or Dinosaur(?)) kale to have the best texture and flavor

1.26.2012

Kitchen Shelving

We're slowly but surely making our way through our mini kitchen update. We've added some new accessories and rearranged and reorganized, but still have some more decorating to do. More pics on that soon. Anyway, open shelving is very popular right now. Just take a look at Pinterest or Houzz for examples. I adore open kitchen shelving, and plan on installing them in our dream kitchen , but I thought there might be a way to incorporate it into our current kitchen. Then one day I was looking into the dining room and bam! I knew where to put the open shelving.


We took down the mirror and plan on moving it to a new home by the front door to make a more finished entrance. So we headed over to IKEA, and grabbed these floating shelves for 20$ a pop. 


I love how I can display all my glass serving and storage pieces as well as our coffee and tea accessories. We were also able to display Mike's grandma's vintage china, which just happened to be the perfect solid white.





I like how it makes the house feel more lived in and individualized. What do you think? Anyone else add shelving to there kitchen for display/storage?

1.18.2012

Home is Wherever I'm With You


Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home

When I'm feeling down about the fact that our house hasn't sold and that we're no closer to moving to Michigan than we were a year ago, Mike always says cute things like: "wherever we're together, we're home". He played this song for me the other day, to send the point home. Perfect.

1.17.2012

Critical Care

I have my first critical care clinical rotation today and I'm a little nervous. It's the usual clinical nervousness that accompanies a new hospital and clinical group. But because we're spending time in the ER, I'm worried I'm gonna see some mangled car crash victim and find myself hiding on the far end of the unit until he's safely in the ICU.

But wait, I'm also gonna be in the ICU, with mangled car crash victims and other really sick people, and I'm gonna have TWO patients, and I'm going to be doing all their care, including charting and it's the 3-11 shift which is weird because I've only ever worked day jobs and the thought of "working" until 11 pm seems fundamentally wrong. Sorry, enough panicked rambling. I'm sure it'll be fine, and I'll walk away chomping at the bit to work critical care, right? Right?

Hello?

Weekly Meal Plan

I toyed with the idea of eating only salads and grilled chicken breasts for the month of January, but realized that my blood sugar would be a mess and I'd probably be a raging bitch. So I thought better of it and came up with this meal plan. Enjoy!



Bacon and leek quiche

Lemon garlic chicken with cracked potatoes

Blackened salmon with roasted carrrots


Pizza with mozzarella and prosciutto

1.16.2012

Arugula, Orange and Fennel Salad

I forgot to put up last week's meal plan, so I thought I'd share one of the meals we made. This recipe is from Extra Virgin and I included it below for you.

4 cups arugula

1 fennel bulb (white part only), sliced thin (I used a mandoline)

half a red onion, sliced thin (mandoline again)

3-4 clementines, peeled and quartered

half a can of black olives

juice of 1 lemon and a drizzle of olive oil to taste.

salt and pepper 

a couple chopped fennel fronds.

Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss.

P.S. I've also made this with seared salmon on top. Delicious.

1.14.2012

Max

Mike and I had talked about getting another dog for years. We figured it would be good for Olive to have a buddy, especially when I start working full time. We decided we wanted to adopt an adult dog, because the thought of a puppy made me all anxious and sweaty. Puppies are terrifying. You literally need to tether them to your body and never leave the house lest your furniture and rugs suffer some puppy teething/boredom induced damage. Sure we used a crate with Olive, but at some point you think they're old enough to not need one and then you're talking about how great they are only to come home and find they dug a whole through your rug. So no, we didn't want a puppy.


Of course we wanted another Boston Terrier. It's a lifestyle. So we decided to go through Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue. When we completed the online application we were told it could take up to a month. However, we applied on a Sunday and brought Max home that Thursday. 


Max was found as a stray and placed in a shelter where he was pulled by the rescue. He was fostered and placed on their website for adoption. We had already decided to get Max before meeting him. He was close to Olive's size and age (although he turned out to be a bit older), good with other dogs, cats, and kids. So when we found it he suffered from seizures, it didn't deter us from adopting him. Although I did freak a little when he had four seizures in the first few days, and made many texts and tearful phone calls to my cousin's wife and vet tech Mandy. Fortunately, Max's seizures should be completely controlled with medication and with Mandy's and the vet's help he's back on the right dose and has been seizure free for a week and should remain that way as long as he has his meds.




He doesn't have the energy of Olive and would rather cuddle on my lap than play tug, and I worried that they wouldn't "click" but they play together more everyday and cuddle more each night. He's the perfect yin to her yang.


1.12.2012

4 Years


 Today celebrates 4 years of marriage with my love. Here's to more fun, laughter and love.





1.10.2012

Kitchen Update

Hey there! I feel like I haven't posted in forever and the new year has been pretty busy with a new niece (welcome Anna Marie!) and a new pup, but I'll share more details on that soon. This year, we wanted to freshen up the kitchen without spending a lot of money and without adding pieces that couldn't later be moved when (when, damn it!) our house sells. The kitchen/living room originally started out red with yellow accents, as can be seen in the artwork on the walls in the kitchen. The yellow, however, was quickly faded out from the living room and we instead focused on red with bold black and white. 


But the yellow in the kitchen remained and it didn't feel as cohesive as it should with such an open floor plan.

So the plan for a little kitchen update includes changing to all white dinnerware and accessories, adding more functional pieces and changing the wall decor. 


1. Le Creuset French Oven - Beautiful enough to be left on the stove and functional enough for everyday use.

2. Magnetic Knife Strip - To free up counter space on the left of the stove for a functional lazy susan.

3. Ceramic Canister with Lid - Sits on the lazy susan and holds salt so we can add pinches of salt as we're cooking.

4. White Dinnerware - Crisp, clean, affordable white dinnerware always looks chic.

5. Stainless Steel Lazy Susan - To hold cooking essentials in easy reach olive oil, vegetable oil, salt and pepper, and the butter tray.

6. Red Striped Napkin - A chic linen striped napkin to tie into the red in the living room.

7. Red Striped Dish Towel - Everyday dish towels with a little red stripe.

8. White drum shade to update our builder basic chandelier, like this one over at Young House Love - We've been searching for a shade big enough with little luck and we're working on coming up with an idea to make our own shade.

9. Farmer's Egg Crate - A fun little accessory for storage and cooking, like with making quiche

10. Wall Mounted Bottle Opener - A fun and functional accessory for my craft beer loving husband.

11. KitchenAid Stand Mixer - Another item that can be left out and can be put into action for making meatballs, pizza dough and whipped cream.

12. Stainless Steel Cookware -  We've managed to ruin our previous Bialetti teflon pans with everyday cooking and figured we'd upgrade to what the pros use. We still have two nonstick pans for eggs and fish.

13. Even noticed the wall in the dining room on Modern Family? Well they have a mix of different plates mounted on the wall and I think it creates a casual and unique look for a kitchen/dining room. So I looked around the web and found a mix of different plates that I thought would like nice mounted on the wall where the artwork currently sits. These are just for inspiration and I hope to find and pick up some unique pieces during random shopping outings.

So there you have it. We've acquired most of the pieces and plan on picking up the rest of the items when we can find them (damn you ikea, that knife strip has been out of stock for a month!), afford them i.e. Le Creuset (Birthday/Anniversary maybe?) and pick up some unique plates. I'll share some more pics when the kitchen is updated! 

Anyone else doing a mini kitchen update? Getting new appliances? Painting?