Leftover Remix

I love making a lot of something and then re-purposing it for different meals. Then, I only have to make one thing when I get home from work and I'm starving! Example:

Get out the grilled chicken from previous meal.

Then, chop up some stuff from the garden (ok, so I bought the garlic)

Cook up some pasta and add delicious buttery farmers market olive oil

Put it all together and enjoy your fancy 10 minute dinner!

Some randoms!

Some delicious garden produce.
Yesterday I got more zucchini, romas, yellow cherry tomatoes,
 a cucumber, and a spicy pepper!

Some rummage sale and thrift shop finds. Love them.

I made this. Thanks anthropologie, I stole your idea.
And thanks for the cheap glass thing, Ross!

I have recently fallen in love with this cast iron grill pan I
got a few years back as a birthday present.

Delicious grilled chicken and zucchini from my garden.

Unconventional Summer Grillin'!

So...I was really feelin' falafel and Bryan was wanting to be all manly and grill (plus our house was already WAY too hot for real cooking) so we decided to go for the combination and see what happened! I usually just broil the falafel anyway, so I figured it wouldn't be too different.
First, I got the falafel mix out of the cupboard. I've heard the real thing is somewhat involved and I know I like the mix from my days as a cook at the ol' eating disorder center! Then, I found some cucumber in my own garden outside.  I went ahead and mixed up the mix while I went to the store and bought some pita pockets, lettuce, hot sauce, and hummus (wish they had had tahini). Since my own tomatoes weren't producing at the time, I went and bought one at the Farmers Market in Campbell a few days earlier...you just can't eat store bought tomatoes if you've ever had otherwise. It's wrong!

So, while I was chopping up the veggies (and the tomato), Bryan prepped the grill. He just got some tin foil and made a flimsy cooking sheet with it for the falafal. I went ahead and used a melon-baller to make the falafel balls and brushed them with oil. If we could go back, we would remember to spray the foil like crazy before putting the falafel down and to brush the tops with oil before turning them. They kind of stuck a bit. Also, we would smash the balls into patties for the grill because they would cook more evenly that way and be easier to flip over and what-not.      

There they are, chillin' over
the coals!

Well, it actually worked out really great! They tasted great and cooked well without heating up the house. All that remained was putting everything in the pita and eating up!

We turned them every couple minutes to brown all sides.

They actually cooked really fast!
We turned them a few times and
about 6 minutes later they were done.

Close up!

The delicious finished product. I should learn to make pitas...

Art Success!!!

That's right, it was a success this time! Ok, so I guess that's a matter of opinion, but I really like how this project turned out. Could be that it was a joint effort between Francis and I. I was really feeling the decor itch again and so I started perusing google images (of course, heh). I found some pictures of some wallpaper that I thought was really cool here. The second and third pictures down to be exact. I wanted to print them off for some frames I got at a yard sale ($7 for both!), but the size was really not normal and I didn't want to pay a lot, or even wait until tomorrow for that matter. Yes, I'm impatient. Sooo, Francis suggested we just draw them ourselves and I mixed up some paint for the occasion. I had some sponges laying around too so I could give in the same textured feel as the original source!

As you  can see, there's the basic design in pencil on the sponged up paper. I didn't mix the paint all the way so it would have even more depth. I really wanted that grey heather-type feel. Francis did all the drawing herself, just looking at the pictures online!

            At that point it was getting pretty late and I was starting to feel a little lazy. I was noticed that there were roughly a million (note: slight exaggeration) leaves on the two pictures combined and I did NOT want to have to paint all of those by hand and even if I did I'm sure the uniformity would have suffered. So, thanks to my mother and probably the 4-H, I thought of a brilliant idea! I made a leaf stamp out of a shriveling potato in the kitchen. Worked like a CHARM.

So, there you have it. I painted the tree and circle branches and then used a brush to put paint on the stamp (to keep the paint more even) and used different areas of my paint plate to get a slight variation in color. What do you all think??

I've since moved them to a new location above the tv
and there's a sweet little $1 garage sale find in the spot above the chair.

Fresh Food!!!

So, for some reason, even though I've recently started working full-time hours at work, I have been motivated to cook real dinners for myself. Or at least a real main dish. I have featured two of these below:

The artichokes I got from my garden
 and marinated myself.

The pizza I made using my artichokes, basil, and some farmers market tomatoes, peppers,  swiss chard, and turkey sausage and then I bought some feta cheese from good old TJ's to throw on top! A-ma-zing. Quite easily the best pizza I've ever had. Oh yeah, and the bread is Italian herb focaccia bread I also got from TJ's and just sliced in half and oiled with my farmers market buttery olive oil.

Kale...also from the farmers market and my first time trying it actually!

Pecans, garlic, lemon, nutmeg and freshly
grated parmesan cheese to go with it!

White beans (sure wish I had actually
 cooked them long enough...)

My almost superb beans and kale. Ha! Not too shabby though. Kale turned out to be completely edible. I was worried since it's green and supposed to be pretty good for you. Happily, it's quite mild with a good texture to boot!

Gardening!!!

Thyme, parsley and chives!

Cilantro (which it turns out is not a
great one for a pot), rosemary, and sage.

I've already enjoyed several of these artichokes! They were here when I moved in.

Strawberries, which are not doing terrific, but we've had a few tasty ones.

My gigantic tomatoes! Can't wait for these to get red and ready.

Squash and peppers.

My first cucumber is looking amazing.

Surprise cherry tree!

I love roses.

Working on the lawn, but I promise,
this is 10x better than it started. The
green (in 2 ways) bin you can see on
the left is the compost.

Lawn, part 2.

I love working outside in the yard. Raking, trimming, gardening, even weeding isn't too bad! Sure, sure, harvesting is my favorite just like anyone, but it's all a pretty good time. I love the instant gratification after a few hours work when you can see how much better everything looks as well as the feeling of accomplishment after working hard. LOVE IT. So, here's a little tour of my backyard at this point. Enjoy.

Art Attempt

I found this art book at the thrift store near my work.
I love impressionism, so...I got it!

It's full of prints so I thought I could use some of
them on the wall. Especially since some of the pages are loose.

John gave me these that he got from a guy he works with,
since he's an "artist." So, he gave them to me!

The plain white looked not so good on the light walls,
so I used some art chalks and did this. 

So, I got home from work a couple days ago and for some reason had lots of energy and I wanted to paint my bedroom. However, I don't have all the stuff I need, I didn't have time really, and I would have to move all the stuff out of my room or into the center. Instead, I racked my brain for some other way to make things look better. My first idea was shot down, for some reason my roommate didn't want me to spray paint the lamp shade from his childhood. Lame. Ha! So finally I decided to use the free mat board that he gave me and hang up a print in the living room. It's not the most amazing thing ever, but it definitely cheered the place up!