a pumpkin compendium
October 9th, 2008 @ 11:25 pm | life | Comments (17)Compendium. I had to look up the word to make sure it really was a word, and that I was using it correctly. I was. It’s kind of a fun word to say. It goes well with pumpkin, which I’m pretty sure we all love to eat, in some form or another. Right? I mean unless you are my husband and you hate pumpkin. In that case, this post is probably not for you.
*Photo borrowed from Eddie Ross, a new design/décor blog I found and love a lot already.
My goal here, in the spirit of autumn and gourds and the changing of the seasons, is to collect all of our favorite pumpkin-y things. Then we can bookmark it and come back every fall. I’ll share mine, then you add yours in the comments, mmmkay?
First, and most obvious, the Pumpkin Spice Latte (of Joy). It was in the high-70s here today, but I still enjoyed the free sample they were giving out at my local crackhouse Starbucks this morning.
I can vouch for Angry Chicken’s fabulous and healthy low-fat pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. I’ve made them more than once and they have tons of flavor and almost no guilt.
One of my favorite food bloggers recently posted a recipe for pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter. All I can say to that is: Who wants to come over for breakfast this weekend?!?! I know what I’m cooking!
When we moved to DC, we discovered Afghan food, in particular this one pumpkin-yogurt-meat sauce-rice dish called kadu buranee. It’s honestly better than the latte, muffins, and pancakes all rolled up into one. It’s pumpkin in a savory, buttery form. And it’s OH SO GOOD. Wherever you live, please look for an Afghan restaurant and when you find one: GO EAT THERE. My favorite places in DC are Afghan Grill in Woodley Park, Afghan Restaurant in Alexandria, and one day I hope to try out Bamian in Arlington.
I haven’t yet made the Pioneer Woman’s pepitos (pumpkin seeds) but who out there reading this does not trust that everything she cooks takes like heaven? So yeah, I bet they’re good.
I could go on and on here (pumpkins for Obama anyone?) but what I want to know is what are your favorite pumpkin things and how fast can I get my hands on them?
good thing I’m not retiring for 30 more years
September 30th, 2008 @ 12:05 am | life | Comments (11)Those of you who watch the news are alive and breathing know that today was a very, very bad day in the stock market, and for the American and global economies as a whole. But very few of us know what it all really means. I pay attention to this crap and even I don’t really have a clue?!? But that is not stopping me from giving you a very handy, two-part guide to surviving the current economic meltdown.
Step One: Save your pennies. Live below your means. Spend less than you earn.
Perhaps one of these lovely little oinkers will make that task a bit easier?
1* coink bank, uncommon goods, $34
2* copilcus piggybank, art. lebidev studio, not for sale
3* mid-century piggy bank, sparkability, $28
Step Two: Do not read Love is Blonde for financial advice. Read the experts, people. Like these guys:
Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post business columnist. This guy is good, really good. You should be reading him. Trust me. I think he won a Pulitzer for this stuff.
Paul Krugman, New York Times op-ed columnist. Can’t go wrong learning a thing or two about economics from this guy. And hey, he has a blog! He probably also has like a dozen Pulitzers.
Get Rich Slowly: A very solid personal finance blog that focuses on doing small things over a long time to get into better financial health, all this market craziness aside.
The Simple Dollar: Another personal finance blog that I rely on to help me think about simplifying my life and living frugally.
Tell me: Where do you get financial advice and information online? What other resources should I be reading? Who out there is fuh-reaking out about what’s going on in the markets and thinks I’ll probably have to push my retirement back at least another decade?
even the name is lovely: vintage botanica
September 25th, 2008 @ 11:09 pm | pretty things | Comments (17)We’ve been married almost two years now, and up until now the absolute only thing I’ve regretted about our wedding is that we didn’t take a longer honeymoon. Until now. Now, I want to go back in time, do everything exactly the same, except take a longer honeymoon AND register for these dishes.
Swoon. Do you all love these as much as I do? They are by the fabulous Amy Butler, whose fabrics I want to make out with. I found them on design*sponge, which, together with decor8, are my most favoritest blogs for pretty things and great interiors.
I would love to have a dinner party with these plates. I would make a very thin-layered veggie lasagna with plenty of fresh ricotta and a crispy cheesy crust on top.
Then I would serve rice pudding for dessert in these teacups, with old vintage spoons.
Sadly, I do not have the financial means nor the kitchen space to own this lovely set of dishes. But if the husband wanted to buy me the teapot for our anniversary…I’m sure I wouldn’t protest.
onesie twosie threesie
September 7th, 2008 @ 9:52 pm | creative | Comments (30)This weekend, I did something I haven’t done in a long time. And I’m not talking about scrubbing my toilets. I busted out the arts and crafts box.
About six month ago, one our our best friends in DC announced she was having a baby. I was thrilled, because not only do I get to live a mere eight blocks from a squishy new baby, but it gave me an excuse to make onesies “hola, isabel style” (as I call it). I quickly went out and bought all the necessary supplies.
There was just one teeny tiny problem. Neither I or any of my friends have both an inkjet printer AND ink. Why is is that most of us have printers, but no ink? Does anyone else suffer from this malady? Anyway, despite having blank onesies, iron-on paper, and awesome jpg designs, I had no way to actually make the onesies, as the printing is a somewhat crucial step in the process.
So, about six months passed, and in that whole time, an inkjet printer WITH ink never did fall from the sky into my lap (shocking, I know!) but still — the baby was born! And, woe is me, every day that passed in the new life of this baby meant I was a day later in making hola, isabel onesies. And since I bought 3-6 month onesies, the baby was not going to fit into them for forever.
Finally this weekend I changed my plan. Instead of printing onesie designs, by golly, I was going to SEW them! On Friday night, I went to the fabric store, which just proves how old and shameless I really am about my pathetic life. Saturday was spent cutting, ironing, and sewing.
I even went to the movie theatre, downtown, and brought my sewing with me, stitching away in the lobby. It was truly a grandma moment, and I kind of felt bad for my husband having to stand so close to the crazy lady sewing baby clothes in the theatre.
But it all paid off, because this morning I got to meet the new, tiny, two-week old baby, and hold him until he cried so much that I felt bad and gave him back to his mama. Lucky for me, I am signed up as #1 on the babysitting list, so there will be plenty more cute baby time to come.
The baby is named Henry, hence the “h” — that was my excuse for the gift being so late — I needed to wait until I knew his name. In utero he was known as Bob, but I didn’t think I should put that on the onesie.
This star is a little funky, but I think he will be a sassy baby and will be able to pull it off. Not that I’m projecting or anything.
His father would most definitely like him to grow up to be a fisherman, so I had to do a fish themed one.
Now all I need is a wee baby of my very own….Le Sigh. One of these days!
oh blogger, where art thou?
September 3rd, 2008 @ 7:39 pm | life | Comments (22)I feel like I should at least pop in and tell you all what I’ve been up to. I’ve written out whole blog posts in my head several times, but haven’t sat down at the computer to type them out. If only I could hire someone to be my mindreader, they could blog for me!
If I had to sum up these last two weeks, the theme would probably be: I got a lot of blisters on my feet. And I earned every last one of them.
First I went to NYC and back in one day, and in that one day I walked, in heels, through Newark, NJ, the World Trade Center site, Rockfeller Plaza, Madison Square Gardens, and a building with a great view of the Chrysler Building. I love DC and all, but New York never fails to just blow me away. I don’t think I could ever live there, but anyone who tries to compare DC to NYC is just delusional.
Then I flew home to Denver, where I was supposed to be on semi-vacation but really I ended up working almost all week at the Convention. It was so cool though — I got to go to the Pepsi center for the speeches 2 of 3 nights, and into Mile High Stadium for Obama’s speech on Thursday. Freaking awesome. I also spent an inordinate amount of time in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel spotting celebs like Anderson Cooper and various political celebs you’ve probably never heard of, but I was impressed with because I’m a total geek like that. I also walked about 140 bajillion miles around Denver, in heels. And slept 4-5 hours each night.
At one point I think I had blisters on both big toes, the balls of both feet, the underside of my left ring toe, and the top of my right middle toe. OUCH. And also, EW.
Toward the end of the week I started feeling a little twinge in my throat, and there is nothing like turning one mean germ into full blown illness than being sleep deprived and hanging out with 84,000 other people in a stadium, and then boarding a plane with 200 more germy people at 6 AM (why, god?). By the time we got back to DC, I was half dead.
And then my in-laws came to town!
So perhaps you can now understand the lack of blogging. This week my goals are a bit more modest. Like go to work, and do some laundry.
How are all of you, lovely readers?
