March | 2013 | 4 0 2

March 15, 2013

Day 111: A Recipe

Cooking is not my favorite pastime (I get really hung up on the instructions and spend more time reading them over and over than actually preparing the food), but I love this recipe. It’s extremely fast and extremely delicious. And as I try to convince myself that one day spring will indeed arrive (it’s snowing outside as I write this), the thought of fresh basil and avocado makes me oh-so-happy.

Try it and enjoy!

15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta
Recipe borrowed from ohsheglows.com, where you can also print it.

It’s creamy, fresh and flavorful. My advice is to go a little easy on the garlic the first time around. I dove right in with three cloves and it was pretty potent.

Serves two.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized ripe avocado, pitted
1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish
1-3 garlic cloves, to taste
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste (I use sea salt)
~1/4 cup fresh basil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 servings/6 ounces of your choice of pasta
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium-sized pot. Add pasta, reduce heat to medium and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Then add the pitted avocado, basil and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined. Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper. Serve immediately. Makes two servings.

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March 14, 2013

Day 110: Sleeping Soundly

I still sleep with a stuffed animal.

He’s an adorable, well-kept and not-too-soft but not-too-firm white bear, about 12 inches long from head to toe. He has a disproportionately large head, black circles for a nose, ears and paws, and black caterpillar-shaped eyes that seem both kind and sort of absent. His legs bend forward at the hips and his arms open gently with a little pressure. The tops of his feet and nose have worn away slightly, revealing the beige knitted pattern beneath his fur.

He’s 27 and a half years old. I know, because I got him as a “we-still-love-you-but-you’re-no-longer-our-only-child” gift when my middle sister was born. She got Bun Bun around the same time—a floppy pink rabbit that barely survived toddlerhood.

My bear doesn’t have a name; just a gender. I think he made it through the tough years because I never played with him or dragged him down store aisles or up trees—I just tucked him into the triangle of my chest and upper arms each night and slept soundly.

A few days ago, my mom shared an article with my sisters and me titled A Firm Grasp on Comfort. In it, Dr. Barbara Howard, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Johns Hopkins, posits that as many as 25 percent of young women going off to college take their childhood comfort objects with them. At 18, I was one of those 25 percent. At 30, I’m guessing the percentage of us has dwindled significantly, especially since many of my peers are giving comfort objects to children of their own now.

Although I don’t travel with the bear (he just looks so sad when I try to squish and cram him into luggage), I’ve grown seriously accustomed to him. In Australia, I bunched a travel pillow into his general shape and snuggled it into my shoulder every night. On the occasions when I don’t have a travel pillow, I usually roll up a sweatshirt instead.

It’s unclear to me whether this is out of habit, ergonomics or nostalgia, but the fact is that I just sleep better with my arms around something.

So, I’m curious. How many of us are still out there, hugging stuffed animals and sneaking peeks at ragged silk blankets? (Blanket people—even though I am not one of you, I think we’re part of the same category here.) I’d love to read your comments if you have them.

That’s him.

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March 13, 2013

Day 109: Day at the Mall

Erin, my best friend from graduate school, is in town from New York, so I took the day off of work and showed her around the mall. Yes, the mall.

My beautiful city is not lacking for lovely museums, music, hipster bars or awesome indie-local flavor. But Erin and I figured that we spend enough time in the artsy world, so today would be a good day for a trip to the biggest mall in America.

We had an awesome time. Here’s what we did:

1. Got our ears pierced for the third and eighth times, respectively. After walking past at least three Claire’s, we couldn’t resist the sleek (and sterile) purple signage. As we giggled and nervously chugged our Starbucks drinks, all four 12-year-old store patrons watched us with what appeared to be a mixture of confusion and admiration. (Neither of us cried.)

Erin getting her ears pierced, all zen-like.

2. Found a restaurant overlooking the full-blown indoor amusement park (yes, this mall has its own amusement park) and drank sangria.

Erin having a bonding moment with the ferris wheel.

3. Seriously contemplated making a bunch of super-cute Build-a-Bears and shipping them to New York. We managed to pass Build-a-Bear Workshop six or seven times, so it was really hard to resist, especially post-sangria.

5. Bought some pants. She got a necessary pair of hot pink jeggings and I grabbed some super useful skinny jeans in pink snakeskin (don’t ask me about the difference between jeggings and skinny jeans; I still don’t get it).

6. Declined multiple offers for store credit cards. Check that; Erin declined. As a true representative of the Midwest, I tried to say no passively and came home with a bag full of sign up forms.

Now we’re back in my apartment, drinking tea and plotting an evening of dive bar bowling in our fancy new pants.

2 Comments

March 12, 2013

Day 108: Good Names

In honor of all my friends who are welcoming new pets and/or kids into their homes, here is a list of names that work well for both.

I can’t take 100 percent of the credit for this list because my dad came up with some of these. And if it weren’t for my mom, one of my sisters would quite certainly have been named Adobe. For now, it’s still up for grabs. You’re welcome.

Good Names for your pets or kids:

Adobe
Beans
Bird
Blog
Brian Boitano (taken)
Cal (short for Calzone)
Chicago
Chlamydia
Chrysanthemum
Doctor
Duvet
Edamame
Eye
Framboise
Gandalph (yes, with a “ph”)
Instagraham
Lava
Lisa Loeb
Lettuce
Meta
Mom
Nirvana
Noodle
Pikachu
Pirouette
Pog
Quinoa
Reef
Robot
Thing 1
Thing 2
Tiger
Velcro
Viva
Wolverine
Yosemite
Zipper

March 11, 2013

Day 107: What to Pack

My best friend from graduate school is coming to visit me from New York tomorrow and she asked me what to pack. Rather than send her a list broken up between eight separate text messages (with some “xoxoxo’s” peppered in for good measure), I’m sending it to her blog-style.

Stuff to Pack*

1. Your warmest coat. Unlike everywhere else in the country, it’s the middle of winter where I live. In fact, it’s been winter the entire time I’ve had this blog. The. Entire. Time. I’m both giggling and crying as I write this.

2. Wine. I tried to get some in preparation for your arrival, but I left my ID in my other coat and the guy at Kowalski’s wouldn’t sell me any without it. My incredulous and wide-eyed, “But I’m thirty!” didn’t phase him one bit.

3. Yoga pants. Obviously we’re going to dress up like we’re going to yoga, whether or not we actually go. We can drink the wine you’re bringing instead.

4. Dancing shoes (sneakers). I’ve compiled a long list of all the dance nights happening around town throughout the week. If we plan on going to all of them, we’ll make it to at least one. I’m itching to do the Roger Rabbit on a Wednesday.

5. Skim milk. This is a soy milk household. (Just kidding; I already picked up some skim. But I do think it’s gross, so you’re going to have to drink the entire carton by yourself.)

6. Those magical heat-emitting hand-warmer thingies you can put in your pockets. See number 1.

That’s pretty much it. I have towels and Girl Scout cookies for you.

See you at the airport!

*This list can be adapted for anyone visiting the Midwest in March.

That’s the two of us, running. Photo by the very talented Andrew Ippolito.

Month: March, 2013