Since We Last Talked
Hi.
It’s been a while. But. I have a good excuse. Like really good.
I got a job. And by that I really mean, I GOT A JOB!!!!!!!
I’m honestly so so excited about it, but waking up at 6 AM and working an 8-5 day, 5 days a week is going to be such a huge adjustment and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t finding it hard to find the time to sit down and write a well-thought-out post. I don’t like to half-ass things.
So while the whole being employed thing is obviously the most exciting thing I have to share, I’ve got a bunch of random thoughts crowding my head. That’ll happen when you don’t empty your brain during the week.
1. Giant shopping sprees are the best. There are many things I don’t hesitate to spend money on. Kombucha, frozen yogurt and pedicures for starters, but I’m so stingy about spending money on clothes, regardless of how often I ransack my own closet and complain that “I have nothing to wear!” When I realized I had a job, I made myself go buy some nice clothes. I realize I just said I had to “force” myself to shop. I think I just got voted out of the female club.
2. There’s no better way to celebrate than with family and good food.
Only Mama can take two of my least favorite foods, chicken and tacos, and make me love them.
That or I was just all hopped up on job excitement.
3. It doesn’t matter how early you go to bed, if you wake up and it’s still dark, you will feel like getting out of bed is a cruel cruel joke. Going to bed early has never been my strong suit, but I’ve been adamant about being in bed by 10 and even though the initial wake up is godawful, once I get moving, I feel really energized. I’m sure that’ll last for all of a couple weeks…
4. Joey and I went to the weirdest little lunch place in Cherry Creek over the weekend. Or maybe it was the cutest little lunch place. We’re still not really sure.
But the food was Lauren-approved.
5. I miss the Today Show. When you’re used to waking up at 8:30, reading in bed, enjoying a leisurely breakfast and alternating between Twitter and the Today Show, having a grown up job is quite the rude awakening. Mostly because I don’t get to see things like this anymore.
Oh Matt Lauer.
And for the record, I just accidentally typed Matt Lauren.
6. It’s basically the weekend…!! And you know what the weekend means. Sleeping in, lounging about, eating pancakes.
The usual.
So go forth and enjoy your weekends!
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Fill me in on your life! What’s new?
Do you also wish there were at least 4 more hours outside of the work day?
What does the weekend mean to you? I’m hoping to catch up on post writing and making a few recipes I’m hoping to share with you!
A Gnocchi Story
(Source)
Oh, what’s that??
It looks good!
When I saw a recipe for beet gnocchi in the latest issue of Cooking Light, I jumped all over it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have a July birthday, but I can’t turn down ruby-colored things. This includes red velvet, anything involving beets, and, well, actual rubies.
Knowing root vegetables take forever to cook, I popped the beets and potatoes in the oven as soon as I got home at about 5:15. An hour later, the potatoes were pretty much still rock hard… of course, so I put them back in the oven. It was close to 7 by the time the veggies were finally done cooking. At this point you’re supposed to use a potato ricer. I have no idea what a potato ricer is, so I just mashed everything up in my food processor.
Then, another road bump. We added the flour and the dough was still so sticky. Like, can’t touch it without half of it sticking to your fingers, sticky. We added a little more flour, then a little more. Still sticky. Joey, the eternal optimist, still wanted to try to roll it out. Shockingly, it didn’t seem to want to roll. And yes, that’s sarcasm. We did manage to make a few gnocchi pieces so we thought ‘why not, let’s boil them in water and see what happens.’
If you’ve ever made gnocchi, you know that the telltale sign that they’re done is that they will float to the top of the pot. We watched a single piece of gnocchi float around at the bottom of the pot, occasionally looking like it was about to emerge from the water, only to be sucked back down to the bottom. This was at 8 o’clock and I made an executive decision to run across the street to Target and just buy gnocchi. That way, we could still finish the recipe and not waste the 6 cups of onion Joey had just chopped.
Joey is like the poster child for never giving up. When I got back from the store, he had managed to roll out more of the dough, cook the dough, and sauté the gnocchi with some of the beet greens and onions. We went ahead and cooked the store-bough gnocchi, just in case ours tasted horrible.
The best part though, was that despite having pre-made perfectly-shaped gnocchi, which I imagine Giada de Laurentiis personally made from scratch, Joey and I kept finding ourselves sneaking bites off of the small plate we made with our own gnocchi. In fact, after dinner, we ended up rolling and cooking the rest of the dough. And now we’ll be eating gnocchi for the rest of the month…
Last night’s dinner adventure had its fair share of setbacks, frustrations and failures, but you know what, we had a blast together in the kitchen. It took me back to the days when we first started cooking together. When we burnt the bottom of pans, couldn’t get chicken to cook for the life of us and made laughable mistakes. Until last night, I almost forgot that the experience of working and learning together in the kitchen is what made me love cooking in the first place.
So here’s to many more cooking adventures. Frustrations, mess-ups and laughter included.
Academy Award Throwdown
Let me set the stage for you.
Two years ago, I happened across a printable ballot and made copies for my roommates and I. We filled them out, mostly making guesses. I mean who has seen all of those foreign language or documentary films anyways? At the end of the night, Josh walked away the winner. So the next year, I was out for redemption. Aaaaand, at the end of the night, Josh walked away the winner. So once again this year, I was ready to take Josh down. Or at least watch someone else win.
I supplied popcorn for distraction.
And sorbet champagne cocktails for inebriation.
This was genius.
Taking a rushed picture with no less than 3 remotes in the background, not so genius.
And we filled out our ballots.
I laughed as Justin Beiber made an appearance in the opening skit.
Squealed as Tom Hanks showed up at the first presenter.
Gasped and said, “Ummm, is that J.Lo’s nipple??”
And hoped one of those cigarette girls would hand Angelina Jolie some popcorn.
I also raked in the wins.
I thought, “Who knew P.Diddy was part of an award-winning movie??”
Wondered why Emma Stone’s eyes were closed half the time she was on stage.
Was absolutely wow-ed by Cirque du Soleil.
And said, “Is that Pharell playing the drums on the balcony??”
Then when it got down the the last big four awards, I realized I’d made a huge mistake. I’d marked Demian Bichir for best actor, when really, I meant to mark Jean Dujardin. Those names are both so French, it’s easy to confuse them, right? I knew Jean was going to win. Meaning I was going to lose.
So yay for Meryl.
And Octavia.
And Jean.
But losing totally sucks. Except that I still beat Josh, who came in last, so in a way, I kinda won.
You’re going down next year, Joey.
Lauren Loves Good Food 