dinner in the courtyard

The company that manages our building put 2 grills in our courtyard last week. Completely unannounced. They just showed up one day. I know that doesn't sound super cool, but just trust me that this is a big deal. I'm not even a grill person.
Turns out living in the city does something to a person. Every time you smell someone bbq-ing on thier much coveted patio or even more coveted backyard, it does something to you. It does something to all city dwellers. It's like...you have to get as much of that smell as possible. You follow the trail. You take deep breaths. You look at all your friends and say "[big breath] ahhhhh, grilling," and they nod their heads in agreement.

So not even a week later, and Ryan and I have already eaten dinner in the courtyard 3 times. Mind you, it's also been raining a lot this past week. So that's pretty much all we could eat out there. One night that we were eating down there, there were at least 5 other couples/families from our building grilling too. I wasn't kidding; living in the city does something to your grill-deprived souls.

Salmon burgers with parmesan and provolone cheese, sauteed spinach with garlic and olive oil,
lettuce, mashed avocado and homemade garlic-lime mayo. Sweet potato fries with ketchup or
bbq sauce. Rinsed down with peach iced tea (or water?)

Yum!!! I foresee many grillin' nights this summer.
It's also really nice because, when you leave the apartment for a meal it kind of feels like a date. So even if Ryan only has time for dinner that night, we still get to squeeze in some quality time together



On another note, I fell more in love with Zooey Deschanel today. I know. I know. I didn't think it was possible either. I was reading her interview in Marie Claire magazine and they put a warning out there to all guys who are in love with her...she doesn't want to have kids. She said this on the topic,

“That’s never been my focus. My sister [Emily]
was always very motherly, babysitting and stuff.
I like kids, and I like being around kids –
but it was never an ambition, something, like, I need
… I like working. That’s what I like doing. I like to work.”

The article also said that she seemed almost embarrassed to admit it. Like she had gone too far.

And I was reading it, and was just like, "Ahhhh, a girl after my own heart. I knew we were soulmates." And whenever I tell people that I don't want to have kids, I kind of feel bad too! I can just feel them judging me. No matter how much I explain myself, and my heart, people just have a really hard time grasping the idea of a young lady having no desire to have children.

 

With that said, I really believe that Zooey and I should be best friends. As if I had any doubts before.

thoughts from my brain

I've been thinking lately, err for the past few weeks, that I really should be ambidextrous. When I posted about how I love painting so much, my sister commented, "Are you sure you're right handed?" And then the more I thought about it, and the more I found myself creating things...the more I felt like I should be ambidextrous. Here's the thing, I love numbers and logical and fitting all the pieces together far too much to be right brained. But at the same time, I love crafting and creating and envisioning future projects and designs to be left brained. These loves are truly equal for me. So I should be ambidextrous right?
So I've been doing little experiments with myself; trying to use my left hand in various situations to see how things pan out. (Except not for dangerous things, like cutting veggies, cause that's not really something you want to experiment with.) So far, it's been really easy. I don't find it too hard to do things with my left hand. Writing is still a little shaky, but I wouldn't say it's hard, I just need more practice.

I've also been thinking about equality in our country lately. Because although I know we all have equal rights; men, women, whites, black, hispanic, etc., I know we don't have equal opportunities. Where you grow up really does affect what you can become. Not in all situations, and it's not always the case. But it just doesn't seem fair that because I grew up in an upper-middle class area with both of my parents I have an easier time becoming what I want, versus a child who grows up in a rough neighborhood with a single parent whose really struggling to make it. You know? I understand that there's nothing legally standing in their way, but they have so many more hurdles to jump over than I would just to achieve the same thing. Does that make sense? And a lot of times, as sad as it is, race and color really do make a difference when they shouldn't. We say we're all equal, but do we really live that way? I know I'm kind of rambling here, it's just been something that been extremely visible to me lately. And I don't want to start a whole political debate or anything, I'm just talking here. But it's just really sad to me, that we can live in this amazing country with so much opportunity, potential and money and yet, we still get so much wrong. I've started volunteering with Broad Street Ministry and it has completely broken my heart and brought a lot of things to my attention that I wouldn't have thought of before. Poverty seems like a vicious never-ending cycle and I'm having a hard time with that. I've only worked one week and I can already feel God at work in me.


Onto to less serious things...
This song has been on replay lately.

I had you living life like you should
You say you never had it so good

I'm kind of in love with Jackson Avery from Grey's Anatomy. Look at those little freckles.
Oh heeeeey, Jackson.

There are two times during that, if possible, you will most definitely find me in front of the tv. First, Ellen at 3pm. But who in the world misses Ellen?! Second, Price is Right at 11am. I freaking LOVE The Price is Right. Being on the show is most definitely on my bucket list. And I get so mad when people are stupid and play the games wrong. I mean, there's a system to some of those games and if you're smart, it's pretty easy to win. And some of these people just totally botch it, and I'm literally yelling at my tv screen. Seriously, C'MON PEOPLE! Uggggh.

Also, kind of in love with this.

If you haven't done this yet, do it and be amazed.
[Google is going to take over the world. You heard it hear first. Or like seven-hundred-thousandth.]
Go to google translator, type in 'pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpkzvpvzk kkkkkk bsch', select German as the language, and click the listen button in the bottom right hand corner.
Feel free to make your own combinations and waste hours of your life. I won't judge you.

philly bucket list: bucks county

This weekend, Ryan was in-between rotations. [So he just finished on one Thursday and would be starting his next on Monday] Which means...dun, dundun DUUUUUUNNNNN...WE GOT TWO WHOLE DAYS TO SPEND TOGETHER!!
We took full advantage and decided to tackle one of the larger/farther things on our Philly Bucket list...Bucks County. The County of Bucks.

You know that "Country" magazine? [Probably not, I know]
My grandparents always had that in their house when we were growing up, and my sisters and I would always look through them trying to find the elusive needle. Anyways, they would feature a different area of the country in each magazine in the "This is God's Country" feature. You know, areas that are all nature-y and almost unbelievable because they are that beautiful. Well, I'm am certain that most of the pictures they show for that feature are taken in Bucks county.

Bucks county was so pretty!! Ryan was in heaven. Every turn we made or house we passed (they were rare), he would be like, "WHOA! Look at that!" or "OOO!! LOOK OVER THERE!" or "WOW!!!" It was a good thing I was driving and he wasn't.

First, we drove to one of the many [11] covered bridges in Bucks, the Erwinna covered bridge. Apparently it's known for it's lattice structure...but the others that we saw later looked the same. Whatever. It was still cool.

 Then, we drove to Peddler's Village. Which is super touristy, but that was kind of the point of our day. Naturally, our first stop was at a cute candy store where we bought candy cigarettes and each picked out a treat from the chocolate case. Since they were holding their annual strawberry festival (not as cool as it sounds), they had live music. So we sat on a bench, listened to the banjo-led music and enjoyed our chocolates. Ryan with his chocolate-covered s'more and me with a dark chocolate pecan turtle.

My camera was running out of batteries, so I only
had a shot at one photo. Ryan was hardly cooperative.
See above photo.

 After walking around the village, we had dinner at Hart's. A simple little country restaurant with a variety of stuff to choose from. Kind of like a bigger Yum-yum tree (Oh, Yum Yum, how I miss you!!) (Those who aren't from Brighton, Yum Yum Tree is our little downtown restaurant. It's super cute.) I got a burger and Ryan got fish and chips...and get this...our meal was only $21!!! WHAT IN THE WHAT?! We definitely weren't in the city anymore!!

After dinner, it was still light out so we headed out to see 2 more covered bridges, in hopes that we would finish around sun down and could go to the Rocky Overlook to see the sunset and then the 'super-moon'.

Turns out it was way to cloudy to see the super-moon.
Also turns out that the rocky overlook overlooks a lot of tree trunks...so...not quite the view we were expecting. Still cool though and we enjoyed our mini-hike.

Right? What kind of "look-out" is this?!

We had a great time and often wondered if this is what married life would feel like for us if Ryan wasn't in school. Maybe in a few years we'll get to regularly enjoy each other's company. As for now, I've got the week off and plan to make the most of it!

call me betty

Ryan has an exam this week, so he's been studying even more than usual. I know, I know, I didn't think it was possible either.
So that leaves me lonelier than before (and falling asleep on the couch every night this week while Ryan studies in our room.) So I've been drowning my sorrows in cooking and baking and practically loving every minute of it. I thought I would share with you all what I've made, because everything has been pretty darn good!

First I made these energy bites. Which isn't a new thing around here, but they are soooo good. And although I don't think they are as healthy for you as the lady who made the recipe claims, I wouldn't say they're bad for you.  And they are definitely much better for you than no-bake cookies. So it satisfies my never-ending craving for those bad boys. {HOW CAN A COOKIE BE SOOO DARN GOOD?!}
You can find the recipe here.
I add dry toasted, unsalted chopped up almonds. And I half-way toast my coconut because I like a little bit of crunch.

 For dinner tonight (and last night, because I made a whole lot more than I needed too) we had stuffed zucchini (and/or zucchini cups, depending on which night we're talking about.)
First I made them as cups, like the recipe says, but the zucchini I bought was much too small for that and I had a difficult time stuffing them. So then tonight, I cut the zucchinis in half length-wise, scooped out the guts, and then stuffed them. Mmm. Either way, it was delish.
You can find the recipe here.
I made it with ground turkey and used a yellow pepper instead of green.

Then, darn it, I had zucchini guts leftover. Whatever shall I do with those...so I made zucchini carrot muffins.
You can find the recipe here.
I added flax seed meal and golden raisins.

Then those muffins were so good, that I wanted to make more. I noticed the Braeburn apples that have been sitting in our fruit bowl for almost too long. I bought apples to eat with my awesome greek yogurt fruit dip (cocoa almond butter (or just almond butter, cocoa powder and your choice of sweetener) and plain greek yogurt), but I really didn't like these apples. I'm super picky with textures of food, and these apples were super mealy (or as I say, "pethy.") So I made apple carrot muffins.
You can find the recipe here.
I cut the carrots in half and added zucchini in its place (just because that's what I had on had), added 1 TBSP Canola Oil, and a bit of sugar (because they weren't sweet at all, kind of bland, but I think it was because of my choice of apple.)

 And I also made Kale chips for the first time. Yum!!
These are easy, just strip the kale from the center "rib" and rip it into good sized pieces (slightly bigger than a potato chip.) Add olive oil and a little bit of salt. Bake at 300 for about 20 minutes. They come out crispy and just as good as popcorn or potato chips but so much better for you! (I overcooked one batch of ours, which is why some of them look a little too brown and not so green.)

And while I'm sharing recipes, I remembered I never shared about the turkey quinoa meatloaf I mentioned a while ago. It was really good, and I made it extra pretty by making them mini in a cupcake tin. Then I topped them with cooked spinach and garlic mashed potatoes.
You can find the recipe here.
I used french onion soup mix instead of an onion,  and ketchup instead of tomato paste (but only because I didn't have any). I nixed the hot pepper sauce. And the topping was a little too sweet for me, so I'll probably change it next time I make this.

And there you have it! You can just call me Betty Crocker.