Hi friends! My random blog title is reflective of the mood I am in. Ever feel like your brain is going in 10 different directions? Then you get it! Before I get to my tasty quinoa salad dinner, here are some things I must discuss: #1 - My Memorial Day evening hike turned out to be pretty adventurous, mainly because Harley got attacked by another dog! OK, attacked sounds sort of dramatic since there was no blood shed, but it was a bit scary at the time. The situation: We were hiking at the toughest part of Kwaay Paay Summit, where it's super steep and narrow, and came across a guy with his dog. Harley and I stopped a bit away to see how to go about this, as there's no way that 2 people and 2 dogs can cross each other at this point in the hike. There's barely room for 1 person really. ... [Read More]
hunger games
Fake it Til You Feel It
Mantra of the day: Since I got back from my vacay, I've been in a bit of a I-got-to-spend-an-entire-week-with-the-love-of-my-life-and-now-we're-living-on-separate-continents-again funk. I'm fully aware of how lucky I am to have been able to meet up with him during this deployment, but reminding myself that didn't prevent the sinking feeling I had in knowing I was traveling 20 hours back to San Diego in one direction, and he was going thousands of miles in another. As my grandma reassured me on the phone when I admitted to being a bit bummed, it's okay to not feel awesome 24/7. So, I let myself be a little sad for a few days as I recovered from jet lag and got back on track with my routine & sleep schedule (well, sorta.. still working on that part). Then on Tuesday night as I was ... [Read More]
Artichoke Attempt
I think artichokes are so interesting and odd. Though I've ordered them at restaurants in a variety of ways and used jarred artichoke hearts countless times, I've never really cooked with fresh artichokes. At the farmer's market last weekend, I decided I'd nab one and try to cook this strange veggie. To help determine what parts I'm supposed to chop off, how to cook it, and which parts should actually go in my mouth, I turned to my Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian Cooking book and followed their instructions on how to prepare an artichoke. It didn't seem too hard. I would share the recipe and process on here with you if I were sure that I actually trimmed it properly or ate the right parts. But I'm totally not. The last step in prepping it was to scrape up a "thicket of fuzz" aka ... [Read More]