Stefan Salvatore ≠ Dawson Leery

Before you judge me for my indulgence in a little supernatural teenage melodrama, I should point out that the dreadful time of year has arrived, the ONLY bad thing about summer-network television hiatus. Or hiatuses? Season finales are happening left and right, signifying the end of my favorite Thursday night shows. I had no other choice but to revert to something fresh and new, with at least a season's worth of episodes I had missed. Before I get into my chosen selection, The Vampire Diaries, I should state with vehemence that there is definitely a positive effect of a lack of good television in the summer-it motivates you to be outside enjoying balmy patio dinners or day-long trips to the beach. Those things will ALWAYS trump television shows. For that rare evening, however, when you're either exhausted or maybe even a bit bored, it's always nice to think you can find something on the old tube. My SH and I particularly like shows because of their neat and tidy time slots of 30 or 45 minutes-with a movie you feel that you have to sit down through the whole thing. I should confess now that Vampire Diaries was not sanctioned or endorsed by my husband. He would rather poke his eyes out, I'm sure, than watch a show inevitably inspired by, though refreshingly more humorous and complicated than my beloved Twilight saga.

Needless to say, I'm really getting sucked in by the goings-on in Mystic Falls, Virginia. It's a bit silly, of course, but I like the little mysteries, historical flashbacks, and new vampire lore. I ESPECIALLY like heroic, good-hearted Stefan Salvatore. He's no Edward Cullen, of course, but he's slightly less broody. Shockingly, I far prefer him over his villainous brother Damon. Normally, I like there to be a bit of an edge in the dominating male characters of a drama or love triangle. This is why, during the Dawson's Creek years, I adored Pacey and loathed Dawson. Needless to say, Stefan, despite his goodness, has just enough darkness to keep him really interesting.

Off to shamefully watch an episode or two more, while my SH takes a late-evening Friday nap.

things I fell in love with while i was away...

On my months-long blogging semi-hiatus, whilst in the middle of a stressful house remodel and exciting preparations for our little bundle of joy (who, by the way, FEELS like a big bundle!), I developed an affinity, love and sometimes obsession, with several new things. As I am basking in the glory of my new kitchen, not particularly feeling like defiling it by cooking anything yet, I thought I might share.

-the good old Bartlett pear. I am not a fruit person. It is a total struggle for me to consume my daily fruit allowance. Yes, this makes me a sort of weird anomaly amongst all the normal folk who joyfully peel oranges and virtuously enjoy bananas. Now, there are a few fruits for which I have an affection. Give me a bowl of freshly sliced pineapple and it will be gone within minutes. Douse some blackberries in cream and I'll devour them (that could be the cream, I suppose). Those fruits aren't exactly common everyday fare, though. I simply don't manage very well with fruit. Thankfully, I adore virtually every vegetable, so I'm not a complete nutritional delinquent. In the past few months, however, I have taken to eating a lot of pears. I found it strange that they've tasted so good for so long-I always think of pears as autumnal or wintry fruits. Perhaps it's our unseasonably cold spring. Either way, I am really enjoying the bounty of pears and gradually edging towards a new appreciation for fruit. The Bartletts have been especially pleasing-sweet and juicy, but more tender than apples. I might even be inspired to make, as my first dessert in the new kitchen, this most heavenly sounding cake as an homage to my newfound love of pears.

-Philz hot chocolate. Philz is mostly famous for their delicious coffee, where each cup is individually brewed. They have some sort of crazy system set up at each barista's station, with rounded slots built into the counter, each one its own little coffee pot of sorts. For obvious reasons, I haven't been going four times a week for the coffee, though I have tried it in the past and it is absolutely delicious. No, I have been visiting on an almost daily basis to enjoy their hot chocolate. Hot chocolate has been my morning beverage of choice throughout these past eight months, mostly for the comfort of having something hot in the morning. After a while, however, I got absolutely sick of it, mainly because it is just too sweet. In fact, what I've missed about coffee the most is not the caffeine, but the taste of something hot, creamy, and slightly bitter, not shockingly sweet (for the record, I am aware that hot chocolate contains an amount of caffeine, which is acceptably negligible). You can imagine my surprise when I ordered hot choc at Philz for the first time and was asked "How sweet would you like that?" Music to my ears! From that moment on, it has been an immense challenge not to go every single day to sip on a deliciously creamy, only slightly sweet cup of hot chocolate. Now, I realize that writing about a local chain of coffee shops isn't exactly fair. It's not as though anyone can run right out to the closest Philz, but those of us who are sick of the sweet can be inspired to tone down our hot choc a bit! My dear mother-in-law has this skill mastered. She uses regular cocoa (Ghiradelli, Droste, or a similar brand for the best taste), adds a tiny bit of water to make a paste, and stirs that into hot milk. Then she adds spoonfuls of sugar to taste, and tops it off with freshly whipped unsweetened cream. Divine.

-quinoa + spinach. My affection for quinoa is not new, but most of the time I've made it, I've followed a Rachael Ray recipe, which usually means it's got a nice depth of flavor from being boiled in chicken broth and is jazzed up with a medley of finely chopped herbs or lovely combination of sauteed vegetables. That's all fine and good, of course, but when trying to make lunch in a hurry, I just haven't felt like going through the hassle of throwing together a bunch of different ingredients. Knowing how exceptionally good for me quinoa is, though, and how quick and easy it is to cook on its own, I decided I needed to come up with a way to make it more tasty AND timely. Enter bagged spinach. A staple of our diet, I almost always use it as a sauteed side dish, though I know I should be consuming it raw in salad form sometimes as well. I decided that in the 10 minutes it takes the water to boil and quinoa to soften, I could easily chop up a few garlic cloves, let them get toasty and brown in a bit of EVOO, add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, and then saute a whole bag of spinach. Once the quinoa is done, I throw the whole mess of spinach (which as most know, has know wilted down to a tiny sad pile) into the pot with it and mix thoroughly. Now my quinoa is flavorful and made even more healthy with the addition of veg, as Jamie Oliver would say.

-etsy. I'm not new to Etsy and its many delights, and I'm not at all ashamed to say that my first Etsy purchase was a replica of Bella's Twilight mittens. THEY ARE CUTE! DON"T JUDGE! THEY WERE A GIFT! I could spend hours perusing all the many shops, and I love the customization of the home page once you've made a few purchases. Anyway, my love for Etsy grew into a obsession when it came to baby stuff. Here you can see screen shots of my chosen fabrics for custom baby bedding, courtesy of a lovely Etsy shop. Once I found the zoo print, I started to look for all sorts of coordinating items, and it's been difficult to rein myself in. Why shouldn't I have matching stroller blankets, car seat strap covers, burp cloths, or diaper bag accessories? I jest-I'm perfectly aware that the vast majority of baby-related items out there are unnecessary. Doesn't mean that I might not splurge on the stroller blanket though...

-dinner: a love story. I'd never heard of this particular blog until I stumbled across a new column in the latest issue of Bon Appetit written by the husband and wife team who maintain the blog. The majority of the posts are written by wife Jenny, but her husband contributes occasionally. It's a GREAT food blog, and clearly also a good family blog. I feel like it was the perfect find for my new transition into motherhood.

-the killing. This extremely dark mystery is based off a Danish television series, and once I heard the American remake was going to air on AMC, I figured I must check it out. AMC has quite the reputation for quality television these days (and by quality, I mean good writing and solid acting performances, not so much uplifting stuff or light humor) and the show got a lot of good press before it premiered. It's set in Seattle, which I love, though they are doing their very best to make it look like the MOST rain-soaked, dreary city on God's green earth. I can say with confidence that it's not that bad! The 13-episode season follows a single case, which is a nice marked difference from a typical procedural drama. It's tough to watch, but at the same time, enjoyable for the lack of melodrama and unusual main characters. I'm particularly impressed with Holder, the male detective with a potentially shady past. He's also Swedish, and I must confess that I'm fascinated with the ability of European actors to imitate the American accent. He does a bang-up job.

There you have it. A few of the things that have proven welcome distractions during these long months. I should probably stop thinking about Philz hot chocolate right this moment and get to doing something productive in my kitchen!

"I don't care what nobody says, we're gonna have a baby..."

My last, completely legitimate and totally exciting reason for a lack of writing in these past few months. In just 10 weeks, we're going to be meeting our baby BOY, an event that we have been longing for for years (and for me, longer than I can remember). We are so grateful and thankful to God for granting us this blessing, and our prayers daily include the safety and well-being of our son.

P.S. I am proudly wearing one of my Kings of Leon shirts. Somehow I feel they would be proud.

P.P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the blog post title is a song lyric. Conveniently, courtesy of KOL. Just wanted to clear that up.

another thing to blame for the lack of my blogging presence

A house remodel. The cause of stress, anxiety, and much pulling-of-hair. Yes, we decided to take it on, seeing as how I was living like a pioneer woman with no dishwasher, and the general layout of our bathroom was something cavern-like as opposed to being light and accommodating. We felt if we didn't do it now, we might never, so after meeting with four contractors and getting all sorts of advice, we embarked on the project with the help of a lovely designer, whom I'll just refer to as CP. It is almost done, and I cannot WAIT to store my Fiestaware in those lovely glass-fronted cabinets.

An early view of my beautiful sage-y green, subway tile backsplash. I had my heart set on a green and white kitchen, something that would look natural and beautiful, making a nice segue into our backyard. Let me tell you, finding a nice green tile that will not break the bank is no walk in the park. There was lots of green glass, and plenty of minty and forest green, but nothing that fit my bill. Until I encountered "Sequoia," the perfect shade. As I soon came to expect along this journey of renovation, there was a huge obstacle to my happiness once I chose my tile. It cost millions of dollars. Well, not millions. Not even hundreds. I am exaggerating because of my initial despair. I decided to persist in my search, and finally found a store that stocked "Sequoia" at half the price. Another lesson learned about remodeling: if you have all the time in the world, you will be able to eventually get what you need, at the proper price point. Of course, I do NOT have all the time in the world, but just happened upon an incredible piece of luck, not just with the kitchen tile, but also with my granite. A big part of me wanted to have tile on the counters as well, but my propensity to spill anything and everything caused my SH to immediately veto the idea. So, granite it was, and again, I was on a quest to find something that might have a hint of green. Enter "Costa Esmeralda," the absolutely PERFECT choice for our kitchen. Not too light, not too dark, with flecks of green (and brown, my favorite), it was just right. Yet again, I was stymied when it came to finding what I needed-my Costa was very popular and simply not available when we needed it. I have a terrible tendency to like the most popular things. Fortunately, CP kept calling the granite/marble shop, and when some poor soul failed to pick up their granite after an extremely long grace period of a week, we managed to snag it for ourselves.

The almost-finished bathroom, so light and beautiful and blue! I am in love with the floor, and thankfully, was not presented with so many difficulties in selecting and ordering the tile. My SH is quite hirsute, so not only is the color of my floor gorgeous, its deep blue shade serves as a disguise of sorts.

The pièce de résistance! My made-in-England, weighs-as-much-as-a-person farmhouse sink! CP tried to keep me in line with our budget, warning me that this sink would cost a king's ransom (not really, but a good deal more than an average old sink), but it was the one thing that I just HAD to have. Despite the fact that we had to reconfigure the cabinets to make it work, I know it is going to be worth. every. penny.

Mere days remain before I'll be cooking away again in my new kitchen. It has been arduous and difficult at times, but I am full of excitement at the improvements now present in our little house.

food revolution

I HEARTILY admonish you to check out the second season of Jamie's Food Revolution. The first season was probably the best thing I saw last year. I adore Jamie for obvious reasons: fresh and easy recipes, the ability to make a novice cook feel like they can make something delicious, propensity to name children after flowers, adorable lisp, and of course, his Britishness; but what he is attempting with his food revolution is very significant and necessary. We should be paying attention.

top chef fail

Yes, I dropped the ball on my recapping. I was confident that I would be able to get my proverbial act together and plow through the five or six episodes I had missed, but as the season progressed, I gradually lost my TC enthusiasm. Chefs I admired fell by the wayside, one after the other, and I began to worry that the finale would be bereft of any of my favorites. As it turned out, Antonia was the only one left standing that I really admired, and the eventual showdown was between Mike Isabella and Richard Blais. Though I made an early prediction that Richard would go far, I had no idea at the time how much I would grow to dislike him, and the the judge's decision at the finale was a real disappointment to me. Granted, I appreciate their consistency when it comes to grading the best dishes on a challenge-by-challenge basis, and Richard clearly had the best tasting food (despite the horrid and repulsive-looking foie gras ice cream). I simply could not tolerate Richard's self-pitying, inexplicably insecure behavior, which was only made worse by the occasional burst of arrogance. He repeatedly stated that the only reason anyone remembers his season is because he didn't win. Ironically, the winner of his season (and the only female winner of Top Chef), Stephanie Izard, has been one of the most successful in the show's history. She scrupulously planned and developed a concept for her own restaurant (The Girl and the Goat) during the time since her win, and it has opened to rave reviews and great success. Richard, on the other hand, has struggled in the restaurant business. It's a highly competitive, risky industry, with huge failure rates, I'm sure, but a bit of humility would be much appreciated. Richard's strange tendency to doubt his food and propensity to say he "hates everything" he has done after the fact is hugely annoying, and disrespectful to his fellow chefs and competitors. Needless to say, his final victory, however deserved, left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't even include a picture of him on this post in good conscience! Let's just say I'm looking forward to a new season with fresh faces.

finally spring playlist

Hark! It is the second month of spring, and I am finally emerging from my veritable cocoon of busy-ness to write about my musical frivolities once more. Because of my various distractions, I really didn't invest a lot of energy into what I was listening to in the past few months. I'm not one that is capable of writing papers while listening to music, unfortunately. Now that I'm getting back to a more normal routine however, I am all over finding new musical sources of inspiration and calm. There are some "repeat offenders" on my list, but that probably won't surprise you.

england-the national. Yes, I'm still completely addicted to these guys. It doesn't hurt that this song is conveniently titled "England" and contains lyrics like "You must be somewhere in London, you must be loving your life in the rain...." Be still my heart!

down by the water-the decemberists. I haven't listened to much more of their latest album, but I became completely enamored of this song after hearing about from Rose. No big surprise there. "Down by the Water" is a bit more folksy-sounding than "The Crane Wife 3" and "O Valencia!" but change can be good!

sort of revolution-fink. Herein lies another case of me being caught up and emotionally manipulated by the music used in television. My beloved Friday Night Lights is the show in question, and I'm confident the song accompanied a scene both gut-wrenching and powerful. Would I have loved the song so much had I innocently come across it whilst perusing the Itunes store? Probably, but a father-son moment between Coach Taylor and Vince or the sight of a guilty Billy Riggins most likely sealed the deal.

the cave-mumford & sons. I am very, very late to the Mumford & Sons party. Thank goodness for my sister's newfound adoration and persistent dropped hints. I am dangerously close to obsession with the latest album, "Sigh No More"-despite the fact that it may be the first I've bought which contains a parental advisory (for one errant word!)! I am also further convinced that pretty much everything musically great must originate in England.

pickup truck-kings of leon. I love the sound of this song. It's drifty and slow in the beginning, with a refreshingly strong and surprising chorus. I tend to not focus a whole lot on the lyrics when it comes to the Kings, and I advise you to do the same. Just get caught up in Caleb's soulful whine and enjoy the fine, fine music.

rolling in the deep-adele. Adele is hugely popular, so this particular selection isn't especially original, but I'm allowed! She is the pure, clean, and untroubled version of Amy Winehouse, and only 21! Unbelievable.

maps-yeah yeah yeahs. A bit of an older tune, but great to revisit. I thought it added a nice sound to my spring list, which is relatively somber.

vagabond-wolfmother. Two summers ago, I listened to the soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer like it was the last CD on earth. I put it on repeat while I was working in the classroom, and shuffle while I puttered around in the garden. This particular song was the one I loved to hear with the windows rolled down on a golden California day. It's taken quite a while for us to finally get to that weather this year, but I was ready when the sun finally arrived, with this song.

bigger than us-white lies. My very first posted playlist contained a song by the White Lies which I still LOVE, so you can imagine my happiness when I discovered the release of their newest album. They're British. Of course.

i want a house-twin sister. I overheard this song on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and I'll be the first to admit it's a bit strange. After a few listens, though, the quirkiness is irresistible. Like "vagabond," it's a great song for an afternoon drive with the windows rolled down. A slow drive, that is.

laughing with-regina spektor. This song is certainly not light-hearted, but I appreciate the lyrics. No one is quite as good with the piano and high notes as Regina Spektor.

comfortably numb-roger waters featuring van morrison & the band. I've taken to watching The Departed a lot lately. There is nothing more to say.

the immortals-kings of leon. This particular tune was selected for use in promotions for March Madness, so I suppose my newfound appreciation for it also falls under the television manipulation category. It helped that my Duke Blue Devils were prominently featured in the music video.

winter winds-mumford & sons. Though I pretty much can't get the ENTIRE ALBUM out of my mind, I figured it was best that I start with just two or three on my spring playlist. This one is especially pleasing.

helplessness blues-fleet foxes. My darling sister has become completely immersed in the folksy/indie/alternative genre, and she can't stop talking about Fleet Foxes. They're like her Coldplay. She particularly loves this song, and when I saw it available as a free download, I decided to check it out. So good.

blue mind-alexi murdoch. This is by no means a new tune in my library. In fact, I have an extremely powerful memory of listening to it on my Discman (!) the summer I moved to New York. I lived with my aunt in Fairfield, CT, for a few months, and I had to take a commuter train every day to the city which left at the ungodly hour of 5:50 am. I can remember hearing this song as the sun started to break, hurting my tired eyes a little. Even though I was exhausted, it helped relax me and give me a sense of calm and purpose for the long day to follow. Still works today.

come thou fount of every blessing-sufjan stevens (friday night lights soundtrack, volume ii). This is my favorite old hymn, and I love this barebones, banjo-accompanied version.

devil town-tony lucca (friday night lights soundtrack, volume i). Friday Night Lights ended its five-season run just over a month ago, and I felt I must honor its passing with the iconic "devil town." The song played in a pivotal, mood-encapsulating scene in the first season's penultimate episode, and the producers/music supervisors/powers that be decided to recreate the feeling by replaying it in the same episode of the fifth season. I don't exactly know how to explain it, but the song perfectly conveys the sentiment of the show, the whole small town, football is everything feel that is what makes it so near and dear to my heart.

There you have it! It is GOOD to be back!