Cooking isn't for the faint of heart

Yesterday, I was picking up tickets (going to see Second City tonight with my friend, Juno!). And the lady selling me the tickets made a comment, asking if I'd just come from a restaurant. Nope, from my house, I said. Evidently the cumin in my white chili lingered on my jacket. :)

She commented that she wished she could cook. She just "doesn't know how or have the time." I assured her I threw everything into the slow cooker and let it do all of the heavy lifting. But she seemed unconvinced.

It really makes me sad how many people float through life saying "I can't cook." Frankly, I think it sucks to be them. And I think they're wrong. Really, if you can read and follow directions, you CAN cook. Or at least in my opinion.

No, what I think it is is that people aren't BRAVE enough to cook.

Sounds silly, doesn't it? But hear me out.

I think people are afraid of trying something new, and failing. Then being hungry on top of that. ;) The other struggle is if you live alone ... and don't like what you've cooked. Then you're stuck with it (I just hate throwing things out!).

But seriously .... following directions is NOT all that difficult.

But being brave ... well that's another story entirely.

Here's a great example. I purchased some ginger on sale. I don't know what to DO with ginger. Instead of being a good girl and looking it up, I just sort of made it up. I mixed it with Tarragon and olive oil and rubbed it on pork chops. We'll see if it works! But I will say it certainly SMELLS good as it cooks just 3 feet away from me. :)

I'm SURE there are some of you out there who know what I'm talking about!

And now I'll confess there are certain things *I* have not been brave enough to try.

1. Couscous. I ate it at my friend, Erin's house, and LOVED it, but have I made it at home? NO. I need to work on that.

2. Lentils. Yeah, cheap protein, so why not? But I just haven't.

There are some things i was scared to try, such as dried beans and dried chickpeas, but now just LOVE using them in and around the kitchen ... so be brave, friends! Because cooking does NOT take talent, it just takes bravery.

Inspiration III

Ok, last one in this series. This one is dedicated to lighting.


How great would this look in our master bedroom? Painted white.

Erik, of course, would say it's an affront to his manhood and veto it. But a girl can dream, right?


Or this in white?


Or for bedside, keep the base black and have white sheer ribbon?

Inspiration II

This is the wall stuff. :)


Kinda digging the wall decals. Not sure it'd look good on our blue walls, but ya know .... I can always imagine.


Integrated with photos. Digging this!


Stenciled onto a dark wall. Now THIS is an interesting thing to consider. Maybe on the wall our bed is against????


Just cuteness .... if your name is Angie, I can see something like this on your walls. ;)


Sticking with the word/lettering theme, this is for my dad. BELIEVE. :) Love it! I love the soft glow of the lights. I've seen some kickin photos from the neon graveyard in Las Vegas and this kinda reminded me of it.


Kinda like the frames. And that they're black.


This isn't really decorative, but I think it's certainly clever. If I ever live in a loft-like space, it'd be a great alternative to the traditional kitchen cabinets!

Inspiration!

When I was in Denver a few months ago, I was able to take a tour of Sam Puc's studio space. I have to say, it was uber-fab. :)

I'll break the photos from the visit into a few posts so as to not bore/overwhelm you out there in blog-reading-land.

This one will be about chairs. Yes, chairs and sitting surfaces. So deal.


I'm sort of on a kick about chairs with no arms, which is odd because I like to sprawl my legs over the arm of any chair I'm sitting in. But I think I like the clean lines, ya know?


I'm not sure how comfy any of these are to sit in. This one especially, but it certainly LOOKS nice, even if it might be uncomfortable. ;)


Just gotta love this.


This is great ... and could totally serve as a day bed, too, right?


Not sure I'm loving the fabric, but this certainly is an interesting looking piece.


Last one is a great way to store things! Seriously thinking about this for the garage!!!!

Ice, ice baby....

Ok, all old school music aside, I want to be a little serious today. This post is about ICE — In Case of Emergency.

Dad and I were talking last week and I said something about ICE and how I had a few ICE numbers programed into my cell phone. HUUUUUH????? was his response. Nice. But mom had no clue what I was talking about either. SO it occurred to me others might not be aware of this as well.

REWIND: While working as a reporter in Hays a few years ago, I covered cops, and in the course of it, someone mentioned ICE. I didn't know what it was, so they explained it to me. The basic idea is many people carry a cell phone with them at all times. If (God forbid) something were to happen and I was to be unconscious or unable to communicate with emergency workers, they would grab my phone and go through my address book and find ICE. I would have an emergency contact or two or more dialed in.

Since I rarely carry a purse or wallet on me, but generally have my phone on me, this seemed to make good sense. SO.... I have ICE in my phone.

But do you? ;-)

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2006 that 1,600,000 emergency room patients could not provide contact information because they were incapacitated." — from the ICE sticker Web site.

And of course, everything you wanted to know about ICE on Wikipediasite.

A poem

Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field,
Frozen with snow
~Langston Hughes

This poem/saying was on the bathroom mirror growing up. I must have read it in a literature book and liked it ... and I am spending a lot of time thinking about it this week.

A better update, and less cryptic post coming Wednesday, I promise!

Awesome e-photo!

This is the best engagement photo EVER! It makes me smile. Can you see why????

(This tickles my funny bone because of the Mikols obsession with small rodents, as well as the K-State photog obsession!)

I found it while stalking the blog of my buddy, Erich Camping (I met Erich at the fabulous Flourish Workshop in January).

Inspiration

I was blog stalking again this morning, and came across these BEAUTIFUL photos on the blog of Rachel, Millie Holloman's associate photographer.


I am simply SALIVATING over the beautiful blue/brown combo! I also dig the swirls on the tablecloth, and how the silverware stem echoes the tablecloth.

You WILL SEE some blue hydrangeas in the wedding, though! LOVE THEM!

Why oh why ...

... can't my wedding dreams involve scenes like THIS?????????


As I was doing my morning ritual of blog stalking, I was poking through Becker's blog for visual inspiration and ran across THIS tasty post.

During Robin's wedding, I was all excited about my big champagne bottle. Now I'm feeling plain inadequate! ;-)


ps-I only drank ONE GLASS out of that entire bottle. See the liquid in the cup? That's ALL I got. BUT Kristine and Erik replenished our supply ... yielding me ONE more glass. Needless to say, on Sept. 27, I will NOT be sharing my champagne with anyone but Erik!

What inspires me?

Part of my morning routine involves blog stalking. Yes, I admit it. I AM A (blog) STALKER!!!!!

Now that that's out of the way, I was stalking Jules this morning and saw her NEW WEB SITE!!!!! It's totally yummie, so check it out. (I'm super excited because we're overhauling the Heartland Web site as we speak! I'll let you know when it's up for public consumption).



I LOVE to comb through other photographer's Web sites because it inspires me. I see photos I admire and think "wow, I would never have THOUGHT of that" or that I make a mental note to avoid.

One of the biggest reasons I will return to a blog day after day is that it is frequently updated!

Here are a few others I *adore*

Heather Essian (She's going to come and photograph OUR wedding!!!)


Kara Pennington


Anne Ruthmann


Davina Fear (I just LOVE her name!)


Millie Holloman


(There are SERIOUSLY too many to name, so if you want a more complete list of the places I visit regularly, start by looking at the sidebar at the right, then drop me a line or leave a comment!)