I Isz Published

Bonjour, my peeplettes —

I thought I would share with you guys my first on-line publication via my internship at DIG Boston. Woo hoo! It’s nothing intense, but it feels pretty cool so have something (semi) tangible that I wrote out there for the general public to see. Go here to read it! While you’re at it, snoop around the site and see if anything tickles your fancy. I’m currently trying to brainstorm ideas on what to write about next… since I love my coffeehouses I want to try and take a crack at what I would like to call The Coffeehouse Chronicles: Beantown Brews. Hahaha get it? Bean town… brewing coffee beans… I crack myself up even if you don’t find me amusing.

Anyway, here’s a few quick things that have been going on in the passed week or so since I’ve been on my blogging grind.
Survived my first week of interning! It was chill, nothing too stressful or intense. The people here are pretty cool, but I don’t really get to socialize much because everyone is glued to their computers doing real world things like work. Oh well, it forces me to be productive I suppose (except for right now… meep). So I interned on Tuesday, then spent the night eating pizza and drinking sangria with the lovely Sara, and ended the day with a healthy dose of Never Been Kissed (classic romcom if you haven’t seen it). Woke up early again on Wednesday and we took the T to our designated stops from Sara’s casa, and thus began day two of my internship. I spent the majority of it writing the article I linked in the prior paragraph (again, read it, s’il vous plait). Wednesday happened to by June 6th, aka the 18th birthday of my baby sisters! Except they aren’t exactly babies anymore, but official adults. Weird. So after DIG I took the train back with my dad, and we headed straight to Olive Garden (where I tried a tasty drink of some kind, but I couldn’t tell you what it was, because I never learned the name; my bad) and then home to do presents and the like.

After returning home to Rhode Island on Wednesday night, I was home for a grand total of: 20 hours. Haha, yup; I’ve been a traveling gypsy lately. I think of it as preparation for Europe (which by the way, I am no longer going to Caen. Sadness, except not too much because now I am going to be living in Grenoble, France. Woo). So, I embarked on my journey to Burlington for the weekend late Thursday afternoon. The traffic was absolutely terrible! It usually takes me around 4 hours to get from RI to VT but oh no, not this time. Instead it took me a whopping 6 hours. Needless to say, I was just about sick of being in the car by the end of it all. Good times. Whatever, I made it to my destination and let the fun ensue! It was a good weekend — I had my first Burlington bars experience and chilled with the adorable dog Peaches. Overall, it was a success and I officially moved out of my Burly house… until January, that is. It looked so strange seeing my usually jam-packed brightly colored room totally desolate.

On Sunday, I made the trek back to Rhode Island (it only took 4 hours this time) and lamped hard for the rest of the day. Monday was what I deem the official start to my Warwick Country Club summer job; the two hours last week barely counted. It was an easy night – a golf outing that ended about 9:00, and I was en route home about 10:00, with free beer. Yes, that is correct. Not only do I get to eat yummy food on the reg at my job, but on this special occasion I was handed half of a 30-rack, fo’ free! I guess the lady who ran the event didn’t want the leftover beers, so me and my over 21-year old (hell yes) co-workers got to reap the benefits of the rich. I don’t hate it one bit.

Oh! One last thing.. before work on Monday I made jam! A family friend (and son) went to Schartner Farms and picked some delicious strawberries, and being the awesome people that they are, they brought a sizable amount to my house. We happened to have a jamming kit, sooo thus the jam making began. It was surprisingly easy, instructions below.

Fre$hh

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Fresh Strawberry Jam
Yield: 5 small jars

Ingredients:
4 cups smashed strawberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 packet preservative stuff fromBall (honestly, I’m not sure what this stuff was, but the jamming kit included it and said it was needed. So alas, I added it. It looked like ground flax seed a little bit)

Preparation:
1. Hull strawberries and put in medium bowl. Smash them (I used a potato masher thing) until you have 4 cups worth.
2. Add sugar to bowl with strawberries. Stir and let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Gradually add in the packet of preservative (or whatever it is) while stirring for 3 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes.
4. Funnel jam into jars and put in freezer. Jam can be kept in freezer for up to a year. When you decide to eat it, place it in fridge; will last for 3 weeks in fridge.

We Be Jammin’

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So there you have it! I’m glad I’m finally starting to branch out and cook/bake/create new food things. It’s a lot of fun, and pleaseeee feel free to give me some ideas!

Also, here’s my favorite song of the moment. If someone were to ever sing this to me (and mean it), I would probably (no, definitely) swoon #soattractive.

Cuteness (yet scary) Factor

Here’s just a quick video I wanted to share with you guys, enjoy!

Supa Hot Fire

Look at me guys, blogging two days in a row! On fiiiiire.

Note: To understand the title of this blog, watch the below video. If you have a similar type of humor, you should find this amusing. My roommate and boyfriend think these people are the funniest ever to live it seems. I can’t say I feel that way… but it’s a good giggle-inducer.

Well, I hope that brightened your day a little! It’s rainy and cruddy over here today, again. Mer. So I’m here eating a delicious brownie somebody in my family made (chocolate with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, yeah…) and making some strawberry lemonade. Actually, Kiley and I finished the lemonade so now I’m sitting here enjoying it. Soak in with your eyes.

Le-mon-aide

It’s pretty good if I do say so myself. The only thing I would change about it is that I couldn’t find one of those mesh strainer things in my kitchen, so there’s kind of a plethora of seeds in the drink. It doesn’t change the flavor or anything though, just adds a little crunch to the mix. I even went so far as to try and pour the strawberry sauce in those coffee strainers or whatever they’re called but the mix was too thick .. I get an A for effort at least. Take a peep at the recipe below if you so desire.

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Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade
Yields: about 6.5 cups of lemonade

Fresh Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:
1 dry pint fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled (or maybe a little more)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons cold water

Lemonade Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup very hot water
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4-1/2 cups cold seltzer or sparkling water

Optional Accoutrements:
lemon juice and sugar for glass rims
sprigs of fresh mint
fresh strawberries
slices of lemon
crushed ice
bendy straws!

Directions:
Make strawberry sauce: In a food processor or blender, puree the berries, sugar, lemon juice and water until smooth. Strain the berry mixture into a clean bowl and discard the seeds. Stir in additional sugar, if needed. Cover and refrigerate until used.

Make lemonade: In a pitcher, combine the sugar and hot water and stir until the sugar has dissolved into a syrup. Stir in the lemon juice and cold seltzer water. Add the strawberry sauce and stir to combine. Pour over ice into tall glasses rimmed with sugar (dip rims into lemon juice and then sugar). Garnish with fresh strawberries and other accoutrements, if using. Strawberry lemonade keeps at least 3 days in the refrigerator.
(credit given)

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So, here’s a random decision I have made. I have been craving to have my own house in the last year or so. Living with my roommates this year was nice and all, but I want a real house that I can decorate and make my own and such, yah know? Obviously, I am aware that this can’t happen until after I graduate college – most likely years after that, considering the shit economy we have currently. Oh well. Either way I am constantly storing cool house ideas in my brain, and my newest one is goats! And of course chickens.

I’ve had the idea in my head that I want chickens since the beginning of this year. I was house sitting for a woman who had about 8 chickens (all females) and they were so easy to take care of! Literally all I had to do was make sure they were safe in the barn at night, collect their eggs daily, and let them out in the morning when I went to take care of the horses. I didn’t even have to give them food or water since it was done for the week. So I mean, why should anyone not have chickens? Think about it.. they aren’t very expensive to purchase and upkeep is cheap as well. Chicken food is dirt cheap, and I also read today that chickens eat chicken egg shells! How convenient is that?! The chickens lay the eggs, you eat them, save the shells and feed it back to the chickens for the extra protein that is necessary for their diet. You can tell if a chicken needs more protein if the shell is super fragile or altogether missing. It’s a self-sustaining system and I think it’s awesome. Other than food and water, all you need to do is have a yard (it doesn’t even have to be big) and build a shed for them to sleep in at night save from hungry mouths. Just make sure they have the proper diet, or you won’t really get too many eggs to eat on the daily. I know eggs aren’t too expensive or anything, but think of the money you could save over a long period of time if you are solely using the eggs your pets lay. Pretty cool, eh?

** just beware though: if you have all girls, the eggs will be edible, but if you have a rooster who is fertilizing the eggs, you will be eating baby chicks, which in my book is not cool. So stick to having all ladies, or keep the babies to increase your flock. **

So, besides chickens I also want at least one goat. Preferably two, because if I were a goat I would want a friend to keep me company. At my house right now, we have two pet goats: Deianira and Samson, and they’re kind of hilarious. We’re pretty sure Deianira has a brain tick or something, she’s a bit special. We love her though, so it’s all good. They’re called Pigmy goats so they’re smaller than usual, but they still get darn fat. Anyway, while reading about how you should feed eggshells to chickens, I read about what you can feed goats… and they eat everything! Sometimes they can be dumb enough to eat non-edible things (Deianira chews on shoe strings and anything she can get her mouth around), but you can feed them all food scraps besides eggshells. They’ll even eat orange peels and lemon rinds. It may be just me and those who like being eco-friendly and sustainable and stuff, but it’s so cool that all my food scraps can be used to feed pet goats! Less money for goat food, and less nonsense that goes into the garbage disposal (= saving energy) and the landfills. I’m not saying that I like goats immensely or anything, but they can be cool and it just is my cup of tea to have a house that doesn’t add to the destruction of the earth.

Deianira

Samson & Deianira

Totes McGoats

Now, aren’t they precious? They are much fatter and bigger now, but I mean… that’s what happens when things aren’t babies anymore. Boo.

Well, I’m going to go do something now. I have my first day of my internship tomorrow! Stay tuned. Eeeeee.

Rainy, Sunday Afternoon

Rain, rain, rain.
It’s pretty vile out right now, this weather is screwy!

Anyway, hello peeps. I’m now blogging as a 21-year old. Wooooo. My birthday was Thursday and I’m loving it. Funny thing though is I haven’t once been carded since the big two-one and I’ve been to a liquor store, a bar and ordered drinks at restaurants. Nonsense, but I don’t hate it.

Besides the birthday, I haven’t been up to much. I had my first day of work today… for a whooping two hours (workin’ hard), because my sisters graduated high school today!! Congrats Kiley and Brenna I’m so proud of you guys. We’ve had a hell of a year, and this was definitely a significant load off of their shoulders, I’m sure. Then I promptly stuffed my face with Filet Mignon at Yokohama Steakhouse, nomnomnom. I recommend going there for anyone who hasn’t been before, the foods super tasty and it’s never been crowded when I’ve eaten there.

I start my internship at Dig Boston on Tuesday! I’m super excited, especially since that means I’ll be spending my Tuesday nights from here on out in Boston, holla. I really need to get more hours at my work though, so hopefully that happens. If not, I’m going to go broke about halfway through Europe, if that.
Speaking of Europe, I need to get a move on with my travel book. I have like two pages left in Austria and then I’ll report back to you guys; maybe I’ll be closer to deciding where I want to go when I actually get across the pond.

Max and I cooked a full meal yesterday! We made Triple Berry Salad and Brown Sugar Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce. Both = fantastic. I’ll add the recipes below so you can re-create the meal if you so desire. You won’t regret it. There were only two minor issues we had; one being the close call of mixing the wrong ingredients and the second was kind of funny. We got our signals crossed and I put the chickens in the oven before they were supposed to go in; thankfully the issue was realized 5 minutes into the cooking so crisis averted. Someday I’ll be able to cook sans errors, I swear!

The Goods

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Triple Berry Salad

raspberries
strawberries, cut in half or quartered if they are large
blackberries or blueberries
blue cheese crumbles
spinach
1 package glazed walnuts
Girard’s Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing or Brianna’s Poppy Seed dressing

Wash the berries.  Cut the strawberries in half, or if they are large, cut them into quarters.  Wash and dry the spinach.  In a large bowl, place a layer of spinach and then a layer of berries.  Top with some blue cheese crumbles and glazed walnuts.  Repeat the layers as you like.  Serve with salad dressing.

Brown Sugar Chili Chicken

2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried minced garlic
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbs olive oil
8 chicken legs or wings
1/3 cup roasted red pepper, chopped
2 oz goat cheese
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs sour cream

Preheat oven to 425.

In a plastic bag, or a bowl,  combine the first 7 ingredients. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and rub to coat. Add the chicken to the bag (or bowl) and toss or shake bag until well coated.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, turn the chicken over, and continue to bake until cooked through, about 10-15 additional minutes (depending on the thickness of your chicken).

In a food processor, add the roasted red pepper, goat cheese salt and sour cream, process until well combined.

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Well, I think I’m going to go and try to train my brain a little bit – go here to do the same and we can compare notes. Peace out girl scouts.