Thursday morning - Brooklyn

I stayed in Brooklyn last night with Lizzie and Christian. This is how my room looked this morning when I woke up. It was such a lovely time.

Indie Films

Do my eyes deceive me?

So cool for the Gaslight Anthem...
I'm sure this was a dream come true - for Brian in particular.

The 59 Sound - Bruce Springsteen & Gaslight Anthem( Glasto )
by runawaydream

My home & love of my life - stars...
The Gaslight Anthem "The '59 Sound"

There's a new site in town

There's a new food website out called Good Bite. It's a collaboration of food bloggers showing food & recipes as "...delicious made easy." The little bit of browsing I've done has already proven fruitful (pun intended). I've already got a new quick-dinner recipe lined up for a night when I'm too tired/lazy after my commute to get elaborate. I'll be going back for more, no doubt.



Good Bite is brought to you by Deca TV. Go check them out!

Say goodbye to an icon

Kodak will retire its stock of Kodachrome.


Photo courtesy of The Kodachrome Project

Father's Day - 21 June 2009

Quintessential Lake


My apple and the tree he fell from - so thankful for that


Spying


Shucking fresh from the farm, Dirty Jersey, corn


The If Only... is the only place to be


Finding lost things on the roof


The next generation - sadly missing Jimmy O'


Smiling? I hope so...


Sean & Nathan - keepin' it youthful


Dads


I think my own dad would have liked it here. He was with me in spirit.

I heart Chocolate

We went to the Lake for Father's Day. It was a laid back, pot-luck affair. (Thankfully it did NOT rain!! I'm beginning to think we live in the Pacific Northwest and not NJ) My contributions were a quinoa dish and brownie bites - both vegan and gluten-free. My recipes came from THE Gluten-free Goddess herself, Karina Allrich. I have to say, her blog is one of my all-time favorite places to visit and I go there almost daily. Karina is a fount of knowledge, not to mention a hilarious and witty story teller. You're not only guaranteed great recipes but also a hearty dose of laughter.

I had to modify the brownie recipe to exclude the blueberries. Otherwise, there is no way on this green earth that M would have ingested a single one. He's not a fan of blueberries, to say the very least. This allowed me to up the chocolate chip content though, and I don't think anyone complained about that. Plus, instead of using a half-cup of water, I added some left over coffee and it was more like a half-cup of coffee water - to enhance the flavor of the chocolate.

Here's my endeavor...



I copied the recipe onto some scrap paper - but I'll be printing this out to add to my binder - it's most DEFINITELY a keeper!















Not the most beautiful photos to illustrate such a tasty treat, but I did my best. And, of course I forgot to take photos of the quinoa dish - but if you want to see how lovely it can be - please skip on over to Karina's when you're done here. You won't be sorry.

Can you find your phone number?

Back from the days before the internet and needing to dial the area code first. Oh yeah, and mobile phones.

Two for two

In the spring M said he'd like for us to go camping on the Outer Banks once every month until the fall. We managed to squeak in our May trip on the very last weekend of the month, this time traveling with friends.








This little green guy tried to get a ride home with us the next day but we thought it best that he stay behind. We'll see you at A9 another time, friend.

Memorial weekend baking

I made some cookies and cupcakes over the Memorial Day weekend. The cookie recipe is from Elana's Pantry. I modified it by using almond meal instead of almond flour. The cookies were good (or "not bad" according to M - and you don't even know what a HUGE compliment this is considering the past disasters that are my gluten-free cookies) - they had a distinct texture from using meal over flour. I would bake them again and try it with the almond flour. Next time they'll be better.








Then I made cupcakes for Tini's birthday... THESE were DELICIOUS!!! Tini said they were the best I've ever made. I used the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and subbed out the All-purpose flour with Gluten-free Bob's Redmill blend and added some Xanthan gum. I also used almond milk and not soy. I added a few other ingredients in the form of spices - but I'm keeping that a secret. I made ganache for the frosting but I forgot to take a photo of it and I also forgot to photograph a finished cupcake. I was traveling with them and didn't do the final assembly until much later at a party - and by that time I was drunk, so there you go.

I wish I could have one of these in my backyard

I sometimes wonder if I'm turning into a hippie? It's not that I'm all for free-love and psychotropics - it's more like I'm into trying to do things for myself, be more sustainable, get off the grid as much as a person living in a town like I do, can. I guess that would be my punk ethos then, yeah?

This fantastic contraption would go some of the way towards achieving that goal - don't you think?




What the hell is that you might ask? It's an Eglu, that's what!
As per Omlet, the UK company that designs and distributes this brilliance -

"We designed the eglu for the town garden, the first time chicken owner, the family and the eco-savvy individual. We wanted it to be as easy as looking after a goldfish but more rewarding than owning a dog (you get eggs with chickens!). Keeping a couple of chickens in your garden doesn't require a large investment of money or time, but you do get fantastic tasting eggs and a good feeling inside."

Alas, my very small backyard (I don't even think we have the required space) and lack of private area (due to our easement) prevents me from being able to have things like a chicken coop. Maybe when we move to Hawaii? Not maybe - definitely!

So mosey on over to Omlet UK and check them out!

photos courtesy of Omlet UK

One of my worst fears...

The journalist and record keeper inside of me couldn't help but document this.
This is a neighbor's house across the street from me.
It's shot from my attic window.
Thankfully no one in the house, human or animal, was hurt.
Even though they've lived there for several years, we don't know them very well.
I hope only the best for them.

Support your local surf photographer

I've been a fan of Brian Bielmann's work for a long time. On your travels around the internets, please go check him out here and here.

Beware the Potty Mouth

Not necessarily a good thing to play if you're at work or if you have kids in the room... But definitely play it SOMETIME. It's HILARIOUS!!!!

The Bouncing Souls: 20th Anniversary TV Spectacular Vol. 1 (Altpress.com Exclusive) from Alternative Press on Vimeo.

Walk back a way...

15 July 1989


1992, Landlord's worst nightmare


1994, Hasn't changed a bit

Aunt Jean...

8 May 2009
We'll miss you. The If Only... will be a little bit lonely without you.
Thanks for giving us such a beautiful day in your honor.

Looking at fish is relaxing

There are worse views from a hospital window... at least there was the koi pond.

Composting

Another thing we did during the weekend was build my composter. Jon lent me this great DIY book called "Making Stuff and Doing Things" by Kyle Bravo and Jenny LeBlanc and we used it for inspiration.


Checkin' out the book...

















Tom and Joy made up a nice spread and invited us to have lunch with them...






















All done...

It's finally warm enough to fire up the grill!

Last weekend, the 25th and 26th of April, had unseasonably warm, Summer-like temperatures. It was kind of crazy how it went from barely Spring straight into weather you'd find in mid-July.

Saturday the 25th we and a bunch of friends went to see Thomas Campbell's "The Present" at the Paramount Theatre. It's one of the best surf movies I've seen in a long time and our friend Jon wrote a nice piece about it on his expn blog.

After the movie a few of us went back to our house and had the first official BBQ of the season. Jon cooked up a bunch of veggie burgers and tofu dogs, I cracked open a bottle of Vino Verde for me and Dana and we sat around on beach chairs laughing and having a good time.






I love warm weather.

i guess this is really birthday week

When I got home from work the other night I found all this amazing stuff on the kitchen table complete with a beautiful hand-made birthday card from Kate and Christina. It's a whole bunch of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flours, a bag of dairy, soy and gluten-free chocolate chips and a little piece of paper telling me that the new Babycakes cookbook has been ordered for me. What a birthday it's been!


Photo courtesy of www.babycakesnyc.com

When I went to SF last month, Stephanie had given me an early b-day present of a powdered sugar shaker and patterned templates for when I bake cakes, like my recent favorite, from Karina's Kitchen.

I have the greatest, most thoughtful, most loving group of friends that a girl could ever hope for. Lots & TONS of Happy Friday love to all of them. (And I'm not even drunk!)

Now I'm off to finally write Stephanie that email I've been trying to send all week...

birthday weekend

I'm going out on a limb and saying this might have been the best birthday weekend I've ever had. I got a starfish and uninterrupted time with my most favorite person in the world as gifts.

Do they really know what they're saying?

Outside of Cakewrecks, I think this is the funniest thing I've seen on the web in ages.

David Shuster fills in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown Monday, 13 April 2009... He's commenting on the Republicans and the Tea Bagging Parties they're having around the country on tomorrow, 15 April 2009 - tax day.
You MUST, MUST, MUST watch this video. Your inner 12-year old wishes it so.



h/t to Think Progress

Please read more about the subject here.

one more

my favorite person in the whole world

some recent photos

charity: water

I should be doing this big work project right now but I need to let you know about this exhibit that's currently in my building at The Chelsea Market. It's by the organization charity: water. It's to raise money and awareness for sustainable, fresh, clean water for people around the world.

The photographs hanging around the Market are beautiful and the information is, well... informative.


Photo courtesy of Charity: Water

This photo is of the wishing well where you can chuck your change.

Please check out their website or stop on by The Market to see the exhibition, which is up until the end of May.

Thanks for looking!