remembering how to ride

In high school I often road my bike to school in the morning so that I could ride it to HSU after school for swimming.  The ride from my high school to the university wasn't too hard.  Pretty much down hill with a short, but steep up hill right before reaching the cavern that was the university pool.  My face would be a bit flushed from that last push {must NOT stop, I'd think with each peddle shove down} but it was nothing like today, 10+ years later.

Today my ride to the pool was much shorter - just about 5 minutes to the little community pool - but my legs and lungs betrayed me.  A two minute sped down hill from my house became an abrupt climb a moment later.  Hitting the near vertical hill right before the pool I tried to keep going but ended up pushing my bike the last 15 yards.  My face was more than a little flushed when I panted my way through the front doors.

The ride home after squeezing in 2000 yards of back and forth in the pool proved to be just as challenging.  I flew down the hill by the pool.  At the stop sign at the bottom I could see my two choices.  Straight would be shorter but would require riding up a winding wall.  Right would entail a "gentler" climb.  I turned right.

Not so bad, I thought after the first block congratulating myself on making the best decision.  I even had enough composure to smile at the biker headed down the hill.  And then things went south.  I shifted to my lowest gear.  Each peddle made my things scream out.  My face must have been a shinny tomato red - the heat I could feel rising off it.  Sweat was rapidly exiting my body through every pore.  My breaths were ragged, gasping and searing my lungs.  But I kept moving ever slowly forward.  Turned the corner and the road was almost amazingly level.  Still my breathing came in big gulps and my legs were unsteady rubber bands as I pulled up to the garage.  Home.

I don't remember ever feeling this beat when I was riding my bike in high school.  Must really be getting old now.  Here's hoping I make it through the rest of the day at work without a spontaneous uncontrolled nap.  I hope the ride tomorrow hurts just a little less, but that could be hoping for too much.

it's may

Another month has rolled around bringing with it more seasonal produce treats.  And another excuse to practice some hand lettering.  {see March & April}  I turned to a google search for hand lettering examples.  There's some awesome work out there to aspire to.

But more exciting than getting to draw out another month of fruits and veggies in pretty letters?  Getting to eat said bounty.  Just this Thursday I was coming home from work - tired for a long day that followed a night with restless sleep - when I perked up remembering the small town farmer's market just waiting for me around the corner.

I hopped out of the shuttle across the street from the park lined with popup canopies covering bright gems of fresh produce.  Slowly, I walked by each stall taking it all in, wondering just what I should bring home.  I selected some plump peas and a bunch of new, multicolored carrots - lumpia dancing in my meal-planning head.  I couldn't pass up the sweetest smelling tender peaches.  As I lifted thise fourth up to my nose the woman next to me smiled and commented, "It's like a drug isn't it?"  I could only nod - too busy smelling.  The last treat to end up in my bag was a tub of garlic and rosemary almonds - so yummy.

I'll have my eye out for other fruits later this month too.  Apricots, cherries, plums, nectarines?  Yes please!

Summer Time Italian Bulgur Salad

4 Roma Tomatoes - quartered length-wise

4 Cloves Garlic - thinly sliced

Italian Seasoning

Salt

Olive Oil

1 cup Cracked Wheat Bulgur

3/4 cup Water

Olive Oil

Baby Spinach

Mozzarella - cubed

Toasted Sunflower Seeds

Preheat oven to 450.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the quartered tomatoes {skin-side down} on the lined baking sheet.  Add a slice or two of garlic to each cut side of the tomato.  Sprinkle with italian seasoning and salt and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Roast for approximately 35 minutes or until the skin begins to blacken and the tomatoes shrivel a bit.

Meanwhile, heat small amount of olive oil over medium-high heat in a small pot.  Add the bulgur and stir to coat.  Toast for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add water and turn heat down to low.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until all water has been absorbed.

To build the salad, start by dividing the bulgur between bowls and drizzle some of the dressing over it.  Cover with spinach, mozzerella and toasted sunflower seeds.  Place several toasted tomatoes on top and finish with more dressing.

The Dressing:

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Garlic Salt

Brown Sugar

Basically - just mix a splash of each.  Adjust to your taste preferences.  

sweet child of mine

When Adrianne posted about this fun contest going on at Sew Mama Sew! it couldn't help myself, but play along. Like lots of other people, upon hearing the theme for this week's contest the first thing that came to mind was the Guns N' Roses song. The goal of the contest? Pick 12 fat quarters that fit the theme. Pretty simple right?

First things first, I pulled up the lyrics because while I might be able to sing along I'm not one to quibble over getting every word completely right. But hey! If I'm gonna build a fat quarter bundle of fabrics that fit the theme I better make sure I fully "understand" the theme. And after immersing myself in the words of the song, the color that was repeated over and over was BLUE.

I remembered the Anna Maria print with the big roses - and it just so happened to have blue {with orange!}. So I was sold on that print. From there I selected fabrics I thought might go, threw them all into the pinterest board they had asked each person to create, and then tossed out the ones that didn't really play nice with the others. At first I was having trouble getting to the required 12 fabrics, but then I was having trouble narrowing it down to just 12. Oh the fun world of playing with fabric {even if it's just virtual play}!

Interested in playing along? I'm pretty sure you've still got a few more hours to get your fabric bundle picked out and entered for this week's theme. What are you waiting for?

Oh... want to see the rest of the 12 fabrics I selected? Just go here to check it out: Sew,Mama,Sew! #FatQuaterIdol Sweet Child of Mine.

{ina coolbrith} big stoppa' party

Thursday evening, at the end of the Sharks' game {play-offs game 1}, the sky began to light up with brilliant flashes and thunder rattled our windows. But the night before that the storm was only nearing the peak. The clouds were big and puffy against a cornflower blue sky. Showers throughout the day held off towards sunset. Rapid winds swept the clouds in fast forward across the sky. Perfect conditions, one might say, for the Big Stopper.

And what's the Big Stopper?? Mini photo lesson coming at ya... Photography is all about light. As you adjust the amount of light that enters the camera - this is done in "stops". Stop down one stop and you've just cut the amount of light coming in by 1/2. The Big Stopper is a almost completely black piece of glass that, when placed in front of your lens, will 1/2 the light coming into the camera 10 times! That's a tenth of a percent of the light - craziness! But that allows you to do some cool things like stretch out the shutter speed like Lukas did in the photo above. Perfect for late afternoon, windswept cloudy days.

seasonal eatin'

Another month rolled around and brought a few new items to the "In Season" this month list. Yippee for more tasty fruits! This month, I didn't go as all out with the hand lettering as last month. But it still looks cheery taped to the fridge and is a nice reminder while meal planning. With all those yummy options it's not hard to be eating seasonally. Just tonight we had cauliflower fresh from the first farmer's market of the season {at my work}. Grilled asparagus last night were awesome too.

Enjoy a couple shots from my mid day excursion to the farmer's market a short walk from my office. A fun way to capture a moment from the day.

pink sky night

Clouds rolled in. Clouds broke up just a bit. We headed out for an evening of exploring.

I guess working on catching up with my PAD project has got me thinking in really short sentences. Really short. On Sunday, Lukas and I headed up the coast to check out the Sutro Baths. We're never been there and the skies were look optimistically promising. But the winds when we got there were biting. So, we continued exploring {on foot} up the coast.

The trail just seemed to keep going and often the greenery blocked our view out to the ocean. We pressed on and made it to the trail down to Mile Rock. And from that little beach we found a labyrinth and Lands End. The sky did not disappoint the optimists. Wispy clouds pink, puff clouds with texture.

The view was impressive.

the best kind of green

A break in the weather... {yes, we're finally getting some rain this winter!} and we were up at sunrise to take advantage. But the break only meant no rain at those early morning hours and no sunrise colors made it past the cloud bank. From the pitstop in Sausalito and then the Headlands we continued north up 101. Someone left the directions in their purse at home {not pointing fingers} and winging it took us in one big circle. Loop completed, we got the right exit that took us past scenery eerily similar {yeah, big circle} and we found our way to Cataract Falls.

Gushing water was quite impressive. Yay for the rain! And the greens in the forest were really popping. Happy St. Patricks Day!

meatless monday, tapas tuesday and other such things

Two weeks ago, Lukas and I sat around meal planning and not really making much headway. We'd really been stuck for quite some time with deciding what to have for dinners. Recently, we'd been making that decission moments before I'd leave work. I'd stop at the store on the way home and that'd be that. Except that meant often repeating dinners and lack of imagination. So, back to two weeks ago...

Lukas said, "How about trying Meatless Monday?" And I said, "Sure!" And that snowballed themes for the rest of the days. Our alliterative powers were mad at work. Here's what we came up with:

• Souper Salad Sunday {go to 2:20, but the whole thing is really funny}
• Meatless Monday
• Tapas Tuesday
• Weber Wednesday
• Bizarre Bazaar Thursday
• Fryday Friday
• Wild Card Saturday

Ok, so they're not all alliterative, but you try thinking of something great to go with Thursday. And we NEEDED a wild card day. Weber Wednesday is our BBQ day and Bizarre Bazaar Thursday is our day for international fare.

We're in the second week of themed meal planning and it has made things easier. We're trying new things again and having fun doing it. Other constraints to keep us healthy{er} include only one cheesy meal a week, potatoes only twice, one soda/beer a week, and one dessert a week. Also, we're trying to eat seasonly too. Hence the "What's in season" page at the top.

Happy eatin'!

one moment::color

Uncle Will

It's been over a month since I {re}started the 365 photography challenge. Along the way my cousin Emily joined in the fun. And then we thought it would be great to have some themes to help us focus and expand our photography. The only thing was that it's hard to think up themes and then picking one is just as challenging. Good thing I married this awesome guy. Em got the list started and then Lukas helped us beef it up.

{side note: speaking of beef, just tried this recipe on skirt steak - it's awesome!}

I randomized the list and "color" popped up as our theme for the next two weeks. So that's what we'll be focusing on.

Join the fun! The awesome thing about this project is you can start any time. No need to wait for the perfect day. Just start taking pictures. And then take another the next day and then again the next day too. Just don't stop.

dinner for one...

... and lunch for the week. When Lukas headed out of town mid-week for a little photography excursion the one thing I was looking forward to was making soup. My husband, being typical of many males of his age, feels soup does not equal dinner. And really, in his opinion, it should be demoted to such a time as when we are both ancient, gumming our food with ill-fitting dentures. Such are the strong opinions that keep us from simple weeknight dinners of soup with a side of crusty bread. But when those opinions go on "vacation"... I make soup!

Let me entertain you with a brief photo essay of ... soup!

First there was the chopping. Quick work was made of an onion... not so quick work was made of the 2 pound mountain of mushrooms.

They were washed. Then I chopped and chopped and chopped.

This lazy kitty supervised {mainly through closed eyes}. It takes a long time to slice through 2 pounds of mushrooms. Surprisingly long time.

Then... season, cook, enjoy!

The details:

• Hungarian Mushroom Soup, Moosewood Cookbook
• sliced sourdough bread
• sour cream and parsley garnish