23

23 will always be a memorable birthday for me, I am sure. It started out great, forecasts for flurries in the afternoon, a lunch date with a sweet friend, coworkers who brought me flowers and cake. Amazing. I woke up, Skyped with my mom and opened their gifts like I always did when I was a kid, and headed off to work.

By the time it reached 12:45, my friend and I were finishing up lunch and our lattes (by the way, lavender latte? Insane.) and it had just started to snow. I guess all of Durham got the memo that it was going to be a bad one, because between dropping her off at her apartment and getting on the road ten minutes later, I found myself in a traffic jam that would last for four hours. Mind you, my new drive to work usually takes me 20 minutes tops. So crazy! Things got pretty desperate in my Civic when my gas light came on three and a half hours into my trek, but thank Jesus I made it home to poor Brandon, who had run to the store to get a few supplies just in case our power went out (and a ton of stuff for an AMAZING birthday dinner), and had been waiting outside of my apartment for me to get there for over an hour. Like I said, it was real crazy out there.

When we finally did make it inside and warm, the day got so much better. We enjoyed the snow from the comfort of my couch, ate tuna tataki (our absolute favorite) and smores (my favorite) and watched the world outside get more and more white as the night went on. We drank hot cocoa and watched movies. From that point on, it was perfect.

It's crazy thinking about all of the things that will happen this year while I'm 23! B and I will get married, move into our first apartment, get a dog (please??) and figure out what life as a Goodman looks like. I am so so grateful, remembering where I was this time last year and knowing where I will be next year this time. Even though I succumb to stress like every other human ever, I am so grateful for this life, for this time.

xoxo,

Abby

lunch: shrimp noodle bowl

The other day I was home from work, not feeling so good. I wanted something warm and comforting and fast for lunch, because my energy was a little low. This noodle bowl did the trick with a couple of super simple steps!

Shrimp Noodle Bowl
Serves 1 (or two small portions)

4 oz. rice noodles
1/2 cup broccoli slaw (mine was from Trader Joes)
3 tbs. soyaki (or your favorite teriyaki sauce)
6-8 precooked shrimp

1. Boil water and cook the rice noodles according to package directions (mine took 6 minutes).
2. In a medium-sized pan, toss the broccoli slaw with 1 tbs. vegetable oil until bright green and just a little tender over medium/medium high heat.
3. Add the noodles, shrimp and soyaki and toss to coat, letting it cook until heated through and noodles begin to absorb the sauce.

Serve in a big bowl with sesame seeds, sriracha, and seaweed flakes.

Enjoy this quick lunch,

Abby

life of pies

A few weeks ago, I had a craving for pie. Pies are by far my favorite dessert, to be sure, and there's just something wholesome and satisfying about pulling a pie out of the oven. So I went a little crazy, and had pie for dinner too, as quiche!

If you do not currently own a cookbook by Mollie Katzen, you are missing out, dear friend. My two favorites of hers are the Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I always have so much respect, as a former vegetarian, for cooks who can make delicious meals where you don't even miss the meat. I recently also made the Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie from TEBF and it was equally as amazing.

The basic, easy formula for quiche is this (according to Mollie):

1. Get yourself a delicious crust
2. Spread/sprinkle/layer a bunch of cheese on the bottom to act as a moisture barrier for your eggs
3. Add herbs and veggies (I used oregano, thyme, spinach, mushrooms and cheated with some tiny pancetta cubes. Worth it).
4. Add egg mixture overtop of everything
5. Bake!

For exact recipes for these quiche and the apple custard pie at the top, I definitely encourage you to check out Mollie Katzen. Going into pie season (aka fall, duh), you will be happy you did.

What kind of flavor combinations will you try in your quiche?

lots of love,

Abby

(P.S. - Mollie Katzen did not sponsor this post. She is just that amazing)

sushi bowls!

Call me crazy, but I think in another life I was Japanese.

...

Ok so sushi! We all love it (well, most of us do...right Regan?), we all hate how the good stuff is so expensive, we all can't look cute and go out to eat all of the time, amirite? Enter: the sushi bowl. Deconstructed sushi. In a bowl. And then in your stomach.

This would be such fun food for a dinner party because it's so customizable! Literally take whatever ingredients you normally like in your sushi, put it over a bed of rice, and add your favorite seasonings. I kept this version sweet and simple. I could also see it being amazing with rice vinegar instead of teriyaki sauce, cucumbers, strawberries, pineapple, ginger, wasabi, raw tuna or salmon, daikon, crumbled nori sheets, lime mayo, you get the picture.

Sushi bowls (makes one)

1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 large carrot, chopped lengthwise
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 green onion, whites only, sliced and minced
2 "legs" imitation crab meat, diced
And to taste:
Sesame seeds
Sriracha
Soy sauce
Teriyaki sauce
Light mayo
Ponzu (fish sauce)

Layer ingredients in a bowl over hot or cold rice. Nom so hard.

xoxo.

Abby

crockpot "husband" beef stew

Every time I use my crockpot, I can't believe that I don't use it more often. A serious thought went through my head as I was eating the other night that I should give it a hug. This is while I was home alone by myself though, as a disclaimer. And sometimes when I'm home alone in my apartment things get weird.


Anyways! This stew. You guys. It was roughly adapted from a recipe I found here, and I was super nervous putting it together that all of the little tweaks I had made to it were going to be weird. BUT OH MAN. This stew gets its name because my roommate walks in, eats a bowl and exclaims, "You have to teach me how to make this so I can get a husband." (Jokes on jokes, do you see any husbands in this apartment?)

There is something really magical about beef that gets so happy and tender from being cooked in broth for eight hours straight. There is also something magical about my crockpot's "Keep warm" feature which doesn't keep my longer-than-I-would-like-but-it's-ok-because-I-listen-to-NPR commute from allowing me to enjoy my stew hot even though the timer ended two hours before. But I digress.

Crockpot "Husband" Beef Stew

**Note: Use organic ingredients whenever possible. I used organic beef, tomatoes, beef stock and carrots in this recipe and I am starting to believe that they make a huge difference in flavor!

1.5 lbs stew meat
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
4 medium carrots, chopped
1.5 lbs yellow potatoes, chopped
2 cups beef stock
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
a generous shaking of Italian seasoning

Combine all ingredients except for beef stock in a gallon-sized zip lock bag. Freeze. When you're ready to make the stew (aka the next morning) take the bag out of the freezer, dump into your crockpot and pour the beef stock over. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. If possible, stir a few times throughout the day to make sure the flavors are distributing evenly, but don't stress if you can't.

Bon appetit! I know that this recipe is going to be amazing this fall! I can't wait!

xoxo. Abby

watermelon mint juice

Sunday night after my parents left and Brandon was prepping for a busy week of med school, I needed a little pick me up. I had a ton of watermelon in my fridge that my mom had helped me cut up, and I had some mint I had bought that afternoon. The result: a beautiful, beautiful, watermelon-y and minty marriage. Can we talk about why watermelon juice isn't a thing just for a second? I'm dumbfounded.

I had been seeing watermelon drinks all over the internet recently (see here for an amazing example) and had had an AMAZING watermelon and gin cocktail on Brandon and I's anniversary. This was just a simple version of those two, it's almost embarrassing to call a recipe. But it is completely delicious and would also be amazing served at a summer party in a cocktail with gin or maybe tequila.

Serves 1

2.5 cups chopped watermelon
1.5 tbsp chopped mint (this is a pretty strong mint flavor. Start with a leaf or two and add more if you desire!)

Blend watermelon & mint together. If you are worried about the foam separating, strain through a very fine mesh strainer to remove. This time, I chose not to, but I would recommend that if you aren't serving immediately.

This drink feels like summer. And savor summer, because fall is so soon here! (And I can't lie, I'm pretty stoked about it)

xoxo.

Abby

broiled green figs + goat cheese and honey

This week, and every week since he has started work, Brandon has been working a lot of nights, leaving me to fend for dinners for myself. Cooking dinners for just one person can be kind of awkward the way that most recipes are portioned, and so I have started getting creative. I also now live less than ten minutes away from a Trader Joe's, which makes me way more happy than I can even describe, and the marriage of these two circumstances creates this wonderful and simple dessert.

Green figs are slightly less sweet than their more common, black fig brothers, but broiling them brings out a lot of their natural sweetness! The crumbly goat cheese adds a wonderful tart counterpart to the honey. It's magic on a plate, people. And it takes about 10 minutes to put together, so it makes a simple and elegant dessert for more complex dishes or, like me, a dinner that needs a little luxury.

Green Figs, Goat Cheese and Honey

Serves one/ Total time: 10 minutes

6 green figs, halved
2 oz. crumbled goat cheese
2 tbsp. orange blossom honey*

Preheat your oven's broiler to high and adjust the oven rack to its highest notch. On a baking sheet, layout fig halves and crumble your goat cheese on top. (You can do this on aluminum foil for easy clean up.) Place the baking sheet on the top rack and broil until figs are softened and goat cheese has lightly browned and slightly melted, about 5 minutes. Immediately remove from oven and transfer to a plate. Drizzle with honey and serve while warm.

*Orange blossom honey may be substituted for clover honey, but I love the stronger flavor of the orange blossom in this recipe.

You won't regret it!

Happy dining,

Abby

TWO AMAZING WEEKENDS: PART 2

Alright, folks. Here's the good stuff. This kid and I had a surprise weekend! Meaning, I was super sneaky and talked to his med school friends online waaaaay back in February and found out which weekends would be good to visit in April and then bought a plane ticket real hush hush and called him three hours before on Thursday night and told him to come get me from the airport.

That's the gist of it anyways :)

On Friday, I had some meetings and ran errands while Brandon was in class, and then that night we went to a carnival put on by UNC med and out to dinner in Carrboro. We decided to be a little fancy and ate at ACME, a first for both of us, and had some of the best butter beans we've ever had with Brandon's fried chicken. I decided, heck, let's do something crazy! And ordered guinea hen. I still am not totally sure what guinea hen is...but I liked it. A lot.

Walking around the area some was really fun, and made me more excited to some exploring with Brandon soon.

On Saturday, we went to go do some work at Straw Valley Cafe, a new favorite study spot for Brandon, a beautifully restored property that was filled with beautiful art and was one of the coolest places to hang out that I have ever been. It's also absurdly close to Brandon's current apartment, and I know that we will be going back here many times in the future. Being in a creative space like that was amazing inspiration for me as I worked on my first (and hopefully last?) visual resume for a job interview that I had on Monday.

The rest of our time that weekend was spent destroying season 4 of Parks & Rec and eating calzones (What beach week diet?). Every time we get opportunities to just hang out together like we did, it gets us more excited for the future, and think back to how we used to take that kind of time for granted at Vandy. It is so sweet, for sure. Oh, we also made a quick trip Sunday night to The Crunkleton. That was awesome.

In other news, classes are officially over, and I am officially an alumni of my sorority. Wut. Post-Rites of Spring they are starting to construct the graduation stage, and it finally started hitting me last night at senior chapter that this is actually happening folks. I am about to graduate from college.

More thoughts on that later. For now, I need to go eat Qdoba and listen to the new Melodores CD on repeat. Happy Tuesday!

Abby

CHICAGO SPRING BREAK: ASB 2013 (LET YOUR LOVE GROW TALL)

Oh, Chicago.

This spring break, my last in my undergraduate career, was spent with eleven other Vandy students in the Windy City thanks to a little organization called Alternative Spring Break. Or, as so many prefer to call it, ASB. ASB as an organization started at Vanderbilt in the 1980's and has become a model for dozens of other alternative break organizations across the country. The whole idea behind it is that instead of spending time on the beach or a cruise during your week off, that you would choose to spend it doing service and working alongside one of 39 sites helping others across the country. I went for the first time last year as a junior, and have been so amazed at the experiences that I had in Talladega, AL and now in Chicago, IL thanks to these trips and the people that came with me.

Our particular trip focused on community gardening in the East Garfield Park community in Chicago. Angela, the main contact for the service we did during the week, started a community garden in a vacant lot next to her house a few years ago, and her passion has sprouted into many community gardens throughout the neighborhood, focusing on sustainability and urban farming for the unification and betterment of the areas that they live. East Garfield Park is in every way a food desert with limited access to fresh and healthy produce, a concept I was first exposed to through the Nashville Mobile Market, and so being a part of a healthy food movement, even for just a week, was an awesome experience.

As you could imagine, gardening in Chicago in March during a week where eight inches of snow fell on the ground was pretty interesting. One day we showed up to a community garden and attempted to relocate raised beds of soil, only to find that the soil inside was frozen solid (it made for some funny pictures, that's for sure). But outside of laying mulch and shoveling snow, we also had a chance to work as a group inside of Angela's greenhouse (pictured above) and the East Garfield Park Conservatory.

Needless to say, this place was gorgeous. Walking inside from the snow was always a kind of shock compared to its humid, warm temperature, but definitely a welcome one. During the week we helped to de-bud about a bazillion azaleas to encourage next year's growth, worked with a lot of sassy succulent cuttings and cleaned a few of the ponds inside where fish live. Can I just say, too, that succulents are such cool plants? Never would I have thought I'd fall in love with cacti, but a few of us from the site already have plans to go visit a local nursery and get us some of these wonderful little plants.

The last day we spent before the week was out was down in downtown, visiting the Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile. My childhood dreams came true when we stumbled upon the American Girl Doll store on Michigan Avenue, and I fell in love with Argo Tea and Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza, pretty much making it the perfect ending to this ASB adventure.

For us, it was one week during the middle of March. We got to go back home to Nashville to our cars and our grocery stores and Whole Foods and meal plans, but for the residents of East Garfield Park, this was their life. Living in this community during the week, going to their Save A Lot and shoveling snow off of their streets made me so grateful for the food access and safe community that I take for granted so often. It also gave me a whole new perspective on health and how your diet can have a dramatic impact on the way that you are able to live your life, and how access to these good foods is still somehow an issue for so many parts of this country, and a huge disparity that needs addressing. As ASB has so consistently done for me before, I came away from this service changed and grateful, and with eleven new friends.

To everyone that came with me on this trip, thank you. For not giving up during Sardines, for a million camp games and a ton of delicious dinners, for sharing your Life Maps, for awesome car playlists, for sharing my obsession with Argo tea, for mulching and shoveling and interacting with the East Garfield Park community and doing it alongside me. You made this a truly unforgettable spring break this year, and I can't wait for more ASBonding this weekend!

Chicago, Let Your Love Grow Tall, you have my heart.

I would hug you, but apparently we don't do hugs around here.
Abby :)