long live the chickpea!

today, i tossed canned garbanzo beans in vegetable oil, kosher salt, ground cumin, and cayenne pepper. i spread 'em out on a sheet pan and toasted them for 30 minutes. then i tossed in some toasted almonds and let 'em bake for another 2-3 minutes. then i had a darn tasty snack.

i'm bagging up these puppies and smuggling them into sex and the city this weekend.

i substituted almonds for pistachios because i didn't want to shell the ones we had. and i didn't add thyme because i didn't have any. but the great thing about this recipe is that you could probably season the chickpeas with anything and they'd taste good. crunchy and toasty. yum!

and what do you call em? chickpeas or garbanzo beans?

pushing 30

so, like i said in my last post, as of yesterday i'm on match. and already it's a lot of work...and i'm not even talking about the writing my profile or choosing pictures part. it's the responding and stuff. the winks, the ims, the emails. i get everyone confused and it's not even that many dudes.

but really, every profile i read was pretty generic, boring, or cliche. or just downright poorly written. not that i'm the grammar police or anything. but seriously, do people read books anymore? i was equally interested in the photos...not just for what they looked like, but for what images they chose. whether it looked like they took pictures of themselves with a camera phone all day (lo-ser), whether they had 10 shots of them bare chested (ick). whether they've traveled and whether they had pictures with family and friends. personality comes across much more in pictures, it's a shame so many people don't take better advantage of it.

anyway, enough about my rant. i really am going into this with a positive attitude. so far, so good. no crazy trolls....yet.

what this post was meant to be about was how easy it was to write my profile. (though obviously we'll have to see if it is at all effective) maybe i've had enough practice. or maybe i just know myself that much better. i guess that's what being close to 30 does for you. pushing 30 also means crows feet. as i noticed when selecting recent photos of myself. and surprisingly, it didn't bother me.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again. i think 30 is going to be a good year.

_laughoutloud_

i'm on match.com


hahahahahahahahahahaha....

for reals.

a cooking coup

*just a note, blogger is being lame. it let me change my header but it won't let me change my colors etc. boooo blogger.*

anyway, this weekend was bay to breakers. which i did not run. for the 2nd year in a row. and all my family asked me about it. boooo me. i honestly don't know what it is about my running slump, going on several, several months now. i get busy, i get inspired. i get busy, then i go to crap. i haven't whined about it in awhile, because i mean really, who likes a whiner? i don't. but still it isn't enough to get me motivated. some days i cut myself slack. i tell myself that running isn't the only thing in my life and i am not defined by whether i run or don't run. but there's a voice somewhere that say, c'mon you know you wanna...

...

in other news, i spent a lot of time in the kitchen and a lot of time with family this weekend. both excellent things. at the risk of sounding totally mushy, my family makes me so happy. it's funny to me that i spent my whole life wanting to get out, get away, be on my own and now with them, i am the happiest i have been in a long, long while. i spent all this time trying to find my place, find my life, when it was here all along. it wasn't enough just being me. i'm much happier also being a daughter, and a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter. and quiet suburban life is really starting to grow on me. it's crazy, i know.

as for my cooking coup, i made homemade caesar dressing. which sounds easy enough. and it was. but i have this thing with caesar dressing. i scour high and low for the restaurants with the best caesar dressing...made with real anchovies. not the sour, vinegary crap. and so far i've found only 2 restaurants with to die for dressing. one by the beach i go to, over an hour away, and a pizzeria in the town 10 minutes away. and sometimes 10 minutes is too far to drive. especially when you're too lazy to put on pants. so i found a recipe and figured out i had all the ingredients already in my kitchen! who knew! and let me tell you it was the bomb! (do people still say that?)

i also broke in the new mini muffin tims by making mini quiches! everything tastes better mini. and you totally lose track of how many you eat. among the fillings: roasted red pepper chickn sausage, shredded mexican cheese, spinach, scallions, and dill havarti. yes, dill havarti. yum. i made enough quiches for dinner and a snack tomorrow. once we polish the last of them off, i'm looking to dive into the tub of marinated fresh mozzerella...

dude. i really need to get to running.

splurge

i headed west to go thrifting. in search of treasure. and to escape the heat. i didn’t find much in clothing, but i totally cleaned up in books. and mini muffin tins!
last night, i also made some "dump cake". sounds nasty, but tastes dee-vine! because it has absolutely no nutritional value. in fact, i probably clogged my arteries and gave myself diabetes all in one spoonful. to add insult to injury, i also made rice krispie treats. oh yum. my favorite. the good news is, i was bringing them to a party tonight. the bad news is, i found a recipe for apple dumplings and mousakka.

save your applause til the end

so i actually got myself into the gym today. and now i'm even more sore. the couple miles i ran don't earn me a medal or anything, but i'll take small victories anyday.

who does deserve an award, however, is my dad! yesterday he finally made the decision to retire! lucky for him he has a TON of vacation saved up (16 weeks!) and some sick leave, etc, so he's still on the company's books until september when he officially retires. my parents have worked long and hard, and he finally let himself take a break as this is the year my baby brother graduates from college. after 30 years of service, my dad definitely deserves it! GO DAD!

he's been talking about finally getting some exercise in his old age, so he's coming with me to the gym on saturday for "guest day". we'll just see how that goes :)

riddle me this

what heats your core and makes your muscles quiver?,

what leaves you so hot and sweaty that you can feel your energy pulsing from within.?

what makes your breath deepen while a smile of contentment creeps across your face?

what feels so good you never want it to end?

...

...

it's been a long time my friends, but the reunion was sweet. the yoga class was only this morning, but i'm already sore. the good kind of sore, but my tune might change tomorrow. all i know is, sun salutations are the perfect way to start the day.

whoa! that went fast!

so april was gone in the blink of an eye.

i've been up to a lot lately, just nothing i care to blog about. sometimes, you just don't want things on the internet, ya know? not 'cause it's like secret or private. i would have no problem blabbing to ya'll about it in person. so if you want the dirt, you're just gonna have to make it out here and we can talk about it over some beers. or dirty martinis, which i have recently discovered.

i've been checking in sporadically on y'all as you run/swim//bike your hearts out! eventually, i'll be back up and running sometime soon.

but in the meantime, i've got lots of other stuff a-brewin'!

:) take care kids!