small things...

Eat you up

The weekend before Thanksgiving marked the final farmers market in Evanston until next spring.  It’s typically held indoors about 3 weeks following the last outdoor farmers market.  People STOCK UP at this market.  All the root veggies, meat, garlic, squash and greens they can get their hands on and reasonably stock in their homes.  I buy more than I can eat in a week, but not exactly enough to feed me all winter.  I went in with no plan this year and just bought what looked good.

Like these two little cuties

Sugar pumpkins are the sweet, tender and fleshy little sister of the big and mostly seedy brothers we carve up every halloween.

Weird insight into my brain: When I was in college I used to make up songs at random, and sometimes at request.  The following is a little tune I created one afternoon while gazing lovingly at a small pumpkin plant growing in our yard:

Youuuu will be a pumpkin

when Youuuuu grow up!

We’re gonna carve you up, we’re gonna scoop you out

we’re gonna stick an candle in your mouth.

the end.

This morning I turned these little sugar pumpkins into this

Chocolate chip pumpkin bread. holy yum.

I roasted the pumpkins and made my own puree for the recipe which can be found here.  I won’t eat all of this and will freeze about half.  And it will be just as good when I defrost it.  I’m actually thinking if I play my cards right the leftovers might make a slap-your-face bread pudding……nomnomnom.

xoxo

erin

Spartans win!

So I have a cousin who used to be the super cute littlest cousin of all among all these grown-up cousins before her sisters were born.  But NOW she is in college and playing women’s volleyball and kicking butt.  and now I am old.  But she isn’t!

Last night a few of the local family members got together to witness this kickass cousin (Kristen) play her game here in town against Northwestern.

Kristen is 4th from the right

 

And she apparently has a cult following bearing signs stating the obvious:

 

We were pretty into the game and it was a nail biter.  There were some lows

followed by some highs!

*The above photos may or may not have been staged

A good time was had by all.

Thanks, Kristen, for winning the game and WELCOME HOME!

xoxo

Erin

Happy Thanksgiving!!

XOXO

Erin

ps – I do not know these people.  But they have turkeys on their heads.  Therefore I am thankful for them (and that they let me take their picture). Amen.

Mr. Universe himself

Do you get Notes from the Universe sent to you email inbox daily?

Emails that say things like:

Everything is FANTASTIC, Erin!
Your life is amazing.
And money does grow on trees.

You're welcome,
    The Universe

Well, I do.  Sometimes I open up the email and I chuckle at the cuteness (read above), but every once and awhile I receive one that hits home.  Like this one:

Erin, trust yourself.

    The Universe

ps: Erin, you know.

I actually think I cried when I read this one.  The man behind the emails, Mike Dooley, was in town over the weekend promoting his new book

And I went to see him.  It was not a packed house, but it was a supercharged house and people were very excited to get to meet the man responsible for sending them daily love notes.

When Q & A time came around there was even one woman who stood up and said, “I love you…no, I really love you.”  It was cute and he was gracious.  Most of the questions to him were about fine tuning one’s intention-setting, or how could someone influence others with their own intentions.  The last one I find hilarious when it comes up in a room full of woo-woo folks.  Mike Dooley repeated over and over, “Just focus on happiness as your highest intention…don’t focus on the details.”

I found it interesting how difficult that concept is for people to take hold of…myself included.  We want happiness, but we get stuck in a chicken-or-egg scenario (the most famous catch-22 of ALL time!)  Mike Dooley pointed out that of course we want material things – we ARE material things, but that happiness is not a consequence of them.  It comes from somewhere else. 

Now I know this.  YOU know this.  But it’s still hard to accept and embody.   And that the key is action.  Like get off your ass and let the universe (or god, or elvis…whoever) meet you halfway or at the finish line, or afterwards at the post-game party.  I don’t know when the universe shows up.

This is a search I’ve been on for awhile and have written about before here and here and some other places to, but it’s taking me too long to find them so these’ll do.

For me, I have 3 major goals in my life.  Three things that I very much want my life to include.  If I’m getting his message right then the key is you work towards each goal, but remain unattached to what the outcome of each looks like – you are only interested in achieving happiness. 

Am I getting this right?  Am I too attached to the outcome of this blog post?  perhaps.  But pressing “publish” is usually followed by a feeling of happiness. So there you go.

 

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NYC and art and soda and watch your fingers, please

I was supposed to spend my birthday last March in NYC with friends.  Sidelined by this baby (read at your own risk) I was unable to make that trip.  Fast forward to this weekend and the raincheck has been cashed!

I spend a short 48 hours eating, drinking, MOMA-ing, deciphering baby-code and brunching with friends and family.  I had my camera but only captured a few pics along the way.  Here they be:

My friends Ali and Evaluna stage-right listening to story of Jackson Pollock, this painting and jazz

This Mark Rothko painting used to be my desktop image. why? why not.

Weird confession: When I first saw this up close I for a split second wished there were kittens inside. True story.

MOMA don’t play

They.Will.Cut.You

I bought this print for a wall in my home. I probably love it more then you do.

That one guy far left wants you to see what he sees, but the dude on the couch is over it.

mini-coke! I’m trying to stop drinking pop, but a mini-coke in a glass bottle is hard to pass up. I was on VACATION, people.  coca-cola sometimes happens there.

***************

It was a great trip, too short and I was lazy with the camera, but it was all worth how sleep I feel this morning. 

Now to plan a final trip for 2010. 

any suggestions?

I *heart* Kurt too

*sigh*

I think only Kurt can inspire this kind of crush-worthy moment on Glee.

but maybe also Mercedes.

Mercedes NEXT!

My Concession speech

My dear voters, what can I say? We gave it a good shot, but it appears my race to be in the Top 20 of Good Mood Bloggers has come to an end.  Today was the last day to vote and I’m about 6000 votes behind the person in 20th place (the cut-off).  To give  you a little perspective on how quickly everyone else’s votes accumulated – when I first sat down to write this little “speech” yesterday I was only 5000 votes down from that same person.

But then look at this dude. He’s got a lot of friends.

 

             vs.                        

Name: Shea                                      Name: Erin
City: Pearson, GA                             City: EVANSTON, IL
Votes: 13147                                    Votes: 279

 

Thank you so much – you who voted early and often.  You who voted from every computer she could on the college campus she works on (that was me), you who passed along my little vote-for-me icon on Facebook (Wynn, Danny, Kass, Leah and Megan…others?), you who tried to remember to vote, but probably stopped remembering – at least you voted!  THANKS to all.  I mean it. I’m totally still in a good mood. 

xoxo

erin

ps – I’m working on my own little project to take this one’s place to be announced later this week – check back!

Bread pudding #1

As promised, I am determined to find the best bread pudding recipe this winter.  I’d prefer not to eat all the bread pudding alone, so I waited until an occasion arose.  I get together with a small group of friends about once-a-month for brunch around the ruse of all reading the same book (I hear the non-reading is pretty common among “book clubs”).  It’s mostly about the getting together and eating anyhow.  This month was my turn to host and we decided to make it a dinner party instead. FUN.  And good reason to research and try out Bread pudding #1.

I knew that the bread was supposed to be stale and having not planned far enough in advance the only bread that I possessed that fit the bill was sourdough.  I wasn’t sure how this was going to work in a bread pudding, but I set out to find a worthy first recipe.  Readers of The Pioneer Woman blog will know that she is the queen of the tasty, hearty, made for a cowboy recipes.  Good, but maybe not so good for you…? So, of course, when her recipe surfaced in my search I thought I could count on a winner.

I adapted her recipe by decreasing the amount of sugar (from 2 cups to 1 cup) and from pouring only about 2/3 of the liquid mix onto my bread cubes.  The rest I followed to to the letter…including the AMAZING whiskey sauce. mmmmm whiskey.

 

Using sourdough bread gave the pudding a nice structure and consistency and using less of the liquid seemed to help the bread retain it’s texture.  Reminded me of a GOOD French toast.  It even converted a self-proclaimed disliker of bread pudding. 

This one will be hard to beat.

What kind of bread do you use for bread pudding?

Harvest Celebration out at the farm

*Here is where I beg for votes!! I know, I know…it’s a long shot, but who doesn’t like a comeback kid?  Vote for me by clicking on the icon to your right :)**

I’ve written about my visits to Heritage Prairie Farm here…and I thought somewhere else, but I guess not!  This past Saturday they had their final dinner of the season.

It was a brisk fall evening and turned into a gorgeous night

Right behind the check-in for dinner lives these little dudes

Look at those eyes. This guy was as cuddly as a goat can get (awkward), but he seemed happy to have that soft space on the bridge of his nose rubbed and tickled.

Mr. Donkey was a little more freaked out by my whole, “Let’s cuddle!” routine, But open to a nose rub, so that’s cool.

This little ladybug loved the cuddles (thank you, Anika Groot!)

Unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of photos of food or friends that night, because the lighting was dim.  What I did get a lot of photos of was….the lighting.  But it was so pretty!  See for yourself:

**Those of you who’ve been in my dining room: think I could pull this off?

And that’s how you make a centerpiece down on the farm!

You’ll just have to trust me that the dinner was delicious and the dessert was out-of-this-world.  In fact, I’ve made it my personal mission this winter to perfect my own bread pudding.  If you’ve got a recipe please share!

Can’t wait until the farm dinner season starts up again next year!  Maybe you’ll come too?

xo

erin