small things...

#7 Learn to make homemade versions of food that I crave

Food I crave example numero uno: Bread.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to write about my confusing relationship with bread all day.  For those of you who don’t immediately know what I mean when I say I have a '”confusing relationship with bread”…I can’t quite figure out how to explain it. 

Let’s just say that I’ve heard/read so much messaging about bread/carbs/gluten over the years that over time I lost sight how any of it had anything to do with me.  These days I’m in the process of trying to let go of some of the food-dogma-noise in my head and develop my own authentic understanding of myself and food and….it all sounds so strange as I write it, but shit, that’s where I’m at.

For instance, I’ve had to ask myself questions like.

Hey, Erin…sweetie…do you like bread?

And then as my inner hero battles the demons trying to grab at me as they shout: CARBS WILL MAKE YOU FAT! or GLUTEN IS BAD FOR EVERRRYYONNEEE! and GRAINS ARE EVILLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sit still and get quiet.  And after awhile I hear a wee little voice squeak out

Yeah. I like bread.  Good homemade bread.  I like it.

And that is the only voice that I have to believe.  I’m trying anyhow.  The demons still shout their warnings and threats, but I’m getting to the point where I can say, “It’s cool dudes.  You can shut your faces.”

So in this spirit of learning to trust myself I listened to my cute little hero-voice and decided it was time to learn how to make some kick-ass homemade bread.  If I like bread, I might as well eat bread that is awesome. 

yesterday I made my way to a Sur La Table cooking class where I would spend the next 4 hours mixing dough, kneading dough, shaping loaves and baking bread.  It was heaven.

   

  

As I was learning the technique of rolling out the next dough I exclaimed, “It’s a baguette!!!” at just the moment it began to look like one.  I was ridiculously proud of it.

 

What I learned (other than how to make bread):

• Baking bread is easy
• homemade bread smells awesome and tastes better
• The pleasure of eating homemade bread slows down the whole inner-struggle process.  In other words, I felt no need to EAT.ALL.THE.BREAD

The end.

41 Beautiful Things

This morning I re-watched two of  Amy Krause Rosenthal’s videos called “The Beckoning of Lovely”. 

The first one:

 

and the third one

 

I knew when I added “Make 41 beautiful things” to this year’s list that I’d been inspired by AKR, but it had been awhile, maybe years since I’d seen the videos.  I think now that her ideas inspired the creation of my life lists as well.  However far off my radar they’d become a seed had been planted when I first watched them.

I have started to collect ideas for beautiful things to make and over the last couple weeks I began making them. 

#1.

I started with a trip to one of those paint & drink establishments popping up all over.  Have you been to one?  My friend Anna came down from Michigan for a girls weekend, just her and me and we spent a snowy afternoon at Bottle & Bottega drinking Dark & Stormy’s and learning how to paint. 

They do a fine job of breaking down the process to small enough steps that even the least creatively inclined among us end up with something that looks pretty dang close to what it’s supposed to.  We picked a particularly difficult painting to tackle.  I think the Dark & Stormys helped!

:: Ours side-by-side. 

::hanging in my office/pantry/mudroom/cat feeding station!

#2

I have a medium sized collection of mostly burned-up candles.  I can sometimes dig up enough of a wick to light the dang thing, but not for long.  So I gathered up all of those useless candle remnants and made myself something lovely.

It’s a teacup candle!  Pretty obvious, but super cute, no?  All you need is a sweet little teacup, a wick and some candle wax.  Also a couple of chopsticks help with the steadying of the wick.

I used an old glass jar to hold the wax and placed the jar into a small pan of boiling water (don’t put the wax in the pan directly – unless you’re into wax soup, then fine, do what you want).  The wax melts, you pour it into your teacup, wait a few hours til it hardens and voila!  Now you make candles, dude.

   

xoxo, erin

1 million steps starts today

****1 Million steps DID NOT start this day.  Polar Vortex got the best of me.  walking commences when the temps rise above 30!***

This first month of the year has been a doozy.  I’m speaking of the polar vortex variety type of doozy, of course.  My work has been closed 5 days this month due to weather.  that has to be a record.  As a result of all this cold, cold, crazy cold weather I haven’t been walking much.  No, much of this month has been devoted to hibernation, cooking stews and growing the size of my butt.  Success all around!

Yet this 1 million steps goal has been calling my name.  Tempting me off of the couch.  It started with the arrival of my Fitbit Force so I can actually track all these steps I’m bout to take

Then it was reinforced by the fact that the outside temps are mostly above zero these days.  But the clincher to getting me out of my polar vortex induced stupor was the realization that 100 days from now will be mid-may.  I *love*  mid- May!  Mid-May is just about the best time of year for weather around these parts. 

So my walk towards mid-May starts today.  Maybe the further I walk the quicker I’ll get there?  If only. 

Shooting for 10,000 steps today.

Anybody with me?

If you have a fitbit maybe we can figure out how to be friends and race each other and stuff…?!