Manzanita

Back when I used to nanny the family I worked for (for the longest and to whom I was the closest) had a couple beach houses on the Oregon coast. In the Summers I would spend weekends or even entire weeks laying in the sun with a light breeze touching the backs of my legs or walking down to the water with tiny little hands in mine then shrieking and running from the incoming tide. When it got cooler we would bundle up and play for as far into the year as possible. When it got too cold for playing on the beach we would go down for weekends in the Winter and snuggle up in the house with cocoa and movies and just be away for a bit. Some of my favorite memories are from times spent on the coast.

One of the places we stayed often was Manzanita, OR, the perfect beach town. There's a section of the West side of our state that is most frequented by Portlanders looking to escape the city and within that part of the coast most of the weather is pretty similar on any given day. The thing about finding the perfect beach in Oregon has everything to do with the land surrounding the beach. In Manzanita everything aligns perfectly to keep it warm but breezy. It's also one of the few coastal towns I've seen with locals that don't make me feel like I'm in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are some cute restaurants, a great ice cream parlor with a garden to eat your sweets in, a game store called Overboard, and the requisite super crowded grocery store. And! You can have bonfires on the beach! This past weekend I loaded up on cough syrup, decongestant, nasal spray, and cough drops and decided to show Trista, Johnathan, and Craig the close to my heart Manzanita...check out Tiger helping bring kindling to the fire pit.

Cute Pets Update

So, my pets are still adorable. In case any of you were wondering...

These are a few of my favorite things...

Working as a kitchen assistant at Sur la Table I get to play with a lot of really fun and really amazing kitchen tools. It's actually a pretty sweet deal. I can use and work with and clean and have a true experience with most any item before I decide if I want to purchase it. So, why not share that with you?

Everyone knows Microplane graters are amazing. Most of the time though people buy them in long skinny stick form and use them for nuts or hard cheeses or chocolate. I have a couple, one for citrus and one for those other things but then I discovered Microplane makes a box grater. If you want the most amazing grater possible this is it. It's elevated so your cheese or whatever you're grating doesn't end up all mashed and compacted, but it's still super stable. And it's sharp. So sharp that the blade on the side for slicing cheese on a typical box grater can be used to slice vegetables. I have a mandoline but I'm tempted to give it away since it takes up too much room and is sort of a pain to actually use. This grater could easily replace it.


I'm not a total mother earth love peace hippie but I do try to not be a blatant asshole to the planet. For that reason I'm not really into using paper plates. These burger baskets with liners though way cut down on dishes for a large group and definitely seem way less wasteful. Plus they're cute and nostalgic. I used mine for the get together I had Saturday and plan to bring them to the cabin at the end of the month as well so we're not doing dishes for eight people three times a day.


I don't actually own this thermometer but it's on my wish list. We use these at work all the time. It works either the traditional way by inserting it into whatever you're cooking ooooor...are you ready for this? It also works with a LASER. So, say you have a big pot of oil you want to check the temp of. With this you don't have to put your hand within inches of a hot pot of oil and risk losing a limb. you can also use it to find hot spots on a grill or in your oven. The best part though is it never needs to be recalibrated. Most thermometers are off within a year or so, including the ones in your electrics. So you either have to get someone to make them right again or toss the thermometer. Never ever with this one.


I think I've mentioned this thing before but it's awesome so I'll do so again. Instead of cutting off the little end of a garlic clove then painstakingly peeling off every strip of that annoying garlic paper-y stuff with this you just put the whole clove in, roll back and forth, and out pops a clean and perfect clove of garlic. Also it comes in colors that don't suck. Mine's red.


Oh Le Creuset...you have such pretty and perfect cookware. Unfortunately you are also super heavy and I don't really want to move 800 pounds of you every time I want to make something. For that reason I will never be a total die hard Le Creuset fan. But, if you're going to get a grill pan for indoor grilling this is the one to get. Awesome heat distribution, cleans well, and great amount of space. Remember if you're using a grill pan though to let it sit on the heat a bit to get hot before you try to cook anything.


These citrus presses are by Chef'n and I love them. I have a traditional 50s style juicer and while it works it's like your first car. It gets you where you need to be but it makes a bit of a mess of things. This is definitely on my list of next purchases to make.


If you drink soda regularly (or cocktails) you need this. It's called a SodaStream and you will love it. All you do is fill one of the bottles with water, just regular tap or filtered water, and then screw it onto the SodaStream and pull down on the lever on the front until it makes this really weird noise. And now you have soda water! So you can go ahead and make a drink or have it plain or you can add syrup to flavor it and make it into soda. We use this every single class for drinks for people. Just make sure you don't let anyone who doesn't know what it is try to figure it out.

Taking the Bad With the Good

As gorgeous as Friday was Saturday was gross. It was that really inconvenient sort of drizzly rain that doesn't quite require an umbrella but is still wet enough to be annoying. And it was grey, grey, grey. But that night after work, on my way to pick up Tiger from Kevin's house where his mom had watched him, this happened. And even though Portland weather can be a pain in the ass sometimes it also makes for such a beautiful city. When I travel I often times realize that not everyone has trees and greenery in their city, like, in the actual city. I love that this is where I live.

Splish Splash

I can't even tell you how happy I am that Javier and Tiger get along. They are so sweet to watch and I honestly don't know what I would have done if they hadn't gotten along. I didn't really have a game plan for that.

Last night while I was watching 16 and Pregnant this happened...


I don't know why but for some reason this video shows my video twice. So halfway through you'll have seen the whole thing. Also it's super adorable to me but you'll probably get the point about 30 seconds or less into it.

A Chocolate-less Home

I moved around a lot growing up. You'd think that the whole leaving people/people leaving thing would get easier but it never does. Yesterday Lana moved back to Philly. It was a hard day for me. I had an amazing friend who had so many similar interests to mine yet was different enough to be constantly opening my eyes to new wonderful pieces of life. And the most awesome part was living three blocks from each other. Late at night when one of us was bored or sad or wanted out of our houses all it took was a quick text and a few minutes walk and things were fun again.

We spent her last days in Portland doing all the things you don't do when you live in a city because they're always there. One of those things being a tour of cupcake bakeries. Even though the last week she was here I always had in my mind the number of days until she would be gone we somehow still managed to have fun and not be sad until the very last day.

I'm not going to say I lost a friend because I don't think I did. Our friendship has changed but it's not gone. And I am truly glad that she's in a place that makes her so happy now.

This is going to sound weird, there's no way to make it not, but in some ways I'm thankful for the experience of her leaving. I would take her back here in a heartbeat but for the first time in my life someone has left and I don't feel like my entire world is ending. I don't feel like I want to close up and not talk to people again. I mean, okay, for a minute there when this became real yeah, I did feel like "Why is this happening AGAIN?" but I realized yesterday that this is okay. And knowing that I can now handle something like this without falling apart is so invaluable. I feel like all that time spent sitting in that giant leather chair in my therapist's office actually produced something.

I have to give Lana some credit though because even though I never mentioned it to her my biggest fear about her leaving was that she would end up back with all the people who love her and fill up her life and there would no longer be any room for me. I think it's a testament to how close we are that she knew how much that was weighing on me without one word uttered. I won't get into the mushy details but she wrote me a letter and in it addressed that fear of mine. And I love her so much for just knowing that that's what I needed, and for helping to make this huge change in my life seem not so daunting. I'm going to miss you Miss Lana.

Jungle Cat

Look who caught a fish. Looks like my city boy might be a little more rough and tumble than I thought.

Oh wait, that's him sprawled out on our heated floors over there after drinking his ice water from a cup.

False alarm.