Cooking Day!!

Recently at work my boss asked if I may be able to help her do some cooking a few times a week. Obviously since cooking makes me happier than anything and especially more happy than sitting at my desk I said yes. Today I made an amazing soup (I'm eating some right now). It's a roasted red pepper and tomato base then I added potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, black beans, garbonzos, tomatoes, roasted red pepper pieces, fresh corn off the cob and onions. It is to die for. And even more awesome with sour cream, avocado, cheese, and/or green onion on top. Next up are enchiladas!

Passive Aggression

Someone got tired of her office supplies going missing.

And that someone was me.

The Small Object

If you like tiny things (or cute things), and really, who doesn't, you should check out The Small Object. I was at my most favorite grocery store ever, New Seasons, yesterday waiting for my wok to be done when I found the most amazing sticky notes ever. I go through an insane amount of sticky notes at work and I'm always looking for something just slightly more awesome than a pale yellow square. I will be using these forevermore.

A Collection of Things

So, I have about a jillion (real number, maybe 5?) things to write about. This means another completely incohesive post. Although they all have to do with this weekend so I guess they at least have some kind of minor thread in common.

First of all, I planted an herb garden this weekend. I thought it was going to be hard and maybe I shouldn't reveal this so it seems more impressive but basically it involved taking the plants out of their plastic containers and putting them in terra cotta pots. Craig and I went to the nursery which I thought was going to be kind of boring but was actually pretty cool. Craig got a garden plot so we looked at veggies for him to grow. He offered to let me come help him with it and I told him I would but only if I could pick two of the things to grow, I don't have to weed, and also it's not a real promise I'll actually help. He agreed which reassured me I am the master of bargaining.

We went to the Portland Nursery. They have a gigantic amount of plants.


Craig wouldn't let me use the Radio Flyer wagon or one of the purple carts for our plants. Well, he would but I didn't want to have to pull it so I said it was okay for us to use the green one. Which I ended up pulling anyways.


Here is Craig holding all our baby herbs.


Later that day we went to dinner and saw Hanna which was awesome. I thought it was pretty violent for a PG13 film but I'm probably just an old lady now that I'm coming up on 26. I'll be talking about how coffee used to be only $3.50 when I was growing up in no time.

Also this movie is funny which it doesn't lead you to believe at all by the trailers. And I very much admire their ability to make it humorous without detracting from the parts that are serious business. That's a tough thing to pull off.


I have a secret I've been keeping just in case it didn't work out. Because I didn't really want to announce to the internet that this really awesome thing could happen if I were good enough for it to happen and then have it not happen and have to be like 'Sorry Internet, I'm actually sort of lame."

I applied for a job with Sur la Table's culinary program. Aaaaaand...I got it! I'll be a kitchen assistant so I'll do prep for cooking classes as well as assist with them. I sort of fell into applying but I'm so excited for the opportunity to be using some culinary skills professionally as well as be in a position to learn so much. It's part time so I'll still keep my current job as well.

In celebration I want to do a giveaway. This is not at all sponsored but I thought it would be appropriate to give someone out there a few of my favorite kitchen things from Sur la Table. I've never done this before so be patient, also feel free to offer advice if you've done a giveaway or participated in one before and think something could be done better. It will be a trial run learning experience.

Here's what I'm giving away...

First up we've got an ice cream cone shaped cookie cutter!


Next is a sparkly pink Le Creuset spatula. This spatula is a legit nice spatula that works well (none of that tough non-bendy rubber) but I'd be lying if I didn't admit I mostly like it because it is pink and full of glitter.


Cupcake cookie cutter! Super adorable to decorate. The cookies, not the cutter.


And last but not least, a ceramic paring knife by Kuhn Rikon. I'm newly in love with ceramic knives and I use this one for everything. You will be getting this awesome color that was not available when I purchased mine.


So now for the how-to. I want to make this fun rather than just use a random number generator to pick a winner so full disclosure, this is going to be totally subjective since I'm the one picking the winner. Leave me a comment telling me what you would use these tools to make and the answer I find most fantastic will win all four items. Remember, if you win you'll have to give me your address in order to mail them to you so if you think there's a chance I could be a murderer and you aren't going to want to give me a place to send these things you should probably not play. The last day to submit a comment will be Friday April 15th, 2011 and the winner will be announced Monday April 18th, 2011.

Oh, and my cat is still adorable. Just in case you were wondering.

Because there are starving kids in Africa?

For some reason staying up late makes me feel hungover. Even when all I've drank is orange juice. I woke up this morning exhausted and parched. Which is a really bad combination. Half of you wants nothing more than to stay in bed for as long as possible and the other half is desperately crying out for hydration.

I chose bed.

When I finally got up I threw on clothes, brushed my teeth, and left for work. By the time I got to work I thought I was going to dry up and die so my first priority was water. My boss keeps cold water in a pitcher in her fridge. She also labels everything she puts in the fridge. So there are tupperware that say "BBQ chicken" or "french potatoes 10/18."

Or this: