Can I just hide behind my hair today?

You ever have one of those days where some things just aren't going your way, and maybe they all get sprung on you right after you wake up, which makes you more cranky than normal, and maybe, just maybe you take a nice long walk to clear your head, and it's beautiful outside, it's sunny, it's warm, and then the assholes who honk at you come out of the woodwork, and that stupid guy at the corner who's best pickup is to call after you every girl's name he can think of to try to get your attention? Yeah, you know, him. You want to punch him, because he helped ruin your walk, and he's just weird.

It's one of those days, and you want to be back at your parent's house, where health insurance is a given, and you don't have to worry about silly things like work, and rent, and you just want someone to make you a cup a tea and tell you it's going to be ok. That everything will work out, that your hopes and dreams will make you a million dollars, even if that's a complete lie. On days like today, you just need to hear it.

On days like today, pms doesn't help, and you want a giant warm chocolatey cookie, and maybe a hug.

flours, meals and you.

I knew when I moved here that there must be a plethora of awesome places that were just waiting to be found. Niblack Foods is one of those places. Ross told me about Niblack and how they have a ton of different hard to find flours and baking ingredients for super cheap. We made a trip out to Henrietta and behold, baking heaven.

Here are some of the things I found, and totally love -


Whole wheat pastry flour. Kind of brilliant, kind of genius, kind of the best thing ever. I love using it in breakfast things like pancakes, waffles or muffins. Makes you feel full faster but without the super gluteny texture you get with regular WW flour.

White WW flour. I'm all about regular WW flour, and I love the super nutty flavor, but sometimes it can be a little intense, so the white is a nice change to breads or pizza dough.

Flax seeds/flax seed meal. I love flax seeds. I put them on my yogurt every morning, ground up in pancakes, breads, waffles, pizza dough, you name it. They're super good for you, raising your good cholesterol and lowering the bad. Plus they're super nutty and tasty to boot!


Don't get me wrong, AP flour totally has it's place and purpose, but these are definitely some different and tasty additions that will make your baking life more interesting.


e.

Sundays.

I have some confessions to make about Sundays. I love them. I love waking up early when I'm alone in the house, making pancakes, getting coffee at boulder, and in general collecting my thoughts.

Recently (e.g. today) I've been reading way too much Joy the Baker for my own good. I totally love this woman- witty, creative, quirky, and pictures. How I adore her pictures. Even the pictures of her don't make me hate her because of how beautiful she is, but rather make me want to hang out in her kitchen and go shopping together.

While Joy seems to justify eating way too many baked things for my own good, Heidi over at 101cookbooks helps me remember to eat my whole grains and veggies and even convince me that they taste just as good. I made her Buttermilk Farro Salad with barley last night, and had leftovers this afternoon. Hot damn, that woman knows her stuff.

Aside from indulging my blog habit and eating pancakes, I decided to putz around Target and buy some stuff I don't really need. Does anyone else have this problem? I go into target to buy mascara and I end up spending $20. I don't know how it happens. Really.

Oh, and I decided I'm going to Seattle in October. Try to stop me. :)

I am not above:

Watching movies on YouTube.

Eating cereal right out of the box.

Spending a little too long in my pajamas.

Eating boxed macaroni every once in a while.

Strangers seeing me in my foam hair rollers.

Wearing leggings with a couple holes in them.

Going out to dinner by myself.



I wish everyone wouldn't take themselves so seriously.

Moon Cup Review

So I made a video review of the moon cup (a menstrual cup brand), for more info visit http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

disclaimer for boys - if you're freaked out by period stuff, don't watch it!

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is there's no risk of TSS with the moon cup.

Just a spectator

Do you ever feel like you're just a spectator to your own life? That's kind of how I feel sometimes.

I feel myself questioning my decisions, what I'm doing, and my general happiness. I wonder if I gave up too much just to have a non traditional career, and not enough reward. I've been at my job for six months, and already I feel disconnected from the world. it's exhausting being the opposite from everyone else.. only being able to stay an hour at a dance, if I can go at all, not being able to reset at night and be up early in the morning. The repetition.. day after day, same thing... bread dough bread dough and more bread dough.

If it was just easy enough to say, "Here are my guidelines of how I want to be successful" and then have it be true. I suppose if we could all say that than there wouldn't be so many struggling artists in the world, and there would certainly be a shortage of restaurant waitstaff.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, baking in my kitchen, when I want, and what I want, is what makes me happy. Maybe if it turned into something I had to do, it wouldn't be so much fun, and maybe you can't be a millionaire by just having a really awesome food blog, but I kind of wish it was.

Life is too short to just be a spectator. I want to do something. Something that sets me apart from the rest.

Maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe I'll spend the rest of my life trying to figure it out... I'm not sure. If nothing else, I'm hopeful.

Food Inc - a must see

This evening I had the pleasure of finally watching Food Inc, after being told to watch it numerous times by various people. Eye opening, depressing, inspiring, and down right sad at times. I can't say I was surprised by a lot of the content of the film after taking Dr. Heath's sanitation class my first semester, but hearing about it and actually seeing it are two very different things.

I consider myself to be fairly educated on food, nutrition, sanitation and the how and why we feed our bodies what we do, but not until I hit my mid teens was that the case; when I was twelve or thirteen I didn't know that fast food was bad for you. I'd like to think kids are more educated almost ten years later, but sadly, I think they're just as naive as I was. I give a lot of credit to people like Jamie Oliver for trying to start his Food Revolution, and average people like Mrs. Q of Fed Up: School Lunch Project. They're trying to make a difference, and people are noticing.

One thing that put a smile on my face in the film was the free range farmer they interviewed. I didn't shudder in fear as he killed and cleaned his chickens. It just seemed like the way things are supposed to be done, and probably pretty close to how grandma used to do it back in the day. I want to find that man and give him a kiss on the cheek. I can't say the same for the way I saw things done commercially; I teared up at the sight.

It makes me sad to see that most farmers, who give us the majority of our food are being treated so poorly. The people who nourish us, provide us with food and happiness on a daily basis, are continually sued, threatened to be shut down, and constantly being drained of funds. They're farmers, not criminals.

Seeing all of this makes me want to know more and do something to change the system. I think the "buy local" movement is one of the smartest, simplest ideas that everyone can do to help, but somehow I think that's not enough for me. In the past year or so I've thought if I wasn't a baker I'd be a nutritionist... I have a pretty faint idea of all that entails, but you can bet I'll be doing some research.