February 1st, 2008 § 0
Remember those oatmeal butterscotch cookies we posted about last week? Well, I didn’t realize the power I wielded when I shared them with my co-workers. It turns out I derailed one co-worker’s no-sugary-foods-at-work resolution. Check out the destroyed ambition here. (On a side note, he claims it was all worth it- “This cookie was a thrill a minute roller coaster ride summer blockbuster”)
February 1st, 2008 § 0
I’ve been reading Apartment Therapy: the Eight-Step Home Cure, and I think it’s fabulous. I’m a longtime reader and lurker over at Apartment Therapy-Chicago, but I sometimes feel like it’s more of a shopping blog than a resource for curing your apartment ills. I love the house tours (especially when the spaces are actually small apartments like mine!) and, of course tips and advice and DIY inspiration.
But this BOOK! I’ve only read the first few chapters, and I’m pretty hooked. This is real interior design for dummies. I’m trying out the “Deep Treatment” because the weather sucks meaning that I’m spending even more time at home. I’ve gone a little stir crazy and have decided that the time has come for us to recover our living room from the From Junky to Funky makeover that we got about a year ago.
We’ve just about completed this Week One’s tasks, and both Andrew and I already feel a difference. We patched up holes in the walls, did a more thorough cleaning of our floors, bought flowers and placed them through out the apartment, and got rid of some extra “stuff.” We’ve got one task left, which is to sit for 10 minutes in a part of the apartment we never sit in. Photos are after the jump.
February 1st, 2008 § 2
Salads in the winter kind of suck, no? Without the farmer’s markets or our own gardens for fresh pickin’s, we’re left with flavorless tomatoes, blah lettuce and veggies from Chile (have you seen that weird commercial for Jewel-Osco?). So, when I found this recipe for a salad made with sweet potatoes, I got pretty excited. But I had zero idea of what to expect! All I knew was that Ricky B. says it’s “Really delicious, if a little unconventional.”
He uses watercress in the original recipe, but does say it can be replaced with mâche, arugula or sliced romaine. The watercress was looking weak at Harvest Time this week, and they had bags of baby aurugla that looked delicious, so this “riff” was fated. I normally like to treat arugula as an herb, rather than a lettuce, but it really does work well in this recipe. It’s strong flavor is an interesting compliment to the sweetness of the caramelized onions and sweet potatoes as well as to the slightly spicy dressing.