In Lieu of a Tattoo

Anyone who knows me well knows that my favorite thing is Harry Potter. And one of my favorite things within the world of Harry Potter is the golden snitch. I love the snitch because, to me, it's a symbol of Harry building an identity based on his own skills and abilities. He was famous as The Boy Who Lived, but that was something that happened to him as a baby, not something that he accomplished through any will of his own. But when he flies and becomes a seeker, he finds the first thing that he's ever felt exceptionally good at. The snitch not only helps Harry create a new identity for himself, but it also connects him to his parents: figuratively in that his dad was also a seeker, and literally at the close. 


Ok, I know that was just incredibly nerdy. I wish I could take a Harry Potter class and write whole papers on things like this. The point is, I just really love snitches. I was a snitch for Halloween once, I mean twice, with Ashley, and it will forever remain my best costume ever. And I've always said that if I was a person who got tattoos, I would get a tattoo of a snitch. In the last couple of years, in fact, I've been seriously wanting one. I would go for it, but I'm afraid that I'd regret it someday, like when I'm a grown-up or something. So, this summer, when Harry Potter mania was at its height in the country and in my heart, I decided to satiate my desire for a snitch tattoo with a less permanent substitute - a necklace.


I found my snitch necklace on etsy.com, fulfilling goal #84: Buy something on Etsy. The lady who made it sent it in a very cute little box, and I love it. To be perfectly honest, I haven't worn it yet. The chain it came on is too short, and so I need to get a longer chain for it before I can wear it. And to be even more honest, I still want the tattoo. 

Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls.
Wearing this. Wearing only this.

And if you also love Harry, you should most definitely watch this. It makes me cry like a baby. 

Scavenging

For the last 10 months, my favorite thing about my life has been being a Club leader. Club is a youth group that was an integral part of my own high school experience, and now I get to spend quality time getting to know some really awesome teenagers. My own small group of girls are seniors at Fairview, and they're some of my favorite people ever. I'm not sure what it says about me that I get along with and connect to high schoolers so well, but I sure do love them. This summer I got to go The Bahamas with my babies, as well as to their summer camp - The Week.

On the second night of The Week, we were all under a pavilion by Lake Dillon, when a torrential downpour started. It was one of the most intense thunder storms I've ever been in, and it poured rain for four or five hours. Since it was impossible to go out and play our planned night game, we decided to drive everyone over to the local Walmart for some warmth, hot chocolate, and a scavenger hunt. I was super excited, not only to get warm and dry, but also because then I could accomplish goal #45: Go on a scavenger hunt.

This was our list. We weren't able to complete it because Walmart doesn't carry Risk and there is no demo make-up. But we did win. Mostly because everyone else gave up after about 5 minutes, and did this: 

I was pretty set on getting as much as we could, perhaps more than anyone else, and we were definitely proud of ourselves for a few of them. Such as the Statue of Mary (which we found in the garden section). Either way, it was a fun break from the rain and cold.

Statue of Mary

I love my senior ladies.

They did it!!

A Motivating Manicure

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a slacker. I really am. And it's clear to see that in how little progress I've made on my goals, and how little I've blogged in the past few months. And it's not because I'm busy, because I'm really not. 


I've actually spent a lot of time and energy the last few (several?) months focused on one goal: to get a full-time teaching job. Well, it hasn't happened, and I'm afraid it won't. At least not this year. When you try so hard to get something, and all of your efforts turn out to be totally futile, it's hard to want to try for anything anymore. (Dramatic, I know. But I'm dramatic sometimes.) 


Luckily, though, I accomplished a goal today that required no effort whatsoever. The good news is that it seems to have reignited the flame in me to try and get out of my "half-life." My life has been so boring lately, and I need to stop wasting all of my time like I have been. So accomplishing this small easy goal today was maybe the little kick in the butt I needed.


I took my sweet mom, Nanci, to get her first ever pedicure today. It was my Mother's Day present to her, and she decided to finally redeem it (now two months later) so that her toes could look pretty for her trip to Wisconsin. I was excited for her to get pampered, as she is an exceedingly self-less lady who hardly ever pampers herself. So we met in Boulder this afternoon, and both got wonderfully relaxing and beautiful pedicures. While we were there, though, Nanci decided that she would also like a manicure. Since it was only an extra ten dollars, I thought I'd jump in and get one too, thus fulfilling goal #75: Get a manicure.


I'm not totally sure why I put this as a goal, to be honest. I guess just because manicures are fun, and something I pretty much never do. I love getting pedicures, but I'm not used to having my fingernails painted. This was, in fact, only my third manicure ever. I got one for senior prom, and one as a bridesmaid gift from Sarah for her wedding. So it really was nice to get one again, and to feel pampered and pretty. And I feel extra happy because my fingernails are gold. The last Harry Potter movie comes out in 4 days, so it only seemed fitting. They look beautiful and magical.


And Nanci loved her mani-pedi. It was so nice to share such a lovely time with that precious lady. 

Pedicures on our toes...
Not sure why my left ones are curled under.

Gold!

Easy as pie?

My senior year of high school, I took a Foods class as an elective. I thought it'd be fun to learn how to cook, I knew that I definitely loved to eat, and it seemed like an easy A. Win, win, win... right? Nope. Foods class turned out to be a sore spot in my day. For one, I would always leave class smelling like kitchen smoke, which would inevitably stay with me all day since class was during 3rd period. Secondly, my group insisted on always including onions in our recipes. My good friend and ally, Caitlin, was in my group and also doesn't eat onions. But somehow our opinion was always trumped by the other three girls. Rude. So Caitlin and I would often find excuses to leave class in the middle of the period, and we'd wander the halls of Fairview complaining about how much we hated Foods. And thirdly, there were a few mishaps...

The first mishap, I swear, was not my fault. We were making homemade tortilla chips, and the chips were frying in oil on the stove. Just as I was walking toward the stove from the other side of the kitchen, the oil suddenly went up in flame. I had been nowhere near it, but because I was close when it happened, I got blamed. 


The second mishap, I will admit, might have been my fault. We had a class competition baking apple pies. When all of the apple pies were done, our teacher tasted them and gave out awards for the best pies. Our group's ribbon said 6th place... out of 6 groups. It seems that *someone* put a little too much salt in the crust. Perhaps they mistakingly put in 1 Tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon? Woops! So yeah, the crust was a little salty, sure. But besides that the pie was just fine! Delicious, you might say! Well not according to Mrs. Kester-Meyer. I still hold a little grudge about how much she made fun of our pie. Again, rude.


All of this is to say that I was a little hesitant to ever attempt to make a pie again. But nine years later, I strove to prove Mrs. Kester-Meyer wrong... or something. So the night before Easter, I spent some quality time with my mom and sister-in-law, Kathy, making two hopefully delicious pies for our Easter dessert. Kathy made a strawberry pie, and I made blueberry, because blueberries are my favorite fruit. The crust was, without a doubt, the hardest part. I know people (Laura) say it's so easy, but it was hard for me, and when I do it again, I think I'll make more crust. There wasn't quite enough to make my lattice top at the end. 

Bottom crust, as pretty as I could make it.

The final product. Not as pretty as I'd hoped. 

So the pie didn't turn out perfect. The filling sure was delicious, but the crust wasn't quite right. I'm not sure if it cooked long enough. I'd like to try some different crust recipes/ tactics without the painful memories of Foods class looming behind me....

Side note: It took me a few months to finally blog about this one. Lately, though, I've been re-watching Pushing Daisies (the most magical television show that ever was), and it's inspired me to attempt some more pies. I can't wait! 

Bedward and Ella

Once upon a time, in the Fall of 2008, I was living in Seattle and working at Starbucks. One of our regular customers, who seemed to live her whole life within the walls of our store, made a joke about going to Forks. I didn't even really hear what she said, but my ears perked up at the name "Forks." At that time I was reading a series of books, quite obsessively I might add, that took place in Forks, Washington. Up until that moment, I assumed that Forks was as fictional as the vampires and werewolves in the books. My heart raced, and as soon as got home I did some investigative googling to find out that yes, indeed, Forks is a real place. And only a few hours from where I was living, at that. So I convinced Ashley, who was also reading the same series, to go on a road trip to Forks with me. It ended up being a more gloriously beautiful and fun day than I could ever have imagined! The drive requires you to take the ferry over Puget Sound, which is always a treat, and then drive along the Olympic Peninsula, which is incredibly lush, green, and breathtakingly beautiful. I fell in love.

After my trip to Forks with Ashley, I had a number of different friends express a desire to go there too. Especially as the books (and subsequent movies) became more and more popular, it seemed like everyone I knew was wanting to take the trip. I had friends visit from other states under the guise of "wanting to see me," but I feel confident that it was Forks that drew them to Washington. As a result, I have been there seven times now. Forks itself has gotten insanely touristy since the first time I went, and I'm pretty over that whole vampire thing by now. But I'm always happy to go because I love the drive so dearly.

The seventh trip, which took place last month, actually counted as completing a goal, which helped me feel productive or something. The goal: #83 - Help Jess achieve a goal (Jess's goal being that she wanted to go to Forks). 


Every trip has been different, and has had its own set of highlights or special moments. Honestly, what made this trip special was the music. Jess and I share a common love of beautiful indie music, but also fully enjoy some good old pop. Britney, Beyonce, Celine, Glee...? Yes please!! So we had some super fun sing-along times, almost losing our voices in the process. Jess also introduced me to one of my new favorite bands - The Civil Wars. We may have listened to their song, Poison and Wine, about 25 times... It was glorious. 

Jess and me at Lake Crescent.
I have a picture like this with everyone that has gone on the drive with me.

We had a lot of fun with cardboard cutouts too... 

I also found a perfect spot to accomplish goal #40. It's happening. 

Part of the Forks tour includes a side-trip to my favorite beach, Rialto Beach (see picture at the top). It is truly one of my favorite places I've ever been to. On this trip, the beach was rainy and cold, but also producing the most sea foam I've ever seen. I call sea foam dead mermaids... because that's what it is. 

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Only an additional 20 miles, or so, from Forks is the Hoh Rainforest, one of the only temperate rainforests in the world. It's like Fern Gully meets Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs, plus Avatar. And the trees look like muppets.  

The fairies travel up and down the giant trees
by using those mushrooms. See?

Hobbit.

As with every trip to Forks, it was a beautiful and special day. And I was so happy to help my little Jazzy complete her goal! Anyone else want to go? I'm sure I'd be up for an eighth time... 

With a little help from my friends

I have eight goals that have to do with cooking. I made these goals not because I like to try adventurous new recipes or explore culinary techniques, but because I can't cook. I know that cooking is mostly just following a recipe, but you'd be amazed at what I can mess up. I've done some cooking in my life, but it's not something I do on a regular basis. Dinner for me is usually just a sandwich, or salad, or a bowl of cereal. This is because usually I'm eating dinner with my by myself. And what's the point of cooking for one?


So, luckily for me, upon hearing that I was coming to Seattle, my old roommate and fun friend Laura graciously offered to help me with some cooking-related goals. Laura is a genius in the kitchen. She's been a professional pastry chef, and she always makes everything delicious. Sometimes she even makes special onion-free portions just for me (just like my mom does!). Thanks to Laura's help, expertise, and excellent teaching skills, I was able to complete Goal #18: Bake a loaf of bread, and Goal #20: Make a full Italian meal from scratch.


My fellow goal-oriented friend Jess participated in our day of cooking fun. After a quick trip to Safeway, we got to work on making French baguettes. Having never baked bread before, I had a lot to learn. 

First I learned about yeast. It needs to be added to water that about 110 degrees, like a "too-hot hot tub" according to Laura. We added a little sugar for the yeast to feed on. I like thinking about the yeast feeding on sugar. It makes me feel like it's a monster.

While waiting for the yeast to prove itself or something, we measured out our flour. Measuring with ounces, rather than cups, makes it feel like science.

We kneaded the dough for awhile.

It's a work out for your hands.

And then we just had to wait for our bread to rise. Mine is on the left. 

While we waited, we got to work on the big stuff: our Italian meal! We decided on a menu of spaghetti with red sauce, and cheese ravioli with a pesto-cream sauce. Making the pasta dough for the pasta maker was the most difficult part of the whole process. It's simple - just flour and eggs, but it was hard for me to get it to the right consistency. 

First we made a flour volcano.

Then we dropped some eggs into it.

So that it looked like this.

Next, we mixed it all together in a swirly, twirly motion.

And then I tried to knead it, but it was all falling apart! 

So Laura added some water to help. My dough looked nothing like her's until she fixed mine.

It all resulted in a big sticky mess! 

We then cut the dough into smaller pieces and put them through the pasta maker...

Which gave us beautiful long sheets of pasta dough.

Our ravioli filling was made with ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. 

We put little balls of filling on the dough,

sprayed a little water on it,

and then covered it with another sheet of pasta dough.

We formed the individual ravioli, 

and Laura's were, of course, beautiful.

My ravioli are the big square ugly one. I made them like that because we were worried about  the cheese exploding out when we boiled them, but there were no explosions. Next time I want to make them all round and pretty. 

With the ravioli set aside, we moved on to spaghetti, which just entailed putting the dough through another attachment. 

I found this part to be very fun.

We draped the spaghetti to let it dry.

Isn't it so beautiful? 

After letting the spaghetti dry, we got to work on the sauce,

and cooking the ravioli. We boiled it for a moment, and then fried it in some olive oil.

Our bread was done, so we sliced it, 

but left one loaf to be cheesy bread. Let me tell you something - ricotta on cheesy bread is my new favorite thing. We had leftover ricotta/mozzarella/parmesan from our ravioli filling, so we used it on our bread, and it was amazing! The top crisped nicely, but the ricotta and doughy center of the bread stayed all soft and gooey. Mmmmm...

We cooked our now-dry spaghetti, and it turned out perfectly! Who thought that just eggs and flour could turn out that delicious??

We added our red sauce to the spaghetti, 

and pesto-cream sauce to our ravioli.

And we sat down to our delicious dinner! It really was incredibly tasty, and everyone loved it! 

Nom nom nom! 

The best thing about cooking all day, was that it was such a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time together. Here were some highlights:        

Jess made a delicious blueberry pie!
(And Laura made key-lime!)

Julie came over and knit while we cooked.

Mike showed off his snapping skills.

We played Phase Ten...

and telephone pictionary! 

Laura and I have still been talking about how perfect of a day this was. Cooking is usually stressful to me because of how precise timing needs to be, and I always tend to burn things. But the cooking we did was very relaxing, incredibly delicious, and so much fun! I can't think of a better way to have spent a day with good friends in Seattle! 

Laura doesn't really cook with recipes, but here is what we used: 

Baguettes:

4 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees, like a too hot hot-tub)
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar

Mix water, yeast, and sugar together. Let sit for 5 minutes or so. Mix salt and flour together because salt and yeast are enemies in their original forms. Dump the watery yeast into the salty flour and stir until it comes together. Too wet is better than too dry so fight the urge to add more flour. Knead about 10 minutes. (you could also do this in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.) Let the dough rest covered for an hour or so. Gently lift the dough to release some of the air (don't punch!) and let it rise for another 45 minutes. Shape into a baguette shape. Preheat oven to 475 F. Slice the top of the dough, then bake it on a stone or sheet pan. Take it out when it is golden brown.

Pasta:

3 eggs
2 cups flour

Tomato Sauce:

2 tbl. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 lbs tomatoes, cored and chopped
salt and pepper to tase
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Saute the garlic and olive oil for 2 or three minutes until garlic is soft. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper, cook for 20-25 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down. Stir in basil at the end and serve over pasta.