an update...

on writing on food...why elmers glue? i dont know. was it easier than in a latte? oh yes my friends.

puzzles

...are great. and recently i have just began to scratch the surface of the wide and wonderful puzzle world. in my endeavors i have found, that more people than you may think are puzzle lovers. unfortunately, puzzles have some what of a bad wrap. i think people have some weird preconceived notion that puzzles are...boring. WRONG folks. but understandable. to be quite honest, when my roommate and i finished our first puzzle and framed and hung it on our kitchen wall, i was worried that i was turning into one of those women that lives alone with her thirteen cats (well, im allergic to cats, so maybe, hamsters or something) and yes, hangs her puzzles on her walls in pride. but i felt that i had to tell someone about my new hobby, embarrassing or not. what i found, was there are far more puzzle doers than i ever imagined. in fact, a friend of mine (so she's still embarrassed) and her husband did puzzles all last summer and never told anyone. thats just not right. do your puzzles with pride, and hang them if you so wish! really, its just another form of art, right? anyways. so puzzles are great. and you can start as simply as you wish. there are kids puzzles, 100 piece puzzle, 300, 700, and so on all the way up to...i think 2500 is the highest ive seen. its one of those hobbies that can never get too easy. not to mention its a great social activity! and what is better than socializing and doing a puzzle, while eating? OR combining the two and doing a food puzzle! so seriously, give puzzles a shot. i think theyre a bit overlooked, and they just deserve to be put together!


+

= a great combination


next puzzle to conquer

fruit salad

its exceedingly beautiful out today and perfect for a summer fruit salad!








3 mangoes
1/2 small watermelon
couple handfuls of cherries
1 orange

cut up fruit in chunks. squeeze the juice of 1 orange over the salad. mix--chill--serve!

where's the beef?

not in this belly! thats for sure. but to be honest, i hate talking about being a vegetarian. unfortunately its hard to avoid. as soon as anyone finds out youre a vegetarian a slew of questions follow. "do you eat fish?" "how long have you been one?" and my personal favorite "WHY are you a vegetarian?" yuck. gross. who cares. honestly, i dont give one crap (or two) why other people are vegetarians. care about animals? great. want to eat healthier? good for you! just plain old dont like the taste? fannnnntastic. i know writing about being a vegetarian seems a BIT hypocritical, but its been on my mind lately. im not going to get into why, or how long i have been one, because frankly it doesnt matter. what i AM going to talk about is whether i eat fish or not. and no, i dont. but again, if you do, good for you. it doesnt bother me one bit to see other vegetarians eat fish, i just dont eat it myself. its a personal choice, and i dont feel like its my place to judge. anyways, i was thinking about why people always ask if i eat fish. and then i started thinking about if there are different names for different types of vegetarianism. i know vegetarian, and vegan...but thats about where my knowledge ends. is there a term for one that eats fish? well i did some research...

1. Pescatarian: vegetarian that eats fish
2. Flexitarian: vegetarian that occasionally eats meat
3. Lacto-ovo vegetarian: vegetarians who eat eggs and milk products (you can also be just lacto or just ovo vegetarian)
4. Vegan: vegetarians that consume no animal products whatsoever
5. Raw vegan: vegans who dont eat any foods heated over 115 degrees fahrenheit, or any processed foods
6. Macrobiotic: raw vegan with the occasional consumption of fish. also avoids sugars, and oils. emphasizes consumption of sea vegetables (seaweed).

...ok, so thats a bit excessive. but there you go. on another note, maybe the reason i dont eat fish is because of the many fish i have had as pets. sure, a lot have died in the process (sorry guys...) but they have all brought a lot of joy into my life.


owl #2


oscar who has fin rot (dont worry, he's getting better)


mr. fiddler crab

frozen pizza

...is never as good as fresh. i think thats a rule when it comes to most foods. fresh>frozen>dried>canned. nevertheless, sometimes, at odd hours in the early morning, when you cant sleep and are hit with sudden hunger pains, frozen pizza does the trick. sure there are different kinds of pizzas, some better than others, but they all seem to have that "frozen pizza" taste. you know what im talking about...that slightly sweet, bready, freezerish taste? again, not horrible, but definitely recognizable as frozen pizza taste. sorry digiorno, i dont care how much you claim to taste like delivery, no matter how much time you take perfecting that delivery taste, you will always have a lingering frozen pizza-ness to you. and you know, sometimes thats perfectly satisfying. the other night as i was deciding between the box of red baron's thin crust or thick crust cheese pizza that i had sitting in my freezer, i realized, this about the freezer taste--therefore deciding it didnt matter which one i chose, because ultimately, it would taste the same. i decided on thick crust. oh, and here is another thing about frozen pizzas--the frozen vegetables on them always always turn out slightly gummy and flavorless. why pay the extra 20 cents when you can buy plain old cheese and add fresh veggies (or meat), yourself? thats what i thought. so--frozen pizza is good when its two a.m. and you dont want to wait for anything to be delivered, but add your own veggies and eat with hot sauce.



and dont forget to share with tiny elephants...they like pizza too.

a beautiful union

if you think about it, throughout the history of the arts, the different forms have been linked to one another. what is a dance without music? or a play without costumes? the fusion of different arts can be more powerful than one by itself. i was thinking today about some of my favorite album covers...i first thought of the rolling stones "sympathy for the devil". then i started wondering how many other bands had album covers depicting food. food isnt always thought of as an art, but ask any chef and im sure they would disagree. its good to know that some of those skinny musicians also have an appreciation for food...

National Burger Month?

so im late, 19 days late in realizing and therefore celebrating national burger month. really though, who knew that may was national burger month? please dont be mislead, i think its thoroughly fantastic that there is a month celebrating burgers, and that we are in it at this moment...i just wonder, who decided may should be national burger month? who gets to decide that there are foods dedicated to each month? WHY IS THIS NOT CELEBRATED TO ITS FULL EXTENT? lets be honest. burgers are great. really great. they come in all shapes and forms, can be gourmet or fast food, grilled, pan fried, beef, veggie, bunless, sesame seed bunned, with ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, onion, pickles, special sauce, bacon and on and on. anyone who claims they "dont like burgers" are liars. there are simply too many varieties of burgers to dislike all of them. its also impossible to declare one your favorite. again, just too many choices. if you could only eat one kind of burger for the rest of your life what would you pick? burger king?, northstar cafe?, thurman's?, im getting a headache just thinking about it. anyways, to celebrate national burger month, im going to start (finally) with my burger of the day. say hello to the marshmallow burger...







mmm maybe this is what ill have for the rest of my life.

tiny farms

sage


chives


lone tomato


jalapenos

i wish i could take credit for this...but instead, i can be proud of suzanne for farming inside our tenny apartment! it's comforting to know that if there is all of a sudden a wide spread famine across the U.S. (or the world for that matter) we will at least have peppers, tomatoes (er, tomaTO) and herbs to survive on. just give us a month or two so they can grow a bit more...but seriously, there is something about growing plants that brings a sense of happiness into one's home. so grow plants grow!

crafty people

i look delicious

yarn can also look delicious

yummy mirrors

don't eat this soap!

snuggly food

saving recipes is a smart idea

ooh, ahh

pretty.

girls grilling?

i know that grilling is usually thought of as something guys like to do. drink a beer, throw some brats on the grill, and hang out in the yard...right? even if a guy doesn't know how to make mac n' cheese in the kitchen, he still somehow knows how to make the perfect burger on a grill. and if nothing else, this is at least true when it comes to my dad. well, despite this urban myth that guys are kings of the grill (im not saying that there are no good guy-grillers), us girls can do a pretty good job grilling too...ESPECIALLY on beautiful warm summer nights like the one's we have been having. since my roommate and i can now go out onto our porch (its a long story about how our roof caved in and destroyed everything on our porch EXCEPT the grill...weird, huh? but if you're curious drive down 3rd ave. and look for the second story apartment with no roof), we have been taking full advantage of this by grilling whenever we get the chance. there's nothing like the smell and smoky taste of grilled food. in fact, by the rate we're going, by the end of the summer i think we could take any guy grilling team in a grilling death match. burger vs. burger, brat vs. brat, we could even go so far as a rib battle? any takers? ill see YOU in august!








...by the way, strawberries are really good right now...

momma

what is the best part about going home to see your parents? free laundry...the comfort of letting your parents take care of you...most importantly, mom's cooking. my mom is one of the best cooks i know. of course im biased, but i honestly believe when it comes to korean food, she has all the korean restaurants in columbus beat. maybe it has something to do with the fact that she has been cooking for her father and her 5 brothers and sisters since the age of ten (her mom died in the korean war when she was 4) and she is now...well, shes been cooking for 50 years, you do the math, or maybe she just has a knack for cooking. whatever it is, it has spoiled me--and maybe that has resulted in my obsessive love for food. now not only are my mom's meals the best, but she offers to cook for me ALL the time. the first qustion out of her mouth is always "are you hungry? do you want mom to cook something for you" (yes she refers to herself as mom) never, "hows school?" or "are you ok with money?". no, my mom's only interest is in the belly and whether or not it is full. even if i stop by at midnight to pick up a load of laundry, she still will get out of bed to make me eggs or rice and kim.
i went home to other day, and even though its pretty simple (wait, korean meals are never simple) it was really good to have some of my mom's cooking.









anyways,if i havent said it before i have the best mom ever and with mother's day coming up i've really been thinking about how much i appreciate having her in my life. love you mom!