The Artful Dodger

I painted something today! I met up with some girlfriends at Paintnite and made this beautiful work of art. :)

It was a lot of fun and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really like the painting I made. I've gone to paint your own pottery classes in the past (we won't even speak of the disaster that was my pottery elective in college) and ended up very dissatisfied with my creations (I'm so much more verbal than I am visual) so it was a pleasant surprise for me to actually like something I've painted.

On other creative fronts, I've decided to do NANOWRIMO this year. I finished a (terrible) novel in 2008 that I'm very proud of (although no one can read it, ever) but this year I'm much more excited about my plot. Hopefully I'll end up with something that I'll let see the light of day. So far I'm 2795 words in. 47205 words to go! Wish me luck!

We Can Rebuild Him

I thought I'd write a quick follow up to my chair post. I ended up spray painting my chair a very shiny black and I couldn't be more happy with the results! It reminds me of the surface of a grand piano and looks lovely with my kitchen. The biggest problem with it is that I've managed to lose my shiny black cell phone by leaving it on the shiny black chair. (First world problems, again!)

There are a ton of spray painting tutorials online, so I won't bother adding another. But briefly, I bought a $1 plastic table cloth at Dollar General to protect my backyard- then proceeded to sand (w/ 100 grit sand paper), prime (2 coats of Valspar primer) and paint (3 coats of Rustoleum spray paint) the chair. After about 24 hours of drying, it was done.

Well, it should have been done, anyway. I learned an important lesson about trying to do touch-ups with a nearly empty can of paint. It splatters and then you have to let it dry, sand the messed up part, go buy a new can of paint since you emptied the last one, and respray a couple coats onto the part that you messed up. And once it finally dries and you put it in the kitchen, you realize that shiny black paint is incredibly forgiving and you shouldn't have been OCD about doing touchups anyway. Because a) you will always find a spot that doesn't look 100% perfect to you and b) no one else will ever be able to see it!

My other important learning from this adventure is that the can of primer was much harder to spray than the can of spray paint. I think it's a brand thing and may not use Valspar if I ever need to do this again. My wrist and hand hurt for several days after I primed my chair.

Anyway, I thought I'd end with a couple of photos of how the chair looks in the kitchen (guest starring Pancake, one of my cats!). I took them with my cell phone so I apologize in advance for the low quality!

Kitchen Chair

A lifelong dream of mine has always been to have a big, comfy chair in my kitchen. (Dream big, people.) I (obviously) spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and I've always thought that it would be really wonderful to have an easy chair in the kitchen.
My current kitchen is pretty big and I've been lobbying hard to put an arm chair against the wall by the door, but Benjy has always thought that a chair that big would disrupt the flow. I've been keeping an eye out for a comfortable chair that isn't too big- and today, I finally found one.
And I got it for $10!!!
I've been wanting to check out the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Portland, and I finally got around to it this afternoon. There wasn't a ton of furniture (lots of cabinets, light fixtures, and doors, though) but there were a few wooden chairs and some nice dressers. I really liked the captain's chair that I ended up buying because it wasn't too big, but was nice and wide and had good arm rests. It's no easy chair but it has good bones and is a good size for the space I have in the kitchen.

I have to admit that the pictures I've taken are very forgiving and it really needs to be varnished or painted. But for $10, I really don't mind spending a little time to make it look shiny and new.
The icing on the cake to this whole story is that when I looked up this kind of chair on the internet, it looks like they run about $145 new. I am the bargain queen!

So what color should I paint my chair?

Tempeh is Amazing

I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian, (Obviously- ask me about the two chickens I smoked this weekend- haha) but I really enjoy making meatless dishes and typically eat a meatless dinner a couple of times a week. My breakfasts and lunches are generally meatless, which is easy since I'm not a big fan of bacon or sandwiches.

I'm a huge fan of eggs and beans as protein sources, and I love tofu when I have it in restaurants- but I've never done a good job of preparing it at home. I've basically given up trying to cook it myself.

I've known about Tempeh for a couple of years now, but I've never been called to try it or to try to cook it (because I'm so bad at tofu- I assumed I'd ruin tempeh too) until my friend Chelsea told me that she loves to make sauteed Brussels sprouts and tempeh and drizzle it with sesame oil. I love browning Brussels sprouts in a skillet and I love sesame oil, so I thought I'd give her technique a try! Of course, I put my own spin on it so I thought I'd write out the recipe. This dinner was honestly a million times more delicious than I thought it would be (and a million times more delicious than it looks in the lousy picture I've posted), and incredibly easy. So next time you're looking for some meatless Monday inspiration, give this a try!

Marinate the Tempeh:

Tempeh, cut into 1/4" thick slices
1/2 C soy sauce
1/2 C rice wine vinegar
1 t Sesame oil

Combine Soy Sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. Marinate the sliced tempeh from 20 minutes to several hours


Cook the sprouts:

1 dozen Brussels Sprouts, halved
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Cook the Brussels sprouts in a skillet in olive oil until they are easily pierced with a fork and the flat sides are a little browned. 101 Cookbooks has a great explanation of how to do this- just don't add any cheese to this particular batch.

Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Cook the Tempeh:

1 shallot sliced (or half an onion)
Tempeh in Marinade
olive oil

Fry the shallot in olive oil until it is soft and a little brown. Add to the sprouts, reserving the oil. Fry the tempeh for about 3 minutes a side, until the marinade is reduced and the tempeh is golden brown and heated through. Add to the bowl with the sprouts and onions. Drizzle with additional sesame oil and squeeze a quarter of a lime over everything. Stir to combine and serve with mashed butternut squash (recipe below).

Mashed butternut squash:

1 butternut squash (peeled and cut into large chunks- I bought mine this way because I am lazy)

1 T coconut oil (or butter, if don't care that it's not vegan- I wanted to stick with the theme)

salt and pepper to taste

Microwave the squash in a covered bowl with a splash of water for 10 minutes. Mash the squash and add the oil, salt and pepper.

Winter is Coming

September has arrived and some cooler weather has rolled right in with it! I'm loving it- and loving the fact that my friends visiting from the south this past weekend got to enjoy some refreshingly cool temperatures!

Of course, my enjoyment of the weather is tempered by the knowledge that it's going to get a lot colder before I know it! My issue tends not to be with the weather outside, but with the brisk 62 degrees inside the house. I maintain my office at a higher temperature (since it has a separate electric heater that is much cheaper than our ancient oil heating system) and the house warms up once I use the oven to make dinner- but the couple of hours before I start making dinner (we like to eat around 8pm) tend to be dark and cold. So, a reminder to myself: The gym is always warmer than my house!

Kitties Love Couscous

I made an excellent chicken and apricot tagine last night (basically Moroccan spiced braised chicken served over couscous) and both cats begged shamelessly for bites of chicken at dinner. I reheated some again today and they were once again swarming me. It's pretty normal for them to be pests at dinner, but they usually leave me alone at lunch! My conclusion is that kitties love couscous. I also think that would be a great blog name. Feel free to take it! :)
I'm somewhat dissapointed to find out that my flat iron needs a special type of cord that I can't get. It has a circuit board built into it for extra safety but I can't order a new one from the company and I can't pay them to fix an out of warranty iron. My vacuum repairman and I have agreed that we've reached a dead end and I need an new iron. I only have good things to say about the guys at All Brand Vacuum though because they were wonderful sports about trying to fix it in the first place, and they aren't charging me a work fee since they can't repair it. I'll definitely be taking my ancient and lousy vacuum to them again if it needs work in the future!
Does anyone have a suggestion for a good flat iron? It's been 6 years since I've purchased one so I'm not sure if I should get another Chi or if there's something better!

Edited to ad that I ended up stumbling onto an amazing sale at Ulta and got a new Chi for $50. There are still some available for $87. The catch is that they are all in pretty garish colors and patterns. But since I was expecting to spent abut $30 fixing the flat iron, I'm pretty thrilled to get on for $50. Now if only I didn't use that as an excuse to stop at H&M on the way home....

Mr. Fix-it

In the past few years, I've started investing the time and money it takes to fix things rather than just to discard and get new stuff. I've always mended my clothes, but a couple of years ago I moved on to having my shoes and purses repaired by a cobbler. (I suggest this cobbler in New Orleans and this one in Portland.) About a year ago, I went to a vacuum repair shop for what turned out to be a new plug for my vacuum. It cost $8- way less than a vacuum! Lesson learned: I try to repair *everything* now. The latest broken item in my house is my beloved flat iron. It's served me well for 6 years of heavy use, but now the part of the cord that swivels at the end isn't staying attached inside the iron, which means that it only turns on and stays hot when I hold it at a very specific angle. I've tried to find a small appliance repair shop in Portland, but there don't seem to be any. I'm unwilling to shell out big bucks for another iron since there are apparently a lot of counterfeits floating around on Amazon and I just didn't want to deal with it. I'm also reluctant to try to fix it myself since I'm not incredibly handy. (Worst. Engineer. Ever.) Finally it occurred to me to call my vacuum repair shop to see if they could try to fix it since a cord is pretty much a cord. They told me that they try to stick to vacuum's but will help out on other small appliances when they can. They went on to say that they've fixed my exact problem on a flat iron before and would only charge $20 (way less than the cost of a new iron) to fix mine. SCORE! I'm going to bring the iron in on Friday and I'll update if things don't go as planned, but I think this will prove to be a smart move. The moral of the story- it never hurts to ask!

This cowlick must be tamed