The Butter To My Bread, The Breath Of My Life.

It is 3:00 in the morning, and I can't sleep. This is nothing new for me. I am usually wide awake at strange hours of the night, but I don't usually want to write this late. The later it gets, the more obnoxiously bright and painful a computer screen becomes. However, tonight is different. My eyes are already growing sick of the glowing screen, but my mind is far too wild to be put to bed at the moment. So here I sit in bed with a sleeping dog next to me, my painfully bright laptop, and a million thoughts running through my head that need a home (that isn't my brain) so that I can get some sleep.

Do you ever get in those moods where you don't feel like yourself because somehow you have managed to lose your passion and drive, even for just a second? Well I do. For the past several days, I have felt like I am missing something very important in my life. I had lost my motivation to go out and do things, and all I wanted to do was sleep and avoid all contact with people. But I finally realized today what I have been missing. My drive, motivation, and passion all came rushing back once I figured it out. I need food.

Now I am not starving or anything like that. I am getting plenty to eat, but I still need food. I do not need it for sustenance, or for any reason pertaining to the health of the human body. I need food to cook. I need food to feed my need to be creative. I need food to bring the people around me together. I need food to bring order and warmth back into my home. I need food to put the spark back in my life, and light the flame that fires up my motivation. It is probably strange to find all of that just from food, but I have been known to be a pretty strange person. However, being able to see food as something to experience, rather than simply something needed by the body, makes it special.

Food gives us the chance to bring joy to other people. When cooking, the key ingredient in every recipe is emotion. For me, it is impossible to step into the kitchen and cook without putting my passion and emotions into what I create. That does not mean that everything coming out of my kitchen is good. Sometimes the things I create are ghastly and horrible, but I still pour my feelings into them. I once ended up in tears after going through 5 unsuccessful batches of pie dough. Of course, the failed dough was only part of my dismay, but it was the part that allowed me to work through whatever issue I had been dealing with at the time. Having something completely and utterly fail in the kitchen gives me a chance to let go of some of my stress. However, cooking also brings out the best emotions, not just stress.

I honestly believe that, over the span of my life, I have laughed and smiled more in the kitchen than anywhere else in the world. Whenever I am at my happiest, all I want to do is cook a large meal for all of the people I'm closest with. It perpetuates my joy. I am so thankful that I was able to grow up in a family where so much time was spent with food. I learned early on that food isn't just about eating. Food is about bringing people together, letting out anger or stress, and creating an environment where everything is okay. It truly is a powerful thing.

I am so glad that I have had so much support from the people in my life. I have figured out how to get the passion and drive back in my life, even though it was only gone for one small blip. All it took was my boyfriend suggesting that I find a long-term project and then asking me "what do you want to do?" As soon as he said that, I knew immediately that I wanted to cook. That is all I want to do, and that is what I'm going to do. I don't plan to do anything like cooking all of Julia Child's recipes and blogging about them, but I am planning on throwing myself into cooking again.

But it may be best to start tomorrow. It is now 4:00 in the morning. The longer this post goes on, the worse the writing becomes. I am finally starting to feel sleepy, and this computer screen seems to be getting brighter. So goodnight, everyone. Until next time.

-Emily

Dog Sitting Day Two: The Crude Humor of Doggy Farts

Hannah and Luna are like a lava lamp. They can keep me entertained for hours. Today they have done some pretty silly stuff, but also some pretty gross stuff. They are insanely gassy dogs. And, despite how awful it smells, I find it really funny. I also had fun watching them do things like trying to catch their treats, falling asleep in funny places, and hopping around the yard. I have been giggling all day.

My sense of humor is very skewed. I love puns and fart jokes. I laugh at really goofy things like dogs wearing shower caps, screaming goats, any other animal wearing clothes, and just goats in general. I also laugh at really horrible like dead baby jokes and most crude British humor. Dirty jokes usually don't make me laugh because I usually don't catch on to them. My mind is rarely in the gutter because I usually spend my time coming up with funny puns (even though I'm probably the only one who finds them funny). My goofy sense of humor is why I think the doggy farts are funny. They sound like a human, and every time they toot they look at their butts as if they can't believe what just happened. It truly is very funny.

Both of them are so cute and silly. Luna, the baby, always falls asleep on the couch with her head on the pillow like a human. Then Hannah goes and cuddles up with her like the mama duck she is. Then when there is the smallest sound in the world, Luna jolts awake and jumps about three feet into the air. Hannah doesn't move at all. The only things that wake up Hannah are when I stand up, she toots, or when I speak the words "food" and "go outside." They both fall back asleep pretty quickly every time.

Sleepy Luna.

It is really nice to have these two dogs here to keep me company during the day. My apartment has been so dreary and lonely the past couple of nights because my dog, Maggie, is staying with my grandparents for the week. It is amazing how quiet and empty my home feels when it is missing that one little dog. At my sister's house, Hannah and Luna make it feel like a home full of warmth and love. There is something magical about walking through the front door and being greeted by puppy faces and licks. That is the best part about coming home to Miss Maggie. She always comes to say hello when I walk in. That one greeting from a dog can make any place feel like home.

Dog Sitting Day One

This week I am watching my sister and brother-in-law's dogs while they are on their honeymoon. They live about 30 minutes away from me (or an hour depending on the traffic), so I got up early this morning so that I could spend the whole day with the dogs. I packed up my computer, stopped at the QT for some caffeine, and I was on my way.

When I first arrived, both dogs had their noses sticking out of the door to greet me. They are very goofy dogs with loads of personality. Hannah is the older one, and she is rather large. As my brother describes it, she is "well marbled." Luna is the younger one, and she is hilarious in every way. She has one ear that is floppy and another that sticks straight up. She is cute as can be, but she is definitely not the smartest dog in the litter (but that just makes her even more adorable). Luna follows Hannah around like a little duckling follows its mama duck, and Hannah is more than okay with it. They are a goofy pair, and they bring endless smiles and laughter to anyone they meet. I'm very excited to be watching them this week.

So far today, we have run around the backyard, they had some treats, and now we are all hanging out in the living room watching Once Upon a Time. I've got my snacks, energy drink, comfy robe, and two fluffy puppies who are falling asleep from too much fun chasing each other in the yard. Right now, life is good. I have two great companions to spend the week relaxing with.

One Very Large Delayed Post

It has been a very long time since I have been able to write a post. So much has been going on in the past several weeks, and my whole life got even more crazy and busy in the past two weeks. This is my extremely delayed post that will recap everything big from the past couple of weeks!

All of us minus my dad.

Rush's 40th anniversary tour.

First was the Rush concert. A couple of Tuesday's ago my dad, sister, two brother-in-laws, my boyfriend, and I took a trip out to the Verizon Amphitheater to see a legendary band play. Rush has been one of those bands that I grew up listening to because my dad always had them playing along with Yes, Queen, and other great groups. After 40 years of playing, they are still amazing. I am so happy I was able to go and see them on their 40th anniversary tour, especially with such a great crowd of people.



Once my dad flew back to Texas after the concert, I went into full crafting mode. My mom was set to fly in that Saturday for the Renaissance Festival. I made all sorts of things for our outfits. I made fairy wings, floral vines for arms, a cloak, a bag, and tons of other fairy/elf accessories. I spent the entire week prior to the fair to make everything. It was so much fun, and in the end we all looked really awesome in our costumes (at least I thought so). For my outfit I made a dress out of one of my moms old skirts, and I wore my fairy wings, flower crown, and a whole other assortment of fairy-like items (including a bottle of glitter). We had a lovely day filled with fluttering fairies and glistening glitter.

My fairy costume.

For the next several days my mom and I ran around all over town to help my sister get everything ready for her wedding, which was today. We also had to get my apartment ready for all of the people I had staying with me the weekend of the wedding. We went to the mall about four times for so many different things, and every single time I got a mall pretzel. It was one of the highlights of my week. We also took a trip up to visit my grandparents, get our hair cut by our good friend Billy, and take my dog to the vet. Billy fixed my self-cut bangs, we got all of the things needed for the wedding, and the vet told us that Maggie is completely healthy. We were all ready for the weekend to come, and for the craziness to ensue.

On the Thursday before the wedding we had the bachelorette party. We didn't do anything too crazy (no strippers, or drugs, or anything like that), but we did have plenty of provocative objects and it was very fun. That is about all I want to write about that night. The next day was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for the wedding. We all went to the venue to run through the plans for Saturday morning, and then it was off to dinner. Our whole crowd went to a yummy Mexican restaurant where we celebrated with pitchers of beer and margaritas. We had a lovely evening visiting with friends and family, and I was extra happy because it was a very special day for another reason than just the rehearsal dinner.

At the wedding.

Aren't we cute?

On June 5, 2015 Roger and I celebrated our one year anniversary. I am so happy and so lucky to have spent the last year of my life with such an amazing guy. He always makes me feel like I am special and beautiful, even when I am in sweatpants and in need of a shower. When I first me him, he came onto the porch of the house where my sister and her friends lived, and he was carrying a cow skull. Roger and his friend Matt had gone out in a field and found the skull, and it is still hanging on the wall at that house wearing a set of swim goggles. Before I met him, my sister had told me all about him because she wanted us to date. Naturally, I always thought she was crazy. Dating him was the last thing I expected to happen, but thankfully it did. On our first date he took me out for pizza, and I was so nervous I couldn't even look at him. But from that very first date, he has always kept me smiling, and somewhere along the line I fell in love with that goofy goober. I am so happy to have spent this last year with hm by my side. Here's to many more years filled with laughter, love, and happiness with my best friend.

The next day, Saturday, was the wedding. The bridal party gathered at my house at 7:00 in the morning to start getting our hair and makeup done for the big day. From that point on, we were going nonstop with everything. My sister went and married the man of her dreams, and I couldn't be happier to welcome him into our family. The last few weeks have been absolutely exhausting, but they have also been wonderful. I have seen love in several different forms and generations, I have laughed until it hurt, and I have cried because I couldn't hold in my happiness. I am so thankful for all of the love I have in my life, and I am so excited to see what the future has in store.

Doggy Strollers and Butterfly Stickers

Today was my cleaning day. I am going to have a lot of friends and family coming into town in the next couple of weeks for my sister's wedding, and tomorrow my dad is flying in from Texas for a concert we are all going to. So I wanted to have a clean apartment again. I have not kept up with it as well as I usually do. So this morning, after sewing up my red shorts so they can survive another summer, I opened up the all of the windows to let in the scent of the rain and the warmth of the season, and I started on the kitchen. But today turned out to be no ordinary cleaning day.

I went around straightening up and I did the dishes, but after only a few hours into cleaning I got a phone call. My brother-in-law called me to say that he and my sister were heading over and that they had a surprise. So naturally I dropped everything and waited for them to arrive. As I sat on my couch and sipped my energy drink I noticed my walls. The walls above my windows were annoyingly bare. I always feel more at home when every wall is covered in pictures, paintings, and random knick knacks, so while I waited I decided to pull out some more things to hang. I found a pack of butterfly wall decals in my closet. Even though I have a bad fear of butterflies (that's a long story...) I put all 79 of them up because they glow in the dark and that is just neat. I was also just really happy to have an excuse to take a break from cleaning, even if it wasn't a real excuse. It was also a good way to pass the time while I waited for my sister and brother-in-law to arrive. I got halfway through putting up the butterfly decals when they finally did.

When they showed up I saw that they had something really large with them. With a closer look I saw that it was a collapsed stroller. Naturally, I thought that they were using it to announce their pregnancy, but that was not it and my sister is not pregnant (yet...). When they opened it up I saw that it was not a stroller for a baby. It was for a dog.

I should explain that for the longest time I have wanted a stroller for my dog, Maggie. For several reasons. First of all, tiny dogs in strollers is one of the most adorable things ever. The main reason I would like one, however, is because Maggie is the worst dog to try and take for a walk. She thinks that the only reason to be outside is to go to the bathroom. So whenever we go walking she will just do that the entire time (even in the middle of the road). I can't take her to the park either because she doesn't like the other dogs coming up to her, and at her old age she doesn't do so well with large amounts of exercise. A doggy stroller is perfect for her because she loves being outside, especially in the summer. So imagine my excitement when that was exactly what I was given today.

It's the little things in life that can make a normal day special. Even though I didn't get all of my cleaning done, my day was still exciting and productive. It was full of smiles, laughter, and butterfly stickers. The highlight was seeing my dog looking adorable in her stroller.

I hope that tomorrow will hold just as much excitement and fun, if not more!

-Emily

Thai Chicken Tacos

Thai cuisine is extremely full of flavor. For a well-balanced dish, there must be 5 distinct flavor profiles: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and spicy. It is also very rare to use salt in dishes to achieve a salty flavor, so instead they use fish sauce. When making these taco I tried to keep all of those flavors in mind. I did my best to include as many different levels of flavor as possible. They received high ratings from my boyfriend, so that means they must be tasty!

When I eat a taco, I absolutely love it when there are different textures and also different temperatures. So I made a cold slaw to go on top of the hot chicken mixture. My recipe is not very exact or precise. So feel free to play around with it and do what you think will taste the best! For example, if you love the flavors the lime juice brings and wish there was more, add more. cooking is always up for interpretation. Don't be afraid to stray from what is written!

Here's how I did it!

The Cabbage Slaw:

Red Cabbage.
Carrots.
Radishes.
Cilantro.
2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce.
3 Tablespoons of Rice Vinegar.
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Lime Juice.
Cut your cabbage, radishes, and carrots into similar sizes so that they are uniform. Try not to cut them too small to where you can't taste them, but if they are too big it will be hard to eat. I didn't put exact measurements on this recipe because it really is not an exact science. Cut up as much as you think you need for the number of tacos you are making. The general rule of thumb for this though is to have a bit more cabbage than carrots and radishes, but you can change that depending on your tastes. Once you have all of your veggies cut up and mixed together, give the cilantro a rough chop. The cilantro is really just to taste. I like a lot of cilantro, so I added about 1/3 cup. I made enough slaw for 4 tacos, so if you are making more than 4 you will want to increase the amount of lime juice, soy sauce, and lime juice you add in. So add those into your slaw and mix together. Cover it and put it into the refrigerator while you work on the chicken filling.

The Chicken Filling:

Thinly sliced chicken breasts (about one per person or one per every 2 tacos).
1 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic.
Half of a small onion.
1 tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro.
Siracha to taste.
Soy sauce.
Rice vinegar.
3 teaspoons of fresh lime juice.
Tortillas.
Sour Cream.
Cut your chicken into small pieces. Dice up the onion and add that and your garlic to the chicken in a bowl. Chop and add your cilantro. For the siracha, I said to taste because it really depends on how much spice you like. Now for the soy sauce and rice vinegar, simply add enough to just coat the entire mixture. Also, add your lime juice. Add some olive oil to a skillet and cook the chicken mixture over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and the onions are clear. While you have that cooking, heat your tortillas and give them a swipe of cold sour cream.

Plating:

When you have your tortillas ready to go, add in some of the chicken mixture. Put the cold slaw on top of that. For an added kick of flavor get a lime, chili powder, and salt. Remove the rind from the lime and cut out the individual segments into a bowl. Sprinkle on a little bit of chili powder and salt and toss them. Just add a few to the top of each taco, and they will add massive amounts of flavor.

Finished product.

I hope you really love these tacos. I realize the recipe may be a little difficult to follow. This meal was something I just threw together one night, so it was a little difficult coming up with very exact measurements. But they tasted so good that I just had share! Besides, cooking is more fun when you are winging it. That is when the real creativity comes out. So feel free to use this recipe as a something to grow and expand on! Feel free to ask me any questions about it! Enjoy!

-Emily

Oh My God Shoes

In many ways I am not what you would consider a girly girl. But in so many more ways, I am. Today I went shoe shopping with my sister so she could get a pair of silver heels for our other sister's wedding. Silver shoes are surprisingly difficult to find. Actually, let me revise that: cheap silver shoes are hard to find. We were able to track down some in the clearance section at DSW. This is where I fell in love for a second time. The first time being with my boyfriend (love you babe). But today it was with a pair of floral heels, perfect in every way.

The fabulous floral heels.

I got the wonderful rush of bliss that only comes from love. They even matched my nail polish. The best part of all: they fit me. This may seem like a strange thing to go goo-goo over, but I have an extremely difficult time find shoes that fit me. Most of the shoes I currently own are from the children's section at my favorite shoe store, Shoe Carnival. I am a size 4 in most shoes, but sometimes I can make a 5 work. However, finding a pair of really nice heels in a size 5 that are super comfy, super cute, AND fit is not a regular happening in my world of tiny feet. But that is exactly what happened today.

I did not buy the shoes (broke college student, remember). I will go back for them eventually I'm sure. And if they are still there and still on sale, well that just shows that it is meant to be. If not it won't be the end of the world. In some ways it is not just the shoes I love (even though they are flippin precious), but also the feeling I got from wearing them. They gave me an overwhelming sense of hope for my future in shoe shopping. Ever since the store I buy my jeans at closed down, I have been pretty upset about my bad luck with shopping. So finding these shoes today and getting all excited and worked up over them may seem pretty silly. But it was one of those things that makes you smile and somehow shows you that everything works out in the end. When you can find something in a normal day that makes it super special, it makes your life a tad bit brighter.

Plus, the shoes were really cute.

-Emily