Savory Dutch Babies

Even though I have about twenty other pictures posts I want to share, I had to share this yummy dish I made yesterday.

I had a tab open for the recipe Smoked Gouda and Pear Dutch Baby for a few days and then I went grocery shopping. The dish basically combines a ton of things I love, so I knew it was meant for me to eat. :)

I should note, however, if you're vegan, this is not the recipe for you. (Also, you're welcome for all the commas in that last sentence.)

I've always loved dutch babies. My dad makes a mean breakfast version that was often a dinner treat at our house.

(Breakfast for dinner is the best.)

While this is a more savory version, it still shares a few common elements with the basic breakfast version: butter, blending ingredients, and more butter.

I ate the first piece a little too quickly, so I had to have a second.

P.S. I apologize for blurry pictures. I was lacking in light in my kitchen, but I think you get the idea.

Awkward and Awesome: Early morning edition

If only you could see me right now. My roommates cat's have me pinned. Since I work early mornings and then have school and other commitments most evenings, Napoleon, Mittens, and I spend a lot of quality time together during the day.

Whether I want to or not.

And if you follow me on instagram, you've probably noticed the sudden influx of cat pictures. When in Rome...

Anyways, my grand plans of prepping for the week and catching up on commenting kind of failed. Luckily I still have this evening to accomplish some of that. The commenting at least. I hope.

For now, though, I leave you with some of my awkward and awesome moments from the past week. At least you can count on me for these posts.

Awkward:
- Having to be at work at 4 a.m. I don't know how reporters do it on a regular basis. Seriously.
- I took my computer in once for a small problem and it was supposedly fixed, but I don't think it actually is. And now my headphone jack doesn't work. Awesome. I need to take care of a few things, though, before I can go back in to Apple, just in case they have to keep it a couple days.
- Never being able to grocery shop for just a couple items and always thinking just a basket will be enough. I always look ridiculous by the time I get to the register.
- Also, half of my $50+ grocery bill today was dairy. I don't know what that says about me, except that I'm definitely not vegan.

Awesome:
- Getting to go out with a reporter for a morning. It was fun to see how things work outside the station, even if we were outside all morning and it was cooold.
- We also got to ride back to the TV station in a cop car. My first! And no cuffs involved.
- Taking naps two days in a row this week, for a total of 7.5 hours. Bliss. I haven't napped today in hopes I can fall asleep early.
- Getting excited for the election. In part because ads will finally disappear, but also because I feel like I've been following things pretty closely and am interested to see how everything plays out. I'll be working that night too, so I won't have to get up at the crack of dawn.

Any awkward or awesome moments from your week? Please share!

Monday Pick-Me-Ups

I had a great weekend out of town. The sister and I headed out to the island again to visit out uncle. I will have pictures to share in the next decade or so, but right now I need to focus on school work.

I'm rather exhausted today. There hasn't been a full night's sleep in almost a week, so I'm focusing on the little things today that make me happy.

Here are a few:
- finding a like-new winter coat for $15 at Goodwill. It's Burton and has super fun colors. My old snow coat has been around since before 2000. Seriously.
- egg nog at Safeway. I've been trying to do a better job of not stopping at Starbucks every morning before work and having something delicious to put in my coffee may just do the trick.
- fitting all my groceries into my reuseable bag. Seattle doesn't have plastic bags any more and I'm constantly forgetting to carry around enough bags with me. But today I was victorious.
- my roommate's cat sleeping on my lap, even if it makes typing on my computer a little more challenging.
- weather that calls for wearing scarves, tights, and boots.
- picking and carving pumpkins--plus, lots of delicious food out at the Farm.
- football and brunch, all at once. Perfection.

Are Mondays tough for you? What picks you up?

Awkward and Awesome: Two Weeks Worth

Tomorrow is my catch up day for blog stuff (and napping). My schedule has been all over the place, and I've been doing a lot of writing--just not here.

In fact, if you want to get to know a completely different side of me, here are a few things I've published over the past couples weeks in other places: (Fair warning: half of these posts are for a political blog. Also, no judgement if you read none of them.)
- Monday morning round-up from last week of important stuff
- A local Startup event
- Video about #firstworldproblems...this is a must watch, seriously.
- Digital side of the presidential campaign
- The one where I rant about the cost of education

So there you go. Proof I haven't completely dropped off the face of the earth.

My goal tomorrow and over the weekend is to put a few different posts together so next week the blog can look a little less sparse. Also, I plan to leave a few dozen comments around the blogosphere. I'm coming for you!

In the meantime, here are a few awkward and awesome moments from the past two weeks. I've had some good ones.

Awkward:
- not waking up to my alarm one day and getting to work at 7:30 instead of 6:00. Impressive, huh?
- walking to the bus with my dress tucked under my backpack. My only saving grace was that I was wearing tights.
- breaking the blinds on my window with my Herculean strength. And then taping a tablecloth over the window, which turned my room into a cave
- sending an old version of my resume in *sigh*
- my level of tiredness. It's 7:45 and I'm seriously considering going to sleep.
- fantasy football has been a rollercoaster and not in a good way. I won't get into the details because you probably don't care, but let's just say injuries suck.
- my use of grammar/punctuation in this post. It's better if we ignore it.

Awesome:
- getting to hang out with my sister and enjoying some delicious pho.
- having a relaxing weekend with my sister and uncle out on the island. (I feel so high class saying that..."on my island home..." hehe)
- being halfway through my final quarter of school, probably forever. I've basically been on a college campus for nine years. weird.
- getting to see my friend's baby, Eli, finally. I hung out with them yesterday, exactly four months after he was born.
- having rockstar people in my life. seriously blessed.

On that note, I'm heading to bed. Let me know what's been awkward or awesome recently for you!

Awkward and Awesome: Sister Time

My sister is down for a quick visit. We had plans to go out to the island again this weekend, but schedules got mixed up and I'll be headed out next Saturday morning instead.

So I talked her into to coming down here for a bit instead. It wasn't a very tough sell. We don't have any major plans, but it's fun to hang out again after she left me down here in Seattle. ;)

Anyways, I wanted to stop in and share some of my awkward and awesome moments from the past week. I'll be buckling down this weekend to get a lot of work done, for school, for blogs, etc. The list of to-dos is getting done.

Awkward:
- Still trying to get my sleep schedule on track. I've been making some changes and trying some things out, but I'm still not thrilled. My body just really doesn't want to go to bed as soon as it needs to.
- Finding out that breakfast sandwiches and wraps count towards stars earned at Starbucks this week. And I do love those bacon gouda sandwiches. My bank account. Well, it sees things a little differently.
- How much working again makes me want to buy new clothes. I've worked really hard this past year not to shop much, but now that I have to look presentable, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking I don't have much to wear.
- My blu-ray player not reading the Redbox movies we got tonight. Luckily I can hook my computer up to the TV, but it's still a little annoying.

Awesome:
- I managed to take two whole naps this week. It was monumental.
- Sister time. Delicious happy. Fun movies. And maybe a little shopping tomorrow.
- I was able to attend an interesting seminar about storytelling today at work. Since I'm working at a TV station, it was great to get a better idea of how TV works. It's not something I had knowledge of.
- I got to live blog the debates last night with a couple of political experts, and it was a cool experience. I didn't contribute a lot to the discussion, but I definitely learned a lot.

So I've run out of the brain power to think of more. What awkward and awesome moments have you had recently?

TV, Family, Fundraising, and Sleep

This past weekend was pretty wonderful. I had a meeting Friday evening, so after I got off of work at 10 a.m., I had a lot of time to kill before I headed up to my parent's house for a visit.

This led to one of the more depressing periods of television watching in my life. 

You're probably thinking a) why does E watch so much television and b) she really does exaggerate a lot.

My response a) not enough sleep and getting off work too early and b) yes, but not about this.

First I finished West Wing, which was like saying goodbye to family. I mean, I had basically lived with the cast for the past four weeks. Then I caught up on all three episodes of Parenthood, which is an amazing show, but deals with some tough stuff. Finally, I watched the Grey's Anatomy season premiere.

So all really uplifting, is what I'm saying.

Just so you're not completely concerned about my excessive TV watching, I also cleaned, packed, and put away clothes. I was multitasking.

I had a really nice visit with my family, going through stuff in storage, watching football and cooking my all-time favorite shepherd's pie recipe.

Sunday morning I volunteered at a 5k run/3k walk that raises money for pediatric brain cancer research. This was the fourth year of the event and we passed $1 million for total raised in its history, which was very exciting.

Sunday afternoon, I joined my roommate and some of her friends for a movie, Liberal Arts. It's an indie romantic comedy starring Josh Radnor, the youngest Olsen, Zac Ephron and more. It was really well done and enjoyable. A little deeper than average but with plenty of parts that made me laugh.

After a horrible night of sleep Sunday night, I actually took a nap yesterday before class. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have survived. I went to sleep at 11 p.m. and woke up at 4:30 a.m., plus I woke up twice in between. I was a zombie.

(P.S. If that is what having a baby is like, I'm not ready for it. Not that I'm having a baby--I'm speaking in generalities.)

What did you do this weekend?