Lunch.
This is the best summer cocktail in the universe. Hyperbole, you say? 'Tis not. Frosé is essentially a tarted-up slushie for grownups, except instead of Berry Berry Buzz or whatever, it tastes like...wine. Except better.
Look! She's wearing an apron; she must know what she's doing! (Spoiler: she did not.)
The other night, I made grilled pizzas for dinner - one with tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil (FROM MY GARDEN, #bam), and the other with arugula, peaches, prosciutto and goat cheese (and both with store-bought dough, obviously, because dough-making is not my thing). We were sitting outside eating dinner and Kendrick said something about the peach pizza being good, and then he said, "Remember when you didn't know how to cook?"
To be clear: I still don't consider myself an especially proficient cook. I make things that are easy and that I think taste good, I cut corners virtually everywhere, and I never met a package of pre-marinated Trader Joe's anything that I didn't like. But what Kendrick was referring to was the fact that when I started this website six years ago, my idea of "making dinner" was boiling some ravioli and throwing a bit of Prego over it that I'd tarted up with diced onions and mushrooms (I still make this sometimes when I'm alone, because it may not be elevated cuisine, but it is GOOD).
The original idea behind Ramshackle Glam was that it would be a food and entertaining blog written by a person who didn't know a whole lot about either. I figured hey, I just got married and moved into a (massive-for-us, at 800 square feet) new apartment, I'm interested in spending time at home and cultivating a cozy home life (as opposed to spending as many nights as possible out at some bar or another) for the first time ever...I might as well try to figure out this whole "cooking and entertaining and decorating" thing. And I might as well write about it on the internet while I do it, because there are a hell of a lot of sites that explore cooking from an expert perspective...but I always think it's fun to watch someone figure things out as they go.
I turn 35 tomorrow. (And the day after that, my son graduates from preschool, which is even more perplexing. ...How did this happen? Am I happy about it? Am I going to cry massive crocodile tears? The answers: I have no freaking idea, yes with qualifications, and ohhhmygoodness yes.)
The fact that it's my birthday has nothing to do with the photos of salmon in this post (other than the fact that I suppose I should be ingesting more omega-3s...?). It's just on my mind.
The thing is, I've never been into New Year's resolutions; New Year's is a holiday that I'm not especially fond of because it stresses me out (HAVE FUN! NOW!), but beyond that, I've never gotten that grand "Hooray! This is my chance to start afresh!" burst that apparently motivates dedicated resolution-makers. This birthday, though, I'm sort of getting that feeling: the desire to hit the refresh button in certain ways. I don't think it's any mystery that I've been going through some searching with regards to how I can live better, feel better, and mostly be better, as a partner and mother and daughter and person. These are obviously things that I've always thought about to some extent, like everyone, but something about this particular moment in my life seems different.
Madewell Hi-Rise Jeans | Lo & Sons Camera Bag | DIY Distressed T-Shirt
On Sunday, we were driving to Berkeley for brunch and steam train-riding, when all of a sudden our children both decided they needed to eat IMMEDIATELY. We just had a snack forty-five seconds ago, you say?
Do not care.
Sweatshirt that nicely sums up my feelings about this "aging" thing
In celebration of the fact that I am about to turn 35 and am kind of weirded out by that, here are a few of the many (oh, so many) ways that I know that I am old:
And, of course, there's the fact that I've spent the past few months realizing that I need to start consciously putting things into my body that are good for it, rather than whatever's in front of me and doesn't require a fork (usually macaroni and cheese, which totally counts as finger food). This, as you might have guessed, doesn't exactly come naturally, so what I've discovered is that it's best if I do that put-good-stuff-in thing sometime around 8AM, when I still care.
