Come On-A My House

Have you ever heard the phrase "too many chefs in the kitchen"? Well, my life right now is an exact representation of that saying.  I'm not at all complaining. Heck no.  Honestly, I find it kind of fun and exciting! I know that phrase is supposed to have a negative connotation, but to me where food is concerned the more good cooks you can have around the better.

Allow me to start from the beginning.  In order for Chris and I to move into our fabulous new house we had to find roommates.  Fortunately for us two of our best friends from Florida, Alan and Martha, were looking to relocate out here around the same time our lease was up on the old place.  You've got to love serendipity!  Anyway, both of them are professional chefs - meat-loving, whole spice-using, Americana-appreciating, Emeril-fearing chefs.

Now, I don't know if I've told you this before but Christopher and I love to cook, and I don't want to toot my own horn but we're pretty dang good at it. However, he and I are more of the gluten-fearing, tofu-loving, thai/indian fusion-cooking, vegetarian type of people. In fact, whereas most new roommates focus on the financial details and chore distribution charts prior to cohabitation, the bulk of our conversations focused around the kitchen: how to properly separate meat and bread/flour tools from vegetarian and gluten free tools, what types of mushrooms would be in season upon their arrival, what recipes we had to make together, etc.  I mean finances are important, but food equals life!

I come from a southern family, and by southern I mean the orange groves of Florida and cotton fields of Alabama. Family gatherings were almost always focused around the meal which was usually a combination of traditional plates, each prepared by a different member of the family who specialized in that particular dish.  Gram (great grandma Laura) always made sweet potatoes slathered in toasted marshmallows, Grandma Helen spent all day working on her fried chicken, my mom made squash casserole and her "special salad"... Everybody pitched in to create the perfect, scrumptious family meal.

I find it extremely comforting that my new Portland family is working very much the same way.  We've cooked multiple fabulously scrumptious meals together!  My favorite, so far, was 'breakfast for dinner' night, when Alan and I teamed up to make GF pancakes with homemade huckleberry syrup, hashbrowns with cheese, my famous tofu-style bacon, fried cheese grit cakes, and fresh-cut real bacon (for the meaties in the house).  When dinner was ready we all sat down at the table together and enjoyed an old-fashioned, family-style meal. It was absolutely wonderful!

I would love to start posting recipes on this site, but I need some feedback from you first.  Would you, my bloggy friends, like to see that sort of content on this blog regularly?  If so, I'll start taking pictures and writing down ingredients more often.  All four of us tend to make recipes up as we go so it'll take some extra effort to figure out measurements, but it's well worth the effort if you are interested.  It's up to you; speak now or [don't] forever hold your peace!

Until next time, sia nara!

You Say It Best When You Say Nothing At All

Well, hello there!  I know, I'm sorry.  I've been neglecting you, my beloved blog. Once upon a time (in my first blog post) I promised to write something in you every day.  Eh, so that didn't quite work out.  Se la vie!

The reality is things have been rather hectic these past few months. I moved, started a new job and a new school semester, registered for the GRE (yikes!), revitalized my other blog (Life Beyond Gluten), and (dun, dun, dunnnnn) started a twitter account.  Okay, so the twitter account took about five seconds to create, but everything else has been very time intensive.  I promise!  Anyway, things have gotten a little crazy over here, and by 'over here' I mean in my brain.  I seriously might be losing it.  I just don't have the same chutzpah anymore.

I have two theories as to why my energy/dedication/sanity may be wavering:

1. I feel completely overwhelmed by the fact that I am going to school AND working AND studying for a test that will ultimately decide whether I get into grad school next year or take a year off to twiddle my thumbs for a while (melodramatic much?).
2. For the first time in a long time I am living somewhere that I don't hate, that isn't tiny, and that has built in friends, fun, and relaxation.  For the past two years Christopher and I have been cohabiting in a terrifically small studio apartment, which I was more than willing to escape from to work in the school computer labs every available moment.  Now, that extra push of external motivation is gone.  I didn't realize how much of my success was relying on that.

I have a sneaking suspicion that rather than choose one of the two theories to blame for my recent academic and blogging torpor (GRE word alert!), I should just throw my arms in the air and admit that the correct answer is all of the above.  My cup doth overfloweth with crap, yo! 

That having been said, I really do enjoy blogging.  It's relaxing and fun, and provides me with a place to expel my inner thoughts out into the universe. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am going to start blogging more often.  At least once per month, for the love of Pete!

I realize this wasn't much of an update, so I will write more tomorrow.  No really, I will.  Seriously.

Lindsey out!