My current loves

OK, obviously I'm NOT loving how long it has been since I've updated, but it's been a pretty busy few months. Finals, Leon's gradation, summer school, driving to Colorado and enjoying a bit of free time. I love when I'm not in school and I can enjoy some non-academic pursuits. This summer these are a few of the things I have been absolutely loving:

1. Non-academic reading: Law school ensures that I spend a lot of time reading, but as any student knows there's a huge difference between reading for class and reading for pleasure. I've been indulging in some fun, non-academic books this summer and I've been loving it.

First on the list was "Bossypants" by Tina Fey. I'm a huge fan of "30 Rock" and of TIna Feyin general. This book definitely did not disappoint. It's witty, hilarious, sentimental, insightful and everything else one would expect from the fabulous Ms .Fey. It was a quick read and I was truly disappointed when I finished.

I know Chelsea Handler is a bit polarizing - people seem to either love her or hate her. I fall into the former category and have been meaning to check out this book. I decided to read it after "Bossypants" because I was craving more female humor. It's written in the style of "Are You There God It's Me Margaret" - kind of a coming-of-age style but the subject matter includes men, drinking and family issues, among others. If you like Chelsea and aren't too easily offended (which you probably aren't if you like Chelsea), I highly recommend this.

I have been meaning to read some David Sedaris for quite awhile and I definitely see myself reading more of his stuff in the future. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is a collection of essays on varying subjects, from Sedaris' childhood speech impediment to his trials growing up gay in North Carolina to his difficulty learning French during long visits to France with his partner. The essays vary in tone and make for an interesting read.

I just got done reading this yesterday and I could hardly put it down in the few days that it took me to read it. I guess it falls into the "chick-lit" category, but if this is chick-lit then I'm definitely a fan.The movie came out recently but I have been hearing about this book for a little while and decided to read it. The book follows Rachel, a young lawyer who has an affair with her longtime best friend Darcy's fiance. The books explores the complexities of female relationships and actually has you rooting for Rachel. I found the characters and situations extremely relatable and II'm sure many other women would too.

I'm really looking forward to the ongoing liquidation sale at Borders. If you have one near by you need to go! They are fully shutting down and liquidating all their merchandise (sad, I know - but cheap books are awesome!).

2. Pinterest: The BEST new thing on the web. I'm totally obsessed with this site. If you like fashion, art, interior design or cooking (though this is hardly an exhaustive list) check out the site and start pinning. Oh, and add me :)

Just a preview of the Pinterst awesomeness.

3. Nutella. Ok, we all love nutella all of the time, so perhaps I should clarify and say "creative uses of Nutella." This one definitely fits the bill and is courtesy of Allie over at "...and a teaspoon of life." Check the link for her awesome blog and the recipe. The only thing I really did differently was that I didn't cut off the excess wonton wrapper. These seriously are beyond delicious - try them!

4. This American Life: This is a radio program that is available from the link I listed and as a podcast or download from iTunes. The basic premise is that each show has a theme and there are between one and four different stories, anecdotes etc. on that theme. Some are informative, some are funny, some are sad. Scroll through the options and find something that sounds interesting to you. They're great to listen to in the kitchen while you're making dinner or on a long car trip. A few of my personal favorites: "Switched at Birth';" "Very Tough Love;" "Father's Day;" and "#1 Party School." This stuff makes me understand why people loved radio so much many years ago and makes me wish that good radio programming were more prominent.

Wee Bit Wednesday

{one} how often do you do laundry?I do laundry on a pretty shamefully infrequent basis. We don't have our ownwasher and dryer and the ones at the apartment are crappy and expensive, so there aren't a lot of incentives, haha.


{two} what is your favorite type of cookie?Chocolate chip


{three} what would you do with an extra $2000 per month?Probably start saving up for when I have to start paying backthose pesky student loans, save up for my eventual wedding and a down paymentfor out first house.


{four} what was/is your favorite subject in school?In High School I loved Journalism, English, Social Studies and Government classes. In undergrad I always loved my Political Science andPhilosophy classes. I've enjoyed my Constitutional Law and Criminal Law classesduring law school.


{five} have you ever ridden in a hot air balloon?No, I don't know if I would have the guts to do it or not.


{six} what was your high school mascot?The Badgers for my first year and the Panthers for the rest.


{seven} if you had the chance to go into space, would you?Probably not, but I may think about it if space travel became extremely safe.


{eight} how often do you go dancing?I don't, unless Zumba counts :)


{nine} would you rather drive or fly?Drive for a short trip, fly for a longer one. More than five hoursin a car makes me antsy.


{ten} have you ever been caught re-gifting?Thankfully not! I've probably only done it onceor twice, but only for secret santa. How often does anyoneactually like a secret santa gift anyway?
Copy, paste and share a wee-big-o-yourself!

Chicken and Leek Stew, the great de-stressor

There has not been a whole lot of cooking happening in this house lately. As the semester wears on that's pretty normal, but I had a 30 page rough draft due yesterday for a paper I've been working on throughout the semester and I needed to take it easy. We've had a super chilly, stormy couple of days and this sounded like the perfect comfort food. I've made this stew a couple of times and it is, without fail, delicious. It's thick and creamy, which makes it hard to believe that it's fairly healthy. This is also the first time I've used leeks, and I have definitely been missing out. They're a mild onion, kind of like a huge scallion. If you want that instant 'yum' smell in your kitchen, saute some leeks in olive oil - delicious. This recipe is courtesy of Jamie Oliver. I followed all of the directions, though I used fat free sour cream. Oh, and I added garlic. You could make it without, but why would you ever make anything without garlic?

Jamie Oliver's 'Simplest Chicken and Leek Stew'

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium leeks, white and tender green parts (discard any discolored ends)

1 pkg. cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 2-inch pieces

All-purpose flour, for dusting

1 and 1/2 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth

1 tbsp. chopped thyme

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Aren't the leeks gorgeous!?

Method:

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the leeks and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender, about 4 minutes. Scrape the leeks and mushrooms onto a plate.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and lightly dust with flour, shaking off any excess. heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the skillet. Add the chicken and cook over moderate to high heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Add the chicken stock and thyme and simmer over moderate heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about one minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to the plate with the vegetables.

3 Simmer the stock over moderately high heat until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Return the chicken, leeks and mushrooms to the skillet and simmer over low heat until warmed through, about 1 minute.

4. In a small bowl, blend the sour cream with the mustard and stir into the stew. Remove the skillet from the heat. Season the stew with salt and pepper and serve.

Serve with: Steamed rice (I used brown).

Savannah-rama, Part 3

Ok, apparently blogger just cannot contain all the photos I want to post. This is nice though, I'm getting to reminisce about my vacation and forget about all the stressful things I'm currently working on. Savannah really was gorgeous though. The trees and flowers there are pretty much the same thing you see in Tallahassee, but we definitely lack the old-Timey charm. We probably bull dozed down all of the old houses to make way for our heinous, phallic capital building.

This old synagogue is the student center for the

Savannah College of Art and Design. They own a

bunch of gorgeous buildings around town and I'm super

jealous that they get to hang out in gorgeous buildings like this.

Savannah has a really active port and we saw this

cargo freighter, it's huge! Suddenly I understand why

customs doesn't quite make it through everything shipped into this country.

Skillz.

The buildings on River Street.

Cool or creepy? Savannah-Rama, Part 2

There were so many gorgeous things to see in Savannah, there's no way I could limit my pictures to one post! One of the more offbeat things we did was walk around the Bonaventure Cemetery, which was featured in the book an film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I'll admit, I didn't check out the movie until after our trip to Savannah, but it definitely captures a lot of things about the city. The cemetery overlooks a gorgeous river and is full of amazing spanish moss laden trees and gorgeous tombstones. I know some people get weirded out by cemeteries, but I'm definitely not one of them. I actually lived behind a funeral home for quite a few years, so it takes a lot to creep me out. I'm not too partial to the idea of being buried myself, but cemeteries are kind of nice - they're full of tokens showing the great love people have for one another. Is that weird?

So, readers - cemeteries: cool or creepy?

The fountain at Forsyth Park in downtown Savannah

Hey Ya'll: Savannah-rama, Part 1

Last week was our Spring Break. Ahhh, Spring Break - it's going to be sorely missed when I finally wrap up my seven year stint in college. It won't be missed as much as winter break or summer break, but it will be missed nonetheless. School has been pretty hectic this semester, hence the lack of blog posts. The break was much needed and is already sorely missed. We spent four days in Savannah, Georgia enjoying quality time, sleeping in, gorgeous scenery and good food. It's about a five hour drive from here, so it was the perfect getaway for a few days. I initially wanted to go to New Orleans, but when I got around to my last minute planning I realized that out break coincided with Mardi Gras. Don't get me wrong, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is definitely something that's on the bucket list; however, it's also something that requires more than three days planning ahead.

Savannah is such a beautiful old city. The homes are absolutely beautiful and you just get such a great sense of the history while you explore it. The charm is also nicely augmented by liberal drinking laws - you're allowed to have open containers of alcohol in the historic district as long as they're in a clear plastic cup. Bartenders will ask, "For here, or to go?" when you order a drink, which I must admit is pretty awesome. This, paired with the fact that Georgia gets New Belgium beer made exploring on foot that much more fun. It felt a little strange, but Leon and I both enjoyed walking in front of the gorgeous City Hall en route to River Street while sipping on beer in our to go cups.

We got a good dose of southern hospitality from most everyone we met. Parts of Forrest Gump were filmed in Savannah, including Forrest's narration from the bench while waiting for the bus. The bench itself was put there for the film production and has been moved to a museum though, which makes it much less cool. I would definitely put in a stunt bench for the tourists if I has a say, but I don't. Savannah is also supposed to be super haunted and they have a lot of ghost and graveyard tours, but I just can't really buy into that stuff. I anticipate another post or two with pictures as this one is already a bit out of hand. What are some of your favorite vacation spots?

The Davenpot House, one of the first buildings in Savannah

to be preserved for its historic value. We actually got to go inside,

but I'm sad to say that it was a bit disappointing.

It was a bit chilly during our stay, but Spring was clearly

nudging its way in.

One of the many gorgeous Bed and Breakfasts in the historic district.

I would love to return to Savannah when my budget is a little

higher and stay somewhere like this.

I sure do love flowering trees.

This city really does have a level of charm that I haven't

really seen before. Many of the historic

homes had cute gutters like this one.

How's that for a backyard?

One of the ghost tours runs in this hearse. Tour-goers stand up

in the back while learning about Savannah's spooky stories.

"The Waving Girl," a statue in Savannah on the river front.

Supposedly a girl would stand there every day and

wave to greet the ships coming into port. There is some legend that

she was there every day for 40 years, waiting for her love who

has been lost at sea to return.

The old cobblestone streets by the port.

Cute, but difficult to balance on.

Every home really did seem more beautiful than the last.

The spot where Forrest waited on the bench and

told his life story.

The people of Savannah sure do love Forrest Gump.

The guide on our trolly tour was even an extra, but his scene got cut.

Gorgeous trees, as one would expect.

Forrest Gump isn't the only shrimp loving southerner who is

well known in Savannah. Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady and Sons

is also located there in the historic district, along with The Paula Deen Store,

specializing in all things Paula. I love to laugh at Paula's southern drawl and

love of butter on Food Network. I don't generally cook the types of things

that she does, but we couldn't pass up some of Paula's home cookin'.

"Hey ya'll" is the catch phrase on her sign. Hilarious.

The restaurant is a pretty large, three story place in

historic Savannah. You have to go make reservations

ahead of time and they were totally filled up every day we were in town.

Above is the garlic chive biscuit and "hoecake" that comes with

your meal. Paula Deen is such a naughty genius - they tell you

that the hoecake is great plain, but also prove maple syrup on the

table and urge you to have it that way. Pancakes with dinner -

perhaps not something for everyday, but Paula is a genius.

We both opted for the buffet so that we could sample

all the good southern fare that The Lady and Sons offers. This was

definitely the best buffet food I've ever had - nothing dry or flavorless

the way that buffet food generally is. The collard greens were amazing and

I even loved the creamed corn - which I thought was grits. I never

would have tried it if I knew what it was, but I'll hand it to Paula - she turns out

great food and I'm still working on detoxing from the trip.

Paula's restaurant has to make a crazy amount of money, but it still has that locally owned, down home feel. There are family pictures of the Deens by the elevators and I was particularly ticked when I spotted one of Paula kissing one of her sons on his mouth at his wedding. On the ride up to our table on the third floor Leon entertained the other diners by musing about whether they kept Paula in the basement. All in all, it was a delicious, very diet unfriendly gastronomic adventure.