for better days, for better nights

dancing in doorways and old people making out. cool.

Evil foodie laughs

me: (email above photo to my kitchen soul mate)
Fábio: Don't do this to me, I'm in the middle of my only 15 minutes of exercise I give myself.
me: OH, well in that case..(email this photo of a breakfast bagel sandwich).
Fábio: omg.
me: (email this photo of a chocolate eclair torte)
Fábio: noooooooooooooooo.
me: (email this photo of sushi)
Fábio: i hatchu.
me: (email this photo of chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter cups)
Fábio: going back to yoga and ignoring you.
me: :(
Fábio: link to this video

Mason Rain Garden

rain garden sign, version two.

Tuesday afternoon, visually.

prosciutto, plums, and profiles

me: Gmail shows me a short profile of you on the right hand side of this email window - I see your lovely face, a photo of you holding a pig's leg, and two Elmos going at it, hahahahah!

Fábio: Yeah :p pretty accurate description of my life. Yours is full of plum and apple tarts and a dog :) makes my heart smile.

Fine then! I don't paint abstract flowers anyway!

me: Oooh, can I take a photo of you working?
Justin: No. I am not your Jackson Pollock. You are not my Lee Krasner.

:(

parachute photo

me: How was the beach? I liked your tunnel photo, it made me fear for your life and camera.
Meekus: A lens hood at 65 mph might as well be a parachute.

photo via Fortune Photography

Tuesday afternoon

sounds like: Gangsta Luv (Mayer. Snoop. Yup.), Beach House, and SoSuperSam's Cruel Summer mixtape.  Summer. 

tastes like: green juice (kale, cantaloupe, and frozen grapes. I forgot the cilantro this morning.), We Are The Champignons moules frites from Cock and Bowl, and vanilla ice cream in a chocolate cone. Summer. 

feels like: driving with the windows down, mosquitoes biting my ankles, and sweating wherever I go. Summer. 

smells like: bug repellant/res-q, the coldness from any ice cream parlor, garlicky seafood. Summer. 

photo via Nikole Herriott

I've had to reheat food in the past.

[via text after he posted a tasty photo of steak on the grill]
me: I like that composition of that grill photo.
Meekus: It got too done because I was photographing. Shit.
me: welcome to my life.

Me, yesterday.

It never fails

trying to play this at all the parties, y'all.

To the Ruby even

Meet Ruby, the newest addition to the Sananikone clan.
Congratulations to Oura, Stephanie, and Max*!
I can't wait to meet her.

*Did you get that? Her brother's name is Max, as in the darling children's series. Oura and Stephanie are the coolest parents ever. 


Stephanie: Freaking listening to Call Me Maybe 100 times today. Man, that song is earworm to the max. To the Ruby even.

<3.

photo via Oura

These are the kid of midnight texts I enjoy.

(via text)

Stephanie: We should make peach ice cream macaron sandwiches. 

me: le gasp

Stephanie: Yeah you heard me!! Omg what if we crumbled something buttery and crunchy to sprinkle on top? 

me: omggg yes, it will almost be like peach cobbler à la mode. 

Stephanie: like little bits of buttery graham cracker. Just a tiny sprinkle. Especially if it was blueberry ice cream. 

me: Jesus wept, that sounds amazing. 

Stephanie: You know how it's really sweet? What if we whipped goat cheese and added a touch of honey? 

me: You're going to make me cry!

Stephanie: and lavender! Goat cheese honey lavender!! Omg new tumblr name!!

You need to watch Stephanie bake macarons. I don't quite know how to describe it. It's a combination of precision, science, and magic that results in this perfect, melt-in-your-mouth treat. 

Yeah..

me: dude! Make up your own status!
Olivier: no
me: and why not?
Olivier: I like yours. I will always copy them.

Next step:

Bicycle snitches get bicycle stitches

via Married to the Sea

Man, you oughta see him go, twistin' the night away

I repeat, NO PATTERN.

[via text]
me: Lydia made this dress out of bed sheets with no pattern. TOTALLY LIBBY ANGRY.
Libby: UGH WHAT. Yo, she actually needs to be assassinated.

I'm trying to have my summer look like this, for reals.

Photo via Instagram, taken yesterday at Olivier's house with all the Colombians.

If you want to hang with me that weekend, look for the green light.

me: I'm dogsitting Gatsby on Memorial Day weekend.
Bates: Oh, that's fitting - my pool opens up that weekend.

gutter mind.

me: you finished editing the video?
Olivier: yep.
me: How long is it?
Olivier: *chuckles*

Sunlight

My "no more exams ever, now I can sleep and eat at proper meal times, the sun is out and I'm going to go on a run, now I can design sustainability things during the daytime and not be crankypants in the studio at two in the morning" song.

Oura

That one day in Richmond with  Now Sleepyhead, the French toast from Lamplighter, and the bourbon/fresh ginger juice at that one Ethiopian restaurant. Side note, Stephanie and Oura are expecting their second child any day now. How exciting!

I'm not going to write you a sad song

Libby:  ughhh why am I excited for Sara Bareilles's new cd? I on the sneak love her.

me: It's all good, I bought the Dia Frampton album after hearing the "Don't Kick the Chair" song
and then I found out she was a contestant from The Voice.

Libby: I'm also watching American Idol on demand right now so....I cannot say anything.

Cheating

This song needs to be enjoyed on a hot summer night with a cold glass of amber-colored liquid, some wrinkled linen, and the smell of wood chips.

chickpeas, police escorts, and Libby Burns.

smashed chickpea and avocado salad sandwiches,
serves four to six people depending on everyone's appetite

2 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 large ripe avocados
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 Tbsp scallions, chopped
juice from one lemon
s&p
bread (I used some kind of sourdough rustic Italian loaf)
clover sprouts

- In a medium bowl, using a potato masher/fork/pestle/your fist, smash together chickpeas and avocado. Add everything else, season to taste. If mixture is too thick, loosen with more lemon juice or olive oil. 

- Pack everything into your favorite picnic basket tote and cart it to campus. Get a ride from the campus police cadets. Yo, so baller that I get police escorts to my picnics. I mean, my goodness. 

- Enjoy sandwiches with raspberry tart and grapefruit soda (with white wine and clementines!) with your amazingly talented friends, one who just moved to Mizzou for her masters in editorial design, the other who just designed his senior book on joy (the whole purpose of the picnic since my joy is food). 

- Have so much leftover that you decide to email your French lit professor (who is but a building away) to see if he wants a sandwich, because that's not weird. It's alright, he likes food. 

- Lug all the leftovers to class where everyone already judges you for your indoor picnics. It is what it is. 

recipe via Two Peas & Their Pod

down to film

I'm loving this video of the boys from Shark Pig and Michael of The Flashdance playing with new gear. They look like they have so much fun! Hire me, fellas! I can make lunch!

anddddddd Bohemian Rhapsody? Ugh. So good.

fight juice and coconut pancakes

celebrating Lao New Year  at temple with my extended AVT crew! 

Buddhist offerings. Apparently spirits have sweet teeth.

We stood in line for an hour for these coconut pancakes/kanon kok. Worth it. 

the rickety bench where we ate our lunch

  

freshly-pressed sugar cane juice. So much sugar that Matt was ready to fight Jesus. Next year we'll mix it with fresh coconut juice (maybe someone will bring a flask <.<) and call it fight juice. 

the food of my people! Stick rice, spicy papaya salad (it wasn't that spicy but  don't say that to Yathrib), and Lao sausage. 

Matt tasting the chili sauce. 

these gals. I love these gals. 

Mariammmmmmmmm. 

   

early bird apple cake

I woke up at six in the morning, on my own accord, and laid in bed until I decided to a) walk/run to the gym (eight miles total, heyyy) and then b) come home and bake an apple cake (womp womp). 

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

6 apples, I used a mixture of Golden Delicious, one Red Delicious, and a Granny Smith apple that were too old to be eaten plain. It was this or apple butter. 

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

5 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups light brown sugar

1/4 cup milk. (SK calls for orange juice but I didn't have any. Ooh! Next time I'll use Cointreau.)

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

- Preheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt (Bundkt budkt. Oh! It's a cake!) pan. 

- Chop apples into chunks (you can peel them if you like. I'm lazy.), toss with cinnamon and sugar. 

- Stir together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a bowl. 

- In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, milk (or orange juice or Cointreau), and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients with dry mixture, then add eggs one at a time. 

- In bundt pan, alternate layers of apple and batter. I did apples first, then batter, then more apples. I do believe Smitten Kitchen started with batter but I wanted a tarte tatin feel to it. 

- Bake until a tester comes out clean, about an hour and a half. 

* I had extra batter and apples and decided to bake them in a bread pan, which I then gave to the tall one. He calls it the apple brick. I didn't think the term brick was that appetizing, though it was very accurate. 

*I hummed this song the entire time I was writing this post. 

darling, it's alright

That dance break at 1:50. dassit.
Kudos to Libby for the find. I miss you already, booboo. Hope Mizzou is treating you right.

Sautéed navy beans with bacon, garlic, fresh oregano, and lemon zest

I don't know if I can even call this a lazy recipe since I'm technically not giving you a recipe.

Ok, ok, ok.

It's all very straightforward. Sauté diced bacon until crispy. Throw in some shaved garlic, cook until translucent. Add the beans (navy, my ass. You are clearly of a golden brown color) and stir about until hot. Throw in some lemon zest, fresh oregano, red pepper flakes, cracked black pepper, and sea salt. Done. 

I need to learn how to write better recipes, what with me writing/designing a cookbook as my senior book and all. 

I'll take "cute game show hosts" for 200, Alex.

me: Young Alex Trebek was cute.
Justin: SRSLY! He can Jeopardize me anytime.

photo via CBC

Wednesday afternoon

sounds like: Andrew Bird, ceiling fans, the clickety-clack of typing furiously on a keyboard, Gary Clark Jr., and Zee Avi's smoooooth smooth voice. 

tastes like: a crisp white wine with sliced strawberries and mango, soft scrambled eggs with slow-sautéed bacon and tomato, and hearty vegetable soup with a rasher of smoked bacon and rosemary for depth and dimension. 

feels like: writing my French lit final and comparing food and art with existentialism (come on, are we at all surprised?), icy condensation on my wine glass, and the necessary freedom that comes with closing all social media to obtain maximum productivity (then again, I am blogging so..). 

smells like: rain in the air and pink peonies from the garden.

photo via Sandra Juto 

image via @jordangibbons

Even Fab is telling me to stop procrastinating.

shaaaaaarkkkkk

Goat cheese profiteroles will do that to you.

Stephanie: I was watching tv w/ Q and she said that when I saw the goat cheese profiteroles on tv, I got so excited that my eyes were crossed when I shouted it out to her.

Side note, my book is going to be called "The Menu's Going to Change"

or

"The Menu's Gonna Change"

I haven't decided yet.

Please weigh in.

come on home, darlin'.

that voice.

das deep.

[via text]
me: I just emailed you back, multiple media communication ftw.
Meekus: You and I cross the barriers of communication and make them as biological as telekinesis.

Time for Plans B, C, and Z.

print via Busy Building Things

Storage Wars, Fairfax version