summer quinoa salad with goat cheese

I go on kicks when it comes to certain foods like avocados, eggs for breakfast, and particular salad dressings. Currently I'm on a huge goat cheese kick! It started when we were moving to Chicago and Ben's sister and boyfriend took us out to dinner at The Bad Apple, which apparently has amazing burgers, but I was just coming off a moving-induced burger kick and wanted something a little lighter. I got the quinoa salad with goat cheese, and was immediately obsessed. So this is my version, that uses up all the summer produce you have sitting around the fridge!

 

Summer Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

-chilled quinoa (make a large batch and keep it in the fridge!)

-summer veggies

-pine nuts and golden raisins if you have them such as red peppers, cherry tomatoes, arugula, etc.

-goat cheese! or feta.

-fresh chopped basil and/or mint

-your favorite dressing

(I made one with raspberry balsamic, brown mustard, honey, salt, and olive oil)

 

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!

 

I'm super excited when I discover something like this that is quick and easy to throw together for lunch, which is my least favorite meal of the day. It's also very portable if you make it in a big tupperware! And of course it's super healthy so you can indulge in a brownie later in the afternoon.

melted crayon art

I’m sure most of you have noticed the melted crayon art fad sweeping Pinterest, and for my bridal shower my best friend Ashley actually gave me the supplies to make because she knows I like fun crafts. Dare I say best bridal shower gift ever??

My goal was to create something that actually looks artsy, not grade-school, and luckily I found this post by Jenna Brown that shows it’s possible!

Here’s my “studio.” Just lay out a lot of newspaper on the floor and blast those crayons onto a canvas with a blow dryer set to “hot.” I found that if you move the crayon back and forth (like you’re coloring) while blasting it at close range on “low” it will release the most wax. When I had a blob of wax, I set the crayon aside and blasted the blob on “high” to spread it around and let it seep into the other colors.

No fancy supplies needed—a box of 64 crayons is about $2.84 at Target right now. Thanks, back to school sales! I had a fork handy to spear the crayon per Jenna’s advice in case my hand started burning but it really wasn’t necessary. A little bit of wax goes a long way and I didn’t wear any crayons down far enough to burn my fingers. Some colors definitely melt better than others, and silver was my favorite!

I highly recommend this project. It’s fun, super easy, and VERY relaxing to watch crayons melt into rainbow swirls. And the result makes a fun Rorschach-style conversation piece. Personally I see a snail-dragon on the bottom of mine. 

 

Or if I rotate it this way maybe a hot air balloon?

 

I think I’m going to hang it above the kitchen sink.

Seriously, have a glass of wine tonight and try this, and send me the link or picture if you do!
And check out my etsy shop to see more of my art :)

little victories

One of the biggest things I've learned this year is that life takes patience.

Ever since I truly entered the "real world" it feels like I've dealt with enough job-related failure to make up for the previous 24 years of success-kid glory. Buuut I try to just keep on living and trust that things will work out in time, and maybe they actually will. I've got the guy and the city, now I just need to see what falls into place for me.

Today I did have my first good job news in 8 months: I've landed a part time job leading school field trips at the nearby Morton Arboretum for the fall! So I'll have something fun to keep me semi-busy for a while. It's all about the little victories! I decided to let the news propel me into making today a good one.

To celebrate Ben's official first day of teaching 10th grade history I made cosmic brownies

 And I got a library card!

And I love the pretty flowers in our kitchen.
(I feel like people either love or hate lilies depending on how many funerals they've been to. Luckily they remind me of Easter and I am obsessed with how they make the whole room smell nice.)

Also, I just discovered the new Bravo show Gallery Girls. Have any of you seen it yet? It is kind of like a cross between The City and Real Housewives. And I watched it for two hours even though alllll the girls are super annoying. Oh Bravo. Please tell me I'm not the only one that is totally addicted to the trash reality channel?

an epic night on the town

I feel SO lucky and blessed to have an amazing group of women in my life. I had absolutely no trouble choosing bridesmaids for our wedding, since I automatically had three sisters/sis-in-law and then three I consider best friends from different stages of the past, literally from infancy through college. I'm also lucky to have them all within driving distance (minus Ellie who flies back to Slovakia this week, wahh) and am so happy we were able to meet up in Chicago this past weekend for the perfect bachelorette party.

I am not usually a super-crazy-let's dress up like fools for attention and go out dancing till 2 am-type of girl, but she definitely does exist within me to emerge for very special occasions such as this one. I embraced the tiara, sash, and personalized buttons and just went with the flow. The flow of drinks, that is. The night started with pink fizzy punch and pizza and just amped up from there. Ben and I haven't made it downtown since we moved here almost 3 weeks ago (WHAAT!) so it was fun to hop on the L and hit the city for the first time as an official resident and not local tourist (weird!!!)

And we even got some safe-for-internet photos:

Self-timer rockstars.

Christine! Livin it up like we're back in college.

Hostess/sis in law Ashley (and a photobomb). No, I am not actually wearing a Vegas showgirl style headpiece, but that would have been hilarious.

Oh, also, we played a quick round of Quelf. Which should be played at all parties.

 

Sisters! 

 The most delicious pizza ever. Homemade crust and fresh mozzarella yesssss. I think it honestly was extraordinary, despite every single thing I ate all night having the label of "most delicious ever."

 Making friends on the L.  Thanks for putting up with us, random fellow passengers!

 Downtown! So. much. walking. I have the blisters to prove it.

 Aaaand then we went to a drag show. Wonderful decision. Although kind of disturbing to see "men" who were prettier than us.

I never fail to get the hiccups. Luckily they are cured by biting on a slice of lemon or lime! Every single time. Try it!

 We were miraculously still alive the next morning, and dragged the guys out for brunch. Thanks for being such good sports re: the party headbands, guys :)  Ashley lives on the border of Boystown and Wrigleyville so we didn't get many second glances walking around at 2 pm wearing them. Good times, good times.

My favorite part of a good party weekend is laying around the next day and re-hashing the night's events, when all of a sudden it becomes clear how ridiculous and hilarious it all was.




our new apartment, so far

 Moving is always exhausting and always disorienting, and Ben and I have both had some pretty epic moves over the past couple years (Pennsylvania to Oregon in only a car, anyone?). However, this particular move was the biggest yet I think, because it's officially the first time that we've moved to a place we officially have together, and also the first time we've really combined all our stuff that's been hiding in basements and storage.

Since we were only moving across the state, I was down-playing everything in my head. How stressful could it really be?? Well, then we discovered our new apartment had been vacated hours before we arrived, and hadn't been thoroughly deep cleaned in what seems like 15 years, and we had to go to Michigan to get Ben's furniture, and then the huge heavy couch wouldn't fit through the door so we had to give it away, and then it turned out we had SO. MUCH. KITCHEN. STUFF. and nowhere to put it, etc etc so I honestly have no idea where the past two weeks have gone, other than into a vortex of cleaning and unpacking and giving Target all my money. 

But the hard work has been paying off and we have curtains now. And a new couch. So it's really starting to feel like home. Ben has been working hard to get his new classroom ready for next week and busy with orientation stuff, and I've been in this strange place where I freak out because I don't have a job but I'm also glad I have time to work on our home and cook good food and explore our new neighborhood. We're pretty far from the Loop so it hardly feels like we're in a big city at all, until I drive around and hit the awesome six-way intersections that are EVERYWHERE in Chicago because of the awesome one-ways and diagonal streets.

But despite the stress and uncertainty that seems endless I am extremely happy to be here in this place, physically and mentally, and in life in general. Moving has been a great distraction from wedding planning, but I guess I should get back on that bandwagon now that we're only a month and a half away. And I know I'll find a job when the time is right. Geographically we are now equidistant from both sides of our family and have lots of friends and family in the city as well, so I am excited to begin this new huge chapter. Best of all, I'm starting to realize that Ben and I will proooobably never have to be long-distance again, and that feels almost too good to be true.

chicago

{photo by Christy Tyler} only there is no snow here now...

It's official!

We are all moved in, and almost everything is FINALLLLLLY put away.

We've made a pilgrimage to IKEA and have discovered two gelato places in our neighborhood.

I never thought I'd live in a city, but I'm glad to have ended up in my favorite one :)