Living for the weekend

A quick update for June, first being

Rufustival:

We went to see the Dirty Projectors who were really exciting.  Apparently, David Byrne was there, but we’re too unlucky to be aware of that.

Farmer’s Market:

Full-sour garlic pickles are my new favorite snack.

this beautiful photo, taken by katie dexter

Home:

Finally got to installing that sucker.  Not a good picture but I really like the way it looks.

Here’s a little project we did.  Our fridge is old and dingy and after much scrubbing we realized there’s nothing we can do about it.  So we had to cover up.

Dinner of the week- whole wheat alfredo, artichoke, tomato, spinach with grilled chicken.

Junefest!!

I meant to post this earlier, but there are a lot of way cool things going this month in this charming little city.

Saturday and Sunday:

Honfest!

Go here for events & such..

June 20th & 21st:

PRIDE!!  The one day it’s expected to be way over the top and outrageous.  If you aren’t, you need to lighten up.

here’s that website (if you don’t have a gay friend who already knows all about it.)

I mean, probably the only city where you could wear the same pink feather boa 2 weekends in a row.

Go crazy.  It’s that time of year again.

Sale Sale Sale

Today from 10-5 Red Tree is having a warehouse sale at 3300 Clipper Mill Road.  I’ll be there, with my mom.  Look for 2 really small excited ladies.

Sale Site

Love muffins

Katie and I got back from Montreal last week. Although we enjoyed our food there, we were both excited to have home-cooked meals.  It was hard eating out every day and not having very much say in our food preparation.  One of few souvenirs that I got was something I’ve been wanting for a long while, is a salt pig.  Just like in cooking shows, it makes that extra dash so much more country cooking feeling.  What a weidro, I know.  What I was looking for was a general, simple, porcelain type like this.

Actually I was dying to get my hands on one from Emile Henry salt pig, I always drooled over it in William Sonoma.

When we stopped in Burlington, VT there were a ton of cute kitchen shops.  I found the best thing ever.

A salt PIG.  It’s made my the company RSVP International and was much much cheaper than, well, anything at William Sonoma.

Fun kitchen gadgets help to make cooking and learning to cook fun.  I decided I never bake, so I made muffins.

Then I got some kind of delirious motive to cook dinner.  So why not roast a chicken?  Cause I’ve never done it before.  Katie kindly took me out to get ingredients and a chicken.  I started cooking at 8 pm and we didn’t eat til around 11, but I’m glad that we did it, cause it wasn’t easy.

I lined the pan with onions, garlic, and potatoes.  And set some onions and garlic aside to stuff into the chicken.

The chicken sat on the onions in the middle.

A little side note:  This was my first time handling a whole chicken.  I’m not going to lie, it’s extremely uncool.  It takes a lot of ignoring to keep yourself from going veggie when picking up a whole chicken.  It’s way easier when it’s cut up into happy little pieces for you.  I got through it, but I learned I’m not quite as tough as I thought.

Also since it was my first time, I was afraid of course that it would taste bad and that we would have to throw it all away.  So I basted it with a little bit of butter.

Then stuck the onions garlic, and a couple whole sprigs of rosemary from the herb window.  Also a couple splashes of dry white wine.  Popped it in for a couple of hours, and there it was.

Next time I might use more vegetables, more colors.  Anyway, the leftovers are awesome.  Real home cooking by a really amateur cook.  Yum enough for me.

Big Giant Montreal Extravagaza

foggy morning driving

road to montreal

customs

border

border

farm

roadside cow

farm

border

adirondacks

free rest stop coffee

mountains

bears!

mass

bronx

bronx

nyc

leaving

baltimore

baltimore

tunnel to real life

balti

baby

souvenir

boreale

curiosity shop

market kids

fruit market

metro

strip clubs

montreal girls

foufounes

strip clubs

metro station

vieux port

poutine

poutine effort

auberge

couche tard

parc olympic

big rat

monkey in tree

big fish

coral

inside

inside

curiosity

collection

inca

burlington, vermont

safe

cute

northampton

Hartford

These are a bit out of order, basically it was amazing.

Work Got a Little Cool

I won’t say too much, but I’m pretty excited to be working on something that will be going up on a building.

Even if it is a little bit offensive.  But it wasn’t my idea.

Getting Ready for Spring

This week ended up being pretty productive.  Earlier this month I had purchased a 4×4 section of tin ceiling from Second Chance Inc. with the intentions of making a backsplash for the stove.  The back was very rusty and I put off taking care of that for the entire month.  Finally, the weather was inspiring enough to get it done.  Some elbow greased wire brushing and windy Rustoleum spray painting took care of it and the back was as good as new.  The front is now a pretty, light, and airy “Icy Mint.”

I’m still working out the installation for it but I’m thinking backing it with felt and hanging it with wire.

I’ll put a picture after I hang it.

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Oh and here’s the dinner of the week:

Lemon dill salmon, brown rice, and green beans almondine.

Philly Phun

This weekend was packed full of good times, starting with the Beirut show at the Electric Factory.  It was a wonderful show.  They did a great job of mixing the old with the new and I was able to find really good youtube videos of the show.

Basically, it was all I expected and more, and had great company to share it with.

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The next day we made plans to go visit Terrain where my friend Adam had worked when it was first opened.  Terrain is basically a home/garden/design mecca.  Although I am budgeting, I made a couple of plant purchases, which is always exciting.  The prices there are expensive in my taste, but no more than I expected.  We shopped, ate at the cafe, then shopped some more.  Very relaxing and inspiring.  A great little day trip.

Starfish

Hothouse

Hothouse Terrarium Box

Hothouse Arch

Really Really Expensive Orchids

Gourd Bird Houses In Back

Home And Bath Stuff

Soap Table

Brunch At Cafe

Brunch In A Greenhouse

Silly I know, but I loved the bathroom design

Purchases

Buckled Up For the Ride Home

Got home and immediately put our plants in their places.

Herb Garden

Window Garden

Marie Louise Craftiness

A good kick in the ass to make me start my pelican, # 2 in the series.

Flub!!!

Just as I was about to write a blog about something very cool, something very UNCOOL happened.  I heard the intro to Sprout and Bean by Joanna Newsom in a commercial…..for Victoria’s Secret.   What the fuck.

Pfffffffffffft.  I don’t like it.  It’s nasty.

Anywho.  What i came here to  say is that Beirut will be in Philly at the Electric Factory on Friday April 10th.  And so will I.  Mostly because of this face.