¬¬ An Early Spring ¬¬

Beautiful, beautiful weather these days and wonderful blooming flowers everywhere!

Mahj

I'm learning how to play Mahjong! And I love it!

***Afternoon Productivity***

I've been so productive today! One of the things I really wanted to do was spend a little time in the kitchen. We've been so busy with the basement remodel (pictures to come) that I haven't been cooking! The horror! Who am I?! So this afternoon I had some fun making kale chips, Asian slaw and experimenting with infusing my own black peppercorn and mustard seed vodka! Yowza! (You can find my inspiration for the vodka here.) These two delicious treats are so good that I want to share the recipes. Oh yea, and they are really easy to make.

Kale Chips:

De-rib a bunch of curly kale and tear into chip-size pieces. Toss with olive oil and S & P. Spread on a baking sheet and pop in the oven at 375˚ for ~12-15 minutes. Toss around halfway. Pull them out when you can tell they are crisp. Grate some lemon zest over them and sprinkle on a few red chili flakes. Yum! Healthy snack!

Asian Inspired Slaw: (beware, this is not precise)

Grate a small head of cabbage (I use Savoy or Napa when available which makes it light and fluffy) and 3 or 4 carrots, using the grate attachment, in the food processor. Put in a bowl and toss with:

lemon juice from one lemon

a few tablespoons sesame oil

a few dashes of ume plum vinegar

sea salt to taste

seaweed flakes

a couple dashes of cayenne

sesame seeds or sunflower seeds (or both, and sliced almonds?)

Yummy and healthy!

I can't believe that in only a matter of hours the vodka has already taken on an amber color. I think it's going to be really good, but possibly might need to be diluted with more vodka. I gave it a whiff and it smells really peppery! Great for bloody mary's or some other crazy concoction. I'm seeing some cocktail experimenting in my future.

~~Take Your Wife to Work Day Part 2~~

Part 2 is all about the bones! Check out the previous post if want to know why and how I was so lucky to see all of these cool specimens!

~~ Take Your Wife to Work Day ~~

About a month ago I asked if I could tag along with Chris on a special work day. Chris is the Art Director at KU Endowment and is involved in every step of the creation of their Giving Magazine. This edition, which came out a few days ago, was extra cool because Chris got to go behind the scenes, with a photographer (our friend, Brian) and shoot bugs and bones and fish and snakes and birds and, and, and.... Super cool. KU’s Biodiversity Institute holds 10.2 million specimens of animals, plants fossil material, and archaeological artifacts collected in Douglas County and across seven continents over 140 years. WOW!

Here are the bugs.

Bones to come...

*∆∆ My Little Tater Tot ∆∆*

Last weekend I went to Chicago to visit my sister and her husband and my little hilarious, goober, silly pants niece, Hadley. We had a blast! She is at such a fun age, talking up a storm but not forming words yet. She is so smart and sassy! Whitney and I had a chance to go out on our own one night in the city. We went to a really cool vegan restaurant called Karyn's on Green and then we went out dancing! Staying out until 3:30 am was probably not the smartest thing to do since the little tater tot gets up at 7 am, but it was worth it. We had a really fun time!

This was at the Children's Museum where they have little kid-size play areas set up -- a nursery, veterinarian office, a restaurant, a grocery store and much more! It was soooo cool!

Hadley's super cute playroom. Check out the little nook on the left!

This quote was on the wall at the vegan restaurant. I just thought it was cool enough to share with you. And below is one of their cocktails. They plant a tree every time someone buys one of these. Pretty neat, huh?