love day 2016

It's been a week since The Man and I celebrated Valentines Day with a fancy dinner and a heart shaped card (the dinner was his present to me, the card was my present to him….yeah he got gypped).

We dined at our favorite spot in Portland, Old Salt Market.  It's a delicious butcher turned restaurant with great starters and amazing steaks.  We've gone many times since moving here and it's always been stellar, but last week we sat down and asked for the specials (i.e. the steaks) and our waitresses response was "we're out."  I looked and The Man and saw his heart sink, we tried some other entrees, (which have been great in the past) but it just wasn't our night.

I have always wanted to do these simple heart nails but I never had the nail shape to pull it off (it just doesn't work with square nails).  So I was pretty excited this year when Valentines Day rolled around and my nails were as pointy as ever!

Besides the fact that they are cute and classy they are also insanely easy to do.  You don't even need tiny paint brushes or any fancy supplies, just the brush from the bottle of red polish you're using!

P.S.  Look at how cute my engagement ring is with my nails!!!!!

love day mail

The end of February is upon us! I can't believe that we're already heading into the third month of 2015.

Since we only have a few hours left of this bitter cold month of romance I wanted to show you the valentines I sent out a few weeks back.  I have been sending valentine's to friends of mine for the past 3 years and it's so much fun!  It's so nice to have an excuse to send a little something special to all the people you love.  

Last year I made these awesome garlands, which I don't think I can ever top, so this year I decided to make some heart cookies to send out to everyone.  Of course (as usual) I started way to late and got way too ambitious, so no one got their treats until after the 14th, but it's the thought that counts, right?

I also got these old valentines cards from this store Foursided, they have really cute cards and random little gifts.

This was my first time using royal icing, and it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to make them look like those perfect store bought cookies.

We finally ate the last of the left over cookies the other day, so I think it's time to try again right?? Who's up for some Spring themed cookies!!?

hello valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

This week I went with a little love day word play...

Eye Heart Ewe!        (i.e.  I Love You!)

Some people get it and some don't, but I think it's super cute and funny and that's all that matters.

(just in case you're confused right now, Ewe - the word for a female sheep- is pronounced "yo͞o")

I know I've said it many times before but I Love Valentine's Day!!!!
Pink and Red and Hearts and Kisses and Puns! So many puns!! What's not to love?

I hope you spend this day with someone you love (be it friend family or romantic partner), because that's what it's all about!

p.s. I changed my nail shape for the first time in 3 years and its freakin' me out!!

wildflower nails

Hello All!

How's your week going so far?

I'm really excited about tomorrow! My work is having it's "Summer Outing" (i.e. get out of work at noon and day drink together) at Little Goat.  I've been to Girl and the Goat and it was amazing, so I can't wait to try some snacks at Stephanie Izard's Diner.

For this week's nails I went all floral!

I started out designing these nails for a SallyHansen contest.  For May, June and July they're having a nail art contest.  I missed May, but I thought I'd try for June and July.  The "theme" for June is "Liquid Mani-A: texture, shine, matte and embellishments"  So my plan was to add some rhinestones, highlight the flowers with glitter and paint a matte top-coat over them...

Well, I got as far as rhinestones.  I tried a matte top-coat and it just didn't look right.  Sometimes following a theme just doesn't work.

After doing the flower last week I was excited to try some more free-hand florals, and I think these turned out pretty nice.

What do you think?

portland: a city of food

It's been 2 weeks since we got back from our trip to Portland, and I already miss it.

It was a wonderful, and at times very stressful, trip.  The first few days were spent preparing for Kalie's wedding, but after Saturday it was all about relaxing and eating fantastic food!

Seriously the only photos I have of the trip are either of food or my cats, so here are the places we ate...

Sunday morning we woke up and drove out to Montavilla to eat breakfast at RedWood, a new restaurant that just opened in January. It was pretty delicious but it was nothing compared to Country Cat, which is only a half block away.

The best part of breakfast was, hands down, the Oatmeal waffles we ordered for the table.

I'm pretty sure that they were deep fried.  They had the perfect crunch and the most delicious flavor.

Monday we woke up with the intention of going to ____ for breakfast.  But after waiting outside for 20 minutes with no one to tell us how much longer it would take we decided to ditch that plan and head over to Helser's on Alberta.

My favorite part of the meal was the Scotch Egg I ordered on the side.

I Love Scotch Eggs!! It's like the perfect breakfast all wrapped up and deep fried.  Just add a dab of mustard and you're good to go!

After Helser's we headed down to Sellwood to meander around some antique stores and we stopped into Jade Bistro to grab a cup of tea.

The food looked so delicious that, even though we had just finished breakfast, The Man ordered a barbecue pork bao.

We didn't have time to go back for a real meal, but it's definitely on the list for next time we visit.

Our last full day in town we had our traditional Fat City Cafe breakfast, and it was perfect, as usual.

After pancakes, sausage, and chicken fried steak. We headed to Wieden and Kennedy to visit our awesome new friend Krystin.  I haven't been in side WK since I was 12 years old so it was great to get a little tour of the place. 

The entire building is filled with beautiful architecture, but what's really cool about Wieden & Kennedy are the unusual installations and various art pieces they choose to display within their office. 

Like the above photo. This is the Nest.  Completed in 2006, The Nest is a permanent installation by Patrick Dougherty.  It serves as creative meeting space, and from what I'm told it's also the interview space.  Inside The Nest is a large felt "sofa" and "pillows" created by Ja Felt to look like boulders.

Below is an installation created by the students of 12, an experimental school at Wieden & Kennedy.  The graphic is spelled out using over 100,000 clear pushpins, and if you look closely you can see the one red pushpin among the rest, a little metaphor if you will.

 As always our trip was too short, and I can't wait until I get to go back home again.

makin' patties: the science of the perfect burger

A little over 2 years ago I got The Man a few attachments for our Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for his birthday. He received the Meat Grinder and Food Slicer attachments, they were placed in a cabinet, still packed up in their boxes, where they sat until.... Last Weekend!

The Man finally broke out the Meat Grinder and we made our own ground beef! It was so much fun that we decided to conduct an experiment...

THE BURGER EXPERIMENT 

Question: What cut of meat or combinations of meat cuts will produce the best tasting burger?

Hypothesis:

The Morning Man: Short Ribs burger would win, due to it's fat content

Ms. Lazybones: I don't know, can we eat burgers now??

Variables:

• Top Sirloin
• Chuck
• Short Ribs

Constants:

• Size
• Tempurature
• Cook Time

Experiment: 

We ground each cut separately and made 1/3 cup patties of each cut by itself, and combinations of Chuck and Sirloin, Ribs and Sirloin, and Chuck and Ribs.

We cooked them all at the same time and tried them one by one.

Here were our findings:

• Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- a bit bland and very dry
• Texture- crumbly and dry dry dry

• Chuck: 
• Taste- great juicy flavor
• Texture- too irregular, occasional gristle/fat

• Short Rib: 
• Taste- like butta', tons of flavor
• Texture- the "silver skin" (which also made it very difficult to put through the grinder) was almost crunchy, the texture is too distracting to enjoy the flavor

• Chuck & Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- great meat flavor, great aftertaste, but just a tad dry
• Texture- spot on! perfect burger texture

• Short Rib & Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- less flavorful than the short rib on its own, the top sirloin sucks it dry
• Texture- very good, more of a true "burger" texture, more homogenous

• Chuck & Short Rib: 
• Taste- on the sweeter side, good amount of juiciness
• Texture- bad crunch, too much gristle and silver skin

Conclusion:
Chuck & Top Sirloin Wins All The Way! And in a 2 to 1 ratio as opposed to 1 to 1 it's even better since the extra chuck is able to combat the dryness of the top sirloin.
Scientifically speaking it was Delicious! Juicy! So Flavorful! Perfect Texture! Yum Yum Yum!

It was so easy and clean up was a breeze, and we will be using our results to make delicious burgers this weekend while our friend Briana is in town!!!



P.S. Using the grinder was really simple!!  We made sure to freeze all the parts before we used it (if it gets too hot it can cook the meat), and cut the meats into cubes so they easily fit in the grinder.

mani monday

Happy Monday All!

We had a great weekend that ended with an impromptu trip to Wrigley Field! Our friend had some tickets and couldn't go, so even though the Cubs have no chance these days (seriously...none.) we jumped at the chance to see them in action!

When I was painting this weeks nails I had a hankerin' for breakfast

Bacon, Eggs, Pancakes, a Cup of Tea and a little Orange slice.  Yummers!

Sunday morning we got take out from my favorite breakfast place, Over Easy.  It's so close to our house, so we ordered our 2 favorite dishes:

The Sassy Eggs (two eggs served over chorizo-potato hash with cheddar cheese, red peppers, jalapenos, guacamole, sour cream, and ancho ketchup), and

The Sweet 'N' Salty Pancake Platter (two pancakes filled with applewood-smoked bacon and served with two eggs and three pork sausage links)

It was the perfect way to start the day.

summer!

It's finally here! Or at least it was on Sunday.

Last Sunday was beautiful, sunny, breezy, and full of impromptu fun.  The Man had to work at a  Festool Road School event so we didn't end up going out to Ravinia, buuut, we ran into our friends Caroline and Matt and had a fabulous day! First the three of us headed over to Gene's Sausage Shop while The Man was still working.

Gene's has a great rooftop beer garden above their grocery store.  It's the perfect spot to grab a drink, a German sausage, and a huge pretzel.

We had some beers and I discovered a new favorite summer time libation.  Radlers are made with beer and soda.  These Stiegl Radlers are Stiegl and Grapefruit soda, it's so refreshing!! We also had one on tap called Schofferhofer which is a Grapefruit Hefeweizen.  It was really delicious but Steigl was half the price so we went with those.

 When the rooftop closed we had a short nap in the park and then split up to start preparing for dinner.

Caroline made an amazing kale and mint salad with peanut dressing (it was so good that The Man stood up and gave her a hug) and The Man grilled some veggie kabobs marinated in chimichurri.  It was delicious, healthy, and completely unexpected.  I'm so excited for more BBQ's and rooftop drinking.  This is going to be a great summer!!!!

(hasgtag rawr)

mani mondays {4th of July!}

It's almost Independence Day!

Over the past few years The 4th of July has become one of my favorite holidays. Friends, BBQs, sparklers, and everyone wearing the same color scheme, it's always fun!

It's also me favorite holiday to do nails for.  I've done flags, fireworks and even eagles, so this year I had to kick it up a notch....

 That's right, a good old fashion American BBQ.  Hot Dogs, Cherry Pie, and Cheap Cans of Beer!

Do you have any exciting plans for the 4th?
We have a friend coming in from out of town and I'm super excited to see her! And to top it all off I get a four day weekend (which is practically unheard-of in my office).
Whooo-Hoooo!!

smoke house 21

The other weekend when I went to Portland to surprise my dad, we ate lunch at a place called Smoke House 21.

We were walking around NW 21st, just killing time, when we were stopped dead in our tracks by the most amazing smell of smokey meat.  We had reservations at Nuestra Cocina for dinner with some friends in just 3 hours but we had to stop in and find out what that delicious smokey smell was.

All the tables were wood burned and stain painted with different images, like the parts of a pig or chicken. 

We sat down at the PBR can and cows getting abducted by UFOs tables and ordered some beers, all of which came in these fun koozies (I, of course, had to buy one - thanks to Briana for the 2 bucks!).

Then we ordered our food.  Just enough to tide us over until dinner...or at least that was the plan...

It was so amazingly delicious. Everything was out-of-this-world good, and every time the waiter came over to ask how it was, we just made yummy noises so we wouldn't have to stop stuffing our faces. Once the meal was over my dad asked the our waiter if they had won any awards and when she replied with a simple "no," he decided that he'd have to make them one. I am so excited to go back there the next time I visit home. 

After this incredible culinary experience I went home to The Man and told him that we had to get a smoker...

Thankfully, he agreed.