layin’ in the grass.
This is currently happening in my front yard. May has been good to villa maria.
south on interstate 5.
Friday began like every other friday…crawled out of bed early because I knew it would be sunny, drank my coffee on the porch with maggie and read the newspaper, checked my computer, cleaned my room a little, made lunch, ran errands and started thinking about work since i had to be there in a few hours.
Then randomly, I was texting with Bridget - remember her?, from waconia, living in roseburg, oregon, came to visit in november - and she said she’d be in Portland for the weekend and was going to see Trampled By Turtles that night. This is an insanely awesome band from minnesota and since I’d never been to Portland, wanted to see someone from home’s face, and knew what a good show trampled would put on - I decided to see if I could swing a quick trip south.
A couple “any chance you could cover my shift in like 3 hours” texts later, and I was in my car, radio blaring, driving 3 hours to oregon! I got there a couple hours before the show so I walked around downtown and explored, went to an hip little restaurant, sat at the bar and drank wine and ate delicious food, talked with others at the bar about Portland’s food scene and then met Bridget and her friends at the Crystal Ballroom.
Tthe show was awesome - full of dancing, fist pumping, permasmiles, jumping floors and sweating profusely. We spent the night at her friend’s house and then woke up early the next morning and went to the Saturday market, got coffee, ate street food, gawked at the hipsters, took pics.
My bestie from seattle, Kim, was also in Portland for someone’s bday and happened to go to the same show, though we never saw each other, so she hitched a ride back with me Saturday afternoon so we could both make it to work that night.
Overall, an incredibly fun, spontaneous, maybekindastupid, fifteen-hour stay in Portland. It was awesome to see Bridget - the fact that we’re the only people from Waconia in the pacific northwest blows both our minds because IT IS SO AMAZING OUT HERE, but nonetheless, it’s a definite bond between us and I’m crossing my fingers she moves in washington in the fall so I can have waconia-love whenever I need/want it…and have someone to take more trips to portland with.
"You don’t have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don’t have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don’t have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don’t have to maintain an impeccable credit score. Anyone who expects you to do any of those things has no sense of history or economics or science or the arts. You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. But that’s all."
Dear Sugar, The Rumpus (via rainydaysandblankets)
(Source: cupofchi, via lindseyjoecks)
refresh.
Though the last couple weeks here have been oh-so-sunny, the rain seattle is famous for returned in full force this week and has led to crabby moods and sleeping more than i should. So today, when I woke up to another dreary looking morning, I decided to give myself a “kate date” (as i have now deemed it).
I put a cute “going to the market in the rain” outfit on, grabbed coffee at the local shop and hopped on the bus downtown to Pike Place Market.
First stop was one of my favorite Seattle spots, Matt’s in the Market. I sat at the bar alone, turned my phone off, drank french rose, ate oysters, talked to Ricky (the bartender from mn who loves me), read my book and got a discount larger than i should just for working at tilth.
Then I walked around the market, stopped and watched at least two songs from every single performer, bought some just-ripe Rainier Cherries, got some ingredients for a delicious dinner tonight, sat by the water and watched the Seattle Great Wheel being built and smiled and smiled and smiled. Who needs sunshine when you have markets, right?
When I first moved to Seattle, I spent a TON of time alone and though I sometimes wished for people to do things with, it was an amazing feeling being so independent and relying only on yourself for fun. Now that I have a bunch of amazing friends, roomies and endless activities, I forget how much I enjoy/need time to myself. I think I’ll make “kate dates” a regular thing.
may 23, 2012, pike place market
little man on the left is obviously my fave.
call me chef hedstrom.
Whenever I make something delicious and easy for myself, I always think I should share it on here because, letsbereal, most of my wonderful friends are a little lacking in the kitchen.
I would say this since I’ve moved to seattle, my skill in this department has grown exponentially. I think that, first of all, my beautiful, beautiful kitchen literally longs for me to cook in it. Also, the delicious pacific northwest produce combined with constant inspiration from the restaurants in this city pluuus all my new food and wine loving friends has turned me into someone who loves spending time in the kitchen.
Last week, I was craving a tuna sandwich but instead of the normal tuna and mayo on toast, I decided to use a bunch of ingredients in my drawer to make lemon tuna burgers. Kim called as they were in the oven and she got to share burgers and salad with me. Lucky girl…cuz they were gooood.
I didn’t measure ingredients as I made these, so this is a really-good-guess recipe. Feel free to add or omit anything you don’t have or like. Super easy and way good.
Lemon Tuna Burgers
2 cans of tuna fish, drained
1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup of finely chopped green onions
2 to 3 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons of capers, drained
fresh squeezed juice from one lemon
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 egg
salt and peppah, to your liking
Combine all ingredients and mix well with your hands. Form into 4 patties, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.
That’s it, easy huh? I put ours on toasted whole wheat english muffins, with a little sour cream, romaine, avocado and tomato. I would highly recommend eating it exactly as we did, because I thought the combination was perfect. The leftover burgers I reheated on the grill the next day which also worked great.
Our salad was a mix of greens I had in the fridge: arugula, romaine and spinich. I added some sultanas, sliced radish and almonds and topped with a quick, simple homemade viniagrette - which I will now tell you how to make :)
Honey Dijon Viniagrette
3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of dijon mustard (or maybe a little more?)
1 tablespoon of honey
sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Whisk together and serve! I usually make my vinaigrettes ahead of time and let them sit in the fridge for awhile before serving, the flavors seem more balanced that way, but if you don’t have time - no worries!
I know you all enjoyed reading this post and thinking about how it would be nice to have one of these in front of you, but guys seriously - try making them and let me know how it goes. Super simple, healthy and cheap. I’ll try posting recipes like this more often. Enjoy!
“i keep thinking it can’t get any better, and then it does.”
Things I’ve been up to in the last month, since I’ve been so blog absent…
Enjoying many a happy hour here, here and here.
Watching this show religiously with that cute girl pictured above.
Working my butt off at Tilth (which, ps, has paid off because I can now say I am fully trained as a dinner server at one of the best restaurants in the city. Whoop!).
Reading this book on the deck every morning while eating lots of poached eggs and kale and drinking french press.
Walking greenlake with my maggiedoggy.
Went to the lumineers, typhoon, first aid kit and school of seven bells shows.
Wearing these shoes everywhere (which i got barely used and super cheap. another score for the queenofconsignment.)
Getting inspiration for lots of healthy, delicious meals from sites like this and this.
Designing resumes galore.
Planned a little fieldtrip with friends to the skagit valley tulip festival.
monday, sun day.
Yesterday, I spent all morning and afternoon helping my friend, ms. kim kent, move from one apartment to another. It was 75 and sunny so loading boxes all day and driving around seattle with our windows down was actually really enjoyable. Especially when this song came on, duh. Our midday reward of burgers and beer might have helped too…
Then, since it was the perfect spring evening, we thought it only appropriate to grill on my amazing deck and drink wine. A couple other friends came and joined us and we spent hours eating cheese, cherries, almonds, grilled veggies and salmon and drinking a magnum of delicious french rosé.
Exactly how a day off after working two 13 hour shifts should be spent, am I right?
faux bavaria.
A couple weeks ago, my friend Noelle and I drove her vw van a couple hours east to leavenworth, washington. Google this place, people, it’s insane. A bavarian village nestled in the cascade mountain range with sausage gardens, schnitzel cafes, and bier steins galore.
Noelle’s grandma owns a resort there and her family has a couple cabins on secluded land outside the town center. We were right on the icicle river, in a cabin with book lined walls, drinking coffee, talking for hours and making delicious food. It was pretty blissful.
It’s one of those places that if/when I have visitors, I want to bring them. It’s a pretty touristy town but the views, the mountains, the water…insanely beautiful. I know I say this often, but ohmygosh I love this state.
swimmy the dwarf.
Well, colorado was great. Like, really, really, really great. Like, absolutely one of the greatest weekends of my life great. To see my girls, my favorite girls in the ENTIRE world, and have 3 uninterrupted days with them to laugh, drink, snuggle, make fun of each other, sing and explore was the best life medicine I could have ever asked for.
It was as if the second we were all together my entire being took this massive sigh of relief and thought “ahhhhh, you can be your self. your honest, true, weird, smelly, intense, awkward, curious self and these people will love you endlessly and wouldn’t ever think to judge you.” Oh. My. Gosh, what a good feeling that was.
Something that exemplified those feelings, and something that I experienced in a different way than the rest of the 3004 clan, was that there are a bunch of Waconia folk living in boulder that we hung out with all weekend. To have two separate groups of people who each individually know me insanely well, but in different ways, and to have them together in a place that is not related to either group was one of the more bizarre feelings of my life. It felt like a beautiful, hilarious, perfect twilight zone.
Leaving was sad because, though I was happy to return to my Seattle life, I was going from one extreme to the other. To have nobody in Washington that knows my ins and outs and go to a place where I’m surrounded by them all weekend was crazy. Crawling into my bed on Monday evening/Tuesday morning was honestly one of the loneliest moments I’ve had since I moved out west. I just miss the comfort of home, and by home I do not mean Waconia or Minnesota…I mean the people who make me feel like myself.
However, Tuesday morning, I woke up and was as happy as ever to start my day and week in the city I loved and missed over the weekend. And sure enough, this week has been great…I quit one job, got offered another, got great news from Tilth and am planning many fun adventures for the summer.
Cheers to the next 3004 adventure…I am already dreaming of our next crazy weekend together! Miss you guys and LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Thank you for being the best friends in the world!
