indulge yourself: biscuits and gravy

this is not a healthy recipe. let me repeat, run quickly away from me this morning if you're seeking fiber, antioxidants, or anything to do with the acai berry.

run. but stay if you like butter. take your boots off if you like sausage. stretch out on the couch if you like breakfast sandwiches and make yourself part of the family if you like to pour gravy all over it.

so these biscuits are simple:


take a roll of hot pork sausage. slice it into thin circular pies. add salt and pepper.


melt a little oil in a pan. throw the patties in the pan. cook until brown.


while browning meat take a roll of biscuits (grands, pillsbury) and put them in the oven. drizzle honey on the top of them before cooking. don't judge yourself too harshly for using store bought biscuits. let's face it they're damn good.

put patties away to cool a bit. use the meat residue and oil left in the pan. keep it on medium heat and add pepper, salt, and two tablespoons of flour. after about a minute the consistency should be thick. add a splash of milk and keep stirring until the gravy darkens in color.


take the biscuits, the sausage, and the gravy and do what you must with the delicious mess.




inspirationphotocredit: {reedrummond}

san francisco

this past weekend i hopped on a jet plane, well two actually, and traveled to the magical city of san francisco. highlights included:



sharing a meaningful place with mister p who incidentally will be quite peeved when reading that i am calling him mister p.



having tea with two of my best friends at lovejoys, loveliest tea room in the city.





taking in the beauty of china town



basking in the bay.



being part of my friends' wedding day. it took place in a redwood grove. how fitting to give vows in a space with such history, life, and lasting power.

it was an amazing trip.



i flew home full up on love of city, friends, and life.

le sigh

this weekend i put on my traveling shoes and went on vacation. last night i flew back into denver. i was in one of my favorite cities in the world visiting some of my favorite people in the world with my guy. i was a little worried that i would not want to come back. i miss the light of this city and its architecture. i miss its people and my people contained within its borders.

it was a pleasant surprise to find myself only a bit teary flying home thinking "well that was lovely, but i'm happy to going home." it's amazing when you wake up one day and realize that you have developed a new home and there is space enough in your heart and mind to hold both new and old.

le sigh. now i will nap and attempt to sort through my once organized clothing drawers. more to come on vacation photos soon!

the problem with hipster babies

today i am appreciating hipster babies. these minuscule representations of their parents are pretty darn adorable eating their ice cream cones and playing with their hand carved toys.

i do wonder though, how will these children ever surpass the stylishness of their toddler existence? is it possible? upon hitting puberty will this yippie generation reject the urban boho vibe of their parents? will they instead opt for studded jean jackets, oversized t-shirts with wildlife prints, and tommy bahama shorts?

will they frequent walmart instead of the local thrift shop? are the hipsters breeding a generation of children that will in their teenage years turn the tables and embrace the corporate, the tacky, or even worse valley girl chic?

i guess we'll have to see. for now at least, they are adorable in their bamboo fabric shirts and skinny jeans with badonkadonk design spacious enough for their earth baby compostable diapers.

oh hipster babies. you've won me over.

photocredit: {kittysanchez}

dock of the bay

tonight i cannot sleep. i'm excited about my journey. sometimes when i can't sleep i think about fallen leaf lake in south lake tahoe california.

isn't it lovely?

simplicity, embrace me

hello all,

i write from my kitchen table as the sound of rain pitter patters the deck. we are in the midst of a magnificent and much appreciated summer thunder storm.

i've been thinking a lot about simplicity recently. how hard is it be just live a simple life? i think ideally it would be easy.

clear the physical, mental, and emotional clutter. grow, appreciate, sustain, learn, and love. i'm going to try and live more simply. not that i lead an extravagant life by any means, but i would like to intentionally spend more time just being still and doing simple projects.

for example, i am enamored of this butter churner. how nice to make your own butter. better yet how amazing would it be to milk the cows contributing to this thick delicious spread. i recognize it's a utopian fantasy and that the minute i actually had to churn butter i would grow weary of it and head down to safeway. the churner would probably turn into a vase or some receptacle for lentils. ah fantasies. i am much enamored of milk maids.

do any of you struggle to live simply?

fondly,

your very own aspiring dairy queen

a thought

some poemish passages, much like "Footprints", are overplayed. i recognize the below passage lives in cliche land, but i can't help how much i like it. the words and the sentiment ground me.

God, grant us the...
Serenity to accept things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can, and the
Wisdom to know the difference
Patience for the things that take time
Appreciation for all that we have, and
Tolerance for those with different struggles
Freedom to live beyond the limitations of our past ways, the
Ability to feel your love for us and our love for each other and the
Strength to get up and try again even when we feel it is hopeless.
-Reinhold Niebuhr


photocredit:{brasilphotos}

run bravely

it's a day for this...

i love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. life's a bitch. you've got to go out and kick ass.

and...

i long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

thanks maya angelou...

photocredit: {latartinegourmade}

i'm leaving on a grey hound louisiana bound

happy tuesday evening duckies,

as many of you know i work at a homeless and near homeless outreach center in the front range of the rockies. today our center's lobby was a colorful canvas comprised of families clutching their leases visiting us for rental assistance, formerly middle class workers accessing our food bank in a desperate move to limit costs so they don't lose their homes, teen lovers, and our chronic homeless clients who are as much a part of our neighborhood's fabric as the outline of the rocky mountains west of our small community.

it was a normal bustling day. perhaps the most pervasive sound though was the buzz from our homeless clients about the mass influx of jobs being advertised in louisiana and texas. usually our chronically homeless clients have a defeated look in their eyes. even though they are remarkably resilient, you can look at their faces and see a road map of their struggles with finances, street life, mental illnesses and very often substance abuse. today every man i spoke with who grasped the green jobs to help clean up the oil spill flyer was lit up. all of a sudden there are thousands of jobs available along the gulf. many of these men have never left colorado and have spent the vast majority of their adult life in one city and now they are getting ready to pick up and move

many of the men had secured funding from churches to buy grey hound tickets down south. they are leaving with the packs on their backs and the hope that maybe with a job that is part of a movement all the pain and dramatic monotony of street life will be washed away. i am excited for them. i am happy that there are jobs and i left work today with the hope that these jobs will pan out and that these men who so desperately seek community and meaning will find some peace down south. i also left worried for their health. these jobs are being mass advertised in low-income communities around the country. poor and often immuno-compromised populations are swarming down to a highly toxic waste site.

so tonight, sending out a good thought for all the people who are packing up their lives and moving to the gulf. may their journeys be safe, their work be effective and well received, their bodies protected, and their spirits be lifted...

photocredit: {oilspillphotos, gulfspill, studiomunophotography, julieharrisphotography}

the un-secret garden

in the heart of my city lives a compact, colorful, and fragrant paradise. walking into the garden reminds me of embarking on the second chapter of book that will become beloved. i immediately loose touch with reality and submerge. when i dive head first into fantastic foliage, the terrific tundra, and the tantalizing tropical conservatory i see...

snogging and the like

the wind if blowing, the rain is falling, the heat is rising up from the pavement inflating my skirt. it is a colorado afternoon.

i spent my morning at the denver botanical gardens, which is one of the lovelier gardens i have ever visited. it is full of fragrance, color, texture, and today it held the vows of many young couples.

a few of the smaller gardens were closed and housing weddings. i peeked through gnarly bonsai like tree to spy on a lovely wedding of a man and a woman. each member of the couple said their vows and then their young daughter also said vows to her parents.

my favorite line:

mommy and daddy, i promise to help with dinner. i promise to love you and let you love me even when i am angry at you.

photocredit: {eric cousineau}

tattoo

i am contemplating a tattoo...what do we think. it would be subtle, simple, and strategically placed...

any suggestions?

tattocredit:{betsydunlap}

(you are the daughter of the sea)

this is one of my favorite poems in the whole world. my friend sent it to me during a particularly hard week and it reminded me of all the things i love best.

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano's first cousin.
Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;
cook, your blood is quick as the soil.
Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth.

Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;
your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;
you know the deep essence of water and the earth,
conjoined in you like a formula for clay.

Naiad: cut your body into turquoise pieces,
they will bloom resurrected in the kitchen.
This is how you become everything that lives.

And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms
that push back the shadows so that you can rest--
vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams.

-neruda

healing hot springs

i've been spending a lot of time daydreaming recently about potential trips to hot springs. nothing sounds better than abandoning responsibilities, grabbing a bathing suit and a bottle of wine, meeting up with a best friend and heading to the hot springs.

water is such therapy.

photocredit: {seetwists}

have a lovely weekend

it has been a long week for me. this weekend i intend to:

go to our local farmer's market and have a biscuit from the handy biscuit truck. what a brilliant idea. also i'm dreaming about another brilliant idea.

walk along a pretty river.

wash my hair with baking soda.

appreciate gardens.

drink coffee with my family.

have park time

and finally i will continue to plan a fantasy minibreak with my best friend. i am fantasizing that we will meet up in new mexico and lounge around in healing hot springs melting away all our stresses and the many miles between us!

good weekend, ready, set, go!

hope everyone else has adventures planned...

photocredit: {wildflowersphotography}

simplicity

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

~Arundhati Roy

photocredit: {eduardtitov}

pocketful of pie

tomorrow i have a lot to accomplish before noon. it will also be raining again and i'll be wearing a green coat with big pockets. i wish i had little mini pies to fill my pockets with.

pie is my cocaine.

photocredit:{piesearch}

for the love of brie

tonight i'm laying in bed. it is raining. i am shamefully watching the bachelorette. i am wishing that:

1. i had the resolve to turn this show off and do something more edifying than this like reading, or cooking, or blow drying my hair.

2. i could be snuggling with my sweetie.

3.i had brie cheese in the fridge and could make something the oozed deliciousness like the above photo.

late night desires abound.

i promise that i'll stop writing about the same thing...

after this post. i know i've been on a brave woman kick recently. it's my thing that past few weeks.

point being today i found out that a woman i've been working with has taken gigantic steps to get out of a dangerous situation. she is strong, and brave, and did not give up. she took the small pieces of hope in her life and did something monumental.

so here is to holding onto something small and beautiful and making an offering with it.

photocredit: {squamartworkshops}

*by the way Squam Art Workshops= BECCA CRUSH...more on this later...

the only thing i know

i dedicated myself earlier this year to exploring the concept of bravery. i have been thinking a lot about what it means to live thoughtfully, yet tenaciously and what it means to take the small and sometimes invisible steps towards a life lived boldly. yesterday marked the birthday of frida kahlo: mexican painter, cultural icon, and personal inspiration to yours truly.

i know that it is cliche to carry around frida paraphernalia. frida kahlo is to young female aspiring artisans and hipsters what hillary clinton has been to a generation of politicas. it is a cliche that i'm willing to embrace because for as long as i've loved art, i've loved frida kahlo.

i am drawn to her use of color and symbolism, but primarily i am fascinated by her obsession with the self. it is bold to make any piece of art. it takes a certain gumption and abandon to perceive, feel, and then respond through creation. however, i find that it is even more brave to recreate images of the self. frida's long term partner diego's revolution was on the streets; frida's revolution existed within her soul and body. it is brave to struggle and to look deeply within yourself and then even more flagrant to then share the raw internal truth with the world.

i do not love frida because she is a superior painter to others of her generation. i do not love her because she suffered and indeed i wish that her life had been full of sweetness. i love her because she was brave. i love her because she took what was graceful and what was awkward; she took what was broken and divine to reflect and transform herself.

frida said, "I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration."

happy birthday frida. thank you for living boldly in your own reality...

it's a beautiful thing.

images:{fridakahlo}

channeling

it was a wonderful three day weekend. i stretched out in a hammock and ate peaches. then i played bingo. it geriatric luxury.

tomorrow i'm speaking to some people who do amazing work in my community. i'm excited and nervous so i'm thinking about one of my world inspirations zainab salbi. she believes in community and individual growth, justice, cultural preservation, and she is tenaciously confident.

i'm hoping to channel her tomorrow!