This past weekend I got to take a break from studying and enjoy a beautiful venue with an awesome artist. The Gorge is an absolutely beautiful, natural amphitheater in the middle of Washington near the Columbia River. Not only are the views breathtaking while you're waiting for the show to start, but the acoustics can't be beat.

For numerous years, I was not much of a pizza person. I think that was because my mom loves pizza, so we had it quite often, and I grew tired of it. When I went to college, I didn't usually eat the pizza in the cafeteria, so I started missing my mom's homemade pizza. After graduating undergraduate, I started loving pizza again. She has recently changed her recipe to going off of one presented in a Brazilian cooking show. So this is what we made the other night.

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

As some people may know, my birthday was this month, on July 9th. Lucky for me, my parents bought me a KitchenAid mixer (YAY, trying to contain the excitement).

One of my favorite events in the summer is Bite of Seattle. It's full of delicious food and awesome music. There are over 60 vendors with all kinds of food, arts and crafts, and 3 stages. Right when we got there, the Sound Wave were playing! That was awesome to see, Seattle's very own Sounders marching band, the only MLS team to have its own marching band. They were great and knew how to get the crowd going. I imagine there were lots of people in the middle of a heart attack during the performance though, due to the most disgusting sandwich I've ever seen.

So last night I started another class to prepare for the GMAT. This one is twice a week, 3 hours each night. While I understood it would be rushed, I forgot about one important thing: food! For my first class on Tuesday, I didn't realize how little time I would have between getting home from work, exercising with Zoey, eating dinner, and driving to class. So it turned into me running out the door with a poorly thrown together sandwich and no water to go sit in a "let me overload your brain with information until you just stare straight ahead and look like a zombie" 3 hour class. So tonight, I decided to prepare myself for tomorrow night.

One of my favorite dishes to make for parties is a filled bread roll. This specific recipe makes four rolls, enough to cut up and serve 6-8 people, up to 12 if there are other snacks too. You can also make it with any filling you'd like, but they typically need to be dry, without a lot of sauce. I usually make one with ham and cheese, one with turkey and cheese, one with ham, cheese, and pineapples, and one with just cheese. I'm looking forward to trying with different fillings, and will hopefully find a way to make it sweet, like with chocolate filling.

One of the many snacks my nutritionist asked me to try (instead of my Gardetto's or chocolate) was chickpeas. Since I'm allergic to nuts, it's difficult to find a healthy and crunchy snack, so I started looking around for recipes that would make chickpeas or similar foods crispy. I'd never had chickpeas before, so I had no idea I could roast them! I've tried and adapted this recipe numerous times, and here's my favorite version so far.

During my senior year of college I walked by a ceramic painting studio at the mall and decided to give it a shot. I was surprised to find that it was an extremely relaxing experience. Since then, I've tried to go once a month, and have eventually begun working on bigger pieces. Here are some that I've painted in the past:

While cooking is not my favorite thing to do, I do enjoy making a few dishes. One of my favorites ever is chicken pot pie. At least once a month, I'll set aside a Saturday morning to make enough for the whole week and a few more to save in the freezer. While I've adjusted the recipe from my mom's original (it still doesn't come near hers), the idea is basically the same:

I'm a big fan of sweets, especially anything that has chocolate. I'm also a fan of crunchy snacks. Several months back, a friend shared a recipe she'd found for caramel corn, one of my favorites! I love popcorn in general, it's a great, satisfying, and light snack. Since I'm hosting a game watch party tomorrow night for Game 1 of the NBA playoffs, I figured there'd be enough people for me to share with. So I got started tonight!

I'm a big sucker for quotes. I have a bad habit of looking at all kinds of quotes online through  my phone and taking screen shots of the ones I like and keeping my own personal library of inspirational sayings. The other day I was watching a webinar and the speaker quoted Dr. Seuss. So, naturally, as soon as the webinar was over, I googled some famous Dr. Seuss quotes. Here are some of my favorites:

So a few of my friends who have seen my blog are surprised by the fact that I have birds rather than owls in my background. So, to give you a little insight, I may have a small obsession with owls. Check out the gallery at the end of the post.

Poshmark is a social app for people to shop each other's closet. You can list any clothing or beauty item from your closet and shop from closets of women around the country. Spoiler, it's extremely addicting!

Ahh, it's been just two weeks that I set up the blog and already I'm failing at keeping up with my goal of posting twice a week. In all fairness, I didn't expect to post twice a week until after I was done with the test, which I'll be taking in early June. However, since all I can think about is the test, I figured I'd write a little bit about it.

Finding time to cook between working, dog walking, and studying has been hard. I've gotten very good at making enough food over the weekend to get me through the following week. When that doesn't work, I've nailed down a few quick recipes that will give me enough energy to finish out the night by studying. This recipe takes me less than 5 minutes to put together, and it's not the prettiest, but it works. A scrambled egg, a little bit of a yellow and an orange bell pepper, some spinach, cilantro, and carrots. Mix it all together, spritz a little bit of cheese, and it's a quick and filling dinner! Adding some passion fruit juice on the side and an egg boiling in the background for a morning breakfast tomorrow caps it off!

Just finished a great walk with a now very soggy Zoey. Looking forward to the summer with longer afternoon walks!