I went south.

I have been out of town since Thursday morning to attend the Kenneth Burke Conference at Clemson University. Who is K. Burke? It is complicated. He is hard. I don’t really study his work. I wrote one paper. I got in. So I showed up. This is that journey.

Lars and I are poor graduate students, so we drove 10 hours to Clemson University.

On long drives, we always plan to make fun culinary stops. On this trip we stopped at Blue Dog Bakery in Louisville, KY. It was perfect because it was well rated on Yelp and we could get food to go. I ordered the salami sandwich, which came in three components with a different type of salami on each. The sandwiches were also covered with provolone, argula, and this delicious walnut pesto. It was the perfect sandwich and one I hope to recreate soon.

I also got Lars and I chocolate chip cookies to go. Props to Blue Dog; I loved the cookies. They were crunchy and soft. Yum.

The trip started off sunny, but soon after we left Louisville it stormed hard.

It stormed most of the trip and each mile became even more mountainous. We pulled over immediately (in Tennessee) and had dinner…at Wendy’s. I rarely eat at fast food, but our options were limited. I ordered the Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad, because it was only 450 calories. I didn’t know it was going to be breaded, but it was and it was surprisingly good.  

After our impromptu dinner, I explored the attached gas station. Odd stuff, I say. 

At 10 PM, we finally arrived at our hotel in Clemson, SC. I brewed some hotel coffee. grabbed an energy bar, and immediately got to work. I was presenting the next day (Friday) at 10:30 and I was uber stressed.

Friday

We woke up early Friday morning and grabbed some “free” hotel breakfast before my presentation. I ate a cardboard bagel and Lars ate a pancake FROM THE FUTURE. On this pancake machine you press “power” and it shoots out pancakes like a printer.

The presentation went as well as it could and I was thrilled to be done with it. To celebrate we went to Clemson’s “only 5 star restaurant.” It was called Brioso Fresh Pasta, but I call it a “somewhat fancy Fazoli’s.” This place wasn’t good.

I ordered their sundried tomato and guoda stuffed ravioli. Sounds promising, right? I could have done better .

Also, the bread served with the meal tasted like cardboard. I never wanted a Fazoli’s breadstick so much in my life.

For dinner, Lars and I took advantage of the conference’s food. We ate outside on a pavilion next to the lake. We enjoyed food such as bbq ribs, bbq chicken, corn, fresh fruit, rolls, and blondies. Yum, yum. Fun.

Saturday and Sunday was a blur and I am just so tired describing Thursday and Friday alone. Hope your Memorial weekend was fantastic!!!!

Dayton, OH: Day 1

Lars is moving to Dayton, OH. This weekend we’re looking for an apartment for him. I’m not having fun, because I want him to stay in Indiana with me. Woe is me and such.

We headed to Dayton on Friday and stopped in Indianapolis for a quick lunch: Patachou. Patachou is a chain in the Indianapolis area that suggests its a “student union for adults.” I don’t know what that entirely means. My college union has people passed out on couches and a copy center, but whatever Patachou…I like your food. You may be familiar with their main restaurant: Petit Chou. I usually get the croissant French Toast, which is awesome. I mean, come on: it’s buttery, flaky, and comes with candied pecans. Hol to the ler. I decided to be one of those ladies and get a salad. You see this “effort” to eat healthier? Well, it is there. I ordered the Chinese Chicken Salad. I ordered it because it has cabbage. I love some cabbage–not steamed–but cut up in salads or shredded on my carne asada tacos. Anyway, the salad had romaine lettuce, salad, steamed chicken, fried won tons (not so healthy, but work with me here), carrots, green onions, and ginger vinaigrette. This salad was awesome, because the chicken was shredded and worked through the entire salad and not just two stupid grilled slices sitting on top. I thought that was the ballerest salad move in the nation. Go, Patachou. I’ll visit your student union again, because I always do. (I only ate half the salad, because I was overwhelmed, but all the wontons of course).

Lars was paying and said I could get a cookie. So, I got a cookie. I ordered their spiced pecan shortbread and ate it during the car ride. It was buttery, flaky, and pecany. A delicious substitute to my favorite French Toast.

Lars and I reached Dayton and spent the evening apartment hunting, which went so-so. For dinner, we stopped at Figlio Wood Fired Pizza. I made my own pizza, because I’m picky. I asked for tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, roasted garlic, sun-dried  tomatoes, and prosciutto. It was okay and this is why. The sauce was good and sun-dried tomatoes had a nice sweetness. The crust was okay, but not that “fired.” The proscuitto was cut up too small. When I order meat, I order meat, lady. And, lastly… do not put spoonfuls of roasted garlic on the pizza. I got an unwelcome surprises in my mouth.  I ate most of it because I was famished, but I rather get take out next time. Sorry, Figlio.

Well, I’m off to start Day 2 of Dayton! Hope your weekends are going well.

The Tale of 2 Shoes (well technically 4…)

It snowed today like a mother. I hate snow. I think it is stupid. Sorry. I wasn’t prepared for this. I almost missed my first class of the semester. I didn’t have the right boots. I pretty much wrecked my favorite boots. Wah, wah. It wasn’t a bad day, but a long, wet one. I got home at 5 PM ready to pass out. But, there was a shopping trip ahead. Lars and I had lean ground beef from last week, so we decided to make taco salad. I’m not much of a salad person, which I’ve mentioned before. I’m just picky. I have to make my own salads. Blah, blah…I’m so out of it. Too late for coffee, though. Salad…

Lars prepared onions and beef with low-sodium taco seasoning. I used to hate onions, unless they were fried. This is a huge step towards my future as a salad person. I chopped up some romaine lettuce. I also opened the salsa jar. Archer Farms’ salsa was on sale and I picked out Green Chile and Roasted Tomato; it was bold and rustic. We topped it with reduced-fat Mexican cheese (which is my favorite Mexican cheese blend thus far) and I crumbed up 3 Archer Farms’ multi-grain tortilla chips. I would walk miles in the snow for this. AND, I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Holler!

At Target, I decided to get snow boots. Their snow boot aisle disappeared, which freaked me out. I should have shopped sooner? NO! I found a pair of 35-dollar waterproof boots in the clearance section, but for only 17 dollars. Holler! I wore them out of the store.

I am hoping the snow will end soon, because I want to wear my new vintage loafers. Lars got them for me.

I only have to teach tomorrow, so I have the whole day to catch up on work and blog read. I look forward to seeing what is going on in your lives. Hopefully, your posts don’t sound as whacked as mine.

Before a Week of Hauntings

So, I am super stressed. I have one week of vacation left, but Lars (my boyfriend) will be gone for the entire week. He has to go to a HUGE conference for job interviews. He gets his PhD this year and is trying to get a job as a professor. Some crazy shit, right? I’m not going to miss him, necessarily (well I will miss him, but I can survive a week without him), but I will be afraid to sleep in my vintage apartment alone. After hearing scratching inside the walls on numerous occasions, how am I supposed to sleep? Geez. Any tips?

Well, as you may remember, one of my new year’s resolutions was to wear more brown. My mom got me this expensive brown purse, so I want to actually rock it. Well here is evidence that I am taking these resolutions seriously. Before heading out to my FAVORITE RESTAURANT EVER, I changed into my brown boots.

My yellow sweater was a little too matchy-matchy with my freshly painted nails. BY THE WAY: I suck at painting nails. I am too shaky.

I wanted to spend some quality time with Lars before he flew out to LA (not fair, right?), so I thought we’d head to The Black Sparrow. Want to know why I’ve been missing from the blog world lately? This place. I read here. I grade here. I have graduate seminars here. I socialize here. This place rocks. This place is almost too cool for Purdue University.

Anyway, the pictures will not portray how delicious this food is. It is a hipster bar, thus it is smoky and dark. I began the meal with one of their tasty microbrews: Sun King’s Batch 222 Golden Princess. Yum.

Lars ordered our favorite dish: the hamburger. This hamburger is the bomb. The bun is toasted and buttered. The burger is topped with not only cheddar cheese and sauteed onions, but fried onion straws. Lars got a bowl of the cheddar-bacon-potato soup instead of the fries. Shabam, food lovers!

I would have ordered that, but I have to watch what I eat after the holidays. Plus, I got a beer. Got to make sacrifices from time to time. Right ladies? Anyway, I got my second favorite dish (well third: their pizzas are Baller). The Asian Salad is delicious. It comes with romaine lettuce, red onions, carrots, and chicken. I’m not sure what the dressing is, but there is some soy and peanut flavors going on there. Blogger confession: I don’t really like salads. I know. I’m sorry. UGH. BUT: This is the one salad I am always excited to eat. A girl at the bar sent back this salad when the dressing was not on the side. YOU CANNOT GET THIS SALAD WITH THE DRESSING ON THE SIDE. You want it on every inch of this plate. Holler at me dressing lovers!

Resolution proof #2. I have been using the envelope system. I was okay with spending my “Eating Out” allowance on this meal!

Well, I’m going to continue watching The Craigslist Killer.

My face hurts from reading…

I feel like I don’t have control of my life. It sounds worse than it is, but I am so busy and rarely have free time anymore. When I get busy my body shuts down. My body says: “Hey you, I’m done. You will do something nonproductive.” I know I need this once in awhile, but my body shuts down when I need it the most. This morning was a long one. I couldn’t function. Ugh.

Emo time is over. I need an Emo theme song.

Breakfast was pretty awesome. I stopped at Starbucks for a Pike Place coffee and a low fast raspberry muffin. The muffin made my morning and went well with my fresh strawberries from home. I sat in my office at 7am with this meal and graded. Wah, wah. Grading is not fun. I like reading student work, but I hate stamping a grade on it. I rather give them muffins.

After breakfast I had class, then I taught, then I observed a colleague’s class, then I went to class again. THEN, I went to Zumba. Lunch was slipped in there somewhere. It isn’t important. Turkey on rye: blah, blah, blah.

After Zumba Lars and I grabbed dinner at a Korean restaurant, Green Sprout. Lars ordered the sushi salad, which was not only beautiful, but delicious.

I ordered the omelet filled with fried rice and spiced pork. Lars always has the best meal of his life, and I don’t. The problem with this dish was the fried rice. I’ll go to the place again (because it is spoken so highly of), but maybe I’ll order something else. We had fun removing the egg coating to reveal the solid rice cylinder below, though.

I have been reading all night, so I deserved ice cream. I have had the Breyers Smooth and Dreamy Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream sandwich before, and loved it. This time I bought the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough instead. It was good, but not as “cookie dough” as I would have liked. It was good, but I prefer the brownie.

Ugh, back to reading/writing/planning.

I am having a karaoke party Friday. Any suggestions for party foods would be appreciated.

Weekend Adventures with my Muffin Pan

Finally, internet! Too bad I had to drive to campus to get it. Boo. This weekend was entirely devoted to errands and unpacking, but things got dangerous. At some point I was kneeling down to put some things away, I stood straight up when I was finished and banged my head on an open cabinet door. I’ve been in pain for two days now. Further, I’m stressed about money. So, as I always do when I’m stressed, I baked. My new best friend, Miss Muffin Pan, and I have been trying out some new recipes.

Recipe 1: Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting from Martha Stewart

Okay, I don’t know much about M-Stew. I heard people hated her. I heard she went to jail. I stayed away because I learned at a very young age to avoid troublemakers. But, M-Stew is the bomb. I would go to war for these cupcakes, waving my M-Stew flag. These cupcakes are very, very easy. They ask for four ripe bananas, so they are very “POW! I’m a banana cupcake, bitches.” The frosting compliments the moist banana goodness with a spiced, yet sweet blanket of heaven. Just make these, NOW! JUST DO IT! I made these for someone’s birthday get-together Saturday evening, so I only had half of one for testing purposes. I’m making these again, very soon.

Recipe 2: Bran Flax Muffins from Bob’s Red Mill

I found this recipe on the bag of my flax seed meal (but it can also be found by clicking the link below). I have always avoided using recipes on boxes, because I thought of it as some kind of gimmick. But I gave M-Stew a try, so why not Bob? I am glad I did. These are loaded with whole-wheat, oat bran, flax seed, shredded carrot, shredded apple, and nuts (I used pecans). The recipe also recommends raisins, but I passed. These were perfect this morning with a dollop of apple jelly. I’m going to use banana next time.  I love finding a healthful muffin that doesn’t taste like absence.

The adventure doesn’t end! The people over at POM Wonderful were nice enough to send me a case. I’ve been wanting to buy this for awhile, but I’m often broke. Well, these are definitely worth the dollars. I put Miss Muffin Pan down, and made some POM-inspired salad dressing.

I found a recipe for POM Soy-Ginger Dressing from their website. I decided to go dressing crazy and make my own adaptation.

POM-Soy-Ginger-Sesame Dressing

Whisk together:

• 1/2 cup POM Wonderful juice
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp vegtable oil
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

It tasted similar to Annie’s Gingerly Vinaigrette. A leftover POM bottle from before made a nice salad dressing bottle.

This salad dressing went well with our Indian dinner last night. Lars is an Indian food master. He made Aloo Chole to satisfy my current chickpea fetish. This is a great vegetarian dish made with potatoes, chickpeas, and a green chili pepper.  This was delicious.

A stressful, but luckily delicious weekend brought to you by Lars and Miss Muffin Pan.

What is your favorite type of cupcake?

Unpacking Extravaganza

Whew! Lars and I had a very productive day yesterday. We unpacked the entire kitchen and made some delicious meals.

After he taught, Lars and I headed over to our new neighbor’s house: Great Harvest Bread Company. Lars and I bought their Asiago Pesto and hamburger buns. Lars also stopped by our local wine and cheese shop for some peppered turkey and cheese. Along with our straight-from-the-oven Aisago Pesto bread, this made the best sandwich for unpacking-energy. We also got our greens in with a side salad.

Inside the bread bag: Asiago Pesto

For dinner we had the hamburger buns with cheddar and sautéed onions. These buns were fantastic, because they had this nice sweetness. I also prepared a simple sweet potato recipe from Eating Well. The fries came out decently considering the model of our oven is “Hot as HELL.” The temperature is actually higher than we tell it to be. We’ll make it work, Tim Gunn. To cool off these fries, I had a beer.

Well, here it is: our kitchen. This took forever. It is a small kitchen, but we have made the most out of the space we have. Further, this is an older house.

We have a rather large pantry room next to the kitchen. It is nearly complete, but we still need to find a microwave. Any suggestions for a decently price and effective microwave?

The kitchen…

In the corner, next to the sink, we have a built-in cabinet area. We were able to fit in all our cookbooks and most of our plates, cups, and bowls.

It also houses Lars’s homemade punk canisters. He is so talented.

My Aristotle bookend keeps the books in check.

Our sink is old school, but I think it is cute.

Here is the 75-pound kitchen island I bought from IKEA to serve as counter space. This was a bitch to put together, so it is our pride and joy.

The best part about unpacking the entire kitchen was that I finally unearthed my coffeemaker. This morning I tried Trader Joe’s Chicory Coffee. Yum. I also had some toasted Asiago Pesto bread, an apple, and strawberries.

I was excited to use my colander this morning to rinse the strawberries. It is super tiny and cute, and perfect for rinsing berries.

Well, back to unpacking. More pictures to come!

Eye of the Tiger

Check out my first blog post on frugal eating at thriftshoppin.com!

So, I’ve been putting off my thesis revisions. I wake up today ready to take it on.  I do the boxer’s dance and throw air punches. I am so ready! I eat a healthy and filling lunch. I poached two eggs and put them on buttered halves of whole wheat English muffins. I also have a side spinach salad mixed with sliced almonds and Annie’s Gingerly Vinaigrette.

I headed to the local coffee shop equipped with apples slices and two oatmeal cookies. I am expecting maybe 3 hours worth of work, if I am lucky. I order an iced green tea, set up shop, and open the document with my professor’s revisions. She basically says, “looks good.” Further, she deleted some things (I ramble), but she didn’t think I had to really do anything else. So, it took me 15 painless minutes. So I am sitting here at the coffee shop, done. I guess I will blog. I still have to do some formatting things with the Graduate School, but school is closed today. So, I blog. I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on! That is one task I love doing.

Not a great picture.

Tapa-tastic

Yet again, I’m rushing out the door to drive. I am so sick of long drives, but this time I am not leaving until I download some new podcasts!

Today I set some time aside to read and have a snack. I went to Starbucks and purchased a peeled mango snack pack and a grande non-fat iced latte. I read and listened to some woman talk about how awesome her garden rocks and her jealous neighbors. Easy lady.

I made my mom go to Panera with me for lunch. I ordered the very summery Strawberry, Chicken, and Poppyseed salad. Along with the obvious ingredients, it had pecans, blueberries, pineapple, and mandarin oranges. I ate half and packed away my side apple for another day.

My mom still buys me books for good grades, so I bought The Book of Tapas cookbook. It was expensive.

Cashier: That will be 39 dollars.

Mom: What?

Ashley: Shoot did I read the wrong price, like the price of another country. If so, I want to move to that country.

Mom: Just get it, but make me some tapas…whatever that is!

This book is definitely high brow, so hopefully this beginner cook can execute the recipes and afford the ingredients.

I am hungry, so I’ve packed some snacks for the road. What is your favorite road trip food?

I’ll catch up on blogging when I get into Ohio. Warning: I will be drinking wine while doing so!

Local Food Finds

Hello friends. What a relaxing, yet unproductive day. Anna from Newly Wed Newly Veg informed me of this eatery in town: Jane’s Gourmet Deli. So, when Lars came home, I took him out to lunch. Anna was right; it was so delicious.

We walked in and I instantly fell in love, because it had a wall full of wine. It had such a cute gourmet food and wine shop! Lars and I decided to eat outside. I apologize for the pictures, we sat on a shady patio.

I ordered the Panini Rustica which was a hot sandwich with mozzarella, tomato, spring greens, and pesto. I was allowed two sides, so I chose a side salad and a chocolate crinkle cookie. The salad dressing list was great; I chose the Cabernet Sauvignon Vinaigrette. Um, a wine salad dressing? Yes, please. I was nice enough to share my cookie with Lars.

Lars ordered the Tuna Melt Panini with a side of potato salad and Creamy Chickpea soup. The soup was surely the highlight, it tasted like queso. I helped him eat that, because I am so nice.

After lunch, I decided to read at Starbucks. I got a grande iced coffee and a dried apple snack pack.

Then, I went to the Farmers Market! I bought some blueberries (from Delphi, IN and home of my grandma) for breakfast smoothies tomorrow, and grape tomatoes for our pasta tonight! Yippee for keeping it local!

I’m currently watching The Bachelorette. I love this drama!

What is your favorite Farmers Market find EVER?