gaga-oh-la-la

Last weekend I flew to SLC to attend Gaga's Monster Ball Tour with these lovely ladies.

L to R: Me, Adrien, Kirstin, Lindsay, Katie. We met for dinner beforehand at the Wild Grape, then rushed off to the concert. We had to push dinner back an hour as my flight was late, so we missed the opening band, The Scissor Sisters. I'm sure they were great. But, Lady Gaga was absolutely amazing. She puts on such a good show, and sings and dances her heart out. Plus, she's all about loving yourself and accepting people for who they are-- a platform I can definitely get behind!
I have never had so much fun at a show. We were dancing and singing along the entire time. Gaga is amazingly fabulous and weird and outrageous. One of the best parts of the show was seeing what everyone else wore. Gaga has some fiercely stylish and devoted fans. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of twenty-somethings in attendance, I thought for sure we'd be some of the oldest attendees, but that was definitely not the case. Also, how much do you love this unicorn t-shirt I bought? This is definitely going to become a wardrobe staple. What a great night!

forcing it

Do you ever want an outfit to work so badly that you just go ahead and wear it anyways? Maybe because by this point in the morning you're 3 skirts and 2 pairs of tights and 2 tops and 1 other jacket into picking an outfit and at some point you just really need to put on some shoes and leave? And then you spend the entire day debating whether or not you love your outfit or are horrified that you would wear those pieces together? Or is that just me?
The truth of the matter is, however, that this top contains marigold, plum, periwinkle, leaf green, white, and black. But nowhere does it indicate it should be covered in a red jacket. Even if you love your jacket, and the shape goes spendidly with the top and charcoal pencil skirt. I'm even wearing red flats with my black tights, in an effort to make the jacket belong. But it doesn't. But maybe this outfit is working because I'm willing it to? Maybe I love it? Maybe I'm crazy? It's weird though, because it's so unlike me to try to force something that simply isn't working. :)

sunday dinner

I rarely have time to cook during the week this time of year, so rather than making a number of small meals throughout the week, I put all of my energy into one big meal, usually on Sunday.

This time the cooking was for my visiting teachees, and we had such a lovely time. Today's dinner option was maybe overly ambitious, as I spent about five hours making chipotle chicken tortilla soup (not all active involvement, but that's still a loooong process). But Oh. My. Gosh. this soup was delicious. Seriously go look up that recipe and try it yourself. I can always count on Epicurious to come through with some good recipes.
Here I am boiling a whole chicken (who needs the convenience of frozen chicken breasts-- not me) and making my own chicken stock for the base of the soup, obv. I thought it might be fun to make my own stock because I've never tried it before. I had no idea how much better it would taste. I've been missing out, and will most certainly be trying to do this more often (in that other life where I magically have more free time). The soup was delicious dressed with tortilla strips, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge. I didn't do avocado tonight, but think it would be a lovely addition next time. One friend brought gluten-free rolls and another brought kale. It was a perfectly healthy, perfectly delicious, perfectly Portland dinner party.

community garden plot

After two years on a waiting list, Diana finally got the notice she (we) finally have a spot in a community garden! We went to check it out this morning, and I am so excited.

There was quite a lot of plant life and other items left behind from the previous gardeners. Just getting the plot ready for planting is going to be quite a project. I have a feeling working in our garden is going to become one of my favorite weekend traditions this spring and summer.

We've discussed growing flowers, tomatoes, peas, green beans, herbs, brussel sprouts, and lettuce. What do you think we should grow? The dinner parties we're planning for the summer with produce we've grown ourselves are going to be glorious.

bacon pop?

Why thank you, I think I will. Mmmm bacon...