A Special Blend

Musings of a young, artistic homeowner.

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Location: Baltimore, Maryland, United States

I thought about a PhD in Literature, French or Latin. Almost enrolled in Georgetown's MBA program. Toyed with the idea of studying graphic design. But instead I've been working on a home grown MBA and self-tutored digital illustration. I absolutely love my job in the coffee/service industry, and could hardly ask for a happier life, here fixing up my house, fiddling on my computer, smiling at my customers...Life is good. (Next stop: small business of my own?)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Tortilla Happy!

For several months now I have been dreaming of making my own tortillas. I don't know why...I just wanted to be in charge of the ingredients in my food (no preservatives, you know?) and tortillas seemed like they'd be easier than bread.

Last week one of our stores relaunched with a huge Hispanic section and it turns out we were selling tortilla presses! I bought one for less than $20. A friend of mine guided me in my choice of corn flour, gave me a few tips, and...voila! It is SO easy. I had fresh corn tortillas in minutes -- with no preservatives! This one looks just like mine...



















2 cups corn flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups water (just as much as you need to be able to turn the flour into dough)

Use your hands to squeeze the water through the flour until it turns into a dough in your hands. Make small balls of dough.
Put plastic wrap on both sides of press. Press ball of dough into very thin pancake.
Peel off of plastic wrap.
Cook on Med-High heat in a non stick pan.

I found that if I let the tortilla cook on its first side until it was smoking just slightly (a couple of little burnt spots are yummy), then cooked it on its second side until it started to balloon slightly (puff up) that they were just right.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Check this out!

http://pandora.com/

Your very own radio station. Pick a song or artist you like, and the radio begins. Offer feedback on songs to help the radio hone in on your preference (if you want, or not). Create multiple stations with different sounds. Save songs and/or artists in your bookmarks when you find a new one you like. And/or...just enjoy listening to your favorite songs on your very own radio station.

Right now my stations are built on:
1. Black Eyed Peas
2. Norah Jones
3. Justin Timberlake
4. M.I.A.

Perfect listening while I'm making dinner!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

I had a really good day.

I'm not gonna say a whole lot more than that...just "I had a really good day."
No work blogging for me.

And since I still don't have a camera here, I figured I'd post a picture from things I should have posted months ago.

These are from the trip to Monticello we took when we were in the Shenandoah Valley way back in April.

























































Sunday, August 03, 2008

Yesterday we discovered Lake Norman

Oh wow! Okay...now I'm understanding the whole commute to work thing.
7 minutes has nothing on the tranquil paradise we found in some of the places we looked at yesterday. How's this for a front yard?










Only question now is...how can we afford the one we want?

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I think both of us kind of fell in love with North Carolina yesterday. We were just exploring one little area (which was incredible!), and we thought we'd died and gone to California heaven. NC has this great parks and recreation webpage that has a lot of really cool places we want to visit (like Hanging Rock). And on top of all this, NC is where our favorite beach rental homes are, true it's still a 5-6 hour drive from where we are, but still, you gotta give NC credit where credit is due.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Let the posting re-begin?

Hi all. I am negligent -- this I know from the constant reminders of my dear mother (I love you, dear mother) and several other faithful blogging family members and friends.

So here I am now, moved to an entirely different state and I have no blog posting to show for it. I suppose it is time to remedy that.

I live in North Carolina...and Maryland.

On Monday I started a new job (a huge promotion) at the corporate office of the company I've been working for these past 2 years. On Sunday, I moved to North Carolina, where the corporate office is located. Mark is finishing up his PhD program this year at Hopkins, not to mention we own a house (which we are not too eager to let go of in this market), and so my better half remains in Baltimore.

Our plan is to take turns commuting every other weekend. This first weekend is Mark's turn, and he's here visiting with me in my tiny (though comfortably furnished) little temporary housing apartment. Our plan this weekend is to drive around and start learning the area to narrow down where I (we) might want to live when the temporary housing runs out.

Right now I live 7 minutes from work. Whew. That is quite a change from the past 2 years where I've been driving an average of an hour to an hour and a half to stores. I LOVE my 7 minute drive. The only problem is, this town that I am staying in is a very tiny town. So the question is -- Live 7 minutes from work and commute to fun on the weekends? Or live in fun, and commute 35-50 minutes every day, each way?

I am excited that I've already found the natural foods store in this little town. I bought a bag of red lentils, a bag of quinoa, and a bag of granola so far.

I'm pretty impressed with my eating habits so far. Historically I go out to eat habitually. Yet, since I've been here I have made myself breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And it's good stuff, too. Bulgar wheat salads, yummy chicken tacos, broccoli, lentil soup...seriously, I'm impressed with myself.

This morning Mark woke up with a cold. He stayed up all night setting up my computer -- he is so awesome! And he didnt' get enough sleep, so I am taking advantage of the time and the cool computer set up to get this post out to you all. (or should I write, "y'all" now that I'm a southerner?)

Mark and I have been up to a WHOLE lot before I moved here, too. We've been trying to get in as much fun as we could before we were geographically separated.

We've been out to Kent Islands, renting a house with friends, riding boats and even a sea plane! We've been inner tubing at our favorite spot up north of Baltimore and also in Virginia. We've been camping, we've been boating, we've watched lots of movies, and gone out dancing. And out of all of that, I don't seem to have more than a handful of pictures. So here is my one, symbolic picture of the fun we've been having lately. This one is the river in Virginia (we rode the river all day and got picked up by a bus at the end). Cheers.















Oh wait, one more. Our friends were making fun of our "camping" set up...calling it the "Ritz."
It was a tent that sleeps 7-8 for just the two of us. We brought an air matress, and laid out "carpeting" with blankets.
I thought it was quite cozy. :)