Saturday, August 13, 2011

lazy days of summer?

I apologize to my handful of readers for neglecting to post in the last few months but it's been pretty non-exciting. There has been some requirements to fulfill for some of the coursework I plan to take next year so I've just had my head buried in the books after work each day.

The only "lazy" part of this summer was that I've had recently was a long weekend trip to Chicago with a girlfriend. (That and a lovely weekend up at my aunt's cottage where I was wakeboarding and probably got too much sun.) It was my first time there but we picked a super fantastic weekend weather-wise. It was sunny and hot. Actually, probably a little too hot. The trip had been planned for months and it was something I was looking forward to... except I got sick right before the trip so that sort of ruined it for me. Thankfully, my friend had also had some pretty busy weeks leading up to the trip so she wanted to take it easy so we were able to leisurely make our way around the city, hitting the Art Institute of Chicago, Millenium Park, shopping, dining, and fitting in an architectural boat tour (well worth it!). It's a great city and I wouldn't hesitate to go back.

Hope your summer is going well - would be great to hear from you if it's been a while! (And it has been, so drop a line! :))

Sunday, February 20, 2011

new love

For those who are wondering, you will be sorely disappointed that it's not a person or yoga... My new love is spices that I've discovered! Growing up, I really disliked Indian food - too spicy, and my parents weren't experts on choosing good dishes. We just avoided it due to the spices. Since I've been studying ayurveda, I have gotten so excited to know how fantastic regular food can taste by adding a few spices. And the best part is knowing all the benefits of eating such flavorful food AND it doesn't have to be spicy hot for one to reap the benefits.

I'm loving the chance to mix and match the spices even though I've kept to some pretty basic recipes. Discovered a fantastic little spice shop in the city where all the spices are either organic, or wild harvested. The best part is that they carry a lot of the rarer Indian spices that are difficult to source around the city (sure they have them in Little India, but it definitely isn't organic!)Just having a little bit of fun creating flavorful dishes to eat and actually going out to more Indian restaurants and trying new dishes that I can try to replicate at home!