Under a Red Roof

Mad for Organization

January 29, 2022 in Decorating, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

After our we got our 50th birthday espresso machine, which we still LOVE, our counter got a bit crowded, so I asked Greg to put up a shelf for the radio. Luckily we had some from IKEA left over from a previous project, because I am a gal who is not only mad about organization but likes continuity, too. It looks super, and the stations are even a bit clearer off the counter. Who knew?!

The painting was a gift after we hosted Nate Seay and his lovely girlfriend Jenna on their VanLife adventure. I found the Camaro logo lying in the street. Lucky me! Oh, and the orange spray bottle is homemade hand sanitizer. 65% alcohol, 35% water, a little avocado oil, and a whole lot of zested orange strips. It smells as good as it looks and isn’t as drying.

We got rid of a bunch of books, which made our living room shelves a little empty. So, I moved all my cookbooks to the living room, freeing up these shelves. Now we have easy access to our most frequently used pantry items. It’s a win!

In domino fashion, all the space created from moving the pantry items to the shelf made for a serious pantry overhaul, and this is it, peeps. In true let your freak flag fly style: neat rows of jars, bottles, and cans gives me all the feels.

Work in progress: Juniper (in cozy fleece) supervises my living room shelf organization party.

And…done!

Foodstuffs

January 28, 2022 in Cooking + Baking by Colleen | Permalink

My aunt and uncle (Hi Betty and Phil!) have family in Arizona, and on their holiday trip picked pounds upon pounds of grapefruits, lemons, and oranges, generously sharing the bounty. We ate many, many and had plenty more grapefruits to make marmalade! Delightfully delicious. I added some rye whiskey to a few and wow-ie, best friends in a jar.

I love me a gyro, but, for the longest time, struggled to make my own taste like the twirl on a spit restaurant variety. I am pleased to report I finally got it right. The key? Add waaaay more oregano and thyme than you think will do the trick. I also pulverized some almond flour crackers to nail the texture. A Greek salad win!

Way back in our first apartment days, we loved to eat at this little local joint called Z-Teca (It is now Q-Doba and not at all the same). My favorite all-the-things burrito thereabouts was a poblano pesto. We had ample frozen poblanos from Farmer Greg’s summer season, and I got to making my closest (and runniest) memory of it.

We simmered it with cauliflower rice and topped it with smoked scallops for a Mexican flag beautiful lunch, accompanied by roasted pepper tomato soup. Um, y e s.

Barely visible white bean and green chile soup, topped with cilantro, green onion, and jalapeno.

Smoked pork shoulder (with whizzed red & green poblanos and a touch of o.j.), pintos, and cilantro lime slaw. Southwestern flavors pretty much rule our roost, friends.

Ground chicken, zaatar, golden raisin, dried cherry, jalapeno, and carrot skillet. We served it over spinach and red lettuce.

A similar blend of Mediterranean flavors, mixed with zoodles and cabbage, with homemade pitas. Sometimes you just gotta.

More Southwestern foodstuffs: butternut squash “queso”, cauliflower lime rice, pintos, and pulled chicken. Oh, and prickly pear margaritas (scroll here for the recipe) from the fruits I harvested this fall. Woot!

Smoked chicken tacos and smoky white beans!

Loving Response

January 27, 2022 in Quoting by Colleen | Permalink

All too often women* believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget. In actuality, when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of harm’s way.

bell hooks

* I’d say people. We all deserve this expression of L O V E .

Tags: Quoting

Matrix

January 24, 2022 in Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Greetings from a very magical morning last week! The day prior was adrizzle (not a word, but I’m keeping it) for hours upon hours before evening and the tiniest of feather flakes that latched together, one upon another upon another, creating this wondrous matrix of frost. We had already planned to spend the morning at Garden of the Gods and thusly could not believe our good luck to have the splendor of it taken up and up and up.

We have been venturing out a little bit more, Colorado Mountain Brewery here, Shinsadong there, dotted, as always, with trips to the library, where the books have been plenty but my pleasure in reading a mixed bag. I seem to snag a truly good read about 10% of the time. Oh, how I wish it were more. For old school viewing, we are rotating between episodes of Raising Hope (SO funny!) and Pushing Daisies (Funny and LEE PACE!!). Also rather enjoyable was Station Eleven. It is a shell of the book but quite an extraordinary one. Then there is season two of Beforeigners, which is just as good as the first and the new Sex and the City. I have zero complaints in the viewing department. Amen.

And in the big “L” life department I have been pondering the idea of fulfillment. Right?! I did say big L, peeps. I believe I’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to abandon the pursuit of it. That maybe in so doing I will not be as judgmental about any lack in my life. I kept wondering if it is really only something momentarily obtained. I did this (wrote a novel!) or that (was a teacher!). That thrill is gone. Now what? Flee-ting.

I suppose it is like mindfulness? Be here now, find peace now? Maybe more accurately, find peace in what exists now? Imperfection. Boredom. Daydreaming. Desire. Walking. Cooking. Laundry.

I’ll tell you how it goes.