This week was a bit rough for me. I was ridiculously sick, even home from work on Monday.
And if any of you know me, I hate being home all day. I don’t do well sitting still.
And I definitely hate that being sick means no working out. With the exception of a quick dog walk, I haven’t had an exercise inducing endorphin boost since LAST Sunday. I’m feeling a bit better now and have a few fun things I’m looking forward to this weekend.
- I’m dead set on making it to the Love Cycling Studio‘s Taylor Swift themed ride tomorrow morning & riding to Shake It Off.
- Sunday is mine and <3M’s 2nd wedding anniversary (the India one) and I want to be 100% so we can celebrate in style. We’re thinking about purchasing bikes so the two of us can ride the trail of Austin together!
Anyways, here’s some things that did make my week awesome.
I took some downtime on Monday while sick to watch Cooked on Netflix, a short documentary about why cooking is important, how different cultures cook, and how American’s are losing the practice. If you are a foodie who loves learning about different cultures and the chemistry of food check it out.
It’s a four part series is narrated by Michael Pollan (NYT writer and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Cooked, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules among others). Pollan travels the world learning about the importance of cooking in other cultures, how food impacts lives, routine, and health. In some episodes he learns how to perfect cooking techniques — whether it be cooking over fire or pot cooking. In others, he explores how chemistry plays a role in creating delicious food such as the use of yeast in bread making or bacteria in cheese and chocolate.
On a less serious note but still food related, Too Faced came out with a Peanut Butter & Jelly makeup palette this week. I haven’t made the leap to purchasing it yet but I’ve definitely been dwelling on it. The colors looks great, lots of shimmery bronzes and peachy tones plus some vibrant purple and violets! If you try it, let me know.
Also this week, while wandering around Target waiting for my prescription to get filled, I happened across the new Oh Joy! line and fell in love with all the adorable gold animal figurines wearing party hats (no longer available…).
I absolutely loved the little hedgehog and couldn’t put him down. I decided he needed to come home with me and would fit in perfectly on my desk at work with all my cupcake decorations. One of my Aunt’s had a hedgehog as a pet while I was growing up and I absolutely loved going to her house to play with him since it was such a unique pet, this figurine reminds me of that little hedgehog!
Lastly, Alton Brown recently wrote an article on How to Read a Recipe that I found ridiculously interesting. I think his most important tips are to
- Sit Down – Meaning take a breath, relax and really read the recipe like you were reading a book.
- Always triple check the cooking or baking times and their ‘Doneness Indicators.’ – He nailed it when he said your eyes and ears should be working in tangent with your cooking timer.
When I talk to people about why they don’t cook or bake the reason is usually because “It never turns out right!” I believe this is because they didn’t actually read the recipe. They simply skimmed it, didn’t take into consideration to how the ingredients should be prepped, missed the timing of when something should be added, or how to incorporate the ingredient with everything else. Alton Brown does a great job at explaining how to read a recipe and highlighting (literally) what words are important for success. If you’re new to the kitchen, give it a quick read!
Did you have anything great happen this week or have fun weekend plans?
Do you usually read a recipe all the way through? Or do you skim it and wing it?
My friends think I’m obsessed with cupcakes and when you consider all the facts, I can see how they’ve come to that conclusion..
