Dig a duck a day

If you learn only one thing from my blog ever, here’s what it should be:

This

Is a geoduck. Pronounced “gooey-duck”

My husband had never seen one before this weekend.

I sang him a song about them. He stared at me. Like everyone doesn’t know songs about giant clams.

We found it at Uwajimaya, which is a giant Asian grocery store.

There you can also find things like dried squid

enough ramen to feed an entire dorm

and purple yam buns

Which were not as tasty as you’d hope.

We were actually there for far less exciting things-nori and rice for sushi.

Here’s a secret-while I tease my husband about all the foods he hates, there are a few food quirks that I have. One of them is that I need my meat to be super cooked-the smallest hint of pink and I can’t eat it. Another one is that I hate hate hate nori. Add that in with the fact that while I like seafood, most of the time I only like it on its own-no pasta with tuna for this girl? Sushi is, clearly, not my favorite.

But my husband loves sushi.

And I love him.

So we made sushi together.

He had salmon rolls

(we cooked the salmon.)

I made nori-less veggie rolls

Which looked sushi-like

And didn’t make me wanna puke!

Wins for all.

The only way we could’ve won more is if we’d made geoduck sushi.

Maybe next time….

Yabba Dabba

Know what I haven’t done lately?

Posted many pictures of my meals!

I’ve been on a big rice bowl kick lately.

Tofu curry

Tofu + broccoli + spinach using Trader Joe’s Thai red curry sauce (that shiz is goooood btw)

And I used some of the leftovers from our street tacos to make mexican rice bowls

First one with added carrots and avocado on top.

And then one with the biggest food obsession in our house:

Roasted corn!

Throwing a shucked ear of corn on the grill?  Heaven.

It’s seriously magically delicious-the husband will stop to tell me how much he loves it.

And when you’ve got a man like mine raving about veggies?  You know you’re on to something.

In other things that keep my husband happy news, we went to the beer store this weekend.
To keep me happy about that field trip I also got treats-Beer with fruit for me!

The husband got his undergrad degree in Boulder, so he’s quite the fan of Boulder Beer.

(If you look at his college transcripts you can tell he was the fan of lots of beers as an undergrad.)

Another new purchase this weekend that made me happy?
Vitamins make my tummy terribly unhappy.  (So do uncoated meds-give me tylenol that isn’t coated and there’s a good chance it will be revisited soon after).  Generally people tell me to get the gummy ones.  But they have no iron (seriously I have looked and looked.  No hi.) and that’s one of the things I want in my vitamins.

But I emailed my darling Diana (who is back after a blogging hiatus, go tell her hi!)  and she suggested…

Oh yeah, that’s what it looks like

Some Flinstones have iron!  I had no idea!

They’re just as delicious as I remembered.

The only problem with this purchase?  It involved taking the husband to Walgreens.  And that resulted in another purchase.

Yeah, that’s a light up American flag.  That can suction cup onto things.

Clearly, we needed it.

What vitamins do you take?

Are you bad about impulse buys?  We have a hard time passing up tacky all American things.

Me Time

The wonderful thing about having a whole month where I don’t work before the wedding is that I get a lot of me time.

Some me time looks like this

Spaaaaaa.  (facial = birthday gift from the fiance.  Who then make lots of really funny jokes about facials.  Really funny baby, really funny.)

Aveda tea is my favorite thing.

Seriously.  It’s a motivating factor in where I get my hair cut.

Me time is about more than just a day at the spa though.  Littler things can be me time too.

Making meals for myself?

Total me time.

That would be brown rice, corn, zucchini (farmers market!  what what!), olives, all sorts of spices, and sour cream on top.

Rice + veggies is honestly one of my very meals.

In fact, lately, it has been my lunch pretty much every day.

here it’s carrots, peas, zucchini, with the rice, plus cumin and smoked paprika to season.

Not that I’m totally eating on my bed in this picture.  Me time friends, me time.

Other me time in my life?

Candy I don’t have to share.

Smarties = not so easy to find in the states.  Last time I had some the fiance was unaware of that fact, and ate them all.

Did I cry over chocolate?

Maybe.

Ok, yes.

But still.

We finally found some and the fiance’s guilt at eating them before = ALL mine baby!

On possibly the same sorta lame level as the veggies and brown rice being me time, know what feels totally indulgent to me?

Melons.  The fiance has no love for ’em.  And honestly, I can’t always eat through a whole one (looking at you 15 pound watermelon in the fridge!)

But I love them.  And knowing I’m getting one just for me?  Kinda makes me happy.

But my favorite me time?

Bear-faced kitten sleeping on me.

What little things have you done for yourself lately?

Yard Work(out)

I’ve been feeling kinda bad about  being too busy to get to the gym lately…

But then I worked on our yard and realized it’s probably a better workout than me slugging away on the elliptical is.  For one my giant pruning shears are HEAVY.

Some of what I did today:

That’s weeds.  GIANT weeds.  I had to use the big shovel-some of them were the size of a head of lettuce

(And let me take a moment to say that I love how the city of Portland gives you a container just for your yard waste.  It’s awesome)

Plus I did this

Strawberries planted!  They’ve been living in planters for years, I’m happy they’re in dirt now.

And a whole lot more trimming, shoveling, and general work.

Before I started I made myself lunch

Broccoli, brown rice, and pinto beans with onion and garlic.  The beans were insanely good.  Which was weird as they’re, you know, beans.

Mid work I realized I needed some sustenance.

When your arms are a little shaky cause you’ve been working, I think you earn some chocolate

Brownie with yogurt frosting (yogurt + powdered sugar)

It made me a happy lady.

If you’ve got a yard, how do you feel about yardwork?  I’ve never had one of my own and I’m wondering if I’m going to start hating doing stuff in it soon…Or bribing the fiance to do it for me.

I’m terrified of lawn mowers.  So that’s already his job.

This doesn’t taste like eggs…

I’m glad everyone loves baked goods as much as I do.  I’m making the bread tomorrow, and I’ll show you guys how it works.

The key with real sourdough is that it takes a lonnnng time.  Even when you’ve got starter (which takes about a week to get going the first time), you’re looking at 12-24 hours of rising time!  (Normal bread is more like 1-2 hours).   And I’m babysitting my blogger baby friend again today, so no bread making.

Dinner was tasty, but nothing exciting.

Chicken w/some Italian herbs, and roasted garlic, brown rice with the same seasonings plus cheese, and peas

And a salad.  Love that salad.

We decided it was perfect hot chocolate weather

Was there booze in there?  Possibly.  Let’s not judge.

And for “bed dinner”* we ate this ridiculous pack of sugary weirdness

I found it for 98 cents at Winco.  Couldn’t say no.  Candy that looks like mexican food.

WTF.

That, clearly, is chili con carne.

The eggs on the “heuvos rancheros” tasted like pineapple.  Not eggs.  Which was good, but really weird.  Food that looks like other food is just strange…

Now I’m chowing down on this

Plain yogurt with pineapple and Nature’s Path Maple Sunshine goodness

And waiting for my baby friend to wake up and eat her yogurt with me

*when Baby Brother was little he called dessert “bed dinner”, as it was the meal you ate before bed.  I told that to the fiance, and he liked it, and it stuck.

Dose your family have any weird little kid sayings that stuck?  In the fiance’s family his sister called bananas “blalalalahs” and they still say it sometimes when they ask her what she wants to eat.