'Tis the Season!

Some of my earliest family memories involve the winter holidays. As far back as I can remember, Thanksgiving morning meant waking up early to catch the beginning of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While glued to the television in the family room, my sisters and I would start peeling apples for the pie as my mom prepared the crust. After dinner while Dad did the dishes, my sisters and I would curl up on the couch in our turkey coma to watch the first Christmas movie of the season. Whether it was It’s a Wonderful Life or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, we’d undoubtedly be asleep before the credits rolled. 

Within a few days of Thanksgiving, we’d be back to the family room to set up the Christmas tree. As Dad hung the lights my sisters and I would hang our homemade ornaments while my mom arranged decorations throughout the rest of the house. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.

Krazy about Kale!

I had a quite the lovely weekend. I spent most of it wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt, curled up on the couch, catching up on all of my favorite TV shows; this of course was only after cleaning and reorganizing the house in preparation for holiday visitors. While lounging, I came across a recipe for a green beans and kale dish by @GDeLaurentiis that I just had to try.

Surprisingly, when I mentioned the recipe to my mother-in-law, she ran to the refrigerator and pulled out a bunch of kale. They recently signed up for Farm Fresh to You, a great program that delivers local, organic fruits and veggies straight to your door, and had received kale in their most recent shipment. Lucky for me, they hadn't used it yet because they didn’t know what to do with it; lucky for them, I knew just what to do. 

These are a few of my favorite things!

I will admit that I've been remiss in my blogging; though I can promise that the progress I'm making in this internship is a great excuse for the absence. This post certainly isn't academic or educational, and I don't intend for it to be. In no certain order, the following are some of my most favorite things - the things that warm my heart, brighten my smile, and put my mind at ease. 

Summertime Pasta Salad

Mark Twain once wrote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." He’s right: after living in San Francisco for five years, I'm not so accustomed to warm weather. But it hasn't always been this way. I grew up in a small town northeast of San Diego, where in the summer, anything below 100 degrees was considered cool. 

As much as I love San Francisco (and I do love San Francisco), summers in the city always make me miss my hometown. Whatever happened to pool parties and swimsuits and lemonade?

Well, miss it no more. In fifteen days, I’m packing up and leaving town. Destination: Napa. Right now, Napa is a beautiful 78 degrees with an anticipated high of 88 degrees. Ahh, warmth is in my near future, which makes me one happy girl!

So, in preparation for the heat, I decided to make a cool summertime pasta salad. I adapted it from a recipe created by my friend Jen, but as you’ll see you can easily swap ingredients to fit your pasta salad preference!

Stumped!

No, I don’t think young students should bring soda and Cheetos to school in their lunch.
Yes, I do think that schools should provide fresh, balanced, healthy meals for their students who want or need to buy lunch at school.
Yes, I think that a lot of parents should receive help in understanding the nutritional needs of their children.
Yes, I do think that childhood obesity is linked to the poor eating habits and diet quality of kids.
But no - certainly not - do I think parents should be stripped of their right to parent their kids.

So here's the thing.

I ate a box of Girl Scout cookies by myself the other night. That’s right, a whole box. By myself.