HEY Y’ALL!!
I did a super-fun feature for Meg’s blog, where I showed her my fave spots in DC, answered some great questions, and filled out a really fun/cute rapid-fire questionnaire with quirky questions. If you want to know more about me and “MY DC”, check this *ish out!!!
http://www.mimiandmegblog.com/2012/07/my-dc-alina-of-hyperbalist.html
Filed under Blog, Cute Ideas, Fashion, Food, MyStyle
Fresh berries, cinnamon raisin bagel toasted with chive cream cheese (that probably sounds sick to you, but I like savory things on sweet things) at home. And coffee. Because my stomach issues are kind of in remission right now, since it’s summer and the world and life is magically amazing when it’s summer.
I apologize for the week long delay, have had a lot of work and lot of life going on! you know, the whole world outside of WordPress, though lord knows I love me some virtual reality. I have a *LOT* to post about including some awesome new additions to our living room, my favorite local/hand-made jewelry designers, and a fun brunch we hosted, but today’s post is about…veggie meals! I really go through these pendulum shifts in my life where something beyond me just tells me what I’m going to do. I never really ‘set out’ to do anything, I just like…..get notions that feel right and then roll with them. Several times in my life, something in me has just been like “meh, you’re over meat for now,” and then my conscious self is like “alright cool sounds good.” And then I am. And then it lasts for like a year, and then one day I’m not over meat anymore. It’s kind of weird. It’s happened several times.
A few weeks ago, or maybe longer, my body or whatever, was just like “you know what, meat’s not really your thing right now, it’s kind of gross,” and then it’s been effortless ever since because I never have cared about or ‘needed’ it. I don’t go to the deli and like, get sad that I ‘can’t’ have a turkey sandwich, or yearn for sausage on a pizza, when I’m in phases like this. In other words, it’s not an “effort” at all. I don’t think about it. I don’t wake up going “fuck I wish I could have bacon but I can’t.” I don’t miss it at ALL. And people talk about ‘feeling better’ when they do it: “oh I just feel better, I feel cleaner, I feel lighter.” This isn’t about feeling better for me at all, because I don’t actually feel *better*. There is no improvement in my quality of life when I don’t eat meat, I’ve never been able to say “I feel so energized!” There has never been a single difference in how I feel whether I eat it or don’t, it’s just about not wanting it.
And then if I DO start to actually think about it, I can get grossed out by the farms and the antibiotics and all that shit and it’s very easy to imagine just not having meat ever again. But in like 2013 my body will just randomly be like “order sausage right now” and then I will. And then in 2015 I’ll be vegetarian again. But regardless of my meat whims, I eat a lot of fish like sushi, lox on bagels, shrimp salad, tilapia tacos, etc. But not fish that comes from China. Because I read an exposé in The New York Times about the fish industry over there, the farming, what they put in the water, and then the antibiotics they give the fish to keep them from dying because what’s in the water is so poisonous, so I just refuse. I don’t care. I will straight up ask the fish market person where the fish came from, and if it’s China, I say hailll fucking no. Like I don’t care if anyone tries to tell me they have rehabilitated the industry or improved their practices or the government cracked down on the fishermen since the story was published, I’m still paranoid and I still don’t trust it. Just like the sketchy plastic from China, shit made in China is not where I’m trying to put my money.
So here are a few ways I’ve been eating sans meat.
Your classic tomato, mozzarella, avocado salad with lots of olive oil and salt at home.
And bread and cheese.
Edamame, brown rice, broccoli, and black beans with chunks of sharp white cheddar on top at home:
Straight up veggies and hummus, with pita from Tryst. (I eat approximately 6 meals a week at Tryst. Favorite veggie food in DC because it’s so fresh, so easy, and so inexpensive):
Trader Joes butternut squash ravioli, brown sugar glazed carrots ,and the best simmered-down spinach with garlic that I’ve ever tasted in my LIFE, at our friend’s house the other night:
Me and Alex, Rachel and Ben, and Libby and Jarred had a dinner date at Libby’s house and she and her bf cooked for us. It was so good I don’t have words. He took pasta from Trader Joes and somehow made it taste better than shit I had in Italy. The carrots….MELTED. IN. YOUR. MOUTH. The picture is a little unsightly because delicious oily things don’t photograph as pretty as fresh berries (and least of all with an iphone), but it was orgasm inducing.
Harris Teeter brand Margherita pizza. Surprisingly good. Because sometimes life just calls for a $4-dollar frozen pizza from Harris Teeter.
Home-made black bean, avocado, cheddar quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas. These are soooo good and one of our favorite things to make. We had these for dinner tonight so I updated this post which I’d published earlier in the day:
Anddd that’s all I got for now.
Filed under Food
This is one of the sexiest covers I’ve seen in a long time. She looks SO. HOT. The girl has insane bone structure and if she were a lil taller, coulda been a runway model with her look. Massive massive props to whoever styled this cover….she looks absolutely banging in that cut-out criss-cross purple top (her boobs look particularly amazing), and the high-waisted orange satin skirt with the thick gold belt. I’m pretty sure it’s all Gucci. Wow-zers. She was also my favorite look at the Oscars way back when, in her super slinky sexy red Calvin Klein number that was MADE for her body, and her blonde bombshell Brigitte Bardot-hair. There was not a millimeter of that dress that wasn’t tailored to her figure. Girlfriend’s got a great stylist, I tell you one thing.
Happy Sunday ya’ll.
Friday: My boyfriend and I got takeout Chinese and watched the first & only three episodes of the new AMC show “The Killing.” It’s absolutely genius. A totally creepy, fascinating, addicting, brilliantly-directed murder-mystery show set in the Pacific Northwest, which is…….my FAVORITE place for films/tv shows to be set. That sounds really random but it’s true. Because of the rain and the mountains and water, the green/grey/blue/brown colors, the fog, and the fact that it’s almost always dreary, the cinematography is stunning and makes me want to live in a cozy cabin, on a hill in the rainy woods with a sick view of the water. Movies like Twilight are a good example. Basically anything set in Seattle or Oregon or Vancouver, etc. There’s just something about the rain, fog, beautiful vistas and tall, lush trees that makes me want to live out there, even though I’m a sun worshipper who gets depressed when it’s below 70 degrees. NEEDLESS to say, you should watch The Killing. It’s SO. GOOD. Also on Friday {and speaking of rain}, before getting the takeout, I grocery shopped for an all-day brunch/moviefest on Saturday. I looked at the weather forecast early in the week and saw that it was supposed to be pouring rain/thunderstorming ALL DAY Saturday, from morning to night, SO, I made the plan that second to grocery shop on Friday so that we wouldn’t have to leave the house for a SINGLE thing or reason on Saturday, and could eat yummy brunch food and watch movies all day long without ever having to step outside into the rain. I got my boyfriend & his friends in on the plan, and it was something to look forward to all week. I highly recommend doing a similar thing the next time you check the weather and see a 24-hour rain forecast. I planned a menu of French toast with strawberries, bacon, poached eggs + asparagus + grated parmesan, and hashbrowns. All of the ingredients TOTAL cost $35.00 and it fed six people, with tons leftover, which made it a six-dollar meal…like..what? It also tasted as good as restaurant food, was just abSURDLY easy to make, and made me realize again how much more cost-effective/better it is to make your own food. Which brings me to….
Saturday: Woke up around 9:30 and my boyfriend & I began the cooking. The French toast was SO. SO. SO. easy to make. It was my first time ever making french toast and it takes literally about 5 minutes of prep time and 3-5 minutes to grill. 
I used:
Texas Toast
Half & Half
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Vanilla Extract
Eggs (obvi)
Maple Syrup
You mix 2 eggs (or more depending on how much you’re serving), 1/2 cup of half & half (I used half and half instead of milk- so much creamier ), 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of nutmeg. Coat each slice of Texas Toast in the egg mixture, and throw it on the stovetop on mediumish heat, over melted butter. Then pile chopped strawberries and maple syrup on top! It was orgasmic. Weirdly enough {because I know nothing about anything food-related}, the Texas toast was my touch…every single recipe I found on the internet ( including the tens of different French Toast recipes on the Food Network, Paula Dean, Martha Stewart, etc.) ALL said to use day-old regular white or wheat bread, or challah bread, or a bunch of other kinds of bread that weren’t TT, which really surprised me. I thought using Texas Toast was what people did. It was the PERFECT thickness and texture and it cooks perfectly because it doesn’t get too soggy and there’s always a slight crispness in the middle. I have no words to describe how yummy it was.
The rest of the food was a joke too. Bacon is bacon. Poached eggs are poached eggs. And steamed asparagus is….you guessed it. There are no ingredients other than salt and like one step to each food. The potatoes weren’t exactly hasbrowns but BETTER. You cut fingerling potaotes into fours and throw them into a big mixing bowl, sprinkle with salt, olive oil and rosemary and place in the oven.
Then we spent the next few hours watching movies back-to-back. We started with Human Centipede, because apparently we are totally out of our minds. It’s the infamous horror flick about a psycho German doctor who kidnaps and sews three people together to make a giant crawling human. Hahaha it was………one of the most fucked up things I’ve ever seen but SO entertaining to watch with a group of friends, full on brunch food, drinking Mimosas on a thunderstorming Saturday. We all cuddled under our big blankets, lit a bunch of candles, and snuggled. After HC, we watched Man on Wire, the JAWDROPPING documentary about the tightrope walker who walked across the twin towers on a wire…with nothing beneath him but…the ground. I am still in shock from it. And next we watched The Game, with Michael Douglas.
Today I had work all day, at CB2, then I napped, made a grilled cheese on leftover Texas Toast (oh mah godddddd), and an all-new LIVE Killing is on tonight. WAHOOOOO.
Hope yalls had a great weekend wherever you were.
-Hyperbs
Filed under Food, Movies, Recipes, Television
The world’s easiest DIY, second only to shaping cinnamon-roll-dough into a heart.
1. Buy pretzels, chocolate, and toppings.
2. Dip half, ¾, or whole pretzel into melted chocolate.
3. Roll in toppings of your choosing.
4. Laugh at how embarassingly easy this was to do.
You can go crazy. Natalie used cute colored sprinkles, but you can use chopped nuts, coconut flakes, mini m&ms, anything your little heart desires. Shit you could even roll it in gummy bears. Probably wouldn’t stick but the point is, you can customize these bad boys and they are an adorable, homemade, inexpensive gift.
Then wrap them in cellophane and tie up with a pretty ribbon and homemade nametag!
Totes adore. I might make these as Easter presents. Not that I actively celebrate Easter with homemade gifts for friends, but it’s the only holiday coming up that would give me a remote excuse to make these.
Filed under Cute Ideas, DIY, Food, Gift Ideas, Treats
Finally made these bad boys. The saltiness of the butter cookies perfectly balances out the super-sweetness of the strawberry ice cream. I loved it and so did my boyfriend and his roommates! Great lil dessert.
Filed under Cute Ideas, Food
We had extra potatoes from my birthday dinner last night so my boyfriend had the genius idea of saving them and turning them into a breakfasty side! We made scrambled eggs with cream cheese and had the potatoes. It was perfect. And by ‘we’ I mean my boyfriend. I don’t cook, and roasting potatoes with rosemary is laughably beyond my cooking repetoire even IF it may be the easiest thing in the world to you. I eat cereal. Like I GET that it’s easy– I GET that all you do is take some mini potatoes, cut them, maybe brush a little oil on them, sprinkle some rosemary on, and roast them. But no. Because I would cut them wrong, I would somehow put too much rosemary on and they would taste like a ball of rosemary with the texture of a potato, I would fuck up the temperature of the oven, I don’t even know what ROAST means. Yeah it’s a verb I hear, that’s tossed arond, but an oven has one setting to me: on. I literally just don’t do ‘food.’ I eat cereal. Which is why my boyfriend makes things for me because left up to my own devices, I’m a mess. When God or the universe created me, and I was given my height and hair color and eye color, I was also UNgiven any gene or genetic capability to coordinate cooking a meal.
Filed under Food
