A Refreshing Side or Snack

Today I made Indian food (and fish) for the first time in my life! But that's not what this post is about (I'll talk about that adventure later). This post is about something I made just over a week ago. We decided to have taco night, and I thought that it was a good excuse to try out a recipe that I've had in my recipe box for some time. It looks great, tastes fresh, and is really refreshing on a hot day. Here's the recipe! (and a picture of how it looked when I made it)

Mediterranean Barley Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup barley
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 7 sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I used white vinegar)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped black olives
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. Bring barley and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the barley is tender, but still slightly firm in the center, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool to room temperature in a bowl.
2. Puree the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and balsamic vinegar in a blender until smooth. Pour over the barley. Fold in the cilantro, olives, and remaining olive oil until blended. Cover, and refrigerate until cold. Stir before serving.
3. • 
     
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Potatoes!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/rosemary-red-potatoes/Detail.aspx

Cooking for my Family

It's been a while since I've updated this blog! I've finally finished my first year of law school, so now I have time to get back to cooking (or, you know, watching season after season of How I Met Your Mother and playing Call of Duty, but anyway...). I've been out of school for just over a week, and I have yet to cook anything other than pirogies or microwave food. But tomorrow, my family is coming up to have dinner! We were going to eat in my sun room, but the forecast says it's going to be 49 degrees tomorrow (boo), so the plans to grill burgers and eat them in the sun room are sort of out the window. Instead, we're going to try slow cooking some peachy pulled pork for the main course, with sides of rosemary garlic roasted potatoes and lemon chive brussels sprouts (the second recipe in the link), and I might make lemon drop cookies for dessert.

If it goes well, I'll post the recipes I used!

Now, off to clean my entire house...

Also, I might try to make a lettuce soup tonight to use up some leftover lettuce...when I lived in France, my host mother used to make it all the time, and I loved it. Unfortunately, she never gave me the recipe, despite my requests for it. So, I grabbed this recipe, and if I can get myself out of my house to get a potato, I'll make it tonight.

Carrot Cake

Nothing better than baking at midnight on a Thursday.

I made this: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx

You should make it, too. It's easy, and there's nothing better than shredding carrots for a little bit of productive stress relief!

Something I Did

Every once in a while I get a little stir crazy, especially when I'm in high-stress situations for a long period of time. I've found that the best way to resolve those situations is to change something about myself.

When I wrote my senior thesis, I dyed half of my hair blue.

Last semester, I got another earring.

This semester, I was feeling that stir craziness again. I can't exactly dye my hair some odd color, because it's interview season and I have a feeling that lawyers would be hesitant to take a girl with purple hair as an intern. And frankly, I don't think I can put many more holes in my ears. So...what to do what to do? I pondered this question as the creeping blackness of law school doldrums crept up behind me. And then it occurred to me: my hair is terribly, terribly long. So long, in fact, that I could cut almost a foot off and still maintain a girly hairstyle. And this long hair, as pretty as it is, has lately been nothing more than a nuisance. Solution: cut it all off!

But Erica, you have such lovely hair...what a waste. Not quite! I had enough hair that I could cut it off and donate it to Locks of Love, which is an organization that makes wigs out of donated hair for children suffering from long-term medical hair loss. I figured that the hair that was a nuisance to me would be a blessing to someone else.

So. Here is where I started:

Tons and tons of hair

All gone!

That came off of my head! Now on to someone else's head...

The finished product.

Overall, that was one of the most fulfilling feelings I've ever had. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do it again. (That, and everyone keeps telling me how "adorable" my short hair looks. That is also nice.)

Ahyup.

That sounds about right.

Craft Night

So Emily, Kelsey and I decided to break up the doldrums of law school life with a craft night. In order to understand this craft night, first you must read this:

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

So we went to JoAnn's and bought the softest fabric we could find, along with some stuffing and some googly eyes (I'm sure there's a scientific term for these eyes, but it escapes me...)

And then, long story short:

Mine is on the left, Kelsey's is in the middle, Emily's is on the right.

We have so much fabric and stuffing left over...we'll probably do it again. We talked about doing this once a month or so, but with other crafts. I hope we do.

Because I had Alot of fun.

An Enormous Bug

This is a picture of an enormous bug that I found outside of the building where I lived last year. I was walking with a friend, I think it was Steve, and there it was, huge and shiny on the sidewalk.

I don't know what kind of bug it is, but I do know that when I took that picture, I had time to stop and look at it and wonder what it was.

Contrarily, I feel like if today I saw a giant shiny bug on the ground, I would have to run past it in order to prevent being swallowed by the giant tsunami of casebooks that is avidly pursuing me. But it's nice to remember that at one point I had the chance to stop and look, and I did.

Am I A Grown-Up Now?

Today I made a salad without being told. I didn't make it because I thought it would be nice and help my parents with dinner.

I made it because I wanted a salad.

I know it's a small thing. But I've passed into the want-salad-enough-to-actually-make-it phase.

And the best part about making a salad for myself? No green peppers. Not even anywhere NEAR my salad.

And now I'll have salad for days!

Ok. I guess I'm not quite a grown-up yet.

A Fresh Start

Well world, here begins my second semester as a 1L. Actually, it started last week in what was inarguably one of the top 5 longest weeks of my life. As opposed to the semester prior, I'm at school at least 6 hours a day now, with the exception of Fridays when I'm only there for 3 hours. I know, it's not as much in-school time as high school. But unlike high school, I don't have any classes where I can sit and stare out the window and still get good grades. And anyway, these classes are longer than any classes I've ever had, and there are 5 of them (at my undergrad, taking 5 classes was right below the threshold where you'd need to get special permission to take more credits.) On top of that, the homework assignments are longer: the average assignment last semester was about 15 pages per class. This semester, it's more like 20-25 (with a 42-page civil procedure assignment coming up for next weekend, yikes.)

That being said, it's my resolution (not a New Year's resolution, because I'd like this to extend beyond March) to take better care of myself. Last semester, despite all the recipes I posted in this blog, my diet consisted mostly of V8 Splash, Ramen noodles, pirogies and coffee. Not great brain food. Last week, I lived off of mostly Ramen noodles and oatmeal. And then yesterday we finally went grocery shopping!! I had an orange after dinner last night and felt so, so much better. So I guess my goal for this semester is to eat more food that doesn't come in a package, or if it does come in a package, I know what all of its ingredients are, and there are less than 5 of them (unless, of course, it's some sort of frozen vegetable medley containing more than 5 vegetables.)

And you know, keep my room clean, sleep more, get more exercise...I don't think I'll be able to accomplish all of those things and still keep up with the one goal I have maintained (make a habit of practicing guitar), but I'll try.

I had a bagel with cream cheese, some blueberries, a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee for breakfast. I don't think this is a terrible start.

A la santé!

Unrelated

Something that always makes me worry is seeing a bag that is upside down and open, when I know that something is/was in the bag and is being contained between the bag and the ground, and that if I move the bag its contents will spill everywhere.

My computer bag was upside down on my floor just now, so I thought i would share that little tidbit with you.

This picture is only related because there is a bag in it: