Weeks 37 and 38, I'm totally late

Well, here I was thinking I was on top of things, but nope. Totally missed the ball on this one. Where is time going??!?!?! I did spend today relaxing a bit, exploring a new place and bringing out some pens and pencils to do a bit of drawing. That was nice. I even hand lettered for today's post. 

253: A lunch feast at my friend's house. It was her daughter's 4 year birthday party. This was the adult table. The kiddie table was pretty good too.

254: Not much in the fridge except squash, so I diced them up and threw a lot of cheese on top.

255: Working late again, went to CurryUpNow for some take out Indian. Good thing I was the only one in the office since the place stunk like garlic and curry.

256: Stuffed some ground turkey with homemade goat cheese. Homemade goat cheese is the bomb. Tomatoes from your garden are also the bomb.

257: Hey, guess what? I was working late again. Went for my favorite Burmese. I may have stuffed my face with all of this.

258: An early birthday celebration with my friends. Aren't these burgers cute?

259: My friend gave me a cupcake. I served it with some sushi.

260: A Sunday breakfast of noodles. Noodles for breakfast--it's a good thing.

261: I took Monday off. It was my birthday. Ice cream on your birthday rocks. Especially when it's served with a side of ocean.

262: Still thinking of the ocean, I made some steamed mussels and shrimp.

263: They got me cupcakes at the office. All for me. I think I had cupcakes for lunch 3 days in a row.

264: I don't know what happened, I lost a day and have no idea where it went.

265: Work has been crazy, taking that day off was great and not so great. Came home after another long day and just made some corn soup like mom used to make. I also bought me some flowers.

266: Trying to eat healthy after a week of cupcakes.

Posting the 266th photo on Instagram was kind of cool. It meant 100 more days to go! I have this minor fear that my numbers are off though and I'll hit the last day of the year and it will be 367 or 364 or something.

Coloring is quite relaxing. It was a hot day today, but sitting under the shade while doing this was nice. I need more days like this, but I'll take what I can get!

Weeks 35 and 36, not a bad mix

It's kind of interesting how the way I have taken photos of food has changed over the year. I tend to do a lot of overhead shots now although there are still a few closeups and angled shots. Good lighting makes such a difference and I suspect the quality of these photos will turn to mush with summer ending and the days getting shorter. And the fact that these days I get home from work after 8 or 9. I guess I could take photos of breakfast, but that would be a lot of photos of the same thing. And lunch would always include a keyboard next to it. 

239: Frittata with the tomatoes from the garden and a fresh salad. I love this photo and the frittata was good. As in I almost ate the whole thing kind of good.

240: Squash bake with a ton of melted cheese. Looked pretty good but unfortunately a fail on taste.

241: Cukes from the garden that I pickled and some soba.

242: More tomatoes and cukes from the garden

243: Take out sushi 

244: This is my comfort food, homemade chicken broth and noodles

245: I busted out the ebleskiver pan and made some with chocolate inside. And bacon. Maybe I should put bacon inside the 'skivers next time.

246: I have no idea what happened this past Sunday. I have no photos at all on my phone and I cannot even remember what I did. It's like the day never existed.

247: Fresh corn and avocado salad. This was tasty.

248: I had some cantaloupe for dinner.  Why? Because I had stuffed my face with cookies at the office.

249: Trying to find new ways to prepare squash, I used a peeler to make thin strips like fettucine and topped it with a homemade tomato sauce. 

250: Long day at work deserves a take out burger and milkshake.

251: Tomato soup from a box with another new squash recipe, panko and parmesan crusted, baked not fried, since I did have that milkshake the day before

252: Went out to a new pizza place in town with some friends. I was hungry and gobbled up my share before I remembered to take a photo.

August Mood Board

Another month gone! It's kind of scary how quickly time passes. It's always good to slow down a bit and enjoy the flowers...

There is a random assortment of flowers blooming in my garden.

This colorful passionflower transports me to a tropical place, with a beach and sand and a fruity cocktail. I always think of Skittles when I look at the stamen. 

These guys always pop out of nowhere. No leaves, just bursts of pinks coming up through the dry dirt.

Fading fuchsia but still so colorful and bright.

I planted these when I first moved in and they are now crazy big. I've always loved the look of bougainvillea against a stark white wall with a blue blue sea in the background. Greece, one of these days I will met you.

An August mood board filled with pinks!

For you. 

And now it's on to September. While A is my favorite letter, September is my favorite month. I see some greens coming in!

Weeks 33 and 34, I'm so hard core!

Or something like that. The last two weeks have been busy busy at work, and I've been hitting the gym like a madwoman, plus a 30 mile bike ride last week, and tons of art projects that I'm working on. I'm in a manic phase right now. Soon to come crashing down I'm sure.

Thought I'd give a shot at some hand lettering with acrylics. Um, practice makes perfect right? Or can I say my little daughter wrote the weeks out. Except I don't have a daughter.

225: Leftover pie cupcake from the day before, along with some of my mom's apricot jam, and one of grandma's farm eggs. It was like a family affair, without the family though :-(
226: Quesadillas! Avocado! Wine! You can't go wrong here.
227: Making some eggplant and zucchini parmesan. I tend to cook enough for an army. And I usually polish things off in a few days, hence the need for the gym.
228: Leftovers make for food styling practice
229: Drool. Bi-Rite Coffee Toffee ice cream. Wait in line the first time, buy some pints for later.
230: Dinner at the desk, Chapter 623 (ok, maybe only 614). Pho sure!
231: What, there's still some Bi-Rite left over? Well then, let's make some affogato.
232: Sunday already? Off for a 30-mile bike ride, followed by huge plate of pasta, followed by snooze at the pool
233: Leftover sauce, different pasta.
234: Dinner at the desk! With leftover lunch. There are a lot of leftovers in my life.
235: I need some greens. Bok choy. Green beans. Now I feel healthy again. And won tons. Winner won tons!
236: Such a winner those won tons, I made them again.
237: A ton of winner won tons. Wanna ton of winner won tons?
238: Breakfast, the most important meal of the day, so they say. Important when it's a Saturday and you're going to go exploring the whole day. #iseefaces

Phew! Now I'm hungry. What's for lunch?

Weeks 31 and 32, Woo hoo!

This week ended with a 2nd place win at a pie contest! Woo hoo indeed! More on that in a bit...

211: Sunday started with some red velvet cake, the dessert I never got to the day before. It was a mouthful of sugar, and not in a good way. Not going to that bakery again.
212: Another dinner at the desk, with some panini left over from lunch.
213: My favorite go to, noodles and broth, topped with a farm egg from Grandma's ranch
214: More soup, ran out of noodles though.
215: Dinner out, sushi! I could just eat this photo.
216: Happy hour! Oh, glorious happy hour. Pisco punch and apps at Le Mar.
217: Homemade strawberry and blueberry wheat pancakes for breakfast.
218: Had pizza the night before at Jake's, a high school hangout. Tastes good the next day too!
219: A huge plate of pasta with all the fixin's!
220: Made an eggplant zucchini parmesan. Not bad!
221: Enjoyed the tomatoes and basil from my garden. I need to do some homemade mozzarella since it is so much better than store-bought.
222: My favorite (well, my only) roasted chicken recipe from Emma. My dogs love it too.
224a: Missed a day! Thinking too much about pie, here's my entry for Omnivore Books pie contest.
224b: Celebrated my second place win with mango cheesecake. But could only stomach a mouthful after all the pie.

So I entered another food contest yesterday. Third time's a charm, and I tied for second place! Helps when 1/2 a dozen of your friends come by to root you on.

I made a version of Eat the Love's Cherry, Apricot and Plum pie. I had made it a few weeks ago, my first attempt at an old-fashioned pie. Thought I'd try it again, although this time, I had to go to the store for the fruit. No cherries in mine, and unfortunately most of the plums were not ripe. Plus I only had one pie pan, so I ended up making some pie "cupcakes" as well. It all seemed to turn out well in the end since there was barely a crumb left! (I think bringing ice cream helped too!)

So much fun! Thanks Omnivore Books and Eat the Love!