Weekend Shopping

Aaaaaaand this is how I end up not posting for a week. Good thing I caught it by Tuesday!

So let's start with Friday.



Reduced to snapping photos in the bedroom mirror, UGH. But I loved this outfit, simple but still with a little zip. The blouse is from Gwynnie Bee, which I am LOVING. It is Netflix for clothes, and best of all, for clothes for plus-sized girls. I signed up for the 2-piece out at once deal, and I am busily rotating through them as fast as I can. I've had a few bobbles, mostly my own fault for not looking at the measurements closely and ordering something too big, but their customer service is absolutely the best I have ever experienced from a store, ever. EVER.



This one was a Style&Co layering top. The drape was excellent, the color a nice cobalt, and it added just the right punch I needed to my outfit. I liked it so much I repeated it on Saturday.



If you are interested in signing up for Gywnnie Bee, leave a comment with your email and I will send you an invite. (Disclaimer: the referral option does net me a free month.) I know a layering top isn't the most exciting promotion for a new service, but I am actually finding I like the subtler pieces best because they work so well with my closet, thus expanding the usage of what I already have without having to buy anything else. I've learned so far that I am a sucker for the draped neck tops. Love 'em!

Here are some of the pieces I have either coming to me or that I have added to my closet for them to send to me.



Back to the weekend! Sunday I went food shopping with my girlfriend J. We hit the Sunday farmer's market (one more to go before it is closed for the year, alas), and my favorite grocery store, Tony's Finer Foods.






Brussels sprouts! Still on the stalk!!





I had to get them.



Teeheehee. And this was my outfit for most of Sunday. New brown Target cardigan which breathed new life into a pink Gap v-neck tee and an infinity scarf. But I know you are just looking at my Brussels sprouts stalk.



Here, I removed the distraction. :)

Over at Tony's, there were many other equally mind-boggling foods, but these I managed not to buy.

For instance, fresh olives. Yes, FRESH. I don't even know, do you?





I want to try artichokes but it seems like a lot of work for very little payoff.



Chinese long beans. I barely like regular green beans, these seem like three times more.



My curiosity did finally get the better of me, so I bought two cactus pears. Then my friends had a random email conversation today that included this tidbit from Wikipedia:

The fruit of prickly pears, commonly called cactus fruit, cactus fig, Indian[6] fig or tuna in Spanish,[7] is edible, although it has to be peeled carefully to remove the small spines on the outer skin before consumption. If the outer layer is not properly removed, glochids can be ingested, causing discomfort of the throat, lips, and tongue, as the small spines are easily lodged in the skin.

"Glochids from prickly pears (Opuntia species) can cause an extremely pruritic, papular eruption called sabra dermatitis, which can easily be confused with scabies or fiberglass dermatitis."

Sooo...I will probably be throwing them away uneaten. I am not that brave!



Persimmons. Maybe I should try one of these while I wait for orange season to start.

Anyway, after all that we went to a sweet little breakfast joint near the market. I indulged in "potatoes Benedict" which were eggs Benedict over potato pancakes. Yummy, especially because the hollandaise was a nice light version instead of the usual congealed mess it can be.



Aaaaand that was my weekend. How was yours?

Windy Weekend

It was a windy, rainy, cool weekend. I'm not gonna lie, I loved it. Bad weather keeps people indoors, so I was able to zip through my errands and weekly shopping with few hassles. Even the post office was a breeze!

It also gave us the excuse to be lazy, to stay in and watch "Up" for the first time (God bless AppleTV and their many closed-captioned options, way more than Netflix). I did stock up on squash at the last farmer's market of the season, but the laziness extended itself into skipping weekly cooking too. It's squash, it will keep! (More to come on that later this week. Gotta save my blog topics up now that I am trying to do them daily again. Heh.)



With the closet re-organization, I am making a concerted effort to wear items that used to be buried in drawers or in the back of the closet. This knit bubble-hem top, with a purple and grey speckled pattern, is an Old Navy impulse purchase that has only gotten a couple of wears and lived underneath my other long-sleeved layering tops in a drawer. Since it is really a centerpiece top and not a layering one (meaning it works as the main part of an outfit, not just underneath a sweater to fill out the arms or neck) I hung it up in the New Closet where it catches my eye as an outfit option. I really liked pairing it with a grey super-soft Target cardigan of the same light hue; it muted the pattern and colors so they looked more sweet instead of zany.

The shoes are a new purchase from Clarks; I have needed a new pair of casual walking shoes for a while, and I really just love the look of those elastic-lace ones from Privo. They're still *sneakers* but they're nicer and more stylish than white running shoes, that's for sure. (Assuming you find ones that aren't frumpy or impractical, which isn't as easy as it should be!) I have a pair in purple from several years ago, but they are kind of wide and often look like duck boots under jeans. These were much better!

Privo "Pursuit Happiness" style. They felt like mine the second I put them on. I didn't take them off all weekend!

Sunday was super-casual; I solved the wind problem by pulling my hair back. And I wasn't kidding about wearing the Privos all weekend!



I wore a color-blocked short-sleeved sweatshirt I picked up at Old Navy and have been enjoying this summer, but with the cool weather I added a cobalt blue long-sleeved layering top under it. Messy and casual, which is what I was going for. :) They're not all fashionista outfits!

See what I meant about the wind?




What did you guys do this weekend?

Dress me, internet!

I swear, I get all my outfit ideas from the internet lately.

Last week, Angie over at YouLookFab posted about how to wear the Sassy Sweatshirt. Obviously, wearing one at work is a no-no for me at the Nun Factory, but it did spawn an idea for Saturday casual.



I picked up the sweatshirt at Old Navy this spring, but have mostly been wearing it as loungewear. We've finally reached a cool point in the summer, though, so I suspect this will be getting a workout, especially on vacation next week. I am ready!



Next it was Ally at Wardrobe Oxygen who provided the inspiration. She wore a fantastic striped blazer from Karen Kane with a hot pink cami, and I was head over heels. Look at how amazing she looks!

I will definitely be duplicating it during the week too, with my own striped blazer, but I also did a version over the weekend with my trusty White House Black Market striped cardigan.



This was the first rendition, when I took Hubby out to breakfast for his birthday on Sunday. But it was a little too warm for long pants and a long sweater, so I went back to my boyfriend jeans. Loved them with the chunky wedge sandals.






Thanks, ladies, for the continued inspiration!

Sunday Cooking: In which I make chicken stock

It turns out I had a LOT of food in my tiny little freezer! There is still plenty of food left so it was another easy week of Sunday cooking. I ended up making building blocks instead of meals, but that's okay: I am getting a little restless to cook so being able to put something together each night has more appeal than usual.

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My husband cooked dinner for us on Saturday, and it was so good I have to share. We usually have one night on the weekend (sometimes two) where the meals are a little richer than usual; this was one of those. But it was so good! (I should know, I bought all the ingredients. LOL.)



He started with some Italian chicken sausage with mozzarella inside, slicing and frying it up in a non-stick pan until it was really crispy. He also added some Penzey's Italian seasoning to deepen the flavors.



I had found this gorgonzola ravioli at my favorite grocery store, and had to give it a try. Hubby asked me to pick up some pesto to go with it, since there isn't any decent fresh basil around right now. This was his presentation when he was done. I had to get the camera!



Oh boy, it was rich, and GOOD. I haven't had pesto in years, but it was perfect for the pasta.  

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This week's building blocks include chicken, spaghetti and butternut squash. All I did to prepare the squash was heat the oven to 350 degrees, carefully cut them in half and place them in roasting pans with bit of water on the bottom. Very fancy.




The spaghetti squash will be a couple of meals with defrosted tomato sauce and some remaining Italian seasoned chicken sausage. My favorite comfort diet meal!

I also made boiled chicken. This was a multi-purpose cooking method; I wanted shredded chicken *and* chicken stock. I cribbed off the chicken noodle soup recipe from a couple of weeks ago, and a standard chicken stock recipe, and added a few seasoning touches.

Here's how I made it:

1. Heated a little olive oil in the bottom of a stockpot.
2. Seasoned the bone-in skinless split chicken breasts with kosher salt, Worchestershire and Penzey's Northwoods seasoning. (Note: this all gave the chicken stock a darker color and a spicier flavor than usual. Since the stock is going in soup anyway,  I didn't care.) See my messy cooking space!



3. Browned the breasts in the stockpot, just enough to sear some of the flavor in.



4. Removed the breasts onto a plate.



5. Added some pieces of carrot, celery and a quartered onion into the pot to let them soak up some of the chicken seasoning flavors on the bottom of the pot. Tossed in some whole peppercorns, a bay leaf, and kosher salt for more seasoning.





6. Added 10-12 cups of water and brought it to a boil. Added the chicken back in and let it simmer for an hour.

7. Removed the chicken from the stock and shredded it up.



8. I wanted to throw the bones back into the pot and let them continue to cook on low for another couple of hours, but they were were all tiny bones and cartilage and it made me nervous. Instead I pulled out a chicken carcass I had been storing in the freezer (for stock! not because I like to store chicken carcasses in my house!) and used that instead.

9. After another hour (I got bored), I strained the stock into a fine mesh strainer. Had to do it couple of times, first to get rid of the larger pieces, then to get rid of the bits of seasoning, etc.

10. Let it cool, then skimmed most of the fat off the top (from the olive oil early on, and a bit of skin leftover on the carcass, I think.) Poured it into a couple of containers. I'll skim the rest of the fat after it's been in the fridge for a day. Whatever doesn't get used this week will go in the freezer for my next soup!



Stock and butternut squash will make a great soup by about Tuesday.

There was another recipe/experiment I tried from Pinterest, just to see: glitter grapes. I didn't read the reviewer's comment about using similar colors of grapes and gelatin in time, so mine didn't look all that great. I used green grapes and sugar-free raspberry. But it tasted great; the bowl of them is already gone. :) I might try green with key lime jello next time. The sweet-tart addition and crunchy coat was  just a different way to eat some standard fruit. Not something I will do regularly, though. I like plain grapes just fine!



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For dinner tonight, I made chicken salad sandwiches.  I am so glad I came up with a chicken salad recipe I like as much as I like this one. It's so easy. Shredded chicken, light mayo, celery, and chopped cranberries. Plus a good amount of Penzey's Wall of Flavor. Yum-O.



Chicken salad should only ever be eaten on toast; it gives you bread that is firm enough against the heavy salad, and the crunch goes well with the celery and eliminates the texture need for chips.

As a final shot, here is what I wore during my cooking spree.




Ha, I did not even know that George had snuck in there until I downloaded these to my camera. He's such a ham.

 How was your weekend?

Long weekend

I worked a half-day at home on Friday, and took a much-needed afternoon off. So sartorially, it was a long weekend, 'cause you know I wore bum-around jeans at home working!



These are the Dreamer Old Navy bootcut jeans; I actually like them better in the long version, but I only have those in faded wash and they were in, well, the wash. :) So I added flats and went with the short, smooshed look. The maroon cardigan is last years from Kohls, the top is a new cream diagonal striped from LOFT, the necklace is a gold knotted stretch from Nordstrom, the purse is also from Nordstrom, and the flats are my beloved Sam Edelmann embellished animal prints.



It was a gorgeous day, sunny and perfectly crispy fall. Since it was later in the morning, I crept out off my patio and snapped a couple of shots in the area behind my house. Our neighbors have cute Halloween decorations out. We have our flamingos. LOL!



I changed before I went out to dinner with my friend Laura, but I forgot to get a picture of that. Which is fine, because I could not hold a candle to her chic-ness. LOVE your new red hair, Laura! She had a great grey cabled cowlneck tunic with grey heathered tights and the best piping-edged boots. We never take pictures when we got out, but seriously, we should.

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On Saturday I needed an outfit that would take me from morning grocery shopping to afternoon babysitting to an night of dinner downtown celebrating a friend's birthday. I think I got one fit the bill.





You know how earlier this week I was all about covering up my dupa with boyfriend cardigans, or talking about wearing outfits in proportions. Sometimes you just gotta channel a little Shakira, cause in this one, my hips don't lie, and I don't care. These are Gap Long and Lean jeans, and they are great for outfits when I want to show off alllllllll my legs, hips and thighs and all. They only work in the tall version with heels (my super-awesome olive green Clarks Vista Vermonts, which you may have noticed in many weekend outfits lately), but they work in a way my other jeans don't.

The jacket is a cotton olive cropped from Gap from last year; it's pretty casual but every once in a while works perfectly. The black long-sleeved layering top is new from LOFT (I scooped up a bunch on sale with a coupon and the last of my LOFT points this week), and the scarf is a great mix of navy, baby blue and olive. With the glasses it kind of looks a little "matchy-matchy" but I think the color combo is so unusual it works.




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Hubby agreed to take my photo on Sunday. He's getting better about not making me a dot on the horizon; I barely had to crop this one!



Another wearing of the Old Navy Dreamers, this time with a new teal LOFT layering top, an older Kohls cropped black sweater with dolman sleeves tied with a black ribbon. The shoes are my Ann Taylor Outlet tweed flats. Functional, and cozy.

This afternoon has been what I am beginning to call Soup Sunday. This week I made another batch of my Babchi's spaghetti sauce; I zipped through the first one mostly due to waste. Fresh tomato sauce goes bad in the fridge after a week (sob!), and I had frozen the rest in too big a container so I had to use it all at once. This time I am following Corporette's suggestions for freezing foods, and storing it in flat pint bags. (A pint of sauce is usually good for one meal.)

The other soup in process is Broccoli Chowder, one of my favorite meals. I did a double-batch in hopes of bringing it into work tomorrow, but I'm not sure I like how it came out. Eating a bowl now, and letting the pot simmer for a bit to cook down. Hope it fixes itself so I can take it in!

I can feel my foodstyle fighting its way through the haze of Halloween candy and work stress; I did a big round of grocery shopping this weekend, and have been busily stockpiling recipe ideas for quick dinners, like these Barbecue Portobello Quesadillas. YUM.

 And Helen, I bought the Cooking Light edition for Thanksgiving ideas; I am still mulling over more veggie side dishes and I would love a new, lighter potato idea, so any ideas are welcome!

Hope you all had lovely weekends, and those of you in the Northwest, hope the snow melts fast and you didn't lose power. First time there has been a storm like that since the Civil War. I can't even imagine!

A nice fall weekend

Friday:




This is what is called an optical illusion. I have lost no noticeable weight in my new foodstyle, but that's not what you might think looking at this photo. By doing with a monochromatic bottom layer -- black tee, black skinny ponte pants, black patent subtly defining my waist -- and surrounding with a long, asymmetrical lighter cascading cardigan, I look longer and leaner than I am. The chunky statement necklace and leopard shoes are just modern trendy touches that help complete the look.




Yeah, I liked that one.

It was cool enough to start wearing an outer layer, so my new trenchcoat has come out to play! With the shoes it looked a little matchy-matchy, but sometimes you need a little of that. The shoes, by the way, continue to rock.



Cardigan: Bobeau, from Nordstrom
Top: tee, Loft
Belt: patent skinny, from Nordstrom
Pants: NYDJ skinny pontes, from Nordstrom
Shoes: leopard with red bow wedges, Payless
Necklace: smoky quartz statement, from LOFT

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Saturday, I spent the day with my girlfriend J. We went out for breakfast, hit the farmer's market, chicken store, Target...and then went back to my house and caught up on our soaps and ordered pizza. LOL. It was a really nice day.



Scarf: dove grey cotton, from Target or Kohls
Layering tee: light grey ruched v neck, Old Navy
Sweater: grey striped cropped, Old Navy
Jeans: Dreamer regular length bootcut, Old Navy
Shoes: black flat clogs, from I don't remember where

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Sunday:
Somebody slept on my chair while I ran around the house. I had to work most of the day on my work computer, and I juggled that between bouts of laundry and cooking. Sadly, that meant that the roast chicken and veggies didn't get my full attention and didn't cook very well, but my husband stepped in and salvaged it for us. I always think it is 350 for an hour, but that wasn't it. 375 it is next time!


Where I worked:



Where Emily did:




We call her "Bruiser" because she's so ladylike in her stance. Hee!


What did you do this weekend?