Skeptickle

I realized that I don’t tend to write a whole lot of personal stuff on this blog, mostly to protect myself against people who don’t/won’t understand or are just plain mean. Fortunately, I recently turned 26 and have developed a thicker skin over the past year so I care less about the approval of others.

I loved this idea from Holly Becker of decor8 because it’s so me. I’m usually neither a glass half-empty nor a glass half-full person because I can see things from both perspectives. I always start out with analyzing one side and then I take a look from the other side too.

Hmm, why are we talking about glasses when we can eat ice cream instead? Num num num...

Half Empty: Our little apartment is a mess and is cluttered due to our rapid accumulation of material possessions in the past year from wedding gifts, Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, etc. Both Rob and I have been very busy this past week so most chores have been neglected. I’d be ashamed to invite anyone over.

Half Full: I can still invite my brother over because he loves me unconditionally, sort of. We’re moving into a place that will accommodate these gifted possessions, or as I’d like to call them “artifacts of love”. I’m also being productive by doing the laundry I’ve put off doing for the past few days. Yay me!

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Continue reading One of those days…

This week has been especially wet and cold here in the Bay Area. We had pretty much everything: thunderstorms, hail, and the occasional tornado warning. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in California any more. So it would make sense to make a hearty soup for the occasion. But since many of us are trying to eat healthier for the new year, I had to adjust the traditional Potato Leek Soup recipe to accommodate these needs. This turned out to be really tasty without the use of heavy cream, and leftovers for the next day was even better!

Photo from: http://www.thekitchn.com

Skinny Potato Leek Soup Recipe

1 Tablespoon EVOO

1 Tablespoon butter or butter substitute

8 slices turkey bacon

1 quart low-sodium chicken broth and/or beef broth

1 cup nonfat milk

1.5 lbs Golden Yukon potatoes, cleaned (and skinned if you prefer)

1 Tablespoon flour

3 leeks washed and sliced into 1/4 inch slices.

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

5 stems fresh thyme, tied together with butchers twine

1 bay leaf

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Chopped chives, crumbled bacon, or thyme sprig for garnish.

Directions:

Place the potatoes into a large soup pot and pour in the chicken and/or beef stock. Cover and heat on medium high heat until boiling. Turn down the heat to medium low heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft when poked with a fork.

In a large fry pan heat the EVOO and butter and fry the turkey bacon until crisp on both sides. Remove bacon from pan and set aside. Using same pan, saute the leeks, onion, and garlic in the drippings until translucent. Slowly mix in the flour, salt and pepper to make a roux. Turn off heat.

Transfer this mixture into the large pot with potatoes and break up the crisped bacon into it. Using a potato masher, mash the softened potatoes until it’s your desired consistency. You can also use an immersion blender for smoother soup. Add the bundle of thyme, bay leaf, and milk into the mix and simmer on medium low heat for about 30 minutes. Add more stock or water if the soup gets too thick for your liking. Take out the thyme bundle and bay leaf right before serving. Garnish with chives. Serves about 4 people as entrees and 6 as starters. Enjoy!

…, if all goes well *knocks on wood*, we will be moving into our new home! I really can’t wait because we have seriously outgrown this one bedroom apartment that we currently live in. Seriously. Every room has gotten to the point of becoming multi-functional. For example, our dining nook is also our library and office storage area. Our living room is also our office, Rob’s electronics work area, my crafting area, exercise area, and guestroom all rolled into one. Our deck is also our storage space. You get the picture.

Our new place is an actual house! Not another apartment, or townhouse, or a duplex, or a rented room within someone else’s house. A whole house! With a yard! For someone who has officially moved 21 times her whole life, lived in 25 different places (including a Motel 6 at one point), and always dreamt of having a house, this is a huge deal. As much as I love to travel and satisfy my wanderlust, I equally crave an anchor, a place where I could call home and mean it in every possible way.

Before last month, the concept of buying a house within the next three years never even entered our plans. I mean this is California people. The average house in our area is around $500k with a $100k downpayment. We were simply not there financially, even though the interest rates were low, and the tax incentives were there, and both sides of our family and even some of our friends were urging us to buy. I thought there was no way it could happen. And then it happened (and happened fast!), mostly thanks to a generous gift from my goddess of a mother in law paired with our rather meager savings. Words cannot describe how grateful I am, how much I love my MIL, and (it’s true) for how much shame I feel for accepting the gift.

The whole house-buying process is extremely complicated and I still don’t know everything I probably should know about it. However, I think we did pretty well with what little knowledge we did know and acquired along the way. Our house is no mansion, but it will serve us perfectly as a first house, especially since we don’t plan to have kids anytime soon. It’s in a good location, in a friendly neighborhood, and is in immaculate condition because the owner is a clean-freak.

The only big problem that I can see is that it only has one bathroom . Also the power lines pole is right in our backyard so we’d be dealing with PG&E coming through occasionally. Speaking of which, as I was writing that last sentence I saw on the news of a power line falling down in Oakland and setting two cars on fire. That seems like a bad omen if I ever saw one!

Anyways, I really can’t wait to have all our stuff in separate rooms and to finally have a garden I can work on . Though, I’m going to really miss my current city and the immediate area that I’m living in now. I love the walking trail in the back and the fact that most things are within walking distance or a short drive away. I’ve also invested a lot of time, effort, and even $ into the local community, government, and businesses, so I’m hoping that we can eventually move back here when we’re looking for our next home. But for now, Rob and Sophia are off on another adventure: homeownership!

Here’s a picture of our cute and cozy cottage:

The late Dr. King has always been one of my heroes and a strong inspiration in the colored community. I couldn’t pick a favorite MLK quote so I’m posting all the ones that have the most meaning to me:

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”

-Above quotes are from Strength to Love, 1963

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

“[I]t is necessary to understand that Black Power is a cry of disappointment. The Black Power slogan did not spring full grown from the head of some philosophical Zeus. It was born from the wounds of despair and disappointment. It is a cry of daily hurt and persistent pain.”

-Above quotes are from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

I’ve used the following from time to time to remind myself:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”