[Music Monday] Miley Cyrus + Notorius B.I.G., Oh Yes

Image via Inquisitr

I am so all about mashing up two amazing artists. Like Britney and Prince, Madonna and Pharell, some things just go together. And if you mix a musical genius (Biggy) with a teeny bopper who performs candy-coated pop songs (Miley), you get a song that will either a) make your head explode, or b) get you through the day thinking the world is a better, more pleasant and unified, place. This mix of Miley with B.I.G. seems to do both.

Oh, I'm so happy just listening to it again. And again. Aaaand maybe once more. Okay, I'm done.

Miley Cyrus and Notorious BIG - Party and Bullshit in the USA Remix by liamclisham

[Things We Adore Sunday]

There are so many things to love about October. It's such a relief for the fall to be here, namely because San Francisco summers are more dreary than San Francisco winters. But also because October is full of things we adore: 

1. My birthday is this month. Yep, I'm totally self-involved. 

2. October is Vegan MOFO, a.k.a. Vegan Month of Food. Here is a fabulous recipe for vegan tacos from a fabulous vegan blog (Hipster Food) to get things started:

from Hipster Food

And, okay, I can't resist posting another because I have a reeee-diculously huge zucchini that I want to use to make this yummy zucchini bread (vegan style). 

3. October is the month of Halloween! Does anyone have any cool costume ideas? I've been working some ideas out over the last few weeks, and I think I'm going to break out my mum's sewing machine and make myself a dinosaur costume. As long as I can wear high heels, I'll be cool. Here are some of my inspirations so far. 

via MaukyJo on Etsy

via Parents.com. Obviously this would be full-grown human sized. 

Kidding! But how cute! via tumblr

[Friday Link Round-Up]

1. I am so obsessed with the idea of a low-cost pallet succulent garden. It looks so easy and beautiful! This localspoon photo tutorial makes it a snap.

Image via The Local Spoon

2. The Kitchn this week revealed the secret to great tofu: freeze that shit. 

Image via the kitchn

3. One of my favorite blogs, Daydream Lily, just posted these lovely labels from Love Mae. These are a must-have for any aesthetically-conscious baker, like myself. Everything must be pretty!

Image via Daydream Lily

4. And another kitchn post (can you tell I think about food all day and night?): no-bake boston cream pie. Graham crackers! Chocolate! Genius!

5. A lovely travel blog on La Tartine Gourmande about Portland and Oregon in general. It makes me miss Stumptown and lazy days walking through art street fairs. Sigh. 

Image via la Tartine Gourmande

A Trip to the City

This past weekend, Tawsh, Jen, Jenna and I spent two days in the city with Leah, Benny, Jeff, Carrie, Rob, Max, Kevin, Lolly, Cassi and Alexandra. We met Jeff and Leah in Dolores Park, went to Four Barrel (my fave for the best latte in the city,) where we picked up Carrie and Cuco's Restaurant for the most amazing plantain burritos. The burritos were such an interesting texture and flavor, smoky and with heat but also a touch of sweetness. Afterwards, Max, Kevin, Cassi, Alexandra and Benny came with the crew to Smugger's Cove, a tiki bar, where we took up the entire top floor and sipped on rum cocktails all night long. I can't remember a lot of the specific drinks, but the daiquiris, the mojitos and the flaming volcano drinks were tremendous. After a couple of hours, we then headed to Underground SF, a gay dance club. So much fun and such good music - a mix of 90s pop and hiphop. Once the club closed, we headed to Kevin's, where I fell down the stairs - like what? After spending a few hours recovering, Carrie and I hit up a cheap Chinese place for lunch and Dynamo Donuts for coffee, took a nap and then met Rob at Philz for a delish chai tea latte before hitting up the Folsom Street Fair with the other amigos. The Folsom Street Fair was crazy overload of nudity, fun and general insanity. By then, we were all feeling rather awake so we walked to the Mission and had an array of delish Vietnamese dishes at Sunflower, which was Carrie's choice. And it was a good one. I had pan-fried garlic noodles with veggies, Carrie had vermicelli noodles with these phenomenal spring rolls. Others had pho, beef dishes, pot stickers. And I also had a Vietnamese iced tea - life-giving. It was a wonderful meal to end a wonderful weekend :-) (And the drive home at 4:30 in the morning was equally amazing though I was barely conscious for it.)

Once again, I am just overwhelmed by how lucky I am to have these people in my life. They are warm, intelligent, hilarious, and talented and I love them. So much.

*The song is Suckers - Get Your Body Moving

Four Barrel - 375 Valencia

Cuco's - 488 Haight

Smuggler's Cove - 650 Gough

Underground SF - 424 Haight

Dynamo Donuts - 2760 24th St

Philz Coffee - 748 Van Ness

Folsom Street Fair

Sunflower Cafe - 3111 16th

[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Veggie Bake

The other night, my friend Aviva stopped by and I wanted to throw together a tasty homemade meal with little to no ingredients because I haven't been shopping in about two weeks. That and I was feeling a little under the weather and wanted something quick and easy. Thus was born my cheesy veggie bake.

Essentially, I dumped a package of defrosted frozen veg in a casserole dish, which included carrots, corn, green beans and peas. And then I moved onto the sauce:

I sauteed a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil. Once that was done, I threw in three tbsp of yogurt, two tbsp dijon mustard, some rough chopped basil and parsley, a sprinkle of lemon pepper, a half tsp of dried Italian seasoning, pepper and salt.

Then I threw that over the veggies and sprinkled generously with grated mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

Bake at 400 for 20 mins and enjoy the deliciousness.

Yum.

[Music Monday] Our Faves - A day late

My trip to Santa Cruz and SF was amazing as was seeing my Care-Bear. Playing a lot of catch-up and recovering from a cold this week. And listening to these gems:

[Friday Link Round Up]

1. Gorgeous photo essay of Paris from Kris Atomic. I want to go back.


2. After a long week, sfgirlbybay's post on beautiful beds has me daydreaming about, well, dreaming.


3. Dressing for the workplace from CNN and paring down your wardrobe from the WSJ via Corporette

4. Frangipane Fruit Tart recipe from Un Deux Senses. Must try.

5. Stream the new Zola Jesus album here. I love her and her song, Seekir.

September is Yoga Month

This was supposed to be me!

And while I want to give a rave review of how amazing it has been to use my free week of yoga card, I cannot. I went to The Yoga Tree on Valencia in SF two weeks ago to redeem my card, and the uber-zen guy sitting in the lotus position in a computer chair behind the front desk, decided to inform me that it didn't work. What the hell?

I got a bit upset, but everyone in the studio was so yoga-y and relaxed that I felt like a total beeze getting agitated, so I just went out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant instead.

I ended up emailing the Yoga Month people and have received no response. Basically, this is just a post of me complaining that I can't afford a yoga studio membership. It makes me really sad.

For now, I will continue doing plank, downward-dog, and swan in my bedroom in the mornings. In the future, I'd like to say that I am practicing on my own, but for now, I will remain bitter until Yoga Month ends. I hope someone else got to enjoy their free week though!

[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Vegan Meal #1

So in this slow-going transition to veganism, I've been playing with a few new recipes. This one in particular has been successful. It is fried tofu, over a roast vegetable salad and a bed of greens. YUM. And surprisingly satisfying for my non-veg friends from what I've been told.

First part - the roast veg salad and dressing:

1. Peel and cube up whatever root veggies you like. I love sweet potatoes, yams, and beets. Place on cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 425 until soft.

2. For the dressing, throw in some Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil as well as some parsley and thyme. Just play with the flavors until you like what you get. Once I made this dressing and it was waaaayyyy to vinegar-y, so be light with your ratios!

3. Take out the veggies, let cool for a bit, and toss with the dressing. Best served room temp.

Second part - bed of greens:

1. I love mixed spring greens or spinach. I also tossed in some cubed avocado and tomatos. Dress simply with either lemon/balsamic and olive oil.

Third part - the fried tofu:

1. Drain and pat dry firm tofu. Cut into slices.

2. "Marinate" with salt, pepper, olive oil and then whatever spices you like. I used turmeric, seasoning salt, lemon pepper, and cayenne. Tofu has no flavor so be really, really, really generous with your seasoning. Like make sure there is almost a crust around the tofu of spices.

3. put about 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. heat up at to medium high. Place tofu in and fry until golden brown (usually takes about a minute). Flip and repeat. You may also want to sprinkle MORE spices/seasoning over the side.

Assembly:

1. clean plate.

2. bed of greens.

3. roast veg.

4. fried tofu.

5. Squeeze some lemon - voila!

Feminist: The Unmentionable Identity

I haven't uttered the word "feminist" or any variations thereof within my workplace since I started my job over a year ago. So when I finally said it this morning to a female manager whom I had never met before, it rolled off of my tongue and tasted sweet like maple syrup or melted caramel or all of the forbidden things that make you so happy you feel guilty inside. I've never been able to decide quite why that word means so much to me. I feel it is my prized possession. It is my identity. Feminism is something - maybe the only thing - I've ever felt like fighting for. And I hadn't said it for 14 months at work.

So I put together some missing pieces today. In between my meetings and brainstorming and formatting, I found what I need to keep going.

Lately I've been feeling as though I were outside of some club, banging on the door to get in. As our company moves into the digital domain, I worry that women of my generation will be left behind. We are seen as excellent coordinators, but I feel that many people don't trust our capacity to understand code or program anything at all. I can't do those things, to be sure. But I can fake it really well, and I can also readily accept opportunities to learn.

I feel that "feminism" and "gender" don't come up at work because there is an unspoken acknowledgement that my field is 90% female-dominated. How could we possibly be promoting gender inequality in the workplace when we employ so many women? That would be the logical conclusion. But keep in mind that my industry is one of the lowest-paid out there. Does it surprise you, then, that it is dominated by women in all but the highest of the high positions (CEO, Vice Presidents, etc.)? I worked at a feminist publishing company and almost at the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor for a time. I've stared the statistics down, hoping that I could change things if I glared at the numbers long enough. I've been through many a sleepless night wondering if I've been looked over because I uphold so many of the stereotypes of my "womanhood". I'm sick of feeling like I have to change myself to be heard.

Today, during that meeting, the word felt so right as I compared my previous workplace, which was very conscious and critical of gender identities and norms, to my current one. The woman sitting across from me, tattoos covering her arms, nodded and smiled like we had just entered a secret pact. We understood one another. We said the unspeakable.

For the rest of the day, I felt energized by just acknowledging my own gender identity and all the things I've fought for in the past. Isn't that strange? I think that is something men could never understand and something they even fear a little bit. Women really do have an understanding for each other's unique challenges and struggles and, even more, for each other's unique strengths and ability to connect with one another. Everyone should be a feminist, of course, but a woman who acknowledges her own feminist activism within the workplace is a powerful thing indeed.

Now that I've said the word, I don't know where to take things from there. I would like to find a mentor or even mentor someone else outside of work, but, like everything else in life, the task seems insurmountable at this point.

Either way, I am bringing back that side of myself. I just haven't quite decided how. I have to do things that are socially acceptable after all. And being a self-proclaimed feminist at work has never been socially acceptable.