Pear-gruyère pizza

So if you read my blog even infrequently you probably know that I love naan pizza! It's become a family favorite and it's so easy to use. Tonight, I wanted to imitate a pizza that I have had at a CPK (yum yum!). I have ordered their pear and gorgonzola pizza multiple times because I find it delicious. With an extra piece of naan, some left-over gruyère, and a few pears lying around I decided to get to work. Although the pizza I was trying to imitate had gorgonzola and arugula on it, I figured I could substitute with gruyère and call it good. When looking around for a third topping, I decided to use some cooked onion and I'm glad I did. 

I toasted the naan for a few minutes with a bit of olive oil spread on top. Meanwhile, I cooked the sliced onion on medium in butter until browned, and added that to the naan on top of sliced pear. On top, I grated a generous amount of gruyère. I then baked this creation at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about five minutes (nothing had to cook, just the general warming of the toppings). Super pleased with how it turned out, I'm not ashamed to say I wolfed it down in less than ten minutes! (To be fair, I had just returned from a strenuous yoga class :) )

Fancy kid food

So I was babysitting and the kids asked for quesadillas (naturally) but instead of making a third one for myself, I decided to eat like a grown-up. Therefore, I made a fancy quesadilla: whole wheat tortilla, monterey-jack cheese, spinach, feta cheese, salt and pepper, and a yogurt-dill sauce to dip in. I enjoyed it, but the kids were in no way jealous :)

Spin pins

I've been wanting spin pins for forever, but as soon as I saw them at Target I was disappointed. $7?? For two large twisted bobby pins? Come on. So I debated, I picked them up and put them back many a time, until I finally just bought them. 

My mother has had success with them and I have been loving my modern updo pin so I decided to go ahead and get them. 

So glad I did! These pins are my new favorite toy! They hold my hair very well, and keep the shape of a bun much better than a hair tie and bobby pins do (in my hair at least).

Kind of hard to explain how it works with words, but basically you make a bun out of your hair and spin the pins in clockwise at the base of the bun, from opposite sides (my favorite part of the tool is how easily it comes out, all it takes is a few counter-clockwise spins and it's free). 

For a better visualization, this video includes the spin pin until 0:25 seconds.

The Oscars

Had a wonderful evening at an Oscars party hosted by two good friends, Jodye and Kelsey. They are fantastic hostesses with some of the most delicious party food I've ever had. They themed their food to all of the nominees for best picture (pigs in a blanket for Moneyball, croissants for Midnight in Paris, sugar cookie clocks for Hugo, etc.). I wish I had taken pictures!

{photo}

Enjoyed a night spent comparing all of our ballots to the actual winners (I did pretty poorly this year), and I really wish I had seen more of the nominees! I had seen The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, and The Help from the Best Picture category, but I gather that I now must see Hugo and The Artist! Nice end to the weekend.

Zucchini orzo

Mmmm....orzo! I love love love orzo, so when I found this recipe, I had to try it. I modified it though, and ate it warm not chilled, so here is how it went:

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 cup orzo
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced onion
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons feta cheese

I cooked the orzo, which only took about nine minutes. Then I cooked the zucchini and onions on medium heat with the tablespoon of oil, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Once browned, I added this to the orzo (still warm), and added the feta cheese. I topped it all with more salt and pepper, and olive oil and vinegar. This may be one of my favorite recipes so far!

{Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic!}

Braid up to a bun

This has been a double-test week for me, so I've been rocking the un-straightened, un-curled hair. In order to avoid just a simple ponytail over and over, I have turned to this!

I started by dividing my hair in half (top and bottom). I took the bottom half and French-braided it, starting from the bottom and working up.

I made a bun with the top half,

and wrapped the braid around the bun.

Voila!

Quinoa-stuffed acorn squash

Wanted to share my dinner tonight, because I know I can't be the only one who is always looking for ways to make quinoa more flavorful. 

This is quinoa-stuffed acorn squash, will feta cheese, oregano, salt and pepper. Yum! I baked the acorn squash (sliced in half) for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then added quinoa cooked in vegetable broth. I mixed in the feta, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper (all to taste). Pretty flavorful meal for considerably little effort!

New flakie polish

As you can probably tell, I have a bit of an obsession with nail polish. Although I have many polishes, I didn't have a flakie until now! A flakie is a nail polish with irregularly shaped flakes in it, which makes for some pretty cool effects.

This is the one I got, from essie. As you can see, the flakes are pretty light, but I love the look of a flakie over a dark color.

I used this Sinful Colors which is black with faint blue glitter in it.

I added the flakie, and it came to life!

The next step was to mattify it, with essie's matte about you. Here it is indoors,

and outdoors in direct sunlight!

Yoga and test rewards!

Celebrating a great day today! 

First, finally able to consistently do a headstand in yoga! (I know this picture looks like I am holding myself up against the wall, but I promise I'm not. I'm not as tall as the door!) This process was not easy though, I have a pretty sad looking knee, with a bruise on top of a bruise...

I got an A on my biopsych test and I got an A+ on my Greek and Roman Tragedy test, one that I was super nervous for because I am most comfortable in the cold-hard-facts world of biology and the sciences. Whew! To celebrate, I made a trip to Lululemon, only my favorite yoga clothing store ever! Although everything is pretty much out of my price range, I went straight back to the sale rack and, lo and behold, a very cute top in my size, for cheap!

Wonton Soup

is easy to make, who knew? Admittedly, these were simple wontons, but this tasted like the real deal so it definitely will be a repeat at my house!

 I bought wonton wrappers at my local grocery store (nothing special, pretty much the most basic grocery store around) and, having cream cheese and chives on hand, decided to roll up my sleeves and make wontons!

I mixed the cream cheese and fresh chives (sliced) and put about a tablespoon of this mixture in the center of a wonton wrapper.

Wetting the corners, I pressed the wrapper into a wonton shape. Later on, I would discover that this doesn't hold the wrapper together very well and the cream cheese mixture leaks out and then you just have an empty wonton in cream cheesy water (gross). To prevent this from happening, wetting down all four edges works better.

I submerged the filled wontons in a mixture of lightly boiling water, chives, and vegetable stock for about a minute or so, until the cream cheese mixture inside was warm. Doesn't take long at all. Then I removed the water from the stove and poured it, wontons and all, into a bowl. 

Voila! Wonton soup!

French day

Mmmmm....enjoying a France-inspired day today. Reminiscing on my trip to Europe last summer which included stops in Paris and Nice (the photo above is one that I took, myself, on my own camera, while I was in PARIS!). 

When I wasn't taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower while in France, I was shopping. This included a trip to L'Occitane, kind of like a French Bath and Body Works. I am well aware that there is a L'Occitane store at a mall close to my house here in the US, but it seemed so much more special to shop at the one in France, so I did! Also, a definite perk of the European hotels was the tiny provided L'Occitane shampoos and body washes.

I thawed out a small serving of my DELICIOUS French Onion Soup for lunch, and savored that all the while listening to the one and only Edith Piaf (some of my favorite study music, especially on a Sunday). Here's some for you :)

My Saturday

Have had a great day so far. Slept a solid 9 hours last night, woke up feeling refreshed. Had a productive morning homework-wise, then made many arepas for breakfast. Took a 10-mile bike ride along the Boulder Creek with my roommate, came back feeling fantastic (and a bit cold). Spent the afternoon watching TV with the roomies, then a white bean salad for dinner (recipe here. Loved the salad, but could have done without the green beans). Finished it off with an exciting evening at the CU vs. DU hockey game! Exactly what a Saturday should be.

Twists and braids

Recently I got some of those teeny tiny plastic hair ties that I haven't owned since childhood. I have seen so many hairstyles around and on Pinterest that would be so much easier to achieve with those hair ties, so I decided to give in to the urge and buy the sparkly ones :)

So today's hair style was this:

I started with straight hair, with the crown teased a bit (but you can't really tell from the picture)

 Then I took a chunk of hair from above each ear, twisted upward on both sides, and secured in the back with a tiny sparkly hair tie :) To finish off the look, I added a little flower (2/$1.50 at Forever21).

Partway through the day though, I decided to play with the style a bit and turned it into two braids from each side , secured in the middle with a tiny sparkly hair tie, and added a flower again. Super quick, put-together hair style! 

Fig pizza

Took a test today, so naturally I am de-stressing with yummy food. Tonight's dinner: naan pizza with figs, caramelized onions, and gruyère cheese. This was modeled after a pizza that I have had in the past at an amazing tea-house here in Boulder. 

These are the ingredients I used, plus butter and brown sugar to caramelize the onions.

Started with caramelizing the onions (warm lots of butter in a pan, add finely chopped onions and much brown sugar, cook until caramelized), which made the kitchen smell AMAZING!

Toasted the naan a bit. 

Melted the gruyère cheese in a small saucepan with the addition of a little milk.

Added the onions, sliced figs (dried figlets actually), gruyère cheese sauce and extra sliced gruyère. 

Baked the pizzas in the oven for 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit to melt the cheese and heat all of the ingredients (nothing actually has to cook though, just warm up).

In the future I don't think I would caramelize the onions, probably just brown them instead. The figs are already sweet enough and the caramelizing process made the onions almost too sticky to eat. Other than that, delish!

Reserving with ease

Forgot to mention last night that I used Open Table as a last-minute way to get dinner reservations. I knew that almost everywhere in Boulder was bound to be full for Valentine's Day, but at a friend's suggestion I downloaded the Open Table app (it operates as a website as well). I was shocked! I never thought that finding a place to eat could be so easy! In the future I think I'll use the app to avoid repeatedly going to the same restaurants when there are so many others just waiting to be tried, since they are all listed right there!

{photo}

Anyways, we ended up at Japango, a delish sushi restaurant on the Pearl Street Mall. With just one click I had reservations, and could breathe a sigh of relief. Yummy good, romantic setting (I'm such a sucker for Christmas lights anytime of the year), and great company!

{photo}

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This year was a great one for me :)

Started off with my surprise finally arriving (I've been trying to get hints out of the boyfriend for a few days now), a yummy Edible Arrangements box of chocolate-dipped fruit!

Then in the evening I got all dressed up (here you go Mama, my outfit!)...

...and we went out for sushi!

The plan was originally to finish the night off with some fro yo, but we were way too full (we ordered round two after this picture was taken) to keep eating after this. Oh well, nothing makes my tummy happier than being full of sushi! Hope your Valentine's Days were as delicious as mine :)