Recommended with Borscht

I had the privilege of visiting Russia in the spring of 2005 for a missions trip.  I spent time at two orphanages and helped share the gospel and new hats and shoes with the kids.  While I was there, I tried hot tea for the first time.  Oh the memories!  They served it with sweetened condensed milk, so of course I loved it.  I also got to try borscht, a soup made with beets.  I really liked it, and when I was wanting to expand my cooking options this winter, I decided to try making a batch.

I blended together this recipe from Natasha's Kitchen and this recipe from All Recipes.  I'll often go off book when testing our a recipe, and thankfully, that worked out just find with this dish.  I ended up using three beets, some potatoes, cabbage (of course), carrots, oinion, and celery for my vegetables.  I didn't have any caraway seed, so I used fennel instead, which was fine.  I also did not use any ketchup, toamatos,  tomato paste, beans, or honey, and I used apple cider vinegar for my acid.

I loved my borscht!  The broth's flavor turned out just how I wanted it to!  The flavor of the beets came through really nicely, and I also liked how hearty the soup felt with all those vegetables in every bite.  I topped it with sour cream, but without it, the soup is very, very low fat.

I took some of my borscht to work, and I have a Russian friend there I asked to taste it.  He said that he'd recommend shredding the cabbage thinner, but other than that, he said it was good!  He also said that there' no such thing as traditional borscht, because every home makes it differently.  Let that be an encouragement if you're thinking about trying this recipe!  Feel free to adjust ingredients like I did or even bring in new ideas!  My mom made a version once that had very few vegetables and included mushrooms.  Let me know if you try it!

And now, recommended with borscht...

I love all of these tips from Design*Sponge for a happy home, but #4 (treat yourself like a guest) might be my favorites.

This dog is a prefect representation of how I am in my relationship with Caleb.  Haha!

And wow!  These dogs are so well behaved!

I had to recently take apart our bed and move our mattress to the floor.  Our box springs had become very squeaky, and I wasn't getting any sleep.  Now that we sleep with our mattress on the floor, I've been tempted to go all out Japanese design in our bedroom!

The most beautiful bra

Any Jessica Jones or Doctor Who fans out there?  This made me laugh.

Now that I'm older, out in the world, and no longer in college, I spend a lot of time with people who are different than me.  We make different decisions, and I know that I sometimes stand out because of how I live my life.  That's why I want everyone to read this post from Yes and Yes.

What Do You Wish You Could Make in the Kitchen?

Caleb and I cook a homemade fresh-from-scratch dinner almost every night.  We really enjoy cooking, but more importantly, we really enjoy eating good food.  Our mutual cooking journey has brought some really excellent meals to the table like sushi, chili burgers with homemade guacamole, chicken marsala, Indian chicken tikka masala, Japanese miso ramen, Korean bulgogi, and a Caribbean feast (see below!).  It's been a blast, and we've eaten so, so well.

I'm very lucky Caleb and I both like exploring food and building up our culinary repertoire so much.  We've cooked around the world a bit, and I've actually considered creating a serious challenge of cooking a dish from every country.  (How fun would that be?)  We're always looking to branch out more and find some delicious new thing to prepare.

To round our menu rotation more, Caleb's been working on his BBQ game, and has had some really great success baking BBQ in the oven, but he hopes to one day have a Big Green Egg grill so that he can get really serious.  That's his ultimate cooking goal these days.

I wish that I could whip up a mean, solid cheesecake.  I haven't tried it yet, but I've been collecting recipes, and I did get my parents' spring form pans so I'll have what I need when I'm ready to start testing.  I also wish I could make pho.  I tried last winter but ended up using too little water in my broth so the flavor was extremely salty and spiced.  The soup tasted so disgusting, we couldn't eat it!

I'd love to hear what your cooking goals are!  What do you wish you could make?  What are you working on now in the kitchen?  Please share in the comments!

Recommended with Art Angels by Grimes

My friend Brit recently recommended I check out the album Art Angels by Grimes because he heard I liked K-pop.  He gave me the caveat that "she makes some weird stuff, though.  Some really weird stuff."  The music wasn't as weird as I expected to be, but a lot of it is unusual.  I think that's one of the reasons I ended up enjoying the album so much, though.

Art Angels introduces you to a lot of different sounds. "Scream" is feminine, ferocious and dangerous.  "Flesh Without Blood" reminds me of Russian techno, actually.  "In the Belly of the Beat" is the one I'd recommend to everyone, because I think has a beauty that's easiest to appreciate.  Those three are my favorite songs from the album, but I've been listening to the whole album on repeat for half a week now.  You can listen to everything here on Spotify.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

And while you're listening, check these out!

I'm definitely a dog person, but wow is this cat lovely.

Okay, not just on principle I need to give you a dog picture, too.  :)

I love wrapping up in cozy warm outer layers.  This sweater looks so comfy and chic!

Since I have a new terrarium (and since it needs new plants (RIP other plants)), I've started a terrarium board on Pinterest for pictures of and inspiration for the lush and fern-filled variety.  I'm a total beginner, and if you know of any other resources I should be checking out, please send them my way!

In case you didn't know, this is how you're supposed to tuck in your sheets.

One day I'm going to take on this challenge.

I have a feeling this phone could change lives.  I'm 100% serious.

More thoughts on living with less

Photo by Tina D, edited by me (Creative Commons)

I started moving toward having fewer possessions last year, and I'm glad I've started the journey already, because getting to my vague goals is going to take a long time.  I started working mainly on my wardrobe, and I've been to donate clothing and books and an old comforter twice now with more trips already planned.  There's also been a lot of behind the scenes thinking and finding more and more reasons to pursue minimalism in more areas of my life.  I've mentioned before what I think to be the best reason to declutter your closet, but that doesn't really go into why I want to still have less moving forward even though I've already gotten rid of a lot of things.

Last summer, I saw my parents have their final yard sale before moving to Norway.  I sat in a hard mix of emotions for most of the day.  My dad sold off his collectible hockey cards.  My mom brought out treasured old church cookbooks for a man asking if he could buy them.  Chairs and lamps and things that never meant much to me growing up were hard to see go just because I had grown up with them.  I knew it would be sad, so I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't even the one moving or leaving home!  These weren't even my things, and I cared so much about losing them!

Growing up in a Christian home, I learned about storing up my treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).  There are many other philosophies and religions that also teach detachment from the material world.  I never really acted on these teachings that much, in fact, growing up, I was afraid to go to heaven because I knew I couldn't take my stuffed dog and blanket with me!  Now that I've grown up a bit, though, and I've seen how attachment distracts us from what matters, I think my perspective is changing.  It sounds callous, but after seeing the sadness that comes from losing things I cared about, I'm much more receptive to simply caring less and about fewer things.

I don't want to end up in a position where I care so much about the things I've collected that it hurts to let go of them.  Nothing lasts in this world.  Things get stolen, broken, burned, and eventually get left behind when we die and get distributed to new owners.  Holding things with an open hand seems like a much, much wiser way to go about life than holding things tight.  That's what I want to be like, holding things with an open hand.

What about you?  How do you feel about the things you own?  What new goals do you have for the new year?

Recommended with bulgogi

Since living in Korea for 16 months a while back, I've been a huge fan of Korean food.  Surprisingly, it's been a slow process of bringing good Korean recipes into our home cooking repertoire.  Honestly, I'm usually worried to try making a new dish because I'm afraid that I won't make it right and I'll just be disappointed.  Thankfully Caleb doesn't have that same perspective.  Last month, he whipped up some bulgogi using this recipe by Maangchi, and I'm so glad he did!  It became an instant favorite and we've had it once a week ever since.

Caleb's said that this recipe is very easy, and I can vouch for how delicious it is.  I highly recommend trying it out!  We like to eat it over rice with an egg fried over easy, some kimchi, and some mung bean sprouts sauteed with a little bit of kimchi juice.  The meat makes for great leftovers, too!  Let me know if you try it!

Recommended with this super awesome delicious Korean bulgogi...

This quote from Levi Lusko.  I got to volunteer at the Passion Conference this last weekend.  I didn't get to hear much of the speakers, but I did hear this.  Levi's little girl died a few years ago, and he's been sharing about the depth of that experience.  What he has to say is absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend checking him out or reading his book.

Two things you should do to communicate better by John Saddington (quick read!)

Oh my gosh, this puppy!

Christmas has past, and getting presents for others probably isn't on the radar anymore.  Now is the time to read this post!

Atlanta people, if you've been wanting Japanese food but don't want to go to Burford Highway, just come to West Midtown!  Ginya Izakaya rocked my taste buds last weekend.  Here's the review I wrote!

A 500-year-old love letter that might make you cry

One of my beefs with modern feminism is how often they make men out to be an enemy to be treated poorly.   If feminists truly cared about equality like they say they do, you'd think they'd speak out against things like the unfairness toward men in divorce.  This article focuses on the processes in England, but a lot of the same prejudices and favoritism is in practice in America, too.  (Anyone see Ant-Man?  Or this story from HONY?)

A beautiful picture of Yosemite Valley by Phil Hawkins

New Reads from 2015

I didn't feel like I had much time to read this past year (not surprisingly), and I'm actually very proud that I was able to read the books I did.  Meeting my goal of 3 new books a year is important to me, and in 2014, I read 7 new books with no problem.  Earlier in 2015, I was worried I wouldn't be able to make my goal, but ta da, here we are!  Here are the new books I read in 2015!

4 Free Minimalist Printable Calendars for 2016

 If you're still looking for a calendar for the new year, how about some of these simple, beautiful, and streamlined options?  By the way, when I went through the internet to find some great examples, the obvious themes were hand lettering and clipboards.  Ha!

1 : Sans serif from Kreavilla

2 : Water color brush lettered calendar from Clementine Creative

3 : Hand lettered, lined calendar from Delineate Your Dwelling

4 : Hand lettered, boxed calendar from Chantel Emma

If you have any others you'd like to add to the list, please include them below in the comments!  I had a harder time this year finding ones I really liked; a lot of the blogs and websites I've used calendars from before didn't make a new version this year.  Also, you can always edit things online and make your own or splice a couple different ones together in an editing software or online!  I often use picmonkey for things like that, and that's how I make my image collages, too!

101 Challenge Update

I haven't participated much in New Year resolutions, but that's mainly because I keep a running list of challenges I'm always trying to complete.  I'm currently about a third through my second 101 challenge, which is a list of 101 smaller challenges that I try to finish in 1,001 days.  I did this once before and had a blast, so I'm thinking this is going to be a forever thing for me.  They help me stay on track with things I care about, like reading and personal growth.

I'm happy to report that I've already completed 56% of my 101 challenges, and I think I will be able to complete at least 22 more of my goals before time runs out this September!  I had a lot of my time taken by work this year, and I didn't get to read half as much as I did the previous year, but I ended up accomplishing a lot more than I thought I would.  Here's a quick recap of some of the highlights.

• I crossed off challenge #8 when Caleb and I took our first just-us camping trip this summer.
• Challenge #14 (bring plants into our home) is kind of a joke now.  We have 11 plants in our apartment and two vases with extra cuttings.  It's awesome.
• Journaling every day for #25 hasn't happened, but I'm going to be picking it back up and finishing strong.
• Challenge #27 dictates that I write letters.  Instead of sending out Christmas cards to everyone this year, I hand wrote just a couple letters to family I haven't seen in a long time.  It felt very sweet.
• Blogging 4 times per month hasn't happened this year, either, but I'm going to do better with challenge #35 this year.
• Learning something new each year for #36 has found a very obvious and super fun theme: dance.  In 2014 I picked up belly dance, in 2015 we started learning West Coast Swing, and in 2016, I want to learn the shuffle!
• I completed challenge #46 just this week!  We finally have wedding pictures displayed in our home!
• This year was the year of lipstick for me.  After trying many different kinds, I took a trip to Sephora, and they helped me find a beautiful berry shade from Sephora that feels very bold for me, but I like it.  #49 is finished!
• #50 and 51 (exercising consistently and drinking water consistently) were poorly planned, I think.  Past me said I needed to do those things for 6 months straight!  It's been a hard goal to reach considering I'm a newbie at these things, but I'm now one month in on the water-drinking part, thanks to delicious hot tea.
• I settled in with a group of lovely girls from church this year.  It's hard to make friends as an adult, but I'm glad that #68 and #70 were both a part of my challenge list.
  Caleb and I eaten so much Japanese ramen and made so much Korean food at home since the creation of this list.  Challenges #74 and #77 seem so trite now!
• When my parents moved in June, it forced me to clean up everything leftover from my wedding (#89) and everything that had been in my room (#88).  The circumstances were bittersweet, but I'm really glad I have those things done now.

And there you have it!  I can't believe I only have 270 more days to try and finish the rest.  I think that I'm already on track to beat my record from my first 101 challenge, but I hope I'll be able to get a lot closer to completing all the challenges this time.  I'm also really glad that I've kept with this.  I'm competitive by nature, and even if I'm competing against the clock or competing against myself, it helps me get more done, which I love.  Onward and upward!

What do you hope to accomplish in 2016?  Have you ever done a similar challenge?  Do you have any suggestions I could add to my next list?

My Greatest Challenge of 2015

Y'all, this year has been a whirlwind.  Mostly because of work.  Do you remember in February when I told you I had gotten a new job?  That job gave me the hardest run I've ever ran.  For ten months, I worked my ass off, got a ton accomplished, helped change over 100 lives, spent days worth of hours at evening events, built over 40 pieces of furniture, made some of the best work friends you could hope for, and cried a lot.  I once wrote about a particularly difficult and challenging time on my blog, but I hadn't mentioned exactly what the situation was.  The point is, the role requires a great deal of one person.  I had put in a lot of work, and I'm very proud of everything I did for the company, but I knew I couldn't keep going at the same pace much longer.

This is where things get especially interesting.

photo by Greg Rakozy via Unsplash