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Wow. It's been a reeeeally long time. The short version: I had a baby. The long version: is coming. 

Apartment Bike Living

I hope it's been evident in spite of my rare posting, that I am in love with bicycles and riding bikes. Since acquiring our fancy bikes this summer, Matt and I have been dealing with having to keep our bikes in the living room. They've been blocking our bookcases, actually, and have been the primary element in our decor, whether we appreciated it or not.

Lucky for us, all that has changed now, with the Michelangelo Gravity Stand. Sure, the bikes are still an unavoidable key part of our decor, but at least we can reach the books now! This rack is so fantastic for us as apartment dwellers. It requires no drilling into walls and holds the bikes as close to the wall as a couple cruisers can get. LOVE! Highly recommend.

Skirts on Bikes

I am not a fantastic cyclist, so I need to ride my bike as much and as often as possible. To make frequent riding easier, I am trying to kit out my bike for all clothing, including skirts and longer jackets. Being a big dress and skirt wearer, a skirt guard is essential to my bike gear. 

Dress guards can be very expensive and/or can require drilling one's fenders to accomodate the guard. Lucky for me/us, there is a brilliant etsy shop poised to meet all of our skirt guard needs. Frill Ride offers a variety of simple, fabric dress guards for any ready bike. From bridal rides to basic sport guards, there is probably a dress guard to fit your style and needs, though they skew feminine (in case you couldn't guess as much from the name).

I chose a black fishnet/mesh guard that would blend into my black bicycle, but has a reflective pink bow on the back for fashion and safety purposes. I simply love it. The guard was easy to install, and seems likely to last for years to come. 

Sorting Mail

Hamilton must have all the attention, all the time. When Matt was recently sorting mail, he tossed the few things we needed to keep onto the floor to keep them out of the way. Mr. Ham immediately found a new perfect resting place. 

Thanks for holding down the replacement cards, Ham. You are ridiculous. 

Cookbook Joy

When Matt and I were engaged I decided that once we were married I would resume something I had started years before, but virtually abandoned: learning to cook. My mother had given me a decent grasp of basics, and while I had picked up a few ways to prepare salmon and a stuffed shells recipe or two over the years, for the most part I lived on spaghetti (just stir spinach into the jar sauce--no need for a side veg!), salad, Trader Joe's crab cake appetizers, and steamed broccoli. But now I was going to be a married lady. Things were going to be different. BETTER. I would be better.

So I spent hours perusing cooking blogs and compiling recipes I wanted to try. Some of those hours may have been in my cubicle at work in San Jose, but I'm not admitting anything. There were quite a few blogs that struck me, and I printed the recipes that really grabbed me and put them in a big "To Try" binder, along with recipes cut from magazines and carefully glued to paper to fit the binder. A few months later we were settled into our apartment in San Diego and I was ready to dive into cooking.

While there were a few misses, there were quite a few hits, and I started gaining confidence in my cooking abilities. Or at least my ability to follow a recipe and achieve the desired result. I noticed that the recipes from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen blog not only turned out well, but they quickly became staples in our cooking rotation. I kept up with her blog even as my obsession with cooking blogs in general began to dwindle. When I found out she would be releasing a cookbook I was thrilled. I pre-ordered it as soon as I could, even though it wouldn't be released for SO LONG. 6 whole months! 

But the wait is over. Today the beautiful FedEx man delivered a cardboard package to me, and inside was the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. EEEEEEEEE! I am so excited! I cannot wait to start cooking from it! Tonight we had to finish up some leftovers (this roast chicken with dijon sauce recipe, actually), but I've been flipping through it and it looks fantastic. After reading the introduction and about half of the breakfast recipe, I decided to snap a picture of the book in my poorly-lit kitchen (hence the vignette effect for shadow obscuring) and share my excitement with the Internet!

Please pardon the bad picture. But yay! Don't be afraid to accept a dinner invitation from us this winter--I've got help in the kitchen.