Knots! Knots! Knots Knots Knots Knots Knots!

OMG I'm literally the worst (food) blogger in the world. Not that anyone really reads this, but afhdjkslhajfk I'm so inconsistent. But I'm back now. For good. I swear. My schedule is finally under control, and I'm on spring break until the 24th.

Anyway, break has been wonderful. It's so nice to be home and not have any responsibilities. I had an anthro paper due last Friday, but I got it done and sent it in RIGHT at 5:00 PM (the due time). I'm a champ. Other than that, I've been dividing my time between seeing people, and being in bed. It's been a crazy semester!! I deserve a break.

Oh! My friend's parents are here visiting for the week from Lebanon! It's their first time in the states and we're having a blast. More drinks have been consumed than food. Maybe. Definitely. We're all going to Sportello tonight and I'm stoked. Tagliatelle bolognese, here I come.

Besides break, much has happened this semester. Reslife stuff has consumed my soul, and my schedule has gone back and forth for a while. But yeah, I'm taking an anthro class called Transnational Sexualities, a psych research class on ethnic minority psychology, a psych seminar on cultural phenomenology, an Arabic tutorial that will be the death of me, and piano. I'm FINALLY able to practice piano now that I'm home...it's not worth it at all to trek to the music studios just to play a mediocre piano. I love my piano here. Thanks, Grandma!

I'm learning Prelude in C# Minor by Rachmaninov right now....I can't feel my fingers

My psych class on ethnic minority psych has been great. It's taught by the same prof that taught my seminar on emotion last semester--she's great. We spent the first part of the semester reading a few papers on certain emotions, and now we've split up into groups designing studies to execute throughout the semester. But over break, I skyped with my professor and now I'm doing my own study with her! I'm so excited. I can't say anything about it though! Forbidden. Mamnou3a.

Because my friend's parents have been here, a lot of Arabic has been spoken. It's mentally exhausting to try and understand and respond in dialect instead of classical! Not that I can really speak classical. I know I can only get better with practice, but Arabic is sooooo difficult. And as I'm writing this, my papa and my friend's papa are talking about something (I tuned out a long time ago). I love hearing my papa speak Arabic :) It makes him seem like a totally different person. He almost seems...more mature. I mean, I should hope so. He's turning 55 this year.
-----
Anyway the stuff below the line means that it's Friday afternoon instead of Thursday afternoon, so our friends have left to go to Pittsburgh :( We had a wonderful dinner at Sportello last night, though! I didn't get hungry again until like 3 PM today (I also didn't get out of bed until 2). We had a wonderful Lebanese week, though. Lots of drinking and eating and chatting. I miss them already!!

Dressed up for dinner & drinks at Kika

Wining and dining at Sportello

And I have a special recipe today: KNOTS!!! I adjusted Nonna's recipe a bit because that's the official family recipe. Also the instructions are very vague. They literally say, "Work dough. Bake 325 F for 15 minutes. Roll into knots. Frost." Needless to say, the first time I made them, I had to improvise the directions a bit. But don't worry! I have somewhat more specific instructions for you all, should you decide to make them (which you should. I'm going to make some later today).

Nonna was a wonderful woman. Even though she was my great-grandma, all of us cousins called her Nonna because it was what our parents called her (nonna means grandma in Italian). Anyway, she was a tiny adorable woman with good old Italian fighting spirit. She lived to 101 and a half, so I knew her for most of my childhood. I remember playing hide and seek in her basement with my cousins and looking for cookies throughout the house. My mom remembers my nonna coming over on Friday nights with a giant barrel of knots saying "These need to be frosted by tomorrow for a wedding!" and then my mom and her siblings would have to frost hundreds of knots before going out and having social lives. But right when mama took a bite out of the first batch of knots I made, she said "Oh my god I just got taken back to Nonna's fronderoom!"

What a midge. Also notice my cousin's death stare.

Anyway, about 15 years ago for Christmas, my aunt compiled all my Nonna's recipes into one compact cookbook. But, like most foreign grandmothers, measurements are approximated and nothing is ever made the same way twice. Even I haven't made these the same way twice. To be honest, I'm still not exactly sure what the correct baking temperature/time should be, mainly because each oven I've used has been calibrated differently. So you're gonna have to toggle the temperature a bit.

I might go make some now.

Nonna's Knots
Ingredients

• 1.5 c butter (butter subs also work fine)
• 1.5 c sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 TB vanilla (not a typo!)
• 1/3 c milk (I use almond milk but obviously regular milk is what was intended)
• salt
• 5-6 c flour

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until combined.
2. Add 6 eggs, 2 TB vanilla, 1/3 c milk, and a bit of salt until everything is a liquid-y mess.
3. Add 3 cups of flour, mix. Then add one cup at a time until it's all mixed together. By the 5th cup you'll have to use your hands to fully incorporate the flour into the dough.
4. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour. If you're short on time, you can stick it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
5. Here's the tricky part: actually forming the knots. I don't have any photos, so you'll have to make do with text.
6. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on your work surface. Put flour on your hands, too.
7. Grab a golf ball-sized amount of dough and roll it until it's a relatively thick strand of dough, a little less than an inch thick, and between 4-5 inches long. Make sure it's even.
8. Roll the strand in more flour. Everyone has their own way of forming knots, but here's how I do it. Drape part of the strand over your index and middle finger (wow I'm trying to mime this without dough and it is difficult), then pull the strand from under so that it forms a looped X around your fingers. And then take the loose strand and pull it through the loop to make a knot. You don't want the ends of the knots to be too long; you want the knot to be compact.
9. It's up to you how big you want to make the knots. Nonna said "Terry's were good, but I don't like 'em so little!"
10. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place the knots an inch or so apart.
11. Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes, or until golden. Keep checking every so often after the 15 minute mark.
12. Wait for them to cool a bit, then make some icing (I just mix powdered sugar and some almond milk, but you can get fancy if you want. Mix until very white and thick) and dip the knots in or spread it around with your finger; whatever you want. And then top with sprinkles! Nonpareils are the best.

I'm sorry these instructions are so haphazard!! You have to understand what working with an Italian grandmother's recipe is like. It's difficult! But you'll get it. I've taught many people how to roll knots successfully! I'm sure there are better tutorials than mine somewhere on the internet, anyway. But the key is FLOUR!!! Flour flour flour. Flour makes rolling them so much easier. And it's easy to get the hang of it. Soon, you'll be doing it in your sleep! I've probably made over 700 of them since November. Don't worry though, not all for me. I'm generous enough to send them out to people.

I promise, it's worth it.

Alright folks. It's Friday and I have things to do and places to be (a lie). Even so, I should still get out of my pajamas and do something (make knots?). But I feel super productive because I FINALLY wrote this post! Ah, the joys of spring break.

Enjoy! And good luck rolling the knots. Also please pray for my baby sister!!! She got a really bad shoulder injury and it's difficult for her :(

Song of the Day-- A Town Called Obsolete by Andreya Triana. I've always loved this song, but I just downloaded the rest of the album and it's fantastic. Andreya Triana has a beautiful voice and I love her style. Listen!

Recovery Thought of the Day-- February 24th to March 2nd was NEDAwareness Week. I thought a lot about my own recovery, and wrote down some thoughts. I'll write them all out in a separate post soon, but this is a part of it: Every day is a battle, but we alone are the ones that can decide the outcome.

Finally,

Carina

Debbie lent me her dress! <3

Catching Up with Some Pumpkin Peanut Ginger Soup

Holy scheiße.

I haven't posted on here in a long time. But I've still been blogging! I got a new "job" (lol) writing blog posts for admissions here at school. Which is why I've been neglecting my original blog baby (blaby? no. never). However, if you're interested in hearing about my life in great detail for the last few weeks, please feel free to click here for the Wes blog posts.

Anyway.

I'm currently on the couch in the new room (which my mom insists on calling Bali), finishing up some last-minute work. Why am I home when Thanksgiving break doesn't start until today after classes, you may ask (you don't)? Because I came home on Thursday. That's right--one by one, all the things that needed to happen for me to go home early...happened.

It started with me realizing that my Tuesday class wasn't attendance mandatory for today. So I was like screw that I'm going home earlier. And then I realized that I'm allowed to have 2 absences in each of my Monday classes (none of which I've used), and decided that I'd use those absences to have an extra few days at home. Still, I was hesitant. But that all changed when I got the email from my Arabic professor saying he canceled class on Friday. When that happened, I knew it was a sign. I was gonna go home early and surprise my parents. And I did! I arrived on Thursday around 2 PM, right when my mom was coming home from lunch. I called her while she was 5 minutes away and made it seem like I was at school, until she pulled up to the house (while still on the phone with me) and saw me standing in the front yard! She was in disbelief. Not only that....I brought homemade knots. (I am the best daughter ever).

My dad was a little less surprised. One, I was napping when he came home, and two, he saw my car in the driveway.

Sheena's sprite

Anyway, OKAY. Uh....what have I done the last month and a half? Geez. Well, there was hurricane Sandy, which for us was thankfully nothing like snowpocalypse last year except for the awesome fact that we got two days off. And then there was Halloween--I ended up being Sheena from Tales of Symphonia, but I wore her formal outfit! Ellen made me a costume that looks almost identical to the original. See?

The sashes are there! I promise.

Unfortunately, one of the problems with dressing up as a nearly unidentifiable person is that no one knows who you are. But whatever. Sheena is awesome and I'm glad I dressed up as her. She's a ninja and a summoner in the most awesome video game ever.

Okay, let's see. What else happened. What happened after Halloween....oh yeah! We randomly got a bunch of snow. Unexciting, except that while driving it was freakishly reminiscent of snowpocalypse.

Oh! Right! I remember now. The weekend of the 9th, a bunch of my cousins and I went up to our house in Vermont for our second Caligiuri Girls' Weekend (#CGW)! It was great. The entire weekend basically consisted of chatting, drinking wine, eating pizza, cawffee tawk, walking (them, not me), and, of course, dancing to the playlist Keeks had made.

It's a shame we could only get one pizza. #scarcasm

Anyway, blah blah blah, my life, it's time to get to the good stuff. Aka food. Aka baked goods (in this case). You see, loyal reader[s], the last few weeks I have been attempting to recreate traditional Italian sweets that my Nonna (my mom's grandma--all the cousins still called her Nonna though) would make back in the day. She was a traditional Italian woman. She made everything from scratch, made food weekly for a family of 12, and.....left cryptic instructions in her recipes. I swear to God, one of the recipes says "Bake. You'll know when they're done." Because of this, I've had to improvise on a few of the instructions, but the ingredients are all still the same. So far, I've made cuccidati, biscotti, and knots.

Chai tea latte with Nonna's knots

Chai tea latte with biscotti

(Yes, I like chai tea lattes).

But....I can't share the recipes. Family secret, you know? Don't worry, though, I've got another recipe for you. This one is perfect for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin peanut ginger soup. Man, just reading that made my mouth water a little. This soup is SO good. My mom found the recipe in a random cooking magazine at the grocery store when she was visiting me at school. She made it and I fell in love. With the soup. I fell in love with my mama a long time ago.

The combination of pumpkin, peanut, and ginger sounds weird, doesn't it? Especially when you throw mango nectar into the mix. But I promise you, this soup will make your taste buds sing. Just add some Sriracha if you're a fan of spicy foods and you're good to go. I also recommend eating this soup with a side of bread. But it's also extremely delicious on its own.

I bet your taste buds are singing already.

Pumpkin Peanut Ginger Soup

Ingredients

• two 15oz. cans pumpkin
• two 14.5oz. cans vegetable broth
• 2.5c mango nectar
• 2 T grated fresh ginger (or you can sub 1/2tsp ground/dried)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/3c canned unsweetened coconut milk (I use light)
• 1/2c creamy peanut butter
• 1/4c rice vinegar
• fresh cilantro
• hot sauce! (Sriracha goes really well with it)

Instructions

1. In a large pot, combine pumpkin, broth, nectar, ginger, and garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Whisk in coconut milk, peanut butter, and vinegar until smooth. Stir in cilantro.

Das it! It's the easiest soup in the world. The original recipe barely makes enough for two people, so I doubled it for your convenience because you will be making this soup a lot. I promise.

Anyway, Debbie's here now and we just made knots and now it's time to devour them :D

Happy early Thanksgiving!! Have a wonderful break, wherever you are.

Song of the Day-- Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground. I used to be obsessed with them in high school, and Venus in Furs randomly popped into my head the other day.

Recovery Quote of the Day-- "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found the way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Nonna-ly,
Carina

Eggplant Quinoa Lasagna & Birthday Highlights

"It's not even my birthday," -Rihanna, Birthday Cake.

This song is my guilty pleasure. Whenever this song comes on, I just dance like crazy. And I don't like dancing.

Granted, it's not the greatest song lyrically, but it's catchy. And the lyrics are easy to remember. She says "cake" exactly 15 times in one sentence. Easy enough, right?

Addicting pop songs aside, it was my BIRTHDAY a week ago!! Hence the song reference. Ironically, my birthday is the one day of the year that I can't sing Birthday Cake. (Don't tell anyone, but I did anyway).

Mama got these for me :3

It was lovely. I didn't have class until noon, I was done at 2:30, and I had enough time to cook for the first time in so. long. What did we make? Eggplant quinoa lasagna. That's right. It's amazing. And super healthy! You slice the eggplant super thin, and they replace the pasta sheets. The quinoa replaces the meat. I could even eat the quinoa on its own. It's that good. But it's better layered with eggplant, marinara sauce, and cheese. Trust me. The original recipe is made with zucchini...but frankly, we all know that eggplant trumps zucchini. And if you disagree with me, then you're wrong.

Sry for the bad picture. I was eagerly awaiting consumption.

Eggplant Quinoa Lasagna

Adapted from Peas and Thank You

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 c red quinoa (regular quinoa is fine too, obviously, but the red quinoa makes it look more like meat :D )
• 2 c vegetable broth
• 1/2 c tomato sauce
• 1/4 c minced onion
• 1 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t dried parsley
• 1/4 c fresh basil, chopped
• red pepper flakes (if you want it spicy)
• 2 T cream cheese
• salt and pepper
• 1 jar marinara sauce (I used Newman's Own Sockarooni. I like spicy.)
• 1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. To prepare eggplant, cut a strip off one side to make a flat base. Then use a mandolin to make them into super thin slices. Or you could do it by hand, but that's difficult.
3. Place eggplant strips in a colander, layered between paper towels and sprinkled with salt.
4. Let sit while preparing the quinoa.
5. Combine quinoa, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, onion, parsley, and oregano in a medium sized pot (or saucepan) and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
6. When quinoa has absorbed all the liquid, fold in cream cheese and basil. Add salt and pepper. Taste it. Just once, though.
7. Pour enough marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish to cover the bottom.
8. Using a clean dry towel, blot remaining moisture and salt from eggplant and lay enough strips to cover the sauce.
9. Put a layer of quinoa across the eggplant (this is why you shouldn't eat more than a spoonful...I may or may not have disregarded this rule), and cover with another 1/3 c of marinara sauce.
10. Repeat another layer of quinoa, sauce, and eggplant.
11. Top the final layer of eggplant with remaining sauce and 1/2 c of cheese.
12. Bake lasagna for 30 minutes. Let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Lol it's so hard to take a good picture of this

So yeah! Ellen and I made the lasagna, and Lauren came over for dinner. And Ellen made me a flourless chocolate cake, too!

Double-fisting

HBD 2 ME

Flourless chocolate cake!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful....until Friday. I mean, I had a ton of work to keep me busy until then, but I was especially excited because Léa was coming to visit for the weekend!!! I hadn't seen her since mid-July in Lebanon, and having her here for the weekend was the best present ever :)

Anyway, I've never been able to celebrate my birthday at school with my friends before. Freshman year, it was too early in the year for me to invite a bunch of friends over. Last year, well....Grandpa got sick, and I wanted to be there with him as much as I could. I kept trying to plan it once he got better, but then his health started failing and I wanted to be by his side nearly 24/7. I ended up being busy every weekend with either going to the hospital, the funeral, fall break, or....the blackout -____- By that time it was the beginning of November. So I gave up.

But this year was different. This year I would have a party. And so I did. And it was fantastic.

Ellen so lovingly made this for me!!!! So thoughtful <3

Lauren, Debbie, and me!

<3

mah gurls in blue

"Cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake" -Rihanna

da best.

OPPAN GANGNAM STYLE

I have the best fraaanz

So yes! I had a fabulous birthday surrounded by amazing friends. It was so much fun to celebrate with them! I also made two vegan desserts that I will share with you soon :) (Hint: one of them involves chocolate chips. The other involves peanut butter & jelly).

In other news, I just found out that I am allowed to drop my religion class!! Praise the lord. But I guess the downside is that I'll have to find a different time to practice my Arabic calligraphy.

Oh, I've also decided to rerererererereplay my favorite video game, Tales of Symphonia. If you haven't played it, do it. Although they stopped making it a while ago, since it's a Gamecube game. I bought an extra copy for myself 2 years ago, just in case. Anyway, yeah. I've beaten it a vast number of times, but the last time I played it was probably 4 years ago. And it's still just as amazing. I started Monday evening and I'm already 8 hours in! It's really been helpful in terms of stress, and just overall enjoyment. Shout-out to my cousin Chris Feghali--we just discovered our mutual love for ToS and I am so excited.

Seriously though, I really can't express how much I love this game. I even named my car after one of the characters (Tabatha). Also my fangirl crush on Zelos has been rekindled (ignore the fact that I thought he was a girl until I actually heard him speak in the game). And I've decided to be Sheena for Halloween, as well as Daria. I just can't figure out which one of Sheena's costumes I should choose. I know they'll be hard to make, though....

THE best. I'm gonna go play it now. I have to beat Kvar, after all.

Yeah. Um. Gaming aside, I had a great birthday. And to top it all off, Mama came down yesterday and brought me Thai chili, butternut squash soup, and beans & greens! I love her so much <3

Okay! Time to go beat one of the Desian Grand Cardinals. Thanks for reading! Or looking at pictures. Or both.

Song of the Day #1-- Birthday Cake by Rihanna, of course. But it's not for all audiences, so I'll include another song, courtesy of the Tales of Symphonia OST.

Song of the Day #2-- Revival from Tales of Symphonia, composed by Motoi Sakuraba. I transcribed the song on the piano once--I'll have to find the sheet music I wrote down for it. It's really quite beautiful.

Video of the Day-- Okay, I lied. This is a one-time thing. But I had to! It's the Tales of Symphonia intro, of course. I still hyperventilate whenever I watch it.

Recovery Link of the Day-- Coincidentally, this was posted on my birthday. "The enemy does not stand a chance when its victim decides to survive." -Rae Smith (it actually sounds like something Kratos from ToS would say...)

Gamingly,

Carina

BYOS.....bring your own straw.

P.S. Holy frick just as I was finishing this post, my Christmas tree lights I had hung up above my window came crashing down. I almost screamed. But I didn't, and that's the important thing.

Pumpkin Black Bean Chili and Some Musings

I laughed so hard on Sunday.

So hard that I feel the need to share the source of my laughter with all of you.

Have you guys heard of the book 50 Shades of Grey? Yes? No? Have you been living under a rock..?

Anyway, I haven't read it, but I have heard enough about it that I feel that I can summarize the general idea. It's erotic literature. Literotica. Something I had to explain to my younger sister yesterday when she asked why I was weirded out by our mother reading it.

....it was awkward.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because Sunday night at house dinner, one of my residents showed us a video of Gilbert Gottfried reading excerpts of 50 Shades of Grey. If you don't know, Gilbert Gottfried is the voice of Iago (Jafar's parrot) in Aladdin (which our house coincidentally watched on Thursday). Needless to say, it was absolutely hilarious. I was crying from laughter by the end of it. You can find the video here. Watch it. Now.

It's basically Iago reading you Fifty Shades.

Some other really funny 50 Shades videos are the SNL parody and a video of Ellen DeGeneres attempting to do a reading.

Okay. Now, wipe the tears of hilarity from your eyes--I've got other things to tell you.

1. I'm almost done with the series Daria and it makes me sad.
2. My dad never ceases to unintentionally say hilarious things.
3. It's my birthday tomorrow (the 26th)! I'm turning 20. Mark your calendars.
4. My family came down to CT to celebrate with me on Sunday. My dad (note: he's a dentist) promptly handed me a paper bag and said "Don't say I never get you anything." I opened it. It was an old electric toothbrush. MY old electric toothbrush. Thanks baba!
5. It was my Gram's birthday Sunday--she would've been 82! I got her pearl necklace as an early birthday present. I'm wearing it right now! It's beautiful.
6. I really want to delete some people from my Facebook, but then I realize that their lives are better than reality TV, so I keep them on my friends' list.
7. I'm not down with this chilly weather. Although in actuality, I don't know why I care so much; I drive everywhere anyway. (Well, I walk to psych. But I walk there from Arabic...to where I drive. The only reason for this walking being the lack of parking spaces for students near Allbritton).
8. However, there is one thing about fall that I am down for: pumpkin. I love pumpkin. It's delicious. It's versatile. It's healthy. Fall is also chili season (in my mind, anyway), so why not combine the two? I actually haven't made this yet at school; I just made it a couple times this summer. It's quite delicious though, so I'll share the recipe now. Yay!

Pumpkin Black Bean Chili
slightly adapted from That's So Vegan

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 15oz. can black beans, including liquid
• 2 c crushed tomatoes (use diced if you prefer the texture)
• 1 15oz. can pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 c water
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the onions. Sauté until the onion becomes translucent, then add the garlic.
2. Add the black beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, and spices. Stir for about 2 minutes, then pour in the water.
3. Let the soup simmer for 40-60 minutes. Feel free to game in the meantime.
4. Das it!

I really like this picture. It makes me feel better about the colder weather.

Also, shout-out to my good friend and freshman year roommate, Marissa! Happy birthday!!

Song of the Day-- Nocturne in C# Minor by Chopin (played by Ashkenazy). This is the song I'm learning on the piano right now. It's absolutely gorgeous; and Ashkenazy plays it beautifully.

Recovery Link of the Day-- an excerpt from Marya Hornbachers book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (pg. 6).

Anyway, that's all I have for today. I'm excited for my birthday tomorrow! Turning 20 is gonna be so anticlimactic but I'm excited nonetheless :p

Excitedly,

Carina

Wedding photos came out yesterday. I like this one.

Warm Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Carrots, Goat Cheese, and Walnuts

Well, well, well.

Hello, dear readers. It's been awhile.

(......does anyone even read this blog?)

Whatever, writing is a nice way to get through class vent about my life :D

It's been a crazy three weeks since I've gotten back to Wesleyan (holy god I'm a junior). My summer finished with a bang--I was a bridesmaid in my awesome friend's wedding and it was a blast. The friend is none other than Anna, the genius behind Bashful Bao. Check it out.

Anyway, the bachelorette party was crazy. We started the night off at Shabu Zen in Chinatown for some hotpot. One of the maids of honor made us all sashes...like so.

Yes, I know--we're adorable.

Next up was Jacques' Cabaret....aka a drag show. It was a riot. Many dollar bills were, uh, thrown. Or taken. Or coerced.

....you get the idea.

I cropped out the guy making out with his girlfriend. I figured it was imperative for the integrity of the picture.

It was a blast. I'd never seen a drag show before, but I highly recommend it. Bring lots of singles.

Two days later, it was Sunday. Aka the day of the wedding. My mama dropped me off at Anna's so that the limo could pick us up and drive us to the hair and makeup salon. Of course, Anna was the antithesis of Bridezilla. She was calm and collected, even when the limo didn't show up (apparently the company couldn't get through to the driver, so they sent another one...but it wouldn't be able to get there until about an hour from then). Anna had one of Luke's friends drive us to pick up the other bridesmaids, and then from there her relatives drove us to the hair and makeup salon. The limo met us there, and then it was off to the Crane Estate!

It was breathtakingly gorgeous. The grounds and the mansion both. And it was a beautiful day! We hastily headed to the bridal suite to get ready. I had a little trouble zipping up my dress....

Anna to da rescue!

Then, Anna got ready. She looked positively radiant.

The ceremony occurred quickly afterwards. It was short and sweet, just how Anna wanted it. But alas, after the ceremony, we had to wait to stuff our faces with hors d'oeuvres and down champagne because we had to take pictures forever. They're very pretty though.

The bridal party.

The whole wedding party.

After that, it was champagne, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, dancing, dancing, and more dancing. All in all, it was a wonderful night.

I returned to Wesleyan two days later to move in and then started ResLife training on Thursday. It was fairly excessive but I met some cool people. I've also become obsessed with the show Daria. I remember watching it with my older cousins when I was little (in Vermont, of course), but never understood it. Now I do. I relate to Daria quite a bit. I think I'm going to be her for Halloween.

Also, Ellen moved in the Friday before classes and I finally got to meet Woodrow (aka DP aka Da Pups)!! He is adorable and the snuggliest and cuddliest. Just look how cute he is omg.

Sleepy puppy. 

He's always confused.

He's been a wonderful addition to Turath.

Speaking of Turath, the new house is great. Huge kitchen. I haven't been doing THAT much cooking because my sleep schedule is screwed up and I have more work than I expected, but the dishes Ellen and I have made have been delicious. We had house dinner the other night, and I made Thai peanut pumpkin hummus and a warm quinoa salad with spinach, carrots, goat cheese, and walnuts, with sesame oil. And the latter is the recipe you'll get today. Lucky you!!!

Sry for the shoddy pic. I had to take a picture of it quickly.

Warm Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Carrots, Goat Cheese, and Walnuts, Tossed with Sesame Oil
Ingredients

• 2 c quinoa (uncooked)
• one small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 11oz. spinach (a large bag)
• 2/3 c carrots (chopped)
• however much goat cheese you desire
• 1/2 c walnuts, toasted (place them in one layer on a cookie sheet in a preheated 350 F oven for about 8 minutes)
• sesame oil
• chipotle chili powder
• ground ginger

Instructions

1. Cook quinoa according to directions (usually yields about 4 c cooked).
2. In a large-ish saucepan, sauté the onion in a bit of sesame oil until translucent. Add garlic, then gradually add spinach until it's all wilted. This may take a while, but you can always yell "WILT, SPINACH, WILT!!!" like I did.
3. Add the carrots and however much of the spices you want.
4. Once the quinoa is done, add it to the spinach mixture and toss well. Add some salt to taste. Add more sesame oil if needed.
5. Put it all in a salad bowl and toss in the walnuts. Right before serving, add the goat cheese.
6. Indulge.

It's pretty damn delicious. I'm surprised it turned out that tasty, considering I panicked about screwing up approximately 7.6 times. Approximately.

Anyway, my mama is coming in a few hours, so I should pay attention get some work done.
(Update: this post was written yesterday...so Mama left already :( Love you, mommy!)

Song of the Day-- Gangnam Style by PSY. Don't look at me like that. It's amazing.
Recovery Link of the Day-- A perspective on eating disorders by Marya Hornbacher.

By the way, it's officially been 4 weeks since I've purged! Go me!

Daria-ly,

Carina

"I don't have low self-esteem. That's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."

Penne Arrabiatta

It is 4:17 in the morning and I am wide awake.

Maybe it's because I woke up around 1 PM; I don't know. (Actually, that sounds pretty plausible). But maybe it's because I go back to school in less than 2 weeks and I'll need to wake up at 7:30 in the morning for my job and I want to milk the last of my summer days. (Thankfully that only lasts a week; my morning classes this semester are at noon and 10:30 on alternating days).

Maybe it's both. Who knows.

I do know that I have random cravings for food when I'm up late...like tonight, I got back from my friend Alexa's around 12:30 and was craving arrabiatta sauce. I would've made it too, but we didn't have all the ingredients. I settled for disappointment instead.

But! I don't have to settle for that tomorrow. Because in a few hours, grocery stores will be opening and I can get the ingredients so I can have a nice bowl of pasta sauce soon after I wake up.

Penne Arrabiatta was my staple in Lebanon whenever we went to Italian restaurants. With extra sauce, please. I love regular pasta sauce, but when you add a spicy kick to it...man, that's the stuff. I was able to get by for the first few weeks when I got back because my mother had made an overabundant supply of my grandpa's pasta sauce and meatballs for my brother's grad party (which I missed). It's absolutely delicious and carries years of memories with it, but I started craving the spiciness of arrabiatta.

So, I searched for a recipe and found one. A great one. I didn't change anything from it, and won't, because it's perfect, so here's the recipe, from Una Mamma Italiana.

Few things are better than a bowl of pasta with homemade sauce....one of these things is a bowl of homemade pasta with homemade sauce.

Song of the Day-- Efter Livet by Tingvall Trio.
Recovery Link of the Day-- an ED tumblr in the style of #whatshouldwecallme. Accurately funny.

5:09ingly,
Carina