Could anyone love food more than me? Seriously. I have a major love affair with fresh, seasonal fruit & veg and delicious meals.
Philipp calls me a food snob. And the truth is, I totally am. It only makes sense that my passion and appreciation for good foods would directly
correlate with my hate and total disgust for bad, tasteless foods. Its the Scorpio way. All or
nothin', baby.
I get so mad at what the crap food industries are putting on the shelves of American stores as the only affordable food items & how for a various slew of causes, fresh fruits and vegetables have become of luxurious status due to the prices skyrocketing in grocery stores. It really makes me sad to know so many children don't have a grasp of where food even comes
from. Much less what it tastes like in it's natural, unadulterated state.
One of my main goals in life is to provide wonderful, healthy organic meals for my family for every meal of the day. I believe in nutrition making who you become and the quality of life you obtain so much that I will arrange all other things in a budget around not compromising on the quality of food. Its worth it to me to live simpler lives in relation to the things you can buy and spend extra money on vs. the abundance of fresh, in season, organic & wholesome things in the house to eat.
I love the website www.localharvest.org because you can find farmer's markets, organic farms,
CSA shares, etc. anywhere in this country with just the click of a button. For instance, I just found 3 organic farms within driving distance of my family's home in the sticks out in North Carolina. This excites me so much for the area where I grew up where the closest chain grocery store is a good 20 minute drive and the offerings there are not impressive, to say the least. Most people do their shopping there or at the local
Wal-Mart, who for all its misgiving
is starting to provide more & more affordable organics, albeit all of which have been flown/driven in from who knows how many hundreds of miles away.
Point being:
LOCAL FARMS ROCK.
I get so excited about Farmer's Markets and stands that its just silly. I literally become like a giddy, smiling child walking
thru the aisles; looking at all the produce that was ripped from the earth that morning, roots and dirt often still attached. I remember while living in Ukraine how eye opening it was to be at the market and all of the carrots were black with dirt and had stems and roots still intact. Nothing like the little meager shoots in a bag I grew up on.
Whenever
Philipp & I get to a place where we'll be settled, I really want to invest in a farm share where we get a weekly box of whatever fruit & veggies are in season from local organic farmers. I think it will be so fun to sharpen my cooking skills by having to cook things from whats in season and in that box, cause God knows the cheap ass in me would not stand for something being tossed out.
Also, on this subject there are several nutrition/food books I'm really interested in checking out at the next library victim:
This little number costs more than anything I have ever bought for myself. In my whole life. And is oh so sweet too.
Something I've been noticing (other than I am obsessed with Scandinavian design), is that I much prefer shelving and open storage over lots of cabinetry, dressers, etc. I just like being able to see what it is that I have. Plus, less cabinetry=less crap you can stow away.
I've reached the place where there is nothing much to do (again) and so I am going thru the archives on Design*Sponge. Found these images there. The bedding is from Ferm Living.
So I finally went to a Macy's the other day to try on the bathing suit that I have blogged about previously. Its pretty much identical to this old ad from the 50's. And I loved it so much. It fit so well and looked really nice, but I am not paying $100 dollars for a bathing suit...no way.
I'm in the mood to throw a party. My problem with parties (and most other things) is that people never care as much as I do & are generally never as into it as me either. Case in point, I could spend weeks planning an event in detail; the menu, favors, decorations, etc. only to realize afterwards that everyone involved would have been satisfied with Frito Lay Chips and some Sun Drops from an icebox! Go figure. I guess a lot of people are not aesthetic people. Or maybe I should have been born in a different time or place, say Savannah pre-Civil war times? Anyhow. Some things I like and would love to involve in a dinner party, brunch, etc.
I've loved the idea of doing an all-white brunch or dessert party where, you guessed it, everything is white. I think it would be challenging to make it work, finding foods that are all strictly white and decorating a place in that single colour. Guests would come in all white as well and that would make for lovely photos.
This little girly & thrifty table centerpiece from Apartment Therapy.
This cool use of cork trivets from IKEA, posted on Design*Sponge.
This summery/childhood image from TheKitchn.
This sleek & well put together kitchen from an article on Design*Sponge.
These are the kind of things I get really excited about: ruminating on which magazines in English I'd subscribe to for entertainment once we're back in Switzerland.
I could not resist posting these images of a getaway shack in West Virginia from Design*Sponge. At first glance, I thought to myself, "This could be North Carolina". And it very well could be, parts of it anyways. I have such a love/hate relationship with my home state, or maybe the South in general. Autumn is undeniably my favourite season, and there's no finer place to be than in The Appalachians when it comes round.
For whatever reason, in the heat of summer, I always pine away for Fall to return. And it cannot come too quickly, as I am not made for heat of any sort. Especially sticky Southern Florida heat.
I've just started this book & already it seems promising and engaging. Its about a family living in Arizona who moves to The Appalachians in hopes of living from the land for one year. Meaning, nothing they consume comes from a place where they do not know. I think its pretty incredible and something I would not put past doing. Just the notion of either growing everything that comes to your table, or driving to a farm to collect it seems incredible to me. No baggies of chips, nothing frozen, no kiwis from New Zealand (of which I must mention I am eating by the barrels at the moment).
After lamenting over losing Trader Joe's earlier this week (you know your life sucks when a grocery store is the only silver lining), I've grown up and moved on...probably just briefly, I am sure.
A side note: I find it hilarious that Swiss people have no clue as to this cheese being "Swiss". Wonder where the notion that this is THE Swiss cheese comes from?
Apparently this website allows you to take any image from the web and create a collage out of it. How cool! Alas, I did not put this one together, she did.
Only in a white and pink scheme which is just too shameful to post. Anyhow, so for many years after said flashback, I thought these were just poor kids' Keds, but apparently these were the shizzle to have back in the 70's and early 80's. May be why athletic shoes still get called "tennis shoes" today.
One of my main goals in life is to provide wonderful, healthy organic meals for my family for every meal of the day. I believe in nutrition making who you become and the quality of life you obtain so much that I will arrange all other things in a budget around not compromising on the quality of food. Its worth it to me to live simpler lives in relation to the things you can buy and spend extra money on vs. the abundance of fresh, in season, organic & wholesome things in the house to eat.
...after nearly half a year in Southern California, we are headed on our way back to the East coast as of next Monday (keeping my 6 months or less record intact!).
Such a sweet little mobile from IKEA. They never cease to amaze me with simple, sleek designing & affordable pricing (this @ 4.99)!
