meatballs

November 16th, 2011 · Uncategorized

Meatballin.

 

A snap from dinner prep last night. I used this recipe and it was delicious, but I should have thrown some salt into the meatballs.

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elizabeth lately

November 14th, 2011 · Uncategorized

I went back home this weekend to see my mom and my sister, but I didn’t take any pictures. I meant to, but I always feel like a weenie trying to explain to my mom why I’m trying to get the perfect angle on the plate of sushi. Instead, here’s some snaps from the last weekish.


I like to take pictures of Elizabeth the Ghost while I’m commuting to work. It’s either that, or endless games of solitaire on my phone. I can’t seem to find a commuting game that sticks, so throw your suggestions at me (not Angry Birds).


The trees around here are lookin’ all fancy lately. If you see a girl in a huge scarf and huge sunglasses taking 400 pictures of the trees, say hi.


Yesterday was so wonderfully lazy. I made myself pancakes and then spent a few hours on a really delicious beef stew. It kind of looks like mud, but it tastes like home.

Photo
And, of course, I’m still taking pictures of the sunsets. I think this is the last one, it’s been getting dark before I’m off the subway.

 

Dear Sun,
I miss you already. Please come back to me.
Love, Elizabeth.

 

What does your week look like?

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before the light goes

November 8th, 2011 · Uncategorized

Sunset, November 7

I took this picture on my walk home last night. Turning the clocks back means it’s nearly dark at 5pm, which I’m going to hate in a few weeks, but right now I’m walking home slowly and enjoying the light and snapping pictures where I can.

I love city sunsets more than any other. I love how everything goes black and the sky fades into orange and red and blue. When I was a freshman in college, my dorm was on the 9th floor and I put my desk in front of a window that looked out onto West Philly. I’d come home from class and pretend to be hard at work on my laptop but I was really getting lost watching the sun go down. From just nine stories up, I couldn’t see that fat, a little past University City, but I imagined the whole world was stretched in front of me. The entire world, going from a little grungy and a little gray to black and sparkling.

I’m trying to take these sunsets in as much as I can before the world shifts and the sun sets while I’m on the subway–or worse, still in my office. I’m trying to enjoy slow walks home while the weather is still a little warm, with Neko Case in my headphones, and slowing my brain down from the busiest of busy days.

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Butter Chicken

March 20th, 2011 · Uncategorized

butter chicken

Tonight’s dinner is one of my favorites, Butter Chicken. I don’t really like Indian food (I know! But I’m always willing to try it again!), but I love this and I try to make it as much as possible. It’s creamy and tomatoey and the spices are just right. I doubt it’s any kind of authentic but Steve and I aren’t especially particular when it comes to things that taste good. If you want to try it yourself, the recipe is below.

I’d love to hear about your favorite recipes. Leave them in the comments!

Indian Butter Chicken and Rice

adapted from Sugarcrafter who adapted it from Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp cardamom
  • 2 whole limes, juiced
  • 1 lb of chicken, breasts or thighs. I’ve used both but I think I like breasts better. I cut them up into two bite pieces.
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • 1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce
  • 1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cup rice. We use Jasmine.
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp tumeric

The night before, place chicken in a large zip top bag with garlic, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, coriander, cumin, cardamom, and lime juice. Shake the bag to coat chicken and refrigerate.

The next day, in a large pot (I used my 6qt dutch oven) melt butter over medium high heat and sauté onions until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add chicken and marinade to pot and brown on all sides, 5-7 minutes. When chicken is browned, add diced tomato and tomato sauce. Cover and cook on medium low for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook rice whatever way you like to, adding garlic powder and tumeric with the water.

When the chicken is cooked, add as much heavy cream as you like and stir. Serve over rice.

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Just Kids

March 14th, 2011 · Uncategorized

patti-smith-just-kids-cover

It is entirely possible that Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, is not that good by most standards. The story is nice but you’re never sure what year it is and it takes turns at odd points. Sometimes a story begins without warning, and often names are dropped without much reference to the people they belong to.

Oh, but I don’t mind at all. I don’t mind because Hello, my name is Elizabeth, and I am nostalgic for a time that I have never experienced. I’ve been like this all my life, romanticizing New York and dreaming of moving to the Village with only my suitcase and eighty dollars in my pocket. I imagined I’d live much like Patti describes in her memoir, in small apartments or at The Chelsea, always navigating the constant stream of artists and musicians that would waft through my life. I was sure that I would meet the next Alan Ginsberg and hear the next Velvet Underground.

I was so enamored with the idea that I used to question my parents for hours about Woodstock and what it was like to burn your draft card and were you sad when Brian Jones died? You can imagine my disappointment when I realized my parents were born in 1957 and not 1947 which left them a generation behind the one I held in such high regard. It also accounted for holes in my dad’s record collection, but that’s a story for another day.

Clearly, I was looking to Just Kids to satisfy my nostalgia, but it also reminded me just how embedded I am in The Future. The idea of just running into someone without a call or text seems foreign to me now, and I can’t even imagine living without a phone of my own. I actually gasped when Patti wrote about quitting her job because she didn’t like it, with full faith she’d find something in a week or two. Reading Just Kids, I got to live the dream. I got to vacation in the past, in a world without tweets and blogs and instant everything, a world of letters, a world in which having to wait is a very real possibility. As I turned the last page of Just Kids, I felt tired and heartbroken, and I felt that I had lived through the 60s and 70s with Patti and Robert. I felt satisfied.

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I made a sweater

March 3rd, 2011 · Uncategorized

I made a sweater.

aidez1
It looks like this.

aidez2
And this.

2569960aab664f1d89b2cae720288aeb_7
And also this. (please, enjoy my headless photos because we all know I’ll never make time to take real pictures of this sweater. which is sad because this is a really great sweater.) (ps. please enjoy my heavy handed photoshop skills. retoucher boyfriend, please don’t judge me.)

I love this sweater. It’s called Aidez, and I used a whole lot of Peruvia Quick for it. It knit up really fast until I got to the sleeves and decided I wanted to shorten them but then I decided that shortening them was going to be hard to figure out so I set it aside. And the sweater sat, and sat, and sat. I knit some other things and I kind of forgot about the sweater for about a month. One day I woke up and in the blurry moments between snoozing my alarm I realized that taking a couple inches off the sleeve length was actually a no-brainer and I was being silly. The sleeves are still a smidge too long but I love this sweater so much anyway.

I usually don’t knit sweaters because they can be kind of expensive. $60 on the low end, $100-150 on the higher end and I just don’t have that kind of dough. Plus, my history with ill-fitting handknit sweaters is long and sordid which makes the cost thing an even bigger deal than it needs to be. I’m trying to get over my sweater hang-ups and just work it out. I like sweaters, I want to make more of them.

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Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without

January 4th, 2011 · Uncategorized

I’ve been reading Carole’s blog for years and I’m happy to have a real place (not just a tumblr) to participate in Ten on Tuesday. This week’s topic is Ten Things You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without. I figured things laptops, cell phones, and electricity were obvious, so I tried to think up a few other things.

  1. Cheese. Let’s be serious, above cell phones, laptops, cute skirts, and even my precious knitting, I could not live a life that did not include large amounts of cheese.
  2. Coffee. This one should probably be in first place. If I don’t have a cup of coffee in the morning I’m unable to function. A latte or an Americano from One Shot will really make my day.
  3. Yarn. I have a lot of it, I love it, I’m not sure what I did before I was a hardcore knitter, but I could never ever give it up. The thought of going somewhere without a sock in my purse is terrifying.
  4. Eyeshadow primer. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it makes my eyeshadow last all day which makes me a very happy girl.
  5. Ankle boots. Cute with skirts, cute with jeans, and I can wear them into spring. I went into winter without a wearable pair, but I finally found these and I love them dearly.
  6. Gossip Girl. It’s an hour of candy for my brain.
  7. Plumbing. I know I said obvious things weren’t going to make it onto the list, but seriously! Our kitchen sink was out of commission from Wednesday until today and it was a bad scene. We had people over for New Year’s Eve and I had to drain pasta in the bath tub and serve the food on plastic plates. Anyone who knows me knows this is a tragedy.
  8. Headphones. Thanks to headphones, I never have to talk to creepy people on the subway.
  9. The blanket my Grandma knit. It’s ratty and ripped up but I’ve had it for years and I love to wrap myself up in it when I’m sad.
  10. Silly movies. When I just want to veg out or shake off a bad mood I love to put on Singles or When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle or Pretty in Pink–all of which I know line by line.

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It doesn’t have to be perfect.

January 3rd, 2011 · Uncategorized

I’ve hemmed and hawed over this for a long time. Honestly, I’m completely freaked out. I can’t figure out exactly what to write about and my camera sucks so I keep avoiding this, but it’s something I’d really like to do and everyone has to start somewhere, right?

I’m doing this because I want to figure out who I am. I want to be the Best Elizabeth Marley. I need to know if the Best Elizabeth Marley is a writer, or a cook, or really good at picking outfits. I have this theory that if I turn me into a product I might get a step or two closer to figuring out what I’m good at.

Right now I’m good at…

Making chocolate chip cookies.

chocochip

Knitting

Electric Limeade socks

And jumping on the bed.

jump on the bed

The rest will all come in due time. I hope.

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