siesta key, shoes, soup

This morning> last night.

Had a lovely breakfast/catch up session/retail therapy trip with my pally Lauren.

Where we went in general has very healthful options but does have my number one guilty pleasure:

Oh. Yes.

I had never been to First Watch but Yelp was a fan and it is more or less exactly halfway between Lauren and me, which is always nice. I dug the healthy dishes (and ridiculously un-healthy but catchily named: I’m looking at you, Chicken-changa) on the menu, although it was in my opinion overpriced. I ordered the Siesta Key Cocktail:

 

Yay organic dairy! I’m trying. The parfait arrived looking absolutely stunning:

But was substantially easier to tackle once rearranged. The “nuts” referred to in the menu seemed to be exclusively CASHEWS! Not at all a problem for me, as I love them.

The muffin of the day looked uninspiring:

And tasted it, too. It took me more than a few bites to even realize that it was (I think?) banana-nut.

Lauren was presh and said “Ooh, let me take a picture of mine!” and her crepes were indeed beautiful (and she had never had crepes before! Girl was missing out!) and I think she shows great potential as a food blogger.

   

So I received some disappointing news yesterday and then got in a pretty hefty fight with my sister and was… not happy.

Today I was thinking about the life I wanted to lead and I decided I wanted to be the woman who wears these shoes:

And then bought them (at DSW! For twenny dollah!)

I am going to an event later today… well, a cookout. I may still wear my black stilettos.

Last night, having not yet moved on to cathartic shopping, I decided to give in to the gloom and make… split pea soup. Yes, okay, it’s late May. In my defense, it was raining.

In a pan I tossed chopped leek, carrot, and celery, and cooked it in a thin film of olive oil for 10 minutes. Then added garlic and fresh rosemary and cooked another 5.

Stirring is good for the soul. I love being in my kitchen making soup.

Once everything was adequately tender, I added split peas, a splash of red wine, and a whole lotta water. (I did 2 cups split peas to 7 cups water)

Brought it to a boil and let it cook for… oh, two hours.

Then I thought, hey, yeah, I’ll add those.

Beet greens. We had ‘em. In my opinion, they are one of the more beautiful foods known to man.

And cooked it for another, oh, hour.

It was gooooooooood and teeeeeeeeeeeender. And quite soothing with some toast.

Followed by some Mad Men and the world felt better.