lately i’ve been

Lately I’ve been gardening like it’s my job. I mean, it isn’t. Obviously. Fortunately, since I’m not all that good at it yet.

Still, the adventure of growing plants from seed is going surprisingly well- here’s a shot of my overcrowded deck, taken Sunday.

I thought I’d recount a bit of my journey, to encourage those of you who’ve wanted to start a garden but have doubted your abilities. Believe me when I say that if I can do it, anyone can do it.

After planting my seeds, my first sprouts were greeted with joy. You’ll recall that they began their lives indoors, with consistent warmth cultivating their growth at a crucial and delicate phase of their lives.

Tomatoes and basil grew reliably (with the heirloom romas being particularly hardy). 

I worried about the heirloom zucchini because it took forever to sprout and I was afraid I wouldn’t get anything. Well, I needn’t have worried, as it turned out it was just taking its time below the surface, ultimately rising in an impressively large sprout.

The dill were the absolute cutest, reaching for the sun.

Once we had reliable sun and warmth outdoors, and the plants were hardy enough to be relocated, they got potted on the deck.

You produce an amazing quantity of seedlings when you grow from seed. Keep that in mind, particularly if you’re doing a potted garden. (I am by necessity, since deer freely wander our yard, entirely unafraid of us, eating absolutely whatever they want).

Here are just some of the pots required to contain just what the tomato seeds successfully produced:

Transplanted a few of the little basil guys, but had to keep most of them in the pot til I had space for them. So precious!

I’d bought a pepper plant at the farmer’s market, then suddenly panicked. Don’t plants need to cross pollinate? Isn’t that necessary for plant sex? (The fact that I call it “plant sex” is a good indicator of how much I know about cross pollination, obviously).

So my thoughtful boyfriend bought me an additional pepper plant and an additional squash plant, so my lonely plants could have necessary companionship.

They came in the neatest containers, where you rip off the plastic rim around the top and then everything else is biodegradable, so you can plant it directly in the pot.

The pepper department looked good (and its leaves bore a striking resemblance to basil, which I thought was interesting)

He also got a boyfriend for my lonely squash.

And so some more time passed, with me visiting my plants each day to top them off with water if needed (tricky, knowing what’s not too much and not too little- a Goldilocks esque quandry). It’s so nice visiting them, talking to them, cheering them on in their progress. I was explaining this to my mom, who agreed that it was so amazing watching things grow and then said, “It’s just like being pregnant!” And then I changed the subject, eurgh. Plants are quite enough responsibility for me for the foreseeable future.     

And now? Now all my plants are doing swimmingly!

The tomatoes are big and beautiful (and I need to stake them sooner rather than later)

 

The squash are glossy and abundant.

And the peppers are filling me with delight! I am growing them for the first time so am particularly enchanted by their growth progression.

You see, they have little baby bulbs!

And the first has begun to transform into a sweet little pepper flower! So excited.

 

In the herb department, we have thriving basil and wintered-over sage. The sage I raided to make succulent bison meatballs just the other day.

Very excited for the harvest! Will continue to update, mostly for my own scrapbook-like memories!

Lately I’ve been eating this for breakfast a lot.

   

It’s a (subtly) healthified version of an absolutely delicious Steve creation. I combine:

- yogurt (1/2 a cup or so; Steve uses full-fat vanilla yogurt, I use lowfat or nonfat plain yogurt plus a little milk, plus a little vanilla, plus stevia)
- a whole buncha whole flaxseeds (crunch!)
- sliced banana
- frozen blueberries (which I don’t bother to thaw; I use the Trader Joe’s frozen organic wild Maine blueberries which are tiny and packed with flavor)
- peanut butter
- oats

Steve also adds honey.

 

Guys, this is DELICIOUS. And difficult to photograph, obviously.

Lately I’ve been trying to be a runner.

My primary motivation for this is that I got shoes that are THE CUTEST. I know nothing about running shoes, so I went to DSW and looked for shoes that cost
-$85 or less (my dad was kind enough to get me these. We’ve been playing racquetball twice a week and my old shoes- which I’d gotten in high school, were understandably junky)
-Well padded with good support (I didn’t like the minimalist shoes at all. I also tend to do a lot of arc trainer at the gym, and that machine necessitates well-padded toes)
- Didn’t make my knee hurt when I ran up and down the aisle at DSW

So I ended up with these cute Nike Airs.

Lately (ish) I’ve been eating a lot of hardboiled eggs. After Greek Easter, we had a tonnnn of them. For reasons best understood by her, my sister’s godmother, who hosted Easter this year, asked us to bring three dozen Easter eggs… then already had that amount made herself.

Anyway, Jacques Pepin has a great recipe for hardboiled egg and tomato gratin and I made it a coupla times, with my own spin

The gratin must contain tomatoes and hardboiled eggs. Beyond that, one can add
- cubed stale bread
-onions, slow-cooked until soft
-cheese
-fresh herbs

Duh-lish.

 

Lately I’ve been taking organic chemistry. Pray for me.

Thank goodness I have Sheila helping me study.

Lately I’ve been making a TON of fruit compote. I finally, finally found rhubarb at the farmer’s market (I completely missed rhubarb season last year, SAD) and made a truly delicious strawberry-rhubarb compote. It involved agave nectar and a little powdered ginger.

It was magnificent on whole-wheat pancakes with a ton of chopped almonds.

 

Fruit compote is great to use up fruit that’s still good but perhaps a little squishier than you’d like it. My most recent rendition contained nice farmer’s market apples that were a little too wrinkly to eat raw mixed with a few soft cherries and strawberries from otherwise nice containers of them.

Lately I’ve been interrogating orthopedic surgeons because my poor baby sister is getting knee surgery tomorrow. I hope everything goes well!

Lately I’ve been apartment hunting in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area and I think I at last have success! I’ll share more once I’ve dotted i’s and crossed t’s, since apartment hunting is a volatile business, as I’ve learned the hard way.

Lately I’ve been eating not the best, mostly because I’ve had such bizarre sleeping habits. Sleeping ridiculously late, setting alarms and being unable to get up when I need to. Not cool. Staying up late, feeling really buzzed, eating junk food, then waking up with no appetite and skipping breakfast. Not cool! I want to get back into a healthier routine. I know I do better when I wake up at a reasonable hour; I’m happier and more productive in the morning. I like being a morning exerciser. Etc. I need a way to make this schedule happen in an organic way. I think these not so fun habits may be connected to a slightly lowered mood, which probably has something to do with imminent life changes, a course that demands skills that are far from inherent for me, and fears about getting the job I need in NC. And another thing, my next point…

Lately I’ve been watching the new episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix and boy are they awful.

happy pills

Hey pals!

I am writing this in my FUTURE HOME, North Carolina. More specifically, the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). More ideally (if things go my way), I’m in a super cool coffee shop in Carrboro, the cutest. town. on. Earth. Reminds me a lot of Austin with the bikes and the local food and the music venues and the gazillions of cooperatives.

Toured my FUTURE SCHOOL (in an ideal world, of course; caveat must be stated that it is the school at which I have not yet been accepted; but cmon, I just beautifully executed that clause with a beautiful preposition in the middle, not the end. They’d be fools not to accept me). Well not toured in the official sense; toured in the wander around campus looking at all the pretty buildings and pretty trees thinking how nice it was, then toured the general neighborhood admiring all the cute cafes at which I wanted to dine someday.

Hung out with my ONCE AND FUTURE FRIEND Andrea, with whom I attended summer camp at Duke University back when we were dramatical teens. We spent a cumulative six weeks together in high school but our friendship is legit. We’re excited we’ll be living in the same place!

Basically, my life is in a good place. Certainly I have more than my share of nerves about all the changes I foresee in the next few months, but I’m excited for what’s coming next.

Also, my brain has gotten happier and I think it may have something to do with these:

Went to a new doctor where I was immediately stripped nekkid for an EKG (which was jarring but confirmed my heart is in good health) and also tested for scads of vitamin deficiencies. Lo and behold, I was lacking in Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D, both of which are associated with general mental… goodness. Or rather, both of which when lacking can produce mental… badness. Not gonna lie, between allergy meds and hormone things and so on, with these supplements I am now up to taking FIVE PILLS A DAY. Which seems extreme for someone ostensibly “healthy”. And yet, I appreciate that I can just swallow two little things and enhance my well-being in different ways.

And now for some of the randomness you have all grown to crave from my blog.

Pancakes! I LOVE the organic frozen wild Maine blueberries at Trader Joe’s. Cute and tiny, great flavor, melt quickly in yogurt bowls (mmm) and made the cutest pancakes.

 

Pickles! We got scrumptious Persian cucumbers at the farmer’s market (er, that’s an oxymoron. Persian-style, I spose I should say). They’re great, but you do have to watch them because like any cucumber they go a little soft.

So…. I just pickled ‘em! A not at all scientific mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili garlic paste, salt, sugar.

 

And served them with the most amazing faux-gado-gado. (Say it out loud. You know you want to). This was sort of a healthier, hippie-er gado gado.

Basically, it was vegetables as a peanut sauce vehicle, actually.

Well and ACTUALLY the peanut sauce was sunflower seed sauce.

Enough new paragraphs, this is just a disjointed recollection now. Whatever.

I made some quinoa to mix with the gado gado, cause I’d gotten new red quinoa and that seemed as good a reason as any. I hardboiled eggs, which I consider the essential element of gado gado. I roasted some random vegetables we had around the house. Roasted vegetables are not authentic to gado gado; I simply prefer my carrots and beets roasted. I put some spinach on a plate, followed by the veggies and egg. Then I made my “peanut” sauce- I used sunflower seed butter because I’ve grown to find it too sweet on its own and I thought it’d be niced mixed with other things in a sauce which, SPOILER ALERT, it was. Sunflower seed butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili-garlic paste.

Dude, it was so good I ate it with a spoon the next day.

 

But this all together is a nice well-rounded meal, nutritionally and flavor-ally (especially with the pickles!) and texturally.

Another fun invention! Sweet potato quiche crust. Whoooooooa.

I blended up part of a baked sweet potato, some flaxseeds, some walnuts, some oats and a little olive oil in a food processor. Couldn’t tell you the quantities but I’ll definitely make it again and get a solid recipe because HOT DAMN THIS WAS GOOD.

With ‘sparagus and ‘shrooms atop, and then a haphazard amount of beaten up eggs and cheese atop that.

I never follow recipes with quiches, which becomes a problem when I overcook them and get gross rubbery eggs. I did it just right this time; cooked it at a nice low 300 and pulled it out when the middle was JUST set. So the egg department was good and the crust department was GREAT! I prebaked it a bit before adding the eggs. For… awhile (this is so obnoxious of me, talking about a great thing I made and making no effort whatsoever to make it reproducible). And when the crust came out of the oven it was just so great and sweet and rich and chewy. Not like typical crust but… awesome. Unique.

   

A final fun thing was dog sitting! I have lately been harboring (unwise) fantasies of getting a dog. And lucky me, I got to borrow one, and it was an exceptionally nice one, AND I was paid RIDICULOUSLY GENEROUSLY for the privilege AND got to use a really boss grill.

Well mostly Steve grilled. And Zia supervised.

   

Annnnnd then things got a little messy with the grill. And we decided the pizza already had some beautiful char so we’d move operations inside. Where, as an added bonus, there was better (er, any) light.

Toppings included mushrooms, green pepper, fresh tomatoes, and slab mozzarella.

 

Supervision continued.

 

Pizza was bossy.

 

And served with a hastily thrown together Whole Foods salad bar salad I only bothered to photograph outside.

I’ll have more to write about various life things later, but let me sum up in saying that the portrayal of your twenties in the mass media is RUBBISH. Sure, maybe you’re young and good looking, but WOW it is a DIFFICULT time. Particularly during the Great Recession.

In my chemistry class, which is filled with tiny little 18-year-olds, one of them was saying how she wanted to get married when she was 21, and my 37 year old classmate and I said NOOOOOO. Not to belittle anyone who got married young, of course. Just, as I put it to her, you have to give yourself the time and space in your twenties to go a little crazy. No, I’m not talking about boozing face or snorting coke necessarily (I mean, sure some people do but I certainly didn’t). I’m just talking about all the cognitive… messiness that comes with your twenties.

I’m not all the way on the other end of it, but I’m feeling retrospective about certain forms of my twenties craziness, which is a relief. And I’m excited for the next phase!

four year blogiversary!

Today marks four years since I sat down in my college apartment and decided to become a food blogger. A LOT has changed since that day. That fact, plus the fact that in general I feel like I’m at a big exciting transitional period in my life, results in me having a lot to say.

Obviously, not all (not most. Not half. Not even 1%, in all likelihood) will fit in this post.

In lieu of that, another of my rambling posts that you have so grown to love and a few promises for more and ever-so-slightly different content.

We begin with a recipe, because new recipes have been few and far between; a peculiar and disheartening fact that must be remedied because recipe developing is one of my favorite things about blogging!

Choco chip goodness!

A few facts about this recipe: yes, I already have a chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is my godmother’s, and you can find it here: My Godmother's Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies. That being said, that recipe serves a CROWD, and there are times you want to simply not tempt yourself with several dozen cookies in your home.
I also liked the idea of an eggless recipe, since I am always loath to use my tasty and special farmer’s market eggs in a recipe where they’ll completely disappear. The eggless fact means that the recipe can be made vegan if you use a vegan butter like Earth Balance. Plus, flax is fun: right now I only have whole flaxseed (which I think is better since those big bags of pre-ground flax go rancid so quickly). SO, I take some whole flaxseed, put it in a bag, and whack it with a meat cleaver til the seeds are crushed! Heaps of fun and a great stress reliever.
Finally, this recipe is on the healthier end of the spectrum because it’s 100% whole grain (I used my godmother’s trick of using ground up oats for most of the flour: note that I have not tested this, but I imagine you could make this recipe gluten free simply by using certified gluten-free oats and a gluten-free baking mix for the flour). Despite that, the cookies are tender- oat flour has a wonderful, softer texture in whole-grain baking. This recipe also has less fat and sugar because it gets some moisture and sweetness from a mashed banana, a trick I picked up in this Daily Garnish recipe. And I added pecans because nuts are good for you and taste AWESOME.

Final note: I baked them on a tiny tray in my wonderful, tiny, energy efficient toaster oven. It took about three batches, which is just thirty minutes of baking. LOVE that guy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 T ground flax
3 T water
1 cup oat flour (you can make your own by grinding 1 1/4 cup of oats in a food processor or blender)
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 T canola oil
2 T melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 medium ripe banana, mashed
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Combine ground flax and water in a small bowl, and let sit for five minutes or until the water becomes gel-like.

Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients (oat flour through salt) in another small bowl.

Mix together oil, butter, and sugar and beat (I used a stand mixer) until the butter is light and fluffy. Then add the banana, flax egg, and vanilla. The mixture will be very thin and mushy; that is okay.

Keeping the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients a bit at a time, scraping down the side of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Continue until all the dry ingredients are added. Then take the bowl out of the mixer and use a spatula to fold in chocolate chips and pecans.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray (or grease with butter). Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to put dough on the sheet. Don’t worry too much about spacing them out, because they don’t spread much. Push down on the tops of the cookies with a spatula or your fingers (you may want to use a little grease since the dough is a big sticky) to spread them out into a cookie shape.

Bake for 10 minutes or until the tops of cookies feel set up.

This made about two dozen for me, but they were teensy- I used a cookie scoop but flattened, not heaping. So.. that makes me feel better about the very LARGE quantity I ate of the very tiny cookies!

As you can see, the batter is soft and squishy, not super held together. And it’s eggless, so you can snack to your heart’s content.

   

I enjoyed my first (fully baked) cookie by the window, in the sun. I thought this would be an opportunity to show off my new favorite shoes.

Fact: my aunt is a bit of a hoarder (not, yknow, in a clinically crazy way; just a loveably kooky one) and has been getting rid of shoes like it’s her job. Fun fact: I am her size! Such benefits.

 

The cookie was great.

The brainchild for these cookies actually originated on a HARDCORE HIKE! In that Steve and I took a hardcore hike and I was sort of incurably hungry for the following three days. So I made some nice energy dense cookies.

Not for the first time, Steve and I set out to climb Old Rag, Virginia’s highest mountain. Not for the first time, we planned poorly. Last time, we didn't realize how long the hike would be and figured out we wouldn’t be able to finish it before sunset. This time, we had enough daylight (partially thanks to Daylight Savings Time).

The problem was, we dressed for nice, temperate, sea-level Northern Virginia, not hardcore mountain Shenandoah conditions. And wore shorts. As we traversed our way to the snowy mountain cap.

Silly kids!

The climb was fine, once we warmed up. More than fine. Stunning!

 

I found myself mortified at my athletic condition, though. I foolishly thought that since both of my parents have, on separate occasions, climbed this mountain successfully at middle age, I’d have no problem being so young and spry.

Dude, the climb is HARD! Steve had to literally push me up the mountain a coupla times. Grabbing rocks with bare hands (poor planning #2) feels hardcore, but also… hard! Sore!

The top is an endorphin rush like nothing else. Buttttt… then you have to climb down. And if you do the loop, well, recognize that the way down is the cold side of the mountain. To specify, the frozen, ice-covered side of the mountain. It was slowwwwwwww going.

But we made it!

Now for something completely different: Lent!

Because I’m Greek Orthodox, my Easter (and thus my Lent) are on a different schedule than everybody else’s. So, it just started. Lent for me means not eating meat (if you’re going about it the full way, you abstain from all meat AND all other animal products, but I’m not at a place physically or mentally where I can handle quite that level of strictness).

Fortunately, not eating meat is easy when you make ETHIOPIAN FOOD!

Leftovers from wunnerful Ethiopian Cabbage Dish, a recipe I modified just slightly by using 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/2 cup, because I just don’t like greasy food.

This is such a lovely, nutritious combo.

 

I also made some chickpeas, which I toasted up in olive oil til they had golden spots on them, then added these spices:

Plus a little tomato paste and water, and mashed them. Delicious.

Speaking of chickpeas, I made wasabi hummus (!) Somewhat inspired by Trader Joes’ magnificent horseradish hummus. A can of chickpeas plus some water plus some tahini plus some wasabi powder. Great with carrots!

On a final Lent note, I’m not drinking for Lent. I don’t think I have an alcohol problem, but my genetic profile suggests I’d fit right in if I got one. I’ve felt for the past few months like sometimes I drink alcohol not because I actually drink alcohol but because other people are, or because it’s there. There are times when I’m like, “Yesss! A glass of Malbec would be perfect right now!” and those are the times I want to have a glass of Malbec.

I thoroughly enjoyed the environment in which I drank that glass of mead (Mad Fox Brewing Company) and the mead was good, too, albeit SWEET. (It was ginger-pear. I HAD to order it!)

However, upon drinking that mead, I decided that I needed dessert. So Steve and I split a mini mason jar of butterscotch pudding. Yes, it was delicious, but two bites in I knew it wasnt really what I wanted (it was essentially un-bruleed creme brulee, a heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar bomb). And yet there it was, and I was loath to waste it. And it cost money!

Example #892359163597263598237502837502875028750283750283750827308235 in the history of the world why people don’t make their best decisions after having consumed alcohol.

Next item on the Lent agenda, products! One vegetarian friendly, one vegan friendly.

These:

 

DON’T BOTHER. I bought them because they were on sale, and I thought to myself, “how could anything with mushrooms and mozzarella be less than awesome?”

Well, couldn’t tell ya how they did it but these were not awesome and in fact not very good at all. I ate them in reasonable good cheer by crumbling them up on salads and enhancing them with wasabi hummus- :) – but there are much better veggie burgers on the market.

Next product, also bought on sale:

 

So the original price on this guy was $35, but a special at Whole Foods and a manufacturer’s coupon given to me by the guy demo-ing it reduced that price to $20, and this is a big container, so that struck me as a “deal” (so much as protein powder can be).

I was impressed first and foremost by the taste (the advantage of getting to sample something before you buy it).

Then I was impressed by the nutritional info.

Then I was IMPRESSED by the ingredients. [Note: I am not a dietitian yet and am discussing the fact that this product was good for me, someone with no major health issues. My godmother is an R.D. at a hospital, and one of her first steps on starting there was taking the sprouts out of the salad bar because they can harbor bacteria that can do a number on immunocompromised people. Buy the products that work for your needs!

 

Fact: my sister did a little PCOS research and learned that whey protein isn’t recommended for women with PCOS because we pump our cattle so full of hormones and women with PCOS already have hormone drama. So I dug that this was whey-free and had only pronounceable ingredients. (Well okay maybe you can’t pronounce some of the probiotic strains. But I am currently a microbiology student, so I can! :D)

I used the powder to make the first actually good protein pancakes of my life!

I used:
1/4 cup Safeway brand organic whole wheat pancake mix (the kind you add milk and eggs too; not the kind you just add water to)
1/2 scoop of the protein powder above
1 flax egg
scant 1/4 cup milk

It cooked up like a dream, even with the flax egg.

 

Annnnnnnd the pancakes were totally beautiful and tasty. A first for me, in trying protein powder pancakes! An added bonus of protein-rich pancakes, of course: you can top them with just syrup and feel good about it :)

    

Speaking of my sister, she’s coming home for Spring Break tomorrow! Lovely.

Remember the beautiful flowers she sent for no good reason?

Had to do a followup blossoming picture. So. Gorgeous!

 

So I have a LOT of hopes and aspirations for the future right now. Some of them are blog related. Here, in no particular order, are some thoughts I have.

- I just read Health at Every Size and I have way too many thoughts about it to summarize in this post, but it’s getting its own. Short version: I thought it’d be a book-length version of a Dove commercial with yadda yadda self love yadda yadda everyone is beautiful. It is, in fact, an exquisitely researched, chock-full-o’-facts rebuttal to everyone in our society who squawks about skinniness in the name of health. J’adore.

- I’ve been taking a lot of science classes and in general have been thinking a lot about science in the media. Every woman knows what antioxidants are; many know hunger-related hormones like leptin and ghrelin; some are savvy on aerobic conditioning and the effect of various workouts on metabolism. But who can tell me what your gall bladder does? What your blood cells are made of? What vitamin D actually does in your body?
A brief thesis: the science available in women’s magazines is not incorrect science. It’s just tiny, narrow snippets of science with a nearly 100% focus on how you can apply it to weight loss.

- In general, the media’s just breaking my heart right now. Steubenville, anyone? Looking at my two most recent issues of Health magazine (a magazine to which I subscribe, so I’m not trying to pile on attack speech, but here me out), I’m struck. On each, the top word, directly under the title, first thing on the left which catches your eyes first if you’re reading, as in English, left to right: LOSE.
LOSE is the first word. LOSE, the word that’s the opposite of WIN. Or GAIN, as in GAINING the right to vote, GAINING confidence in your job, GAINING friends and supporters. One says “Lose 10 pounds in three weeks” (yeah not healthy), the other “Lose your belly fat”. LOSE. First thing. Food for thought.

- I have spent various points in the past four years thinking of food in an exclusive way. Food as the solution to EVERY problem. Or, later, food as the cause of EVERY problem. The truth is, you know what food solves for me? Hunger. That’s it. I have worked hard to get out of that myopic view of the world and I want my blog to reflect it. SO, I’d like for my blog to talk about food in a happy, positive way (recipes, reviews of ONLY the products I choose to buy [because all the blogs I’ve spent the past few years reading and enjoying have all had a troubling association between commercial success and vending of total bullshit products], recaps of fun and special trips that involve tasty food, explorations of the delicious ethnic cuisines my hometown has to offer).
But I’d also like my blog to be about ME, and my life is about a lot more than food. Always has been, but I’m seeing it better now. I want to talk about what I’m learning at school, what my personal reading has done to teach and inspire me. What’s going on in the world. And while I’ve done various recaps of individual dates in my life, I’d like to share about me in a less ADHD way. Like, yknow, WRITING, rather than recapping. For example, here’s what’s new with me: I’m still a chem and microbiology student. Now I’m doing some freelance writing and I’m also exploring my first personal chef-type job that I could later see as a business when I’m a dietitian.
I’d also like the blog to involve more discussions. Hands down one of my favorite blog posts I’ve ever read- fellas, hide your eyes- was this "green your period" post at Healthy Tipping Point that discussed my now-beloved Diva Cup. There were hundreds of comments on that post! Not saying that because I’m jealous of her readership- saying that because I think it’s rad when blogs can be forums for a community discussion. To that, if you read my blog, tell me about you! My hits aren’t huge, but they add up to more than my loyal family and friend readers. Is there more content you’d like from this blog?

- On a final and less dramatic note, I hate the name of this blog. I have almost since the day I created it. I can’t explain it to anyone verbally without sounding like an idiot. Very few people call me Lele, and my boyfriend cannot for the life of him remember that it’s “Lee lee”, not “Lay lay” (which sounds pervy). I’d like a simpler title that I can actually tell people without a great deal of explanation and spelling. I’d also like to switch to Wordpress, because I’ve heard it’s so much better. If any of y’all have successfully done it, tips are SO welcome!