Woody at the Weenie Races!

Here is Woodstock's professional racing debut :) I'll let you see how he did...

...It was such a fun event; a bunch of friends came to cheer Woody on and help him run! We'll definitely come back next year :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day... wieners need love, too :)

Hope it was a good one! I'm 1/3 of the way through my second semester, after taking two three-hour exams the past few nights. Yay, grad school :)

Night xx

It's going to be a long weekend...

The little monster woke me up at 6:45 this morning. Of course he immediately fell back asleep after doing his business. Me on the other hand, not so much.

I originally contemplated hiking Camelback or going for a run (it's been in the 70s-80s all morning, only to get hotter). But the amount it'd cost me in gas to get there and the pain I'd cause to my knee weren't entirely worth it in my mind. Instead, I ate breakfast and resorted to more creative outlets.

I considered strangling him or giving him an embarrassing haircut in the drawing, but I didn't have the heart. He's still sleeping like a baby. I guess there could be worse things. Clearly, I've been bored. At least I've been listening to French news all morning.

Oh, here's the original by the way...

How could you be mad at such a silly face?! <3 Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Vegetarian Sushi & Indonesian Tofu Salad

I've been having a lot of fun experimenting as a week-long vegetarian. Cutting out meat has made me try to cook more international cuisines than I'd ever really tried before.

Let's start off with Monday's dinner. I'm still learning as I go on the sushi-making. As in, I've only ever made California rolls before. But without imitation crab at my disposal, I had to get a little creative and think up new sushi fillings.

So I went with the sweet potato, avocado and asparagus roll with sprouts:

I've ordered tempura sweet potato rolls before, so that was a part of the inspiration behind my vegetarian roll. And it was delicious! To the very last bite...

Maybe I just really wanted to show off my new sushi plate and dipping bowls :)

Now on to yesterday's vegetarian fare. Post-workout lunch I was in the mood for a panini!

Into this little guy went (shockingly) sweet potatoes, tomato, mozzerella, fresh basil, spinach, sprouts, onion and a drizzling of fig balsamic vinegar & oil.

It was essentially a Caprese salad wedged between two pieces of wheat bread! I think the next time I make one of these sandwiches, I'm going to drizzle the oil and vinegar inside the veggies and not on the bread side of the sandwich! It got everywhere, but trust me, it was worth it. I feel as if this has become a new staple in my life, vegetarian or not, I'm going to be eating more of these sandwiches!

Which brings us back to last night's dinner. I went to Japan on Monday, so I decided to continue my culinary tour through Asia, specifically Indonesia for dinner. Enter the modified tofu gado gado salad (with spicy peanut dressing).

Salad ingredients:

• 1/2 package of tofu
• 1 small sweet potato
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cucumber
• handful of bean sprouts
• 1/2 carrot
• 1 c spinach

This was super simple to make! All I did was press the tofu, cube it, then dry fried it on both sides. While that was going on, I set my oven to 375° and peeled/cubed the sweet potato before roasting it for about 20 minutes. No seasoning necessary, since then dressing was plenty salty for the entire dish. Finally, I hard boiled an egg while chopping up all the other ingredients. Everything all came together at once, including the dressing.

Dressing ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c roasted peanuts
• 5 t soy sauce
• 3 T lime juice
• 4 t brown sugar
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper or pepper flakes
• 2 T water

All of the ingredients went into the blender until all the chunks were gone.

This made an overflowing ramekin of dressing, so if you're feeding one or two, definitely cut that amount in half. It is fairly salty and spicy, so I actually added more water and less soy sauce to cut down on the salt. Now you understand why I said not to season any of the salad ingredients!

WORKOUT

About that workout I alluded to earlier... As I've mentioned on this blog before, my knee is absolutely wrecked. I was training for a half marathon from May to July of 2010 but added mileage way too fast for my body. It felt good at the time of my running, but one day I woke up and literally couldn't walk without pain. This was after I quit my job and right before I moved to Arizona. AKA no health insurance. Since then, I've been trying to take it easy, and probably haven't run more than 10 miles total. I have shoe inserts for my arches, a knee brace and rock tape for my knee, but none of it helps. Every time I run, even if it's half a mile, I have shooting pain inside and underneath my left kneecap. That means, until I find a full-time job with health insurance, my running is going to have to end.

If you can imagine, I was depressed for weeks, if not months. I tried willing my knee back. It hurt me to learn other people I knew were training for marathons for the first time and successfully completing them. I followed a proven guide and wound up hurt. And may have possibly ruined my knee for life. I was eating and eating, and not working out.

Until this week. I'm walking more and watching/doing Yoga on Demand from Exercise TV. It is my new goal then, to get strong with yoga, and to be able to hold poses for more than a few seconds! I've always liked yoga, but it was generally a leisure activity. From today forward, I'm making it my main source of exercise.

Even Woodstock wants to try it :)

This pose is called Get Off My Mat, You Lazy Dog

I hope I can continue strong with both yoga and my week without meat! Since both are new, I'm eager to try and progress through the week. I suppose I'll have a better idea of what I am capable of at the conclusion of this week.

Have a great day, friends! xx

Week 10: Watch La Dolce Vita

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the tenth post in the series, when I finally watched Fellini's La Dolce Vita, in the middle of a pretty rough week of being sick. Here you will find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

As someone who majored in French in college, I've seen a lot of foreign films. The jury is still out on whether or not I truly enjoy foreign films, especially films pre-1980. One of my classes on French culture involved an intensive study on Jean-Luc Godard and New Wave Francophone Cinema {generally of the black & white variety}. This is NOT to say I was a film studies major. First and foremost, I studied literature and doubled a major with English as well. When I had extra units to spare, I was able to dabble in French cultural classes like the aforementioned one.

Something about foreign films appeals to my ongoing desire to travel and passion for foreign languages. Plus, two of my favorite all-time movies have been Amélie {French} and Pan's Labyrinth {Spanish}. But I have yet to see so many movies, American or otherwise. I'm not sure why I've had it in my head forever, but I've felt the need to see La Dolce Vita for a very, very long time. That long term unfulfillment and the week-long flu/cold/plague I've been suffering from made this week's "new thing" a very simple choice. Lounge in front of the tv with kleenex, a billion pills and La Dolce Vita on Netflix. Perfection in this otherwise tainted week.

{Source}

If you know me at all, you'll remember my adoration of vintage posters and 1950s-60s culture/fashion.

I will spare you any commentary on the film other than it kept in the tradition of most 1960s foreign films: très, très bizarre. But it was also beautiful at the same time, split up into eight mini episodes of self-contained narrative, which seem to have nothing to do with the previous scene. Except, maybe some commentary about how love and fidelity was nearly impossible in the free loving, drinking, smoking and drug-using culture of the 1960s. I still don't entirely get it. And probably will end up watching it again soon.

Anyways, I definitely recommend at least checking it out. Just be warned that European cinema is anything but linear. This film was pivotal in cinematic development and has been referenced in a number of works since it came out.

So what else have I been up to this week?

Working baseball games

Giving Woodstock a bath {video below, I swear he's not all there upstairs}

And drinking lots and lots of these

It's an adaptation of Sweat & the City's cold/flu remedy smoothie. Into mine went:

• three oranges (from my garden, so they're not as large as supermarket oranges)
• 1 c coconut milk
• 1 handful coconut flakes
• 1/2 c mango
• ice to thicken it up

The smoothie tasted soooo good, I almost wouldn't mind being sick to have it :) Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I have been drinking 1-2 of these bad boys a day. I hope it's helping.

Oh well, in the meantime I'm going to go back to snuggling up on the couch with my kleenex. Ugh, I'm ready to come out from being "under the weather" as they say...

All about me, from A-to-Z!

Confession, I am not original :) I saw this from In my tummy and knew I'd have to post it myself! With that in mind, get ready to know all that you've ever wanted about me, in alphabetical fashion.

A. Age: 25, but only for 1.5 more months... I'm not ready to be in my late 20s!

B. Bed size: Queen, but a King or a California King would be amazing. I think Woodstock would get lost in it, haha.

C. Chore you hate: Lately I've been a super OCD clean freak. I've been cleaning my house all the time. I don't mind doing laundry, but I let all the clean clothes accumulate into one beastly pile in my spare bedroom. At that point, it's way too much for me to handle. So I put off folding and hanging those clothes...

D. Dogs: My favorite miniature long-haired weenie, Woodstock! :) I think he really wants a brother or a sister now that he's almost a year-and-a-half old. He told me either another weenie to play with, or maybe a little Sheltie friend!

E. Essential start to your day: Hitting snooze. I can't handle mornings, whether I wake up at 5 a.m. or noon. I try to hit snooze at least once a day. You know, that way I feel "extra rested" with the four more minutes of "sleep" I get.

F. Favorite color: Up until high school it was purple. But as I've gotten older, I find myself very drawn to shades of hot pink.

G. Gold or silver: Is white gold cheating?! :) I love the look of silver and pretty much all of my (fake) bling is sliver. Until it starts peeling off and you can see the fake copper underneath. I'm a classy gal.

H. Height: 5'4" - 5'5" it depends on what the doctor feels like telling me every time I go.

I. Instruments you play: I used to rock a clarinet in elementary and middle school. I got pretty good at it, too, but hated marching band. So I quit the final year we played at the Disney Magic Music Days (in Disneyland). Now I want to learn to play guitar. I do sing terribly, however :)

J. Job title: Too many to count. Currently I hold four part-time jobs. Moving was such a bitch, I left my old job and suffered six months of unemployment and now I have four mini jobs that keep me busier than I'd like to be. They are (in no particular order) tutoring junior/high school students in math, writing and science; substitute junior/high school French, math, science, journalism, history, P.E. teacher; freelance statistician for the Arizona State and Grand Canyon University athletic departments, and finally, I am a seasonal player/media relations assistant for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Phew.

K. Kids: I am unmarried. The baby wiener is as close to children as I'm going to get anytime soon...

L. Live: Was outside of San Francisco, but for the past seven months, outside of Phoenix (hence the new blog header). I miss California.

M. Mom’s name: For the longest time, I didn't realize she had a name other than Mom ;)

N. Nicknames: Ok guys, I am the QUEEN of nicknames. They've followed me around everywhere. Mo, Mo-Mo, Moniquey, Monique-wa (middle school, don't ask), Monic, Moni-q, Mo'nique (pronounced like the comedienne, ha I'm so white), Moda, Modaboat, Moda Inc. (remember when Ja-Rule and Ashanti used to sing together? That was back in my high school days, and they'd reference Murder Inc.? haha), KP II (because I am a Katy Perry wannabe, total girl crush, you have no idea), and lastly, Honey. If you watch How I Met Your Mother, you'll understand the last name. I know I'm leaving a ton out. Basically, I'll respond to anything that begins with an M :)

O. Overnight hospital stays: I think just once? I had a hernia and surgery for it when I was a baby. Oh yeah, I was also super tiny when I was born, so I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until I weighed enough. So my parents put me in Cabbage Patch Kids clothes until I could wear real baby clothes.... So 80s.

P. Pet peeve: I hate mouth breathers and close talkers haha. I like my personal space, people.

Q. Quote from a movie: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." The girl I tutor was watching Moulin Rouge! the other day, and since that's my favorite movie on the planet, I figure it's an appropriate answer here.

R. Right or left handed: Righty

S. Siblings: I have a younger sister, Aimée (we're so French, n'est-ce pas?)

Aimée and me in Newport Beach, Calif.

T. Time you wake up: Usually, I'd say between 8-9 a.m./9-10 a.m. I was unemployed forever, lay off me :) But now with Spring Training baseball games starting, I have been waking up anywhere between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. And on days when I sub, I'll get up at about 5:45 a.m. I'm so not ok with that...

U. Underwear: This is kind of private, don't you think?! The only thing I'll give you is that I am cheap, so I buy most of mine at Target now. They have some cute stuff. Oh yeah, I also like to match what's underneath with what's outside haha. Anyone else do that?

V. Vegetables you dislike: I've grown up and gotten to like a ton of foods I hated as a kid. However, despite my attempts (trust me, I keep making several to see if my palette has changed) I still can't get myself to enjoy mushrooms or peas. Though, I do like split pea soup :)

W. What makes you run late: My damn dog. I hate crating him up, so I'll stay out and play as often as possible. Oh yeah, also the Internet. I blame everything on the Internet!

X. X-Rays you’ve had: I've had plenty of dental x-ays, I've been getting a lot of jaw scans lately for my TMJ (still not healed, I keep trying), had to get a chest x-ray when I taught in France to prove my health, I had an ankle x-ray when I tore my ligaments playing softball and I've had a couple of heart/chest x-rays towards the end of college, when I strained the walls of my heart. Still not sure how that one happened...

Y. Yummy food you make: I love to bake. I'm trying to bake more French recipes... hopefully you'll see more of those soon :)

Z. Zoo- favorite animal: The manatee. This dates back to third grade. When the rabbit was chosen by this girl in my class, Hannah, I had to pick an animal for my animal report and guess what glorious creature I chose. Yup, I saw two manatees playing in an aquarium in Florida the year before (whose favorite animal is a manatee in second grade?! I'm so weird). My entire room was decked out in manatee posters and apparel. I even joined Jimmy Buffet's Save the Manatee Foundation, adopted a manatee one year, Phyllis, and I also have a manatee Christmas stocking. I need help.

Now you all probably think I'm a little crazy... I feel like that's a good sentiment to end this post with :) Hope you enjoyed learning about me, ciao xx

Week 8: Bake for a friend (without eating any!)

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the eighth post in the series when I tackle baking for a friend (and not myself). Here you will find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

It's been a really, really long time since I've baked anything a friend. I don't actually know if I've even solely baked for friends before. Usually I selfishly get a craving for baked goodies, slave away in the kitchen and then once I've realized I made way too many to consume alone, I'll give half away. Or maybe like 10 percent away...

This week, I changed that. I baked cookies solely for a special friend. And it was super simple, in fact I baked with only six ingredients:

You'll notice I finished off the last of my home made peanut butter. Don't worry, I can always make more ;)

And oh yeah, I guess I should show you a picture of my friend...

That's right. I've never EVER in my life made dog treats before this week! What a week to do so, since Feb. 21 was Woodstock's one year anniversary with us :) I didn't really recognize his birthday on Dec. 28, so I figured this was the second-best time to do something special for my pooch (who am I kidding, I spoil the heck of out that little brat, see below).

As I said earlier, it's super easy to make your own dog treats. I've been reading up a lot on pet health and what exactly goes into pet foods and have actually revamped his diet -- gradually, of course, so he doesn't get sick. His food is all natural and contains no wheat or corn fillers. The first ingredient in dog food should be meat (not meat by-products). As for treats, that's a little different. These ones do have whole wheat flour and oats and flax. I know exactly what went into the dog biscuits. In all, it was fairly cheap to make and would save lots of money over time making at home than buying at pet stores.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 c peanut butter
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 T honey
• 1 c whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c oatmeal or flax meal (I used a combination of the two)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300° and lightly grease a cookie sheet. Sir the egg, peanut butter, banana and honey in a small mixing bowl. Once combined, stir in dry ingredients. Place dough on heavily floured surface (the peanut butter and honey make the dough VERY sticky) to knead and roll into a thin sheet. Cut out desired shapes. Bake about 30 minutes or until browning occurs on the sides. Set out to cool before showering your dog with love!

This project became even MORE fun when I not only discovered a doggy bone, but also a dachshund cookie cutter! I will admit though, for a 12-lb. dog, it's best to snap these in half and give him parts at a time. Woodstock absolutely LOVES them. To the point of hoarding the biscuits when I give them to him. He runs and hides either in his crate or under my bed to eat! The little guy begs at my heels more than ever, now that I've baked him special treats. I've created a monster.

Now... bring on the puppy pictures (from one year ago)!!!!

ADD Christmas Recap: Snow, California & Secret Santa

Before I dive into my AWESOME trip back home, let me introduce tonight's post with the CRAZY news that it's been snowing in Arizona today... I'm not talking about Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon. I mean the PHOENIX VALLEY (link to a news segment on today's weather)!!!! For the first time in the near six months I've lived here, I turned on the heater this afternoon. Currently it's under 40° -- much colder than Iowa, Northern California, Washington D.C., you name it! With that, I'm enjoying my first mug of coffee and Baileys of the season :)

Now about the presents....

Going into the holiday, I was most excited for the blogger Secret Santa exchange put on by Tina! How awesome that idea was. Needless to say I was pretty stoked about what I got for Jamie. I'm such a French nerd and love reliving my time abroad, I knew she must feel the same about studying in Italy! So you know what's ironic about this gift exchange that I'm pretty sure included 50+ members? I was Jamie's Secret Santa and Jamie was Poppy's Secret Santa, and you guessed it, Poppy was MY Secret Santa! Our circle is complete :)

Anyways, I ended up driving back to California on Dec. 20. It was a long drive, was supposed to snow on the Grapevine (pretty much the only way out of LA), and I knew I couldn't make a 13+ hour drive solo. Well, I had Woodstock, so I had to stop even more frequently than normal to ensure he didn't ruin my seats! :) I made two days out of the trip there and back, stopping at friends' houses in Los Angeles/Orange County both ways. That meant my Secret Santa gift was going to arrive without me! Luckily J.D. was home to receive it and send me some pictures of all the lovely goodies Poppy sent me!

The card was adorable!

And I love everything in the gift! Chocolate, puppy treats, a notebook (she must know I LOVE to write), pomegranate fruit strips (my fav flavor), Pop Chips and a dog costume....

...Which Woody hated, but I LOOOOOOVED haha. He's so darn presh. In other news, we celebrated acknowledged his first birthday on Tuesday! Of course I didn't throw a party or get him any presents, he's a dog hahaha!!! But I do plan on baking some dog treats someday soon for the little guy.

I don't know if you noticed from the picture above, but I also went a little crazy and dyed my hair black! I think I love it. It's such a big change for me. My hair is usually light brown, I've streaked it blonde and have darkened it to a reddish brown color in the past. That's about it.

Not gonna lie, the black was inspired by my current celebrity crush:

(Source)

I downloaded Katy Perry's new album and have been playing it nonstop. I freakin' love her!!!! She had a Christmas special on last week and it's waiting to be watched on my DVR and you know I recorded her biography special on E! last night. And then watched it as soon as I drove in from California at about 9 p.m. And I've been watching her videos on YouTube. So obsessed... I think everyone knows about my infatuation, I keep getting texts from friends and family whenever she's on TV ha, thanks guys. You get me :)

Speaking of California, Woodstock and I really did make the Tour de Cali. I stayed in Santa Monica and ate at the most amazing restaurants. It's been my dream for years to live in LA, I'm going to see that it happens sooner rather than later. Then I stayed at my parents' house in the Bay Area for eight days, seeing old friends from high school and college, and enjoying amazing French food made with my mom and sister! We had a soufflé on Christmas Eve, Aimée made peppermint ice cream and candy cane-dipped waffle cones and I attempted to make pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants), but something was off because they basically turned into chocolate bagels ha. Oh well. Then I went to Sacramento, Stockton and Huntington Beach where my friend and I took his boat out around Huntington Harbour (in the rain) and ate sushi at a restaurant off the boat dock!

It really has been amazing and I can't wait to go back again! I don't know when my next trip home will be, but I am heading out to Washington D.C. next week!!!! I'm milking my unemployment for all I can get, because my job begins in February!

Finally, the presents! I made off with some amazing gifts. I love my friends and family! The past 11 days were a total blast -- I miss them already.

Work clothes from Macy*s

My dream recently has been to become a pastry chef (it's so expensive, I'm going to become self-taught haha)... I also received an array of cookbooks!

Jeopardy on Wii and Beauty and the Beast on Blu-Ray/DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon it'll be time to take down the tree J.D. and I have here... but before that, a celebration to end 2010 and kick off a new decade is in order! Happy New Year everyone :)