Siggi's

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day and, as I have mentioned, I have quite the sweet tooth.  This means that I often don't make the best choices in the morning as I find it hard to resist muffins, scones, croissants and the like.  All of these are wonderful options to start the day of course, but not every day. So, in an effort to be healthy, I am trying to get excited about yogurt.

Certainly yogurt is not the only healthy option in the morning and I plan to explore and share others here, but it is very accessible and requires no preparation, which makes it kind of ideal.  I like yogurt a lot, but is it the kind of thing I wake up craving?  Not really.  However, that is starting to change as I have discovered some new kinds that are keeping things interesting.


The packaging alone is enough to make me get out of bed!

One of them is Siggi's, which is an Icelandic style yogurt called skyr and is available at Whole Foods.  I have only tried the orange and ginger flavor pictured above thus far but with flavors like pomegranate and passion fruit, grapefruit, and acai and mixed berry, there are obviously a lot of good things to explore.  The yogurt is very thick and creamy and the fact that it is punctuated by bits of spicy ginger and orange peel makes it all the better.
 
So there it is, a thrilling post about yogurt to start your Wednesday.  Happy mid-week everyone!

New seating arrangement

My brother's apartment was not the only one to benefit from my mom's trip down over the weekend.  Tucked in with his gorgeous mirror and some estate sale treasures were the lovely chairs pictured below.  They were destined to replace the folding wooden chairs from Ikea that previously provided seating at our rustic kitchen/dining table, which is another spectacular Mom find.

Also on the painting agenda: chair #3 and the bench, probably in white
P.S. - Can you spot the Leo photobomb?

I love everything about them.  They are the perfect height, nice and sturdy, and their shape adds so much warmth and character to the arrangement around the table.  I even love the chipping, mint green paint job, though I have big plans to paint them once I am out from under the cloud of GMAT prep (less than two weeks...eek!) I think I am going to go with the color below, Rust-Oleum's "Wildflower Blue," which would tie them into our apartment's color scheme and also scores points for its lovely name.

Perfect, right?

On a somewhat related note, between yesterday's and today's posts, I have made several mentions of Russ's beloved mirror so it seems only right to share the picture my mom sent last night, which captures it in all its glory in its new, proud home:

Tall, dark and handsome

His roommate called it his "Snow White Mirror," which made us all giggle and is actually pretty spot on.  There certainly is something magical about it.

Busy weekend

Mom got to town late Saturday night and we grabbed a quick dinner out with Russ and Greg and stayed up (a little too) late chatting.  On Sunday morning, we got up early to go meet a few of my parents' neighbors who were in town to support another neighbor participating in the Nation's Triathlon.  We saw her come off the bike, start the running portion and cross the finish line in very strong form.  It was really inspiring watching people of all shapes, sizes and ages coming through and finishing this race. One of my favorite things, which happened several times, was when little kids jumped in to run the last few steps with their parents and even some grandparents...totally heart-warming.

Only picture of us from the weekend - we were busy! Pardon the red-eye - I still think we're pretty cute.

From there we went back to my place to grab the car and head over to my brother's apartment.  This was where our plans hit a bit of a snag.  It turned out that the public parking garage where she had parked the night before was closed on Sundays and her car, along with all of the things she brought down for Russ, was locked inside.  Fortunately for us, the building engineer was on the property repairing damage from Saturday's storm and took pity on our cause. He called the parking manager, convinced him to let us out, ran down to his car to grab his access card and swiped it to open the gate himself.  He could not have been more of a gentleman throughout it all and completely saved the day.

Once we finally got to Russ's apartment, we unloaded the car, did a quick hardware and grocery store run to get the essentials (including wine and cheese, of course) and got about the business of settling him in.  The most prized item that Mom brought down was a gorgeous antique mirror that stood in Russ's room when he was little.  He had always loved the mirror and specifically arranged the furniture in his new room so that it could have its own little nook.  Though all of the cleaning and arranging we did made a big impact, the mirror was definitely the most important touch of the day.  I love watching a new place come together and Russ's is going to be amazing.

We wrapped up the weekend over dinner at a fantastic Indian restaurant with the triathlete and her support team and it was a wonderful celebration of her impressive feat.  Mom left this morning after grabbing coffee as I fought back tears at her leaving so soon.  These visits are never long enough and I can't wait for the next one.

Hope your weeks are off to a good and less tearful start!

Fresh flower love

Every time I go home for a visit, I am greeted with fresh flowers in my room arranged in the perfect little vase by my mom.  In the spring and summer they come from her amazing garden. This little touch always makes my heart swell with even more happiness at being home.  I think that is a large part of why I love to have fresh flowers in our apartment; it makes it feel like a home. 

Two bouquets - five ways

My mom's vase collection has been built up through years of scanning thrift stores and tag sales with an expert eye.  I aspire to have such a beautiful collection one day.  Luckily, she has passed some of it along to me, including the blue hammered glass one (my absolute favorite) and the gorgeous little bud vase at the end, which allowed me to save a rosebud that came off the stem as I unwrapped the bouquet.


Ready!

She is coming to visit this weekend to help my brother Russ, a recent Georgetown grad, move in to his first post-college apartment, which means I am the one putting flowers in the guest room to make her feel at home.  I can't wait!

Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend everyone!

Coffee shop office

On the days I'm not in Charm City, my office is located just across our living room in the spare bedroom.  I'll definitely give a little tour of that space some other time, but as I sit here in my other home "office" this afternoon I feel inspired to talk about this one first.

Working from home a few days a week definitely provides me with enviable flexibility and certainly balances out the days that I commute to and from Baltimore. However, I have always been a little social butterfly and really thrive in groups, so I knew when I accepted this job that finding a balance between the quiet of my home office and the need for human interaction would be essential to my happiness in it.

A little over two months in, I am definitely still working on that balance (I think that will be ongoing) but one thing that has helped enormously is the adorable coffee shop across the street from our apartment.  It is such a cozy, quirky little place and it is always filled with other people on laptops, hissing espresso machines, an exceedingly random selection of background music and other happy varieties of white noise.  It has been a favorite since we moved in because of its great coffee, delicious baked goods, panini-pressed egg sandwiches and fabulous sangria at happy hour and it has now become my frequent afternoon post on the days I work at home.  Getting out of the apartment to take my regular seat at the bar built into a bookcase always helps me to focus and feel more engaged with the world.  I feel very lucky that it is only a quick commute across the street.  I'm sure I will explore new places as I continue to find my work-from-home rhythm, but I couldn't ask for a better home base.

For your next tailgate

As promised, I have a recipe to share today that is perfect tailgate fare.  When I spotted this recipe for Loaded Baked Potato Dip on The Kitchn last week, it was pretty much a done deal.  Bacon, cheddar, chives and Ranch bound together by cream cheese and sour cream? Sign me up!  This dip came together very easily and was a huge hit with the crowd on Monday night.  A few quick notes:

• In an effort to make this a tad more virtuous (ha!) I used low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream and could not taste the difference one bit.
• I did not use a full two cups of cheddar cheese, which seemed like a lot to me. I think I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 cups and would recommend just eyeballing it as you see fit.
• I tried to keep this as simple as possible because I was in a time crunch and my shortcuts actually worked out really well.  Rather than frying up raw bacon, I microwaved pre-cooked Oscar Meyer bacon (turkey bacon would also make a great substitute) and also bought wavy potato chips rather than making them as the recipe suggests, though I'd love to try that some other time.  I will say that this dip is rather thick so I definitely recommend buying the sturdiest ones you can find if you also go this route.

That may seem like a lot of notes for a simple dip recipe but I promise it is almost effortless to make.  Another point in its favor: you can make it the night before...it only improves as the flavors meld together.  It certainly earned a spot on my starting roster for the season and I hope you'll give it a try too!

Labor Day Weekend

Long weekends are truly the best.  This one was a mix of work and play because I had a work project that required some attention but I managed to fit in a lot of good things nonetheless.

Good thing that my assistant doesn't mind working weekends!

Greg was thrilled to have the long weekend to unwind between jobs.  The extra day definitely made a difference.  Between college football and spurts of work I was also able to sneak in a fabulous brunch on Sunday morning at Lindsey's charming new house, which pretty much made my day.


Adorable front door + amazing porch

I had my first pumpkin latte of the Fall after holding out all the way to September 2nd.  I also sipped on the best pumpkin beer there is, Shipyard Pumpkinhead, which we discovered on a weekend getaway to Maine 2 years ago and hardly ever manage to find here.

The best - from New England, naturally

We capped the weekend off by hosting friends for Virginia Tech's season opener.  Watching the Hokies fight their way to an unbelievable OT win over Georgia Tech definitely brought things to a close on majorly high note.  I know all the 'Hoos out there may think I'm a traitor, but to love a Hokie (or at least mine) is to love their team and Greg's joy over the nail-biting win was contagious.

Back tomorrow with a fantastic tailgate dip that I tested on our guests last night...hope the short week gets off to a good start for everyone!