Hello (again) World/French Night

Right, so I know it's been a while. Like, almost a year? I'll give a quick life update just in case you were wondering why I've been so neglectful these past few months.

I have:

Run a half marathon

will be running another in TX in February!

Gotten engaged

it's even prettier in person

Moved to Texas

A view of our fantastic new kitchen

Gotten a new job

this is what I look like at my job

Gone to Burning Man

PAM aka BUSTADON aka where all of my time and money went this summer.
Wouldn't take it back for anything <3 <3 <3

It's certainly been a challenging year, but all in all life is great. Especially since I got to eat this dish last night (and play with fire while cooking - see video below for demonstration). Apologies in advance for the shoddy pictures. I couldn't find my camera cord so I used my phone. I realize now that this was a terrible idea because my phone is not a camera.

Don't let the pictures fool you - the food was fantastic. We shared a French Foodie night with some awesome friends here in Austin. The dish was served with a fresh endive and roquefort salad, baguette (for sopping up all the sauce), a fantastic French wine, and a delicious dessert that involved chèvre, strawberries, wine, and all sorts of tasty things. I was a little too excited to eat so there are no pictures of the rest of the dishes, but my camera wouldn't have done them justice anyways so I'm not too concerned.

As for the film: it was a pretty easy selection. We did French food, and I've been meaning to see Holy Motors for quite some time, so there we go! Review follows after the recipe.

Recipe: Coq AuVin (I think it means braised chicken or something)

Broiled Marinated Pork Chop/A Very Long Engagement

After nostalgically looking at old blog entries, I decided it was time to jump back on the bandwagon. At the risk of making this entry too personal, I'm just going to say that m boyfriend just moved away to Austin, and now I have found myself with much more time on my hands. Also, some entries might be written from the south! Oh yeah I also just signed up for my first half marathon. So I guess I have to start eating like a runner or something? We'll see what happens with that.

next thing you know, I will look like this

I made some spicy brown mustard using this recipe for our memorial day barbecue a couple of weeks ago. The Serious Eats website I got the recipe from is probably my new favorite food blog. It's especially awesome for people that live in Chicago and New York. I don't eat a lot of hot dogs or hamburgers, so a marinade seemed like a natural way to use some of it up.

And the movie...well, I've seen it before but I felt like watching it again. It's my favorite romantic film of all time.

Recipe: Broiled Marinated Pork Chops