Lunch With Alice.

     Lunch with Alice has stemmed from Dinner with Alice which I tried to turn into a blog segment that just didn't get off the ground. I met Alice a few months back in the dark and dungy bar next to my house. We had been sent there by a mutual friend to meet up because we are both West Coast babies and obvio would connect right away. And I personally think we did!

     While we weren't the friends that spent every weekend together and know each other deep dark secrets, I always feel so comfortable with dear Alice. A conversation with Alice is always leaves me inspired, smiling and excited about anything that's coming up in my life. 

     We went to this little place down the street from my apartment called Sababa. It opened a few months ago and is a falafel place. Long story short, it was delicious, great price and just felt really fresh. 

      We sat in the courtyard in my apartment building. It's actually a really pretty place. It's above the street so you don't hear the pollution from the street while basking in this little haven. It's cooler today with more cloudy and breezes then I've seen all week. It was nice to sit in the shade and actually be cool. We sat and just shared. 

     [As I sit here writing this out, my dress is still warm from the sun. It's giving me that I-may-need-a-nap-in-the-afternoon kind of feeling. With all these warm thoughts, it may be easier to obtain!]

     It's so nice to find someone you can just be totally open with. I know I talk a lot, sometimes about relevant things and other times about things that probably do not matter, but she always just listens. I think it's so rare that you find someone so far from home that makes you feel so at home at the same time.

     Alice, if you're reading this I just want to say thank you for being my West away from home. You will truly be missed. Dinner with Alice will still be a fixture in my life, as I search for a new person to become my Alice in Toronto. I hope everything works out for you with your job and I hope you find that motivation, inspiration, light that you are searching for.

Dinner with Alice: Part Two

Source.

I'm sorry but how could you not want to live there?!

Hey guys!

I hope the weekend was deeeeelightful!

Mine was. It was full of sleeping, relaxing and spending

some much needed one on one time with Jacob.

Sometimes you just need to reconnect, ya know??

I also finished up my first Dinner with Alice segment!

Friday night we stayed in and I tried my hand at making 

traditional Chicken Souvlaki with tzatziki and Greek salad.

Let me just tell you, it was a HUGE success.

Not only is Greece a beautiful place to visit, live, look at,

but the food has such beautiful flavors!

Check out what I did!

Thanks, Kalyn's Kitchen!

I found my recipe for Chicken Souvlaki over at Kalyn's Kitchen after searching for a recipe I liked for hours. 

Her tutorial is really easy to follow and the accompanying pictures are really useful when trying to figure out if your doing it right!

Here are some of my pictures:

Chicken marinading in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, garlic and salt and pepper. Man I could eat this right now!

Yogurt, dillweed, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and cucumber all waiting to get mixed together! Grating the cucumber was really easy and squeezing all of the liquid out was fun! It smelled so good, too.

(I got this recipe from a friend, if you'd like it send me a message! It's super easy and the best recipe I found!)

Tzatiki blended together! And all this time, the chicken is marinading together in the fridge, man it was so easy!

Feta and peppers and onions, oh my!

I've made salads like this before but never thought of their origins!

I love a nice crisp summer salad like this.

I didn't completely follow the recipe but I got the idea.

While sending this recipe to a friend earlier today, I thought it would be a cool mix up if you subbed mozzarella for feta and added basil to change the flavors!

(And the chicken is still marinading!)

Once I had everything ready,

I pulled out the chicken and started sticking it on skewers.

It was oily but smelled oh so amazing.

Ta-da! I only used two chicken breasts because there are only two people I feed (myself and my Jacob). But I am kicking myself for not making more!

Photo op in my fave apron! Big, goofy grin and all!

Ok back to the chicken.

The recipe called to grill the chicken but I don't have a grill and I didn't want to pan fry it either...

So my brilliant boyfriend told me to do this!

We placed the chicken straight onto the oven rack and put a cookie sheet underneath to catch all the fat. It worked great!

Final product:

Mmm-Hmm.

You bet we picked at that salad all night too!

I think I still have some...

...excuse me while I sneak away to eat the rest before

Jacob discovers it!

I hope you try this out, it was fast, easy, healthy and delicious!

I really enjoyed understanding Greek cuisine and I think I'll try making more Greek inspired foods in the future!

I'll keep you posted on Dinner with Alice #2!

Any cuisines you'd like me to explore??

Dinner With Alice: Greece Part 1

1.

Ah, Greece! What beautiful blue waters, crisp white walls and warm sunshine!

What brings us to Greece today?

My new monthly segment!

Dinner with Alice.

A few weeks back, while having Indian food with my good friend, Alice, I started wondering what made Indian food the way that it is.

Saucy and bright colors, spicy and savory.

Then came my idea to look into the reasons and origins of the cuisine in my favorite kinds of foods!

To kick off my first Dinner with Alice posts, 

we're going to take a look at Greek cuisine! 

2.

Wanna know why I think food is so great?

All the different influences!!

Greek food is no exception.

With each different country clash throughout history,

which is my more positive way of saying invasion,

came a different cultural cuisine kick!

The Romans, Venetians, Balkins, Turks, Slavs, English...they all had

influence on Greek flavors.

3.

But Greek style had to develop somewhere, right??

Due to the climate, Greek farmers grew mostly fruits, nuts, 

grains, legumes, veggies and oils.

Vineyards cover a lot of the hilly, rocky terrane leaving

no good grazing grounds for cattle.

Instead, Greek recipes call for a lot of poultry, lamb 

and goat, with seafood and fish.  

It's interesting to me to see what flavors and ingredients comes from

what is available to the people.

Greek is a great way to kick off Dinner with Alice!

Here are some cool facts to close this post:

1. Greek honey was made mostly from fruit and citrus nectars.

2. Most of their spices include: mint, oregano, garlic, onion, dill and bay leaves.

3. Greek recipes follow the Mediterranean Triad: grains, grapes and olives.

4.

5.

What are your favorite things about Greek food?

Stay tuned next week for Dinner with Alice Part 2,

where I try out making authentic Greek recipes!

{Info: 1. 2.}

Weekend Catch Up!

It has been such a whirlwind lately.

But I've been making a lot of progress, too!

Lets play a little catch up then I'll fill you in

on my agenda for the next few weeks!

This past weekend was Jacob's birthday.

I surprised him with a trip back to Ohio to visit all his

friends and to see a music show!

Here are a few Instagrams from the weekend!

Sake Cosmo at Birthday Sushi.

Yummy!

Crowd Surf.

Concert: Mac Miller and Skrillex.

Waffle House.

1950's Jacob.

Our Breakfast.

Thursday Dinner.

Ain't he cute!?

Leaving Roosevelt Friday.

It was such a great weekend. 

So many good times with great people!

I didn't want to leave!!

Now we're getting back to real life and planning our next big move to Toronto!

I'm so excited but so scared that I won't find a job! Eek!

Positive thoughts, right??

On another note, I'm really excited for all the things I have planned for the rest of the month!

I've taken to planning out my posts, it helps me stay on task and organized :)

Plus, since I'm a list freak...

The end of the month launches my new series that I like to call:

Dinner With Alicew.

In this series, I'll take time to research, explore and attempt to make a different cultural food each month.

The purpose you ask?

To better understand why those people eat what they eat.

What physical attribute allowed them to eat certain spices and not others.

What historical events happened that changed their food systems.

And so on.

It all happened because I was eating Indian food and was wondering why Indian foods are a lot of spices and sauces.

Each post will have three parts:

1. History on the culture.

2. Eating Out: eating the foods professionally made.

3. Homemade: attempting to make a dish at home.

I'm pretty excited about it :)

Other upcoming posts include:

Big Hair Day.

What I'm Reading: Blogs.

Weird Movies.

My Fave Bike Accessories.

And more!

Let me know if there's something you'd like to see,

or a culture who's food you'd like to know more about,

and I'll add it to my calender!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!