Tagged: life

Szechuan Green Beans, or I Know What You Did Last Summer (and Happy Autumn Equinox, too)

Though I’ve neglected to type and publish, I’ve had a busy summer full of a variety of new ventures. I left y’all right before Easter, with this parting thought:

I’m going to beat the ides and get over the seasonal depression and become newly inspired for Philly, and life, and myself.

I totally forgot about this until rereading it, and with the upcoming change of seasons, this was a perfect time to rejoin the blogosphere. Plus I owed Chrystina the recipe to these Szechuan green beans I made for a dinner party, which is honestly the whole reason I got back on here. If I’m going to type it out, I might as well blog it, right? This led to the inevitable “let’s contemplate the meaning of life” and where the past 6 months have brought me. How did I “become newly inspired for Philly, and life, and myself” as I set out to do? Here’s how, in no particular order:

  • I took a part-time job working twice a week at a restaurant/bar on South Street
  • I started running and completed my first 5k
  • My dad visited me for a weekend and we had one of the best conversations and bonding times over a bottle of wine and live jazz. He’s been one of the biggest encouragements to me lately.
  • I learned so much about the food industry that I decided to continue following a mostly vegan lifestyle even after Lent (yes, I’ve cheated with an Ishkabibble’s cheesesteak at 1 a.m.)
  • I came to believe in magic carpets and made my second appearance on a Broadway stage (technically I was on the stage! Shout out to fellow Harrison School for the Arts grad, Yurel, who is in Aladdin and took us backstage!)
  • I traveled to Arizona to meet my niece, Emilia, for the first time; I am well on my way to being “crazy Aunt Carly” and cannot wait to take her to the bar (never mind that I’ll be in my 40s by that time)
  • I presented a break-out session at two conferences
  • I have been planning my 5 year college reunion at Stetson University Homecoming — wait, what? How many years?
  • I took a summer graduate course in Marketing and met a new friend, made strong professional connections, and developed a pretty decent idea for a company that I wish I had time and resources to pursue further
  • I had absolutely no dating/boy drama. No, really! I don’t think…
  • For the first time, I was drunk at the Phillies game. Solid points on my Philadelphian status right there.
  • I got to be home with family and friends in Florida twice in 3 months
  • Along with a committee, I developed curriculum for a college course
  • I joined Monster Milers, a volunteer group that takes shelter dogs for walks/runs
  • After taking on another side job doing work for a digital marketing and advertising company, I became temporarily obsessed with Reese’s peanut butter cups as result of working on a project for Hershey’s
  • I had one of the best weeks and most relaxing times of my life down the shore with cousins

I guess it’d be hard to argue that I didn’t become more involved in life and Philly and myself in mostly positive ways. Now that summer is ending and the autumn solstice ushers in the cooler weather, a grounding, and of course preparing for winter and the holidays and all, I think I can calmly welcome the longer darkness. I always did love fall.

I have no idea how to tie green beans back into this post, except for maybe adding it into my adventures of eating a plant-based diet, reminiscing of my summer of 2012 trip to China, and learning that cooking is a therapy for me. What really makes this dish is a combination — to taste — of my 3 new best kitchen friends:

favorite cooking ingredients

Sriracha, chili garlic, and hoisin

So, here it is, a spicy, warming, delicious rendition of my favorite authentic Chinese dish. I put it together reviewing a variety of online recipes for Szechuan green beans but didn’t really stick to the book on measurements (as per my usual) so these are estimates. I taste as I go. I also use and recommend all organic ingredients when possible.

SZECHUAN GREEN BEANS

Ingredients

Oil (sesame recommended, but I use coconut or olive oil)

1 lb. fresh green beans, rinsed and with ends trimmed

1 tblsp fresh minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup soy sauce (low sodium variety is recommended)

1 tblsp fresh minced ginger (or powdered)

1 cup chili garlic sauce (or amount to taste)

1 cup hoisin sauce (or amount to taste)

1 cup chopped or halved peanuts

1 tblsp fresh chopped cilantro (or parsley if you prefer)

OPTIONAL: Sriracha

Directions

  1. In an oil-coated pan, fry the garlic and green beans on medium heat until beans are wrinkly
  2. Add soy sauce, onions, and ginger, stir, then simmer for ~5 min.
  3. Add chili garlic, hoisin sauce, and the peanuts and stir until beans are coated; simmer for ~5 min.
  4. Before serving, stir in the chopped cilantro and Sriracha for more heat (Szechuan cuisine is supposed to be spicy!)

Bon appetit! Enjoy the green beans, and enjoy some new things in life, too. ~CkB

Beware the Ides of March: Get a Haircut (Happy Lenten Season)

Historically, March has never been a good month for me. One March I had to move to a new apartment right after a week-long work trip and before I was ready to move again; my heart broke badly another March; crazy things always happen to me sometime during the third month of the year. And I blame it on the death of Caesar.

Indeed March is also the hope for Spring. Mardi Gras, first day of Spring, St.  Patrick’s Day festivities… and the following month, Easter, which has always been the most deeply spiritual and meaningful religious holiday to me as it seems to always come — as described above — at the right time in my life. Accepting pain and death, suffering and absence or loss, and then awakening a Sunday morning with new beginnings, a hope for the rest of time, and a pastel colored basket with fake green plastic grass, cream eggs and jelly beans. God I love cream eggs!

March 1, 2014 arrives. I’ve been in the usual winter blues rut, this one seems impossible to dig out of as every time I start melting away the icy negativity we get another snowstorm to re-freeze over everything. (That was both metaphorical and literal, in case you hadn’t been paying attention to the winter weather up here.) I can’t decide on a life dream or ultimate career goal. I’ve been in a yoga rut and haven’t been able to get myself to practice. I’ve been eating too many pints of Ben & Jerry’s. I try to be conscious of spending to start paying off debt and I get a ticket for putting my trash out incorrectly. I am homesick for my family and living where winter doesn’t even really exist…

So I got a haircut. This, as many women know, is more than just getting split ends cut off and bangs trimmed; the haircut can be a rebirth, an enlightenment, a reformation! Sometimes you have a come-to-Jesus-meeting with your insecurities and inner issues via the stylists’ scissors and oddly colored hair dye mixture and not knowing 100% what’s going to happen when you get spun around to face yourself in the mirror for the “ta da!” moment. My girl Kim at Studio Teknik always takes good care of me and never disappoints — she has become one of those friends you don’t see all the time but can’t wait to get caught up on each others’ life drama. It’s the quintessential salon experience I’ve always wanted! Oh yeah and they give me a glass of wine there.

Before and after (styling and photography by Kimberly Resnick at Studio Teknik http://www.studiotekniksalon.com/)

Before and after (styling and photography by Kimberly Resnick at Studio Teknik http://www.studiotekniksalon.com/)

I said goodbye to blondie and went back to my roots. Well, close enough, anyway. I sat at my neighborhood bar the other night and could just feel the renewed energy I had drawing people in — in ways I hadn’t felt before, or perhaps in a long while. Maybe the Jameson is still cycling through me, but the next morning I woke up with a headache with a positive, sunny outlook, ready and hopeful for Spring and my annual Easter spiritual reconnection. I actually wanted to go to yoga. I think I’m going to commit to a vegan diet that I’ve felt convicted towards. This March go-round, I’m going to beat the ides and get over the seasonal depression and become newly inspired for Philly, and life, and myself. Plus I have my own real life Easter bunny this year, and that sure beats the new underwear my mom put in our baskets one Easter… ~CkB

Top 13 of ’13 (Happy New Year!)

Hello, blogosphere, remember me? I’ve finally gotten some time to reflect on the past year. I love top hit mashups, lists, and other year end wrap ups that come out this time of year. There’s something so exciting to me and, apparently, a lot of other folks about reminiscing and reliving, then shooting some confetti in the air and drinks down our throats to start something new. I’ve been quite neglectful of this space the past few months, though I haven’t forgotten about it; so here’s the top stories, the good, the bad, and the otherwise of my year 2013, in order of appearance.

Top 13 of ’13

1. Years after disowning my undergraduate decision of becoming a teacher, and moving into the year with a Master’s degree, I taught a total of four sections of a college course where I relearned the challenges, joys, and passion of being an educator, motivator, and servant (I taught this class unpaid, but it paid off eventually… see #7).

2. I (finally!) let go of something I’d been holding onto my whole life, and it was beautiful.

3. Although 2012 travel took me to China, this year I somehow made it to Las Vegas, Houston, Columbus, Boston, New York City, and the Hudson River valley, NY.

4. I lost a few friends — to geographical or emotional separation — and gained some new meaningful relationships; I even added some long lost cousins to my life!

5. My younger, married sister found out she is preggers! The impending change of dynamics in their family and ours is exciting though emotional, so all I can do is just imagine what life will be being known as the crazy aunt.

6. I moved (again), and am happily situated in my own space, surrounded by 18 house plants and… (see #11). I wonder how old you can be before living in a studio apartment is no longer hip…

7. After all the previous posts lamenting the life a of an underemployed post-grad young professional, I accepted a new job! Biggest accomplishment of the year?

8. I had a summer of dating/romantic(less) shenanigans. See my previous posts and/or Twitter feed if you want more details on online love-seeking. GOD I’M GLAD THIS YEAR OF DATING IS OVER! (Excuse as I go swallow a quick glass of champagne, I deserve this one!)

9. I began working at a well established yoga studio in the city, where I also upped my yoga practice game. I’ve gone organic, and this year I also began juicing and green smoothie-ing. This has been the best year of my health — body, soul, and mind.

10. I read books this year. I started a blog. I learned more about China. I became a mentor to an 11th grade Philadelphia student. I planted a garden. These were all things on my “When I’m Done with Grad School…” to do list. More where those came from, but I’m excited to make time for some things I’ve been wanting to do.

11. I adopted a bunny, who has added some life, selflessness, and smiles to my home life. Hawkeye is an 8 year old Rex-mix rabbit, all black with an adorable white nose and adorable white toes.

12. I had the strange and sudden epiphany that success and self-made wealth is not going to come by playing by other people’s rules and inconveniencing my creativity and personality to entertain bureaucracies. In 2014, I will start putting my entrepreneurial-mindedness into action. Watch out!

13. Every year, I seem to grow so intensely from the year prior, but 2013 was the year of getting to know ME.

If you take all the words I italicized throughout this post, I can conclude 2013 sentimentally in this way: I taught myself what it means to accept myself as a person who thrives on relationships (and that’s a good thing, because who you are at the core is always a good thing); the travel I have done internally has led me to find myself beautiful in all ways — with short hair or maybe blonde hair, no makeup or no clothes to hide things behind, all alone or alongside my beautiful friends, smiling in contentment or tearfully expressing emotions; I’ve gained an appreciation for my brand of crazy, and that someday someone else will, as well, and maybe then the space I have to myself and within myself will accommodate two; Just because it’s been a romantic(less) year doesn’t mean it’s been without so much life; I crave an organic way of living where it all comes as it comes and it’s not forced; and, finally, my future can be designed only from an entrepreneurial mind — seeing the world as all these words in a new way, taking the next risky step to be and have more as I enter with bold determination into the brave new world of ’14.

Cheers and blessings to a happier, healthier all of us. ~CkB

Fake It ’til You Make It, or Thoughts on Going Blonde

Last week I went in for a haircut and I came out a blonde. It wasn’t 100% spontaneous, but it certainly was much less of a percentage planned. I’ve never been blonde in my life — unless you count my childhood dark blonde/light brown “dishwater blonde” as my grandmother called it. And oh how I hated that — dishwater blonde just sounds lovely. Anyway, the reviews have been almost all positive, I’m still not convinced of the exact shade or the new persona. So far as a blonde I’ve rear-ended someone on 676 , sent a drunk text when I was sober, and told people I’m starting vegetarianism but ordered the frittatta with bacon at brunch (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give up bacon).

What made me do it? The same thing that made me cut my hair short in the first place over a year ago. The same reason we all go do a crazy, somewhat random things. We want to feel something when everything else we feel is tired, numb, disappointed, or in need of spark of inspiration. Despite the blessing of a new job, I’ve been struggling to find inner happiness and contentment with my life and that passion for this city that I once had. I know the only way to get myself where I want to be is to unveil in inherent happiness from within me — not through other people or things; the kind of happiness that cannot be taken away. This time, that was personified in letting my stylist bleach and stain my hair some unnatural hue that will lighten things up and give me a new perspective.

But what do I do now? The color’s not right, but the action was. You’ve heard “fake it ’til you make it” and that’s the wisdom we’re going with for this lesson. I’m going to fake my blonde until I feel like it’s me, I’m going to keep doing things and searching within myself until I’m happy, and I’m going to keep adjusting both those things as needed — without any expectations of their conclusions.

And isn’t that life? Just go for it, figure it out as you go, and if you don’t like, change it until you’re happy. From one of my favorite Coldplay anthems: “I’d rather be a comma than a full stop.” The only point of no return, the only period in our life’s script is death; the rest of the time is just pauses in moments that need us to reflect on what was just scripted. I don’t have to be blonde forever, it’s just an idling in my hair color history as I contemplate what’s below my roots, under my skull, and what messages my brain is sending my heart (and vice versa).

So until I make it, I’m faking blonde, faking happy… but I’m going back to driving like a brunette. Apparently blondes aren’t as attentive on the morning commute, and I can’t afford an insurance claim because I just spent $xxx.xx on getting my hair dyed professionally. ~CkB