Loving Lately : Summer 2014

My blog has been so boring lately. I KNOW. I don't make any apologies, because life happens sometimes, but I am working on writing more than the same three or four monthly posts all the time. Thank you for sticking around.

I'M LOVING THIS...

PURCHASE: A spiralizer! I'm generally opposed to single-use kitchen items, but after getting a sore arm from grating zucchini by hand on more than one occasion, I decided to buy this Paderno spiralizer with three blade options. I've made zucchini noodles on several occasions, which I love so much (even more than spaghetti noodles), and I have also made wide cucumber strands for cucumber salad and short carrot shreds that I added to stir-fry. It's awesome and totally worth it, especially since I want to stay away from pasta. Plus, it's nice to not have to boil water during the summer months. Note: The image here is from a recipe for Zucchini Pasta with Mint Pea Pesto on the blog Smitten Studio.

FONT: BD Paris, a sweet, hand-drawn slab serif font from DaFont. I particularly like the lowercase letters. And it's free!

MUSIC: Yuna.  Yuna is a singer-songwriter from Malaysia who is currently gaining popularity in the US. I adore the indie-pop sound on her latest album Nocturnal-- her silky voice and the great beats make it perfect summer music. My current girl-power anthem is her song Rescue: "But things were bad / She came up for air / She said a little prayer / She found herself / Yeah, she's got a light in her face / She don't need no rescue and she's okay. / Yeah, she's got life in her veins. / She don't need no rescue and she's okay. / No SOS needed; no rescuing, she's fine out there."

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DRINK: Julius Meinl coffee and espresso. I've always considered myself more of a tea person than a coffee person, but I think I've learned that I have just been drinking shitty coffee. It was our trip to Italy that introduced us to good coffee, but nothing I was finding in the US after we got home could compare (yes, I realize how pretentious that sounds and I accept it). We started visiting a local bakery up the street that serves Julius Meinl, a coffee manufacturer based out of Vienna, Austria, and it's is hands-down the closest thing to the coffee we had in Europe. If you can find Julius Meinl near you, I recommend it. I'll be in Vienna in September, and I'll have to give it a try in its home city :)

DOWNLOAD: Overcast app. Let's be real—the native iPhone podcast app is atrocious. It's hard to use and very finicky. I downloaded this brand new podcast app last week, which lets you listen or download any podcast you'd find on iTunes, create playlists, etc., and the UI is smooth and attractive. Two thumbs up. There also are some advanced features you can get in the paid version like auto volume control and "smart speed," which detects and reduces silences to speed up your listening.

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VIDEO: Hey USA! This is by far my favorite thing on the internet at this moment in time. YouTube funny ladies and real-life best friends Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart are traveling around the USA and visiting cities and attractions at the suggestion of viewers. Um, hello dream job. I literally smile my way through each of the videos and I can't wait for the full episodes to be released at the end of the summer. Here is the trailer, and here's a link to all the episodes so far.

FOOD: Spicy Kale and Coconut Stir-fry. The highest compliment an online recipe can receive from me is when I feel compelled to make it more than once, and I've already made this one three times this month. It's tasty, versatile, relatively fast, and healthy. I mixed some precooked chicken at the end of cooking the last time we made it, which was delicious—even though it breaks my personal food rule of never eating chicken and eggs together in the same dish.

EVENT: Lena Dunham's book tour. I happened to be online when the tickets went on sale for the Chicago event, and once I saw that the ticket included a 2-hour talk with Lena and GIRLS producer Jenny Konner AND came with a signed copy of her upcoming book, I was alllllll over it. Good thing too; it sold out in a few hours. Cue total fangirling—I can't wait for October. I'm also jealous of anyone who gets to go to the Pasedena event with Miranda July because that's going to be amazing.

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