snippets // late January + February, turned into early March

1 | 2. neighborhood glimpes as i make my therapy visits.
3 | 4 | 5. blue hour in the kitchen + our favorite spicy, roasted carrots (recipe below).
6. evening beer runs with my guy, headed home on a Friday night to cozy up with some take-out or tapas and a movie on demand.
7. a slow morning breakfast at home after a busy work week with my husband's over-easy eggs and muffins (these a lovely Glorious Morning blend of apple, carrot, raisins, coconut, and walnuts - recipe from Whole Foods). truly, there's nothing like that Saturday, slow morning ease... and with a good cream cheese smear on these toasty muffins, friends, 'cause that's just how you do it.
8. lots of weekly market hauls: anyone else really into sautéing and braising winter greens and roasting up all the root vegetables and squash you can get your hands on? that about sums it up.
9 | 10. all the coffees and lingering possible.
11. winter wonderland hibernating practices on a Sunday, complete with snacks and tea and naps and a hearty, roasted chicken.
12. the magic that is the soft and hazy orange glow which lights up the sky on a snowy, winter night. do you know what i mean?  ~ you couple that with a post (Valentine's day) dinner date arm-in-arm walk with my love in Greenwich Village, and it just amounts to be that snow-globe memory you hope to close your eyes and relive forever and always. the dinner feast of Peking duck and dumplings + the laughs and conversation over cocktails and nice wine? these are all the details that replay each and every time i close my eyes and shake up that night. 
13 | 14. late night laundry and cham tea rituals + a love gram to my husband before a night of dancing and celebrating a good friend's 30th.
15. easy weeknight poblano + chicken red enchiladas and good table beer to round things out.
16 | 17 | 18. coffee and Sunday pie love at our favorite little shop,  Four & Twenty Blackbirds. on this particular day, David had the Black Bottom Spruce, and i, a slice of Salty Honey, both of which are now delicious, newly-found alternatives to my favorite, Black Bottom Oat.

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/Recipe:

easy, Spicy Roasted Carrots

Ingredients 

- 1 1/2 lbs of petite carrots, rinsed and scrubbed clean with carrot greens cut to about an inch in length.

- 2 tbsp of EVOO

- 1 tbsp dried, French thyme

- 1 tsp chili powder 

- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika 

- 1/4 tsp dried piri piri 

- coarse salt & whole pepper corns, freshly cracked to taste

Directions

Preheat your oven to 420. In the meantime, line a baking pan with aluminum foil or prep a baking pan to your liking. Spread your carrots out on the pan evenly and drizzle olive oil until all carrots are fully coated. Add your French thyme, chili powder, sweet paprika, and dried piri piri to your carrots, and toss until combined throughout. Add freshly ground salt and pepper on carrots to taste. Roast for about 30 minutes until caramelized and browned and tender.

*Variations: this simple blend of spices also makes for wonderful spicy, roasted sweet potato fries. in our home, we love both carrots and sweet potatoes done this way. we enjoy either of them paired with roasted chicken or with a fried egg, avocado, and spicy ketchup to taste atop.

coffee + sun (and also the best, no-fuss Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip + EVOO Cookies ever)

The cold, winter months of January through March are when I am repeatedly consumed by thoughts of white, bright light, shades of pastel, greenery, and all things breezy and warm. It never fails. I coax my way through the pushy, winter funk blues by basking in the bursts of sunshine we are sporadically graced with (deceivingly, providing little-to-no warmth, if only to my heart), baking, lightening up my home and wardrobe, and reading. New sheets, go-to tee and Levis, and as of late, starting on another gem by Joan Didion, which essentially dates back so much of her family life to sunny California and Honolulu. At any rate, I am pushed forward by remaining present, living the little things, and finding comfort in the happiness all of that brings. These simultaneously gooey and crunchy oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies with EVOO (even days after sitting in the cookie jar), are the perfect, no-fuss cookies to throw together, bake, and sit to enjoy as the last bit of daylight lingers. They are perfection.

*Note: Recipe is as follows, which was adapted from Half Baked Harvest and tweaked to include extra-virgin olive oil and a few measurement changes here and there. 

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip + EVOO Cookies 

Ingredients for about 2 dozen, nice sized cookies

- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned, rolled oats

- 2 cups of all-purpose flour

- 1 cup (tightly packed) brown sugar

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 1 teaspoon of baking soda

- 1 cup of EVOO

- 2 large-jumbo eggs

- 5 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 to 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips (how gooey do you like 'em?)

Directions

I am a cook, not a baker, and when I say this is an easy recipe, I mean it. Seriously, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While that gets warm and toasty, sift all your dry ingredients into a bowl to eliminate clumps, add your oats, and mix it all together. Then, in a separate bowl, mix all your wet ingredients and wisk until nicely incorporated. You will then combine your dry with your wet ingredients in thirds with a good wooden spoon and put in some arm work. No fancy mixer needed. Mix in your chocolate chocolate chips at the end to your liking, and begin to combine about a tablespoon of dough or so into your hands. Squeeze the dough tightly to form balls and place them on a prepared cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden, and while you wait, get yourself a good coffee/tea pot going. Heaven will be a place on earth in just a few short minutes. 

You're welcome.

xx

a little (big) update.

And so it is that the once golden hues accompanying autumn have dissipated into shades of leather and grey. We are without question in the thick of winter here in the northern east coast now, and with that, has come the welcoming of brisk temperatures and gusting winds, shorter days with (seemingly) increased amounts of hustling and bustling, and a good deal of hibernating practices in our toasty abode. Tons of candle burning, lining of windows and corners with twinkly lights, sipping on my husband's home brews (the latest of which have been the most delicious, caramel laden and hop-forward IPAs), and cozying up with books, blankets, and around the table. Lots of roasting and baking and putting the cocotte to good use, too.

For documentation purposes, Thanksgiving was spent with both sides of our families at my mother-in-law's, and Christmas Day brunch (as tradition would have it), was spent at my mom's. We enjoyed Christmas Eve and rang in the new year in the best possible way we know how, and that is cozy in our home, and in our jammas. Just us two, growing our very own Perez traditions.

Chinese take-out and Belgian ales
jazzy tunes on the stereo
kazoos and balloons. 

"Traditions can be as simple and sweet as you make them."

I cannot remember where I heard that but it is a line that rings so true to my understanding.

Perhaps the biggest explanation for my absence has been the period of adjustment which has accompanied the start of my new job as a speech language pathology clinical fellow, working within the early intervention system. I am now fully up to pace with managing my caseload of babes, and have a healthy and comfortable, new rhythm of normal going about my daily therapy visits, carrying on with developed treatment plans, attending meetings, managing home life, etc etc. It has taken some time but I am content with my scheduling, and have a really nice sense of rapport going for each and every one of my kids and their parents on caseload. We are pushing forward slowly but surely, mostly with language therapy, and making gains. Baby steps. Tiny leaps from point a to b, and up the ladder we continue, given whatever level of support we must share in order to guarantee success. In addition, we are now also a double-income household after nearly three years of grad school and working clinical rotations without pay, and the fruits of that labor are sweeter than we could have ever imagined. Eternal rejoices accompany that last bit of news, which I am sure can be heard ringing from miles and miles and miles away. The prospects of life are truly exciting and rivetting to fall into as we move forward and make our apartment more of a reflection of who we are, make plans for the future, and enjoy a new-found sense of lightness. Cue in the sun bursts.

That seems to be a good vibe to close with today.

I have now good intentions to return to this little blog space of mine more frequently, even if only with iPhone photos to share. Truly, the no-fuss, no-pressure, and always-readily-available camera is pretty akin to my photographing process, and I appreciate the barebones simplicity of keeping it all about collecting the little moments and not getting lost in technicalities. Because we can always do simple, right? Right.

Until the next. xx