Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad

Last night for dinner, I made Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad from Yotam Ottolenghi's beautiful veggie cookbook, Plenty. I'm typically not much of a salad gal, but this one was fantastic. Filled to the brim with fresh, local tomatoes, persian cucumbers, red onion, cilantro, parsley, quinoa, olive oil, and sourdough bread. Charlie ate it with a smile and only picked out a couple of cilantro leaves. Slowly but surely, I'm winning him over :)

A couple notes:
- I'd post the full recipe, but I'm still navigating the whole area of recipe attribution when I didn't really change or adapt a thing. Just check out the cookbook instead! You won't regret it.
- The recipe calls for mint, but I forgot to grab some at the store. I found that I didn't miss it.

(My untouched iPhone photos - that color and juice is all real.)

Welllll well well. I'm back. September has been busy!

Since I left you, I've been enjoying cruising around and listening to XM radio (the Loft! the Coffee House!) in my new car, keeping busy at work, cooking a lot, and letting Orange is the New Black take over my life. Charlie and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary with a long weekend on the beautiful Central Coast, and I've now officially worked at AB for over one year (my fantastic boss sent me these to celebrate!).

I have a bunch of posts I want to write - an anniversary trip recap, cookbook and recipe updates, new music reviews, an ode to pilates - but you'll have to wait for those. In the meantime, take a look at some of the things I've been enjoying around the web:

- A valuable take on 7 important financial decisions made in your 30s

- Real men in underwear ads

- Almond Butter Cocoa Truffles, oh my

- Moby talks about LA

- How to taste water

- My new favorite ad

- The best day

- Everyday ballet dancers

- Thinking about buying this and eating our way through LA

- My next project: a DIY grass shoe tray

- Obsessed with these dresses... now I just need a black tie affair to attend :)

Have a wonderful weekend!


(photo: mine, cyprus tree at the awe-inspiring Hearst Castle)

New Car

"Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy." - Haruki Murakami

I leased a new car! We got a great deal on a fully loaded CR-V this weekend, and now I'm excited to spend our time exploring in it.