How Do You…

…refresh for work? Take a long lunch, scooter ride, and early departure for a $7 Swedish massage on a Friday.





…make friends of your neighbors? Work in you garden to make the neighborhood beautiful. My new neighbor friend felt the need to introduce himself, give me gardening tips, and offer me use of any of his tools that I might need. He also pointed out a few plants that he himself planted in our beds out of desperation last summer so I don’t pull them.



…turn that yard around? Spend a few hours in the sunshine working on the simplest of items. Neighbor friend scared me about the amount of work the yard would take but I think otherwise. With only a total of probably 3 hours the whole weekend I was able to pull up all weeds and turn over the good soil in one large bed, plant my “greens” bed (kale, swiss chard, romaine, and mesclun mix), water everything, and pull up all of the weeds in the side bed revealing some actually really promising beauties. I think we have a rose bush there, lillies (my favorite), and a few others that will be surprises to me.



…be motivated to garden? For me it was as simple as spending 15 minutes planting the broccoli seeds inside, waiting two weeks, and then seeing the sprouts producing.



…chill out from a long weekend with free nighttime entertainment? Volunteer your time at the Q Cafe while sipping some coffee and discovering some great talent in the form of Naomi Hooley and Rob Stroop from Portland. Amazing vocals AND instrumentals.



…learn about 500 different vegetarian products on the market these days and what you can do with them? Volunteer your time again to help a friend’s non-profit out at Vegfest at the Seattle Center. For 3 hours on Saturday I helped collect money at the book sale portion of the event and for another hour I leisurely walked around Exhibition Hall tasting my way through everything that was offered, enjoying MOST all of it, scoring freebies to even take home, and getting my fill of fake meat for at least a year’s time.
…get the best cut of meat for entertaining your friends? Give googly eyes to your grocery stores butcher. Jk, well not entirely. But yes, I just asked for a five pound roast of good quality, flavorful and tender beef and he hooked me right up with one beauty. He then gave me directions on how to cook it for the best medium-rare roast that I will now fall back on for the rest of my life I’m sure. I preheated the oven to 550 degrees, popped the roast fat side up on friend Amy’s brand new roasting pan and cooked at high heat for 5 minutes per pound. I then turned off the oven, kept the door shut and let it sit in the oven for another 2 hours. The roast came out at a perfect 130 degrees and was crisp on the outside but gloriously pink and juicy on the inside. Was enjoyed by all guests.
…have the right makeup for a Mad Men premiere night? Oh, well you will need to borrow my roommate Marieke for that.



…host a Mad Men premiere party? Send out cool evites, tell everyone to dress up in 60s attire, tell the boys to buy an $80 bottle of Scotch (that smelled like smoke), play 60s music on an actual record player, draw up on the chalkboard what is actually going down (in case you forgot), set the table with actual placemats and napkins with homemade napkin holders, don your never before used apron, cook up your roast along with mashed potatoes and pan gravy, roasted asparagus, deviled eggs, Grand Central Bakery baguette and two bottles of Rioja wine, finish it off with a dark chocolate fondue with fruit in my brand new fondue pot, and then enjoy the two hour show.

Chelsea