Author Archives: Julia

Of robes and pastas

Posted in family, pasta, seafood, vegetarian by

I remember one Christmas Ian and I asked my mom what she wanted from us, what was on her wish list. She told us she would love a new robe. A new robe? As a kid I could hardly comprehend wanting that kind of a gift. It sounded so freaking sensible! I always thought of Christmas, Chanukah, and birthday gifts as things you wanted not needed, and a robe sounded suspiciously like something you’d need. You wanted things like a new Barbie, a dress for your American Girl doll, a Breyer horse, a barn for your herd of already 30 Breyer horses to live in, a new dress, or the newest books in the Thoroughbred series. Not a robe.

Tonight I stood in the bathroom putting freshly washed towels into the linen closet (wow, I already sound way older, don’t I? Putting laundry away in the linen closet on a Sunday night?) and, as I hung up my faded, pink terry cloth robe, I thought, Wow, I would love nothing more than a new robe. But we all know I’m not about to splurge on buying myself one! And that’s when I realized that the things I used to see as necessities have moved over to the “want” column. I’m getting dangerously close to halfway to 27-years-old guys.

The horse and the barn are still in the want column, by the way. They’re just a little bigger now.

I have a recipe for you, too! OK, I actually have three. Two of them involve baking as the only way I think of to cheer someone up, so I hold those til tomorrow maybe.

This one is a bright spring pasta dish, pasta with tomatoes, shrimp, and favas. I made it tonight for my parents, who came over for dinner for Father’s Day It’s not the kind of pasta that you can throw together in 15 minutes. (Those are my favorite kind. Saute some veggies with some spices, boil some pasta, toss ’em together, BAM, a meal.) This one does take a bit more time, but it’s not overwhelming by any means. And it’s so good! I think you could easily switch out the fava beans for peas. Fava beans are a little time consuming to shell and whatnot, but I like them because they’re different. The recipe as it is on Smitten Kitchen where I found it uses sausage instead of shrimp, but I find the sausage makes the whole dish too greasy. I always end up with a stomach ache after. If you want to go vegetarian, maybe substitute some mushrooms for the shrimp. Also, the original recipe says to cook the meat in the sauce. I opted for grilling the shrimp and setting them on top of the pasta. I’ll note where you add them to the sauce though.

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Art for the sake of…teeth?

Posted in Etsy by

Trendy, cutting-edge jewelry is one thing. Jewelry adorned with human teeth is something else entirely. 

Exhibit A: a tooth ring



Found this ring on Etsy. Per the description, you can readorn yourself with human teeth, often mistaken for ivory by admirers. This particular ring has already sold, but the artist will make you another with her tooth collection gathered from interested friends, friends of friends, strangers, and tooth fairies. I cannot comprehend. 


It’s only on a rare occasion that I find these odd things on Etsy. I’ll try to post my kickass finds more often.

Maps

Posted in art by

Julia Blog Overload.

I am in love with this map created by Famille Summerbelle.

I find maps fascinating (as well as 13 inch biceps..ahem). Something about being able to see how far one place is from another, and being able to imagine taking a journey to a faraway place. One of my favorite parts of Lord of the Rings is the maps that Tolkien drew of Middle Earth. Every time the Fellowship travels to a new place, I turn to the maps in the front or back of the book, find the spot, and trace with my finger how they got there.

I like the details on maps too. This particular map (find it here) differentiates each country, and even the oceans, not by color, or by the mountains in the area, but by animals. A fresh focus.

Fruit Loops

Posted in Facebook, food, internet by

It’s funny the things people respond to.

I update my Twitter with all sorts of randomness almost daily. Same with my Gchat and Facebook statuses. Only occasionally do I get responses, and even less often do they come pouring in. I think I’m going to start tracking which updates get the most.

Stats for this week.

Fruit Loops
Last night my power went out. That’s not the reason I ate Fruit Loops for dinner. I decided on my dinner pre-power loss. That is the reason, however, that I ate three bowls of Fruit Loops, and the reason that my teeth ached with a pain only brought on by too much processed sugar. My admission to eating three bowls, and the hopes that a power loss made up for the over indulgence got quite the response on Facebook. I wonder if that’s because people love Fruit Loops or because everyone can secretly relate to doing the same thing. I know I’m relieved to find out someone else has the same secrets and vices as me. It’s good to not be alone in my three bowl Fruit Loops eating world.

The Winds They Did Blow

Posted in family, weather by

Blah blah blah, weather small talk, blah, blah. But seriously, we’ve been having some crazy intense storms here in Indiana lately. Seventy mile per hour winds, yellow-gray-green skies, torrential downpours, tornadoes.

As a quick side note, my mother is a lush when it comes to drinking. She has one glass of wine, her face turns red, and she starts giggling like a tween while making dirty jokes. No, wait, she makes dirty jokes without the help of a glass of wine.

Back to these stormy nights. Earlier this week I sat down on the couch with my dinner and flipped on the t.v., hoping to catch Jeopardy. Instead all I got were local news teams standing in front of green, red, and yellow-splotched weather radars, warning me of the aforementioned winds and tornadoes. I then received this text from my dad, “Mom had 1 half glass of wine & is on the couch.” I immediately pictured my mom laying on the couch, cracking up at the weather reports as the winds swirled outside the glass sliding doors. Shortly after my dad called me. “Julia did you hear? There’s a winter storm advisory out.” “I heard!” I replied. “Hail and everything! I predict 5 feet of snow by morning.” “I can’t get Mom off the couch,” he joked. “Oh stay inside! Here comes the snow!”

“Drunk” mothers and winter storm warnings in June are definitely laughing matters.

On Second Thought, I May Be Offended

Posted in religion by

I’m Jewish. That makes me a minority. I realize that there are people in Indiana, especially in some of the smaller towns, that don’t know a lot of Jewish people, or maybe any for that matter. In fact, I rode with a girl in college who said I was the first Jewish person she knew and was really friends with. I’m OK with all of this. I actually enjoy that a lot of my non-Jewish friends are interested in my faith. One, a staunch believer in Jesus (she says Jesus is the one reason she could never convert), even came to Friday night services with me once. How cool is that?

What I am not OK with is someone turning my religion into a novelty.

Last night I met (well I suppose re-met technically since we went to the same high school, though never knew each other) a girl. Suddenly, mid-catch-up-on-our-lives conversation, she looked at me and asked, “Are you Jewish?” I know, I know, it’s the nose and the dark hair that give it away, right? I replied, “Yes.” She then squealed, “Oooh I LOVE Jewish people!!” I laughed. I’d had a few beers. For a split second I thought, Huh, that’s a weird thing to say, but I let it pass. She then proceeded to tell a story about a Jewish guy she’d gone on a few dates with. She said some fairly bitchy and rude things about him, which I also let slide. I really regret not getting up and walking away at that point.

I woke up this morning and the more I thought about that comment, the more unsettled and angry I got. This girl was turning my religion, my belief in a higher power, my faith, into a novelty. How can you say that you love Jewish people? That’s such a ridiculous thing to say. She loves every Jewish person? Why? We’re not all the same. Some of us are giant assholes. It’s true. We do share the same beliefs and traditions. You could love those, sure. Nobody walks around saying “I love Catholic people,” and not because Catholic people aren’t cool. A lot of them are. You just don’t say that. It’s a broad, sweeping statement that’s honestly very ignorant.

It’s rare that someone offends me based on my religion. I don’t have stories that involve me being harassed because I’m Jewish. I guess I just hang around people who are classier and more open-minded than that. To my friends, I’m Julia, who also happens to be Jewish. To this girl, I felt like I was only Jewish, that’s it.  

Summer lovin

Posted in lists, random, summer by

I love …

The way cool rain smells when it hits the hot pavement.

Naps on the couch after pancake breakfasts.

Fudgy, chocolatey, buttery brownies that remind me of being little at my grandparents’ house.

Summer rain from my porch.

Long weekends and mondays that feel like Sundays.

Homemade iced coffee.

Planning birthday cakes.

Flowers in my new garden.

The rest of my family

Posted in Green Cove by

I’ve always said that I’m lucky enough to have two homes and two families: my actual blood family and home here in Indiana and my camp family in North Carolina. Both have made me the girl I am today.

In the most recent issue of Outside magazine, Mondamin, Green Cove’s brother camp, is named one of five “Camps That Kick Ass” in the country. Hello, I knew this, but I’m so glad my favorite place is getting recognition besides the obviously-biased article I wrote in Jack and Jill. Blue Ridge Now did a write-up of the article in Outside magazine. Here’s a short quote from the write-up.

More than 60 percent of the camp’s counselors are former campers and many of Mondamin’s boys are second- or third-generation campers, [Robert] Danos [activity director] said.
“We can tell parents who are shopping for camps when they ask how do you know these kids so well, it’s because we’ve helped raise them,” Danos said.


That literally made me almost cry. (OK, I’m very camp-sick right now considering the time of year, let’s keep that in mind…) It’s just so true. Camp helped raise me, from the ages of 11 to 23. I cannot wait to send my kids to camp there. It’s this amazing tradition and this incredible amount of caring and sense of family. All of that is what makes camp the place it is. A home away from home and a second family.  

Pie…uhm Food…Catch Up

Posted in 717, baked, food, spring by

I’ve decided on a new name for my bakery: Piebelly.

I’ve been baking like a crazy woman lately. It relieves stress, and there’s been plenty of stress in my work life lately. Chocolate chip and pecan-cranberry brown sugar cookies, strawberry rhubarb crisp, rum-soaked banana bread, hummingbird cupcakes, sugar cream pie, triple berry pie…

The triple berry pie I’m calling my best pie yet and so I’m sharing it after the jump. It’s the perfect summer berry pie: Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, though I’m sure you could easily substitute raspberries in there. I usually use flour to juice up my filling, but my aunt mentioned tapioca, so I thought I’d give it a try. Must’ve worked well, since the pie was so damn good. I also made some vanilla whipped cream, just softly whipped, to plerp on top. Delicious dessert for a few days.

In a way, this pie was also a 717 pie (the 717 being the magical yellow house that we lived in, with a fourth roommate whom we no longer speak of, in Bloomington for two years). The pie bird, a little guy with a hole in his beak that you settle in the center of your filling and then place your top crust over, was a gift from Samantha. The cheerfully purple-dotted pie dish was a gift from Marnie. Maybe that’s why it was so good!

My weekend will be filled with rhubarb thanks to Smitten Kitchen. Moist and sweet rhubarb coffee cake and little rhubarb tarts. This has most definitely been the spring of rhubarb.

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Music Catch Up

Posted in concerts, music by

I’ve had The National’s new but not really new (it’s mostly covers, rereleases, and live tracks) album, The Virginia EP, for about a month now, but I just gave it a good listen for the first time today. Maybe it’s something about my mood; Matt Berninger’s melancholy voice makes me ache a little. Maybe the persistently rainy, gray weather fits the steady rhythm of the album. I don’t know why, but I’ve fallen in love with them again. Check out their MySpace page. Particularly listen to “Slow Show,” “Secret Meeting,” and “Daughters of the SoHo Riots.”

Mumford & Sons has also been making a steady appearance on my Recently Played playlist. They’re a delightful folky rock band that sounds a little like the Avett Brothers, and somehow a little like Iron & Wine. The album, Sigh No More, sounds familiar the whole way through. I love the way each song steadily builds and builds, vocals, sweet harmonies, and guitar becoming more powerful and frantic. My two favorites right now are “Winter Winds” and “Timshels.” You can find their album on their MySpace.

Sorry, I’m not feeling the YouTube videos directly on my posts today. Just do the extra work for these two bands. It’ll be worth it.

Aaaaand festival season is here! What’s on my schedule for this year? Well, Lollapalooza is looking somewhat unexciting this year. Their headliners make me a little sad. Lady Gaga? Really guys? I realize she’s popular and that she has this wow factor about her, but last year the Yeah Yeah Yeahs headlined. The Killers. Kings of Leon. I saw Death Cab there a few years ago. These bands make real music. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Lady Gaga for the fact that she can put on quite a show. She’s an entertainer. But not someone to headline Lolla. We also have Green Day, whose new music I don’t listen to. Nope. If I liked Soundgarden, I’d be excited for their reunion in Grant Park. Though, OK, now that I’m looking at the whole lineup again, I see lots of bands that I love, so maybe I’ll wait until the schedule comes out and buy a one or two day pass. I do love seeing live shows in the middle of downtown Chicago, especially after dark, with the bright skyline as a backdrop. Magical, really. I’d love to go to Forecastle in Louisville though. That one should happen.

Happy music Friday kiddos!