All Hail Roasted Garlic

I love roasted garlic. And now everyone in the office knows it. I just had some Chicken Crostina from the Olive Garden that I originally had the other night – “Potato-parmesan crusted chicken breasts sautéed with roma tomatoes and roasted garlic. Served with linguine tossed in a creamy garlic-butter sauce.” – and it was absolutely delish. But after the salad, breadsticks, and Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip, it was all I could do to get the rest of my dinner down without exploding. So, to-go box it was and to-work it went.

I’m also reminded of another one of my favorite Italian restaurants – Vinny T’s. At Vinny’s, the bread basket is nothing short of spectacular. The bread itself is focaccia bread, but it’s the way it’s served that makes it what it is. They give you – get this – a whole head of roasted garlic to spread on your bread and taste the garlicky goodness! Oh yes! It’s worth it to go there just for that.

I myself am a bit lazy to roast garlic, since I spent most of my adult years cooking for 1. I usually keep a jar of the minced, roasted garlic in my fridge, and it’s great to just plop some on some pasta with garlic-infused olive oil. That, some fresh asparagus and fresh grated Parmesan cheese are a wonderful meal that combines the best of yummy flavors and comfort foods. These days I cook for Boyfriend as well as myself, and lucky for me he likes roasted garlic as much as I do. I even spied a garlic roaster in his kitchen, which will have to get dusted off and used one of these days. One thing’s for sure – he doesn’t mind kissing me when I have roasted garlicky breath!

On Creativity

I don’t consider myself a particularly creative person. I do appreciate creativity, though. One job I had for a few years was as a receptionist in a graphic design studio. I loved going to work every day and seeing the work the artists were producing. I loved that the creative mind carried over into the decor of the office. And I loved that I was able to express myself however I wished.

In high school, I was in the Art Club. I didn’t produce much, but it was a lot of fun walking around the art rooms, seeing what everyone was doing, and talking to them. I did a few mediocre paintings and made a pinch pot with pottery (since trying my hand at the spinning wheel wasn’t exactly successful). I think my mom still has that pinch pot somewhere.

I’ve tried my hand at various crafts. For quite some time I’ve found myself drawn to paper crafts – particularly card making. I don’t care as much for stamping, just paper. I love feeling papers, with all the different textures, materials, and prints. I used to work in a wallpaper store, but that’s another post. Right now, I have some card-making materials and I need to make a card for someone who is having babies (yes, babies. Twins!)

I also love photography. I don’t think I’m very good at it, but some people (including VegasRic, who is a professional photographer) have told me otherwise. And Boyfriend mentioned today that when he gets his tax return he wants to buy Photoshop. I can just see myself spending hours and hours and hours on there playing with it to see what I can come up with. Adobe Elements has been on my list, which is a much less expensive and watered down version of Photoshop. It’s more to my budget. I’m already imagining the possibilities. I’ve been participating in quite a few mix exchanges lately, and trying to make the cover art has been difficult without some sort of software to manipulate photos. Thank goodness for VegasRic and his mad skills for the V-Cat Version 2.07.

I’ve also been thinking about pursuing a more creative field of work. I’d love to study graphic design. I think I’d be better at the more technical aspects of it rather than the creative. I really appreciate creativity and know good work when I see it, but I am pretty much incapable of producing it myself. The technical aspects I tend to pick up right away, so I’d like to learn that. Someday, perhaps, someday. For now I’ll just wait for Boyfriend to get Photoshop and play with that, then see what happens.

Quote taken from Creative Juices website.

And Finally, A Time To Rest

One can only hope. After a hectic week and weekend, things should be settling down a bit. I have not had much time alone with Boyfriend since we got together. First he was away on business and this past week, along with the weekends that bookend the week, for a grand total of 10 days, he has had house guests from out of town. Add to that all the things we had going on this week – my concert, his concert, a mutual friend’s birthday, etc., and we are exhausted. It will be so nice to sit and do nothing together tonight. And, there is the strong possibility for thunderstorms forecast for today, so sitting with his arms around me during a thunderstorm will be even better.

Despite all the busyness, guests and crazy schedules, things have been going very, very well with Boyfriend. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The Saga Continues…

Well isn’t this an interesting turn of events. A short time ago, Bobby promised to make good and get his site back to being the link exchange heaven it used to be. But he slacked off once again, and it seems that someone, or someones, got upset and reported the blog to Blogger for TOS violations. I don’t know how it will turn out, but for now I’ll leave the link in my blogroll until there is resolution. What that resolution is will determine what my course of action is regarding Bobby’s link.

Chantal Concert


I went to see Chantal Kreviazuk tonite. She wasn’t touring on her own, but opening for Five for Fighting, but that doesn’t bother me. The ticket price was reasonable, so going to see her for a half hour set was very worth it. She played a few familiar songs, including the one you see above, and then played some songs from her new album, Ghost Stories, and the best thing is that I got to meet her after the show and get it autographed.

Actually, I lied. My boyfriend was dropping me off at Mandalay Bay to see that I got into the venue ok. Then, as I was being my boring old self standing there at the House of Blues all by myself waiting for the concert to start, I was checking the time on my cell phone and saw that there was a voice mail. I called Boyfriend back and he told me to go to the stairs by the bathroom. So I do, and there he is. He bought a ticket to see the show with me because he knew how much I enjoy Chantal’s music. Now is that the sweetest thing ever or what? He did enjoy the show, and said that she is a very good performer, even though generally that’s not his style. He’ll be back at HOB tomorrow night for the Type O Negative concert, which I will not go because loud raucous music is not for me, especially in concert. I’m just not into crowd surfing, ya know?

So I just had to type up this post and 1. share Chantal’s music with everyone and 2. let you all know that I have the Best. Boyfriend. Ever.

So there.