A Tribute to the Homeland, My Time Recently Spent There, and My Buddy, Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both

             

And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

     

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

                      

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost

I hope you all had a merry Christmas, have a safe, happy, and healthy new year!

I'll be home for Christmas.

It has always been very important to me that I spend holidays with my family.

That being said, after spending most of my Thanksgiving virtually alone in an office, I cannot be more excited about the prospect of getting to spend my favorite holiday in the good old Green Mountains with my favorite people.

However, since I will be gone for an entire week, I have been relatively bogged down at work.  I keep telling myself that "if I just make it through a couple more busy days, I'll be home."

Which is true.

On a somewhat related note, I had a bit of a moment with myself about a week ago in which I thought: "It's almost Christmas."  (Yes, Katie.  When all you hear is Christmas music and there are wreaths  EVERYWHERE, it is, generally, that time of year.)  I think what really got to me though, aside from the panic of realizing I'd done none of my Christmas shopping, was that this means I've been living in Asheville for almost three months.

The time has flown.

So, in order to lift my spirits a bit in terms of my workload and to pay some due respect to my new little home, I gave myself a project.  In regard to the former, I decided to spend my weekends and my free time visiting my favorite places (and some new ones!) in Asheville, and in regard to the latter, I decided to photo-document these little trips (as well as some of my favorite things) and post the pictures here.

I wish I had though of this project earlier so I could share more pictures, but for now, these will have to do.

Downtown Asheville.

Downtown getting in the holiday spirit.

Hibiscus-rosehip tea at Waking Life Espresso.

And a shot of espresso.  Always a shot of espresso.

So Patrick graduated last weekend (yay!) and his amazing, adorable, beautiful little dachshund pup, Cocoa, came to stay with us for the weekend.  She may not be from Asheville, but she's too cute to not get a shout-out.

And last, but not least:

(Drumroll please...)

FRENCH BROAD CHOCOLATE LOUNGE!!!

Adorable interior (lots of seating!)

Unbelievable espresso drinks and baked goods.

And...

Are you ready?...

Are you sure?...

OH HELLO BEAUTIFUL.

Oh, I forgot the most important one of all:

(He's going to hate me.)

A shout-out to this little cutie, my roommate, Patrick.  I can't thank him enough for being so accommodating and making the "NY-CT-VT------Asheville" transition so smooth for me.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas.

Much love!

Qui-NO-a, Qui-YES-a

I need to preface this post by apologizing for the title.  It's stupid, I know.

I would also like to make a promise to any "food blog-haters" that this is not going to turn into a food blog!

However, I made up a recipe last night and I was rather proud of myself so I thought I'd share.

It's a very simple, summer-y salad that is better if it has been chilled over night (as I discovered this morning.)

All you need is:

White quinoa
Spinach
Olive oil
Raisins (whichever kind you prefer)
Lemon
Salt and pepper (amount is subjective, due to the preferences of one's taste buds)

Instructions:

1. Depending on how much quinoa you are using (I used 1 cup of uncooked quinoa which yields several cups when cooked) bring the appropriate about of water (about double the amount of quinoa) to a boil.  Don't forget to rinse the quinoa before you cook it! Sometimes the outer shell tends to have a slightly bitter taste that goes away when rinsed.

Rinse meeeee

2. When the water is boiling, mix the quinoa in and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes or until quinoa is done.

The consistency should look something like this when the quinoa is done cooking.
 

3. While the quinoa is cooking, chop up some garlic (I used one large clove), pour some olive oil in a pan, and sauté the spinach until it is cooked all the way through as shown below.

4. When both the spinach and the quinoa are done cooking, drain any excess water out of the quinoa and pour it into a serving bowl with the spinach.

5. While the quinoa is still hot, add the raisins.  The heat will allow the raisins to swell making them extra juicy and delicious.  Top it off by squeezing as much lemon as you would like on top of the salad and adding your salt and pepper.

6. Voila! Enjoy.

Photos courtesy of THE Patrick Ingram.

A.R.T.

As many of you know, I made the decision to move to Asheville knowing full well that I would have to deal with the public transit here as I had sold my little Hyundai last May.

After going to school in New York, I was unfazed by the notion of public transportation.  In fact, I was excited to continue using it.  I thought I would be saving money and supporting this particular part of my new city's infrastructure (which, to a certain extent, I was).

The bus system in Asheville goes by the acronym A.R.T.

Asheville Redefines Transit.

I find this rather funny as the public transportation here is some of the most inconvenient that I have ever experienced.

I know I need to stop being a snob and recognize the fact that smaller, more residential cities are bound to have less developed transit systems due to population and the fact that people that can afford cars have them.  But let me do a little comparison for you.

Time it takes me to get to work from home by car: 10-15 minutes.

The same trip by bus: An hour and a half.

As my roommate so eloquently put it:

"I don't get how Asheville is redefining transit...by making it extremely inconvenient?"

However, I have been blessed by generous friends and co-workers that have basically served as my personal chauffeurs in the months that I've been here and, after Christmas, I will have a car and hopefully I will be able to truck them around to pay them back.

I'll still kick myself sometimes: I should be supporting public transit, people-watching at the bus station can be fun, I would be saving myself money, etc.

However, as much as I like the ideas of all of these things, I also like that extra hour of sleep.