june things.

hmm, what to say about june? fun, frustrating, unpredictable, delicious, discouraging, relieving. …that’s a lot of things for one month! it was a bit of a rollercoaster, both regarding work [at times] and my personal life [at times]. and now, here we are, beginning july, and i feel relief at the way everything turned out and at the fact that that hectic month is OVER! ha.

if you didn’t already know, things didn’t work out with philip, for a VERY good reason which i will not share here, so i was dealing with that towards the beginning of the month [always stressful, no matter what the reason] and now i’m sort of “back to the drawing board” in that regard. single! which is both discouraging and relieving in its way. at this point, i’m just going to enjoy life and continue having fun because whyyyyyyyyy wouldn’t you?

first and foremost, i want to share just a few more photos from brittni’s bridal shower which was not actually in june, but i forgot to post them in my may post. this was such a fun party, and i’m still relishing over all the details:

{the punch bowl doesn’t have punch in it yet in these photos yet but i still had to post them…}

and here are some of the great moments of june:

{on the left: okay guys, here’s the deal: my cooking philosophy is that you can never go wrong with simplicity if fresh, seasonal ingredients are involved. so on this day i was going to make my easy go-t0 summer weeknight dinner, caprese, because i had the BEST tomatoes, but you all know that i have a thing for pasta, so…i lightly sautéed those tomatoes with a little garlic and sea salt, tossed with fettuccine, olive oil, fresh mozz, fresh ground pepper and some basil from the garden [unfortunately a bit wilted since i need to do a better job of watering, but still fresh and delicious nonetheless]… and then i decided that i will be eating this every day from now until the end of summer. so that’s that. and on the right: fun cocktails at parliament with mike!}

{car selfies from two different days which look strangely similar!}

{out of nowhere, my darling little succulent named ladybird, AKA miss pretty, sprouted up this whole arm of buds, ready to bloom! i couldn’t believe it!}

{i mean, seriously?! this little ladybird girl is too much. #overachiever [insert all the heart eyes!]}

{discreet selfies at work, obviously for you-know-who. haha. as i’ve mentioned before, when you’re long-distance, it’s just what you do. anyway, even though HE’S history, i think these selfies are a good snapshot in time of me in june 2016.} :)

{and in june, i discovered jalapeño bacon. FYI, there is nothing ordinary about hormel black label jalapeño bacon and i’m now obsessed with it. on the left: the day that i tried it for the first time. not a great picture but i made breakfast for dinner…a breakfast sandwich that could rival my SIGNATURE breakfast sandwich [which i fondly call the hangover mcmuffin]. the eggs were halfway between a fluffy folded egg and a soft scramble [an accident, really] with chives from the balcony garden…i plopped those eggs onto a toasted english muffin slathered with butter and drizzled with maple syrup. but what sent this sandwich over the edge was that bacon, wow. hash browns with balsamic vinegar ketchup on the side. on the right: a late dinner after toastmasters…spinach salad with fresh corn and blackberries and my favorite persian lime olive oil + white peach vinegar…and a side of – what else?! that jalapeño bacon was a dangerous find, let me tell you. not pictured: franconia amber ale to celebrate my first ever night of being the toastmaster! i like to keep a nice balance of healthy and unhealthy over here. ;) but always, always delicious.}

{one more use for jalapeño bacon and then i’m done: an open-faced BLT, or rather a BST [spinach instead of lettuce], on sourdough with avocado! so good. and that fruit there on the right is a kiwano melon that my coworker linda had brought to the office! it tasted kinda like a green banana – not very sweet – and i wasn’t too impressed with the flavor. a little bland. but the texture is jelly-like and it’s wonderful!}

{at the BØRNS concert with my friend lauren! we also met up with a couple of my coworkers and it was so much fun. they put on a great show. the tickets were $25 when we bought them – a steal – but this band is BLOWING UP. i feel pretty lucky to have gotten to see them in such a small and intimate venue, and at that price! so awesome.}

{this month mike visited priscilla in peru, and mom and dad took a food and wine barge tour in france for their 30th anniversary! i love my traveling family.}

{i admit it: i’ve become much more into brunching, day drinking, and happy hour in my career-age life [read: OLD], as opposed to staying up late and going out and having wild and crazy adventures…so when i truly go out college-style, the outfit must be documented…and the event itself must not!!} ;)

{happy father’s day to my darling dad! he is the sweetest, most affectionate father…hilariously quirky, inordinately practical, and undoubtedly prepared for anything that could occur, ever! ;) his integrity, humility, and strong faith are everything to me and i’m so lucky to have him as my dad. he is one of the very best people i know. i really missed talking to him and mom every day while they were on their trip [and we celebrated father’s day when they got back], but i was so glad that they got to have such a great adventure. they deserved it, majorly! i love my dad so much.}

{another cute picture of mom and dad in france, biking alongside their barge!}

{on the left: i made these amaretto apple streusel cupcakes and they turned out pretty tasty! on right: when mom and dad got back from their trip, we took dad to a fun dinner at rapscallion for father’s day. this was “the house mule” with gin.}

{i love throwbacks! i think i was about four in both of these. that one on the left is funny to me though, because let’s face it: i was in dance for the outfits.} ;)

{my favorite dumplings from the korean mart! half kimchi dumplings, half vegetable dumplings.}

{one day this month, my coworkers linda and kelly and i met our friend karuna, whom we used to work with “at the place down the road,” ;) at ida claire for happy hour. and this little happy hour made me so – well, happy!! it was wonderful to catch up with karuna and hear all about her wedding plans [she got married the weekend after we met up with her]. we love her dearly and are so thrilled for her and her now husband!}

{ida claire is such a fun place to go. i had the garden gimlet [pictured with the menu above], and we all shared the southern tasting board, which includes house cured meats, low country ham, pimento cheese, smoked mustard, jam, and ida’s biscuits. ALSO the crawfish corn beignets are delicious.}

{greenwood cemetery, on my run}

{when mom and dad got home, they treated us to a french-inspired dinner, which was so much fun! we started the evening with glasses of champagne + chambord.}

{the amazing french meal: lemon rosemary rainbow trout en papillote that mom and dad made! i made the parmesan mushroom risotto, plus we had asparagus and a salad. this meal got an A+!}

{our meal was complete with both chablis and bordeaux, because on their food and wine cruise, they had a little white and a little red every night with dinner.}

{after the meal, we had a cheese course with all french cheeses!}

{and we finished with coffee + raspberry cake on the porch. could it get any better?!}

{what a place to be.}

{while it’s great that we’re still getting rain in june, there was one day where there was some crazy flash flooding happening uptown. it was only raining for about an hour, but if you can see beyond the blurry blob of my windshield wiper on the right, there were policemen in knee-deep water just a few blocks from my house near turtle creek. luckily my condo is sort of at the top of the hill!}

{this isn’t a very good photo, but my parking garage was basically a lake. [a shallow one, thankfully, but still!] it has huge drains at the entrance, but the water was coming down faster than the drains could keep up! it was pretty wild.}

{and the most insane thing that happened during that hour of storms and flash flooding was that the parking garage of an apartment complex two blocks away from me got struck by lightning and collapsed. this was where the police had blocked off the street…}

{…it was a miracle that no one was hurt. i couldn’t believe this.}

{family photo tiiiiiiiiiiime! from 1993.}

{hello minneapolis! this was one of the rare times that my girl linda and i get to travel together so i knew it was gonna be good!}

{minneapolis is a great city. this was at a fun place called chino latino – “street food from the hot zones.” it’s basically focused on the cuisines from the countries around the equator. here we shared some ceviche and some quesadillas, but they were not your ordinary ceviche and quesadillas!}

{and pork steamed buns!}

{we were attending a food defense conference, which was pretty interesting. we learned from FBI agents, homeland security folks, and even listened to a government official of new zealand give us an account of how a guy tried to blackmail the NZ government by threatening to adulterate baby formula with lethal doses of a pesticide used there. it was a very scary threat, but they were able to bring together the police force, government agencies, and the baby formula companies to act quickly [and in secret] to ensure the safety of the baby formula by testing basically all product in stores [which sounds easy but actually cost millions of dollars – before this event, it wasn’t even possible to test all formula] before they went public with the message. because of their due diligence, they were able to say with confidence that baby formula was as safe as it was before the threat, and they were able to send a message out forcefully to the public that everyone should check the formula for tampering before using. it worked, and the guy who made the threat was caught a few months later. besides the obvious and most important risk to human life, this event could have also caused the entire collapse of the NZ economy, had the government not handled it the way they did, as the NZ economy relies so heavily on their dairy products, including formula, for export. it was amazing to hear how they were able to avoid this and keep their formula safe, and also maintain secrecy until they were ready to go public with the information, while all these undercover missions were going on behind the scenes. it was some crazy stuff, and it was a good reminder of why the food safety industry is so important!}