famiree time, sans famiree

my day was constituted by nearly every aspect of this blog. namely, i crafted, and i cooked, and at some points in time i was both crafting and cooking simultaneously (side note: studies show women are better at multitasking. fuck yeah). the only thing missing was the famiree.

home alone, i decided to spend my time making and assembling a small package for my friend. awhile ago he had asked for a collage, and i've also been meaning to send him a cd.

cd cover outside; inside. made from a colonial-era atlas page.

my dad recently did a major cleanup of his office, and he's been throwing out all sorts of fantastic collage materials, such as a huge pile of road maps, a gigantic encyclopedia, and a colonial-era atlas. all these materials make an appearance here.

you know what's fun about giving collages to two people who don't know each other? you can make two that are almost identical!

"hello"; "fête des pères"

and for dinner, i made salmon, pasta, & arugula salad. frozen salmon fillets are fantastic when cooking for one; so is pasta. come to think of it, so is salad. these are genuinely easy and quick things to prepare. so much so that i pretty much eat this stuff every single time i'm starving and need to make a meal for myself really quickly.

balsamic salmon

1. buy frozen salmon fillets from costco! they're the best. great for a mini meal when you're starving but too lazy to cook anything.

2. mince some garlic, then place it in a pan with olive oil.

3. place salmon fillet in pan, pour some balsamic vinegar in the pan too. cover with aluminum foil.

4. cook it. i am terrible at cooking fish / any type of meat, so you better not follow my direction here.

basic pasta

this stuff is the best. it makes plain pasta a little more interesting. my friends always rave about my mom's pasta, but it's actually really simple to make.

1. cook pasta according to package directions. i find that cooking the pasta for the exact time it says on the package yields the best-cooked pasta. except for today when it said to cook for 15 minutes.. at 13 minutes it was already overcooked. sad.

2. while pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan. i typically use 1 clove of garlic per 1-2 people. add a bit of salt and pepper to the olive oil / garlic mix.

3. watch carefully! you do not want the garlic to burn. it gets brown and crunchy and really weird. if the pasta has awhile to go, make sure to turn the heat of the oil down to low. the garlic should become fragrant.

4. strain pasta, put in a bowl (or just back in the pot). pour oil / garlic mix into pasta and stir.

arugula salad with lemon balsamic champagne dressing

you should know how to make a salad. so i'll just tell you how to make the dressing i used, which is also delicious to dip the salmon in if it doesn't have enough flavor.

1. i mixed girard's champagne dressing (my favorite; mixes well with lots of things) with some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

2. wait, you totally knew that just from the title anyway. this totally didn't need directions, did it..