A list of things consumed by my head, heart, eyes, ears and stomach lately.

The sights, sounds and tastes of Memphis

I took a quick little work trip to Memphis last week and while it doesn’t warrant its own post (unless you really want to hear about the 2.5 hour tour I took of a steel mill?!), I wanted to share the few pictures I took and moments I spent soaking up Memphis culture.  We stayed on Beale, so we spent most of our time there, eating at Blues City Cafe, Itta Bena and Rendezvous, watching the Duck Parade at the Peabody and listening to live music but we did have just enough time to tour Graceland and have a dinner/wine flight at Flight (how cool is this restaurant concept?!) and then before we knew it, we were back home.

P.S. Apparently the sausage platter — sausage, cheese, pickles and BBQ for dipping — is a thing in Memphis.  I dig it!

Five Foot Two, Joanne

My love for Lady Gaga was rekindled after watching this documentary of hers.  What a fierce and dedicated artist she is.  Immediately after watching this, I A) re-watched her Super Bowl performance (perfection!) and B) bought her most recent album (because why didn’t I already own that??).  If you wanna have a long passionate discussion about Lady Gaga, you know where to find me.

Stranger Things 2

We finished the series on Monday night and remember how I wasn’t super into the first season?  Either I totally got caught up in the collective experience aspect (I mean, we were ALL home watching last weekend, right??) or I liked it more than I thought because I was pretty into this second season.  I would fully watch a third season that was just Dustin and Steve Harrington hanging out.

The Nix

I’ve had this book on my “to read” list for something like a year but it’s over 600 pages long and I could never find “the right time” to pick it up.  Turns out “the right time” is when it’s your book club pick.  Not going to lie, I was NOT into it.  Felt like four different books rolled into one.  I just kept thinking how tangled and confusing it probably was to write/edit.  I think somewhere in there was a good 300-page novel, but we’ll never know.  I just know I was SO ready to be done with it.

The West Wing

GUYS!  WE FINISHED THIS SERIES!  On my TimeHop this week, I saw a tweet I wrote TWO YEARS AGO saying we had just started it.  I can’t believe it took two years but at the same time, I can’t believe it was only two years because it felt like so many more!  Look, it’s a very well-done show but 7 seasons of 22 extremely fast-paced hour-long episodes is just too much.  When you factor in how much TV and they way we view it has changed since this show aired, it’s just really really hard to get through.  I honestly wouldn’t encourage anyone to take it on.

P.S. Watching this show post-election greatly depressed me.  Our current administration is NOT the administration of Jed Bartlet.

No Knead Bread

Words cannot express how delighted I was when this little loaf came out of the oven on a snowy Monday night.  I tweaked the recipe by using active dry yeast instead of instant (I just dissolved it in water and let it sit for 10 minutes, THEN added the other ingredients) and doing two cups AP flour and one cup whole wheat.  Next time, I’ll let it bake with the lid on for an extra 10 minutes (high altitude baking, yo!) but I think this recipe is a comfort food season game changer!

In other news, it’s Friday and I’m so dang glad.  I think we are going to try and hit up a movie for Denver Film Fest and I KNOW we are going to Snooze with Hannah and Josh!  I think I’ll fill in the gaps with granola, a book and a quick outdoor run 🙂  How about you?