Mediterranean Miss

Kalinihta blogfriends!

I hope all of you had good Thursdays – I find that there’s something magical about being almost done the week, but not being handed your weekend’s worth of assignments. Double the fun ^~ Unfortunately, I’ve got to start off this post with some bad news, but I’ll show you how it turned into something amazing, anyway.

To begin, I had to let Percy go The two cats in the loft proved to be too much for my poor boyfriend’s allergies, and the amount of fur was staggering. My parents are allergic to cats, but have been doing fine with Dolce. Curiously, Andrew didn’t react to just Dolch either. I think that throwing another bundle of fur into the mix was just too much for the space they were in. I’m going to miss him so much, and I’m making sure that Dolch is getting extra attention. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to care, although he’s much cuddlier than he was when he had somebody to roughhouse with.

The good news? Percy went to an incredible lady. She’s older, but acts nowhere near seventy-something. He took to her on sight, as did I! The best is that she’ll need a catsitter from time to time, a position I gladly volunteered for. But that isn’t the only good news. Yesterday we went out to dinner. She’s a vegan herself, so I took her to Fresh (she’d never been.) We talked there for almost two hours about basically everything. By the time we parted last night, I felt like she was a part of my family. Just as I was leaving, though, she stopped me and said one of the most amazing things anybody has ever said to me:

Never change. You are an amazing person. You are so upbeat, you are so positive, and it makes you a joy to be around. Your job, your family and you boyfriend are lucky to have you. Keep your head on your shoulders, keep solving problems the way that you do. Don’t ever change.

Well, I did. That conversation, with somebody I hardly know, changed my life. I know I’ll remember it forever. I’m passing her message on to you, just like I’m sure God encouraged her to give it to me:

Please, don’t ever change. Don’t forget how unique, how beautiful, how strong you are. We all have our flaws, but the way we respond to them, the way that we accept and move on from our problems, the way that we try to make light out of negative situations – let those be the things that define you, and not the situations themselves. You are strong. You are beautiful. You are you, and I hope you realize, honestly, just how incredible that is.

As a parting gift, she gave me a picture that she had made. She is an artist as well, you see, and she likes to take pictures, then upload them to her computer and “use the computer as a palette.” I thought it was such a neat concept! This is a picture of some ice she saw on her back porch. Look at what she did, though, to bring it alive:

I love the way she releases the color from the ice. How talented!

On a slightly less emotionally-charged note.. here is a bowl of cereal. Haha! It has been so hot and muggy in Toronto lately that I have had to forego my hot breakfasts in favor of yogurts and cereals. My only issue with cereal though is that I feel like I could eat about six bowls of it and still not feel sated. Do any of you have this problem? I’m kind of considering blending cereal into a GM to make one of Freya’s monsters.

Just the thing for a hot morning - but this keeps me full for about three seconds.

Lunch was pretty standard. I had an unpictured yogurt mess today with half a banana and some ground flax. It hit the spot, but was totally overshadowed by my dinner:

Fresh, bright and in season. Grilled tomatoes, purple sweet potatoes and salad with the last of Caroline's dressing.

The grilled tomatoes were awesome. This was one huge beefsteak.

Anyway, I have something to show you. I have a tendency to rush when I’m cooking weeknight meals (read: things that aren’t salads) and so I end up with a lot of scorched pans. None of my scrubbing helped, so I went online for a natural solution. Online, I found a surprising idea that seemed to have done pretty well: rhubarb. Specifically, boiling a stick of rhubarb in a pan until the natural acidity wears off the gross black splotches. I decided to put it to the test and record my results here. It made for fun photographs, anyway.

So, introducing, on your right: the contender (ew):

Hello Mr.Dirtypan

And your left, the defender of cleanliness: boiled rhubarb!

As a happy added bonus, this made the loft smell a bit like rhubarb pie.

After a decent half hour or so, this was the result:

Not too shabby, rhubarb!

Give this a try and let me know how it worked for you! It definitely beats an age of scrubbing in dirty, greasy water with skin-cracking soap It smells nice too, although it’ll make you crave rhubarb like no other. Speaking of, it inspired me to do some baking. Stay tuned for some gluten-free rhubarb nutbread that my dad totally loves. You’ll enjoy it too!

That’s all from this miss tonight, I’m beat, and heading home for the weekend tomorrow with Andrew. Got to get some z’s for that six-hour drive!
Sweet dreams blogloves <3

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