And So Is Life

I wanted to share a little bit about what has been going on with me the past few weeks. Earlier this Summer I signed up for an intensive chemistry course, which I mentioned in a previous post, that was 1 year's (3 terms)  worth of content jammed into 9 weeks. I was spending every day from 8am to 11pm being in class and doing homework and then working on Friday and Saturday nights. Just by working 2 days, I fell too far behind on the HW, and my grade was starting to suffer and so I dropped the class. I will take it again at the regular pace in the Fall, but I have been really struggling with the fact that I dropped this class. I haven't ever really quit anything before and so I have been taking it pretty hard.

So the last couple of weeks I've been feeling pretty crappy -- just sleeping in, feeling bad, and most importantly, not taking care of myself. I've been having doubts about what I want to do with my career and my life, and being in limbo is not a place I like being in -- I really dislike feeling like I am floating through life without a goal. I also gave away almost all of my shifts at work so that I would be able to focus on the class, and so I have a lot of free time on my hands, which I am not fond of. So I started cooking. And with the cooking I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog and write about my food experiences and my journey as I figure out my path.

And it has really been helping. I find that I am most happy when I am either cooking or going to work. Times when I am busy. So besides cooking I have been exploring the more artsy side of myself buying used t-shirts and cutting them into tanks, or what I want to do next is try spraying bleach on black shirts or dresses to get that almost interstellar look. I am also going to start attending yoga classes. There are so many great yoga studios around Portland, and I feel that it would be really beneficial for me find an outlet for my stress and become more centered, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Through these things I think I'm starting to come out this slump and it feels so good.

If anything I hope maybe my journey can help you with any struggles that you may be going through, and please feel free to share your story! I find that talking to people about their own life experiences is very therapeutic and helpful in figuring out your own path.

Ethiopian Thyme Iced Tea

I LOVE iced tea in the Summer time. I could just drink gallons and gallons of it, become really dehydrated, and not care because it is just so damn good. Although, I rarely order iced tea in a restaurant...probably because I'm usually ordering wine or a gin and tonic.

You know how for some people they could just drink hot coffee all day every day? Well iced tea is my thing. It is so comforting and soothing. And then there is the blissful moment half way through the second glass of caffeine buzz happiness...so zen. Then after that buzz you keep drinking because you just want to keep that feeling alive, but instead you end up jittery and your heart is racing and you're cursing yourself for having too much caffeine. Wait, we're still talking about iced tea, right?

Queen of Sheba's Thyme Iced Tea

Not only is iced tea comforting, but it is a ritual. I love rituals. For the past two or so years, every morning (ok, afternoon) I walk down to a cafe called the Fresh Pot. It is a little coffee shop that serves "Portland's" coffee brand, Stumptown, and is situated inside a mini Powell's Books on Hawthorne. So I wake-up, put some pants on, and take a walk to get my iced tea. I just love taking walks. Just getting out of the house and breathing in fresh air wakes me up and clears my head. If I'm ever feeling claustrophobic from being in the house too long or feeling a little sad or lonely I take a walk. Or if I'm just bored, I will take myself on a walk. I really need a dog, I know. Walking a dog is a lot more fun than walking yourself.

Living on Hawthorne street is awesome because I will always have a destination and something to do. Whether it's getting coffee or checking out the newest books at Powell's or popping into Buffalo Exchange to look at clothes or, my other favorite thing, getting frozen yogurt from Swirl, and I always feel better after I get home. A past teacher of mine has a motto that she lives by and it's this, "eat a good meal and take a walk." It is some of the best advice I have ever received. If you follow this advice and eat healthy and get some physical activity in every day, you will live a much happier and healthier life. And by physical activity I don't mean going to the gym everyday, because honestly that is just too much for some people. Just get outside one or two times a day and clear your head, see some tress, move your body. So simple and so beneficial.

Back to the tea. So at the Fresh Pot they serve this Ethiopian thyme iced tea, and it is SO good. Cold, big thyme flavor, hints of cinnamon and clove and finished off with a kiss of honey. LOVE. But I'm spending $3.25 every single day on this stuff! So I decided to try and make my own, and I did it. Successfully! And if you have not experienced it yourself, I highly recommend you either go to a local Fresh Pot and try some, or make you own...it's super easy.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 black tea bags; preferably a mild black tea like Lipton or Earl Grey. English Breakfast types tend to be too strong
• ~15 sprigs of fresh thyme; I just buy pre-packaged from Freddie's
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 Tbsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/4 cup honey

Step 1: Boil 6 cups of water in a pot over high heat.

Step 2: When boiling point is reached, take pot off burner and add the tea bags and thyme to steep.

Step 3: After 5 minutes take tea bags out and add cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom and honey.

Clove, rosemary, cinnamon, cardamom powder

Step 4: At this point I let the rest of the ingredients steep for another 10 minutes
Step 5: Strain, bottle, and enjoy!

Jug from Freddie's for $7

Since the tea is concentrated, I fill a mug about 1/2 to 2/3 full of tea, add ice, and fill the rest up with cold water. This dilutes the tea and makes it last longer.


I hope you enjoy this recipe and please let me know what you think!

And remember, eat a good meal and take a walk.

Welcome!

Welcome to What's Eating Ashly!  A blog about me (Ashly) and my life through food.  This isn't a blog about recipes or food education, but a demonstration about how food plays a part in most of our daily choices and life events. You know, whether it's eating (or not) when you're stressed, cooking for comfort, or doing things like making an amazing breakfast for yourself when you're hungover or making watermelon Jello-O shots for your company party (you'll see).

A little bit about me: I am 28, live in Portland Oregon, am a server in a very busy restaurant, and am currently in school trying to figure out what the hell it is I want to do with my life.  That last part is another reason why I am starting this blog. I know that I have a passion for food and drink, and do enjoy working in a restaurant because everyday is different and also for the fast pace of the job. But, I do know that being a server is not a sustainable career for me in the long run, and so I have some figuring out to do.

My other interests lie in health and nutrition. For the last year I have been working on science pre-requisites to prepare for Physician Assistant (PA) school. Everything has been going great until I signed up for this chemistry course that was  a whole year's worth of content jammed into 9 weeks, and I just couldn't keep up and risk getting a bad grade, so I dropped it. It was seriously the worst two weeks of my life...like, the seventh circle of hell but with metric conversions. This has left me feeling pretty crappy about myself and really questioning whether or not I am pursuing the right career. So, to make a short story long, I am hoping that through this blog I will learn more about myself and find some direction as to what it is that I want to do with my life.

Current options include, PA (still considering), ND (Natropathic Doctor), flight attendant, or leaving to go live in France to get my Sommelier or maybe an MBA in Food and Wine in Bologna, Italy. Or maybe this blog will turn out to be world-famous and I can be a famous food writer or the next Anthony Bourdain...right.

OK, I promise this will be the wordiest of my posts. I know that humans have virtually no attention span and that I have probably lost most of your interest by now...so how about some pictures!

 Homemade White Sauce Chicken Bacon Pizza (gf)

Homemade Margherita Pizza (gf)

Pizza! Pizza is one of my favorite foods in the world. It is just so comforting and really speaks to my soul. It is also my ultimate weakness. Maybe I was an obese Italian in a past life. I should mention that I am gluten-free, yes I am one of those people, but it's for health reasons, and not because it's trendy...and I definitely cheat...often. My reason for this is because a few years ago it was suggested by my doctor to do a trial and see how I felt after two weeks without gluten, and wow did it make a world of difference. My bloating went away, I wasn't lethargic, and I also wasn't so foggy-headed anymore.  Gluten-intolerance is a real thing and it is different from celiac. Celiac people are bed-ridden if they have a drop of gluten and have no room for cheating...which sounds awful.  So when it was suggested by my doctor that I go gluten free, I was a little bit devastated because that meant no more pizza! Or so I thought, but today it's pretty easy to find gf pizza in stores or pizza places.  Anyways, this is my first 100% from scratch pizza(s) that I have made, and it was so fun! So let's get to it!

The top picture (above) features a white-sauce with chicken breast, bacon, and red onion. The bottom picture is a classic red sauce margherita. The crust for both is from a package of Bob's Red Mill gluten free pizza dough.

The white sauce is a classic Bechamel sauce made up of garlic, onion, basil, gluten-free rice flour, butter, and cream with parmesan added at the end.

Bechamel Sauce

The chicken breast I pan-cooked, made the bacon, and topped with fresh, raw red onion and baked for 18 minutes. Salt and red peppers to taste for eating.

For the Margherita pizza, I sauteed a half of a white onion and garlic, and poured the mixture along with a can of chopped tomatoes into my Ninja blender, and presto. The sauce was a little watery, so I tried to thicken it up with some cream and parmesan cheese...which didn't work. 

So I strained the sauce using my fine mesh strainer, and it worked great!

The toppings were just some fresh sliced mozzarella and tomatoes, and topped with some fresh basil leaves and baked for 16 minutes.

I have to say that making the sauces was my favorite part. The dough, eh, not my favorite. I'm honestly not too crazy about baking. The Bob's Red Mill was fine, just a little hard to handle and really difficult to spread out to make that thin crust I like. The dough actually ended up being very thick, but it got the job done. Plus, everything is gluten free! Hip hip hooray!

I hope you have enjoyed this first installment of my blog and stay tuned for more to come!