Recipes

Not to brag, but I'm kind of an amazing cook.

Someone should tell my kids

Last week I was at the store and impulse-bought some basil and tomatoes to make a caprese salad with basalmic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

When I got home, we were out of cheese, and I had to improvise. I pulled out the food processor and threw the basil in with some olive oil and salt to make pesto. We didn't have pine nuts, but cashews are practically the same. It's against my personal religion to put fresh garlic into anything, so after pureeing the heck out of it for a few minutes: voila! Italy's best! -- made by an American expat in Brazil, of course.

We had pesto pasta tossed with diced tomatoes for dinner, and when my kids grow up they will know what they missed.
The next night I made pizza with the leftover pesto. I topped it with shredded chicken, onions, and cheese. It was fantastic! 

Someday I'd like to get to this point with my clothes. Stay with me; it will make sense in a minute. Right now I feel like the person who eats every night at McDonald's. I know it's not great, but it's easy, comfortable, and I've been doing it so long it's all I know. I love wearing jeans and t-shirts, but they're my McDonald's. 

To be fair, McDonald's has a nice variety on their menu these days, with salads and yogurt and apple slices. And I have some nice t-shirts. 

But let's say this McDonald's person heads over to the grocery store and buys some basil and tomatoes. Fresh vegetables and herbs! Watch out, world, I'm a foodie now!

Then they get home and realize basil and tomatoes make a terrible dinner. Sure, it's edible, but it's not delicious like the fries at McDonald's. So they toss the leftover basil and go back to justifying the tomatoes in ketchup and the whitish-pink tomato slice in the Big N' Tasty.

That's how I feel about fashion. I don't really know what to buy, and even if I do buy something nice, I don't have belts or shoes or even pants to go with it. 

So... I need recipes.

I've been really looking forward to my Stitch Fix order, almost as much for the styling cards as for the actual clothes.

Almost. :)

My Grammy puts magazine pictures up in her closets or sticks them onto the hangers to inspire her on what she can wear with certain items. I, on the other hand, just get dressed until my body's covered. This idea of planning and accessorizing certainly didn't get passed down genetically.

But I'm sticking these "recipe cards" up on my closet doors.

Skinny jeans: I guess I can dress these up or down-- though both of these are dressing up for me.

I didn't keep this shirt, but I still like the styling ideas.
This idea that you can have more than one purse -- and then accentuate your outfit with it-- is novel to me.
I have one purse. It is blue. Because blue goes with everything.
Especially when you always wear jeans.

Dress this up with white jeans! Ooooohhh, I'm not so sure I could do that with kids.
Or without kids.
I like most of this, but on this one I started to get the feeling the stylist was just kind of throwing pieces together.
I mean, yes I can wear a necklace with this, but that coral and teal necklace on the right? It looks completely random.
I think my pharaoh necklace would actually match better.

And this is nice and all. I like the yellow necklace and teal clutch.
But I'm pretty sure that even I know you're not supposed to wear a black cardigan with a navy dress!
Maybe they ran out of pictures for cardigans. 

So maybe I won't try every single one of these "recipes." But I really need to stop eating McDonald's every day.
Maybe I'll try the white jeans.