Up to Everything & Then Some :)

I know I haven’t posted in awhile, but that’s only because so much stuff is going on! Where to begin?!?

1. Promotion Transfer-to-a-Position-that-I-Prefer
So last week I got “transferred” from my barista position to the coveted food-prepper position at the cafe I work at. Now, while that doesn’t seem like a huge win, getting to deal with pastries and paninis instead of picky clueless customers all day is definitely a move in the right direction for me 🙂 I love following recipes and keeping things in order all day long- it’s kind of what I live for, you know? 🙂

2. Back to Skool!
As I’ve mentioned previously, I am going back to college to obtain yet another undergraduate degree (I’m super special like that 😉 in order to become a registered dietitian. Classes at a semi-sketchy community college start next week and I will come face-to-face with my nemesis(es) from high school – chemistry + biology. I’m going to try really hard to understand this time around and I’m hoping that five years + a solid goal in mind will help me get through this. If all else fails, I’ll just pretend I’m in Potions class. Which brings me to 

3. Embracing the Potter in Me
I’m a major Harry Potter devotee and lately I’ve found myself gravitating back to the books and rereading/reliving them again. I swear they are the equivalent of comfort food for my brain. Reading Harry Potter is like snuggling under the blankets on a chilly autumn evening 🙂 For realz.
Oh yeah, and now I’ve even got a legit time-turner of my own 😉

4. PICKLES!
My wonderful father has put together a canning kit for me & I am so stoked to start using it! (I get it in 2 weeks) So stoked, in fact, that I have already brewed a batch of homemade refrigerator pickles in anticipation. The results = NOMS!

5. DIY CREAMY DRESSING!
You didn’t really think that this post would come sans-recipe? I wouldn’t do that to you!
So this weekend I had an epiphany of sorts when it came to dressings of the homemade variety. People have mentioned using leftover brine/vinegar as dressings before but I could not picture the watery dressing just slopped onto a fresh/crisp salad. Noooo. I like my dressings to cling to the veggies. So I thought. And thought. And thought some more.
And then it clicked.
Yogurt!
And sure enough, after I bought whole-milk yogurt at Whole Foods, I came home and whipped it with some of my Dad’s pickled beet brine and wow! It provided the creamy texture I longed for and softened the pickly beet brine to make it subtle enough to top any salad.

So here’s a more of a DIY dressing recipe, meant to be mixed and played with. In the coming days I plan on trying some combos such as:

Yogurt + homemade cherry vinegar
Yogurt + BBQ sauce (to be interesting for sure!)
Yogurt + other random-juice-chilling-in-the-back-of-my-fridge

Ingredients
Yogurt (choose the variety you like best. I find that going the whole-milk route is the less-processed route. Plus, when you’re combining it and then only using a couple tablespoons at a time, the fat content matters not.)
Vinegar/Juice/Brine –> the possibilities are endless!

Directions
I suggest combining only a couple tablespoons of yogurt with a bit of vinegar/juice/brine at a time so that you don’t end up making a whole big batch of something you don’t like. Have fun with this, and especially have fun knowing that you won’t have to pay $3.99 a bottle for dressing!

Thoughts on pickles? (Mustaches?)