Day 1

Welcome to my new blog. This will be a somewhat informative page about what it's like being a modern woman. I will be discussing all of the things I'm passionate about: life, wine, food, pastry, men, fashion and growing things. Welcome aboard...it may be a strange ride.

To me, a modern woman is a hard thing to describe because people expect us to be everything at once. In the 50's it was easy for a woman to know her role, but now the lines have become muddled. Now we're expected to have a full time career to help pay the bills, have great credit so we can buy a house or a car in our own name without anybody else's help, not need anybody else's help ever (except when we're "acting like a girl"--and then they can't believe we didn't ask for help), and maybe, just maybe, we're expected to not want a significant other in our lives. Because after all, if we don't need them, why should we want them?

However, we're also expected to come home from a hard day's work and (if we do have a male or kids in our life, or I guess it could just be a dependent female, but especially if there's children involved) clean the house, cook the dinner, wash the clothes, fold the clothes, put everybody else's clothes away--unless we want them on the floor next to the bed where they inevitably get washed again the next week because we don't know if they're clean or dirty a week later--and make everybody's lunches for the next day. Am I the only one in this house who knows how to make a sandwich and put a yogurt into a bag? Or cut a watermelon into small bite size chunks? Well, he can't have them in slices...his hands are dirty at work and he doesn't want to get junk on his fruit....gasp!

At any rate, the posts that follow will be about the struggles to maintain the balance of a modern woman's life...when we don't know what the rules (or roles) are anymore. In a world where we're expected to do the gardening, decorating, cooking, cleaning...but also the fixing of broken dishwashers and replacing garbage disposals, and hanging blinds, patching holes, and various other manual tasks that used to be reserved for the male role of the household. Sidenote: I'm going to say male role to include female and male domestic partners as well as straight men--because every relationship has different roles, and I don't intend on excluding any population.

Summation: This is a blog for working women (or people in a working woman's role) about working women; it's about bringing home the bacon, and then being expected to cook it too.

First day:

Tonight I would love to mention the wine I'm drinking right now: Opolo Vineyards, Mountain Zinfandel from Paso Robles, 2009. It is very delicious with hints of chocolate and spice, but very fruit forward. I wish I had made a chocolate creme brulee for dinner...but alas, life as a modern woman does not afford one the opportunity to always make a delicious dessert to go along with a dinner. It was hard enough to go to work this morning, a doctor's appointment this afternoon that lasted way longer than expected and still get home in time to make homemade beef stroganoff and artichokes with garlic aioli sauce before my guy arrived home. In truth, I made the garlic aioli very simply using store bought mayo, because I didn't have time to make it from scratch too, but I wanted something delicious to dip my artichoke leaves into that my boyfriend would eat. Being with me for over a year, and me being a chef, his tastes have gotten very picky lately and he won't eat plain mayo on his artichokes.

A Recipe for Garlic Aioli:

1 Cup Mayo (if you choose to make fresh mayo, I recommend Julia Child's recipe--so good!)
3 small garlic cloves
2 TB lemon juice
TT kosher salt and pepper (TT means to taste)

and then I also like to add
1 fresh cayenne (or 2 small thai) chili peppers with seeds--from my garden
a dash of dried or fresh basil (if fresh, 1-2 small leaves)

And then put it all into the food processor until the garlic cloves are chopped. Season to taste.

This recipe can be used for many things...drizzling it over steamed asparagus, dipping sauce for artichokes, spread for sandwiches...the possibilities are endless. Let me know how you like it...that is, if anybody ever reads this thing...haha!

What else to say on my first impression?

Ok, how about this. I read an article in a Vogue magazine recently--I have a subscription because I'm addicted to fashion in addition to my many other passions--that had a story about a girl who was struggling to figure out who she was, and I guess that's me too. At any rate, she got some advice from somebody along her journey that she was supposed to be a writer, and she realized that it took figuring out what she wasn't that ended up helping her figure out what/who she was. Because of that article I started figuring out who and what I was NOT...but I kept coming back to things that I might be: a writer, a chef, a sommelier, a vineyard owner. So I've been trying to explore those might be-s, and I realized something revolutionary: Nobody Has To Pay Me To Write For Me To BE A Writer. All I have to do is write. So there we go.

Now I AM a writer.