thanksgiving favorite: cranberry relish salad.

This past weekend I attended my first Thanksgiving meal of the season. During this time of the year, I am always thankful for great friends and inviting homes.

As a way to contribute to the meal, I prepared a quick, simple, festive dish - Cranberry Relish Salad.

If anyone needs something easy to bring this turkey day – here it is:

All you need are 3 cups of fresh cranberries, 1 orange, 2 granny smith apples, and 2 thin slices of ginger. Simply pit the orange and apples of any seeds, put all the ingredientes (your choice if you want to include the orange peel or not) into a food processor, mix, and wah-la! You have your dish made in 10 minutes, tops!

brown county.

Diagnosis: Travel Bug.  Remedy: Brown County - the beautiful boutique town of Nashville, Indiana and the Brown County State Park.

The beauty of autumn trees always brings joy deep down in my soul. Although they come around each year, I can never get over the pure beauty.

These pictures do not do the natural landscape justice but I hope it at least provides a glimpse.

While the season lasts… go out and jump in a pile of leaves!

i am a dreamer.

I want to travel the world, move to NYC for a fast-paced job but eventually raise a family in the suburbs with the quarterly vacations around the world.  In my twenties, I want to travel to Asia and shop the markets of India like in the movie, Eat Pray Love.  I want to sip wine and eat cheese with the natives in the south of France and visit the historical WWII sites of Germany and Anne Frank’s home in Amsterdam.  I want to visit Seattle, I’ve never been there – Grey’s Anatomy depicts the city well.  And while I truly do want all of these things, I am living in central Indiana devoting most of my time to my job, leaving at 7:50 in the morning and returning home just shy of twelve hours later. 

Is it wrong to dream of these other worlds?  Now, please don’t misunderstand, I’m content with my life here. I am learning so much as I transition to being a ‘real adult.’ I like my job, I like my friends and life here but I cannot resist the dreaming.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the balance between ambition and being content.   What does it look like to be content with where you are at, yet have goals and dreams that may take you to a different place - whether it is by graduate school, a job, or even a relationship.

I am a dreamer. 

comradery through emerging trends.

As I spend more and more time in the real world, my time in college grows more and more distant.  I find myself isolated to my own little circle consisting of work, family, and friends.  I am distant from the buzzing of new trends that hit you like rain on a college campus.

I want to be up-to-date with the emerging world around me and so I have found myself to become more engrossed and diligent about following particular blogs, subscribing to relevant newsletters, and creating twitter lists that will keep me updated.  To my surprise, these followings have not only stretched my basic knowledge and allowed understanding of current developing trends, but has motivated me to work harder and serve my ultimate best to develop a sense of comradery among other authors.

It’s more than just staying educated and up to date, it keeps me fresh, up on my skills, and reminds me that there is more than just this world I have created around me.  With today’s technology, the world is at our fingertips – from California to the New York Islands. 

state fair.

Walking through the miles-long fairgrounds, in and out of barns and buildings, while experiencing the agriculture exhibits, the 4H competition, horse shows, carnival rides, and fresh from the farm buttered corn; I received a true introduction to Hoosier life.

“There’s no place like home”

packed. moved. unpacked.

Here I am – in a new city in my very own place of my own!

innocence.

Sometimes it is easy for me to get caught up my current stage of life – perhaps like graduating from college and establishing my real adult life for the first time.  It’s natural for my thoughts to be consumed by thinking about the endless possibilities in life.  After spending some time with my adorable nephew, I am reminded that life is about the simple pleasures and spending time with the ones you love.  There is so much more than this new stage in life.  Kids have such a way of bringing joy and keeping you young.