I wanted to extend a welcome to anyone who’s finding me through OhSheGlows! I really appreciate that Angela was nice enough to feature my apple bars with cinnamon “cream cheese” on her blog yesterday as part of her new Recipe Link Love series.

I thought it would be a good idea to share some facts about myself since so many of you are visiting my blog for the first time, and if you’re a veteran, well hopefully there’s something in here that’ll be news to you too!

This quiz has been showing up on a lot of blogs lately and I was wanting to fill it out anyway. Perfect timing!

A. Age: Just turned 27.

B. Bed size: Queen, and I sleep on the edge!

C. Chore you dislike: Least favorite chore is scrubbing tile grout. I think tile is beautiful, but grout is porous and gross and hard to clean which makes me never want tile. I do make my own household cleaners though, with vodka!

D. Dogs: None. We have two chocolate brown Burmese cats, Lucas and Liam, who are both completely neurotic.

E. Essential start to your day: I wake up immediately hungry and can’t think of doing anything else before I’ve had my brefkast. Yes, I say brefkast all the time, I don’t know why.

F. Favorite color: At the risk of sounding goth….gray, and black. Purple is definitely next though.

G. Gold or silver: I only wear silver metals, but if someone wants to gift me an entire set of intricate gold Indian jewelry, I’ll rock it for sure!

H. Height: Almost 5’2”. I am the teenies.

I. Instruments you play(ed): Played the clarinet in middle school, I don’t really have a knack for playing music.

J. Job title: After 6+ years in marketing research I am now simply a blogger. I started this blog to figure out what type of food-related career I wanted to move into. I feel like I know what I want now but it’s gonna take a lot of work to get there.

K. Kids: None yet. Not sure when.

L. Live: In Decatur GA. Love it here but I’d really love to live overseas for a few years, maybe in Singapore or somewhere else in Asia/Oceania.

M. Mom’s name: Karen.

N. Nicknames: Thymebombe (long story, I’ll blog it sometime.) And my dad will occasionally call me Al. I WON’T respond to Lanie.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Never.

P. Pet peeves: I can’t stand people who stop about ten car-lengths back at stop lights then spend the entire time at the light inching closer and closer to the car ahead of them. It’s maddening! Good lord, if you’re gonna pull all the way up anyway just DO IT so I don’t have to give myself whiplash .

Q. Quote from a movie: I don’t really watch that many movies, I can’t think of one.

R. Righty or lefty: Righty

S. Siblings: One younger sister, Danielle.

T. Time you wake up: 8:30 most days.

U. Underwear: Ummm…I have a lot of booty so I have to wear full coverage undies, I like em to be as small as possible while still covering though. Hate thongs, I’ve tried and tried and I can’t like them.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: I’m trying to think of a vegetable that I hate and can’t think of one. Some I don’t care for though are eggplant, endive, collards, snow peas, cucumbers, and raw tomatoes by themselves (as opposed to in a salad.)

W. What makes you run late: I don’t even need a reason, I’m just often late. I procrastinate too much.

X. X-rays you’ve had: Teeth. My neck and spine because I have scoliosis. I think that’s it, I’ve never broken a bone.

Y. Yummy food you make: I’m taking the bait, ALL my food is good! I cook asian food most nights of the week because I’m very familiar with those ingredients and because that’s what I like to eat! I do make Japanese food most often because I find it easy to prepare and highly nutritious.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Zoos, for the record, are gross and cruel. But I do like tapirs, capybaras, wombats, capuchin monkeys, and flamboyant tropical birds.

That was a fun one! For even more fun facts, check out my 10 things post.

You’ll find a lot of interesting stuff on Thyme Bombe that you won’t find on other healthy living blogs. Anything from how to understand what motivates you to how to season a Yixing clay teapot. Hope you stick around!

March 1, 2011 Alayna Discussion 6 comments

So you’ve heard that I crave Thai food in the warmer months.  Well, I crave Mexican food even more, and here’s the proof…

Yesterday we got out for lunch at Taqueria del Sol with but one goal in mind: Drink margaritas on the patio in the beautiful spring-like weather!

Well, it ended up only getting to around 62 degrees out when we left for lunch, so instead of sitting outside with a pitcher of margaritas for a few hours like we intended, we decided to grab a quick bite and just one drink then walk around Decatur for a while before stopping in somewhere else.

We always start with the chips and guac at Taqueria del Sol, it’s the perfect consistency and always full of ripe chunky avocado and juicy tomatoes. The house margaritas are never too sour and are always deceptively strong!

Jeff got his usual beef enchilada with red sauce, he usually gets two but he got some tacos to share with me instead.

Two fish tacos are my usual. They are lightly fried, never greasy, and come with more super-hot jalapenos than most people can handle and a cooling lime cilantro aioli. My lips are always swollen and burning when I eat these!

Jeff got another fish taco and one of their featured “special” tacos, the Al Pastor. It tasted like vinegary pulled pork barbecue topped with a limey tomatillo salsa.

After that we did some window shopping and walking and inevitably ended up at Leon’s. I love that their bar is open to the sunny patio, it’s flooded with natural light and cool breezes. I got a Mikkeller Limoncello beer which was very herbal and zesty, it had that oily feel in the mouth that a citrusy beer gives but without feeling like you’ve bitten off a mouthful of chapstick. Very refreshing, I would order this again for sure.

And today, we essentially repeated yesterday’s margarita celebration, but with more vigor!

Jeff’s youngest brother Bryan and his girlfriend Caitlin met us for lunch at Raging Burrito. They have the largest outdoor patio in all of Decatur—perfect margarita conditions!

We got a pitcher of texas style margaritas which have a higher grade tequila plus orange juice to split between Jeff and I. Bryan was being a gentleman and not drinking since Caitlin had to drive.

So for the second day in a row we chomped down on delicious Mexican food for lunch. I had two veggie-stuffed tacos with rice and beans and Jeff got a monster quesadilla…really, that’s what it’s called.

So, yeah…I just had heavy Mexican food and margaritas for two days in a row now and I feel great about it! It’s not like I’m gonna eat this way all spring and summer or anything.

I think it’s very healthy to allow myself to indulge in this new pleasure of seasonal food and fresh drinks in the sunshine while it’s still comfortable enough outside to do it. Once true summer rolls around I’ll be too sweaty and sluggish to eat such heavy food in the oppressive direct sunlight and chug a pitcher of alcohol in a daze as the sun further bakes my hot brain.

See? It’s all about balance. I haven’t had a tomato in all of winter because I know that they are just not worth it while they’re out of season, watered-down and expensive in spite of it. And a margarita and quesadilla will be just as unappealing in hot-as-h311 august as it was in the freezing cold of december.

This pleasure has its place, and I’m getting my full joy of it now while it’s still enjoyable.

Are there any favorite foods that you only enjoy at special times?

February 27, 2011 Alayna Discussion 6 comments

I have been trying for over a year now to make Jeff some oats and honey flavored granola bars from scratch. Every time something goes wrong; I either burn them, they never bake in the middle, or they just fall apart.

This time, they just fell apart.

It was ok though! I tasted the oat crumbles and was completely in love with it as an unintentional granola.

Lemme show you what I did and what I came out with…

For the almond butter and honey oat granola I used:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Start by toasting the oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring almost continuously so that nothing burns.

Microwave almond butter and honey together in a bowl for 40 seconds, stir, then heat for another 10 seconds and stir again.  Pour this over the toasted oats in a large bowl and mix together completely.

Line a loaf pan with wax paper and pour the mixture in.

Press mixture firmly into the loaf pan. I used the bottom of a drinking glass to really smash it down into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

At this point I wanted to get it out of the hot pan so it wouldn’t continue to cook the bottom and edges, so I pulled it out and placed it on a cooling rack.

You can see that it started to crack and crumble immediately. I tasted a corner and it was really yummy though, so granola it is!

Here it is cooled and crumbled up, ready to top yogurt, cereal, ice cream, whatever…

I had some this morning over strawberry yogurt with bananas on top. The combination of the fruity yogurt and the almond-buttery granola reminded me of a classy PB&J sandwich!

I think if I were to make this again I could skip pressing it into a pan (since I’m not aiming to make it into bars) and just crumble it over a sheet pan and bake it for less time, maybe 10 minutes should do it. It’s certainly a very simple granola to make with only four ingredients.

Almond butter and honey oat granola

Super-fast honey oat granola recipe with the rich roasted flavor of almond butter.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: About 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Cooking Directions

1. Toast oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring almost continuously.
2. Microwave honey and almond butter together for 40 seconds, stir, then another 10 seconds.
3. Pour melted almond butter and honey over oats in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Either serve as is or bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees for extra crunchiness.

In your opinion, what makes the perfect granola?

February 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 4 comments