Cool new trick...

K so I just discovered an app for Blogger - thought I'd test it out before I go to bed tonight. This post is for all of you who have been asking how unemployed Lindsey fills her time...see below picture of my schedule for tomorrow.

Grilled Cheese and Shortcake - comfort food from the LCS kitchen

So being unemployed and all (though the part-time work has been picking up lately - always exciting!), I've had more time to devote to one of my favorite pastimes: playing with my food. Below are a few of the latest creations from the LCS Kitchen :)

Grilled Cheese

Decided to try a new take on the grilled cheese sandwich. So I sauteed some summer kitchen basics: garlic, onions, chicken breasts, and zucchini together in pasta sauce for about 45 mins til it was all breathtakingly tender...

 

..then poured it on top of a quartered grilled cheese sandwich. (I cooked the grilled cheese in olive oil and added a little garlic salt for kick. Would have been better w a different cheese, but mild cheddar was all I had...)

SO GOOD.

Egg-less Blueberry Shortcake

I ran out of eggs and chocolate and ice cream and cookies but I was CRAVING sugar so I found a recipe for egg-less shortcake online and whipped up some (little too flaky but still AMAZING) and used basil jelly for filling instead of whipped cream for a surprisingly fresh tasting and extremely sugary alternative. NOTE: sugar the blueberries and add a little bit of water, then leave in the fridge for at least half and hour and they start to develop a nice glaze :)

Not a Peanut Butter Sandwich

Comfort food doesn't get much better than peanut butter and chocolate on toast. Powdered sugar added just because I can.

(I admit, I indulge in this last one WAY too much...)

Summer Pasta

Summer Pasta

Pasta is one of those Italian/broke girl staples, and being both, it's something I usually find my way back to when the cupboard is getting a little bare. But on a muggy summer afternoon in NYC, the LAST thing you want to do is eat something hot and covered in sauce, so I headed in a different direction. What if I could come up with a pasta that's as light as a salad but I can still get that oh-so-satisfying feeling of having a starch-based meal full of carbs?

I started out by sauteing some chicken breasts in garlic and olive oil and then added some onion...

(always a good start, right?)

Then I added some broccoli and zucchini...

I cooked the pasta noodles and then put the chicken/vegetable mixture on top. I melted about a tablespoon of margarine (70 calories so I swear it's not THAT bad) and poured it over the top. Then I stuck the plate in the fridge for about 20 mins to cool it off, pulled it out and...

...mission accomplished. Light, yummy, buttery and healthy. Life is good.

The Washington Heights Digs

So my little NYC home has it's downsides (no AC, air mattress bed, hour-long commute to anywhere, no local nightlife) BUT it's HOME. It's got a big kitchen, my own space, laundry in the Columbia dorms next door is dirt cheap, and I've completed all the nesting rituals to make coming home at 2am feel like the best thing in the world. I've been getting a lot of questions about what said apartment looks like, so I grabbed a couple snaps to give you a little peak into my home in the Big Apple.

The room. That big white patch of air out the window is the George Washington Bridge. The sun sets right behind it and then it lights up at night - gorgeousness every day.

Shoe collection!

Makeshift makeup table on my broken suitcase.

The chick who had my room before left this desk behind! It became my dresser/desk/bookshelf.

Jewelry :)

 Portfolio, cookbook, fave books and movies and knicknacks

Closet had a few hangers in it when I got here and I brought some with me, but there are still 2-4 items on each one. Good thing I had practice doing this last summer in London. There's some LCS faves in the back...

 In case you're wondering, yes, it WAS absolutely essential to bring five purses with me to New York. The fifth is the big black one from Florence that I keep on my desk.

 Bathroom cabinet! Yeah...it's a good thing both the med students I'm living with don't believe in a lot of toiletries.

Resort Round-Up

At long last, this season's Resort Round-Up is here!! Resort is pretty much over (there may be a few stragglers out there but sorry, it's all couture now, you missed out) and I've reviewed as many photo albums off style.com that I can POSSIBLY digest and I've picked out the following completely outstanding ensembles. See below for YESs, the WANTs, the WHAT WERE THEY THINKINGs, and a couple just really cool takes on this more commercial season's lookbooks.

 Alberta Ferretti. Flawless jacket. Could never keep it clean. Still a WANT.

 ALC. Easy, breezy, beautiful, NOT CoverGirl. YES please!

 Balmain. No Christophe Decarnin but no drop in the badass-ness. WANT.

 BCBG Max Azria. Love a romance in white! And the sheer skirt trend is something I'm totally buying into. Or would if I had a budget of any kind at all. YES please.

 Burberry Prorsum. If you can wear this, then you have arrived. Anna Dello Russo, here's looking at you. Shoes are mine though.

 Chanel. Chic-est one-piece I've ever seen. YES.

 Chloe. Pure freedom. Terrible shoes. Still a WANT.

 Chris Benz. No idea what he was thinking with the clothes, but def the best lookbook backdrop EVER. 

 Costume National. If that is red leather, it's badass. If it's fleece, it's unwearable and I have a purple version shoved in the bottom of an old dresser at my parents' house from back in the 90s...

 DKNY. One of the only times I've actually been enthusiastic about polka dots. WANT.

 Emporio Armani. Hmm...I dunno...plus, the shoes look like Crocs. What were they thinking?

 Givenchy. What do you get when you cross a granny sweater, a tropical wetsuit and Navajo shoes? This. Ten points for creativity but umm...potentially a little too much?

 Gregory Parkinson. Boho chic, hippie-fabulous and so so wearable. YES.

Jen Kao. WANT. But with better shoes.

 Kevork Kiledjian. Classic perfection. YES.

 Lanvin. I mean, come on, how do you say no to Lanvin? YES.

 Martin Margiela. Omg. I would wear this outfit EVERY DAY. Except for the glasses. But wow. LOVE. WANT.

 Alexander McQueen. Sarah Burton remains amazing. More evidence of the sheer long skirt trend. YES.

 Alexander McQueen again. Divine. Perfection. Go-to gown. WANT.

 Michael Kors. AGH MY EYES! WHAT WAS HE THINKING???????

 Missoni. Whoa...my eyes have no clue where to look...

 Naeem Khan. Just skip the dress and look at the back. Love. Love love love. YES.

 Peter Jensen. Points for the lookbook. I don't even care about the sweater. I wouldn't buy it. But I kind of want this picture on my wall.

 Peter Pilotto. Awesome print, favorite colors, strappy heels. Yes, yes and YES.

 Philosophy. I'm speechless. I want to be her. This is BEAUTY. WANT.

Proenza Schouler. Wear it today, wear it forever. YES.

Thoughts?

Photos courtesy of Style.com.

Cicero and Friends

Along the lines of the previous post: I BEG of you, fellow post-grads, do not throw away your friendships! Over the next few months you will see your friend pool shrink, almost vanish, because we are all so caught up in our own daily dramas that we don't have time to invest in the people we say we love. If there's one thing my Dad taught me, it's that "relationships are everything." No man is an island. We are nothing without our support systems. How many times have people jammed the word "networking" down our throats? Well here's another word: Love. Love people. Love people and watch your life get better.

I got this quote by Cicero out of Kelly Cutrone's book Normal Gets You Nowhere. There's a lot that I disagree with her about, but she makes some VERY good points as well. This reference, I thought, was spot on:

"What can be more delightful than to have someone to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself? Is not prosperity robbed of half its value if you have no one to share your joy? On the other hand, misfortunes would be hard to bear if there were not someone to feel them even more acutely than yourself...Such friendship enhances prosperity, and relieves adversity of its burden by halving and sharing it. And great and numerous as are the blessings of friendship, this certainly is the sovereign one, that it gives us bright hopes for the future and forbids weakness and despair. In the face of a true friend a man sees as it were a second self. So that where his friend is he is; if his friend be rich, he is not poor; though he be weak, his friend's strength is his; and in his friend's life he enjoys a second life after his own is finished."

Yes, friends will let you down. Usually over and over and just as many times as you let them down. But for heaven's sake, don't just give up on people because it's the easy way out! That is the way to an empty life. Carry each others' burdens. May God bless us all with friendships like this.

Now umm...let me lighten things up a bit...see more food pictures below:

Yum :)

The Post-Graduate Oath

Last night I had another post-graduate breakdown; sobbing on my little air mattress in NYC and bemoaning the fact that I have no clue what I'm doing, where I'm going, whether or not I'm going to "make it" and what that even means in the first place. In my despair, I called up another post-graduate friend and found out that he was feeling the same way. And all of his friends were feeling the same way too. So after I dried my eyes and pulled myself together, I decided (very heroically I might add) that I was NOT going to let uncertainty and unemployment get me down. Instead, I vowed the following, and I hope that all my other floundering post-grad friends will find encouragement in this oath and sign on to keep their life afloat this way as well.

Side note: Hunting for a job is not listed because this is assuming that you are already looking for a job with all of your might and finding it an extremely disheartening process.

THE POST-GRADUATE OATH

During this stage of uncertainty, while I am faced with doubts, confusion and loss on the one hand and supposed endless possibilities on the other, I vow to not succumb to self-destructive emotions but instead, rise above them and make every day count. I swear to:

1. Not self-medicate with chocolate, ice cream or alcohol.

2. Find at least one thing I can do each day to propel myself forward.

3. Take time to see beauty in little things.

4. Learn something new every day.

5. Surround myself with art and expand my cultural horizons.

6. Make new friends who both motivate and inspire me.

7. Seek the advice of my elders and others who have been where I am and survived.

8. Study the lives of great people in my desired profession and take inspiration from their accomplishments.

9. Read books instead of watching TV shows that three months ago I wouldn't be caught dead watching.

10. Pray every day and trust that God has a plan for my life. (This may not be your particular cup of tea, but it's made a HUGE difference in my life so if Jesus is knocking, I suggest you see if He has something interesting to say)

11. NEVER EVER EVER EVER give up. Ever. Period. End of story. KEEP FIGHTING.

My love and encouragement goes out to all of you, my fellow floundering grads. We never thought this would be us. Well now it is. Let's all get through this together!