simple.decadent.cocktails // free printable download!

o you like free stuff?  Pfff, of course you do.  Do you like cocktails?  Well if you like both of those things, I've got something just for you!  I've compiled some of my favorite cocktail recipes into a little downloadable, printable booklet!  To snag the download just head over to my sidebar below the Simple. Decadent. Cocktails image, enter your info, and you'll get the booklet straight away!  
You can print it out and cut the full pages in half for a more recipe-box friendly size, or you can just keep it on your computer and refer to it in it's digital version.  It's 12 pages long and full of recipes for simple syrups, flavored liqueurs, and cocktails!  I get tired of hopping on my computer to search for some of my favorite recipes from the blog, so I have mine printed and stored in my bar cart for easy access.  Super easy peasy.  Cheers!

croque monsieur

an used to work at a local cocktail bar that served small plates and a few gourmet sandwiches.  One of the best sandwiches they had was a Croque Monsieur, which I'd never had before I had it there (and it was amazing), and I hadn't had one since, until we made this bad boy!  The Croque is typically made with Gruyere cheese, but Kerrygold challenged me to make a grilled cheese this month and I figured their cheese would make a damn fine Croque Monsieur, so I broke all the rules and did just that.  Spoiler alert: Kerrygold cheese does indeed make a damn fine Croque.  And technically this isn't a grilled cheese, per se, it's a baked cheese...with ham.  But I'm going to call it a mulligan.  It's a sandwich and bubbling hot cheese is heavily involved.  Grilled cheese it is.  And a fancy-ass grilled cheese at that.
Dan really wanted to make a Croque Madame, which is the same sandwich, but topped with a fried egg, but I was all, "Slow down, cowboy, let's not get too crazy."  But, hey, if you're into that, by all means, go for it.  

Kerrygold Croque Monsieur 
(recipe adapted from Bon Appetit)

Béchamel ingredients
¼ cup Kerrygold unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1½ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ¼ ground nutmeg
Kosher salt

Sandwich ingredients
4 slices ½”-thick rosemary bread
4-6 slices black forest ham (2-3 slices per sandwich)
~4 slices Kerrygold Blarney Castle cheese (enough for a layer in each sandwich)
1 cup Kerrygold Dubliner and/or Skellig Sweet Cheddar grated

To make Béchamel
1/ Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foamy. Add flour and cook, stirring, until mixture is pale and foamy, about 3 minutes. 
2/ Add the milk in slowly, stirring until mixture is smooth.  Still stirring, cook until sauce is thick and somewhat elastic (with a sort of rubbery texture), about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in mustard and nutmeg; season with salt.


To construct Sandwich
1/ Preheat your oven to 425° F.  Spread all of the rosemary bread slices with béchamel, evenly and spread to the edges. 
2/ Place 2 slices of bread, béchamel side up, on a parchment (or foil) lined baking sheet.  Layer with ham and Blarney Castle cheese slices. 
3/ Place the remaining slices of bread, béchamel side up, on top and then sprinkle grated Dubliner and/or Skellig cheese on top. Bake until cheese is brown and bubbling, about 10–15 minutes.  Enjoy!

the brave show ep.1 / meet the new brave!

ne thing that I've heard over and over again in regards to starting something new is to start before you're ready.  As a perfectionist, that's hard because I could spend forever tweaking details and fixing things to get it just right, but what that means is that I never end up actually launching the new thing, it just sits in draft status hiding away, imperfect and unfinished.  So, today I'm starting before I'm ready.  Done is better than perfect, right?  It's not perfect but here it is!  I filmed the first episode of The Brave Show!

Oh, right, and other big news: I bought a new (old) Brave!  Ahh!  Yes I am a crazy person.  I'll tell you more about the new gal in the show and give you a tour as well!

It's so bizarre to think about how it's almost 5 years exactly since I found my first Brave.  There's some sort of kismet in my life with Braves and I feel like it's a sign that when I'm doing things with the Brave, I'm on the right track.  Things just come together in a really perfect way that kind of freaks me out sometimes.  My friend Kristi calls me an automotive empath, which she claims is a real thing, so I'm just going to go with it.  What I do know?  I feel most alive when I'm behind the wheel of a Brave, chasing adventure and listening to the knowledge the road gives.

It ain't perfect, but it's done!  Here goes nothing!

THE BRAVE // vintage rv renovation inspiration

lot has happened in the past week (including my first burlesque show on Saturday!), and I've got some Brave news forthcoming, but for now lets just look at pretty pictures, eh?  My aesthetic has changed quite a bit since my last Winnebago journey.  I was into textures on vintage prints on more textures next to more prints... you get the idea.  Hence my obsession with all things 70's.  Faux wood?  Hell yes.  Tacky patterns?  Bring it on.  But my current style is a bit cleaner and simpler, with some nods to that vintage style I was hot and heavy with back in 2008-2010.  The Brave needs a refresh, so it makes sense to give her a look that matches current me!  Plus, with my plans to film the video podcast inside the Brave,  I want something less dark, dim, and cave-like.  I know it's, like, all the rage to white wash the interiors of these vintage RVs and trailers, but the truth is, a good whitewash can seriously open up and brighten a space, and when you're dealing with a space appx 20 x 8 ft?  I'll take all the openness and brightness I can get.  
Obviously this is going to be a DIY-heavy endeavor, so I'm excited to share projects as things start to get rolling.  I have some boring mechanical stuff to deal with first, but I'm already filling my brain with inspiration for her cosmetic overhaul.  I don't even think Pinterest existed when I did my updates to the Brave before my last trip in 2010, and it's crazy how many RV renovations are out there now!  It's fun to see how many people have taken an interest in reviving these old gals since I was deep into that world in 2010!
 
  I really want her to be clean and bright, but still full of personality.  And for me, practicality and functionality has to be major.  I see a lot of cute RV or trailer renos and I feel like you'd have to remove half the stuff to make it driveable.  I mean, I love styling spaces as much as the next blogger, but I also am going to be driving this beast thousands of miles, so she really does need to be functional as a vehicle that drives on the interstate. It seems like most of the renovations I've found that I love are trailers, which seem a bit easier to work on since you don't have to deal with being inextricably enmeshed with the chassis of a truck.  The layout of my Brave is pretty much stuck, since everything is where it needs to be to work with the truck base, which is fine because I really love the layout I have.  I've been in a few Braves and mine is by far my favorite layout, very open and light, all things considered.   Right now on my to do list: 

• whitewash interior
• reupholster bench seating in rear
• refinish counter + table
• make new curtains, possibly new rods too
• redo bathroom (not sure what I want to do yet, though)
• finish flooring
• repaint flying W on exterior!

I seriously can't wait to transform the Brave into a mobile home and studio that reflects my style and give it a fresh new life!  It's gon' be awesome, y'all.  *does geeky excited dance*

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fertility awareness birth control: an update

wanted to do a follow up to my posts on using the Fertility Awareness Method for birth control, but I wanted to have at least a year under my belt.  I'm on my 13th cycle now, so I've been doing it for a little over a year.  I went off my birth control pills in mid December 2013 and started charting.  You can read my posts about how it works and why I decided to go off the pill, and I did a follow up a few months into using FAM.

I feel pretty confident using FAM for birth control now.  That being said, it does pay to be consistent at charting, which I slowly became worse and worse at over the course of the year.   The last couple months I've redoubled my efforts to chart fully every day because it really does make the whole picture much clearer and helps me feel so much more confident in using this method, rather than leaving it to guesswork, which is a pretty shoddy method of birth control, or having to be even more careful to make up for not knowing where exactly I am in my cycle.

Even though it's a bit more work and takes some forethought, I like knowing that my body is doing it's own thing, rather than being flooded with faux hormones, throwing off my natural biology.  I haven't had a single migraine since I stopped taking the pill.  I never had them before I went on and after I started taking it I would get one every one to two months and didn't make the connection for about two years.  I did have a ton of hair loss about 4 months after going off the pill, but it's growing back now.  I learned that a lot of women experience hair loss a few months after giving birth, and since the pill works by tricking your body into thinking it's pregnant so it doesn't ovulate, when you go off the pill, it sort of simulates the effect of giving birth, since you're no longer "faux-pregnant".


Having used this method for over a year now, I would say that FAM is definitely for the responsible lady who is at least slightly open to the idea of getting pregnant.  While I think that, when done right, it can be absolutely just as effective as the pill as a birth control method, unless you're completely abstinent during the fertile time, you are taking on a small risk (hey-yo broken condoms.  It happens, y'all).  Plus, I also feel like it's best used in a committed, respectful relationship.  It's nice to be able to not use any form of barrier protection during non-fertile times, but it's definitely important for you partner to understand the utmost importance of using reliable protection if you choose not to abstain during the fertile window (and even reliable protection can become unreliable, shoutout to broken condoms again).

Even if you do end up having a barrier method fail on you, there are options like Plan B.  We had just such a situation occur and I used Plan B, but it messed up my cycle like crazy, y'all.  I'd used it once in the past and it didn't do anything to my cycle, but this time I didn't have a period for 3 months.  It was a little concerning and I definitely took multiple pregnancy tests to make sure I wasn't pregnant.  It was a little bizarre for me, and definitely interesting to see how those faux hormones really can mess with your body's natural rhythms.  I'm curious to see if it has an effect on future cycles, or if I'm back to normal now.



One thing I'm super excited about is Kindara's Wink thermometer.  I've used the Kindara App since I started using the Fertility Awareness Method in 2013, and they're coming out with a thermometer that automatically syncs with the app when you take your Basal Body temperature in the morning.  SO awesome.  Anything that makes tracking your cycle easier is awesome in my book.  Now I just need some kind of device that chills out in my vagina and monitors my cervical position and fluid and syncs to my phone.  Come on scientists/techy people, you've made Birth Control IUD's, how hard could it be?  I'll get on that preorder list ASAP.  (If only as much money and research went towards natural FAM birth control methods as pills/IUDs/etc!)

I've said it before, but even if you don't want to use FAM as your birth control method, I still think it's an incredible way to learn more about your own body and cycle.  I was taught so little about my body's monthly cycle of hormones and the biology of my fertility in my high school health class (think Mean Girls), and it's truly truly amazing what my body does every month to make it possible to create life (even if right now I'd prefer if we put off the whole life-making business).


Dan and I do want to have kids, and using FAM, being more aware of my body, and being more open to the possibility of getting pregnant has really made me think about it and mentally prepare for it.  I'll be turning 29 this year and I know I'd like to get that show on the road in the next year or two (or three), and using FAM has made me think a lot about having kids (or not having them) in a way that I never did when I was on Birth Control.  I know a lot of women do get pregnant even when they are using BC pills (even women who take it religiously!), but for me it was kind of like "out of sight, out of mind" in a way.  Being aware of my fertility and using FAM has made me think about starting a family a lot more than I used to, though it might be just because I'm getting a little older now.  I haven't had any Baby Fever (still skeptical that it exists, you guys), but I'm older now than when my parents had me, their oldest child, which does make me think more about timelines and such.  I know there's never the perfect time to have kids, and it'll always be hard, but at least now I'm open to the idea and have actually thought about it more in depth, which I feel like is the first part of preparing for it.

last photo by arrow + apple