roasted chicken recipe

up until this year I had been a vegetarian for just about 6 years... but living in portland and seeing all of the wonderful food around made me decide to open up my options and begin trying new things. so I took the best route I could think of, making my own meat dishes so I knew exactly what ingredients were involved. this was the first recipe I ever, ever used to cook meat on my own.. and it's really been my favorite thing to make and eat ever since because it's SO tender and juicy and delicious. AND healthy! 

I took pieces of a recipe I found on pinterest but then made it my own, so the recipe is scribbled on that photo above and here are some directions:

- pre-heat the oven to 350f 

- place chicken thighs in a baking dish and in a seperate bowl mix your dijon mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and a dash of lemon juice if you'd like. pour that over chicken and flip the thighs a few times to fully coat them with this mixture. add in chopped up potatoes, onions and garlic as you'd like.

- sprinkle on herbs de provence, salt & pepper (lightly, there is already salt in the soy sauce!) 

- cover with aluminum foil and roast for 45 minutes, remove foil and add chicken stock to ensure the thighs are sort of swimming in juices and roast for 1 hour more, continually basting with stock or adding more to the dish to ensure there is always a good amount of sauce around the chicken as this will really add to the juiciness of the thighs. 

enjoy! :) 

I made some padauk and terracotta mobiles and there's one left here: www.etsy.com/shop/dashanddart 

menagerie, portland

(all photos by Mattie Krall)

last weekend my ladybird Mattie Krall and I styled and photographed a little product photo shoot for the cutest little shop called Menagerie, based in Portland but ran out of an amazing refurbished Airstream trailer. so happy with how these came out and hope to do some more styling in the future! 

dash & dart

these are a few snaps of some of my favorite items from a photoshoot with Haluna yesterday for our etsy shop dash & dart. slowly but surely we are listing every item on the shop and I couldn't be happier with our products and how the photos turned out. take a peep! 

thai coconut curry soup

this thai coconut curry soup is one of my favorite recipes ever, I wish I had found it earlier this winter because it is a perfect comfort food. plus it's vegan, gluten free, and so so easy.

this is a recipe I found via the daily muse on pinterest, but I modified it to fit what I was craving, and you should too! 

what you'll need: 

2 tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
1 bunch of baby bok choi2 garlic cloves, minced3 tsp red curry paste1 can coconut milk1 box (32oz) vegetable stock1 tsp curry powder1/2 tsp fresh minced ginger2 tbsp low sodium soy saucerice noodles1 lime


1 carton of crimini mushrooms
1 small bunch of green onions, diced
sriracha or chili garlic sauce to taste 

1. saute onion in the olive oil over a medium heat until translucent, then add garlic, mushrooms, and carrots,  cover and cook until carrots are almost tender (a few minutes)
2. add in curry paste and mix in until blended in with your veggies
3. stir in coconut milk until curry paste is totally dissolved and then pour in vegetable stock and soy sauce
4. add curry powder, juice of half of the lime, your choice of sriracha or chili sauce (or both!), ginger, baby bok choi, and green onions 
5. cook rice noodles however the package says
6. serve soup over rice noodles and top with fresh green onions, chopped up peanuts/cashews, and slice up the rest of your lime for squeezing into your bowl 

remember to drink plenty of wine while you cook and I usually keep the chili garlic sauce nearby for smothering my personal bowl. enjoy! 

you can take the girl out of california but...

living in portland is wonderful but the sunny days are few and far between, so being a california baby makes me run to big bodies of water when it's sunny out. I took off and went to sauvie island for the first time this year and I hope I end up back there again, soon. unfortunately, it was too windy to really play on the beach but this grassy field was a good alternative for opening up the wagon and doing some homework reading with my shoes off.

my valentine

kevin took me out to the roxy downtown for a lil pre valentines date since we both work tomorrow. he gave me this lil batty pin and just about broke my heart with the world's cutest journal with beet stamps inside. that Italian soda was amazing, for the rrecord.