easy livin in the kitchen

I dabbled im veganism for a good chunk of 2012, but I've since gone back to my carnivorous ways. I learned a lot of excellent recipes and will likely always have a soft spot for my plant eating friends, but all in all, veganism is not the way of Whitney.
I have a pretty solid obsession with both eggs and breakfast (it's the most important meal of the day, after all) and am always looking for ways to make breakfast better, faster and more convenient.
So when my coworker Christina sent me an easier way to make hard-boiled eggs, I obviously had to try it.
Personally, I think egg's best kept secret is that they're called hard-boiled eggs not because of the texture, but because they're hard to make. Mine always crack. I never cook them long enough. They bounce around the boiling water and make me wonder if I've somehow convinced my eggs to turn in to popcorn...
But hard to make eggs they are no more! Because this recipe it just about the easiest thing ever.
Here's how you do it:
Preheat your oven to 325. Place a dozen eggs in a standard muffin pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
Let stand for 5 minutes.
Place in cold water until they're cooled all the way through.
Now peel and enjoy!
How's that for easy hard-boiled eggs?
images and recipe via

on enjoying the ride

I recently had three conversations with three different people, but they were really not different at all. In fact it was just one situation masquerading as three.

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First, I was talking to a friend of Sam's who graduated in May and was, until this week, still looking for a job. He was sad and frustrated and feeling down, because, as anyone who has played the job search game knows, it's horrible and takes a serious toll on your self worth.

I told him what my uncle told me after I graduated: enjoy it. Take a trip. Reconnect with your family and friends.You'll likely never again have the chance to be living at home, expense free, with unlimited time off to figure things out.

But he couldn't relax. Because he wanted to know when he'd get a job.

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A few weeks later I was talking to a friend of mine, who said: I just wish I knew when I was going to get married. If I knew I was going to meet my husband at 30, I'd say: OK. Great. I'm going to embrace the next four years because I know I'll meet him then, and I'll just enjoy this time to myself.

But she can't - because she's stressing and worrying about when she will finally meet him.
 

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A few days later, I was talking to a friend who was trying to plan a trip to Napa. But she wants to get pregnant. So she and her husband didn't know if they should plan a trip for the summer, because who wants to go to Napa pregga?

And she was frustrated, because she can't find the balance between waiting and living and living and waiting.

Because she doesn't know when it will be her turn.
 

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But don't we sort of know? Sure, he didn't know when and where he'd find a job. And she doesn't know when and who she'll marry. Or when and how many babies she'll get to have.

But don't we know our needs will be taken care of? Isn't that faith in its purest form? When you don't know - you can't know - in any shape or way. And you can't figure it out. And yet, you just have to trust that it will fall into place?

We're all waiting for something. Some of us for smaller things than others. But everyone - especially in their 20s - wants one more thing and can find one other thing to worry about.

I was recently reading a book by Bob Goff and he said it, as expected, better than I can: "I've learned that God sometimes allows us to find ourselves in a place where we want something so bad that we can't see past it...When we want something that bad, it's easy to mistake what we truly need for the thing we really want. When this sort of thing happens, and it seems to happen to everyone, I've found it's because what God has for us is obscured from view, just another bend in the road."

And sometimes, maybe we have a couple of bends in our roads before the view in front of us makes sense. But the only thing we can do is enjoy this time - because someday, you'll look back and remember the amazing trip you took to Greece while you were unemployed, or what a sweet time it was when you lived with your best friends in the city, or had the cute bungalow with just you and your husband. And you'll look around at your job and husband and babies and realize it was all worth the wait.

But until then, all you can do is enjoy the ride.
 

PS: He found a job. And I'm just sure there will be boys and babies for those other two just around the corner. (:

images

weekends are bigger in texas


I know I've been famli-izing with these people for 20+ years now, but sometimes I'm still in shock that I get to call them mine. How'd I get so lucky to have the coolest people I know stuck by my side for life? 


And thennnn they decide to live in sweet cities, which gives me a quick and easy excuse to visit them. 

The only thing better would be if we all lived in the same place!

Le sigh. 

But until then...

More trippies. :) 

This weekend I made my first visit to Houston, where Court and Ry are living this year. I had no idea what to expect of city, and yet it was not at all what I expected. At 80 and sunny, it stole my heart for the weekend - of course, the host family helped a whole lot. 

Lily is, impossibly, turning six. Which blows my mind in a major way. I decided it was the perfect excuse to make the trip. We had such a wonderful weekend and my only complaint is, as usual, that it went too quickly.

From Thursday to Sunday, it was a total whirlwind.

Friday Court and I had lots of boy time while Lil was at school. We kickstarted the morning with what is easily a Biber favorite and staple of every weekend we spend together: a workout, coffee and a walk. We explored beautiful Rice, which reminded me how fun it is to live in a college town - even if it is a major city. 



After that, we played all afternoon until we picked Lily up from school. 




Somewhere along the line, Finn - maybe unintentionally - bamboozled me into saying we should go to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner.

You see, while I was on the phone, he said, "Mama, I have a great idea! Let's go to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner tonight!"

And Court said, "That is a great idea, but we already have a lot of special things this weekend. So let's save it for another one."


However, I then got off the phone and Finn said, "Whit! Do you want to go to Rain Forest Cafe tonight?"

Thinking Court had already agreed to it, I said, "Yeah! That's a great idea!"

And the rest was history.

So we picked Lil up from school and went for a lovely, classy dinner at the old RFC. Court and I opted to wait to eat dinner with Ry when he got off work, but the kids liked it a lot. :)

Saturday was a full-on Lil fest in the morning, which included her Birdie bash, planned and executed exceptionally by Court.




By the end of the party, we were all cashed out. 

(this is us attempting to show how tired we are)

Court and I decided some mani/pedis were in order. 

After that, we left the kids with a babysitter and went out to dinner just the three of us. It was so fun having time with Court and Ry. Such a great couple, those two.

Thank you so much for having me, Court and Ry! I had so much fun celebrating Lil :)