Phipps Conservatory

Since we are doing a big west coast trip soon, we decided to do a couple small trips with baby, to see how she would do. We went to Pittsburgh, for her to visit her great grandparents, and then explored Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.

This place is beautiful! And it’s nice and mellow for a little 4 month old. She liked seeing all the vegetation. It was quiet and indoor/outdoor so we got to enjoy the sunshine. What I really liked about this place is that they grow and harvest ingredients for their “green” cafe. They encourage and recycle all that they can!

This would be a good place when the little one is older too. They have lots of interactive stations for kids, like building a fort, planting things, a mini fresh market where they can play “store” and other learning type activities.

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
One Schenley Park
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3830

Posted on October 22, 2015 by miemo 0

Roasted Shrimp Orzo

I’ve been in a cooking rut. But because I’m nursing I need to eat. A lot. I’m literally withering away because I’m producing milk and it’s taking all my calories and turning it into fatty milk for my baby. We are still using Blue Apron for dinner. But I miss picking out my own meals, and eating what I WANT to eat versus what I have to eat. However, in order to not waste food, I need to create my own meal plans before I cancel or skip orders.

My friend Rosie came by with lunch one weekend and it was delicious. So tasty, healthy and yet so simple. I decided to go ahead and make it myself for our dinner and lunches one week. It’s filled with fresh herbs, which gives it great flavor and without the extra sodium.

This roasted shrimp orzo pasta is delicious. Lemony, bright and eaten cold makes it a perfect lunch. Shrimp is roasted in the oven with just a little salt and pepper.

Dressing is salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.

Red onions and cucumbers add a crunchy texture.

Salt and pepper, easy peasy.

Stir in some feta and voila! She used Ina Garten’s recipe and its perfect the way it is!

Posted on October 15, 2015 by miemo 0

Curry Crabs

I’m back! Thank you for waiting patiently. After being hacked again I did not want to go through the trouble of putting my site back up for it to get hacked a third time. Hopefully this is it!

Even though work is demanding, and baby is demanding, and my house is a mess…I still get chances to cook. To close out the summer (What? I know, its fall) I was stuck with almost half a bushel of cooked blue crabs. I used it as a chance to work on my cookbook (based off my maman’s recipes).

What. Haven’t heard about that thing in awhile right? Well now that I actually have a child, it’s even more important to keep that kitchen legacy alive. Before I was writing it for my future children.. and here I am 4 years later with one. Oh wow. It’s been 4 years since I started and I still have made 0 progress. Okay that’s a lie, I’ve got a few recipes written. Lao food is complicated and takes me awhile to write and test over and over!

Would any of you be interested in being my help kitchen? I would email you the recipes I’m working on, and you tell me if you can understand how its written, and if the directions make sense? Leave a comment or email me! miemo {at} miemonster {dot} net!

Posted on September 29, 2015 by miemo 0

Taylor Swift 1989 World Tour

Finally. Of all the years of being a Taylor Swift fan, I FINALLY was able to go to a concert. Reasons before? Friends didn’t like Taylor Swift enough to spend the money on tickets to go with me. If they did go with me, I’d have to buy the tickets. For my 30th birthday, my husband (along with a surprise party) got us tickets to see Tay Tay! He happened to like her new album and was willing to sit through it with me. <3

She is amazing. She even played a couple of her older songs, updated to her new sound. She makes everyone feel like we are all her best friends (which is probably why her squad is so big) and I love her even more. The concert was outdoors at Nats Stadium, and it rained all day. Her stage, which lifted up from the ground, got stuck in the air, and she handled it with grace until they were able to fix it.

Everyone was given a LED wristband, we weren’t sure what it was for, until she came out on stage. THEY LIT UP. She basically controlled all of us during the show. It lit up multiple colors, blinked to the beat and was just all in all a ridiculously fun and awesome show. I totally understand now why my cousin goes to her concert EVERY time. She is a true performer. The stadium sat about 45,000 people and she SOLD THEM OUT. For TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW.

She also has a surprise guest every night, and our night was Lorde. They sang Royals together. Her set, her costumes, everything was fun and sparkly.

It was hard to leave our newborn at Nana’s but I had a great time. Now that I found out some of my mommy friends like Taylor too, I would definitely go again and leave the babies with their daddies 😉 Even though my husband seemed to enjoy the concert too!

Posted on July 24, 2015 by miemo 0

Where Have I Been?

…not sleeping and trying to figure out parenthood. The only thing I’m making is breast milk. We have been eating what neighbors and friends bring us, and the hubs has been cooking Blue Apron meals.

But my mini bun has finally arrived! You can read my birth story over at my mama blog. Yep. I have two. I figured not everyone wants to read a mama blog so I’ve decided to keep this one life and food. Though there’s not much happening right now because well first time parents. Lol.

The days are such a blur right now. Stick with me, I’ll figure it out.

Posted on July 1, 2015 by miemo 0

Blogging and Privacy

{Drawing by Tu Gribouilles}

I am torn. I love blogging. I love to share snippets of my life, and products that I like and hope could be beneficial to you. I like telling stories and hope that people can relate. That is all fine and dandy for my food blog. I keep people anonymous when they want to be. But when it comes to my unborn child I am torn. I know everything she does is going to be adorable, and I will have a million pictures of her. But do I want to share them? Do I want digital copies of my kid’s face floating on the internet?

For the most part the internet has been good to me. I haven’t run into anything detrimental. I try to keep tabs of what I share and consider those in my lives when sharing. However, there are still times where I come across people stealing my pictures and using it as theirs, or even have my face as their face! I do not want that for my mini bun. I don’t even want to use her name in a public space. But can I really be an effective mommy blogger (MamaMiemo.com), if I won’t even share pictures of my kid? I honestly don’t even wanna put stuff up on my personal facebook!

I love looking at the cute kids when I’m reading through parental blogs. But the internet is a big scary place, for a tiny baby. How do you guys feel about it?

Posted on May 29, 2015 by miemo 0

Kikki K Personal Planner

Ugh. I know. Miemo, ANOTHER planner? How many planners does one woman need, as my cousin Cece would say. Well at one point I had 3. Erin Condren for my life, Poppin for my blogs, and freelance clients, and a Sugar Paper LA one for my office and work tasks. As I get bigger and more off balance, I’ve decided that I need just ONE planner to put everything in (except work/office, that stays there).

After making a list of what I want I want to schedule in this planner, and what I want it to do, I then made a list of places that sells them. I knew for sure that I wanted something that I could reuse from years to come, and not have to order one every year. I wanted ample note pages and pockets and customize able.

After scouring blogs, watching youtube reviews, and pinterest, I finally decided. I bit the bullet and went with the one recommended by Michelle from Hey Love Designs. I got the Kikki Large Personal Planner.

Pros:

Big enough for me to fold papers and stick in there until I can deal with them
Has a clasp
Soft leather, looks so cute, love the colors
Refillable, just buy a new set of weekly calendar every year or use perpetual that comes with it (I prefer predated pages)
Compatible with filofax A5 stuff so I’m not limited to Kikki K stuff
Tabs to organize all the things I need to manage, social, personal, projects, blogs etc.
Week starts on a Monday, and the weekend days are kept together at the end
Being a hole punched system it’s easy for me to move sheets and notes around

Cons:

Big. I carry a big purse but I can see how this could be an issue when I don’t
The preprinted calendars are based on the Australian calendar, so I have to write in American holidays
Paper is thinner than I’d like
No notes section for weekly tasks at each week for the planner section (I just added lined post its)
There’s no monthly outlook prior to the weekly pages starting. They are in the beginning, but I feel I could probably find a refill that’s more my style

…also, yes I know its in the middle of the year, but guess what, their planners start in JUNE so just in time for me!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by miemo 0

Blue Apron

The hardest thing to think about during my work week is always, what’s for dinner. You spend all day at work, sometimes you don’t pre-plan your meals and you just want to eat. Then you go down the hole of eating out always. I think that is where 20-30 year olds spend their money.

Well, as someone who is 8 months pregnant and has no energy after a full work day, let alone enough strength to stand in the kitchen, I fall into that hole. Lucky for me, my husband cooks as well. He mentioned that his coworker who is also a new parent uses Blue Apron, and thought we should give it a try. This eliminates: 1. food waste because they give you just enough to make your dishes, 2. grocery shopping because they send you the main ingredients and 3. figuring out what to eat because they send you 3 meals, you just pick what day you want to cook what.

They send you a box with ingredients and recipe cards for 3 meals. They’ve got like 3 ice packs in there and it should be good until you get home. But refrigerate right away! Our first week’s subscription landed on Cinco de Mayo, so they sent Mexican food for that week. Fish Tacos, Mole Chicken Quesadillas, and Pozole.

I loved how everything was packaged. I felt like we were getting a Chopped basket…except without the challenge! The fish tacos were sooo delicious and full of flavor. I was definitely impressed.

If you aren’t that great of a chef, fret not. The recipes are simple enough, and it will help you sharpen your skills. The challenge for me, is forcing myself to eat what is there and try new things. Surprisingly enough, I’m a picky eater. Well maybe not picky, but particular. I never had a raw golden beat before. Nor do I like raw onions and shallots. But I went ahead and ate everything in front of me.

I like that they only offer 3 meals. I think it is the perfect amount, because maybe you have leftovers Monday, and want to go out Friday! The produce that comes in looks fresh and healthy, which is more than I can say about produce found in our local grocery stores. Overall I am happy with this service. This will come in handy when we’ve got a new born in the house as well!

Posted on May 15, 2015 by miemo 0

Crabby Cravings

I am addicted. Maybe because I haven’t had crawfish ALL year. It’s just a lot of effort to do at home when you live in a condo. But every week, literally, every week, I’ve gone to Captain Pell’s and engorged myself on blue crabs. I always eat at least six. I know that sounds a little bit much. Especially because I’m pregnant. Mercury and all that jazz. But I looked it up. Crabs only live a couple of years anyway, that doesn’t give them enough time to build up mercury. So they are low on that scale.

So of the 4 times I’ve gone this last month, the price did go up. I guess because market price went up. But here’s the skinny. You can get a dozen medium steamed (male) crabs for $45 or ALL YOU CAN EAT for $45. I can’t really eat more than a dozen (if that, I usually share with whoever I end up going with) so the dozen is good for me. The husband is allergic to blue crab (poor guy) so he gets snow crab leg platter which he really enjoys. Their other dishes have been good too. Though I don’t usually have much room for them. The hush puppies are yummy and I love their fries.

We usually get the same server and HE’S GREAT. Even when they are busy, he tries his best to take care of you. But if you are going in for crabs, you plan to stay awhile so no worries if its busy. Crabs come out really fast!

Captain Pell’s
10195 Fairfax Blvd
Fairfax, VA 22030

Posted on May 6, 2015 by miemo 0

Minnie Mouse Baby Shower

I have the best friends. I really do. I don’t know if I say it enough. Over the weekend they threw us a baby shower. They did such a great job planning it, all I did was show up. The theme was Minnie Mouse, since we will be calling the baby Minnie, (like mini me!) as a nickname.

We had it at a local restaurant, and they provided the finger foods. But the highlight was the dessert table! Vanilla bean cupcakes, oreo pops, sugar cookies. We played games, opened presents and got to see all our loved ones in one place.

Thank you so much for all your hard work ladies. We appreciate it so much, and its great to see how loved Minnie will be when she gets here!

Posted on April 23, 2015 by miemo 0

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