Creative Gals Trapped in an Office

Rearranging Home

trappedinanoffice — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:23:03 +0000

Time for a new project! Hubs and I have decided that amid all of the housing drama going on, we are going to continue to our rent our beautiful condo, at least for another year. Since we’ve decided to stay put, I’ve asked my lovely partner-in-crime to help me give my place a little face lift!

At her request, below are some “before” pictures. Starting this weekend I’m selling things on craigslist and moving furniture. I love new projects – hurrah!

~ Nina

Elk for Dinner Anyone?

trappedinanoffice — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:00:03 +0000

I am a huge fan of trying new recipes. There is nothing more gratifying than the sound of “Yummmm” coming out of my hubs’ mouth. After being married for six months, I’ve gotten bored of our standards – chicken, turkey, steak, salmon. So when I went to the store last week, “Gourmet Elk” caught my eye. Yup – you heard me right, Elk.

In the wake of Sarah Palin’s mooseburgers, I was inspired. So in the last couple hours, I did some homework. Here is what I learned:

1) Elk has 22.8% protein, 137 calories and 0.9% fat. Compare that to USDA Choice Beef, with 22% protein, 180 calories and 6.5% fat.

2) Elk can be purchase free range and organic.

3) There are quite a few Elk recipes on the internet: http://www.eatingelk.com/recipeindex.html

Once I had convinced myself that I was actually going to cook my Elk steaks, I settled on the following recipe:

Elk Steaks with Red Pepper Sauce

   1 tablespoon butter or margarine
   3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (2 cups)
   2 roasted red peppers*, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
   4 boneless Elk loin steaks (4 oz. each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick                                         4 servings

In 1-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add tomatoes and peppers. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft, stirring frequently. Stir in oregano, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until sauce is thickened, stirring frequently. Set aside and keep warm.Spray rack in broiler pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Arrange steaks on rack. Broil with surface of steaks 4 to 5 inches from heat for 6 to 8 minutes, or until desired doneness, turning steaks over once. Serve steaks with sauce.

* Use roasted red peppers from a jar, or roast your own. To roast a pepper, place it under broiler with surface of pepper 3 to 4 inches from heat. Turn pepper frequently until skin is blackened and blistered. Seal pepper in plastic or paper bag, and let steam for 10 minutes to loosen skin. Peel pepper.

My hubs loved it – he said eating it made him feel manly. While I don’t think that I’m going to switch from Chicken to Elk on a regular basis, it was definitely an interesting, relatively healthy, experience. Yummmm….Elk.

Elk Steaks with Red Peppers

http://www.uselk.com/elkSteaksWithRedPepperSauce.html

~ Nina

The Other Creative Gal

trappedinanoffice — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Hello World! I’m the other “Creative Gal” trapped in an office.

Having just gotten married, I was uber-creative for the 6 months of wedding planning, and now I’ve found that its hard to go back to the grind. My hubs jokes that I have PWS (Post-Wedding-Syndrome) meaning that I have no outlet for the creative juices. And so the blog was born.

My partner in crime is all about remodeling (stay tuned, she’s going to do my apartment soon!), and I aspire to be the next Martha Stewart – if Martha worked full time in a boring office all day and had about 20 minutes a day to be creative. No promises on what my posts are going to look like – probably some combination of random new recipes, art projects, and snippits about my favorite things.

I’m also a blog addict myself – so if you’re reading this and have your own blog, please leave me a comment so I can check it out!!!

Ciao!

~ Nina

Changing the Strange Little Brain Tickler

trappedinanoffice — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:44:07 +0000

Ideas for the outside

Let’s change the front door and the garage door to something like this:

Or a single frosted pane. Is there some kind of rule that says front doors need to swing open to the inside? I’d love to build out the stoop and have the door swing out to save the sq. ft. inside. Or do they only do that on double-wides?

And for the garage:

Garage Door on Left

I am also keen on the architectural element of the “matchsticks” coming out of the building. I wonder if they are metal or wood. And perhaps a similar treatment over the front door. Pseudo trellis but very contemporary.

I would love to put a corresponding left side window on the second floor. It would end up being in the walk-in closet of the second bedroom. Worth it? Considering the only other window in that room faces the house next door, it might be.

Let’s move to the back. The path at the left of the front door leads down and back to a concrete area with a cement block wall bordering the neighbor (no pic of that yet). There is also a door to the “bonus” room. Above, off the main living area, is this balcony:

Back suspended deck

I think I would want to take off the roof, and extend the deck out another 1.5 ft. or so using a glass or plexi like this:

Deck redo

That way the concrete patio below could get a lot more natural light and the balcony would then accommodate a table for 4 to eat. I would also want to add a set of stairs to reach the lower level without going out the front of the house and around (the better to corral my rug rat).

I might consider installing some of that fantastic, new kind of AstroTurf on the concrete patio to create a softer play area for my son. And, of course, dress up the cement block wall somehow.

Next post, we’ll move inside.

Go with what you know (or are at least doing at the moment)

trappedinanoffice — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:37:18 +0000

So here is the area of my life that is receiving the most creative juice. Imagining myself, my husband and my kid in a new house. God knows if it will ever really happen, but it regularly falls to me to do the bulk of the legwork on such things, so I’ve been doing it. In order not to despair completely at the dearth of quality housing for a reasonable price (even in the face of a burst bubble) I have taken to re-designing and furnishing the homes virtually that show an even remote potential. It keeps my creative spirits up and helps me to stay curious about seeing the umpteenth 800 sq. ft. beast for over $600,000. So I guess I’ll start sharing. Unless someone cares to move beyond this, I’ll not go into all the boring considerations (schools, neighborhoods, cocktails within walking distance (my husband’s concern)) that go into making a decision when buying a home. Just the good stuff. Let’s start with this one.

STRANGE LITTLE BRAIN TICKLER

Here is the house. It is 968 sq. ft. with an additional ”bonus” room off the garage of approx. 200 sq. ft.

Front of house

The lot is only about 1200 sq. ft. Notice how the front of the house angles with the angle of the street? The inside of the house literally does the same thing, as you will see. I find it truly bizarre and terribly intriguing at the same time. It was built in the 50′s. Was there some sort of city ordinance that governed its necessity at that time? I just can’t imagine what they were thinking.

P.S. Yes those window boxes are filled with fake flowers. Some major feng shui would need to happen here before I spent the night.

So let’s stick to the outside for now. A decidedly different paint job is in order first and foremost.

Some adjustments to the plantings in the planter beds. I don’t really mind the idea of not having a yard to take care of. I grew up on 3 acres, 1.5 of which that had to be mowed every week in the summer and have since become an exclusive apartment dweller. When my kid is old enough to mow the lawn, maybe I’ll want a yard. Until then, he has a blast at the public park.

Anyway, I currently have a 15 ft. Queen Palm in a pot that would look very nice in the planter to the left and could certainly find something more interesting than the boxwoods? in the planters on the right. On second thought, move the palm that is currently in the left planter to the right.

to be continued…

Creative Juices Need To Be Squeezed

trappedinanoffice — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:45:13 +0000

Well, after 8 years in an office – and counting – here is a chance to be creative and I don’t have single notion of what to do. This blog has been created (correct me if I’m wrong fellow gal) to help plot a path to freedom. Every day my butt grows larger and my brain smaller. It has to end somewhere and I’m determined that end is not in a chair, under florescent lighting, growing old. I can’t make any promises. Just glad to give it a try. Ack! Let the juicing begin!!