July 31, Crunchy-topped Salmon

As you may or may not have seen on the Friday post, this month of August, I’m sharing all the recipes from these weekly menus that I put on the fridge.

I’m a huge proponent of meal planning — it uses up leftovers, you only have to go grocery shopping once that week and your housemate always knows what’s for dinner.

I usually post the list on my grocery shopping day. Tuesday. And buy all the ingredients for the week.

I planned this dish early in the week after we’d returned from a trip to the Midwest. We needed some calming tummy food for the California transition. Since I knew we’d have salmon skin in the garbage, I like to enjoy fish or shellfish (1.) a soon from the store as possible and (2.) the night before the trash guy comes.

Crunchy-Topped Salmon

Ingredients:
1 large salmon fillet
1 cup breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 225

Back in back.

Wow. So much to catch y’all up on. So much to say and say, so I’ll just dig in and hope that this is good.

BlogHer

Great. Awesome. Too speedy. Want more.
Was surprised that I’ve been blogging for so long — seemed to be the first thing I said when introducing myself.

“Hi, I’m Helen Jane and have been keeping a web log since 1997 but been “blogging” since 2001 when it was weirder and more linky and less well-written.”

Lots of the questions in the panels seemed to be from newbies for newbies and that’s exciting. I know I’ve said it a bunch, but I’m so proud that my weird little internet hobby is all grownsed up.

I was there representing Oops wine, a mighty good wine from Chile if I do say so myself. They sponsored the speaker’s party and Friday night’s rooftop cocktail party.

Thursday speaker’s party was a great segue into blogging for the wine sponsor. I have such important lady friends from this space, and to be able to share that with new enthusiasts, well, it was elevating.

Friday, I sat in on a few panels, but was a little confused with the lack of support for the “politics and knitting” blogger. And although I don’t speak on those topics specifically, I do have a mix of the personal and the professional on my site. Eh, I’ll speak more on that later.

I LURVED the “Speaker Training” panel. It was succinct, to the point, and left me with specific to-dos to do more successful public speaking in my career.

Friday night’s cocktail party was a great opportunity to share some good wine with good friends (and hand out free aprons in the meantime!). The appetizers were delicious (rock on chicken margarita nachos) and the company couldn’t have been more interesting.

There was an afterparty in our 2001 hotel room the details of which are left on Flickr and assorted web sites. Sigh. I sure do like talking to people about good wine.

Also, am loving the Christine Kane cd from my schwag bag.

Elkhart Lake

Stayed at the Victorian Village for my old pal Alyca’s wedding. She and I completed a six week road trip in our early 20s after she graduated and I left school. And I love her dearly.

As everyone’s stories about me included some sort of polishing off a box of Franzia, I was pleased to see I was in the right industry.

Mini-Reunion

Met with buds Dan and Doug and Kim on Sunday for brunch. A brunch which began at ten and went until six, thereby shattering all my previous brunch records.

(So many memories that I forgot that I forgot!)

Also, I need to make it to Milwaukee more often.

Mini-Reunion 2

Met up with my old roommate AG on Sunday night.
(Whew!)

Had delicious Midwestern sushi and told all the same stories I’d told a mere three hours earlier.

Travel nightmare

I may just leave it at the following rant:

“I hate air travel especially if it involves O’Hare airport, mechanical failure, certain airlines that shall not be named, missed “travel vouchers” and three am return times.”

Also, what’s up closing the highway and making us take a 30 minute detour at freaking 2:30 am?
I smack you bad travel days.

Homely

But now I’m home, with my dog and my computer and my burgeoning business and lots of laundry and happy memories and old and new friends. And damn, a whole lot to do today!

Also! Keep your eyes peeled for a new monthly experiment.
August will reinstate the “one thing every day around a theme” thing.
I just had too much fun doing that in May and June.

Also, I like you.

Midwesterly

Here in Green Bay for a few before that BlogHer event that the ladies are talking about.

Returned for my brother’s wedding reception in a bar outside of Green Bay in Chilton.

Excellent to see all the family, excellent to have one previously young nephew drive my sister and I home.

The next day, we went to the old Wisconsin butter burger landmark, Kroll’s West to celebrate my 32nd with my favorite Dairy Queen ice cream cake and a few cheeseburgers.

There was calm and quiet and running through fields and fields of corn on one side and calm, flat lakes on the other. Spending so much time running from Wisconsin, I realized I missed running in Wisconsin.

Clare and I met up with an old friend for cocktails. Good in many ways, not the least of which is the return of my Northeastern Wisconsin accent which I used to pull out for parties.

Here, it’s fitting in.

I’ve been thrift store shopping and driving the brightest yellow rental car in the whole world.

I’ve been too busy to think and am sort of sad about that, because my trips back home are usually a time where I get perspective on where I’ve been and more importantly, where I want to go.

Part of that is due to lots and lots of tucked-in working.

Thanks to the new reality of working for myself, I have had the phone to one ear, a notepad on one leg and a computer in hand for much of the visit. Not a complaint, merely an observation, because I couldn’t be happier doing this work. It’s fun work, important work, blessed work.

Hope to see you at BlogHer, and if I don’t, I’ll run into you on Twitter, right?

Lately

Have I mentioned that I’m heading to Wisconsin tomorrow?

James is hanging back, coming to meet me later at BlogHer.
He mentioned yesterday, how excited he is to sit in the middle of 800 women, and well, frankly, I am too.

My sister and I are returning to attend my brother’s wedding reception. It’s a bring-your-own-lawn-chair party and we will be doing exactly that.

My whole family is attending.
Thankfully, this is a good thing.

Did I yet mention the other things going on that week?
1. 10 year college reunion
2. Bridesmaid Alyca’s wedding
3. BlogHer

Folks around here have asked me if I’m going crazy-lonely as I work by myself at home.

Nope. I’m saving up social points for an entire week of friendlies. Hoarding them really, because I’m afraid that after a blogging conference, wedding, wedding reception, 10 year college reunion and general running into people, I’m going to run out.

(And I am a mighty social person, so having to hoard social friendlies means that it’s a big week.)

There will be a lot of explaining what I’m up to.
There will be hugs.
There will be humidity.

Birthday news!

I love birthday week (mine will be July 22!) because lots of the people I admire from the internet are also having birthdays.
Jenville! Newman! ThisFish! Dooce!
That is some classy company.

Inside voice: I’ve always been 32 years old.
I was a 32 year old eight year old.
I was a 32 year old 19 year old.
As of Sunday, I’ll meet my matchmyself.

This year, this year is the year that my life and I meet up and hug and say to each other, “Hello, you, I’m so glad you’ve arrived.” I am chock full of anticipation.

Thirty-two is going to be a very good year, I can feel it.

Clare news!

My sister has been with us for a week. I couldn’t be grinning more madly.

So happy, so grounded, so beautiful, it’s magic to have her around.
She and James and I trade off bed time stories. Last night’s was about Mr. Squirrel, the magic wall-squirrel who sneaks into your room when you’re sleeping and sucks all the bad thoughts out of your head through your right ear.

(So you’d better sleep on your left side, or your head will be filled with the same bad thoughts of yesterday.)

Status: Home worker

Yes, I now work from home.

Re-done my craft room into a proper home office, quit my job in a proper way, made a temporary business website, filed the appropriate tax and trademark document and asked many of my independent contractor friends for advice and I sit at my computer with a healthy dash of terror for inspiration.

And it’s so much fun.

I’m working so tuff on client projects that I haven’t really had time to finish anything but my business cards and that aforementioned temporary site, but when things are pretty and good, you’ll get the details as soon as they come.

I’m back in life, all up in the middle of it, after that loss a few weeks ago. My dreams are filled with rejection and loss, but I know they won’t be soon.

I know I’m done grieving when I have a crime-fighting dream, it’s my sign that I’m done.
(Looking forward to it any day now.)

Moving though, moving on, growing and growing and finding so much opportunity everywhere that I boggle quite a bit.

Have you seen all the opportunity in the world?