Dana Burland

Please pardon this interruption from my regular posts about food , woodland-animals-I-shouldn’t-feed-but-feed-anyway and more food for a small public display of affection. At some point in long term relationships, the word ‘love’ feels like it loses its luster. Lately, I’ve taken to finding new ways to make Ben roll his eyes express my feelings. Here are a few examples of my around-the-apartment proclamations. I love you more than… …Grand Rapids loves beer …the vent in our apartment loves to rattle every time the air kicks on. …you love the cereal aisle. …Mother Nature loves to roll a big cloud in right when we get to the pool-- everytime we get to the pool. …my laundry loves to have a 2 day minimum of ‘chill time’ on the bedroom floor before I fold it. No seriously, my jeans love it. They need it! …you love a Saturday morning ‘second snooze’ nap. …you love to mess with me by faking a Saturday morning ‘second snooze’ nap when I’m ready to seize the weekend. That...

This weekend was the first in five that neither Ben nor I had all booked up. We made it our business to keep it free, filling it randomly as we went. Friday night I happily melted into the couch after a busy work week. We ordered in some pizza (Hawaiian ‘za, what up!) and watched Big Fish —and by ‘watched’, I really mean it. I didn’t even snooze once ! Saturday we had a late breakfast and took the bikes downtown for a long ride. Snazzy bike rack, no? Me thinks it’s time to pony up and buy a legit one already. Woodland weirdness Saturday night we put together a new Ikea bed we had bought last weekend. An hour and a half, a scraped shin and a cut foot later; the project was complete. I mean, it’s against the laws of physics to put together furniture without some sort of chaos, right? Sunday is typically errand day ‘round here. We did wander out to Greenwell for lunch, a tasty spot I’ve met many a lady friend for lunch at. Bless the chef who first trie...

Family reunions get such a bad rap. But, what gives? At the best is a riot to watch cousin Mike demolish four servings of sauerkraut, and at the very worst you smile and shake hands with a few strangers. I was a tad more invested  in last weekend’s reunion than the average attendant, sure. I’d like to think even if I weren’t I still would have had a good time. Good polish food, good people and a successful round of family bingo—what’s not to like? My favorite reunion photo--my mom and her siblings

Remember when sharing was hard? It was unfathomable to share crayons with fellow preschool classmates when striving to draw an epic rainbow. What do you mean you want to borrow the green? I heard we got some new My Little Ponies in, and look! No one else seems to know! The idea of sharing to help and bond with others feels outdated now. We share online like a lawn sprinkler; spraying a wide radius of who knows how many random blades of grass in hopes one of them finds us valuable. It’s by and large a solo act, too; us, our fingers and our screen watering the lawn without checking if it’s flooded or not. I’ve caught myself doing this more than I’d like to admit—both sharing without being expressive or connective and letting myself be affected by the unintentional spray from others. One of the reasons I delighted in having a stupidphone was because the tech roadblock forced me to share and consume less frequently and more intentionally. Now that I’m armed with a weapon of mass comm...

Happy 300th blog post to me! It certainly doesn't seem like I've been at it for 300 posts. The more I get situated on my own the more blog content I find. (Note: I didn't say it was interesting content.) This blog has always been about keeping up with family and friends who either aren't near by or aren't privy to the little things I've got going on. With that in mind, I'm mighty proud to reach this blogiversary. For curious minds, here's what reaching 300 posts look like: It's taken me 4 year and 3 months to make it to the 300 post mark.  This post received the most comments; nevermind that two of them are from me and the other two from one person. 10 brave souls have subscribed to receive all of my posts via email–and yes, I know who you are! My most popular post is about face wash . Whodathunk? Most of my posts are about food (43 of them, to be exact), followed by Pennsylvania living, family and travel.  Speakin' of food,  thi...

Oh my avocado tostadas. That’s exactly what I ordered at The Chicago Diner  on my weekend trip to the Windy City  and exactly what I thought while grossly shoveling tortilla boats of black bean, quinoa and avocado straight into mah belly. The Chicago Diner's Avocado Tostadas These were so good my friend Jill suffered food envy after trying a bite and buddy Elena declared that she’d be making these at home. Heck to the yes to making these at home. Perhaps a normal person would have stored this recipe away for a while, but not I. It was less than a week after my original avocado tostada encounter and girlfrand needed another fix. My take is less tostada like and more nacho oriented. It’s easier to make and allows for much faster demolishing. I dub thee deconstructed Chicago inspired nachos recipe—Chicagachos. Chicagachos Chicagachos Makes 2-3 servings Ingredients Tortilla chips ½ can drained and rinsed black beans ½ cup cooked quinoa ¼ cup shredded lettuce...

Just when the snow melts and our apartment deck becomes usable, our backyard pond turns to muck. Muck isn’t even the right way to describe what’s goin’ on up in there. The whole pond is covered in a greenish yellow film, and has been for a few weeks now. The management company says blah blah chemical treatment blah blah gets worse before it gets better. We survived this small circus last summer, so I know my beloved ducks and small snapping turtles will be back soon. In the meantime, this is putting quite a first world damper on my otherwise beautiful apartment living.

Saying goodbye to good friends is so hard; reuniting with good friends is so real-maple-syrup-and-crushed-pretzels-on-vanilla-ice-cream good. Jill , Elena and I had last weekend’s reunion trip to Chicago planned embarrassingly far in advance. It was so great to finally hop around the hotel room in a state of yay-we’re-all-together joy. Every morning we rolled out of bed and right onto the Lakefront path for mission: free up more stomach space. Navy Pier | Cred: Elena Speaking of which: Taste of Chicago. The overall winner was the chipotle chicken and rice arancini , which I sincerely hope to make at home one day. The wackiest plate award goes to the bhel puri, which was essentially spicy yogurt over puffed rice with potatoes. Ok then. Clockwise from top left: empanada, pot stickers, bhel puri and 'za. | Cred: Jill No Chicago newbie trip is complete without a visit to the bean—I mean, Cloud Gate . You get it. We also caught a slightly too trippy free outdoor c...

I was giddy when given the green light to hire and manage a summer intern. Extra help! Shaping the minds of the future! Extra help! Also, I interned in college, so I’m practically an experienced manager. Mmkay, not really. I had one big project I needed lots of help with, but it was kind of snooze worthy. I wanted the internship to be more than that so I created a research/writing project that would further our brand’s reach, be a semi-challenging assignment and score my intern some worthwhile bylines. Portfolios don’t build themselves, yo. We spent some time together reviewing the magazine’s social media strategy and time reviewing the strategies of other brands he liked. I prepped him for meetings so he could participate instead of just observe and he attended an event we sponsored and got a taste for the swanky marketing life that, too. If the tables were turned, I’d probably give myself a B+ as a manager. It’s hard to determine how much someone already knows and it’s hard...

Hello civilization, I’ll be joining you now. I’ve accepted a new job in which having a smartphone is a requirement. Whatchu mean I must be able to communicate quickly and efficiently in a communications related role? The nerve! It's pretty user friendly, but I'm still having some awkward middle-schooler-trying-to-find-the-bathroom-on-the-first-day-of-school moments. Never was this more evident then when my new gadget emitted an accidental air horn alarm at 6:30 the other morning, jolting both Ben and I from our peaceful slumbers. I'm not sure who will be pulling a Frank Costanza first, me or Ben. SERENITY NOW!  

Ben’s favorite dessert is crème brulee. Nope, not brownies or cake—but multiple hour, easy to ruin, simple to char, velvety crème brulee. Way to take it easy on your lady! But love means watching a lot of Tattoo Nightmares compromising, and putting in extra effort where extra effort is due—like on a birthday! Lucky for Ben, crème brulee is: A. delicious; B. cheap; C. challenging yet not time consuming; and D. happening this week. This will only be my third time tackling a homemade version, but I’m confident my modified recipe makes for a much less intimidating go of this swanky dessert. Happy, happy birthday, Ben! Crème Brluee For Two Ingredients 2 cups heavy cream 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup sugar, divided 3 large egg yolks 8 cups hot water Directions 1. Preheat oven to 325. 2. Combine the cream, half the sugar and vanilla in a sauce pan. Heat over medium just until the mixture starts to bubble (do not boil). Remove from heat and cool for 10-15 minutes. 3. In a me...

Man. I packed up a couple air mattresses, ran an extra load of laundry and it hardly looks like we had guests up in here. This fourth—like fourths of years   past —my family stayed over for a long weekend visit. Beyond giggling, feasting and teasing my brother for accidentally using olive oil as shampoo, here are my vacation highlights: Peach Salsa Let’s be honest—the real gastronomic star of the weekend was the grilled pork tenderloin recipe my mom supplied, but the peach salsa I made started a few hey-don’t-finish-that! squabbles ‘round lunch time. Here’s how it’s done, courtesy of my PA pal,  Megan . Lake Michigan sand dunes as seen from our cruise 2 peaches—skinned, pitted and roughly chopped ¼ cup chopped bell pepper 2-4 tablespoons red grapefruit juice 4 teaspoons cilantro 2 medium green onions chopped Dash of salt Combine all in a food processor and give it a quick whirl. Saugatuck Star Boat Cruise Yes, yes and yes again. This 90-minute lazy  cr...

It’s only a little worrisome when everyone else at the starting line of your bike race looks like a Tour de France rider. So what my shoes don’t clip in to my bike? Or that I’m carrying seven pounds of gear in my high school backpack instead of tucking essentials into my swanky jersey? This race couldn’t be that serious, right? Our ride was great, in actuality. Ben and I rode together, with his parents just behind us. It had been awhile since we logged long mileage on our bikes, but we rode strong almost the entire way—there’s no way to ride strong up a hundred rolling hills, or when your butt feels beyond saddle bruised. The start and the end of the race went through downtown, but the middle 30 miles were through rolling farmland. Oh the precious horse farms! And the green fields! And the lingering smell of the horse farms! The ZDM definitely tops the Gran Fondo on crowd feel (often there was one, or no biker near us), variety in scenery and course marking (who do I need t...