Talya Tate Boerner's Blog, page 47

Channeling Jamie Oliver and Cooking the Perfect Steak

The Jamie Oliver Way

Jamie Oliver has a simple and oh so perfect steak recipe that absolutely cannot be beat. And I’m going to tell you how to cook it.

First of all, you should know I don’t eat a ton of red meat. In fact, I go days with no meat at all. But after eating fish for two solid weeks in Iceland—don’t get me wrong, it was FABULOUS!—my body craved a steak.

I probably eat one steak a year. Maybe.

So I bought a sirloin at our neighborhood grocery store (which shall forever be known as...

mid-June Garden Shenanigans

Since I returned from Iceland, I’ve been writing like a fiend. Between all the words, I garden. That’s pretty much it. Weeds, y’all. They are thriving. I know my garden as well as I know the manuscript I’m working on. Because when I say, I garden, what I mean is, I crawl around on my hands and knees looking between flowers, pulling weeds by hand, studying the landscape and what’s changed in my brief absence. (Much like scrubbing the lines of my writing, pulling weed words. See what I did the...

Today will not be perfect.

Today will not be perfect. But within this imperfect day, there will be snippets of perfection. That’s what I’ve come to expect. It’s what I believe and notice. I thought about this as I pulled weeds and came upon this pansy smiling at me, expecting nothing at all, barely even asking for soil.

I thought about this earlier, as I made breakfast. I’d already written for an hour or two. I easily lose track of time until the dogs remind me, or I discover I need food.

John and I enjoyed near perfe...

Driving East Fjords to South Iceland

We’ve come to the last part of our Iceland journey! The past two days we’ve been driving the ring road through the East Fjords to South Iceland and back to Reykjavik where we started. Whew.

If you’ve followed along for the past two weeks, I hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure. My pictures in no way do adequate justice to Iceland. It’s impossible to capture the scale and magnitude or the serene beauty of it all. But here I go anyway, sharing a few pictures I took while driving from the East Fjo...

Hiking Seyðisfjörður

For the past two days, John and I have been hiking Seyðisfjörður in the Eastfjords part of Iceland. Seyðisfjörður, a town of approximately 700, is nestled within a fjord surrounded by more waterfalls than you can conjure in your most spectacular dreams. If you follow my personal Facebook page, you may have waterfall fatigue from all the photos I’ve posted. In person, I’m convinced it’s impossible to suffer from such a thing. Each waterfall provides unique beauty. Each one is ever changing.

M...

Grace Grits Reads May 2017

May 2017 was an odd month for me as I was preparing for my Iceland trip, writing several freelance articles (deadlines!), and evidently not reading as much as normal. Grace Grits Reads May 2017 totals only three books. Sad! (Three that I can recall as I sit here in Iceland trying to remember, anyway.)

My brain is tired.

Maybe I really read eight. Ha.

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

I selected this book because author Neil Gaiman was inspired to write it after a trip to Reykjavik, AND I thought...

Crossing the Arctic Circle (Grímsey Island)

It isn’t every day a girl gets the opportunity to cross the Arctic Circle. But when I find myself in North Iceland, only 25 nautical miles from the Arctic Circle, I can’t pass up the chance. So I booked passage on the ferry out of Dalvik, and John and I made the three hour voyage to Grímsey Island.

(I know what you’re thinking.

Iceland Day 3: Driving from Reykjavik to Ólafsfjörður

Day 3 in Iceland was spent driving from Reykjavik to Ólafsfjörður, a drive that took us about seven hours through every type terrain and microclimate imaginable. This will be a quick post and mostly a photo journal to document the amazingness. So far I’ll say this is definitely a trip to circle, highlight, and remember.

Lava fields in the Highlands area are smothered in bright green moss.

To me, this next photo taken in Hunafjordur Skagafjordur is how I always imagined Iceland to be—a lonel...

Greetings from Iceland! (Days 1 & 2)

Greetings from Iceland! In two days we’ve already seen so much it’s difficult for me to get my thoughts down on paper (or onto my blog). We flew into Reykjavik (Dallas to Boston to Reykjavik) which made for a long day of travel. We checked into our hotel around two a.m. Since it was still light outside, it didn’t feel so late. Plus, it was only nine p.m. according to our internal clocks.

Day One

Day One was spent exploring Reykjavik with no real plan. No plans are often the best plans. We we...

Packing for ICELAND!

Did I mention I’m going to Iceland? Pinch me, I am! And I should be packing for Iceland because my trip is SOON. But somehow I’ve become this person who puts off packing until the last possible minute. I wait and wait and instead of just doing it, I spend effort calculating how much time I can delay said packing with the same precision my son once calculated the minimum grade he could score on a calculus test yet still get a B in said class.

Yeah.

And now instead of packing, I’m writing abou...