Pepperoni... not just for your ears anymore.

Ahhh earrings. For as far back as I can remember, earrings and I have had a torrid love affair. I remember back in sixth grade we were all given pen pals, and we had to write letters to them and tell them a little bit about ourselves. I distinctly recall that my friend Sandy wrote to hers, "I'm a world traveller." I wrote to mine, "I really like wearing big earrings." A bit shallow for a twelve year old? Perhaps. But even at that tender age I saw the horror in leaving my house with a naked ear hole.

Now that I'm an adult I do still enjoy a large earring, but I now know there is a time and a place for everything and for every earring. If my love affair with the three inch long shoulder duster has deepened with time, then my appreciation for the perfect stud has as well. I like to think of earrings like ornaments on a Christmas tree. The beautiful golden angel or the tacky light up star atop the tree is an immediate attention getter, but wouldn't the tree be less beautiful and special if it wasn't also for those small, plain glass balls? What about the now deteriorated homemade ornaments you made in second grade? They're all important, and they all remain in your collection; in this way, each and every earring in my collection has a special place in my heart and tells a special story. Ok, maybe I'm crazy - they're just earrings - but I assign feelings to inanimate objects, and I like to see my shiny little friends standing at attention, greeting me when I open up my jewelry box to decide who my earlobe companion will be for the day. Go now! Go and tell all of your earrings how much you love them! Resurrect some of your long forgotten favorites! Sociopath indeed.

I've mentioned my penchant for Anthropologie earrings. Pricey, yes. Worth it? Absolutely. If you have sensitive ears, as I do, you can feel comfortable knowing that 99% of the time the posts are either surgical steel or sterling. They're well made and unique. Below are two of my very favorite earrings; both were purchased from Anthropologie in '08. If you've met me, I'm sure you've seen these in person on more than one occasion. I throw these suckers on, and I feel like an art student in Rome going out on the town at dusk for some prosecco and limoncello.



Because I've already built up quite a collection, an earring has to be special for me to want to take him home to meet his new family. I think that earrings can be a bit odd and quirky, especially if they are paired with a demure outfit for work. I've been coveting these earrings (Anthropologie Swanky Octopus Earring) for quite some time, but can't really justify the price tag for a pair of octopii.


A few more earrings that I think are unique and would like to add to my collection if I had more than $3 in my wallet at the moment:

1) ABS by Alan Schwartz chain earrings. These would look great with skinny jeans, a over sized plain white tee, and the pair of shoes that I hope fit when I try them on at JPS' wine shindig on 5/1.


2) Fanned Feather earrings Urban Outfitters. These remind me of my favorite person ever voted off of American Idol, Lilly Scott. Naturally I liked her at first b/c she has the same name as one of my cats, but I grew to also enjoy her earrings. I'd wear these with wide leg linen pants and a loose black tank top.

3) These are earrings that I enjoy from QVC. They're Murano glass. I'd buy them, but they're currently out of stock in this color (they do have them in purple black, if you're interested in that info) They remind me of little planets on my ears. Like I'm wearing Jupiter at all times. Like I'm a goddess of the universe with really nice earrings from QVC.


Although I hate to admit it, earrings aren't everything. There's also pizza. I enjoy pizza. Often. For example, today I had pizza for both lunch and dinner. Some people say that eggs are Nature's perfect food. Wrong. Its pizza.

A white trash dinner that I enjoy eating (and making) is the famed English Muffin Pizza. Who doesn't enjoy this delicacy? Its a muffin, and its pizza. The only thing that could make it better would be if it gave out free cash. If someone doesn't enjoy the English Muffin Pizza, then I say, off with his head.

Today I'm going to focus on changing up - accessorizing, if you will - the English Muffin Pizza, which I will henceforth refer to as EMP. Actually, no, I don't like that. They will be called Muff. Tonight I made three different versions of the muff, and I've photographed each of them for you because everyone yelled at me for not photographing the Orzo salad last week.

The first muff, pictured below, features fresh garlic and tomato. I drizzled a little bit of olive oil (sorry KK, not evoo, just regular) on the muffin; topped with a thinly sliced fresh tomato, some minced garlic, garlic powder and salt, and then topped that with mozzarella cheese. I baked at 375 for about 15 min, and then broiled to brown the cheese.



The second "gourmet" muff that I made this evening features sauteed spinach. I always keep a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer, b/c you never know when you'll need a big bag of spinach at a moments notice. I sauteed the spinach in olive oil with 2 minced cloves of garlic, then I put the spinach mixture on the muffin, topped with cheese and baked/broiled as I did for the fresh tomato muff.

My final muff (and, yes, I ate ALL of these tonight, in the name of research) is the Greek Salad muff. I topped the muffin with olive oil, a little garlic powder, and mozzarella cheese, and baked (as above) Then, I topped with a salad of romaine, red onion, tomato, cukes, feta, black olives and dressing (I like to make my dressing fresh every night, so I keep a packet of Good Seasons dressing on hand, in a tupper, and I mix a pinch of it in a small bowl with just enough oil and vinegar for that night's salad. Tonight I used the garlic & herb variety, b/c it seemed Greekish to me)

And that, my dear friends, is how I accessorize my noggin and my muffins.

...Next up: Give it another chance! Re-trying styles & foods that you've previously hated...