Happy Friday, friends!! Boy am I glad it's the weekend. To be honest, it's been a discouraging week. The apartment hunt continues, and it's become a full-time job. Whenever we're not glued to Streeteasy looking for new listings, we're trekking miles and miles on foot around Brooklyn looking at apartments. It's so hard to find a place in a good location that has enough space, nice light, a decent kitchen, and isn't astronomically expensive!! We've found several places that we really liked that have fallen through either because someone applied more quickly than us (as in hours after the listing went up), or outbid us. (Yes, in NYC, it's so competitive that you often have to offer to pay MORE than the asking price for a rental!!)

But, most discouraging of all, I lost my beloved diamond engagement ring in a totally bizarre accident last Saturday. As I was putting it on my finger, somehow it bounced off, flew out a window, and fell five stories down into a trash heap below. The window was literally open like 4 inches, and had a grate over it, so I have no idea how the ring even made it through. We spent 2 days searching – through garbage and recycling – and sadly never found it. (If we're friends on Facebook, you may have seen the picture below of Brandon and his friend Joel decked out in a hazmat suits and respirator masks – they bravely climbed down a rope into a pit of rotting garbage and rat feces beneath our building to search for the ring, but sadly no luck.) If there's one moral of the story, it's that my dear husband is a total gem. I'll never forget the day over 5 years ago that he put that beautiful ring on my finger on a bridge in Paris, and I'll never forget the day I watched him crawl through garbage to try and retrieve it. It's heartbreaking to lose the ring, but fortunately I still have Brandon – and for that I am eternally grateful.

Brandon-Joel

Ultimately, this whole series of events has been a huge lesson in surrender for me. There are so many things happening right now that are totally out of my control – pregnancy, health issues, a lost ring, and now this looming question of "Where are we going to live?" We literally don't even know if we're moving in 2 weeks, 4 weeks, or 6 weeks – it just depends on when we find a place. For a planner like me, having so much uncertainty can be anxiety-inducing, but I'm having to trust like never before that God has a good plan in all of this. (And I know He does!) And I'm choosing to focus on all I grateful for – a healthy baby girl growing inside me, a wonderful husband, amazing friends, a book coming out in a few weeks (!), and work that I love. Life is still good, in spite of the looming unknowns.

But enough about me, let's talk about what's for dinner. In the midst of all this drama, I've been cooking up a storm, thanks to my new freelance job with Delish.com. It's been a fun creative challenge to come up with 5 new recipes a week, and it's pushed me to experiment with different types of cuisines. Recently I created this Korean-style grilled flank steak with sticky rice and spicy cucumber salad (recipe below). I'm not going to lie: it was pretty stinking delicious. So much so that I'm making it for dinner again tonight! I love the bright Asian flavors in the steak marinade, the spicy, crunchy cucumbers, and the perfectly sticky rice. The whole meal comes together in under 45 minutes, so it's an easy weeknight – or weekend – meal.

In case you want to see some other delicious dinner ideas, check out this week's menu (black bean quinoa burgers, lemony spaghetti with prosciutto and arugula, and more!). Have a great weekend everyone, and happy cooking!

xo, Anna

[recipe:best-korean-style-grilled-flank-steak-spicy-cucumbers-sticky-rice-recipe]