GUACAMOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did it! I have been wanting to make guacamole for quite some time.  So I realized today I had a full avocado and I was going to make it.

Here is a recipe that won the 2010 California Avocado Best Guacamole Contest for Best Tasting! I thought since it won the best tasting award I should make it--especially since avocados are grown thuuurr. (I also cut the recipe in 1/4 because I did not need eight servings of this).

• 4 ripe, Fresh California Avocados, seeded and peeled
• 3 limes, juice only
• 1 medium white onion, chopped fine
• ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or garlic powder!)
• ⅛ tsp. cumin
• ⅛ tsp. cayenne pepper
• Pinch sugar (shoot I forgot this!)
• 1 Serrano chile, chopped fine (I thought a jalepeno was an adequate substitute)
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped (I did not have this either so I used my orange herb plant and it worked perfectly)

Mix all ingredients together. Presto. DONE! YUM! Also as you can see, it seems that many substitutions and changes can be made to still achieve perfection.

THE GUACAMOLE

After making it I realized I did not have any chips and I could only eat so many spoonfuls of it plain.  I cut up a pita bread and baked it with some oil, cheese, and spices and I had a mexican nacho fiesta!

well isn't that just lovely

Things I wanted to blog about:

The University of Iowa has a student run garden through the environmental coalition.  Meetings are Tuesday at 8 pm at the public library. YAY.

I applied for ten jobs! I hope I get one. Suggestions??

I got a new laundry basket today at Artifacts. Then I put flowers in it.  These kind of baskets are great for laundry and can be found at your local thrift for around $5

Also a cool craft! We had our banquet today and I had forever been wondering what to do with my old canning jars! Check it out!

DIY! Steps:

1. save old jars from pasta sauce/peanut butter/etc

2. Wash them very thoroughly! It can be hard to get the stickiness off!

3. Find some pictures and cover them with plastic (I used plastic paper covers and cut them up, but if you have access lamination would work better!)

4. Get some double sided tape or guerilla glue and slab it on real GOOD.

5. Wala! Finished! Just add some flowers or M&Ms and receive instant gratification

ma' brambles

So I started a garden. This occurred by digging up some ground next to where I buried my fish (kind of- not too close to the gravesite). Then I planted an entire pack of beets. I have not done anything since then but it has rained a lot.  It said the beets will be ready to eat in 60 days!

The first signs of beet life....

This picture does no justice to the beets but they are there. The sticks are the protective house so the rabbits and mowers won't eat them.

I hope I can compete with Schrute farms someday.

I saw the sun

This morning I woke up and it looked like this:

I felt so inspired that I started crying.

After I was done I wrote a poem.

You

How long since I have let you have me?

I tingle and shudder because it's You who is behind all my true joy.

You are the spring sun that rescues from days

of bitter heart, bitter complacency, bitter mind.

You are the mother's hug of warm vanilla and lavender Tide 

that comforts from the scratches after no training wheels.

You are the ankle birthmark, nose freckle, leg wrinkles

that are unique on every single soul.

So,

I run away; 

unable to submit.

Uncomfortable, forcing, driving, awkward, painful, miserable

isolation.

I can do it on my own.

I can make burnt toast and bitter coffee.

I can spend hundreds of dollars on things 

that try to cause feelings.

I can even make words powerful enough to bring them down.

Coiled up in a ball; face wet.

Doing everything I can do;

Fail.

And so day after day,

you rescue me from myself.

A couple things

1.) Zombie prom ROCKED

It also happened to be during a FULL MOON!!! 

2.) Today was WONDERFUL.

hints for a blissful Friday: do not have class, wake up and get free coffee at Starbucks because of earth day, bake bread, bake buttermilk raisin bran muffins while the bread rises, put bread in oven, bake croutons while bread cooks, run for only thirty minutes, go to HER SOUP KITCHEN, apply for a job at her soup kitchen, take a bath, take a shower.  

LAY. DON'T DO HOMEWORK. Go to starbucks again but get free tea this time. Go to goodwill and white rabbit for some awesome thrift shopping. LAY. LAY LAY. AH!

Bread recipe @ peasandthankyou.com 

THE BEST SEASONING IN THE WORLD

My Herb plant for extra flavor in the bread

A Successful summer dress found while thrifting!

The end.

:D

The Girl.

So I already really liked this song.

Then I watched the video.

OMGEEESSSSH.

Today.

Today is a sad day. I just feel sad and cold.

I did write a poem though!

Another Day


it is a tired morning.
the alarm buzzes at the same time as it did yesterday and the day before that, and every day;
it never gets easier.
laying on a springy rusty old mattress all stuffed up,
skin worn out like a tire.
she rolls over,
exhausted, used up, ruined.
another day, the same day
lies ahead; daunting.
some stale Maxwell House from yesterday afternoon,
splotchy makeup that looks like last nights prostitute,
a newspaper with nothing new,
"God, I can not talk about the weather, and the inlaws, and the gas prices
for even one more day."
but she will.
the rain makes for wet sogginess, wet hair, and wet dampness on everything,
but she does not even notice.
A tired morning,
a tired life.

We run. BIG DEAL.

So aside from the obvious misfortunes associated with running, my roommate and I found some other gruesome factors....

This Is the Way We ROLL.

Caused by spikes...

Mine do not even compare to Laurens.  Toe Envy!

This blister is extremely painful.  Andy Winkleman asked why I put sparkles on my foot. "Andy, that is not sparkles, its the sunlight reflecting off the puss that just leaked from my popped blister."

These are just pretty normal permanents.

Ingrown toenail.

I know. I know. Our feet are beautiful.  JEALOUS?!?!

View from the top

Okay Lame that I take pictures out of the airplane window.  Bur SURIOUSLY.

They are pretty.

Try it!

Right now its snowing.

Right now its snowing in Iowa city. It is April 16th.  I had officially declared winter to be over a month ago when I joyfully realized there was EVERY SEASON until winter.  The internet has been broken at my house for weeks.  I ate at least a dozen cake batter truffles and have a terrible horrible stomach ache.  I slept not nearly enough and all my clothes are dirty.

BUT I will choose to ignore this! The weather this week was wonderful and one bad day will be alright.  It is an excuse for green tea, bubble baths, and sitting by the fire.  The internet wastes my time anyhow and it is fun to go to coffee shops in order to use wireless.  The cake batter truffles were one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted and I am so happy I ate them. Also dirty clothes means wearing things I normally forget about!

Some others positive things:

- The IC doc film fest ends today with several screenings:

I kinda wanna go to this one at seven

It's called, "Let Each One Go Where He May"

Also I kind wanna tackle Quiche

This one looks easy!

Quiche!

Plus a homeade crust. Walaaa! I hope it works!

RIVERFEST!

So I did not even know this wonderful even was occurring until last night when I was walking through the ped mall.  I needed dinner and wonderful coincidence! RIVERFEST was occurring. This included over twenty restaurants setting up stands and giving samples of their food for minimum price levels.

It was scrumptious.

Other great activities for this celebration:

-The IC international documentary film festival with FREE screenings at the Bijou
- THE ZOMBIE BALL!!! Wahoo- Saturday night at the IMU people will be disguised as Zombie's and dance the night away.

On a very happy note! At the taste of Iowa City I left another poem as part of the poetry project and I saw the people that took it! It was so fun to see them read it and not know I wrote it. It was more of a depressing tone for some reason.... I think the main character dies, but it is left up for interpretation.

Caged

A tear runs down her sweat soaked skin;

salt, saline, sunscreen,

burning.

But nothing really matters today,

or this week, a life

of wet cheeks.

"Keep going little girl, keep your head up."

She sprints and screams and does not stop

until she stops

racing 

through life.

"I'm a stupid stupid selfish self," she says.

Desire for purpose, passion, pleasure,

but not filled

with the world.

She falls.

She lays under the sun; a soaring hawk she is 

for moments.

A caged bird, a broken wing;

collapse, breakdown,

struggle.

"Break free little child, break free."

And then,

she goes away.

What to do with my glass jars?

THat is the question I asked.

Look at all these answers!!

http://thelivinggreensolution.com/t2t-re-imagining-your-waste-glass-jars/

The Poetry Project

So my dear friend Megan boob decided to inspire me with her poems. Anyone can write poetry.  It has no reason or special guidelines except that it be from the heart.  I love it! Then I realized we should start the POETRY PROJECT: here is how it goes.
You write a poem and leave it somewhere with the instructions that whoever takes it has to leave a poem somewhere else; anywhere.  Also they can continue to do this.

My first poem

AUNT JEAN


She laughs and the crease-ed crinkles appear.
The grey wisps fall upon her shoulder, touch her face,
and dance down her back.
An unpurposeful elegance untouchable,
a wisdom refined.
The years add only grace and beauty,
a glow that will not pass or fade or die
even with death.
The simple enjoyments of homemade whipping cream
of a four seasons indoor porch for gardening, and for
the piano.
Across the keys her fingers sweep,
passed down from her mother the piano Teacher,
the pure sound unhindered despite age,
arthritis, weakness.
For these are filled by joy, and youth,
a flower blooming only
before the end.

A Purification

At the start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck;
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.




I found this on the website Inward/outward.  My High school coach father kirby just returned from Israel.  He showed me this neat site!

The Weather.

Whoa.  I do not mean "the weather." Like the weather that people in office cubicles discuss until their hair falls out.  I don't mean the local on the 8's or the incessant bother that can effect a mood, day, or activity.  I mean- THE WEATHER. ...

is intense, and powerful, and scenic, and OH MY GOSH. I can not stop looking out my window.  God is amazing.  I feel so little and powerless and I love it.

Hold on blog! (I am going to take pictures on ma IPHONE).

....................

Back!

The past 24 hours has been so CRAZY. 83 degrees to intense sweat and humidity to dropping twenty degrees in an hour to watching a storm to sleeping to a storm to waking up to forty degrees and intense intense wind to trying to run against the wind to being pushed by the wind to beautiful beautiful skies to hail warnings to tornado warnings to wind advisories to things being blown over by the wind to trees breaking to warmer weather to.....

The Storm. Is Magical.

My narrative of the storm.  It was so BEAUTIFUL AND AWESOME AND INSPIRING. I laid on the porch. I got my feet wet. I breathed in the worm smell. I lived. For an hour of my life I just was. I listened. I slept with the windows open. I got cold. I got cozy. I woke up to a breeze.  I love the experiences that are raw and real and simple and pure and full of emotion.  They are unplanned and JUST SO SO..... wordless.

Pictures

The fond memories of Palo Alto.

But even fonder ones of Iowa: I may quote myself again.  There is nothing better than laying in the sun and having a picnic.

Myspace anyone?

The Best.

The very best moments are those times when everything seems so clear to you for a single moment.  The times when you have been so confused and the pieces all fit together.  Sometimes these moments only last for a minute or a second, but for that time the world is so simple, so easy.  Sometimes these moments bring tears because they simplify the burdens and complexities of life into one single stream lined thought.  


There is nothing better to me than a pure thought.

Homemade Clif Bars

Today I made some.

Boom boom boom.

They are delicious! I made oatmeal raisin walnut

I found them on this other person's blog:

http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/06/homemade-cliff-bars-no-bake.html

+ I also added protein powder because I had some.

Yumm! (I would recommend keeping frozen to avoid the falling apart factor).

Iowa City Love

Just a couple things:

I realized there is something in Iowa city called the SOBO district. (SOuth of BOwery).

It also happens to have everything that is awesome:

-The Leaf Kitchen
-Nearly the entire Iowa City Thrift Collection (including sweet livin')
- The Cottage Bakery

Iowa City's first runway show!!

April 23 ( A collection of stores such as revival, ray gun, and others on a runway display)

FUNNNNNNNN


annnd lastly...


This is playing for free at the bijou this week! Looks pretty weird and quirky- my fave!!

Tiny Furniture!