While we were on vacation last week, one of my besties, Sarah, brought some Trader Joe’s salsa verde for us to snack on. I LOVE salsa verde, but living in Virginia, you don’t find a very wide variety of salsas available.
On a completely different topic, a few weeks ago, I watched the movie Food Inc., which was highly recommended to me by my friend Dana. The movie, which emphasizes the importance of getting our food from less processed and more natural resources, was excellent and inspired me to try and do my best to be more “green” when it comes to the food I eat.
So, on Saturday I made my way to the local farmers market to try and live up to my new found goal of eating naturally. I bought chicken and eggs from local farms, fresh raspberries, beautiful, big, red tomatoes, and a giant ripe onion! I also found tomatillos, the key ingredient in salsa verde! I didn’t think I’d find them, but I searched each and every booth until I feasted my eyes upon a large basket of tomatillos for only $2!
Last night I was finally able to make my very own salsa verde for the first time and WOW, was it D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!
Here’s the recipe:
- 6 or 7 ripe tomatillos
- 2 fresh jalapenos
- a handful of cilantro
- 1/3 (or about 1/2 cup) of a large white onion
- a splash of lemon juice
I washed the tomatillos and blanched and peeled some of them. I also threw a couple of them in there with the peeling because I got lazy. I washed the jalapenos and removed the stems. I left the innards and the seeds for a spicier salsa because I like it SPICY, but you can remove the insides and seeds if you like your salsa with a little less kick. I then washed and de-stemmed the cilantro and chopped the onion. All of this was thrown into my Cuisinart food processor (courtesy of my wonderful mom) with a splash of lemon juice and blended to perfection!
Ben and I ate it with fresh grilled zuccini, portabello mushrooms, and Mexican rice. The best part is there was enough left over for tonight AND I still have enough ingredients to make another batch!
So props to me for eating green in more ways than one!
If you know me well, then you’ll know that I absolutely LOVE to go to the dentist.
I know most people don’t enjoy going to the dentist and actually despise it so much that they go several years without seeing one.
I’m different and I’m strange and I love going to the dentist. Maybe it’s because I have very healthy teeth and rarely have a bad experience at the dentist. Maybe it’s because I have a weird obsession with cleaning (I tend to think the cleaner the better, but I know this isn’t always a rational belief). Maybe it’s because my dentist has a massage chair and a TV in each one of his check-up rooms (although I vaguely recall loving the dentist experience before I was seeing my current one). Whatever the reason is for my abnormal love of the dentist, I figure there can be worse unusual enjoyments, like trimming your cuticles until they bleed (ok another strange one that I am guilty of) or plucking out gray strands of hair (I no longer am a victim of this strange obsession).
Today I get to go to the dentist! I get to have my teeth cleaned and will put off eating afterward as long as possible so that my teeth will remain sparkly and white like Edward Cullen (for you Twilight fans out there)!
So I know the above sounds a bit crazy, but we all have our crazy quirks and characteristics that make us unique and this just happens to be one of mine!
Today is a perfect day at the beach filled with waves, sand, sunshine, watermelon, and surf fishing. I wish this vacation could last longer!
Well it rained all day yesterday here in Chincoteague, but the good news is that’s all the rain the forecast is calling for while we are here.
Above are some rainy day pictures from the first day of our summer vacation.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve had blogger’s block (or writer’s block for the traditionalists out there).
I’ve also been contemplating starting a new blog. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that Texas Lou will be retired. This blog will continue to be my personal blog. But I’d like to start more of a professional blog dealing with a specific topic or project. Deciding on that topic is the hard part, but I’ve been letting a few ideas marinate.
I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July and a great long weekend! Just 4 days until I get to go to the beach!
I now subscribe to 280 blogs through Google Reader!
I think my hobby of blog following may be turning into an obsession!
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A few weeks ago, when I was in Dallas for my cousin Megan’s bridal shower and bachelorette party, we wanted to buy some wine to enjoy on Friday evening. After browsing the wine aisles at her local grocery store we finally decided on two bottles. One was named Little Black Dress, which we chose for its name, and the other, pictured above, was Mission de San Antonio Valero from Fall Creek Vineyards in Texas, which we chose for its label.
Normally, I don’t judge wines by their covers, and I usually purchase based on taste or recommendation, but I guess being in Texas made me feel a little crazy, and I decided to trust my instinct!
The wine was good, but the label was even better!
Why do I love the label you ask?
Well I shall tell you:
- First, I love San Antonio because it is beautiful, full of culture, and its where I spent my 4 years during college. I miss it greatly!
- Second, it has an image of the Alamo on it and in GOLD no less! The Alamo is only one of the most defining images of Texas!
- Third, the Alamo, pictured on the label, has much personal significance to me, besides the fact that it is a part of Texas history. When I was a freshman in college, I got “stuck” in a semester-long class about the Alamo. It was ALL Alamo, ALL the time! At first, I was not enthusiastic about this class, as it had been my last choice. But it grew on me. I learned alot, met some great people in the class (some of my first friends in college), and had the opportunity to learn from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Linda Salvucci. In addition, this class introduced me to genealogy. As out final project, we had to write a 10 page paper on any topic relating to the Alamo. I had a great, great, great (ok lots of “great”s) uncle named Edward F. Mitchusson from Kentucky who was the surgeon at the Alamo and fought and died for Texas’ independence! I got to do research at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library where I read old letters from my ancestors and I compiled the largest document of facts on my relative. Not only did I get an A in the class, I also learned alot about my heritage, genealogy, research in general, and Texas! I also contributed to documenting my family history!
So now you know why I just HAD to buy the wine when I saw the label!
Charlottesville must have angered the gods because yesterday we had one hell of a storm!
Yesterday, Charlottesville experienced what the meteorology world calls a microburst. And it was the second microburst experienced by the Charlottesville area in less than three weeks!
I was driving from work to pick up Ben so that we could go to my Team in Training Batesville Store fundraiser. Ben works in the heart of downtown Charlottesville which was the hardest hit area, so lucky me got caught in the middle of the maelstrom that came out of nowhere.
I was driving and chatting with my brother on the phone when I heard a message from the Emergency Broadcast System come on the radio. I knew a storm was coming because I saw dark clouds and heard thunder, but I just expected it to be a quick passing summer storm so I didn’t pay too much attention. Less than two minutes later, rain started pounding, large branches started beating my car, and huge tree limbs were blocking parts of the road. I barely had time to turn on my windshield wipers when I heard a loud popping noise on my right. There was a huge burst of flames from a power line in the field next to where I was driving. I quickly put down the phone (the storm had already ended my call for me) and started to inch my way through torrential downpours, strong winds, and falling trees.
When I was almost to Ben’s office building, I heard another loud popping noise, this time on my left. This one was even louder and came with a flash of blue light that scared the shit out of me! I believe it was a transformer blowing. When I got to Ben’s office parking lot, the storm was starting to die down, but the parking lot was covered in trees and a downed power line.
Ben and I spent the next two hours driving around Charlottesville trying to find a way to Batesville, and then giving up on the fundraiser and trying to get home. Traffic was terrible because of power outages affecting traffic lights, trees blocking roads and intersections, and power lines down everywhere. We saw one tree that had a root system at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter that had been uprooted and was leaning against a house. We saw a light post that had been broken from its pole and was dangling near a power line. We saw several trees and power line poles snapped in half.
I’ve never seen so much damage and I grew up were hurricanes and tornadoes are a common occurrence.
When we FINALLY got home, we were surprised to see the large poplar tree that is usually staring back at as through our fourth story windows on the ground. We have worried about this tree falling and damaging our building many times in the past, but I am glad it is finally no longer a threat and did not hurt anything or anyone in its demise.
Here are some pictures of the tree’s final resting place:
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I’m glad that everyone I know was not hurt and we all came out alive and safe, but I’m still wondering what is with all this crazy weather: 2 large snow storms in December and February each totaling more than 2 feet of snow, 2 microbursts in June that have caused tons of damage, and a June heatwave that I’ve never seen in Virginia!
If you’d like to check out more pictures from the storm, they can be found here.
Four years ago today, on Thursday, June 22, 2006, I met up with Ben Davidson for drinks at South Street Brewery. We met as friends, but left as much more than that.
Ben, you are the love of my life, my best friend, and the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you!
Here are just a few of the happy times we’ve had together over the past 4 years:
Last night was a blast!
Cheryl, Jennifer, Kristen, and I headed out to the Charlottesville Pavillion to celebrate the first day of summer and see Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow play!
We started out the evening at my apartment with a quick glass of wine and then headed to the downtown mall. You may remember me writing about Ventana a few months ago and their very unique margaritas. Well Ventana was offering a discount to all Sheryl Crow ticket holders so we decided to stop in for a pre-concert cocktail. I finally got to try the cucumber margarita. It was delicious! It wasn’t as good as the jalapeno margarita, but it was definitely the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer day. Jennifer tried the strawberry margarita and Cheryl had the habanero margarita which I tried the last time I was at Ventana.
After drinks, we headed to the Pavillion for the music. We enjoyed some awesome Star Hill Lucy as we chatted and listened to Colbie Caillat play.
When Sheryl Crow took the stage, we got to hear all of our old favorites and some new ones too! We danced and sang and had a great time and even bumped into some more friends!
Overall, it was an awesome first day of summer. We definitely started Summer 2010 off right!
- Being Green in More Ways than One July 22, 2010
- Hooray for the Dentist! July 19, 2010
- Perfect Day at the Beach July 15, 2010
- First Day of Vacation July 11, 2010