My Feast For Your Eyes

On days like this, high on the scent of orange blossoms, with the sun warm and the breeze cool I just gotta BBQ. Today's BBQ special was buffalo burger with blue cheese, red pepper, red onion, smoked paprika, chili powder and oregano in the meat mix. I'm gonna brag and say my burgers kick butt. Ground buffalo is fantastic and if you have an opportunity to try some I highly recommend it. Buffalo seems to be very juicy and flavorful and so far superior to any ground beef we have had. The burgers grilled up quick with a nice char aided by some spicy BBQ sauce.


When we BBQ it smells goooooooood unlike SOME people's....you know who you are....you nameless neighbors from previous dwellings. Perhaps I am too harsh...perhaps they didn't have noses, or perhaps they enjoyed the scent of charred tires and caustic chemicals. Perhaps in their world it's not a BBQ till you throw a few cds, some roadkill and nasty ol diapers on to the coals. I myself like to use some hickory wood chips....but that's just me. I learned a great tip for adding an authentic smoke flavor to your BBQ-ing. Soak the wood chips for a while so they smoke up nicely when they hit the coals. To save time you can pre-soak a big batch and freeze them in a container so they're ready to go at a moment's notice.
I'm kind of glad we never attempted BBQ-ing at our last dwelling where the neighbors didn't grill their food so much as choke it to done-ness with chemical infused smoke. Because I am not about to hand out free nose-gasms from my sweet, hickory smoke scented air to persons who think lighter fluid is a condiment.

Don't forget you can click on any photo for a close-up, and in some cases like the pic above an extreme mouth-watering close-up!

We BBQ with coal. But not just any coal. We were so emotionally and nostril-y scarred from the afore mentioned neighbors that we steered VERY clear of lighter fluid, just the sight of instant light briquettes made us weep. So after a wee bit of research on the net I discovered another kind of charcoal called "Lump Charcoal". It's made from real wood and has no chemicals added. In fact the brand we get, called Cowboy Charcoal, actually looks like pieces of wood. And when you light it the scent is mouth watering. Lighting it is very easy by the way. We bought ourselves a charcoal chimney. It's super inexpensive, like 6 bucks at the hardware store. A piece of wadded up newspaper goes in the bottom, in the top goes the lump coal. There are access and ventilation holes through which the paper can be lighted, and within about 10 minutes the coals are glowing red. Then you just dump the hot coals out into your BBQ with the aid of the attached handle on the chimney. Easy Squeezy. Throw a few of them frozen wet wood chips on it and hoooo boy we're ready to grill!

Pictured above in today's feast is a pile of crispy lettuce, some homemade salsa, corn on the cob, sliced avocado, some VERY tasty kalamata olive bread we picked up and.......the star of the meal......GRILLED BUFFALO BURGERS!
You may commence drooling.........now.

My Hairy Secret....

Once when wandering the world wide web, visiting various web sites. Playing the ever fun, follow that link to who knows where, Alan came across something fascinating.
There are lots of fascinating things occupying virtual space on the net but this one really caught the eye of my sweetie pie. Miracle 2 soap.
What a name.... and is it in fact miraculous you might be prompted to ask.
Well.....apparently it is.
Now let me preface this whole thing by saying that I'm not really a religious person, as in a strict this or that or the next thing. I have my own ideas about God and faith and to be honest those ideas are constantly evolving.
I mention this because of the background story on this "Miracle 2 Soap", just wanted to be clear that I'm not saying I believe it, I'm not a religious zealot but neither do I discount the possibility of this story. If nothing else it's dang interesting.
So here goes, long story short, there's this dude named Clayton Tedeton. Who apparently felt he was healed over night from some serious car accident injuries. It happened after asking God to help him out and that if he did he'd do what ever God wanted him to do. So apparently after this miraculous healing he starts hearing a voice in his head (from God) saying that he'd promised to obey him.......naturally freaked the guy out. So he runs around the country for 8 years supposedly *running from the voice of God* Finally settles down and starts paying attention to the voice of God, who tells him he's going to give him something every one needs. And so God flashes a formula...for this soap....on this guy's wall in the middle of the night. And so dude whips up a batch and finds it's dang good stuff. Now like I said it's a long story with even more fantastical details but I think that's enough to get the point across right? You can read more about it here.
So anyways people start popping up with all these stories about how the soap works amazing, that its healing rashes, can kill bugs, aids plant growth, to help with everything from high blood pressure to herpes, hyperactivity to never scrubbing your tub again and curing cancer. You can see how this sounds...well...nutso.
Now I should point out that the manufacturers are VERY certain to make the point that they're making soap and are not making any health and healing claims.
BUT if you do a quick search it's interesting to note that you can find dozens if not hundreds of reviews about healing and health benefits of the Miracle 2 soap and products.
I'm NOT saying it does all that either......But.......perhaps in a future post I'll address this very interesting topic....
Anyways at 12.00 bucks a bottle it was so intriguing.....so so so so many people have claims of all the great things this soap has done for them....and we figured worse case scenario it does nothing but act as a soap, and 12 dollars for 22 ounces of soap....that's not expensive. AND did I mention it's supposed to be diluted, so if you use it as shampoo for your hair, your 22 ounce bottle of soap actually makes about a gallon of soap.....for 12 bucks.
O.k., we'll buy that, and we did.
I'd like to mention also that this soap is supposed to be all natural, with no added fragrances and chemicals. Yet another reason we were interested in trying it.
Besides trying it for all the usual cleaning jobs, where it performed very well, we started using it as a body and hair wash and it worked great there too. One thing to note is that it can be slightly drying so we bought the moisturizing version of the soap also. It's the same price as the regular soap. This worked FANTASTIC on our hair and skin. But I could see perhaps how the original would be better for someone with oily hair or skin.
Now God never spoke to me that I noticed while using this soap...but I gotta admit....that nasty bath tub ring that accumulates...never showed up in all the times I used the soap in the bath.
And my hair...which is the whole point of this blog...wow, this stuff is really amazing. You have to understand that as a gal with naturally curly hair I've had to rely on a lot of *product* in the past to keep everything in curly tip top shape. Except I started hating the idea of all those chemical laden soaps on my scalp. Not to mention on my body, not to mention the mousses etc. I started finding I had to switch fairly often between brands to maintain my personal preferred hair status. I relied heavily on conditioners. So when I say that I switched, 100% completely from pricey brand name shampoo and conditioners to this Miracle 2 moisturizing soap, have been using NOTHING but that on my hair, and that it's shinier, healthier, curlier and softer with out ANY CONDITIONERS AT ALL or mousses since December 15, 2006 thats saying something. I know that's only 3 months...but you do not understand,.....3 months with out using any conditioner, any mousse and my hair (in my own humble opinion) is much nicer then when using any of the *formulated for curly hair* pricey brand name products. (Honesty compels me to mention that I have also on 3 separate occasions during the last 3 months use a dime sized dollop of the Miracle 2 moisturizing hand lotion, which we also bought, on my hair. Specifically on days when I ...gasp....had gone a couple days with out washing my hair and the ends were getting frizzy and needed a little touch up to keep the curls from separating out and giving me major frizz)
Also it seems like there's even less hair that comes out in the shower, I'm a girl, we notice these things, a certain amount of hair comes off yer head when you shower and I've noticed theres way less now for me. And keep in mind that it works out for me that diluted down, this Moisturizing Miracle 2 Soap is .094 an ounce. And I calculated that my old shampoo and conditioner works out to .82 cents an ounce. And keep in mind I had to use both shampoo and conditioner in the past, so double the amount.
I mean lets just figure this out here, Say I used a quarter ounce of shampoo, and a quarter ounce of conditioner each time....that would be .40 total each shower....not much I suppose you'd think.....but consider I'm using ONLY a quarter ounce total of the moisturizing Miracle 2 soap, so that's what .024....holy heck......16.7 times LESS then brand name stuff......and I don't care about the money part really, that's just a bonus. This stuff is doing such a great job on my hair and skin!
And you want to know something else, in almost every way Miracle 2 soap is the only cleaner we've been using for the last 3 and a half months for everything except laundry, though I have tried it there. (It's just that I have a bunch of other soap to use up first before switching to Miracle 2...oh yes and not in the dishwasher) But dishes washed by hand, the floor, the windows, mirrors, tub etc, OUR TEETH , hair, bodies. We use the regular soap for everything but our hair and bodies where the moisturizing soap seems better. So how do ya like that? We like it just fine!
I don't know as I'd call it a miracle. But it's a pretty neat discovery that we bought on a whim and has worked out surprisingly great!
p.s. we have also been trying other Miracle 2 products, the neutralizer, the neutralizer gel and the lotion as previously mentioned. Perhaps I will review those in the future as well as we have had positive experiences with all of them.
p.p.s. The pics of my hair are recent, from a day ago actually. Not bragging but its with no fussing, no brushing, had been slept on and tied up with a hair band for half the day before the pics were taken. I'm very impressed. I should mention that Alan's hair is soft and silky and very nice too since he's been using the Miracle 2 moisturizing soap, just in case you wanted a man's opinion. He has remarked at the silkiness of both our hair. So it's not just effective for female curly hair!
p.p.p.s. We have both noticed the extra soft skin from using the soap. Nice!
p.p.p.p.s. Believe or not this photo of me hasn't been retouched at all!

Picky Eater 2.0

Once upon a time a long time ago in this dimension and timeline I was a picky eater.
Oh yes the pickiest.
I couldn't eat any food not our own unless I'd picked through it, combing it over for onions and other icky vegetables that I was sure adults put into food, ON PURPOSE, so the kids wouldn't eat it and they could have more......
I could proudly count the number of vegetables I could eat with out gagging on one hand.
My favorite meal was spaghetti with *shudders now* processed cheese. I'm not denying the flavor of processed cheese by the way....it's just the process part that creeps me out.
And fast food was near ambrosia to me. Hamburgers, anything fried...oh how delicious it was.
When I was a kid, candies in all shapes and sizes and a lovely rainbow of colors, were a gastronomic delight.
Now I'm picky in a whole new way.
I have become addicted to delicious, fresh natural foods. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a health nut, I'm a taste buds service provider. I keep my tongue happy, and it doesn't slap me in the face while I'm a sleep.
And it is seeming that the more fresh flavors and ingredients (that just happen to be healthier for me) I eat, the more I want. The more my palette is exposed to fresh herbs, lots of spices and the amazing variety of fruits and vegetables available to me.....the more I want them.......crave them! Variety IS the spice of life. Fast Food can be flat and flavorless and all starts tasting the same after cooking so many delicious and surprisingly nutritious meals for us. And say it's not so nutritious.....some days a gal wants a cheese loaded pizza....... any one who has made their own pizza from scratch can attest to the fact it kicks the ass 100% of the time of any take-out or frozen pizza anywhere.
Here's a true story. We have stopped and bought salad fixings on the way home from the airport after a trip one time at 2:30 in the morning instead of getting fast food. That's how much our taste buds had adapted to fresh crispy greens, with balsamic vinegar dressing, olives, cottage cheese and oodles of fresh herbs.
Fast Food, pre-prepared foods, overly preserved foods, chemical laden foods and over processed foods....
Now I have become eerily squeamish over the ingredients in a lot of these things...most of which I can't pronounce let alone recognize as food. And dye...ick, ack, gack, icky gack on an ack sided stick!!!!! Dyed food is THE creepiest. If it's a natural thing like cumin, carrot or beets I don't mind....but neon green and bright blue and vibrant red fakey candies just freak me out. I can't believe I ever thought they were cool. Did you even know that grapes do not taste like grapes. Growing up I had one idea in my head of what grapes tasted like from all the *grape flavored* sodas and candies. But turns out that flavor does not exist in the natural world! And isn't it weird that some one would invent the flavor *grape* when it already exists???? Yes, I've seen them, had them, they're those little round thingys at the grocery store...buy them in clumps. Very tasty. And wanna know the ingredients in them....it's.....drum roll please....GRAPES!
Who knew I'd grow fussy this way with my oldering age?
I pick groceries based on their ingredients more often then what my taste buds want....and it's becoming so that my taste buds want what my brain wants...which is REAL food. I am not out to condemn and talk bad about the processed and
pre-packaged food companies.....I think....it's just that food seems more delicious when I can understand all the ingredients listed on the package........ I'm not a nut about it or a fanatic. It's just more often then not we eat food prepared entirely by me rather then some big faceless company. Cause I now have an interest in what oil my food is cooked with (coconut in case you're curious) whether or not there's any weird dyes in it (My food coloring is in my craft supplies box where they belong and NOT my kitchen) and if it's loaded with preservatives......I don't know if preservatives are bad or anything I just know I certainly do not need my food to last for 5 or 6 years.
A day or two, a week at the most is all I'm asking for.
We eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. And despite my love affair with ice cream not nearly as much of that as I may have led people to believe.
We have started making our own yogurt because we like that it has more friendly bacteria then store bought....holy smokin hannah I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be saying that...hurray for more friendly bacteria!
We buy as many organic things as we can, we're nut fanatic about that either....but when I think about it....pesticides on my food.........gross! Not to mention the milk...go ahead and buy organic milk and regular milk....do a taste test. We can taste a difference. Same with bananas. Those are two things we most definitely will never buy un-organic again.
I can not stress enough that we are not snobs about this. You wanna go and eat at a fast food place, no problem, our treat. No denying it tastes fine.
I just thought some of y'all would be interested in the food life style choices that we have been making in the last few years.
Something Alan pointed out to me one time is that the whole purpose of food is that it is fuel for your body. It's supposed to give you energy. Does your food energize you? A lot of times after we've had what we term as *outside food* like from a restaurant or fast food place we get tired after we eat it. Doesn't seem right. Our food is delicious and nutritious more often then not and gives us energy.


Like the picture above. A pretty typical meal for my sweetie and I....I'm gonna brag and say it's a fricking delicious meal actually. I will admit that the dark green stuff is canned, wahhhh I didn't make it...yet....I'm gonna give a stab at it some time though. It's Palak Paneer and will beat the pants off of say.... processed cheese any day of the week. Palak Paneer is an Indian spinach dish with ingredients that I recognize and can pronounce.
Then on the same plate there's pita bread made by yours Truly, sliced avocado, homemade hummus with parsley and kalamata olives in it, a salsa beside that with parsley instead of cilantro, a dollop of homemade yogurt as a condiment and in the middle yogurt/dill/mint/garlic/cucumber salad.....oh man this is soooo good. I almost can't wait till the blasting heat of summer so I can have big bowls of this on hand to eat in cool as a cucumber comfort.
And talk about FAST food, all of that stuff can be made in big bunches and left in the fridge to provide meals for a whole day or even two. And don't you just love a plate full of a variety foods instead of just one big blob of one kind of food?
Man....I'm so hungry now.
So there ya go.... a small peek in to my life, my cupboard and my fridge...and I suppose into our stomachs if ya think about it.....which you shouldn't.....

Lip Service.......

I bet y'all never heard any one say, what I'm about to say, before.
I wish like heck I'd taken a photo of the cold sore that started to pop out, right on my bottom lip, a few hours ago.
Why not take the picture now you might be curious enough (and un-repulsed enough by my subject matter) to ask.
Well I can't..... because the cold sore has not only stopped appearing but is gone completely. My lips are lovely and unblemished if I do say so myself.
As a person who's every school picture included my own personal nemesis..."the COLD-SORE from hell" I can say with certainty that I KNOW when a cold sore is coming on.
Up until a couple years ago I thought there was NOTHING that could be done from stopping it. Despite all kinds of home remedies... like putting an ice cube on the spot, a tea bag and heck even some desperate praying, none of it ever stopped a cold sore. I have tried numerous drug store cold sore medications and those never did me any good either. Besides they only treated the cold sore, they never prevented one.
Once I saw that pink spot, felt that nasty, tingly, itchy feeling.... I knew I was in for a week long visit from my enemy...the cold sore. You can't even punch a cold sore to get a little violent satisfaction either...cause you just wind up punching yourself....and please don't try punching some one else's cold sore for that satisfaction...you wind up with a court date, a restraining order and a black eye...not necessarily in that order.
BUT back to the cold sore at hand...or not at hand to be more specific. And that's exactly the point of my ramblings here. Where did it go?
I dunno but I DO know what made it leave. As soon as I saw that tell tale swollen pink spot on my bottom lip I literally RAN round the house yelling "where's the Tetrasil?????"
Tetrasil, my super hero buddy that is the ONLY thing I use to combat the evilness of a cold-sore. Because Tetrasil is the ONLY thing that has actually stopped a cold-sore in it's tracks and reversed it for me. As soon as I feel or see any sign of a cold sore coming on I slather the spot in Tetrasil and LEAVE it there. Better to go for an hour with a grey coloured salve on your lip then a week or more with a nasty painful sore. I just leave it there till I can feel that my lip is back to normal. Then gently wipe off the excess salve and sometimes rub in some new Tetrasil as a further preventative.
This stuff is so effective that I'd only had maybe 1 or 2 cold-sores that fully materialized in like the last 3 years. And the only reason that one slipped past my amazing Tetrasil defenses is because the damn thing popped out while I was asleep!!!!!!!!!! NO FAIR! DIRTY POOL!!!!! How can I slather the spot with Tetrasil if I'm asleep for 8 or 9 hours unaware of what's happening on my lip??????? I just remembered how the other one escaped my detection and prevention now too. It was at the dentist's, over a year ago and it started while I was in the chair. And who can tell with their lips stretched wide open and a zillion tools in your mouth and faces peering down at ya??? Well I learned my lesson and I take Tetrasil with me and have it in my pocket during a dentist trip. Sometimes rubbing some on my lips as a preventative before the visit and some on afterwards.
I am not exaggerating the effectiveness of this product in the stopping of a cold sore.
I just know that periodically, 4 or 5 times a year at least, a cold sore will try to make an uninvited appearance on or around my lips and that every time it's tried (with the exception of times I was asleep and at the Dentist's) I have slathered the spot with Tetrasil and the cold-sore was prevented, the pink swelling disappeared.
Tetrasil is great for if a cold sore has made it past your detection and managed to materialize fully for just taking care of the sore. But I have found prevention of this full materialization is key. As soon as you feel that tell tale itch, see that ominous pink swelling you must act immediately!!!!!! Hence the reason I do not have a before photo of the spot. I was running for the Tetrasil not the camera. I have the after photo as seen above. That's my lips just a few hours after the cold sore tried to appear and they look normal. I did not confuse the cold sore coming on with a bug bite or acne spot either. If it was that then there'd still be a sign of it.
I can not say for certain that Tetrasil will work for you the way it does for me. BUT if you suffer from cold sores it is definitely worth your consideration. And the next time you feel one coming on you can try my technique. Speed is essential. As soon as you feel the cold sore you need to slather on the Tetrasil. I can't repeat that enough. This is why I keep Tetrasil in the car, beside the bed, beside the couch and usually beside the bathroom sink (which is why I was hollering "where's the Tetrasil" earlier, the tube that was supposed to be there got moved)
I personally have noticed in the past that times of stress will bring a cold sore on. So if I feel like I am stressed or going to be I will do a one step further prevention and rub some Tetrasil around my lips before I even see a sign of a cold sore to further prevent even the beginnings of one.
If you suffer from cold sores you know how BIG this is. I kind of feel guilty I haven't communicated this discovery to friends and family before now.
The only thing to be aware of when using Tetrasil is that when exposed to the sun it will discolor and darken, so if you even rubbed it in till it disappeared that spot can darken. I'd rather have a dark spot on my lip then a painful cold-sore. Besides the dark spot is washable, no fear that it will be permanent.
Oh yes I should point out that Tetrasil isn't specifically a cold-sore treatment either. It's a general multi-purpose skin ointment so it can be used for all sorts of things. Another great thing about this ointment is that it lasts a long time despite my generous applications of it. It is composed of all-natural ingredients and very safe to use. You can learn more about the ingredients and company that makes it here www.aidanceproducts.com
O.k.
I feel a lot better now. Not just because I have once again thwarted the evil plans of a cold-sore wanna-be. But because I have shared my positive experiences of this wonderful product with all of you.

The Fine Art of Making a Mess.....

It wouldn't be my life if I didn't spill something every 3 hours or so.
For goodness sakes how else would Alan even know it was ME, and not some doppleganger that's taken my place, if coffee grounds (fresh or used, doesn't seem to matter) dont go flying across the kitchen floor?
If salt wasn't dumped all over the tv trays, enchilada sauce splashed across my hands...shirt...floor....ceiling......
If I didn't knock a bowl with sticky, sweet, strawberry juice onto the kitchen floor mat? The kitchen floor mat that is conveniently dimpled to maximize difficulty of cleaning....
If MORE enchilada sauce wasn't dumped down the front of the stove....
If flour wasn't poofed across every available surface in the flour poofing vicinity and most of all if I didn't knock over the kitchen trash at least once a week......
why poor Alan might suspect I'd been replaced with some do-gooder wanna-be that might be neater then me, less clumsy for sure, but not near as entertaining.
I have found swearing at inanimate evil spills, that had the audacity to occur as a result of me being clumsy, quite satisfying.
You should try it.
Oh yes and hurling (one must always hurl when given the opportunity) Shakespearen-ish curses at the crumbs, sauces and poofed flour that had the misfortune of running into me and my flying hands.
My Mother has always warned me against cursing...she says you never know if there's a minister in the bushes listening. I have always said if there's a minister in the bushes we have bigger problems then my foul language.
Problems like cleaning up the poofed flour, splish splashed enchilada sauce and knocked over garbage can. If there's a minister hiding in my bushes he'd best come inside and help me clean.

How Tea Was a Dirty Word.....

While I was growing up tea was practically a dirty word.
I'm sorry Mom but it's true.
I'd see that quiet look of horror on your face if we visited some one and they offered...God forbid...TEA and not coffee. Not that me own dear Mother is a coffee addict or anything. The mornings she was grumpy before she got her daily dose of caffeine..... I'm sure that was completely unrelated to the need for coffee...yeahhhhh....
But anyways tea just wasn't a drink we ever had. Tea was the stuff the old ladies at the local women's club sipped at during their meetings. Tea was what my grandmother had when I visited her. Tea just wasn't something the general population was slurping down. Good strong coffee was what the local folks preferred.
We did have a box of tea on hand in our kitchen though. Red Rose I believe it was...and I only remember there ever being that one box and it never being replaced....... the only time we even blew the dust off it (discreetly of course) was when some delightful old biddy paid us a visit, and when offered a cup of coffee, answered in her (delightful of course) querulous voice "I'll have tea dear"
Oh dear indeed. And mother and I would exchange that look, the one that spoke of bewilderment and suppressed panic. As the tea had been sitting in our cupboard for God knows how long... and should one in good conscience serve, God knows how old, dusty tea to a delightfully unsuspecting biddy? Apparently.........we could...
We never poisoned any one with dusty tea.... so far as I know, so that's something at least.
Making tea for company was always an adventure. I'd take great care to get the exact instructions on how to make the cup of tea from the tea drinker. And I'd get that curious from them too, as if they thought I was soft in the head for needing very clear instructions on how exactly I should plop one tea bag into one mug of hot water. Little did they know what an adventure this was for me....making TEA of all things. Giddy at the prospect and watching them wide eyed in anticipation as they took the first sip and didn't collapse from dusty tea poisoning. Mother and I would always relax after that first sip.
Coffee I was familiar with. When people popped in for a visit, the sound of their car in the drive was enough to spur me into action. Putting the kettle on for coffee. Every one drank it instant, except at Christmas when who knows how many would drop by and so we'd break out the coffee maker...ohhh fancy and have an entire pot heating all day.
It gets to where you know how people take their coffee. They'd barely have time to sit down at the kitchen table before a steaming mug of hot joe, just the way they preferred it, would be at their elbow.
But back to the tea.
The lone dusty box of tea of undetermined age.
We did finally start using it though as I recall now. But not for drinking....accck God no, turns out you can boil the hell outta it and use it to antique fabrics for crafts. So there you have it, in my Mother's household (again sorry Ma) tea was for old biddies and crafts.
So fast forward years later into the lovely bliss that is my life with Alan. Imagine the VERY first time I meet all of Alan's family. The first meal..ahhh I recall it well. Bar-B-Q. Very tasty. Every one was so nice to me, so polite. All "let me fix you a plate dear, and how cold is it up where your mom is now dear" And some one, I dont even recall who set a glass of *iced tea* down by my plate.
I already knew things worked a little different so far south....for instance no one has snow chains in their trunk, EVERY one has sun glasses with them 24/7 and no one gawks at Palm trees. AND they drink iced tea. (on purpose!!!!!)
Well I'll just give it a go too I think.
No offense to any one, but I thought I understood immediately why my mother kept her box of tea bags on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard and left them there. I mean it was tea...unsweetened and cold.
It made no sense to me.
At first.....
But as I was introduced to all the lovely rich and spicy flavors of south western cuisine. The Mexican, the Bar-B-Q etc. I started to realize that iced tea is VERY refreshing after you walk in from the blistering heat to sit down and eat a spicy meal. Pop is nice but it fills you up fast, and some times seems too sweet. Water is always lovely but sometimes you do want a little flavor. And then comes the waitress with the tea. A tall dark glass with a slice of lemon floating in it. With little packets of sugar at the table so you can sweeten to your heart's content (which I did during my early tea drinking days...oh I sugared it up) Alan introduced me to the fine art of squeezing your lemon slice and jamming it to the bottom of the iced tea glass so that it stays and how every sip you take tastes faintly like lemonade! YUMMERS! DELIGHTFUL! Iced tea was starting to make sense.
And then I had an epiphany...... I could make tea at HOME. And with vaguely guilty thoughts of my Mother I brought (WILLINGLY) boxes of tea into our household. I brewed up great pots of it, poured it over tall glasses of ice and sweetened it with Stevia and.... HEAVEN! Cold and sweet with no calories to speak of. AND CHEAP. Holy Hannah a box of tea is like a buck sixty nine at the grocery store and you can make dozens and dozens of glasses of iced tea with it. Well YOU can, I can't cause I make it so strong and dark you'd think we were having coffee. So that means I go through the tea faster then the average person I'd imagine.
This has opened up so many tea doors to me. It's like a whole world of delicious flavors and beverages that I never knew existed. Those sneaky old biddies from back home......they didn't ever ONCE let me know what I was missing. Curses you old biddies...curses....
Course drinking it iced is a whole different thing then hot...so HOLY HANNAH AGAIN!!! maybe they didn't even know themselves the whole other world of ICED teas. I suppose it makes sense geographically speaking. Some one walks in from a blizzard of snow outside and you offer them something iced..... they're more then likely to dump it over your head.....IF you're lucky...if you're not you might end up head first in a snow bank.
So now here I am smug in my understanding of the deliciousness of iced tea, feeling quite superior of my past ignorances.
We buy GREEN Yerba Mate by Mate Factor tea in bulk and it rivals coffee...YES iced coffee as our beverage of choice on a hot day. Note how my wicked awesome JD Robb book stands in as a handy size reference to the amount of green tea we have.

I've brewed up so many different teas and tea concoctions that I've felt almost like a kitchen witch with a bubbling cauldron. Cackling a little bit as inspiration hits and I throw fresh ginger in the pot, or cinnamon or heck two kinds of tea at once! I've even had tea and coffee mixed together. Teafee we dubbed it. Quite tasty too.
But here's a favorite of ours. Especially for the summer months.
Brew up some YerbaMate green tea WITH dried lavender flowers.


As seen below my coffee pot can make more then coffee. It brews a mean cup of tea as well.


After the tea is made, you pour it into a pair of pretty glasses. It won 't be steaming for long.
Add lots of ice, lots is important, too little and it melts too fast and leaves you with a luke warm watery-ish tea that makes you cry. Then add a little stevia for sweetening followed by a splash of rose water.


Golly, you drink this and you'll feel like you're in the middle of a garden in full bloom wearing nothing but...er....wait as I was saying it's dang tasty. AND refreshing.
That's right Ma!!! DANG TASTY AND DOUBLY DANG REFRESHING!
Tea just aint a dirty word for me any more.

I Got Glasses!

Ok, I have a LOT of glasses. BUT apparently not enough...... The Tom Collins and the Highball..... Both are glasses that are named for drinks. You know what I mean, like how there's a martini and a martini glass. Now we do have martini glasses, but it's the Highball/Tom Collins glass I've been lusting after. So far as I can tell there's not much difference between the two. Basically they're both tall, very straight glasses, rather narrow and sooooooooooooooooooooo necessary for my continued existence.
However unlike regular water glasses, martini glasses and oh yes margarita glasses that you can find EVERY WHERE......(the damn things must multiply by themselves, taking up precious highball and collins glass space on store shelves...grrr....) the highball glass has eluded us. UNTIL yesterday! On a marathon shopping trip (we undertake one every once in a while) we visited about 6 different stores in a few hours and lo and behold we found not one but three different sets of High Ball Glasses!!!!!!
At the first store the glasses were lovely, clear, heavy bottomed and ohhhh so deliciously narrow and tall...but the price was tall as well. $30.00 for 4 glasses. Then at the next store we found not one but two different sets of high ball glasses! EUREKA!!! The first was only $12.99 for a set of four! WOWSERS, how fantastic...but...alas...despite LOOKING like the perfect Highball glass they were scarily thin, seemed like I might accidently bite a hunk of glass right off whilst using them..... So I suppose you could say these glasses were *too cheap*??? Like Goldilocks I wanted the set that was JUST right!
The last set was only 20.00 for a set of 4....hmmmm....good price we think. At first glance I was slightly dismayed. They were covered with what looked like frosted patterns, lines, dots and swirls. ICK. I imagined dry scratchy afore said ickness when I touched the frosted glasses. But we decided to give them a chance and opened a set up, right there in the store...ohhh we're such rebels. And lo and behold it wasn't frosted but etched.... Ohhhhhh ETCHED!!! And if I'd bothered to read the box they came in I'd have seen that right away....the difference between frosted glass and etched is like the difference between holding a radioactive piece of sand paper OR A SMALL CRYSTALLINE PIECE OF A STAR! The glasses are tall , 7 inches high to be exact...and narrow, a little less then 2.75 " in diameter. AND heavy bottomed, if you haven't experienced the delights of a heavy bottom...then oh my you ARE missing something.....
Normally we stay away from any coloured glasses, or glasses with frosted designs (my hands literally claw up at the thought) as we like the drink to be shown off in all it's true glory. How would you know my tea is green if the glass is blue? How would you know my glass is so full of ice there's barely room for the drink if the glass is.....*shudders* frosted???? BUT these etched designs I'll make an exception to, they hardly obscure the drink at all and FEEL most lovely on the finger tips.

We celebrated our new highballs not with a Tom Collins OR a Highball drink but in fact some delicious iced coffee!Remember you can click on any of the images in my blog to see them larger.


If you click to see the close up of my drink in it's new highball glass that's fine, just keep your fingers outta my coffee and the drooling to a minimum. Have I mentioned I Lovvvve Coffee?

See how much more complete our glasses collection is with the addition of the high balls? You'll note how all the coloured glasses and even ick frosted glasses and ack NON glass glasses are banished to the backs and upper portions of the cupboard.... where I don't have to accidentally look at them or even worse...touch them!

p.s. apparently there IS a difference between a Collins glass and a Highball, apparently the Highball is a little shorter and "unfrosted" OH MAN.....thank goodness I found the highballs....
I won't be having any frosted glass in my house, thank-you very much.
p.p.s frosted glass has been addded to my list of evil things

Adventures in Tortilla Making!

You might not know from looking at me but this was not my first tortilla making experience. I made them a few years ago for me and my sweetie. And while I don't really remember anything about the experience I can only assume it went well and we enjoyed them. At least I'd like to assume we did because it's either that or it was so hideously scarring to my psyche that I have repressed the terrible tortilla memories....
But here I am again entering the tortilla making world! I got the recipe from AllRecipes.Com
This is my favorite place on the internet to get recipes. I am totally addicted to finding recipes that have a zillion reviews. I mean it just makes good sense! You open a cookbook and a recipe stares coldly back at you giving away none of the hidden dangers and potential awfulness of it's end result to you. But at AllRecipes.Com you can get recipes that have been reviewed and rated by regular people. Some times hundreds of reviews for a single recipe!
So the recipe was simple, flour, water, salt and shortening.
I used all unbleached white flour and coconut oil instead of the flour and shortening they called for in the recipe. No explosions or fires so doesn't seem to have affected the recipe in any negative way!
Below are my beautiful tortilla dough balls. They said it's better to let them rest for an hour, I let mine rest for 2 cause we went out shopping for a nunchuck. (Not the weapon but the game controller accessory for the Nintendo Wii.)
Mine might have dried out slightly as I forgot to cover them with a towel, but it didn't really matter. Sure my tortillas might not have rolled out in to perfectly round circles with no cracked edges. But I can assure you cracked edges doesn't affect the flavor. Don't believe me? Go ahead, rip open the STORE BOUGHT tortillas I'm sure you have in your fridge and rip up the edges......I'll wait.............tasted the same didn't they? You feel silly now don't you. Don't worry I won't tell...(I say feeling superior)
Rolling the dough was fun. It behaved nicely and didn't stick to my counter. I did take the precaution of a little pre-flouring the rolling pin and counter surface though. Nothing makes me feel more chef like then wildly sprinkling things during the course of a recipe. Be it flour, garlic powder, coarse salt...or...red pepper flakes. I can NOT resist the act of sprinkling. Alan can tell you about the freakishly hot pasta dishes I made him when we first lived together. I just couldn't stop sprinkling red pepper flakes. Grab a pinch and sprinkle into the pot..if one is fun then seven is heaven. I'd like to say my pasta was so good it made Alan cry...but it was the red pepper flakes......
Anyways after rolling out the balls into nice thin circle-ish shapes I got my cast iron skillet screaming hot. I am in the first stages of a re-newed relationship with my cast iron skillet. We've had a bit of a rocky past and just recently I've invited it back into my life. So far we're getting along fine. As long as it doesn't betray me and make my food stick to it I'll try to keep it nicely seasoned and oiled.
The Tortillas literally just took a minute to cook, 30 seconds each side. We like ours a little charred so a little charred I let them get.
MMMmmmmmmm Yummy looking huh? But what to do with a yummy home made tortilla? I made wraps for Alan and I. First slathered vegenaise on the warm tortilla. (vegenaise is like mayo only a zillion times tastier and better for you to boot, it's also egg free and the one we used is made with grapeseed oil, good for the heart!) Then I put leftover salsa, some cooked chicken breast with smoked paprika and smoke seasoning and garlic on it followed by a small pile of lettuce. Rolled it up as tight as I could with out ripping the tortilla and....VOILA!
They tasted even better then they look. And the verdict on the tortillas? Easy to make, and delicious! Alan described them as heartier then store bought ones. And he considers heartier a good thing! I'm kind of baffled at myself that it took me this long to make them a second time. I'm definitely not waiting so long to make them a third.

A Small Taste of Heaven!

I'm not sure I understand why Champagne is considered the Queen of celebratory drinks. Not when there's something as beautiful as Tawny Port out there.
A drink that tastes like fairies had to have made it. A drink that's rich and heavy on the tongue and full of so much flavour you can almost taste it from the smell. I'm serious. I'm not exaggerating, my pitiful attempts at describing a glass of Tawny Port by Ficklin doesn't do justice to the actual thing. And so far, for us, it HAS to be Ficklin. Oh you can get half way there with *other* brands..... but that's like comparing sunlight with a light bulb...you just can't. I'm not going to even try and go into one of those flowery and wordy descriptions of the taste of Ficklin's 10 year Tawny Port. Except to say the flavours and feel are of good whiskey and honey.
If I could do my life over I don't think I'd change a thing, except perhaps to add a bottle of Ficklin's Tawny Port to my wedding day. Oh yes, it's that good!
But please, please don't save this for just a so called special occasion. The sunset looked pretty tonight, that's occasion enough. Or maybe you got your favorite sale paper in the mail, your email inbox wasn't full of junk this morning or your favorite tv show is on tonight. Reason enough to open a bottle of heaven! So far we've found bottles of Ficklin Tawny Port that's aged 10 years to run about 20 to 25 bucks. That seems like such a small price to pay for something this good!

My Confession......

I have a terrible confession to make.
Specifically to all me folks and friends back home.
You see...for years (this was the pre-Alan years aka the dark ages) I was seriously anti-mint ice cream. Don't laugh, I'm serious... Mint ice cream was evil, right up there with licorice ice cream (which is still evil) and Satan.
I cringed every time some body walked by slobbering over a neon green ice cream cone. I shuddered at my cousin's insistence that candy cane ice cream not only was NOT evil...but pretty o.k. I screamed silently inside my head for YEARS and YEARS over the injustice of mint ice cream! For an ice cream addict...er...I meant connoisseur like myself, adding mint to ice cream was the cruelest notion I'd ever run across. Taking perfectly lovely, deliciously innocent sweet nectar of the cows and adding...GASP mint to it was so abhorrent I've literally blacked out a few times at the thought...... I suspect this is why I can't remember anything from the seventies.
I thought mint belonged ONLY in toothpaste, the occasional mouthwash and hell....and that essentially the ice cream industry was conning off toothpaste flavored ice cream to it's customers...the fools I thought....
I was sure there was even an elaborate AND evil conspiracy afoot between the dairy industry and the toothpaste industry...shadowy figures pulling the trigger on virgin vanilla ice cream every where. INFESTING said virgin vanilla ice creams with what amounted to toothpaste flavorings..... I'm not sure why they'd be doing this...who can truly understand evil??? It's not my job to explain it anyways, just recognize evil when I see it and give it a hard jab in the left eye with a stick.
Well anyways...that was then...................
People...I have a confession to make.
I eat mint ice cream.
I HAVE mint ice cream IN my freezer even as I write this.
*hangs head in shame*
I've been enjoying mint ice cream for years now...and not a word did I say to the folks back home. How could I face them??? After all my protests, my loud obnoxious derisive comments over mint ice cream eaters. My many many many tears shed over uninformed friend's purchases of mint ice cream.
After all of that I NOW eat MINT ice cream. ME!?!
It wasn't a gradual change either...I didn't become addicted to toothpaste or anything. It just happened one day.....I looked deep in to the happy blue eyes of my husband as he sucked down a mint chocolate chip shake (trying to reconcile the idea that the love of my life was literally ingesting evil) and I saw the happiness there and thought....."Hey, I want some of that"
The happiness.... AND the mint chocolate chip shake.....
and you know what? It was gooooooooooooooooooooood.
Perhaps the idea of it being so wrong, so forbidden and evil so many years made the mint shake ever the more sweeter. What ever the reason I was hooked.
Mint..is o.k.
Strike that one off your list of evil things!
So to recap, mint good, me happy. Conscience clear.
p.s. NEON green mint ice cream is STILL evil only because of the dye not the mint.
p.p.s. Now I don't need to hide that little green plant I've been growing if the folks back home ever come down for a visit!

I'm Afraid to Watch TV......

It's getting to where I'm afraid to watch television now a days...like a tenderhearted lover who's been burned one too many times, my bruised emotions can no longer handle the roller coaster ride of this relationship. Just when I fall in love all over again with a new series, when I'm excited to sit down and give my time to a new favorite show it happens....the death knell...
CANCELED......
But why??? What did I do? I was faithful, on time..... never missing a show....Even when the show arrives 5 minutes late...or worse doesn't show up till next week with barely an acknowledgment that it stood me up in the first place!!! I thought our date was for Tuesday night but this week you said it was Wednesday and not at our usual 8:00 but this time 9:00 and yet I still managed to be there.
But still.....CANCELED.
It's so final, there's not even any negotiation ....just rip my heart out and leave me hollow and empty waiting on the couch for a show that will never air again......
TV didn't let me down easy either, oh no. I have to hear the news third hand, from a stranger, and act all casual like my head isn't reeling with betrayal.
Tv should have to put as much effort into canceling a show as it does advertising a new one...relationships are complicated and none more so then mine and my tv's, it shouldn't be easy to break my heart over the loss of a barely started sitcom...it should be hard...tv should send me flowers and chocolates and an apology note letting me know it wasn't my fault but their's.
But tv doesn't care, fine then..... but the last laugh is mine, I've been cheating on TV for years, that's right TV...when you couldn't satisfy me the way I needed it most, when you turned me off I turned you off and went to bed with a good book. So there!

I love COFFEE!

Coffee is almost as fantastic as ice cream...maybe even *gasp* dare I say it.... better?!? And if it IS better (and I'm not committing myself to saying for sure) it's only because for all that intense lovely flavor it's practically calorie free compared to ice cream. In fact after a quick net search I've confirmed my low calorie suspicions. Supposedly 1 fluid cup of black unsweetened coffee has only 9 calories...NINE! That's nothing...I'm sure I absorb more calories from sitting in this office chair then from a nice cup of black coffee. Now of course we don't drink our coffee unsweetened. We don't use sugar or sugar substitutes either but Stevia which has ZERO calories, is a natural thing and is 300 times sweeter then sugar... But I'm blabbing bout coffee NOT Stevia.
I've discovered I love coffee in all the many ways I can get it. My two favorites being iced or hot. Iced is a must have way for the summer. Just dump a bunch of ice cubes in the cup of hot coffee after it's been brewed and sweetened and YUMMMMMMMERS! We prefer super dark coffees, especially French Roast. I never knew there would come a day I could specify a preferred roast of coffee....and yet here I am a French Roast fan! I find the darker roasts make the best iced coffees. The iciness can sometimes dull the coffee flavor and dilute it a bit but if you start with an intense coffee like French Roast it'll be fine. Some times if we've made our version of Thai iced coffee (which is coffee brewed with black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom etc) we'll pour a tablespoon or so of half and half cream on the top after it's been iced. As seen in the picture above....not only is it a feast for the taste buds but one for the eyes as well! And tastes like.............Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmness!
We used to make coffee in an electric coffee pot which was great and all but after reading online about fellow coffee lusters using an Italian coffee pot that makes fantastic coffee, that's supposedly as close to espresso as you can get with out an actual espresso machine AND was for use on the stove we switched. This little coffee pot is so darling that I swear that's enough to make the coffee better then a standard electric pot. Tee hee.

But seriously it makes wonnnnnderful dark coffee. And since it's espresso type coffee the servings are petite BUT intense! The brand is Bialetti and I highly recommend this type of coffee pot to any fellow coffee lusters! It's actually our second Bialetti coffee pot. The first was made of aluminum but when we found out we could get the same kind in stainless steel we switched out. My aluminum coffee pot will make a lovely planter though!
So it should go without saying that a coffee lover like myself grinds her own beans right?
Not trying to sound all hoighty toighty here, it's just that freshly ground coffee beans do make a tastier cup of coffee. And even if it didn't it's dang fun to noisily grind them up in my little electric coffee grinder. And the smell........awwwwww it smells just like what you'd imagine a bunch of freshly pulverized coffee beans would smell like! The whole place immediately takes on that cool coffee shop smell.....MMmmmmm braingasms just thinking about it!