October 31, 2012

#photoadayoct



1. where you stood                             2. lunchtime


3. this happened today                          4. what you read


5. shadow                       6. i'm thankful for...


7. light                                      8. angle


9. red                                             10. emotion


11. something close-up                                12. on the table


13. landscape                             14. makes you laugh


            15. dinnertime                            16. something you wrote
 

                 17. fruit                               18. made you smile today


19. letters                                 20. 4 o'clock


21. calm                                        22. in your town


23. the view from here                                  24. weather


25. people                                   26. listening to


27. morning                                   28. looking back


29. moon                                       30. clothes


 31. whatever you please



October 23, 2012

october food swap: the haul


oh man.

october's food swap
was even better than
september's.




there were almost twice as many people
and there was some way cool stuff.


unfortunately i got there late
so i only have pictures of our haul,
but some of the things up for trade were:
jalapeno jelly
orange blossom caramel sauce
prickly pear juice
pickles
plum chutney
cactus dressing
zucchini bread
peanut butter cookies
mexican wedding cake cookies


plus the stuff we got:


    honey wheat bread                 sweet spicy salty hazelnuts


      pesto                                 chimichurri sauce


date & pecan goat cheese                    pickled peppers      


cucumber infused vodka and spiced pumpkin ice cream




quite a haul, no?




let the fattening begin.

October 22, 2012

october food swap: strawberry frozen yogurt


september's food swap was
such a success that we decided
to participate again.


obviously i made ice cream again.



rcg had been dying for 
some strawberry ice cream
but i wanted to try something
a little different this time. 
so i made strawberry frozen yogurt.



it's so delicious
you would never know
that it's fat free.


rockstar.




 



strawberry frozen yogurt:
(makes 1 quart)
- 1 pound strawberries
* cut up strawberries
- 2/3 cup sugar
* mix strawberries and sugar
* let sit for an hour for sugar to dissolve
- 3 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 cup greek yogurt
* mix in lemon juice and yogurt
* blend the mixture with an immersion blender
* put in ice cream maker


October 17, 2012

arizona's flora: the cactus, in many forms



because i live in arizona
i get to have lunch meetings
at super cool places
(check out pictures from my last visit above.)




 while i was there this time
i took the opportunity to
look at the local flora,
which consists almost solely of cacti,
of course.

















i recently learned a lot 
about the saguaro cactus
and it is a pretty nifty plant.

the saguaro can grow up to 60 feet tall
and can weigh over 4000 pounds.
their root system is very shallow
but can expand out as far wide
as the saguaro is tall.
they can live to be 150-200 years old
but takes almost 40 years to flower
and 70 years before it will grow an arm.


i'm sorry,
but that's bananas.




plus, it's a $10,000 fine 
if you mess with them.

crazy.








ps. there are tons of kinds of barrel cacti.
but the important information is that
they contain a crap ton of water in them.
so if you're ever stranded in the desert
the barrel cactus could save your life.
just thought you should know.