#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

2012 -- week 43 -- good food and good times.

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 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

2012 -- week 42 -- drinking, eating, dancing, singing, & kickballing

arizona's flora: the cactus, in many forms

because i live in arizona

i get to have lunch meetings

at super cool places

like the casa grande ruins.

(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.