Guacamole

Oh, how I love thee. My favorite of condiments, or are you a chutney? Regardless, you are delicious.
Here is my recipe.
Ingredients:
5-7 grape tomatoes cut in half length-wise and then in thirds
a thin (1/8 inch) slice of red onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
2 1/8 inch slices of green pepper, also chopped fine
a handful of chopped cilantro
3 avocadoes
salt and pepper
juice of a lime

First off, mix your tomatoes, garlic, onion, pepper and cilantro. Now you have pico de gallo though I don't fancy it prepared this way if the intent is to eat it as such. This is what mine looks like


Now, get out a cooling rack and lay it over your bowl, cut your avocados in half and remove the pits. Then smash them through the rack into the bowl.

By golly, that's fun. Get it as flat as possible.

Now peal the skin off. See those bits of delicious avocado flesh still clinging to the skin? I recommended removing all of that forthwith using your teeth so as not to waste an ounce of deliciousness.

I guess you could also scrape it off with a fork and mix it in with the the rest but you can rest assured I never do that.
I may or may not also clean the cooling rack with use of my tongue.
The cooling rack method of avocado squishing is not only super fast, it also creates a perfect mix of chunky-smoothness in the resulting Guac.
The next thing to do is sprinkle in some salt and pepper and squeeze in a lime. Then mix it all up and taste it. I usually need to throw in some more salt at that point. Then I mix and taste again after which I add a little more salt and a little more pepper. Then I mix it up and taste it again. After that it does not leave my sight until it is all consumed.
I have honestly eaten a whole batch in a single sitting entirely on my own.

Should any guacamole make it to the refrigerator, you're going to need press and seal wrap. I am normally not a fan of the stuff but I'll keep it on hand eternally for the benefit it does refrigerated guac.
Move the guac to a storage container, smooth out the surface of that delicious green chutney and wipe the edges of the dish clean. You don't want any little bits of avocado hiding on the edges where they can oxidize and ruin things. Now, place your press and seal right on the surface of the guac and press out any air bubbles. Then "press and seal" the wrap to the sides of the container and secure the lid over the top of that. Stored in this manner, your guac will live to see another day. I don't know how much longer it will last though, as that's the only length of time I've had the restraint to test.

The Winner

This morning, in my jammies with a pile of laundry waiting to be folded beside me, I started out choosing the winner.
I printed the comments and cut them into strips with Baby Girl's scissors and stuffed them in Tiny's backpack.

She took this photo in the process. Man am I HAWT!

Then, Tiny was so kind as to select a single strip of paper. He pulled two out actually, and I waited very patiently, not looking lest I figure out which two he'd selected, while he decided which to hand to me.

He chose this one. The winner is Rae, she'll be receiving an elephant pillow in the color scheme of her choice.

I didn't ever look to see whose entry was on the second slip. Tiny kept it for a moment and then, with the help of Baby Girl they handed me all of the slips thus obscuring the identity of the one who was almost the winner. I think it's best that way.

Thanks again for playing everybody. I think I'll do this again some day.

My confidence, shattered again.

One day last week Baby Girl and The Mr had a discussion about how he is sometimes stinky, but she always smells like roses.
Saturday afternoon we were all watching "Good Eats" when she came and snuggled up by me. She only sat there for a minute. Then she scooted away and said, sceptically, with her nose crinkled in distaste. "Momma do you always smell like roses?"
What am I supposed to do with that? I was only just getting over this incident.
Is it bad that later, when she came in from jumping on the trampoline smelling like wet-dog, I took satisfaction in noting her stickiness in the list of reasons why she needed to get in the bath? Because I did.

The Big 200 Giveaway is Over!

 

Thanks ever-so, friends for being such.
So glad am I to be a blogging girl, I am willing to give up my crafty independence for a few days and let you chose what I make.
To enter the giveaway leave a comment telling me what you want. It can be anything you've seen here or in real life, if I know you in real life.
Now, there are a few things I'm not willing to recreate and send away, For example, if you asked for this or this


I would answer with a resounding no.
Anything that I spent more than six hours on is out. I realize that my blog entries do not include time spent on projects, so just try to guess and if you pick something I'm not willing to do, I'll let you know.
I am allowing multiple entries per person as long as each entry is requesting a different item. For example if you ask six times for a baby harness, I'm going to throw out five of those requests. I won't set a limit on how many times you can enter unless it gets crazy.
Go ahead and dig through my archive to see what you want. If you're just happening by, feel free to join in. Lurking? This is the perfect time to make yourself known.
Stagger me with a response people. If I'm not staggered, I may retreat into myself and hide in shame.


Wow, this is fun! I am loving reading all the requests/entries. I've even drummed up a comment from my dear brother Boy who despite nearly being my most faithful reader, second only to The Mr, has never left evidence of having been here at all.
I've got to say though Boy, I hope your satchel is not the winning project. I am fairly new to the world of applique and your friendship-bonded animal trio would uncomfortably stretch my meager skill.
Anywhoo, I guess I have to close this little contest at some point but I'm still having fun taking entries so I'll hold off another day yet.
Thanks for playing everybody, you've made my week-end!

Ahh, fantastic. I was staggered and will not have to hide in shame.
I'll announce the winner tomorrow. I am selecting randomly so I still don't know what my next project will be. Weird.

A sunday evening at Grandma's house

Tiny Boy learned how much fun it is to run with sticks.

Yeah, sticks are a good time.

You know what else is fun? Spinning 'till you fall down dizzy.

Tiny practiced his spinning but he couldn't quite keep it up long enough to make himself dizzy. Lucky for him, there was an uncle on hand to help him out with that. He still missed out on the falling down though since he couldn't stand when the uncle stopped spinning.

Whoopsy daisy! never mind, he got in a staggering fall or two.


One more crazy fun thing to do. Run in the street.
Where is that Uncle? Clearly it is his job to keep the children out of the road.


Big news folks, this is post #199! That's right, next time is the giveaway!
I hope you nearly wet yourselves with excitement. Only nearly though, as a mother of small children I know too well what it is to mop up "accidents" and don't wish any more of that than necessary on any of you.

When I grow up I want to be

Meryl Streep.
Had a girl's night out on Friday. I'll tell you all about that in a minute. The most important thing I want to say is WOW! Meryl Streep!
Of course she's fabulous. No none can deny that, but watching her in Mama Mia? I have never been so captivated by an actress. Also, that movie made me want to climb on a stage and dance and sing.
It didn't help that I've been listening to Kristen Chenoweth and racking my brain to come up with a forum in which to preform "Taylor the Latte Boy". It's time I did some research on community theatre in my area I think.
Anyway, Girls Night out here we go!
We started out at the Cheesecake factory, yumm. This is Melissa's Cheesecake. I had key lime myself, divine.

Then it was on to the movies where as you already know we saw Mama Mia and I now, rather than an appreciation for, have a crush on Meryl Streep.
The icing on our girl's night out cake was the midnight release party for Breaking Dawn at Borders. As you can see, I had a hard time containing myself.

So did Melissa.

A few of us decided it was necessary to get at least one photo with a superfan. That's what Midnight release party's are for after all. Right?
But we were disappointed.
There was a little scrap of a black haired girl wearing Alice's prom dress who walked right through our little cluster on her way out with her book, but we hesitated, and missed her.
In the end this was the best we could do. The 13 year-old with the wax vampire teeth. The very fact that she's wearing the teeth whispers to me that she's not much of a superfan, everybody knows twilight vampires don't have fangs, but it was the best we could do ok?

After a while it became apparent that we weren't getting books at that party anytime soon so we wandered out side and photographed the joy of others more fortunate than ourselves.

And we tried to make due with being near the book, in spite of the tragedy of not having our own copies to press our loving cheeks to while we whispered words of love on our way to the car.

Just as we were, all of us, plunging to the depths of despair someone drove by and yelled from their window "Go to Wal*mart!" so we did ,and guess what!
We were rewarded.

I finished the book on Saturday and was altogether satisfied with the conclusion of the tale.
One more thing. I made a guess before the release of the book about one little aspect of the plot. I told my sister and my bestest friend so I would have witnesses in the case that was somehow right. AND I WAS! I am the coolest!
Sorry Cas, If I just spoiled it for you. I'll do my best to see that you don't read this post before you know for yourself how awesome I am.

There you have it.
Meryl Streep? captivating.
Key Lime Cheesecake? blissful.
Wal*Mart? the place to buy sought after books.
Superfans? disappointing.
Breaking Dawn? satisfying.
Me? Awesome!

My new blouse

I've been planning to try my hand at this pleated collar since May when the tutorial was posted.
I drafted my pattern before I left for my trip in hopes of getting it done before I left. No such luck.
From this I learned that I should never wait three weeks between drawing up a pattern and cutting it out. It was kind of annoying as I was cutting figuring out what I was thinking when I was drafting. Anyway, I sorted it out and here it is.







It might have been wise to wait until The Mr. got home to man the camera but I'm impatient so I went ahead and took the photos myself. I discovered that it's easier to photograph yourself if your making a crazy face. That way if you look, well, crazy, there's a reason for it.
A word on hair. I decided a while back to try for a curly style with my current cut. It worked like a dream that first time but I've never been able to recreate it. I like the back well enough but the front leaves something to be desired.
At this time I would like to remind you that I am fast approaching my 200th post and that I plan to commemorate that blessed event with a giveaway.
Get ready folks cuz it's gonna be a good one! No, there will not be any $500 giftcards involved. I'm not The Pioneer Woman, after all. But it will be the best giveaway I've ever given so get ready to comment like mad! I may allow multiple entries just to spice things up.