Funny thing. Being from Texas, you’d think I was downing hot sauce by the pint before I could even walk. But ya know, I was a heat wuss back in the day. Which is funny, because during that heat wuss period, I lived in Texas (home of jalapenos and salsa) and Louisiana (home of cayenne pepper on EVERYTHING). Boy, did I miss out. Somewhere along the way, my tastes changed and now I LOVE salsa.
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Archive for August, 2011
An Ode to Hot Sauce
A Big Welcome to Madeline Audrey!
Mike and I are now officially an aunt and uncle to the cutest baby on the planet, Madeline Audrey Hook, Maddie for short. Born last week, she’s already captured quite a few hearts (ours included)!! Just wanted to share our excitement and one of her first baby photos!!
Hurricane Irene Aftermath
We had some crazy clouds and strong winds this weekend from Irene, but nothing too crazy, since we were sheltered in the deep western edges of VA. (Which meant we DID feel the earthquake earlier in the week, wild!) But all of our friends and family in NJ and NY definitely had it worse. This is a picture of our old rental house in NJ, taken by our awesome ex-neighbors who are still living there. The entire basement is flooded and they have no electricity, but they managed to get out there for a photo op!
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Antique Clock
Just a quick question today. Anyone know of a good place to take an old clock that just isn’t ticking anymore? When my parents visited, they brought me one of our family heirloom clocks, by my request. Similar to the soft click of knitting needles, the whoosh of ocean waves on a beach, and a burbling stream, the sound of a gently ticking clock is a soothing one. Your stress just drops away, with an ahhh…
Pickles, pickles, everywhere
I’ve shared my love for pickles with you all, so you’ll know why this was a truly amazing gift. We had tons of carrots, cucumbers and green beans from our CSA…taking up pretty much every exposed counter in our kitchen. Awesome, yes. But a little bit stressful too. So while I got to blanching the green beans to freeze for this winter…Mike started making pickles.
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Chicken Tractor Update
Funny how projects typically take WAY longer than expected, yes? Well…we’re still partially complete on our chicken tractor. Perhaps because we’re terrified of that roof (OK, just me…Mike could care less, which just adds to my fears!). This weekend flew by with other projects and before we knew it, we were sitting in front of our laptops with steaming cups of coffee and it was Monday morning. Boo, hiss.
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Warmshowers.org
Back in the day, Mike and I were pretty big cyclists. Instead of posts about chickens and dairy animals, pretty much all we talked about was bikes. We even ran a meetup called NJ Bike Eat Drink, that at the end of our two year span boasted 500+ members (we passed the torch prior to moving, and it’s going strong). We’re still huge fans of bikes, and are hoping to incorporate that back into our lives, but you can only fit so much at any one time!
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NYC Half Sour Pickles
Is anyone else here a pickle addict? Yes? Welcome to the club of sour, salty, delicious!! If not, c’mon, what’s not to like?? Personally, I’m pretty much a fan of anything fermented or pickled, within reason (pickled fish are gross, IMHO). Kimchi? Could live on the stuff. Sauerkraut, delicious. Half sour pickles…I might share, maybe.
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Cuttin’ the Grass, without Usin’ Gas
I would like to start out with saying we’re not hard core, anti-gas using, throwback, old school hippies here. Our Subaru Outback has the biggest most powerful engine they come with, getting not-so-great gas mileage. And if a tree had to be cut down, I’d reach for my chainsaw, NOT an axe. It’s no secret that we Americans (all humans really), are totally addicted to gasoline and other powered items. Sure, most of these powered items are a daily part of life and couldn’t imagine our life without it, but sometimes I feel we’ve gone too far.
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Bacon. The Gateway Meat.
Once upon a time, in a NYC bar below Houston, a South Jersey boy met a Texan girl. He ordered a Blue Moon. She ordered an Old Speckled Hen. It was love at first sight. Or was it? See, there was a slight problem. Said NJ boy was a vegan (gasp, I know). And our Texas girl came from a hunting and fishing obsessed family, and had always sworn she could never date a vegetarian. Much less a vegan! How could she ever take him home??
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