Saturday, May 21, 2011

new recipe for easter numbers 2.0 and 2.5

I have decided that two beverage recipes equal one food recipe.  Hopefully, everyone else will agree.

The recipes in question are for delicious raspberry citrus punch and an AMAZING fizzy minty thymy drinky drink.  If you have a porch, you should make one of them right now and get out on the porch.  They are both perfect for sitting outside before it gets too hot for that to be fun.

The raspberry citrus punch might be the easiest beverage in the world to concoct.  All you need is a 2L of citrus-flavored soda - diet or regular - and Raspberry Zinger tea.  That tea is available at just about any grocery store- follow the link to get a picture.  To make the punch, put two of the tea bags in the 2L and let it steep.  The wonderful person who taught me this trick recommended steeping it overnight....but I am not the most patient person and have found that less time is okay.  When you open the bottle again it will be VERY fizzy.  Watch out for that.  The resulting punch is delicious and quite low-calorie if you use the diet soda.  It's also a pretty pink color.

The second beverage has a few more ingredients.  I first saw it at a restaurant called Jackson, so we are going to call it The Jackson.

The Jackson
8 oz. club soda
1 teaspoon lemon juice
fresh mint (about 4 leaves)
fresh thyme (about 1T)
sugar to taste or one splenda

Muddle your herbs in the bottom of the glass using a muddler or a wooden spoon.  If you aren't a regular muddler, just try to crush the leaves without breaking them.  They will quickly become more fragrant.  Then pour the lemon juice over the herbs and add the sweetener.  Next pour the club soda over the mixture and stir.  Add some ice last.  You will have a delicious and refreshing beverage. 

If you so desire, you can add a shot of vodka.  Considering the rate at which I like to drink these, that's not the best idea for me. 

Stay tuned for inspirational pictures!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

juan's flying burrito


We had a late lunch on Friday at Juan's Flying Burrito (I found this photo online because I forgot to take one).    Juan's is one of our favorite restaurants - if we were making a list of the places we eat most often, it would be top ten....never mind the fact that it's about three hours from our house to that sign.   We go to the one Uptown on Magazine - I hear that there's another branch somewhere....allegedly the waitstaff is nicer at the other location, but the food is not as good.

My favorite of all time is the jerk chicken burrito.  delicious.  This time, Gates and I shared it along with the guac/salsa/queso with chips.   The service was strangely quick....as in, we got all of our food within ten minutes of walking in the door.  Can't say enough good things about Juan's.

You should also know that we spent about half of our lunch talking about opening a burrito place in Jackson.  We think the city needs one - probably somewhere near Millsaps.  Neither Gates nor I have spent much time waiting tables or managing a restaurant...but we did watch Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey A WHOLE LOT last year.  It's all about fresh, local, ingredients, apparently. 

So, let me know if you want in on the burrito idea!  We are totally ready for such a venture, I promise.....

Saturday, May 7, 2011

this week

this week has been horrible, terrible, no good, and whatever else poor Alexander experienced during his unfortunate day.

I am pretty sure that I will write a longer post with the whole story later, but the synopsis is that our precious beagle Pepper was hit by a car and is now in the ICU at Mississippi State's Vet School.  She has a good prognosis, but it has been unbelievably stressful.

If the world would like to send me a reward, I would like this.  Either color would be fine. 

Monday, May 2, 2011

eastertide recipe number one: tacos with ground turkey meat

Tonight we had tacos!  The recipe is here.  It's actually for Turkey Tacos Picadillo.   When I read the title, I thought it said Turkey Tacos Peccadillo.  That recipe name was FAR more strange and potentially funny. 

In any case, it was delicious!  I continue to be a fan of throwing together spices rather than buying the taco seasoning.  Gates prepared the taco meat and I chopped tomato, lettuce, and avocado.  Unfortunately, the avocado tasted terrible.  for real, TERRIBLE.  So we threw that out.   And we did not cook the tortillas - just warmed them up. 

And then we watched Game of Thrones (which is beyond fraught with intrigue) and Treme.  It's not tv, it's HBO.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

post-lock-in grossness

Warning:  The following picture is kinda gross.  It features the MUTANT, MONSTER blister that I got wearing one of my favorite pairs of flats.  I wear them all the time, so I have no idea why this happened.  But it was definitely the result of the confirmation lock-in.  So....workman's comp, anyone? 

For real, have you ever seen anything like it?

The lock-in went really well, though, and due to the supreme kindness of the other chaperones I got to go home and sleep for about 4.5 hours.  That was truly awesome, because it meant that the 7:30AM service was far more pleasant than it would have been after sleeping on the floor of the nave. 

btw, I wonder if there is a more efficient way of getting photos from my phone to this blog, rather than emailing them to myself then downloading them then uploading them to blogger.