tea

vanilla sleepytime tea might just be the greatest creation ever.

and now its sleepy time.

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handshadow

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crazy weather!

Today has been a raining, thundering, sunny, cold, warm, wet, crazy, hail-y, ridiculous day.  So here's todays shot of the hailstones in my plants!  i ran out and got all sorts of ice all down my shirt and in my hair, just to bring these little babies into the house and they were already filled with ice.

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april showers, hairy grass, and pink strawberries

April showers drenched this little town today, and i learned that the grass here is just a little bit...hairy.  It makes the rain hold onto the grass in big beautiful droplets, you can just barely see the hairs in this photo on the edge of the blade of grass, and if you look at the big droplet you can see where the bottom of it pokes out where its hanging onto grass hairs! (click on the image to enlarge and get a better view)

And those big beautiful droplets of rain have been keeping my plants happy and healthy!  Just take a look at my first amazing little strawberry baby!  

oh and P.S. those little cheesecakes that i made last night were a BIG hit!  and so easy to make!  2 thumbs up for that recipe for sure!

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guess what i did tonight!

if you guessed "baked" then you're right on.  I guess its time for a brief update, for those of you who are not my mom and haven't been following my more recent adventures and have just heard ominous phrases like "big decision" and "new home" dropped in here and there for the past month.  About a month and a half ago the company I am serving my AmeriCorps assignment at went through some major lay-offs.  Among the casualties was my direct supervisor and while efforts were made to keep me feeling happy and productive without her, I was still given, and ultimately accepted the offer to change sites.  I have selected a new site located in South Lake Tahoe and will be moving there this very weekend I believe. SO as I am leaving and one of my current coworkers has a birthday coming up, but it will be right after I leave, I decided now is as good a time as any to make him his birthday cake.  He selected a cookies and cream cheesecake and I opted for individual style, for easier distribution and consumption at work.  And ta-da! we're back to baking...I got the recipe here, it makes exactly 30, even with ample tasting of the batter (inevitably leading to the most delicious tummyache ever!) and they are pretty neat little buggers with oreo's as their bottom crust (i.e. no smashing cookies and melting butter and pressing crumbs into the bottom of muffin cups, just dropping a cookie in there) so here is a small photo montage of the making of the cheesecakes:

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focus

cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.  

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umm

umm....i went out tonight, and i didn't bring my camera, therefore you get a picture of my sheets...representing texture.  i have nothing else for you and i"m exhausted, so i'm sorry, but this is all you get, enjoy!

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lovely flowa

taken today at work in gold bug park.

i have an addiction.

to something other than taking pictures....

i'm addicted to baking.  i just can't help it.  i fought it for hours today, and ended up making 2 batches of cookies.  i didn't even eat any, i was already full when i started making them.  oatmeal craisin almond chocolate chip cookies, chocolate peanut butter sauce pan cookies.  

someday i'll be a full time baker.  can't wait. :o)

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fabulously foggy hills

Sunshine and foggy trees, somewhere before Echo Summit on Highway 50...

Snowfall and cliff faces, somewhere after Echo Summit on Highway 50...

These are taken within probably 20 minutes of each other this morning, the only difference between them: 1 or 2 thousand vertical feet.  

California's weird.

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gifting...

i made housewarming party presents tonight...i'm confident posting them on here because i don't think the person they're for reads this.  I made a cranberry almond scone recipe (based roughly on this one)and a double chocolate coconut butterscotch chip cookie mix (based on this one, but drop the chunks for chips and add butterscotch chips and shredded coconut too), all the dry ingredients and a card with how to finish them up, wrapped nicely in a tea towel and tucked in a basket.  i hope they like them!

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shine on

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it begins....

my old best friends:

(cookbooks)

my new best friend:

(fundamentals of engineering exam review book)

and so it begins...194 days until the october test.  thanks pops, for the book.  :o)

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south lake tahoe...aka my soon to be new home

taken from my moving vehicle today on my way down the mountain.  just lovely isn't it?

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early update!

I'm posting my photo early today because I won't be here this evening and I don't want to forget again.  So what do I have for you?  Whats this?  A strawberry with a rosie-reddish hue?  Thats right...these little buggers are ripening!  My first strawberries that I have grown all on my own!  Hurray!  Look at how cute too!  Photos can be a little deceiving sometimes, I know it looks pretty large, but its really about the size of a marble....still, its awesome! :o)

Also, I made some fabulous rocky road fudge this morning from this recipe I remembered from longggg ago, the last time I made it I still lived in Peru.  It is the easiest fudge recipe in the world and you can find it online in millions of places under the name Super Easy Rocky Road Fudge, but I'll put the recipe here for you, since its so simple.  I know that I originally found this recipe on the inside of a label of a can of sweetened condensed milk, so I'm sure its by Nestle or something...anywho here it is, seriously give it a try.  You won't regret it!

Super Easy Rocky Road Fudge

• 2 cups Chocolate Chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips)
• 1 14oz Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ~3 cups Mini Marshmallows
• 1 1/4 cups Chopped Walnuts

Line a pan with waxed paper or lightly greased tinfoil.  Combine condensed milk and chocolate chips in a large, microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 1 minute and then stir, if the chips are not completely melted continue microwaving in 10 second intervals and stirring until mixture is smooth.  Stir in vanilla extract, then fold in marshmallows and nuts.  Press into a 13x9 pan (for ~48 thinner pieces) or 9x9 pan (for ~24 thicker pieces) and refrigerate until set.  

This is the basic recipe, but you can mix in anything you want....some of my favorites:  peanut butter chips and mini pretzels, coconut and butterscotch chips, mint extract and crushed oreos.  I dare you not to love these!

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new babies and new cookies!

I planted my lettuce seeds a few days ago and already I have some new babies growing up before my eyes!

I also found this very interesting recipe today on a website called cooking for engineers, which I find hilarious, and also awesome.  The recipe is represented graphically at the bottom of the page, which i found especially neat.  I followed the recipe almost exactly (rare for me, i know) except i used whole wheat flour and chilled the dough for a few hours, then formed the cookies and skipped the re-chilling part and just baked the darn things, for 15 minutes at 300.  When I took them out I thought they would be crumbly and awful for transporting to a party but after they cooled a bit they turned out pretty great.

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in the field...

I worked from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm today, helping out with the IMS program at work (an irrigation management program provided to Ag customers).  I spent the day cruising from vineyard to orchard to vineyard again, using a neutron probe to monitor soil moisture levels with my colleague.  I saw quail, turkeys, llamas, tons of deer, several very sweet and very friendly dogs, and even dozens of peacocks being kept as pets at 2 different vineyards.  We crossed the oldest suspension bridge in California (so i'm told) and this is the view of the river canyon that bridge spans.  The river you see is the South Fork American (a watershed very close to my heart, as I have done most of my learning out here thus far on and in this very watershed).  River levels are historically much higher than this (you can see where the water level used to be, the tops of the bare rock) but these days its running much lower because of upstream dams and a series of drought years.  At least now, for four hours a day, 6 days a week, all summer long, the dams are required to release a minimum of 1500 cfs (guestimate, since i don't have the actual value right here, but its close to this) for the rafting companies.  Rafters got these levels guaranteed years ago, and without it i'm sure they'd all be out of business by now.  Theres so much more I could share about this river, but I'm not all that sure you folks are that interested so I'll leave some for later.  

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elephanttttttttttt incenseeeeeeeee

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mallards

i had lunch up at the park today and this lovely couple joined me, begged and begged and begged for my lunch, and then eventually gave up and waddled off.  I think they're awful cute....don't you?

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rosey!

Roses are red...

...except this one...

because its pink!

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i love food.

we all know i love taking pictures of my food, so heres a colorful shot of my lunch, a delicious garden salad with dried fruit and maple vinaigrette dressing, and a little bowl of grapes.   Mom, these are the dishes you talked me into buying today.  I didn't get the mugs, but I might go back for them because I really like them!

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saturday night in

i treated myself to new glasses today, i guess they are tumblers, but i use them as wine glasses...no more jelly jars for my wine!  They have a bubble in the bottom, and i took a picture of it.  but it was boring.  I don't like pictures of myself that much, usually I do my self portraits a little more abstractly, using reflections or movement to disguise myself in them.  It took some effort to get a straight up self portrait that I liked, and even more to bring myself to post it. Here it is.  I'm running out of things to take pictures of in my apartment here, but no worries, I'm moving again at the end of the month so you will not have to endure many more photos taken of my apartment or of me, soon I will have some new material. :o)

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edu-ma-cation

Yes yes i know, I missed another day, wooooopsy!  I stayed the night in Auburn with a friend and didn't have access to my computer...but I did take a photo.  So here's yesterdays photo:

And then today I spend all day at school, teaching 2nd and 3rd graders all about the water cycle with the help of my lovely AmeriCorps sitemate, Sara.  So for todays photo, a shot of that.  This was an activity showing what quantities of water there are on earth, big bucket of salt water, 25 tbsp of fresh water, of that 25 only 8 tbsp are ground water, and only 10 drops are surface fresh water.  Crazy!

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you say tomato...

i say why does my tomato plant look like its been in a knife fight?  a bit of poor leaf health...but its green and blooming, so it can't be tooooooooo unhealthy....

I made chocolate coconut butterscotch cookies again, since tomorrow a few volunteers are getting together for dinner.  I ate way too much cookie dough but i have lots of yummmy lookin cookies to share tomorrow!  Hurray!

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Up to Winterland!

I've never lived anywhere quite like this before, where a brief one hour drive will take you up several thousand feet in elevation, to a town where its still winter.  I hopped up to south lake tahoe today, took my photo of the day through my windshield on the way up.  So pretty!

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spinach and feta pockets!

The other day at the grocery store, I was inspired by a dish my grandma had made me before I came out here (spinach and feta in puff pastry) and what Melissa made last weekend (olive taupenade and herbed goat cheese in filo dough) and I bought spinach, feta, and some filo dough.  I had a bunch of other bits and pieces left over from the veggie lasagna I made last week and this afternoon I just kinda made these up as I went along, and they came out pretty tasty!  Heres a rough guestimate of the recipe:

• About 1/2 bag of Raw Spinach, torn up
• About half a can spinach (you can use all fresh, I just had canned left over from lasagna)
• Tub of crumbled feta
• A handful of diced sweet onion
• Seasoning to taste (I used salt, pepper, parsley, and a dash of nutmeg, cuz thats all i have)
• Filo dough, thawed
• Melted butter

Start by tearing up the spinach, and stirring it together with the feta, canned spinach, onion, and seasonings (i added a bit of fresh grated parmesean too, another lasagna leftover) and let it sit for a bit so the spinach starts to wilt, add more if it looks necessary.  Lay out a single sheet of filo, paint half of it with melted butter and fold in  half.  Paint the top of the sheet with butter too, spoon a bit of the feta mixture onto the end of the doubled filo and fold the filo around it like a flag.  Bake them on a cookie sheet at 375 for 10-15 minutes, until the filo is browned and the center is warmed through, and gently sizzling.  Now enjoy, but be careful cuz they're hot!

Yummmmm!

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Happy Easter!

Today I borrowed a friends family to spend my easter with, since mine was so far away!  They were incredibly nice and welcoming and I'm so lucky to have been a part of their holiday!  They even made me a little Easter basket and sent me home with hardboiled colored eggs!  On the way home I caught my first glimpse of the golden gate bridge, and snapped a quick photo.  It was cold and rainy here all day, and this photo reflects that pretty well, still, its the only one I took today so it'll have to do.

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bug-eyed strawberry monster!!!!

this is what i get for not going organic.

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whats this you say?

An itty bitty strawberry?  Persevering through the snow and the rain, my strawberries live on!  

Even my basil babies appear to be pulling through!

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yoga toes

happy feet!

today i survived an earthquake.

april fools. 

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