Hillshire Farms, go meat! - NOT

We were eating dinner (quinoa, go figure) the other night and talking about getting each other surprises. I like to come home and surprise Ricky sometimes with little things I picked up here or there that I think he would like. Case in point: last week I came home from the Great Wall Market with a mango bubble tea for my man. He LOVES bubble tea and he gulped/chewed it down faster than you can say Epiglottal failure. And he likes to surprise me with things that I've picked out. It works for us.

And after our delicious and nutritious meal of quinoa inspired by this recipe from 101cookbooks he surprised me and made my life by uttering this simple phrase, "I never want to eat meat again!". No finer words were ever heard by my ears. "ah!" I gasped. "See? Now you have given me the best surprise ever and I didn't even pick it out!".

I'm not against eating meat, eat it to your hearts content. I'm not even a vegetarian, although I was for a couple of years in high school. I just don't really like meat. I don't like the taste or the texture or the idea. I don't believe that you really need it and you can have a balanced and healthy diet without it. In fact, the only type of meat I actually really like is ground beef and ground turkey. Other than that, thanks but no thanks.

Ricky still likes meat and he will eat it other places - like last night at the Italian place around the corner we had italian sausage on our slices and it was delectable. But I have made such delicious food with grains and veggies that we have no need for it in our house.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Come over, I'll prove it.

Yes, this is she

Have you ever just felt like crying because you were so overwhelmed with pressure, stress, nervousness, anger, anything? Sometimes I just get so full of.....of... everything that the only thing that I can manage are some watery eyes. And my throat is soo dry. I just can't get enough liquid to satiate my aching throat. Why is there an abundance of water in my eyes and none in my mouth where it is supposed to be.

I just had a phone interview which is almost worse than meeting with someone in person. You have to impress them with your voice and how sing-songy you can make yourself sound while you try to act casually about how you are a good a something you've never actually done. And I have this problem with becoming monotone when I'm nervous. And I was just so thirsty. I had a water bottle next to me that I kept taking silent gulps from to help ward off the monotone-ness and scratchy throat sounds. I made her laugh a couple of times. That's good, right? Right?

And all I can think about is Quinoa and how I want to eat it and eat it all day and everyday. I just have such a mind for quinoa right now. I want those lovely curlicues to pop in my mouth and fill me with completeness. Good thing the farmers market is today or I might go insane. I'm going to buy beets today. I already decided. I'm intimidated by fresh beets. My only previous experience with beets is fighting with my family over wether to eat pickled or non-pickled beets from the can. Non-pickled beets all the way. Did you know that blue cheese is a natural accompaniment to beets? They say their flavors just meld together beautifully.

Besides dreaming of quinoa and beets (although not together...yet) I guess I just have my head in the clouds. And truth be told sometimes I just like having my head high above my body. There is all this pressure from myself and various other individuals to get on the ball and be something. I'm trying. Truly, I am.

There are a couple movies I like to watch when wanting to escape and today feels like a

Broken English kind of day. Wish me luck with the beets.

Feliz Cumpleaños

Oh...I had SUCH a craving for chocolate chip cookies today. So I made them and of course they were delicious. So when I called my Abuela today to wish her a happy 96th birthday I told her that I made them for her and I was eating them in her honor. And in true Abuela style she turned the conversation around on me and blessed me that I would enjoy the cookies and to hug my husband for her. What just happened? I was trying to send good wishes her way but she ended up overpowering me with her wishes. Man, she is good

I was going to post something all about me, me, me but I changed my mind and decided to write a little story or two about my Abuela in her honor because hello, she is 96.

Her long-term memory is sharp as a tack. She can remember down to the exact day when certain events happened. I have heard hundreds of stories about her working in the fields, digging for clams in the river by her house, taking lunch to her family in a basket on her head miles away and being wanted by all the boys because in her words "I wasn't the prettiest, but I was hard-working and respectable", which I guess was on all the boys lists in pre-war Spain. Also, once she balled her hand into a fist there was no way you could undo her fingers...NO way. Most of those stories I have heard on repeat for the past 10 years. In fact, I remember one summer when we were together that every time we rounded a specific corner of the road I was treated to the same story over and over and over and.....over. I could silently repeat it from the back seat by heart.

But her short-term memory is a little behind and sometimes she forgets where she puts things and gets a little frustrated when she can't find them. Case in point; My parents were out of town one weekend years ago and she had made a couple of loaves of bread. Well, she was missing one loaf and couldn't find it anywhere. So naturally who would she blame? Me, I was the only other person in the house. She was convinced that I had stolen a loaf of bread from her. I mean she could NOT be dissuaded from thinking that I stole a loaf from her. I reasoned and reasoned with her. Why would I steal a loaf instead of just taking a slice? Where would I hide said stolen loaf? Well, if I hadn't stolen it for me then I had stolen it and given it to one of my friends. I wasn't really in the habit of gifting loaves of bread to my friends at that time or ever really but she didn't believe it. It could only be one of two things for her: Either I stole it for me or I stole it for a friend. She was mad at me for hours until finally I went a looking for it. I opened the oven and it was still in there. She had forgotten it in the oven. Simple mistake I guess, just why all the stealing stuff? I just have to remember that when she was growing up in Spain and going through the Spanish civil war that someone just might have stolen a loaf of bread or something even worse. So I brought her the loaf and showed her where it was and then we called it even.

I laugh about it now but I think I was pretty offended at the time that she thought I would steal from her. I reminded her of the story last time I was with her but she didn't remember any of it. So we laughed and laughed about it together over our lunch at the Chinese Buffet she loves so much. She is a great lady.

Her hearing is getting worse but she never ceases to amaze me. Be it being baptized at 92 or always changing who gets what of her jewelry based on our performances that month to lovingly breaking up her dogs hard food with a hammer everyday to hemming all my pants for me.

Te quiero Abuela.

Mine

I was eating the most delicious gala apple from my farmers market the other night and Ricky made a motion that he wanted a bite. I pondered not sharing it for a minute but then realized I was pretty much obligated to give him a bite because I eat his food all the time. "OK, just don't be juicy and just take a little bite" I pleaded. I HATE sharing apples. In fact, in the past when someone asks for a nibble of my crispy apple I politely or un-politely as it happens refuse them. In my opinion sharing apples is the grossest thing you can share with your mouths, besides herpes but that goes without saying. I would rather share my soda with someone a million times over than my apple. There is just so much saliva and biting and sucking and noises involved. There are wayward tongues, juice dribbles and double-bites. I can't do it. I JUST CAN'T DO IT!! So don't ask me for a bite of my apple.

I cleaned the bathroom today. I don't know what came over me, it is only Friday. I clean on Saturdays. It may have been the soft light coming through the frosted window in the bathroom or maybe I just feel so accomplished already today that I wanted to add to it.

And now off to meet Ricky for our first Sushi in Seattle post move. Arigato.

Yipee!

GOOD NEWS!!! Our friends Mike and Whitney are coming to Seattle to visit AND my bf Stasy!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. And sadly we do not have our sofa sleeper couch yet because of the Swine flu. Who knew the flu could stop furniture manufacturing?

And to keep the good news going I've decided to do something with my life AND I actually have a plan. But I'm not telling you because a watched pot never boils.

Ricky and I were driving home tonight and he asked me which turn was our street because it's really hard to see it and I told him to just look for all the people. And then we laughed about how we would describe which street to turn on to someone coming over, "Just look for all the loiterers and then turn right". It might seriously work. Our guests will soon find this out for themselves. Muah-ha-ha.

And just look at this beauty I got at the Salvation Army for $5.

Things are lookin up for 'ole Laquina.