A Dog's Party

Day Chomper found my arms

In the parking lot of a Home Depot I did the best shopping I have ever done in my life. It fit in one hand, soft as cashmere, smelled like a taco and wriggled like a worm. There was no doubt in the sale, once that lady put Chomper on my hand there was no way in hell I wasn't taking that smelly, soft worm pup home.

I had the fortune (or not) of not having a job that summer and really not doing much with my life in any way whatsoever, so I dedicated my time to this beautiful little pup. We would spend those sweltering summer days playing, walking and watching Netflix. He would start sleeping on my legs and end up on my chest or shoulders, trying to be as close to my heart as possible; he is now a 60 pound dog that believes I still enjoy this. My body goes numb, but I enjoy every second of it.

He’s had his humorous puppy adventures, like he would climb inside the reclining couch and scare the crap out of me when I noticed the couch was howling. One night he got into his food bin and transformed into a black beach ball that required lots of potty trips the next day, I thought I had killed you, but you probably had the best night of your life. He has also chosen to eat his good amount of REAL LEATHER shoes over, say old navy flip flops? Or dog toys.

But he has always been there, with his scary excitement to see me, encouraging kisses to force unto me and devoted looks to give me when needed.

Chomper turned a year old this month. So I decided to make him some treats and spoil his diet. He has never been too much of a food beggar, but carrots are his kryptonite, anytime he would hear me chopping them he would run to the kitchen and sit like a good boy until I obliged. And since we used Peanut Butter for toys and treats, me and him would go through a jar of it fairly quickly. I found this recipe for carrot and peanut butter dog cupcakes online, but I think it is exceptionally delicious. They turned out more like muffins because of the density, but with some cream cheese frosting the humans were more than happy to taste. I will definitely be making these again for the next night me and Chomper have of indulging and cuddling.

Carrot PB muffins

(makes about 6)

-1c  flour

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/4 c natural Peanut butter (smooth of chunky is fine)

-1/4 c vegetable oil

-1 c shredded carrot

-1 tsp vanilla

-1/3 c honey

- 1 egg

- pinch of salt

Instructions

1)      Combine flour and baking soda in large mixing bowl

2)      Add all other ingredients!

3)      Bake at 325 for about 25-30 minutes.

4)      Let cool and decorate with cream cheese frosting for humans, for dogs I would recommend a tiny bit of frosting or peanut butter to adhere a cute doggie treat. 

Chomper with his first pinata!

My Gatsby

The Great Gatsby.

Two mesmerizing eyes in a royal blue background, story that stays with you, a character that deeply touches you, memories that haunts your past.

A classic book most of us have read containing an exciting romance that ends tragically, a great American drama. When I read this book a LOT of years ago I remember finishing the last page and questioning what the hell was all the fuss about. A mentally unstable man has trouble letting go of the past; and ends up screwing up his life even further dedicating all his time, energy, and money to convince this pretty ditzy girl to love him again. In the end, I felt Gatsby got his karma right back where it was deserved; and old sport Nick got a great story from it. I moved on with my life and into other books right away.

Watching the 1974 Coppola classic movie was but a mere strike of luck between laundry being ready to fold and Netlix having it available. Again, a lovely story, a good ending, and a damn handsome actor. Let’s move on to dishes and maybe some Family Guy later. Tonight, an hour after watching the 2013 version of Baz Luhrman, I am transformed.

It was not the special effects, the selection of music, the great acting, or the glass of wine I had before.  

It was that moment. In Nick’s cottage, a dream of cascading white orchids and the constant splatter of a summer rain. That striking moment when Daisy and Gatsby lock eyes. I felt my heart skip a beat with hers, a tremble in the lips and the memories course by.

 “I am certainly glad to see you again”

These words she bravely speaks; I don’t know if my brain is smart enough to come up with or my heart foolish enough to allow. This moment of reencounter, I don’t know if destiny has it in my plans. But pretending life is actually a great novel, and mine were to be a tragedy, I only ask for there to be orchids please.

Gatsby with his lies, Gatsby with his secret past, Gatsby with his childhood, Gatsby with his extravagance, Gatsby with his passion, Gatsby with his love. I tried to refuse my theories and see past it, see nothing but Leonardo DiCaptio playing the role of a sick millionaire; but those flashes would reappear: nights, wine, screaming, and pleading; feeling perfectly safe and completely lost at the same time.

“You can’t repeat the past”

I had to smile and exit the theatre with the other people, wondering if we had all felt the same. If nights were reminiscent and words reinvaded in our brains. Maybe I understand Daisy better now, when she smiled and agreed on returning to the past? or when she hung up the phone and left forever? I am not sure. All I know right now is that if it happens, let there be white orchids. 

Fabiola and Lavender

My mother lives somewhere I like to call heaven. Every time I visit Mexico I make sure to have some days to dedicate to her. A couple of hours outside of Mexico City, she found a perfect haven. Abundant sunny skies, greener here, visiting blue birds, hopping bunnies, daring squirrels and the most beautiful variety of flowers are thrown in together to create the beautiful place my mom calls home.

Growing on the back terrace, she has countless herbs and flowers. The way she cares for them reminds me of a fairy, she just naturally knows when they need water, sun, more soil, or just some comforting words. Surrounding the house on one side, there lives a fragrant row of lavender. It sways with the wind and feeds the bees daily, making itself very at home. It gives off that magnificent scent that brings back those memories. A grandmother’s vanity , the anticipated beginning of spring, or a piece of Provence you brought back in your suitcase a long time ago.

On my latest trip I was, as usual, prompt to cook something to share with friends.

Something sweet was a must.

Something fresh was obvious.

Something colorful for fun.

Something fragrant for the love of it.

Lemon Lavender Meringue Pie it is.

I used Alton Brown’s lemon meringue pie, obviously. But created the lavender meringue by easily grinding the sugar for the meringue with lavender, it was subtle and fragrant, perfect for the spring day we enjoyed with friends.

*cooking with lavender is extremely easy. Just pick some beautiful flowered lavender stems and pluck out the “seed looking” part of it. Not the petals or the stem, but whatever that part is called from it. Use them fresh or let them dry and Voila! Make scones, syrup, pancakes, ice cream, anything that could benefit from a fragrant and fresh taste. 

Ingredients
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell

About 2 Tablespoons fresh lavender or about 1/2 teaspoon dry lavender.                                                    3 Tablespoons sugar                                                                                                                             One pinch cream of tartar

Directions

Meringue- Take 3 tablespoons of sugar and the lavender and place them in a coffee grinder. Pulse several times until the lavender has been cut into small pieces and is mixed in the with sugar. Set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar until they become foamy. Beat in the lavender sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat the egg whites until they become shiny and stiff and hold peaks.

make some art with your meringue! Do not over beat though! 

Pie-

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

The pie turned out sweet, fresh, colorful and fragrant, and will always remind me of my mother. I have realized that the reason I believe she resides in a heavenly place is only because she is there. And I will always think of her as my personal heaven, waiting for me with open arms and just the right amount of lavender fragrance.

My mother enjoying the pie.

The House of The Spirits

        

           Spirits, ghosts, magic, and paranormal activities. In this world we are currently living in, full of long hours of work, dreaded homework, and inconvenient traffic, it seems unlikely any of them exist. But once you step into the world that Isabel Allende created, you believe anything she tells you; stunning girls with mermaid scales and green hair, simple toddlers with clairvoyant talents, antique houses that provide labyrinths for ghosts and lovers to dwell in, ancient cures for ant infestations or broken bones, and the most incredible power of all, true love.

           I instantly fell in love with the characters. Esteban Trueba, the main character, is very complex. A passionate young man with a head full of dreams; when his first love dies he becomes what I would define as an arrogant bastard. But his actions throughout the story make him so complex that it feels complete and realistic. It got to a point where I would know what his reaction would be to an event and actually rationalize with this stubborn, old fashioned man. He manages to bring realism to a story where the paranormal is vital.

The Trueba girls delighted in imagining unbelievable animals. 

          The women in this book represent important virtues that women around the world can relate to and attempt to keep in our lives. Rosa is obviously beauty, Clara is love, Blanca is perseverance and Alba is bravery. Their stories will show you what happens when these vital virtues are faced by an angry world that seems dedicated to bring them down.

          The house of the spirits addresses some groundbreaking historical issues from Chile. Classism was an issue in those times, and the book addresses the many aspects it involved; the viewpoint from the rich and the poor, which ended in a revolution and dictatorship. I like this quote Clara, the mother, tells her daughter Blanca when donating goods to the poor.

“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need chartiy; they need justice.” 

          The movie made in 1993 with Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, and Antonio Banderas, is a fait attempt to capture the magical beauty of this family, but it obviously falls short to the enchantment the book provided. The book managed to effortlessly transport me to every place and battle the valiant members of theTrueba family fought for their individual reasons,  justice, revenge, tradition, or love.

Adventures with Hobbits

"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures.

 Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! 

Make you late for dinner!"

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Ch. 1

I proudly am a Lord of the Rings fan. To what extent? No, I am not an expert in elvish , but I own the extended/special feature trilogy and watch it at least twice a year, I am in eternal love with Legolas and I think stale toast should be called lembas bread.

Once I knew the premiere of “The Hobbit” would be in 2012 I made sure I read the book before watching the movie. I was not able to do this with LOTR, and I must confess its magic really decreases if you already know Boromir will die. I prolonged reading this book until I left on a trip to Mexico that would approximately take 9 hours from house to house, because I believe that the only way to enjoy traveling by yourself is with a good book.      

The only knowledge I had of Bilbo’s story was that which Xbox showed me during a post-operation vacation I had to unfortunately take. My mom’s coworker was nice enough to lend me his Xbox with a couple of games and “The Hobbit” instantly won me over. I spent two weeks as Bilbo; gathering, jumping, running and fighting my way through middle earth. I am a slow player and never knew what happened after the enchanted forest with the spiders. I might ask for an Xbox for my birthday.

I fell in love with this little guy. 

I found “The Hobbit” to be written in a much more accessible language than LOTR, less descriptive and focused on the action of the story. The adventure Bilbo takes on is magnificent, funny, exciting, scary and touching. I enjoyed every page, song, character and meal Bilbo encountered. The story has all the magic needed to truly wish dragons, elves, goblins and maybe even giant spiders were part of our world.

The movie of “The Hobbit” was a very anticipated event; and I made my boyfriend come with me to the midnight premiere, even though we both knew he would fall asleep. Eleven dollar nap for him. I already knew that the book would be better; and that the dwarves I imagined reading where not the miniature sexy bearded models I saw (no complaints there). Unfortunately, The Hobbit feels as a second LOTR; another trilogy without enough backbone. The special effects are out of this world (get it? They are in Middle earth? Ha); the goblin king was especially depictive and nightmare worthy.

In conclusion, I do encourage you to read The Hobbit. I have already added it to the future night time reading library for my kids, because I know The Hobbit will show them what bravery and friendship are all about (and it will probably take them the same amount of time to read the book and watch the trilogy).

PS- For a further opinion on the movie please watch this sketch from SNL. I am particularly looking forward for movie 10. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3zHgHaoVko

Anything you can juice I can juice better.

My dad used to have a juicer, it was enormous and we probably used it for about three months and then went back to Jumex. I do remember me and my sisters were really amazed of how easily juices were made and delighted on our concoctions. It wasn’t until now, about 13 years later that I rediscovered the power of the juicer.

Why?

1) My laziness got to a point where my priorities were shaken. I wanted to do stuff but my body and brain would convince me day after day to take another little nap. My mother advised me to take more vitamins, so I figured I would, I would drink these vitamins through juice.

2) I am always trying to down as many fruits and vegetables as possible, and in a household where I am the only vegetable eater, it is hard to reach that 5 a day goal sometimes. With juices, you can easily double, if not triple, your intake. You will be amazed at how much good stuff goes in your body.

3) Sadly, I have come to acknowledge the fact that I will always be on a diet. I don’t always follow it, but I try to stick to eating less and eating better. Weight loss wasn’t my real goal, but would definitely be a big plus.

So, I decided to incorporate juicing into my life! I found my beautiful Jack LaLane power juicer online for 30 bucks (its owner swore to have lost 60 pounds thanks to it, and was now buying a ridiculously expensive one). 

I researched thousands of recipes and came to the fact that f*** recipes, in juicing you just juice what you have and what you want. There are some very important rules though, like:

-Never try to juice a banana. (I probably would’ve tried just to see what would happen)

-Never add liquids to it. (I actually did this once, nothing happened but apparently its really bad)

-The smaller you cut your ingredients, the more juice you will get.

-Do not force your food through, you will get more juice if you just put the stopper and let gravity do its work.

-Put your squishy items first, then your hard ones.

-Do NOT juice garlic. (more about this later)

-Drink your juice fast! Its nutritional power will decrease by the seconds and it tends to settle and look pretty unattractive.

-The taste of the juice may be too much for you at first, so try adding water. This should also be applied to children and toddlers, whose stomachs may not be able to manage a powerful juice.

The first weeks with my juicer I bought pounds upon pounds of produce, I tried to juice everything I could and resulted with mostly good recipes, and some very bad. Garlic, its supposed to do wonders to your digestive system but it tastes like an Italian ogre’s piss once it is juiced.

I never went on a full on juice diet. I gave it a try one day and was ok with it, but I do love my solid food too much. I try and incorporate a juice a day, usually breakfast or after a workout, whenever I feel like washing dishes for a bit. This is the only negative thing I could find, the need to wash your juicer ASAP is a great one. If you don’t, it gets rusty, stained and you will be washing that thing for hours later.

I got very positive results, more energy, better skin, feeling thinner (I never weigh myself), and the best part was that I got my boyfriend to eat a lot better. He would refuse drinking them with veggies, saying they overpowered, but I make plenty of fruit concoctions that make his fruit intake a real one.

Here are some of my favorite juices:

Green Hulk- this is probably the greenest, healthiest juice. Celery is good for asthma, cucumber for PMS, kale for detox and ginger for digestive health. (I incorporate ginger to all my juices because I love its spicy flavor and it helps my stomach be a champ)

-about half a cucumber

-1 green apple (seeds and all, its ok!)

-4 kale leaves (destemmed)

-2 stalks celery

-half a lemon

-an inch of ginger  (or less if you cant handle spicy)

Basic- these ingredients are probably going to be found in your fridge and will make a pretty sweet juice that most will manage. Carrots help create a good tan and keep your eyes young.

-2 apples

-3 celery stalks

-3 carrots

- piece of ginger

Fruity fruit- this is one of the sweetest juices. It makes a beautifully colored juice. Grapes are anti oxidants, apricots keep a healthy skin, pineapples are great for your oral health and plums aid the digestive system.

-a dozen grapes

-3 apricots

-2 slices of pineapple

-1 plum

Another great juice benefit is the pulp that remains. Depending on your juicer, you will be left with either a moist or dry pulp; dry pulp is pretty much only good for compost, but moist pulp opens possibilities of cooking! Carrot pulp is perfect for carrot cake, cucumber for tzaziki and kale to mix in your salad.

So make room in your kitchen cabinets, or bust out the rusty juicer and juice yourself a healthier life.  Just remember to keep the garlic in your garlic bread. 

STSS movement. Save the Snails and Shoes Movement

You know what sucks more than walking home at night and stepping on a snail? Wearing flip flops and stepping on two.

A beautiful specimen.

My residence is a beautiful place. Vintage brick charm, secret chairs and table courtyard and fragrant star jasmine growing around our windows. This seclusion plus Washington humidity is just what snails want for their summer fun.

 The snail population was at such high rate this year that I had to take action: STSS. Save the Snails and your Shoes is the answer for this World Problem We are a very young movement dedicated to save the snails from their squishy death, but mostly really just save your shoes. 


STSS uses creativity and color as the key solution, this is accomplished in the way of one dollar neon nail polish. 














A generous two coating of the snail's shell is required for maximum color vibrancy.

Using different colors and patters would be a great way to achieve art on your walls. Literally.

Did we save the snails? I think so! I haven't stepped on one since. I really haven't seen them in a while either though.

Do we know if this is toxic? No comment.

Did we save the shoes? One hundred percent. No shoe mess reported by me or visitors in a month.

What is in store for STSS in the future? We are slowly spreading our philosophy, snail slow you might say.

How can I join? Contact me (Chairman of STSS) by e-mail! STSS would be delighted have your support.

STSS is currently looking for a Vice-President, Treasurer and donators of neon nail polish.

"Saving snail by snail, shoe by shoe, the neon way".