I love weddings. And, actually, so does my husband. No joke.
Last night, we attended the wedding of a dear friend of mine: Jeremy. He sang at our wedding. His wedding was beautiful.
I snapped this lovely shot with my phone at the reception, which reminds me of the neverending bond between a husband and wife. And I wish a neverending commitment for these two God-fearing children of God.
May God be your center; may He be grace through you to one another.
Love,
To summarize my evening shopping trip, please read the list of items my cashier rang out tonight: mild salsa, two bags of tortilla chips, tomatillos, cilantro, one jalapeno, one small white onion, and liners–not the ones for garbage cans.
I’ve never before purchased four of those things–liners are not one of them.
Anyway, I’ve discovered my biggest pet peeves about recipes; look at the ingredients on this list. I mean, sure, I have copped cilantro just hanging out in my house; don’t you? I also have peeled, rinsed, and quartered tomatillos. No. No I don’t. Actually, I have to cut ’em up. So, then, I ask you this: “Why don’t they make this part of the directions?”
Anyway, tonight I made tomatillo salsa. I’d never heard of it before Chipotle came along in my life. And I like it.
So, I found this recipe for tomatillo salsa. And I pretty much followed the recipe.
Here are some pics from my adventure:
First, I peeled and rinsed the tomatillos. They were a little gummy feeling under the peel; normal? It was simple; I peeled back the dried out layer and rubbed the rest with my hand to rinse. It was easier to peel them before getting them wet, FYI.
Then, I quartered them.
One looked a little sketchy on top, so I lobbed off the top.
Fun so far!
Then, I cut a small onion in half. The recipe called for a large onion, but I don’t like onion in general, so I bought a small one for this recipe.
Then I quartered the onion and put it in my little bowl for safe keeping.
Then, I needed to seed a jalapeno.
Raise your hand if you know how to do that? I learned how here. I used the knife to scoot away some extra seeds at the end, but this was easier than I expected it to be.
Then, I needed two cloves of garlic. I’d never achieved garlic cloves before; I did a little research. Don’t tell my husband that I now know how to do this. Cuz I don’t. There’s not even photographic evidence below. Um, stock photo.
Then, I put everything I mentioned so far plus a half cup of water, plus a teaspoon of salt into the food processor; the directions say to puree these ingredients. I minced for a very long time.
The mix was poured into a skillet and began to simmer. I always wonder what “simmer” setting is; I chose 4 on the nob. Also, the directions said to simmer for 15 minutes; I let it simmer for longer–maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I had time… keep reading.
While that simmered, I needed to get the cilantro out.
Why didn’t anyone ever tell me how heavenly cilantro smells? Oh, cilantro, can you please be my air freshener now?
Anyway, I used these directions to try to get the cilantro leaves off the thicker stalks…
I failed. Miserably. Well, not quite miserably, but I resorted to pulling the leaves off by hand. Maybe I need a sharper knife; maybe I need more knife skills. Either way, my second resort worked satisfactorily.
These were my leftover cilantro stalks–if that’s what we call them. They are now acting as fragrance in the kitchen.
I used the chop setting on the freshly cleaned food processor to chop up the cilantro leaves.
Then, I poured the simmered mix into a 5-cup bowl. The directions said to let the mix get to room temperature before moving on. At 9:30pm, I was not feelin’ it. So, I put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes, mixing a few times to cool the mix without it freezing.
Then, I dropped in the half-cup of chopped cilantro and squeezed in an estimated tablespoon of lime juice before storing it in the fridge for the evening.
Dinner with the neighbors should be delish tomorrow!
Happy eating,
I made this:
With this:
On pinterest, I found this sweet tutorial tailored for CS4. I used the tutorial, but had to adjust a little since I have Photoshop Elements and not CS4. For instance, steps three and four required tools with which I was not familiar. Instead of following those steps, I copied the layer of my original picture, below, and converted it to black and white in the Enhance menu, then used the posterize filter to convert the image to fewer shadows–namely two or three colors. There may be another way, but I liked this method just fine. (If you know, please share!)
The other steps seemed to work just fine. And there are even instructions for variations and other options.
The coolest part is this: I didn’t know I could create my own brushes. Now I know that I can! Wahoo!
Jessica, you should try this. I want to see what you’d come up with. Other faithful readers who have elements, I want to see yours, to!
Joyfully,
Here’s the thing: I like and hate fall.
Like: Because I love the colors. And the smells. There’s something beautiful about driving down the highway and seeing the vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges. And there’s something soothing about the smell of burning wood at bonfires and. And dry leaves smell an awful lot like the pages of novels. Fall makes me want to curl up with my man and read a good book while the sweet smells of fall fill the air.
Hate: It means winter is coming. And… I. Hate. Winter. Moving on:
I caught the most beautiful shot on our back patio today. Amongst the dingy-colored leaves that had fallen on our blacktopped patio, I saw a vibrantly red leaf. (More info on this pic can be found here.)
Strangely, this leaf got to my heart. I think it represents me, right now.
Dry. Uncomfortable. Fallen.
It also reminds me of Christ.
Redeeming. Thirst-quenching.
You see, my failure is not ever the end of the story. I neglect. I deprioritize. I reject the importance of the solemn and sincere alone times with God. Instead, I fill my time, my heart, and my thoughts with other things–empty things. And I don’t even realize it.
This, in turn, reminds me of friendship. Sometimes, we straight-up ignore a friend and reject them. More often, we unknowingly move away from them, only realizing our failure when the change has become so drastic that the emptiness has become drastic. The sudden realization has us retracing our steps before we pick up the phone to call the dear friend. I’ve been on the receiving and giving end of this phenomenon.
Dependably, every time I’m on the receiving end and I cry out to Christ with my why question, He reminds me that I’m not the only victim.
And, in fact, my pain is small compared to His.
After He literally gave His life for me, I still have the audacity to neglect. To deprioritize. To reject. Simple request: time, passion.
For some, time is a delicacy–something special but rare. I know that I waste it with the best of ’em. I fill my extra time with research–harmless research. I learn about the neatest and simplest tricks to get stains out of pans; I find recipes which are easy and delicious. I see inspirational photography and dream of mimicking the pose, angle, joy.
And. I. Still. Feel. Empty. And gross.
Jeremiah 2.13 says, “…My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
There is, of course, more than meets the eye here in this verse. Cisterns during the time of this writing caught rain water and runoffs. This means that the cisterns were fabulous places for sludge and disease and mosquitoes. Gross. On top of that, the cisterns mentioned here didn’t even hold the water, effectively acting as a strainer which holds anything not water–namely, sludge.
I rejoice in the facts: Jesus doesn’t require me to fix my cistern–only to return to His flowing and refreshing waters. No runoff water; just pure, clean, refreshing water.
His fountain is matchless.
Bountifully,
Well, this week’s last week’s project 52 theme was tricky for me. We have no pets. Nor do our neighbors; we’re not allowed, per landlord rules. However, we do have this darling cutie:
Of course this cutie pie came with a Vicky’s purchase, but she became a gift for Seth, who desperately longs for the day we can have our very own dog.
Currently, her job is to guard our cookbooks. She’s good at it; I usually don’t even broach the line. She’s also great because she makes no mess for us to clean up and she’s cute. Pink. Hello? Do you know how much I love pink.
But she’s missing a name. I don’t remember ever giving her a name.
Got a suggestion?
Suggest away. Winner gets a nice, firm, happy handshake the next time I see them. Or, if I don’t know you, you get a, “This is my fave suggestion!” response in the comment box.
I’m too poor to purchase a prize at this point.
Pinkly,
Remember when you were little? Just a few years ago, right? I was a sucker for the candy by the register–the impulse candy. (Pun intended.) I caught this delicious, nostalgia-inducing shot the other day, as The Hunk and I were checking out after buying–well, honestly, I don’t remember what we were buying.
The candy distracted me.
Sweetly,
