birthday cake

This is the cake I want to make for my birthday picnic:

OLD DRAFTS, we did not sing happy birthday

I'm cleaning out the old drafts box these next two weeks and have found some hilarious, unusual posts I've half written and forgot about. I'll present these old guys exactly as I find them either because of their ridiculous state or because I literally don't know where I was going with them :) Here you go...

birthday drinks at gecko's.
this pic warms my heart.
what's his other hand doing?
200 dollars later we went to denny's.
pipe put a shaker of salt in simon's water glass.

he still drank it.
i ordered the fish and chips. bad decision.
denny's will never be frontier.

(originally saved in October 2008)

sushi night and disco slop

Since I am stuck inside today because I got sun poisoning yesterday (plus, even though Marc doesn't believe me, the bottom of my feet are sunburned. He said they couldn't be because I was wearing boots all day, but that's not true! I switched into sandals and then sat in the passenger seat of the car going south on San Mateo with my ankle crossed over my knee for a long time ... omg, too many details, sorry ...) ANYWAY, I'm resting my poor withered skin from the sunlight by staying inside all day so I may as well post these oldies from Sophia's birthday.

They celebrated at Sushi Hana and we tagged along:

Can you imagine being 24 with 2 kids?! Can you imagine being any age with 2 kids?! I still remember when 9 seemed impossibly old...

Eating sushi in Albuquerque and going to a meathead bar with the grungy boys in one week. It felt like a daydream.

PLEASE CLICK BELOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO READ MORE :)

GIRL TALK: purple tacos

Let's talk about sex, baybee! Let's talk about you and me! Let's talk about ...

PURPLE TACOS.

Well, well, well! I never thought I'd have a GIRL TALK labeled purple tacos, but whatevs. This is about food double-underline, exclamation point. This particular Luxirare article is one of my top favs of hers. Do you know why? If you read through her comments and commenters' own taco recipes you realize how unchanged Southwestern food really is :) Maybe it's just me, - tell me if it is! - but when I cook New Yoik Italian dinners, Southern comfort food or California organic vegan recipes I really mess with them. The NY Italian food is seasoned with green chiles ... the Southern food is baked with vegetarian chicken patties ... the California organic vegan is deep fried and covered in oil, etc! And I think other geographic groups do the same exercise of giving adopted cuisine their personal touches EXCEPT FOR SOUTHWESTERN FOOD! Tortilla, meat or beans, cheese, a couple veggies and chile! Nothing more, nothing less.

Or not? What do you think? Am I giving southwestern food too much credit? Is someone out there making alligator meat tacos with pineapple and dill sauce? Tell me!

Here are a couple of my favory-favorite southwest taco recipes:

uncooked corn tortilla (fry in veggie oil for a few minutes, mold to taco shape)
chicken or quorn brand chik'n (cooked 'til cooked, uh duh)
zucchini chopped julienne style
mashed avocado
cheddar cheese (grated)
Pedro's jalapeno sauce (only a few drops, it's beyond hot!!)

uncooked corn tortilla (fry in veggie oil for a few and then mold to taco shape)
ground beef or veggie chile with taco seasoning
red chile (just one spoonful)
tomato drizzled with salt and pepper
thinly sliced lettuce
queso fresco
five slivers of green chile

YUM!!! Please feel free to leave your recipes in the comments :)

bacon snake cactus

Aha!

Finally figured out why this fence cactus gave me the chilly willies. It reminds me of the greasy, popping bulbous shape of bacon fat sizzling on the fryer.

Look, I don't like the mushy, transluscent orbs of bacon blubber. One of the many boring reasons I wimped out and became a veggie-tarian. They remind me of king cobra neck flaps.

I'm scared now.

Also this exists:

A bacon scarf. Yum.

outer banks islands

On our way to Ocracoke Island, we drove through a ton of tiny little fishing villages.

Buxton had a covered-porch cafe where I ordered a homemade black bean burger from a beautiful Brazilian man. He looked quite like Madonna's bf.

OMG, a slick naked man, how inappropriate. Let's switch to phallic objects.

We ...

... stopped at Cape Hatteras.

... posed at Cape Hatteras.

... walked up the 268 steps.

fear of heights! :-|

FEAR OF HEIGHTS! HELP ME :( :( :(

This is a laughing gull.

Ferry to Ocracoke.

Is this real life?

Basically, the heat melted my peach frozen yogurt in under 5 seconds and Tris wouldn't stop to let me throw it away and it covered my arm in sticky goo. Sometimes it's wonderful/weird/nostalgic to be treated like a 6 year old.

Then we went home. Claire and Anna showed up at 9. Tune in tomorrow.