apologies from manchester.

So, I am very sorry I have been MIA this week, but I have been hanging out with my boyfriend in Manchester, New Hampshire. It's been a blast, and I will soon post lots of fun updates about Christmas, New Year's, getaways and life happenings. Auld lang syne!

recipes: peach salsa

This past week I went to a speech and debate holiday party with all of my students and the other coaches. It was snowing like crazy outside, but a ton of people ending up making it to a really entertaining party. Everyone brought a dish and a gift for a round of white elephant. But to the main event, the food. Instead of dividing up the appetizers, entrees, and desserts by last name, as is usually done with potluck-type events, we did it by debate/speech event. So the LDers and Policy kids (if you did debate, you'll know what this means), and their coach (me) brought in appetizers. I really wanted to try something different and fun, so I looked around for some new recipes. I found this great peach salsa on Big Girls Small Kitchen. It is such a fun and different recipe that you can make to your own tastes, prepare super fast, and it's a nice way to spice up a chilly winter party. The citrusy-sweet-spicy taste really makes this recipe stand out.

Mint and Cilantro Peach Salsa

adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen

Makes 4 cups, or 1 large bowl 

Ingredients:

 

4 cups of peeled peaches, in a quarter inch dice (I threw in some canned peaches to make up the difference since there are not a ton of good peaches around here this time of year)

3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

3 tablespoons of chopped mint leaves 

juice of 1 lemon

a sprinkling (or a handful) of red chili flakes (vary amount depending upon how spicy you want it)

3 tablespoons of sugar

additional sugar to taste

Steps: 

1. Dice your peaches. Pretty self-explanatory. Also, the most laborious part of this recipe. Put them in a bowl!

2. Chop cilantro and mint leaves into a half-inch dice and add on top of peaches in bowl. 

3. Add the juice of the whole lemon. I squeezed it right in the bowl. Just make sure you don't get the seeds in the bowl. Ew!

4. Add the red chili flakes. A little bit does really go a long way, so add sparingly. Being a spicy food  addict, I put in quite a bit, but even a pinch adds a lot of flavor. 

5. Put in a little sweetness. You can add more later on if you would like it a little sweeter. 

6. Stir! And you're done! I would recommend tasting a bit so you can add more sugar or chili flakes to adjust. 

I think this will be a favorite at parties, as well as a great side to fish, tacos, or Tex-Mex dishes. I like to think my debaters enjoyed it, or at least they told me it was so that I wouldn't make them read awful articles on philosophy. By the end of the evening, I was also the proud owner of Mensa Mind Bender cards from the white elephant gift exchange. Now I can entertain myself and my cats over winter break!

new mexico girl problems.

I'm sure many of you have heard of blogs like White Girl Problems and Betches Love This, which chronicle problems that fall upon certain sectors of the female population. However, I would like to turn to conundrums which affect another segment of the population: girls that live in New Mexico. New Mexico girl problems include things like excessively dry skin, an inability to dress oneself appropriately for the weather, and an always unsatisfied craving for Frontier tortillas. I've gone about trying to remedy these problems in various ways.

Lots of snow. 

Well first, there is no really beating the dry skin that always comes with New Mexico altitude. Yes, it is 6,000 feet where I live, and yes, that means VERY dry skin. Not much you can do about that but haul around a Costco-size bottle of moisturizer. My inability to dress myself appropriately for the weather followed me to college in Maine, and back home again. I always wear too much or too little, which results in many complaints about temperature wherever I am. Lesson? Layer and pray for no drastic temperature changes. Although my prayers lately have been washed away with all the wind here, so I must tread through ankle deep snow, all the while freezing my skinny ankles off,  because of my inability to currently wear anything but sneakers (so boots are out of the question). And as for the tortillas, I can't eat them because of the whole Celiac thing, but I can obsessively give them as Christmas presents and force their goodness upon people. However, my favorite remedy thus far is as follows: buying a purple puffy vest from Target for dogs and putting the chihuahua and one cat in it (neither of them really liked it):

Terfle and Coco and the evil purple puffy vest. 

Coco modeling. 

I hope you find similar levels of hilarity in your own snow or sun-filled lives. I, in the meantime, will be praying for summer and layering to stave off the miserable New Mexico weather. 

accesorizing sneakers.

As I've mentioned, I have patellar tendonitis so I cannot run for around six weeks. It has also severely limited my footwear to sneakers. Now I wish I was really hip and had a whole plethora of sneakers that I matched with really trendy outfits, but that is hardly the case.

The always cool Dunks, in my office, which I share with two cardboard cutouts of men and three other students. 

My wonderful, trusty running shoes, which have seen no action lately. 

What does one wear with these? Well, for me, this means spandex and workout shirts because that's really the only thing I want to wear in the winter. Voraciously accessorizing those outfits with tons of jewelry might work with boots to make you look really cool and artsy, but with sneakers all the jewelry makes you look like one of the crazy ladies at the gym who wears more bling than a Cartier shop. However, that is not really appropriate for museum work. So, more than a blog discussing my fashion-sense, this is a cry for help. Somebody, please tell me what to wear for the next 5.5 weeks of my life so I don't look like a really colorful gym rat. 

crazy love.

Somedays, you need that little bit of cheering up. In 24 hours, I had been diagnosed with patellar tendonitis and banned from setting foot near a trail, treadmill, or anything that would allow me to run; I had cried at several ASPCA commercials; and, my favorite bar food had made me deathly ill. However, that all changed when I got the link to "Crazy Love" by Van Morrison, with a message saying it reminded him of me. And, it made my week. Sometimes, it's the smallest things that make you the happiest and remind you of how lucky you are, patellar tendonitis and all.

intentions and telenovelas.

Every year after my finals, since eighth grade, I have fallen into the same routine after my finals, with no variance through the years. This includes:
1. Eating. Mainly any carbs I can get my hands on, which in traditional New Mexican fashion, includes chips and salsa. Lots of them.
2. Sleeping. Lots of sleeping.
3. TV. Just really trashy shows, like Kourtney and Kim Take New York. Judge me all you want, at least I admit to watching it.
This pattern continues until second semester, when I show up back to classes sluggish, unmotivated, and craving spicy food. However, this year I'm going to change that.

http://pinterest.com/pin/111393790752905140/

While I will allow plenty of time for the aforementioned activities, I would really like to accomplish a few more before spring semester starts. 

1. Finish Anna Karenina. And make significant progress on 100 Years of Solitude. In español.

2. Go to the place where they make maple syrup with my honeybuns. I'm finally making the New Hampshire boy take me to the place where my dreams come true. 

3. Organize my papers/books/folders from years past and finally THROW SOMETHING AWAY. 

Although I realize that some things may get in the way, especially Hulu Latino which lets me watch my telenovelas online (I'm actually serious), I'm going to make a real effort to change my lazy winter break habits and to something productive, so come January I'm awake, alive, and slightly accomplished. 

traveling for food.

When I was little I would spend hours making up fantasy trips. I would spare no expense in my imaginary trips to Antarctica, Belize, Egypt, and everywhere in between. While I'm still lusting after many of these trips, I've recently had to face the fact that the majority of them are outside of my graduate student budget, which I and other students will tell you, is not very large. So for now, I must limit my actual trips to driving to artsy Santa Fe with friends to shop for cheap turquoise and visiting my awesome boyfriend in New Hampshire. While I love these trips, I really do, I sometimes crave something a little more exotic. That's where my newfound obsession with finding local, authentic fare comes in. Lately, Albuquerque has been getting a bunch of restaurants that while small on size, are big on really awesome food from all over the world. My latest exploration took to Street Food Asia, a restaurant near the university. I'd heard some really great things, so yesterday I wandered over to try it out. Wow. That's really all I have to say.

Deliciousness. 

I don't actually remember the name of what I ordered, and it's not on their online menu, but it's basically crunchy rice noodles with loads of fresh portabella mushrooms, bok choy, red bell peppers and cilantro on top. One of my missions over winter break will be to recreate this pile of deliciousness so I can eat it at my leisure. And I hope this is just one of many "traveling" adventures I have over the next few months. But what are some other ideas to get out of the grind and experience something new when you can afford a plan ticket to Asia? Hmmm?