Potpourri Friday

I have been in a strong "sewing mode" recently and haven't been reading as much as I was earlier in the summer. But I found two new books yesterday that I bought and added to my 3 foot tall stack beside my bed :grin:! One was Summer by Karen Kingsbury. This one is the latest in a long series. When I get hooked on a series I can't rest until all the books are read. I think the only series I have never finished was the Left Behind series because I started struggling with how drawn out the storyline became. The second book I bought was one I have read about on a lot of blogs - The Kite Runner. I don't usually read much non-Christian literature because it always leaves me with such a hopeless feeling. But I have heard so much about this book that I am going to give it a try. It has something to do with Afghanistan and I love learning about countries and cultures in modern day settings. I think the more we know about each other the better we will get along.

This has been quite a fun week at our house. This year 3 of our good friends from college all have brought daughters to attend the university I work at. And my daughter is a senior here this year. So it's kind of like reunion week for us. We are trying to ignore the fact that this appears to make us older. I don't think so. It seems we look just the same as we did 25 years ago. That's what we all think anyway. And nobody has told us different. And we dare anybody to try it.

It hasn't all been fun this week. I got a speeding ticket on Wednesday. I was on my way to work and running a little bit late. I got clocked doing 59 mph in a 45 zone. I didn't realize it was a 45 zone. I thought it was a 50mph zone - which meant I still knew I was speeding. But I was running late, and there was no other traffic, and it is a country road. But the officer assured me that it was my lucky day because had I been going 1 mph faster my ticket would have doubled. Yep, I felt lucky alright!

I have added some new projects to my Christmas sewing. You blogging friends keep inspiring me by all the lovely projects you are doing. I will take some pictures and post more about it next week. I have the patterns, the fabric, and the desire. Now all I need is the time!

Our Wednesday night ladies group has one more week of our book club that we have enjoyed immensely this year. We did The Beach House and Castles in the Sand, both written by Sally John. They are excellent books and sparked some really great discussion in our group. We are then going to move into Beth Moore's newest study - Daniel - Life of Integrity, Words of Prophesy. We are all looking forward to this study although I think it is going to be a little harder than the others we have done. I did hear some exciting news this week - Beth Moore is coming to Boise in May. I already bought my ticket as I think they are going to sell out very quickly.

As I promised yesterday, I am going to post a great recipe for salsa/guacamole that I have been making for a few weeks now. It is really easy and really tasty. Here are the ingredients for

Salsa/Guacamole
Yellow onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, limes, and cilantro.

First I dice up my tomatoes. I prefer to use Roma tomatoes because they are not quite as juicy, but today I had fresh garden tomatoes to use and they tasted really good. I usually use about 6 roma tomatoes but this can be adjusted for however much salsa you want to make. This isn't a scientific recipe by any means - just add and delete to your preference!

Then I chop up cilantro really small. I used to try to peel the leaf from the stem before I cut it up. Then a Hispanic friend told me how she just cuts up the stem too - in really tiny pieces and it works great and adds even more flavor. It was alot easier to do that then to de-stem it.



Then I dice up about a half an onion in really small pieces. I'm not a big onion lover - it's the texture I don't care for. So if they are really small pieces, I don't notice them as much. Toss these into the bowl with the tomatoes and get ready to add

Jalapenos baby! Usually I add about 5 or 6, but these babies were so hot I only used two! I always cut out the seeds because that is where most of the heat comes from. But again, adjust the amount to your family's tastes. I have found that the store bought ones don't seem to be as hot as the garden grown variety. Mix it all up in a bowl and then do this:
Squeeze the juice of two limes all over your ingredients. This is a really important step. It not only tastes good but it does something special I will tell you about later. A secret cooking tip that will impress your guests! Promise.


Stir it all up in a bowl and enjoy all the festive colors! You can just leave it like this and serve it as salsa if that is what you want. But I love to go one step further and turn it into guacamole. For this you need to add avocados. Peel them and mash them with a fork.

It looks kind of gross but just slide it into the salsa and voila! Guacamole that will knock your socks off!


Remember the secret tip I was going to tell you about? Here it is. The acidic nature of the lime juice will keep the avocado from turning brown. Your guacamole will look pretty much longer than any other guacamole recipe. It really works. And if you have added a little too much jalapeno and the salsa is a little hotter than you prefer, the guacamole seems to "turn down the heat".

The thing about salsa is that you don't want to make it too far ahead of time. After you make it and store it in the fridge it tends to juice up and become way to runny. It's best to make and serve.

Well, we have another busy weekend ahead of us. Anniversary parties, company at the house, a horse riding conference (I'll tell you more about that later), church, a family birthday party, and getting my daughter packed and off to camp. That's about it. I can do it. Sure I can.