Cranberry Salsa

It's Christmas! 3 more days!

All I do is eat, sit, watch movies, read, bake, go to the gym, and drink hot cocoa. Literally, that's it. Repeat every day. But, it's okay. I have justification:

There have been blizzards. Tropical blizzards. It dumps snow, then the temperature rises to 40 degrees with 90 mph winds and everything melts and eventually turns to sheer ice. I'm not going out in that. So instead, I made salsa. But because it's Christmas and not cinco de mayo, it's festive christmas salsa.

This is all you need plus two jalapeños and sugar!

Cranberry Salsa

1 orange, unpeeled, quartered, and seeded

2 cups fresh or thawed cranberries

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 green bell pepper

1-2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I use a little more)

1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped 

Process orange quarters in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

Add cranberries, sugar, and salt. Pulse until cranberries are coarsely chopped.

Transfer mixture to a bowl and add chopped green pepper, jalapeños, cilantro, and pecans.

(To toast, I just popped the pecans in my microwave for about 2:30)

(Next time, I will wear gloves. Even after multiple handwashings my fingers still burn!)

Once everything is combined, cover and chill for at least an hour. Enjoy with chips or crackers!

Happy Holidays! 

I'm sure you will enjoy this recipe more than Bart the basset hound enjoys bath time...

At Last

My love has come along... in the form of a new Olympus EPL-1.

I can now safely quash the argument that the camera doesn't really matter as long as you have a photographer's eye, cus daaaayuum this camera takes fine pictures.

Guess who my favorite subject is?

(Disregard the mustache)

This boy looks better in black and white don't you think?

(That Korean burrito only cost $5, yay food carts!)

 I went to the beach to get me some salt water taffy, and despite the horrifying prospect of getting sand in my brand new camera, the olympus came with me anyway.

Christmas tree in Pioneer Square with my best friend.

This will be our first Christmas apart :( I'm going back to Alaska for winter break, but since he just moved, Chuck, as the new guy, can't get time off work to travel. A whole month without my better thai half. Breathe in, breathe out, love conquers all. 

And the worst part? I won't be able to run my blues away because I will be in Alaska. The icy dark snow cave of death from my childhood. But really it's a pretty place... to visit. 

Portland's Jingle Bell 5k gave me a new PR! 23:47! Even with a crazy slow start due to the mass of people I was trapped behind. It took almost a full mile to get any kind of separation! Wider course next year please! On the up side, I did get a long sleeve shirt and mini jingle bells to run with.

Aww, PSU Running Around Portland Club <3 

I'm the one with the short legs (2nd from right)

Last final presentation tomorrow morning! Next term I'm unbelievably stoked that I get to take a drawing class, not so stoked that it's at 9:00. While that may not seem very early to most of you, PSU's giant course listing has allowed me to avoid class before 10:00 a.m. for my entire college career. 

I also get to take digital video production and a history course about women in the Middle East.

An eclectic mix for a crazy girl.

This & That

Lately I've been eating a lot of this:

Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

...and quite a bit of that:

Banana Pumpkin Oatmeal

I've been helping Him set up this:

Chuck's New Apartment!

But mostly I just drink waaaay too much of that:

Oh, Dutch Bros Coffee

He's such a beautiful man. He carved me this:

Our first pumpkin!

And cooked me that:

Vegetable Quinoa Omelette Scramble

But to be fair, I did introduce him to this:

MMM Sauce

Basically, we're pretty stoked on life right now.