Julie & Julia Self-Challenge - Week 7

This week's recipe is Tomato and Garlic Salsa.  I thought it was odd that the recipe called for all fresh ingredients except for the tomatoes for which it specially called for canned tomatoes... However, the "recipe-writer" knows her stuff as this was hands down the second best salsa I'd ever had.   (The very best is the mango salsa at the restaurant Ethos Vegan Kitchen.)

 

 

Switching gears, yesterday was the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk.  Over 40,000 people participated in Orlando. Seeing all that pink was a beautiful sight!

 

Speaking of beautiful sights, here is Lake Eola in downtown Orlando Saturday morning and some of the walkers:

 

Tomorrow's Monday, so I wish you all a happy new week!

Corner View - Jewelry

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane and currently curated by Francesca, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments at www.fuoriborgo.com, and be sure to visit other participants, too.

Because even an old girl enjoys flowery bling on occasion.

Slowing Down - Random Photos from the Week

The last couple of months have been very busy and very stressful.  Busy at the office as well as with my volunteer work as the annual event that I co-chair was last weekend.    Now that the event is over, I can breath a little easier and slow down a bit.  Work is still busy, but one of the perks at my office is that they periodically do "drawings" for Magic basketball games.  I won two tickets to last Thursday's game.

If you look on the "jumbotron" you will see the back of my favorite player, Hedo Turkoglu (#15).

 

We lost, but it was close up to the very end.  All in all, a good night.  Free tickets.  Free parking.  Free beer from the friend I took with me.   And I caught a free t-shirt :-)  (Free - one of the most beautiful words in the English language.)

 

Today, I was able to volunteer at Bike Fest in Sanford, Florida with the Ribbon Riders.  These are an amazing group of female bikers with a mission to promote breast cancer awareness and provide assistance to women and men in Central Florida who are fighting the disease. They are professional women who love to ride motorcycles and strive to make a positive difference in our community.

 

I don't ride myself, but as they do so much good and are such nice women, I try to help them out when I can.  (And when it's someone else's event and you are just working, it's so much more fun :-) )

 

Here's the sunrise over Lake Monroe, which is what greeted me as I arrived in Sanford.

 

A great blue heron...

 

 

 

...and here he is flying away when I got too close.

 

 
Here are the Ribbon Riders' tents:

And when I was "cleaning" yesterday (please ignore the dust in the photo), I found last year's "annual leaf" from my mom. 

 

 

Wishing everyone a great week!

Julie & Julia Self-Challenge - Week 6



In order to "catch myself up" in my self-challenge, I made two dishes this week.

 



 

 

The first is Chunky Guacamole.  It was good - after all, how can you go wrong with avocado?  However, next time I will not use the garlic.  As much as I love garlic, the recipe called for two cloves, which I thought over-powered the avocado.

 

 

The second recipe was for Asian Vegetable Turnovers.   They may not look like much, but they are awesome!  I even had a couple cold for breakfast this morning and they were good, too.  I was surprised how easy this recipe was.  (Although, I do need to work on my wonton wrapper folding skills.)  This recipe I will definitely make again. 

 

 

Corner View - Leaf

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane and currently curated by Francesca, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments at www.fuoriborgo.com, and be sure to visit other participants, too.

 

 

Every Autumn when the leaves change color, my mother sends me a leaf from her yard as I live in a hot climate without the beautiful seasonal changes.  As luck would have it, my "annual leaf" arrived this Saturday - just in time for this week's corner view.

 

Happy corner viewing!

 



Julie & Julia Self-Challenge - Week 5

Okay... confession time... this the second week out of five that I have not met my own challenge.  However, I have a valid excuse this week.  Sunday was the 7th Annual Poker Run to benefit my favorite charity, Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge.  It is the annual event that I have co-chaired for 6 of the 7 years.  (I took year 3 or 4 off, I can't remember which.)  I spent all night Friday and all day Saturday preparing promotional material and t-shirts for the event.

 

I also made a basket of my cards from my etsy shop for the raffle.  As it was a biker event, I used a skull-themed bandanna that I found in St. Augustine to cover up the flowers on the basket and to make a drawstring bag for the cards.  I found the skull toggles at the online auction site, Tophatters, which is new find that is proving to be quite an expensive find as well.  Good deals are only good deals if you limit yourself...

 

 

Sunday, I was up at 4:30am for the event.  Good news - it was a huge success and we made a lot of money for a  great cause.

So, this next weekend, I will make it up to "myself" and my "self-challenge" and make the next two items in the cookbook.

Corner View - Street Art

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane and currently curated by Francesca, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme. If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments at www.fuoriborgo.com, and be sure to visit other participants, too.

If you click on the photos, you can see them bigger and better.

Street art - graffiti-style:

 

 

Street art - music-style:

Saturday night, the city closed down a couple of streets for concerts.  As you can see, the stages are literally in the street.

This is "Switch"  - a fun 80s cover band:

Modern English, a fun actual 80s band:

 



John Waite, from the 70s and 80s:

Headlining - drum roll, please...... The Romantics:

I saw them in the early-mid 80s.  They and I have both changed drastically :-)

Happy corner viewing!