Week #36 Irish Butter
One of the interesting side effects of participating in this year-long New52 challenge, is that I’m willing to try/buy things I wouldn’t normally consider. My daughter has also picked up on this and has encouraged me as well. Sometimes I have to laugh because she will try to justify a lot of purchases this way. We were buying a loaf of our favorite sourdough bread when the baker told us that he loves his with Irish butter on it. I had never heard of that and certainly didn’t realize it was in the specialty case at the grocery store. It was more than $5 a lb. so I had to think about it for a bit. I decided it was “research” and put it in my cart. I have to admit that I sort of expected an awful lot out of this butter after what the baker told me and the price that I paid for it. It was good, but not that good. I liked the flavor, but it sort of made the bread a bit soggy. I think we will just stick with the American butter, which is a relief since that stuff is plenty expensive already!
Week #37 Black Cherry Tomatoes
We’ve been blessed in the tomato department this year. We’ve grown a few in our own garden and friends have been giving us the most wonderful tomatoes from their gardens. We got to try Black Cherry tomatoes (the brownish-purplish ones) for the first time and they are delicious! We are definitely planting those next year.
Week #38 Canning Pickle Relish
This one is a pretty big deal for me – I actually canned something! I’ve always been intimidated by the canning process. I’ve made freezer jam before (years ago), but I was sure that I would never be talking about water baths, pickling salts, and lids popping to seal. It’s like a whole new world has been opened up to me and I’m hooked! And I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to eat store-bought pickle relish again because this stuff is so yummy!
Week #39 Quinceañera
Ok, so we aren’t from Latin America, but that doesn’t mean we can’t adopt a different culture’s celebration. In Latino communities, a girl’s 15th birthday is a big deal and the celebration is called a Quinceañera. We were invited to a real Quinceañera about 8 years ago and ever since then I have thought it would be fun to do something similar on my daughter’s 15th birthday.
Our celebration was very low key and we just had a few family members attend. We held a dinner party in our backyard and put up a few festive decorations. I created a build your own burrito bar and we were well-stocked with Mexican sodas. We had a piñata and the girls all wore tiaras. The boys all wore mustaches. It was hilarious! I put together a slide show highlighting 15 years of my sweet daughter set to this beautiful song by Bruno Mars. It was a wonderful party for an amazing young lady!
Now I’m all caught up on my New52 posts. Time to start thinking about what new thing I’m going to do next week!
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