SPRING BREAK WOO

Just been doing the usual stuff.

Soaking up the sun:

Taking selfies:

Enjoying some decadence:

Seriously, look at this late-Roman empress ordering her desserts to devour one another.

Staying up late:

So, so, late, so inhumanly late.

Trying our luck at the tables twisty golf-ball-drop thingy:

Chillaxin':

Overseeing large-scale public works projects:

Anna says: A stranger is just a subordinate you've never met!

And, obviously, dancing:

Obviously.

Wish you were here!

(Dances a jig)

Top o' the mornin' to y'all! Got some pretty good stuff today.

Greenery:

Sopa Seca de Fideo with Tomatillos. "Green Month" is basically interchangeable with "Put Avocados and Cilantro on It Month."

TWO pies for Pi/Pie Day:

Six Ingredient Sausage Potato Pie

Chocolate Chunk and Pecan Pie. Usually I vow to be more prepared for Pie Day the next year, but this year I just vowed to remind myself how much I hate making pie. #selfacceptance #YOLOandpiedoughismessy

Soup that is vaguely Irish by way of potato content:

Dill Pickle Soup. I hadn't seen Dan look so skeptical about a recipe in a long time, but it's a SOUP made of PICKLES, how could that not be good? It's good!

Hey do you guys remember how much Baby Ivy loved St. Patrick's Day?

Three-year-old Ivy is making that exact same face this morning! Wait, St. Pat's doubles as Opposite Day, right?

In closing, a joke in the style of my kindergartener, who is significantly more self-assured in her craft than I have ever been:

"What did the (noun) say to the (other noun)?

(Five paragraph monologue in the character of noun #1.)

(Manic laughter.)

(Deeply satisfied sigh.)

These jokes are so funny."

Super Social Food League goes green

First and most importantly, I made bread with pesto in it.

Take however much time you need to absorb this information. Sit with it. Soak in it. Feel the basil in your very core.

Second and second-most importantly, Wednesday night was the March outing of the Super Social Food and Makeup League of Austin. We went to Sala & Betty, a place so new they don't even have a real sign up yet, figuring that if it doesn't make it, that's one fewer place that we can't show our green-spackled faces again. Also, it sounded good! Also that.

Had some cauliflower fancy-soup:

Some proscuitto-wrapped nopales with apple butter:

Launched into a mini-competition with Regan re: decadent entree. Mine had pulled pork and queso.

And green stuff, GREEN MONTH NEVER SLEEPS.

But she had fried chicken and a biscuit and gravy.

I was going to crop Regan's hand out of this picture, but actually the shadow of her hovering fork pretty accurately sums up how annoying it is to dine with me.

Then we went to Sweet Ritual for some vegan ice cream, because 1) we never learn anything, ever, and 2) the kind of place where they straight blow-torch your s'mores sundae is the kind of place where they accept your unique makeup and lifestyle choices.

Honestly, we have never felt so embraced.

Edible glitter. Keys at the ready so she can flee my incessant picture-taking.

LOOK AT THOSE 'MALLOWS, MAN.

So, speaking of the makeup, Regan's green lipstick clearly outshone my bright green eyeliner, which is why I tried to nudge her out of the picture.

I can't help the way my camera points itself, it's like a Ouija board or something.

ALSO, hard to tell in the picture, but Regan's eyelashes are long and purple. Did I give her long, purple eyelashes to wear? No, I did not. I gave her green lipstick to wear and she answered by putting on LONG, PURPLE EYELASHES. She's like Will Hunting picking the wrench. It's impossible to challenge this woman.

Anyway, successful week! Other than DST, which has wreaked typical havoc on our mornings and evenings! But it's almost spring break here, just one more day, buckle down everybody, we can do thisssssss!

Just make it through this Friday the 13th and we're gonna party like Secret Service agents.

Quickies

Green snack break!

Not pictured: the large bag of bagel chips I actually used to take down this hummus. They're brown. 

Green book club appetizer!

These are just non-recipe potatoes with various cheeses and green stuff on top. We finally found a book wherein the main character eats nothing but potatoes for the duration of the story. I knew we could do it!

 Green Martha recipe!

Classic Omelet with Spinach-Basil Pesto. I had to reach in and mess with the food processor while making this pesto and got a decent-depth cut on my finger. Every time something like that happens I think "This is it, it's my Jack-Daniels-kicked-his-safe-and-died moment." I realize the wide availability of disinfectants makes that unlikely, but I can easily see myself being felled by something like pesto and anyway they're called irrational fears for a reason.

Late-winter trip to the dentist!

Haha, no, we totally trust modern medicine! What fluoride mind control are you even talking about?

The girls have switched over to a different Toca game and I think it's going a lot better, what do you guys think?

Inclement

Green stuff time! Spring rolls seem like an obvious choice for Green Month, right? With warm, glorious spring busting out everywhere and all?

Okay, fine. Serving a plate of cold food actually seemed SO WRONG that I panicked and brewed a pot full of ginger tea for the table at the last minute.

These rolls were very good, seasonal inconsistency aside, although I see their "15 minutes" prep time and raise it about 45 minutes. Me attempting to wrangle wet rice paper wrappers around a pile of noodles is like a three-year-old wrapping a present. Or me wrapping a present.

Avocado toast is good in any weather, although I recommend adding some crucial fat-building bacon in instances of severe cold.

I grew up in Texas, I am having to figure out extreme-weather procedures as I go.

You will just have to take my word for it that I put a whole jar of salsa verde in with these crockpot chicken tacos. They are very green in spirit.

I added a mountain of cilantro, just in case you couldn't see the green with your heart or whatever.

Of course, it actually feels like winter here now, so I don't really want to be eating green things, I want to be eating brown things, like banana bread. I mean, I did eat half a loaf of banana bread yesterday. So I am catering to my needs. Just letting you know.

We had a snow ice sunny and clear but pretty cold day off of school yesterday. We ventured out into the neighborhood in search of signs of frozenness.

We failed.

Green machine

Technically I still have two free months on my SaltedTV subscription, but I…think I'm good. Nailed that vegetarian thing, time to move on. I feel like I've really been adrift with meal planning lately, which is unlike me. The last time I was really on top of things was probably Martha's October issue, but have you seen the current cover? It's just…different colored carrots. A stack of carrots. And do you know what's on the cover of this month's Bon Appétit? Because I don't. WHAT EVEN IS THAT.

So I need something simple and inspired that can compensate for this being the first March in four years that I haven't hosted Green Bunko. Something like…like…an entire…month? Of green food? Yes. YES. Take that, unappealing spring magazine covers! After years of trying, I obviously have this lifestyle situation under control.

The best part of this plan is that I can finally return to Pinterest, my long-lost love, and use recipes that are easy to link to, as such: Chicken and Avocado Salad.

Boom.

The worst part of this plan is that I have been away from my internet recipes for a while and that leads to things like forgetting that I already made this green soup and it was gross. But this time I salvaged it with a sandwich made out of spinach dip and butter!

Learning and growing, that's what we're all about here.

The girls usually try to eat around anything that looks green, so it will be pretty exciting to see which one of us breaks first. Speaking of children! This is one of my favorite childhood pictures (sorry Nathaniel) and I've basically been waiting for the historical reenactment since the day Ivy was born and YES IT FINALLY ARRIVED, SORT OF!

Hee.

SUBTLE.

Anna was a disappointingly good sport, but I'm still counting it.

Hey, guys? It's March now. The middle of it is fast approaching. You know what that meanssssssssss! I finally started watching Middlemarch, and I have to admit, it's a lot easier to care about what's going on with these people when I can actually see their hats.

Weird that some of them seem to be dressed as Pilgrims and some dressed as Henry VIII. Weird and awesome.

P.S. I still have candles! Free ones! Hurry up and get you one! I mean, I already sent the good ones to Miriel, Shin Ae, Andy, and Julie, but why not take your chances?