LOVE

"Weddings are a celebration of love. And there is nothing that's been written about more than love has been. From songs and poems and books. We analyze love. We have websites that practice love, trying to match people up so that they can love one another. And it's one of life's great mysteries. Love is a gift from God. One of the things about love is that if we keep it to ourselves it's useless, but we need to share our love with other people. Especially with that one special person who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with. Love is something so special that it needs to be shared..."

The quote above is from a wedding ceremony sermon, shown in a trailer of a video that "Films by Dan" did for another couple, the small clip is on his website. It's just beautiful. Happy tears kind of beautiful. Happy happy that he's going to create a movie like this for my wedding:
http://filmsbydan.com/2011/06/ashby-and-carlos-a-wedding-in-white-castle/

Reverse Bucket List

Ever since The Bucket List came out (which I should probably see, but the gist seems easy enough to get), I think about my Bucket List a lot - a lot.  Maybe daily. And then I turned 29. And then I realized I didn't want to spend anymore days dreaming about the things I wanted to do, and just accept that I probably will do at least most of what I want to do and that's that. I'm leaving my 20s behind next year, and I want to focus on things that I have done instead of dream of things that are yet to come. I don't want to wake up in another decade and realize I'm still dreaming away my life. Along that line of reflection, I was thinking about how I have spent my last 10 birthdays. Reflection, acceptance and gratefullness are the new bucket list. The last decade was a good life. A decade of July 26es:

I turned 20 in Dublin (During Literary Pub Crawl), the summer I studied abroad in London.
I turned 21 in Lake Charles, had recently returned from studying abroad in Spain where I dreamed in Spanish for the first time, and ate someone else's cake at a bar because, heck, it was my birthday!
I turned 22 about 3 days before I left to live in Madrid, Spain for a year
I turned 23 about 2 days after coming home from Spain to attend LSU Law School (bittersweet!)
I turned 24 in Palma de Majorca, off the coast of Spain, after studying abroad in France with the law school (And, hilariously enough, thought I was having a quarter life crisis and died my hair black on that day)
I turned 25 in New Orleans, while working as a law clerk that summer, officially, turning a year older at DBA in the Marigny.
I turned 26 (Golden Birthday) the day after the bar exam and had all my friends in town to celebrate (until about 10pm due to our sheer post-exam exhaustion)
I turned 27 two days after I met my now fiance John and had a pier party to celebrate and saw the sun rise
I turned 28 during my White Linen Night pier birthday party
I turned 29 and - John proposed that night.

I'm doing pretty good.

Move over Marley, I've got the World's Worst Dog

Mia pooped in her kennel yesterday (which is pretty normal when I don't get home at lunch to take her out -- don't get me started - apparently she pooped her whole life in a kennel at hunting school and now there's nothing I can do now that she's old bc she doesn't seem to care about getting punished), so the floor of it was still drying out today, and since it's been raining for 3 days straight, the "drying out" isn't going so well. So, the kennel wasn't ready for her to stay in today. And this morning, in the pouring rain, and in order to keep Mia out of one of the two dirt holes she dug for herself to lay in under my flower beds during the day to keep 'cool' when I leave her outside, my boyfriend had this plan to tie her up next to her little trampoline bed in the yard. Well, I came home today at lunch to a filthy dog, who had pooped ON the trampoline bed, then chewed threw her leash, then got free and straight into one of her mud pits to cool off. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Oh, and it was still raining.

The Aunt Cooking Class - Fruit Pizza

My nieces were in town, and I thought Fruit Pizza would be a fun cooking project for us. Everyone thought I was getting in over my head - cooking with two 4 year olds, but whatever, it was worth a shot.  First, I looked up an easy sugar cookie recipe online, and found one on allrecipes.com, which didn't require any sort of dough chilling. And it was a very simple recipe. Here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx - I'm sure there's a healthier crust you can make for this sweet pizza, but hey, I'm an aunt, so I don't have to worry about that :). So, we whipped together some softened butter, sugar, an egg, and added in flour, baking soda and baking powder and vanilla and had a great time, and of course, some samples.

Then, we formed the dough into Lean Cuisine pizza-size crusts, and had some lunch. While the twins were eating lunch, I whipped together cream cheese and powdered sugar for our "sauce." We then realized we didn't have enough cream cheese, so we also used some chocolate icing on some of the pizzas. The dough made six pizzas.

And voila! Beautiful fruit pizzas that everybody loved, and that the girls loved decorating. So, my cooking class was a success, and I win the aunt of the day award (I've obviously awarded this to myself, but I think the twins would vote for me too).

Old Dogs, No New Tricks

My dog is 7 and a half years old. She is truly living up to the expression that old dogs can't learn new tricks. I think, however, that she can learn them, and she knows exactly what's going on, she just doesn't want to. As a puppy, my dog Mia was raised in a cement, gated kennel as her house and in a kennel at the hunting school she attended for at least a year. So, I've got a true outside dog posing as an inside dog. Trust, me it ain't easy. Although Mia is living the life she has always dreamed of, there are certain things she simply won't change.

Example: She poops in her kennel if she has to go. She obviously did this her entire life being an outside kenneled dog, and I've googled the issue, and tried all types of punishments for this, but at the end of the day, she just doesn't care. She knows I'm coming home to let her out and go to the bathroom outside, but she doesn't seem to care to wait. It's like I'm putting her out.

Maybe there is something to be said for the old expression about old dogs and new tricks. I have cracked the code! Old dogs can learn new tricks, they just don't really care enough to do it.

The Hare of the Dog

So we were having a nice day by the pool. Mia the dog was lounging without a care in the world. And dad brought out some bunnies for my niece to play with. One bunny got out. In short, there was a loud squeal and Mia appeared with you-know-what in her mouth. I screamed, bunny fell, Mia looked confused yet unphased as if to say (you know i chase squirrels around all day). In the end, the bunny was buried in the yard. I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn't even eat my halved avocado. Granted, Mia spent her entire puppy life at a hunting camp, but I thought she was past that. Apparently she will never get past it. I was so nauseated from the whole thing. And everyone was freaking out too, but about .4 seconds after it happened, discussion started up about grilling for Memorial Day and BLT sandwiches. Wait, hold that thought.

This reminded me of a zoo panda I read about once. I had read about some huge event a zoo was having to help save a panda, and everyone was standing around, so excited about the zoo's efforts to save the panda or to build it a nicer home or something, and the zoo was selling hot dogs named after the panda.* Do we love the panda and the bunny, but we are so far removed from the processing of the meat that we do choose to eat that the actual process of the processed food doesn't phase us. I've been rolling this around in my head for hours now.

However you feel about all of it -- sometimes we are just given a live dose of the food chain and it ain't pretty. Since I'm always dabbling with vegetarianism and reading literature about it and the benefits of predominately plant-based diets, this little scene reminded me that for whatever reason, it's easy to not think about our food, and some of us live our whole lives blissfully unaware of where anything we eat comes from and how it got so neatly packaged, if it's safe and was it at least treated and killed humanely. (Or, avoiding it all together). We're so far removed from the process of how all food comes to our plates, that we can talk about BLTs while we cry over a bunny.  Just something to think about.

(* I think I read about it in a book called Eating Animals)

Well, that was awkward

And I thought Y2K was the hoax of the century!

Harold Camping's Rapture came... and went.  Anticlimactic, to say the least. It kind of reminded me of Y2K. We should at least seen that one coming - oh wait, but everybody was partying like it was 1999, so for the 1% of the population who remembers what happened that night, cheers to you. Has anyone identified who the conspirators were in that one? I know my computer didn't crash. Somebody had people shell out probably millions of dollars in new "software" and then, in all our celebrated stupors at 12:01 on January, 2000, (we waited for it)... nothing!

Harold Camping's camp did profit from the impending doom, and I hope at least some of his followers who dropped out of school, quit jobs and gave over loads of money do make an effort to go back to their regular ho-hum, rapture-less lives. I mean, that's what the rest of us are doing, anyways. And if Y2K was mostly a conspiracy (I always side with the conspiracy side of things), then let me just say it, they were both huge let downs. Huge. That being said, I will admit it: My first thought after someone reminded me of the May 21, 2011 doomsday prediction was, "I'm too busy for the world to end!" Come on, you know you thought it too.  Maybe this will at least remind me to stop and smell the impending deadlines. Oh wait, I meant to say, stop and smell how beautiful life can be.

"If we wait til the time that all souls get it right, then at least I know there'll be no nuclear annihilation in my lifetime I'm still not right."
-Indigo Girls, Galileo

All Hail, The Louisiana Sunsets

In 2003 and 2004, I took two Fiction Workshop writing courses at Vanderbilt, which were required for my English Creative Writing Major. My story - whose plot I no longer remember as it has been lost in PC wasteland - included a scene on a lake in Louisiana. I was writing about someone watching the sun go down behind the plants (industrial, that is). Everyone in the class thought it was so strange; "what's going on with the industrial plants in the way of a sunset? Mass confusion amongst the other, non-Louisianian students.

My professor, Tony Earley, an inspiring author and professor, spoke up, and I remember that he said something to the effect of, "you have to understand that this is what a sunset view is for most Louisianians; the industry has massively affected their view. This is exactly on point for Louisiana," And so it was. And so the sunsets say it all about Louisiana, the coast, the industry, the way the sun falls, the way that soon no living being will no any other coastline than what we've got. Maybe it's ugly, but also, it's just a part of the state we have to accept and learn to know that it is part of something greater that we love.

"A good side, a bad side, a past, a future. ... we must embrace both in someone we love. And I tried." -from The Tourist.

Who Picked The Crawfish?

Nine out of 10 people, no, 10 out of 10 people, including my own relatives and best friends look at me with absolute confusion when I tell them that a large majority of my client base is crawfish farmers. And it's Louisianians asking the questions. To the casual person who asks me, "How's work?" and gets the response from me, "This year has been insanely busy; crawfish season is my busiest time," I usually see them tilt their head to the side and look at me like I just grew antlers. "Wait, what? I thought you did immigration law?"

Because most crawfish farms can't find enough U.S. workers to sustain the workforce they need for flooding fields, mending traps, placing traps, baiting, trapping, harvesting and sacking the crawfish, most of that work is done by temporary workers who enter the U.S. on temporary agricultural visas for 10 months each year. Due to the economic situations in Mexico, Central and South America, most send money home and then only see their spouses and children for their two months off. It's better to work in the U.S. than anywhere else, it seems.

Crawfishing isn't really Louisiana work at all, or at least not entirely. And nobody seems to know this. I certainly grew up not knowing anything about the industry, and it wasn't until I found my interest in immigration law that I was clued in, and I must be in the minority. I'm not even sure other attorneys know what I'm doing over here in my little office. So, I'm here to give you the information. Besides, now you'll know that most guys you see in or around crawfish fields are sustaining the industry we love so dearly. And, it doesn't really matter how anybody feels about it, because it's the nature of the beast, the nature of the migrant and seasonal dirty work. So, when you do eat crawfish, it's a lot bigger than just Louisiana cuisine, it's a multi-country, legal paperwork-full, working sacrifice that brings it to your -- mmmmm -- mouth.

Happy Crawfish Season to all and to all a good mayonnaise/ketchup sauce to dip them in.

Beat the ex quest: Third type of new facebooker

Nothing is more shamefully entertaining than a status war post-breakup. After the facebook relationship status disappears, the exes descend upon us, full of bravery and full of the independence of the newly heart-broken. One writes a quote about loyalty, the other writes a quote about men who are complacent. One puts up pics of a wild night with a new "friend," the other puts up pics of chugging beer on the beach - showing us (but really just shoving it down the exes' throat) that they are having "the most fun in the entire world!"

And that wraps up my top three list of new face bookers :)

Silver Medalist Facebookers

In line with my list of the top 3 types of "new" Facebookers, I saw on Headline News that 4 out of 5 people consider their FB friends' statuses to be annoying. Haha! This made me laugh. Moving on.

My second "new" type of Facebooker that has emerged onto the scene in the last year is the following:

Type 2, The Silver Medalist of new Facebook types: The Baby Boomer FaceBooker
Most rampant offenders: Your parents' friends

Lord, help us all, the world must be coming to an end. A little background, if I may: In 2004, my sister and I, at SMU and Vanderbilt respectively, opened Facebook accounts as it was all the rage at our schools and we were especially excited that our schools were cool enough to have it before others -- mainly before it opened up to the masses at public schools. (I will add that I'm sure Vandy got it before SMU :) ) Anyways, my mom was horrified at the idea. You're just going to put your picture and your information out there for all the world to see?, she asked us. She was uncomfortable, to say the least, but we assured her of the many Facebook privacy settings and went on our merry updated ways. Flash forward to 2011, when she asked me how she could create a Facebook account for herself, since her friends were donig it. *Now, we still haven't created it yet, because I think she is still mad at my sister for saying she wouldn't befriend my mom (lol), but I'm sure it's coming along one day, and cue the gasp, I gladly welcome it. I'm hoping for it, actually, so that I don't have to open up my account every time my parents want to see a picture of someone's new grandchild.

My all-time favorite quirk of the Baby Boomers who have taken over Facebook, is this: no one has taught (most) of them the stealthy ways of the Facebook double-life. Maybe, they just don't care, and I love it. The double-life, known to most younger FBers, is, let's face it: stalking someone at the privacy of your home (work) computer and then politely talking to them at a party without mentioning any of the 1,200 photos you saw of them hanging from a lantern in Cancun last year. You can rest assured if your parents' friends see a picture of you from the night after your last final exam of your first law school semester, it's going to come up over a game of Bridge.. or two. And, on top of that, they'll mention it to you and probably comment on it 4.5 years after the photo was taken. This, I love. Let's all be more free like these folks! Who knew that the Baby Boomers would bring about a new wave of FB-ing: the freedom to stalk and be stalked and talk about it at your leisure. And bring it up in, cue the gasp, a real live conversation. I told you the world was coming to an end.

My Updated Version of the (many) Types of Facebookers

About a year and a half ago, there was a hilarious article on CNN.com  about the "12 Most Annoying Types of Facebookers." Go read it first, and then keep a mental note of the most often offenders and try to block them from your Home Page, so that you don't end up cutting them out of your real friend circle. It's a fine line sometimes.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/20/annoying.facebook.updaters/index.html

As I am now approaching my 7th year as a Facebooker, I feel that I can adequately update this article with the new types of Facebookers. That's right, I definitely don't remember life without the FB, and I was there for all the changes. All the changes. This list won't be just the annoying Facebookers (although if you recognize yourself as one of these types, you should probably tone it down a bit), but instead the list will just be my observations at the new, updated version of Facebookers. 

As a small bit of history (and to prove my worthiness to write about FB types), back in 2004, we had to puddle along in our daily existence with no photo uploads. None. You only got one shot at it, the Profile Pic.  (So, you didn't have a chance to win over a potential mate with your other 1,127 pictures) The first photos could be uploaded in or around October of 2005 ---- and happened to be mere hours after my Law School 1L year Halloween Party (greaaaat timing). I woke up on November 1st, totally confused by this new progression, and a little frightened because, if I remember correctly, only the person who tagged you could untag you. There was no self-detagging. Oh, the horrors! 

Ok, so instead of trying to get all the new types of Facebookers in one post, I'll just go one by one. I think there are several reasons for the new Facebookers who have emerged. First, Twitter has greatly affected the way Facebook works because many people update the world with their every move on Twitter and that has leaked into the FB world. Second, it's not just a college-kid playground anymore, so here we go with the mom-bookers, the dad-bookers and the grandma-bookers. Lord, help us all.

Type 1:

The Advice Seekers (Or, as I like to call them, the I'm Too Lazy To Google This, So Please Tell Me Facebookers)

Most rampant offenders: New moms (Sorry, ladies, you're my first group)

Love it or hate it, the new mom advice seekers are a new category of people who have recently emerged onto the scene of Facebook. "I just can't get my baby's huge, 10-day-long, red, infested diaper rash to go away... who can tell me what the best, all-natural, dermatologist-tested butt paste is?" (OK, I made this one up, so as not to offend anyone, but you get my drift) These posts have GOT to be the absolute, most responded-to posts in all of Facebook history. Nothing like a little mom-radere to really get the blood flowing with these types. Every one of these that I have seen has at least 30-50 responses to it. Woah! Advice seekers unite! Now, I'll give everyone a couple of passes on this one. I mean, butt paste is an important part of parenting, and we all fall into this category at one time or another, but if you are checking Facebook instead of your baby books, maybe you are officially a rampant advice seeker. Oh, well. So be it. Just acknowledge that it's a type and that's that. 

There are a few honorable mentions in this category as well - mainly people who travel but refuse to buy travel books, and (of course) FB newbies, who are so new to FB that they clearly barely know how to use Google either.  

My advice is that we are all a type with one post or the next, so at least it's the cyber world where ignoring someone goes without their knowing :)

Animal House

Admittedly, against all odds, I am, a dog person, or more generally,  an animal person. But what exactly  does this mean? If it means I'm a tad cooky, then I am fine with that. I even embrace cat people now.   Can you even believe it?   

I was not raised by "dog people."  Oh no. I was raised by the the     other. My parents do not even enjoy when other people have indoor pets. So, I group them into the non-animal-people  (but polite enough to give your pet a little pat on the head if you have one)     group. In fact, I don't know that any one of of my four grandparents has ever had an indoor pet, so neither of my parents lived with indoor pets, and that's how    that panned out in the first half of the 20th century. 

Thanks, though, to the vast gene pool, which seems indifferent to one's immediate past and sometimes dips back into time, I came out an "animal person" because I   assume that someone somewhere in my geneology loved animals. There is simply no   other explanation for this one - it's all nature and no nurture in my case. In    fact, not one of my siblings has any interest in having a pet. *Disclaimer: my    sister does claim to be an animal person, and I'm hoping she gets a dog soon      (Jury is still out on this one).

Let me break it down for you. Since I was very young, I have had a  a lot of      animals. Many have involuntarily shared a part of their lives with me. My dad's   inability to say no to me won out over my parents' true wish to not be bothered by having a pet along with 4 kids. This worked out great for me! Baby deer,         countless mini-lop rabbits, dogs, pastel-colored dyed Easter chicks, ducks, calfs - the whole lot of them at one time or another. 

Twice, one of my brothers did go through some short-lived animal-loving periods.  First instance: He wanted a couple of gerbils for Christmas Eve. Two little gerbils - easy enough. The pet shop had assured my dad that they were both females, but they were in fact not two females and, as fate would have it, they got busy and   one of them gave birth to around SEVEN babies on Christmas Eve. SURPRISE! Now     there are 9 gerbils in the family who were delegated to the garage-only area      instead of 2. Not exactly a mistake that Santa should have made. Ehem. 

Second instance: Same brother wanted an iguana. Dad (always dad) drove him to the pet store to get the terrible creature of a pet, and I am 90% positive my mom's   power of prayer worked on this one, because the second he got out of the car at   our house to take the iguana inside, it darted into the yard, never to be seen    again. WHAT a miracle, I'm sure my mom thought. I think the iguana had heard the  rumor that he would have to sleep in the garage! This was around the end of my    parents animal house phase and besides the occasional outdoor dog, around the age of 12, my animal days ended for a time being.

To each his own, I like to say. If you are not sure what side of the farm fence    you would land on when it comes to being an "animal person," or, in the least, a "dog person," then these qualifying factors might help you.

Are you an animal person?

You might be an animal person if:
1. Has at least 1 non-human living being roaming around their home or at least    like the idea of it
2. Is not bothered by animal "extras" (ie. shedding, accidental poops and chewed  items)
3. After you hear someone telling a story about something funny/exciting their    child did, you then proceed to tell a story about how your dog LOVES the movie    Marley and Me.

You are not an animal person if:
1. You have no idea why people let non humans in their house
2. You can't imagine dealing with the animal extras
3. You roll your eyes after the animal person (above) tells said story and you    continue your story about your child

I think, though, that even if you weren't born with a love of animals, you can    love one if you give it a shot. In 2007, the family dog, Mia came to live with me (FINALLY!!), and I was suddenly a true animal person. Mia doesn't even know that  all the other animals had to sleep outside! I definitely think my dog communicates things to me, and so.... it must be true. There's a certain whine for "I have to pee" and another for "I want to go for a walk" - I swear! 

OH, It's truly a dog's life, even when Mia eats through the trash on a random     hunger binge. To that, my mom will graciously remind me, "It's your dog."

There Was a Wall in New Orleans

A large scale art installation project has taken over a street corner in the Marigny, New Orleans, and the wall of a very condemned-looking building has taken on new life. I have been thinking about this wall a lot lately. I can't remember how I found out about it, and though it's a new installation, I imagine it's filling up. Wonder if there is still room for me! Down in the Marigny in New Orleans, there was this wall... that made me think about what I wanted to do before I die.... And, all you get is one line... Written in chalk, so you better take a picture and get it to a more permanent bucket list... And there is an app for that - actually, there are about 4,000 bucket list apps for that.

I imagine this comes easy to some people. John said, "to have a son" within about 1.2 seconds after I asked him what he would write. My dog would probably say "to have my own bed," and maybe, after much deliberation, mine will be "to learn a third language." Now, if only I could commit to which language (anyone who knows me, knows I need serious time to make this decision - and that it has been on my list for years now).

To be precise, and particularly honest, probably the actual morning I woke up in Madrid, Spain, and realized I had just had an entire night's dream in Spanish, I think I also had, as an after thought, the thought of "well, now that that's done, I can learn another!" Then, my brain hit the snooze button and went back to sleep.

The trick to learning another language as an adult -- besides the fact that you can never actually speak with a perfect accent due to some change in the brain during puberty and besides the fact that your ear will never truly recognize the slight inclinations and vowel sounds the brain and voice are missing when you speak -- the trick is pursuing the learning stage through years of plateau-ing. Years. The plateau I got to when learning Spanish lasted a good 2 years, and then suddenly, boom, you go to sleep one night and dream in Spanish and suddenly your brain's translating skills move from conscious (hearing in Spanish - translation in head in English - translation in head back to Spanish - then coming out the mouth in Spanish) to unconscious. There it is. Like your brain had it in there the whole time. It's the most liberating experience I had ever known up to that point in my life (age 20), and it is the kind of liberation that is wholly addicting. It's especially liberating because you can throw your hands about and yell at people in the street like a real Spaniard - finally, aahhh, finally. Eh! Eh! Hombre!!

I have read that bilingual people have different personalities in their two languages. I am very confrontational in Spanish. Maybe because there is a slight disconnect with my past there, or any old timidness, and I feel like I can just say anything. Or maybe because I spent a lot of time imitating my co-workers in Madrid who were very feisty, espresso-drinking, tan, cigaratte smoking (in the office back in 2004/5), wine-loving fools who talked alot alot alot and very quickly.

Is this what I'm going to write on the wall?


Before I die I want to: __________________ (ex: commit to this one thing I have written on the wall)

Here's the site:
http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

Austin Review Part Uno

The first stop in Austin was to my friend Ana's father's wine bar Opa! in south Austin. Ana's dad is from Greece, and while Spiros was impossible to understand, that didn't matter as the tapas and wine were tasty enough to makeup for it. My friend Ana says she doesn't speak Greek, but I don't believe her.  - she seemed to understand exactly what her family members were saying all around her, while it was all Greek to us! (I've ben waiting to use that expression). Also, Opa! has the most beautiful outdoor space, with white lights hanging from a huge tree, which is the center point of the patio area.

Kelly and Ana enjoying wine at Opa!

Our next stop was Polvos, also in south Austin. A tasty Mexican restaurant with a worn out patio area and a parking lot for drinking while waiting on our table. My NYC friends were thoroughly amused by the drinking outside in the parking lot, and I know they have pics of it somewhere. As it was Mardi  Gras season and all, I had brought a king cake with me to Austin, and Diana found the baby, so we made her buy us a round of margaritas on the rocks. Mmm. The drink-buying rule had been previously decided upon since we couldn't keep up the real tradition of buying the next kind cake as none of my Vanderbilt  friends live in Louisiana.

Saturday morning and early afternoon was very misty and rainy. So, our morning walk was cancelled and instead we decided to have tacos at Torcy's in the "Trailer Park".  The fried avocado taco and the migas taco were both awsome. Fluffy, warm, mm.

Diana and Lillian with everyone's plates.
(More to come in Austin Review Part Dos when I get my new Mac Mini; my old 2005 Powerbook G4 is officially dying and this post alone has taken me 2 hours due to the slowness! )

Kale for Sale

This week's Modern Family asked the question "is Kale ready to anchor a meal?" and the conclusion was no, it should be happy being a garnish- haha! And I pretty much agree. So far, I have successfully done two things with Kale other than look at it in the grocery aisle and wish it was as tasty as spinach, lettuce and it's other green cousins. But since it is supposedly one of the most nutritious food items around, I wonder about kale a lot, wonder what else i can do with it because, i agree, its not ready to be the star of the salad.

1. Actually my favorite smoothie of all time, and it's all vitamins and no calories. Combine kale, ( a nice handful ) with frozen pineapple (a nice handful) and water in a blender. That's all!! This is so tasty and light, and extra healthy because its GREEN. I've converted a lot of people with this smoothie, so give it a try if you are looking for someone, anything to do with kale. I first discovered it at Pure Foods in Lake Charles, who served it as the Grasshopper and what I still call it today.

2. Kale chips. I had seen this a few places, and decided to try it once i saw it on Hungry Girl TV on the Cooking Channel. You put kale pieces on a baking sheet, spray with non-stick spray and bake for A very short time, maybe 4 minutes or so. They get pretty crispy, so I attest that it helps with a chip craving, but I still tasted the bitter kale taste. Will have to give it another shot -- maybe i won't burn them this time, oops.

Since these are my only attempts at kale, I think it's no spinach, but maybe it'll get there.

100 Calorie Cupcakes

MMMMMMM. Jelly-filled cupcakes (a la Hungry Girl). Mix 2 cups of yellow cake mix, 1/3 cup or one individual container of no-sugar added applesauce, 1 cup of water and 1/2 tsp. baking powder. THATS IT!!

Bake at 350 for between 20-30 minutes. I made them in a pan because I have no muffin tins - so they took longer. But wow, these babies are very moist and really amazing. Then for the "jelly-filled" part, I blended together strawberry preserves and reduced fat cream cheese and put that mixture into a zip lock bag and squeezed it into the cakes so they were filled up with deliciousness. Plain strawberry preserves would have been tasty too, but I couldn't resist making a little creamy strawberry icing.

The real stats are 92 calories per cupcake without the cream cheese. You'll never miss the eggs and oil!

Experimenting with Tim Ferriss' Experimental Lifestyle

Tim Ferris should be the ruler of the free world. Last year I read his book The Four Hour Workweek, and I'm about to start his brand-new book The Four Hour Body. Tim is a master at lifestyle design. Amazing because I'm pretty sure he's only a few years older than I am. That is to say, his first book is basically a guidebook on how to achieve the lifestyle you want while still bringing in plenty of money, money, money. He calls his experimentees (or the guinea pigs), the New Rich - those who do not want to be confined to an 8am-5pm workstyle for the next 50 years, those of us who want to have remote offices, work from remote locations, and mostly, get the most out of our workdays so that if we're done at 1pm, hey, go home. Who says you have to stay until 5. It's a look at why the arbitrary numbers of 8-5 have come to rule our life. Why most people wait their whole lives to take vacations, why we are confined to a desk, when you can actually do work from an island off the coast of Mexico. I actually tested out that last one, and it worked great.

He literally teaches you how to be efficient in emailing and communicating, how to get a virtual personal assistant (I'm considering this one), how to create a product to sell and bring in money with minimal day-to-day effort on your part. On days where I slip into my old habits and check my iPhone 465 times, I try to remember Tim, and his advice -- that there aren't too many true emergencies, and if you put down your phone, look around you and smell the roses, the emails will still be there for you to check later.

I have committed myself to one piece of advice, and I'm proud that I have stuck with it. I started "batching" my laundry. Instead of doing small loads of laundry throughout the week, I save everything for Sunday afternoon. It's awesome. Works like a charm. Saves so much time. I try to do the same for email - only checking it at 11 and 4, as he suggests, but this is more challenging since I sit at a computer most of the day. And, as a product of a generation that has sat at a computer for the majority of the last decade, this habit is hard to break, but on days that I do limit my constant email checking, I get much more done. Hmm he's right, again. Efficiency is the key to breaking the 8-5 drone.

I have yet to read his new book - where he personally put his body through a bunch of experiments for, I imagine, the ultimate goal of perfection. We'll see... Anyways, his blog is so much more fascinating than mine! Just google four hour work week blog.

Maybe it's the dreary weather, or maybe it's the fact that I've become so busy with new clients that I've been glued to a computer for at least 72 hours - which is mostly nothing unusual except that it's only Monday and the 72 hours consumed most of my weekend, but I had to post some pics from Isla Mujeres Mexico as a pick-me-up. If you love all things Mexican (as I do), Isla Mujeres is for you. Still remarkably undeveloped considering the little island is a 15-minute ferry ride from Cancun, it's beautiful, the Corona commercials were supposedly filmed there (and I believe it), and they have swing-set bars. My favorite island accessory. There was actually a swing-set bar that was out over the water, but while I was sitting on it having a fresh margarita made 5 inches from me, I didn't have my camera. And, I guess my memory will suffice. Maybe these pics will help ease me through the rain this week and ease the pain when I find out that my ever-deteriorating eyesight IS to blame on my law career - and my computer -  after all. 

Black Bean Brownies

I've been a fan of swaps for a few years now - that is to say, any bad-for-you recipe for which there is a tasty alternative. Hungry Girl, Lisa Lillien, is queen of swaps so that's actually where I got my start. As for brownie swaps, HG has a pretty good one. You take a box of devil's food cake and mix it with a can of pureed pumpkin. Ive tried it before and it was tasty enough for me to eat tons of it, but cake mix is still high in calories so you cant go crazy. Then I saw online that you can actually just add black beans to brownie mix with the same result... and THEN I found the ultimate swap. Black bean brownies - all natural and much healthier and its homemade! I was a little skeptical, but these are actually very fudgey and tasted banana-y, but that might have been because my bananas weren't very ripe. Also, for frosting I mixed together some Toffuti cream cheese, vanilla, smart balance "butter" and powdered sugar and wowza, I've had 3 brownies now.

Here's the recipe i used ( when i make it again, I'll add a little more raw sugar)

One 15 oz. Can of black beans
2 bananas (supposedly the riper the better)
1/3 C agave nectar
1 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C unsweetened coco
1/4 C raw sugar
1/4 C instant oats

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients except oats in blender or food processor. Then stir in oats. Pour into greased 8 x 8 pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Here is the basic progression:

You can juuuust make out those black beans under the coco and cinnamon

Once it was blended up, I just stirred in the oats, and then it was ready to bake and voila

Finally, my own little taste with my vegan cream cheese frosting. 

I've finally, although very belatedly, entered the world of blogging. While I have an Immigration Blog, I thought it was about time to start this one, which basically consists of my daily, weekly and monthly obsessions and thoughts- and I'm on an iPad, which is so 2011 of me. Today's obsession is the exploration of Vegan cooking and my current muse is Alicia Silverstone. She has this deeeeeelicious breakfast fruity crunchy mix that is amazing as a snack as well.

I do not have any Spirulina (a green algea powder), but maybe one day I'll add it, since it is supposedly the up-and-coming food of the future. I'll just need to actually remember to buy it one day. Either way, you basically just get a couple of cups of any fresh chopped fruit and then you make this amazing sauce to pour over it - its almond butter, soy milk, maple syrup and orange juice and you pour that over the fruit and add cereal (I use any) and shredded coconut and voila!!

Below is Alicia's official recipe for 2 - which she learned from Woody Harrelson. It can be found in her book The Kind Life.

Makes 2 servings

2-3 cups of bite-size pieces of fresh fruit, such as kiwifruit, strawberries, bananas, avocados, apples, pears, or mango
2 teaspoons spirulina
1 1/2 tablespoons any nondairy milk
2 teaspoons almond butter (for this recipe, Alicia likes to use raw)
1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons shaved fresh or dried coconut
1/2 cup kamut flake cereal

Divide fruit into two serving bowls. Use a fork to stir together the spirulina and soy milk in a small glass. Add the almond butter, and mix again. Stir in the syrup and orange juice, and give it a final stir. The sauce should be smooth and neither too thick nor too runny.

Pour the sauce over the fruit, and sprinkle with the coconut and cereal. Serve immediately.