I am spending the final days soaking up the best of my roaring Twenties by thinking about all the fun stuff I did. If you know me well, you know how EXCITED I get for holidays. My birthday is the BEST HOLIDAY because it's ALL MINE!!! (and Abe Lincoln's but he's pretty quiet, doesn't steal too much of my thunder) Most of my friends don't experience the same thrill and excitement that I do. In fact some of them are pretty lack luster about it. I can only blame my parents for my love of holidays and celebrations. From a young age Mom and Dad made birthdays a big deal. When I was younger they would sing "Happy Birthday" once I woke up and there was one special gift to open up in the morning before school. Mom also started the favorite tradition of the birthday royalty picking out whatever they wanted for dinner and dessert. I tended to go for unconventional menus that didn't always have a lot of success such as Tropical dinner (Mom butchered her first mango) or Jewish Heritage dinner (Boxed Matzo Soup is like eating chalk balls). Heather always stuck with the basics almost every year. Steak or shrimp.  Even though I'm an adult, Mom and Dad still call me at the crack of dawn and sing me the birthday cheer song, send me goodies and on my first opportunity to travel home I get to pick out something for Mom and whip up in the kitchen. (Sauerbraten this year?)

Most birthdays have been FANTASTIC! Especially milestone birthdays. 

16th- Brandy threw me a surprise birthday party. I HAD NO IDEA! It was really cool, Mom and Dad also gifted me my first piece of adult jewelry.

21st- Cocktail party at my parent's house. It was my first experience with booze and Katrina's first experience using her newly acquired bar tending license. Jump to the end of the night, There was red jello vomit everywhere and I was crying like someone had just shot my dog. The next day I cried some more because I was experiencing the worst hangover of my life (it was my first, I had nothing to compare it to) and I swore I would never drink again. 2 weeks later I was spewing red wine and pasta all over the floor and spoke the same words the next day. I just can't make the phrase stick.

25th- Melissa and I had a combo birthday celebration. So much fun and the best part was Dad joining in all of our crazy shenanigans. He stayed out to last call at Rasputins getting his groove on in the grossest dive bar in Burlington. 

30th- I don't know what will happen but I have a feeling this will be an AWESOME birthday celebration with Heather, Anthony, Nate and a bunch of my closest friends that I will be meeting for the first time that night. CAN'T WAIT!

To ring in this new decade of my life which I am excited for, I have decided to copy Heather. If there is ever a good idea it is probably because she said it/made it/offered it, I will be doing 30 things to do when I turn 30. I'm hoping to keep track of these momentous experiences on here as my own virtual scrapbook. 

1. Visit Graceland. I'm living closer to TN than I have in my entire life. I can't wait to see this tourist trap.
2. Roadtrip to visit Grandparents. I love driving :)
3. Cruise. Nate and I need a vacation and I am already dreaming of tropical drinks and cheesy couples portraits.
4. Quilt. I need to figure out how to use my sewing machine and make something to keep me or someone small warm.
5. Grow something that I can eat from a seed. Herb/Veggie/Fruit but nothing illegal.
6. Master the art of sourdough. Tackle the process of making/maintaining a starter and turn it into bread that doesn't taste like a hard, dense brick.
7. Learn how to tame my eyebrows. I need some tweezers and a good DIY guide instead of relying on my BF Sarah to tame them every 6 months when I go home. How hard can it be. 
8. With that being said, this is the year I learn how to use my curling iron. It must be able to do something useful. All I can get it to do it make my hair hot. There must be instructions or something on Youtube to help me become better at styling my own hair. Ponytails are getting boring.
9. Enter some 5K races. 3 would be my goal, anymore than that is icing on the cake!
10. Visit the Land of Oz amusement park in NC. There is a link on my Pinterest board. It's sounds so cool, it's been shut down for years but they have one weekend in the fall where previous employees give a tour and work on preserving it.
11. Check out Mount Olive. It's a real place in NC that hosts the pickle factory. They don't give tours but they do have a gift shop. I LOVE PICKLES. I wonder if they have sample or oddities there. I will investigate.
12. I need to visit Emma and Pat and Mongie in Boston before any of them leave.
13. Make some candles. They cost too much to buy. I know I can make them, it can't be that hard. I got a block of wax at GoodWill for $2.00. It's a sign from the universe that I should make these. 
14. I have started crocheting again. I need to branch out and try to make something circular like a HAT. I have too many scarves and nothing to keep my ears warm. 
15. I did get a degree in Spanish, it would be nice to refresh myself on the language. Hoping to take an intro class or Medical Terminology in Spanish at a local community college. Especially since the hospital will pay for 50% of it. Why not? OLE!
16. I am new here, I can't rely on Heather and Anthony for everything and I can't use the excuse of school. I need to make some FRIENDS.  
17. Food Festival. There are a lot of them around here. I like Beer and BBQ, I can try Bourbon even though I think I will hate it. Opening up my palate to some new experiences.
18. Hot Yoga. 
19. Join a Book Club. I like to read and maybe I can make some friends. 2 birds in one stone.
20. Volunteer somewhere. I like the idea of Meals on Wheels or some place with an older population. Put out some good karma into the universe.
21. Bike Trip. Not like the one Emma and Pat are doing. I'm thinking something more like a day trip. Supposedly NC has the largest bike path interstate system in the country. I'm hoping I can find something related to that and take off on 2 wheels.
22. Do a couple of REAL push ups. Not the girls version, the real way. I want some pipes for arms, ggrrrarrrrrr! I'll be RIPPED! Or at least a little stronger than I am now....
23. Watch Gone with the Wind. I have not seen the saga from start to finish. It's a classic, I'm in the south, Scarlette and I have a similar dramatic flair, why not?
24. Read 10 books. I know Nate is reading 30 but I'm busy doing all this other stuff too!
25. Hike something scenic around here. 
26. Visit Asheville, NC
27. Try Chicken and Waffles. Apparently there are some places around here that do it pretty well. Clog my arteries!
28. New Ink, on my body (Sorry Mom!)
29. Learn how to make homemade sausage. I've got Katrina's Grandmother's meat grinder, I need to put it to good use.
30. Go to the North Carolina State Fair. Anything you can imagine battered and deep fried is probably there. 

Some of my greatest recipes are a result of stalking Marisa McLellan's blog Food in Jars. I had searched through her entire recipe index and noticed that she had a page of blogs that she recommends and that is when I found the blog CakeWalk. The author of this site does lots of canning/preserving/baking and hails from the cheese capital of the USA, Wisconsin. I just made up that factoid. I'm not even sure if it's true but it sounds plausible. 

While I was poking around her blog I found this recipe for Pao de Queso. The pictures looks appetizing and the description had me geared up try this out. Apparently this is a popular snack in Brazil. Since Nate spent some time there in college I was excited to recreate some culinary delights from his travels. Unfortunately he had never heard of them. I also got another lesson in pronunciation. Using my Spanglish I thought I was making. POW DAY KAYSO but I guess those crazy Brazilians have to add their Portuguese flair to it and Nate informed me I was making POW DAY KAY-JEW. Pshh, I'm still going to make them. You can attempt to make your own mix or you can buy pre-packaged mix. I went with the easy way out so that I knew what I made was close to tasting like the real thing. Once I knew what I had to imitate I could fiddle with recipes from scratch. 

One of the perks of living in a big city like Philadelphia is that it is easier to find some of these ethnic goodies. I have no idea where I would get this mix from in Vermont. You can order it from Amazon or try and hunt it down at your local Latino market. I knew a market in NE Philly that sold Brazilian soda and candy so I headed up there in hopes that they would carry it. JACKPOT! They had more than one brand. It was cheap so I bought a couple and gifted one to my Mom since I knew she wouldn't be able to find it in VT.  It was pretty hectic since it was the weekend so I parked in a bank parking lot so I wouldn't have to search for street parking. As Nate and I were walking towards the mercado we were behind this woman who was not tiny or young but was wearing skin tight nude colored leggings like they were pants. You could see all her contours and lines, Look lady, nobody can pull of nude leggings, not even Beyonce so don't even try it. C'mon! It was a sight to behold. 

I digress yet again. It took me a couple of weeks to get the enthusiasm to make these. Once I pulled it out of the cupboard I realized all the directions were in Portuguese. I was able to get the basic info with my broken Spanish skills but was able to find a translation online to confirm. They were SO GOOD! Took 15 mins to prep and once they came out of the oven they were a dream. Cheesy, chewy and delightful. A bit addicting, I gobbled a boatload of them. I will say that they are best warm out of the oven. I ate the leftovers for the rest of the week and they were kind of like hard rocks but I didn't care because I liked them so much. You can roll out the dough and pop the balls in the freezer. Once they are frozen you can pull them out of the freezer and stick directly into the oven for fresh baked treats. I have included the recipe to make it from scratch (HERE) if you can't get a hold of the pre-made mix but I have yet to test it out. Oh and did I mention, they're GLUTEN FREE! 

I LOVE PINTEREST! I could lose myself for hours on Pinterest. Recipes, ideas for my future house that I haven't started saving for, how to be super fashionable, workout routines for when I feel like I might workout (someday...) and other countless ideas. It does no good to pin these ideas and then never try them. I mustered all the energy I had and selected an easy recipe to try out. It was so simple, DELISH and my sister sampled it and agreed that it was delectable. You can eat this like cereal or I like to mix it with yogurt. Sweet and salty which is right up my alley. I often wake up hungry for breakfast but want eat what I don't have. If I've made a batch of egg cups and cottage cheese for the week I will crave muffins, pancakes and fruit. Likewise if I make french toast, granola and fruit all I want to eat is eggs, meat and toast. This has the sweet and salty aspect so my minds and tummy aren't at odds with each other. 

 SALTY OLIVE OIL GRANOLA
Makes about 8 cups

INGREDIENTS
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups pecan halves, broken into pieces
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
½ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I go a little heavier on this)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins

PREPARATION
Preheat your oven to 300°F.

Combine oats, pecans, and pumpkin seeds in a large mixing bowl. Add maple syrup, sugar, olive oil, salt, and spices and toss until everything is evenly coated.

Spread mixture out on a large baking sheet with rims on all sides. Bake for about 30 minutes, then give it a good stir. Bake another 15 minutes or until the granola is golden brown and smells amazing. It will still be slightly soft and will harden as it cools.

Let granola cool completely. Add dried fruit and transfer to gift jars. (Don’t put it in jars before it’s totally cooled or it will get soggy.) It will keep for a few months in an airtight container at room temperature. Let's get real, it won't last that long. You will eat all of this in a week because it's so good.

I  know the title makes this post seem scandalous but I swear it's innocent. I got a ton of great recipes out of the January edition of Bon Appetite. One of them is for DIY Nut Milk. I have never really had nut milk (That sounds so dirty...) but the photos looked so good that I had to try it. If you want more detailed instructions they have a step by step video on the Bon Appetite website. I used a combination of almonds and cashews since I had some and they are my favorite nuts. You need to soak the nuts in water overnight. The longer the better. I added a step that wasn't included in the original recipe. After you have soaked your nuts I slipped the skins off all the almonds. It's completely optional but I was trying to limit the amount of sediment in my final product. I made it and then I forgot about it in the fridge. I can't really recall if I even sampled it. Nate did try some but I can't remember his reaction either. This is an unfortunate occurrence that happens more times than I want to admit. I was so excited to make it and then forgot to consume it before I moved. I can almost guarantee that it hasn't moved from it's original spot in the fridge door since I left. Nathan has a strange aversion to cleaning out the fridge. He just adds stuff to it. 


Nut Milk
INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup raw almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans, walnuts, cashews, or peanuts
• 4 teaspoons agave syrup (nectar)- I used Maple Syrup
• ⅛ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

• Calories (kcal) 90
• Fat (g) 8
• Saturated Fat (g) .5
• Cholesterol (mg) 0
• Carbohydrates (g) 5
• Dietary Fiber (g) 1
• Total Sugars (g) 3
• Protein (g) 1
• Sodium (mg) 70

PREPARATIONView Step-by-Step Directions

• Place nuts in a large bowl and add water to cover by 2”. Let stand at least 12 hours (this is key for silky, nongritty results; the longer the nuts soak, the smoother the milk will be).
  
• Drain nuts; discard soaking liquid. Purée nuts, agave, salt, and 4 cups very hot water (but not boiling; hot water yields creamier milk) in a blender on high speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing down on solids; discard nut pulp. Thin nut milk with water as necessary to reach desired consistency. Transfer to airtight container and chill until cold.