succulentville

                                   

                                   

yup. obsessed. i have too many, but there will be more to come. i'm sure of it. 

a trip to the farm

a few days ago i went with my mom, christalyn, and matt to heritage hen farm in boynton. in the summer they're only open from 5pm-7pm. i found out about them from the delray green market that was held on saturdays in the fall and spring. i was craving their raw butter and decided to get everyone together to go get some delicious raw farm fresh ingredients. 

the cows were beautiful. and look at those horns!

i got to feed her sunflower leaves. 

cute food stand :) 

huge foot wide sunflower 

they have 200!

i got half  a dozen fresh eggs, raw butter, raw cream, and raw cheese.

and i'm soooo happy :) 

and why is that?

"raw butter provides the missing good and beneficial fats, which are rare in the standard american diet. raw butter from grass pasture fed cows is filled with metabolically available vitamin A and E, lecithin, antioxidants, selenium, healthy cholesterol, beneficial bacteria, and enzymes. raw butter contains factor X: essential for optimal bone, brain, and nervous system development."

pasteurization kills nutrients!

check out this website for more info! 

raw is definitely costly, but worth it. soon i'll be making my own. 

best 'lil town

these adorably gorgeous ladies are staying at the seagate hotel and they got a taste of the spa today. i massaged patricia and she was a total sweetheart. they're doing an "on the road" traveling tour of small u.s. towns for usa today and delray is on their list this weekend. after they're done they'll be choosing the best town they visited... wonder if delray will win???

college

as most of you know, i graduated highschool in the early graduation program. it took me 3 years to graduate instead of 4. i just did junior and senior classes all at once to get it over with. i hated highschool. 

after graduation in 2004, i had no idea what to do. i was contemplating going to massage school for a few months beforehand, so that's what i did. i went to massage school full time, monday through friday from 8-4 for 6 1/2 months. i graduated in january of 2005. i was so happy i went. the program was amazing. now i've been a practicing massage therapist for about 7 years. even when i went abroad to prague and taught english as a foreign language, i managed to still do just a little massage trading here and there with this great scottish therapist named mariota. it was nice to take a break from massage as a career, though. my hands and wrists were sore and weak. 

now that i've been back in florida for a year now(end of may marked a year!) and doing massage full time, it has taken a toll again. as much as i love helping others, i've just been aching to get something new going for myself. 

after 5 years or so of just the idea, i finally researched a bit into american sign language interpreting program. the 2 year AA degree may possibly be switching into a 4 year BA degree soon.... which i don't have. anyhow... the closest campus holding accredited classes starting fall semester are at broward college north campus. so i applied. in. then i noticed the ASL1 class i wanted to take was filled. so everyday i kept refreshing the class and hoped that someone would drop it. well someone finally did, so i registered. in.


the school seems slightly... ghetto... not so... fancy. and a good 30-40 minutes away, but maybe that won't matter. the teacher is so amazing already. she's been emailing me and even had me call her to ask her any questions i had. i already feel more at ease. 

therefor i'll be starting "school" august 24th in the fall. it's a class that only meets once a week for 3 1/2 hours, and it's only 4 credits... but atleast i'm trying something.

i'm excited... and nervous. i haven't taken a class since our TEFL teaching certification course in prague 2 years ago. and before that it had been 5 years since i was in school. i'm just really rusty.. and super picky. i dislike math, science, history.... etc. so ASL it is. 

here's to hoping that i love the class :) even it doesn't turn into a career, it's something new to learn and keep my brain from molding. and if i don't like it... i'll just drop it(i have to within the first week to get a full refund)... 

BUT WAIT!--- i'm still going to open up a restaurant! that's my goal.

i know i've got a lot of supporters out there. it's going to be a long road. 

contemplations for a restaurant.

people just don't fucking get the noodle soup thing.

it's cause they just don't know what i mean. 

cheeeeeeeeeeeseeee

i miss my students in prague. some of them were so cute. we told them to say cheese and they wouldn't stop. most of them probably didn't even now what it meant. 

food book fair

my brother leif did this amazing dinner in brooklyn in may. he was featured in the new york times blog  and npr  also wrote about it.


suchhhhh a cool brother. love him. 

mountain sound

hi

i like you, too, asian. 

peddle boating on the vltava river in prague

 

i think one of my favorite things to do are water related. i love tubing, white water rafting, peddle boating... or just being on a boat in general. as a native floridian, i actually don't love swimming in the ocean. unless of course it's flat and warm and clear. all three of those things. and there are no sharks or sealice or sea creatures. i could go on. 

while living in prague, we  went peddle boating twice. i think in my brain it was more times than that because it's all i ever wanted to do when it was nice out. 

the first time we went with a whole group of us; matt and i in one boat, and then drew, sara, katelyn hobbs and diana in another boat. we enjoyed bohemian potato chips while peddling around the vltava river through the amazing architecture of prague 1. 

the second time we went was the day before we moved back to florida. we brought along some wine and cherries and cried. 

how could you not want to live there?

i think that day it all sank in that we were leaving. now i ask myself:

why? 

quinoa bean and feta burgers

val and i attempted to make these quinoa burgers. instead of kidney beans i decided to use white beans. they were incredibly delicious and full of flavor. the only problem? they fell apart quite a bit white they were cooking. the recipe calls for 2 egg whites... not sure why. next time i'll definitely be using the whole eggs and possibly some flour or bread crumbs to hold them together. it obviously didn't make a different in flavor, they were just falling apart while we ate them. 

we also made an arugula, tomato, parmesan salad. 

and truffle parmesan potatoes!

and our burger was green style. 

and of course a cocktail. 

things i make

arrow leaves

gift for eruch

broccoli, pepper, feta cheese frittata 

lavash pizza

quinoa salad

watermelon cocktails

matzo ball soup making

lox brunch

mixed jasmine, vanilla, and nagchampa

kiwi cocktails

business card holder

now that i'm making my own business cards, i figured it'd be nice to have a separate wallet for them to keep in my purse so that i always have them on me to give out to people. i recently bought these two cute holders on etsy. they're the perfect size and also really good for credit cards and cash. 

this crochet holder was only $6 from handanmade.

it holds a lot of cards. even my thick cardboard ones.

and this cute elephant one is from brooklynlove design for $15. 

basilic vietnamese grill

my addiction to pho is becoming fantastic. i researched a bit and it didn't take long to find a restaurant in pompano that i knew we had to try. a few weeks ago we went and tried the pho. probably the best i've ever had. i tried the grilled chicken pho, and matt had the combination meat(steak/brisket) pho. they also served delicious rice crackers as soon as we got there. we will definitely be going back... 

i heard about the dandee donut factory which is also in pompano so we stopped by after lunch to try out some donuts to go. mmmm :)