Homemade Hot Sauce

Remember that habanero tree given to us by a friend who was moving (see the post here)? I used the ripe habaneros to make hot sauce. This process takes about a week and because I went back to work this week it took me almost two. Here's how it began, and the finished product:
I got the recipe from Bon Appetite, see it here.

I really should have used gloves and worn a face mask for destemming the habaneros. It ended up being okay because I washed my hands like crazy afterwards. However, my throat was burning the whole time!

I did not have kosher salt, so I subbed equal parts table salt and sea salt

 Day 1:

I left the jar sitting in my kitchen for 10 days, the recipe recommends 7. 

 Day 10:

As you can see my mini food processor was leaking the molten juice all over the counter!

Sieve inside of a funnel 

The recipe does not call for this, but I saved the habanero chili paste to use in recipes. 

The recipe says that the sauce can last in the refrigerator for up to 4 months. 

Desktop Collage

This is a collage I made for our desktop that I thought I'd share with you. Just a few pieces of who we are. My ego centered self happens to think the Swoon graffiti in the lower right corner is an uncanny resemblance to Christian and me. Check it out:

Explanation of the chosen pics:
From the top left around: "I Dream of Bluegrass" because I'm from Ky and no matter where I go, I will always dream in blue, C and I in NYC in 2007, underneath that is Vera's paw on our wedding day, Cinque Terre where we visited in 2008 (not our photo), Milo on the couch, a local New Orleans Banksy, dropped breakfast and part of C's sh*t I see on the ground series, a local Swoon, one of the most inspiring quotes summing up why I'm a teacher**, C and me in Santa Barbara 2012, and finally a tree house because when I met C I told him I wanted to live in the trees and shortly after he introduced me to The Hostel in the Forest and made my dream come true.

**If you can't read the quote from the collage, this is what it says:
"There's no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, OR it becomes "the practice of freedom," the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." ~ Paulo Freire

I get chills every time I read that :)

Another Evening of Art, Music, & Community

We hosted our monthly opening at 1239 Congress. With the time and efforts of our friends back in New Orleans we were able to smooth out the logistics for another great show from California. This month featured paintings by t. s. pew & Heady Pardew, a video installation by Michelle Nicolette Kowalski , and music by Rhea Makiaris (which you can hear here). 

Here is a taste of the artworks, if you would like to see more or if you see anything you would like to have contact the artist links above. If you'd like to see the show while it's still up contact us for a reservation.

t. s. pew

Heady Pardew

Michelle Nicolette Kowalski

Rhea Makiaris

Hotel California

Apologies for the hiatus, we just got back from 10 days in sunny California where the temperatures were below 75 and the humidity was 0.  In spite of this lovely weather that one could certainly get used to, it was almost refreshing to step off the plane and back into the sticky New Orleans heat.

We had such a great trip! We left from LAX, drove 5 hours North to the South entrance of Yosemite National Park. There we spent three days hiking three very different paths. we saw things we have never seen anywhere before and I challenged myself to some serious heights.

Day 1: Biking and hiking around the valley floor

The valley floor with Yosemite Falls in the background 

The bridge in the distance is where we started our bolder climbing journey to the base of the falls

Day 2: hike to Sentinel Dome and the Fissures at Taft Point

The view from the top

on our way back down 

The Fissures:

         

Day 3: hiking Mariposa Grove where the Giant Sequoia trees live

Giant trunk from underneath

Giant pinecone 

Giant trees 

Giant drop

After our hike we drove the 4 hours south to Santa Barbara, CA via a pit stop at Bass Lake for awesome burger @ The Forks. With my mom and sister we rented an adorable little house on a quiet street a few blocks from the beach. This part of our trip was extremely relaxing and we didn't take too many pictures, not even of the great meals we ate. Here are some highlights:

The Beach

The Harbor

                           

Oysters at Brophy Brothers 

Saw some old friends,

met some new friends.

Santa Barbara Wine Country  

Bridlewood Estate Winery Tasting

Roblar Tasting

Coquelicot Tasting Room

On our way back from wine country we stopped at this mountain gem. Cold Spring Tavern was established in the 1860's as a stage coach stop and then was later purchases by a family in 1941. We went on Sunday, their most popular day. Aside from a cover band playing 80's rock, Sundays are special because they serve up their famous tri tip sandwich pop up style in the back of the main restaurant.

The Santa Barbara Mission:

Outside of the Mission was remnants of a chalk art competition

Last Day in Venice Beach:

Before catching our evening flight out of LAX (the rest of the family had already left), C and I bummed around Venice Beach for the day eating tacos and enjoying street art.