Heading to Washington!

I am leaving on Monday for Washington to visit my family for the holidays! I last saw everyone in August and it will be nice to be back up north for the wintry season -- as long as there aren't any crazy snowstorms like last year!

I always love going home and there is something really nice about Washington during the holiday season that just doesn't exist here in Miami. I have to put some finishing touches on peoples' gifts once I get home, but I am almost all done with "shopping" this year -- the great thing about having a (mostly) hand-made Christmas was that I didn't have to brave the hordes of crazed loonies at the mall. Next stop...Washington!!

Holiday Nights with Wild Lights

Last weekend, Carlos and I visited the zoo (apparently one of our favorite past-times!) at night for the Holiday Nights with Wild Lights event. From 7-11 pm the zoo is open (but not most of the animal exhibits) and lights in the shapes of animals are lit up everywhere! It was really cool and pretty -- it was exciting to visit the zoo at night. There was even a little exhibit area with moving animal dolls and decorated trees set up inside one of the buildings. I think my favorite animal lights were the manatees, fox, and giraffes -- they were all really pretty though.

Pear tomato

The third and final tomato variety in our balcony garden is the pear tomato. This plant was grown from seed that Carlos brought back from Washington in August -- taken from tomatoes that we bought at the Redmond Farmer's Market. Though not as prolific as the Everglades tomato, this vine produces little (~ 3cm length) pear-shaped fruits that are quite tasty.

Early Girl tomatoes

All of the tomatoes in our little balcony garden are fruiting now -- it must be the cooler weather (even though it is still in the 80's!). This is the second of our tomato varieties: it's called Early Girl (tomato varieties have strange names). These tomatoes are the largest that we grow (diameter ~ 4cm) and are delicious. Though I like the Everglades tomatoes slightly better, these are easier to use in salads. There are tons of green fruits still on the vine so we will hopefully get to eat lots more of these before we leave for Washington in a week!

Asian snacks -- Soda candies

I bought these soda candies a reeeaaally long time ago (I also ate them a long time ago), so my review of them might be a little hazy. I remember that they were very good and I will buy them again if I see them. There were 6 flavors of candies in the package: purple = grape, aqua blue = ramune (a type of clear Japanese soda), yellow = lemon, orange = orange, clear = apple, and brown = cola.

All of the candies were fizzy (like soda) and had nice, strong flavors. My favorites were apple, cola, and ramune (but all of them were really good). Even the shapes of the candies were really cute -- they resembled little smiling imps!

Anyway, I am trying to go through some of the things I have put into my little "to blog about" folder that I have accrued over the year -- there are a lot of craft things I have been working on, but I can't post about them because I am doing hand-made gift-giving this year and I don't want to spoil any present surprises. Frustrating! At least after the holidays I will have lots to post about.

PS. Happy birthday Shannon -- see you in a little over a week!

Alpaca wool felt

For my birthday, my parents sent me a little box of thick, colorful, furry felt made from the wool of alpacas from Peru. The felt is colored with vegetable dyes and is really good quality. I am using it very sparingly in a few little crafts (including some Christmas presents for family and friends). It's hard for me to use it because I think I will mess up and waste this rare, lovely felt -- but what's the point of holding onto it and keeping a little pile of felt squares? I am transforming this felt into cool stuff!

Everglades tomatoes

We have an Everglades tomato vine in our balcony garden and it is starting to prolifically produce fruits! This tomato is native to Florida and is an heirloom (non-hybrid) that grows in the wild. The fruits are very tiny (~1 cm diameter) and delicious. These tomatoes are extremely sweet and "tomato-y" -- I don't really know what that means, but they have a lot of flavor for such a small fruit!

Another cool thing about this type of tomato is that it grows well all year in Florida -- most tomatoes can't handle the hot summers here. We planted this tomato when we re-started our garden in August and the vine is already huge and hanging over the balcony! Our other tomato varieties (we have three total) are also beginning to produce ripe fruits and I will have to talk about them as they are ready.

Another zoo visit!

After a little blog-break, I am back! Yesterday, Carlos and I took advantage of the sunny but cool (~70 F) weather and visited the Miami Metro Zoo -- one of my favorite zoos (and, apparently, one of "America's top ten zoos")! We looked at a bunch of the holiday decorations that are out (including scarecrows and animal-shaped lights) and spent most of our time in the Asian exhibits.

We stopped at a few exhibits along our way to the Wings of Asia aviary (one of my favorite places in this zoo, as I've mentioned many times before!). We were very lucky this morning since we saw lots of birds that we had never seen before and they were all really active and talkative! It was also nice in the aviary since it was still early (10 am) and no one was there, but us (and the birds).

From there, we wandered over to see the Asian small-clawed otters -- they were supposed to be fed Christmas pine cones at noon. They didn't get pine cones, but a keeper fed these three fellows live fishies and it was so cool to watch them swim, chase, and catch the fish.

By the time we were done watching the otters, it was getting hot and crowded so we left, stopped at Costco (it's near the zoo), and came home -- what a fun day!

Happy birthday mama!

Well, today is the last day of NaBloPoMo -- I made it! It is also my mama's birthday, Happy birthday mama! (And...the last day of hurricane season -- I have already been snacking on my emergency food supplies in celebration.)

Mom, here is a little preview of the present that is on its way:

It is a chipmunk with a bushy tail! I don't know why...

Anyways, happy birthday mom, and I might take a little break from blogging to find more things to post about -- I'm a little burnt out after 30 days of daily blogging!

Red felt ball ornament

In my recent craftings, I made this little red felt ball ornament from a project that I saw online. It was pretty easy and I think it turned out cute and geometric. Sometimes it is a little lop-sided and not completely symmetrical, but I like these characteristics that let you know it is hand-made. Basically, you cut out 6 circles of felt, sew them together down the middle, then start folding little tacos and stitching the sides all around the globe -- maybe I will make another one in a different color!

PS. Tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo -- I think I'm going to make it! I also have a committee meeting to prepare for and a final figure to finish for a manuscript...wargh!

More garden harvest and some potato soup

Last night we had a really great dinner of soup and salad. Carlos made his signature Colombian soup and I made a salad using two new lemon cucumbers that we had just harvested from the garden -- that cucumber plant is producing a lot of fruits!

The Colombian potato soup centers around the use of small, yellow Colombian potatoes: papas criollas. We made this soup while we were home in Washington last August, but we couldn't find papas criollas in any of the markets -- too far from Latin America I guess. These potatoes are pretty bright yellow and small (~2-3 cm in length). Here is a comparison with a yukon gold potato.

The soup was delicious and the light fresh taste of our home-grown lemon cucumbers made a nice salad!

Thanksgiving aftermath

Yesterday, I had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with Carlos and Orou. I talked to my mom, dad, and sister on the phone and I am getting excited to see everyone in December!

We had a pretty early dinner consisting of maple ham (it was delicious and sweet!), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, and sliced, from-the-can cranberry sauce. We had some authentic Colombian beer and sangria to drink with our food -- it all turned out really nice and didn't even take very long to make!

During dinner we chatted and listened to Manheim Steamroller Christmas tunes and the Lord of the Rings soundtracks -- this is tradition! After stuffing ourselves, Orou went home and Carlos and I watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation while digesting and snoozing. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, I played a little Wii (Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask -- more tradition here!), and taking a break.

This morning, we braved the crazed hordes of shoppers and visited Target (to buy a $20 DVD player since ours recently broke) and Best Buy. We found our DVD player and also bought the Goonies DVD for $4 -- woo-hoo bargains! Today we will take it easy but I do have to prepare for a committee meeting on Monday. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving -- which means I don't have to teach - yahoo! Anyways, Carlos and I are just making a few tasty things that my family usually makes (and some things we usually don't make). Since it's just the two of us (plus our friend Orou), we will make:

• A maple ham instead of turkey -- it was cheaper, smaller, and we both like ham better than turkey

• Mashed potatoes

• Sweet potato casserole (with mini marshmallows and everything)

• Cranberry sauce -- the can-shaped kind

• Salad

That's about it, we also have some wine/beer and we will listen to Manheim Steamroller Christmas music and Lord of the Rings soundtracks as per tradition. Even though I can't spend this holiday with the rest of my family, I will be able to see everyone again soon for Christmas!

Crafting

I am working on a bunch of crafts in my spare time (what's that??) -- in between writing, analyzing, reading, and revising. The only problem is that I want to take pictures and make a post about them on my blog, but then some people might see them (basically the only people that read my blog will be getting some of these things for presents) and then they will spoil their gift surprises for the holidays! It is such a quandary. I have decided that I will take pictures of some things now but I will exercise my self-restraint and not post them until after I have already given presents to people -- wah!

Anyways, partially to save money and partially because I think handmade gifts are awesome, I am giving most of my friends and family handmade gifts for birthdays and holidays this year. There is even a movement in the crafting community where you can pledge to only give handmade things -- not necessarily things made only by you, but other handmade gifts that you purchase directly from the makers (e.g. on Etsy). I think this is a really cool idea and I feel that more thought goes into gifts that people make themselves. Take THAT mega-corporations!

Lemon cucumber in the garden

This morning we picked our first lemon cucumber (Cucumis sativus) from our huge vine! Carlos has been growing this fruit from seed that we brought back from Washington in August -- this vine is so huge! Lemon cucumbers are spherical and light yellow with a light cucumber-ish taste.

Cucumbers are members of the squash plant family (Cucurbitaceae) and are monoecious which means that both male and female flowers are produced on the same plant (as opposed to dioecious species that produce male and female flowers on separate plant individuals). In this cucumber, the male flowers are produced first, then the female flowers. You can distinguish the different flowers by the presence or absence of an enlarged ovary (baby cucumber) at the base which female flowers have and males don't.

We will eat our lemon cucumber tonight since they ripen quickly and it might go bad.