Avocado Mac

Oh.My.Goodness.

Last weekend I made Avocado Macaroni & Cheese, and it was the best recipe I have tried in a very, very long time.  Everybody knows that I love me some macaroni & cheese, so it may not be much of a surprise that I made this dish pretty much as soon as I had set eyes on it.  Thank you very much, Pinterest.  

Here is the original recipe.  I know it doesn't look incredibly fantastic in the photos below, but seriously, this was delicious.  Creamy and cheesy and avocado-y.  Disclaimer:  Even with the lime juice blended in, the avocados turned everything brown after a day in the fridge, so I recommend leftovers simply be consumed before they get the chance to become leftovers.

8 oz. whole wheat elbow macaroni

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 large avocados, peeled and pitted

2 tbsp. fresh lime juice

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Salt and pepper, to taste

1.  Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot and add in macaroni.  Stir and cook until Al Dente, about 87-9 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

2.  While the pasta cooks, make the avocado sauce by placing the garlic, avocados, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper into a food processor or blender.  Process until smooth and creamy.  Set aside.

3.  For cheese sauce, place butter in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  When butter is melted, whisk in flour to create a paste.  Whisk in milk until smooth.  Stir with a wooden spoon until the sauce starts to thicken.  Add Jack cheese and stir until cheese is melted and sauce is creamy.

4.  Place macaroni in a large bowl.  Pour avocado sauce over the macaroni and stir until well-coated.  Ass the cheese sauce and stir until macaroni is coated and creamy.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Serve warm.

*I added Parmesan cheese to the dish when I mixed the avocado sauce and cheese sauce into the pasta.  I also added a cooked chicken breast, cut into small chunks.  The addition of chicken made this into enough food for more than two full meals for two people.  De-li-cious.

Strawberries!

Last month while I was slaving away to strip paint off of that old door, Josh was working on a little project of his own.  He got a wild hair while perusing the garden section of Lowe's one day, and decided that he wanted to have his very own strawberry patch.  At our house.  So guess what we have on our patio now?

I was skeptical at first, but as it turns out, strawberries do quite well in Albuquerque during the spring.  Most of the berries we've gotten so far have been pretty tiny, but they're ripe and edible and quite tasty.  The other day we made our first batch of daiquiris (supplemented by some extra berries from the local Mexican fruit stand), and I baked some strawberry cinnamon bread.  I didn't manage to get any photos of the bread, but it's delicious.  Recipe below.

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Strawberry Cinnamon Bread

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon (or, if you're me, 5 or 6)
4 eggs, beaten
1.5 cups oil
2 (10oz) packages frozen strawberries thawed or 2-3 cups fresh strawberries sliced

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Form a hole in the middle, mix the eggs and oil, and pour into hole.  Add berries and mix by hand.  Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Cool before cutting.  I recommend consuming with either cream cheese or Nutella.

More Thriftyness

After many, many hours of stripping, scraping, sanding, patching, caulking, painting, and drinking wine... my latest furniture project is finally complete!  A while back, I found a photo of a dining room table made from an old door.  I immediately loved the idea, and figured it would be a cool look for an outdoor patio table.  I hadn't made any serious attempts to find such a door, but the last time Josh and I were in Santa Fe, we stopped by the Habitat ReStore to look around and found this great door.

At first I didn't even realize that the side panels were made of glass instead of wood, and I loved the carved decorative panels in the center.  We realized pretty quickly that this thing was coated in probably 6-7 layers of paint, the wood surface was not in the best of shape, and the caulk around the glass panels was practically disintegrating.  I didn't really have a plan for how this door would become a table, but the first step was to strip everything down so that I could figure out how to paint the thing.

The de-painting process took me about three weekends to finish.  We went through a big tub of heavy-duty paint stripper and I destroyed a couple of brushes and scrapers while working on the door, which was set up on sawhorses in the front yard.  FYI:  Paint stripper hurts like hell when it gets splattered on bare feet.  I recommend not wearing sandals when dealing with such substances.

I finally got most of the paint scraped off with a lot of elbow grease and managed to clean all of the paint off of the glass (which, remarkably, is in great shape with the exception on a crack in one panel).  Josh helped me patch up some of the cracks and low spots in the wood, I re-caulked all of the glass, and then we gave it a good sanding to prepare for paint.

I decided on some bright Southwestern colors and got to work painting.  Mostly this went smoothly and quickly, but detailing the carved areas in the middle panels took a lot of time with a small brush.  Not knowing if I'd be able to make it look the way I wanted, my backup plan was to simply keep the middle panels a solid color.  Luckily, it turned out pretty well.

Finally, we picked up some table legs from Lowe's and after I painted them to match the table, Josh got to use his power tools to put things together.  

TA-DA!  Now we just need to find some funky, mismatched old chairs that I can paint and put on the patio with our new table.  Hitting up the garage sales this weekend in hopes of scoring something cool.  Barbecue time is just around the corner.

Back in the saddle again.

No, not that kind of saddle.  Everybody knows that me and horses don't mix.

That's right folks, I'm riding my bike regularly again, and loving it.  And I've registered for a bike race next month!  Yay!

Although I'm in the field four days per week right now, I've been getting in as much riding as possible.  Josh and I have made some new cycling friends too, so once a week we head up to the foothills to train in the hills and hit up coffee shops with the group.  I'm finally adjusted to the higher elevation here, and I feel like I'm getting my bike legs back after seriously slacking for quite some time now.  So, bring on the races!

I was hoping that by this time I'd be ready to ride the entire Santa Fe Century.  I've come to the realization that while I could finish the century, I would definitely be hurting and it would NOT be pretty.  So, I've decided to race the 50-mile option at the same event.  I'll try to get a decent time, enjoy the scenery, and get a glimpse of what I'll be up against next year for the full ride.  And there are still plenty of century races to sign up for in the remainder of 2012.  

We're also signed up to run the Warrior Dash in a couple of weeks.  This will be interesting considering that I've not run more than five steps in months, but there is mud and obstacles involved, so I think I'll manage to enjoy myself either way.  I'll report back with results.

I don't expect my field schedule to lighten any time soon (in fact, it may increase), but hopefully if I can continue to sign up for races then I will continue to be motivated to train as much as possible.  A step in the right direction, at least.  And really, to be honest, it's just all about the sexy bike-shorts and sunglasses tan lines.  Rawr.