Pausing to Celebrate

Yesterday I Sabbathed, but I also was showered. Some friends in Seattle threw me the most delightful lingerie shower, which was so meaningful because it just is strange planning a wedding so far from home. Everything was just right, and I couldn't feel more loved. There were even special wishes sent from afar!

Here are some photos so you'll feel just as part of the celebration:

Lovely, right?

In Progress, but happy to pause,

Lacy

Signature Dish: Exhibit A

I had some friends growing up whose mother made the best chocolate chip cookies. They were so great that we always requested she make them for any get together we had, which in a small town means a lot of get togethers. I've always wanted to have something that people always wanted me to make for their get togethers as well: a signature dish, per say. I've been working really hard on my homemade pizza--from the dough to the sauce and beyond (many thanks to Jamie Oliver)--but for the lighter affair, I like to consider my signature dish homemade salsa, picante style.

Courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com

Now to give credit where credit is due, I originally got the amazing and simple salsa recipe from my friend from New Life Ranch, Teresa McKinney, but I eventually lost it (or rather, it fell between the refrigerator and the counter, never to be retrieved again). I remembered most of it, but went scouring on the internet to fill in the blanks. After all, this was one great find--it was delicious and made plenty for a party.

In sweeps the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, to the rescue. Her Restaurant Style Salsa recipe is practically the same, with amazing pictures to boot. I live out the jalapeño, because it's just not my fave, but I follow the rest to a "T"! So I do confess that it's more of a secondhand signature dish, but don't tell anyone.

However, I hereby give you permission to make it yours too. Here it is, straight from the Pioneer Woman, pictures and all:

Restaurant Style Salsa

thepioneerwoman.com

Ingredients

• 1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
• 2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
• ¼ cups Chopped Onion
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
• ¼ teaspoons Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
• ½ cups Cilantro (more To Taste!)
• ½ whole Lime Juice

Preparation Instructions

Note: this is a very large batch. Recommend using a 12-cup food processor, or you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

_______________________________

Don't forget to leave some at home for you! I'll be eating mine everyday until it's gone.

In Progress,

Lacy

Birthdays

Delicious photo of delicious cupcake from here.

Birthdays. We all have them. And we all deserve for them to be the best of our lives. Then again, we all deserve for each day to be the best of our lives, but it's far more easier to prioritize one day out of the year. Today, that day belongs to two important people in my life: my roommate, Katie Jensen, and my mom. It's easy for me to make my own day special, but as the birthdays come to pass of people that are close to me, I've begun to wonder, I can I help them really feel like this is their day? I know that special feeling I have when it's my birthday--it's the same one I had when I was five. Can I feel that same excitement for someone else too? I hope so. And I hope that I can make these people feel special. Because they are special. And I am happy they were born.

And I guess that is really what celebrating birthdays is all about, isn't it?

In Progress,
Lacy

Worth Two Days... At Least!

So yes, I didn't blog yesterday. And yes, I did forget. And yes, I did actually remember when I was in bed with the light off already half asleep... and yes, I simply went to sleep.

But today... oh, today, was an ultimate day. Because I did something that takes at least a week for me to do regularly, and it's only for the purpose of getting here to there at those times. Today I went on a miniature pilgrimage, Spanish-style. In Seattle. My friend David had walked a part of the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela a year ago, and as he was recollecting memories passed after a year gone by, he thought he might like to do a bit of walking to commemorate his time there. Knowing my interest in pilgrimage, he asked if I might like to go along.

Read about the pilgrimage here

I was intrigued and was immediately in, though he said that he was hoping to walk from his neighborhood, Magnolia, to West Seattle. It sounded really far... and it was. We left at 7am, stopped walking at 2pm, with only a tiny intermission for coffee at one of David's favorite spots along the way. But there's something so neat about walking endlessly--and I don't mean your average neighborhood walk. We noticed both things and people we never would have if we were in a car, and we weren't in any rush. Just on a pilgrimage of sorts to west Seattle. So how far did we walk, you ask? Drum roll please...

15 whopping miles. For  some reason David was thinking it would only be 6 1/2. At the end of the day I was certain it was at least 10. But it was 15. That's more than a 1/2 marathon! No bragging intended, I am just completely surprised, because we didn't really even know we were doing it! And who knows when that day will come again. My feet will tell me that answer tomorrow. 

After we decided to call it a day, we had celebratory fish and chips  and a drink as we waited for a bus that would take us a bus that would take us all the way back to David's house, where we had begun our day. And as a personal thank you to my feet, I bought this special treat on the way home to accompany my impending hot bath:

Photo from here.

And it was so, so lovely.

In Progress,

Lacy

Ladies' Night

Some lovely friends of mine, Meghan Cappon and Jenny Wanty, started a little get together called TATAS (read: ladies only). And every time we have it, it is always absolutely just what I need. Tonight that just so happened to be hot tubbing under clear Seattle skies, accompanied (beforehand) by wine and chocolate. It could also be true that I didn't have a chance to eat dinner, thus I had to eat more chocolate to survive.

It was complete loveliness, as ladies often are. And so, since you couldn't share in it, I leave you with a picture of loveliness with a healthy dose of femininity from a blog I recently found via my most favorite blog, hitherandthither.net. FYI, this picture just so happens to trace my desktop now, greeting me with the fullness of beauty every morning.

In Progress, with some lovely ladies,

Lacy

Climb Every Mountain

Or at least something similar, and I'm limiting that to the general Seattle vicinity and to hikes that do not require an ice pick. Yes, today we embarked on a tried and true adventure, and what I am hoping will be the first of many: the hike. I don't even know the name of the mountain we hiked--tiger something? But I know that it was close, and I know that it was lush, and I know that there was barely a cloud in the sky, so I'm not even sure we were actually in the Pacific Northwest.

Tall, tall trees.

There are snow capped mountains everywhere you turn in the Seattle area.
When there are no clouds, that is.

We made it! Apparently we climbed West Tiger #3.

The contrast between the downtown of my everyday and the wilderness that I can encounter within the same transit time astounds me. It really does seem like two different worlds. And maybe because it is. And in the same way nature draws me back from the city to what is true and authentic, I am feeling a tug in me as well. As I round out my first year at Mars Hill Graduate School/The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology etc., I feel the tug to return to my intention, and as I move closer I'm filled with life again.

These two also brought me life today on my journey:

Bri (old) and Alyssa (new). And me in the middle.

Two of my five roommates. One new, one old. Silver and gold indeed.

In Progress,
Lacy

Make a home; make a home in me.

Salisbury Cathedral, 2008

We gathered together with a group of friends from school tonight for the second round of musical lectio divina and contemplative spiritual engagement. We each wrote our own prayer and then passed them out at random. Here is the one I received:

Make a home.

Make a home in me.

Make me a home.

Teach me to trust you on the journey, as I carry home within me.

Teach me to trust you as I take root.

As the seeds we sow die and are raised again, over and over.

Give me people.

Give me places.

Give me work.

Give me Life.

Give me you.

Take our dreams and desires and hopes and fears. 

May we become a home to the homeless until we all go home.