Lovely Cherries

It's spring! Hoo-ray! The smell of cut grass fills the air. Everything is a lovely vibrant green, new green, young green. And the trees are filled with flowers. 

I love this time of year. So pretty. 

a spring project

I have been working on striping this window for about two days now. (2 hours) Then I will paint it and hang it on the wall of my bedroom as a large picture frame. I hope to have this done by the end of this month. I'm already kinda over it. But I will finish it! :-) 

75th Year of legal drinking

Last Friday, in honor of the repeal of prohibition, we went down to Capital Hill and drank beers with some very large horses. 

It really was fun. 

MMMmmm... Spicy Pickled Carrots.

Whenever I visit The OC I always make a trip to Mereno's Mexican restaurant solely because they make these fantastic spicy pickled carrots that I can not get enough of. One time I even got an order to go and carried them back on the plane. (It was tense, not the kind of thing you want to spill on a plane, or in your purse for that matter.)  I have spent the last two summers trying to duplicate this recipe in my own kitchen and just couldn't quite figure it out... I came very close, but still. 

 

I went to Mereno's again on this trip and was lamenting about the fact that I couldn't get the carrots right at home to anyone who would listen, or not listen but smile politely anyway. 

Now before anyone even thinks it, yes, I did ask at the restaurant about the recipe but they were not very forth coming. "carrots, jalapenos, and onions" yeah, I can see that much, but what else. The waiter just shrugged and brought me a bowl of them to go.  

Anyway, back to this trip... When I came back home and was going through the mail I see that I had received the newest issue of Everyday Food magazine. Can you guess what was on page 116 of issue #51? 

Yes, Spicy Pickled Carrots! I laughed out loud. I tried this version out the next day and YES! Yippee! This is it! (what did I expect they are just pickled carrots) 

So I am now living happily ever after, as far as carrots go. So pleased. Who would have ever thought it would turn out so cliched as Martha Stewart to the rescue.