Guac and Salsa

It didn't take long for me to put my little molcajetes (salsa bowls) to good use. Yesterday afternoon I had a great snack of home made guacamole made by lil ol me. I paired it with some of my mom's home made salsa!

Don't these pictures make you hungry? It was yummy!


Guacamole is super simple to make too. This was just one avocado mashed, half a tomato diced into small chunks and one jalapeno (I like it spicy) chopped and diced teeny tiny. Mix in a bowl with salt, garlic power and onion powder. Eazy Peazy! Sometime I add sour cream to make it a little creamier and not as chunky and also to make it more so I can share :0)

I can't tell you how to make the salsa because salsa making is just not my thing! My idea of making salsa is to take a jar of Pace Picante Sauce, put it in the blender and blend it to bits. Thank goodness my mom is around to make the salsa!

Once the weather cools down and we can stand to be in the kitchen I'll try to get her to do a step by step tutorial in making home made salsa.

Whew, I'm getting hungry again. Buen Dia!

Thrift Shop Treasures

Once again it's time to show off my thrift shop treasures. I'm joining again Rhoda's "Southern Hospitality's" Thrifting Treasures party. Be sure to go visit Rhoda and all the other party goer's and see what treasures they found.

I didn't get around to much thrifting this weekend. Too many errands to do. I had a fix-it man come fix my leaking toilet on Saturday morning. Then I also had to pick up my lower mower which was being repaired and I also had to get my car smogged. Pretty much took up all my yard-saleing, thrift shopping time!

Luckily I did make my Friday after work visit to the American Cancer Society's Discovery Store...where I scored that beautiful kitchen table a couple of weeks ago!

This week I found something really special and it was only $2.00! It's a home decorating book/binder! And I love it!

Here's the front cover. The title is Creative Home Decorating, Easy Ideas for a Beautiful Home. It's published by International Masters Publishers. It's one of those companies where they send you a set of cards every month until you have the whole collection. It doesn't seem like they have this particular collection for sale anymore but the ones they do have charge about $7.95 for a set of cards. So this book probably cost someone between $240 to $300, and I got it for $2.00!! Whhhooooo hooooooo!

As you can see it's a pretty thick book and it's totally a complete set!

The first page of each card shows a project. . . (click on the photo to enlarge details)

then the page folds open with instructions and pictures to help you do the project.

The last page shows a couple of other different ideas using the same technique.


I don't know how many of these projects I will actually end up doing, but I did find one idea for someones birthday that is coming up in October. But Shush, it's a secret.

I didn't link up to Rhoda's party last week because I went to visit my daughter in Turlock, but I did do some thrift store shopping and found some treasures to share with you.

I found these cute little plastic "molcajete's". These molcajetes will not be used to make or serve the dish I told you about from my dinner at Mi Casa. Nope, these little beauties will be for guacamole or salsa, maybe a pico de gallo. Mmmmm, mouth is watering already! Don't you love the bright happy colors? And guess what? They were only 19cents each!

Here's another 19cent item. A cute little salt shaker. What I loved about this shaker is the color. I love green in any shade. It makes me feel calm and happy.

Also found a beautiful leaf plate to display for Autumn and a lovely wrought iron plate holder to hold it.

I hung it in my living room next to another thrift store treasure that I bought many months ago, this mirrored window. I have a small shelf I want to place underneath, but I haven't had the time or energy to paint it. I'm thinking that I'm going to do a plate of the month. Like this one will be for September since that is the month Autumn officially starts, then I'll do a turkey plate for Thanksgiving, a Christmas plate, etc. Not sure what to do for New Years, any ideas?

On a side note I bought this pretty little dish at Big Lots on Friday night after having dinner with my mom and my sister. Isn't it awesome? I love the color and I'm a big fan of butterflies already! See butterflies here, here, and over here. This was a thrifting bargain since it was reduced to $3.00.


So that's it for this week. I'm heading over to Rhoda's to see what treasures everyone else scored. Please feel free to become a follower and have a great week!

Iwanna Wednesday

"I can't say I was ever lost,
but I was bewildered once for three days." ~ Daniel Boone

You would never be lost if you have the item Iwanna today.

About 1993 or so my boss gave me tickets to take my kids to Los Angeles to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play baseball. They had season tickets. He let me leave early and gave me directions on how to get there.

We got there eazy peazy! And we had a wonderful time. The weather was great, the crowd was enthusiastic and the Dodger Dogs were...ummm, well they were Dodger Dogs!

The bad part is I got directions on how to get there...but I didn't get directions on how to leave. All I know is I should have turned left, but I went right.

I ended up in the ghetto somewhere. In a scary, dark part of Los Angeles with an 8 and 12 year old and almost no gas. I was fully prepared defend myself and my kids with my son's new souvenir...a foot long plastic Dodger Baseball Bat! Luckily it didn't come to that and I found my way back to the freeway and civilization and eventually back home.

But I was scared and I will never forget that feeling. That's why what Iwanna today is this!
GPS! GPS! IWANNA ... GPS!

With this I could go anywhere and have a guide to keep me from straying into the wrong neighborhood.

The best thing I like about it is what my daughter April used it for this weekend. She used it to find us all the Goodwill stores in Turlock and Modesto! Now you see why Iwanna this item?

GPS! GPS! IWANNA ... GPS! (Can you tell I was a cheerleader in high school?)

My Fun Weekend

This weekend my mom, my sister and I went to go visit my daughter up in Turlock. We had a great time. We did a lot of thrifting and found some wonderful treasures which I will share with you later.

We found a wonderful restaurant called Mi Casa (My Home) and I want to share pictures of one of their specialties called a Molcajete. A Molcajete is a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle tool. It looks like this. . .


I remember my mom and my aunts all having one of these and using it to grind up spices. I know my mom used to have one, not sure what happened to it.

In the picture above you can see that a Molcajete is made out of stone. At this restaurant we went to they take this stone and place it over an open flame and heat it up until it's red hot and they place whatever meat you've chosen along with broth and salsa in the molcajete and heat it up. When they are ready to bring it to your table they pile on shredded cheese. The molcajete arrives at the table still bubbling. It is pure ambrosia. It is served with beans, rice, pico de gallo, tortillas and guacamole. It's the most unique dish I've ever seen in a restaurant.

My daughter ordered one and I'm glad she did. I hope to try one next time! I took some photos, but they don't do it justice, but hopefully you get an idea. . .

The green stuff hanging out are green onions that have wilted due to the heat of the dish. When they place this in front of you - you feel it! It is boiling, sizzling hot!

The cheese gets all melty and gooey as it sits in front of you and it's a dish that doesn't get cold quickly. Here's the empty finished Molcajete. Looks like lava doesn't it? Well that's basically what it is, stone hot lava in a Molcajete. If you ever make it to Turlock you have to try it!!

Here's some photos of what the rest of us had, but trust me...after seeing and tasting the Molcajete we wished we had ordered one.

I had these Sopes, which actually were very delicious. I got them with carnitas...shredded pork.

My sister had these tacos, which I believe were Carne Asada, or maybe Carnitas, don't remember and a Mango & Jicama salad with Mango Dressing.

My mom ordered this humongous burrito filled with carnitas. She could barely eat 1/4th of this dish.


So if you ever get a chance to make it to this restaurant, don't be chicken like me...order this dish, it's wonderful!

Sweets and Things

“So long as the sugar is on the tongue, you feel the sweetness in taste. Similarly, so long as the heart has love, peace and devotion, you feel the bliss.” ~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual Leader)

Yesterday's post was about sugar. While I was trying to find an easier way to do that post by finding a website I could just link to I found a lot of really great stuff about sugar and sweets that I wanted to share.

I didn't put it in yesterday's post because after scaring you (and me) to death about how much sugar we eat, I didn't want to tempt you by showing you creative and beautiful ways to use sugar.

But today is another day, so onward and upward!

First, some pictures from Home Sweet Home, Expressions in Confectionery Art.

They even have ebooks you can purchase to learn how to create your own Confectionery Art. Sounds like a lot of fun, but just imagine if you had to eat all your mistakes?

Then I found this beautiful picture and I had to read more about it! And you can too at Prima Donna Bride.

She shows you how to make these beautiful little sugar cubes here. They are so super simple that I think even I could make them! Wouldn't they look beautiful on cupcakes, wedding cakes, as decorations on tablesscapes for weddings and showers?

And for those of you that don't want to eat sugar cubes, how about bathing in them?

You can find these lovely little effervescent cubes at L'Occitane En Provence. These little guys are individually packaged squares containing essential oils (mint, pine and rosemary) blended with sugars and stimulating centella asiatica to 'fizz' upon release into water.

A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down!

And a spoonful of sugar makes the blood sugar go up!!
My cousin Stella sent me these pictures in an email and it really makes you stop and think.

Each cube of sugar represents 1 teaspoon of sugar.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. . .