Afraid of Bugs – Tales from the Homestead of Casa Chihuahua

Hope you had a wonderful Birthday!

Love from all of us here. 

But Cherry blossoms are beautiful anywhere – even if it’s LAX.

It’s good to be home – and to see J and the puppies.

Yes, I wore a dress for my presentation……what are ya going to do….

Everything went great today -  if you don’t count the massive power failure in the middle of our presentation.  They had everything back up in running 15 minutes later – so it was all good.

Heres a shot my of awesome cheese quesadillas from late last night –  

I‘m here and have wifi – all is good.

I’m checked into the Four Seasons here in Mexico City.

I could get used to this for sure.

The hotel is located on Paseo de la Reforma – in a really nice part of the city. I’m going to try and sneak out really early thursday before we leave for the airport to get a few photos of the sculpture and monuments along Reforma – and especially the Diálogo de Bancas or The Bench Project. I saw these last time I was here, in October – they have dozens and dozens of amazing sculpture but all working on the concept of the public bench. They range from giant lounge type things to 2-story strange errector set looking things to animals – it’s very cool.

And while trying to find any decent link on more information on the benches – i came across a blog on – yes, benches, but not the ones i wanted.

A quick shot from the plane as we took off from LAX – can you see our house?

Not too exciting – but my late lunch was Asparagus Risotto – and a Chocolate Mousse, which didn’t survive long enough to be photographed. I went ahead and had ice in my lemonade – figuring its the Four Seasons and i probably won’t be felled by some horrible stomach bacteria from the ice….but i’ll let ‘cha know tomorrow!

Ah, surprises.

From our friend Lisa!

Lisa kindly took a few pinches of some very unusual succulents to add to our growing collection of strange little plants. There are some really amazing ones in here that I haven’t come across before. I took these photos on the day the camera died – so the second one of Jack is out of focus thanks to the sick camera. He was very interested in inspecting them all. Check out the gorgeous glazed container too – also from Lisa – it almost matches the color of the tiles inside the house!

The new little plants! Since the photo was taken they’ve all taken root nicely and are growing strong.

i can has plantz now?

and then the camera died…………

It’s back and in perfect working order.

And just in time to go to Mexico with me. 

Even though I’ll probably only see the inside of a convention center… 

Ecogir’s 100% recycled suiting

Nice to see innovation in such a traditional part of apparel.  The real test will be if you can return the suit to them to up-cycle again – like Patagonia’s capilene.

more at treehugger.com and at the Ecogir website.

Vegetarian, Vegan or just Starchetarian?

I like milk and cheese way too much to be a vegan but at the moment am trying really hard to limit the amount of animal products I eat. Jess and I recently heard a little piece on NPR about the Post Punk Kitchen and their new cookbook, Veganomicon. Jess picked the book up 2 weeks ago so we could try out the recipes and while I haven’t been home long enough to attempt any of them yet, they all sound yummy and do-able. I’ll post the successes and failures as we try them and will be sure to include the opinions of my non-veggie husband as well.

I have to say I actually had a great vegan experience just this past week in New York. We had a dinner at Candle 79 and tried 6 different appetizers, had pumpkin seed and sage crusted seitan as my main (which i was too full to finish after trying all the other things) and an amazing pear phyllo tower thingy. I also tried Agave Nectar for the first time in my mint tea, instead of honey and it was a great substitue. It’s much subtler than honey, which can be overpowering sometimes. I’m going to pick some up next time I’m at the natural food store and experiment baking with it.

Yummy Treats from New Orleans!

My mom hand carried a Doberge back from Gambino’s for me (one of my favorite cakes). While Jess and I were up in SF seeing Oskar we stayed at Mom’s and got to enjoy this amazing cake!

She also made homemade Red Beans and Rice which Jess really enjoyed.

Here are just a few more photos from Oskars debut weekend.

Grandpa with Oskar.

Oskar’s little foot.

Chloe flashing her award winning smile at lunch.