I have a birthday

I turned 24. So I feel kind of old--when I was little, 24 was a very "grown-up" age (since it is older than drinking age by a few years, and divisible by 2,3,4,6,8, and 12 [nerd] )--so I've spent a little bit of time panicking about my age lately. Ha?

For my birthday, Oscar got us tickets to The Lonely Forest and Death Cab for Cutie's concert at the Metro. Death Cab was one of my favorite bands in college, and I listened to them on repeat for years. I saw them in 2005 at Foellinger Auditorium at UIUC, where I also had my ECON 103 and MCB 250 classes. It seats 1750 people, so it was actually a bigger venue than the Metro! (It is worth noting that many people couldn't get tickets to this show, but Oscar managed to get us two!)

I first heard the Lonely Forest when we were in Austin at South by Southwest this March. They were playing a free show at a medium-sized bar in the middle of the day, and there were only about 20 people there, but they totally rocked. Here is a video of one of my favorite songs:

The concert was great: the Lonely Forest was great as always, and Death Cab played a good mix of old favorites and new stuff.

Here is the Lonely Forest

And Death Cab

Salsa, with anchos

Today, Oscar and I made our first attempt at making salsa using dried chiles.



Our recipe (loosely based on several recipes that came up in google):

De-seed two ancho chiles and tear into small bits. Chop 3-4 cloves of garlic and an onion; sautee. Add two tomatos, cook 10 min. Add 2 c water, simmer 20 min.


Add a little more than 2 tbsp oregano from the plant (thanks, mom!). Cook a minute or two, then blend lightly. Add a small handful of fresh cilantro.



The final product is sweet and a little smoky, kind of like something Rick Bayless would make. We like our salsas spicier, so we are discussing keeping more seeds and adding a habañero, jalapeño, or chipotle next time.

BATHTIME IS TERRIFYING!

Rosie is not pleased.