Lemonade and Other Things

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[lemonadeandotherthings]

Lemonade and Other Things turned 3 today!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Enchiladas for 30

The Race for Hope 5k was a great success! My team, put together in memory of my mom, raised over $3,200! A big group of us got together on race day and had a good time walking or running the 3.1 miles. One of the guys on our team finished really well- number 43 out of thousands of people- we watched him run towards the finish line while those of us who walked were still about 2 blocks from the start line. Insane.

Some of my team, posing together after the race.

After the 5k, the team came over to my place for enchiladas and margaritas (because it was Cinco de Mayo, after all!) I thought I had probably gotten myself in over my head with inviting 30 people over for food and drinks, but it ended up going without a hitch!

A peek into how crowded my studio apartment was...

I thought I'd post here just in case you find yourself needing to feed an obscene number of people- this recipe comes together easily, you can do almost all the steps in advance, and it's cheap (which is nice when you're feeding such a big crowd!). In terms of drinks, we got by quite nicely with two bottles of tequila, margarita mix, some limeade concentrate, and a big case of Yuengling for after people got their margarita fill. 

On to the enchilada recipe- here's what you'll need for 60 enchiladas:

60 burrito-sized tortillas (I used flour) 4.5 pounds of low-fat ground beef 4 packets of taco seasoning 2 onions, chopped 3 cups of white rice, cooked 4 cans of refried beans (I used a can that had both black and pinto) 1 large jar picante salsa 2 cans Rotel 2 small cans chopped green chilis 6 cans red enchilada sauce Lots of shredded mexican cheese

1) Combine salsa with 2 cans rotel and 2 cans green chilis, set aside 2) Brown ground beef and onions in the same pan (I did this a pound at a time). When the meat is brown, mix in the taco seasoning following package directions. Set meat mixture aside. 3) Now you're prepared to assemble the tortillas: I took one tortilla, spread some refried beans in a line down the middle, added a small amount of rice, a spoonful of the salsa mixture, and then the ground beef/onion mixture.  4) Roll the enchilada (it will be open on both ends). 5) Arrange the enchiladas- I fit 10 in each 9x13 casserole pan, but they were a little cramped. 6) Once the enchiladas are at this step, you can put them in the fridge until you're ready to cook them. 7) To cook the enchiladas, cover each 9x13 dish of them with a can of enchilada sauce, and then sprinkle liberally with cheese. 8) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (because everything is cooked, this step is just to make them hot and melty). 

Yum- everyone seemed to like these. They are a little spicy, so if you're sensitive to heat, just omit the canned green chilis. Best of all, they fed a crowd without costing too much, and they allowed me to be part of the party, since most of the prep work can be done the day before.

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Friday Photo Dump and a Fundraiser

Hello, all! I hope the 20 or so of you who still drop in EVERY SINGLE DAY looking for material are happy :P

Here's pretty much every single instagram photo I've taken in the past month.

Let's see. There were cherry blossoms, I went on a roadtrip, I scowled into the sun, I worked on legislation, I got the stomach flu, and I wore leggings as pants to the monuments. 

I am so close to summer. I CAN FEEL IT. 2L year, in all of its horribleness, will finally be behind me. I know I've still got three tests to go, but I have to say- I feel a little invincible.

The other reason I'm dropping in is to tell/remind you about the brain tumor 5k that is coming up, and to ask you all to either join my team (we're running/walking/skipping/jumping in memory of my mom) or donate to us! As I write this, I'm just a tiny bit short of my $3,000 fundraising goal. If you'll be in DC, please come join us (I'll be making enchiladas and margaritas at my place for the whole team because I'm an overachiever like that). If you can't make it, please consider donating- the money goes towards a great cause and will help support research into one of the most complex and least understood cancers.

Here's my team link: http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/TR/2013/RFH-DC?team_id=58442&pg=team&fr_id=2021

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Instagram Photo Dump (early for once!), etc.

All photos taken and edited in Instagram for Android. Hit me up on Instagram! My username is EcoAndi

Because I have Oprah on the brain right now, and haven't posted any real content in an eternity (I promise, I'll go on a fun vacation or try a new recipe or make a new craft eventually, and y'all will be the first to know), here's a current run-down of "What I Know For Sure"

1) Picking Florida to win the championship in my March Madness bracket was a bold choice.

2) It is much too cold in DC right now for late March.

3) You get more spice in a soup by using canned green chilis instead of a chopped jalapeno. 

4) Penny wars are an interesting concept, but not great for actual fundraising.

5) Little feels better than getting back into an exercise routine after slacking off for a while. 

I hope all is well with you, and that your March Madness brackets didn't get totally demolished after just the first few games...

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Friday Photo Dump only one day late!

Again, slim pickings for instagram photos- gotta motivate myself to start taking more! Follow me on instagram: EcoAndi

I've had a fun week- and now it's spring break! I'm heading back to Florida tomorrow, should be great!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Friday Photo Dump

Because I'm lazy, now featuring photos from the entire month of February!

All photos taken and edited with Instagram- follow me! Username: EcoAndi

[lemonadeandotherthings]

My First Foray Into Politics

I thought I'd pop back in this evening to announce something new going on in my life:

I just won a student government position I didn't even run for. 

I am now the GW Law SBA Day Division Senator at-large. Wednesday was election day, and this position didn't have any candidates running. I convinced a few of my friends to write me in (what? I have some ideas for SBA...), and later that night, I got an email that I had tied another write-in candidate and that we would be having a run-off. The run-off election took place today. I was at work for the majority of the day, so I couldn't really campaign, but I told my friends to vote.

Apparently it was enough- I just got an email that I won! Though this came as kind of a surprise to me, I'm actually really excited to be on the Student Senate. I have a few VERY PRESSING ISSUES I'd like to advance (floppy hats and ice cream, to be specific). 

To be fair, the title of this post isn't 100% accurate. If my memory serves, I actually ran for some kind of student government position in early elementary school. My mom and I came up with a campaign slogan that somehow centered on "AAA", which stood for something along the lines of Absolutely Awesome Andrea. Somehow, despite that convincing slogan, I didn't win. Maybe now I can finally feel vindicated?

Also, just to make Shane happy, I'm including the following photo:

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Inauguration- that time I looked like a total tourist in my own city.

First things first- thank you so much to everyone who viewed my afghan post, reposted it, sent it to your friends, or gave it a thumbs up on Stumble-Upon. There was a fun little exciting period where it went kind of viral for a few hours. It's just nice for me to every now and then come up with some content that people actually enjoy! :P

For reference, here's the graph of my daily blog viewership (guess which day the afghan post was...):

I removed the axis scale because I'm so mysterious, but you get the idea- it was a lot more hits than usual! 

This past weekend was tons of fun. My friend Ashley came in from Baltimore and we met up with Katie at my place in the city. We like to refer to ourselves as three generations of Sustainable UF, because we've all worked there at different times.

We decided to brave the crowds and head out to the National Mall to see the inauguration. Here's a photo of us while there:

Yeah, I wore a cowboy hat. Because it makes total sense, that's why. 

Actually, we were all kind of operating under the assumption that the mall would be a huge mess of tourists wearing all kinds of crazy red/white/blue things. Wanting to blend in, we threw on all our patriotic clothes. And then we got there, and I'm pretty sure we were the most patriotic/cheesily dressed people in our area. Whoops. I definitely looked like a tourist.

On to the actual ceremony: I have to be honest, it was kind of disappointing. They set up big screens all along the mall so people can watch it. Unfortunately, our screen was having some severe technical difficulties which they never really sorted out. Essentially, we ended up only being able to hear about 1/5 of the words spoken, and the video kept cutting in and out. Whatever contractor was hired to make the AV happen dropped the ball. People in our area were yelling and we actually got worried at one point that people would stampede; we came up with an escape plan of how we'd get out if something started happening. 

Luckily, everyone kept their cool, and we eventually gave up and went to Bobby's Burgers (holy yum, as always). After, we walked back to my place and watched the speeches/performances on youtube while sipping wine. I think if I'm still in D.C. come next inauguration (and whoever is being inaugurated doesn't disgust me too thoroughly), I'd try to go again. I'd recommend just getting there early and trying to be closer to the actual capitol building though. 

I hope you're all staying warm! Yesterday, I almost slipped on an iced-over puddle on the sidewalk and had to deal with the "feels like 8 degrees" wind. Unpleasant.

[lemonadeandotherthings]

My first afghan- I get crochet bragging rights now, yes?

Hello all!

I PROMISE I'm going to try to post some more stuff this year. Life gets nuts and this is the last thing I think to do, particularly during times I'm trying to keep my head above water with my schoolwork.

But I couldn't resist popping back in today, even if it's just to brag a little.

I finished my first crocheted afghan! (See it here, classing up my Target futon)

I started in August, and worked on it in bits and pieces since then. Some of the hexagon were made while sitting in the ICU room with my mom, lots were done sitting in my apartment while drinking iced coffee and watching Game of Thrones. My biggest mistake (and one I likely wont repeat again) was choosing a pattern which necessitated making over 300 individual hexagons. Those suckers were time-consuming, but I think I could make them in my sleep now. 

I used this hexagon pattern: http://oneloopshort.blogspot.com/2009/07/super-simple-hexagon.html

I used really cheap yarn, a few different brands, but whatever was on sale at Michael's really. For that reason, the yarn costs came in easily under $50. 

Here's a close-up of the hexagons

I started this project without any understanding of how big I wanted the final afghan to be, so I just kept adding rows until I was satisfied with the size. With about 300 hexagons, I got an acceptable size for use on a full bed.

Here's a photo of the afghan on my bed (I do not actually use the afghan on my bed because my apartment is inexplicably boiling hot all the time.)

(Calendar posters available at The Paper Source, if you were wondering)

I used this method to join the hexagons (note: if I were to do this again, I'd probably join them as I went, as opposed to joining a pile of 300 after they were all done) : http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/joining-granny-sqaures.html

And here's the picture of the afghan as it currently sits (please ignore my dying plants- we're currently battling spider mites...): 

Anyway, I love the final project, and it was a great distraction while I was making it. I got an afghan pattern book for Christmas, so I'm already planning my next project; I'll either do something with a much larger granny square, or I'll attempt to foray into tunisian crochet. 

I hope you're all having a lovely new year, and are still staying totally on top of any resolutions you've made!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

I hope your days are merry and bright!

In spite of my recent absence, I promise I'm still around!

 Merry Christmas from Lemonade And Other Things!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Being Brave with Bravelets

Note: this is not a sponsored post- just me giving a thumbs up to a company I like!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently- I hope to be back up and posting regularly again soon! <3

Today I wanted to give a shout out to a company I recently discovered: Bravelets.

Bravelets is a pretty simple concept, but I think it's very worthwhile. Remember when everyone was wearing yellow "Livestrong" bracelets, and then the concept blew up and there were "support" bracelets in every color to represent every possible ailment?

Bravelets takes that concept to another, more sophisticated and stylish, level. A bravelet is a bracelet made out of stainless steel and colored leather. The leather bands represent the color of whatever cause you're supporting. Bravelets offers bracelets for more than 60 causes- everything from the well-known (pink for breast cancer) to some I've never heard of (purple for Sjogren's Syndrome?). 

The bracelet itself is beautiful and classy- a big step up from those garish plastic bracelets. Engraved on the stainless steel are the words "Be Brave" reminding people that no matter the diagnosis, they have the power to be strong and confident as they move forward. 

Each bravelet costs 35 dollars, $10 of which is donated directly to support research/awareness organizations tailored to your particular cause. I really like this concept, and I think it's a perfect gift for anyone fighting one of these diseases or supporting someone who is!

Check them out at www.bravelets.com and help to support a new company that is spreading a good message and raising money for some of the best causes around!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Soup- Recipe!

I'm battling a bit of a cold this weekend, which led me to crave warm, rich, comfort foods. Is there anything better than a hot, hearty bowl of soup when you're feeling under the weather? (I wonder why that is- I've never gotten as much enjoyment out of something like a hamburger when I'm sick... soup is king!)

Anyway, I made a crock-pot soup in my traditional cooking style, which basically consists of finding a recipe on allrecipes.com and modifying it based on what I have on hand/what sounds good to me. That said, I thought I'd provide you with this recipe, because I found it to be delicious!

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 can kidney beans 1 can black beans  1 can corn kernels (I use a full-size can, not the mini one...) 1 can Rotel 1 can diced tomato 1 can diced green chilis (the small can!) 1 small onion, diced  1 packet taco seasoning 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Rinse beans and corn. Add to crock-pot, along with rotel, diced tomatoes, green chilis, and diced onion. Stir in packet of taco seasoning. Add water until the consistency looks good to you (I added a little less than 2 cups of water because I wanted mine to be more like a soup than a chili). Lay the raw chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down a little to sink them a bit. Turn the crock-pot on high for 2 hours. Remove chicken, shred, and return to mixture. Turn temperature to low and cook until dinner-time. For me, the full cooking time was about 6.5 hours, but I'm sure if you were going to be away all day, you could cook this on low all day and shred the chicken whenever you got home.

This soup is nice and spicy (if you like less spice, reduce or omit the green chilis). I  ate it with Mexican cheese sprinkled on top and a side of hot cornbread drizzled with honey. Yum! Plus, because it's a big crock-pot recipe, I can eat it all week!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Saturday Photo Dump and Tubing the Potomac

First off, the "Friday" photo dump, which now just seems to come along whenever I remember to post it...

So that's my week- as seen in Instagram photos :P Join me on instagram- my username is EcoAndi

This week was nuts at school- I feel like I was hardly home at all. For example, on Tuesday, I got to school at 7:30 am and didn't leave until after 9 pm. Craziness.

Now, because I'm trying to fight a cold that's settling in, I'm spending a lazy weekend watching Dr. Who, reading for classes, and working on crocheting more hexagons for what will eventually be an afghan.

But last weekend was exciting! Patrick and I drove out to Virginia/West Virginia and went tubing on the Potomac river (note.. I cannot in good conscience suggest that you go into the Potomac near D.C.- stay out of there, folks!) But, upstream quite a ways, the water is much cleaner and nicer, and it was a relaxing day floating down the river. There were several spots where there were lots of rocks and a bit of white water, but it was mostly laying back and enjoying the incredible views of cliffs and forest around us. 

We rented our tubes (and got dropped off/picked up at the river) by Harper's Ferry Adventure Center, and it ended up being a pretty good deal!

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, so I don't have any pictures, but it really was gorgeous!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Friday Photo Dump

So I cheated a bit this week: these are obviously not all from this week. I've been a bit busy with school and work starting back up. I find it satisfying to be busy all the time, but it does take some time to ease back into it, and I expect to have another week or so of feeling like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But things will settle down soon, I hope, and I'll have some legit updates!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Farewell, Summer (A Costa Rica vacation recap)

So it's my last teensy bit of summer... I have my first class of my 2L year tomorrow. And though I only have one class, I also have work for my Fall internship, an executive board meeting for one of my clubs, and my first assignment for the journal I'm on. On Tuesday, I have four classes and a job interview. So it begins...

*Sigh* In the spirit of getting back to the having-no-free-time and pulling-my-hair-out grind (can you tell how thrilled I am that summer is over?), let's revisit my trip to Costa Rica from a few weeks ago!

My mom and I had actually talked about going to Costa Rica the summer before I started law school, and I had done a bit of research into possible trips. However, these plans never really came together, and before I knew it I was off to D.C. I was disappointed that when the trip never happened, so when a Costa Rica vacation popped up on groupon getaways, I forwarded it to my mom.

Next thing you know (well, it was actually several weeks), we were off to Costa Rica!

The first hotel we stayed at was Si Como No, in Manuel Antonio, where we spent three nights. This hotel was great- the property is really beautiful and has ocean views. Here's a photo of me standing in the reception area (which is more like an open air patio):

The property was great, with two restaurants and two pools (both with swim-up bars, one with a water slide). Supposedly there are monkeys and sloths on the property that other people see, but we didn't see any.

While staying at Si Como No, my mom and I went zip-lining:

(I think my mom has discovered her true calling as a zipline model)

We also went white water rafting (which neither of us had done and was amazing!)

If you ever find yourself in Costa Rica, go on a white water tour with this company: Rafiki Safari. This was, hands down, the most fun thing we did in Costa Rica, and Rafiki (the owner is the guide in the boat with us) really made the trip special and went out of their way to make sure we were having a good time. Definitely a must-do!

We also went hiking in Manuel Antonio park, where we saw sloths, monkeys, and incredible views like:

The second part of our trip took us into the Cloud Forest, where we stayed at Villa Blanca. Villa Blanca was also great, but it was a TOTALLY different atmosphere. I wouldn't recommend staying here unless you a) have a rental car so you can get around and b) REALLY want a "get-away-from-it-all" experience. For us, it was a bit of a hard adjustment after our action-packed first half of the trip. 

While at Villa Blanca, we went horseback riding:

We didn't plan on wearing matching clothes, I promise. Though we do have the same pair of shoes...

We also hiked around the cloud-forest on the hotel property and saw a bajillion hummingbirds (we even saw a hummingbird nest- the eggs are tiny and look like little jelly beans!)

We did get to see the Arenal volcano, and we visited the Arenal hanging bridges, where we saw tons more monkeys, snakes, frogs, and birds.

And, since no visit to a volcano is complete without a trip to the hot springs, we did that as well!

Overall, this was a great trip! It was my mom's first time out of the country, and we had a blast exploring and adventuring (and attempting to communicate on an extremely limited knowledge of Spanish...)

If you haven't been to Costa Rica, it really is a great experience- you should go!

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Southern-Style Pollo Asado Quesadilla Recipe

I'm back in D.C. after my two week summer vacation! I spent a week of the break in Costa Rica with my mom (for which a full post is forthcoming...), and a week just handing out in Florida with my family and some local friends.

So I planned to write a full post about my vacation, including my recommendations for those traveling to Costa Rica, but instead I'm going to postpone that a bit and tell you about what I just had for lunch. Seriously, it was that good- I was eating it and immediately thought "people need to know about this." Or maybe I'm just one of those people who can't resist telling you about their food... 

Unfortunately, I ate the whole quesadilla in a hurry, so I don't have any pictures. I know you all have great imaginations though, so you can just pretend I took some.

Note: I'm not sure this classifies as a recipe in the traditional sense, it's more along the lines of "semi-homemade cooking" (I hope to not be as loopy as Sandra Lee though...) Side note that is going to contradict my previous statement and make me seen loopy: Does anyone else get that "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee" song from Grease stuck in their head when they watch Sandra Lee's show? Just me? Okay.

The ingredients you'll need:

1 package Trader Joe's Pollo Asado (If you don't live near a Trader Joe's, you shouldn't attempt this recipe. Instead, just hold back the tears and start shopping for a house in a better location.) I actually had this pollo asado (you buy it as raw chicken breasts that come pre-seasoned and marinated) for dinner last night, and it is DELICIOUS and ultra easy to cook. This is a great recipe to use up leftovers!

1 Package greens (I used a Trader Joe's bagged mix called the "Southern Greens Blend." Bless your heart, Trader Joe's!)

1 tortilla (obviously more tortillas if you want to make more than one quesadilla-though hopefully you could have figured that out without my direction...)

Some pepper-jack cheese

Your favorite hot sauce. Though I highly, highly, highly recommend you get your hands on this:

That's Lillie's of Charleston "Low Country Loco" hot sauce. It's my absolute favorite; I buy a bottle every time I'm in Charleston. Even if you aren't in Charleston, I highly recommend that you go buy some now. Great. Now sit patiently until it's delivered- it'll be worth the wait.

Now for the fun part (I suppose eating is the fun part, but these steps put you closer to that, so be patient!)

1) Cook the chicken (don't eat it all now!)

2) Cook the greens (I recommend getting a big pot of boiling water, seasoning it with salt, pepper, a little bit of chili powder, and whatever else you've got sitting around. Empty the bag of greens into the pot. Let that boil for a few minutes, and then turn the heat down to medium and cover the pot. Let it cook for at least 30 minutes until the leaves are all wilted and cooked down, but still have a little bite to them.)

3) Cut the cooked chicken into little chunks

4) Cover half a tortilla with cheese. Layer that with the chicken chunks, and then the greens (drain off as much liquid as possible). Cover with a little more cheese.

5) Spread a generous amount of hot sauce over the other half of the tortilla, and then fold over to make a quesadilla-type shape.

6) Cook in a grill-pan or saute-pan or griddle or whatever until the tortilla is brown on both sides.

7) Eat that sucker.

Yum. You're welcome.

[lemonadeandotherthings]

Friday Photo Dump

My week, in snapshots all taken and edited with Instagram for Android:

Join me on Instagram! My username: EcoAndi