Lost Journal Entry...

When I was posted outside the cave at Carlsbad Caverns, I got to witness some truly glorious spring days. You know those days when the sky is that perfect shade of deep blue, a few fluffy white clouds sail past to remind you of unseen winds, the landscape is a desert postcard of deep greens and accent greys, birds chirp and flirt and build homes for future chicks, and ravens play overhead to taunt you and your earthboundedness... yeah, those were the days I was inspired to write. I'd write on a tiny notepad I kept in my sexy NPS-provided fanny pack. I would write thoughts, aspirations, travel plans, and memories.

I recently found that notepad, and on it I had written this.... 

I discovered who I was the summer after college. I went to Virginia looking for something but not sure what. What I found was myself. The self that was hiding deep inside; the self that cried out for every trail that went into the woods along the highways we traveled during family vacations and led me down old farm roads during one of my drives. I realized that I was happiest when I was simply putting one foot in front of the other in the wilderness. I spent lazy summer afternoons lying on a mountain peak with a book in my hand, some good company and a beautiful view. I hiked through the ethereal Blue Ridge fog, the life-stealing heat of Utah's desert and sand dunes in the Rockies. I've seen alligators, badgers, mountain lions and bears along winding wooded paths.

My life has taken me to many new places. I have met some wonderful and interesting people along the way. There was the practical joking law enforcement officer who engaged me in a battle of the wits, the guys who lived next door who rappelled from the roof of the house and the drunk, with whom I shared a wall, who had a heart of gold and a never ending supply of weed and beer. I have met mortal enemies and kindred souls, sometimes living with one or the other. The most interesting souls I've run across have been the thru-hikers along the Appalachian Trail. So many different walks of life and reasons for hiking the AT yet they all came together for one common goal; to finish the 1,200 mile-long historic trail.

I grew up a nervous child always pestering my parents with "what if" questions. Who would have guessed that I would grow to experience all that I have. I've been chased off a mountain peak by bolts of lightning that rained down around me and spent hours deep within the red-rock canyons of Utah never quite believing that I could get out. I have witnessed first light from the top of a 2,000 foot cliff and been woken by cowboys moving herds of cattle around my tent. I have hiked through the 120-degree heat of a Utah summer, camped in the howling winter winds of the Guadalupe Mountains and bagged a peak in Virginia during a blizzard. But none of that prepared me for the tiny holes and crevasses that awaited me my first season as a park ranger at Carlsbad Caverns. There I learned the true meaning of the words "pitch black" and understood just where the term "pinch" got its name.

I have lost toenails, gotten sun poisoning and developed a stress fracture for my love of hiking. I sold my apartment and all of its furnishings to follow my dreams and I've never been happier!

Happy discovery!

This was one of those perfect spring days

Continuing the Green Christmas, a Tradition in the Making

This year's Christmas was in two parts.... part one was December in Carlsbad where I got to meet M's family and spend the holiday with them. I wrapped most of my presents in plain recycled paper or in reusable gift bags. Since I was with a new family that may or may not get my "green Christmas" style, I chose to keep it pretty tame.

The second Christmas was this last week in Houston, where M got to meet my family. Again, my presents were wrapped in reusable bags, but a few were wrapped last minute in regular wrapping paper. My mom, however, went all out. The following are images of the cool stuff she created. Kudos to her ingenuity!

Wrapped in old state road maps.... I would
have NEVER thought of this. Awesome! Also note the ribbon....
VHS tape makes awesome ribbon.

2 gifts were wrapped in kitchen dishtowels.
I love dish towels for daily use instead of
paper napkins. This is a gift wrapped
within another gift. Tied with old stretched-out
hair ties.

all those sales circulars that you can't opt out
of come in handy when wrapping - especially if you
make the wrapping a hint... I got yoga pants out of this box. :-)
Also, note more VHS ribbon.

Cute and applicable cartoon used as nametag

awesome VHS ribbon bow

I did do one last-minute green wrapping job...

for those awkward or large presents.... a big black trashbag
and reusable bow. We used the bag to collect trash later that day.

Happy 2013!!!! For previous Green Christmas entries....
I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas, part 1

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas, part 2

Christmas, Green-Style

Happy Thanksgiving (although I confess this has historically been one of my least favorite holidays)

Today I am thankful for the long hard road that has led me to my first completely compassionate Thanksgiving Day. I am thankful for my friends and family who may not always agree or understand but are supportive nonetheless. I am thankful for a fantastic boyfriend who loves me as much for our differences as for our similarities. I am thankful for the Vegetarian Society of El Paso, a group of people who I never expected to meet and never expected to have such an impact in my life.

There are many other things in this world I'm thankful for, like sunlight soaking into my skin or the smell of the air in a pine forest or for my grandma Joy and all her undying support of me throughout my life. But, for today, I'll stick with the short list above. The rest are just for me.

The Kritzler clan of Texas, Ohio, and a bit of Canada (c. 2009)

The Hines clan of Texas and Iowa (c.2006)

What are you thankful for today? (Please don't say Black Friday Sales or I will Punch You in Your Throat!)

The Inner Secrets of Tamales

Last month I went back to Houston for a friend's wedding and to visit my family. While I was there, mom and I decided to try tamale-making for a second time. I've been perfecting the art of tamales here in El P with my best friend A. Mom has only made tamales one other time and we deemed it a 'learning experience".

Now I wanted to try some new recipes because I've been asked to give a cooking class for the Vegetarian Society of El Paso focusing on vegan tamales. Some of you might be thinking "what the F--- are vegan tamales!?" while others may be wondering "what the F are tamales?!" Tamales are amazing Latin American comfort foods! Anything you desire can be mixed with cornmeal and wrapped in a corn husk (recycling!) for steaming. I didn't truly understand the desire for tamales until I was almost 30, but for the last 4 years I've been a tamale-eating machine. I've even bought tamales out of the trunk of an old Mexican lady's car in a supermarket parking lot in Joshua Tree, CA. True Story...

This is my chosen tamale-making guide. I love it!

So I decided that I should document the process along the way to help me with my cooking class this coming spring... and if I can kill 2 birds by also blogging about it, rock on!




First you need to let the cornhusks soak for a bit, say 30 minutes. Don't buy cornhusks from your local English-speaking grocery. Head over to the nearest Spanish-speaking market and pick up all your ingredients.






Cooking our ingredients...



Roasting some green chiles...





Most recipes will call for lard but I'm using Crisco to keep these guys vegan.  Ask me sometime about my mother dropping this huge heavy Crisco can on my little girl toes. Only one nail came off and I forgave her once I was able to walk without a limp again. I relive this moment every time I pick up a Crisco can. :-) Hi mom!

Now I forgot to take a picture of the masa we were using. Masa is the cornmeal used for all tamales. Again, Spanish-speaking grocery (la tienda), not English-speaking grocery. I guess you could make your masa from scratch but really... what decade is this?! I'm cool with store-bought masa.


Mix the veggies and chopped green
chiles, simmer and let cool

Whipped shortening looks like
whipped cream but tastes terrible!



You'll also need a large steamer for steaming - in El P we use A's big turkey roaster. It is perfect! Alas, in Houston we had to create our own thing. Introducing the recycled tamale steamer! We needed to make a space between the water at the bottom of the pan and our little roaster thing (not seen).



Nothing says "Texas" like a football
Dr Pepper can... and nothing says "Kristi"
like a Pepsi can.



 Alright, now we assemble the tamales...

Spreading masa onto open corn husk. I use a spatula
because they're bendy.

 

Cheese or vegan cheese - it goes on top of your veggies

 

 

There are many ways to roll but I chose this one for my
vegan tamales. Even added a little bow to hold the thing closed.

 

And if a bow doesn't work, say Fuck It! and
use ye ole traditional rubber bands.

Here's mom rolling her tamales. Did I mention that this
is a group activity? Making tamales solo would require way
too much wine and boredom. Get some friends or relatives
and have a tamale-making day!

Except for grandma.. grandmas doesn't do
tamales. She's never even had a tamale. In her
defense, she's German. I bet there's a
saurkraut tamale out there somewhere.

 

Stand the tamales upright in the steamer
so they don't spill out...

The cans are doing their job!

 We also decided to try some dessert tamales... I've got dark chocolate tamales in my freezer right now and they are amazing! However, on this day we tried pineapple for my dad who loves all things tropical.

We followed the recipe but the filling was very soupy.
On the bright side, it was pretty good to eat out of the bowl!

We decided to pour the tamale soup into a pie dish and bake
it like cornbread. It was super tasty! Even grandma tried it.

 

Once your tamales are out of the steamer (1 hr-ish), bag them up in freezer bags and freeze them overnight. They will last a very long time in the freezer and are great for work lunches. Just be sure to label the bags as frozen tamales offer no secrets to their contents.

 

Labeling is important!

 

FYI - Did you know that Tamale is also a town in Ghana? The internet is amazing!

 

For more info on tamales, or to really mess with some facts, visit their Wikipedia page

 

Green Ethics; Black Thumbs

Well, I was hoping to write a post about my kick-ass patio gardening skills. But alas, I don't apparently have any. If you want to read about some wicked-sweet gardening, read this. As for my skills, I guess I can tell you what not to do and what has kinda worked for me. Here it goes...

A few years ago, I was living in the middle of nowhere and decided to try window herbs. It was a 2 hour drive to town and even I don't love cilantro that much. I bought some basil and rosemary and kept them in the nursery pot on the windowsill. They did great! Lots of sun, none of the heat. I watered as they began to wilt. They supplied me and my roommate with plenty of yumminess. This is what you'd call "beginners luck" because it'd never be that simple again! After 6 months or so, the rosemary suddenly died and the basil had grown tall and shrub-like. I tossed them out before moving parks.

Over the next few years, I tried off and on with rosemary, cilantro, and basil. The basil always did well for a while, the rosemary lived a shorter life, and I became known as the cilantro-killer. In southern Arizona, I was killing cilantro like a serial killer while my neighbor complained about the massive quanitites of cilantro that grew WILD in her yard. One day I just said "fuck it, i give up. I'll just take hers." The rest of the year passed in great cilantro splendor. (i love cilantro in case you can't tell.)

Fast forward to this winter, when I announce to the family that I'm going to try patio gardening. After all, I live in Sun City, what better place to garden, right?!  hmmmm. For Christmas, my brother sets me up with lots of seeds and a window tray. See here for more on my Green Christmas. I began my new year with big garden plans. True to my DIY-style and recycle ethics, I even looked into reusing some items from around the house.

We all have tons of used toilet paper rolls laying about, right? No, just me... fine. I took 30 of these, cut slits in the bottoms and turned them into mini-planters. The idea being they would hold in moisture but decay over time, leaving me with amazing herbs. Six toilet tubes fit into a strawberry container and the lid would act as a greenhouse. Fill with soil and seeds, water, and wait.

Bonus: you get to eat lots of strawberries!

The strawberry container has slits too so have something to
catch the draining water!

Totally cute and totally didn't work. My seeds sprouted, leaving me with super-cute tiny green things. I planted cilantro, basil, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lettuce, spinach, and broccoli. They all sprouted however, when it came time to move them outdoors, they began to die. I took each of the tubes and planted them in larger planters. I guess the little roots just couldn't make it through the tubes or out the slits? i don't know what happened.

I also tried those peat seed starters that you can find at big box garden stores. Same story... lots of seedlings but they died after the peat holders dried out and became rock hard.

After taking a few weeks to mourn, I tried again. This time I said screw it to the seed starters and just planted them right into the pots. (Maybe seed starters are for sad cold people who live up north, not on the Mexican border where its currently 102 degrees.) This time around, things came up and did not die! Yay!!!!! I had enough spinach to sprinkle onto store-bought spinach for a salad. It made me feel good to contribute. The broccoli didn't make it. I learned that lettuce REALLY doesn't like the heat. The oregano and sage also didn't like the heat but they gave it a valiant effort. The shining star here was the Genovese Basil. It came up thick and happy, and has supplied me with basily-yumminess for a few months now.

RIP cilantro...

To add to the growing collection of things that may die on my patio, my dad bought me a Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree. I've been wanting one and he had one because of course, he is a gardening rockstar. So now I also have the lemon tree who we named "Midge" because my dad kept getting midgets and dwarves confused. She's had many blossoms, and currently one golf-ball sized lemon is hanging out. I'm hoping to have at least one yellow awesome lemon in the fall.

I had read that in the desert, you sometimes need to shade your gardens with a sheet or something that lets some light through but doesn't bake everything. So I found an old white bedsheet and nailed it the the lower half of the patio railing. This is the BEST THING EVER!
Here me now: it has lowered my electrical bill without lowering the amount of ambient light in the house, it keeps the direct sun off the garden, and it serves as a privacy barrier. I no longer have to see all of my neighbors that i'm blessed (sarcasm) with living next to.

I just planted some more basil, cilantro, and sage today. I'll try to baby them and hope they come up.
They are happily tucked away inside the air conditioned living room, with lots of indirect sun. However, they are sharing space with a cat that likes to attack my plants. We will see who wins....


Tip 1 - stay away from Lime Basil... Genovese Basil grows bigger, doesn't die as easily, and it tastes alot better.

Tip 2 - use it as it comes up. If you wait a long time to use the herbs, they may die and then you'll be a sad herbless human.

Tip 3 - check the dates on your seed packages. They aren't good forever. Poco Sobre Vida swears by online seed companies instead of big box stores. I haven't tried this yet because why buy the fancy mushrooms if you know you can't cook!

Tip 4 - if you live in an apartment, even if you don't garden, go get a patio covering sheet right now!

Here's my dad, back in the day, learning the secrets of gardening from his
own dad. The secret to any good garden is a big ole' bag of bullshit!

*This post is dedicated to my father, who passed NONE of his gardening genes down to me. Thanks dad.

Christmas; Green-style!

I road-tripped back to Houston to see my family, and to meet some new people who'll be entering my friend-family soon.  Four days, lots of home-cooked vegetarian food, dinner at my favorite Indian place, and tons of love later...

Merry Christmas from the H household!

This year my family really stepped up to my Green Christmas dream!  I'm so happy they did.  It was fun and everyone got a little crafty, even my bro (who knew!)

PSA: My mother would like everyone to know that she reuses her fake tree every year and all of her ornaments are reused.  She takes pride, well-deserved pride, in the fact that many of the ornaments on her tree are 30 years old and hand-picked for their sentimental value.

The following is a montage of awesome wrapping craftiness courtesy of the family!

Guess which presents are mine...

mom made bows from
leftover yarn

My bro accidently made a bow from
a Nazi article.  This
immediately sparked a
political debate!

Kuddos for reusing newspaper but try
to pay attention to the articles.  Mom
accidently used the Obituaries.  Hah!

Dad, the original crafter, used
a horrible pic of me and turned
me into an angel with cottonballs.
i'm keeping this one.

What to do with all those
address labels...

I took some packaging paper that World Market shipped to me with my order and repurposed it into wrapping paper.

This one got the paper grocery bag treatment as
well as a hand-made paper flower.  I teach
kids to make these flowers at work.

We also used a lot of reusable bags.... 

This bag has been mine since I was born.
Mom doesn't even change the nametag. I see it every year.
It is as much a holiday tradition in this house
as anything else we do.

This bag just appeared but my grandmother
made it for me when I was little.  Good
things come in small packages.

I got reusable bags on sale at OFFICE DEPOT.
I looked everywhere and couldn't find any.  Luckily,
mom knew where to go.  They were $2 or so each.
Go forth and stock up for next year!

Some of my gifts were even green Christmas gifts.  My cousin got me a calendar made from recycled products with beautiful tree images all over it.  The parents got me bamboo shades to lower my electric bills  :-)  My bro got me the gift of gardening....

Ah yes... one more hand-made Chrismas decoration to show you...

Handmade by grandma K 30+ years ago.
Everyone has one but this one is mine.

And last but not least, how to make your fake reused tree smell fresh and natural?

dad added his own "decoration" to our tree

Happy Holidays and have a safe reflective New Years Eve.  See you guys after my lovely cuddle-filled 3-day weekend I have coming up.

Kristi

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 2

In my last post I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas; part 1, we learned about ways to decorate your home for the holidays without spending tons of money on decorations and contributing to overconsumption.  Instead you can make your own decorations with things you already have around the house or can find on the cheap.  I find that DIY decorations make the item mean that much more to me.  Anyone can go out and purchase cookie-cutter crap that looks like everyone else's cookie-cutter crap.  (How many house on a block can have that damn blow-up snowman!  My father used to make ALL our yard decorations from his own blood, sweat and imagination.  That's probably where I get my DIY-ness.)

Homemade and more fun!

Thanks for the DIY genes Dad!
ps, I don't want to talk about that dress!  It was my mother's doing.

Anyway, I digress... on to today's post - green gifts and gift wrapping.  The best ways to have an environmentally-friendly holiday season is to make your own gifts or buy them locally, and I don't mean at your local Walmart!  First off, if you need inspiration for why you should buy local, check my chica's blog poco sobre mi vida. 

Now I'm not perfect, some of my gifts did in fact come from chain stores but in my town, chain stores are almost all that exist.  So even though I had to shop at those big stores, I tried to choose gifts that would promote greener lifestyles or at least not hurt the environment (read: no gift certificates to drive thru coffee shops that dispense disposable paper and plastic constantly).  I just realiezed how hard this post will be to write without spoiling the giftees!  I will persevere!  For the kiddos, I got items that don't require electricity and aren't going to generate trash.  In fact, I'm the aunt that gives thrift-store clothing and educational toys.  (They're gonna hate me when they're adolescents and only want commercial goods.)  For the adults in my life, some are getting items that would replace disposable items that they use on a regular basis and some are getting vegan baked goods from my very own kitchen!

If I had at all planned ahead this holiday season, I would be gifting personally crocheted blankets and hats...  Maybe next year?  Maybe even some DIY decorations as gifts?  That would be doubly awesome!  Green gift-giving doesn't mean that the gifts need to be necessity items that they'd buy themselves.  You can be creative and get them something green that they never knew they wanted...  like the year I got my dad bat guano for his garden from a local cave who gave all proceeds of guano sales back to Bat Conservation International.  Yes internet, I gave my dad shit for Christmas!  And he loved it!  Got my mother earrings made from Scrabble tiles with her intials on them.  She loves Scrabble and earrings, and I guess her initials so that was a cute gift too.  See what I'm saying, think outside the box!

I myself have gotten lots of homemade gifts.  See how stoked I am with my new homemade knit hat in this video!?

 So now on to green wrapping.  This is where the creativity and fun really come together!  The first thing to do when getting ready to wrap presents, no matter how you choose to wrap them, is to turn on Pandora and chill out to jazzy Christmas music.  See that?  You just did something green - NOT buying those holiday cds and wasting all that paper and plastic.  Plus, um did I mention Pandora is FREE?  Freakin' sweet!

Now I frequently wrap presents in newspaper.  I don't subscribe to a paper (too much paper!) but I do get those damn sales circulars so I save those around gift time and start wrapping.  I chose not to buy wrapping paper because its so unbelievably frivolous.  To buy paper that will just be pulled off in a few short days?  Ridiculous, even if you recycle that paper, ridiculous! There is enough paper in your home, use that and leave your pocket and the environment better for it.

In complete honesty, this is not my photo.  I got it from the blog C.R.A.F.T.

I also frequently use reycled cardboard boxes, cereal boxes are a favorite of mine.  I use recycled boxes for everything from wrapping gifts, mailing items, and for organizational stuff around the house.... 

Canned goods container made from soda can box.
Now I have more room in my pantry!

This Christmas I plan to use recycled boxes and home made gift decorations, or better yet, wrap gifts inside little reusable bags, like Chico bags or Baggu or something similar.  That way the wrapping is green and its the gift that keeps giving.  (One of my biggest pet peeves is plastic grocery bags.) 

For more wrapping ideas, check these blogs and sites...

C.R.A.F.T for lots of ideas
DIY Gift Wrap for alternatives to paper
Apartment Therapy always has great ideas!
So do their partners, Re-Nest!

To make this recycled bag wrapping, click here for instructions.  This is the best way I've seen to fix your environmental karma after shopping at a big box store. 

Happy wrapping, ya'll, and Happy Holidays!  See ya next year!