Catching Up on July Holidays

OK. Here we go. Sigh.

July 25 was National Chili Dog Day and National Refreshment Day. We had chili dogs (with homemade chili) and refreshments. Done. Blogged.

July 26 was Talk in an Elevator Day. A few of us got a picture of us talking in an elevator the day before. So we celebrated it observed. Done. Blogged.

 

July 27 was National Sleepyhead Day (in Finland). I totally missed it this year even though I was thinking about it just the day before. Sigh. Told you we were busy. Check out how we've celebrated that one in the past, though (starting with last year's celebration while we were in Washington). Done. Blogged.

July 28 was Milk Chocolate Day. We had chocolate milk. Done. Blogged.

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. We had lasagna. And I learned how to do "baked" mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. Done. Blogged.

July 30 there were a lot of holidays I didn't celebrate but I should have. Paperback Book Day. International Day of Friendship. Father-in-Law Day. National Cheesecake Day. Sigh. I must not have been feeling well that day because someone made me breakfast and Jr. helped make dinner that night. 

He decided to gather all the ingredients needed for the dish in a bowl before making it. Heh Heh. Done. Blogged.

July 31 was National Avocado Day. We had avocados in our salad (yet another recipe from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page) as well as cucumbers. 

Jr. took the bowl of cucumbers I had just cut up and made this comment:

"Man, this cereal's the best."

He doesn't particularly care for cucumbers so we talked about other ways to use cucumbers besides eating them like cereal (though I love eating cucumbers). Done. Blogged.

And just like that, I'm caught up on the rest of July holidays. Go me.

Done. Blogged.

Trying Again

Remember when we tried growing an avocado plant from the pit a while back? Yeah. It didn't do anything. I've been wanting to try again ever since. Each time we get an avocado I think, "Let's try again." Well, now it's time.

The other day we were at the store. Avocados were on sale. Cilantro was on sale. We already had chips at home. I was in the mood for some chips with salsa and guacamole.
Our friends, Justin and Melynna James, taught us a really easy way to make salsa and guacamole. Melynna let me know that Justin learned this from an old hispanic lady in Southern California.

Salsa:
Take 2 cans stewed tomatoes (I used diced and add Italian Seasoning) and 1 chopped jalapeno. Boil them together until they get the thickness you want. Put them in a blender.
Add a Tablespoon or two of lime juice and some cilantro (as much as you like in your salsa) without stems.
Blend it all together.

Guacamole:
Mash up some avocados and add some salsa.

We used two avocados and their pits were completely different sizes.

Fun. I put them both in water to see if either of them will grow this time. Wish us luck.

Not Just For Guacamole

While making guacamole to go with our traditional New Year's Eve nachos, Jeremy mentioned that you can put an avocado pit in water and let it grow. So I looked up this website about different science experiments you can do at home and growing an avocado tree is #2 on the list (counting down from 10).

So Jeremy set it up.

The kids helpfully looked on.

And now we have an avocado pit sitting on our windowsill waiting to grow.