Yesterday my grandmother passed away. Everyone called her Mother, because she took care of everyone. We'll be spending the next week really remembering about how she enriched our lives. She shared her passion and skill for fantastic Mexican food, and was the foundation of our family tradition. I feel I'm losing a huge part of my Mexican culture but I know that now it's up to me and the rest of my family to keep our traditions going. She's a huge reason I'm so in love with Mexican cuisine. It was always around and she made sure that no one went hungry. She was a grandmother many times over and my mom's best friend. I'll think about her every day.

MOTHER'S SWEET TEA

This summer my mom and I finally "cracked" the secret to mother's sweet lemony tea. It's so refreshing. Chris and I brought this to a potluck over the summer and people thought it was sweetended w/ agave! The sweet tea haters loved every last drop and there wasn't any left to take home. The process creates a sweet tea that's light, lemony and sweet without tasting syrupy, brewed or tart. Please try this one out.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 cups Water
• 1 1/2 cups Sugar
• 3 Large Lipton Tea Bags (Iced Tea Brew)
• 3 Lemons
• Lots of Ice

EQUIPMENT

• 1 Large Boiling Pot
• 1 Stirring Spoon
• 1 Pitcher

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour water into your pot.
2. Stir in sugar.
3. Bring to boil.
4. Add tea bags.
5. Continue to boil for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat/burner.
7. Allow to simmer (covered) for 5 minutes.
8. Completely fill pitcher with ice.
9. Pour hot tea over ice.
10. Squeeze lemons into pitcher & drop juiced lemons into pitcher.
    NOTE: Roll your lemons on a countertop to extract as much juice as possible. When juicing, squeeze lemon above a cupped hand to catch the seeds.
11. ***Chill for 2 hours in refridgerator***

This summer was nuts. We moved twice. I won't go into detail, I'll just say PLEASE make sure that the house you're renting is up to code and safe to live in. There are some landlords who have no problem charging sky high rent but can't be bothered to get the house inspected or pay to get it safely running. That house was a deathtrap and as soon as we found out we headed for the hills! We moved into an adorable tiny apartment that costs practically nothing in a great part of town. We are finally stress free! Chris even gained about 25 lbs! We're doing well now! And, lesson learned: Save up for your own house and trust your gut. If it feels like something just aint right, guess what?

L to R: Me, Melisser, Charisse (Chris took this picture on Melisser's camera)

Melisser (theurbanhousewife) came to visit and we ate Austin. That's right. We ate the entire city. Melisser, Charisse, Chris and myself pretty much ate everything a vegan can eat in Austin. Check out her Austin visit in detail here:

All About Austin, Part 1. & All About Austin, Part 2!

One of her last nights we decided to lay low. After a successful potluck (hosted by me & Chris), we all decided to meet at Kristen's place (sugarskull) for movie night. I made my Sweet Buns with sweetened red bean paste filling and made another pitcher of tea. I believe the red dots are to traditionally to differentiate between sweet & savory fillings. I made a box for the 4 of us and we snacked, drank sweet tea and talked A LOT. We were surrounded by awesome vegan ladies all week and Chris and I had a blast hanging out.

Melisser brought me Dandies Vegan Marshmallows which I used to make vegan rice krispy treats. Not pictured because we ate them instantly.

I later incorporated the white chocolate chips into my favorite muffin recipe. It's lemon, berry and banana.I veganize the recipe making the following changes: I substitute 1/2 cup soy yogurt for 2 eggs and I use vegan margerine. This recipe adapts well, too. I often am missing one or two ingredients like the soy yogurt or vegan margarine and it still turns out great with all of the crazy last minute changes I make to the recipe.

Check out my beautiful liners! A host gift from Little Rain (an Austin vegan). She gave me another set of liners with another cool design and the best spicy hot chocolate mix ever.

I even made white chocolate chip cookies, ya'll!

Anyway, thanks for being patient. I'll be around more. We're settled and stress free. October is my favorite month of the year! The weather gets great and my birthday is on the 31st! October is also my dad and brother's birthday month. It's the beginning of 3 months of family, fun and food. Need I say more?

(our custom portrait by the brilliant ashleyg)

just wanted to stop in and say that i love you

you're the best person / programmer / cook / doggie dad / friend / musician (ever)

we've been at each other's side every second for three years straight and it's flown by

i can't wait to one day: be your wife / buy our 1st ugly house (and fix it up) / get old and fat together

you're my absolute favorite person (and you're the only hot guy on the planet)

i'll never get tired of singing at the top of my lungs to your crazy guitar skills

happy 3 years!

(p.s. more recipes are on the way. we're settling into our new lovely house)

I'm posting this in case anyone wants to make vanilla sugar.

All you need is:

• 4 cups Vegan White Sugar (or Agave or Stevia)
• 2 Vanilla Pods/Beans*

The rule is 1 Vanilla Bean to 2 cups Sugar.

*I use Mexican vanilla beans because they're very fragrant and intensely flavorful. Of course, Madagascar and Tahitian are fine, too.

DIRECTIONS

1. Put 4 cups of white sugar in clean jar.
2. Take vanilla beans and lay them out flat.

3. Use a sharp knife to slice vertically down each vanilla bean.
4. Use a more blunt knife (like a butter knife) to scrape out all of the tiny pulp & seeds from within the bean.
5. Drop pulp & seeds on a plate. Scoop and drop pulp & seeds on top of sugar.

6. With a thick knife/fork, swirl around the pulp & seeds. (You want the tiny flecks of black to be evenly distributed throughout the sugar. You can close the jar and shake it up like I did)

7. Next, bury the vanilla beans/pods in sugar completely. (I cut mine in half, made a "star" of beans and placed them on top of the sugar. Then, I used the end of a wooden spoon to push the "star" of beans deep down into the center of my jar, covering the beans completely)

8. Let the vanilla bean sugar sit in jar for 1-2 weeks.

Use this in your favorite sweets such as French toast, rice pudding, or mixed in your coffee/tea.

Short on time? Skip steps 2-6. Those steps are extra work but they impart more flavor and quicker results. Also, the little flecks of black seeds look awesome.

For used and scraped beans:

1. Rinse them and pat dry.
2. Once they are completely dry, bury the beans in sugar.

Go nuts with this! I like to make citrus sugar with different zests and peels.

Don't forget! You can make vanilla AGAVE and vanilla STEVIA this way too!

My mom makes this all the time. It's perfect. There's nothing else that tastes like it. It's magic! You'd never think that the same old spices and ingredients could make such a unique dish. We've made this twice in the past two days. It's so cheap, filling and easy to make.

Need motivation to make this in the next couple of days?

+It requires 8 ingredients: *Including* 3 spices (salt, cumin and garlic powder), water, and olive oil.
+ It takes about 15 minutes to make.
+ I've already made it twice in 2 days so we know it's a winner.

This is another one of those meals will never provide leftovers.

Note: This recipe is a delicate balance. Because of this, don't stray from the recipe much if it's your first time making it. Things like crumbles, tvp, more spices and the recipe can become something else entirely. Even the lime in the photo is just for garnish. Once you make it and know what you're going for, feel free to mix it up!

We ate ours with pinto beans, our queso and tortillas (all on the side).

This makes 2 large or 4 small servings

INGREDIENTS

• 3-4 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 Onion, chopped
• 1 Box of Fideo Vermicelli noodles in the yellow box (the noodles are supposed to be broken up)
• 1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce (which is 1/2 of a can)
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1/8 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Saute onion (Heat your pan on MED, add your oil, then finally add your onions)
2. Once onion is pearly and translucent, ADD in the noodles.
   NOTE: Don't expect your noodles to soften completely yet. Saute them until they are a bit softer. They change colors quickly, and what you're doing now is sauteing UNTIL you reach the color you like. I saute mine for about 2-3 mins.
3. Add in tomato sauce and water. Stir continuously.
4. Raise the heat to HIGH
5. Add in salt, cumin and garlic. Stir, stir.
6. Once it starts to bubble and boil, lower the heat to warm (to simmer)
7. Carefully taste the broth (yummy, huh?)
8. Let it simmer about 7-8 minutes. Stir often.
   NOTE: Watch it closely because you do NOT want to cook off all of your broth, before your noodles are done. You do want the noodles to cook a bit and completely soften, but don't let them burn.
9. It's ready when the noodles are completely soft.

Congratulations Comment # 3 (Celene) who said:

"woohoo! I wish you lots of success with your kickass business ventures."

Thank you to everyone who commented!