Making Sea Salt
The first time I heard of making your own sea salt was from a wonderful blog called Not Without Salt. Her post had beautiful photos of gathering sea water in glass jugs. I pinned it, thinking that it might be something to try when we moved closer to the ocean.
Then after I came across an article from Simple Organic posting about the benefits of natural sea salt versus highly refined table salt, you really didn’t have to convince me any further to give this a try. Natural sea salt has so many more nutrients and is much more flavorful than table salt, which sounds like a win-win to me!
Now that I live right down the road from a few beaches, making my own salt is suddenly very possible, very easy, and free! We didn’t have beautiful glass jugs, but we did have empty milk liters.
(Stay tuned for a post about Wrigley & Zoe’s day at the beach)
When we first made salt, we brought three liters of water home with us and it yielded about 3/4 cup of salt.
What I wasn’t anticipating was how absolutely fascinated my husband would be with the process. The same day that we finished our first pot of salt, we went back to the ocean for EIGHT more liters of water.
Mike stood in the kitchen most of the day literally watching the water boil.
Late last night, the salt finally dried up enough and this morning, we have…a lot more salt!
Also, I guess Mike was in the 3rd grade science mood because he put an egg in a cup of vinegar just to watch it strip the shell from the egg. I think he was meant to be a mad scientist, not an engineer.
Mike was absolutely giddy over the whole process, so if you have kids, hopefully they will be too. It might be a cool thing to do the next time you’re on vacation (if you’re renting a condo with a stove).
I definitely don’t think we’ll be buying salt while we live in Spain!
Have you made sea salt before? Do you ever like to do elementary school science projects in your kitchen too, or is it just my husband?
101 in 1001: Eating Sea Urchin from the Sea
Mike and I have watched a LOT of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. We love Bourdain’s snarky yet insightful commentary on all of the incredible places he visits. Since moving to Spain, we’ve tried to adopt his do-anything attitude, which includes trying everything we can and going on adventures to find the best, the freshest, and the most notable foods of this area.
One thing that really caught our attention was Bourdain’s Naples episode where he ate sea urchin STRAIGHT from the ocean and raved about it. Well…we wanted to do that too, so I put it on my 101 in 1001 list.
Yesterday, we went to one of the beaches within walking distance from our home and went hunting for some sea urchin!
We went during low tide so we would have a better chance of finding the creatures in one of the many tide pools, and we were successful! I was the first to spot a pool with many sea urchins who looked ripe for the picking.
Of course, when I hunt for sea urchin, I must look stylish.
Victory!! I was so proud of myself for plucking my first one out of the water! The glove definitely helped so I could get a better grip without puncturing myself. I only plucked 5 out of the tide pool so I wouldn’t decimate the population in that particular neighborhood.
While we didn’t eat the sea urchin right then and there, we brought them back home and dove right into preparing them so they would be as fresh as possible. If you find yourself in possession of a sea urchin, follow these steps. I used help from this video on youtube so I kinda knew what I was doing.
As for the taste, it was creamier than other roes that I’ve had. It definitely tasted fresh from the sea–a little briny, but not overwhelmingly fishy. Was it as awesome as I was expecting? Not really, because my expectations were probably unattainably high. But the satisfaction of capturing, cutting open and preparing something completely foreign to me was amazing.
Would we eat uni again? Absolutely! I think I’d try making it into a sauce next time, since I once had something similar at a local restaurant and it was delicious.
Besides our scavenge for sea urchin, we also picked up quite a few mussels.
While they were smaller than we’re used to getting at the market here, they were just as delicious.
Overall, we were really slap-happy over how fun and simple (and free) our meal was. It is always exhilarating to try new things, and we got some seriously good, seriously fresh food out of it. It’ll definitely be experiences like this that we’ll remember the most from living here, and it’ll be opportunities like this this that we’ll miss the most when we’re back home.
Have you ever scavenged and prepared your own seafood? Would you give sea urchin a try straight from the ocean?
My Big Important Dreams in 2012
As I lay in bed last night thinking about the new year, I realized that I want to look back on 2012 as a time of growth & achievement.
I’m 25 years old and I’m starting to realize that all of the Big Important Dreams I’ve had will only come true if I work really, really hard at them. And honestly? I haven’t been doing such a great job at that. I always assumed that “things would work out” in my favor, but unless I work at it, that may not be the case.
My Big Important Dreams have been changing dramatically over the last few years. Instead of a luxurious home with fame, fortune, designer labels and summer homes, my Big Important Dreams have actually become Modest Important Dreams. I’ve grown up and realized what’s really, truly important to me.
My Big Important Dreams:
- Be my own boss
- If I can’t be my own boss, work for a company with ideals and philosophies that match my own
- Do something creative and inspire others
- Have the ability to stay/work at home with my children in their early years, work around their schedule as they grow
- Despite working around my children’s schedule, have a satisfying and personally fulfilling career
- Live near a city I love
- Bring extra money into the household that will allow us more comfort and stability
- Travel and appreciate the world around me
Now that I’m in Spain and have no career, I have a lot of self-reflection time. I know that the perfect career for me won’t just drop into my lap, and if I ever want to be my own boss, I will have to make that happen for myself. If I want the freedom and flexibility to raise a family the way I want, then I have to start working toward that now, before I even have children. If I want to have it all, I have to work at it myself. I have to act.
I don’t want to be one of those people with Big Important Dreams but don’t have the Big Important Work Ethic to achieve them. I don’t want to blame circumstances or other people or anything for not going for what I want in life. Here I am with all of the time in the world to pursue my Big Important Dreams, and so 2012 will be the year that I lay the groundwork.
I have some projects that I’m working on that have excited me and made me happy. I have both long and short-term goals. I have a plan A and a plan B, both of which I think are realistic to achieve if I work hard. I have a supportive husband, I have the time, and I (think) I have the money to try.
So here’s to 2012. I hope that it is an inspiring year. I hope that it’s a year that I try a lot harder than I did in 2011. I hope that it’s a year that I can look back on and be proud of myself.
How are you adjusting your dreams as you get older?
Happy Birthday, Mike!
My poor honey is celebrating his 28th birthday with a bad head cold and a 12 hour work day today 
Since I didn’t have a card for him this year, I decided to try my hand at Prezi, which is an online presentation builder I’ve been hearing buzz about. It’s much cooler than powerpoint in that it doesn’t restrict you to slides and it’s a much cleaner, more modern look. Mike loooves him some powerpoint, so I thought I’d introduce him to Prezi by giving him a birthday presentation!
Enjoy! (you need flash to enjoy)
I’m pretty happy with how it came out, but Prezi seemed pretty glitchy to work with, was pretty slow, and it seemed to freeze up my whole computer a few times. It also signed me out after about 20 minutes of working on it, which was frustrating. Their support team told me via twitter to allow cookies, which I thought I did, but I’m happy that they at least got back to me. Overall, I really love the way Prezi is structured and will use it again. Hopefully any kinks they currently have will be ironed out soon!
Sorry, this was kind of a happy birthday and a review of a product in the same post. Hope you don’t mind, honey 
I thought this might be a fun way to plan out our vacations in the future since we currently use powerpoint for our itineraries.
I love you, Mike! I hope you have a good birthday despite not feeling well and working late tonight. I’ll have a delicious dinner waiting for you when you get home!!
New Friends
Yesterday, Mike and I went to our most local bar (a little less than a mile away) in hopes of getting a cup of coffee and maybe to see if we could converse with any of the locals. When we came through the doors, we were pretty intimidated since the owners were older and obviously spoke no English. Mike and I drank our cups of coffee and talked amongst ourselves. We were about to leave, but I prompted Mike to at least TRY to tell these people that we just moved in down the street.
Well, Mike tried. The owner (Miro) understood a bit of what Mike was saying, when his wife (Mari) came out and told us they have a woman who works there who speaks English. Mari promptly got on the phone and called this woman to come help us understand each other.
Guys. Never, ever, ever did I think that walking into a bar for a cup of coffee could change things so much for me. A few minutes after placing the call, a woman and man walk in the door, and the woman, Louisa, speaks perfect English with a British accent. Turns out, she was born in Spain, grew up in Britain, and moved back to Spain as an adult.
Mike and I stayed at the bar for hours last night. We were kind of a novelty to everyone since it is very very rare for a foreigner to stop at this little bar on the side of the road. All four of them would ask us questions about why we were here, and how we liked Spain so far. They also filled me in that I could get my local bread from their bar, as well as fresh produce.
Louisa then proposed the most amazing offer: she said she’d be happy to take me into the town of Miño any time she was going to get fresh fish. She also offered to come pick me up to bring me to the bar if I was lonely and it was raining too much for me to walk there. Never, ever, ever did I expect a real offer like this just by going out for some coffee.
I feel silly getting so excited over new friends, but meeting anyone who is so willing to talk to us and be patient with our halted Spanish is very valuable. Even more valuable is this woman who recognized that I might need help now and then getting around since I don’t have a car, and offered to take me shopping with her if she was ever heading out.
A part of me fears that this might have been an insincere offer…an empty promise like so many acquaintances I’ve known where we say in passing “we should definitely get together!” and never intend on doing so. I think the only thing that I can do to try to prevent this from happening is if Mike and I keep going back to that bar on a fairly regular basis and get to know the people there. I very much hope that the offer was sincere, as the prospect of having someone to help me navigate these foreign waters means so much to me.
Also, as a side note, we received a letter in our mailbox from our neighbors (in broken, Google Translate English) saying that they don’t speak English, but that if we need anything at all, please give them a call or send an email. I wrote back this morning (in broken, Google Translate Spanish) thanking them for their kindness and introduced ourselves.
So, nearly two weeks in, and we’re trying to reach out to people, and so far have had some success! I know that once we get a better grasp of the language, many many more doors will open up to us in terms of meeting new people. I gotta get cracking on Rosetta Stone!
“Let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
Somehow, after 11 months of waiting for this day, it’s here. As romantic and wonderful as moving to Spain sounded to me eleven months ago, we now face the adventure we signed up for knowing that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. We went through hell and back to get what we wanted with this move, and we’re still fighting on a daily basis to get all of the moving parts that are involved in this kind of adventure working together. It hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t even been fun, most of the time. The only thing that pushed us forward was the ever-present thoughts of “when we get there…” and “it’ll be worth it.”
Mike and I are entering this new chapter of our lives hoping with all hopes that the risks we took to make this move will work out. We hope that the sacrifices we’ve made in our everyday lives will lead to greater opportunities for us down the road. We hope that the challenges we face will make us stronger individuals and a stronger couple.
We will arrive at our new home tomorrow afternoon, which will be the beginning of a very different year for us. We might not be able to speak with the locals and I might not be able to have the independence of a car to get myself around, but we’ll also have incredible opportunities to meet new people, immerse ourselves in a new culture, learn a new language, travel to many, many new places. This year will definitely be whatever we make of it, and knowing me and Mike, you can be sure that we’ll make an adventure out of everything.
I’m excited to garden with space I’ve never had before. I’m anxious to see if the dogs can swim or if they’ll just drink the pool’s saltwater until they puke. I can’t wait to see Mike’s face when we bring home our first cured ham leg to carve up in the kitchen. I’m looking forward to the day where I can go to the local market and ask for what I need without thinking twice about the language barrier. I’m nearly shaking with anticipation for all of the possibilities laying out before us that I haven’t even fathomed yet.
I’m also scared to leave what I have behind. Over the past three years, Mike and I have grown incredibly close to my parents, since they moved to New Jersey. They’ve been our best friends, the two people we could count on more than anyone else in our lives. They’ve been there for us when we ask advice, whether it’s financial advice, personal advice, health advice, clothing advice or what the hell to do with the groundhog we found trapped in our yard. The bond that I’ve shared as an adult with my parents has been invaluable, and I will so miss their physical presence in our lives. I am so grateful for their unconditional support as we take this huge step, though I know it’ll be hard for them too. We love you, Mom and Dad.
So, folks: here we go. I hope you’re ready to read about my adventures, mishaps, highs and lows when it comes to uprooting our lives and living in a foreign land. No matter what happens in the next year or so, Mike and I have the dogs, who will love us no matter where they are on this Earth; and we have each other, which…we feel pretty much the same as the dogs. 
Title quote by the wonderful and prolific Albus Dumbledore.
SkillShare Philly
Last night, Mike and I went to Philly and met up with Shannon from You Wanna Talk Jive (Candy Corn on Weddingbee), her boyfriend Pete, and Brooke from Claremont Road (Cupcake on Weddingbee) for an exciting event launch in Philadelphia.
It’s called SkillShare, where regular, everyday people can teach a class on a skill they’ve mastered or knowledge that they possess to other everyday people who want to learn! For example, Shannon is going to be teaching a class on how to hunt for and renovate thrift store items!
The launch of SkillShare last night started with everyone filling out a name tag with their name (obvs) and then what kind of class they might teach. Mike wrote that he would teach a class on Travel Planning since he’s the king of travel itineraries and research. I wrote that I could teach a class on Couples Cooking because I think I could teach couples how to work well in the kitchen together while being creative and having fun. I could probably also teach a class on DIY Wedding Planning, right?
The event got me excited about all of the possibilities when it comes to what we could learn in short, cheap classes. I could learn photography basics without signing up for a ridiculously expensive course. I could pick up tips on how to engage a larger audience for my blog. I could take a course on how to get started in the freelance writing world. These are all things that I’ve been wanting to learn, but don’t really have the money or contacts to get the information from anywhere but Google.
SkillShare seems like a great way to build a stronger community. There’s something really wonderful about the thought that everyone has something to offer the world–everyone has something that they’re passionate about or knowledgeable about that they could share with others. It’s also a great way to meet people in your area who share the same interests as you while you expand your horizons and learn something new.
I really love the idea. Not sure yet if I’ll be teaching a class since we don’t have a lot of time left in the Philly area before we move, but I hope to take a few classes!
What would you want to learn if you had a SkillShare in your city? What would you want to teach?
The Writing Bug
Lately, I’ve been getting the itch to write. More than usual, that is. I’ve kept journals since I was 14, so it’s almost natural that I’m a blogger at this stage in my life. What you might not know about me is that I majored in Playwriting and Screenwriting in college. Useful, right?
Though I don’t want to be a big Hollywood writer anymore like I dreamed I would be at a much younger age, I still feel that my calling in life is to write. After college, I wasn’t sure since I was burnt out from scripts and deadlines. I suffered a devastating grade on my final script (I totally deserved it since I wrote 90 pages in 2 days–procrastinate much?) and was so humiliated by the whole thing that I felt I could never write again. Melodrama IS my specialty, after all. I’ve felt it coming back to me though since I started taking blogging seriously. Not just the urge to write screenplays, but to write books or articles or whatever I can.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been unable to sleep in the wee hours of the morning because of the ideas spilling out of my brain. I’ve literally gotten my ass out of bed at 3am just to write. I don’t think this kind of inspiration/insanity has occurred since high school, when writing was everything I lived and breathed and wished for.
It’s giving me a little bit of hope that maybe I wasn’t so wrong in college to learn how to construct a story and tell it in a compelling manner. Whether or not I did it so well back then is debatable, but I still have the tools and the knowledge so I don’t see why I couldn’t at least try to put it to some use. Plus, while that script I wrote in 2 days was terrible–I still wrote 90 pages in two days. I think that kind of production only comes from psychokillers with manifestos and people who actually like to write. I hope I’m the latter.
Part of me feels really silly saying all of this–like being a writer is too lofty of a goal or too presumptuous for just one of a billion bloggers on the internet to think, “hey, I could do this.” But since I’ve had extra time on my hands and forsee a bit more extra time once we move to Spain, why the hell not? Why shouldn’t I take this opportunity to really see if I could do it? And why shouldn’t I splash all of my hopes and dreams up for people on the internet to see & secretly make fun of me? Someone has to do it, right?
At this point, it’s almost impossible to think that I could make money as a writer since it’s very rare for bloggers to make a living off of their sites, and I don’t know the first thing about publishing, and I don’t even have a book or script to worry about that yet. So things aren’t looking so hot right now on that front, but as a dreamer, I gotta start somewhere, right? Also, while I’m dreaming, it’d be nice to be the next JK Rowling or something Hell, I’d settle for Stephenie Meyer too, even though she’s panned critically. Bitch is RIIICH!
What about you, bloggers? Do you have higher writing goals or is blogging just a nice outlet for you?
Our Dream Home
Recently, Mike and I took a trip back to the Midwest (yeah, I know I have yet to recap it…I’ll get to it) and stayed with my sister and BIL on their 7 acre (!) property on the outskirts of Cincinnati. We only stayed a few days, but Mike and I are completely enamored with their property. There were many “what would we do with this” conversations that included building a treehouse, a large enough garden to feed a family of four, fishing in their little pond, planting flowers, clearing out brush, and take advantage of their wild raspberries, blackberries, and the grapevines that they have growing.
Oh, and then there were the plans of where we’d put our solar field.
Yeah, you read right: part of our dream includes having our own solar field. While I’m fantasizing, I might as well throw some sheep in the picture too since I dream of making my own sheep’s milk cheese one day.
Needless to say, Mike and I have some pretty lofty ideas about our future, and most of those plans involve living sustainably, having plenty of land, and being as self-sufficient as possible. So, New Jersey…I’m sorry, but it doesn’t look like you’ve made us into lifelong residents. Taxes here are incredibly high, land comes at a ridiculous premium, and housing prices are through the roof.
So where will we find bigger bang for our buck where we can have land, among the other (many) things we want? We’re thinking that the Denver area might be where we decide to settle down after we’re finished with our international traveling/living, whenever that may be.
There is a large Lockheed Martin (where Mike works) location near Denver, and while Denver is very far from a lot of large cities & both coasts, we’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about the area. The residents seem to be on the path to progressive thinking, they’re into active, healthy lifestyles, houses & land are cheaper, and most of all…
The views are beautiful. The photo above is a house that’s currently on the market, and as you can see there’s plenty of property & quite stunning views. I don’t think I could get sick of that property. Ever. We’d be closer to National Parks, but still near to two large cities: Denver and Boulder. We could enjoy our land and views while still enjoying frequent excursions to the city. What’s not to love?
Plus, Denver gets on average 300 sunny days a year. Solar panels would be worth it here. Word’s still out on the sheep, but we’ll see
One little snag?? We’ve never been to Denver. So, we’re operating on the assumption that it’s as awesome as our family and friends who have lived there say it is. Of course, I’m talking about further in the future, so we have plenty of time to continue dreaming & to go check it out once we’re ready to settle into a permanent home to raise a family. It’s fun to think of the possibilities in the mean time though, right?
Are you where you want to live permanently? What kind of home do you dream about? Have you been to Denver before? What did you think?
On Putting Myself Out There
I have to admit…since I’ve been in my relationship with Mike, I haven’t been faced with much rejection. I’ve pretty much been safe with Mike and my small circle of friends…who else is there to brush me off?
But recently, I’ve found myself to be rejected twice after making an attempt to branch out and make new friends. In the first instance, I met a girl who lived very close to me in South Jersey who had recently moved here from out of state. We had a long conversation, she seemed engaged with the things we talked about, and I thought there was potential for a friendship. I suggested that we get together for lunch or drinks since she was relatively new to the area, and I offered that I didn’t have a ton of friends in South Jersey either (actually, I was being generous to myself–I have none). I gave her my info, and I never heard back from her.
In the second instance, Mike and I met a guy who had similar interests to ours, he was also newish to the area and had just gotten back to the States after a tour in South Africa with the Peace Corps. He indicated that his girlfriend also had similar interests to ours. We gave him my email address and suggested that we all go out for drinks, as we’d love to hear more about his experience in South Africa since we’ve been toying with the idea of vacationing there within the next year or two. Didn’t hear back.
Now, I know that these people are completely entitled to not contact me back. People have busy lives and their own stuff to deal with…I know that. I took a risk in putting myself out there to offer friendship, and my offers were kind of just ignored. Okay. That’s fine. I’m not so brittle that I’d cry over it, but I do have to admit that my ego was bruised a little bit. I thought that two new people in town would be pretty safe bets to reach out to–isn’t everyone looking for friends when they move somewhere new? Apparently not.
With our impending move to Spain, it makes me a little nervous…if I’m having trouble finding friends in the States who speak my own language, how will I make friends in Spain where I don’t know anyone and don’t understand their language?
I can tell you one thing–I won’t be like those two people I reached out to. If someone offers a kind word and an offer to get to know me better, you’d better believe I’ll take them up on the offer. I feel a little vulnerable after being brushed off like this, but I suppose I have to look at it like this: I’ll never make any new friends if I don’t put myself out there. If I don’t seem receptive to making friends, then people probably won’t offer me friendship. At least I’m trying, right?
Of course, this all probably makes me seem friendless and desperate, but I’m really not: I know that friends and connections will come and go at this time in my life. I’m nearly 25, I don’t have kids, I’m not in college anymore, I’m married in the suburbs…my “people similar to me who live near me” pool is small right now. I have a really great core of friends at the center of my life, but I think it’s good to branch out and meet other people who may bring a different dynamic to the table.
Connecting with other adults is definitely not as easy as it was connecting with other kids in college. In college, everyone is looking to hang out, to party, to get laid; they’re more receptive to new people and new experiences. After college…it seems like the door to that receptiveness closes just a bit.
I hope that I will always keep that door open for myself. I hope I will always be welcoming to new friends and new people. It’ll probably mean that I get brushed off quite a bit, but hopefully the experiences and relationships I gain from being an open person will make it all worth it.
Do you have trouble making friends as a post-college adult? Have you also been brushed off by potential friends & suffered a bruised ego? How did you handle it?
Welcome!
I'm Mandy!
I'm also Mrs. Socks on Weddingbee!
