food. baking like mad.

snapshot: i'm covered in flour. there are various bowls of delicious baking creations surrounding me. lots of friends in the kitchen also cooking and baking. good music playing in the background.

snapshot: camping in the desert. eating a delicious baked potato smothered in vegetarian chili, salsa and sour cream. completely content.

snapshot: roasting corn, onions and sweet potatoes over a fire at my boss' housewarming party with most of my coworkers. drinking sangria and playing music.

snapshot: a day in town with a good friend. we stumble upon a farmer's market and i pick up flax seed and coconut to add some excitement to my cooking adventures.

snapshot: over at a friend's house. made the largest (and most delicious) loaf of challah bread in my life. later realize that the recipe called for 2 loaves. oops.

needless to say, food has been great for me these two weeks. i've had a lot of fun baking and trying new recipes. i'm finally writing the recipes down so i don't have to keep fumbling around on my computer and our (often horrible) internet to find what i'm looking for.

i found out i'll be working in southwest oregon this summer for my crew which means i'll be on opposite sides of the country for big parts of my summer (training is in new hampshire) with sandwiches of time in michigan. pretty great!

in other life news, i've been riding my bike (named fabio) a lot. i had to bite the bullet and buy a new seat because chunks of foam were coming out of my old seat. it lasted me about 7 years though! i'm slowly improving on the banjo. i have a lot of interesting knitting projects in the docket and even learned about to do cable patterns. here are some recently photos from my life...

mt. baldy frosted in snow.

i rock climbed. yup. bad ass.

me and my cabin mate, kyle.

ari and jake on our fun hike.

sean contemplating the desert.

lunch spot on a nice day hike.

sunset in the desert.

clouds rolling in through the valley.

lena in an epic pose.

big rocks!

food. spring break adventures.

i just finished cleaning the kitchen after baking two loaves of oatmeal honey bread, a batch of granola and set everything out to make a delicious bean and barley soup with cornmeal muffins and sweet potato fries for dinner. just writing that makes my mouth water!

i managed to eat rather healthy over spring break. since i mostly stayed with friends and paid my rent in baked goods and meals, i had a lot of control over what i prepared...which isn't typical of whirlwind vacations. the exception was my day at six flags where i ate about a pound of chocolate covered brownie bites and jelly beans followed by greasy cheese sticks. we went to a mongolian bbq restaurant later (aptly called genghis khan) where i redeemed myself with a fresh salad and a bowl of noodles with lots of veggies.

my break wouldn't be complete without baking bread, of course. one of my friends lent me a bread machine so i had a lot of fun making a loaf of bread in that and can't wait to experiment more! i also made some delicious garlic herb bread with ingredients fresh from the ventura farmer's market. this paired well with a vegetarian lasagna my friend karis made using kale instead of spinach. soooo good! during a break in the dancing, i made a few loaves of honey oat bread while at a contra weekend up in mt. baldy.

tomorrow it is back to camp food for the week, but i'm hoping to try some new recipes again next weekend. any suggestions of ingredients to try?

pictures from here and there.

i'm finally at a place with high speed internet, so...some pictures of my life in california...

my bike after one of the snowstorms.

snapshot of my job.

mountain lion tracks!

building a creepy snowperson.

contra dance festival in pasadena.

smoking cigars in big bear (at least trying to).

fish hat i made for the lorax.

lorax hat i made.

bear hat i made for the lorax.

san gorgonio. from a hike to the headwaters trail.

the land: mountains are unpredictable.

goodness. time has certainly been flying by lately. the past two weeks have been one long and tiresome adventure. two weeks ago, we received about 2 feet of snow on the eve of spring. not exactly what i wanted...but my field group tackled the addition to our rough terrain well. they loved breaking trail (tromping through the snow to create a path) and had a lot of fun with our classes. i loved being out in the snow with the bright southern california sunshine beating down. pretty darn delightful.

i went contra dancing in an old barn that friday with some coworkers and was stunned at the beauty of that area. the barn is nestled in a countryside of orchards and small farms. not something i expected just off the hills of the mountains.

soon after i returned from dancing, however, i was hit with the stomach plague that had started to pillage children and staff earlier that week. after winning a gold medal in the puke olympics (puking every 2 hours throughout the night and then after trying to rehydrate and eat, puking it all out along with bile. gross.) i managed to recuperate and get my taxes completely done (yay!).

this week i worked a double shift, meaning i had a cabin group and a field group. all in all, my week was awesome. along with mountains often being unpredictable, we talk a lot at high trails about kids being unpredictable. i had a student with asberger's syndrome (similar to mild autism), which i wasn't entirely sure how to handle. he ended up being great and only had a meltdown on the final class of the final day.

now i'm on spring break. off to explore new places and try cooking new foods (the focus of my april entries).

: )

the land: exploring my own surroundings.

i've spent the past couple weekends hanging around camp a lot. partly because i'm trying to save up money, but mostly because i really enjoy this place. last weekend i had a great time wandering around big bear with a couple good friends. we visited the thrift stores in search of outfits for the staff party. when i moved here, i was surprised to find that big bear has a large selection of thrift stores. they are all those locally owned shops who just charge you $5 for a big pile of items when you set them on the counter. love it.

after finding many goodies, we bought cigars and attempted to smoke them while walking along a boardwalk. it was so windy we couldn't get them to light, but i laughed so much in the process that it was all worth it.

i was a field instructor this week and my students were awesome. they all really loved hiking and exploring the forest. on thursday afternoon, we had a low point, so i busted out my fake farting noise and most the students wrote on their evaluations that the 20 minutes of laughter and farting would be some of the moments they remember most in 6 months. i might not have been the best at teaching the concepts this week, but i know my students left with a sense of inquiry and wonder about the land around them.

this weekend has been a blast so far. the staff party was a riot. i'll leave it at that. slightly ragged from the party, the next day a car full of us drove down the mountain for a day of enjoyment at pharaoh's lost paradise fun center. we bought passes for 2 hours of unlimited mini golf, go carts and arcade games. i got an ab workout from all of the laughing i did. i'm pretty sure i even drooled a little bit. i ended the night early with a good book and some mango sorbet.

i'm not about to hike to a new place in the forest i haven't been to yet. can't wait!