Interesting Insight

Acquaintance vs friend. Yeah, I gained some interesting insight on the difference between those two things last week when I had a written email conversation with Andy (no details about the conversation are necessary, they don't matter). I realized he is not my friend, nor I his. It is not that that is a bad thing either. It's actually really helpful. I realize I can say confidently I don't like him like I thought I could/might. It's nice to have learned that I am only someone who cuts his hair and he is just someone who teaches/helps me with my bike.

From what transpired between us, I learned friends are aware of each others personality quarks and handle said quarks completely different than an acquaintance does.I learned a major difference between a friend and an acquaintance is that a friend is someone who's quarks we enjoy or have a freakishly high tolerance for. Friendship is certain when the quarks they have bug us when other people have them, but with that friend they don't matter.I guess that is also what makes up a family and the dynamics therein. I recognize families get along better when we look past our differences and learn to tolerate one another's differences rather than letting those differences bug us.

I learned a lot from this experience.

The end.

Sweetness! I'm excited!

Today I found out I won the Tucson Food Conspiracy Co-Op's first (hopefully annual) eat local challenge. A happy dance and a whole lot of hehehe's were happening when I found out! The challenge was to use local ingredients in our meals for two weeks and document it all in pictures. Oh how I love taking pictures of food! Not even joking here. I really do love it. haha. On instragram I would take a picture of my food and use the #tucsoneatslocal hashtag. It is awesome to adventure with local ingredients; I highly recommend trying it sometime if you haven't. I'm adding all the pictures I took for the challenge to this post for memory sake. I'll only put the local ingredients I used, mainly because I'm lazy at the moment. If you really want to know what is all in some of them, comment and I'll get back to ya.

Local and organic: eggplant, carrots, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, and whole wheat tortillas (green chili powder is from New Mexico ;)

Local and organic: Whole grain sourdough, egg, tomatoes, kale, and basil (My salt is from Utah ;)

Local and organic: Okra, carrots, onion, garlic, egg, basil, and chives

Local and organic: White peaches, valencia orange (juice and zest), and raw honey

Local and organic: kohlrabi, fennel, eggplant, onion (yellow and red), garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes, and cactus (nopales)

Local and organic: long beans, kohlrabi, zucchini, and basil

Local and organic: egg, kale, oyster mushrooms, shallots, and basil (The plate is even local, I made it in ceramics :)

Local and organic: sweet potato, nopales, onioin, basil, and valencia orange (segments and zest). (The wheat berries are from Utah)

Local and organic: Whole grain sourdough and figs

Local and organic: Tortilla, tomatoes, nopales, onion, garlic, and egg (I made the black beans too :)

Local and organic: kale, oyster mushrooms, onion, garlic, squash, pork fat, dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried sage, and whole grain sourdough.

Local and organic: sweet potato, bell pepper, squash, onion, garlic, fresh rosemary and basil, pork fat, and egg.

Local and organic: Beef, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and lime.

I. Love. Food. Especially fresh and locally grown food. I love even more than food itself is that food has taught me so much about God, the world, society, me, and Tucson. 

Food is good. God is good for creating food. I love Him.

*** Also, did I mention I think I've figured out how I can/want to contribute to bettering my community in the big picture?! Hint. Its about food ;) I have a few really cool things I am hoping play out in the next couple weeks. I'll post an update as soon about what they are. Hehe. 

Update: Here is me getting my prizes :)