Tomatillo Salsa... You know you want some

My first food blog... Yayyy!  I always brag about being a fat kid on the inside. Nope Im not taking a hit at overweight people.  But when you have been straightt up and down just about your whole life, all you can do it continued to work out and thank sweet baby Jesus for a high metabolism.  Well one of my favorite foods to metabolize is Tomatillo salsa. I was first introduced to this particular salsa by a pretty famous chain down in South Carolina called... Moes.

Ever since then my obsession with this green, often slimy sauce has been unbearable. I would go to Moes and order 1 little taco and load up on Tomatillo sauce. When I ran out of chips, I drank it. :o  So I decided to look it up and create my own receipe.

Here's what ya need:

1/2 - 1 lbs (12)  of Tomatillos- Don't be scared they come in a little shell

1/2 onion

1/4 cup of jalepenos, pickled

cilantro

1 lime

 Salt

1.I first take the tomatillos and remove their covering. Wash them off and slice them in quarters. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake them for about 8-10 minutes. I heat it at about 345 degrees

2. While the tomatillos are cooking, cut up your onion, and prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Since it goes into the blender next, there is really no need to cut up the jalapeno or cilantro.  That is unless you use fresh jalapeno which is an alternative.  *I really like the sour taste of pickled jalapenos.

3. Take the tomatillos out the oven and place in the blender.  Then layer the chopped up onion, jalapeno and cilantro.  *I sometimes add some of the jalapeno juice from the jar and or vinegar. You can also add minced garlic as well

4. Once in blender squeeze half a lime on top and sprinkle salt to your liking.  Puree or blend until you have the consistency you desire. *It will seem a bit thin and sometimes slimy, but it will thicken up.

5. Refrigerate until cold and serve. 

Ive tweeked the recipe to my liking.  Ive actually stopped measuring actually.  When it tastes right. Its right.

Goes great with chips. Enjoy

Carb Day 2012

Gentlemen and ladies start your engines. If you know anything about Indianapolis, that phrase should be familiar. Its a little known race called the Indianapolis 500. Yeah right... its a huge known race, like internationally known. Cant count the many times I have been overseas and folks ask me about it. They ask whether I have been or not and are astonished when I say no. Nope I have never gone to a race. Yes, I have been here 28 years and have never gone. Don't get me wrong, I am very aware of the 500. I know famous drivers... Buddy Lazier, Arie Luyendyk, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan are a few of my favorites.

This experience doesn't just start and end with race day. There are many activities to do pretty much everyday leading up to the race and it draws folks from all over the world. Lets see there is Festival Kids day, Legends day, tons of qualification days and Carb day. What the mess is Carb day?

My friends would always talk about going and I really had no idea. Could they be talking about pasta of some sort? lol In actuality Carb day is short Carburetion Day. In previous years it was used as the last day for teams to "tune their carburetors to practice for the race. Since then no teams really practice, but there is a Freedom race (congrats Esteban Guerriari) and pit stop challenges. There is also a concert held in the infield. This year we dances to the sounds of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Here's is what Carb day really is. A bunch of "free-spirited" folks, that wake up at the crack of dawn, pack up a cooler filled with beer and head to the track. Its hot. Its sticky. Its dirty. But hey its a good freakin time. The roaring of engines around the track may not be from the big race car drivers, but something about it makes you dang proud to be a Hoosier. So pass me a Miller lite and a brat and sunscreen.

Lets get the party started. Happy Carb day!

Its my Birthdayyyy!!! 2012 Edition

28 years on this earth. Wow! Incredible how the time flies. I feel like I was just in kindergarten at St. Andrews with my bangs and pressed out hair, bashfully walking down the hall with one thumb in my mouth and the other twirling one of my pigtails. Every year when it comes around I always try to reflect back on my past year. Did I grow? No not in height. But as an individual.  Its like my new year.  2011 was an up and down year and if I had to grade myself, Id give me a C.  Not great. Not bad.  Just so so.   But hey, you live you grow, you learn and at the end you eat cake and blow out a candle.












This year I didn't do much.  My birthday falls in a really bad time I guess. Its always Spring break, so birthday parties were never an option. Even in college, my birthday falls during out spring season.  So I look forward to it and I don't. In 07', I got in a huge fight with one of my best friends on my birthday. 08' I was lying in a hospital bed in Suhl, Germany squirming in pain. In 09', I was on a 15 hour bus drive in Finland. 2010 was extra fun in Spain, but I was extra broke and there was some sort of holiday going on where everything was closed. Last year was not bad.  But hey my birthday is notorious mishaps.

The other special thing about my birthday is that I share it with my late Uncle Rod. We always celebrated it together. That will always be with me.

This year would be a lot of the same. First I really think people forgot.  But its whatever right. My boyfriend Curtis and I dined at a really good authentic Mexican restaurant with some close friends. That meal came with a shot of Tequila and some good ole fried ice cream. Unfortunately I was too "tired" to party anymore.  But it was a fun night out with some friends.

The next thing better than a birthday dinner is two birthday dinners.  Of course I am speaking of the annual Byrd April Birthday party dinner.  Starting on the 5th of April, the Byrd family celebrates 7 birthdays; my Auntie Stella, cousins Taisha & Taunya, Uncle Alvin and cousin Chris.  Its a big month for us.  So we always get together to do what we love to do. EAT.

This year we dined at the Cheesecake factory again.  No complaints there.  We invited the whole clan this year, as my brother David, Ren & Tonisha and their 4 kids as joined us, as well as my boyfriend Curtis.




 



We ate, we laughed, Curtis played with the kids the whole time, but more importantly we had Cheesecake. Yum!  Yes it was the Red Velvet one with white chocolate sprinkles.
I had an amazing time.  I love my family and they are always an amazing time. 

Happy Birthday Auntie Stella, Taunya, Taisha, Chris and Uncle Alvin!


Ready to embark on my New Year as well!  Happy New Year to me.

Return to Columbia

"In my mind I'm gone to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine?
Can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine"

James Taylor says it best right? I assume he is talking about South Carolina. AKA South Cakalaki. Being a Graduate of the University of South Carolina (06'), you would think I would have better ties to the university. But considering how I parted ways when I left, things are still a bit bitter when it comes to my alma mater. Yeah I still cheer for football and basketball when I see them on TV, and of course Baseball (Back 2 Back National Champs). But that same love was not attempted towards volleyball for reasons I will not get into. Just know it ended bad and we all know I can hold a grudge. I think letting go and moving on has been quite therapeutic for me. Do I still get that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about it sometimes. Sure! On the flip side I love thinking about the good times and all the relationships I have formed as a result of attending USC, so its a balanced emotion.

Walking on campus was so surreal. Everything was completely different, including the volleyball office and hello the freaking Academic center is ridiculous. I mean I would have always been there studying if we had that back in my day.












Later that night we met up with some friends in 5 points, the go to social place in Columbia. There were a myriad of old faces there. Of course we met up with Jason, our favorite Omega and he brought along the World Champion Packer Tory Gurley. Talk about bling. Wish I had taken a picture of that Super Bowl ring. Holy mother of heavy hardware. Later that night we were delighted to get a visit from Cliff aka light skinned friend look like Michael Jackson. Always good seeing Cliff, so many memories with that guy, and I really do believe he used to look out for us vball girls.

And then there was the reason we all came... Lynae's wedding, which was gorgeous by the way. As teammates Shonda and Sarah walked down the aisle to music by Ray Lamontagne, it was nothing short a a Hallmark happy ending movie.
Lynae wore this beautiful full length gown with her Dad as he was holding back tears. It really was special. Had to keep Lexi from full out bawling on the ground at the moment. After some wedding party photos and quick meet and greets with other guest, we flowed into the small 2 story manor for some delicious country style hor d'oeurves. So much deliciousness cannot be described simply in a blog.



We huddled out side, where it had gotten a little brisk, but that was nothing a little dancing couldn't cure. We kicked off our pumps and danced into the late night. After tossing her bouquet to her new sister in law falling over a gate and into the bushes, Lynae and Teddy walked away to a display of fireworks held by their quest. It really was a good time. Congrats to them.


Coming back to Columbia was not so bad at all. As long as my homies are with me! We used to run that town.


And for your enjoyment....

Happy All Hallows Evening!

Happy Halloween. Or All Hallows Eve is what they would say in the olden days. This is absolutely my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, I love the ghost, eery stories. I love the candy. I actually went trick or treating until I was 17 years old; which by the way was very hard because I was 6'2 since I was 14 and people had a hard time believing I was not an adult. Thank you baby face.

How about all those stories or Urban Legends of glass in candy, so your parents have to inspect everything. Oh the fun times. But my absolute favorite thing about Halloween are the costumes. I love that there is one day where you can leave your world behind and be just about anything you want to be. Thats the best part. Sorry 365 days of Lauren can be a bit much, excuse me if I wanted to be a Spice girl for a couple of hours.

And shout to all those who dont like "celebrating" Halloween. Lighten up. No one is devil worshiping or trying to raise the dead. The most we are doing is getting tummy aches and really bad hangovers from costumes parties. Actually the origin of trick or treating and Halloween parallels an old Medieval practice of people going from door to door collecting food in exchange for prayers for the dead on All Saints Day. That is also similar to Dia de los Muertos or day of the dead and my favorite Mexican holiday to celebrate while studying Spanish in school.

So maybe if you look at Halloween in this way, maybe it wont seem so ghoulish and evil. Whatever, its my favorite and Ill probably celebrate it forever. Deal! If you are lucky, I might break out the Thriller dance for you.

Happy Halloween from Dannie and I. By the way, he was the most excellent Optimus Prime. I was a Zombie Volleyball Player.



























Previous years I have resurrected my Zombie Volleyball player and an Emo Tinkerbell.

Bacolod Living!

Vacay time!!!! And boy did we need to get away. Completely disappointed and worn out from our run at the championship, Coach Roger asked if we would like to visit Bacolod before we left. Why not? I can always use a good couple a days off from competition, especially after what had just happened that past week. I wanted to go and hide my face in some remote island and forget about the pain.

So Phee Jang, Jen, Coach Roger and I packed our bags and headed out to the beautiful Bacolod, the capital city of the province Negros Occidental.
It was about an hour plane ride from Manila. Cool thing about the plane ride was reading about our defeat in the paper under this huge picture of the Army team. Good for them, but I did not save that article. *Kanye shrug*

Upon arriving to the city, there was this tropical island feeling. We were picked at the airport by Father Cachero, the president at the University of Negros Occidental, which happened to be the sister school of San Sebastian. We also would be staying on their campus. In the back there are these rooms with about 6 beds where visitors stay. Its back in this wooded, vegetation-filled area, kind of secluded. SO imagine our fright when we started hearing things crashing against the walls and the ceiling. lol Creepy!

The next day after a quick breakfast at Jolibee, we headed off to the Mambukal Mountain Resort, located in Murcia. Hidden inside mountains, hills and plenty of greenery, it kind of looked like we had driven up into Jurassic park and at any moment a T-Rex was about to present himself from behind some huge tree.

But it was absolutely gorgeous. Immediately available to us were hiking trails, hot springs, pools, water falls and probably much more. There were even bats that were just chilling upside down in trees above us while we relaxed in the hot springs below. Really cool. (BTW, Father Cachero & Phee Jang have all the photos, I will try and steal some from them)







Even though it rained on our way out, the trip left us completely relaxed and after eating, we headed out. Speaking of eating.... Do I need to even explain the deliciousness below. Take a look.



































Basically every time it was time to eat, we ate seafood; buffet style until I was too full to walk. Any kind of seafood that I had ever imagine, thought about, seen in a book... I swear it was available to me. The one thing I love about traveling is trying the food. I mean why not? Kind of over McDonald's you know!

If you are wondering if we did other things over than eat and relax. .... NO! Just kidding! We actually visited this really cool landmark called the Ruins. Its like this gutted out 2 story house they renovated. We arrived just as the sun was going down, so it was simply breath-taking. It had a very romanticized feeling. According to ExperienceNegroes.com, the Ruins was the resident of Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson, a sugar baron. He built it for his wife Maria Braga and was filled with nothing but the finest things collected from his travels through Europe. The mansion was set on fire by US Armed Forces during WWII and then again by the residents to keep the Japanese from utilizing it. Note that when building the structure, a special Grade A mixture was used for the concrete walls, which is why it is still standing today after the fire. Pretty neat.





Funny story # 2... So remember how at the beginning of this blog I mentioned burying my head and trying to forget all about volleyball? Well as soon as I walked about 10 feet onto the Ruins property I hear someone yelling, " Ford! Ford! Hey Ford!." I was like No Way! I have left Manila, and there is no possible way that anyone would know me out here. Sure enough we were greeted by Shakey's V League fans. How freaking awesome is that? A man and his wife and children were thrilled to take photos with us. They had watched nearly every Baste match on TV and were big fans. :)

Oh our last day... Of coourse we ate Seafood buffet again.... YES! Father Cachero, who was the best host ever, picked me out some delicacies of dried mango and fruit to take back and enjoy...

Over all I had an amazing time and Im so happy I got an opportunity to visit the lovely city of Bacolod. Father Cachero and his staff were simply the greatest host ever. Salamat po!


Check out the Slide Show for more photos :)

Temporary Shut Down

Hey, just wanna say I appreciate those of you that follow my blog. So dont get mad, but I have decided to shut it down until the end of the Shakey's V League. I write this blog to really get things off my chest. Sometimes I say things and people dont really get it or they misunderstand. So this blog was created to express the happenings of my life and my career as a traveling volleyball player. That is all. I dont use it to bash people and I really ty to give people props when I can. But right now I think its best to not blog about volleyball right now. Ill try to finish some of my old blogs. Ill continue writing, but Ill probably publish them when I am back in the states.... Thanks for understanding and thanks for following. :D

Lauren