the tale of one avocado

Avocados will always be one of my favorite fruits. I could cut one open and eat it right out of the peel with a spoon, and I could also put it on almost any other food. Yum. I've heard you can even make brownies with avocados!? As much as I love eating them a la carte, they are even better made into guacamole. I've been getting used to making guac without the dairy added, (sour cream, mayonnaise, whatever else people in that stuff to make it creamier) and it is definitely just as good. All you need is a little salt and pepper and maybe some other veggies and you're good to go. Thankfully I have a beautiful garden in my backyard with tons of fresh produce, so I picked out some spicy Serrano peppers and some green onion, sliced it up and threw it in there for a little extra kick.

All mashed up with green onion, spicy peppers, salt and pepper. Leave the seeds in to keep it fresh.

 A very green sandwich with my guac, spinach and cucumbers on multigrain bread. Perfect on a hot day.

Satisfied :)

with love,

neena noel

bagel munchies

I may not be much of a chef but I can make a damn good bagel. :] Try putting salmon cream cheese on a bagel with some lettuce, tomatoes, onion, and tapatio, it's delicious. Or regular cream cheese, I know how much some people oppose the salmon flavored one.
I have to admit I'm one of those girls who loves to take foodie pictures, I can't help it sometimes, as long as it tastes good I feel a need to share it. There can never be enough foodporn on the internet.
Little baby tomatoes from my yard, we have something like, five different types growing out there right now, they're addicting. Red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and green tomatoes, who knew?

^^Also, zucchini, Japanese eggplant, purple bell pepper, lime, jalapeno, Serrano pepper, and tomatillo.

with love, 

neena noel

sushi

Mom took my brother and I out for dinner, which was delicious! During dinner I also found out that one of my listings made it to the front page of Etsy for a short time, which made it even better!

with love, 

neena noel

from the seeds planted

My mother has been slaving over this beautiful garden for weeks. Though she's had gopher problems, she has been persistent and it's beginning to show its fruitfulness. It's tough being completely organic sometimes, but I feel like it will pay off. (Though I should probably be helping with the garden if I'm going to claim that it will pay off, haha.) This is the second year in row of my mothers summer gardens, though there were plenty of fruit trees already blooming when we moved into our home - oranges (valencia and naval), grapefruits, lemons, apricots, pomegranates, apples, plums pineapple-guavas and blackberries. I can't express how grateful I am for our bounty of fruit and vegetables, and let me tell you, non-genetically modified foods do taste so much better. Here's just a small sample of what's blooming in our backyard right now.

Mama even made some homemade apricot jam

Tomatoes

Baby Pumpkin

Rows of Sunflowers

Mint Field

Baby Blackberries

Oranges are not quite in season

with love,

neena noel

wednesdays in L.A.

So, my mother and I planned a trip to downtown LA's fashion district in search of some wholesale yarn stores, or any yarn store. What did we find? A crap-load of fabric, shop after shop full of all types of fabric, but no yarn. I'm still trying to find a good place to purchase bulk quantities of yarn, but as of now I'll continue to buy from my current supplier, (though they refuse to return my calls and e-mails when I have a problem with my orders from them). As for today, we decided to go out for lunch in LA and then head over to Santa Monica for some shopping and a walk on the pier.

Veggie Pesto Panini at the LA Cafe - it was delicious 

Bought a few balls of yarn in Santa Monica - Coral is one of my favorite colors!

Throwback - Taken at Santa Monica Pier in May 2010

with love,

neena noel