Katie by the Bay

When I thought of fruit growing up; I thought of Red Delicious or Granny Smith apples, plain old Naval oranges and  yellow bananas. Not super exciting honestly. Incorporating more fresh fruit in my diet has caused me to branch out in my search for constant variety. Imagine my elation when I happened apon a most strange  specimen in the produce isle.  This interesting fruit was called a Cherimoya. Native to South America this tropical fruit looks kind of like a lizard tomato. So naturally I had to purchase one for my tasting pleasure and at almost $5 a piece I was hoping for deliciousness. Now it seems that these little lizard tomatoes are a bit like Durian fruit in that everyone describes the taste differently. I read mostly that it should taste like vanilla cream; but others said things ranging from pineapple to bubblegum. That seemed like quite a range of otherwise unrelated flavors.  When ripe it should give just a little to the touch and look a little beat up. ...

I have heard many things about the exotic Passionfruit. It seems like one of those fruits that either you love or hate. I have heard it described as the most delicious fruit in the world. I have also heard described as a slimy fruit that tastes like old lady perfume. So naturally I needed to try one. I paid almost $3 for one Passionfruit and as you can see in the picture it isn't very big at all. So this would be a special occasion splurg fruit for me. Native to South America this fruit is rich in Vit C, Iron, Beta Carotene and potassium. I myself had never actuall had a real Passionfruit and was very surprised by the appearance. They feel almost like fake fruit because they are so light inside and have a smooth and hard outer skin. I didn't know this at the time but if you allow your Passionfruit to get wrinkly it will be sweeter. I thought wrinkly was bad so I ate mine when it was still quite smooth. Imagine my horror to open up my Passionfruit to find what looked like frog e...

  If I haven't mentioned it before, you should know that I am a penny pincher. I'm not as bad as I was, but I'm still pretty bad. It was from this penny pinching that my desire to learn to cut my own bangs was born. I am totally fine to go and have a professional cut the rest of my hair of course, but my bangs often need to be cut much more often.     As you can see they had gotten quite     long the last time I cut them. So my quest began with YouTube! My technique is actually a combination of two great videos. The first is a tutorial from Bebexo on how to cut side swept bangs. The second is a video from JuliaGraf on how to cut piecey bangs. Combined, I get the exact results I want! Next I went to Ulta and picked up a pair of $11 shears and was ready to weed wack! I was slightly worried that first go that I would end with horribly mangled bangs but they actually turned out much better than I was expecting. In fact the last time I had my hair professionally cut,...