friday present: moving to alegre

This week was chock full of wonderful bits, enough to overshadow the not so wonderfuls. (Thank goodness!) It's probably obvious from my recent posts that this week I am crazy thankful for having completed our move.

yay! our move!

 {photo: unknown, please let me know if it's yours.}

I don't want to dwell on all the ghetto (not so) fabulous difficulties of where we were living before. But you know how when you put up with something for so long and finally move on, you are left lighter, unloaded, nothing on your back save that huge sigh of relief? This feeling can be found in lots of life's corners: relationships gone south for the winter--winters ago; the chronic pain in your jaw--that you barely even notice anymore--that changes the your swagger enough for you to eventually require foot surgery; that phone number you dreaded to dial and finally did, insomnia halted. That's how this move feels. 

The tijeretas (earwigs), which weren't even that bad by local standards: gone. Electric and gas piping outside the walls: inside. Wind entering the house and all heat escaping through a zero-ly insulated roof and walls: insulated. This house is much smaller than our last one, but now that we're moved in and our lives are stowed, it feels plenty big enough for the two of us. And we're warm!

a letter from a dear friend. 

On my huge to-do list the day we were scheduled to completely vacate our old abode, was to visit the post office and plea with them not to deliver a letter from my beautiful friend Claire, Bicoastally extraordinaire. There's really no reliable mail forwarding system here, at least not where we live. But I figured if I kept going to the post office to check, it wouldn't get stuck at the other house to likely be tossed out in the trash. Just as I sat down to catch a bit of rest, the mailman knocked on the door with a special delivery. This must be the most beautiful card I have received in years, right down to the adorable envelope! At that moment, I don't think anything could have made me happier! 

i get to play with cuppie! 

Carrie at This Free Bird just sent me Cuppie, so I will lovingly share in a lovely androgynous cupcake, part of the OneCraftyFox Cupcake Challenge hosted by Diana. The whole challenge is hilarious and absolute fundom. If you haven't already seen it, you must check out the boisterous romps of Cuppie while on Carrie's watch. Can't wait to receive the cutiepie and see if I can decipher her gender. Or his gender :) Adventures coming soon!

breaking in the digs with a killer breakfast. 

Long, slow breakfasts are close to one of my favorite things on Earth. This morning I rolled out of bed--early and awake and happy--with an urge to eat a Mexican-style breakfast with homemade tortillas. So I got to work kneading and rolling out tortillas, chopping tomatoes for pico de gallo, scrambling eggs and grating cheese. We ate the little breakfast burritos with some yummy lentil paste that Serkan had made last night for dinner. And I devoured one sweet one with butter and cinnamon-sugar sprinkled on top.

chirimoya alegre.

{chirimoya found here}

In case you don't already know, it's winter here for us. And reading all y'all's blogs had me craving cherries and blueberries! (No canned or frozen versions in these parts.) I've also been chatting with my dad about cheesecakes every so often, so I'm itching to bake one soon. The last one I made blushed with a raspberry topping. For some reason, (that I won't complain about) the local supermarket always carries frozen raspberries.

So what does this have to do with chirimoya? Well, even though we're far far away from fresh berries, today we randomly scored a chirimoya, which I also haven't seen for months! What is chirimoya, you ask? Chirimoya is a wonderful Latin American fruit, whose tree is sometimes referred to as the ice cream tree. (Now who wouldn't want to try ice cream fruit?) It's high in fiber, calcium and vitamin C! Now we're talkin', right? Sometimes we eat it orangified. One of the most common ice cream flavors here is called chirimoya alegre, or happy chirimoya, and it's happiness comes from the dash of sunshine that is orange.

Have you ever tasted chirimoya?

And do you have any cheesecake topping suggestions or special recipes that you adore? I would love to hear them and maybe try one (or several) out!

And what are you thankful for right now?