No More 'Poo!

Well, yesterday was my last day of using regular shampoo and conditioner - at least for a while.  After thinking about it, I decided that my guilt about potentially making aquatic animals sick and over-fertilizing harmful algae was stronger than my desire to have pretty hair.  I don't mean to proselytize, but why is this collection of dead skin cells so important to us anyway?

Not going to lie, though, I am a bit nervous about giving up the 'poo.  A few years ago, one of my camp friends told me "You know, all women are vain about something.  I'm pretty sure for you it's you're hair."  Yup.  I know I have nice hair and I don't want it to be ugly!  I would be sad.

But I have been hearing lately about people using alternative methods of washing their hair.  I have looked at organic, phosphate free products online, but they are super expensive and some of them still use fragrances and other chemicals.  So, today I tried the baking soda and vinegar method!

Wait, you say.  Aren't those the ingredients you use in a volcano science experiment?  Yes!  And what better way to wash your hair?

Here's what you do:
Shampoo: Mix 1 tbsp. baking soda to 1 cup water
Conditioner: Mix 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar and 1 tsp honey to 1 cup water (NOT white vinegar)
Shake well to mix thoroughly.

So, in the shower, I shampooed my hair first.  The baking soda feels awesome!  It tingles when you pour it on, and then you rub it all over your hair and I guess it must soak up the oil.  It left my hair feeling clean.  No problems yet.

I waited until the end of my shower to condition my hair.  Normally I leave it on for a bit, but since it was vinegar I didn't want it on my hair very long.  Warning: the vinegar-water does still smell something like vinegar, but it's diluted enough that it isn't too bad.

So I stirred up the conditioner, poured some on my head and then soaked the ends of my hair in what was left.  After about 1 minute, I rinsed it out and called it good.  Note: your hair and your bathroom will NOT smell like vinegar after rinsing (phew!).

So far, it seems to have worked!  My hair feels clean and it was easy to comb out.  The conditioner seems to untangle hair just as well as conventional stuff, although your hair doesn't get that super-sleek silicone feel.  I'm going to try this for 6 weeks and see how my hair holds up.  If it gets really terrible, I might adjust my method, but I have a good feeling about it.

Get your goat

On today's menu: goat!

I've always wanted to try goat meat.  It's the world's most commonly-eaten meat; it shows up in a lot of South American, Asian and African food.  It's supposed to be leaner than chicken but higher in protein than beef.  In short, it sounds pretty awesome, right?  I was excited to see it at the Capital City Market (Boise's giant farmer's market) this weekend.  It was a little more than I would typically pay for chicken, but I thought it was worth it just to try it.  Plus, this particular goat is locally-produced and lived on grass.  Hurrah for happy goats!  Makes me think about Heidi.

So anyway, I decided to try a recipe I've looked at before - Seco de Chivo.  It's an Ecuadoran dish that seems pretty similar to chili.  I looked over a few recipes and picked out what I liked from each.  Here's my recipe:

Seco de Chivo

1. Season 1 lb of goat meat with garlic, cumin, oregano, salt and 1 can of beer, let marinate for at least an hour.

2. Remove the meat from the marinade and save the marinade liquid for later.

3. Heat two tbsp of oil over high temperature in a large pan and fry the meat until browned on each side.

4. Lower the heat to medium and add the minced vegetables ( 3/4 onion, 3 stalks celery, and 1 bell pepper), cook until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes.

5. Blend 1 can of diced tomatoes, a few springs of cilantro, and 1-2 hot peppers with the leftover marinade, and add the puree to the meat.

6. Add 1-2 tbsp. brown sugar and 1/2 tsp all spice, and bring to boil.  Then, lower the temperature and simmer until the meat is very tender and the sauce is thickened, about 2 -2 ½ hours.

7. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed, sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve warm.

 

I served this dish with red beans and brown rice.

The goat was pretty good.  It was a bit gamey, but rich-tasting despite the low fat content.  I liked the blending of different flavors in this dish as well.  It was a little spicy, a little sweet, and very tasty.  I think Tim liked it more than I did.  Anyway, I'm glad I got to try it - one more food experience checked off the list!

The New Apartment

Well, posting in the summer didn't turn out as I had hoped - between the lack of internet and the surplus of interesting things to do, I wholeheartedly failed to keep up with this blog.

However, now that I'm settled in Boise, I have plenty of time for blogging, and the internet here is quite reliable.

I love my new apartment!  It's light and open, and the location is great.  Within a 1-4 miles, we have access to downtown Boise, the Greenbelt, Boise State University, and Camelsback Park, which contains several miles of hiking and biking trails.  There are also bike lanes connecting our street with downtown.  Biking is so much easier now; I have lived here for three weeks now and haven't had any rude comments or obscenities screamed at me from car windows.  No one has tried to run me off the road.  The only problem I've had is that occasionally Google Maps has inaccurate information about where the bike lanes are (but they're usually close). 

Other bonuses to our apartment: balcony, nice pool, exercise equipment, and a blackberry bush.  I am a happy camper.

Inside the apartment, we have a whole bunch of new (to us) furniture.  We gave away most of our furniture in Norman, so we had to replace our couch, table, chairs, bookshelves and dresser.  We were able to find everything we needed at thrift stores and garage sales, and I think we got amazingly nice stuff for the price.

I think the concept of thrift stores is awesome - it employs perfectly the principle of re-using, which is even more important than recycling, in my opinion.  We were able to get everything we needed for around $250, and no new materials had to be used.  I am especially excited about our new table and chairs, which is solid wood and has two removable leaves that can extend it to seat 10 people.  I can have so many people over for dinner!  As soon as I find enough friends.

As far as that goes, I've made some inroads.  I have joined a bunch of things - I am now a volunteer at the Discovery Center of Idaho, the local science museum.  It's really fun to work there; you basically just clean stuff and play with science experiments with little kids.  The people are nice, too.

I also found a church near the University that a lot of the students go to, so that brought me to a large group of friendly people my age.  I'm going to a barbecue there tomorrow, and on Monday we are going to float down the Boise river.  (First I have to locate and purchase an innertube.)  They also want me to go to Tijuana with them in January on a mission trip.  Apparently they go every winter to visit with and vaccinate the group of orphans they sponsor throughout the year.  That seems interesting to me, so I'll look into it, although I think Mom might die if I went to Tijuana.

Next week should bring some new opportunities as well.  I auditioned today to be in a choir at the University, and apparently it's a good mix of students and community members, music majors and not.  That meets twice a week, so I should see a lot of those people.  All in all, I'd say it's going well.  It's hard to get used to a new place, and it's been a little lonely so far, but I think things are looking up.