The First

And so begins my blog...maybe this will be easier than keeping a diary. HA. Doubtful...at least a diary is pseudo-portable. Being that my laptop is basically only functioning as a desktop, a good old fashioned spiral might better suit my needs...it IS lightweight and takes up a minimal amount of space.
Anyways, it's a Wednesday. I should be at Block 15 enjoying a delicious beer right now and playing shuffleboard...alas, the night is young. There will be time for that later, so long as I don't fall asleep at 9:30 pm...again. I just cant seem to get good sleep these days. Wait--I lie. I slept wonderfully Monday night.
Spring term is in full swing now. I should be thinking about projects, studying, tests, etc. Yet, my mind is consumed with books, good cooking, and this summer. YES. Senioritis...and I've got another three years ahead of me. Wonderful. I guess it happens to everyone. Maybe I'll go to the beach this weekend. Ugh. Not very helpful. It's so rare to get a nice sunny day in Oregon, though.

Just last week, I went to a little taqueria in Portland with a friend for happy hour. I had a delicious sangria and ceviche. I actually enjoyed the ceviche so much that I had to find a recipe to try...which I did last night. Here is an approximation of how I made it. The recipe seems somewhat customizable; just make sure there's enough of the acid to "cook" the shrimp, fish, octopus, or whatever you use.

Shrimp Ceviche

• Lemon juice from 3 large lemons
• Lime juice (the store's limes looked aweful, so I just bought the juice and mixed it with the lemon)
• 1 Pound Shrimp, cut into pieces
• 2 Jalepenos diced (I removed the seeds/insides to keep it from getting too spicy)
  
• 1 Large white onion diced
• 4-5 Tomatos diced
  
• 1 Bunch of cilantro, minced
• ~1TBSP Worcestershire sauce
  
• ~1TBSP Ketchup
• Sliced avocado
  
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Devein/remove the shells from the shrimp, and soak them in the lime/lemon juice for about 5 minutes, until they are opaque. Then you can add all of the remaining ingredients, except for the worcestershire, ketchup, avocado, salt, and pepper. You can probably add these, but I didn't. Mix everything thoroughly, and put it in the fridge overnight. You might be ok with only putting it in the fridge for an hour, but I'm a little leary of uncooked seafood. Plus, leaving it overnight allows the flavors to really meld. When you're ready to eat this, add the worcestershire, ketchup, avocado, salt, and pepper. I eyeballed these amounts--it would be pretty hard to ruin this dish by adding too much of any of these ingredients.
Serve on a toasted corn tortilla, or with chips. You can also put this in a martini glass with chips along side. This is really easy to make, but keep in mind that it takes a lot of time to chop everything up.


Anyways, I really liked the ceviche. I'll definitely make it again!