Hello friends! Spring is in the air and every new flower popping up around my neighborhood makes me smile and excited for warmer weather to come. Here is some stuff I want to share this month. Enjoy!

Food!

I bought some mole paste from Guelagetza after reading about it in the Cook Casual zine, and it’s definitely one of the best impulse food purchases I have made via the internet. You can use this paste to coat vegetables before roasting for amazing flavor (haven’t tried that yet), or you can make it into more of a sauce that most people are familiar with by heating it with tomato sauce and broth and then smother whatever you want in it. I bought the three pack, and we only tried the Coloradito version so far, but they were some of the best enchiladas ever. I was just eating tortilla chips dunked in the sauce, I could drink it, it is so delicious. I have so much more of the sauce in the freezer and so many more pastes to use!!!
Shout out to this Caesar salad dressing shortcut recipe that is delicious and doesn't require any egg yolks!
An extra shout out to making your own croutons if you (like me) need motivation to eat more salads! Here is the recipe that I use as a template. Sometimes I rip up the bread, sometimes I cut it into cubes, any type of bread works for this and you can also add fresh or dried herbs! These are also great to toss into soup!

Books!

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones is a very fun, clever, and gruesome book. If you enjoy horror movies, particular of the slasher variety (Jason/Freddy/Michael Myers), and have a dark sense of humor, you will probably enjoy this book. I could also totally see this series (book 2 comes out early 2023!) being picked up and made into a tv show, a la Riverdale (only way cooler and darker). I also really loved another of his books, The Only Good Indians, which is also a dark and horrific book, but completely different, much spookier, and way more serious. Highly recommend both of these!
Recently finished the audiobook of Parker Posey’s memoir, You're on an Airplane. It is a very conversational style of memoir, as if you are sitting next to her on an airplane, and she is just telling you stories about her life, family, thoughts, career, plenty of tangents, etc., and there are neat sound effects throughout, like ice clinking in a glass, and her dog snoring. Definitely a fun audiobook that I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed nearly as much on paper.
Finally got around to reading Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. Such an interesting book. I loved the inner monologues of each character, and being in the dark along with them about what was going on. It is a kind of claustrophobic and tense book, and reading it at this stage of COVID is probably better than having read it earlier when COVID was still very scary. It is a fast read and I loved the ending.

Projects!

Not much to report in the projects area, still chugging away at the pockets step of my puff quilt. It will likely take me a year to finish it.
Look at this cute DIY Dog Coat! Maybe I’ll make one for Remi in the fall.

Miscellaneous!

Severance on Apple TV is a really weird and interesting show. Reminds me of something that could have been an episode of Black Mirror.
Life & Beth is a cute rom-com type show starring Amy Schumer. She used to kind of annoy me but I like her in this. It is fun and funny without being too silly, and has a lot of heart. It occurred to me near the end of the series that it is at least partially based on Amy's life. I really enjoyed it.
Friendly reminder to the ladies out there to get your yearly mammograms!!!

Remi!

That’s a long tongue for such a little pup!

Goodbye, until next month!

xoM

Michelle’s Mishmash

March Mishmash