Category: My Life List

Taste 1,000 Fruits: No. 71-73

allthree

Winter citrus! These are Mandarinquats, tiny Kishu Mandarins, and a Fremont Mandarin.

kishumandarin

Kishu Mandarins are so wee that the segments are about half the size of a quarter.

kishupeeled

They’re very sweet, with barely enough tang to feel like you’re actually eating citrus.

fremontmandarin

Fremont Mandarins tasted similar to the Kishus, but larger, with a brighter peel that would make lovely zest. Also, they have seeds.

mandarinquat

I was most excited about the Mandarinquats, which are a Mandarin-Kumquat hybrid. They’re supposed to be similar to kumquats, which have a super sweet peel and tart fruit. Kumquats are about the size of grapes, so you just pop them in your mouth whole, and I love them.

mquatpeeled

I do not love Mandarinquats. They’re pretty, but the peel is nowhere near as sweet as a kumquat, which means you’re just eating an orange peel. But! If you’re a bartender who wants to make a kumquat drink, these would be less time consuming to juice I guess. Also pretty in floral arrangements?

Meh. Mandarinquat, you are no friend of mine.

Hooray for you! Your Mighty Lists, Part 3

If you’re working on a Mighty List, please send it my way: maggie at mightygirl dot com. If you haven’t started your list yet, here’s another set to inspire you (more ideas here and here). Cribbing encouraged:

lastresortsocks

Positively Anna is going to:

“Throw out any socks and underwear that I would be embarrassed about wearing if I got hit by a car and had to go to the hospital.”

Robyn of A Devine Life is going to:

“Donate 10,000 hand-knit items to charities.”

Anna Bell of Wanty is going to:

“Sew a dress that I am really proud to wear.”

Jodi Michelle of I Tell Stories is going to:

“Take a month long road trip with no destination.”

Tell A Girl is going to:

“Go to disco in Ibiza.”

hankguitar

Aisha of Slices of My Life is going to:

“Learn to play a song on my guitar.”

Thrifty Chick is going to:

“Pick my own flowers for my table.”

Kelli of Working Title is going to:

“See Frank Lloyd Wright’s home(s).”

Sara of I Like to Cook is going to:

“Place flowers at the memorial statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn in Austin, Texas.”

Nadarine is going to:

“Attend a real masquerade.”

octoberfest

Grania of Black Oak’s Daughter is going to:

“Oktoberfest, in Munich”

Amber of The Amber Show is going to:

“Gallop a horse.”

Jen of Feast of Life is going to:

“Fly to Paris for my birthday.”

Jennifer of The Good Life with Jen is going to:

“Get to the top of a lighthouse.”

Emily Grace of LIFE: The Journey, Not The Destination is going to:

“Be brave and eat French food without wondering what part of the animal it is.”

clambake

MeL of Stay at Aum Mom is going to:

“Go to an old-fashioned clambake on the beach.”

Liza of Crackle_Loud is going to:

“Buy a sundress.”

Laura is going to:

“Stand in the middle of the marketplace in Marrakesh.”

Vanessa of Yes It Is Necessary is going to:

“Restore my great-grandfathers 1959 Chevy Biscayne.”

Widdershins is going to:

“See Ayers Rock at sunrise.”
nightontrain

Nichole of Butterscotch Sunday is going to:

“Spend a night on a train.”

Jazzellis of Tea Cups and Superheros is going to:

“Grow a garden full of things we can eat.”

Lisa Ortale is going to:

“Own a piano and play it well.”

Nothing Witty is going to:

“Make her own vanilla extract!”

Splinters is going to:

“Make 5 different cheeses at home.”

Taste 1,000 Fruits: Purple Mangosteens

mangosfull

These are Mangosteens, and they are superb. I tried them for the first time in Bali around 2000, and they’re still my favorite fruit.

I got this stash in Chinatown, and at the time I was fairly sure they were illegal. They were tucked way, way, way in back and it was about $40 for a small bag. I’ve since discovered that they were cleared for U.S. import in 2007 and small quantities are grown in Puerto Rico, mostly for gourmet restaurants.

They’re delicious, of course, but also so pretty. The purple outer shell is like a thin layer of carrot over a wide hunk of red pith.

mangospith

You crack one open by squeezing it in your palm, and then peel back the pith inside to reveal the fruit.

mangosinside

I know they look a little like giant maggots, but they taste like juicy, peach-perfumed pineapple candy. The flesh is actually a lot like a very ripe peach, but with a bit more toughness to the fibers.

mangosemma

My niece likes them too.

Taste 1,000 Fruits: No. 69 Kiwiberries

Taste 1,000 Fruits is an item on my Mighty Life List. I’m currently inching my way through the first hundred.

kbbowl

These are Kiwiberries, and they are rocking me out. They’re grape-sized Kiwis without the fuzzy exterior, and you can just pop them in your mouth. I’m pretty sure Willy Wonka was involved somehow.

kbberries

They’re delicious, by the way — sweeter and more intensely Kiwi-flavored than their larger Kiwi cousins, and so effing cute. Cute, I tell you!

kbinside

Inside, they look just like tiny Kiwis, with the seeds and everything. I want to have a party just so I can use them to garnish Kiwi-themed cocktails.

kbhand

Whooo’s a tiny little kiwi? Wuzzah-wuzzah.

Your Mighty Life List Ideas

If you’re working on a Mighty Life List, please send it my way: maggie at mightygirl dot com. If you haven’t started your list yet, here’s another set to inspire you (more over here). Cribbing encouraged:

mllflowers

Melissa of Suburban Bliss is going to:
“Buy fresh flowers for the house once a week for a year.”

Bea of Bea is going to:
“Take singing lessons.”

Danielle  of Knotty Yarn is going to:
“Restore contact with three people I’ve lost along the way.”

Eleanor Black of Pundit is going to:
“Hug an orangutan.”

Jackie of A Patchwork Life is going to:
“Take trapeze lessons.”

mllchurch

Raych of The Part of My Life that is Not on The Intrawebs is going to:
“Ring a church bell (the kind in a tower, with a rope).”

R. Glaves of Underoo is going to:
“Get rid of everything I own that won’t fit in a backpack.”

Jena and Jessi of Bouched is going to:
“Sneeze on a sneeze guard.”

The Littlest Bird is going to:
“Take the Hiram Bingham Train to Machu Picchu.”

take luck is going to:
“Restore an old movie theatre.”

mllfish

La Florecita is going to:
“Own a saltwater tank.”

The Takemoto Family is going to:
“Learn to throw pottery.”

Ms. Quarter of A Quarter Century in the Cream City is going to:
“Cook gulyas over an open fire.”

McGriddle Pants of Serenity Now!! Insanity Later is going to:
“Become proficient in the use of a plane, motorcycle, tractor, surfboard, rifle, pistol, canoe, football, basketball, bow and arrow, a guitar, lariat and boomerang.”

Charmed of Ramblings of an Idle Mind is going to:
“Go spelunking.”

mllsnow

Alliecat In A Beautiful Pea Green Boat is going to:
“Take my children to experience snow. Preferably a White Christmas somewhere very, very north of here.”

J. Murray – Szarvas of Murray-Szarvas.com is going to:
“Travel across Canada on my motorcycle.”

Cahilla is going to:
“Ride the trains in Darjeeling.”

KT of Review Notes is going to:
“Spend a day at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.”

Gail of Impolite Conversation is going to:
“Become involved with a gnostic community.”

Allison of Perknitious is going to:
“Wear red shoes in the summer.”

Pumpkin Soup is going to :
“Eat caviar.”

Dakotagrrl is going to:
Finish a New York Times crossword puzzle.”

Sandra Vahtel of The Sour and the Sweet is going to:
“Travel to over 50% of the globe.”

Stacy of Sassafras Mama is going to:
“Have a front porch so incredible it could be on the cover of Country Living magazine.”

Your Mighty Life Lists

After an intense run at my Mighty Life List, I’ve been reading all of your dreams while I regroup. There are a lot of you who made lists, which I kind of knew, but it still shocks me for some reason. As it turns out, you can say, “Let’s make our lives awesome!” and the Internet will be like, “Oh, it’s on.”

I’ll round up everyone’s lists eventually, but for now here are links to a few of your lists and a taste of the genius you’re plotting:

beekeeper

Jennifer of Easter Kiwi is going to:
“Learn how to be a beekeeper and have a hive in our yard.”

Ali of Ali Awesome is going to:
“Be conversational in Maori, Spanish, Japanese, French and German.”

Mitali of Educated Tatya is going to:
“Meet Devdutt Pattnaik (mythologist) for coffee.”

Joelle of Fail Joles Fail is going to:
“See a total solar eclipse.”

tumblr_kspkxjnjVm1qa2fy3o1_500
(Photo from My Parents Were Awesome.)

Jill of Calamity Jill is going to:
“Send my parents on a much deserved vacation.”

Gwen Bell of Gwen Bell.com is going to:
“Speak in front of the UN.”

Heather of My Craftastic Creations is going to:
“Sleep in a castle.”

Jessica is going to:
“Make love in front of a roaring fire.”

giraffe

Star of Living Deliberately is going to:
“See a giraffe run across the horizon in the wild.”

Bea of Just Mommies is going to:
“Walk the Tongariro Pass.”

Kathy is going to:
“Own a Chanel suit.”

Jenny Blake of Life After College is going to:
“Save enough money to take six months off work and travel.”

penguins

Rebecca of Out of Sight Designs wants to:
“Walk with the penguins in Antarctica.”

Kimberly of Long Story Longer is going to:
“Send a postcard to PostSecret.”

Annika of Through The Looking Glass is going to:
“Drive more than 100 miles per hour.”

Heather of No Pasa Nada wants to:
“Go snowshoeing in Alaska.”

Keri of Persistent Cookie wants to:
“Spend two weeks at a Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat.”

Emily of Pretty Crabby is going to:
“Go on an African Safari.”

romababy

Maggie of Marge’s Evolution is going to:
“Visit Italy, stay in a villa, drink wine.”

Susan Wagner of Friday Play Date is going to:
“Go to Fashion Week.”

Queen of Birds is going to:
“Relax in hot springs in Iceland while the snow falls.”

Beth of The Queen’s Feast is going to:
“Raft or tube in an underground cave.”

Stacey of Sassafras Mama is going to:
“Have a front porch so incredible it could be on the cover of Country Living magazine.”

Spandrel Studios is going to:
“Fly over a volcano in a helicopter.”

donkeys

Chris Jordan of Notes from The Trenches is going to:
“Take a mule ride down into the Grand Canyon with my kids, like the Brady Bunch.”

So what about you? Have you made your list yet? Please do. And then send it my way by emailing maggie at mighty girl dot com with the subject header Mighty Life List, because I would like to read it.

Make 1,000 Lovely Things: Fishy and Jellyfish Costume

fishy1

Behold! The cutest little fishy on the face of the planet.

fishy2

And his little fish bum too! Oh. My. Goodness. The glue-gun burns were a small price to pay.

hallcaptn

Bryan was a sea captain.

hallmomjelly

And I was a jellyfish. I made my hat from a lampshade.

hallbuzzer

The joy buzzer was the best part of my costume.

halljellytentacles

The whole costume only cost me like $11. Before going out for the night I added tentacles and a sweater. Surprisingly, there were tons of jellyfish on the street, the best one being a girl who had affixed blacklights to the underside of a white umbrella. I practically genuflected in the street. Happy Halloween!