Superhero Necklace Auction for Nie Nie

I'm not sure if you have heard about Stephanie and Christian from Nie Nie Dialogues. I started reading Stephanie's blog a while back after she guest blogged on my friend Gabrielle's site, and I love her quirky spirit, smart ideas, and fantastic sense of design. In fact, a few weeks ago, I was absolutely inspired by her "back to school breakfast" (Who does that?! Awesome!) and family theme for the year..."Be Prepared".


Her intuition was amazing. But no one could have prepared for what happened. A few days later, Stephanie and Christian were in a terrible plane crash. They both survived, but have very serious injuries.


This family needs our help. Stephanie needs our help. She was severely burned all over her body and has months of recovery ahead. It will be a painful, extensive, expensive healing process. And money is the last thing they need to worry about right now.

So some online friends are putting together an online auction to benefit Nie Nie and her family. There are 165+ items being auctioned off over the next few days.

Here's one.



Bid on a Superhero Necklace: Since Nie Nie and her family will all have to be superheros through this process, I thought it fitting to auction off Superhero Necklace (Winner's choice. Check them out! How will you choose?) by Andrea Scher. Legend has it that Andrea blesses each necklace. I think with this one we'll ask her to bless the winner and Nie Nie's family too. What a great reminder of the blessings we all have!

How to Bid: Leave a comment in the comment section below with your bid amount. Bid increments must be no less than $1.00. Auction will close Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 10pm Central Standard Time. The winner will submit payment to the Stephanie Nielson Fund Paypal Account and send the receipt to me to receive their prize.

Happy bidding! Go hug your family now.

XOXO,
Laura

Tilapia Tacos with Peach Relish. Delish.

We spent our last weekend of summer at the beach. Which was great. It also, as usual, motivated two things. Being in the sand and surf makes me want to:

1. Eat. a.) healthy and b.) fish.

2. Crave cilantro. I have no idea why this is. But it is, and it's on. And there was no way I was going to shut up about cilantro unless I just hit the kitchen and whipped up something that contained a lot of it. So. I did. And now I give you this kick arse little recipe I found in an old Cooking Light magazine:

Tilapia Tacos w/ Peach Relish

Salsa:

2 cups finely chopped peeled peach (about 2 medium)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

Remaining ingredients:
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 pound tilapia, cut into 2-inch strips
Cooking spray
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas

To prepare salsa, combine first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add fish to bowl, tossing to coat. Place fish in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until desired degree of doneness, turning once.

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide fish and salsa evenly among tortillas.

The entire recipe was super easy. The chopping was the hardest part, and that's not exactly rocket science. I was able to grab all the ingredients from Super Target of all spots, except for the the tilapia (because I wanted fresh not frozen) and the panko. And both of those were totally worth dealing with the sociological case study that is Whole Foods.

All in all it was a total crowd pleaser. Since the crowd was only me and the husband, and I was really needing some cilantro. The Hurricane ate the baked tilapia straight up with ketchup. He seemed to dig that too.

Serve with: Blue Moon Belgian White Ale (with orange slices)

Soundtrack: Athlete, Beyond the Neighbourhood

Stop. Behold. Its Edouard. And Karen.

So everyone is freaking out, FREAKING OUT, about now. Preparing for the stormy storm with way too many vowels in its name.

Or maybe it's just the people on TV freaking out.

And the people at the store. On his way home from working out, James stopped by our neighborhood grocery to grab a few items. As he walked in, a woman walking out warned him, "It's a freaking mad house in there." And apparently she was right. People were going cra-zazy, grabbing water and prayer candles off the shelves like Noah.

So I'm hoping everyone is overreacting. And this bad boy is more like its cousin Rita. Only without the C-section.

Also, I went to check out chron.com, you know, just in case the TV and frozen foods isles lie. And look who I spotted under Mr. Edouard.
My girl Karen! Freaking front page! If you haven't yet, you should check out LensHouston, her very cool Chron photography roundup. My prediction: there are gonna be some interesting storm photos soon.

Here's to low water!