Tahini and sesame oil.

They're even close not the same, folks. All this time I've been making my hummus with sesame oil (because I had failed to find tahini in any of my normal grocery stores) and it did not taste right. Dubs improved it by encouraging me to add lemon juice, but it was still weird until she hooked me up with a big ol' jar of tahini from a downtown mexi mart. It makes a huge difference and it became pretty clear there's no good substitute. My hummus is now delicious.

Work was crazy for a few weeks and killed my social life, but conveniently it occurred right around the time I decided to quit smoking (AGAIN) which is much easier to do when I'm not out visiting with friends over drinks. Maybe not so weirdly, I've been inspired to try to be healthier in general so I'm easing back into yoga and pilates and trying to watch what I eat more closely. I think the daily visits to my garden help my motivation, though I am patiently waiting for something other than my chives to be ready to harvest. I have a wee eggplant that seems to be coming along nicely, but my chard and broccoli still have a ways to go. My burpless bush cucumber has basically tripled in size, but I'm not seeing any real fruit yet.

This week I'm going to try to wrap up all the little miscellaneous projects around the apartment and work on finally getting my bedroom settled. It hasn't been much of a priority but now that I'm back in the swing of things and I plan on having guests over more often it's probably a good idea. I'm still trying to figure out what to do bed frame wise, but I know sooner than later I'll have to get my mattress off the floor, 'cause that's just not very classy.

On the "away from home" side of things, I have started planning for a possible trip to NOLA to the French Quarter Festival in April. I haven't taken a vacation in ages and I've never been anywhere in the South nor gone on a trip alone, so I am trying to mentally and financially prepare for my first solo adventure. I am slightly concerned about finding reasonably priced accommodations, but one I have my flight booked I'll be researching like crazy. It's actually really nice to finally be able to look forward to a trip and not have to worry about planning or scheduling around anyone else!