A wonderful weekend.

This weekend was a truly wonderful one. I had time to relax, moments to share with friends, and lots of food!

Friday night after work, Nathan & I stayed in and lounged around the house--one of our favorite pastimes.

I started my Saturday early, at an 8am social justice committee meeting. I attend these meetings every week (except for my holiday hiatus), but this week was particularly special because of the guest of honor- Reverend James Lawson. He is an incredible man, and was one of the strongest leaders of the civil rights movement. He was right alongside MLK, and he continues fighting for racial justice today as he did those many years ago. He is a huge inspiration to me and many others, and I could hardly even believe that I was sitting right next to him, listening to him speak wisdom to the struggle for racial justice in Nashville. What an amazing, empowering, encouraging way to start my day!

If you aren't familiar with Lawson's work, here's a video!

After an incredible morning, I got to end my Saturday with dinner Stephanie & her sister Sarah at a new Nashville restaurant, The Pharmacy. It's in East Nashville where I work, and it is SO good. They have amazing beers, phosphate sodas, and all kinds of burgers. Highly recommended. After dinner, we went to see one of our friends' band, Humming House, play a show at the basement. It was a great show, and it was so nice to see so many friends there.

I finished up my weekend with resting on Sunday, going to yoga, cooking a killer dinner, and then watching Downton Abbey. Who could ask for more?!

Oh, and the food...... Ohhhh the food. I'll post pictures from our killer dinner later, but for now, here are a few yummy snacks I made:

Though guacamole is known as a summer party favorite, avocados are actually in season right now, so of course I got some.

Making perfect guacamole is so easy. I just gutted an avocado into a bowl, added some diced red onion, finely chopped cilantro, a touch of lime juice, and lots of salt. Using a potato masher, or even a fork, just mash up the ingredients & go to town. Best snack ever.

Now, another great snack is coleslaw. I used my heavy-duty food processor with the slicing and shredding attachments, which my awesome mother-in-law got me for Christmas. Making coleslaw is a lot of fun with that thing. Somehow though, after all was said & done, my kitchen looked like this:

And it was perfectly clean before all of this!

I pretty much used an entire head of Napa cabbage (all but the 2 cups I reserved for use in a dinner recipe!), so I ended up with a LOT of slaw. I decided to try two different dressings for the slaw. I don't like mayonnaise based slaw, so I went with two vinaigrettes--cumin mustard vinaigrette and sweet soy vinaigrette. For the slaw with the soy dressing, the addition of some cashews is perfect! My slaw just has shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, diced yellow & red onions, and the dressings. It's the perfect salad for a side dish or a stand-alone snack. I LOVE it!!

So. Much. Slaw.

Well, the weekend has come & gone. I'm feeling pretty recharged & hoping to make it through what I anticipate is going to be a difficult week at work. Please consider sending along a prayer, good thoughts, etc., our way this week as we work with some very difficult & saddening situations. I need some strength for it... Luckily the past 5 months in my position have toughened me up significantly. I guess that's good?

And, some happy news- I officially applied to be a Big Sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. I'm just waiting to see if I'm accepted! Fingers sooooo tightly crossed. :-)