…and not because my helmet stinks, but because it doesn’t stink. It still smells new, 200-something jumps later, and I forgot how much I love that smell.

I started on the net with nothing but the wind from outside coming through the bottom. I could feel cool breeze and smell jet fuel from outside. I felt the fans kick on, and the wind speed increase.

…and then I was flying. I can’t believe, at one point, I thought that I should give this up. 

My booties seemed a bit more powerful than I remember.

…maybe it’s because I washed the suit, maybe I got taller as my posture was force-corrected for three months in a back brace. Maybe I gained an inch.

I forgot how much I hate flying without a headband.

…my bangs kept getting in my face. One single hair stuck in my eyelash. Or in my mouth. If I had a G3 I wouldn’t have this problem. 

This morning, I went to the tunnel for the first time since the accident. Before today, I had my doubts. Maybe skydiving isn’t for me. Maybe I should quit this altogether. Maybe this is a sign that I took the wrong turn at that fork in the road. Maybe this is for the best, I am having a blast doing what I’m doing without skydiving, maybe I can just keep this up and not start jumping again.

I may or may not have had a complete meltdown just days prior. If I’m not skydiving, then what am I doing? I don’t want to disappoint anyone. If I’m cleared for the tunnel then that means I’m getting closer to being able to actually jump out of a plane again, and I’m sure as shit not ready for that. 

And those thoughts were fleeting. The second the wind speed was high enough to pick me up off the net, I knew I was back.

That’s the thing about this sport. If it’s not the actual flying itself that has you hooked, it’s another component. Constantly learning. Pushing your own boundaries. Challenging yourself. Confirmation of a job well done from someone you respect, be it a fellow skydiver, a coach, instructor or just feeling it and knowing you nailed it. Perhaps it’s the community. The bond that only skydivers can share.

For me, it’s that feeling of bulldozing the walls of your comfort zone. Trusting myself and my coach to know what I can handle. Embracing the learning curve and realizing this is MY journey through the sport and it’s okay that I’m taking it slow getting back into it.

Today, I nailed it. A couple times. There were some moments of complete bliss, moments where I did what was asked of me, could feel myself executing it well, and I knew that I did so before looking up to my coach for confirmation.

Those moments, however few and far between, are what keeps me going. When you do something, nail it, and know you nailed it before you get a thumbs up, or a clap, or a shit-eating grin.

“Sydney, you’re flying better now than you were before you got hurt.”

Speaking of shit eating grins, I couldn’t wipe this dopey smile off of my face if I tried.

Hi, my name is Sydney, and I’m addicted to skydiving.

Back that up. Hi, my name is Sydney, and I’m addicted to body flight, the learning curve, setting goals and achieving them, and pushing myself, be it mentally, physically, and/or emotionally.

…and addicted to Starbucks coffee. But that doesn’t really pertain to this, now does it? 

But holy fucking shit, y’all. I have been blown away by the generosity that the community around me has shown since I took a little tumble in December. And I’m not just talking about those of you who have chipped in to help me with the medical bills, physical therapy, and bought those ridiculous pens to help me get back in the tunnel. Well, I am talking about you, but not just the money part. I’m talking about every single person, who, in one way or another, took a few moments out of their busy days to hear me out. Whether your way of doing so was clicking the “Chip In” button, visit the office at Skydive Elsinore, shoot me a text, give me a call, or just post up next to me on a picnic table to hear what was happening, I see it. And I appreciate all of you more than you’ll ever know.

I’m a big believer in that the positive energy you put out there will come back full circle, and it has. And for each and every one of you, it will, if it hasn’t already.

Today is a milestone of sorts. Since December 11, I haven’t done much as it pertains to skydiving, with the exception of putting on events at the Skydive Elsinore that I wanted desperately to participate in. Today, however, I fly in the tunnel for the first time since my accident. I have spent the past three weeks in physical therapy a couple times a week, and at my session on Friday, my super sweet physical therapist said “yeah, you could probably think about getting in the tunnel next week.”

Music to my ears, peeps.

So yeah, today is awesome for me of course, but today is more about you guys. I couldn’t do what I do when I’m at “work” if you didn’t jump here. I couldn’t do what I do on my days off (read: side-hustle days for 3Ring Media and super special couple time with the boy) if you weren’t in need of some kind of service that 3Ring Media can offer. I would still write here if it was only my mom and my boyfriend that read this blog, but the community of readers here is spectacular, and I couldn’t foster those relationships if there weren’t any people to have relationships with.

So today, I thank you. All of you. For being part of my life, in whatever capacity you are a part of it. I wouldn’t be here without you. Seriously.

On a lighter note, obviously I’ll try to post video of my tunnel session tonight. I’ve been visualizing greatness like a madman, and I’m thinking that my time off may have been exactly what I needed to lose the bad flying habits I brought with me here. Today is a clean slate for my skydiving career.

Hearts, sparkles, rainbows and unicorns, peeps. Lots of that.

And in case you were wondering what kind of awesome 4-way has been filling my dreams, this is what I’m talking about. Holy. Shit.

Now that we’ve all done that, let’s chat about how awesome I Love Skydiving is. Andrew created this super sweet blog to share awesome (and sometimes scary) videos and photos from all kinds of air sports. BASE? We got that. Skydiving? We got that. Swooping? Yup, we got that too. And that’s not all! There is tons of amazing happening over on the website (cross posted to the Facebook page as well as the Twitter feed).

So why the shameless promotion of Andrew’s brain child? Because now, some of the sweet blurbs to go with the videos will be written by yours truly! Yes! So awesome! I am beyond stoked to help Andrew with this project, and with super awesome chicks like Melanie Curtis (of highcomms.com) and Shannon Seyb (of Icarus Canopies by NZ Aerosports), I’m pretty sure this team will be unstoppable.

So subscribe to the blog.

Like the Facebook page.

Follow on Twitter.

Or just stay tuned to my news feed. I’m sure you’ll see everything a bajillion times. Bam.

Everything is better with bacon. This is no secret. Spaghetti Squash? Sounds terrifying, so just add bacon. Brussels sprouts? Okay, toss with bacon.

So, when I saw deliciously fresh brussels sprouts at our local market, I was all in.

You can thank me later. Anything cooked in bacon fat is probably not all that healthy, but when you’re trying to introduce skeptical parties to a new vegetable, sometimes you have to sacrifice. Regardless, you’re welcome.

Feel free to lighten up this recipe by disposing of the bacon fat after you cook it. You probably won’t lose much on flavor, but you’d be surprised the manipulative effects bacon grease has on a dude. Seriously. “Yeah, they are baby cabbages, but they’re shredded and cooked up in the bacon juices.” Total. Gamechanger.

And let’s talk about these meatballs. I’m sure I could make them from scratch but holy shit they’re easy to make and loaded with flavor.

Sweet baby jesus these are magical. And not terrible for you.

On with it, yes?

Wait, what?

Right, so in December I was in a pretty sweet accident, resulting in a compression fracture in L1, and transverse/bilateral fractures in L2, L3 and L4. My lumbar vertebrae aren’t very happy with me. Fortunately, after a three day stay at the lovely “almost serious” ward at Inland Valley (check out my Yelp review for the skinny on that place), the hospital outfitted me with a super sweet turtle shell back brace for the low low price of $642.11 (after insurance knocked it down from $3,568 and change).

So back to the pens, right. I know, $1 per pen sounds absolutely ass crazy, but, when you think about it, the proceeds go to yours truly and after I rock the everliving shit out of physical therapy, then I can start jumping out of planes again.

Now, I know what you may be thinking: “Why the fuck should I buy a pen when I know that skydiving is dangerous? It’s like I’m endorsing Sydney’s crazy ass decisions.” And I get it. But I will argue this: really, you’re helping me dream again. Because when the only thing you want to do in this whole world is what you can’t do because you’re ground-bound for six months, and all you do for a living is plan ridiculously awesome events that you can’t even fully participate in… well, your happy cup starts to get bone fucking dry. And we all know how important it is to keep the happy cup full. Perhaps you’re part of a book club, and that fills up your happy cup. Or maybe you’re really bendy and you like yoga. Or maybe you rock your socks off in the kitchen on a regular basis.

Here’s what I got: I can promise you that if you ever get into a serious accident, and are struggling to find ways to get back to your passions, and you sell crazy ass pens for $1 each, even $2 each, I will buy them. Lots of them. Wanna know why? Because this shit comes full-circle.

Check it out: my boyfriend had neck surgery and was out for six months. I threw a fundraiser for him. Raised like $3,000 so he had some change to live off of while he wasn’t jumping out of airplanes. One of the gals, Missy, donated $100 for the chance to win a new rig. Then I didn’t think I was going to sell enough of the $100 tickets to raffle off the rig and I thought I’d have to refund everyone their money because I just couldn’t get enough people to buy the tickets to break even on the thing. Then she donated $100 more and said that even if we had to cancel the drawing, to keep the money. That she wanted to support the cause. And no shit, guess who won that raffle? Missy did.

Guess who was the first person to send a check for pens? Missy. She is amazing and I love her and I can’t even stand how much good karma she is putting out into this world.

I gotta give mad thanks to everyone who has already thrown down on some sweet pen action: Missy, Crystal, John, Will, Julie, Candice (FROM THE MF’ING UK PEEPS), KC, Spot, Dean, Yong, Jenny, Tom, Adrian, Sarah, Angie, James, Betty, and a handful of random tandem students that saw the ridiculous flyers and bought one – I thank you. Seriously. You guys rock my socks. And if I forgot anyone, forgive me!

So how can you help? Visit bit.ly/SweetPens. Learn a little bit about the accident, why I’m selling them, and you can clicky right there on the button. And if for some reason you don’t really want pens but you do want to contribute, just make note of that so I don’t come stalking you for your address to send the pens that you don’t want.

Can I be done with the shameless promotion now? Okay great.

*Super sweet fangirl shot of me and Trent, the first responder to my accident. He was the paramedic on the fire truck that was leaving the motorcross track and swooped over and saved my life. Okay so I wasn’t like borderline dead or anything, but he didn’t cut my gear off of me and for that, I thank him.

Let me explain.

Around dinner time on Valentine’s Day, after a couple glasses of wine, I got the bright idea to change my relationship status from blank (the boy and I aren’t Facebook official) to engaged. Within seconds, I’m not kidding, SECONDS, there were 14 likes and a handful of comments. This was going to be awesome or horrible.

I don’t comment. I just stare in disbelief at my phone as it explodes and the battery starts to drain because of all the Facebook notifications.

We go out to dinner, and my friend Brandi is in town from Florida. We’re celebrating her first skydive, and it turns out that she has a ring on from her mom. A cool little “quarter carat for a quarter life” gift, and I ask her if I can borrow it. Barry and I take a cheesy ass picture with our hands all intertwined in newly-fake-engaged bliss and post it. If you had been at the table with us, you’d know that we are peeing our pants and the boy is convulsing because he’s laughing so hard as he’s kissing my cheek.

Hysterical laughter happening here. I can't even stand it.

We go through the rest of the meal enjoying each other’s company, and see a car with a Nevada license plate parked next to us. So we take another picture by the license plate. More comments. More likes. People asking if we’re going to Vegas.

LET'S DO THIS!

At this point I just want to call the whole thing off. I have cold feet about our fake engagement. I feel bad that so many people are happy and celebrating something that we just don’t plan on doing.

Here’s the thing. My parents are happily married. They have been for 30+ years. All I’ve ever wanted is to have the kind of love that they have. They’re best friends, lovers, and amazing parents. My one goal in life, despite what I’ve wanted for myself professionally, is to find a love like they have.

And I have found that kind of love.

The boy is everything I could want in a boyfriend/husband/partner/best friend (or whatever label you want to put on it). He is my best friend, my rock, my knight in shining armor, all of that. And we’ve talked about it. If he wanted to ask me to marry him, I’d say yes. And that he could throw a life saver or an onion ring on my finger and I’d be just fine with that. I’ve known that since we first started dating. But we also talked about how we don’t need the whole procedure to make this work. He can sign my logbook and that’s as official as I need it to be.

Now that is my kind of ring!

I’m not opposed to it in the sense that I think marriage is a joke, necessarily, I’ll give the marriage thing the benefit of the doubt on this one (that really is a different conversation for another day). I appreciate couples that have amazing relationships, and I know a lot of people who are, or appear to be, happy in their marriages. I’ve also seen the act of getting married ruin a perfectly good non-married relationship. Like a switch goes on and everything changes. That’s how it was with the boy’s first marriage. He’s experienced it first hand. And to be honest with you, I think the reason we work, the reason we’re so good together and so happy and so sparkly and unicorn-ey and amazing together is because we don’t label it. For the sake of talking, yes, he’s my boyfriend. But seriously, guys, we’ve already talked about being married. We’re kind of already married in our heads, in that we’re totally and completely batshit crazy in love with each other and committed to making that work.

I’m not interested in taking the chance of something going horribly wrong if we made it legally legit. I’m usually not afraid of change, in fact, I’m a huge advocate for change, but in this case, if it ain’t broke (and it isn’t), I don’t want to “fix” it. We have an incredible relationship, and if you have met us and seen us together, you probably want to puke in your mouth because we’re ridiculously adorable together.

And that’s just it. To us, the marriage thing is just a label. A piece of paper. I don’t want to piss anyone off because they think I’m mocking people who get all excited about marriage and the ceremony and everything that comes with it. But, I also feel like I’m being judged because we are perfectly happy together without rings and certificates and ceremonies.

I realize I’m an odd duck. I’ve never visualized my perfect dream wedding. I’ve always said if I get married, it will be on a beach or outside somewhere and people better not be dressing up because I sure as shit won’t be wearing a dress. I don’t want to have kids and I don’t hear my biological clock ticking loudly in the background of this happy relationship I’m in. I’m strange. So be it.

I also know that things change. Sometimes, out of nowhere, people who have been together for awhile with no intention of marrying get married. I’m not saying it won’t happen someday. I also know that I’ve cried wolf on getting engaged so if it ever DOES happen, there will be five people that give a shit and the rest of you will think I’m joking again. And while I’d love to think that everyone would be happy and excited and show that enthusiasm for us if that’s the route we ended up taking, I know that the Great Valentine’s Day Hoax of 2012 has ruined that reaction for a lot of people. I get it.

So, or those of you who ARE friends with one or both of us on Facebook and were part of the whole thing, I apologize if us posting that we were engaged and then saying we weren’t offended you in some way. My friend Becky is pretty wise, and when I asked her why it would piss people off, she laid it out pretty clearly for me:

People who love and care about you guys see you two always talking about/showing how happy you are together. People want to believe that love stories like yours end in marriage. And when you post that you’re engaged and don’t make it obvious that it’s a joke right away and people get all excited for you and then you’re all like “jk weirdos, obviously you dont’ know us at all” it makes people 1. feel stupid 2. feel angry that you take the issue of engagement/marriage as such a joke when many of them believe in it strongly and 3. feel annoyed that you guys think it’s funny that people “don’t know you very well”

I did the same thing on April Fool’s Day and nobody was pissed when it wasn’t true. So I’m all “why the hell is everyone mad because it’s on Valentine’s Day – you know he wouldn’t propose on Valentine’s Day.” Becky pointed out that April Fools was obvious (okay, but honestly, him proposing at all is more likely on April Fool’s than Valentine’s Day but I digress) and that this was after we moved to Elsinore.

…and you were still happy and sparkly back then, but it wasn’t like the gold medal glitter shower celebration parade from the unicorn and teddy bear happiness olympics you seem to be living now. For those playing along at home, it seems like maybe you guys finally feel “settled” somewhere. So i can see how many feel it is a reasonable next step.

Touche, Becky, touche.

At the end of the day, I know this: I love him very, very, very much. More than I’ve ever thought I was capable of loving. I love our friends that know us and know that it was fake and laughed about it because they know us very, very well. I apologize to our friends that didn’t know it was a joke, got excited, and then probably felt like we were complete assholes for claiming “you should have known better.” I love my parents for understanding our relationship and not pressuring us to get married and squeeze out some grandchildren. They know that’s not how we roll.

Love is a funny thing. And it’s most certainly different for everyone who experiences it. And while our fairytale may not end the way little girls all over the world dream of, I certainly couldn’t have dreamed up a better life for myself, or for us.

For the married peeps out there, are we total assholes? What is the secret to making your marriage work? For the non-wed folks out there, or people in happy relationships with no desire to marry, same question – what do you do to keep things working and amazing?

And how many of you have de-friended me on Facebook because of this? Be honest.

So, a few weeks ago, at Entrepreneur Magazine’s Growth Conference in Long Beach, I did exactly what I feared at my first agency job: a blanket pitch. To an editor for the magazine. In her face. Except this time I was pitching the only client that I’d ever know inside and out: I pitched my business. In three minutes. To someone I’ve never met.

I was in line with several hundred of my newest friends, a bunch of entrepreneurs just trying to get their shot at being covered by the magazine. For some, this would mean product sales. For others, it would mean exposure to a gigantic audience. For me, it was an exercise that led me to kinda sorta figure out what the hell I’m doing with 3Ring Media.

The man in front of me in line asked me what I do.

“3Ring Media is a marketing firm (me) that helps adventure sports companies with online marketing. Essentially, I help these peeps figure out how to be awesome online. Most of them are already awesome in the offline world, but they have no clue how to tackle online marketing.”

Sounds pretty good, right? No? Okay fine, I need to work on that. 

He asked me how many active skydivers there are. Last I heard, the USPA has some 30,000 active peeps paying dues, and that number doesn’t really seem to grow all that much, from what I gather. People decide to get out of the sport and they seem to be replaced with new, younger jumpers. But what he said next blew my mind.

“How many of those 30,000 members own their own company? Could you be helping skydivers with their marketing for their small business?”

DING DING DING DING DING

Yes, I could. And really, I am. He put the words in my mouth. I help Blue Skies Magazine, started by skydivers, by contributing content and offering marketing advice every once in awhile. I help CONFLO, a BASE-jumper founded clothing company, get closer and closer to their mission of being the Billabong or Quicksilver of the air sports world. I am helping my fellow jumpers market their businesses. I knew what I did and I know how I do it, but I had never put it into those words before.

After having this mini-epiphany, I read over the guidelines for the pitch the editor session. Everyone will get three minutes. You should talk about yourself, your business, and consider the following questions to keep your pitch on-target:

• What do you think is interesting or newsworthy about your company? Explain briefly.
• What key challenges or obstacles did you overcome while starting/growing your company? Explain briefly.
• Do you use any innovative or unusual marketing or sales strategies, financing strategies or management techniques?
• Have you developed an innovative product, service or technology?
• Is there a specific marketing/sales strategy, financing strategy or management technique that has greatly helped your business’s growth?

I guess I should have known better that this wouldn’t be a conversation – but I figured the bullet points were items I should have in mind for when my time came – perhaps the editor would be asking me questions and I’d be answering them, like more of an interview than anything else. I’m awesome at interviews, so I’m pumped. I’m thinking I’m going to nail this. I envision sitting on the couch at home and getting an email from Entrepreneur Magazine about how they need me to fly to wherever they’re based they can have a photo shoot with me for the cover of an upcoming issue – with 3Ring featured as an awesome business.

What actually happened was pretty much the exact opposite of nailing it.

I was totally out of my element, I was stumbling and rambling and I KNEW it. It’s like I was having an out of body experience, sitting next to the editor and watching myself look like an unprepared idiot. This version of pitching was totally outside of my comfort zone. I don’t believe in elevator pitches, at least not for what I do. My business is me. I’m what you get when we work together. I don’t have some product that I’m trying to sell, essentially, I’m selling a relationship with me and building trust that you know that I know what I’m talking about.

That said, I treat business (and life in general, really) similar to how I treat a cocktail party – I start a conversation with someone, ask them about who they are, where they’re from, what they do, all that, THEN talk about myself if they’re interested in hearing it. I’ve never just walked into a room and been like “HEY I’M SYDNEY AND 3RING MEDIA IS MY BUSINESS AND I’M HERE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT!”

Even though I totally fumbled around to make myself and 3Ring sound interesting, it was a great exercise. I learned a bit more about what 3Ring is shaping up to be, and also learned that this kind of conference is nowhere near what I’m used to. It just goes to show what an echo chamber we’re in when we’re talking to marketing/PR/social media types. When you’re used to talking to everyone about what you do and every person you’re talking to is also in the same industry, they totally get it, and they realize how important PR/Marketing/social is to business. When you’re talking to someone who has no clue how social media works and doesn’t have a clue how to get started with marketing, you really have to bring it back and explain it as if they have no clue what you’re talking about… because they don’t.

As awkward as I felt, I’m actually looking forward to the next opportunity I have to go to a conference like this.

After a skydive, we debrief and there’s a structure to it. State some things you liked about the skydive, and things you could improve upon and HOW. To start with “I sucked at ______” isn’t proper format, and my coach would slap me on the wrist if I didn’t debrief this experience properly. If you’ll notice, the title says “I suck at pitching” – which is bad debriefing form. So, to not totally rob myself of a proper debrief:

Things I liked: I loved finally seeing Erika Napoletano speak. She lit up my life and the room and I SO wish I could be at SXSW for her book launch. I liked catching up with Jason Falls and learning more about how he’s working on his book tour and what that all entails. I liked being outside of my comfort zone.

What I didn’t like: I didn’t like fumbling around during the pitch. I can improve upon this by practicing this kind of pitch so I know how to do it when I need to do it. Though I don’t prefer this method of talking about my business, I understand certain circumstances call for it, and I want to be totally fucking awesome at it when that happens next.

If you’re an entrepreneur, how do you pitch your business? Have you ever been to a similar conference? Do you have any tips for how to pitch if starting a conversation isn’t an option?

One of the boy’s students, Katherine, is the executive chef at some super sweet restaurant in San Diego, so when I got the notification that she commented, I was super pumped. “Build your own pizza” was one of a handful of her suggestions. If you know the boy and I, you know that we already rock the pizza scene pretty hard. Our buddy DK said “tacos and margaritas”. We were “eh” about both. Then the boy remembered some ridiculously awesome taco pizza that he made once after having it in New York somewhere, with seasoned beef and ricotta cheese. My ears perked up at ricotta cheese.

Monterey Jack, Ricotta, Spicy Ass Salsa

So, not really having a recipe, we totally winged it. And it turned out ridiculously delicious. You know how ricotta gets a little crispy on the outside and all creamy and orgasmic on the inside? That totally happened with this pizza. We haven’t ventured into making our own dough yet, but we do buy fresh dough from the grocery store, local market, or a little pizza joint, depending on where we’re making the pizza (home, Austin, Illinois, etc).

Shallots, garlic, tomato, spicy ass ground beef.

Just whip it all up according to the recipe below, and it should turn out looking a little something like this:

Roasty toasty tomato on top there. Ricotta is just barely crusty. So. Good.

So, what are you guys up to for the Super Bowl? Last year, Hulu had all the ads online after they aired and we watched the ads in bed, sans football. If you’re going to a party, bring that Spinachy Garlicky Artichokey Super Bowl Dip. Your friends will thank you. They’ll smell like garlic for two days after consuming it, but they’ll thank you.

Then everyone tried it. One by one, they were all “yes, this is terrible, nobody else should try it” – they were on to my strategy. And then most of it disappeared. I took home the leftovers and had some for a snack and put some of it with some pasta shells and used it as a sauce. Gooey. Delicious. You’re welcome.

So, I don’t really give a shit about the Super Bowl but I know a metric asston of people are probably looking for the best recipe for a Super Bowl Spinach Artichoke Dip so, hopefully this one delivers. Of course it will. Sorry I didn’t get more pictures, we were borderline disgusting with how we tackled the dip last night (see what I did there?). I’d love to have  a shot of the dip on the crostini I served it with but that just wasn’t happening.

If you need a spinachy, garlicky, artichokey dip recipe for your Super Bowl party, this is the ticket. And if you have any leftover, which is highly unlikely, you can eat it as dip (again) or throw it in a bowl with some pasta and call it a day. What I can tell you is that you will be welcomed with oohs, ahs, and applause at any party you bring this to, regardless of whether or not it’s revolving around football and advertising.

And? Double bonus? No mayo up in here. Light sour cream. 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Part skim mozzerella. Fresh spinach. Delicious artichoke hearts. The recipe I adapted this from says it’s only 135 calories per 1/2 cup and that’s with twice as much cream cheese as I used. Yes, I was shopping and didn’t realize that cream cheese blocks aren’t like butter blocks. I thought there were two blocks of cream cheese in a box and there was only one, so I used half as much cream cheese as what the original called for.

The recipe below is the one I actually made. You can find the one I adapted it from here.

Again, you’re welcome.

Now, I guess I should preface “skinny asparagus” with a story. Back in the day, I was a bartender at Charley’s Steak House in Tampa, Florida. It was a DiRona award-winning restaurant, one of the top ten independently-owned steakhouses in the nation, blah blah blah. We had asparagus. And it was huge. I’m talking asparagus that was as thick as a Crayola marker sometimes. Think about it. That’s a big stalk of asparagus. It was perfect for grilling because you know those suckers weren’t going anywhere. So a lot of “normal” asparagus looks very skinny to me.

On with it, yes?

So I find this asparagus that isn’t suitable for grilling because it’s so skinny. The boy and I were a bit on the lazy side yesterday and didn’t feel like going to the actual grocery store after going to the market. So I started poking around the cabinet and found enough to go with for a delicious dinner: some leftover feta cheese in the fridge, a boat load of garlic (always), some lemon peel (left over from the freshly juiced margaritas we had just made), basil, and a mostly-full box of linguine. Bam. Happening.

I chopped up some basil and garlic and poured olive oil over it. A little infusing action happening. Then I took a knife and sliced off some of the lemon zest from the peel that was leftover. I chopped that up really fine and threw it in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil as well. Water is in the process of boiling. Over super low heat, I heat up the lemon zest and the olive oil. Smelling good up in here.

I took about half of the rubber-banded bundle of asparagus and chopped it up in to bite-size pieces, like this:

Stinky pee is worth it, ya'll.

Then once I throw the pasta in the water, I add the asparagus and 4 cloves of sliced garlic (you’ve caught on by now that I have an unhealthy obsession with garlic, right? Okay great.) and let it cook a little bit. We’re going for bright green and “tender” not “mushy” here.

Once the pasta is done, I strain it and throw it in a bowl. Then add the asparagus and garlic combo to the bowl. Then grab that delicious basil-garlic-EVOO mixture and pour that into the bowl as I’m tossing it. A few twists of black pepper and continue to toss. Go easy on the oil mixture at first, you don’t want the pasta to be sloppy oily, but nicely coated. Or maybe you do like sloppy oily. Then go for it. Top with crushed red pepper flakes and feta cheese. I used some of the garlic and herb Athenos variety, but you can do whatever you want there.

And there you have it. It takes as long as it takes you to boil water and cook pasta. Seriously. So easy and so fast. Love it.

Up next: trying a variation of this with red quinoa. First time cooking quinoa. We’ll see how that goes!