36

So I turned 36 on friday. A day that will live in infamy. Or something. I was laying in bed, trying to decide what to make for the party and heard Nigella Lawson talk about chili with chocolate chips in it, and reckoned I'd do a 36 ingredient chili. The party itself was alot more fun than I expected. The nature of the gradschool beast is you get really close to people, and then they graduate. There's been too much of that over the past couple of years.... We've had fun birthdays in the past, but they were largely more dinner parties than birthday parties. This one Keely and Eliza went out of their way to make a birthday party. I blew out candles for the first time in easily 20 years. They also put together a list of '36 things we like about Seth' and had everyone there read it aloud. Some were funny, all were true; I don't think I fully appreciated that even though my best friends have graduated, I still have wonderful friends here. It was quite touching. I'm putting it at the end of the post for those who were there in spirit only, as I think they might enjoy it.

36 ingredient Chili:
2c red kidney beans
2c black beans
1c adzuki beans
2c nixtamal
2 dried chiles from Ventura
a lot of dried small round chilies
couple of stalks of dried epazote
2 bay leaves
tomato stock
1 cinnamon stick
1T coriander
1T cumin
½ T paprika
½ T aleppo pepper
½ T chipotle powder
½ T garlic powder
salt
pepper
olive oil
onion
garlic
1c red wine
2 red ripe poblano chilies
5 red ripe anaheim chilies
2 ‘black’ chilies
3 serrano chilies
3 thai chilies
~1/4 c homemade red chile sauce
1c carrot
1c celery
1 bulb fennel
2 28 oz cans tomatoes
2T cocoa
1T oregano
1 bunch cilantro
pinch or so asafoetida

you might quibble that salt and pepper shouldn't count, i did have extra ingredient ideas (pinto beans, chipotles en adobo, veggie stock, masa harina, chayote, OJ, citrus vodka) so it's not like i was relying on them to hit 36 ;)

36 Things We Like About Seth (in no particular order):
His snarky sense of humor
Sense of surprise when answering his phone
How he leaves fruit peel on his desk
His great commitment to living “low-impact
His “high-impact” on his friends
His listening abilities
His sometimes a bit harsh, but almost always helpful, constructive criticism
His lemon buttermilk sorbet recipe
His basil lime sorbet recipe
His red sauce
His entertaining and creative blog entries
His ability to inhale mini-Almond Joy candy bars
His smile
His art collecting
His love of physical activity
His aversion to vomiting in front of attractive older moms
When he wears his Winnie-the-poor cardigan
His love of unicorns
His sense of loyalty
His modesty
His awesome I.V./free-bin finds
His love of Nala-kitty
His long-term memory regarding slightly unfunny jokes
His smile
His facial hair (mountain-man style
His awesome never-matching socks
His geopyro-geniusness
His lab-prank leadership
His dinner parties
his keen sense for BS
his commitment to helping others
his biking/bike expertise and willingness to share it
his forearms (even though Keely will beat him in arm-wrestling one day
his photography
his mad Unix skills and his endearing hatred of Matlab
that today is his BIRTHDAY!

Andrew got the 'lemon buttermilk sorbet' wrong in #8, it's 'lime buttermilk sherbet' but whatever -- this probably points to #1. #2 is really funny and true. That 'smile' appears twice is doubly ridiculous. There are alot of inside jokes...

Speaking of inside jokes...