good reads

I got a book from the library.

"the Mediterrasian Way"

by Ric Watson and Trudy Thelander

I really like it so far.  It explains in a simple vocabulary that's easy for anyone to grasp. I'm learning a lot about the foods I eat, why they're good, why they're bad... not just that they are good or bad.

The recipes look yummy too, but I hadn't tried anything. Maybe after my next trip to the grocery store... :-)

warm your bones.

The last two days, I've made soup. . . the two days that have been above 50 degrees.  Figures.

Today's was cream-less Toscana soup.  I think I might like it better this way.  It's lighter and more refreshing.

I used...
4 potatoes
3-4 cups of chicken broth/vegetable broth (I used a combination)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3-1/2 cup yellow onion
Italian Sausage (however much you like)
Kale (again, however much you like. I used 1-2 cups)

It's yummy.  Boil the potatoes in the broth until they're soft.  Boiling them in the broth makes the potatoes taste delicious by themselves.  Saute the onion and garlic together, add it to the boiled potatoes.  Brown the sausage, add it to the potatoes, remove from heat.  Chop the kale into bite sized pieces, add it to the soup, and put lid on for about 5 minutes, until the kale is tender (but not mushy!)

It's pretty quick and easy to make. . . Jesse took a shower in the time I made the soup, anyhow.

do you see a person looking over a child in the steam?

Anyway, tonight I'm broadcasting the basketball games.  It's fun.  It will be interesting, as we're on our own tonight.  The cheerleaders are also sponsoring "80's night" so I'm supposed to dress up.  The thing is, I don't have any 80's clothes.  Also. . . I hate the 80's.  That decade is so overdone.  Can't we be more creative than that?  Even the 70's would be better!  My favorite would be the 40's or 50's... not that I have clothes from those decades either.  But I'm serious.  Organizations need to stop with the 80's thing, because it's not cool anymore... assuming it ever was.

I can see a bird here, I think.

unchristian

Jesse and I just finished this book.

I thought it extremely thought provoking, stimulating, and challenging... as well as a convicting.

I challenge you to read it, regardless of your background.  Christian, Atheist, Buddhist, Baha'i. . . and the list stops there, because I could go on forever.  This books has created a huge window of opportunity.  It will definitely help you to better understand the desires, attitudes, and motivations behind the younger generation (mine!) and will help you to connect better with them, regardless of your "religious" beliefs or "agenda."  Also, if you're not a Christian, it may help you to better understand the Christian community and how they've unknowingly failed and hurt people.

That's all for now.

fatless cornbread

I attempted something new in the kitchen.

Cornbread with no fat.  Unfortunately, there was still more sugar in it than I'd like, so I need to try again.

I used 1/3 cup sunflower pulp, white flour, and whole wheat flour... sugar, honey, eggs, baking powder, cornmeal, and applesauce.  White flour?  Yes.  I'm still experimenting with new ingredients and kinds of baking.  One baby step at a time, I say.

It actually turned out pretty yummy.  It needed more cornmeal and a little less sugar.  I'm excited to try again. I feel like it's pretty much impossible to fail in the kitchen, once you know a few things.  And Jesse's pretty forgiving when it comes to bread/sweets. . . just not over excessive quantities of fresh ginger.

kitchen experiments

I made Sunflower milk a few days ago.

I can't say that I loved the smell of it while I was making it.  It smelled too much like grass/dirt/sprouts... do you get the idea?

I used the same nut/water ratio and process as I did for the almond milk.

I used a little of the milk in an egg I was cooking.  It turned my egg a strange brownish color.  I can't say I was a huge fan of that.

I'm not sure what it's like to cook with.  I haven't experimented yet.

The taste though. . . let's just say I don't plan on making this again.

p.s. it's been a good six months. :-)

purple potatoes

purple!

 I'd heard about these beautiful creatures before, but had never found them anywhere. . . not until I was at the health food store about a month ago.  I spotted the beauties, but ended up not buying any.  Bad decision.  I couldn't get the little spuds out of my mind.  Two weeks ago when we were back in Fayetteville, I bought a few of them.

so pretty

I browsed online looking for an interesting recipe to use them in, but I couldn't find anything that especially piqued my interest.  They sat on the counter for about eight days until I decided to bake them in the oven like I do white potatoes.  I could at least compare their taste that way.

garlic, thyme, rosemary, basil, olive oil

I smashed them with my fork once they came out of the oven.  They looked mostly brown before I smashed them, which isn't very visually interesting.

They were pretty and they were yummy!  I think they cook a little faster than russets, but the flavor is actually pretty close, unlike that of the sweet potato.  I thought it would be much more flavorful than it was.

Today I leave you with a photo of my small but functional kitchen.  It's probably where I spend the most of my time, besides the bedroom, of course.

The Little Rock Nine

John Brown University has different art exhibits throughout the school year.  Tuesday evening, Jesse and I went to the opening of Will Counts' "Target for Intolerance."

As I was reading the story and looking at the photos containing so many different faces, emotions, and actions, I began to feel some what revolted.

By the story?  Yes, in part.

I'll tell you what, never before in my life have I been so embarrassed to be white.

I've been embarrassed to be a Christian before, I'm almost always embarrassed to be American, but I'd never before been embarrassed about the tone of my skin.

What drives a human being to believe they're so great because of the color of their flesh?

I just don't get it.

Why in the world did/do people think they have the right to destroy the life of another human being because one person's melanocytes are more active?  What gives the melanin deficient person the right to feel superior?

I hate it.  I am sorry for the way my "race" treated those of African descent (or really, of any non-European descent).

I just don't "get" this kind of intolerance.  I understand having different values/morals/beliefs, but I don't understand the judgment and condemnation.

What do you think society as a whole is unjustly intolerant about today?  Do you think you're intolerant/over reactive about anything?  Or what things have you been intolerant about in the past that you've now come to realize you've been wrong about?

Shiver shiver

I went grocery shopping yesterday, since I hadn't been for about 15 days and thus had an empty refrigerator.  Unfortunately, I think everyone else in Siloam Springs decided to go shopping as well.  It was crazy.  Maybe it was due to the coming snow storm (we got 3 inches of the white stuff).  I stopped to get gas on the way back and discovered only one pump was available.  All the others were "out of order."

Wal-mart had hundreds of people waddling around with their grossly overloaded grocery carts.  My least favorite store is Wal-mart, so I always go there last.  I have never understood how people manage to fill their carts so full.  It seems impossible to me, because even when I a buy a few things I don't need (fun groceries), I still don't have to stack any of the contents of my cart.  My conclusion is that it's because I don't buy any junk food or many prepackaged items (unless varying cheeses/milks/pastas/canned goods count as prepackaged).

Sometimes the food in those carts look so delicious... and then I look up and see an obese person struggling to push it.  Then I look at the junk food and get a somewhat repulsed feeling in my stomach and become quite happy with my carrots, pineapples, kale, leeks, garlic...

I read about Wal-mart and Michelle Obama's 5 year plan to introduce more healthy foods to people.  What do you think about it?  Will it actually make a difference?  Is it actually beneficial?  Do you think more people will like Wal-mart after this, or will more people hate it?

well hello again.

I'm cold.  My muscles are achey.  I'm also hungry.  It's probably going to snow tomorrow.  It's definitely going to be freezing tomorrow.

My fingers and brain get confused when I alternate between using a Mac and a Windows computer.  Ahhh.

I'm trying to workout more.  Yesterday and today I went jogging around the indoor track and lifted some weights.  I'm sore and stiff now and would say I feel old... except some of the 65-year-old+ men and women were out lapping and out lifting me.  So I guess I don't feel old after all.

Jesse and I have also gone swimming a few times and played racquetball.  I like those both, even though Jesse swims twice as fast as me and is 300 times better at racquetball.  Someday I'll beat him.

Today I made tortellini and a tomato based sauce for dinner.  I was under impressed.  I think I won't eat tortellini again, unless I'm eating it in Italy.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good (flavor or nutrition).

I suppose I'll get back to my reading assignment now. . .

Almond Milk

I think I've been inspired!  Making almond milk was fun!  Now I want to try making cashew milk/rice milk/sunflower seed milk.  It would be nice if the sunflower seed milk turned out, because that would be the cheapest to make.  Someday soon I'll try it.

 

 Step one: soak 1 cup of almonds in water overnight (I soaked mine for about 12 hours)

Step two: strain and rinse the almonds.

Step three: put almonds in blender

Step four: add two cups of water to the almonds.

Step five: blend for about a minute.

Step six: strain (ideally, using a cheesecloth, but I don't have one so I made do with what I had)

Step seven: place almond pulp back in blender, add two more cups of water, and repeat steps five and six.

Step eight: consume almond milk!

- - - - - - - - - - 

I like the taste of the almond milk with cereal and to cook with, but I don't like it plain.  Maybe I would like it more if I diluted it.  However, I also think dairy milk is gross to drink on its lonesome (unless it's chocolate milk!).

Also, some people suggested adding some vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to enhance it.

- - - - - - - - - -

I dried out the leftover almond pulp in the oven, ground into a fine powder with my awesome new "spice" mill (coffee grinder), and turned it into an almond flour, of sorts.  Then I made biscuits with it, using equal parts white flour, whole wheat flour, and almond flour.  Next time I'll try without white flour, but I just wanted to get a feel for what would happen.  Instead of dairy milk, I used leftover coconut cream (from when I made curry) and almond milk.

The end result?  The biscuits were amazing!  They were not huge and poofy like canned biscuits, but they were very light and practically disintegrated/melted in my mouth.  Scrumptious.  Next time I think I'll try experimenting with replacing the fats with something else, maybe applesauce.

best friend

Hahah!  I threw the beans away.  I feel like such a waster of food.  But now I've learned my lesson about freezer burnt beans.

I did make almond milk yesterday!  I'll share photos soon.

Yesterday I finally got around to uploading pictures from November/December/January.  It was kind of fun. . . I'd forgotten about some of the photos.

Here are some of me and Jesse at his grandmother's 90th birthday party in November.

I sure do love him.  He's my best friend.

another semester

Break went by too quickly.  We sure did do a lot!

It was nice to relax, hangout out, spend undistracted time with my husband, see our friends, crash with our families, and work on some things.

Tonight I tried making some baked beans with some beans that I've had in the freezer.  Problem is... the beans were freezer burnt and disgusting.  Yuck-o.  I'm trying to decide if I should throw them away and waste food or keep them and waste the calories on something that doesn't taste that good.  I guess it didn't cost that much to make.  hmm.... :-)

On the bright side... I did make some potato wedge/fry things in the oven and they turned out yummy.  Crispy and flavorful.  I think the key is for them to be in a single layer.  And, I notice they cooked better in my dark jelly roll pan than they did on the cookie sheet.  So yes.  At least something turned out scrumpti-licious.

My project for tomorrow, possibly: homemade almond milk.

I'll share photos of my break soon.  For now, I'll just share with you the adorable cuteness I get to wake up beside every morning.