Some Days

This is all you need to say:

:)

Photo of the Week: Pups & Poultry

One of those title items gets eaten -- guess which one?

SICK! We don't eat puppies. Only over-sized fowl.

This was my Thanksgiving -- my Grandad and his wonderful wife did everything, so all we had to do was eat and help clean up. Sweet deal, huh? Plus I got to play with their pups, Princess and Sophie, all day long. Livin' the life, I tell you.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Scrumptious: Spicy

After last weeks potato themed meal-of-the-week, I only feel a little guilty about sharing potatoes with you again. This was kind of a cheater dinner anyway: I had a gigantic burrito for lunch, so I just ate this for dinner!

Potatoes and a red onion sliced into long strips and then sautéed them in some olive oil until the potatoes were tender. A little salt and pepper, and then after they got onto my plate they seemed a little lonely, so I dashed some Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce on them. Confused? Am I actually a 16 year old boy? Hmmm...

I promise, most of the time I eat healthier than this. 

Except for that semester when I ate chili fries for a week straight...

Scrumptious: Siesta!

Yes, I know, "siesta" means nap, or sleep. But when you are sleepy, and you need to eat, something's gotta give. But this was delicious!

But how about a recipe? It's nice and quick, but hits the spot. 

Siesta Baked Potatoes

2 small potatoes (I used russet, you could use one large, as well.)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup shredded cheese

1/2 cup salsa verde (I used La Victoria Thick 'n Chunky)

Several stalks of fresh cilantro

Sea salt, to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Start by washing your potatoes well, since eating the skins is good for you, but eating dirt is not. Once you've done that, stab each a few times with a fork, and place them in the microwave for 4 minutes. They'll steam and hiss, but that's fine. 

Once they're done in the microwave, pull out a baking sheet (or pizza pan) and set your potatoes on it. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle a bit of sea salt as well. Place them in the oven for 15 minutes. 

When the 15 minutes is up, carefully remove the baking sheet and potatoes from the oven, and place your potatoes on a plate. When they are cool enough to touch, slice them in half, and mash them up a bit. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over them, then spoon on your salsa and shredded cheese and tear up the cilantro to sprinkle it on top. 

There you have it! Delicious Siesta Baked Potatoes -- lazy college-girl food with a (very slightly) mexican flair. Plus, it's super cheap.

Tell me if you try it!

Scrumptious: Carbonara

Now that I'm living in an apartment style dorm, I am cooking a lot more. So I decided that maybe instead of just a random photo-of-the-week, I'll also do a meal of the week. To kick that off -- here's the first thing!

Yummmm. Spaghetti, fresh spinach leaves, cubes of chicken tenderloin, all tossed in the college girl's version of carbonara: 2 eggs beaten with salt and pepper, then poured over the all the other ingredients, with some added marinara sauce for flavor. Good right? It sure looked pretty. 

Stay hungry, my friends.

Photo of the Week: Christmas Cheer

Here's a quick recap of what I enjoyed on Christmas day:

Definitely not an exhaustive list. Hope yours was just as lovely.

Conviction: Misplaced

As we continue here with the RFP series on different issues that deserve some attention, let's look at why there are so many hungry people in the world.

Like the issues thus far, money (and what is done with it) has a lot to do with ending hunger. In past years, the cost of food has risen at an alarming rate, and for people in underdeveloped countries who may not receive more than a few dollars a day, a sharp increase in the price of food staples (like rice or other grains) can be a big issue.

Though a lot of the factors in the "food crisis", as several sources term it, can be helped by outside involvement, plenty are rather irreversible. Rising fuel prices make it more expensive to transport food items to where they are bought and consumed, and that price is reflected in the amount paid by the consumer. In many African nations, military conflict and raids have displaced entire populations, and when unable to rely on their tradition food sources, the groups cause strain to be put on other healthy systems.

It's important to look at this more clearly though. "Sure, sure, food is more expensive. It's more expensive to buy strawberries in January, but whatever!" One might argue that point, and yes. That's true. But the increase we are looking at here is unbelievable.

World Vision cites these numbers from the Food and Agriculture Association:
The cost of maize has increased by 80%.
The cost of wheat has increased by 70%.
The cost of rice has increased by 25%.

That is huge. And like I mentioned before, these are staples -- the things that make life livable. So where is the money? The money that could be spent to help alleviate the poverty that prevents so many people from getting a meal at least once a day?

Lets do a little experiment here:

There are 6,892,727,905 people in the world right now,
and 1,030,493,710 of them are undernourished.

There has been 5,134,630,478 tons of food produced this year,
and 130,620 tons wasted today in the USA alone.

Americans have spent $117,276,615 on food today, only to throw it away,
and it would only cost $35,474,859 to feed the hungry.

Honestly, it kind of makes me sick.
So what are you going to do to change those numbers?

"It's Awful!"

(I wish you as wonderful a breakfast as my roomies and I enjoyed a few weeks ago.)

First, I apologize to all of my friends, because I can't stop using "awful" as an adjective. Sorry. Really.


Secondly: FINALS WEEK.
Is it finals week at your school? Because it is at mine, and I'm a leeeeetle bit nervous. Usually, I don't really care, because I have two papers to write and then I head home for a month. This semester, I have two in-class tests, one online test, and two essays (8 and 10 pages). Holy mackerel!

In any case, I just wanted to say good luck, and I hope to be back to regular posting soon. I'm keeping my commitment to post once a day in the conviction series, because I really am convicted, but I miss the I DIY posts! Soon, promise. Christmas break is nearly here!

Let's do this!

Food and Books?!

So, I don't usually do this, because I feel like there are enough blogs that are collections of cool photos from other people, but you all needed to see this.


Thus, I interrupt my regular programming for this:

(via tart house)

These people have put a bookcase in their island and it's full of COOKBOOKS. Sure, the rest of the kitchen is clean -- that's nice, not my thing. But this bookcase! This is so ingenious and pretty I almost can't stand it.

I guess that's it, really. But gosh. I love it!

Home Again, Pt. 3

Waiting outside the train station to catch a shuttle, I heaved my carry-on (I put all my heavy non-liquids in it. I didn't want to pay for my checked bag being too heavy!) on top of my suitcase and rolled into the shade. It was hot in Paris, almost 90 F, and humid.

When one finally arrived, I rolled over and asked the driver if he went to the Ibis Hotel. He pointed back at the station, sending me to the door that exited the other side.

I thanked him, confused, and rolled myself and my belongings back through the glass doors towards the other side of the station and realized that in fact, I didn't need a shuttle, because the hotel was just outside! I went in after a huge sigh of relief (I was hoping to avoid a Liam-Neeson-necessary adventure...) and booked a room for the night.

I took the elevator up to my room on the fourth floor, slid my stuff inside the teeny door, tossed my carry-on on the double bed and -- no shame here -- I cried. After a stressful day of missing the flight that I was so ready to be on, having to fend for myself in a different language and foreign and confusing airport, I was tired and sad. I settled myself, ate a less than mediocre lunch in the hotel restaurant and then rested in the room.

I headed down to try dinner, hopeful that the restaurant would be better this time around. However, I did hedge my bet by choosing to skip the salad and go straight for some hamburger -- steak haché -- and fries and a dessert. That dessert was the best thing that happened to me all day; three scoops of ice cream - two strawberry and one mango.

I eavesdropped on a conversation happening behind me and it turns out I wasn't the only person to miss the flight -- evidently the flight seemed to have left nearly half empty! I went back to my room and watched a strange film in what I assume was dutch, and then passed out.

---------------------------

The journey is almost over!

Hope you all don't mind that I've broken this into so many parts, but I don't want to bog you down with seventeen pages of me whining.

Do you wanna share some travel stories to make me feel a little better about missing my plane!?