Food Blog (At a loss and stuck)

OK, kind of open form here, not my actual rough draft, more or less I am posting this as a way of just analyzing what I can do and what I want to do and seeing what might work for me, and possibly some feedback from anyone who happens to read this. So please, comment, click thumbs up if you like it and subscribe, OH I’m sorry that’s Youtube, but the idea is the same, any feedback would be awesome.

So I am having a hard time deciding what to base my food blog on.

I love food, I am what you may call a foodie, I cook new things all the time, I make it a point to try new foods all he time, and share the really good ones with everyone, except for my Baklava recipe, I had beg and grovel for years to get this from my childhood old world Greek babysitter and then promise to never share her family recipe with anyone except my children when they grow up, this stuff is the real deal not the stuff you get in stores, I may make some and bring it in if I can find the time. Between 14 credit hours managing my company, starting up another one and interning at a third company and studying with the public utility commission, that is to say I am a little overwhelmed and I would love to bring some in, just no promises.

I mean there are things like pastries, I bake and cook a lot of things and a lot of the time, I make tons of pastries and I only kind of LOVE PASTRIES, especially during the holiday season and I give them out to friends and family (JUST MAKE SURE YOU GIVE MY NICE PIE PANS BACK, THOSE THINGS ARE NOT CHEAP), is there much depth to his one though, I make pastries and give them out, there actually isn’t any family history there, no real cultural backing, other than a nice gesture to others, there is no actual family coming together type dynamics so I’m on the fence here.

I’ve mentioned Fry Bread several times, there is a wonderful symbolic meaning behind this food, there is a heritage factor, there is even a SMALL experience with it, though I don’t want to go this rout, Ill wind up getting too preachy and on my ‘soap box’ about, YES A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE, and still detracting from the assignment. As well it is best for me build a history of quality writing and have connection with a wide enough group of readers before hitting the real issues hard, so I’m leaning away from this one.

I could go further on my beans blog and reform it to incorporate some of my experiences with my own cultural background as well as other cultures I have been able to experience because of this common ground and a desire to try new foods which leads to (hopefully) getting more in depth into experiencing those cultures beyond the dinner table. Really, I’m just mot feeling passionate about this topic either.

The food topic I am leaning towards the most is the over processing, adulteration of modern food stocks. Genetic modifications and their implications, hybridization and the already prevalent degradation of entire genetic strains, mono cropping and the effects on ecological systems, the horrid atrocities that are being put in consumer food products, the lack of nutrition or rather over abundance of ‘anti nutrition’ in the U.S. and other nations, the effects on the human condition, lies from the FDA, and on and on. Lets see, I’m passionate about this topic, I have experience in this area, I can tie in family and culture, and I can make a story of it. Then again, I’m afraid of getting too technical, too preachy, too research based, and so on.

SOOOO, the question for myself from myself is, “WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?”

hyperlinks (final)

The point of a hyperlink is to give a reader more information about something (a recipe, some history about a topic, etc.). Rather than including a link (an actual address) in the text of your essay, use a word that is already there that acts as your link. For example, if I wanted to share my bread recipe with you, it would be better to link folks to the bread recipe. I could have said here is a link (and then provided that link as a URL), but that would have interrupted the flow of my sentence and thus the essay. Add stuff, do whatever...

Food and family (rough)

My family and food go together like two peas in a pod. When I think about when I was growing up most of my fondest memories, were based around food. No matter what we were going to do together there was always good food . Food had a way of bringing us all together and still does. It didn’t even have to be about visiting each other, we could get together and make a really good meal, like beans and chili which is my grammas’ favorite and all sit around and watch TV. and eat. We have made food such a big part of lives. You have to have food to survive but, we tend to take it to a whole new level in almost every situation whether it’s because we are fighting or having a family outing or just getting together to talk we always make a home cooked meal or go out to a restaurant. When I say my family, I don’t just mean my mom, dad and siblings. It’s my whole family, my gramma, auntie, and cousins. There is only thirteen of us but, we are very close, we all live here in Colorado and close by each other. we get together often and talk on the phone every day, everybody is in everybody’ else’s business, which gets annoying sometimes but we’re always there for each other. When one of us starts to fight with someone else, what usually ends up happening is we all get together and talk, then when every one is all made up we go out to eat and everyone is happy and joking around the table. Its almost as if having a good meal makes everybody forget about all the reason not to get along and we’re just there in the moment eating and laughing. When my family goes anywhere together whether its at the park, camping or even on a road trip food is always the main priority and I know that sounds bad but, I have grown up to understand why food is so important to my family. When my dad and auntie were younger they were very poor and there parents were not always there for them, so they had to beg ,borrow and even steal there food. A good meal to them was something that wasn’t always available so I think they tried to make sure us kids always ate really good. When we would go camping we would always make difficult but delicious food. While other people were having hot dogs and hamburgers we would be making culito, and steak. We don't go camping for the nature for the most part it’s more for us all to get together for the food, and family time that we all really enjoyed. I do sometimes wish that we more like a normal family and just go caming and go boating, fishing and hicking eating are little grnola bars.

Hyperlinks

The point of a hyperlink is to give a reader more information about something (a recipe, some history about a topic, etc.). Rather than including a link (an actual address) in the text of your essay, use a word that is already there that acts as your link. For example, if I wanted to share my bread recipe with you, it would be better to link folks to the bread recipe. I could have said here is a link (and then provided that link as a URL), but that would have interrupted the flow of my sentence and thus the essay.

Family get togethers on Sunday

One of my memories of my father was on Sunday, I would run down to the store with my dad and he would buy things for his famous enchiladas. He told me it was the sauce that makes it, and how you cook the corn tortillas. The secret ingredient was the roasted green chillies...I would watch him cook the green chillies on the bar-B-Q, The smell was so fabulous, it was to die for. I spent a lot of time in New Mexico, before I joined the US Navy and I was introduced to so many Mexican dishes. Always something was smothered in green chillies or red chillies...

The sauce that dad used was Las Palmas 4cans green or red what ever you prefer, fresh corn tortillas, 4 purple onions, chicken, beef, what ever you prefer. (Hint) soak the chicken/beef in garlic water in the fridge for a couple of hours. Black olives about four cans dice them up, Green chillies nine to twelve dice them up. Be careful on your cheese...Dad used Long Horn ( eat a small piece first) In a large pan take 2 cans of the Las Palmas add the beef or chicken with the diced onions and green chillies (low heat) (I have even used a crock pot also) cook for about two hours...prepare for the ultimate smell...oh ya. Hint add a glove or two of garlic(your heart will thank you). The pan you cook with, this is so important do not use a metal pan, use glass .

Why cooking, dad has already prepared green chillies salsa and fresh avocado salad with hot crisp chips...now we a are cooking. The layout... In a small pan heat some oil almost to the point you can hear the oil pop, add the corn tortillas ( you want the tortilla to be soft not hard) when you pull it out. Lay the fresh cooked tortillas over lapping each other about one quarter of the way. Lightly cover the bottom of the dish with the can of the Las Palmas sauce, on top of that add enough meat to cover each tortillas (Hint) Fresh Jalapenos sliced on top of each tortas. Add a thin amount of cheese. Repeat this same method for about 2 more layers. Final step...

Cook the tortillas a little bit longer for the top, your enchilada (top) will be covered with tortilla...Hint add a sharp cheese on top cover the enchilada with the remainder of the Las Palmas Sauce. Cover with foil, cook at 325 for about 2 hours until the cheese is melted and you can see the sauce boil through the glass. Take out and let sit for about an hour. Plan on getting up early, so you can eat about 1...its about a 5 hour process.

Dad recommends a frosty brew from the Budweiser folks, and to top it off with a siesta until dinner.

my cinnamon

My Cinnamon

        Today I brought cinnamon with me for everybody in my class. I brought it with me because I like to eat it in the breakfast with my coffee. it is easy to cook it. you will take just 20 minutes to cook it. all of my family like it.The ingredients are tow eggs, 5 spoons of sugar, 5 spoons of oil, 5 spoons of water,one spoon of cinnamon powder, and a can of sweetened milk.I hope everybody like my cinnamon cake.

Water (Practice)

Wed. 09-22-10
I was supposed to bring food, but I forgot. If I don't write it down, out of sight, out of mind. But I do have water. They say 99% of our bodies are water. Well almost, don't hold me to it

Thurs. 09-23-10

Well, I need to continue this important discussion about water because I have first-hand experience with it. When I was a child, I played outside in the summer and became very thirsty. I came in looking for one of my favorite beverages. "Mom," I asked. What's there to drink?" This is where I had my first Chemistry lesson. "H20," she replied. "Awww," O moaned. "I wanted Koolaid." My Mom, Dad and sometimes us kids went fishing. I knew fish came out of the water. There was no way that I was going to drink H20. I didn't care about the physical and chemical properties of water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water

I just didn't want to drink any of those fish!

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/Graphics/PosterLG.jpg

The Hangout

After the Bronco game excellent pizza and great selection of wines...http://www.bardiver.com/bar/zio-romolos-alley-bar/

taco casserole

Food is always on my mind. I try to eat alot day in and day out no matter where I'm at. All my friends growing up always knew where the first place I go is to there kitchen. Either the fridge or the cabinets. Its wierd sometimes because I can have the same things in my house as they do, but for some reason it seemed as if it tasted better from their house then from mine and I still eat it. But one of my favorite things to eat is taco casserole, something my grandpa always cooked for us when I lived with him. It was fairly simple to cook with few ingredients but had a flavor to me that seemed as if it had tons of ingredients to create this flavor.

Taco casserole is based up of four ingredients. Maybe five,but not sure. They are; hamburger, doritos, taco seasoning, and lots of cheese. As I stood over my grandpas shoulder as he prepped everything, my mouth already started to water for what was soon to be an extravagent dinner. He fries up the hamburger with the taco seasoning till it browns. Then he lays a layer of it into a frying pan. He then blankets the beef in lots of cheese. Lots of cheese. And then doritos. Then on top of the doritos, he does another layer of hamburger. Thats right, more hamburger. Once again, another pile of cheese.Then last but not least, more doritos with another thin layer of cheese on top to kind of hold everything in place. During this process, the oven was being pre heated at 450 degrees. So as he finished it up, it was instantly ready to go into the oven for a half hour to forty-five minutes and then be chowed down.

Ding! The sound of the oven letting us know that dinner was done. That was the longest half hour ever. He puts on an oven mit and reaches in the inferno and pulls the pan out. The look of melted goodness is now ready to be devoured. He cuts the casserol up into sections to be served. I, already at his side with a plate and and fork in hand, is ready to eat. He drops the piece onto my plate. The looks and smell is amazing. Everyone gets served and is ready try it. I am already almost done with my first piece and just about ready to get seconds by the time everyone gets served. They all dig in are are skocked by how good something like this can be with such few ingredients. Its amazing

In the end, I know I am a little bit of a scavenger when it comes to going into friends houses. But none of their foods equal the flavor of the taco casserole my grandpa has shown me how to make. Its seems so simple with such few ingredients that its on my soon to try and cook list at my place. I think I can accomplish this without burning my appartment down. I'm going to say maybe on that one. So now I am ready to eat like how I do every other hour, except this time, I want to eat taco casserole. Now lets see how I do at cooking this meal.

McDonalds (Practice Blog)

Today is one of those days where I have been craving breakfast from Mcdonalds. I was craving there great strawberry banana smoothie and their bacon and egg mcgriddles. So since I was in class all of the sudden my friend Damaris texted me and asked if Iwanted Mcdonalds for breakfast. She read my mind and since she knows me really well she brought me exactly what I was craving. The strawberry banana smoothie is my best drink from Mcdonalds. I make them at home and they are very easy to prepare and enjoy.

I love... (practice blog)

Pudding.

I love chocolate pudding. I mean, other flavors are delicious also, but something about chocolate flavored pudding is better. Chocolate fudge pudding to be exact.
I'm not an extreme chocolate lover. I do enjoy Caramello bars, chocolate doughnuts, french silk pie, hot chocolate, Hershey's bars and... I am definitely sounding like a chocolate-a-holic now aren't I?

Pudding is an any age food. Just yesterday I bought some pudding to eat as part of my meal after a horse show. The little girl I nanny named Siobhan is almost 3 years old and loves pudding. She wanted to purchase almost 5 boxes of pudding at the super market (we ended up with one package of 4). She loves pudding, just like me. My grandmother, Cleo, would make a variety of desserts but something about her pudding was delicious. I do not know the exact recipe she used. It was probably one she edited and came up with on her own over time(she always created new dishes off the top of her head). One I found delicious was called Best Chocolate Pudding. I would have looked at this page just for the pictures. I'm a sucker for photography though.

To be honest my pudding for class didn't make it to class at all. It barely made it through my Biology class even. So if anyone possibly wants to make me happy sometime bring me some chocolate. Chocolate pudding works :)

Green Apples

I forgot to bring a food to class today. The food I was going to bring was a green apple. Apples are a great snack because they are so light and sweet. The worst things about green apples is that the skin gets stuck in your teeth and that just drives me crazy. Everytime I have an apple i always forget to bring floss of a toothpick. Apples are not only good to eat by them selves you can also make them in to delicious apple cobbler.

The Art of Artichoke

The artichoke is one of my most favorite foods. As a food-lover I really can't say that I have just one favorite food, but the way I cook the artichoke is different than the ways that many others cook artichokes. I start by trimming about a half inch of the sharp tips of the leaves at the top and then I trim the stem off the bottom but don't discard and cut the brown piece off the end of the trunk like end. Like any fruit or vegitable it needs to be rinsed throughly with cool water. When rinsing out the top of the green hard leaves you need to remember to do it well because there is a resivour at the bottom which comes in handy to hold the spices you put in later. Fit the artichoke bodies and stems alternating in a big pot so everything can cook evenly. Sprinkle in a tablespoon of basil, a teaspoon of salt, and two teaspoons of garlic over artichokes and follow with flowing extra virgin olive oil (about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup). Adding four cups of water to start with in the pot over the top infuses all the spices together and down into the artichoke put on high heat. The water in the pot needs to stay above an inch, the artichokes to be stired every 20 minutes or so, and the heat adjusted to the water to be simmering well. After about four to six hours of these delicious vegitables are being cooked they are ready to eat. Most people soak their artichokes in butter but this is a healthier way to eat them and once you have had them this way you will never go back.

Here's A Croissant Practice Blog

I brought a croissant to class today because it was the first thing I could find at the lunchroom. I think I made a mistake in this purchase because I had to pay $1.88 for what looks like a very average looking croissant, aside from the bits of black stuff on it that make the croissant look like it got speckled with burnt cheese. It's fairly soft, but for a $1.88 premium pastry I would expect nothing less.

My Croissant doesn't look like this.

I guess I could consider myself a fan of croissants, but I don't know if I could consider myself a fan of this one yet. (I have yet to eat it.) I guess it depends on what the black specks on top of the croissants.

Grandma's hot cookies

Grandma was hard at work in the bookstore making her fresh cookies. At first I thought about Jimmy Johns...the #4 Tuna with peppers but they were not open that early. So I had to settle for grandmas hot cookies...sounds like a 80's band that open for the flock of seagulls. Any how the cookies are sitting by themselves wondering when they are going to be eaten...I'll let them wait for a while...

Water bottle to drink or not to drink (practice)

Today I brought a bottled of water in to class. I love water especially when i am really thirsted even more so when there is ice. The water bottle is differently the most convent when you are on the go there is usually some were to stop and get a bottle of water. But in the long run could we be paying for that convence, by contracting a life threading cancer.

More and more researchers are finding chemicals in what makes up the bottles we are drinking out of. So are we treading convince for something that could later on cause are painful death ? Its amazing how much we have to ask are self that same question about so many other products in today's world. And the really bizarre thing is that we know that these thing can potently harm us and yet we still consume them. I believe we live in a, in the moment society we cant see past today or even tomorrow.

lunch box food in class (practice blog)

I always bring a lunch box to school everyday in order to save money. I always pack my lunch the evening before, even if im not sure what i wish to eat the next day. some times i will throw extra items in my box before i leave that moring.

Last evening I packed cold left over pizza, snacks, and a pepsi. Then this morning I was craving pepperonis so i tossed those in too. i usually have several snacks in my lunch box because I seem to get humgry right in the middle of all my classes. some of my snacks are chewy bars and cheese.

well what i craved in the morning isn't what i wished to eat for lunch so i gave my lunch to my husband. then I went and bought hot lunch in the lunch room. This consisted of chicken fingers, fries, a browine, and soda. This was a good lunch eventhough i don't do this often.

The Turtle Bean (Practice Blog)

The turtle bean is a type of black bean. What an interesting name for a bean, right? It comes from the Carribean and is named for the black shells on turtles found there. These beans are really small, usually dried and provide a lot of protein. They are most popular in Latin American Cuisine and in Southern Louisiana where they use the beans in cajun and creole cuisines. They are also popular in vegetarian dishes because of their slight mushroom taste and meaty texture. Here is a delicious soup recipe from Cooks.com.
I had no idea how many different types of beans there are. I mean, I knew there were a lot but apparently there are much more than I knew. I only found out because of a classmate who brought a bag full of a variety of beans I never heard of. I completely forgot to bring my own food item and Matthew the bean guy was good enough to share. I picked the turtle bean because it is an interesting name for a bean and I wondered what could be made from them.

Turtle beans grow from a plant which produce pods that house the beans. They look a lot like peppers to me. This is a quote from, Garden Web, in response to the question, "How do turtle beans grow?" "The plant of the Black Turtle Bean is a hardy bush-type plant that is very disease resistant and handles drought and heat very well." Sounds like a really good plant to have growing in your garden, they last a long time and do not easily get ruined. After they are dried they are preserved well for a long time and can be saved for those drought days (if that ever happened). It also says that it takes from 90 to 120 days for these beans to mature and the plants grow between 18 to 24 inches tall.

The Tiny Potato and the Cheetos (Test Blog)

I don't usually bring food to class; I've only just recently given into my snack cravings in the morning and started munching on Cheetos or Lucky Charms during lectures. Up until now, the in class eating rules have been very strict: only water is allowed in the class rooms with carpet and, depending on the teacher, sometimes pop, but only in the science rooms where there is no carpet to be stained. And there is no absolutely no food allowed anywhere but the cafeteria. Now that I'm in college, though, the rules are looser. I'm allowed to eat anything and anytime and I can have coffee in carpeted areas. It's wonderful~ But I'm still a little stuck in the old ways. I still feel that I'm breaking the rules when I eat in class, even though I know it's all right.

So, during the last few weeks, I've been snacking in class. I had a brownie the other day in History class; it was delicious.

With that, can you guess one of the foods I brought today? That's right! Cheetos! Regular old Crunchy Cheetos. I was planning on just posting a picture of a bag of Cheetos, but when I was searching, I found something much more interesting.

Strawberry flavored Cheetos...

Oh, Japan... How I love you~ They'll cover anything in chocolate or strawberry. Actually, I don't think that these would be that bad. As long as there isn't any cheese flavor underneath. It would be like eating a strawberry flavored poof, and that's all. I wonder if I can get them anywhere here though...

Truthfully, Cheetos weren't actually the food I chose, I just brought them because I was hungry. My real item is a very small, purple potato. It's, maybe a half an inch long, not something that can be cooked and eaten really; it wouldn't be very filling if you did.

See? It's smaller than a quarter! It's barely even bite size! But! I plan on planting him (yes, I gave the potato and name and gender; his name is Jeff) in my garden soon and he'll grow new, bigger potatoes that I can eat.

This little guy came from a nice, little organic garden in my friend's backyard. He was one of the smallest ones we dug up and I asked if I could take him home and plant him in my own garden when he grew new roots. 

Since I'm no gardener, I'm going to have to find myself some instructions on potato planting. I'm under the impression you plant them during fall or winter, but I could be way off.

This site has good instructions on planting and growing potatoes, with a brief history and opinion on how wonderful they are. (Apparently, I was wrong about the planting season; I way off...) I'll either have to wait until spring or plant the little spud in it's own pot and keep it inside until spring. 

If this 'gardening' is successful, I think I might move on to harder things. I would really like to grow strawberries one day, I love strawberries =w= Maybe one day, I can have an entire organic garden in my yard!

Magical Fruit (practice)

Colorful and brilliant in all their dull complexities, beans have to be one of the most wonderful foods in the entire world. One of the "three sisters" (beans, corn, and squash) beans are a staple food for all of our worlds aboriginal and even some modern cultures. Trying to narrow down a favorite one strain is a difficult task, because through all there different colors, tastes, textures, flavors (yes flavor and taste are different), aromatic quality, smell, starch quantity, actual bean quality, and so on. I suppose given no other alternative, I could narrow them down to 4 favorites. Anasazi Beans, Turtle Beans, Chickpeas, and Cranberry Beans,. I will also do my best to characterize them for you.

Anasazi Beans also referred to as Aztec Beans and Jacobs Cattle Bean (though Jacobs Cattle is a mis-categorization, because there is an actual subspecies of kidney bean so named, while Anasazi Beans are a variant of modern Pinto Beans and as such not within the same family as Jacobs Cattle Beans) quite possibly have the coolest history, or rather story behind them. Though there are many stories of origin, they all pale in comparison to the magic clay pot story. It is said that the Anasazi Bean disappeared from the planet along with the people for whom they are named and were formerly unknown to the modern world. One day in somewhere in the 80s a member of an anthropology team from UCLA was in New Mexico looking for the remains of the famed Pygmy Elephant, and during his search just so happened upon a site where native peoples had inhabited thousands of years ago. Upon examining the site, the researcher found an old clay pot that has been sealed shut with pine tar, and contained a handful of these odd white beans with red speckles. The beans and pot were radio Carbon dated to over 1,500 years old, out of sheer curiosity he decided to plant them and to his amazement they grew into see bearing plants. Now from an analytical point of view there are holes all over this story, mainly New Mexico to the Anasazi and Aztec, and the 1,500 year old beans that grew when planted considering the effective shelf life of a bean is about 50 years and the longest recorded palatable bean was 100 years old. None the less, its a cool story and there are hundreds of variations of it, so that's the one I like to tell.

Size: Moderate to large

color: White with blotted red speckles

taste: Sweet

flavor: Hoppy

texture: Smooth (not creamy, not gritty)

smell: Nutty

aromatic quality: High

starch quantity: Moderate to low

actual bean quality: this is subjective to the specific beans in your possession, not to the varying types of beans.

Named for their color, Turtle Beans are reminiscent of the black shell of sea turtles floating in the water, originally a Caribbean specific food stock and due to their popularity and versatility have become staples around the world. Hands down, in my book, turtle beans win all the way when it comes to flavor, however cooking them as compared to other kinds of beans can be bothersome given their excessive protein coatings there is constantly a thick and goopy slag in the water than must be skimmed off.

Size: Moderate to small

color: Black

taste: Sweet

flavor: Mushroom

texture: Creamy

smell: Floral

aromatic quality: High

starch quantity: Moderate

actual bean quality: this is subjective to the specific beans in your possession, not to the varying types of beans.

Hummus, I LOVE with a capital LOVE hummus. Now hummus can be made from any bean and each different hummus, like the beans they are made from, have their own individual characteristics, though hummus as made from Chickpeas is my absolute favorite, and aside form hummus, I do not like Chickpeas.

Size: Moderate to small

color: Light Yellow/Off White to Very Light Brown

taste: Sweet

flavor: Nutty

texture: Grainy

smell: Nutty

aromatic quality: Low

starch quantity: Low

actual bean quality: this is subjective to the specific beans in your possession, not to the varying types of beans.

Like a creamy, full bodied, all around perfect version of a pinto; the Cranberry Bean is an awesome compliment to any salad, Italian dish, or just on its own; these beans are like velvet in your mouth. N'uf said.

Size: Large

color: White with blotted maroon speckles

taste: Sweet

flavor: Nutty

texture: Silky

smell: Floral

aromatic quality: High

starch quantity: High

actual bean quality: this is subjective to the specific beans in your possession, not to the varying types of beans.

cranberry bean (practie blog)

The food that I brought today in class was one cranberry bean. Cranberry beans are known for their creamy texture with flavor similar to chestnuts. They are white with dark red patterns around them. The cranberry bean is actually the same bean as the Italian borlotti. I dont think Ive actually eaten cranberry beans but here is a recipe that looks pretty good.

Ive never eating cranberry beans before but I grew up in a Mexican family and we eat beans all the time. From what I read cranberry beans are similar to pinto beans in taste and texture which I am very use to eating. It seems that cranberry beans are mostly eaten in Italian food but I bet they would taste great in a burrito.

Mc Donalds Breakfast

Today on my way to school I remembered that my English teacher told us that we had to bring food to class. Just as I was waiting in a red light on my way to school I turned my head to the right and saw a Mc.Donalds. So I thought why not take McDonalds, so right away I text my friend Eliana and asked if she had food for our English class. She said no (like always she forgot) so I told her if she wanted Mc.Donalds and Of course she said yes because she goes crazy with the straberry banana smoothies they have there. When I arrived at the drive-thru and looked at the menu, I did not know what to choose. I was so hungry that I wanted everything they have on the menu.

When I finally decides to get my meal I vas craving something sweet. I looked on the desert part of the menu and saw they had chocolate chip cookies and knowing how much I like them I did not hesitated to order three. I love their sweet choloclate chips melting down in my mouth. The sweet smothing dough my tounge tastes the isntant I put the cookie in my mouth. Chocolate chip cookies are a great snack or even a great treat to give to kids and make life sweeter!

From the garden massacre (practice)

Not but a few months ago, my ambitions were swollen. So how I decided to resolve this, was to til the land, more specifically a small patch in from of my front entrance to my place. Knowing that the season was short I found a veggie that would fruit within my temporal constraints. Zucchini's tend to fruit within a few weeks to a month, so they were my first choice, though I dissented into other squash and whatever fruits and/or veggies that were overly aged in my refrigerator.

After the arduous task of tilling, moving manure, and outright digging through the clay/sand soil, I acquired seeds, tools and applied them to the newly converted ground. After the first week the tiny plants sprouted, shedding there casings, the excitement that I was feeling was explosive! This in fact is my first garden, that is first garden that I have maintained and propagated, making everything that I get an advent of my will, and therefore filling me with elation everyday.

This great deal of happiness was shortly stifled. Sadly, I didn't realize the implications of planting readily eaten plant material in a dieing field. Everyday, a new leaf, the size of the dish used for thanksgiving turkey, is gone! The terror of the spring loaded menace had struck, and being smack dab in a field protected by the state, I have no means, right now, of getting rid this radical population.

This morning, I stood at the edge of my colony of plants and mourned. Yes, the process of nature means that I helped out the population of grasshoppers, but I didn't want to! I wanted to perpetuate my own life cycle and well, the lives of those (humans) that are willing to enjoy my produce. All-in-all, I'm grateful for everything that mother earth gave me, I just wish that she would have given more to the plants.

Response to Hesser's Shop Write

OK, so for the sake of playing around with our class blog and as it pertains to food and I have nothing else to do I decided to write a quick response to Hesser's Shop Write.

In Amanda Hessers 'Shop Wright' I had thoughts of what foods really make what people, or conversely, what people make which foods a necessity? One of the first things that popped out at me was "to what extent is our personal identity linked to our food preferences and eating habits?"-(Hesser, Convergences p.95). The message here becomes clear, are we what we eat? Though I would ask in what context is 'what we eat' placed, and to what extent indeed? Is a vegetarian a vegetable, or a carnivore a walking sac of meat? Perhaps I eat nuts, after all I am nutty. like my casual references, Hesser's message seems to come across in a sort of playful, almost humerus manner. A second more subtle yet telling message tied in well with the first is the trends of attitudes and trends of people shopping for food. For me it is the tiniest idiosyncrasies of behavior that are the most telling of people, their personalities and more importantly their intentions. Imagine being able to read and study seemingly mundane parts of someones life such as shopping lists before ever committing to a business partnership, personal relationship, or marriage?

If I were to place my thumb on a method, it would have to be humer, and an application to emotion, not the oh woe is me emotion, rather the light hearted comical banter usually found between tow good friends. Hesser goes so far as to almost poke fun at the various grocery shopping lists and brings imagination in play as to who would buy what and why, and can we qualify what things are typical of an average group of people, excluding the a-typical. Side note if you ever want to just have fun with a grocery clerk, buy bananas and condoms, nothing else, and watch their reactions, after all what sort of person buys those two items at the same time and for what ends? Its a riot.

Dry and simple, Hessers medium is a comparative analysis, though she does cite so much of Bill Keaggy's work, I almost wonder if she literally reworded it then regurgitated what she read. My friend Ethos would tell me no, she writes for magazines and has written cook books, so why would she jeopardize a good thing for a single one page article essay?

After reading the essay, I found its title comical, here we are to infer a 'Shop Wright' and deeper though would suggest that 'Shop Write' is just that, to 'write' and 'shop'.

Here's my last weeks shopping list, what was yours? AND What would you infer about me based on my shopping list?

Beans

Rice

Plums

Pears

Bananas

Agave

Maple Syrup

Peaches

Nectarines

Apricots

Pita

Romaine

Chards

Hummus

Grapes

GARLIC

Polenta

Tea

Tomatoes

Lentils

Granola

Almonds

Quinoa

Chicken Breast

Cliff Bars

Mana

Welcome Post

This is just a test post to say hello to the class blog. I look forward to seeing your stories here.

Just to show you what I mean about hyperlinks and pics, I will include one of each. This weekend I made a carrot cake adapted from this recipe.

This is kind of what it looked like (I made a single layer).