Oh the evolution of my blog.... I started it to share my travels with Honey and other family members, then it took a two-year hiatus while I was in graduate school (as did everything else non-academic in my life), and now it's back and it shall focus on my cooking adventures.
I like cooking. I love cooking! However, often times my idea of cooking involves several of the ingredients having started in a box or can. I don't have time to make my own refried beans or any kind of beans for that matter, I like bread that is so light that it can be formed into bread balls, and I'm obsessed with Honey Nut Cheerios (which I swear are more sugar now than any other ingredient).
I have not made the transition as many of the trendy health-inistas (if there can be fashionistas, why not health-inistas?) to whole wheat everything. Frankly, it's nasty. It's a funny texture and tastes earthy. By earthy I mean it tastes like the earth.... like dirt. This is an internal struggle I have between being healthy and actually enjoying what I put into my mouth.
The first goal is to cook more. Not assemble boxed ingredients, but actually cook from scratch. The second goal is to develop a balanced diet. If I made a food pyramid of my diet, it would be a square with four equal sections- candy, fruits/veggies, protein, grains. My lack of grains (particularly the good kind) is a serious concern. It leaves me with less energy and I'm hungry again an hour after I eat. Lastly, I've fallen into a rut of food monotony. I know how to cook several dishes/variations of those dishes well. I just cook the same things over and over. However, at the store, I often see different ingredients that I want to incorporate but I'm not familiar with how to use them.
Then I ran across this blog "100 Days of Real Food" (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/real-food-defined-a-k-a-the-rules/) and my first thought was- challenge accepted! I'm going to try 10 days of real food to start. We'll see how that goes. I've already started by purchasing some of the staple ingredients and made two of the recipes.
Whoa things have been cray-cray the last month! It was a few weeks ago that my PI (my mentor, my boss, my paycheck) called a lab meeting. Usually these things are planned far in advanced and the discussion topid is known. This was a very cloaks and daggers meeting. I had a bad feeling. At the meeting he informed us that he had resigned that morning. . . . Seriously the ". . . ." was actually what was running through my mind. You know that buzzing feeling in your ears after hearing something really loud, that's what was running through my mind. I was shocked. I had just met with my PI that morning to discuss the future direction of my project and had no indication there was no future...
In undergrad I knew I wanted to "help people" and have always had an interest in healthcare. Thus, I chose to study biology thinking this would allow me to accomplish my mission (without really knowing what kind of career would best allow me to do that). This was not a well though out plan, and I was quite naive. Fast forward six years, I found myself spending long hours, isolated, centrifuging solutions. Though biomedical research is extremely important, I found myself missing interaction with the members of the community. I knew I wanted to more directly affect change, but at the same time really use the scientific/quantitative/hypothesis testing side of my brain. I then explored careers in public health. I feel like I got on a single track, trying to groom myself for this crazy competitive career that I actually didn't want to do. At the time I was frustrated at why I hadn't heard the discipline "public health" until my senior year of college. It is the more practical application of disease prevention. I had tried to make my experience at Hopkins be a means to an end. In addition to my PhD, I applied to the MS Public Health program in the Department of International Health (Global Disease and Epidemiological Control) at Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (#1 ranked). I liked the global perspective, heavy biostatistic focus, and epidemiological focus. Epidemiology is studying disease from the population perspective. It's essentially the opposite of biomedical research, where you study an extremely specific molecule which is part of a pathway in a disease.
I was accepted to the program! I pulled strings to get both my PI and my graduate program to agree. I had worked it out so I didn't have to pay the nearly $50,000/year tuition either! Double yeah! But it was not meant to be. With the departure of my PI, so went that opportunity. I would need to find a new lab and a new thesis project to remain in my graduate program. The projects are not transferrable. Due to government budget cuts in the last year, only a small proportion of the faculty in my department was taking a graduate student. I didn't want to have my PhD extended another year and be pigeonholed into joining a lab that I wasn't really interested in their research. I could also take out >$80,000 in student loans to pay for my MSPH from Bloomberg. I weighed my options and decided to receive a Master's Degree from Hopkins and enter the working world.
I am moving to Denver in two weeks and I am looking for public health focused work. If you know me, you know I like to plan things out years in advance. Therefore, having only a few weeks to throw together a Master's Thesis, coordinate a cross country move, look for a job in this economy, find housing, and sell/give away pretty much everything I own has made me completely lose my mind. I hope I'm doing the best thing for me. I think it's one of those situations where three months from now I'll be happier than I've ever been, but right now it doesn't seem that way. :-(
Now that I'm not getting home from work at 7pm, after the sun has gone down, and completely exhausted. I'm working on developing hobbies, trying new recipes, making friends, and just generally trying to better myself. One issue that has really been important to me is taking as little from the environment as possible and trying to give as much back as is feasible. I'm getting ready to start vermicomposting. I'm going to take the easy way out and purchase a Worm Factory (http://www.naturesfootprint.com/worm-factory-360) for about $115 which has been scientifically designed to enhance composting. There are also DIY methods that include a big plastic storage bin, worms, and newspaper.
I'm also trying to reduce the amount of meat I consume. This is not necessarily on account of the Earth's well-being but more for my own. One day I just didn't want to deal with cooking it anymore. This is great because it has forced me to delve into a whole new cooking realm. This isn't to say I don't still enjoy a good burger, it's just that I don't cook it at home.
I went to a seminar last week regarding food preservation taught by the owner and chef at a local restaurant called Woodberry Kitchen (http://www.woodberrykitchen.com/). It was really informative and we got samples too! The aim of the restaurant is to get everything local.
Woodberry Kitchen relies on longstanding relationships with the growers of the Chesapeake to provide the ingredients that nourish and delight our guests. At our table, you join us in supporting sustainable agriculture that respects the abundance and traditions of the region while helping to ensure its future.
The menu is ever changing with the availability of local ingredients. Because of this, they've had to learn to can and preserve foods from growing season so they can still make amazing dishes throughout the winter. As many butchers like to take the "head to tail" approach with animals, they do it with all kinds of foods. I think more people (myself included) need to take a page out of their book. Even if you may desire something else, you should work with what you have, and maybe you can create something great out of it! One of the coolest things I thought they did was that they are unable to get local olives to put in their drinks so they use tiny, unripened, green, pickled tomatoes which they are able to get locally and pickle themselves as garnish. They look so similar to olives and they tasted almost exactly the same! A little creativity can go a long way. The dining prices are probably a little more steep than most graduate students can afford but maybe sometime I'll make it there. In the mean time, I can use some of the things I learned to bring a little bit of Woodberry Kitchen to my kitchen.
The chef from Woodberry Kitchen has several growers/vendors he picks up from, but I posed the question of the practicality of doing this for an individual. It's not really practical for me to drive to an orchard and hour away just to get a pound of apricots and then drive somewhere else to get come cucumbers. The chef directed me to Hopkins CSA. After researching this idea, I think it will help me to eat more seasonally and locally. "CSA" stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pay one lump sum and get 24 weekly deliveries of fresh local produce (from One Straw Farm) delivered right to Hopkins Medical Campus and you need only stop by and pick it up. For under $25 a week, you'll get a basket of whatever fruits and veggies are in season. A typical week's booty might include:
1 bunch of leaf lettuce
1 quart basket of tomatoes
1 large eggplant
3 cucumbers
3 peppers
2 bunches of kale
1 quart basket of potatoes
1 whole watermelon
I think for how much food you are getting, that price is comparable to the price at the store. I have always hesitated because I simply can't eat that much before it would go bad. However, you can also "share" a share. So for ~$12/wk I could have half of that. Another cool thing that they do is that there are always leftovers that people don't pick up. You can read about what happens to the food here, http://www.livablefutureblog.com/2010/09/food-dignity, but essentially for every 10 shares purchased, the farms donate one share to local organizations that provide emergency food assistance. Helping myself and helping others at the same time-- in the words of one of my sorority sisters, "loves it!"
I'm also trying my hand at gardening.The only problem is that I'm attempting to do it on our deck (about 7'x 14' of space). For someone who doesn't have a green thumb in the first place, trying to grow a few kinds of plants in pots is difficult.
Grow already! This was a few weeks ago so I'll update with my new setup soon. I still haven't figured out why I get incredible joy out of watching my plants grow. Oh... the simple pleasures in life.
Heath Ledger as The Joker: Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos.
I feel like every day I'm thinking, can my day get any worse? I should stop asking myself because it seems like it always does. I'm part of a volunteer program called IMP, Incentive Mentoring Program and you have a "family" which consists of several Hopkins students all focusing on one student. Participating in the program thus far has been fairly rewarding.
However, oday at Dunbar High School, all the tutors were standing in the lobby, each of us waiting to catch "our" kid for tutoring when we see the students "surge" towards the stairwell. I can't think of any other way to describe it. We've all seen Finding Nemo, so imagine a crowd of people moving like minnows or a school of fish. A few seconds later, fighting through the crowd, we see one of the coaches dragging a girl by her hair (well what was left of it). He tossed her in the office. The minnows surged towards the office, which conveniently has glass walls, perfect for viewing the drama within.
The staff told all the students to get outside. You can hear the noise level quadruple with people talking about who hit who first and who won etc. I'm standing there, the only person standing still, terrified. In the back of my head I thought I should help herd kids outside, but I was frozen and sensed it was going to get worse. As the students are trickling outside, they suddenly begin moving quicker- racing outside. I see students climb up on the railings, shouting, hollering, and rooting for something that I can't see. The two school cops (and I say cops because they are fully armed) race outside and one (who must be pushing 250 lbs) grabs the two main fighting girls by a handful of hair and holds them apart, taking them to the office, while they keep taking swings at each other. I see ones red bra exposed, I see bits of real or synthetic hair floating through the air, the other wriggles out of her hoodie. It seems he can't hold them far enough apart. The hoodie-less girl falls and the other girl is able to get a few more punches in then stomps on her face. The minnows surge inside behind the relentless fighting girls. The whole school lobby filled up again in two seconds.
Since both girls go down still trying to fight each other, the officer falls off balance and he goes down to his knees. Students from the crowd start kicking him. Seriously eight kids start beating on the officer. I couldn't believe my eyes. Every available adult (minus me who had retreated to the corner of the room) jumps in and starts tossing kids off. The choir teacher is elbow deep in high schoolers. Kids start fighting other kids. Kids start fighting adults. A riot broke out where everyone was just swinging at everyone.
The office locked the outside doors (as the office staff remained safely behind the glass), the students outside who are left out of all this fun start banging on the glass. Thank goodness it's bulletproof or it probably would have shattered. The officer gets the two girls into the office, which locks again as the minnows (which are now like piranhas) try to surge inside. I asked one girl what happened, she shrugged and said some girls were fighting over what one of them had said to the other. I am traumatized and she didn't seem phased. I was thinking wow, another day in the life.....
Long story short (or less long), they shut down the school, everyone had to leave, no tutoring. Which is fine, I never did actually see the kid I tutor anyway.
We (luckily) live in a country where there is order,the government maintains control, and for the most part people follow the law. There were a few occasions like September 11th, or the South Central Riots, a where control was lost. I never realize how much comfort I take in assuming that the CIA is keeping me safe from terrorists, and the Baltimore Police are keeping me safe from drunk drivers and getting jumped in the parking lot, and that I can go to the coffee shop without thinking I might get blown up today by a suicide bomber.
When there is a little loss of control, it seems like things get crazy really quickly. The Joker in Batman has, to me, been one of the most terrifying characters I have ever seen. Scenes like on the two boats when the people were trying to decide whether to blow up the prisoners to save themselves and vice versa. I asked myself what I would do in that situation... and the answer scared me. You never know who you'll become in a time of crisis. You aren't safe from others and you aren't safe from yourself. When perfectly normal people (like the students) get a mob mentality, they might do things they normally never would have dreamed of doing. Today I got a little taste of how others experience Baltimore all the time. The Joker says it best.
I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
I had planned to just tutor my kid, and that entire plan fell apart within minutes. And I was scared.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
I need to work on my plating so my food looks like this.
Here are some plating tips! http://www.learnfoodphotography.com/food-plating-and-food-styling-for-your-camera/ Hmm... I tried the sauce thing. It didn't work out.
The more stressed out I get, the more I'm trying to make sure I make time for things that relax me. Right now it's yoga and cooking that are keeping me sane. I wanted to blog a little about cooking (a la Kelsey) so here it goes.
I made flank steak and balsamic green beans with parmesan potatoes. The recipe is courtesy of my Cooking Light Magazine and it says it will be ready in 40 minutes. It took me about 40 minutes. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/beef-tenderloin-steaks-balsamic-50400000118569/
2 teaspoons butter, divided 1 cup vertically sliced yellow onion 1 cup vertically sliced red onion 1/4 cup sliced shallots 3 garlic cloves, minced 1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium beef broth 2 cups green beans, trimmed 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided 4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks or 1 pound flank steak 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Cooking spray 2 cups of mashed potatoes 1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese
The steak: The recipe uses beef tenderloin, it suggest that if you are on a budget you can substitute flank steak, so I did. The jury is still out as to whether this was a good idea. The flank steak was a little tough. Sprinkle steaks with remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add steaks to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve with bean mixture.
The potatoes: To 2 cups mashed potatoes, stir in 1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese. Add 1/8tsp of freshly ground black pepper. If you want, you can also toss 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions.
It was delicious the first night, and the following 3 or 4 nights I ate it!!
I've been called "cold" more times than I can count. Samantha Garvey's incredible story made my eyes get a little moist. She is completely inspirational. Take 7 minutes and watch this!
But seriously. I think I would be so happy in that profession. Ok I'm not quite there yet. I need to not to just take pictures of pretty things that turn out well but take amazing pictures of normal things.
For Sabrina's birthday, we went to Oregon for a couple of days. We visited the ocean and the aquarium! We also fit in some shopping and spa-ing. It was a relaxing girls getaway for sure!
It was so fun to be with Sabrina and her mom as they experienced new travel related things like riding public transportation! (Even though we were FREEZING!)
I <3 Portland! The scenery and people were amazing! I was quite sold on the city. And as I become more environmentally conscious, I was impressed at how "green" the city is. There were solar trash compacters at the park, the liquid/solid flushing on the toilettes was standard, everyone was using reusable bags. It was good to see.
We also went to Body Worlds. No photos allowed but it was SO weird in an eerie sort of way. That kind of thing makes me, as well as a lot of people, question their own mortality. As a biomedical scientist, it was really cool to see whole bodies, and then see the layers peeled off one by one. Note to self: learn more about Gunther von Hagens' plastination technique http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/prelude.html
Whenever there is something new and caring, of course there is controversy. Don't get me started on bioethics. I think in the field of medicine/science it really is a slippery slope.
In October 2003, a parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan investigated accusations that von Hagens had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric institutions and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, some without prior notification of the families.
He said he had received nine corpses from Kyrgyzstan hospitals, none had been used for the Body Worlds exhibition, and that he was not involved with nor responsible for the notification of families.
Me thinks something sounds fishy here.... Animal rights organizations (though I don't usually give these much creedence, but still) have claimed he didn't have proper papers for animals that he has acquired.
A few years ago I remembered seeing a special about an investigation regarding bodies of Chinese prisoners possibly having been acquired without consent.
In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired some corpses from executed prisoners in China; he countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies and went on to cremate several of the disputed cadavers.
Von Hagen was able to get an injunction to stop the magazine from printing it. Still... something is off. I'm fine with gaining knowledge from a display where all people were willing participants but if they didn't consent, didn't have the capacity to consent, or didn't know exactly what they were consenting to, I do not want to support that (it costs $25 to see the display). It didn't take a psychic to foresee that as soon as this got popular, issues with how the bodies were procured would arise. Considering this is an international exhibit, things get confusing because different countries have their own rules with regards to protecting the dead. I think it's really dangerous to start down this path. With every good thing, people getting to see an learn about the human body and its systems in a totally unique and cool way, there comes a costly negative- ethical issues arise. Think stem cell research. Food for thought.
-B
I believe I am taking on a new endeavor. Updates soon.
It seems like I overbook and overextend myself. I know that seems counter-intuitive given the previous statement.
I purchased these new reusable goody bags. I find myself more and more seeing things as I waste them, so I'm trying to be a little more careful. I bring my lunch and sometimes dinner and most certainly snacks every day so I go through a lot of plastic bags. I try to use Tupperware when I can, but sometimes my lunch bag just doesn't fit ten little Tupperware containers! I will update how effective the bags are.
It's sad now that my life consists of work and buying stuff on Amazon.
I subscribe to a lot of magazines and I'm always tearing out articles, recipes, or photos of outfits I want to emulate. These items have stacked up on my desk, and I'm starting to feel like a hoarder. I have stacks of articles that I want to save for future use but no organization to them so it's rare that I'll actually go back and refer to them. So I decided to get a big binder and fill it with sheet protectors and organize my clippings. Next time I want to make a new recipe, I can just flip to that section and see if there is anything that sparks some creativity!
One of my new years resolutions: To blog more! I have found a lot of websites that I find helpful, so I'll be sharing a lot more links in case anyone is interested in the same things as me... also so my sources of information will be clear. Usually I try to be fairly neutral on subjects I post on here(in contrast to my personality where I am very opinionated) because I didn't want those thoughts to be made public, but I've started thinking, "hey this is my blog, if you don't like it, STOP READING IT!"
I have finally hit my stride here in Baltimore, and having that under control allows me to focus on one of my passions, women's rights. I have been doing a lot more reading and even catching up on politics (if you know me, you know deliberately ignore politics)where women's rights legislation is involved.
As I continually work on myself, the new year is just another opportunity to set new lifestyle goals more commonly known as new year's resolutions (NYRs). I read on jezebel.com that one reader's NYR was to give out one new Kiva loan a month. It got me thinking.... http://www.kiva.org/about/how
I had heard about this program a few years ago. As one who made such little income at that time that I wasn't even required to pay taxes, it wasn't really feasible for me. Now it is! I think for money that I would be willing to donate to a cause anyway, lending it out through this organization in order to build small businesses and therefore build infrastructure may be more helpful (to the recipients) in the long run. I will try to focus on lending to women because I think it is important for them to get their small businesses off the ground and gain some independence. See, now I've written it down here for all of the blogosphere to read so I must do it!
The one guideline I set for determining my NYRs (or goals as I like to call them) is that they are bigger than me. It's easy to get caught up in "I'm going to drop 20 pounds by... like... tomorrow" or "I will get organized" or vices you will give up, drinking, smoking, etc, all things that start with me me me. I'm trying to focus on things that will help others, the environment, or are for the greater good. I think that focusing on things like that make the "resolutions" stick.
I have some general ideas but I don't know whether it's beneficial or harmful to get too specific. For instance in my mind saying a goal is "reducing my carbon footprint" without anything more specific means I will constantly work on this in different ways. On the other hand, it could be followed by specific goals I want to meet/maintain like "eat less meat: one day a week I will be vegetarian" or "walk somewhere each week instead of drive" or "begin composting by Feb 1", but I feel like these are definite accomplished or failed and therefore harder to maintain for a year, let alone as a lifestyle. However, if "reducing my carbon footprint" is the goal, then if you have a week where you slack off on doing things to support that goal, you can say "welp, this is motivation to do better next week!" I think I will focus on big goals and switch off how I choose to accomplish these goals.
1. Give 4 Kiva loans. (Ok I really had to be specific with this one or I wouldn't do it)
2. Reduce my carbon footprint through REDUCTION, reuse, and recycling, trying to buy local, consuming less meat, carpool to work?, walk more, attempt to compost food, using less energy.
3. Treat my body better by exercising regularly which is a given but I need to include more strength training because I'm getting old!, make time to practice yoga, slow down when I'm tired I believe it's called "listening to your body", make enough time for sleep, limit alcohol consumption, minimize stress, and make healthy food choices. This will come in handy in the long run because I will be solidifying a lifestyle that I can teach to my kids and it also is the best bet for living longer and happier.
4. Really commit to a volunteer project where I am a good fit. I have tried a few while in Baltimore, and I hadn't really found one that I could see myself doing for years and becoming more and more involved in. Right now I'm thinking House of Ruth http://www.hruth.org/. It's a shelter for abused women and their children in Baltimore, but after researching it, it is so much more than just a shelter.
In talking about change in myself, I wonder how I can inspire change in others. http://thefuntheory.com/ This might be a start!
