tornadoes!

So I am a little freaked out with all the hundreds of tornado outbreaks in the US. I feel like since Japan moved eight feet after the tsunami the whole axis of the world is thrown off and the weather is going crazy! I was just thinking about it, and I found that the safe spot in our apartment would be our coat closet on the first floor, also located in the center of the house!
I called my best friend this morning to wish her a happy birthday at around 8:30am just to be that annoying friend haha and when she answered all she said was"thanks! call you back,  I'm going to find shelter!" I could hear the tornado sirens going on in the background. She goes to school in Oxford, Mississippi. 
I was thinking, and what if the US became notorious for tornado outbreaks on a regular basis and our home as we know it today would completely change. What if we all had to live underground and build temporary huts on top of us because in the next month or so another tornado would come and blow it away. Its weird to think about.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/27/tornado.outbreak/

Welcome, Gladiator fashion!

My little brother is in love with the show Spartacus. It's pretty much all he thought about until the new show Game of Thrones came out. Even now, he quotes Spartacus all the time and wishes he could go to gladiator camp. This Spartacus love is not unique to my brother. In fact, it's showing up all over the place in women's fashion... Check out this Spartacus costume:

According to the website for the Colosseum, Romans really did wear sandals, primarily because the temperature in Rome was too hot to allow for full foot coverings. Apparently, Romans never went barefoot because a bare foot was a sign of absolute poverty. The sandals Romans wore were generally rigid leather attached by leather cords or straps, so the Gladiator sandals we see today in modern fashion are a rejuvenated interpretation of this slightly primitive footwear. What's interesting is that just like today, Gladiator sandals had a bit of fashion to them. They were often studded with metal nails on the soles to add structure to the soles, and although gladiators in the arena didn't really need that sort of support, the nails added style and realism to the show. Today, we're copying the gladiators...

I personally thought the gladiator look was a little silly when it first came out, but now, I have fallen victim to the fashion bug, and I like them. I definitely believe that this fashion craze relates directly to my brother's beloved Spartacus. And while I don't really like the show, I have now begun to dress like the characters!

worst next week of my life

There are always weeks like these when you have so much stress and you just want to give up on everything. Right now, it feels like my whole earth is about to shatter. Even if I did more than 12 hours of work a day, I still don't think I would be able to get through with an average grade for any of the projects/tests I have coming my way.

Brought all my stuff home to do work over Easter and I accomplished nothing. 

But have you ever thought about what this next week would mean to you next year? or maybe even a couple of years from now? If you put this whole pile of stress in the bigger perspective, it really means nothing. Its only a couple of grades. It won't affect my whole college GPA. I rather do the best I can without completely going over the edge... I feel like I am about to go crazy! I cannot wait until this week is over... 

Oh but wait, SMU decided to have finals without any days to study before... that's funny because after my hell week I have 3 finals on the first day and then my next to most difficult finals (which need at least 2 days of studying in advance) are the next. 

My life is about to go WAYYYY downhill from this day until summer. 

taboo

Taboo is the best game ever.
You really get to know the people you play with, in a sense that your looking at the inner-workings of their mind. I recently just played with a group of friends, and I don't think I've laughed that hard in a really long time.
It makes you think of an object in a completely different way because of the 'taboo' words you are not allowed to say, however, the way you interpret something is completely different than someone else's interpretation.
For example, a pez dispenser. (the cartoon little plastic toys that spit out little pez candies) well you can't say any of those words... and when you say a "long thing that spits something out of its neck"... you are going to get some pretty hilarious answers.

I'm about to go to Target and buy it to play with my family over Easter Break! Can't wait.

Coop De Loop!

Sometimes I wonder whether or not my dog Cooper was a human in a former life and carried on some of his past characteristics and skills to his life now. He has a personality of his own. I know everyone says this about their dog, but he has such a huge personality! He opens my door at 7am almost every morning when I am back home and jumps on my bed to wake me up (doesn't matter if the door is closed because he has already learned how to open it by himself).

They say that chimpanzees share most of our genetic makeup, however, because dogs have been with us for so long psychologists are now starting to study them as a model for human social behavior.
I attached this article because I thought it was really interesting...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29895614/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Carrot Cake

So I've come to a conclusion after spending 2 hours baking a carrot cake for my Dad's birthday... Never use a recipe that doesn't come from a cookbook, cooking magazine, or at least a reliable source so you know it's somewhat worth taking the risk (e.g. your grandmother).
I originally took a recipe out of "Southern Lady magazine" ... looks good right? Yeah, it's not.

The cake never rose! Probably because it had like 3 sticks of butter in it....

Anyways, about 2 years ago I got into cooking & baking. My grandmother is a great cook and she has taught me a lot... (She's very precise and picky though, so it's funny to see her reaction when I try to put my own spin on a recipe). It's usually a 50/50 chance whether or not it works out though, but it's worth the try because it's fun to surprise yourself when you do something good!
Over the years she has collected and perfected a lot of recipes and now I want to start adding to the collection! Maybe someday we will be able to make a cookbook! If that ever happens I want to name it after her!

Raw Claims: What can you do for ME?

Common claims about the benefits of raw:

• Raw foods have more vitamins and nutrients
• Raw foods have their digestive enzymes intact, so they are more easily processed by the body
• Raw foods have healthy microorganisms that can aid the immune system
• Raw foods don't have any toxic dyes, chemicals, or preservatives

When did all this raw business start? 

You're never going to believe this... the raw movement actually began in the 1830s, and the man who pioneered the plan was none other than Sylvester Graham - better known for his self-named Graham cracker! 

Obviously, Mr. Graham wasn't always a raw foodie, because the Graham cracker is a deliciously cooked little biscuit... but it turns out the Graham cracker was made for the expressed purpose of creating a healthy supplement to a vegetarian diet. The Graham cracker was made with whole wheat flour, in a time when people found refined flour to be a symbol of prosperity... That humble healthy cracker is probably in my mom's pantry right now, a strange connection between my modern fascination with raw and the traditional influence of Mr. Graham in my life. I guess the raw diet and the obsession with health didn't save Mr. Graham because he died at age 51. I hope current raw experiments turn out better.

How did raw get moving in the US?

A man named Juliano... no last name, just a first name... opened the first raw food restaurant in the United States in Los Angeles in 1995. 

Apparently, Juliano grew up in the kitchen of his father's Italian restaurant, where he was surrounded by meat and fish, but he turned into a vegetarian who brought raw food into the cooked food mainstream. He has become a super celebrity, training everyone from Steve Jobs to Demi Moore on the basics of raw cuisine. I suppose I have him to thank for this new topic of interest.

Okay, so I look at Graham, and then I look at Juliano. Clearly, Graham was not a happy looking man, and I could chalk that up to his all-consuming obsession with this daily intake of raw veggies and barely cooked wheat, but Juliano follows much the same line of thought, and he looks amazing! Juliano claims that he has more energy because of his raw food diet, maintains his weight more easily, and has better overall health.

I have tried to get clear answers about what raw food can do to cure disease, by reading real studies, but the fact remains that the issue seems cloudy. No one can really tell what benefits come out of eating raw. The few raw foodies I have spoken with are enthusiastic, but they don't seem to be able to do much with their friends. They can't eat at restaurants. They can't enjoy a cocktail on the weekends. It seems to be a life that's all about conviction, but never about actual enjoyment. I can't help but wonder if all of these raw-a-holics don't feel like they are gaining some sort of social capital by choosing such a difficult diet. Maybe they will perpetually feel better than their peers. I'm not really sure.

I have come to the conclusion that a healthy diet needs a balance of raw and cooked... but I am definitely not sold on the benefits of 100% raw because I've now read that there are some serious drawbacks about eating all raw:

• Dietary lycopene and carotenoids are more active in cooked foods
• Baked bread allows the body to absorb more zinc and calcium
• Cooking aids in digestion (those raw bean-eaters are in for serious pain in the long run)
• Cooking kills harmful bacteria (yes, sadly, salmonella exists on vegetables, too)

Now that I've decided that Raw on its own can't do anything for me, I am on the hunt now to find raw weirdos.

The Oddballs of Raw

I've read more raw foodies' websites now, and I am completely sold on the idea that 100% Raw is a strange choice.

Let's look at the top three strange raw people:

1. Tonya Zavasta - creator of Beautiful on Raw

It's Dark Side of the Moon meets the food pyramid! 

I'm sure Tonya Zavasta has great intentions, but her strange photos and narcissistic blog are enough to turn off even the most eager learner.

2. Tonya Kay (not sure what's up with the name Tonya here!) - creator of Veganica

I'm sure Tonya doesn't care about pushing raw into the mainstream, so she's not going for that appearance. She is obviously in amazing shape. She's a pretty successful television personality, as well. She drives around the country in a VW fueled with waste vegetable oil. I guess she's admirable, but her offbeat approach to her good looks makes me think more about the social capital idea I introduced in the last blog... Could she be doing all of this for attention??

3. Robert Ross - creator of Raw Food Life

Robert's actually the guy on the right. He doesn't look very strange, and in fact, his website is probably the most impressive, most comprehensive raw food site out there. However, Robert has some strange ideas. For instance, this picture of Mr Hyde: 

is used to represent the hidden dangers of cooked food.

Considering that no one has been able to substantiate any claims that cooked food is harmful in any way, and considering that humans have cooked their food since the invention of fire, such claims are misleading. It takes a serious extremist to go to such lengths.

I think raw food would have greater potential for large-scale success as a movement if raw foodies were more moderate. There is a militant quality of raw eaters that seems to push them over the brink a little. That offbeat nature alienates the raw movement and keeps people like me from really giving raw a sincere try.

Barbecue Heaven in Luling

I know some people love Kansas City ribs, and others dream of North Carolina pulled pork, but in my mind, nothing can really beat Texas barbecue. There's a grittiness to it, a cowboy color that makes Texas barbecue the most hardcore barbecue there is.

I recently went to Luling on a drive home from Lake McQueeney, and I stopped at the Luling City Market.

This place is famous for barbecue, and it had better be, because they serve basically nothing but meat. When you walk in, it looks like there's nothing to choose from at all, because you have to walk through the main dining room into a closed smokehouse area.

You can barely see through the glass because the room is so black with smoke within, and on the glass, they proudly proclaim, "No out of town checks!" Nope, at Luling, it's cash or nada. Once inside the smoke room, you pick the meats that satisfy your cravings, shouting out, "One pound of lean brisket!" And, don't even think about turkey or chicken... they don't sell that fowl here. It's red meat or bust.

You get your food on a very elegant piece of brown butcher paper, and they will toss in a few pickles out of a five gallon jug, if you're lucky. Top that off with some processed, white sandwich bread, and you're off to the races!

In total, with a pound of sausage, a pound of ribs, and a pound of brisket, our total was $17. It was a steal. Of course, that price didn't include what we would pay with indigestion in the near future, but the suffering was well worth it!

Luling may not be a large town, but it's barbecue packs a massive punch.

El Meson del Champinon

If there's anything the US is missing, it's genuine interaction with the people who prepare our food. Sure, we may cook our own food at home, but when we go out, we leave our meals in the hands of whoever may be standing at the prep counter or behind the stove. In Spain, it's sometimes a little different, especially at the Meson del Champinon on the Cava Baja in Madrid. The Cava Baja is legendary in Spain because of its large number of tapas bars and fame for fabulous nightlife. I stumbled into El Meson by accident. Well, it wasn't altogether accidental - I mean, for a mushroom lover, what could be better than a restaurant dedicated to the fungus?

What really got me was that I could watch the chef in action, making dozens and dozens of grilled, stuffed mushrooms and fried pimientos.

Don't touch the dillos... and don't eat them either

Happy Armadillo!!!

Sad Armadillo!

I've seen many smashed up armadillo carcasses on the sides of highways, apparently trying to make some desperate, slow attempt to cross the road or just make a change in their lives. I've sort of felt sorry for those little guys because they are seriously too unattractive for anyone to want to hug them or show them any sort of love. Who ever heard of a pet armadillo? That's sort of what makes them cute - their absolute hopelessness as pets or objects of affection.

Well, my intermittent sympathy for armadillos has basically crashed and burned, considering that they apparently are seriously sources of leprosy!

Does anyone even remember leprosy??? Where are leper colonies in the world today? It turns out there really aren't many, but until just the last century, a decently sized leper colony existed in Carville, Louisiana:

Now, lepers are basically a thing of the past, or so we thought. As it turns out, up to 15% of armadillos in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi are infected with leprosy! It's apparently pretty easy to get leprosy from an armadillo because the human and armadillo strains of the disease are remarkably similar.

Next time you think about moving or eating roadkill, think again.

Lightning Show

I never realized how scared I was of lightning until last night. I left the library at around 10:30 right before the down-pour of rain, but just in time to be right in the middle of a lightning storm. I was stuck at the front of Fondren and since all of SMU is under construction you basically have to take a long, circular-route to the parking lot. So annoying.
Anyways, I took a running start from the double-door entrance and ran as fast as I could to my car, all while the sky is conducting its own mini 'light-show' and the hairs on my body were literally standing up from all the electricity in the air.

As I'm catching my breath, I started to think about how cool that was (obviously now that I wasn't in the middle of it)! I was really intrigued by the fact that I've never really viewed lighting as so fascinating. Maybe because my adrenaline levels were skyrocketing at the time, but still. I went back home and looked up some videos.
 The lighting wasn't as dramatic as the video I posted, but the sky literally has a personality of its own! How cool would it be to go to a "lightning show." People could set up metal rods and have the lightning strike in certain places. I doubt that would ever happen, but the thought of it is really interesting. Maybe even having a concert centered around that theme? Music playing, lights going off, and people dancing. Sounds like a pretty good time to me!

Adventures in Marshmallows

For years, I have enjoyed low-fat and fat-free desserts. I've eaten the Skinny Cow sandwiches and relaxed with Ben and Jerry's light ice creams. I can't really tell the difference between fat-free and regular Fig Newtons anymore, and I think of Teddy Grahams as a luxurious treat. In the world of low-fat desserts, the marshmallow reigns supreme. It's got pillowy goodness and sugary flavor, and it's the basis for the delicious wonder that is the S'more. That's why I was so excited when I discovered Plush Puffs and the Krispery.

Plush Puffs takes marshmallows to the next level, creating amazing flavors with fat-free delicious puffiness. The flavors range from Chocolate Chip to Coconut to Caramel Swirl, and they really taste how they are supposed to! 

I had a S'mores party with these last weekend, and we combined all sorts of marshmallows with all kinds of different crackers and cookies. It was incredible, and it was still healthy because you could leave out the chocolate if you wanted!

But that's not even the best part... the Krispery has mastered the marshmallow in action - as the binding agent of the beautiful, inimitable Rice Krispie treat! There are limitless possibilities for the Rice Krispie treat, but before I found the Krispery, I had only tried different kinds of cereal and added chocolate chips, crushed candy bars, or M&M's. Enter the Krispery...

Look at that Gooey Goodness!! The caramel is just spilling out of the inside... and it's also loaded with pretzels and dripping with chocolate syrup. Like a dream come true.

For me, these innovative takes on old standards have been eye-opening. I can't wait to try them all and love each second of it. I know what I am giving for birthday gifts!

E.T.

Are there really aliens? Well if you really think about it, we could be aliens? Imagine traveling to outer-space and landing on Mars and find little tiny creatures running around, speaking in a high-pitched foreign language and then come to find there's a whole city! Wouldn't we be those "scary invaders" that we make movies about all the time. Those aliens from another planet who find out that there's other life and great resources!
 - What if we were the aliens, and earth was this weird place with giant humans who produce bad chemicals that destroy the atmosphere. Think if other planets look down at us and make fun of our dumb mistakes... What if earth was the the "Jersey Shore" of outer-space.  Obviously they wouldn't invade us because we are destroying our planet, but what if those other living creatures were scared that we were going to find out they exist and then come invade their home!

interesting...

Embracing the Raw

About a week ago, I was at Whole Foods, browsing the selections and guess what I found... dessert! Not just any dessert, mind you... raw dessert. Raw cheesecake, raw German chocolate cake, raw mousse. It was astounding to me, but after I came home I started doing some reading on the raw movement and its possible benefits.

It turns out that people are doing everything raw... it's just taking a long time to start off in Texas, one of the fattest, least healthy states in the country. In an effort to spread awareness, I thought it was worth taking a look at the innovative raw dishes that are being churned out all over the world.

Since Dessert was my first introduction to the world of Raw, I thought I'd start there...

The Raw Oreo Ice Cream Cake - Looks like any normal cake, but there is absolutely no dairy and nothing was baked, not even the cookies. They use dehydrators to dry out dates, figs, and carob to simulate the chocolate taste, and then use almonds and almond milk with vanilla to create a vanilla mousse!

I am trying to figure out where I fit into all of this raw business. I find it fascinating, but I am addicted to hot food... I like my meat cooked, and I'm not really into the idea of vegetarianism. However, I think there's probably an important value to considering vegetarianism. I wholeheartedly embrace the idea that nutrients deteriorate with cooking, and I understand that we should pay attention to more than just the number of calories our food has - we need to think about what we are really feeding our cells. I think I'm going to continue studying what benefits have been attributed to raw eating, and then I'll see if I am interested in heading that way myself.