March is ME Month!

So with the official start of spring right around the corner, today being "Spring forward" the clock day, and tomorrow being the first day of the week AND the 15th of the month, it seemed a good time as any to jump into some mental and physical spring cleaning goals!!! Winter is a notoriously bad time for me (and for lots of other folks) with the long dark days, and cold weather, so I'll try and shake off the winter doldrums quickly... and in time for my birthday and my mom's birthday cruise. :-p



Goals I'd like to achieve this month (March 15-April 15):

Read 1 non-fiction books- As we all know... I hate reading non-fiction, but I'm in the middle of a pretty good non-fiction book now, so hopefully I'll actually finish it!

Drink 1.5 liters of water per day for 2 months- Clear skin, shining eyes, lusterous hair... all need water... which I don't drink enough of, at all. I tried this goal previously, and failed miserably. Let's see if I can do better this time.

Do 15 minutes of abs 3 times a week (outside of a class) for 1 month: I'm trying to kick the whole workout thing into high gear this month, which includes doing abs pretty much every day... so unless I fail on my working out then I will achieve this goal.

Use the foot thing in the shower every day for 2 month- Open toe season is approaching... 'nuff said.

Leave no dishes in the sink overnight for 1 month- Another goal that I failed miserably on..

Make bed every day for 1 month- First time i'm trying this... I honestly don't remember the last time I made my bed... I never make my bed. I was watching on the Today show that happy people are more likely to report that they make their bed in the morning. Apparently starting the day with an achievement like making your bed, sets you off on the right foot and puts you in a better mood for the whole day.

In addition to all of this, I'm also trying to eat cleanly for a month and lose 6 pounds... just to lean out a bit for the Spring/Summer. I will, hopefully, be posting more on this and updating all the goals I've achieved this fall/winter sometime this week.

Love y'all!
N

New Food #11... Blood Sausage

So... on Friday night I had the opportunity to try another new and.... interesting food: blood sausage. If you remember from previous blog, blood sausage was NOT something I was necessarily open to trying.... at all, but when confronted with new, albeit potentially disgusting, food Nana Mensah does NOT back down!.

So what is blood sausage... According to Wiki "Black pudding or blood pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. It is also called blood sausage.

Pig or cattle blood is most often used; sheep and goat blood are used to a lesser extent. Blood from poultry, horses and other animals are used more rarely. Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, sweet potato, barley and oatmeal."

So yeah... Blood Sausage is essentially exactly what it sounds like it is... Casing stuffed with a little meat, some fat and then filled with blood and poached until the blood becomes "solid". I didn't have my camera with me, but our dish looked pretty much like this..
Or this...


My thoughts?... I'm actually getting a little nauseous, again, looking at that picture so I'm gonna make this short. I am not exactly sure what makes sausage sausage (maybe just meat in a casing?), but there was nothing sausage-like about the consistency of this sausage. I would compare the consistency to that of really really REALLY soft, moist and crumbly liver.... like spongy and wet.... so crumbly that when you put your fork in it it just sort of falls apart...

The consistency was really difficult to get past.

I think if they had called it blood pudding, NOT put a casing around it and served it in a bowl I wouldn't have been expecting something solid to be entering my mouth and wouldn't have been so traumatized by the texture of the "sausage".

The actual flavor of the sausage wasn't too bad. If I remember correctly it was cumin-y, fennel-y and garlic-y... The taste was very rich and intense. I put a little bit on a piece of bread and it was FAR more palatable that way. Eating the mushy, livery, wet substance by the forkful was NOT the business... at least not for me.

I didn't eat too much of the sausage. As I was eating it, I could feel my stomach turning.... and the churning didn't stop for the rest of the night. I'm not sure if I would try blood pudding/sausae again, but I'm glad I was able to mark something else off of my "new foods" list and didn't suffer too much for it.

23 days in…

23 days into my “no eating out” for a month goal and I’m still going strong!!

To achieve the 90% completion criteria, I can slip up on 3 of the 30 days. I’m doing really really well so far! Today is day 23 and I’ve only slipped up 2 times. The first mess up was last weekend. It was a pretty hectic Saturday. I had to drop Puggie off at his new foster home at 9:30, get my hair done at 10:30 and then I decided to get a mani/pedi after my hair appointment. I was starving and didn’t pack a lunch so I stopped off at a local spot and got a curried chicken sandwich. Weekends are the hardest part of this goal because you either have to schedule yourself to come home in the middle of the day or carry your lunch with you… The other slip-up was last week. I forgot to pack my breakfast so I got really hungry at like 11:30 and had to eat a super early lunch…. Which then caused me to get really hungry again at like 3:00… so I picked up a cup of soup. If I had packed my breakfast AND lunch and I was still hungry then the cup of soup wouldn’t have counted… but the reason I had to get the soup was because I didn’t pack my breakfast… so I’ll count that as a strike. :-p

Honestly it hasn’t been too too difficult for the month. The worst days are the weekends you kind of have to be tied to your house, or carry food with you. The meal that I’ve found most challenging overall has been breakfast… I’ve been doing a lot of random breakfasts… essentially just eating whatever is available in my fridge. This morning I ate roasted tomato, feta and shrimp for breakfast… Random. I’ve been making a lot of homemade pizzas, so there have been numerous days where my breakfast was left over frozen pizza. Breakfast is hard… I don’t love cereal. I don’t really want to start doing the whole carb thing (bagels, toast, etc). Smoothies create a lot of dirty dishes and aren’t that filling, and I don’t really give myself enough time to cook a proper breakfast in the morning, so I’m kind of at a loss.

Anyone have any good suggestions for easy breakfast suggestions?

7 days to go! I think I will break my eating out fast with a delicious burger and some tater tots from Trailer Park…. Who’s down?
N :-)

Eight-hundred eighty-four thousand, one hundred sixty miiiiinutes!

How do you measure the goals of a yeeeeaaar!!! (and 23 days)

So if you haven’t figured it out yet… you were supposed to be singing the above to the tune of that song from the musical Rent… you know the one that EVERY single show choir did back in 1997.. heh heh…

ANYWAY! (ugh! show choir humor is lost on you all)

I am 614 days (1 month and 23 days) into my 1001 day goal achieving odyssey. So far it has been going moderately well…. It may not look like it from the scant number of crossed off goals to the right, but damnit I feel like I’m achieving something! And that’s what counts, right? I’ve been going at this for a year and I wanted to share my top 5 suggestions/lessons learned for anybody out there that may want to start a little goal setting/achieving of your own.

1. Limit the number of goals that are based on multiple parts or time durations!
I have many of these goals (taking a picture every day for 6 months, don't eat out for a month, don't drink for 60 days, etc). While these are great goals for helping to create good habits, they are really difficult and are potentially discouraging as a slip up on ONE day causes you to fail the entire goal for that go around.
2. Take a close look at your finances before planning your goals
I have a few fairly pricey goals…. Hot air balloon rides, trips out of the country, quarterly trips out of state, wine classes, cooking classes, buying pianos and horses…. Ok not horses, but you get the idea. While they all sound good, realistically it may be difficult to do all these things.
3. Get organized!
It really takes a good deal of organization to try and achieve a set of goals. Planning at the beginning of each month exactly which goals you’d like to achieve within that month will help keep you on track. I hope to start getting much better at this in the remaining 387 days!
4. Doing it together, makes it mo better!
This is something I haven’t really been that great at, but I want to start really doing in earnest from this point on. Doing things alone isn’t fun. Some goals (like doing your dishes every night for 2 months) don’t lend well to group participation, but many other goals (hot air balloon rides, cooking classes, classes at babeland) are definitely things that other people would be excited about. If you pick a particular person you’d like to do a goal with and let that person know ahead of time, you can use their excitement to motivate you to get it done.
5. Cut yourself some slack.
If the process is creating more stress and anxiety then you’re doing something wrong. Goal setting is about self improvement, creating good habits, and hopefully becoming a better and more fulfilled person... not a stressed and dejected one. Don't beat yourself up if you fail on a goal. Just pick yourself up and try it again...

That being said… There are a few things that I personally would like to re-evaluate moving forward specifically in regards to the time/date related goals. They stress me out. The purpose of all of those goals was to create good habits for myself… so I asked myself… does slipping up on 1 or 2 days mean that you failed on the purpose of the goal? Of is it more important that you learn how to pick yourself up if you miss a day and continue? While I see the merits of the former in the spirit of the goal setting goals standard... in many ways my real live will never live up to the gold standard and I am not going to kill myself trying. It's more important to me that I learn how to pick myself up when I fail... because I fail a lot. :-p

So from this point on, I’m setting a 90% completion criteria on my long term goals. the 90% completion refers to the number of days, not actually the number of units of goals (lol I'm such a dork). I've listed the goals effected by this and their new completion criteria below.

Goal	Original	90%	# I can miss
5.) Take 1 picture every day for 6 months	180	162	18
28.) Meditate every day for 1 month	30	27	3
32.) Get up at 5:30 am every day for 3 weeks	21	19	2
39.) Be on time or early for everything for a month	30	27	3
40.) Don’t drink alcohol for 60 days	60	54	6
47.) Take multivitamins every day for 3 months	90	81	9
48.) Take medication every day for 3 months	90	81	9
50.) Drink 1.5 liters of water per day for 2 months	60	54	6
77.) Set a budget and stick to it for 2 months	60	54	6
78.) Don't eat out for 1 month	30	27	3
84.) Use the foot thing in the shower every day for 2 month	60	54	6
35.) Go to bed with all clothing hung and no clothing on bed, floor, etc for 45 days	45	41	5
87.) Leave no dishes in the sink overnight for 1 month	30	27	3
88.) Make bed every day for 1 month	30	27	3

Honestly I'm looking forward to working on these goals SO much more now that the pressure has been lessened slightly.

That's all for now... Day 615 here I come!

Ah-shegonya- mamabishima-ma!!! (translated: my evening at the Lion King! Goal 16)

Another (part of a) goal down and a WONDERFUL evening was spent a few weeks ago when my parents and I had a chance to check out The Lion King on Broadway. I wasn't really expecting much... I always thought of the Lion King as kind of a kiddie show or a touristy show, but it was fabulous! The music was amazing, and the acting was superb.

One of the things I really appreciated about the show was it's treatment of African inspired dancing and song. The style of dance was authentic and absolutely beautiful. It was obvious that it was choreographed by African Dancers... not jazz/theater choreographers who'd watched a couple Ailey shows.... The last musical I saw on Broadway was The Color Purple and I was extremely saddened/disgusted by their "back to Africa" scene. The half nekked actors were jumping around with Michelin man, multi-colored tire looking things on their legs and spinning around throwing their necks back and flailing their arms while saying "Oooga Booga". (I SWEAR they were speaking some random gibberish.) I was thoroughly disgusted by the lack of respect that the choreographers had for African dance, so you can only imagine my pleasure when I saw the beautifully choreographed, and precise dance in the Lion King.

In addition to the dance, the visuals were astonishing. I won't spoil too much, but the entrance of the "animals" is really astounding. The actors completly turned into the animals they were portraying, their movements so perfectly mimicking the slink of the puma or the skip of the gazelle that sometimes I could actually fool myself into thinking I was watching animals on the stage. It was so beautiful I actually found myself tearing up a few times. Here are a few pics I found online to whet your appetite...

My favorite character in the play was the woman that played the "juju woman" (as my mom would say) was PHENOMENAL. I believe she's South African, so that may have helped her out a little bit, but she played the part of an older African woman to a tee. It tickled me, and my mom, to no end.

Also I found out that my cousin is in the show. He plays Bandzai (spelling?) one of the 3 hyenas. He was phenomenal as well.

All in all I had a really great experience at the Lion King and it's without a doubt something I will keep in mind if I have tourists coming in from out of town, or when my nephew gets older and comes to town.

Here are a few pics I snapped...

A huge replica of the wooden mask used in the play to represent Mufasa's spirit

Mom my and I with the tickets to the show... I was really excited!

My mom and dad enjoying some pre-show fun in Times Square.

Update on my 101 Goals.... (April/May/June/July Update!)

So... it's been a minute since I've updated y'all on the progress of my 101 goals . I've been getting away from blogging about my goals... because there were obviously more important things to talk about... like Michelle Obama's plastic belt and John B's wife's twists! But I'm back! And here has been what's going on in the past few months..

For those of you who are new to my 101 goals list, back in September I started a project where I wanted to complete 101 goals in the next 1001 days. The goals have to do partly with self improvement and are partly just fun thins that I want to do, or things that I've been putting off. I'm hoping to save $10 for each completed goal... and I'm going to do something fun with all the money I save... Not sure what yet. All of my previous goals posts are labeled as "101 things". I'm going to try and update more consistently with the goals because they really were the impetus of my blogging.

Anywhoo... here's what I've been up to!

Finished Goals!
I’ve finished 7 out of 101 goals…. (Geez… that’s not that great, eh? LOL) and 2 were completed within the last 3 months

Motivate someone else to do their own 101 List- My girl Dawn informed me that her brother had created his 101 goals list and had already completed at least a few goals! Yay Dawn's Bro!.

Buy a digital piano (casio privia or Yamaha YPG)- I bit the bullet and bought myself a absolutely beautiful digital piano that i LOVE back in July. I've been off and on with the practicing... the summer hasn't been great for me, but I'm dedicated to utilizing my investment better come fall!

Goals in Progress
4.) Acquire >2 songs per month for 6 months (4/6)- August would be month #5 of this goal (although May was a bit sketchy... heh heh... ). The whole purpose of this goal was to ensure that I add new music to my collection AND to blog about it... I've been adding, but not sharing my thoughts with you all... That will hopefully change in August.. Here's what I've been downloading so far:
-April- Theophilus London (This Charming Mixtape) and Kid Cudi- Day and Night
-May- Gordon Gartrell Radio, Black Eyed Peas (Boom Boom Pow)
-June- The entire Jazmine Sullivan Album
-July- The entire Essential Michael Jackson Album

10.) Make 100 new recipes (28/100)- Moving along nicely with this goal, me thinks... I think the last recipes I posted on (in reference to my 101 goals) were my Ethiopian recipes with Curtis (recipes 15-17). Since then... I've made...

* Pasta with peas
* Barley Risotto (Clean Eating Mag)
* Tangine of Chicken and Peas (Serious Eats NY)
* Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies (All recipes)
* Lemon chicken with Parsley and Mint (Epicurious)
* Tangy Spicy Chicken Thighs (TheKitchn)
* Grilled pork with cherry chutney (Epicurious)
* Plum upside down cake (Simply Recipes)
* Soy-Ginger baked tilapia (Epicurious)
* Split pea soup with Chorizo (Epicurious)
* Orecchiette with Broccoli, Anchovies and Chilis (Serious Eats)

20.) Watch all the movies that have won Best Picture since I’ve been alive. (16/25)- I'm at 16 of 25... Some of which I saw before I started this and 3 of which I've seen since: Platoon, Out of Africa, and Lord of the Rings. I blogged about the first 2... hopefully I'll find something intelligent to say about the remaining 9 :-)

34.) Blog on my 101 90% of the days (112/901): Between my 2 blogs (now just one) I officially have 112 blog entries… Long ways to go my friends....


37.) Visit 10 museum/art exhibits or lectures (1/10): I visited the Museum of Sex with my Brother and Sister in Law during their visit to NYC.... and yes, MoSex counts damnit!

44.) Take 1 weekend trip per quarter (3/8)- Not doing too shabby on this one... maybe not purposefully, but still it's gettin done! I have to figure out how I'm going to make up Q1...
- Q1 (Sept/Oct/Nov 2008)- No Trips:
- Q2 (Dec 2008/Jan/Feb 2009) - Cincinatti Christmas
- Q3 (March/April/May 2009) - Birthday Trip to M.I.A
- Q4 (June/July/August) - DC trip to visit Cyn

13.) Try 50 foods or types of cuisine I haven't tried (8/50)- I don't think I've tried any new foods in the past few months.... really need to remedy this.

Stuff to start very soon....
31.) Read 6 non-fiction books (0/6)... Really I need to get one this. LOL
5.) Take 1 picture every day for 6 months (0/180) - Hoping to start on August 15, 2009
66.) Have conversations/meetings with people at the DOH not working in HIV (0/3)
71.) Make a business plan for my personal chef business- Been slacking, but not for long...
74.) Save $15,000 for emergency fund- Not too far off....
75.) Start retirement planning/Open retirement account- Just need to do it...
76.) Put $5 in savings for each completed task and $10 for every uncompleted one. -Also just need to do it... LOL it's only $35 dollars so far. LOL

Weekend fun in DC

This quarter's weekend getaway (goal #44) was a trip to DC to visit my girlfriend Cynthia. Cynthia is a huge deal. She has her own fabulous blog, Hungry Sista, is a writer for Essence Magazine and is currently a press correspondent for the White House (yeah... Prez Obama, Michelle and them... fabulous). I traveled to DC with my girlfriend Alex (who is also a huge deal!) on one of those commuter bus lines that travels between DC and New York. I was NOT pleased with taking the bus (we were originally going to drive Alex's car), but it turned out not being as I anticipated. for $50 (round trip) we rode in a fairly comfortable, air conditioned bus with free wi-fi and watched a movie (Paul Blart, Mall Cop.... which was surprisingly funny and touching... I shed a little tear at the end... and I'm not ashamed...) Alex introduced me to TastyKake donuts at our rest-stop break... She says they are a Philly treat.... can't say they were too shabby. Def better than Entemann's powdered donuts.

After 5 long hours on the train, we finally arrived in Dupont Circle, got our luggage and decided to get a cocktail while we waiting for Cynthia. Alex and I both had John Daily's at a cute little place called Bread and Brew. John Daily's are one of my new favorite summer cocktails. I was introduced to them the week before at Delysha's wedding. It is a mix of sweet tea vodka and lemonade. You can't even taste the alcohol.... not that this seasoned gin and tonic gal minds the taste of alcohol, but it got the stamp of approval from lightweight Alex.

Cynthia showed up and we trekked over to her spot. We had plans that evening to meet up with Alex's friend for dinner so Alex decided to jump in the shower to make sure she was all fresh and clean (apparently Cynthia and I weren't too concerend :-p)... after a slight towel... "situation" and some back and forth about outfit selection, we were off to dinner at this awesome placed called Oya for dinner. It was fantastic. I had these BBQ sticky ribs that were AMAZING (but messy) and this great cocktail called a Fuji Island... which was a mixture of Soju, cucumber and black pepper. Sounds odd.... tasted fabulous.



Being the old broads that we were, we went home after dinner and, after a slight sheet... "situation" we promptly fell asleep. Saturday we spent the day wandering around in Georgetown, shopping it up and eating pizza and Ben and Jerrys. I "motivated" (read: forced) the girls to walk home instead of taking the bus... about a 45 min walk, mostly uphill (Hey we gotta work off that Ben and Jerrys) so by the time we got home we were beat, and I promptly fell asleep. It was 7:00. After making fun of me for falling asleep, Cynthia and Alex both decided to nap too... We woke up around 10:00 to pouring rain and decided we were too lazy to go out and just sat around chatting and watching TV.

Sunday we woke up bright and early, had a lovely brunch and then took an extremely anti-climactic tour of the National Cathedral. Church service was going on at the time, so maybe that is why we only got to see like 1.5 rooms?... but I"m not so sure. Beautiful cathedral though... from the outside :-p















We bid adieu to Cynthia, boarded the bus and were on our way back to NYC. I had a great time in DC and really can't wait to visit again :-)

Friday Night Ethiopian Extravagana (Recipes 15-17)

So my guy Curtis and I had an Ethiopian food night on Friday. We had decided about a week ago that we wanted to get together and cook something new, and we settled upon Ethiopian food because neither of us had ever attempted that at home and there were tons of vegetarian options for Curtis and meat options for me.




The Menu: Since neither of us had had Ethiopian food for a while, I found a few menus online for Ethiopian restaurants and Curtis picked 2 veggie dishes (Atakilt Wot and Shiro) and I picked 1 beef dish (Tibs Wot) since I had beef in the freezer that needed to be used. In addition to the dishes we, of course, had to have some Injera and I made a little cocktail for us as well.

Ingredients of interest: Ethiopians use a LOT of spices in their cooking. The only spice that neither of us had ever cooked with was Fenugreek seed. Fenugreek seed seemed to provide an essential flavor to 2 of the staple components of Ethiopian cooking, Niter kibbeh and berbere (more about those later). Fenugreek is native to India and is often used in Indian, Mediterranean and Northern African cooking. By itself fenugreek has a slightly bitter taste. Incidentally I had become familiar with fenugreek a few years earlier when I ordered a "grow your boobs big" kit online. It came with a bunch of herbs and berries that were supposed to make your boobs bigger. One of them was fenugreek! I believe you were supposed to make tea out of the seeds AND use a lotion on your boobies that was infused with fenugreek. Obviously this didn't work out for me, but now that I have stock of seeds I may give it another shot... Anyway moving on...

The Process... So before Curtis came over I decided to make 2 elements of the meal, the niter kibbeh and the Tef. Niter kibbeh is a clarified butter that is infused with ginger, garlic and a ton of other spices. To make the niter kibbeh I just melted a 1/2 pound of butter with a couple slices of fresh ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, cardamon pods, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric and fenugreek, let it simmer for an hour and then strained out the solids. It smelled AMAZING! The smell was very warm and "comforting" (for lack of a better word) from the cloves, ginger and cinnamon, with a certain spiciness from the fenugreek and tumeric. it smelled SOOo good... i wish this blog had smell'o'vision so I could share it.

Tej is a sweet wine that is made from fermented honey and the leaves and twigs from a special kind of hops called gesho. Obviously i wasn't going to be fermenting honey in Bed Stuy so I decided to go with this rough approximation of tej that was basically honey, water and wine. It was tasty... I'm sure it didn't taste ANYTHING like real tej, but it was sweet, refreshing and got the job done. I think I'm going to try and get some real tej sometime soon then just so I can try it.



Curtis came through around 7:30 and we quickly got started on the berbere. The berbere, along with the niter kibbeh, seemed to be the most important, quintessentially Ethiopian, elements of the meal. Berbere is a hot pepper baste (or dry powder) that is made from a TON of spices (cumin, cardamom, allspice, cloves, turmeric, nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, etc etc). Curtis and I had most of the spices on hand in ground form, but we decided to be authentic as possible and purchase the whole form of each spice, and toast and grind it into powder ourselves. The berbere was really easy to make.. we just toasted the spices until they became fragrant, ground them up in my coffee grinder, and then threw them in the blender with some onion, garlic, ginger, oil and water. So easy and so tasty! I can't really describe the taste of the berbere itself it was similar to Indian curry but sharper... not quite as muddled. Ours wasn't that hot, but i don't think I got the right kind of peppers for it. I have about a cup of berbere left over and I'm definitely going to keep it on hand. It would make a fabulous marinate for fish or chicken, or just an additive to stews for an extra kick of flavor. Yumm....

The actual dishes were probably the least excite portions of the meal to make. To prepare Tibs Wat (Beef stew) you cook up some pureed ginger, onion and garlic in hot niter kibbeh, add some paprika and berbere paste, red wine, beef stock, cayenne and beef chunks marinated in lemon and salt and let it cook for about 40 min. Nothing terribly exciting but this mess was hella tasty. I was very concerned because I tasted the mixture after the addition of the paprika and berbere and it was REALLY disgusting. If it weren't for Curtis calming me down I might have chucked it... it was that nasty, but obviously the addition of the wine, stock and beef created some sort of culinary magic because in the end it was fantastic... spicy, complex, creamy, and a tad bitter.

Curtis took the lead on preparing the veggie dishes but they also didn't seem that difficult to make. The atkilt wot was basically a bunch of cut up veggies (carrots, green beens, cabbage) and potato cut up, COVERED in niter kibbeh and baked until tender, buttery and delicious... and it was.. Seriously that niter kibbeh is no joke because those veggies were excellent. The taste was much milder than the tibs wot, but i liked it because it allowed you to really taste the complexities of the niter kibbeh. Also the flavor wasn't so overpowering that it couldn't be combined with other types of cuisine. I would totally make this as a side dish to go along with baked chicken and brown rice... I think a lot of people would enjoy their veggies prepared this way. Not particularly healthy (veggies doused in spiced butter) but definitely delicious.

Lastly Curtis made the Shiro Wot which was spicy green pea stew. As written the Shiro Wot was simply peas, onion, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. The flavor was obviously really mild and not particularly Ethiopian... I think I dropped the ball on this recipe. I should have looked for a better one. I think niter kibbeh should have been subbed for the oil and there should have been some berbere in there. We ended up adding a few tablespoons of berbere at the end and it really kicked up the dish.

Lastly we tried our hand at injera... injera is a spongy, sour, crepe-like flat bread that is used as a utensil for eating the stews. Proper injera is made from teff (a cereal grain indigenous to Ethiopia) flour mixed with water and allowed to ferment for several days. Because of the fermentation, injera is very sour. After fermentation the injera is baked into large flat pancakes. Soo... we decided on our Ethiopian theme late Wednesday and I didn't figure out how to make injera until Thursday so obviously the fermentation was out. Instead we decided to make this "quick injera" recipe that I saw online which was basically a batter made from whole wheat and white flour, baking powder, club soda and a little lemon joice. This was not injera. These were very bland pancakes. They definitely LOOKED like injera and were spongy like injera... but they tasted like very bland pancakes. Thankfully neither of us really like injera so we were pleased with our pancakes.

Overall I give the meal a solid A and the company an A+. Although we didn't actually eat until 11:00 we had a great time cooking and chatting and it was just really nice to be able to share an activity that I like so much with someone who enjoys it just as much as I do. By the end of the night i was EX.HAUSTED but the learning and company was totally worth the effort. Hopefully we can make this a monthly or bi-monthly activity. Here are a few shots of our finished products:
My Plate...


Curtis' Plate...


The table:


I think I'm going to use my leftover berbere to make some doro wat next weekend or later on this month and try to make a proper injera. If anyone interested in coming over for dinner just let me know. :-)

N

2 More Best Picture Movites- Platoon and Out of Africa

I watched 2 more movies on my "picture of the year list". I watched both of these last Saturday during my failed DIY kinky twist experiment... Even though I wasted 3-4 hours last weekend trying and failing to put in my twist extensions, the day wasn't a complete loss because i got to see 2 really good movies!

The first movie I watched was Platoon. I didn't think I would really like this movie, since I'm not that into war movies but it turned out to be a pretty decent flick. The movie centered around the lives of 13 soldiers and specifically 1 new soldier who had volunteered to go to Vietnam (he was a wealthy, white guy who dropped out of college) in an effort to personally recify the injustice of only the poor having to go to war (something the other "poor" soldiers thought was really idiotic). The movie kind of followed his change from a shared shitless newbie to a "real" soldier and showed his struggle to not let the atrocities that he saw committed in Vietnam turn him into a monster as well.

The movie was violent, but not in a gratuitous way, and had that late '70s, grimy, M.A.S.H type visual effect... like the movies i used to watch on Sunday afternoons on FOX growing up. Overall I really enjoyed the movie To me, the main theme of the movie seemed to be the struggle not to let Vietnam eat the soldiers alive... Stress, fatigue, disease, often leads soldiers to do things that they wouldn't normally do (rape, kill innocents, pillage villages) and it seemed like there was a real struggle within all of the characters around what Vietnam was making them become. There were 13 or so "supporting" characters and I really appreciated the fact that each of the 13 had their own personality with depth... it wasn't just like, "this is the evil guy ann this is the good guy..." they each had their own struggle, which Oliver Stone was able to get across quite skillfully despite the fact that no one had that many lines. Also it was also just kind of cool to see all of the young actors, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, The guy from Scrubs, Willem Defou, Forrest Whitaker, the bad guy trying to take over Ice Cube's shop in Barbershop... Good times all around. I don't know if I'd watch the movie again, but i give it a solid B.

The second film I watched was Out of Africa. I was NOT excited about watching this... from the previews it seemed like it was going to be one of those beautiful, sweeping, but mind-numbingly boring pics... like the English Patient. Also the movie is about colonial Kenya and the main characters were all rich white people.... I was not excited about this movie. But it turned out to be REALLY great! The main character, played by Meryl Streep, was an "aging" (probably late 20's... but I guess that's old for a single woman in the early 1900s) single woman with family money who married her best friend, a poor Baron, in exchange for a title and had to relocate to Kenya to be with her new husband.

When she arrived at her new place it was made pretty clear to her that her marriage wasn't real and her new husband wasn't really going to be around much and of course at first she was put off by all the black faces she saw. She didn't trust anyone... she looked at all the natives like they were dirty and were going to steal her stuff...( needless to say I was getting annoyed at this point.) With no friends or family in the remote area where she lived, the Baroness decided to throw all of her energy into making sure her farm prospered and creating actual relationships with the people who worked on the farm and lived in the neighboring villages. During this time she met and fell in love with a man, played by Robert Redford, who seemed to be sort of a wandering/jack of all trades type... but with money. LOL He was sexy and funny and they had a true connection and fell in love.. aWWW but he was also a man and didn't want to be "controlled" by calling it a relationship or actually getting married.

Anywhoo I'm not going to recap the entire story, but all in all the Baroness grew to really care about her "native" neighbors and friends... not in an annoying, paternalistic type of way, but a real, honest affection for who they were and respect for their ways and culture. Through her relationship with Robert Redford's character (who was RIDICULOUSLY hot in this movie...) she discovered herself, her own self worth. SUCH a great movie! The end was heartbreaking... I was sitting in my apartment crying like a fool. I won't spoil it, but it's definitely worth checking out. I would watch it again in a heartbeat, so i give Out of Africa a solid A.

Pasta in Almond Garlic Sauce (recipe #15)

I made a pretty tasty new dish last night- Penne pasta in Almond Garlic sauce. I came across this recipe last week on one of the blogs that I follow and it seemed pretty interesting. It's basically a pasta with a white sauce made of pureed almond, garlic, butter, Parmesan cheese, and lemon, mixed with frozen peas and topped with mint and basil. The idea of pureeing almonds into a pasta sauce was intruiging, and I had basically all the ingredients on hand (except for the mint and Parm) so I figured I'd give it a shot.

According to the recipe, this entire meal (including prep, etc) was only supposed to take 20 min and wonder of wonders, it actually did! This was a super easy meal. There was virtually no prep work. No onions or garlic to chop, no peas to de-shell... Pretty much the only prep type work you had to do was blanch the almonds... but then again you could buy almonds already blanched.



For those of you who aren't cookers, blanching is basically dipping a food into boiling water briefly. Vegetables (asparagus, snowpeas, etc) are often blanced to bring out their color and then placed in ice water. You can also blanch tomatoes to easily remove the skin... but I digress. I generally think of blanching as ONLY dipping the food into hot water, but apparently "blanching" an almond is dipping it into hot water and then removing the skin from each almond. I found this out by mistake... I don't think I've ever blanched almonds, so when they came out of the water and the skin was all bubbly I just figured that's what they were supposed to look like. I was about to throw the almonds in the blender when I saw that the skin was peeling off of a few of them and I realized "OOOOOH maybe I'm supposed to take this skin off so it's not all chunky and stuff in the sauce!" I'm smart :-p So I peeled all the almonds... which was kind of fun.. If you grasp them with your thumb and forefinger at the pointy end, the white inside will kind of shoot out of the skin like a little nut missle... This was great fun for me... because I'm a dork. It was great fun for Leroy as well because he got to eat a few wayward missles.

After I finished with the almonds I threw them in the blender with a little water and a couple cloves of garlic. Next you heat a little butter and olive oil in a pan and add the almond-garlic mixture. The garlic almond mixture will begin to thicken after a few minutes...
It will go from this ---- > To this --- >

After the mixture thickens you add a little bit of the water that you cooked the pasta in. The starchy water will help the mixture thicken. Then you throw in the cheese, peas and lemon juice and lastly you add the basil and mint. When I opened up the basil I had in my fridge I realized it had gone all funky, so I had to use dried basil instead of fresh. Other than that (and not using as much butter) I pretty much followed the recipe. This is what my version looked like!

Overall it was pretty darn good. It wasnt' particularly nutty... the almond taste was really mild. I LOVED the peas and mint combination. Apparently that is a very "spring" combo... according to my boss :-p And honestly even though I didn't necessarily know those 2 were like quintisential "spring" ingredients, when I tasted it, I thought "This tastes like spring..." As written I think I give the dish a solid B+. If I were to make it again, I would obviously use fresh basil. I would also think about using a sharper cheese? I'm not sure if straight Parmesan is sharper than Parmesan-Reggiano, or if there a sharper hard Italian cheese I could sub? I would also probably add far more lemon juice, and more garlic.

Anyway, my Penne with Almond Garlic sauce was QUITE tasty. Please let me know how it turns out if any of you make it.

The food of the Garifuna... (new foods 9-10)

So this weekend my homegirl Tania invited me to a wonderful Garifuna cultural affair in the Bronx. Tania is Garifuna and she was born in Honduras. Just a little history on the Garifuna, the Garifuna are mixed race people who are descendants of Carib, Arawak and African peoples. The Garifuna generally live in Central America along the Caribbean Coast of Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua. I kind of thought that the Garifuna were like Black Hondurans.... I'm not sure that's 100% accurate, but the folks at the festival were definitely of African descent and the food was delicious and had definite African inspirations.

Given that it was Tania and I at this affair, obviously the first thing that we did was take a shot. Guifiti is a traditional Garifuna spirit made from rum infused with herbs, nuts and berries. Apparently alcohol was not allowed at this function because after we paid for our shots (actually a scary drunk man paid for them.... but that's another story) we were covertly handed 2 little cups and a half empty bottle of rum and had to pour the shots ourselves under the table while trying to disentangle ourselves (physically and socially) from the scary drunk guy... Anywhoo I have no idea what the rum was infused with, but it was strong and it was tasty. It had a bit of an anise taste to me... a little licorice-y. The guifiti went down fairly smooth, but I think I would like to mix it with something or at least have a chaser next time.

Machuca- The next thing we ate was this DELICIOUS coconut based seafood soup that you eat with a mash of green plantains called Machuca. We actually got to the Machuca right when they ran out, but Tania told her friend, who was making the food, that she wanted to introduce me to the Garifuna culture and I NEEDED to taste the Machuca so she scraped a bit more soup and plantain out for me. And I'm glad she did because it was tasty... coconutty, but not in a heavy way and had notes of cilantro and lime in it. There was only a bit of seafood in my portion, but the broth was nicely infused with seafood flavor. The plantain mash was actually pretty tasty. I'm not usually a fan of starchy mashes (fufu, etc), but the mash actually had a flavor of it's own...

Next on the list was also one of my favorites, Baleada. Baleada is popular street food in Honduras... it's basically a thick, homemade tortilla filled with refried beans and a slightly sweet cream. It sounds like it would be a bit odd, but it was really tasty. The cream tasted a bit like cream cheese or sour cream but it was a bit sweet. The refried beans were just refried beans, but together it worked. Yummm...

After the Baleada we got a couple cups of hot Atole. Atole is porridge like drink made with corn, coconut (or Carnation evaporated milk I was told... Do any people of African descent NOT love the Carnation?!?), hominy, and spices... i think i tasted nutmeg and maybe cinnamon. It was VERY sweet and heavy. I initially though that it was a soup because, despite the fact it was served in a cup, they gave us spoons, but apparently Atole is actually a drink. It was tasty, but it was so rich I could only have a couple spoonfulls.

Next on our gastronomic tour of Honduras we had some Tamales... They were very much like traditional Mexican tamales... chick wrapped in cornmeal and steamed in leaves. They were tasty, but not my fav.

Tania and I took a few sweets to go. One was a sweet called semitas that looks like a very large, puffy sugar cookie with a braided ring of dough surrounding it. The Semitas (I'm not sure if that's singular or plural :-/) were tasty... They pretty much tasted like sugar cookies... with some nutmeg. Blacks all over the diaspora love them some nutmeg... almost as much as they love the Carnation...

The last thing i tasted was the Garifuna Yucca Bread. It is pretty much what it sounds, like... "bread" made of mashed yucca. It was quite interesting... They cut it off of a big tray, and when I saw it on the tray, I kind of thought it was flan, or something similar... The inside of the bread had that kind of flan-like firm mush look. Upon tasting it, the texture was a little like flan, but much denser and chewier... i can't think of much to compare it with, but it kind of had the consistency of fufu... if you for some reason decided to chew your fufu. It was chewy, firm and kind of elastic. The texture was interesting, but definitely not unappealing. The bread tasted pretty good... it was very sweet and moist and tasted of.... you guessed it! Brown sugar and nutmeg... heh heh... yum..

All in all I really enjoyed my taste of Garifuna! I am going to count it as 2 new foods given the Machuca, Guifiti, Tamales and Semitas were not totally foreign to me. I think I am going to try and make machuca this month... it was really tasty. So look out for that :-p

Peace!

Recipe #14- Barley Risotto with Asparagus and Peas

I tried one of the recipes from this month's issue of Clean Eating this past week. It was a take on risotto, but instead of using a short grain, sticky rice like Arborio, you use barley. I was intrigued when I first saw the recipe, not only because the picture was so beautiful, but also because I'm always looking to introduce grains in interesting ways into my cooking.

So why try the risotto with barley as opposed to just using the rice (What's wrong with Rice? Right Janet :-p) Well when compared to white rice, barley has almost half the calories (193 v. 242 calories per cup) and fewer grams of total carbs (53 v. 44), but I think the biggest difference between rice and barley is the fiber content. While white rice has a whopping 53 grams of carbs, it only has .6 grams of fiber. Barley, on the other hand, is lower in carbs, but MUCH higher in dietary fiber with 6 grams per serving! Barley even tops brown rice when it comes to calories, carbs and fiber. Anyway...we all need to up our fiber content, and barley risotto sounded WAY better than a glass of Metamucil...

The recipe was pretty simple. You basically saute up some shallots and scallions in olive oil, add the barley and some chicken broth. Let that cook. Add the cut up asparagus and peas, and then stir in fresh basil, parsley and lemon zest.

Overall I REALLY enjoyed my barley risotto! Initially I had planned on putting a little butter in it and maybe throwing in some white wine, but I figured I would try and make it a totally clean meal and see how it tasted. It was really good. Clean and simple, but very very tasty and that was just with the asparagus (I forgot the peas).

The thing I was most worried about was getting the creamy consistency that most risottos have. While it wasn't creamy like a typical risotto, it did have an element of creaminess to it.... I'm not really sure where the creaminess came from... maybe it was cooked in more or less liquid than normal, or maybe barley is supposed to a little creamy when cooked? Either way I was pleasantly surprised by the texture and the taste of the dish. The next time I make it I may try and up the creaminess quotient (without ruining the clean-ness of the meal) by roasting and pureeing some cauliflower to add to the broth... I'll probably also add a little coriander (which I like with asparagus), more lemon zest to brighten up the flavor, and I have to think of a different herb to add... I'm not really a fan of parsley.

Overall I give the dish a solid A

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Please

Soo..... this is my second blog. This blog is a spin off of sorts on my 101 goals in 1001 days blog. I found myself blogging about a lot of random crap on that blog... and I really want to keep it more about my 101 goals and not just place a bunch of random crap up there. One of my 101 goals was to blog 90% of the time in the next 1001 days. I honestly don't think I'll be able to have 901 things to say about 101 goals... So I'm going to combine the count over these 2 blogs.

This blog is mainly going to be about things that I find interesting, confusing, beautiful, enlightning, etc.... music, relationships, food, life, hair... I will hopefully put up some poetry and other general creativeness that I'm usually too shy to show folks.

I'm still working on the title for the blog.... The address is www.ATrainToBklyn.blogspot.com because I realize that 90% of my brillant thoughts come to me on the train.... I commute an hour and a half a day and I think the A train has the MOST interesting cast of characters of any train in the city.... Always provocking thoughts in my brain... hence the title.

So that's this blog.... It's just going to be the recepticle for my mental diarrhea. Feel free to leave comments, complaints, etc.

Love y'all!
n

My new favorite magazine

Hey Y'all... I stumbled across this GREAT magazine and I wanted to share. I've been trying to clean up my diet a bit... halfway in preparation for the bikini/stiletto fest that will be occurring in Miami for my birthday, and partly in preparation for my 20% body fat challenge.

Usually when I try and get a little leaner I go back to the tried and true methods that I learned from my co-worker, Desiree, when I worked at a gym in New Haven, CT. Desiree was an aspiring body builder, (and super creative Sponge Bob Square Pants impersonator), and she was the QUEEN of clean eating, body builder style.... Which essentially meant eating 6-8 times a day and the meals generally consisted of lots of egg whites, oatmeal, brown rice, steamed veggies, grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, and cans of tuna on lettuce. That chick, and many other ridiculously ripped folks at the gym, ate like that EVERY DAY.

I was on the body builder style clean eating plan for a month or so and... that mess WORKS. It's no joke. If you're trying to drop weight quickly, that would honestly be the way to go. I stopped because honestly I was looking a little crackish... I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror one day and though; stop the maddness. It wasn't cute. I think it was around that time some members of my family started whispering about me possibly being anorexic.... Yes y'all... that diet is no joke. LOL

Anyway while I still incorporate a bunch of things I learned from that diet/lifestyle, that particular style of "clean" eating didn't really work for me. Firstly, I need variety and excitement in my food... While it really works for some people, the "food is fuel" viewpoint that a lot of body builders take is completely at odds with my personal "food is fun" viewpoint. Secondly, the diet makes you lose weight pretty quickly, and I'm not trying to really lose weight like that... and Thirdly, eating egg whites, tuna, and grilled chicken and veggies all the time REALLY made your farts stink... and I just wasn't down with that.... heh heh was that too much information?

Anyway... I was looking online last week trying to find some resources on "clean" eating to see if there were any new foods I could add or recipes that would spice things up if I decided to try eating that way for the next few months. That's when I came across Clean Eating Magazine! Although the magazine is from the same people that make Oxygen and Muscle Fitness ( I think), it really isn't about "clean eating" in terms of what fitness fanatics eat, but it's totally dedicated to eating foods in their most natural state... meaning minimally processed, seasonal, fresh foods. The magazine also talks about healthy lifestyle (mind and body) and has a TON of recipes that actually look like they would taste good (unlike the recipes in most fitness/muscle mags).

I LOVE this magazine! It completely speaks to how I try to eat generally (small amount of processed foods, cooking with seasonal ingredients, etc) and it uses a ton of grains and other ingredients that I wouldn't necessarily think about, or know how to use, but it doesn't do it in a crunchy granola, hippy-dippy kind of way. There is this really great looking white pearl barley and asparagus risotto that I want to try this month, and I think they have some recipes with Amarath as well. I'm so excited about this mag. It's a really great resource so far. You guys should check it out. Clean Eating Magazine

N :-)

Daily Wrap up- Wednesday March 4th

Just my little update for today.... not the best of days... woke up hella late, felt like crap, didn't drink enough water... didn't eat too badly except for the white bread, and didn't work out. Um... yeah.... Next.

Status Table:

Wake up time:
Ugh I set my alarm for 6:30 this morning.... I stumbled grogily out of bed at 7:45, my head was pounding and I felt like I had been beaten with wet rags.... I guess that's what I get for hitting snooze 10 times.

Water:
Ugh... I wasn't keeping track of this today.... But I know I drank more than none because I bought a gallon of water last night before bed.

Food:
3/4 of a banana
8 oz. oatmeal from Starbucks with brown sugar and fruit
3 little pieces of coconut candy from Vietnam
Bowl of white bean and chicken Chili with Lime
Chicken, goat cheese and sundried tomato sammich on White Baugette
Couple glasses of Cranberry wine

Workout:
None

Money Spent:
$4.50 on Oatmeal and HORRIBLE, NASTY Skinny Vanilla Latte... bleh I can still taste it.

Shoulda gone to Chick Fil'a... (WTF News of the Day)

So apparently this chick, Latreasa Goodman, was REALLY upset that her neighborhood Micky D's was trying to scam her out of her paper with the old Chicken Nugget switcharoo.... She ordered a 10-piece at the drive- through window, paid for it and THEN was told that they were out of those sweet nuggets... to make matters worse, they would not refund her money. They tried to pawn a nasty McDouble on her... So homegirl took matters into her own hands and called 911, not once... not twice, but THREE times an an attempt to report the travesty that was occuring....According to Goodman, "This is an emergency. If I would have known they didn't have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don’t want one," "This is an emergency."

I feel her... I rarely eat at McDonalds, but the only thing I've gotten there in YEARS is the chicken nuggets and maybe some fries... I mean the little McDonalds window person really tied her hands in this one....They should have givenLatressa her $6.48 back straight away. That drive through chick should consider herself lucky... you really shouldn't mess with people's food... People are very unpredictable when they're hangry... it's a good thing she called 9-1-1 and didn't just go in and shoot up the employees and ransack the place looking for chicken.... 'cause you know they had some in the back or in the basement somewhere, Little Pookie and them were probably just too lazy to go down there and get it.

Oh well, Latressa was charged with misuse of 9-1-1.... hopefully she has learned her lesson and will just hit up Chick Fil'a next time.

E.T.A. HAHAHA they posted a link to the actual 911 audio on theybf.com... HAHAHA at how earnest she is in....

Daily Wrap Up- Tuesday March 3

Today went pretty well me thinks.... I almost got up on time... I actually sat up in my bed at 6:30, when the alarm went off, and thought about whether I wanted to get up.... usually I just roll over and smack my nightstand until the music/alarm goes off, or falls off the nightstand... At that point I generally fall back asleep with the music still playing ( a lot of times what's on the radio gets incorporated into my dreams... I've had some fascinating conversationss with Steve Harvey....).... and get up an hour or so later than I had planned. So... yeah, so despite the fact that I still didn't get up on time, I consider today a small victory because I THOUGHT about getting up on time! Yay!

I worked out (YAY), but I ate too much... was doing well until about 10:00 when I started snacking on avocado and wheat tortilla... I also had to douse and dump (ie pour water over and throw away) the rest of my salt water petite brownies... I was just eating WAY too many of them... All in all, not a horrible day, but I can still do better...

Status Table:

Wake up time:
Woke up at 6:40 (or 6:50... i don't remember). I hit the alarm once or twice, I was supposed to get up at 6:30.

Water:
About FOUR full glasses of water today!!! YAY!
Food:
8oz of Perfectly protein shake (post- work out)
1/2 cup Fage 2%, some honey and GoLean Crunch and a banana (breakfast)
7 mini eggs (snack)
Turkey, Munster and bacon open faced sammich and Small chicken ginger chili from Whole Foods(lunch)
Lil bit'o'Cherry Cobbler ($1.12 portion from Whole Foods... I don't think I've ever gotten ANYTHING from Whole Foods for less than $5, so that should give an indication of the amount of cobbler:-p) (lunch dessert)
1 glass cranberry wine
Bootleg Salmon wrap - Salmon, wheat wrap, lettuce, goddess dressing
5 sea salt petite brownies (dessert.... The remainder of the brownies were doused in water and thrown in the trash)
Wheat tortilla
some avocado
Swig of Bolthouse Farms

Workout:
Jillian Michael's 30 day crunch level 2
Arms: Push ups, arm curls, tricep kicks, overhead triceps
Shoulders: Shoulder set (military press, boob squeeze, front lift), Shoulder Fly

Money Spent:
$10.22- Expensive, yet quite tasty, lunch from Whole Foods