The goal was 52 recipes in 52 weeks. I actually finished this up during the holiday season with some furious baking but didn’t have the time to write it up.

Recipe #48: Peanut Butter Bon Bons

• 2 cups peanut butter
• .5 cups butter
• 1 lb. powdered sugar
• 3 cups rice krispies
• 4 cups chocolate pieces

In sauce pan, melt peanut butter and butter. In large bowl, combine powdered sugar and cereal. Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal mixture. Blend together with hands. Form into 1/2 inch balls. Chill til firm. Melt chocolate pieces. Dip the candies in the chocolate and chill til firm. Makes about 100.

This dish is a staple during Christmas in my family. Although technically I’ve made bon bons before, I messed up quite a bit during my first few tries so it’s not a guarantee that I’ll get this one right everytime.

Recipe #49: Haystacks

• 2 packages butterscotch pieces
• 1 can (3 oz) chinese noodles

Melt butterscotch pieces. Mix in noodles. Stir til well coated. Drop by teaspoon onto wax paper or aluminum foil. Chill

This dish is another staple during the holidays. It’s probably a cheat to include in the list but the first time I made it, I burned the butterscotch, so it’s not THAT easy!

Recipe #50: Sugar Cookies

This recipe is the basic one I got off of the cookie cutter I bought. I got it in my head that I wanted to make little cookies in the shape of Gingerbread Men (except I don’t like gingerbread so I decided to do sugar) but dang if I didn’t mess up royally when trying to pick up the little cutouts. They fell apart, just like all of my previous attempts with roll out dough. VERY frustrating. Something to work on, I guess.

Recipe #51: Chocolate Banana Won Tons

The last of the Weight Watchers recipes to try. This was…meh. Like so many of the WW recipes, it was missing something…like sugar and butter! It was pretty bland. I could imagine with a little something something, it would be pretty tasty.

Recipe #52: Tyler Coconut Pie

• 3 beaten eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (melted)
• 1 cup coconut
• 1/2 light cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 unbaked 8 inch pie shell

In mixing bowl, combine beaten eggs, sugar, and butter, beat well. Stir in coconut, light cream, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees till knife inserted off center comes out clean, 45 to 60 minutes.

A recipe handed down to me by my mother, this was the first time I tried it. I have to say, it kinda tasted like hers! Really, none of my recipes actually ever taste exactly as good as Mama’s but I figure if I can get it close, that’s all I can hope for.

After a year of cooking, I did learn a lot. I now have a fully stocked spice cabinet, I spent a lot of time Googling cooking terms I had never heard of, and now know incredibly useful things like how to cut a mango. My nemisis continued to be any baking that required rolling out dough-something to work on in the future. I have to say I still don’t like cooking-it’s a big bother and mostly serves to make me anxious and irritable. Plus, once I’ve seen it in raw form, I’m usually not even hungry by the time I’m finished. But I’ll continue to work on it a little, if only to save a little money from going out to eat all the time.

#8 Sell a piece of art (and realize my childhood dream, which is #28 on the 40/40 list)

#46 Scuba Diving: Continue practicing my newfound SCUBA skillz by going to the rock quarry at least once.

#52 Read the Greatest Books Ever Written (#7 on the 40/40 list): I mostly have really long ones left so out of the 10 remaining, I’m going to tackle 4 this year. As ONE of these things to read is the ENTIRE works of Shakespeare, I also want to see 2 plays performed live.

#65  Shout ‘Drinks Are on Me!’ in a Pub or Bar (#17 on the 40/40 list): I’m waiting to go my bar on a Tuesday afternoon at 3pm. I can swing buying drinks for 5 people.

#68 Save Someone’s Life (#8 on the 40/40 list): Donate 6 pints I’ve gone back and forth on this. I know they say donating blood can help save someone’s life but I guess I feel like I can’t be sure if MY blood actually saved somoene’s life. But most people seem to think this counts so let’s compromise. If I donate 5 gallons (which is 40 pints and the quickest I’d be able to accomplish that is 7 years), then can we say the likelihood of ONE of those 40 pints actually saved somebody’s life?

#84 Learn to Ski (#32 on the 40/40 list): As a hold over from the original list I had in high school, it’s high time I did something about this one.

#93.5 Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor:  I completed this goal in 2011 but I’ll have my plate unveiling this year.

Goals from my 40 Before I’m 40 List:

#1 Be Able to Do a Pull Up

#11 Learn to Rock Climb: Already have the Groupon in hand to make this happen!

#18 Watch the Top 1,001 Films: Watch 100 this year

#25 Drink All the Beers on the GQ List: Drink 20

#35 Visit all of the NC Breweries: Visit 10 this year

#36 Learn How to Ballroom Dance: Have the Groupon in hand to do this one as well! I think I’m going to try Salsa!

#37 Start Using Coupons

#38 See a Movie in a Drive-In Movie Theater: I’m putting a stipulation on this one. If they simply insist on showing family movies I’m not interested in, I’m not going to force myself to sit through some animated drivel just to check this one off. I think it would be super fantastic if they showed something like Star Wars. Could you imagine seeing that outside at a drive in movie theater? You’d really feel like you were in space!

From the Sports List:

#18 Attend a rugby game (and learn the rules): There are actually some local teams

#19 Attend a cricket game (and learn the rules): There’s actually a local league!

#24 Attend the Kentucky Derby: There is SOME talk about going this year with my good friend Jessica so hopefully this is happening this year.

Also, not officially on any lists but I’m hoping they do the “Over the Edge” event this year so that I can repel down the side of a building and I have also never been to a tea room and I want to try that out.

Think that’s enough? What’s on YOUR goals for 2012?

#1 Write a Novel:  Big FAIL on the National Novel Writing Month again. I feel like I keep coming up with excuses but seriously I just had WAY too much going on in November. I said this last year but maybe I just need to pick another month.

#11 Visit Every State:  Original goal was to go to Pennsylvania but I’m not going to complain about checking Hawaii off the list instead!

#16 Get into the Guinness World Book of Records: I haven’t donated blood all year so epic fail on that. HOWEVER…AANR didn’t try to break 2010′s Skinny Dip Record, so that still stands!

#46 Scuba Diving/#87 Conquer Your Fear:  COMPLETED! (Well, at least the SCUBA diving portion. Time will tell about whether I’ve conquered my fear of water)

#52 Read the Greatest Books Ever Written: The only one I read this year was The Master and Margarita. I spent all of my time working on the Global Challenge. But I also read Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rabbit, Run, Mildred Pierce, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the latest Sookie book. 13 books total for the year. Not my best effort but better than most, I guess!

#52.1 Shakespeare Reading Challenge: Originally I was going to attempt to actually see some plays performed but my schedule never worked out. I really haven’t put any energy into this one

#52.2 Global Reading Challenge: COMPLETED! I read Winesburg, Ohio (North America), Evil Angels (Australiasia), The Good Earth (Asia), Out of Africa (Africa), The Master and Margarita (Europe), The Road (Future) and Love in the Time in Cholera (South America).

#89 Learn to Cook:  COMPLETED! (Sorry, I haven’t posted about my last 5 recipes yet. I’ll do that in the next couple of weeks).

#93.5 Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor:  COMPLETED! Planning on hosting my plate party in 2012.

#105 Krispy Kreme Challenge: COMPLETED!  Warrior Dash: COMPLETED!

Goals from my 40 Before I’m 40 List:

#6 Start Saving for Retirement: COMPLETED!

#19 Watch AFI’s 100 Best Films: COMPLETED!

#20 Sing Karaoke: COMPLETED!

#28  Sell a piece of art (and realize my childhood dream, which is #8 on the 101 list): FAIL!

#38 See a Movie in a Drive-In Movie Theater: Anytime I thought about it and had a free weekend, they weren’t showing anything I wanted to see. Pushed off to 2012.

#39 Lose 20 Pounds: COMPLETED!

Not on the list for this year’s goals but still to be noted:

• joined the Bone Marrow Registry, so between that and donating blood, I’m working on #68 Save Someone’s Life
• visited Savannah
• saw UNC play (and win) in the NCAA tournament.
• attended a Ren Faire 
• got a star named after me, which could fulfill #94 Get Something Named After Me (I’m still holding out hope for a street or a building or something.)
• While SCUBA diving in Hawaii, I saw a Sea Turtle in the wild; that’s not on the “official” list but still cool
• went to the VA Derby where I was in the top 10 finalists for the hat competition.
• visited the Biltmore Estate.
• attended a Demolition Derby,
• finally went to Rocky Horror Picture Show
  
• got into my girly side by doing a pin-up shoot.

On the official list but not planned at the beginning of the year:

• #7: Eat Exotic Foods: I ate Haggis at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and bugs at BugFest
• #98: Go on a Demonstration: COMPLETED!
• #22: Go up in a Hot Air Balloon: COMPLETED!

So in 2011 I completed 11 of my goals, 4 of which are from the original 101 things to do before you die list, which brings the total to 38 things completely done and 13 things partially done. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And I’m thinking 2012 is going to be even better!

So how did you do with your goals for 2011?  What do you have planned for 2012?

I took four years of Spanish in High School and one more year in college but I know little more than my numbers and how to say Hola.  I’m just not of those people that learn languages easily, but it could be argued that I also need to apply myself a little bit.  I took one year of German in college, being an Art History major and German being the “language of art history” (bet you didn’t know that-see? you learn something every day!).  I actually liked German a lot more than Spanish and I picked it up more quickly.  Unfortunately that’s now almost 10 years ago and if you don’t use it, you lose it.  I can’t even remember how to count to 10, although I do remember this line: Ich studiere Kunstgeschichte (I study art history).

Miranda turned me on to this little language program, and I think I may have to do some of these courses.  Its called Steps; the aim is for you to complete a course in 12 weeks, followed by an ‘end of course’ assessment to see how well you’ve done. You’ll even get a BBC certificate! You can choose from six different courses in four languages: French Steps, Ma France, Spanish Steps, Mi Vida Loca, German Steps and Italian Steps.

I want to do this, if anything for the little certificate at the end.  (Do you think I could put it on my resume?)  Its a good way to get back into German, and now that I’m older, perhaps I could get the energy to really apply myself and learn the language.  It really isn’t a practical language around here, but if I like it, it’ll be easier to learn!

After I’ve done Steps, maybe I can use one of the lanugage courses Steve posted about on his blog. Or, even better, my local library offers a free language course through Tell Me More-check to see if your library offers this too and by just entering your library card number, you could have free access to the same language course the US Military uses.

What language courses have you tried? Which ones worked? How many bilingual people we have out there?

I had several Fullsteam beers while I was doing my 200 beer challenge and I really liked Workingman’s Lunch (which, how could you not love a beer that’s served with a Moon Pie?) but I also tried their El Toro this past weekend, a cream ale I enjoyed as well. The actual brewery is pretty cool, a renovated warehouse offering picnic tables within where patrons can bring in  from the food trucks parked outside. It looked like people also brought in board games and other things too, so the atmosphere is obviously one of just very chill, “anything goes” type mentality.

(Updated January 9, 2012)

Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company

Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company

Craggie Brewing Company

French Broad Brewing Co.

Green Man Brewery

Highland Brewing Co.

Lexington Avenue Brewery

Oyster House Brewing Co.

Wedge Brewing Company

Pisgah Brewing Co.

Nantahala Brewing Company

Carolina Brewery – Chapel Hill (DONE: Oatmeal Porter)

Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery

Four Friends Brewing

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery

Ass Clown Brewing Company

Bull City Burger and Brewery

Fullsteam (DONE: El Toro/Working Man’s Lunch)

Triangle Brewing Company

The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery

Huske Hardware House Restaurant & Brewery

Mash House Brewery & Chophouse (DONE: Raspberry Porter)

Aviator Brewing Company (DONE: Black Mamba Stout)

Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewing Co. – Greensboro

Southern Appalachian Brewery

Loe’s Brewing Company

Olde Hickory Brewery

Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery

Mystery Brewing Company

Carolina Brewing Company

Weeping Radish Farm Brewery

Outer Banks Brewing Station

Mother Earth Brewing Co.

Hops Grill Brewery

Carolina Beer Company

Catawba Valley Brewing Company

Old North State Winery and Brewery

Carolina Brewery – Pittsboro

Big Boss Brewing Co.

Boylan Bridge Brewpub (DONE: Pullman Porter)

LoneRider Brewing Co.

Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewing Co. – Raleigh

Roth Brewing Company

Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company

Dry County Brewing Company

Heinzelmannchen Brewery

Frog Level Brewing Company

Red Oak Brewery

Front Street Brewery

Foothills Brewing

I’ve now seen all the films on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Films list. Found some that I liked and some that I’ll never see again. Some I had seen through the completion of the film list from the original 101 Things to Do Before You Die list.

Below are short reviews of the remaining the seven films I watched to finish off the list and below that is the entire list for your reference, some of which have my personal opinion reflected next to the title.

Sullivan’s Travels

This is exactly what a “classic” movie should be. A cute love story with pretty lead actors, a little slapsticky comedy, a poignant message, and a happy ending.

Intolerance

It took me five times to get all the way through this epic silent film. This is the hardest I’ve ever worked to get through a film. And I’ve watched Eraserhead.

Nashville

A very long and slow and LOUD movie. It’s a Robert Altman film, so he likes the multistoryed plot. But if you stick with it long enough, all the different plot lines weave together and it slowly draws you in enough for you to want to figure out what happens with each character.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Ok, I’m not going to lie. This is a challenging film. But if you can push through it, I think you’ll be pleased. All the actors are just really so strong (they were all nominated for an Oscar with Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis winning), and considering it’s two hours of dialogue, and loud, screaming dialogue at that, they’d have to be at the top of their game. It DEMANDS an emotional response from you, whether you say you liked it or not by the end.

City Lights

Of all the Charlie Chaplin films I’ve seen, I liked this one the best. It had the sweetest story and, for whatever reason, he seemed a little less silly. The boxing scene was my favorite. The film is easy to watch and makes you smile.

King Kong

I can admit that for 1933, these special effects must have just been amazing. Because even in 2011, they weren’t THAT bad, especially given all the overdone CGI I’ve seen in some movies lately. I knew the story and had certainly seen the remakes, but I could appreciate this original’s place in film history.

Shane

This was ok. The sound was a little off so I had difficulty following what was being said. The little boy was a little annoying and so was the mother by the end. I dunno. Meh.

CITIZEN KANE-ok
THE GODFATHER-good
CASABLANCA-better the second time I saw it
RAGING BULL-ok
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN-great!
GONE WITH THE WIND-GREAT!
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA-not my cup of tea
SCHINDLER’S LIST-good
VERTIGO-good
THE WIZARD OF OZ-good
CITY LIGHTS
THE SEARCHERS-ok
STAR WARS-good
PSYCHO-great
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY-um…no
SUNSET BLVD.-great
THE GRADUATE-good
THE GENERAL-great!
ON THE WATERFRONT-ok
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE-GREAT!
CHINATOWN-ok
SOME LIKE IT HOT-GREAT!
THE GRAPES OF WRATH-ok
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL-good
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD-GREAT!
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON-GREAT!
HIGH NOON-great
ALL ABOUT EVE-good
DOUBLE INDEMNITY-good
APOCALYPSE NOW-ok
THE MALTESE FALCON-not my cup of tea
THE GODFATHER PART II-great
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST-ok
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS-good
ANNIE HALL-ok
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI-great
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES-good
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE-ok
DR. STRANGELOVE-ok
THE SOUND OF MUSIC-GREAT!
KING KONG
BONNIE AND CLYDE-GREAT!
MIDNIGHT COWBOY-good
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY-great
SHANE
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT-great
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE-great
REAR WINDOW-great
INTOLERANCE-not my cup of tea
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING-ok
WEST SIDE STORY-ok
TAXI DRIVER-good
THE DEER HUNTER-ok
M*A*S*H-ok
NORTH BY NORTHWEST-good
JAWS-good
ROCKY-good
THE GOLD RUSH-ok
NASHVILLE-ok
DUCK SOUP-not my cup of tea
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS-good
AMERICAN GRAFFITI-ok
CABARET-GREAT!
NETWORK-um…no
THE AFRICAN QUEEN-GREAT!
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK-GREAT!
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?-good
UNFORGIVEN-ok
TOOTSIE-GREAT!
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE-good
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN-great
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-My favorite movie ever!
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID-GREAT!
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS-great
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT-ok
FORREST GUMP-good
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN-ok
MODERN TIMES-ok
THE WILD BUNCH-ok
THE APARTMENT-GREAT!
SPARTACUS-good
SUNRISE-ok
TITANIC-good
EASY RIDER-GREAT!
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA-good
PLATOON-ok
12 ANGRY MEN-good
BRINGING UP BABY-good
THE SIXTH SENSE-great
SWING TIME-great
SOPHIE’S CHOICE-good
GOODFELLAS-GREAT!
THE FRENCH CONNECTION-ok
PULP FICTION-GREAT!
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW-um…no
DO THE RIGHT THING-good
BLADE RUNNER-ok
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY-ok
TOY STORY-great
BEN-HUR-ok

Technically, I’m a week late but it still works.

Here are the top banned books according to the ALA. If you’d like more information about why these books were banned, visit here. The ones I’ve read are in black; haven’t read, red (if you look at the numbers, it looks like some books have been removed).

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce (sitting in my pile “To Read”) 
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov (sitting in my pile “To Read”)
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (sitting in my pile “To Read”) 
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess (sitting in my pile “To Read”) 
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs (sitting in my pile “To Read”) 
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh (sitting in my pile “To Read”) 
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Hmmmm….only 20. Looks like I have more reading to do!

#1 Write a Novel:  Nada, yet. Big plans to do the National Novel Writing Month in November.

#11 Visit Every State:  Managed to cross Hawaii off the list.

#16 Get into the Guinness World Book of Records: I haven’t donated blood all year so epic fail on that. Plus, I bought the Record Book for last year because I thought I’d be in it for the Skinny Dip but it wasn’t included. It doesn’t mean I’m not in it, it just means the Skinny Dip record is in the BIG official books that Libraries get, not the fun little one available for simple people like me.

#46 Scuba Diving/#87 Conquer Your Fear:  COMPLETED! (Well, at least the SCUBA diving portion. Time will tell about whether I’ve conquered my fear of water)

#52 Read the Greatest Books Ever Written: I spent all summer on The Master and Margarita but I’ve mostly been working on the Global Challenge. I’ve also read Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rabbit, Run, Mildred Pierce, and the latest Sookie book. I’m really not doing very well with reading this year compared to my last few years.

#52.1 Shakespeare Reading Challenge: Originally I was going to attempt to actually see some plays performed but my scheduled never worked out. I really haven’t put any energy into this one

#52.2 Global Reading Challenge: So far I’ve read Winesburg, Ohio (North America), Evil Angels (Australiasia), The Good Earth (Asia), Out of Africa (Africa), The Master and Margarita (Europe), and The Road (Future). All that’s left is Love in the Time in Cholera (South America), which I’m currently reading.

#89 Learn to Cook:  I was working toward 52 recipes this year and I’m currently up to 47.

#93.5 Get Your Name in the Ring of Honor:  COMPLETED this one too! We’re planning the “plate party” as we speak.

#105 Krispy Kreme Challenge: COMPLETED!  Warrior Dash: COMPLETED!

Goals from my 40 Before I’m 40 List:

#6 Start Saving for Retirement: COMPLETED!

#19 Watch AFI’s 100 Best Films: I only have Shane and Intolerance left.

#20 Sing Karaoke: COMPLETED!

#28  Sell a piece of art (and realize my childhood dream, which is #8 on the 101 list): Nada, so far.

#38 See a Movie in a Drive-In Movie Theater: I’ve been making excuses on this one. Anytime I’ve been free, the Drive-In movie theater closest to us wasn’t showing something I wanted to see. Hopefully the stars will align and I’ll get both a free weekend and a good movie.

#39 Lose 20 Pounds: COMPLETED!

Not on the list for this year’s goals but I also joined the Bone Marrow Registry, so between that and donating blood, I’m working on #68 Save Someone’s Life. I visited Savannah and I saw UNC play (and win) in the NCAA tournament. We went to a Ren Faire and I also got a star named after me, which could fulfill #94 Get Something Named After Me (I’m still holding out hope for a street or a building or something.) Also, while SCUBA diving in Hawaii, I saw a Sea Turtle in the wild; that’s not on the “official” list but still cool.

We went to the VA Derby where I was in the top 10 finalists for the hat competition. I ate Haggis at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and bugs at BugFest (both part of #7 on the 101 list). I went on a demonstration (#98), Hot Air Ballooning! (#22 on the 101 list) and visited the Biltmore Estate.

So how are you doing with your goals for 2011?  Only 3 more months until 2012!

I had been eager to make my way to BugFest for the last two years and finally made it this past Saturday. My whole reason for attending was for their Cafe Insecta for the express purpose of eating bugs. Local restaurants concocted dishes that included bugs as a major ingredient and, for the most part, crickets and mealworms factored heavily as the preferred bug to use (as you can see from the menu at the bottom of the post).

For whatever reason, I thought the bugs would be all chopped up in the dishes; that I wouldn’t really see them so it wouldn’t really be that big of a deal. So imagine my surprise when I got in line and saw the first dish with HUGE whole crickets, complete with wispy antennae, that looked like they had just been plucked out of the bushes.

Oh well, just mind over matter, I figured. I got one serving of everything except the chirps and salsa because that restaurant was just setting up when I came through the line. I sat down with my plate of food and figured it was best if I didn’t really think about it. After a few photos of the food and of me posing with the food, I just started shoveling it in.

The cricket jambalaya was fine, the crickets were just crunchy. The mealworm maque choux was fine too; the worms kinda being crunchy as well. There were some deep fried cajun crickets and they were kinda tasty.

The Thai jelly was, through appearance alone, the most unsettling. Translucent jasmine jelly that very clearly had gray-brown whole worms suspended throughout was not terribly appetizing. But, trying to just power through, I scooped up a cube of the jelly and popped it in my mouth. The jasmine flavor itself wasn’t great and then as I thoughtfully chewed, I realized that the texture was probably very similar to what worm would really feel like.

Close Up of Worm Jelly

And I gagged.

Like, full-wretch, had-to-fight-back-getting-sick-in-a-very-public-place, kind of gag. I closed my eyes, quickly swallowed, and reached for a carmel apple with worms. I (correctly) figured the apple and carmel taste would be the dominate taste and I could just concentrate on something else.

Oh, what I would have given for some water right about then.

I figured after eating about 5 whole crickets, and some very juicy worms, that was sufficient as completing this thing to do as done, so I didn’t clean my plate, leaving about half of what I had been given. I snatched my Mealworm & Chocolate Chip Cookie (the worms in THAT were all chopped up and you couldn’t see it or taste it, so it was just a yummy cookie) and nibbled on that as I walked around looking at some of the exhibits. I purposely didn’t go into the Museum to see the spiders, which meant I also missed other opportunities to eat more bugs (including chocolate covered ones) but I don’t feel that was any great sacrifice.

So…I ate bugs. Do I feel a need to do it again? Nope. Am I glad I did it? Yep.

Acro Café

Cricket & Crawfish Jambalaya
Mealworm Maque Choux

Market Restaurant

Chirps and Superworm Salsa

Spize Café

Cricket Costini with Thai Peanut Cream
Lemongrass Toasted Waxworm Spring Salad

Thai Villa

Chirping Chilli Sauce
Ice Age – Thai Jelly w/ Mealworms

Whole Foods Market

Mealworm & Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mealworm & Cricket Cranberry Chocolate Bark

(Photo by Emily Scott)

I first posted about going on a demonstration back in December when I missed the chance to counter-protest the Westboro Church’s visit to Raleigh during Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral. I knew, however, that by working in downtown, another opportunity would come my way. It was important to me to not just choose any demonstration but something that I actually do support.

I had heard murmurings for a while about a possible vote to amend the North Carolina Constitution to make gay marriage illegal. There is already a law on the books that states it’s illegal but the powers that be feel that by making it an actual amendment to the constitution, it will make it difficult for a judge to overrule the law. For more info, just go here: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/10122896/

As the Senate convened to vote in the Legislative Building behind us, I made my way down to Halifax Square and joined the hundreds in attendance at the rally. As it was during my lunch hour, I only stayed for about 30 minutes of the 2 hour long event. I didn’t hold up a sign and I didn’t shout. I simply stood alongside others that feel this issue is one that should be considered with rationale and with empathy, rather than knee-jerk reactions and hate.

I’m a Christian and there were plenty of us there today. I’m a Republican and there were plenty of those too. At the end of the day, this really isn’t a “God-thing” or a “Republican v. Democrat-thing.” It’s simply a matter of human rights and whether you feel the person next to you is also deserving of all the rights entitled to a citizen of the United States.

As a general rule, I’m not very political. I don’t pay enough attention to the rhetoric and I mostly get annoyed by the talking heads shouting at one another, all clamoring and competing to be the loudest and most abrasive. If you want to debate this with me, go ahead. You’re probably not going to get much response because political discourse simply doesn’t get me going.

Today I exercised my right to assemble peacefully in the name of love and compassion. And I can’t think of a better reason in the world.