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Thing to Do #89: Learn to Cook

January 6, 2012 by Jessica 7 Comments

COMPLETED!

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.

101 Things before you die, Achievement, bucket list, Life Management
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2012

Goals for 2012

January 2, 2012 by Jessica 13 Comments

I’m pretty pleased with what I did in 2011 but that doesn’t mean I’m slowing down any! This won’t be a big year for travel or too much adventure but there are still plenty of things for me to do!

#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?

101 Things before you die, 40 Before I'm 40, Achievement, bucket list, Entertainment, Excitement, life list, Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature, Recklessness, Relationships, Sport and Activity, things before you die, Travel
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Scuba

Final Results 2011

December 30, 2011 by Jessica 12 Comments

This has been quite the year, having very little to do with the list. But despite things going on in my personal life, I still managed to get some things done on the 101 Things to Do Before You Die list. May not have been as exciting as 2010 but still managed to tick things off the list!

#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:

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?

101 Things before you die, 40 Before I'm 40, Achievement, bucket list, Entertainment, Excitement, life list, Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature, Recklessness, Relationships, Sport and Activity, things before you die, Travel
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German flag

Thing to Do #51: Learn a New Language

December 5, 2011 by Jessica 11 Comments

Living in North Carolina (really, America in general, for that matter), the language that would make the most sense to learn would be Spanish.  The states with the highest percentage increases in Hispanic population between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008 were SC and NC;  South Carolina’s increase was 7.7% and North Carolina’s was 7.4%.  (There are 16 states with at least a half-million Hispanic residents–Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington).

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?

Achievement, Life Management, Travel
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DSC_2436

Getting in Touch with My Girly Side

November 10, 2011 by Jessica 26 Comments

I always like to say that 101 Things to Do Before You Die is more than just ticking things off a list and is instead about getting outside of your comfort zone. Try something new. Do something completely different.

Some of these items may be seem pretty mundane or unimpressive but if they are things I’ve never done, then they are interesting to me. This has been true especially in the last year as it seems I’ve been doing quite a number of new things that really only girls would do.

I’ve had my nose waxed (that’s right, my nose hairs were yanked out of my nostrils in two sharp jerks). I stood naked and cold in a small closet of a room while I was carefully spray painted a slightly darker color of tan. I’ve started a monthly regimen of voluntarily allowing acids brushed onto my face, resulting in layers of my skin flaking off for days afterwards, not to mention writhing in pain from an orange stick being jabbed into my pores to extract any dirt. After the application of ice packs in an attempt to dull the pain, lasers have (and continue) to remove hair permanently from my body.

And all of these things were done in the name of beauty. Geez it hurts to be a girl.

But with all this pain comes a little fun sometimes. Although I hate having my photo taken, I bought a Groupon for a Pin-Up Workshop and Photo Shoot. The deal was they would show you how to do the make up and hairstyles of the pin up models of the 1940s and 1950s, dress you up in outfits from the era, and then do a photo shoot in pin up style poses.

I’m not a complete tomboy but I’m especially lost when it comes to makeup and hair. Pin Up style makeup called for heavy eyeliner, perfectly penciled lips, and the application of false eyelashes, all of which I have no experience with. Intimidated and afraid I’d do it incorrectly, I had one of the instructors do it for me.

We all curled our own hair but again the instructors took control of my ineptitude and styled it in an outrageous 1940s era ‘do. There were outfits and costumes they provided that we could use but I had brought along a 1950s era cone bra and matching underwear that I was excited to try. In other class photos I had seen girls dress up in similar outfits but in my class I was the only girl wearing lingerie!

I felt awkward and silly during the photo shoot and it showed in my first few photos but then I became more comfortable and a few photos actually turned out ok. On my way home, I enjoyed the stares at the gas station with my outrageous hair and over the top makeup.

So this was my fun, silly, girly thing to do. I thought it was neat and I’ve always liked the styles of this era. I thought long and hard about sharing this photo but then I figured I’ve talked about skinny dipping and the Kama Sutra. Including a photo of myself showing as much skin as you’d see on the beach isn’t that bad, I guess.

So what are your thoughts about the horrible, painful things girls subject themselves to all in the name of beauty? Are you into pin-up type hair styles and fashions too?

Entertainment, Life Management
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Thing to Do #102: Become the Official Deep Fried Ambassador of the NC State Fair

September 30, 2011 by Jessica 14 Comments

I may be biased, but the North Carolina State Fair is one of the best. I talked a little bit about the fair when I milked a cow there in 2009. Growing up it was the highlight of my Fall. Although I grew up in Johnston County, only a short 45 minute ride to Raleigh away, this was the only time each year we went into the “big city” and I was just as excited about seeing the towering buildings as I was about going to the Fair.

When I was younger, I couldn’t care less about the exhibits; all I wanted to do was ride the rides. My brother and I would whine and cry as our parents dragged us through the Village of Yesteryear and through the agricultural exhibits. Now that I’m a dreaded grown up, I still like the rides, but going through to see the prize winning pumpkins (almost 300 pounds!) or learning about beekeeping around the state is interesting to me now. And no matter whether I was a kid or a grown up, the food at the Fair is always the best.

The Midway at the NC State Fair

There’s been a lot of press in recent years about the extremity of fair food; a trend that started out innocently enough with fried candy bars has evolved into a yearly gastronomic adventure with Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers, deep fried butter, and Kool Aid Pickles. Every year there is something more outrageous and death defying than the year prior. And you guys know me: I’m always up for an adventure.

That’s why I’m putting my hat in the ring to be the Official Deep Fried Ambassador of the NC State Fair this year! In a year where I ate Haggis and Bugs, eating deep fried yumminess is a walk in the park! And hey, since I lost all of that weight, I reckon that means I just made room to put a little back on.

I’ve already talked ad naseum about how much I love North Carolina. What better way to demonstrate how much I love my fair state (sorry, bad pun) than to document every calorie of its annual tribute to lard-laden vittles and one-of-a-kind victuals?

I’ve put it on the 101+ Things to Do Before I Die list. We’ll see Monday if I succeeded!

101 Things before you die, bucket list, Entertainment, Life Management
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Third Quarter Results 2011

September 28, 2011 by Jessica 9 Comments

I have to admit, it’s really gratifying to look back on where I started with this list and see how much I’ve accomplished. When people ask me “What’s next on your list?’ and they expect some big adventure, I have to admit that I’m really mostly just down to travel at this point (by and large). But, never fear, I’m always adding new adventures to the list-I’ll never run out of things 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!

101 Things before you die, 40 Before I'm 40, Achievement, bucket list, Entertainment, Excitement, life list, Life Management, Miscellaneous, Nature, Recklessness, Relationships, Sport and Activity, things before you die, Travel
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SAM_0137

Thing to Do #7: Eat…Bugs

September 19, 2011 by Jessica 20 Comments

COMPLETED!

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

101 Things before you die, Achievement, Excitement, Life Management, Nature, Recklessness
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Gay ban sign

Thing to Do #98: Go On a Demonstration

September 13, 2011 by Jessica 12 Comments

COMPLETED!

(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.

101 Things before you die, Achievement, bucket list, life list, Life Management
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Jalapenos Get Their Revenge

September 11, 2011 by Jessica 9 Comments

Recipe#42: Lamb Kabobs

This is the first time I’ve cooked lamb and I found out that baby bella mushrooms are also known as cremini mushrooms. I was supposed to marinate the lamb for 4-6 hours but I only marinated them for 2 hours and I think they were still rather tasty. Actually, Alex really liked these too. It didn’t call for onion and I almost added it anyway but decided against it at the last minute. I think if I had to do it over again, I would add the onion.

Chicken Pot PieChicken Pot Pie

Recipe #43: Chicken Pot Pie

This was pretty tasty. It calls to use only 4 crescent rolls but I didn’t like having a hole in the middle and afterall, the can had 8 and I didn’t want to just throw the other 4 away so I used 6 and covered the entire top. I think it looks better this way (and tastes better this way although, it obviously changes the point value). I could have sworn that I bought chicken stock but when it came time to assemble all of the ingredients, I couldn’t find the can. Luckily, at some other point I had to purchase chicken bouillon cubes and just boiled one of those for a cup of stock. Yay resourcefulness!

Pot Roast

Recipe #44: Pot Roast

When will I learn to read the recipe prior to making it? I started this recipe about 6:30pm one night and only after chopping the onions and cutting the potatoes did I see the part where it says “220 minutes” for cook time. But it was really good at 11pm that night (and good for lunch the next day).

Jalapeno Poppers

Recipe#45: Jalapeno Poppers

This was my first experience working with jalapenos and I’ll share this bit of advice: wear gloves. I didn’t and my hands were burning for hours after. I asked for help on Facebook and got a lot of suggestions. Most said use milk but I didn’t have any. I used rubbing alcohol followed by vegetable oil and that mostly worked. What’s hilarious is that I don’t even LIKE eating jalapenos and only had one “popper” but I thought it tasted pretty good. If you like spicy, I think this is a good one to try.

Mozzarella Sticks

Recipe #46: Mozzarella Sticks

Recipe FAIL! As you can tell by the photo, this one didn’t really work out. I don’t know exactly what I did wrong. Maybe mozzarella sticks should just always be deep fried. Oh well, I haven’t had a fail in awhile.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Recipe #47: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

For a Weight Watchers Cheesecake recipe, this was pretty good. It uses Cottage Cheese, so the texture is a bit…off and I think the amount of almond flavoring is too much (I little overpowering), but I thought that for it only being 6 points, it was very tasty. I put in more chocolate chips than it called for and the cake “fell” a little bit while it was cooling but I’m pretty proud of myself for the way this turned out, since it was rated “difficult.”

Only 5 more recipes to complete my “Recipe a Week” Challenge!

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