Vegetable Secrets

Tired of bland peas, potatoes, and green beans? Ya you and the rest of the world. So here is everything you need.

Ingredients
Bacon
Garlic
Olive oil
onions (optional)
salt and pepper
parsley or basil


Directions
Heat oil on medium low heat. Chop bacon, garlic and onion into small bits, add bacon first, then a minute later add in garlic and onion. MAKE SURE the garlic does not burn, it burns easily. After about 5 or so minutes (it depends on how much you put in there) pour it over whatever veggies broccoli, peas, green beans, in mashed potatoes its awesome, you can put it on anything. Season with the salt, pepper and parsley. If you put it in mashed potatoes, add melted butter to it, a little garlic powder, parsley, basil, salt and pepper.

Italian Salad

My grandmother has an endless talent, she could pick up anything and make it taste incredible. One thanksgiving she was cooking the whole feast, and realized she had run out of a spice she needed. So being a child who came from great poverty, she improvised. She proceeded to walk into her yard and pick dandelions to cook, and it tasted incredible! So I yet again share one of her recipes. It is the essence of simple, its incredibly healthy, AND its cheap.

Ingredients
Baby romaine lettuce ( the ones that are purple and green)
2 onion
two slices of a greenish red tomato
cucumber
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Italian seasoning

Directions
Peel the cucumber, half it and chop it in slices. Slice a onion in half, width wise, and slice it at an angle, so you get little half moons. Chop the tomato in small cubes. Put on top of lettuce, drizzle with olive oil and the vinegar, don't put too much, you only need a tiny bit. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, mix then season again.

Note: this recipe is all about moderation on the toppings, taste it and determine if you want any more dressing. This is the REAL Italian dressing. Balsamic vinegar and olive have tons of health benefits. If your trying to lose weight or just eat healthier, eat a big bowl of this, with a piece of French bread for lunch and tada , you have carbs to help you through the day, and healthy vegetable to help you get closer to your daily serving.

My life as a baker

Before I could sautee leeks in butter without burning them, cook dishes from far away lands, perfectly brown a chicken,or pick out the right tomatoes for pasta pomodoro, I baked. I love to bake, chocolate cake, bannana breads, snicker doodle cookies, apple pie, molten center chocolate cupcakes, anything I had time for. It's something I think many people should indulge in, there is not much that makes me happier than pulling a fresh loaf of fig bread out of an oven and handing it over to a friend and getting to see them enjoy every bite. I love cooking for people, I love making them happy with their favorite treats, I just love knowing I can give people something they want. So I have decided to share a few recipies, ones I did not create, I'm too afraid if I let out ones I did in fear of someone ripping them off before I can make a cookbook. So here is my first recipie, I got it from my grandmother and everyone I have ever made it for has loved it.

Fig Bread
Note: for this recipie you will need three large mixing bowls and a few whisks, its messy, takes a while to do, and you need to pay close attention to the recipe, but the end result is worth it.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg

DIRECTIONS
Note: the first three steps need to be done in separate bowls
1) Cream sugar eggs, and vegetable oil until well blended.
2) sift together flour and spices
3) Dissolve soda in butter milk
4) Add all three bowls together in one big one
5) Once mixed together add pecans and Fig preserves
6) Grease (very well) a bread pan (rectangle with high sides) and put in oven for 1 hr, at one hour mark poke a knife in the center of the pan and if it comes out clean its done, if not put it back in at 6 min intervals until its done.

Glaze
note: this goes over the top of the bread
Mix confectioners sugar with a very small amount of water, put fork in it to mix and when the sugar is white (not transparent) and it drips off the fork slowly use the fork to drizzle the glaze.


Enjoy and tell me how it goes or if you have questions...that is if I ever get more than one follower..thanks Anna.

I can tend to be a spur of the moment adventure seeker, liberal, and willing to try a lot of things, and I love surprises. You would never see a string of facts like that and guess that I am totally type A. I love cleanliness, timeliness, pure organization, and am extremely competitive. One of the things that I am the most type A about it travel.So when I called my moving company this weekend and they told me my pack out had been pushed back 5 days I verged on a nervous breakdown. There are not many things in this world can agitate me more than screwing my travel schedule, agh you damn people and screwing up paperwork!!! Note to the world DO NOT SCREW WITH MY TRAVEL SCHEDULE! I will loath you, you probably don't care, but you should.

The loss of knowledge

When I was in grade school there was no such addiction that could match mine for MTV. The days of Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, Nirvana, The GooGoo Dolls, Carson Daily, and Daria, were the symbol of rock and roll knowledge and agenda. Each day I would jump off my bus and walk what at the time seemed like a never ending road back to my house. Yet once I was there I always knew there was a plump couch seated in front of a television waiting for me to absorb musical knowledge. At 11, I could name almost any current song on the radio, my mother was nearly flabbergasted when sitting in the car once I heard exactly one note of The Goo Goo Dolls “Iris” and blurted out the song title. MTV at that time stood up to its name, music was actually played, cool rock stars were interviewed while young girls cooed and cheered in the nearby seats. You had something to learn, some talent to absorb.
As I grew older though I started to notice a change, not just that Carson Daily was painting his finger nails red instead of just black, but a change in the music. The videos started to receive less and less airtime, first it was a second or two at the beginning and end, but overtime only the middle of the video was posted to make room for some other nonmusical show. Not only were videos shortened, but so was the quality, bubble gum pop took over and talented artists and singers were pushed to the wayside. The trend only worsened, and eventually MTV no longer represented its name.
So my love affair with MTV waned, and in many ways I simply forgot about it, as so many others who use to love it did. Then something happened.
This weekend was I was flipping through the channels, I saw that the MTV movie awards were on, and decided to check it out to see who was wearing what. Naturally since their name is “music television” musicians performed. Now 10 years ago at these same awards Metallica rocked out with “I disappear” and rightly so staked their claim as rock legends. The story though was not the same this year. Instead of face melting guitar solos that take years upon years to be able to perform, bubble gum pop took its toll, and whole new flavor of whore.
Katy Perry was the performance of choice alongside Christina Aguilera, and no were not talking Genie in a bottle, instead they took the first amendment to a whole new level, and thus MTV aligned with the red light district. Half the time the singers weren’t singing and the only entertainment was the neon flashing bulbs and practically bare breasts that distracted from the performers lack of talent or originality. In that moment I sadly realized that music television had died forever, and that generations will not have a sliver of knowledge about what talent is. So I leave you with this MTV.
Over time you have elicited the ability to take steaming piles of crap and throw glitter on it and pass off as music. You have created a new title for yourselves “The downfall of music as we know it.” Congratulations on brainwashing a generation.

I really have nothing to proclaim

So I quit my job about a week ago, and lets just say that since then the couch has become very familiar with my ass. So instead I have decided to post some of my work. The first is a drawing of a model I ripped out of a magazine, its the first full face drawing I have ever done, so there are lots of flaws, but for a first try its ok.

The second is a head shot I did of my lovely muse Gabrielle Guarinello. This is my best friends little sister, and the older she has become, the better friends we have become. Now we all have to have a source of inspiration, and for me, shes just the type of girl I want to design for. So I find it appropriate to acknowledge her early on in my career, very early since it hasn't really happened yet.

So without further a due, here they are.

American Idol

Over the last few years I have become somewhat disenchanted with American Idol. I use to avidly follow it, being it was my most direct connection to American culture when I had no other. I would wait so impatiently for each season to come around, and clear my entire life for the finales. I felt so connected to something I had left behind, and could be truly happy in those moments. Yet over the years my love waned…and I forgot something important.
As I was sitting on my couch today, I was flipping through the channels and saw that the American Idol finale was on, and figured I would watch a few minutes. I turned it on just as the tribute to Simon Cowell was starting. Giant glowing doors parted and Kelly Clarkson emerged, followed by Rueben Studdard, Jordin Sparks, Carey Underwood, and the subsequent idol winners. Behind them followed runner ups and other favorites. As I watched all those people on stage, roughly 50, I was reminded of something. Before Idol these people were just normal, they were as plain as you and me, but over time they became some of the most known names in music today. Their entire lives changed at the turn of a hat…because of this show. People were given a chance and found their dreams in the sitting in the palm of their hands.
I am not certain there is a greater symbol of the freedom Americans enjoy. We are known as the land of opportunity, now that doesn’t mean that fame and fortune falls into your lap the minute you come here. What it does mean is that you have a chance, you have a chance to be the a girl working on a farm in the middle of nowhere and a year later you could be named female country singer of the year. You could come from poor urban upbringing and 2 years later act alongside Beyonce in an Oscar winning film and then win an academy award for best supporting actress.
That’s what Idol is about, giving people that chance, that chance to truly embrace what it is to be an American. That given the hard work ethic, the talent, and a shimmer of luck, we can be who we wish. We are reminded that we live the land where “dreams really do come true.”
So call me a follower America, and next season I’ll be tuning in..and maybe tearing up.