Fun and festive study breaks

Posted on December 13, 2011

Management, evaluation and environment - I guess flashcards aren't a very advanced studying technique, but until someone gets me and iPad, these are the best way for me to study while waiting in line at the post office or doing cardio at the gym.

This may sound crazy, but studying for exams has been surprisingly relaxing. Not the actual studying or exam taking, since ya know.. grad school ain’t cheap and I’d like to graduate sometime this decade, but being able to clear my calendar for designated “Study Time” and “Break Time.”

I’ve also had the opportunity to spend a lot more quality time with my friends and family in the last two weeks, and that really means a lot. I guess it is the season of gatherings, out of town visitors and commiserating study groups.

This week, my semester exams are done and now I’m reviewing for my OMG-Big Mama-Comprehensive Exam. Tomorrow, I’ll sit in an icy computer lab for hours, cranking out essays about public health program planning, theory and evaluation. And then? I’ll wait to see if I get to graduate in May. I’m happy to report that I’m almost finished wrapping up the loose ends for my field placement next semester. I can’t say much about it, but I’m excited to do something new and to work on a program addressing health disparities, which is one of my main areas of interest.

But, Ok, enough about school…

Last week I baked my mom's oatmeal-coconut Christmas cookie recipe for Kat's cookie swap. It is hard to explain why these are so good, but really they are so. good.

It isn't the holiday season without cookies and festive booze.

Yesterday, my friend from my FloMo days, Michael came to visit. We went to the Body Worlds Vital Exhibit at the SC State Museum. I know this is going to sound either nerdy or disturbing depending on how well you know me, but..It was really interesting to see what disease looks like inside the body.

Photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit, but lucky for you, we have these other charming photos of our day.

I’ve also being trying to get in the holiday spirit as much as possible by surrounding myself with glittery things lit by twinkle lights. It helps!

Sparkly trees fight S.A.D.! Try it.

And I’m really excited to announce that I was chosen as a grand prize winner for the “Lee Brother Your Holiday Recipe” contest from the Lee Brothers and the SC Department of Agriculture. They wanted recipes that used local ingredients, so I submitted my vegetarian collard recipe and won my category! My family is amused by this because growing up I hated collards, and now I’m spreading my love for greens all across the state.

And now.. I’m off to get in some movement and relaxation (cardio and yoga!) before I have to go back to studying!

Sweet and/or furry holiday highlights

Posted on December 26, 2010

Cookies! Cookiiieeessss

I’ve spent the past few days in Fort Mill, my hometown, doing Christmasy things with my friends and family and eating cookies. And, now, I have to stop eating cookies or else I’m going to have to use my Santa money to buy Pajama Jeans.

Miss Bella. Hanging out with my friends was great, but hanging out with their animals was even better.

Miss Bella. Hanging out with my family and friends was great, but hanging out with their animals was even better.

Rockeeeey... He was sitting on the couch beside me.

My nephew's hamster. I think. I'm not familiar with many rodent pets.

Add lots of eating and gifting and laughing and that’s pretty much my holiday. It was actually really nice. My family gave me lots of “Big Girl” stuff… a vacuum, a wand mixer, a GPS, a new point and shoot camera, and way too much other stuff. It is kind of embarrassing how much stuff I ended up with, but I am so thankful for all of it and for all of the time I got to spend with people.

Last night, Carlton and I took Charlotte to my grandma's. Check out her festive necklace!

This morning I woke up to snow. Anyone who isn’t from the South, feel free to scoff at my snow pictures. Being from S.C. means that it is perfectly legitimate to make an event out of 1.5″ of snow. Yes, you read that right, not 15″, one and a half inches. I don’t love the snow, but since it didn’t mess up the roads or shut down the city, this snow was pretty and tolerable.

Every time I put Moneen down in the snow, she would just walk to the grassy spots.

Since the snow started melting by the afternoon, I threw on a bunch of layers and went running. After living on cookies and cheese for the last few days, I’m trying to get back to normal. I don’t feel guilty, I just feel bleh.

What was the best part of your Christmas? Do you have big New Year’s Eve plans?

[Edited to add: Mo is "posting" more snow pictures on her Tumblr for the next few days.]

What Stollen and Tamales have in common

Posted on December 22, 2010

My sad life: A wonky tamale and a stalker cat.

I started the month with the idea that I would make international holiday foods. I made alfajores, which were a tasty disaster. After those, I made German Stollen and Mexican tamales. What do all these dishes have in common besides being Christmas foods? At some point, a few hours in to preparing them, you will think, “What have I gotten myself into?”

General tips for making food that other cultures deem “once-a-year” foods:

1. Find an aunt, mom or grandma from that country who makes the dish. They could probably give you some pointers, or maybe they will feel sorry for you and just give you some food.

2. If all else fails, look it up on YouTube.

3. Give yourself twice as much time as the recipe calls for.

4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Both literally, because baskets are no good for egg travel, and figuratively because if you base your whole meal off a new dish you’ve never made before, you might go hungry.

I’m sure that if I decided to make them again, I would be more prepared, but I’ve put off writing the recipe posts because I’ve been afraid they would be overly technical. Rather than wait until after Christmas to share these recipes, I’m going to give you the abridged version.

Delicious Almond Stollen (or Köstlicher Mandel-Stollen)

Almond stollen – Inspired by my German roommate

Stollen is a traditional German sweet bread made with nuts and candied fruit. Don’t be alarmed, this is not the kind of fruitcake you use for doorstops, although I found the candied fruit in the fruitcake baking area of the grocery. Apparently, stollen are normally made weeks in advance and kept in cold rooms or basements. I didn’t have that kind of time, so I wrapped mine up and kept it in the freezer for a few days, and that worked fine to get the right texture and flavor. It is sweet and festive, and kind of addictive.

I used a recipe from a German magazine which gave all the measurements in weight rather than cups, which triggered my math phobia. My roommate translated the recipe as I went along and helped me figure out the weights using her scale.

Making Stollen. Weighing fruit, reading German and covering the kitchen in powdered sugar.

This recipe looks similar to the one I used, except I didn’t soak my fruit in rum and I used candied lemon and orange instead of fresh grated. After you bake your loaves, add a coat of melted butter followed by a coat of powdered sugar. Repeat about 2 or 3 times and let the dough cool.

Tip #1: Adding a coat of melted butter + powdered sugar (repeat x3) to any dessert will make it a winner.

Tip #2: Don’t be alarmed if your fruit starts falling out of your dough. There is only so much fruit the dough can handle.

Bean and cheese tamales. Don't judge a dish by its poor presentation - these were good!

Vegetarian Bean and Cheese Tamales

My final holiday cooking adventure came in the form of five hour tamales. I decided to make bean tamales using this recipe, and I made a vegan masa using vegetable shortening rather than lard. I had no problem finding the masa harina (the corn meal stuff), but had to go to a Latin grocer to find the corn husks.

Soaking husks and making masa

I’m not sure if my dough was too dry. When I made it according to the recipe, it seemed gooey, so I added more flour. When I started looking at videos about tamales, their masa was more of a paste. The final taste was the same, but the dough might be thicker than normal if you make it like mine.

I use a can of pinto beans + a can of black beans + some spicy cheese + peppers + onions + garlic for the filling

I used a can of pinto beans + a can of black beans + some spicy cheese + peppers + onions + garlic for the filling.

Folding the tamales weren't super hard, but I think they would have stayed together better if i would have tied them with some string.

The only equipment I used that I don’t normally have in my kitchen was the steam basket thing that sits in the bottom of a pot. I checked the water level in my pot during the cooking and had to add more only once. After all that mixing and cooking and rolling… you have to wait 1.5 hours for them to cook. So, don’t start tamales hungry! I had to make Carlton a snack while they were cooking, since he came over assuming that it wouldn’t take five hours to make dinner.

Tip #1: You need lots of time to make these. Soak your husks at least 2 hours before you start cooking, and give yourself at least an hour to refrigerate your masa once it is formed into a dough.

Tip #2: Do not try to use the wisk attachment to cream your shortening. Use regular beaters, or else you might end up throwing Crisco all over your kitchen and guests, and nine times out of 10, they will not appreciate that.

Have you ever wanted to give up half-way through a recipe? Do any of your holiday foods take this long to prepare?

Up and down and up again

Posted on December 20, 2010

I have to start by saying that ever since my post about Christmas expectations was chosen for Freshly Pressed, my blog has been kind of insane – visits! comments! strangers knowing my deepest darkest thoughts! But, overall, it is a good insanity, because I think it has allowed a lot of people to acknowledge that this season doesn’t look like Norman Rockwell for everyone.

I've always thought this picture of my grandparents was kind of funny because of their Christmas expressions. This is what you get pre-digital camera. No do overs, even for pictures with the Christmas tree.

That said, to all the new folks who have subscribed or read through, a warning that I’m only serious about 2% of the time. The other 98% is filled with cats, kitchen disasters and whining about grad school.

This past week has been enough to give me emotional whiplash. My sister-in-law’s mom Brenda passed away last week, and yesterday was the funeral. Losing a parent is one of my greatest fears in life, and I can’t imagine what they are going through. One of the things that stood out to me was that Brenda had written out in detail how she wanted her funeral. She knew what she wanted down to the floral arrangements and soloists. I can’t even collect my thoughts enough to make a grocery list.

This week also marked the start of something new for two of my closest friends, Sarah and Jordy. Last week I went with him to pick up the ring, which was a super top secret, of course, and then Saturday he proposed, and we all went out to celebrate.

Oh wait, sorry that's not Sarah and Jordy. That's Kat and me showing off our hands that don't have diamonds. I promise I'm not always so sweaty, it was just a long day!

There is the happy couple. Congrats, guys! Thanks for having your after-engagement at a bar so the rest of us sad unmarrieds could drink our pain away. Just kidding, although a smug married did tell me not to worry because "It will happen" to me one day too. Um, how about graduating? Will that happen because thats what I really need assurance about.

Congrats, guys! Your love will keep you warm when you move to Indiana and have to ride your Snowmobile to class next year. And thanks for having your celebration at a bar so the rest of us sad unmarrieds could drink our pain away. Just kidding!

Also in the last few days, I met Kat and Lily for hummus and then bubble tea, cooked tamales for five hours with Carlton, got my grades back for the semester (A, A, A, B+), caught up with my old friend Lesliebo, found out my plan for summer isn’t going to happen, and saw two horrific accidents on the interstate. (A brief PSA: The three people who died in these wrecks either weren’t wearing a seatbelt or were wearing them improperly. Having survived an interstate crash probably because of my seatbelt and airbags and luck, I feel like this is a good time to remind you to wear your seatbelt even if you think you’re a great driver.)

I can’t wait to just exhale and exist for a few days before life picks up again.

How was your weekend? When do you take time to think and process life events? Exercise and writing are my two exhale times.

When your holidays are more transitional than traditional

Posted on December 17, 2010

Is this how Christmas makes you feel too?

Tuesday night during fitblog chat, one of the questions was “Now that we’re fully involved in the holidays, what is stressing you out and how are you working to stay healthy?”

pow! Fitblog wisdom!

So maybe it isn’t wisdom, but it seemed to resonate with a lot of people. And OK, this isn’t really my bright idea, but since my mom doesn’t have a blog I have no qualms about stealing her ideas and presenting them as my own.

Growing up, I was very attached to tradition. Holidays, birthdays, proms, vacations, piano recitals.. everything. Planning and anticipating was more fun than the actual events sometimes.

People get sick, divorced, married, have babies, die, move away, grow up, get jobs, have falling outs, meet new people and make new plans. I understand that now, but believe me when I say that Lil’ ZenLizzie was devastated by these things. In my mind, The Way It Was = The Way It Should Be.

About the time my parents got divorced, I was talking about holiday plans with ZenMama, who has dealt with my expectation and drama-queen disappointment for decades. She told me that she thought we should do new things every year, rather than just being sad that life was changing. You can make things special even if they aren’t the same as they were before. By embracing transition, you remove the element of expectation of tradition.

Not getting the same kind of tree you had as a kid, not getting your grandma’s cake she makes every year, and even not being able to be physically close to your loved ones should not ruin your holidays. A good day, holiday or not, doesn’t need to meet certain requirements. I’m not saying you can’t look forward to all those things that you like, but being bummed because one element doesn’t fall into place shouldn’t ruin your time.

If your life or family is like mine, constantly changing, then it is extra important to let go of expectations about what your plans should include. You can’t be with your family during the holidays? Find other people who are away from home and plan something fun with them. You lost your job or are drowning in student loans? Let your loved ones know that you can’t do presents this year and make them cookies or mix CDs or a handmade card. Missing someone you wanted to spend the holidays with? Enjoy your time with the people you can be with, because who knows where everyone will be next year. Dislike holidays but feel like you’re “supposed” to make a big fuss? Set boundaries, and don’t feel guilty if you are happier watching TV at home rather than caroling through the neighborhood.

If you frame your plans within the reality of your current resources and circumstances, rather than what you used to do, where you used to be, who you used to be with, then you won’t have to cry and mope and stomp your feet when things don’t follow your script. Oh, am I the only one who does that? Well, however you deal with disappointment, you won’t need to do that if you focus on what you have instead of what is missing.

Bottom Line: There is no rule book for a happy holiday and no check list that you need to complete. Let go of your expectations for how you, your holiday and your family should be, and embrace how things are.

How do you stay sane during the holidays? What is your least favorite Christmas tradition? Mine is holiday clothing! Boo for clothes you can only wear for two days!

My attempt at Alfajores-ish cookies

Posted on December 10, 2010

or, “Why I think someone’s South American grandma put a curse on my kitchen.”

Alfajores-ish cookies!

So, this year, I’ve decided to try to make traditional holiday foods. Except, I figured it would be more interesting to make other people’s traditional foods. For these, I asked Eunice, a Peruvian-Floridian-Blogger extrordinaire about Peruvian Christmas foods, and she suggested Alfajores.

According to Wikipedia, alfajores can be found all over the world in different forms, but in South America they are usually two cookies with a filling. After googling recipes, I found that two of the most common fillings are dulce de leche and manjar blanco. Either the words are used interchangeably (incorrectly) on the recipes I was looking at, or these are very similar milky-vanilla-sweet sauces/spreads. The biggest difference I found was the addition of baking soda in most of the dulce de leche recipes. If you know more about these, please let me know!

So, my version is compiled from a couple different sources, and when I served these to my classmates, a girl from Costa Rica said they tasted like alfajores from back home without me prompting her, so I think the flavors are close even if my methods are a little off.

I think this recipe looks deceptively easy, but proceed with caution. Or follow the directions better than I did.

Alfajores-ish Cookies

Cookie Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour
3 Tbs powdered sugar
1 1/4 cup softened butter

Manjar blanco Ingredients

8 cups whole milk
2 Tbs vanilla extract
2 cups sugar

Disaster manjar blanco and disaster microwave dulce de leche.

Directions

1. Pour the milk into a very large pot, way bigger than you think you need because, as you can see in the photo, the milk will jump out of the pot if it isn’t big enough.

2. When the milk boils, add sugar and vanilla and stir continuously making sure it doesn’t stick. Here is someone’s grandma’s method for doing this. It takes a very long time for the manjar blanco to thicken, as in, hours. I didn’t stir mine enough so it got a little burnt before getting smooth, thats why mine looks sugary instead of like caramel.

(I also attempted a microwave version of dulce de leche using just a can of sweetened condensed milk, which I am going to spare you. But I can tell you what not to do: Don’t use a too-small bowl, don’t take your eyes off the bowl, don’t cover with a paper towel, don’t cover with plastic wrap or else you will end up with a milky, brown, but delicious mess.)

3. Preheat oven to 350* and spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

4. Combine ingredients for cookie and knead into a ball. The dough is dry, so you can add tsp of oil or butter if it will not stick together.

5. Most recipes for alfajores recommend rolling the dough and using a cookie cutter, but my dough was too dry so I rolled small balls of dough and flattened them by hand. They were thicker than the traditional ones, but they held together for the most part.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick your cookies are. (Don’t forget to keep stirring you manjar blanco!!)

7. Let the cookies cool, which should be no problem since the manjar blanco is probably still cooking, unless you burned it like I did. Once the manjar blanco comes together in paste-consistency rather than a liquid, take it off the heat.

8. Spread about a tablespoon of manjar blanco onto one cookie, and then add the other cookie. If your cookies are dry and breaking, just place a scoop of the manjar blanco on the cookie and then slowly press the other cookie down with the palm of your hand.

Some recipes recommended not adding the filling until just before serving, but my cookies were dry enough that it actually helped to fill them a few hours before serving. You can also cover these in powdered sugar.

The flavor was really good, despite my mess ups. I think if I were going to make these again, I would probably not try to be such an eager beaver, and just use a pre-made dulce de leche.

Do you have any suggestions for holiday foods I should try to make? Any special traditions from your area of the world/country/state?

End of the semester small victories

Posted on December 1, 2010

So, I just spent six hours working on an eight page paper that is due tomorrow and guess how many pages I’ve actually written so far… 0! Woohoo! There was other stuff (research, a spreadsheet, etc.) that got done, but I just don’t have a lot to show. However, I need a brain break. And I’m proud of myself for making real food yesterday after a couple of weeks of pre-made salads and vegetable grocery store sushi.

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much. But a fresh vegetable + turkey meatloaf + almond rice pilaf = major cooking while studying success.

I made the turkey meatloaf with greek yogurt and Ezekiel bread earlier this week, and the asparagus was lazy girl style..

This is my lazy-girl method of cooking asparagus. Asparagus + 1 Tbs water + 1 tsp olive oil + basil + garlic salt in the oven for about 12 minutes at 350* = perfect!

My roommate broke out her German holiday decorations.

Including this guy who "smokes" incense. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm not making it up.

She's also gotten a couple care packages from her family, including these cute handmade decorations. And cookies.

She's also gotten a couple of care packages from her family, including these cute handmade decorations. And cookies.

und Schokolade! ... Little known fact about me.. I took German in high school but I only remember the names for foods and animals.

So tomorrow is my last class of the semester! And then I can go back to whining about my normal stuff for the next month.

Long weekends do a body good

Posted on November 29, 2010

I’ve thought about doing a weekend wrap up, but my weekend started last Wednesday so… yeah. Lucky for you, I do not have Thanksgiving photos. Unlucky for you, I have pictures of everything else. Apparently, “What I did over Thanksgiving break” = taking pictures.

I took a garden tour. I have to figure out how to cook these collards now that they are grown.

I'm trying to find beauty in brown and gray of fall/winter.

But I prefer color. You can eat these but I think my Dad planted them for the birds or deer or whoever gets hungry in the winter.

I kind of hate roses. Not because they aren't pretty, but because I like pulling weeds and I hate getting a handful of thorns.

.. and then I made sweet potato and black bean empanadas! Recipe coming sometime this week..

Then there was Thanksgiving! Then I took Carlton some Thanksgiving food since he had to work and I wasted a lot of time enjoying my time off from school and work.

I went running for the first time in the cold (ok, about 50*) and I was surprised that my body felt pretty good, even for 2 miles after not running for a month, but my throat and lungs were on fire. I started looking for tips on cold weather running and kept finding stuff about snow! ice! subzero temperatures! Excuse me, I’m from South Carolina and if there are flurries the whole state shuts down. I think I just need to find a running scarf or something.

Then last night, Carlton and Charlotte came to keep me company.

The cats were not amused. Seriously, Mo lived with Charlotte when I was in Georgia so she can tolerate her, but my roommate's cat was on high alert, spitting and attacking the entire visit.

We watched a documentary about the Yes Men on my new Roku player! Well, actually it isn’t mine and it isn’t new, but my dad’s girlfriend gave it to me and it works. Yay streaming Netflix! I’m sure I won’t be using it much in the next two weeks, but after this semester I’m catching up on my super long queue.