Coming backAs I sit here at my laptop, I think ... "How am I going to do this?" Where do I start? What am I going to talk about? HOW am I going to even begin writing about the journey that I have been on?
Countless times have I started typing and set aside a few words, a paragraph or two, or even a whole page. Though, I never did post. I didn't think I was ready. Thoughts, feelings, insights, etc... entries in my email or journal, in personal texts, on scraps of paper, or swimming in my mind. And I am finally deciding to bring it all together. To share my burdens, my joys, my strengths and weaknesses, my insights, ... my life; this blog is no longer just about food. And if there's an ear out there, I am blessed. And perhaps I can bring truth to your world, as God has brought it to mine. Truth. About our purpose here. Truth. About my struggles. Truth. About my joys. Truth. About health. Truth. About our world. There are so many lies we were born or taught into believing and their manifestations are far beyond UgLy. But when we learn the Truth, we can make the changes we need to be better for our Lord and Savior. The changes that perfect us and make us new. I am becoming new. It is no easy journey and I am certainly not through, but I will no longer let the waiting period dictate the postponement of sharing my story. And so let it begin. This is my story... |
"Food is an infinitely rich subject, and there's always something about it to understand better, something new to discover, a fresh source of interest, ideas, and delight." |
Strike 3. Strike 3? Yes. Strike 3. Florida officially hates my car, but maybe I should start with the beginning of my work day.
Yesterday was a research day filled with things such as updating diets, inputting data, and getting oriented with our weekly tasks. I am responsible for updating the diets for large cats (i.e. tigers and lions), okapi, kangaroos, manatees, certain reptiles, and several other animals. I'm not actually changing their diets though; I'm just making sure that every program here reflects the recent updates made by the head nutritionist. Still, the exposure to these diets both through updating and actually preparing them really help with understanding how to formulate a diet or, rather, what it should be comprised of. Today I started on a new station which involved preparing the diets for hippos, rhinos, and certain hoof stock as well as preparing the carnivore diets. As with my first station, I really enjoyed myself; I love food (working with it, eating it, learning about it...), what else can I say? I also just love the variety that we can offer to the animals and that I am continuously learning about new feeds that are available for zoos to use. Bedtime is approaching, if not already here... Okay, so let me switch over to my experience after work... I go to my car, open my trunk, and then proceed to open my driver's side door but the key won't go in all the way. Why? Well, the key was BENT. So what do I do? Attempt to bend it back. AND sooo my key broke. I immediately go the attention of my co-worker interns and exclaimed "Please don't leave me!!!". It was actually quite comical .. So, thankfully, they did not and went with me inside to ask the only two employees still there what one does when they don't have a spare key and their key is broken. Go to Wal-mart's auto center. My co-workers drove 15 minutes out to Wal-mart just so that we could be told to go to Ace Hardware (literally right by work) because they should be able to make copies from broken keys. Since it was a clean cut, Ace was able to handle it (with extra effort). On our way back to my car, our backstage access for the day had expired and so we had to call someone from work who could grant us access. Finally, we made it to my car and parted. In the end, I got home 2 hours later than my normal days. I know it could have been worse, but it could have also not happened. Since my key does work, I'm planning on getting a spare made tomorrow. Okay ... bedtime is officially almost passed so I promise pictures and more stories in the future, but now I need my beauty sleep. Night!
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The last time I left you, I was ending my last day of work for the week and beginning my 5 day break. Since I'm still training, my schedule is really wonky. Normally, I would be on for 4 days and off for 3 days but for now...
So with that, my first day off was a pretty lazy day - particularly since I was feeling a bit off (GI upset and maybe slightly feverish). Aside from picking up my paycheck and working out in the morning, I stayed in and even took a nap. The wonderful thing about our apartment is that it is carpeted so, despite not having a couch, I can still cozy up with my pillow and blanket, on the floor, while watching tv. The nap perked me up a bit and just an hour later it was time for dinner: Taco Thursday! Our apartment complex sometimes offers free food and Thursday was one of those days. The tacos were pretty standard and not too filling so I ended up eating steamed broccoli with melted cheese later on... and then popcorn. Hey, dinner WAS 5 - 6 pm. And the popcorn was really for the watching of West Side Story with my roommates. The next day I felt just about back to normal and decided to be productive: write thank you letters, clean the house, do laundry, go to the bank, and change my printer's ink. After playing around with it for half and hour, I decided to give up (the printer cannot ID the fact that the magenta ink cartridge IS full and present). But before moving onto another task, I had to attempt to remove all of the ink off of my hands. Working slightly off of the idea that ethanol removes permanent marker, I scrubbed my hands with alcohol wipes, nail polish remover(acetone), even wine, and normal soap. After much scrubbing, my hands finally looked fairly normal. And so I moved onto my next task and ended up picking up a new ingredient: CATFISH! I decided to make (baked) fish and chips where I first squeezed lemon and poured a melted butter and EVOO mixture over the catfish. Subsequently, I dredged the catfish in a panko breadcrumb-parm cheese-fresh garlic-parsley-S&P mixture and baked the catfish in the oven. I also cut up potatoes and coated them with garlic and onion powder, EVOO, parsley, and S&P prior to baking them in the oven. My veggie for dinner was a cooked spinach and squash mixture to which I added my homemade salad dressing and a bit of balsamic vinegar. It was healthy and delicious. As an aside, if anyone wants to offer ideas for new ingredients (ie categories such as meat, cheese, root, etc) please do! And if you're feeling generous, I will always accept gifts of food (or money to buy the food ;) - just ask for my address!) That night, I went out with some friends to Jelly Rolls down on the Boardwalk near Epcot. The scene was very cool: two grand pianos atop a stage which was stationed in between two side bars. Each hour or two, new (hired) pianists would play their pianos and sing while simultaneously reading audience song requests written on paper napkins. They played Brown-Eyed Girl, Don't Stop Believin', Bohemian Rhapsody (LOVED!!), and so many more. It was a great crowd! Saturday morning (day 2 of my break), I finally got my butt up and went outside to run. After all, it was about 60 degrees, sunny, and slightly breezy at only 10:30 AM. I figured a 2 mile run would suffice for the day and that I would build myself back up as time progresses. But, boy, did I get lost. Lesson for the day? Never ever ever and I mean NEVER go running in a golf club resort because you will get very very VERY LOST. I swear I ended up on the opposite side of the road than when I first entered too so I still don't know how I got out of there. But the view was very pretty. Oh and I got a slight tan from my MP3 player armband (4th picture), but sadly it is no longer there... After a quick return home, I was off again seeking new adventures; I was headed to Epcot! Along with friends, I went in the World Showcase where several countries are represented. I knew that I was on a hunt for some good dessert-like food and so among the following countries where would you go: America, Germany, Netherlands (I will admit to having first written Neverlands... the Disney in me will forever live on), Italy, France, Morocco, China, Japan, ... any guesses? Well I can tell you a few good countries to go to, but my personal choice offered Caramel Fleur de Sel (Salted Caramel) ice-cream in a waffle cone. The language should give it away, but if you're still stumped: France. They had a picturesque showcase of sweets including (but not limited to!!) almond croissants, chocolate mousse, apple tarts, cookies, chocolate brioches, and cakes. I plan to make a trip there next time. With regards to attractions at Epcot, we went into a Michael Jackson 3-D theatre adventure called Captain EO (nothing like what I was expecting ... a little weird but interesting), The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Spaceship Earth, and Test Track (my FAVORITE of the day). The first three were more story-based and "informatively fun" whereas the last was more thrilling and innovative (ie create and test your own car). After having walked so much, I called it a night and headed back home to whip up a quick dinner: chicken parm and veggies with angel hair pasta. My roommates were watching We Bought a Zoo (with Matt Damon) and so I joined them (even though the movie was halfway over). I do recommend that you watch the movie. One quote that really stuck out to me was one which my Pastor in DC quotes in his own book The Circle Maker: "You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it." The quote coursed through me and decided to take its place inside of me... I think we should all live by this because courage can create. It can build. It can become. Besides, it IS only 20 seconds. Once the movie was over, I was up, in the kitchen baking a quick batch of peanut butter blossoms (pb cookies with chocolate hershey kisses baked on top). I literally just threw together what I correctly assumed to be appropriate portions of peanut butter, sugar, egg, and salt, thumb-printed all of them, kissed each and every one, baked them, and shared. I made a cup of hot cocoa as well, but I think a cup of cold milk would have been more refreshing. That put a nice sweet end to the night. Finally having a Sunday off, I went to church in celebration FL and was greeted by some very welcoming members of the church. I was also invited to one of their bible studies, but I've yet to figure out my work schedule before making any commitments! Following the church service, I did a bit of Disney Christmas shopping and may have even gone overboard a bit... But I could have spent more if I wasn't a cast member sooo that's my argument. I returned home famished and put together a taco-like dish which I've explained in my last picture. No idea what tomorrow holds, but that's the great promise of the future: it's always a wonderful mystery. Third day on the job and I'm still loving it! I finished earlier today and was able to eat lunch with everyone else because they finished a little before me rather than an hour before me! Prepping yesterday and having a little bit of help really helped me finish at 12:20. The employees there are really fun as well. Each person has their own personality - as it goes - but it's still a good crowd. I like the more overt people because they show their fun side (ex. singing while chopping - why not??!) The afternoon was the same clean-up schedule as the last two days, but with a more relaxed atmosphere than the workload before lunch. You've really got to be on your toes with these diets and incorporate tricks into how you prepare for them and prepare them. For instance, shopping' for groceries (in the produce cooler) and having your own cart of produce for the diets is much more efficient than constantly walking over to the cooler and grabbing new items. Also, some diets are identical and so can be done simultaneously. There are many other tricks too.
Surprisingly, after work, I was feeling rather energetic so I did some cardio and weight lifting at the gym. Then, I went back home and after cleaning up some, turned on Norah Jones and started cooking my new recipe for this week: http://thetolerantvegan.com/2011/08/baked-eggplant-burgers/ ... I switched out the green pepper for carrots, added spinach, added a small amount of dried parsley, oregano, tumeric, paprika, onion and garlic powders, more cumin, and pepper (basically I was having fun). I didn't have any pine nuts nor breadcrumbs so I just left them out. Might help some with binding, but I think they turned out alright. By the time they were done, it was 7:30 so I made a spinach salad with homemade vinegarette (honey, olive oil, whole grain mustard, salt, and fresh lemon juice ... you could add chives or green onions too if you have those in the fridge). I ended up with 5 veggie burgers by the way... For dessert, I pureed some frozen bananas to make the simple 1 ingredient banana ice-cream and topped it with PB2 and water as well as some mini chocolate chips. But now my body and mind know that it's almost 8:30 pm and I'm quickly getting tired. So I shall say my goodbyes and goodnight now. PS #1 Research day tomorrow PS #2 Disney Animal Kingdom (DAK) tomorrow after work with my 3 co-workers/the other animal nutrition interns! PS #3 I will be posting pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned. Sleep well. Between yesterday and today, I've already put in half of my week of work! Two more days and I'll be at my 40 hours with 5 days off and then 4 days of training. Once I become trained in all areas, they'll put me on a regular weekly schedule where I won't end up with 5 days off while still completing a 40 hour work week. Yesterday I started on Prep station 1 where all of the primate diets are prepared along with the bat diets. Work starts at 5 with a quick meeting and then we all get to work: deliveries, dish area, or food prep. I will be doing the same station tomorrow, but will be 'turned loose' with some supervision from the sidelines. Preparing the primate and bat diets involves a lot of weighing and chopping vegetables, weighing frozen foods, cutting and weighing formulated pellets or gels, etc. But I LOVE it! I love food. And working around it always makes me happy I guess. I also really love chopping and working with a sharp knife; that smooth chopping and mincing action took a long while for me to really acquire. What I've learned is that it not only takes practice, but a good strong butcher's knife!
During my drive home (which involved a nice stream of sunlight, warm air, windows down, Christian radio station blasting) I was debating on exercising or running, but being on my feet for literally 10 hours... I decided to hang out on the hammock in the pool area and journal. It was lovely. Afterwards I came back home to clean up a bit and bake my banana bread. I took the recipe from http://realfoodoutlaws.com/soaked-banana-bread-2/ and divided it in two because it was so big. I ended up adding a bit more spices (cloves, pumpkin pie spice), used olive oil instead of butter or coconut oil, used 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white sugar, used yogurt and my sweedish kefir and almond milk instead of just kefir (soaked that overnight with 2 parts whole wheat flour and 1 part white flour and the 3 bananas), and added flax seeds. I cooked it in two pans for almost an hour and it's very soft. When I opened the oven I thought I actually burned it, but it's still very soft so I think I just added too much liquid or yogurt. Well, it still tastes really good. Good thing it's healthy!! I've still got a million over-ripe bananas and so will surely be making banana oatmeal, banana ice-cream (peel, slice, freeze, puree = ice-cream), and perhaps this: http://www.keepitsweetdesserts.com/banana-brownie-chunk-greek-frozen-yogurt/. I know I still haven't posted pictures of my apartment nor of my Disney costume so I will get around to that soon. But 8-8:30 PM means bedtime for me! Until next time. Today was just as the titles reads; today was a Sabbath day (from Disney, at least). I slept in until 8, had breakfast, started reading the Book of Isaiah, and worked out at the gym. I went simple for lunch: sliced apple, chips and carrots with hummus, and leftover mashed potatoes (well they had to be eaten soo..)
After lunch, I went to target and publix to pick up some things, though mostly food. You throw some girls in a mall and they can shop for hours. Throw me into a grocery store and I do just the same. And I buy more than I need. Though I can still go through it all without anything going rotten or sour... My new ingredient for the week is Panang ginger curry (http://www.target.com/p/archer-farms-panang-ginger-curry-simmer-sauce-11-8floz/-/A-14655058). I'll turn that into something this week. Shopping took so long that it was time to start cooking dinner and dessert. For my new recipe of the week, I made a calzone with eggplant, summer squash, spinach, tomatoes, onion, green onion, cottage cheese, parm cheese, 6 cheese blend, garlic and onion powder, basil, parsley, and salt and pepper. It was so large that I could only eat half and save the other half for tomorrow. And since I loveee tomato sauce, I portioned myself a warm cup alongside my calzone. For dessert, I made a healthy pumpkin spice, 5 bread pudding. Another 'first time' recipe! The only thing it really needs is vanilla ice-cream. :) For the next four days, I'll be working 4am - 5pm so posts may be non-existent or just short. Happy weekend! As promised, I've posted the long awaited pictures below.
As for today, work started at 8:00 and ended at 12:00. It consisted of knife skills and online training. The knife skills portion was really interesting. It was a basic, relaxed instruction on how to use a few knives, but there were some tips that I never considered before. For example, when you cut, you should cut diagonally or angle your hand/arm toward the opposite end (diagonally) of the cutting board. Another crucial part of knife skills is to curl your fingers in for the hand that is not cutting. And make sure to keep your thumb behind your pointer finger as well. This way, you'll minimize the risk of cutting your fingers off! Unless, of course, you're looking to lose a few fingers... Afterward we continued with our online training and once lunchtime hit it was off from work and onto Hollywood Studios! My favorite part of the park was the Tower of Terror and the 3-D Muppet Show. I remembered a bit of the the Muppet Show from when I was young and so I just had to see it and I still love it to this day! We saw several shows and went on the Star Tours ride. My first time on the ride in years and I was the REBEL SPY!! Crazy cool :). But my presence on the space ship put everyone else in imminent danger. So, of course, we had to zip away and make sure that Darth Vader didn't capture us! We got away, no worries. Next time I plan to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Enjoy the pictures! When we last left off I was facing a flat tire and rather bad evening. Our attempted trip to the mall was a complete fail as well. Thankfully, my roommate let me borrow her car for my first full day of work/training. That day (Tuesday) I went in at 5 AM and was introduced to the lab and food prep stations, sat down for a powerpoint presentation about the research conducted at the nutrition center as well as the former interns who helped, learned about certain procedures and the associated equipment, and more. Surprisingly enough, I was not really tired after work (4 pm). During that time, I got my tire fixed and then drove back home to start dinner: chicken merlot with veggies served over a bed of mashed potatoes! Always a good dish of mine <3.
My second day of work consisted entirely of deliveries; I helped deliver all of the diets to all of the species in Disney's Animal Kingdom. I was throwing down hay, lugging bags of pellets, stacking fresh diets, and carrying different browse. I LOVED IT! I was able to see so many different animals at a closer distance than usual and even got to hear some fun facts about them. Though, as fun as the day was, it was exhausting; once I settled down I realized how tired I was. Nevertheless, I kept myself awake and once the girls came home we all went to the mall. By the time we got back, I was just about as dead as a doorknob. Today was likely one of the most exciting days that I've had in Florida since I've moved here. The day first started with homemade healthy and fluffy banana pancakes that I made for myself and two of my roommates who weren't working today. Despite waking up at 7 and getting about 9 hours of sleep, I was still really tired from the day before. After breakfast we headed out to get some work uniforms and then drove to Magic Kingdom. By the time we got in, it was lunchtime. Sooo we went to Be Our Guest Restaurant where I got some deliciously cheesy french onion soup. The restaurant is laid out so that the main dining room is the ballroom and the two smaller rooms (Belle's room and the West Wing) are attached. After lunch we went on a ride about the tale of Ariel The Little Mermaid, then on It's a Small World (After All), and then Big Thunder Mountain. We got some Dole Whip Twists (Pineapple soft serve twisted with vanilla) afterwards and advanced to the parade to dance! My roommate was lucky in that she got pulled in to dance with Frozone from the Incredibles! Once the party was over we headed to tomorrowland and went into a Monsters Inc comedy show. Our last ride was at space mountain and I've got to admit it was pretty WICKED. We would have stayed longer but once the sun left it got really chilly. Although it's FL, the temperature can still be fairly low. Today it was about 56 degrees at the highest, but the gusts of wind made it feel even colder. Tomorrow is a short training shift at work where I will be practicing my knife skills and doing some online training. Following, I'll be heading to Hollywood Studios with a co-worker and won't have work again until Sunday. I promise I will put up pictures tomorrow or Saturday! But until then, you will have to wait! You know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming... just keep swimming... just keep swimming swimming swimming. What do we do? We swim. SWIM. *Breaks into opera* "
Had a great day today, but the evening ... not so much. Got a flat tire through my car just sitting in the parking lot soooo my evening could have gone much better. Will post pictures tomorrow and explain things a bit more. Work starts at 5 tomorrow so I've got to be up in 7 hours! Before I dive into my day, I think I need to backtrack and explain some things about my past two posts. First of all - thank you dad for asking - why would I want to buy skin milk completely inoculated with bacteria??! Well, funny you should ask. We have billions of bacteria in our guts that help us digest our food every of the day. They have the ability to break down several nutrients that our bodies may not break down as efficiently. And so, if I can eat something to inoculate my own gut and assist with digestion, I'm in!
My next point(s) is(are) that I was very tired by the time I posted yesterday so I could have explained some things a bit more. That being said, my next point is that the peanut butter that I put into my crepes was not the typical peanut butter that we buy at the shop. It was PB2 (http://www.pb-too.com) with a little extra water. Aside from having fewer calories and a lower fat content, it works really well as a peanut butter topping simply by adding extra water. It also blends really well in smoothies rather than just clumping up like normal peanut butter does. Okayyy sooo for today. It was a fairly busy, longish day. Training lasted from 8 am to 5 pm and included a good deal of talking, watching videos, answering questions, etc. There weren't any fun prizes, but we WERE learning about safety, the Disney company, etc so I guess it comes with the territory. After work my roommate drove me to get my car. It started up perfectly fine and looked alright, but once I got 'her' on the road, she started squeaking ... A LOT. And still vibrating while driving. I was sooo upset and thought I'd have to leave my car with them again. Right when I was getting out of my car to go to Wal-Mart (to finally get a spare key), I noticed that my emergency break was up ... hmm .... Yup I felt kind of dumb. BUT I never use it so I never pay attention to it. Long story short, everything went swimmingly well during my drive back home after that lil' incident. At this point, I was starving so I pulled together a veggie 'alfredo' dish: angel hair whole wheat pasta, parm cheese, spinach, roasted red peppers, smoked (yes and you should buy them and cook with them!!) sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, that Swedish form of Kefir (Filmjolk), and garlic powder, all topped with salt and pepper. It was a low-fat alfredo pasta and it was DELICIOUS. Paired with a glass of wine. Yum. And now I'm watching the golden globes with my roommates! Time to be a bit more engaged! Chao! P.S. The picture in the one photo was painted by my mother Lauren Anderson <3 |
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February 2017
"Food is an infinitely rich subject, and there's always something about it to understand better, something new to discover, a fresh source of interest, ideas, and delight."
From Pennsylvania to France to Washington DC to Florida, I've had myself many an adventure. Now it's time to indulge in the life of a Floridian. With great food, great friends, and great experiences, I offer you stories and pictures to take you away, into my world at Disney. Categories |