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." |
Happy October friends! After my Aunt and Uncle left, I had my next day off and took a bit of a breather from a full week of Disney and work. I was left with several leftovers from our dining events the night before, but still had to prepare for the full 4 days of serving at Rainforest Cafe. But before we even think about that, let me tell you about a Chinese dinner adventure. It was one of my friend's birthdays and one of our family friends (who used to live in China) offered to host a dinner party with a Chinese theme. They made chicken and salmon dim sum, fried and steamed chicken dumplings, vegetable chow fun in a phad thai sauce, an amazing spicy coconut soup with chicken, tofu, and vegetables, white rice, cookies and crackers, pocky sticks, a fizzy juice drink, iced tea, and then chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream for dessert. I've never had a real Chinese dinner (take-out does NOT count - doesn't even apply) and my stomach felt pretty wonderful afterward (other than full). It was a real treat and really sweet of the family to put so much effort into the dinner party. The next morning, I busted out my cookware (do I ever not?), knife, and cutting board and started making meals for the work days ahead. I made pollock fish three ways: 1. with pesto and roasted garlic spice, parmesan cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes 2. with cream cheese and roasted coriander, splash of fresh lemon juice 3. with McCormick's Tuscan spice mix, splash of fresh lemon Then I minced and sauteed some garlic, which soon went into my boiled and mashed red-skinned potatoes, along with sour cream, roasted garlic spice, salt, and pepper. In the need of a vegetable, I simply pulled from my freezer storage and heated up some broccoli. That lasted me for the full work week and past it even. I also had a pasta mixture of whole wheat rotini, skinned and sauteed gala apples, craisins, and butternut squash sauce from ALDI. In addition to these dishes, I had a chickpea, tomato, corn salsa dish with a small bit of multi-colored quinoa. So yes the mashed potatoes are still waiting to be eaten to their entirety. In fact, upon returning home and making pot roast (in next post), I ended up throwing them out. Usually I'm not one to do this (and I should have known better)... Actually, freezing dairy improperly can cause ice crystals to form throughout the milk, which puncture the fat globule membranes. And what do you end up with? A separated mess of molecules with a terrible texture and, as a result, unappealing taste. The point? Don't freeze dairy unless you're making ice-cream or frozen yogurt! Alrighty soooo I leave you with a few pictures of food and several pictures from my wild africa trek (WAT)! Read quickly, because I've got a week's worth of vacation to post about :).
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Now WHERE has the time gone?? It's already been two and a half weeks since my last post! Well ... I've been busy. Haven't you? Where I last left you, I was beaming over the great experience I had at the Sleeping Moon Cafe. I've still yet to go back, as it IS a 45 minute trek. Not too long after that, my roomies and I had a house-warming party. I made homemade meatballs (with onion and garlic in them) with a side of teriyaki dipping sauce as well as fried mashed potato balls: literally just make homemade mashed potatoes and round them into balls, roll in a panko and parm cheese mixture, and pan fry. They are almost like latkes but with a twist. A bit of time later, I was planning an all-girl's sleepover at a friend's house. We made a cajun shrimp, pepper, and onion sautee with brown rice and cilantro and olives, citrus fruit in vanilla greek yogurt, and crockpot apple cobbler crisp a la mode for dessert. There is no question in my mind whether or not I should make that delectable apple dessert again!! The most interesting and fun of events has been my Aunt and Uncle's visit from NJ. Wednesday night after I got out of work and they got back from a quick visit to Magic Kingdom, we met up at Epcot to go tour the World Showcase and sample for the Food and Wine Festival. I believe we tried at least 6 or 7 different countries and we did it in the best way! Wondering how? Simple. Agree on what you should order, grab three eating utensils, and? DIG IN. In other words, share each small plate so that you can 1. Save money and 2. Try more food! It turns out my Uncle is a big sweets kind of a guy so our first purchase was a sweet one. I made sure to post all of the pictures of the food and the menu before each so you can all get a better idea of exactly what we tried. The next day my Aunt and I went to the Animal (Pet) Products Trade Show at the Contemporary Resort. There were stands for all sorts of pet needs: fish tanks, LED lights, fun castles and aquatic homes; cat and dog toys, food, beds; cages for rodents and lagomorphs (bunnies!); etc. It was really interesting to see this side of the industry and especially how excited my aunt was as well as knowledgeable about the field of all things pet-related. I mean she owns her own pet store and it's been running for 25 years! At the beginning of the trade show there were two short films that were filmed by a father and son who, with their rescued poodles and (I believe) golden doodles, won America's Got Talent. After the films, every dog performed. I tried to capture some of their tricks on camera and posted them below. They were AMAZING. And the story was so touching. The father (of 22 children), who started working at the age of 5, started sort of collecting and thus rescuing several stray dogs. His parents noticed that he had a knack for training them and over time this little boy became a dog trainer who traveled for performances. It was his dream to go to the U.S. and after so many years, that opportunity came to pass and he's been showing his dogs with his son to this day. (O and he became a citizen of the US around 2010, about which he is VERY happy :) ). Later that night, my Aunt and Uncle had the Festival of the Seasons at Epcot and I returned home to prepare for a three day stretch of waitressing. When I say 'prepare', I mean cook a bunch of food from my stock of groceries. My random, yet hearty and 'autumny' concoction of food for work included: roasted sweet potatoes and yellow squash, multi-colored quinoa, chickpeas, spinach, chicken broth, milk, sour cream, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Random but rather goooood! Saturday night after work, my Aunt and I went to Hollywood Studios to meet up with my Uncle who was running the 10 miler that night. While waiting we rode Toy Story TWICE without any wait time!! Crazy. That ride has a typical wait time of 60 minutes - 'has reached maximum capacity for the day'. Once my uncle finished, we went over to the Tower of Terror and rode that. In need of a bit of fast fuel, we all shared a large white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and purple chocolate-filled mickey macaroon. I also purchased a cup of hot chocolate since it was actually kind of chilly! Oh don't worry, the warmth has come back and it brought the humidity with it too... Sunday night I rushed out of work and met my Aunt and Uncle at Sanaa for dinner (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/animal-kingdom-villas-kidani/sanaa/). If you recall, I've been here each with my sister (Ashley) and best friend (Becky) for lunch. To start off, my uncle ordered a specially crafted margarita (his favorite kind of drink) and I ordered a very smooth, red African wine. For our appetizer, we split the Naan bread service: naan with 9 dips served on a bread board. Then for dinner, we split basmati and wild rices with butter chicken, beef that had fallen off the bones and cooked in red wine, a spicy chicken curry dish, and shrimp and scallops in a creamy spicy sauce. And THEN dessert: a trio of strawberry gelato, banana cheesecake, and chocolate mousse as well as an actual order of banana cheesecake. The meal was so good it was almost sinful. Finally, I was off from work and able to spend a whole day with my aunt and uncle. So we started off at Animal Kingdom. I took them backstage to show them the animal nutrition center and the hospital (but we couldn't traverse into the hospital because a hyena was in there getting a check-up! ... Yep we are getting hyenas in at Animal Kingdom!!). Afterward, we went on Expedition Everest and then grabbed a quick bite to eat. Sooner than we knew it, it was time for our Wild Africa Trek where we were harnessed up, walking on bridges over the hippos and crocodiles, brought over to watch a hippo feeding, driven around on the safari to learn about the animals, and brought to a small building where we ate and watched the hoofstock (wildebeest, ankole cattle), elephants, and flamingos run around. It was quite the adventure! And then it was on to Downtown Disney! We started off our evening adventure at T-rex for dinner, with an appetizer of onion rings, quesadillas, bruchetta, and chips with a chili con queso cheese dip. It was a three-tiered appetizer. My aunt ordered a french onion soup, of which we all sampled. And for dinner my aunt and uncle ordered burgers and I ordered a salad. A few bites in and we were all full. So I ended up with a bunch of leftovers, including a free sandwich from Earl of Sandwich! (When you sign up you get a free sandwich and then another one for when your birthday comes around!) This sandwich had turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mayo (could have done without the mayo), with possibly swiss cheese. But this I saved for the next day. (remember, we were stuffed from dinner). Nevertheless, we still found room for dessert at ghirardelli's where we ordered a hot fudge brownie sundae and split it 3 ways. After a bunch of shopping and walking around, we called it a night. Which brings us to Tuesday: we went to Hollywood Studios! And we fit a WHOLE lot in for being there only until 1:30 PM: Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Frozen Show, Rockin' Roller Coaster, and a street show. I feel like we did more, but my brain is just about mush right now. After the RRC, I drove them back to their hotel and brought my tired butt to the gym. It was a really reallly great set of days with my aunt and uncle and I can only thank them a million times over for coming down and spending time with me!! I love you guys! Well folks, I've got myself another string of work coming up, but in 1 week and 2 days I shall finally be home (for a week). And there will be many a story to tell, but until then I bid you Adieu! PS More pictures to come! |
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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 |