Update!!

Hey everyone. I really don't have much pictures or anything really big going on right now so how about I fill you in on the little stuff as far as what has been going on in my life....



I just finished school and I am waiting for my grades that are supposed to be coming out on Thursday. I keep checking the website encase one teacher decided they want to submit early (which is driving me a bit bonkers). I am trying to enjoy my time off but I keep thinking that I need to turn a paper in or some homework is due. What stress huh?!



I am also looking to decorate some more. I have a lot of wall space now and I am thinking about getting some mardi gras masks like in the picture below. I was thinking about different colors red or gold would be pretty. I am not sure yet but I might go visit New Orleans this summer and I am bound to find masks there.




I also want to get some pictures for my kitchen. I like this series of photos by fat chef. Every picture has a little doggie in it and I think it is really cute. Take a look...





Other things on my mind... I found out that my YOUNGER sister is having a baby and I was pissed at first but now I am excited as ever. I thought oh crap what is going to happen? Is she going to be ok? What if something goes wrong? But you know what, I will leave that up to God and what he decided for her. I can't wait to see what he/she looks like. I bet it's going to be a blondie! Hopefully I can go for the birth and hopefully other family members can go too. It's a big change in our family. Another generation will be added. Kind of cool to think about.



I am also trying this new diet thing and if it works I will post something about it later but I don't want to get all excited and then it not work. So to be continued....



My work is doing good. I am finally in the rhythm of things and maybe sometime soon I am going to learn how to read plans. I am a little excited about that. Now that I live further I am unable to go home for lunch so I just go upstairs and eat. I did go to the library today and looked around. I got 2 books: The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman ( it is about a zoo keeper's wife that helps Jews during the Holocaust ) and Cirque Du Freak ( a vampire tale).



Speaking of vampires I am waiting for the new season of True Blood to come on in June and I saw a little sneak peak last week and wow was it good! Here is a poster for the new season. It is basically about a waitress that meets a vampire at her job and it is at a time where the vampires have come out and said "WE DO EXIST" haha. It is really great and it come on HBO so I highly recommend it. That's about it for now. Maybe some more post in the near future....

Fish Cakes

I'm back again with another recipe. This time I made fish cakes. I had my uncle over one Saturday and I didn't really have anything in my freezer but chicken and fish so since I was sick of chicken I chose the fish. He liked it and I liked it except for a few things I would change the next time I made it. This is what I did....

Ingredients:
Italian bread crumbs, mayo, one egg, cayenne pepper, dill, emeril's essence, butter, salt and parsley

I used tilapia but I bet you could use any kind of flaky fish. It taste all the same to me.

The first thing I did was poach the fish for 4 mins. Just put the fish into simmering water..

Then into a bowl to add the rest of the ingredients

I used a spatula to mix everything together and by this time it was smelling really good.

Form the mix into 4 patties and put into the fridge for 30 minutes. That way when you take them off the plate, they won't stick as much.

After 30 mins get out your butter and coat the pan with that yummy stuff.

Fry those babies for 5 minutes each on low to med heat. You have to watch them because they can burn fast.

CLOSEUP!!!

Comments on how to do it differently and improve: Don't use salt next time, and be sure to use low heat when cooking.

Moving...Again

So most of you know that I have moved to a new place. It is all that I want and then some. I will save that for another entry but this one is for a little stroll down memory lane. To finally say good bye to the other apartment. My First love....NOT!!

So I thought it would be a good idea to show you some things in my last apartment that I loved or hated.

First: My stove- I loved this stove and I am really going to miss it and the fact that it is gas and not electric. I love gas stoves. I didn't like that it didn't have any counter space next to it.


I LOATHE this dumb thing !! When I turned it on the back room would only get freezing cold while the rest of the house was boiling during the summer. I have central heating and air conditioning now. YIPPEE!!


I hate this kitchen. Only one person can fit in this thing comfortably. The counter space was awful but the sink was a good size. Oh and I forgot about the no dishwasher. What a nightmare.

Even though you can't see it, this was the door to my laundry room. I had to go through 2 locked doors to get to inside that sucker. If you forgot your keys upstairs, you have to go back up and get them before anyone came down and started their laundry. Now I have a washer and dryer in the unit. It is perfect.

One word: QUARTERS

If you didn't have quarters you didn't do laundry. What a pain and I still had to pay a water bill.

One thing I will miss is the postal service across the street. You could walk to the mailers if you needed to mail anything right away.

Someone to take out the garbage on trash day. Now where I live sometimes it piles up and is totally disgusting.

More to come later. If you want tell me some good and bad about your apartments of your past.

RAZOOOOOOO!!

Here there everyone. I just wanted to share with you a great restaurant that I went to with my brother and his wife. It was a spur of the moment thing but boy was it good. This place is off of 59 and it took me about 50 minutes to drive there. My brother kept telling me that it was worth it and it was! I also thing my sister would love this place because of the graphics and crazy things on the wall.
This is the menu. It had lot of good stuff on it. Red Beans, Jambalaya, fried everything.

My sis would love this!! Kinda crazy.

Oh and these babies are WOW!!! These are fired pickles. At first I thought that it was too gross to eat but them my brother told me if I didn't eat one he would throw me off the roof!! Just kidding....He said I would love it so I tried it and WOW! AN EXPLOSION IN YOUR MOUTH!! It was strangely good especially with ranch. I suggest trying some one day.

My brother and I shared both of our plates and as you can see here, it was so good I almost forgot to take a picture before I started to eat. We shared a shrimp poboy....

And a fried plate. It had fish, shrimp, hush puppies, french fries and corn. It was really good.

CLOSE UP!! Nice an flaky!

My Cultural Experience

Wow, has it been a crazy year so far or what?! Yes I know I haven't let you in on anything in probably 2 months or more but it has been a world win of craziness. First thing that happened is that I went back to school. I work 40 hours and then go to class at night. ( Can someone say exhausting?!)Then a position opened up at work that I was given. (Can you say exhausting?!) But that was worth it. I love what I do. I have been wanting to be this for several years now. And then lastly I am n\moving next week and so I have to get everything transferred, cutoff and packed up ( Can you say exhausting?!). Ok enough with the exhausting crap let start this entry.




One of my classes is speech. In this class we had an assignment called "My Cultural Experience". In this assignment we had to pick a culture different that our own and experience something in that culture. (Food, Religion, Ceremony). Some examples would be the Hong Kong market or a Buddhist temple or...



Going to a Vietnamese restaurant, like I did. I went to PHO SAI GON. It is a restaurant in the montrose area and after experiencing it we put it on a slide show and talk about it for 3-5 mins. I am just going to tell you about my experience. I had some good and strange food. Here we go...




First we ate with these:








We started off with some Green Tea. Very refreshing.

The cups were tiny.

Then Vietnamese egg roll.

CLOSEUP: It is filled with vermicelli, carrot, prong, crab meat and served with fish sauce.

Next we has pho, it is a type of soup. It has chicken or beef, parsley, vermicelli, green onion and comes with sides to put in it.


Sides: Mint ( loved this stuff, it was a nice ying and yang thing going on)

This dish is basically meat (steak) and rice with a side of veggies.

In Vietnamese tradition you are served a big plate for everyone. Then you have a little bowl that you put a little bit of steak, rice and veggies. Then a little fish sauce on top. It was so good. No greasy or heavy. That is what I really liked about this. I was full but not full and sleepy.

Lastly I had dessert. It was strange. It was made of gelatin (green), tapioca (red), and shaved ice with coconut milk. It tasted good because I like coconut but the texture was not very appealing.

CLOSEUP- worms!!! ( just kidding it the dessert)

So what I learned from the Vietnamese culture is basically:

1. Why the women are so skinny.

2. They are very gracious

3. Use nothing but fresh ingredients.