Español 102

I am a student again! How exciting!

So.... my boyfriend is Mexican and his family alternates between speaking English and Spanish when they get together. Because I took 3, 4, 5, 12 (I don't know, I have lost count at this point) semesters of Spanish throughout high school and college I can recall enough to understand them perfectly fine. Ok, not PERFECTLY. There are words here and there that I get hung up on, but I can understand enough to get the gist of what they are talking about. For the most part.

I signed up for the second level Spanish course at one of the city colleges in the area in hopes that getting back into a classroom atmosphere will allow me to practice my speaking and beef up my grammar. Not to mention that whole accountability thing. Since I have shelled out the money for this class it gives me an incentive to show up rather than sit on the couch during the harsh winter nights which haven't been that bad considering it is mid January. On second thought, let's not challenge Mother Nature.

In other news, I have been extremely overwhelmed at work this week and am looking forward to recouping over the weekend and getting back in the swing of blogging next week. Stay with me people! I am new on the scene, but promise not to let you down :)

U.S. Travel Destinations

I have done a fair amount of traveling abroad, but I have done very little travel within the U.S. save for a few business trips. I have such a desire to see the world and yet I tend to ignore the country I live in when I am making destination plans. Below is a list of the top 15 places within the U.S. that I hope to visit within the next five to ten years. God, that sounds like such a long time frame. Actually, ten years and 15 destinations might be a little ambitious considering I plan on doing international travel during that time as well. Although, a lot of those places can be knocked out at the same time or can be quick weekend trips.

• New Orleans
• Seattle
• Nashville
• Austin
• Louisville (Andrew, I promise I will make it for the Kentucky Derby soon!)
• Portland
• Denver/Colorado
• Memphis
• St. Louis
• Cincinnati
• Atlanta
• Miami (I have a feeling this one will be the first off the list)
• Washington D.C. (Actually, this one might be first off the list... depends on if Caroline moves or my brother graduates first)
• Maine (for lobster!)
• Boston*
• New York*

The asterisks mark the two places on the list I have previously visited, but am dying to visit again. 

In other news, I made chili for the first time last night in preparation for a chili cook-off my friend, Flo, is hosting next month and it was a semi-flop. The recipe I used called for 3 tablespoons of chili powder which looked like a HUGE amount next to the rest of the spices it called for. It also called for a sizeable amount of cumin and minced chilis in adobo sauce. I should have trusted my instincts because, as you can imagine, the dish turned out to be overpoweringly smokey. I could barely taste any of the other ingredients in the chili so the recipe will definitely need to be tweaked before it is contest eligible. I will say though that the addition of unsweetened chocolate added a layer of flavor I did not know could exist in chili. If anyone reading this has any chili secrets, I would love to hear them! :)

I Don't Know Any Fat Vegetarians

It's true! I need to stop eating meat completely...

In all seriousness though, I started to cut back on meat a few years ago when I was trying to lose weight. I didn't do this on purpose, it just sort of happened over time because most of the really good recipes involving meat also involved butter, oil, frying, breading and other things that weren't conducive to maintaining a low calorie diet. I know there are a ton of techniques that can yield bold flavor with lesser calories (braising, slow cooking, roasting) but I wasn't that advanced of a cook at the time. Filling my diet with fresh fruits and veggies was not only healthy, but it also opened my eyes to a variety of foods I never would have thought to try before.

Generally speaking, I think there is a common misconception surrounding vegetarian food and cooking. People tend to think that vegetarian dishes consist solely of lettuce and carrots. However, I find it to be more abundant than any meat-centric diet I have ever been on. I feel such a burst of excitement rush through my veins when I walk into a fresh foods market. I am sure walking down the aisles I look like I am attending an intensive tennis match. Pumpkins! Tomatoes! Beets! Parsnips! Apples! Mangos! It is hard to control myself. I am getting excited just typing those words.

I have recently discovered butternut squash. I have tried it this way and give it an A++ for taste and ease. If you are looking for a way to try butternut squash, I recommend trying that or the recipe below. The recipe below is from Vegetarian Times and yields 6 servings. Because I am only cooking for myself, I used the recipe below as a guide and just sort of winged it. I included the amounts I used in parenthesis next to the original amounts and it was enough for me to enjoy for dinner and lunch the next day.

Butternut Squash—Bartlett Pear Soup
Vegetarian Times Issue: November 1, 2009 
Serves 6 

Ingredients

• 3 Tbs. olive oil (I used cooking spray)
• 2 medium leeks, white and tender green parts finely chopped (3 cups) (I used 1 leek)
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 lb.) (I used 1 because my squash was very small)
• 3 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces (11/2 lb.) (I used 1)
• 5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (I used about 3)
• 1 14-oz. can light coconut milk (I used 1/2 cup)
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
• Pumpkin seeds for garnish, optional (I toasted the seeds from the butternut squash, salted them, and used those)

Directions

• Heat oil in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add leeks, and cook 10 minutes, or until soft, stirring often.
• Add squash and pears, and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in vegetable broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and add salt, if desired. Simmer 20 minutes, or until squash is fork-tender.
• Remove from heat, and stir in coconut milk. Purée soup in batches in blender or food processor, or use immersion blender in saucepan; blend until smooth. Return soup to saucepan, and stir in thyme. Reheat over medium-low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until warmed through. Season with salt and white pepper, if desired. Serve garnished with pumpkin seeds, if using.

Slacking already

Oh, goodness! We are a week into 2010 and I haven't posted anything new yet. I am not exactly sure what route I am going to take with this blog, but I need a shtick. My main purpose for starting this blog was to give myself a forum where I can write on a consistent basis about whatever comes to mind, but I have come to realize that I need a common theme or some sort of categorization for my posts or I probably won't acquire repeat readers. I mean, no one starts a blog if they do not want people to read it right? Although, rather than wasting time not posting while I try to figure out what direction to take, I figure if I just start writing as often as possible this blog might end up taking a road on its own. So, as I craft and shape this blog over the next several weeks, I hope you decide to stay with me.

New Year's Resolutions

I read a celebrity interview around this time last year where the interviewee said he was against the idea of New Year's Resolutions because he felt anything that you were vowing to change in the New Year you probably should have changes six months prior. I think it was Will Smith that said this, but I can't say for sure. I did a half-assed Google search to try and find the article and came across a different article from AskMen.com called Top 10: New Year's Resolutions All Men Should Make. Here they are in case you don't want to click away and read the whole thing.

10. Build a shelf
9. Read a big book (I have an issue with this one)
8. Make an appointment for a checkup
7. Attend a career conference
6. Devote more time to your hobbies
5. Do P90X
4. Open a savings account
3. Conquer a fear
2. Help someone else
1. Visit a new destination

Aside from #9, I felt this was a good list for the ladies too and am going to incorporate some of these into my existing resolutions. I particularly like #3 and am in the process of conquering a fear right now. If all goes according to plan, this will be completed by mid-2010. Here is a list of a few other resolutions I probably should have been doing six months ago, but didn't think of until now.

1. Network more
2. Do the splits
3. Worry less about money
4. Travel more often
5. Learn Spanish (for real this time)
6. Take better care of my skin
7. Be a better friend
8. Be more patient
9. Stop cursing (this will undoubtedly be the most difficult one)
10. Keep up this blog :]

Happy New Year!

And we're off!

Like most (most? many? some? any?) people I couldn't wait to graduate college and get my career started. Don't get me wrong, I loved college life, but I got to a point where I was tired of interning and wanted to make my own money, have my own desk, dress up to go to work, and have my own business cards. I know, right? Don't I feel stupid now! Aside from interning, I'd never had a desk job. I always had active jobs working directly with people. For a decade I was a swim instructor/lifeguard. I was also an aquatics supervisor, a snowboard instructor (are we sensing a pattern here), and an assistant photographer for a company that specialized in school portraits. I never realized how mind-numbing sitting behind a computer for 8 hours a day could be. After all, the longest I ever spent behind a desk while interning was a couple of hours, two times a week. I had the misconception that cube life wasn't so bad. Now, I am not trying to knock my job because there are plenty of aspects I enjoy about it. I just can't take the sitting. All. Day. Long. For someone like me, a desk job is not conducive to creativity and I would like to exercise the right side of my brain more often. That is one of my New Year's Resolutions and I figured there is no point in waiting until 2010 to jump on it.

But enough about that... my boyfriend got me a food processor for Christmas (!) and my mother gave me a new digital camera. I plan on using both to populate this blog with recipes from my kitchen and photos of my travels. One of the perks of my job is that I get a lot of vacation time and personal holidays. The emails I write while on vacation are always well received by my friends and family and I would love to have a space to share those experiences with other people that may be traveling to the same places or, like me, just want to take a vacation at their desk every once in awhile.

As for the recipe portion of this blog, I am not a trained chef nor am I a foodie, but I cook daily for myself because I love to eat and the kitchen is the one room in the house where I feel most at home. Over the years I have had as many flops in the kitchen as successes but I am not afraid to try new foods or alter a recipe and I welcome your ideas, recipe suggestions, and comments. I think the thing I love most about cooking is that it exercises each of your five senses. I love the sound onions and garlic make while sautéing in olive oil as much as the smell they emit throughout the house. I have been known to spend hours in the grocery store molesting the produce in an attempt to find the firmest green pepper or the ripest mango. I even like (I can't believe I am about to type this) doing the dishes. I love transforming the kitchen from an absolute war zone back into a neat, tidy, functional space.

Welcome! Hop on, enjoy the ride, and please come back often.