As promised, I lounged around all morning. Around 12:30, I started getting hungry and started formulating a wonderful creation in my head. I really wanted vegetables so the star of my lunch was broccoli!
I started with some steamed broccoli and plain quinoa
Then I topped it with black beans and a dollop of sour cream. Sorry about the bean overload on this blog but…
This was DIVINE! As I was eating the last bite I thought some hot sauce would have made this even better. Oh well, next time!
Dessert came in the form of this gift basket. Before going to work my dad broke open this puppy…
I ate the whole thing!
Just kidding! I made some tea (Peet’s Winter Solstice Tea!! Sooooo good!)
and enjoyed a few Godiva Dark Chocolate covered pretzels. Yum!!
Luckily a lot of the things in the basket don’t look that good. But these pretzels are pretty delicious! Back to my book and maybe some Food Network (I ❤ Giada and Ina!).
The past few days have been ridiculously indulgent! Honestly, I’m sort of tired of eating so many rich foods. Yesterday I pretty much only ate pumpkin pie, chocolate cake and green bean casserole.
So I’m picking up my normal eating again and ignoring all the left overs.
For breakfast this morning I had some yogurt with raw oats and banana.
Doesn’t look at tasty when it’s all mixed together but I think it’s pretty darn good!
The rest of the day will be spend lounging around in my piggy slippers
Reading All Together Dead (the 7th novel in the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mystery series, I get so into this stuff it’s ridiculous! TrueBlood anyone??)
Early in 2009, I was a senior at UC Berkeley. I was taking a few classes and writing an honors thesis on housing policy in Guatemala.
Title of thesis… Shacking Up: Latent Government Bias in Guatemalan Housing Policy (I thought it was kind of cute/pun-y…)
There was a little spring breaking… Vegas was involved, as was my sister’s dental school banquet.
May 2009: I graduated from Berkeley and my sister graduated from Dental School. We had a joint party.
June 2009: India
July 2009: Home for a month before moving.
Garlic Festival in Gilroy
Wine Tasting in Temecula, CA
August 2009:
Aruba with Momma and Poppa!
Then I moved to Ithaca to go to Grad School at Cornell where I made a ton of new friends!
September 2009:
Went to the NY State Fair saw lots of tractors and MC Hammer
Fostered a dog! Marie the 9 year old (camera shy) German Shepard-Corgie mix with anxiety and a weight problem who I absolutely ADORE but now has a permanent home!
October 2009:
NYC with the Lovely Fella for 3 Yr Anniversary
Went to my first corn maize!
I was Rosie the Riveter for Halloween
November 2009:
Started this blog! Woo Foodologie!
Went to the UN in NYC
There ARE field trips in Grad School!!
I spent Thanksgiving with the Lovely fella and his family. Then he came to Ithaca for a week!!
The lovely fella couldn’t be there because he had to work at 6:00am on Christmas Day in the Bay Area but it was still a great time! My two friends, David and Talia, came to help celebrate and experience their first Christmas!
Somehow I just seem to attract tall people... tall boyfriend, tall roommate, tall friends...
2009 has been a great year! I hope 2010 is even better with more friends and family around!
What’s the most exciting part of 2009 been for you?
My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day isn’t really that exciting for us. In Guatemala, there are fireworks and everyone eats at midnight. Here, we have dinner whenever the food is ready around 9pm then open presents at midnight.
Here are a few of the Christmas Highlights: My mother takes every opportunity possible to decorate.
The tables looked lovely. Even the kids table…
Then there were pictures take in front of the tree…
I fought sliced a turkey
My friend David sang show tunes Christmas Carols…
There was also food!
I realized last night that I forgot to take a picture of the sweet potato casserole and the potato apple gratin! Oh well! Uncooked…
The potato-apple gratin was interesting. But I’m not sure I’d make it again. My brother would like to know why I can’t just made potato gratin on its own… that’s a good question…
By 10:30ish, I was in my pajamas. Pajamas are a favorite in my family.
That’s me holding a fabulous jacket I got from my sister. My brother gave me an interesting looking book called On Paradise Drive. I also got some sweet socks and exercise clothes from my parents. Thanks family for all the great gifts!
My mother hates cooking. But today, she was in rare form.
She made tilapia!
It was pretty good (Yes I eat fish. Although this may change, right now I do.). Really simple, just salt, pepper and onion powder. The cooked on medium heat for a 6 minutes total.
I made a salad.
Later I started preparing Christmas dinner. On the menu for tomorrow:
I always make that stuffing for Thanksgiving, but since I wasn’t here for Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make it for Christmas. The bread is diced and waiting to be made tomorrow. Tonight I started on the Potato-Apple Gratin. It’ll be fully made except for heating/browning tomorrow in the oven.
It looks pretty good so far! I hope it is.
Tips for Cooking a Large Meal:
-Plan your menu in advance
-Make sure you have all your ingredients
-Make as many things as possible the night before.
-Do all the chopping and prep work the day before so all the hard work is done with early.
-If you’re having a dinner, start cooking early in the day so you have time to clean up (both yourself and the kitchen)
Do you have any tips for cooking a large meal for many people?
After dropping my aunt off at the airport tonight, the lovely fella and I arrived back at my house quite ravenous. We scavenged the fridge for a trace of food and finally came across some gems in the freezer.
These diddies were flown in from Guatemala. They’re called Tamalitos de Chipilin, little corn tamales with a green leaf called chipilin in them. They’re wrapped in a corn husk, much like many tamales you may have seen in grocery stores but they’re A MILLION times more delicious.
These were enjoyed with beans, sour cream and tortillas to complete the brown meal.
Mmm so good! I think the lovely fella enjoyed too!
Or maybe I just make him eat random stuff and he wishes he could have a burger… who know! Off to watch Arrested Development because we’re mildly obsessed!
Good night!
The lovely fella enjoyed too!
I wish I knew how to make these because I’d make them all the time!
Hey Everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates as of recent. The lovely fella arrived on Monday night so we’ve been hanging out!
Yesterday we went to La Brea Tar Pits because we’re big nerds he had never been.
Getting out of tar would be hard...
Today we he attempted to fix the treadmill in my parent’s house so I can work on my fitness this month (I much prefer treadmills to running outside). Then started shopping for supplies for Christmas dinner. This brings me to the title of this post “Cooking for Non-Vegetarians.” My brother and I are the only vegetarians in the family. The rest are meat-eating latinos. Latinos eat A LOT of meat.
My mom hates cooking so my sister and I usually make large holiday meals. This year I didn’t really want to make meat but I knew I had to because I don’t want to force my lifestyle on anyone else and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s holiday.
So today as we were shopping for a turkey (one of my sister’s friends who is coming doesn’t eat pork so we need a turkey as well), I decided to get a free range turkey. Yes, it’s a little pricey at about $1.99/lb. I called my sister asking her what size turkey to get and mentioned that I was getting a free range turkey and she asked “it doesn’t matter, you’re not going to eat it.”
It does matter, doesn’t it?
I feel better cooking a free range turkey, even if I don’t eat it. This got me thinking about the term free-range. What does it actually mean? Was it worth the extra few cents per pound?
My reasons for being vegetarian are environmental and human food security based, not necessarily for animal rights reasons. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the fair treatment of animals. I think overall I’m glad I bought a free range turkey. I think one of the best ways we can cause a change is by changing demand.
If you’re a vegetarian, do you cook meat for others? If you’re not vegetarian, what are your thoughts on free-range/cage-free raising? Should I have bought the cheaper Butterball or Foster Farms Turkey?
Wake up ravenous before anyone else. Quickly but quietly heat up a pot of black beans from the fridge. Pull out two eggs and cook them as you please.
Then gather it all together.
If over easy, please make sure your yolk is nice and runny. It’ll come in handy later. Plus runny yolks are pretty much the most delicious thing on the planet…
Quickly consume all contents of the plate.
Sop up anything on the plate (i.e. left over runny yolk and beans that your fork failed to pick up but you know much go in your belly) with some bread. Get into it. Your fingers should be covered in beans and yolk.
After your plates are wiped clean. Destroy the evidence (aka put away the food and wash dishes).
Then as people wake up asking what you’d like for breakfast casually say “Oh I’m just not hungry this morning…”
I’ve been slacking a bit on the food security aspect of this blog. After all, I’m interested in everything about food; this blog reflects those interests. Closely tied to food is the environment and climate change. If you recall, a little over a week ago, I did a post about the UN Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
Well yesterday was the last day of the conference.
World leaders negotiate in the Bella centre in Copenhagen, from guardian.co.uk
The so-called Copenhagen Accord can be found on the UNFCCC website. I’ve read a few mixed reviews about it so here’s a little recap of the major outcomes (essentially a summary of the Accord) in case you haven’t heard too much about it.
The Accord consists of 12 main points:
1. The nations agree that climate change is a problem and will work to combat it.
2. The nations agree that cutting global emissions is essential but “social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries and that a low-emission development strategy is indispensable to sustainable development.” This also includes a cap on global temperature rises.
3. Developed countries will provide “adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing countries.” Essentially funding for developing countries to reduce GHG emissions without hurting development.
4. Annex I countries (mostly developed nations but see full list here) agree to implement emission targets by 2020.
5. Non-Annex I countries (mostly developing nations but see full list here) “will implement mitigation actions.”
6. With regard to deforestation, the nations agree to provide incentives such as REDD-plus mechanism to acquire funding in order to prevent deforestation and environmental degradation in developing countries. I’m a little fuzzy on this one so I’ll direct you to this site I found about REDD-plus if you’re interested.
7. Nations agree to seek a variety of alternatives in reducing GHG emissions (i.e. market based approached). Those nations with low emissions should be encouraged to maintain low emissions.
8. Nations agree to provide adequate funding to developing nations in accordance with the convention. Funding will be prioritized to most vulnerable nations and Africa. Developing countries agree to provide US$100 Billion per year by 2020 for developing countries to meet their climate change needs. This money will go through the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
9. Establishment of a High Level Panel to oversee the financing toward reaching these goals
10. Establishing the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund to “an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention to support projects, programme, policies and other activities in developing countries related to mitigation including REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity-building, technology development and transfer.”
11. Establishment of a Technology Mechanism to speed up technology development and transfer.
12. Calls for an assessment of the Accord in 2015.
Here’s the final closing press briefing. It’s around 3 minutes:
The conference covered a lot of the topics I was curious about as mentioned in previous post, particularly the question of funding. $100 billion per year is a ton of money! I’m happy to see governments being firmer about this issue and taking into consideration development and developing nations. However, there’s still a long way to go as this accord is NOT legally binding.
My next question is who will control the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund? I haven’t really seen anything about this. Anyone else seen anything about this?
This seems like a new power angle that could be very interesting.
Did anything stand out for you at Copenhagen?
Is the Copenhagen Accord enough?
The next meeting with be in a year in Mexico City. Do think we’ll get something legally binding in Mexico?
I was so excited when Food Buzz chose me to be part of their 24, 24, 24 this month! So for my meal, I decided to make a 12 course vegetarian meal inspired by the 12 Days of Christmas! I invited a bunch of friends over and as soon as I got back to Los Angeles on Thursday I started preparing.
Keeping in line with my December Recipe Challenge, this meal was entirely vegetarian and tried to include any many vegetables as possible, while still tasting delicious! I tried out new recipes and made up a few of my own!
Here’s how the evening went:
Thanks to the help of my wonderful sister, I set up the table to reflect the holiday spirit! Complete with decorative menus!
Then after the guests arrived, the first two courses were standing appetizers wine we all mingled.
12 Drummers Drumming: Vegetarian Drumsticks
Talia obviously is one of those 12 drummers!
11 Pipers Piping: Cheesy Puff Pipes
Tim knows how to work that pipe!
Then we were ready to sit down to dinner…
10 Lords A-leaping: Leaping Lentil Salad
I wore many hats… cook, waitress, eater…
9 Ladies Dancing: Flamenco Favas
8 Maids A-Milking: Creamy Artichoke Soup
7 Swans A-Swimming: Spaghetti Swimming in a Special Sauce
6 Geese A-Laying: Quiche
5 Golden Rings: Pineapple Ring Salad
4 Calling Birds: Cauliflower Gratin
3 French Hens: Savory Crepe
2 Turtle Doves: Turtle Clusters
Of course no meal is without at least one mishap! My caramel turned out a little bit too hard…
We all had a good laugh 🙂 Still tasted good and if you broke a tooth, you were in a house full of dentists!
A Partridge in a Pear Tree: Pears in Red Wine
A 12 course meal for 12 people made entirely by me! I can’t believe I pulled that off! That was definitely the ultimate recipe challenge!
It was a ton of work but totally worth it! Thanks Food Buzz for this great opportunity!
Foodologie 