NYC Here I come!

Mission trip? To NYC? For free? A day of touring? Need I say more?

We've been meeting weekly for a month now, practicing a skit for kids ministry....I officially am now packed agenda in hand and Coco Channels biography ready for the 6 hour van ride.

PS. I've wanted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge ever since reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

"I hope that if ever I'd get to New York I'd like to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge....New York! I've always wanted to see it and now I've seen it! It's true what they say-it's the most beautiful city in the world."

"Brooklyn's better. There's a feeling about it...you've got to live in Brooklyn to know."

Roses are Red (Even the ones us single ladies dig out of garbage cans the week after Valentines day

Yay! Flower collection time! Drying them, decorating with them, pressing them in my darling unreadable "Works of Jane Austen," sending petals in letters etc. It's all so deliciously romantic! People are missing out!

I'm drying petals to make a rose tea recipe I found at: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090623161506AAMnU8n

If trashcans could speak...what would mine say?

Yes I am unashamedly wallowing in a rather girlish obsession with roses. I can take your judging. :)

Yours truly!

Diversity and Social justice workshop

I decided to begin the peer workshop I was leading on diversity and social justice in the classroom, by coming in as a goth and making a scene. It was glorious-everyone (except for the previously warned victim of the yelling) was quite taken a-back. I then had them take a few minutes to write down how/if they thought that demonstrated diversity and if they thought the student (me) thought her voice was heard.

What a blast even my lovely library boss enjoyed the tale and gettup. I had asked one of my friends who calls herself goth if it would be ok. I didn't want to offend her. She actualy was really excited for me. "Oh! You're welcom to borrow any clothes or makeup!"

-What a blast!

Yours truly!

Door decorating and letter writing

To all of you wonderful people,
Thank you so much for all the letters-it is always such a delightful surprise and I treasure them (and like to put them around my room with dried flowers as decoration.)

At last decorated my door......

Yours truly!

More kitchen experiments

Chocolate "muggin" cake from scratch!

About 1/2 cup buckweat flour

sprinkle of Baking soda

Sugar to taste

Cocoa powder

Water

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Mix buckweat flour, baking soda, sugar and cocoa powder in a mug. Add a glug of water (till it's a thick slush.) Heat in microwave (about 2 minutes) till it has risen and become cake-like. Next make a mixture of water and cocoa poweder, adding sugar to taste-microave till its a smooth gooey mixture and pour over muggin. It's a great to tide you over till the next meal.
And now for......


Soup from scratch!

several cups of water

1 finely chopped garlic clove

several dashes Italian Spice

Lots of salt-a Tablespoon or more

About a Teaspoon of Pepper

Random packet of flavoring I found in the kitchen (supposed to go over noodles?)

Broken up spaghetti noodles

extra virgin olive oil

few dashes vinegar

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Mix all ingrediants and heat till bioling

Add spaghetti and boil till soft

Warm with a gentle spice! Enjoy!

The Cold is going around-run for your lives!!!!!

My dear friend crashing in my room with her various cold supplies. Yay for Vitamin C and soup!!!

Thankful Thursday-Cooking once again!

Got the crust recipe off of: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-whole-wheat-pie-crust-221052

I split the recipe in half, used normal salt and white sugar instead of brown sugar.

The filling:

chopped apple

chopped orange

Tossed fruit in a mixture of 2 Tblsp of sugar and 2Tblsp Buckweat flour with a few drops of butter flavoring, olive oil and vanilla.

MMMMMmmmm!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello my loves!
So this may soung like Greek to some of you, but as a single woman I really love Valentine's Day...to be honest I have my beloved family to thank for that. Every Valentines day they are sure to send me a delightful package filled with homeade goodies, loving notes and decoration. I LOVE YOU ALL!

And I simply have to tell you all about my surprise Valentine from God. It was like a scene from a movie. :)

So I'm having breakfast before hurrying off to my book-repairing job and I'm coming back with my second bowl of cereal (with peanut butter and bananas-absolutely scrumptious.) Suddenly I realize my booth has dissapeared. Someone's delicious looking bagel with cream cheese and raspberry jam is sitting there. I love raspberry jam. And then of course, a guy's voice behind me.
"Oh! I'm sorry, were you sitting there?"
I realize my jacket was shoved inconspicuiously in a corner of the booth.
"Oh! no worries! I can move."
I am now sitting about 2 feet away slightly facing him at another table. 2 seconds pass like an eternity of awkward silence. I can't take it any more.
"Or we could just have a stranger breakfast." (Awkwardly moving back.)
We ended up having a lovely conversation. He's a junior, transfer, communications/business major...was going to be a teacher at the previous college, lived in Maryland. It just felt genuine. That's rare when talking to a complete stranger...it almost always just steriotypical questions. It lasted for about 5-10 minutes. And then I rush off to work.
And that was my valentines date from God. :)

Yours truly!
"That was short breakfast."
"Yeah, I'm on my second bowl." (laughing)

Happy Valentines Day

Hello loves!
Prepare yourselves for a glorious Valentines Day!

A group of grilfriends and I do an activity called Secret Admirer. We each choose a name from hat and then get something under $10 dollars for whoever it is...usually consisting of lots of chocolate and a sweet card. We all got together the night before Valentines Day and ate lots of chocolate and exchanged gifts. What a blessing to have such a wonderful group of girls to hang out with!
Oh! And I wrote a poem about the delight I found in my mail box that night:

I have two Red
Package-slips
To carry around
Like promises
Fingered over and over again
Reluctant to turn them in
The simplicity of return addresses
Or “Your sincerely……..”
I want
To write a love note
To a certain dashing acquaintance
To all the possibilities
But it’s not the same
If I don’t mean it
And too terrifying when I do
So I cling to these little promises
Too human
To forget
The ache
To be gathered
Broken
In another’s arms


Yours truly

Monday Pick Me Up-Whole Weat Chocolate Cake!!!

Hello loves!
Another Monday pick-me-up! Trying to make Monday treat baking a tradition.....when I first joined First New they informed me that my predecesor loved cooking and was AMAZING at it...sooo I am working on my cooking expertise....with this wonderful recipe:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/05/recipe-whole-wheat-chocolate-cake-with-easy-whipped-cream-frosting/

Just add fifteen minutes to the baking time!
Yours truly