Spring Break + Chocolate Scones!

March 14th - March 18th -- Spring Break 2011. This may conjure up images of drunken beach parties, beach volleyball, uncommitted spring-flings, and overall tom-foolery. Now, picture it my way: best friends, Franzia, books upon books, no grading, no lesson planning, and lots of sleeping. Oh yeah, and a beach :-)

Spring Break 2011 marks another new and fantastic part of adulthood: Vacation with friends! T-, S- (the BFF), and I rented out a beach house in TX and spent the week there. The beach house was fantastic! It had a kitchen, living room, bathroom, two bedrooms, and an AMAZING view of the ocean. For the most part we just chilled -- either in the house, or on the beach with T- fully covered hoping desperately to not expose his unpigmented skin to the sun, S- doing the opposite hoping to get tanned, and me well, getting my butt sunburned. Literally, my tush-tush, and it hurts to burn your butt. I finished reading the Lisabeth Salander book series (the girl with the dragon tattoo, etc) which is FANTASTIC. If you haven't gotten it, GET IT. You will not be able to put it down. Seriously, it's a mystery/thriller page turner. They better making a kick-ass movie out of it. Anyways, the vacation was much needed and nice: we played, laid on the beach, read books, baked, and met someone named Ned. Overall: successful vacation. I'm sad to see it end.

Looks like I'm lesson planning? Nope. www.freetetris.org

Besties on the beach :-) 

Jacques!

First night! After a 12 hour drive for S-...

Magnificent dinner of homemade pizza, garlic bread, and salad!

But! We did make chocolate scones (modified from joyofbaking.com). These scones turned out amazingly...and are excellent to-go snacks or quick morning breakfasts as you're running out the door. They're not super sweet, and the powdered sugar on top makes them prettier and adds a little extra sugary-ness. Excellent with coffee/tea :-)

Chocolate Scones

Ingredients

0.67 cup heavy whipping cream 

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.75 cup all purpose flour

0.25 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2.5 baking powder

0.25 tsp salt

0.33 cup unsalted butter (cubed)

Scone Glaze

1 egg beaten

1 tbsp heavy whipping cream

More chocolate scones!

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk together heavy whipping cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Then set aside

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the unsalted butter. Honestly -- it works best if it you use your hands to cut in the butter.

Then slowly mix in all the wet stuff and mix dough into a ball. Then knead dough gently a few times to glutenize the flour.

After that, flatten the dough into a flat, thick (2-3'') disc. Cut it into triangles (6-8 depending on how big you want your scones, I do 8).

Then beat together the scone glazing and brush it on top of the unbaked scones, and pop them in the oven for 15 min.

After they come out, wait till they cool and then dust them with powdered sugar!

Tasty goodness :-)

My Disgusted Response to Mr. McKinley

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us/09assault.html?_r=1&hpw

So the gist of this horrid story is that an 11-year-old girl was raped by a 18 guys between the ages of middle-school to 27 in east Texas for hours. That's it. It's awful, and that poor girl must have been so scared.

The title of my post is meant for two things: 1. The act itself is disgusting and 2. The way the article was written was fine up until the author chose to include the follow:

"Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said." 


I really would like to know why the author felt the need to include a paragraph that basically mitigated the disgusting-ness of this crime? Have we not come farther in women's right? "Oh this poor girl was raped. Well, she dressed like a whore, so she must have been asking for it a little" 


That's not what the author is saying explicitly, no, never. Let's break this down though: 


Quote: "Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailers stand -- known as the Quarters -- said the victim had been visiting various friends there for month." 


Translation: She went there a lot, who knows WHAT she could have been doing in those empty trailers.


Quote: "They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s." 


Translation: I'm not even sure what to say here...if you dress like you want it, then you want it? Oh yes, of course that makes perfect sense.


Quote: "She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said" 


Translation: Well, she might have been doing it before too. 


I suppose my argument is that the paragraph itself is totally unnecessary and does not serve any purpose in the article except to make the crime seem less disgusting, awful, and grotesque than it actually is. Is there a real difference between this happening to a little girl who dresses in little girl clothes, plays with dolls, and doesn't even think about sex and a girl who dresses like those she's seen around her and the women in the media, plays with teenage guys because she likes the attention, and thinks she understands sex, but doesn't really? The answer is simple -- no. We might want to think there's a difference because one girl is superficially more innocent than the other, but hey, news flash, they are both ELEVEN. 


I don't know if you've seen an eleven year old recently, but I work with teenagers, 15 year olds, and 16 year olds that I would have sworn were 12 and 13. And every day when I drive home, the middle school is letting out, and all the eleven year olds are walking home...they are babies. No matter how much make up you put on them, no matter how skimpy their clothes might be, no matter if they stuff their bras till their boobs are as big as Pamela Andersons (pre-implant removal)...they still look like babies. 


This paragraph is an affront to how far we should have come as a society for women's sexual rights. Though Mr. McKinley did not make the statements and was just paraphrasing the neighbors words, it's inclusion in the article was an unnecessary choice that is not only an intolerable insult to this little girl, but feeds into an awful stereotype that women have been fighting against for ages. Just in case you are confused, let me sum it up: no matter what we wear, no matter what kind of make-up we have on, no matter how high the heels we have on are or how short our skirts are...no matter if we blow kisses at you, or dance up on you, no matter WHAT...no means no. 

Honestly -- Mr. McKinley and the nytimes editor that let this paragraph get through should be ashamed. As a journalist, you have a responsibility for what you put out there, and as an editor, you have a responsibility for how you let your journalists write. 

My First Recipe! Lime Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, so the title is a little bit of a lie. I didn't make the recipe, I modified a vanilla cupcake recipe from www.joyofbaking.com

I was bored of the sweet potato pie (that T- demanded I make every week with puppy dog eyes mixed with random growls -- honestly, I feared for my life), and I had done the crepes. So what next? Well, it's spring in Texas, so with the rain and the ominous waves of humidity that are creeping up on San Antonio, comes a strong desire for citrus...lemons, oranges, sweet lemons, clementines, tangerines, tangelos, and the long forgotten lime.

But I wanted cupcakes...I wanted citrus...and cupcakes...and citrus...and cupcakes, ergo...Lime Cupcakes! So I got some organic limes...zested them, juiced them...made some lime cupcakes with lime cream cheese!

Lime Cupcakes with the Lime Cream Cheese Frosting on the side

So before, there were twelve cupcakes...and now there are only five. I don't know how long they'll last. Me, T-, and his mother A- are going through them...and we gave the neighbor two of them...much to my chagrin. I'm planning to make them again for a St. Patty's Day party...and perhaps even add a little green dye? Who know...the possibilities are endless.

Lime Cupcakes: 

.75 cup of butter
.67 cup white granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups of all purpose flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
.25 tsp salt
.25 cup milk
Zest of two limes
Juice of 1 lime

Cream together the sugar and butter by hand or hand blender.
Then cream in one egg at a time.
Stir in the lime zest and add in vanilla extra.
Mix in the lime juice.
In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk.
Put the batter into pre-greased cupcake pans, or pre-lined.
Put in oven at 350F, for 12-15, or until toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes out clean

Meanwhile, make the Lime Cream Cheese Frosting.

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese frosting
1.5 cup confectioner's sugar (this is malleable, depending on how sweet you like it)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 limes worth of lime juice
2 limes zested

Cream together butter and cream cheese.
Add in zest and lemon juice and vanilla.
Add in sugar to taste, and mix it all together!

Close up of the cupcakes...you can see the zest flecks in the frosting

Frosting itself...it's really good to eat just with a spoon

And another cupcake picture

Trust me -- these go fast.

Ways to say "howdy doody" to your neighbors without freaking them out :-)

So we actually have neighbors now, and I decided to say hello :-) But how can you say hello without a treat? Soooo...my lovely mom (who was visiting) got two-bite brownies from Costco and said I should give those to our neighbors (instead of laboring over sugar cookies as I was planning to do -- her idea = way better...why make sugar cookies when I wouldn't be the main one eating them?). Anyways, so I busted out those cards that I make and decided on some pretty yellow and orange ones with nice little leaves on them.

Side note -- I've just decided to write a whole blog post in the near future about the amazingness of homemade cards and the brilliance of keeping in touch with them. It gives me a reason to send out birthday cards to everyone in my family :-)

Anyways -- I use some cellophane bags, purple curling ribbon, and brownies to make a cute and adorable gift.

 

Brownie Bag w/ card for the neighbors! 

Anyways -- try it, tie the card onto the ribbon so it doesn't get lost :-)

Lemon Curd Recipe + New House

So my parents are here this weekend, and I decided I wanted to make super yummy food for them. Something new and different that I haven't made before...so I decided to make crepes, which are new...BUT I wanted to kick them up with Lemon Curd and homemade chocolate ganache. The lemon curd turned out AMAZING, so I wanted to share that recipe.

Put a pot of water on to simmer, and put a stainless steel bowl or pyrex bowl on top, to make a double-boiler. Have the water simmer, and then put in the following:

--1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
--1 tbsp. lemon zest
--3/4 cup sugar
--3 eggs

Whisk this together continuously for ~10 minutes...it should become thicker.

After that, take it off the heat and add in 4 tbsp. butter (cubed), and whisk it in. Let it cool and you've got yourself some awesome lemon curd that you can put in crepes. If you want a good crepe recipe, check out Laurie's Little Kitchen

Anyways...T- and I have officially moved into the new house, and it is awesome. I love the back porch to eat breakfast in looking at our big backyard, and the front porch to look out at people walking their dogs, cats climbing roofs, kids playing, and cardinals eating seeds. It's got it downsides (the old blinds on a window fell in me the other day...) but overall -- I like not have neighbors above that I can hear, or near me, and coming home to a backyard + garage. It's nice :-)

Right now, I'm going through a life/career crisis...trying to decide between being a doctor and an NP...what to do? I'm having this worry because well...I'm realizing more and more how short life really is, and my desire to spend the first three decades or more in school is limited. Moreover, I have a limited amount of time to spend with the people I love, my parents, T-, my friends, and ultimately the family I have in the future.

I know that after medical school/internship/residency/fellowship etc I will be able to dictate my own schedule and determine what days I want to work and what days I don't want to work.

But the thing is, I don't want to work 3 days a week and call it good. I want to work 4-5 days a week, and have a family, AND get into something bigger and better (policy? education? administration?)

I guess it comes down to...I just don't know. But I'll write when I figure it out. 

Ambulances at School and Cranberry Hootycreeks

Another day, another recipe. This one is from last weekend -- I decided I needed a new type of cookie, and I remembered the ones I had in California, they amazing cranberry, oatmeal, white chocolate cookies with pecans in them...so I went on a quest to find the recipe. Let me tell you something -- it's amazing how many different recipes people have for cranberry cookies out there! Anyways...I ended up finding them after much searching (when I probably should have been lesson planning...but that's neither here nor there), and found out they're called...Cranberry Hootycreeks -- I'm not even kidding. I tried to figure out what a hootycreek actually was to no avail...but I gave up when the cookies were done, because well -- they were too tasty to leave just sitting there. I actually snarled at Tyler when he tried to eat one...anyways! Below is the recipe. 

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 and 1/8 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or chopped walnuts are good too!)

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter (softened...NOT melted)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix in the white sugar and the brown sugar. Add in the nuts, cranberries, white chocolate, and the baking soda. Mix in the flour and salt. 

Use spoons to make balls of dough and put them on a greased cookie sheet. Put it in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are brown. Any cookie dough that is left over...just roll it into a log and freeze -- you can have cookies all week! 

----

Anyways, while that's baking -- here's something interesting that happened this week. It was a relatively calm week. I taught the students about evolution/natural selection (one of my favorite topics) and I had relatively few outbursts...only 3-4 times did students either---

A. Start rapping about Jesus (my response: excellent, mail those lyrics to Drake!)

B. Get up and say "ADAM AND EVE WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE ON EARTH! SCIENCE DOESN'T BEAT THE BIBLE" (Yep, and if Adam and Eve were the first people on earth, all you need to know is that evidence suggest they were made in Africa.)

C. Sigh and say "Do we HAVE to know this if we don't believe in any of these science-lies?" (Yes, it's on the test.) 

But I was enjoying the week overall. Well...Friday rolls around, and I've only packed one enchilada in my lunch box to feed me during a work day where I burn 1900 calories on average...so you can assume I'm relatively grumpy because I'm hungry. My students come in after lunch just flipping out about this kid who got the "living shit beat out of him Miss!" as one of my students put it. Apparently one of our students had to be taken away in an ambulance because there was a bloody fight during lunch. After asking several students what happened and getting some crazy stories, I pieced together what happened...

Kid A wanted to fight Kid B, because Kid B punched Kid C in the eye the day before, and Kid C is Kid A's good friend. So Kid A came up to Kid B during lunch and said "You wanna fight me now or after school" and Kid B was smart enough to say "now" and in 20 second it was over. With a Kid B on the ground lying in his own blood, and Kid A being arrested. 

I say smart enough because if it was after school, god knows if that kid would have gone through it without serious permanent damage, or even if he'd be alive. As my students described to me what happened, that Kid B was hit "20 times in 20 seconds" I just couldn't help but be amazed by the cycle of violence. 

What's going to happen next? Are Kid B's friends gonna fuck up Kid A? Or maybe Kid A's brother? Or sister? When does it stop? How do you make it stop? For someone who really likes answers, I can't figure out one...What do we do, show them a video about non-violence? Create a mentoring program? Yell at the top of our lungs that if they just graduate and go to college things can be so much better?

It's what they see all around them...when the people around you aren't handling things with their brains, but their fists, what are you supposed to do? It takes amazing will power...strength of character, to not partake in that behavior, especially in the group of students I work with. 

I think you can teach students to handle situations with their brains, not their fists. Build their brains up, give them knowledge, tell them exactly what they need to do to get into college or whatever post-secondary career they want, show them how to do it. Push it ALL the time. They might be in school for less time than they're out in their communities, but there is a way to get the message across -- I know they have in other low-income districts. How though and why don't we as a society? I don't know. 

A woman was charged with a felony earlier this year for lying about where she was living to get her daughters into a better school, because she knew that not all public education was equal, and it's true. We can't stand for that. My students don't deserve any less of an education, or a chance at understanding why they need to use their brains and not their fists than the students in the Alamo Heights district. The only difference is money and skin color. 

By second lunch, they wiped up all the blood from the floor, and my 7th period students came into the classroom, saying how they could have taken Kid B, or discussing what fight strategies they would have used. 

Yeah, we definitely have to find a way to stop it. Any ideas? 

Revamp + Update since 12/27/2010

So I haven't updated this blog since before break. I've been back in school for a couple of weeks now, so I figured it was time to actually update this thing based on how I've been and also the changes and not so change-y changes in my life.

First of all, on 12/27/2010, while in CA, T- asked me to marry him. It was beautiful, because the way he chose to do it was so us...and it just showed me again why I know he's right for me. He packed a wonderful meal, complete with french fries, and we went to the beach, all bundled up (me with my new snuggie), and right at sunset, he asked...at first it was just a sweet shpeal about how much he loves me, how I'm his best friend...then I saw the box, and it was all blurry from there. I just know that I don't think I could have been happier at any moment, and I'm still reeling from it. It was amazing, and it couldn't have been more wonderful.

On to the revamp! So I started thinking about all the things I loved the most (besides T-, and Jacques, and family)...and it's of course food. I love food, what else could motivate me to write? So, I present to you FOOD. I'm going to try and make every post include at least one recipe that I've recently made and hopefully pictures...and of course my thoughts, etc. So for today: Sweet Potato Pie.

So T- and I were going over to our friend Mi-'s house last Saturday for dinner. Since we've been in Texas for a while, I decided to get my "southern" on and make a sweet potato pie, because heck, I've never had one and the prospect of turning a potato into a pie was fascinating...what was once a potato is now a PIE...albeit with many more calories, less nutritional value, and much tastier...

Anyways, I thought it'd be ridiculously difficult, the whole potato-to-pie deal, but it's not. I whipped up the filling in about forty-five minutes (including potato baking time), with some basic ingredients. The pie was a success -- it tasted creamy, cinnamon-y, and yummy. If you're a fan of pumpkin pie -- you'll love this. It's:

1, 1 lb. sweet potato
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 a tsp. ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 unbaked pie crust (I used a butter crust and it turned out fantastic)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Boil the sweet potato for about 30-40 minutes until it's mash-able soft. After it's done, pull it out a peel off the skin. Using a fork, break apart the sweet potato in a bowl, and add in the butter and blend it together with a hand blender. When it's a smooth texture, add in the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Blend it together until it's super-smooth, and a pour-able consistency.  After that, just pour it into your pie crust and bake it at 350 for 50-55 minutes or until the filling puffs up and browns slightly around the edges.

Enjoy with vanilla ice cream! Until next time...enjoy the pie, and I'm going to enjoy my time with my new fiance :-)