So many documentaries

I have been home sick for the past few days, and I have watched a few really great documentary films in which I highly recommend to you. This is my reaction to being home and not being able to do anything. I might as well watch something educational, right? This is a tragic curse to my personality. I always try to fight it, but somehow I always seem to find a way to make productive use out of my time.

The first film I watched was The Business of Being Born. It follows women who are giving birth at home as well as in the hospital, and how some hospitals have a system for getting patients in and out, regardless of whether they want to take their time through labor. Very eye opening!

I also watched Maxed Out, a documentary about credit card companies in America. This one was a lot more frustrating than the first one I watched because this has effected so many people in a negative way. Just watch it and see what I mean.

Third, I watched Ballerina, a documentary following three Russian ballerinas. This was interesting in its' own light. I saw a lot of parallels in my own flute journey in these young ballerinas. They are always striving for more perfection. Even the one who was traveling to perform with all of the major ballet companies in Europe and America. I highly recomend this one, too!

Lastly, I watched Food, Inc. This one was very disturbing! I guess I am glad I switched to eating all natural foods before I watched this movie, or else I would have been freaking out more than I was! Anyway, watch it and let me know what you think! All of these films, to a certain extent, left me disturbed by the corruptness/selfishness of people in the world. No matter how much we try to reform all of these broken/corrupt systems, the fact remains that Jesus' return will be the only thing that truly redeems everything on this earth.

I found all of these on Netflix Instant/Streaming, so most of you should be able to watch them and let me know what you think!

-R

Delicious Dessert!

Hope you all are still enjoying your new year!

2010 has brought a lot of changes...mostly in our eating habits. We are not going on a diet, but rather changing certain things we buy to try and eat more organic, and eat all natural foods. First of all I was inspired by a book a friend loaned me (Mastering your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels). She talks about a lot more than food, but her food information is priceless! I highly recommend this book! I was also inspired by my friend Kristin who has to eat grain-free gluten-free now bc of food allergies. She is a wealth of information and has a ton of suggestions for home cooking that is healthy, organic, and delicious! We are not going grain-free or gluten-free, but she has a ton of great suggestions! I am probably going to be posting more recipes on here bc I am getting excited about the possibilities of all natural, delicious cooking! I have found a lot of great recipes on wholefoods.com. The following is a dessert that I modified that is low in calories and fat and super delicious!

Blackberry and Raspberry Buttermilk Cobbler

Ingredients:

1/4 c maple syrup (I use Trader Joe's 100% pure maple syrup...this is where you get the sweetness in this dessert)
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. organic butter
1 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk (I actually used 1/2 c. when I made it and pressed the batter over the butter instead of pouring it)
1 6 oz. carton organic blackberries
1 6 oz. carton organic raspberries

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl mix together maple syrup and cornstarch
Add raspberries and blackberries and toss to coat; set aside.

Put butter into an 8-inch square glass pan. Heat in oven just until butter is melted, 4 minutes, then remove and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt then stir in buttermilk and mix until just combined to make a thick batter. Pour into pan over melted butter without stirring. Sprinkle fruit mixture evenly over top of batter and bake until golden and bubbly, 45 minutes.

Only 200 calories per servings, and only 9g of sugar per serving! YUM!

Enjoy! :)

Time Flies

Is anyone else realizing how time goes so much faster once you finish school? Now, I feel like I blink and it is a new season. I graduated 8 months ago and we moved almost 3 months ago! My masters recital was a year ago this April! I wonder if I will ever refer to school as "the good ol' days." Do you?

Well, here are some pic's from Christmas and New Year's to change the subject completely!

My Dad, My brother's dog Dante (best dog in the entire world!), and my 2nd cousins Cooper and Emma!
Patrick and Mindy...Cheers!

Corey and Kimberly! So cute!

Kevin and someone who doesn't want her picture taken ;)


Happy New Year! And Hook 'em tonight! You all better be watching! :)

Almost Christmas

Jared and I are excited to go back to Texas for Christmas on Tuesday! I have all of my home made and non-home made gifts ready, and Jared is getting a haircut tomorrow (long overdue)! I have been getting more wrapped up with the holiday spirit here, traffic and all, and have enjoyed shopping this year for a few gifts. The traffic has been absolutely insane here! It normally takes 20 minutes for me to go down to the southbay from my new place, and Tuesday and Wednesday it took me over an hour.

Jared just finished his 13th movie in 3 1/2 years today! He got home early, and we are actually staring at each other bc we don't know what to do with ourselves (so now I am blogging and he is drinking a beer!) I am going to humor him and go see Avatar this evening and grab some Chipotle (p.s. we can walk to both from our new place). I have heard great things about the movie, so it should be good, but fantasy/science fiction is not really my thing always. When we get back from Texas, Jared is starting on Alice in Wonderland for a month!

I am going to enjoy my 2 weeks off from teaching, and kicked it off by making some delicious home made cinnamon rolls this morning! They are the best I have ever had! Thank you Prudence Pennywise!

I made mine without the orange, and a cinnamon/sugar mixture instead, and added milk to the icing and omitted the orange juice. They weren't very difficult and so amazing! I am definitely going to make them this Christmas for breakfast!

Thanks for reading! This has been a very random post!

New House Pics!

Welcome!
Our 2 parking spaces out back!
Kitchen


Living



walkway to hallway
Bedroom 1




Hallway (Bathroom on left and Bedroom 2 on right...work in progress, so no pics yet!)
Bathroom

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Thanksgiving 2009

Here is a movie of our Thanksgiving this year! It killed last year's! We have everything down now, and we had a great time making all the food!
This is mostly for the benefit of our parents, so if you think this is a ridiculous documentary, you are probably right...

Friday night

The concert was so great last night (LaPhil playing Berio Folk Songs and Schubert Unfinished)! It was a casual Friday concert, so the orchestra was wearing normal clothes which was weird at first, but nice to realize that they are all just normal people (most with poor style unfortunately). There was someone sporting river sandals with socks, or rather sladnasrevirs (a term I coined with some friends to make fun of band dorks at band camp in 7th grade) that wore that same thing. It is just river sandals spelled backwards....i know....dorky! So ugly, right....

Anyway, The performance was wonderful and I also got to hear the new principal flutist, Mathieu Dufour!!!! So AMAZING! His sound was so buttery and he didn't sound like he was even trying to make beautiful phrases. This is something I need to work on. He sounded so effortless! He was principal of Chicago Symphony from 1999-2009, and was principal of Paris National Opera Orchestra from 1996-1999. Hope I run in to him for a lesson at some point!

I didn't end up wearing the dress below bc I didn't have time to iron it, but I wore the other one I bought at the sale! It was a short concert, so Jared and I still had time to come home and have some cherry pie! :) What a great evening! Just what I needed!