Mango-Lime Fool

Last night I hosted the book club I belong to, and as host, I am responsible for providing dessert. My grand plan was to make a fantastically simple and delicious mango-lime fool that Zillah and I had made for one of our dinner nights. Off to the store I went, in search of some canned mango. But do you think I could find that damned canned mango anywhere?

Not a chance.

Canned plums, grapefruit, and apricots, yes.

But no stinking mango.

After 3 grocery stores and a near meltdown in the store (where I restrained myself from chucking a large can of grapefruit at the juice boxes), and desperately wondering why there isn't a Wegmans within 2000 miles of Utah, I finally gave up my search and opted for "fresh" mangoes. Fresh is in quotes because mangoes are never really fresh or ripe around here, which unfortunately gave my mango-lime fool a suspiciously vegetable-y taste (does anyone else think unripe mangoes taste like carrots?).

Overall, I think it was decent. Everyone ate it at least. Either way, I thought I'd share the recipe with you all...good luck finding the mangoes.

(Zillah- where on earth did you get them last time? And thanks for the recipe)

Mango Lime Fool

1 14 oz can sliced mango
peel of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 a lime
2/3 cup heavy cream
6 tbsp plain yogurt

1. Puree the mango, peel and lime juice in a food processor.
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk the cream and yogurt together until thick.
3. Whisk cream mixture into mango mixture.
   
4. Chill for 1-2 hours

...

Why don't Americans get to have a traditional costume?!

And no, cowboy hats don't count.

And check out T-rav's post about World Refugee Day (June 20th).

To smell a rose...or something else a little less desirable?

The other day I was riding in the car with several people from Burma. I hadn't noticed it as we were wandering around the airport, but when they got in the car, there was a distinct smell that followed them in. I mentioned something about it to T-rav and he informed me that all Burmese people have that same exact smell (beetle nut juice and the type of food they eat).

I've noticed that Nepali people smell like masala. And I'm sure anyone who has ever hung around a Korean for very long has noticed the scent of kimchi wafting off their clothes, hair, bags...and anything else they carry with them.

We've also noticed that these smells seem to be stronger when the people first get to the US and that, obviously, much of a person's smell has to do with what they cook. I'm not saying these are bad smells (I find the smell of kimchi to be almost pleasant)- I've just noticed that most different ethnicities smell differently.

But here's the question: what do Americans (or America) smell like? For example, when we landed in Guatemala, the whole entire country smelled like a mix between smoke, cilantro, sweat, and something else pleasant that I couldn't quite place. Edinburgh, Scotland reeked of haggis (at least it did when I was there). So when you land in America, is there a smell? Do Americans smell like hay fields? Pollution? Garlic? Grease? Potatoes? Onions? Perfume? Any ideas?

Poll

So my sister, who got married in Brazil last December, is finally going to be able to move back to the US with her husband. Hoo-rah! The original plan was for her to get married in Brazil and then, as soon as possible, come to the US and have a reception here. Unfortunately for her, that didn't quite work out as quickly as she hoped: they're planning on finally arriving in August or September.

Now, even though it will have been 9 months since her marriage, she still wants to have a reception, but she's not sure if she should. She especially wants to wear her wedding dress. Her question for you all is if it would a) be weird if she had a reception in general; b) be especially weird if she wore her wedding dress. Please leave a comment and/or respond to the poll on the right. Thanks!

when things go wrong...

I've discovered something interesting about myself and teaching: it doesn't matter how great my plans for class may be, or how much I've planned for a specific lecture; if something is off with me or with my students, class is going to be dreadful. End of story.

Take today, for example. I was prepared (ok, it wasn't my best lesson ever, but at least I wasn't totally improvising) and in a moderately decent mood when I arrived. But then I apparently made the fatal mistake of returning some tests to my students as class started. They instantly went into convulsions of despair over their low scores while I tried to get their attention to explain exactly what went wrong. Then, of course, they asked all the hardest questions about the test, so I had difficulty explaining the answers, causing me to become a bit flustered, and them to become more confused.

Not exactly the best start to the day.

And then one of my students who just so happens to be one of the ditsiest (and bustiest, in case you were wondering) people I've ever met kept asking questions about 3 minutes too late, confusing the rest of the students and totally throwing me off guard. To make matters worse, 50% of my class never has any idea what I'm saying, and the other 50% is brilliant and gets bored with me repeating myself over and over and over again for the dummies. Today happened to be one of those days that the dumb and dumber couldn't get any...dumber.

Oh, and did I mention that I happen to have a blushing problem that seems to resurface whenever I'm not feeling like myself (and sometimes when I am), or when I'm irritated, or excited, or awkward, or really feeling any emotion at all. Well, I do. And it's always a disaster because once I start blushing, it never stops.

So I'm not sure if it was me or them, or perhaps a combination of the two (or maybe it has something to do with the phase of the moon), but today was definitely not one of my better days as an ESL teacher. I ended class with an overwhelming desire to throttle their scrawny little necks (shoving their faces in the sand is also a good option) until they stopped speaking Korean or Japanese or Spanish and started speaking English. Honestly- do they really think they're going to learn English if they never bother to SPEAK it?!

And I seriously thought about dropping their scores by 10 points.

Or making the final 5 pages longer.

Or giving them 2 pop quizzes tomorrow. HA!

On another note, yesterday one of T-rav's Nepali refugees taught me how to make aloo masala (curried potatoes) and then gave me a Nepali marriage necklace, bracelets, a red Hindu dot between my eyes, and one in my hairline that signifies marriage. Actually, the 9 year old daughter attempted to give me the marriage dot first, but ended up slipping with the ink and temporarily dyed a nice patch of my hair a lovely shade of burgundy. Then her mother tried to fix it, but I still ended up with a nice streak in my hair until I washed it out (it only took 3 shampooing attempts).

I really do love my students. Most of the time.

"quake lakes" and brand new rivers

You may have forgotten about the earthquake in China a few weeks ago, but look what it's still doing! (be sure to watch the video)

Koreans and kimchi and smores, oh my!

This Saturday, some (6) of my Korean students from last semester decided we should have a BBQ. So we did. They brought "American" food, which meant tuna on crackers with half a grape on top, pop, fruit, and cupcakes. I provided hot dogs, pasta salad and smores, which they were a bit apprehensive about. T-rav had his first experience hanging out with a culture with which he's not too familiar and he got to see how much Misha (the tall, round-ish boy- the other two peeps had already left when we took this picture) loves me.

Next time, they promised to have both of us over to one of their apartments to make us Korean food (Trav can hardly contain himself with excitement).

Three random things about Koreans: (1) they think their faces are huge and will often try to cover part of their face when having their picture taken, especially when with an American; (2) they think all American food is "sweet;" (3) they think their food is healthy because it's fermented, a process we consider to be rotting. Weird.

the best lemon pound cakes ever

This morning as I was searching for a good recipe to make for dessert tomorrow, I kept coming back to recipes with lemon, lemon, and more lemon. I seem to be obsessed with anything to do with lemon of recent (I'm sure it is in part due to Zillah's influence and the fact that whenever we cook, there always seems to be a lemon involved). You should try these recipes. You really really should.

Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake
3 cups cake flour*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 16-cup tube pan. Dust pan with cake flour; tap out excess flour.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Using rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
3. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around cake in pan. Turn out cake.
4. Carefully turn cake right side up on rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)

*I always use cake flour when I make these, but I'm guessing you could probably use regular flour and it would be ok. It might come out a little heavier. Try it and tell me how it worked! Oh, and both of these are delicious with sliced and slightly sugared strawberries.

Lemon-Cornmeal Pound Cake
(from The Essential Baker)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 extra large eggs
1 1/4 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons freshly sqeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Use the tablespoon of butter to grease the pan.
   
2. Beat the butter until it's fluffy. Then add the sugar and cream together. One at a time, add the eggs to the butter mixture.
   
3. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 stages, blending well after each addition.
   
5. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and stir well.
   
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan (yes, the batter should be very thick).
7. Bake for 45 minutes, until the cake is light golden on top and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out slightly moist.
   
8. Cool completely on a wire rack.
   

but i deserve it

No, you don't. You really really don't.

So this morning, T-rav sent me a link to an article in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune about an Iraqi guy who recently arrived in the US as a refugee. He has quite the tragic story: he worked as an interpreter for the Army, hired through the independent contracting company by the name of L3, and somehow lost both of his legs while serving. He claims his medical treatment from L3 was not fantastic, and the prosthetic legs he was given are too heavy and painful for him to use. But luckily, he was granted refugee status by the US (as he would most likely be killed if he returned to his hometown) and was shipped over here for a new life. Unluckily, the airline he flew on to the US managed to destroy his motorized wheelchair on the flight, and he hasn't yet been given a new one (he does have a hand-operated chair); he was only greeted at the airport by a Somali guy who had a funny accent; his apartment is tiny and by the freeway; he's only been given "normal" refugee status...etc, etc.

Now, this is all really terrible. Because of the service this man provided his country and our own, he can no longer live in safety in Iraq.

However...that does not mean that the US owes him. He worked as a private contractor who understood the risks of his job. I'm sure he was paid much more than he ever would have made at a regular job. Yes, we should be grateful for what he's done, but does that mean that we need to shower all glory, laud, and honor upon him? Does he deserve a brand new life handed to him on a silver platter?

NO.

This attitude is something that I think has become more and more pervasive in our society these days. Everyone thinks that the government owes them this and that because, well, I work hard and should be rewarded, right?

But what I think is even more interesting to watch is how different cultures view entitlement. Take two groups of refugees that T-rav works with: Iraqis and Burmese. Both have fled their countries because of war and unrest. Both are lucky to have been given a new life in the US. The Burmese have often been born and raised in refugee camps. When they get to the US, they are grateful and gracious for all the resettlement agency does for them. They rarely ask for extras, but are usually glad simply to have a chance to start over. On the other had, the Iraqis have often been living in Jordan or Syria before they arrive in the US. Some of them are educated, some of them are not. Many of them come from middle or upper class Iraq and had homes, jobs, and cars before they left. But when they get to the US, many (not all-remember, these are just generalizations) of them are disappointed and even resentful of the things they don't have. They ask why they don't have a TV, where is their computer, why their apartment is so small and simple, why they don't get a new car, why haven't they gotten their living stipend yet, why it isn't more, etc., etc.

I don't know if these differences are in part because one group had nothing in a refugee camp and one group had a little (or a lot) in another country. But either way, these people have nothing to complain about. They come with a group like the IRC or Catholic Community Services, who provide them with food, clothing, housing, jobs, English classes, integration into the US, support, immigration services (green cards, citizenship, etc), Medicaid, bus passes...and the list goes on. These same refugees also fail to notice that many of the people who work at the resettlement agencies and hear the constant barrage of demands are often over-educated, underpaid, and could easily get a much more lucrative job at a for-profit company.

The good news is that not everyone acts like this. There are plenty of stories of people who truly appreciate the chance they've been given at a new life. But those who haven't managed to learn to be grateful, I have 1 thing to say to you:

Life doesn't owe you anything.

the need for mental health

This past Sunday (as T-rav was out of town) I skipped out on my ward and went to Katherine's single's ward. Her Relief Society had planned a special lesson about mental health issues, given by 2 family therapists/social workers-in-training. Katherine was exceedingly excited about it, and since I usually feel like I could use a few tips when it comes to mental health (Feelings? You mean you actually want me to talk about them? I think I'll just slip out the side door instead...), I decided to go.

Overall, the lesson was fantastic. The teachers addressed depression, self-esteem, happiness, and positive thinking. They emphasized things like if you're feeling like you should talk to a counselor or therapist about your problems, maybe you should; you don't need to be happy all the time; it's ok to be sad; striving for perfection doesn't mean you have to be perfect right now; comparing yourself to others always results in you seeing the best of the other and the worst in yourself; physical touch is important to most people's happiness (we learned about hug therapy: you need 4 hugs per day for survival, 8 for maintenance, 12 for growth as a person).

I found all of this to be very informative and helpful, as did most of the girls attending. But it did cause me to wonder why this is such an issue for women today. And is it more of an issue for LDS women? Or more specifically, is it more of an issue for BYU college women? Is there something about "Mormon culture" that increases self-negativity in women? Or do women (and even men?) from all walks of life suffer from these same feelings of inadequacies and depression, but simply hide it better by use of drugs, alcohol, sex, etc?

What do you think?