Allison and Kathleen are a couple of the lovely new friends I have made here - who also appreciates how much fun cooking together is!
Kathleen and I bake bread and cakes a lot, and Al and I decided to make a big group dinner last week. They live with 3 guys as well, all volunteers with Jesuit Volunteers International, so they take turns making dinner for everyone, it was really fun to take part! Who doesn't love eating with a table full of friends?
Here is the delicious curry recipe we created, after abandoning all the recipes we had been reading.
Al & K's Cilantro Coconut Curry
Ingredients:
Cilantro Mix:
Approx 11/2 cups coconut milk
1 small bunch of cilantro (if you also happen to be in PG: $1 worth)
Juice of one lime
1 clove of garlic
1" chopped fresh ginger root
Main Dish:
Olive oil to saute
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot
3 medium tomatos
2 diced bell peppers (we used green)
1 can chickpeas
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
salt to taste
1 cup coconut ilk
Brown or white rice (1/2 cup dry per person)
How to do it:
Chop and add all "Cilantro Mix" ingredients to a blender and blend until it smells like heaven. (Leave out the cilantro if you are Alix or Jessica ;) Set aside.
Add 1 cup of coconut milk and stir to mix the colour and awesome flavours. Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes. Start by adding half of the blended mix, taste and more if desired. Let the flavours mix until it gets even more delicious.
Serve over brown or white rice. It was great with the brown rice, but an alternative is to make jasmine, basmati or plain white rice and mix it with the rest of the cilantro mix to make coconut rice, also yummy!
It was my Dad's birthday yesterday, and he was my entry in my gratitude journal - and I decided he more than deserved a public display of appreciation and love. So although this entry won't share any cool recipes or art projects (those will come soon - I have a whole list to post about), hopefully this one will make you think about how much you love YOUR Papa, or Mama, or Grandma, or whomever! Make sure they know it.
My Dad
I don't even know where to start with how awesome my Dad is. Since it just passed, I guess I'll start with his birthday. Yet again I gave him no gift because he's one of those people who is literally impossible to buy for. His response for my queries about what he wants for his birthday/ Christmas/ Father's Day: "Nothing." Never in my life has he asked for any single thing. And always seems happy with his gift of running magazines, socks and Canadian Tire gift cards. It's one of those things that shows me how easy going, grateful and content my father is. Although I anticipate many more years of my sister and I brainstorming for an awesome gift for my Dad that will rarely go beyond baking him rhubarb pie, getting him something running related, or Quality Street chocolates for Christmas, I also anticipate many more years of my Dad making us feel like it was the perfect gift. A trait to be admired to say the least.
It's one of his many traits that I admire. Not the least of which is his incredible work ethic that I hope that I live up to even a little bit. He works shift work, 12 hour shifts for 3 days and then 3 nights, and then on his days off fixes the yard, builds a deck for his daughter's latest whim, mows lawns, repairs house stuff, shovels his and his neighbours' driveways and sidewalks ... the man gets it done!
Or he goes on a family trip to Newfoundland and cuts a forest's
worth of wood for our Grandparents for the winter
Another thing I hope I have inherited from my Dad is his lifelong love of running and just plain old moving. This is the guy who will be the "90 year old completes marathon" headline. A lifelong runner, my Dad has organized the local running club and marathon so much that the running community in my town was a huge part of my youth. Driving around in the big cube van, placing or picking up pylons for whatever race happened to be going on that weekend is one of my great memories (Anyone who wonders where my dedication to volunteering comes from - he and my mom showed me that it's just a normal part of life, and it stuck). And he doesn't just organize. He's a great runner and put people half his age to shame (like me for sure! I always end up bailing halfway through our runs when I am home!). An avid runner and, recently, cyclist - my Dad completed a Half Ironman (he did the full Ironman when I was 5, kudos to my mama for letting him train while she covered with the work it takes to raise a 4 year old and a 2 year old) this past summer. Are you kidding me?! This man rocks! He is an inspiration and has my sister and I running too - he got me through my first half marathon a couple years ago, I definitely couldn't have (and wouldn't have thought to) gotten through it without him. He coached my track team at school, taught me how to run hills and how to keep running once you get to the top, gets me out on the snowiest days to run, and has infected me with the idea that running in the rainiest, muddiest, snowiest, coldest conditions is what it really means to be a runner.
Dad & I at a soccer game in Mexico
And it's not just running - a good Irishman loves his soccer and my Dad is no exception. He taught me how to pass and shoot and run and defend and how to love the game. He's always on the sidelines for support, even when it's for the team I'm coaching and I'm not even playing! So much of my life is shaped by what my Dad has shown me how to do.
But what my Dad (and my wonderful Mother) has really shown me how to do, is how to be a good person. My Dad is generous, hard working, caring, funny, and easy going. He always volunteers to help the community, always supports my sister, Mother and I in whatever crazy scheme we have thought up, and reminds me that no matter what happens, the most main thing is "not to panic."
So, to my Dad : Thank you, I love you, and happy birthday.
A prayer/blessing/wish for you and your kitchens on this weekend of food, family and friends:
May this kitchen be so filled with peace
That all who eat food prepared here receive peace
May this kitchen be so filled with happiness
That all who eat food prepared here receive happiness
May this kitchen be so filled with good will
That working here is a joy
Bless this kitchen
Bless all work work here
Bless the food that is prepared here
May this kitchen and the work done here be a blessing to all who live.
From May All Be Fed by John Robbins
Happy Thanksgiving everyone - remember to carry this feeling of gratitude for your friends, family, health and food with you throughout the year. We are blessed to have delicious, healthy food to nourish us and to share with people we love and who love us. Enjoy it today, and enjoy it every day <3
Because there is a very powerful force just starting to come your way: GIRLS!
When I was young, my sister and I had these great posters in our playroom - they said
Playing like a girl doesn't mean what it used to
A girl's place... is anywhere she wants to be
I grew up with, and maintain, the staunch belief that being female should not and will not hold me back or prevent me from doing any single thing I want to do. I could be a teacher, a contractor, a mother, a doctor, an physicist, a ballerina. I could play any single sport I wanted to ... for goodness sake I did karate and synchronized swimming in the same season, for years. I still get incensed when I hear "female athlete" - she's an athlete, period. Whatever I wanted to do, as long as I was a hard worker, honest and stuck to it - I could do it. I have female and male role models and friends who taught me and continue to prove to me that there are no opportunities that can be dictated by whatever genitalia you happen to have. I have found this, in my world, to be true. I was one of the lucky few in this world.
Around the world girls of all ages continue to be held back from school, from gainful and meaningful employment, continue to be oppressed through sexual violence, disproportionate levels of poverty and hunger, and through plain old discrimination. But it's starting to change. The wave is catching and people are working hard to make this world better for everyone, by making it better for girls ... it's
THE GIRL EFFECT!
Today marks the beginning of this year's Girl Effect Blogging Campaign! If you're a blogger, please participate and spread the word about The Girl Effect.
What is this 'Girl Effect' you ask? Basically it's this. Right now, girls around the world are just starting to become the powerhouses they should have the opportunity to be. They're just starting to have equal opportunities, just starting to become educated, to have fair, paying jobs and just starting to show the world what they're made of. And as a result, family sizes are getting smaller, allowing more children to go to school, allowing parents to have more food and water security for their children and themselves, allowing communities to become more prosperous and increase the quality of living, allowing countries to run more effectively and fairly... you get the idea.
Here's what happens:
Ps, for you Girl Effect veterans, and people who like THAT video, they have lots of new videos, check em out.
I hear lots of you saying, what, and forget about the boys? NO. The point is to forget no one. Create institutions, traditions and rules that recognize the rights of all humans, not just those typically favoured.
Support organizations that address the issues that keep girls off the fast track. For example, microfinance organizations that give loans to women (and men) with business plans so they can have their own financial independence and provide for their families rather than depend on a man or parents. Like a love of my life: Kiva. Or organizations that address the ridiculous price girls and women pay for society's neglect of their basic health - death during childbirth (this is 2011, get with the program - that shouldn't be happening) or the fact that many girls around the world have to miss a week of school every month when they menstruate. No wonder they don't get ahead.
As an educator, obviously I want to see more girls in school around the world, and in higher levels of school. I have been blessed to be able to work with and support great organizations that believe in this goal too, such as Roots & Wings International in Guatemala and Malawi Girls on the Move. I believe if we can remove the barriers children around the world face when coming to school, the world will be a better place. Both girls and boys face a lot of issues such as the distances they must travel to school, the supplies they must bring (water, food, not to mention books, pencils and uniforms), the easily preventable illnesses such as worms and diarrhea that make them fall behind... so many. The thing is girls face all that PLUS a second rate standing in the eyes of many societies and families. In many places they become brides and mothers at ages when girls in Canada are still celebrating birthdays with single digit candles on their cakes. In others, they become the only mother their siblings will know when parents are taken by HIV/AIDS. Or maybe they're simply left behind when parents can't afford to send all the kids to school. Whatever the case may be, we have to help countries, including our own - get girls into schools, staying in schools and succeeding in schools.
Girls are powerful, strong and deserve to have their rights taken seriously. Boys are powerful, strong and deserve to have their rights taken seriously. All we're asking for is that we make sure to pay attention to ALL people so that we can all work together to not just survive, but thrive.
And just in case I haven't convinced you let, I'll let these girls give it a shot. Here is the first graduating class of the first school built by Malawi Girls on the Move (which the University of Lethbridge Rotaract Club is so grateful to have been a part of!) performing a song they wrote, on their graduation day.
