So not a top chef

At first I didn't like Ina Garten. At. All.  She was always cooking for her husband and it seemed like she lived in some strange housewife life. It took me some time, but I was finally beginning to likeher.  Sure she is lives in some strange Hamptons fairy tale and is always cooking for friends who just drop by, but I was beginning to respect her as a chef. And she actually makes some good looking and tasting foods.

But then I saw this.

Really? Is your Hampton's chef ego so big that you cannot meet a 6 year old little boy with cancer? I mean, really?

I'm sorry Ina, but I will now be thinking twice before I tune into Barefoot Contessa.  You had to work really hard to earn my viewership in the first place, and now it's going to take a lot more to earn it back.

Holy moly!

Avi and I were just talking about Carla, from Top Chef, who now is running a cookie company.  We are super excited because she has gluten free cookies! But that is not what this is about! I know, what could be more awesome than Carla Hall making gluten free cookies?

Avi was trying to remember what cookie Carla cooked during the Top Chef cookie quickfire.  So I turned to google, and while I didn't find my answer I found something else.

Feast (no pun intended) your eyes on this!

Yup - this blog, my blog, came up as the 5th link on google! That is two higher than OK Magazine's recap of the Top Cheft episode!

Excuse me while I go eat a cookie in celebration!

E*Trade's newest representative

Do you think they are hiring?

I'd buy any stocks/bonds/mooses from this cutie pie!

I Heart Slices of Life

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is slices of life.  The goal here is to find a photo that is candid and shows life as it is happening.  I actually had several pictures that I thought fit the bill on this one.   

I finally settled on this one.  I took this at the Kensico Dam Fourth of July celebration in 2009.  Something about it just captures the American life. This juggler on stilts is there each year and I love how his shirt and pants blends into the sky's colors.  

To me this just captures a slice of American life.  People coming together to celebrate the nation's birthday.  Something about this photo and that day which to me America is really all about.  Everyone coming together, spending time with families, and having a nice time on a cool summer evening.

Is it a cookie?

This was just too funny not to share. Especially after Cookie Monster's recent appearance on Top Chef's cookie challenge! 

3 down 2 to go!

I seriously did NOT expect this email to arrive today.  I actually thought I had two or three weeks until the score report was going to come out! 

I was freaking surprised by the email too! I know I am the queen of self-doubt, but this MTEL was really hard and I was a bit unsure if I had passed.  Well, sports fans, I did!! I was shaking from excitement.  I didn't believe the email and quickly logged into my testing page to confirm the results! 

There it is, clear as day, PASSED. Wow. I am one step closer to getting my license and graduating.  I am over half way through my MTELs, only two to go.

Wow. Woohoo. Yay me!!

And to think.

Yesterday morning the American Academy Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released their new recommendations for keeping kids safe when riding in the car.  The Today Show had a representative on that morning and they discussed the new rules and regs. 

They now say babies/toddlers should be fear facing until they are 2 years old and in booster seats until they are close to 5 ft tall. I totally understand where they are coming from and they rep on the Today Show did say that for some kids they may need to be turned to forward facing before they are two, but the longer they are facing back the better.  

My mom was still visiting and we watched this segment together.  After it was over I turned to her and went, "and to think, I sat in the front seat of the van before I was five."  Yes clearly I am still here, but I would agree we were stupid back then.  I did of course have a booster seat in the back of the car.  I give you my former booster seat.  Which of course has now been deemed unsafe.  

 Come to think of it, it may be safer to put your kid in the front seat with a seatbelt then in this contraption.  The only thing that used to keep me in the seat was the crossbar, no straps, no belts, no harness, nothing. Yup, sounds real secure to me!

So there you have it sports fans.  Buckle up, and if you're a tike, strap in for a long time!

So Mr. Noam, I know you're shocked and I hope you like the view of the seat back because you'll be staring at it for a while!

Missed the memo

Clearly, the weather missed the memo that it is now Spring...

Happy Purim!

Happy Purim!! One of the more fun Jewish holidays! Simply summed up: They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat, get druck, dress in costume, and be merry. Nice, right?

While I have never been a huge fan of dressing up in costume I came up with a slightly genius (in my humble opinion) costume to wear this year.   I wore my Eagles jersey, and made a cardboard padlock and went as the NFL lockout.  I am surprised at how many people actually figured me out! 

And of course, no Purim would be complete with out making a batch of hamantaschen! Friday I got all floured up (and even gave the UPS man a fright when I went down to answer the door covered in flour) and whipped up some amazing treats. 

 My favorite, and the best fillings in my opinion, are strawberry and apricot.  This year I decided against using the icky Solo filling and used nice natural Trader Joe's jam with smashing results! I put several into my mishloach manot and the rest are in the freezer (hopefully as a means to keep me from gobbling them all up).

Megillah reading last night was fabulous and then this morning my mom came up from NY.  We hit up IKEA, a great place to spend Purim, and Costco, again not too shabby.  I then realized while going to IKEA is super fun, carrying two bookcases up two flights of stairs is not so super fun.  But seeing it all put together is super fun, so it all evens out.

Then for supper we headed over to Legal Seafoods for a Purim Seudah.  I had my wine and my trout and now am watching HP5.  Not too shabby of a Purim.  But considering I spent last Purim studying for my major Social/Clinical psych midterm it wasn't too hard for this Purim to rock!

Now onto Pesach, an excellent reason to have to eat all the hamantaschen I baked!

Well that's just nuts!

I was babysitting last week and while J was still napping I was skimming a Cooks Illustrated magazine.  It had some good recipes in the issue and some other cooking related articles and then I turned to the review section. And I got excited. They were reviewing their best picks for peanut butters.  Awesome, I love peanut butter and thought of all the various brands I enjoy and wanted to see if they topped their list.

Well, boy was I surprised. I was convinced such a prestigious foodie magazine would choose the top natural brands of peanut butter. Nope. Not. At. All.

Their favorites? Skippy, Jif, and Reeses PB.

The ones they don't recommend? Maranatha, Peanut Butter & Co, and  Smuckers Natural.

Really? Really? What is the main difference between the ones they liked and one's they didn't? Oh you know, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, sugar, and molasses.  The one's they didn't like had two or three ingredients: peanuts, maybe palm oil, and maybe some salt.

You'd think that the folks at Cooks Illustrated would have more refined palettes. But they claimed the natural ones were gritty and not smooth enough. Sure put enough crisco and corn syrup into sand and I am sure it will taste smooth! Even Real Simple ranked natural brands above the taste of Skippy and Jif!

To their credit, the reviewers at Cooks Illustrated tried to make the natural ones taste "better" they added crisco and sugar to the Smucker's PB and still couldn't make it taste like Skippy.  Maybe that is because you shouldn't mess with what's naturally found in nature!

Talk about a backup.

Sunday night my macbook started acting funky. And not a good type of funky.  I quickly emailed myself the two important papers I was working on since my external hard drive was back in my apartment in Boston.  I made a Genius Bar appointment and tried a few things I knew could help. 

The really nice Genius the next day ran some tests, tried the simple remedies, and then gave me "the news."  My 'puter is sick and would need to have a little trip to the Apple Hospital to be fixed.  Since I was only in White Plains for another day I said I had to bring it to the shop up here in Boston.  

For the time being the computer is basically functioning.  I can use Chrome and Word, which is all I needed.  I also dusted off my old laptop and have that at a basic functioning level to use for the few days my computer is being tended to. 

So granted, this situation could have been far far worse.  I could have lost EVERYTHING, which I didn't.  I could have been completely unable to use the computer, which I can.  And I could have not had a backup computer to use, which I do. 

So this is just a nuisance, something more. 

Suddenly 5 years seems like a very long time.

When I came home for spring break I was going through the miscellaneous papers and files my mom had put in my room to sort through.  In that pile were two folders from American University. I glanced at the contents but didn't think anything of it.

Then a few days ago I finally sorted through all the papers again.  I was looking at the AU folders and one of them was full of fancy official AU stationary.  I flipped through the various letters, most of them from my application and enrollment process.

Then one caught my eye.

It was dated March 15, 2006. And it as my acceptance letter into college.  It was my acceptance letter into my top choice college. It was my dream coming true.  It was one of the best letters I ever received.

Today is March 15, 2011.  It has been exactly 5 years since I was accepted into college.  Sometimes it seems like it was yesterday and right now it feels like an eternity ago.

Here I am 5 years later, a high school graduate, a college graduate, and now nearly halfway through graduate school.

It still amazes me sometimes. 5 years. Sometimes 5 years ago seems like it was yesterday.  Today 5 years seems like a very long time, but so much good has happened in those 5 years, so all is good.  Very very good.

What is love?

Yesterday, I taught my mom's first grade Religious School class while she continues to recover.  They were learning about the V'ahavta and we were discussing love what love feels like and looks like.  These six and seven years olds gave such profound answers I was absolutely blown away!

Love is...
"something when you really like a person in a special way"
      "people who take care of you and help you and people you care for"
            "family, because they gave birth to you"

Love feels...
"really happy, it feels good to you and means you like them"
     "like you appreciate someone a lot and you show it by hugging"
            "it feels good, a person cares for you, you're with them even if they're not actually there"

Look looks...
"you can tell, they'll be together"
      "like people holding hands with arms around someone, but not always hugging"
            "being partners all the time and staying together"

Their answers blew me away, if anything I was learning from them that night! These kids are the future and were wise beyond their years. Just amazing.

Rick Lavoie

Last night I had the privilege of hearing Rick Lavoie speak for 4 hours.  Rick Lavoie is a guru of education, namely special education.  He has been presenting on special education and working with kids with learning disabilities for over 30 years.  My mom is probably one of his biggest fans and has used his famous videos, "F.A.T City" and "When the Chips are Down" in numerous presentations.

He has a daughter who has special learning needs and whose story is similar to mine, he read the forward to one of his books, which is dedicated to her, and it was like listening to my story.  It was a truly informational and inspiring evening.

He spoke first to the religious and day school teachers in the community and then later to parents in the community.  His topics were "The Motivation Breakthrough" and "It's So Much Work to be Your Friend."

 

It really was an amazing evening. I had seen videos of Lavoie before, but then I was just a student who related to his message, now I am a grad student in special education who recognizes that I will need to head his message as an educator.

There are so many highlights and stories from the evening to share, but this post could go on forever! But I will share this.  Lavoie is a Bostoner and a huge Sox fan.  He told the story of inheriting a baseball signed by the Sox's 1967 Dream Team.  He said that when he was given it his 4 year old son suggested they have a catch with the ball when they got home.  Lavoie told his son, they can't play ball with that specific baseball because it has writing on it.  Upon returning home his son disappeared and came back and said they could play ball with the signed baseball now, since he had licked all the autographs off of it.  Lavoie realized that he had to see the world and the situation through his son's eyes.  He saw a problem and fixed it, and Lavoie realized that while it wasn't the best solution it was a simple innocent child's response.

So folks, see the world through your child's eyes - through the innocence of childhood, try to understand the world as they do, and understand that they see it differently!

Taking Care of Business

Or my mom as the case my be.

I came home for spring break a few days ago and jumped into doctor/nurse mode for my mommy.  She is sick with a nasty cough and virus and I am tending to her.

Not every twenty-something wants to spend spring break writing papers and caring for a sick mother, but I see it as getting even for all the times I was so sick and slightly (or majorly) pitiful laying on the couch.

Now, excuse me I am off to do laundry and make soup.

Show us your family

This week Kelly's "Show us Your Life" is Show us your Family.  I actually realized this was a perfect way for me to formally introduce my family since I have only mentioned them here and there. 

So without further ado.

My  Mom, Idie.  My mom is a teacher and educator.  She has been a preschool teacher and a school director as well as a grade school teacher, and of course - my most important teacher! She also writes for Tora Aura Productions, is working on some amazing new pieces for them, and just found out her "big books" are going to be published!!  She is an amazing mom - has always been there for me and helped me through everything in life so far.  She is one of my inspirations for becoming a teacher and I even get to go to her alma mater, Wheelock for my masters!

 My dad, Kevin.  My dad wears many hats: photographer, electrician, chef, chief financial officer.  I get my cooking and photography bug from him for sure.  Right now most of his time is with the Aids Care Group in Chester, PA.  They do some amazing work helping people living with HIV/AIDS in that area. Dad was my adventure buddy as a kid and together we tackled the ski slopes.

 My sister, Avi.  Avi and I are nearly 7 years apart and although we were at each other necks for many years we are very close now and I wouldn't trade that for the world.  Avi is currently a doctor in Oregon at a major teaching hospital. And now, she has the title of mommy to Mr. Noam! It's really hard having the entire country between us, but thank goodness for g-chat and skype!

 My brother-in-law, Ben.  Ben works as a lawyer and I learned early on to never try to win an argument with him, he's got the lawyer thing down!  Ben really is the brother I never had - someone to play x-box or goof off with. It's been really awesome to watch Ben take on the role of daddy, he's a natural with the little guy!

 And of course, last but certainly not least! Mr. Noam! Who is 4 months old today! This little ball of joy gets cuter by the day.  I love getting emails from Avi of his latest grin and "skill" - I can't get over how much he is changing each day, and even though I am on the other side of the country I feel super connected to him thanks to modern technology!

So that is the core S-B-O'Gclan. Of course there are many more cousins, aunts, and uncles on both sides of the family!

A boy and his dog.

I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship!

His shirt says, "cuter than the dog." And how true it is, although Rundi is pretty cute herself.