Humans of New York - Can I just say WOW!

It's Saturday morning. I'm not feeling too great so I've decided to spend the day in bed, reading, watching movies, blogging and checking up with facebook. Am I glad I did! I ran into one of the most entertaining, interesting, amazing, uplifting...wow, I just can't come up with enough adjectives to describe the facebook page/blog called Humans of New York!

I am obsessed by the photos and the stories! This guy named Brandon in 2010 decided he was going to take 10,000 photos of random people in New York to post on a blog. Here's a short video describing why he decided to do this and where it took him. He tells the story much better than I could, because it's his story.



What a laugh this guy Brandon has! Right? I would love to meet him, he seems like such an amazing person and I love what he's done and his facebook page. 

I haven't seen all of his photos yet, but this one truly touched my soul and reminded me of my dad who passed away last year in July. 

Photo Credit - Humans of New York - facebook

Next to each photo Brandon types a snippet of the conversation he has with these people. What struck him as most important about his conversation with this man was this:

"I came from Mexico."

"Why'd you come?"

"Everybody comes for the money."

"Were you scared?"

"Everybody's scared."

I think of the stories that my dad would share with us about his struggles in coming to the United States from Mexico. How scared he was and how he many times had to sleep on trains, like a Hobo and how cold it was and how many times immigration captured him and sent him back to Mexico and he had to struggle to come back to the United States. I remember him telling us of nights he spent sleeping on the desert floor and hearing the sound of the coyotes in the dark and how they frightened him. 

And he did it all for love. Love of his mother and brothers and sisters still in Mexico. He wanted to make their lives better and send them money so they could survive.

Love for his future wife and children, so he could build a life in the United States where he knew that because of him they would have a better life than the one he had and struggled to leave behind in Mexico.

What Brandon is doing by putting these photos out there to move and touch us, to remind us of the humanity and innate goodness of people is just so inspirational. People like Brandon should be celebrated, he should have an Olympic Gold Medal for his excellence in his chosen sport! 

 

Being a Jack of All Trades Can Amount to a Hill of Beans!

It is kind of great being a “Jack of All Trades and Master of None”! 

Photo Credit - Hello Beautiful 

Photo Credit - The Political Carnival

I know all kinds of little things that probably don’t amount to a whole “hill of beans”, but when I do need to use that one little bean it sure can be helpful to one or some people. 




One of those Jack of All Trades things that I know and store in my mind are quote. Quotes, I know quotes! They just stick in my head, like lyrics to songs, not leaving room for important things like Math and Engineering and Medicine! I know quotes, but not who quoted them, I know lyrics but not who sang or wrote them. 

But the true purpose of my story today is my knowledge of “How to Tie a Scarf”. 

 In November of 2011 I found this super cool video “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes”. I shared it as a blog post for Iwanna Wednesday, you can find that post HERE. 

I stored the information that I saw on that video in my mind. I didn't know it was there and I very seldom use that knowledge, unless I’m tying a scarf. 

Today in the ladies room I ran into a lady that works in this building. We always say hi and how are you but the other day I mentioned to her that I liked her scarf and she went into a long conversation on where she bought it. 

Today she had a different one on and again I commented on it and she told me she really liked the one I had on as well. Then she said that the one she had on today was too long and kept getting in the way and she wasn't sure she liked it. I then started showing her “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes”! She was amazed and tried a couple of different ways and found one she really liked and she thanked me and said “You’re so smart!” 

Being a Jack of All Trades paid off in a nice compliment! Plus it feels good to help someone find peace with their scarf!


 

Mariachi Olympian and a Prince to Boot?

Football season is over!

The only thing keeping me from jumping off a bridge in utter despair is the fact that American Idol has started and that the Winter Olympics will be starting on February 6th! 

Yay! I love the Olympics! I love the Olympics for the same reason I love American Idol, I love to see talented, hard-working people working hard towards goals and achieving them! I admire them and live vicariously through them! 

There will be so many great things to see during these winter games, and we will meet new athletes as well as say good bye to older athletes that will be competing possibly for the last time. One athlete that I am going to be watching in particular is my age!!! Can you believe that? Wow!

Not that I'm old...definitely not. But normally people my age are on the sidelines coaching, not actually "living the dream"!

But one man is! One man is living the dream at the ripe old age of 55! He reminds me of the man that makes the commercials for Dos Equis, the Most Interesting Man in the World. 

This man is one of the Most Interesting Olympians in the world and I had never even heard of him. But...he's not only an Olympic Athlete, he's also a Prince! A German Prince! 

He is Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe Langenburg! He's a very colorful fellow. From what I've read of him he's the son of a Prince and a Princess and was born in Mexico while his father worked at a Volkswagen plant. He has Mexican citizenship which makes him eligible to compete for Mexico. 

He is many things besides an Olympic athlete. He's a photographer and businessman as well as a pop singer!

He's been in the news lately for his fashion sense. He may just win the best dressed Olympian for his very original Mariachi motif racing suit! I have to say...I love it! And I can't wait to watch him, what a character!

So I may not be leaping off that bridge just yet. I may just stick around and watch this very handsome and very interesting Prince be the only competitor to come from Mexico! Viva Mexico!

Would you leave Comfort for Dirt Floors? - From Left to Write

I'm trying to start 2014 off by reading more since I did not meet my goals for the number of books to be read in 2013, see that post HERE.

I just finished a book for my online book club, From Left to Write. As a member of this book club I don't actually do a review of the book but instead write a post inspired by the book itself. The book is A Well-Tempered Heart, a sequel to a book I read in 2012 called The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. 

Most of the story in this book takes place in Burma, a country that I know very little about, which reminded me of a family vacation my mom and dad took us on when we were small children to Mexico, another country that I knew very little about even though it was the country of my dad's birth.

Here's a picture of my sister and I during that trip. As you can see, we were just little girls. The older one is me of course.

What I remember most about this trip was learning about how my dad grew up and where he lived and how he suffered and how hard he worked to make himself a success and to make a better life for us, his wife and children.

I saw where he grew up in a small two room house with a dirt floor. I remember his Tia Luz asking me to sweep the floor and handing me a broom and how I almost dug a hole to China trying to get all the dirt off of a dirt floor! The harder I swept, the dirtier it got!

I saw the well where my dad would go to get water and had opportunity to drink that water out of pottery called Botellon or Jarro. 

The water was so sweet and cool and had the underlying flavor of dirt. I know that doesn't sound good, but for some reason it was and I remember that taste to this day!


I remember using an out-house and squatting to urinate. That was one of the things that I really couldn't get used to. I've always been very finicky and don't like to be dirty and I never did figure out how to squat to pee without getting it all over my shoes!

I remember my dad taking us to go watch a cow being slaughtered, in the street...right there in front of our eyes! I don't know that my dad would have let his grandchildren see that, but at that time it still wasn't such a shock to him. 

I remember them leading the cow down the street and cutting it's throat and the blood flowing and women with pots and pans fighting to catch some of the blood. It was something that I will never forget, the sound of the poor cow as it was dying! And it took a long time for it to die!

I remember my dad taking us to a nearby river to bathe and watching the local women do their laundry in buckets at the edge of the river, some with washboards and some using the rocks!

This book inspired these memories because in the book the main character actually chooses to leave her high powered life as an attorney in a big law firm in New York City and all the amenities that come with the money she was making, to stay in Burma because of true love!?! I don't know that I could do that, could you? 

It made me really appreciate my dad so much more remembering how humble and poor he was growing up and how lucky I was to have born his daughter. He struggled so hard to make sure his children had a better life. Judging from the picture of my sister and me above you can tell that we were cherished and happy!

This post was inspired by the novel, A Well-Tempered Heart. Feeling lost and burned out, Julia drops her well paying job at a NYC law firm. After hearing a strangers voice in her head, she travels to Burma to find the voice's story and hopefully herself as well. Join From Left to Write on February 4th as we discuss the book, A Well-Tempered Heart. As a member I received a copy for review purposes. 

 

Books Read in 2013

I think in the coming year I'm going to have to sleep a whole lot less! I had set a goal of 30 books to read this year!

30 books and I only managed to read 18! What happened to me in 2013? In 2009 and 2010 I read 24 books each year. In 2011 I read 29 books. 2012 I had set a goal of 30 but only read 26...but 18? Wow! What a slacker!

I guess other things were more important in 2013.

So I will set a new goal for 2014 and see if I can't do better. It's not that I've lost my love of reading, just life getting in the way. So maybe I will set a more realistic goal of 20 this year.

Here's a list of the books I read this year...

Ok, off to read a book! Are you reading any good books lately? Or do you have a recommendation?

Low-Carb Pancakes with Sugar Free Strawberry Jam

One thing that I really don't miss eating is sweets. I've never been a big fan of sweets, cookies, cakes, sweet rolls, etc. But one thing I really do miss is pancakes and french toast! 

For the longest time I've wanted to try making the low-carb pancakes that everyone is raving about. These don't require flour of any kind. 

My friend and co-worker Angie makes some super delicious pancakes but she uses Almond and/or Coconut Flour and Protein Whey...which are all a bit expensive for my taste. 

The pancakes I made tonight are made with cream cheese, eggs, Splenda and cinnamon...easy peasy and something most of us have in the fridge and pantry!

Pretty aren't they? And this was the ugly one...so I ate him! They are the texture of a crepe but the cinnamon reminds me of french toast. Can't wait to share these tomorrow with my co-worker with a cup of Starbucks coffee! 

Oh...and this is not my recipe or my idea...there are many much wiser low-carbers out there than I. They try over and over again to get these recipes right and then I get to try the no-fail recipe! Gotta love them! 

The recipe for this version is again from one of my fav low-carb bloggers, Mellissa Sevigny from I Breathe...I'm Hungry. 

 

Finger in the Dike and a Yummy Meal

Today is going to be a little bit random because sometimes that's just how my mind works! 

 Also my mind is pretty tired because today was the first day of a full week back to work in 2014, and I went into it with some trepidation. I tried to be positive about it and even posted on Facebook first thing in the morning something to motivate me and others.

Happy Monday everyone! Back at work for the first full week of 2014!
I'll be ready for it...just as soon as I finish my first cup of coffee! Make it a great one!

See how I tried to face the day with a lot of positivity? Yes, I know...that's not a real word, auto correct is telling me so, but I like the word...positivity!

I believe I've written before how I have some days when everything I touch turns to Gold and is smooth as silk...today was not one of those days!

Today I would no sooner touch one project and get a little into it when I would get interrupted with an urgent email or phone call. I would then turn my focus into putting out that fire and soon there was another call or email that took me away from that fire and so on and so on and nothing much got accomplished, just a bunch of half done problems and projects! *sigh* I hate days like that!



I felt like the little boy that put his finger in the dike to save the village but other holes kept cropping up and I was running from one to the other trying to just stop the onslaught of water and to keep from drowning!

But...the good thing is I got through the day and lived to face another one tomorrow!


Then I came home to do one of my favorite things...eat and share what I eat!

Tonight was taco night, but instead of having a regular taco with all the goodies stuffed into a high carb corn tortilla, I opted for a lettuce wrap. All the goodness for less carbs! Win! 

Is that not a work of art? Just seasoned and browned ground beef on an leaf of iceberg lettuce topped with avocado, salsa and shredded cheddar cheese...simple and delicious!

Tucked in at the back of the wraps is a yummy Spicy Cajun Chicken Strip. Made those yesterday to watch while the San Diego Chargers and the San Francisco Forty-niners played. They didn't play each other, they played other teams, but they both won! Go California! 

So that was it, that was my Monday. Hopefully tomorrow will be smoother and if not you know what?? There's always food and sharing it on my blog!

               

Our Minds are so Amazing...

This morning I was listening to the radio and the traffic report came on. There is a traffic reporter called Uncle Lee that does the traffic on several of the radio stations and I just love his voice. It’s deep and soft and soothing and you just know that with this voice guiding you through traffic, you’re going to be ok. 

As I listened to him, the thought came to me of what it would be like to be married to this man and listen to this voice every single day for the rest of your life. Would I find it just as soothing forever? Or would it eventually get to me to listen to a voice that deep and low. 

Then that thought took me to a thought about the difference in timbres of voices. I have a very deep, low voice that I can project without much effort. I can be heard in a crowd. My sister Lisa on the other hand, while she has a semi-deep voice (she doesn't sounds like Micky Mouse by any means) has a hard time projecting her voice. 

When our dad was alive we would go to see him and my sister Lisa would try to explain things to him, or just tell him a joke or a story or simply ask him a question and he would look at her puzzled…and then look to me to tell him what Lisa was saying. This would drive Lisa crazy! She never knew if he just didn’t hear her, didn’t understand her, or just pretended in order to drive her crazy! 

 I would tell her it was just the timbre of her voice. Because dad was hard of hearing he couldn't hear the register her voice is in…and I honestly believe that, but she still was unsure. 

So then that thought took me to thinking about my dad and a rush of sadness overwhelmed me. I miss him so much and even though I go on through my days… working, eating, shopping, sleeping…all those regular things; something will catch my thoughts and I’ll think about dad and the tears will just flow. 

Today was one of those days. I miss him so much. His smile and his jokes, even those times that he would be mad at me or the doctors or the nurses. It does get easier with time but when that wall of sadness hits, it hits hard. 

 All of this from the sound of one man’s voice simply doing the traffic report. Aren't our minds amazing? 

I'm No Expert, but.....

So it's the 2nd day of the New Year and I'm back at the office having my lunch and trying to stick to my resolve to eat healthy again in 2014. I follow a lot of blogs that follow the low carb, high fat lifestyle aka LCHF.

One of the blogs I follow faithfully and just love the author of it to bits is Mellissa over at I Breathe...I'm Hungry...

I've shared many of her meatball recipes on my blog before, but today she did a post entitled "Hi, My name is Mellissa and I am a Carb Addict." 

So..."Hi, My name is Alicia and I too am a Carb Addict." Love carbs, especially those in the form of little rounds of fried potatoes seasoned with salt, and little crispy, cheesy strips of Heaven that have a satisfying crunch. More commonly they are known as potato chips and Cheetos...Yum!

It's really difficult to find any foods comparable to chips and Cheetos. Nothing really compares in the LCHF world, but today a friend turned me on to something super delicious that I can actually have on a LCHF diet. 

I had mentioned to my friend that I need to eat a certain percentage of healthy fats but that I really don't like fats or the taste of fats and that I normally peel the skin off of chicken or force myself to swallow it without chewing. 

My friend told me I should take the skin, wrap it in paper towels and put it in the microwave until it crisped up. So today that is what I did and what I ended up with is those golden little crisps pictured above. 

And because I peeled the skin off of my Cajun Chicken Drumsticks...recipe again from Mellissa at I Breathe...I Eat..., they had a super great Cajun flavor; a tad spicy, very crispy and salty...Yum!

They were a nice little appetizer today, I got my fats in and then I enjoyed the chicken drumstick with a side of salad. All in all a delicious lunch!

It's amazing the things you can do with food. Every day I read about some new thing that you can eat on LCHF. So glad there are so many great bloggers out there sharing this information!

      

Happy New Year - No Black Eye Peas for Us

I know that for most people Black Eye Peas are the traditional food for the New Year, but that's not the tradition in our family or in most Hispanic households. We usually have Menudo, which is supposed to be great for a hangover, but this year I made Jalapeno Poppers and Meatloaf Pie. I know...doesn't really make sense. There is no rhyme or reason, but hey, it's a New Year and why not start it off being different and unpredictable right? 

 I've written about Meatloaf Pie before, it's my son's favorite dish and you can find the post and recipe HERE.

The Jalapeno Poppers idea and recipe came from one of my favorite food bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman, Ree, is one of the nicest, funniest bloggers online. I have followed her forever and own her books. I've always wanted to try her Jalapeno Poppers so today I did. 

Super easy and you will love them if you try them! Just three ingredients, Jalapenos, Cream Cheese and Bacon! That's it! That's all!

I bought 10, cut them in half and removed the seeds. Here they are all naked and ready to be all dolled up! Oh...important thing to remember, don't touch your eyes with jalapeno juice on your fingers and if you like them a little hotter leave some of the white membrane and/or some of the seeds.

The first step to covering up their nakedness is to fill them with cream cheese....room temperature cream cheese. I found that just using a simple dinner spoon worked best. 

Then you take a package of bacon and cut it into thirds and wrap each pepper with a slice. Warning...use a toothpick to hold them together. I ran out of toothpicks and made the last few without them and the bacon slides off...you'll see that in later photos.

Be sure you place them on a rack so that the bacon grease can drain, that will help to crisp up the bacon. And Voila! You end up with this!

I took all the toothpicks out for the picture but you can see in that one in the middle that the bacon opened up...which is why I say to make sure to use a tooth pick to seal them.

Aren't they lovely? And they are so delicious! I could have eaten them all and I almost did! The great part is they are low-carb! Yes, still doing the low-carb thing. I strayed a bit during the holiday's but tomorrow is Jan 2nd and it's time to get myself back on track!

May the very best of last year be the very worst of this year! Happy New Year!