So Thats How Russian Women Stay So Skinny

When I was seven we went to Russia to adopt my baby sister. And in Russia my family ate a LOT of Russian food. And some really good calamari at a German restaurant. But the Russian food is the important part. It tastes good, all full of butter and yumminess. Emphasis on the butter. Lots and lots of butter. And the strangest part was all of the tall thin Russian women eating plates upon plates of buttery Russian food, and still managing to stay thin.

A few days ago on the way back from Kallah I read The Winter Garden by Kirstin Hannah. I'll talk about it in a few days, but a huge part of the the novel is Russian food. And reading it on the bus made me crave Russian food like no tomorrow. Another part of the book was making food and freezing it.

For dinner tonight my mom and I made Beef Stroganoff from The Joy of Cooking. I made the first round and my mom made the second.

I know it looks bad but it tasted great. My mom cut her meat better, and the one I made we froze so I haven't tried it but we used the same recipe and it was yummy. 

Fizzy

It is no secret that I want to be a doctor one day. In fact now that I think about it I have started at least one blog post like this. Because of that I read a lot of doctor blogs. One of my favorites in A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor. Its run by a woman that we call Fizzy and not only is it her personal blog full of rants and raves about being a doctor but also has some pretty cool cartoons. I can't say I always understand them, but any one I don't get had some sort of medical humor. But for the most part the cartoons are funny and somewhat whimsical. I know I would read her blog even if it didn't have the cartoons but they are the icing on the cake.

People love Fizzy's cartoons so much that she has self published a book full of them. I don't own a copy myself, but I am going to get one for a doctor I know. I'd really recommend checking out either her blog or buying her book, you'll win both ways

The Byzantine Empire for Children

Have you ever been at a library and something about a book just jumps out to you on a shelf? Something in the color combination of Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett did and so I added it to my gigantic stack of books to read. And its a good thing I did, because Anna of Byzantium is such a fantastic book.

It follows the life of Anna Komnene, who lived a long long time ago. She lived in a time of murder, deception, and blood being stronger then water. Originally Anna was the heir to her fathers empire but after she is framed for something, is dethroned and plots to kill her brother. Although Barrett's portrayal is not 100% historically accurate, all of the important parts are there, and anything that is cut out is to make the book child friendly and easy to understand.

Anna of Byzantium is a great introduction to the Byzantine Empire, like Carolyn Meyer's books are for Tudor England.

Timmy Boo

You know how you cant always see how one thing leads to so many others? Well when I left my lovely neighborhood Starbucks to go home I never expected what would happen next. On my way I found a bunny eating weeds on the side of the road. Yes that's right an adorable little bunny. Someone said that they had seem him a few times and a women walking her dogs said that he used to belong to someone but that he lived in an empty field now.

I called the LASPCA. I would have taken him to ARNO but they only take dogs and cats. The women that picked up the phone said that I could bring him in and they would put him up for adoption. So I thought about it and figured that I could at least try to pick it up. My friend Bean has had a few rabbits and they never really liked to be picked up, so I didn't really expect him to comply.

But he did. The rabbit let me pick him up, and I held him and talked softly to him and he stayed in my arms. And I continued on my way home. I got some really weird looks and a few "nice rabbit"s. But the rabbit, who I named Timmy Boo after one of my favorite podcasters, and I made it home safe and sound. He only squirmed when I shifted him to quickly or if he was uncomfortable.

When I got home I grabbed everything I could think of to make an impromptu rabbit hutch. I cleared out a plastic bin, got all of the fresh veggies I could find, something to hold water and newspaper to line the bottom. All with Timmy still in my arms. I went upstairs and got both of the cats out of my room. Remus (my little black kitten) looked at Timmy as if to say "what is this? I don't know what it is but I like it!" He was hot at my feet the entire time and it took a lot to get him out of my room. Milky Way (my large older grey tabby cat) was lounging on the bed and looked up at Timmy as if to say "well finally your apologizing for getting that young black scrap."

I set everything up in the "hutch" and put Timmy in to see if he was hungry or thirsty. He did not like the thing and hopped out so I put him on my bed so I could keep an eye on him and do my work at the same time. My dad was not thrilled that I brought a rabbit home but fell in love when he saw him. And who wouldn't?

The story isn't over yet, so stay tuned to learn the fate of Timmy Boo. 

Ricky Bear

Like I mentioned before I have been giving a hand to my baby sisters Brownie troop, helping them with the sing a long and recently I chaperoned their trip to The Teddy Bear House. For those who don't know what The Teddy Bear House, it is a house in New Orleans that has more then 10,000 teddy bears in it. Ricky (the man who collects the bears) and a bunch of volunteers start stetting up the house in May and it opens for a few weeks in December. It all started because people called Ricky Rickey Bear, and has gotten a lot of press in the local media.

Sadly this is the last year that The Teddy Bear House is going to be up and running because of the amount of time it takes to set it up and take it down. And it just so happened that my baby sisters troop was going to the house. So I grabbed my Senior vest and went with my mom to help out. The girls took the street car from school and we met them their, and I went on a tour of the house with about five of them. It was so cool to see the house for the last time, with so many bears, many of them with historical backgrounds. And what is better then teddies bears and history. Besides chocolate nothing in this world. 

One Month and Four Balls of Yarn

Well I did it. I made my first baby blanket. Its not perfect by any means of the word but its done and I couldn't be happier. I actually finished it on Christmas Eve, which I thought was kind of cool. What does this blanket look like you may ask? Well here is a picture:

Its totally jagged, and I am hoping that next time it will look a little better, but right now its done and I am proud of it.

Who is getting this beauteous blanket you might ask. I have no idea. There are a few women at my mothers women's shelter who are expecting soon so I guess one of them. I'll try to keep y'all posted about it.

Please Don't Hate Me! Here Have a Cookie

I babysit this adorable little girl who I in my Sunday School class on a pretty regular basis. Lets call her Lucy, because I don't want to put her real name out on here. The first time I baby sat her somehow the topic of food came up and I promised that some time we would bake chocolate chip cookies.

So a few hours before I was suppose to go over and baby sit her I open up my well worn copy of The Joy of Cooking and look for a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I put a bar of frozen butter into the mixer and let it thaw for a bit and start getting out the other ingredients. I had to call my dad to pick up brown sugar on the way home after my mom swore that we had some in the house. And then when I was measuring the flour it spilled everywhere. It was just kind of those aaaah what a mess moments! But everything after that went well and a made the batter and put it in a Tupperware to take to Lucy's house.

Chilling in the fridge waiting to be taken to Lucy's

With my moms warning of "Don't forget the Tupperware" still ringing in my ears, I walked up the stairs to Lucy's house and rang the bell. Her mom let me in and Lucy ran up to me asking "Did you bring the cookie dough." I told her I did and her smile was huge. 

After Lucy's mom left we set out to neatly put the cookies on a tray and into the oven. But when they came out they looked like this

Doesn't that look yummy?

All the cookies had squished together. And get this, Lucy doesn't like vanilla cookies with chocolate chips and thought I was bringing chocolate chip cookies with chocolate chips! She had a try me bite and decided that she didn't like them. But hey the cookies were amazing, if slightly under baked and a gigantic mass. I'd make them again another day. And next time I babysit Lucy I'll bring chocolate cookie dough with chocolate chips. And in case any of you were wondering, I remembered the Tupperware. My mom was quite surprised.