I'll freely admit that as a child I had very poor eating habits. It's really no fault of my parents--I made the wrong choices when given options of what to eat. And to paraphrase Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I chose...poorly.
Thankfully by the time I got to college I worked on changing things around, and have only gotten better about it since then. Nowadays, I live a short walk away from a farmers' market that usually has some pretty tasty produce, and I've been getting in the habit of going there once a week to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies. I always get bell peppers. Usually, I pick up one red, one green, and one orange pepper. I'll cut parts of each to use in salads or fry up in a pan as part of dinner. A couple weeks ago I was at a different farmers' market in the city and procured myself a few peppers, unsure of exactly what I'd do with them. At least, I didn't think I'd do anything out of the ordinary.
Then my friend Matt suggested that I try roasting them. He gave me instructions on how he normally does it, and it didn't seem to be that hard of a thing to accomplish if you have the time to do it. Roasting peppers isn't a difficult task, but it does take a long time. I spent a rainy afternoon giving it my first go with a red pepper and parts of a green pepper, and while it wasn't perfect (I wasn't expecting perfection on the first go-round anyway), it was amazingly delicious. I've always been a fan of roasted peppers, but I think with most cooking, the taste of the fruits of your own labor winds up being that much better than anything you could just buy at a store. I ate everything I roasted in one sitting (along with a couple pierogies) without a complaint from my stomach. Yum!
I tried again last night with another green and a yellow pepper (yes, I gave in and bought a yellow!), this time with a better idea of what I was doing, and I have to say I was definitely satisfied with the final results. I only ate parts of each last night--cut in strips and thrown into a salad topped with chicken coated in an awesome mixture I made and pan fried up. My mouth loved every bit of it!
I'm really enjoying the foods I've been making for myself lately. Nothing has been too drastic a taste change for me, nor has it added significant difficulty to food I had already had a formula for, but I think the slight experimentation has been paying off. I'll be trying to keep up with the healthier eating, more fresh fruit and veggies, and posting any good finds here.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What are people smoking in St. Paul?
I've taken time to watch a little bit of the Republican National Convention the past two nights, and I have to say, I'm really not impressed. Palin's speech last night was all style and very little substance. A few of the things she said have already been challenged and fact-checked. We're going to get our energy independence by drilling for more oil? How long will that last us--a couple weeks?
For all that the DNC last week in Denver was about bringing people together, this convention seems to have shades of wanting to do the opposite--keeping us divided, driving people into more debt, and preventing us from really exploring what all our scientists can do to make us energy independent at a lower environmental cost. I was repeatedly getting angry listening to some of the speeches the past two nights. I didn't watch them all, granted, but I think if I had I might have gotten even angrier. I was trying to be as unbiased as possible when listening to what some of the speakers had to say, but it was nearly driving me insane to do it. I don't know if it's my rational side getting the better of me or...no, forget it. I just don't think like a conservative Republican. And I'm thankfully okay with that.*
The one other thing I wanted to bring up was the fashion I saw the past two nights. Now, I'm wishing I had paid a little bit more attention to what the Democratic delegates were wearing, but I'll tell you something, I'm pretty sure the Republican delegates have a hold on tacky. From American flag-tiled blazers to the sea of cowboy hats, many of them emblazoned with more buttons than I thought would even fit on a cowboy hat (then again, in my mind, that number is usually zero), most of the outfits I saw just seemed so gaudy. There were a lot of people dressed in a more professional manner, with suits and ties, dresses, skirts and blouses and the like, but I really think that at best, it canceled out some of the fashion mistakes that were shown so prominently on CSPAN.**
*This is a VERY brief synopsis of my feelings. I wanted to make a post about it, but with limited time, this is what I can get out for now. Future ramblings more than likely will occur.
**I know that fashion has very little to do with the convention, but hell, I had to say something about it.
For all that the DNC last week in Denver was about bringing people together, this convention seems to have shades of wanting to do the opposite--keeping us divided, driving people into more debt, and preventing us from really exploring what all our scientists can do to make us energy independent at a lower environmental cost. I was repeatedly getting angry listening to some of the speeches the past two nights. I didn't watch them all, granted, but I think if I had I might have gotten even angrier. I was trying to be as unbiased as possible when listening to what some of the speakers had to say, but it was nearly driving me insane to do it. I don't know if it's my rational side getting the better of me or...no, forget it. I just don't think like a conservative Republican. And I'm thankfully okay with that.*
The one other thing I wanted to bring up was the fashion I saw the past two nights. Now, I'm wishing I had paid a little bit more attention to what the Democratic delegates were wearing, but I'll tell you something, I'm pretty sure the Republican delegates have a hold on tacky. From American flag-tiled blazers to the sea of cowboy hats, many of them emblazoned with more buttons than I thought would even fit on a cowboy hat (then again, in my mind, that number is usually zero), most of the outfits I saw just seemed so gaudy. There were a lot of people dressed in a more professional manner, with suits and ties, dresses, skirts and blouses and the like, but I really think that at best, it canceled out some of the fashion mistakes that were shown so prominently on CSPAN.**
*This is a VERY brief synopsis of my feelings. I wanted to make a post about it, but with limited time, this is what I can get out for now. Future ramblings more than likely will occur.
**I know that fashion has very little to do with the convention, but hell, I had to say something about it.
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