Laundry

Personally I have never really minded doing laundry, especially when it wasn't that far away from my room in one of the apartments I lived in. But now that I live in a hose where there are no laundry facilities, I am somewhat put out by the simple act of doing my laundry. For now I have to plan around my school schedule to have at least 2 hours free and to get to the laundry place itself before it get's too crowded. Which is a chore in and amongst itself, and therefore a major hassle!
The only good things about my having to do laundry outside the house is I can also do my grocery shopping, eat dinner and catch up on my home work or reading. As there is a grocery store next door to my laundry mat as well as some fast food joints and restaurants and plenty of places to sit and read. So it is not all that bad, but it is time consuming as you need to wait for everything to be finsihed

THANKSGIVING in the Bay Area

For a few days now I have been in the SF Bay Area, celebrating the Holiday with my friends and family. In fact for awhile now I have been celebrating Thanksgiving more than just once during the Holiday Season. As for the past few years we have been having two separate family Thanksgivings on Thanksgiving and the next day, Friday. One with the white or step side of the family, and another one with members from my Father's, or the black side of the family. Initially I enjoyed the
1st more traditional Thanksgiving with my step Mother, brother, step brother, his two kids, his wife, her grandfather, mother, step father and sometimes his two daughters, more than the 2nd Thanksgiving. Which takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and involves my aunt, her two daughters/my cousins, her new husband, and various family friends. But more and more I have come to enjoy the second Thanksgiving with my cousins, since my step sister in law just seems to be a really fake and superficial person, or is becoming so more and more. So much more in fact, that it has reached the point where I do not really trust anything she has to say, nor what she has to say to me. Especially after her young son repeated some stuff to me that my step sister-in-law her and her husband have been saying about me behind my back ( apparently for years). But such is the normal dysfunctional nature of the modern blended family I guess.


Still it is enough to make me have second thoughts about even joining that side of the family for Thanksgiving, even more so after I found out that Thanksgiving this year would take place in a restaurant instead of at someones house. Which just bummed the hell out of me, as Thanksgiving really should involve family and a home cooked meal. Plus I just didn't like the idea of paying for a meal that was in essence not all you can eat, as all Thanksgivings essentially are. But I ended up going to Thanksgiving with my family after all, mainly because my brother was freaking out about me not going and actually getting upset. And to be quite honest the food was not actually all that bad, and the evening as a whole was not as bad as I thought or imagined it would be. Though it definitely was a very short evening, as he had 5:30pm reservations, and were out of the restaurant by 8pm, which is kind of a record for us.

BLACK FRIDAY

How early is too early?


For years and years I use to work in retail, so I know firsthand all about Black Friday. The absolute biggest day or "Mother" of all retail consumerism that takes place directly after Thanksgiving, and in some cases only by a few hours after. As more and more stores are actually opening their doors to the public earlier and earlier, sometimes as early as 4am in some cases. All so customer can frantically bum rush the store and get their hands on one of maybe two Plasma TVs offered for a fraction of their normal price. Which if you ask me is just pure insanity! For Thanksgiving is one of the very few non commercial holidays the US celebrate or even has to begin with, and it really needs to stay that way! Forcing employees to cut their holiday celebrations with family short, just to go into work is totally unacceptable in my book. Just as it's unacceptable for some families to forgo Thanksgiving altogether just to wait in line all night for select Black Friday deals they might not even get in the first place because of limited quantities.


Because I live in LA and my family is from the Bay Area, I would fly just to spend Thanksgiving with the family. And because I worked in retail at the time I had to take the earliest flight back come Friday morning so I could finish an afternoon or evening shift, and that is not fair at all! All employees, no matter what position they hold within a company, deserve to be able to spend time with their respective families. They should not be forced to cut their Thanksgivings short just to return to start work, or better yet they should receive double time pay if they are made to come in before normal working hours. That way at least their sacrifice will not go unnoticed and they will be adequately compensated for their efforts. Also employees who are paid more will less likely be chosen to work such shifts, which is only fair. As people with seniority have already put in their time and should not be forced to have to work on such a day.

Shrimp & Mango Roll Shooters

All recipes posted here are a composite of random recipes found online, in various cookbooks, taken from family, friends, neighbors and dishes/creations I have tried and/or made myself. Any similarity to people's personal or unique family recipes is purely coincidental, and no one actually owns the rights to any food combinations if you think about it. No matter how unique. Food for thought?!



INGREDIENTS:

Makes 16 pieces

1 pound Shrimp (peeled, deveined, chopped)
2 1/2 tsp Corn Starch
1 1/3 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Scallions
1 1/3 oz Ginger (Minced Finely)
1 1/3 oz Bamboo Shoots (caned drained, chopped finely)
2 ea ripe mango (small dice)
1/2 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Kosher Salt
4 leaves Mint (cut into very thin slices)
16 spring roll skins (available in most supermarkets)
Canola Oil

Orange Teriyaki Sauce
8 oz Teriyaki sauce (store bought)
4 oz frozen orange concentrate (defrosted)
1 1/2 Tbsp orange zest
3 Tbsp corn starch + 3 Tbsp cold water (combine)

In a stainless sauce pot combine teriyaki sauce and orange concentrate and bring to a boil. Thicken with cornstarch mixture and add orange zest. Cool and set aside.

In an electric mixer, combine shrimp, 1 1/2 tsp corn starch, sesame oil, scallions, ginger, bamboo shoots and mix until gluten is visible (approximately 6-7 minutes on medium high speed). Remove from machine and fold in mint.

Combine 1 teaspoon corn starch with just enough water to make a thick paste. Set aside.

Lay out spring roll skin with a corner facing you and fill with 1/2 ounce of shrimp mixture. Place 3 cubes of mango on top of shrimp mixture, fold the left and right corners over the mixture then pick up the corner facing you and roll away from you (make sure to roll it as tight as you can get it). Seal with corn starch paste. Repeat step until mixture is finished. Make sure you cover the spring rolls to prevent from drying.

In a sauce pot fill halfway with canola oil and heat to 350 degrees. Place rolls and fry for approximately 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Place on paper towels.

Serve in shot glass with orange teriyaki sauce at the bottom.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

to one & all from Travel Whore!




Make sure to eat lots of Turkey and enjoy your time off with friends & family like I am doing right now. More Blogs to come when I return from my 2 Thanksgiving dinners in the Bay Area & once again Happy Thanksgiving! Save me some stuffing!

Precious...How depressing was that?

I was planning to see the movie Precious, just not as soon as I actually did. It seems I had several hours to kill upon my arrival in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, yet no one could actually pick me up until close to 8pm. So I decided to hang out in a local Berkeley Movie Theatre and see a movie or two, especially since I had free passes to 3 different movie theatre chains on me. I decided to see the longest film I could find at the time, which was Precious. I knew I was going to be in for a disturbing ride even before I saw the film, but it really was disturbing. Everyone on some level knows that there are horrible acts of abuse going on all around us on a daily basis, but we don't actually get confronted with just how monstrous some of these acts are. As we are not forced to see them face to face, as the film definitely does in very graphics detail. Which made a great deal of the film very hard to watch, especially when the film's main character is being repeatedly abused by her Mother and her Father.


For those of you who are not familiar with the film or the book PUSH, on which it is based. Precious is the story of Clarice Precious Jones, who is routinely verbally, emotionally and physically abused by her Mother. Sometimes the physical abuse is so intense that Precious is rendered unconscious. The fact that the abuse is perpetrated by her Mother, makes it all the more monstrous to behold. As a result of her abusive upbringing, Precious can barely read and write and has the self esteem of a cardboard box. She is also pregnant with her second child from her own biological Father! Her first child whose actual name was Mongoloid, was born with down syndrome as a direct result from being the product of incest.


I am not sure if the film and respective book were actually based on a true story or living person, but by the end of the film you really hope and pray that there is not. As I do not know anytime who could go through what Precious did and not be completely fucked up as a result! Though without spoiling the film or book for others who have not read it, Precious doesn't really escape anything in the end if you think about it ( I will leave it at that as not to spoil things).

New Moon...Maybe if I were a 12 year old girl I would have liked it more

Like a lot of people, both male and female I have actually read all of the Twilight Vampire Books. I didn't think they were amazing or anything like that, but I also didn't think they were pieces of shit either. In fact I rather liked the last book in the series, Breaking Dawn, and am looking forward to seeing that one on the big screen. While the latest silver screen version, New Moon, was less than stellar in my opinion. Although I am sure it will make millions of dollars, as I can see the film being highly entertaining to certain individuals. Especially 12 year old white girls, as that seems to the be the books core audience or demographic.

Crazy is as Crazy Does

While on the Streets of Berkeley I witnessed some crazy man litterally choke himself. As if he were two people inside his body and one of them was trying to kill the other. Then the man started to drool, and now he is passed out on a bench. I am going to try and get a picture of his craziness. Hopefully he won't try to kill me! He really looked psychotic choking himself and actually screaming out "NO," as if he was fighting an actual person for his life.

Times are Tough

There was a line at the local pawn shop which aside from being rather depressing in and of itself just shows you how tough these economic times really are. I assume that since I didn't see a lot of people with actual items in their hands, they were there to trade gold or something into cash. As you see ads for such things on TV and in the newspaper on a daily basis.

Dinner in WestWood

I am not in Westwood all that often and when I am, it's usually fun to eat in the one local dining establishments. Although I do not often choose BJ's to eat because I think the food is somewhat over priced for what it is, but I have to admit that I really do like their wedge salads. Which is essentially just a slice of Iceberg Lettuce, Blue Cheese Dressing & Crumble, chopped Onions, Tomatoes and Bacon Bits. Something so simple a child could make it, though their Blue Cheese Dressing is really, really good and one of my favorites. Aside from the salad I had a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich and thinly cut fries, which like I said was over priced. I would have preferred to have gone somewhere else, but the friends I was with kind of insisted we go there and I felt I owed them so I conceded. My stomach ended up paying for it later on, but that is just one of the down falls of getting on in years it seems. One can no longer eat as much as they once did.