Nalisniki

For the slow foods gathering, I brought a Ukrainian dish called nalisniki. It is interchangeable and can be served during the main meal or dessert. It is really special to me, since every time I eat nalisniki, I remember Ukraine. They are served at funerals, weddings, family gatherings, and just family meals. They are very popular and favored by all ages.

Prep;
First of all, there is a joke among Ukrainians. How do you tell the difference between an American cook and a Ukrainian cook? Answer: they never use measuring cups. Unfortunately, since I'm Ukrainian, I don’t use measuring cups either.... I guess we all trust our eyes so much!
Milk
Flour
eggs
Sugar
It all depends on how much you want to make, and it's about 1:1:1 ratio, I think. About for every cup of flour you need a cup of milk and 1 egg. The mixture has to be very light and runny.
Cooking: Cook on butter
Tortillas need to be very thin, so do about a ½ cup at a time
Pour it out in the center of the pan and kind of turn the pan a little, so the tortillas will be nice and round.

Filling:
Package of Cream cheese
(Med) Cottage Cheese
Sugar
Egg/s

Drain cottage cheese, and grind it. Add Cream cheese, sugar and an egg. MIX WELL!Spread the filling on the tortillas and roll them up.
Optional: Before rolling, add raisins/nuts or both.
Eat as is after rolling up
Or
Heat in the oven 135F in LOT of butter (Which is what I made for class!)
Or
Cook in butter on pan. Careful, they burn fast!!!!

Food = Barrier?

In what ways does food play a part in your family, in your culture?
Food plays a very big part in our culture. When ever we have friends come over, we have to have food, or just tea. It is now turning around a little, it used to be that when someone comes over, you have to have a whole bunch of food, but eventually everyone started to realize that it is too much work, and time prepare so much food. Food started becoming a barrier between relationships. Friends wouldn’t invite each other to their houses, because they thought they didn’t have enough food to serve. Now, pastors are preaching in our churches that it's ok if you have a lot of or even no food at home, still invite some one over to your house. Tea and graham crackers are perfectly fine just as long as you have some kind of communication! As we heard in the “The Meaning of Food” It doesn’t matter what you eat, it matters whom you eat it with. This has brought our family and church members much more closely together. We got to know each other much better and made many new friends. This is when I realized what an important role food plays in our lives, because it can either bring people closer together or set them farther apart.

What foods are considered "comfort foods" to you?
My comfort food is pizza and sometimes ice cream!!! Most of the time I eat it is after I take a test, and still feel all tense or after studding for hours, I treat my self to either pizza or ice cream.

What recipes are remembered and shared among your family?
The recipe that is remembered in our family is of a Ukrainian food – nalisniki. It is kind of like cottage cheese wrapped in a tortilla. It is then prepared a few different ways: cooked in the oven, on the pan in butter or you could just eat it as it is. It is sweet and favored by all ages! This is something that I am thinking of bringing in next Friday, so you would like to try some, you are welcome to!!!
Our family celebrations are very different from how “main America” eats. During our family/friends gatherings, our food is most of the time made from scratch, although we do buy a lot of heat and serve food as well.

Then consider the place that fast food has in your life and those around you? In what ways has it affected your lifestyle both positively and negatively?
Fast food does play a pretty big role in my life. I eat fast food almost every day at school. The 10 lunch ladies can’t possibly prepare enough food from scratch every day for over 2,200 students. This has affected my life style both positively and negatively and the choices of food that I make every day at school. Positively, because we don’t spend so much of our valuable time preparing our food, we instead study, hand out with friends, or do many other very important things. However, my health has been affected by the fast food, since it isn’t as nearly healthy as slow foods. It is hard to prepare slow foods when there is fast food all around you all the time.

Fast Food Nation Impresions

When I first got the book Fast Food Nation, I expected something totally different from what I got. I expected it to attack me with the fact that McDonalds and all those other fast food restaurants are so bad for me. I though that I probably wouldn’t want to go eat at another fast food restaurant ever since the first chapter of the book. I read up to chapter three and that is not the case at this point. The author is starting a little slow and tells the history of fast food restaurants. So far, I'm really enjoying the book, I found a lot of interesting facts, and learned lots of new things I have never known before. Here are some quotes that I found interesting.

“In the neighboring town of Garden Grove, the Reverend Robert Schuller founded the nation’s first Drive-in Church, preaching on Sunday mornings at a drive-in movie theater, spreading the Gospel through the little speakers at each parking space, attracting large crowds with the slogan “Worship as you are... in the family car.” (Schlosser, 19)
I think that is very interesting! I have heard of many drive-in things, I’ve never heard of a drive-in church. I wonder how that works... you leave when you feel like it, you can come it whenever you feel like it... Is there a set date or time for service?

“You can buy bean-bag McBurglar dolls at McStore, telephones shaped like French fries, ties, clocks, key chains, golf bags and duffel bags, jewelry, baby clothes, lunch boxes, mouse pads, leather jackets, postcards, toy trucks, and much more, all of it bearing the stamp of McDonald’s. You can buy T-shirts decorated with a new version of the American flag. The fifty white stars have been replaced by a pair of golden arches.” (Schlosser, 31)
That is just amazing how many McDonald’s things there are. The most amazing one is that you can buy a t-shirt where the stars have been replaced with a golden arch.

Saturdays Clean!!!!

Is your house or car ALWAYS a mess? If you are like me, you have no time to clean it on the weekday, so every day you promise your self that you will clean it on SATURDAY. No excuses!!!! Of course Saturday rolls around and you have something much more important to do than clean your room or your car. You need to go shopping (which is extremely important) or your friends asked you to go somewhere where you just absolutely can't turn down. You end up waiting for another Saturday, and when that comes, you have the same old story. At the same time, you absolutely can't stand your dirty surroundings. Your dream has always been for someone or something else to do it for you. Well, this is the day you have been waiting for! Saturdays Clean has been recently invented for people like you that never have time to clean. Using Saturdays Clean, you just need to sprinkle the powder Friday night before you go to sleep on the area that needs to be clean. Luckily, Saturdays Clean is strong but sensitive enough for any kind of surface; all kinds of woods, carpets, plastics, polishes, and glass. Saturday morning when you wake up, your house will be unbelievably clean!!! This is clean while you dream!!! Now your Saturdays are always clean and you can spend your Saturdays however you want, with out ever feeling guilty again!!!

True Love

True love is a promise never broken.
In a moment of anger, bitter words are left unspoken.
It’s forgiving, forgetting what you forgave.
It’s knowing when one is lost in doubt.
It’s believing together you will figure it out.
It’s hurrying to waiting arms at night.
It’s the comfort and strength you gain from your love, your light.
It’s her smile saying “thank God you’re here.”
It’s his smile answering her unspoken prayer.
It’s the dreams of tomorrow yet to be.
It’s your futures carefully planned making it a reality.
The awards are many when love is true.
It’s your adored one whispering, I love you!

Bible

This is my most precious Bible. I got this Bible from my parents on new years when I was 11 years old. It was my first Bible that was all mine. I didn’t have to share it with anyone if I didn’t want to. I could make my personal notes in there as I was reading it. Although it was hard, I tried to read it everyday. Whenever missed some days, usually tried to catch up. It was a very valuable book to me, since this book is the reason for who I am and the reason why I am still here. My daily goal is to learn something new from the Bible and I always try to change something in my self to be a good example for others. Whenever I pick up my Bible to read, I pray that many more people will come to know Jesus as I did through this book. I pray that many hearts will be transformed through this precious book –Bible.

Too much but not enough...

My computer is where I spend most of my time when I am at home. Generally, I do my homework. I usually do a quick e-mail check, before I dedicate the rest of the time to my homework. I spend about two to three hours on my computer every day. There is no other place in the house that I spend more time at except my bedroom. Unfortunately, I am in my room only when I sleep. I always try to do the best at school and always try to improve my grades. Although it's not a very bad thing to improve, I spend more time with my computer and books then with my family. There are sometimes things going on in my family that I don’t even know about, until a few days later that’s because I concentrate so much on school. I should really try to improve my connection with my family, spend more time with them, and then go on to try to improve my grades.

"A little arrangement"

As I was getting out of my car at the EVCC parking lot, I heard two girls talking on their way to class.

“Oh my goodness, you are not going to believe this! Yesterday, at work I met the hottest guy ever! Tall, handsome, brown eyes and jet black hair. Best of all, he just got out of the marines after being there for like 5 years so you can imagine how nice and muscular he is! Oh my, and he is such a sweat heart too!”

“Ok, it's not fair that all the good things are happening to you! Why are you the one always meeting the hottest guys?”

“Hey girl, why are you complaining? You already have a boyfriend! What else do you want?”

“Well, so what that I have a boyfriend?! That doesn’t mean that I can’t meet any other hot guys Jess! What was that guy doing at your work anyways?”

“Oh, nothing much...” the girl laughs a little excited laugh “he was just turning in an application and oh my goodness, he has the nicest handwriting a guy can possibly have!”

“Well, I hope won’t get hired!”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s the only thing you will be talking about! ‘And then he said this and I said that and he just started laughing and I then he said this so I said...’ that blah, blah! I don’t wanna hear any of it!”

“Well, you know what? Hired or not, I know one thing, he is coming back.”

“And why would he come back, to your pretty little face?”

“Well, you can say so.... yesterday we talked for like 20 minutes and it was very obvious he didn’t want to leave, so we made a little arrangement...”

This was the first time in my life that I wished that my walk from the parking lot to my class was longer. Unfortunately, I was left in suspense just like that!

Mary Jane

As I sat in my psychology class, thinking about the assignment we were doing. A group of cheerleaders were sitting next to me and were discussing “psychology”. I wasn’t paying attention to them, but one of the girls shrieked so loud that made me wonder what they were talking about.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that Kayla got arrested for smoking pot!!! She was always such an innocent little girl that didn’t even drink! I remember a few days ago we were talking and she was telling me how proud she was of her self that she never tried any drugs, she never drank or smoked, now look at this she’s suspended from school for 90 days! This is so crazy, I can’t believe it!”

“I know, but where did she get Mary Jane anyway? She wouldn’t just go buy it somewhere?”

“Oh, her boyfriend’s friend gave it to her, at least that’s what Mike told me.”

“Ok, but it is so crazy, it's the first time she tries it, and she gets caught!”

“I know, I feel sorry for her, how did she get caught any way?”

I was so concentrated on their conversation that I didn’t even notice when the bell rang and everyone was leaving. Everyone left and I was left alone, thinking, how did Kayla get caught?

As I was getting out of my warm and cozy car into the pouring rain, I heard disturbing police sirens in the distance. They always make me wonder what happened. I often worry that someone might be hurt or in a life threatening situation. However, I was going to church. As I opened the front door, I felt a little nervous. Although I go there a few times a week, I always feel those tiny butterflies in my stomach; after all, it is a precious, and a holy place. There were already a few people sitting in the front rows deep in their thoughts. Some guys were setting up microphones while the pianist was practicing the songs she had to play. The guys that were preaching that day were reading their Bibles and mentally were going over what they were going to say. The pastor and a few leaders were in the prayer room praying for that day’s service. As more people came in, they quietly took their seats. This didn’t happen very often. Usually, while everyone was coming in, you heard a lot of happy and sad voices. Many were laughing. Today was a special day. Everyone felt the peacefulness, and the presence of the Lord. No one wanted to break the silence as if the presence would go away. Every person in the church knew that it would be one of the best ceremonies we had in a long time.

Peace

It was a very hard day. I was awake ever since 5:30 am and had two tests that day. As the bell finally rang at 2:10, it brought a sign of relief to me that my school day was over, but unfortunately, it reminded me that I had to rush to work. As I walked into the office, my eyes were fixed at my desk where huge stacks of papers were piled up. I felt like crying. A had a million things to do in three hours. I couldn’t take it. Half way through my shift, I got a very disturbing headache. I took a break but that wasn’t very much help. I couldn’t wait to get home. When I finally did, I took some medicine, and ate my delicious dinner in silence. I was really happy to finally be home and have nothing to do. No to-do lists, no ringing phones, no tests. Peacefulness, that’s all there was. I turned of the lights everywhere, and lit some candles. I laid down on the soft couch with my cozy blanket and just smelled the delicious smell of cinnamon fill the air, while soft, romantic music was playing in the background.