Month: August 2011

What’s ah cooking

August 30, 2011

My name is Sarah and I’m a terrible cook.

There, it wasn’t too hard to admit the shameful news and it is embarrassing news. My idea of cooking is throwing in a microwaveable meal or making pasta. My past meals have usually consisted of these two options, salads, sandwiches or take-out.

It’s not that I haven’t tried to cook before. I have just either ruined the food, set a fire or annoyed my teacher enough that they took over the lesson and finished it.

Honestly, I was quite content with my cooking disability until recently. I discovered within the past year that I was becoming a little green (figuratively, of course) when my sister would call and describe happily the new dish she conquered for her dinner with her husband. She is a similar to Betty Crocker.

I’ve finally decided that while I love the color green, there was no need to be jealous. She’s my sister — surely my own genes for good cooking are there. I’ve decided they are just hidden.

I’m now getting back into the kitchen (with a fire extinguisher) and learning to cook. I’ve decided to take it slow and set a goal for at least one new homemade dish each month.

To celebrate I cooked chicken for lunch. It was … an adventure … I guess. I had to call my parents for help.

Anyways, I succeeded in making my lunch. So here’s to my next home-cooked meal!

Tomorrow’s scheduled events

August 23, 2011

Here’s my ever-growing “bucket list” of what to do next.

U.S. list:

• ALASKA: Take an Alaskan cruise;
• ALASKA/NORWAY: See the northern lights;
• ARKANSAS: Go diamond digging at Mufreesboro Diamond Mine;
• ARIZONA: Go to the Grand Canyon;
• CALIFORNIA: Visit Glass Beach in Fort Bragg;
• CALIFORNIA: Visit Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles;
• CALIFORNIA: Photograph the Ahwahnee Bridge at Yosemite;
• LOUISIANA: Take a haunted swamp tour through the cypress trees of Manchac Swamp near New Orleans, La. (offered by Plantation Adventure and Cajun Pride Tours);
• NEW MEXICO: Take a wild horse and photography workshop in New Mexico. See here;
• OHIO: Visit the Village of Zoar, Ohio (founded in 1817);
• TEXAS: Visit Haunted Galvston Island in Galveston, Texas, which became haunted after the deadliest storm in U.S. history — the Galveston Hurricane of 1900;
• UTAH: See Bryce Canyon in Utah at sunset;
• Go sailing;
• Skydive; and
• Visit all 50 states in the United States — just 22 left.

 

International list:

• AFRICA: View the shipwrecks and discarded, bleached whale and seal bones at Skeleton Coast within Namibia’s. See here;
• AFRICA: Go on a safari;
• AFRICA: Ride an elephant;
• ARGENTINA: See penguins at Tierra del Fuego;
• CHINA: Climb the Great Wall of China;
• ENGLAND: Visit Whitby, which is Bram Stoker’s Dracula setting;
• GEORGIA: Visit Vardzia Cave Monasteries;
• ICELAND: Hike a glacier;
• JAPAN: Take a hike through Aokigahara Suicide Forest near Mount Fuji;
• JORDAN: Tour the 13-story tomb at Petra before taking a camel ride in desert valley at Wadi Rum;
• NORWAY/ALASKA: See the northern lights;
• PERU: Visit Utcubamba Valley to see the rarest hummingbird — the Spatuletail;
• PERU: Visit Machu Picchu;
• PORTUGAL: Visit Chapel of Bones (designed of bones to show “Life is temporary”) inside the Church of Sao Francisco in Evora;
• SOUTH AMERICA: Visit the Amazon Rainforest;
• SCOTLAND: Visit Dunvegan Castle in the Isle of Skye;
• SCOTLAND: Paddle part of the 300-mile Scottish Sea Kayak Trail;
• Participate in a International missions trip;
• Ride the Orient-Express; and
• Visit all seven continents — four left.

The smallest around

August 23, 2011
A hummingbird perches in a tree at Cook’s Lake in Casscoe.

You can’t help but like hummingbirds.

Slight, gorgeous and swift, they just bring a smile to your face. They have also gotten me interested in taking more pictures of birds in the wild. On Saturday, I visited Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook’s Lake in Casscoe for a hummingbird banding program. The center’s front yard was literally filled with the little birds flying from feeder to feeder and flower to flower. Here are some of the pictures I took:

A Taste of Faith

August 11, 2011

I recently attended my first “A Taste of Faith” event. It is a fundraiser for Diocese of Little Rock’s seminarians. I went with my aunt to support my cousin, Stephen, who is in his fourth year. It was a great event and I enjoyed watching him play the harmonica with a seminarian music group.