Peaceful Cookbooks

When life gets crazy, when my mind is running at a million miles an hour, when the gears in my head won’t stop cranking...I simply pick up a cookbook.

If you have never experienced the calming power of a cookbook, you are missing out on an essential life experience. I prefer cookbooks with pictures, so you can unfold the story of the beautiful food you see. When I pick up a novel of recipes I immediately become intense and focused with all the frantic worrying thoughts fading away as I slowly read the tales of the cuisine. And when I say slowly, I mean a medium sized cookbook can take me about an hour to peruse. I look at the images of the final dishes on every page and try to imagine it's story, I also visualize every step of the directions to create a culinary film in my head. I make my way through page after page trying to decide what journey to take next, what path with I tread next? Desserts? Salads? Main courses?

When I finally turn over the last page, I have forgotten what was bothering me in the first place. It’s essential to have a great cookbook with plenty of pictures on hand for those times when you want to take a short journey and unfold the story of a meal. 

Salted Buttered Pasta

There's something so simple about pasta, butter, and salt. Granted it may not be the healthiest meal in the world, but sometimes I just crave something easy. The simple enjoyment of buttered noodles began during the culinary adventures of my tween years. Boxed macaroni and cheese was a mainstay of my home school lunches, and I would often make the staple to share with my sisters. One day I got the idea to taste the noodles after putting in the half a stick of butter required by the pictorial directions on the side of the box, which at one time I had memorized by heart. To my surprise, I liked the simple buttered noodles more than the cheesy final result. Through the years I would always sneak a spoonful or two of the plain noodles before ripping open the white packet of strangely neon orange colored cheese powder. 

Now I've gravitated away from the boxed macaroni, which I will indulge in every once and awhile, and moved onto great whole wheat pasta. Sometimes I will throw some pasta in a pot of boiling water not knowing what it will become and often times it will simply be paired with melted butter and a dash of salt. Ah the simple things in life....

New York, New York!

It's noisy, vast, and busy. It’s sensory overload. How do I sum up the city of New York?

First of all, I went to New York City for a service trip with my student group Christian Student Fellowship, so 12 other people joined me on this trip. I had a hand in planning the trip, and I chose the organization Global Outreach to organize our time there. We drove out to the East Coast in a van pulling a big trailer. While we were there we slept in a church basement in the Red Hook District of Brooklyn, and we ventured into Manhattan and other areas for service and sight seeing.

I’ve been thinking how to convey my experience in the city that never sleeps to you my dear reader, I could post some hastily snapped pictures, ramble about the tall buildings, the people, talk about how it is a concrete jungle, and always busy. But I decided to convey my experience through the lens of the souvenirs that I picked up while in New York. Now, these are different souvenirs in that I didn’t buy them at a typical kitschy tourist booth because most of them were free. Each random object tells a story about what I did in New York. 

The letter Z

I picked up this wonderful square wooden Scrabble game piece on my walk back to the subway after helping at this food shelf in Brooklyn. I picked up the letter by a wrought iron fence, on the concrete where it was stranded along with cigarette butts and various litter. (How great is it that it was the letter Z and not some random letter in the middle of the alphabet? It is one of the best pieces in the Scrabble game) At the food shelf we helped organize the storage room, and stock the shelves in the customer area. The shelter serves over 10,000 people in a month! It was not only great to volunteer there, but we had fun quickly forming assembly lines, cutting bread, and singing while we worked.

The New World Family Encyclopedia Volume Six: Dumas – Fire Worship

This is one of my favorite things I picked up on this trip.Two different days on the trip we worked at a senior center in Red Hook, where we served lunch, played games, sang songs, and just enjoyed conversing with the elderly people who frequent the center. One task we were assigned to was sorting books in their activities room, and throwing away the ripped ones. I came across the 1953 Encyclopedia volume, and its cover was torn off so it was free for the taking. Inside there are many pictures such as the eye diagram you see in the picture. I was very excited to find an item such as the book because it seems like the perfect thing to go into my future Cabinet of Curiosity.

Proud to be Irish Button

I picked up this Saint Patrick's Day find on the walk back from Covenant House a homeless youth shelter. We worked two separate days at the shelter, first time sorting clothes, and the second a game night with some of the residents. I was fortunate to talk to Michael, a guy who was only a year older than me, after he played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano. He grew up in all 5 boroughs of New York after leaving home at a young age, and on his own he saved money to move to Buffalo to start anew. Before he could leave though, all his money was stolen and now he is at Covenant house to work and save money. Covenant house plays a crucial part in giving mainly people ages 18-21 an opportunity to succeed, whatever their past may be. It was a privilege to spend time there, and helping in even just a small way.

Subway map, Metro Card

Ah the subway. What an adventure. The loud screeching metal bullet is a great way to get around the city, and fun too. Half the fun of this trip was just finding my way around. I used the handy metro card every day on bus rides and subway trips. It's a strange experience to walk down the steps into a whole other subterranean world. There's also nothing like the feeling of walking up the steps of the subway and emerging into a completely new city scene.

Il laboratorio del gelato

The plastic cup came from an ice cream and gelato place in Soho. They had strange and delicious flavors such as black mission fig, black currant, honey crisp apple, and maple. A wonderful part of the New York experience is finding great eats, from a pretzel from a street street vendor, to hearing some good and mostly not so good off Broadway singers/waiters at the Stardust cafe, or even listening to karaoke at the neighborhood restaurant Hope and Anchor, the choices in the city are endless. The best food I had was a Nathans hot dog on Coney Island, a divine slice of Grimaldi’s pizza, and a 3" thick pastrami sandwich from Katz deli, oh be still my heart...

The MOMA ticket

Last but not least, I had to squeeze in time at a Museum, even if it happened to be the free Friday night at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) along with about, oh I dunno, a million other people!! That experience was a great end to the trip, and it literally was since we hopped into the van that night and drove through the night back to MN. The crowds of people in New York, the ever present noise of sirens and car horns, and  just the perpetual sensory overload that happened every time you walked anywhere basically sum up the city experience. 

I definitely did more sightseeing than I expected to do on this trip, and I ended up going to most of the major sighting destinations. (Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, Coney Island, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing Trinity Church, and walking by the Stock Exchange) I'm glad I was able to see the sights, but most of all I loved to serve in the city. My goal for whenever I travel is to do volunteer work where I am, and usually that ends up to be the best way to understand a new place because you stretch beyond the normal tourist bubble. Also as a Christian, because I claim to live in Jesus Christ I must walk as he did (1 John 2:5-6) and so I will take every opportunity to imitate the love and compassion of  Jesus, even when I'm exploring a new place.

Stoney Tangawizi – a love story

I will start out by saying that I’m completely biased, and that this entire post will be dedicated to the best sugary carbonated ginger beverage I have ever had in my life.

Sometimes things seem more amazing because of the experiences tied up with them. The joy of being a carefree kid can be associated with eating bowls of kraft macaroni and cheese, or thoughts of going to the state fair in the warm August air can bring to mind cheese churds and all manner of greasy delights. Then you go and revisit those foods, and realize that….they are… not that good actually.

Not so with Stoney Tangawizi.

In January of 2009 I traveled to Nairobi Kenya, and that’s where this love story began. A few days into the trip I went to dinner at a Wycliffe Associates missionary’s house, where I first was offered a bottle of Stoney. He actually offered the pop, and took a sip of his own, only to erupt into coughs brought on by said beverage. Seeing that I was a little skeptical, he insisted I must try it and exclaimed that it was “REALLY GOOD!”

That was the beginning of my love for Stoney Tangawizi (Also called Stoney Ginger Beer, and Stoney for short). The first sip hit that back of my throat like a little gingery fireball, and it took me about 3 gulps to realize that it was the best pop in the entire world. From then on during the trip, I drank Stoney every chance I got, every restaurant I would have the brown glass bottle proudly towering over my meal.

The majestic bottle

Drinking a Stoney is a unique experience and one that every person should experience in their lifetime, preferably as one is sitting in an outdoor restaurant in the city of Nairobi in the great country of Kenya, or outside the doors of a Nakumatt.

My last taste of Stoney from a glass bottle was in the Nairobi airport, I was slowly sipping the divine ginger liquid to make it last as long as possible. My flight started boarding and the bottle was still mostly full, in order to not waste a precious drop I chugged the rest of the bottle. So with a burning in my throat, tears in my eyes, and a runny nose I left the land of Stoney Tangawizi.

Since that time in Kenya, I have pined for the tasty liquid, and have only been able to see pictures of it. Last semester after many hours of sleuthing I found a place to buy the pop online from a small store in Canada which imports from South Africa. After a few seconds of deliberation I ordered the pack of 6 cans. (do not ask me how much I paid for them, love does not have a price tag)

After a few months I once again had a Stoney in my hand, only this time in an aluminium can. The precious cans have been opened on special occasions, and I once again have been able to enjoy the burning delight of Stoney Tangawizi. One day I hope to return to Eastern Africa, and I will drink all the Stoney to my heart's content. For now I will enjoy telling people how wonderful this beverage is, and try to decide when to open the last remaining can. Now you, my dear reader can dream of one day enjoying the divine taste of Stoney, a pop which no other sugary carbonated beverage can compare to.

Stoney and Banana Bread

At a restaurant in Nairobi

You cannot help but smile with a Stoney in your hand