Category Archives: ~ Culture & History

Rice …

06/12/2016 Nativegrl77

From Jolinda Hackett, your Guide to Vegetarian Food

Brown, Arborio, short white, basmati, instant and more! Whichever you prefer (or whichever your recipe calls for), here’s 58 ways to cook it up. Why eat rice? Besides the fact that rice has been a staple food for generations of people across the globe, it’s cheap, and, if you use a rice cooker, it’s convenient (just add water and walk away), and if you prefer instant rice, well, it’s ready in an instant! How do you like your rice?

10 ways to make fried rice

Who says fried rice needs meat? If you think it does, try adding in a meat substitute, but first, try one of these five vegetarian fried-rice recipes, including Thai-style, Chinese fried rice, a South American fried rice, cashew fried rice and spinach fried rice (you know I love getting those greens in!).

~ Culture & History, ~ my 2cents ..., ~ pop culture

Bertolli … 5 Tips for Cooking with Garlic and Onion

06/12/2016 Nativegrl77

5 Tips for Cooking with Garlic and Onion

Nearly every savory Italian recipe starts with the dynamism of garlic and onion. Whether you are slicing onions thin to caramelize them for a pizza or peeling a whole garlic clove to add a touch of flavor to crunchy toasted crostini, this powerhouse produce combo enlivens cuisine from all regions of Italy.

Whether you are an avid cook or a weekend kitchen warrior, you know that they are not the easiest things to work with. Here are five tips for making sure your cooking with garlic and onion is successful and tear free.

1
Does cooking with onion and garlic leave your hands or cutting board a little odoriferous for days? By rubbing your hands and work surface with a fresh lemon cut in half, you will naturally disinfect whatever the vegetables have touched and eliminate the smell. For a bonus, cut the used lemon into small pieces and pulse in your garbage disposal for a burst of citrusy-fresh blades.

2
What causes the dreaded tearing up we experience while cutting vegetables in the onion family, known as alliums? They emit a sulfur product called a lacrimator that escapes into the air when we chop an onion and then breaks down into sulfuric acid, an irritant that stimulates your eye to release tears to flush out the foreign substance. The best way to prevent tearing up is to rinse cut onions, leeks or shallots in cold water, or let them sit in chilled water, for a full 30 to 60 minutes before cutting.

3
The water method works for more than just keeping oniony tears at bay. If you are adding onions to a recipe in which they will be eaten raw, let the chopped onions soak in water for roughly an hour and a half. This will reduce their bitterness. (If you don’t have that much time, a hearty rinse in a sieve under cold water will help.)

4
When sautéing garlic and onion together, the garlic will always cook first. To prevent undue browning (which makes onions taste sweeter but makes garlic bitter and harsh), start your sautéing in a cold pan with a little olive oil and butter combined. The oil-butter mixture keeps the butter from burning, and the slow increase in the pan’s heat will balance the difference between the two vegetables’ cook times.

5
If you love serving garlicky food but fear the after-burn on your breath, try eating an apple. A component in garlic stays active in the digestive system a full 6 to 18 hours after eating, which is when it peaks in our mouths; but the same enzymes that cause fruit to brown will counteract the potent garlic and keep it from sneaking back into your breath.

~ pop culture, ~ Youtube ...gotta listen to this

found my smile again ..cover

06/04/2016 Nativegrl77

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

January’s racist Elle cover?

05/17/2016 Nativegrl77

The petition below is from 2011 ..much has happen before it and since … as an article states in 9/2012 she had commercials … scene: The young woman then waltzes off in a tiny pair of white shorts as a voice-over states that the product can help skin become “bright and translucent”.

Tell Elle to ends its practice of racist skin-whitening and apologize

Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appears on the January cover of Elle magazine, but she’s outraged by the image. Her skin appears far more pale than it is in real life. Her dark brown hair is shown to be practically red.

Elle claims to celebrate women of color by featuring them on magazine covers, but this is the second time in just six months that Elle has blatantly made women of color more white. (The last controversy surrounded Precious actress Gabourey Sidibe.)

For better or worse, publications like Elle play a huge role in determining global standards of beauty — especially for young girls and teenagers who read it. It sends a cruel and dangerous message to women of color everywhere when Elle manipulates the skin color of one of India’s most famous actresses just so she can appear on a magazine cover.

Here’s our opportunity: Elle is a business that cares more about its bottom line and public image than anything else. To change their behavior — and send a message that reverberates through the whole fashion industry — we need a public outcry.

Join Change.org members in telling Elle Magazine to ends its practice of racist skin-whitening.

India already has a billion-dollar skin-whitening industry. Many women burn their skin through the use of unsafe whitening products. And there’s a pervasive prejudice against girls who are “too dark” and therefore can’t get hired or married.

A global publication like Elle has no business reinforcing that racist and damaging stereotype. Elle suffered from some bad press when the magazine cover came out, but there still needs to be a massive public campaign to force them to take real action. This is that campaign.

Tell Elle that women don’t have to be white to be beautiful – and to apologize for its offensive doctoring of its cover models:

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_elle_magazine_to_apologize_for_skin-bleaching_aishwarya_rai_bachchan?alert_id=SPPuQeEVud_RyCWzJiVMg&me=aa

Thanks for taking action,

– Judith and the Change.org team

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture, ~ pop culture

Smells Like Death and Bad Decisions …repost

05/03/2016 Nativegrl77

RioCover by Emerald Horizon
Bring up Rio de Janeiro and you’ll conjure delectable images in my mind. Images like … Beaches. Mouthfuls of picanha bursting with juicy flavor. Grown and sexy natives are pressing their bodies against each other to samba music in dusky bars. Brazilian women flaunting their beautiful Brazilian bundas in skin-baring bikinis as they walk along the beach, hips swaying in the sunlight – not to mention their bronze skin and sun-kissed waist-length tresses. (Excuse me while I whip out my credit card to order 22 inches of Brazilian Remy hair. Now I want to look Brazilian for a few weeks.)

These appetizing images aren’t all that come to mind. I haven’t forgotten about soccer. Brazil and soccer are synonymous with one another and Brazil is hosting its first World Cup in 64 years.

Rio is also home to the 2016 Olympic Games – the first country in South America to claim the privilege. But these facts are troubling, particularly because despite these honors, Rio is socially, environmentally and financially stewing in a sewage and pollution crisis that’s as disgusting as it is disturbing. This is affecting peoples’ lives and threatening the country’s tourism industry. If these issues aren’t checked by August 5, 2016, then the 2016 Olympics are in jeopardy.

Rio’s Crappy Situation

“When Brazil was selected as the host of the World Cup five years ago, we celebrated. We celebrated because we didn’t know that it was going to cost so much,” said Mateos da Costa, a 53-year-old taxi driver told CNN. “Our leaders should have known that Brazil was not in a condition to organize the event.”

To say Brazil was not in a condition is an understatement. Brazil’s competence for hosting global events has been under scrutiny several times, but after beating out Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago to host the games, the country promised to get their act together and clean up their public sewage issues in time for the games. Now, these same unsavory sewage conditions are the reason Brazil will not make good on its commitment to clean up in time for neither the World Cup nor the 2016 Olympic Games.

UNFULFILLED PROMISES

Rio residents, or Cariocas, are frustrated with Rio’s behavior. Initially, the World Cup and the Olympics came attached to promises of economic prosperity for not only the government but also the people. Taxpayers have paid over $3.6 billion to develop stadiums across Brazil – and that amount is just a portion of the World Cup’s $11.5 billion price tag.

Despite all the money poured into these sports initiatives, Brazil’s has a laundry list of mostly built stadiums that aren’t ready for World Cup use. And according to discussions, there are so many factors to blame, including corruption, shortsighted planning and “overwhelming bureaucracy,” says to Wall Street Journal writers John Lyons and Loretta Chao. They insist there’s widespread belief prioritization of tourism and entertainment over education and health care keep the country poor.

“It’s an affront, in a country with so many deficiencies in basic needs, to organize a Cup in this way,” Alcyr Leme told the Wall Street Journal. Although Leme has “fond memories of going to see Brazilian legend Pelé play in the 1960s,” he plans to watch this Cup from home. “Buying game tickets would only condone the waste,” he said.

Continued…