O Raisin of Death, Meet Thy Maker! 30 March, 2009

I got to “mindfully eat” a raisin today, as part of a Clinical Psych activity.

First, I had to get comfortable. Legs loose. Arms by my side. Lappy closed. All thoughts now on the raisin before me, placed carefully on the H on my Toshiba lappy.

Next, I looked at the raisin. Reaaaally looked at it. Saw all of the wrinkles and folds. It kinda looked like a brain, if brains were dark purple-almost black and were the result of dried grapes.

I got to feel the raisin. Roll it between my fingers. Palpate each groove and fold. Brush the peanut dust off it, since it came out of a bag of trail mix. I smelled it, and sneezed. Very peanutty, with a hint of yogurt and almond scent mixed in.

When I was ready, I placed it the raisin my mouth. Not chewing yet. Just noticing the texture and feeling how it changed when saliva got added in. Rolling it around, pushing it to the roof of my mouth. By this point, I’m starting to formulate a blog post in my head. Got to focus on that darn raisin. Begone, thoughts of not-raisin.

I chewed. And chewed. And chewed.

And threw up a little in my mouth.

Raisins are gross. Eww blecch vomit. All I wanted to do was get rid of that stupid raisin. Ugh. The texture was unbearable. Skin floating around in my mouth, since chewed raisins apparently channel mad cow disease when masticated and it spread with alacrity throughout my poor, unsuspecting, innocent mouth. Chewing still.

I can finally swallow. The raisin is dead and banish-ed! Rejoice, denizens of the earth! Or at least of my mouth. REJOICE!

I was still supposed to be aware of the raisin traveling down my esophagus. No thanks.

And my water bottle was empty. No help for washing out that taste of raisin.

But was it really a raisin? Or just my subjective view of what a raisin was?

Raisins delight not me.

Why I’m Going Vegetarian. 22 February, 2009

I was going to keep it on the low-down, for a while, but I already revealed my dastardly (not really) plan to Laura.

You know, I’ve thought a lot about going vegetarian. For me, it would be pretty simple–I’m not a huge meat-eater anyway, so cutting it out altogether would be simple and relatively painless. However, laziness has always stopped me. Excuses abound, ranging from “Oh, but I wouldn’t know what to cook,” to “But I do like meat a lot.” Part of me felt bad, since I really had no good reason to try vegetarianism on for size, but going along my present course was just too easy.

Then Thursday happened.

We are currently discussing aggression in my Primate Behavior class, so on Thursday Dr. H popped in a video. The first part of the video followed a group of Chimpanzees as they prepared for and went on a hunt for their favorite snack–fresh Colobus monkey. The second part followed the same group as they stalked, chased, and killed another Chimpanzee from a neighboring troupe.

I hate to get all philosophical on you, but what really struck me (about an hour later, while I was sitting in my Social Psych class) was that these Chimpanzees don’t need the meat from the Colobus monkeys in order to live. They have plenty of plants and other resources to eat for survival. The hunting party, then, is more of a “team building” exercise and a “game” for them. I’m trying not to even think about killing another of their own species because of the supposed “threat” he was to their tribe.

Essentially, what I realized was that a lot of times I (or we as humans) tend to eat meat just because it’s there. We’ve been raised in a society where we are expected to eat a hamburger or three on the Fourth of July, copious amounts of turkey on Thanksgiving, and often find ourselves planning meals around the type of meat we’re having. People talk about what types of wines go with which meats (I think red goes with beef, but don’t quote me on that), and condiments are purchased to make the meat taste better. We go to restaurants like Tucanos and spend an hour or two gorging ourselves on the delicious meat offerings, with the occasional break for grilled pineapple. You ask for no meat in your salad at Costa Vida, and the people around you look at you like you’re an idiot. Meat is easy: it tastes great (with lots of help in the form of spices and sauces), it’s an easy main course, and it’s safe.

It just hit me as I was trying to focus on the Social Psych lecture–I need to at least try to go vegetarian. If I slip, fine. It’s not like I’m hinging my eternal salvation on whether or not I ever eat a morsel of meat ever again. I will make a conscious effort to remove meat from my diet, and not just eat it because it’s convenient. I could last a month, I could last for the rest of my life. We’ll see.

But I never realized how much of our diets revolved around meat until I tried to go grocery shopping. EVERYTHING is meat.

Wish me luck!

Cooking Disaster. 19 January, 2009

I tried to make Orange Shrimp tonight.

I decided to try to bread the shrimp, like I did with my Eggplant Parmesan. For some odd reason or another, it cooked weird and I wound up only doing half and just throwing the other half into the pan naked. The breading started to fall off, and I started to feel like a failure. I tossed in some onion, and some red pepper strips, and cooked it up.

Then, I added the orange sauce.

If you know my food habits well, you know that I hate ginger. With the passion of one thousand fiery suns.

The sauce smelled so gingery that I wanted to vomit.

As a last-ditch attempt to salvage the meal and prevent myself from having to go out to get edible food, I threw in some pineapple and a splash of pineapple juice from the can.

And it tasted wonderfully.

So . . . cooking disaster avoided? Yes. Narrowly.

*Burp*

Note To Self: 7 January, 2009

Eggplant works best as the main feature of an Italian dish.

NOT in Indian food.

Did You See That Sky Today? 26 October, 2008

Talk about blue.

This is pretty much one of those random “this is what Katie is doing with her life” posts that I know my loyal three readers love so much.

I am making eggplant parmesan again tonight. With fresh basil this time.

I taught Sunday School today. I’m on the Missionary Committee, so we teach Mission Prep every other Sunday and today was my turn to teach. Apparently I actually did a decent job because I’m sure Bree would have told me if I completely bombed. People actually participated and I ran out of time, so it was all good.

I have yet another test this week, this time in Biomechanics. Yeah, kind of nervous because Laura got like 75s on the tests when she took the class.

I am finally grading the introduction rewrites for my section. They’ve been sitting in the inbox for about three weeks, and every Friday I tell my lab that “yes, I will grade your intros this weekend” but I never get around to doing it. I have two finished with seven left. I’m amazing.

I get to register for Winter Semester classes Wednesday night! I think I’m going to be taking like 15 or 16 credits, all Psychology classes. I’m kind of excited, mainly because I am taking Intro to Primate Behavior and I ♥ Dr. H.

Off to make my eggplant. If you think about that last sentence too hard it sounds really . . . odd. But whatever.