pasta salad

250 grams pasta

2 cucumbers

3 tomatoes

feta cheese

cream cheese

salad leaves

can of corn

delicious!

nachos!

quick and easy, and tasty:

creative food days!

I've had three days of food-related creativity, and am finally able to post pictures for it!

first one was a sushi dinner we made happen... brought together some friends, made the whole thing ourselves, and ate and enjoyed it. this is what the table looked like before:

(unfortunately I have no after pictures!)

the next event was a dinner at home. it was slightly pot-luck, but we ended up making salad, rice + meat, and dessert. this is the ever so delicious chocolate mousse being made:

I can tell you it was yummy!!!

finally we went out to a café last night with a group of friends, and these lamps were among the coolest I've seen:

if it's not clear, those are spoons being woven into it!

30 days of creativity, day #3 - creative cooking!

today I followed up on my first day of creativity, where I was cooking. this time I was aware enough of what I was doing and took pictures. I made a simple but very tasty sandwich with onions, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, some cheese, mayonnaise and mustard. this is what it all looked like:

step 1: chop up some onions and mushrooms and fry them. (I used the oil from the sundried tomatoes)

step 2: chop up some sundried tomatoes and add to the mix.

step 3: add a slice of cheese and stir it around

step 4: this is what it'll look like - a bit messy, but oh so tasty!

step 5: prepare a pita with some mayonnaise and mustard

step 6: slice of cheese, and then the mixture on top of it

step 7: slice up some feta cheese and eat!

my first bite was an explosion of epic taste in my mouth. yumm!!!

30 days of creativity, day #1!

30 days of creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in june. I decided to join, and so every day I'm going to try on doing something... day 1 was making a sandwich!

ingredients:

• mushrooms
• sun dried tomatoes
• slice of cheese
• baguette
• red onion
• fresh tomato
• feta cheese

fry mushrooms + onion + sun dried tomato + fresh tomato. cut the baguette in half, put everything in, warm up the oven, put it in. eat. enjoy.

unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. but it was good!

ice ice baby

we accidentally spilled some ice on the table at a dinner. quick to realize the power of the close-up, I took some shots.

people leaving

yesterday the first person from my orientation left, and another one is leaving tonight. I must say it feels really strange, especially as there will be more people leaving quite soon.

to make ourselves happy about it, we arranged a barbeque:


it was a little bit last minute, so not everyone was able to show up. but we had a lot of fun, the food was delicious, and I think we all at least went home happy and full! :)

to see the rest of the album, click here.

cooking

I have decided people should be cooking more. it is a really relaxing exercise, and you'll also practice your culinary skills. besides that, there's also the added benefit of cooking for more than one meal. or one person... ;)

it is also an excellent ice breaker when you're in a group of people where not everyone knows everyone else. get something simple going, and suddenly you have people talking back and forth, asking for this and that, and sharing their tips on how to go about with their cooking. it works perfectly, every single time!

besides that, you also know (more or less) what ends up in your stomach, which is not always the case when you go out to eat. and it's also cheaper...

at least once or twice a week, try it out!

my room smells of smoke again

it's been almost two months since our last barbeque, but yesterday it was time again. we have a new flatmate and decided to have a nice bbq for the entire orientation. and it turned out really well:


we had some absolutely delicous marinated chicken on the grill, together with mashed potatoes, salad, roasted almonds, beans, and some awesome tadig (literally "bottom of pot"):

  

both potato and corn flakes, turned out really, really well. it wasn't as massive as the last one, but we had a lot of fun, some great desserts, and rounded up the evening with a nice devotional. both food for the body and soul, and a great end to the week.

maybe this should be a tradition too?

update: the entire album can obviously be viewed here

wow, what a weekend!

so after having pancakes on friday, I went up to the office for some work (although I wasn't on schedule, so coming up at 10 was no problem). had a nice talk with a couple of people, and suddenly another guy comes in and wonders if we want pizza for lunch. how can I say no to that?
so ended up having pizza and great company for lunch, french toast for dinner, and worked quite a lot in between. oh, and not to mention the sun was shining while walking up in the morning. absolutely lovely. and in the evening we just relaxed at a friend's place, they'd started watching the new (?) turtles movie, so I saw the last half hour of it or so.

so come saturday... my flatmate and I decided to clean up our whole flat, so the day was more or less set aside for that. but first of all, there was the arts and crafts show of 2008. there's an amazing amount of talent here, and they had the chance of showing some of their creations - pottery, jewelry, paintings, pictures, handiwork, etc etc. it was really amazing to see! some of the stuff was available for sale, and I got a little something for myself as well...

on friday I had decided that since I was obviously going to spend a lot of time in my office, I wanted to make it more homely. I've brought up a few things from my flat, and also want to decorate it a bit more in general. I don't think I'll ever be completely done, but there will be a picture coming up soon. there might be a small surprise/shock for you :)

so after that I went home, and my flatmate had already started cleaning. I helped out, we fixed everything, and after about 4 hours total of work, it was spotless, clean, and beautiful. so we decided to mess it up by inviting a few people over for dinner...

mashed potatoes, fried chicken, onions, peaches and ice cream. really delicious. and a lot of dishes. but we took care of that, our visitors thanked for the dinner, and at 9 everyone was out. a bit early to go sleep, but not really in the mood to do anything major. what to do?

my flatmate made an excellent suggestion - say some prayers! it was a really nice feeling to sit there together and say prayers together, back and forth, for a while. created a really nice and calm atmosphere, and I felt really relaxed afterwards. we decided to try and do this as often as possible, but definitely make it a saturday tradition, to end the week, and I'm really looking forward to it.

all in all, I was feeling really happy about the weekend, everything was great. and then I cut my thumb while doing the dishes in the morning... :(

pancake friday!

so my flatmate started the friday tradition of starting the day together with his coworkers by coming to our flat, have pancakes and bacon and then go to work. today we added another bunch of people and some french toast, and this is how it looked like:


absolutely lovely! see the rest of the album here

decorated plate...

... or just a lot of food? you decide:


my sandwich for dinner last night... tasted quite good actually!

whole food signatures

here's an interesting post about how certain types of foods not only look like parts of the human body, but actually also are good for that body part! read on:


A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye.  The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.



A Tomato has four chambers and is red.  The heart is red and has four chambers.  All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.




Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart.  Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.




A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebelums.  Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex.  We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuro-transmitters for brain function.




Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.




Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones.  These foods specifically target bone strength.  Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium.  If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak.  These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Egg Plant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs.  Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervicle cancers.  And how profound is this? .... it takes exactly 9 months to grow an Avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 phytolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).




Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow.  Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.




Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.




Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries




Grapefruits, Oranges, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mamary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.




Onions look like body cells.  Todays research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells.  They even produce tears which wash the epithelial lasyers of the eyes




Bananas, Cucumber, Zuchini and more target the size and strengh of the male sexual organ.  It's true!




Peanuts have a profound effect on the testicles and sexual libido. Peanuts were banned as a food for males by the church ofin during the middle ages. Most people don't realize that arginine, the main component of Viagra, comes from peanuts.


and here is the source.

my room still smells a bit of smoke

last saturday we had a barbeque. it was huge. it was massive.
there was meat:


there was more meat:


on top of this, there was a bit more that was brought later on. this is what we had in our fridge/freeze in the morning. it would make the most ardent meat-lover proud.

there were people:



there was music:


(there were also lots of desserts, but I have no pic of them - they were eaten up too quickly!)

I think pretty much everyone enjoyed it. we had a total of 65 (+/- 2) people showing up, and I think no one left feeling hungry at least. there were a lot of people playing the drums, with a lot of singing and laughter - videos of that will be coming up later.

a big thank you to everyone that helped out, that showed up, that made this barbeque something to remember for a long time. it will probably take a while until next time, but that one will be even bigger, if possible. stick around and find out!

update: I forgot to mention that you can see all the other pictures here.

no more chocolate

we're out for now, but there's probably more coming. it was very much liked!

more chocolate

it never ends. here's the latest addition:

diversity

a quick reflection on the diversity of the Baha'i Faith: serving here in the Baha'i World Centre means daily getting exposed to and interacting with people from a countless of countries, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. just the other day, sitting in a taxi on our way to football, the four of us were from canada, singapore, vanuatu and sweden - the driver obviously a local israeli. in just about 160 years, the Faith has spread literally all over the world:

The Bahá'í Faith is an independent monotheistic religion with a worldwide population of some 5 million people. They come from more than 2,000 different tribal, racial, and ethnic groups and live in 235 countries and dependent territories. The Britannica Book of the Year (1992) referred to the Bahá'í Faith as the second-most geographically widespread religion in the world, after Christianity. (source)

if you remember this post, about the 16 countries in our 29-person big group (this time they are 23 from 12 countries), you'll realize that almost every country you can think of is represented here. I wish I knew exactly how many countries we had represented here, but I'd say we're easily from at least 70-80 different countries here. I think it's an amazing feat, and to also see everyone so united and full of love, despite the differences among us. it really gives hope for the future.


in other, quite unrelated, news, I had to suffer from some food experimenting the other day. pouring up cereal and only afterwards noticing that we were out of milk, I was left wondering what to do. after some dividing, I decided to try orange juice instead.
I won't do it again. it wasn't absolutely horrible, but it sorta left a kind of taste that you didn't expect. asked a couple of people here in the office, and they said they'd go for water. maybe I'll do that next time, but it feels kinda boring. hopefully there won't be a next time though.


I got challenged to list my seven wishes and challenge seven other bloggers to do it as well. I don't know what to think of it... I can only be content with what I have here, my experiences and challenges. as Bahá'u'lláh says: "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity" I think I will just try to live by that. I'm going to do my best in all I do, and hope for the best. whatever happens to me is in God's hands:

O thou who art turning thy face towards God! Close thine eyes to all things else, and open them to the realm of the All-Glorious. Ask whatsoever thou wishest of Him alone; seek whatsoever thou seekest from Him alone. With a look He granteth a hundred thousand hopes, with a glance He healeth a hundred thousand incurable ills, with a nod He layeth balm on every wound, with a glimpse He freeth the hearts from the shackles of grief. He doeth as He doeth, and what recourse have we? He carrieth out His Will, He ordaineth what He pleaseth. Then better for thee to bow down thy head in submission, and put thy trust in the All-Merciful Lord.

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá -

evaluation session

so yes, the chocolate is indeed very, very dangerous. I opened it today, and my officemate and I took one piece:


I think we both agreed it was absolutely great. at least we'll have something good to look forward to for a couple of days, but I wonder what'll happen once we run out... need more pilgrims! ;)

then we also decided to have a bit of fun with our lovely cleaning crew, so we put up this little post-it:


it's a bit hard to see, but it's a remnant of someone leaning back with a bit of greasy hair. the post-it says "you missed a spot ;)" with an arrow pointing to the left, and then "REWARD!" with an arrow pointing down. and what's down there? this:


another piece of chocolate! :)

oh, dangerous!

more pilgrims, more chocolate... it seems to be a trend, and I can't really say I'm complaining. this time it's from one of the friends that we were on pilgrimage with 6 months ago, who sent it through a friend to another friend who sent it to me. you follow?

well, this one is belgian, and smells so good. I'm sure it's absolutely dangerous, but I want to try it out first and then find out ;)

the most random drink ever

had a dinner at a friend's place yesterday, and was told to bring something to drink. figured we'd bring something normal (coke zero) and something completely random, and this is what we found:


don't know if you can see properly what it says on the bottle about the taste (quite a bad picture), but it's a mixture of chocolate and banana. now, the color doesn't help much to enhance the taste.

after a few sips and tastes, we still couldn't figure out which taste was the most dominant of the two, and it was indeed a very strange feeling. but it was a lot of fun to try it out, and definitely an odd experience.

not to mention that the dinner and evening was a lot of fun and pleasure too. have said good bye to more and more people, time is really flying by quickly!