Wordless Wednesday

Halstatt, Austria: on my list of places to visit

Wordless Wednesday

ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། (Happy Tibetan New Year!)

Ма́сленица

It's butter week! Rather, Maslenitsa, the Polish version of Mardi Gras. I had my fill of pierogi last week in my nutrition class, when we had a woman come to talk about Polish food. This includes lots of "forest food", especially wild blueberries (also used to fill pierogi- delicious!) and many varieties of mushrooms.

 

Like other Carnival festivals, Maslenitsa celebrates the end of winter. By the looks of the slightly greening grass as a result of all the rain lately, I'd say it's high time to celebrate!

 

 

 

It doesn't quite look like the beginnings of spring in these photos, but it sure looks like fun.

tortillas: the real thing

I've always been an adventurous eater, thanks my mom and all the variety I ate growing up. However, one type of food I have never been fond of is Mexican food. Still, the entire time I lived in San Diego, I was amazed at the women in the Mexican restaurants there who always seemed to be making tortillas. In many restaurants, especially in Old Town, you could watch them cooking, and so many at one time:

http://www.winsomeworks.com/keyword/food/1/1037327286_5ampJ#!i=1037327286&k=5ampJ

 

Even so, tortillas as we know them, and increasingly as many in Mexico know them, are much different from what they used to be. Take flour for one thing-- traditionally, tortillas were always from ground corn or maize and wheat flour was not introduced until Europeans came along. The process of making tortillas has also changed greatly as well.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ng_corn.jpg

 Starting at least by 1500 B.C., corn kernels were soaked in lime or wood ash overnight. Though it was known that this act aided in softening the corn for grinding, we now know today that it also has added nutritional benefits: it helps release niacin, and the added lime increases calcium intake! Many people who grow their own corn, especially in Central America, still make their tortillas in this way. In the morning, the corn is ready to wash and grind, and fresh tortillas are made, usually from the wet meal.

These tend to be thicker but smaller in size than the flour tortillas we buy at the store, but as a staple food, they are eaten with everything. And then the process begins again, each and every night.

a new exhibit

This semester may be the busiest of them all, but I can be thankful that it's not all reading and writing. I get to design! I am working with other classmates to create an exhibit for a research library on campus-- not an actual museum, but we are hoping our exhibit helps to attract more visitors. As it is, there's not a lot of interest in hanging out at the library, even though it happens to have one of the best views overlooking campus, as well as the oldest books:

The room my team is designing is the entrance to this gallery. So far, I've just been spending my time making sketches, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Next up, we are deciding which objects to display.
Our theme? Games! "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

Wordless Wednesday

Bart the horse, Lawrence, Kansas