Texas Caviar

Here is the recipe for the bean dip that was shared at our recent gathering.

See you next semester! Diana

Marinade:

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients in a pan. Over medium heat, bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Set the mixture aside to cool completely. I do this part in the microwave - just get the liquids hot enough to completely dissolve the sugar.

1 can black beans

1 can black-eyed peas

1 can kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can chickpeas

1-2 cans white corn

1 green pepper, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

Chopped celery, if desired

Jalapenos, to taste

Drain and rinse all of the beans and corn before pouring them into a large bowl. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. When the marinade is completely cooled, pour it over the bean mixture. Refrigerate over night and refrigerate any leftovers. Drain off the marinade and serve with your favorite chips. It is better if you let it sit for a day before you eat it.

Pasta Salad Recipe

I thought the party at Dr. Pope's house was a great time...even if he got us there under false pretense (no Eleanor!) I really enjoyed seeing everyone and having time to socialize (aside from the ten minute breaks in class!)

Someone asked for the recipe for the pasta salad...

PASTA SALAD

1 or 1 ½ box penne pasta
Dressing of Balsamic vinegar and light olive oil, to taste (and/or Italian dressing)
Red bell pepper, chopped
Yellow bell pepper, chopped
Green bell pepper, chopped
Cucumber, skinned and sliced
Zucchini, sliced
About 1 cup chopped carrots
Fresh basil, chopped (about ½ box if buying from the supermarket herb section)
Pine nuts, lightly toasted, to taste
1 (8 oz?) jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil (dice the tomatoes, reserving the oil)
Salt/Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
Crumbled Feta cheese, to taste
Pitted Calamata olives, to taste

Boil pasta, adding 1 t of veggie or olive oil to the water. Cook until al dente, drain, rinse in cold water, drain. Transfer pasta to large bowl and toss lightly with the dressing. Add the vegetables, fresh basil, pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes with most/all the oil from the jar. Toss together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill or serve immediately. Add the crumbled Feta and Calamata olives just before serving.

Note: The dressing should coat the pasta and vegetables, with no remaining dressing settling at the bottom of the bowl.

MySpace Villain

I was watching the news last night and I saw two stories on there about children getting lured by child molesters through their MySpace account. My husband and I were astonished at how naïve these kids were to leave on a plane or with the stranger to be sexually molested by them. Fortunately both of the offenders were caught but I still feel like my future children, in my classroom or in my home, won’t be safe with the internet. After our discussion in class that one night I tried to go home and delete my MySpace account. Unfortunately I have an old email address on my profile and they won’t let me delete my account without confirming it through my email account. I was frustrated. I think that it’s funny that you can create an account so easily but it is so hard to get rid of it. Plus you could create a false identity on MySpace and no one would know. Talk about and easy way for sex offenders to get connected!!! Here is the link to the story…but what also is interesting is that there are steps that you can take to make your kids safer online.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/girl-brown-police-2031742-fullerton-florida

Good and Bad Procrastination

I was looking for a good link to post as one of my last two posts and discovered this article entitled “Good and Bad Procrastination.” According to Paul Graham procrastination can be good or bad. As we are coming down to the last days of the semester it just makes me chuckle to think that I could be doing some good procrastination. Graham states that one form of good procrastination is ignoring the small errands while working on something big. I think that we can all see how we are all guilty of this. I admit that this blog took the back burner while I was working on more time consuming projects for other classes, including the paper. Large projects require “big chunks of time and the right mood” to work on and I found this fact quite true. Graham goes on to talk about errands and how we can use running errands as bad procrastination to put off some big problem we are working on. He says you, “…only have to interrupt someone a couple of times a day before they’re unable to work on a hard problem at all.” I found this statement to be true because I get so easily distracted that I have a hard time getting back to the task at hand. You guys should read this it’s a good article.

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

Why couldn't this have happened before my presentation

This news clip caught my attention and I just had to share! If only this had occurred/ aired before we presented. This is too funny to me, to see it now after the class has ended. How frustrating to find it now.
http://www.foxnews.com/#

(if that doesn't make the link) its on Fox News top videos, Seductive Suspension? is the title. I was very amused to see something so close to my law presentation topic come up on the news now.

A scary and sobering reminder

This news article scared me witless, I remember all too well the columbine tragedy, it happened when I was a senior in high school and now that I am planning on teaching in a high school and also planning on having children of my own soon it frightens me to think about how close to my own home this is happening. My mom consults in Chesterfield so this has a serious impact on my life and my loved ones. The fact that the student did not exhibit any true warning signs makes me nervous as well. I hope that we will all never have to deal with anything like this in our own schools one day.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8199959

Media Literacy

http://www.edutopia.org/media-literacy-skills-video

Cool video on communication through media. Deweyesque activities.