Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Lace Up for RAINN 5k - May 21, 2016

On Saturday, May 21st, RAINN invites you to join hundreds of supporters for the 3rd annual Lace Up for RAINN Virtual 5K. Grab your friends and run, walk, or bike your 3.1 miles from wherever you are in the country, and be part of a national show of support for survivors of sexual assault.
 
 
  1. Visit the Lace Up for RAINN registration page
  2. Select whether you'd like to participate as an individual or a team
  3. Select the "Virtual 5K" ticket option ($30)
Thank you for your incredible support for survivors. We look forward to joining you for #LaceUp4 RAINN on Saturday, May 21st!
 
Best,
Kay Ericson
Race Director
202.587.5355
 
 
P.S. Check out RAINN's "Why I Run" series throughout April and May, a three-part series featuring survivors who have found hope, healing, and support through the act of running. Join the conversation online using #LaceUp4, tweet your support, and let us know why you Lace Up. 
 
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I would like to try to participate in this, or at least to try to see if we can get something going for Youth Voice Initiative to start being able to do things. But, I cannot do this by myself, and always need people to attend regularly and often. So, if we participate for another organization or for our own on a separate day, Sheri, do you think you would be able to take your group to help pass out the flyers? That would be great. Tricia, Heidi, Courtney, David, Rayshugga Kimato, Shawn, Mike, and David, do you think you could get people to donate, whether it’s $1.00 for the whole thing, or say, $0.50/K? Then post it around social media so we can get as many people to come into this as possible? Hoping to see you all at the next meeting, just to plan something. It’s not easy to get anything done, granted, and I also know people are busy. But, the bigger group we can get to meet 1x/mo, the more we can get done in a shorter amount of time. These efforts for protecting children is a group effort. If there is a different day/time that is better than the 3rd Saturday @ 3pm, maybe we can do that? Also, we could plan to do some sort of potluck so we can eat a meal while discussing things? Just suggestions on what could help us come together as a group better. What can I do to make that possible? I am open to suggestions, to get us launched for tomorrow’s generation and beyond.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Homemade Semolina Pasta & Japanese Eggrolls

I am such a foodie whore.  Seriously.  My kitchen is not a kitchen.  It's a science lab.  No, not a test kitchen.  It's really a science lab.  My new creation, was to make semolina pasta, wrap the eggroll mixture, and deep fry them.  Here is how they came out.







The texture of the pasta dough was perfect, though once cooked, was a little thick for the eggrolls, but seriously?  It really wasn't bad.  My guinea pigs even ate it up, and liked it.  Isn't that great?  I just love the stuff I came up with, and my barbecue sauces even are awesome.  Maybe this ought to get served with Tonkatsu sauce to dip in, as opposed to using soy sauce.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Japanese Egg-Roll “Lasagna”

I am a mad scientist. It isn’t so much that I am good at usual types of science. I did not fare very well in high school biology. I couldn’t even dissect a fish properly to show the brain well. It could have been used as a commercial about a fish brain on drugs. Chemistry wasn’t much better, and after 2 lab station fires and a threat to be kicked out, I switched to my sister’s class. The crazy thing? She was a freshman. I was a senior. And I needed her as a lab partner to get my grade in chemistry. 
 
 
Sorry... I digress... But yes. My kitchen isn’t a kitchen. It isn’t even a test kitchen. No. My kitchen is a science lab, and I am the mad scientist. I am no doctor. I just love to cook, and come up with some crazy stuff.
 
 
 
A while back, I made Italian Egg-rolls. I made the usual meatball mixture, and wrapped it in egg-roll wraps, deep fried them, and put my awesome spaghetti sauce on it. Those were delicious. So, anyway, I went to make my egg-rolls. I didn’t have wraps, and the store was out. So, I decided to make lasagna noodles with some more of the semolina flour, and this time? Perfecto! So here is the deal....
 
 
Eggroll ingredients: 1# ground pork; 6 cups shredded cabbage (I like Napa, but it’s your choice); 1/4 cup shredded carrot; 3/4 cup minced dry shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted; 1/2 bag of fresh bean sprouts, minced; 3 tsp sesame oil; 2 tsp soy sauce; 1 tsp fresh squeezed ginger juice; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp Accent; a drizzle of chili oil. Blend, let rest.
 
 
Roll out your fresh dough, after chilling for 30 minutes. Make them thin, and layer them in. between each layer of dough, place your egg-roll mixture. Make a sauce with soy sauce, the water from the mushrooms, shredded pickled ginger, some Dashi, and a splash of teriyaki sauce. Bring to a boil, simmer 10 minutes. Pour into baking pan with lasagna, bake 45 minutes. Serve with a side of soy sauce to dip each biteful in, and rice with pickles.
 
 
It wasn’t bad. It actually worked, in a weird sort of way, even though the egg-roll taste was spot on, the flavor is different from when we deep fry it. Next time, I will make the pasta to use as the wrap to fry. With what is left, I will use with other flour to bake a loaf of bread. I even used a little hemp seeds in with the flour. I come up with weird things, but, they are interesting. You can never be bored with the food here. It’s always a game, and a scientific experiment, and I have 3 willing guinea pigs willing to be my taste testers. Welcome aboard to the place where people are encouraged to play with their food.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Accepting the Call: Your Civic Duty

Here in the United States, we are lucky in many ways, even if we are not in other ways. How often were we told as children that we could grow up to be anything we wanted? And often, when we are young, we pick silly things. But, I remember as an 8 and 9 year old that I wanted to become the president of the United States. As a tween and young teen, I wanted to be a baseball player. As a high school student, I was thinking about being an attorney. 
Though, during college, I wanted to be able to work with various legislators in hopes that eventually, I would have a name enough for myself to become an ambassador after reaching retirement age, just because I inherently understand people of other cultures. Because of that, I chose to major in International Relations with a minor in Political Science. Throughout my college years, I had been active in many different organizations such as the International Student Organization, Adult Student Alliance, Women’s Center, Gay-Lesbian Organization, and more. But, when I was asked to sit in for the Multi Cultural Committee for the Student Government Association asked me to stand in for me during the summer, I discovered advocacy. 
Eventually, I ended up on the Women’s Issues Committee, I helped get Act 177 passed for equal pay; the “Mini-Skirt” Bill, a state bill that would render the attire of the rape victim could not be used as evidence against the victim (only for biological evidence against the perpetrator), and purposefully gender neutral; and the Violence Against Women Act, to make various situations safer and to combat domestic violence. So, that is when the bug hit me, that advocacy is what I wanted to do. My first official job after graduating was with the Women’s Resource Center as a crisis counselor, where I started off as a volunteer counselor. Currently, I serve as an advocate with the Sexual Abuse Services along with the fact that I am the founder of Youth Voice Initiative to combat child abuse by speaking to area legislators to stiffen up on those who abuse our children. Of course, I do not get paid for these activities, but, it is my calling, and I am quite good at it.
So, speaking of being called to step up into a civic position, I want to point out Mr. Terry Gerin, who is better known for being a professional wrestler named Rhyno - The Man Beast. He is quite an accomplished wrestler, being that he has wrestled under WCW, TNA, ECW, and WWE, and has had several championships won during his over 2 decade run as a wrestler. Terry is lucky to have been able to live his dream out so far, and is still in good health enough to keep wrestling, but, another calling has been whispering in his ear, and is running for State Representative in Dearborn, Michigan, which is in the greater Detroit area. He is centrist, with a good work ethic, and to support him on facebook, please come to this page to like his page, and encourage your friends who vote in the Dearborn area to also like the page, make posts, and pass around his page to get his name out into the votersphere.


Rhyno's full name: Terrance (Terry) Guido Gerin

For those of you who are not on facebook, please support Terry’s efforts to win the office on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vote_for_rhino
If you prefer Instagram, please go here: https://www.instagram.com/voteforrh...
Like with any campaign, a successful run for office depends on people like you and I to promote the candidate for the office they are running for. So, please, check him out, share his page, get more people to come in, like and share posts, give encouragement for his run, and most of all, please target people you know in the Detroit area to support Mr. Terrance Guido Gerin for 15th District State Representative. The more we share the posts, the better he will fare in the upcoming elections. The slogan is, “Vote for Rhino, he will fight for you”.
Of course, before we go endorsing and voting for someone, we want even MORE information, and here is an interview to listen to, so you can get a feel for who he is as a person and candidate, as opposed to a professional wrestler. I haven’t had time to listen, because it is 1+3/4 hours long. But, figured it is worth putting it out there for the fans to listen to. I am sure he will appreciate your support.



Campaigning: Terrance Guido Gerin, for Michigan State Rep


To find out more information about Mr. Terry Gerin’s run for office, please visit his website, and please consider making a donation at - http://www.terranceguidogerin.com/
You can get more information on Terry Gerin and Rhyno’s run for office at these other links... He is running as a Republican, though his stances are very centrist and reasonable, like most of us in the regular population.
 
I personally think that for a professional athlete, he is a lot more knowledgeable, smart, and in tune with the political arena than the average guy. As a people pleaser, I also relate with him wanting the good people of his home town to be proud. So, we need YOU - to help by growing his likes, sharing his posts, and getting his name out there in the Detroit area.
Thank you in advance, your loyal advocate for the betterment for our children, the future leaders of our country.
Your Patron Saint of Miss Demeanor,