Profile Interview (NJC)

I'm interning through the National Journalism Center this summer. For my internship, I will be posting several assignments to my blog, including this interview I did with one of my fellow interns.

Name: Jack Howard

Most awkward moment: On a youth mission trip to Cincinnati in junior high, he and the other boys left their cabin to throw rocks at the girls’ windows while wearing togas. But they didn’t throw the rocks at the right window - they threw them at their pastor’s window. She chased them, and Jack was clotheslined by a power line. He fell down and his toga fell off, and when he stood up, his pastor was right there.

Church: United Church of Christ in Elmhurst, Illinois

What was his church like: It was a lot of fun and gave him lots of opportunities to speak in public through “reflections” (like sermons) in church. One reflection he gave was on when he was working at a food pantry in St. Louis, he was thinking about where Jesus would be. Jack decided that Jesus would be served and be serving there. That was controversial within the church, but the pastor defended his reflection the next week.

Favorite way to relax: Run. Listen to radio (he’s subscribed to about 66 podcasts). He likes the storytelling side, not really the political. He gets lost in stories in radio and also music.

Favorite movies: “Toy Story 3,” “50/50,” “Super 8.”

"Toy Story 3": Made him cry from sadness and laughter in the same scene. He said the movie also has good characters and music.

"50/50": Made him laugh and cry. It’s about a radio producer (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who gets cancer at a young age.

"Super 8": He said it has deep metaphors, was shot well and beautiful, and he empathizes with the protagonist. It has an “unbelievable ending” and a “cutesy love story.” 

Scary movies? Jack hates them. “I get really into movies. I can’t just laugh at it.” He closes his eyes during scary movie trailers because he likes listening to the music and doesn’t like things popping out.

Tomato-Free Spaghetti Sauce

So in my last post which was practically eons ago (technically, a month) I said I was going to be doing more allergen-free cooking this summer because I'll have a real kitchen.

And that's true. I do have a real kitchen. Along with the kitchen, I have some tools a little on the special side. But that's ok – improvisation is fun!

And though I’ve been harping on chocolate- and dairy-free cheesecake, I’ve had another recipe up my sleeve I’ve been wanting to try for a while: tomato-free spaghetti sauce.

You might wonder if that’s even possible, and I guarantee you, it is. This turned out so close to spaghetti sauce that I don’t even miss the traditional tomato-topped noodles. I searched the Internet for a while looking for recipe ideas, and I found some promising sites. Particularly, this is based off of Gluten Free/Dairy Free NJ's recipe with changes to the seasonings and steps.

And, yes, I know that this recipe has *gasp* beets in it! But, seriously, you can’t even really taste them because the flavors all come together, making this greater than its parts.

And the best thing about this recipe? It’s versatile. I portioned some of it out partway through the recipe and ate it as soup for dinner tonight!

Pasta Sauce with Italian Sausage

Sauce Base

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes (about 4 cups cubed)

1 cup carrots (cut into ½ inch slices)

2 teaspoons crushed garlic (about 4 cloves)

1 onion, chopped (I used half of a large sweet Vidalia)

⅓ cup oil, plus a little for sauteing aromatics (I used vegetable oil)

1 T balsamic vinegar

3 T lemon juice

1-8oz can beets

1 T flour

salt

pepper

Seasonings

2 links mild italian pork sausage (I had about half a pound)

½ t salt

½ t onion powder

½ t garlic powder

2 t oregano

2 tiny shakes red pepper

1. Prep all of your vegetables.

2. Remove casings from sausage and crumble it into a large pot. Brown the sausage over medium-high until it is fully cooked. Remove it with a slotted spoon onto a paper-towel lined plate. Keep the sausage grease in the pan. If it’s like mine, there won’t be a lot, but there’ll be enough.

Look! Cooked sausage!

3. Add chopped onion to the pan, cooking it until it’s just starting to brown. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

4. Add the sliced carrots, diced sweet potatoes, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar to the onions and garlic. Add some salt and pepper (I put in a couple shakes of pepper and probably about a half teaspoon of salt. Remember: you can always add more spices later). Add water until the veggies are just covered. Bring it up to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are soft. (Theoretically, this will take 20-30 minutes. I jury-rigged a cover out of some aluminium foil and I think I cut my veggies too big, so mine took forever to soften).

This is from right when I started cooking my veggies. As you
can see, I needed more water in with them. Also, just as a note,
when they're cooked, there will be a lot less liquid in the pot. 

5. In batches, blend the vegetable mixture with the oil. I fought with the blender here at the apartment and managed to bruise my palm. I just used my trusty Magic Bullet … and I managed to leave the bigger cup at home. So I blended my sauce about half a cup at a time. If you don’t have a lot of liquid with your veggies, add some water when blending to get the right consistency. (I also forgot the oil, so I just whisked it into the puree after I returned the mixture to the pot.)

Doesn't this look appetizing? But seriously, it tastes really good. 

6. Return puree to the pot. At this point, you have root vegetable soup! (If you want to eat is as soup, add salt and pepper and serve. It’s also really good with some shredded pork and romano cheese mixed into the soup.)

7. Blend the can of beets (not the can itself, just the beets and their liquid) with the flour. Add the pureed beets to the pot and whisk. Add the crumbled, cooked sausage back to the pot and bring it back up to a simmer.

8. Add the garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt and red pepper to the sauce. Simmer for about 5 minutes, then taste and adjust the spices accordingly. Remember: you can always add more of a spice, but you can’t take it away! Make sure you wait several minutes after adding your spices and stirring them in before you taste it so they have enough time to reach their full flavor. They are dried spices after all.

9. Enjoy it! I ate mine over pennette with some sheep’s milk romano cheese. (I can't eat normal cheese, but the sheep's milk cheese seems to be ok for me.)

Apparently, other people use the sauce base to substitute for tomatoes in other things, such as salsa and chili. I have yet to try those, but they sound good! (I am a little skeptical on making it into salsa, though…)

Note: Because of the beet juice, it can dye your pasta pink. This is what mine looked like at work the next day after dishing up my lunch the night before and refrigerating it overnight. Definitely pink noodles and pink cheese. But no worries – it still tasted great!

Keep reading this blog for more about how to cook delicious, allergen-free food! I'm planning on conquering cheesecake soon, as well as pizza, alfredo sauce and mac-n-cheese. I'll also be posting some of my favorite smoothie recipes and other cooking adventures.

Blogging, College and Cooking

Well, my initial goal of keeping up with this blog has fallen by the wayside.

Basically, college happened. And House M.D.. But mostly college.

I finished my ten blog posts for class (yes!) but then … got distracted. Since it wasn't part of homework anymore, blogging fell off the radar.

But I want to continue this. I like blogging. It’s fun. It won’t be twice a week, at least at the moment. Maybe sometime I’ll work back up to twice a week. But not now. There’s exams to study for, papers to write and articles to write.

I don’t know how much I’ll post for the rest of the semester. Hopefully, I should have a little more time over the summer, but I’ll be interning in Washington, D.C., so we’ll see about that. That should at least provide some exciting content for this little blog, though!

With the summer also comes a real kitchen (more than a microwave, hot pot and magic bullet; better than a dorm kitchen and dorm utensils), so I can try out some more experimental recipes. “Chocolate” “cheese”cake, here I come! And that’s one of the things I’m really excited about for the summer – a real kitchen with real kitchen utensils. 

No more using the same 3 inch blade pocketknife for opening boxes, washing it, using it to prep raw chicken for making Sunday lunch, washing it, then boiling it to make sure it’s sanitary so I can cut fruit and not get salmonella or something. No more accidentally freezing apples because I was trying to keep my little pint of rice milk ice cream frozen in my sorry excuse for a freezer. (Note: frozen apples are actually pretty good. Make sure you eat them either while frozen or only partially thawed. Totally thawed frozen apples have quite an interesting texture. You have been warned.)

Until the summer, my frozens might be frozen, but my refrigerated food might be frozen too. And it’s ok. I’m glad I have my little fridge/freezer in my room. I’m glad I live in a dorm that has a kitchen (and I will miss that same kitchen when I move dorms next year). I’m glad my little knife is so versatile. And I’m glad that I know how to cook so I don’t always have to rely on good ole Chucks for food.

Anyways, I digress. I will be blogging more in upcoming weeks than I have been the past couple weeks, so keep an eye out for new posts! I still have to find a good allergen-free cheesecake recipe…

Currently....

...reading

1. Texbooks

I’m a college student. 'Nuff said. 

2. “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie

Technically, I’m not reading this yet. But I’ve gotten it from my library for my Kindle. That’s close enough, right? Honestly, though, I do plan to start reading it soon. This is going to be my homework breaks this weekend (and it’s basically my best chance to read. This week was devoted to law, and next week will be to Cedars.)

Anyways, I digress. I saw Cedarville’s theatre production of “And Then There Were None” a couple years ago, and I loved it. It was my introduction to CU theatre, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

I’ve never actually read the book, so now seemed like just as good of a time as any other to do so. Also, it’ll count to my 40 books this year goal (Just so y’all know, for a book to qualify, I can’t have read it before.). I’m really excited to start it!

...watching

1. “Horrible Histories”

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to list all the kings and queens of England but couldn’t? Do you need a refresher on history?

If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, then “Horrible Histories” is for you!

“Horrible Histories” is a children’s show on the BBC, which ran for 5 seasons, with the final season coming out just last year. Based off the series of books of the same name, “Horrible Histories” is a Monty Python-esque show, teaching history through sketches and parodies.

This show is definitely aimed at children (c’mon, it’s hosted by a rat puppet named “Rattus Rattus,” and, yes, I am serious.)

My favorite segments of the show are the songs. 

What better way is there to learn about the Incan priests than a parody of “Stayin’ Alive” (in “Horrible Histories,” it’s “Ain’t Stayin’ Alive”)? Or maybe you have trouble keeping straight Henry VIII’s six wives? Well, there’s a song for that (complete with hand motions!) – “The Wives of Henry VIII: Divorced, Beheaded & Died.” 

And who doesn’t love a good “High School Musical” parody, especially when it’s about vicious Spartans? Of course, there’s also always a time when you need to know who the four most evil Roman emperors were. But where could you find that and learn it in a catchy song? Oh, that’s right – “Horrible Histories” in “The Evil Emperor’s Song.”

But the sketches in the show hold their own against the music. My favorite sketch is “HH Movie Pitch,” where historical figures come in and (unsuccessfully) try to pitch the story of their lives to the produces. The producers always try to turn the truthful story into some huge, dramatic, partially fictional blockbuster. One time, Alfred the Great spent the entire pitch trying to convince the panel to not typecast him as “cake guy.”

2. A lot.

Some of you know that I have kinda geeky taste in my TV shows (and if you didn’t, now you do). Yes, I enjoy watching “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock.” Yes, I did spend a lot of the most recent season of “Sherlock” yelling at my computer because it was so frustrating. No, this isn’t a problem.

But I do watch other, less geeky shows. And I’m juggling quite a few at the moment.

“NCIS” – I’ve been watching NCIS for several years now (definitely more than 5, not sure exactly how long, though). I’m several episodes behind, but I’ll catch up.

“NCIS: LA” – For the longest time, I refused to watch this spin-off. How could they take my beloved characters and just create a spin-off? How could it possibly be as good as the original? My family and I started watching in the last year or so, and I’m hooked.

“Chuck” – I started watching “Chuck” recently (if you can’t tell, I like the action-adventure-crime-drama-type show). It’s a little weird when you start watching it, but trust me. It gets better. And better. And better. Just wait – you’ll find yourself trying to resist watching just one more episode on Netflix.

“White Collar” – This show might win first place for the worst, most painful cliffhangers at the end of seasons. “White Collar” is currently between seasons, so I am here waiting patiently (mostly) for the next season.

“Once Upon A Time” – Yes, this is a little more on the geeky side, but it’s so good! Take fairy tale characters and put them in this world? Great! Add an evil witch? So good. Create a scenario in which everybody in the town doesn’t remember who they are/what happened? Even better.

There’s more that I watch than this, and more that I want to start watching. I started “Supernatural” over break, but I’m not that far into it (note: don’t watch the first episode by yourself in the dead of night. Creepy.). I’ve started watching BBC’s new series “The Musketeers” (very, very loosely based off the books by Alexandre Dumas). And I watched an episode of BBC’s “Doc Martin” over break, and I want to watch more of the series. 

So, yeah. Check some of these out!

...listening to

1. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” soundtrack

I’ve been obsessed with the soundtrack to “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” for quite a while now. I love listening to movie soundtracks because I can experience the movie again without actually watching it. They’re perfect for listening to while doing homework and fit my criteria for such music (interesting and dynamic enough to keep me awake, but without lyrics to distract me). On this soundtrack, however, my favorite song actually doesn’t play during the movie itself – it’s during the credits. “I See Fire” was written, composed and performed by Ed Sheeran. This song captures the tone of the movie well and is the perfect bow on the package. 

2. “Wicked” soundtrack

As my unitmates can attest, I’m either listening to the “Desolation of Smaug” soundtrack or to “Wicked.” They’re probably a little tired of hearing them, but I love both these soundtracks.

I had the privilege to see “Wicked” on Broadway over Christmas break, and I was hooked.

I’d heard the music before. My choir had sung it. I learned some in voice lessons. And I liked the music then. But now? Addicted.  

Why do I love it so much? Two words – Idina Menzel (Adele Dazeem?). Idina is so talented that I can’t even begin to do her justice.

First of all, she’s an alto. I’m an alto. I can sing all of her parts. And there’s nothing better than belting out “Defying Gravity” or “No Good Deed” when you have a particularly annoying or stressful piece of homework to do.

Second, she pours so much emotion into her performance. Unfortunately, the closest I have come to seeing her perform is me sitting at my laptop watching YouTube videos. But still, she pours everything she has into Elphaba.

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to?

A Cappella – No Instruments Needed

I love a cappella music. Singing it, listening to it – it really doesn’t matter. I love it either way.

I’d listened to a cappella off and on for a while (mostly Straight No Chaser), but I really started getting into it a couple years ago when my family started watching the Sing-Off.

We missed season one. Season two was wonderful, and we were hooked. Season three was even better, and I was addicted. The show was then cancelled, but it was brought back this past Christmas for a fourth season. The best parts of seasons three and four? Tight harmonies and clever arrangements.

Every episode of the Sing-Off begins with all the groups banding together for an arrangement of a popular song, which often relates to the theme of the episode. Season four started off with the groups singing a mash-up of songs by Fun. Through the season, they went on to do a party anthem mash-up and “movie night” mash-up, among others (each of these reflected that night’s theme).

Season three’s winner has made a cappella mainstream and popular (Pentatonix, anyone?). Pentatonix’s harmonies are tight, with innovative (and fun!) arrangements, and they cover some of my favorite music while still introducing me to some songs that I’ve never heard before. Some of their covers I actually prefer to the original version (“Royals,” “I Need Your Love”). And while Pentatonix won the third season and is, by far, my favorite a cappella group, so many other groups have gone through the Sing-Off that also produce quality music. 

Season three introduced rap-apella through Urban Method. Urban Method finished third in the competition but still had high-quality music. My favorite song they did? “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Other than this rendition, I have never heard a rap in the middle of that song, but it works really well!

That season, the Dartmouth Aires finished second. And, boy, could they sing. In one episode, every group created a mash-up of songs by an artist. The Aires mashed up three of Queen’s songs – “Killer Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Somebody to Love.” Their lead singer’s voice was gorgeous – Michael O could sing, pouring so much emotion into the music (and he could hold notes for an insanely long time).

And that’s only season three. Season four aired this past December, and oh my gosh was it good. This season aired over the course of only a couple weeks, but those weeks were packed with a cappella and talented singers. 

This season was structured differently than the two I had previously seen. In seasons two and three, the judges determined who was going home, and that group would sing their “swan song.” But in this season at the end of each episode, the bottom two groups sang off, alternating parts in a song to determine who would stay and who would go.

Season four featured a country-pella group, a group entirely composed of high school students, ten backup singers who banded together to create a group, a Filipino-American boyband and six other groups. 

The covers produced during the Sing-Off are often my favorite version of a particular song. In this season, Ten (the group of backup singers who banded together) gave a chilling rendition of “Skyfall” during the movie night themed episode. 

The high school students were phenomenal – especially when you take into consideration that they’re still in high school. They could definitely keep up with the “big kids” with their covers of “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up).”

The Filipino-American boyband had so much energy and stage presence that most of their songs were just plain fun to watch. They are the traditional boyband with typical boyband energy and dancing, but they just don’t have any instruments other than their voices (a good example of this is their cover of “One More Night”). And they can sing and sound great without any studio mixing or synth. 

And finally, Home Free introduced America to country-pella. Home Free won the competition, and they deserved it. Their vocals were smooth, with the tightest harmonies of the season. Home Free had their style, and they knew it. They were a country group, and they added that country flair to everything they sang. I was impressed with their first performance ("Cruise"), and they just kept on going up from there!

Current favorite a cappella covers

“I Need Your Love” by Pentatonix

“Royals” by Pentatonix

“Save the World/Don’t You Worry, Child” by Pentatonix

“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” by Vocal Rush

“Skyfall” by Ten

“I’ll Alright” by Home Free and the Filharmonic

“Ring of Fire“ by Home Free

What's your favorite genre of music? Do you listen to a cappella? If so, who's your favorite group?

Spring Break, Part 2 – Surprises and Traditions

So I promised you a story about a really unplanned event during break. And, boy, was this unplanned and … interesting. 

My brother was sick at the beginning of break. Standard for my family. We have a tendency to get sick at the most inconvenient times – school breaks, vacations and holidays (we tend to take turns for the holidays because, you know, sharing is a good thing). 

Anyways, my bro was sick. We still have a mercury thermometer because it’s more accurate. We used to have two, but one broke a year or so back. But that’s neither here nor there. 

We broke another over spring break, so my mom and I got to clean it up. Good news? We didn’t get mercury poisoning. Bad news? It can take a long time to clean up. 

Even though there were some surprises, my family also has some traditions for breaks. In particular, my sister and I always make some time for board games or puzzles together. This break – Lord of the Rings Risk. 

We’ve played LotR Risk before, but it’s always interesting because my sister and I have very different (but also eerily similar) strategies. Some things are always the same when we play. I’m the black orcs. She’s the golden elves. I get Mordor. She gets Gondor. 

And then we start actually playing the game. My brother gets really frustrated watching us play because our strategies are so different. My view is that it’s a game, it’s war and her little plastic elves are going down. She tends to favor the approach of loading up her territories, defend them and not really attack me. She’ll attack the neutral army but not necessarily mine. 

I’d love to tell you how it ended, but we only got about halfway through the game. We were working on her strategy, so at the moment we’re pretty evenly matched. I suppose we’ll find out in May who wins unless the game gets cleaned up before then!

Spring Break, Part 1 – Sickness, Sleeping and Cannons, Oh My!

Breaks are always interesting at my house. There’s the standard things that happen, such as there’s always something different at home. Sometimes it’s a new lamp, minor redecorating or semi-major rearrangement of the kitchen. This break was no different. New small benches at the game table, puzzle piece photo frames on the wall – that’s cool. 

Sometimes eventful things happen (planned or unplanned), and sometimes eventful things don’t. But hey, that’s break. Sometimes, it’s just something small, but other times, it’s not. We seem to have a tradition in my house for someone to get sick on holidays, and now that’s expanded to college breaks also. But that’s just life. (It feels like I’m the one that’s sick on holidays and breaks a lot, but that might just be my view.)

This break was one where the unplanned eventful things happen. 

So, standard break. Sick? Check. Hanging out with family? Check. Watching an excessive amount of Netflix/catching up on all the shows I don’t have time to watch at school? Check. Finding a counted cross stitch project that I started as a Christmas project about four years ago for my mom and still haven’t finished? Check. Going to the mall with my family? Check. Helping my mom clean the house and cook? Check. 

But even in these “standard” things, something always happens to spice life up. Trip to the mall? Originally, it was just to find my sister a dress to wear to prom this year. And we did that. And we walked around the mall some. That’s when we found something odd. 

A cannon. Yes, you read that correctly – a cannon. There is a legitimate cannon in the mall, right outside New York & Company. It wasn’t there just a couple months ago, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s there now. But it is. It makes a lot of sense because of the area where I live (yay historical sites from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars!), but still. Cool? Yes. 

And then there’s also the really unplanned eventful things. But we'll save those for the next post.