as 2010-2011 commences:

i have to believe that my students, ALL of my students, can make significant gains.

and that i can help them get there.

portobello + pappardelle — can never spell those two.

tried my best this evening with the recipe below. somewhat of a summer comfort food, it was inspired by dishes i had at melograno and audrey claire, both in my neighborhood. my version of the food was only o.k.. i am definitely stuffed and satisfied, as it was a pretty rich dish (all that EVOO and cheese!), but something was off. at least now i have leftovers for a few nights!

changes to make:

• cut mushrooms smaller (thinner?)
• WAIT to cook the pasta, so i can toss it right away
• use less cheese (1/2 as much?)
• use 1/2 as much pine nuts
• wait until oven is at higher temp before roasting mushrooms (they turned out o.k. though)
• funny! re: the note above, i didn’t see that the recipe said preheat to 475 deg. until literally just now!
• more arugula might improve the dish
• i use already minced garlic from a jar, i often wonder if i am compromising the dish using that..

i’ll need to try it a time or two more before i feel like i can serve it to others!

–

www.recipezaar.com

Ingredients

• 1 large portabella mushroom
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 4 ounces fresh pappardelle pasta (about 1/4 of the box)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ounce fresh arugula, washed and spun dry, tough stems removed
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 1/4-1/3 cup shaved locatelli romano cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F.

2. Roast the mushroom with the butter, garlic and salt and pepper to taste until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and slice thinly.

3. Cook the fresh pasta in boiling, salted water until as dente, about 3 minutes.

4. Heat the olive oil in a large akillet over high heat. Add the roasted mushrooms and stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the arugula and more oil, if necessary, and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of pasta water to the skillet to create a sauce. Transfer the pasta to warm pasta bowls or serving plates, sprinkle with the pine nuts and cheese shavings and serve at once.

health care and education reconciliation act, notes.

• goal to make US, once again, the nation with the highest proportion of college graduates
• cutting out the middle man (banks) in student loan, save $68 billion
• already happened at biden’s community college: 41% increase in pell grant recipients; 59% total dollar increase of pell grant; 43% federally guaranteed loans; 68% loan awards
• reinvest the $68 billion in the following:
  1. community colleges:
  provide resources to improve community colleges
  forging private partnerships to ensure
  host a forum on community colleges at the white house

  2. pell grants reinvest savings in pell grants
  once covered over 75% the cost of college, now can only covers about 33%
  over 800,000 additional awards and raise their value to (by?) $6,000 to offset inflation
  firmer footing for pell grants
  doubling the dollar amount designated

  3. how students pay off student loans
  average student graduates with over $23,000 in debt
  make it easier for responsible students to pay off their loans
  currently, you don’t have to spend more than 15% of your income on loans — starting in 2015 (?) you won’t have to pay more than 10% of your income on student loans
  meaningful difference for over 1 million
  pay loans on time, only pay for 20 years pay loans on time,
  only pay for 10 years if you serve our country (teacher, nurse, armed forces)

  4.  HBCU, black colleges and minority serving institutions

• tax credits, simplify fafsa, redirecting poorly spent money to make sure we’re making investments in our future
• now this won’t solve all our problems in higher education colleges have to do their part to hold down costs
• help more students enter college, but also help more students successfully earn a college degree
• urgent need for us to lay a new foundation for our economy and our future — pillars are healthcare and education
• rightly say, foundation upon which america’s foundation will be built is stronger than it was one year ago.
• so at the end of this extraordinary week, i want to acknowledge those people who made it possible…

happy spring break! and a look at repentance.

yesterday at bible study, we engaged in a conversation contrasting “false repentance” and “true repentance”. primary takeaways: in our smallness, we tend to think of “repentance” as something of a punishment. like, when you’re a kid and you’re called to the principal’s office, that’s when you repent. but the truth is that “sin is a condition, so repentance must become  a lifestyle”. and repentance is what drives us to Christ, allows the Holy Spirit to work, and causes us to be joyful, delighting in His mercy, grace, and victory. but what is repentance? we then looked at false and human gestures of repentance –”remorse” and “resolution”, which are both selfish “me-driven” acts that are intended to make me feel better about my sin.

remorse: I can’t believe I did that! I’m so sorry…
resolution: I will try harder next time. I won’t do it again.

the remorse and resolution habits are prideful. they say that “i’m surprised by my sin because i thought i was better than that.” (pride) and “i resolve to fix my problems” saying that i am good enough to do it myself by my own will and effort. i do not need the grace of God (pride again). but true repentance is NOT centered on me. it is centered on Christ.

realization: i know i am a sinner. my sin, while unacceptable, does not surprise me.
repentance: i confess my weakness and look to Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit as my only hope.

how easy it is for me to “cover up” my sins or attempt to minimize them in the remorse and resolution cycle! in my conversations with daniel, for example, i may say hurtful things or accusingly “hear” hurtful things said by him. my natural tendency is to become angry, then sad (remorse), then try to fix it (resolution) by offering “next steps”, etc. what i am not realizing is the condition of my heart. and that’s where true repentance needs to occur. it’s not that “i said a hurtful thing. i’m sorry, and i will try not to do it again” but “my heart condition is sinful, selfish, and has placed unrealistic expectations on you that i need to take on with God.” and how much more does the latter drive me to depend on Christ to reconcile me first to Himself then to fix our relationship! there is power in our weakness, because it is through our confession we are caused to realize God’s attributes and cling to Him. on those lines and even more: repentance isn’t before man, but before God. “against you and you alone have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (ps. 51). my hurtful words aren’t just an issue because they hurt another person’s feelings, but because they are representative of the sin condition in my heart to flee from Christ and seek others to fulfill a sense of importance/worth that needs to be found in Christ alone. and before we get down ourselves and depressed at our “sin condition” we must realize that we must seek Christ or otherwise we fall into striving and effort to rectify our fallen character. glory, glory. it is Christ alone.

time to go running!

too much food for just one human…

made some eggplant parmigiana + brussels sprouts this evening.

• rating: 6 or 7.
• eggplant slices too thick. the recipe said 1 – 1.5 inches, so i followed it — but no, definitely too thick. maybe the slices were supposed to shrink more the first time around in the oven? anyway, the recipe even called for stacking three slices on top of each other! that would have been way too much — so i just did stacks of two.
• maybe next time, peel the eggplant
• brussels sprouts not tender enough — should have cooked on lower heat, a little longer before cranking up the heat and tossing. the ones that were left in the skillet (while i dished up the eggplant) tasted better.
• the “basic tomato sauce” was definitely good
• cheeses, good
• learning how to “chiffonade” basil, good
• breadcrumbs on top of the eggplant, too much

all in all, not bad. definitely full now even though i didn’t finish my plate. the bread from whole foods was also good. lol.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/eggplant-parmigiana-recipe/index.html

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/goldencrusted-brussels-sprouts-recipe.html (the pictures of the brussels sprouts look SO yum. mine only looked 50% as yum.)

adventures in vegetarianism.

to be a vegetarian wasn’t really my new year’s resolution (and i’m not really hardcore about it), but it kind of worked out that way. i am committing to eat less (read: no) meat. indefinitely (?) —  i don’t know… but for some time.  i definitely believe that God gave man the earth and the creatures for us to benefit from them, but i take issue with some things that i feel i can reconcile, at least a little, if i choose not to eat meat. anyway, that’s a discussion for another post.

ok, so not really that exciting, but i wanted to note this evening’s meal because it was one of my first conscientious forays into vegetarianism in the kitchen. also because it left me very satisfied. as well, it was a quick but tasty home-cooked meal (mind you, “cooking” for me these days has been popping a frozen indian meal into the microwave, so dinner tonight was worth remark…). i don’t intend to keep a blog of the foods i eat/prepare, but maybe i will reference this entry later? lol.

what i did:

1. cut up half a white onion and a small zucchini
2. threw some italian seasoning (marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, and basil) and basil onto a saucepan with approx 1 Tbsp. EVOO — heated oil for a minute or so
3. sauteed onions and cut tomatoes (2 roma) — added zucchini, added tomatoes
4. dumped in 365 Brand organic marinara sauce with mushroom, added salt and pepper
5. added balsamic, maybe 1/2 Tbsp? (used to try to clean out jar)
6. simmer, simmer
7. ate with whole wheat penne!

okay, so it’s not actually legitimate cooking, as it was pasta sauce from a jar, but the zucchini was a good addition, and not something i had tried before.

some notes:

• didn’t use any additional garlic! this is a big deal for me, since usually that’s the only thing i can think of adding… i’m really glad i didn’t though. it tasted much fresher and less “intense” without the garlic
• next time i should make sure the tomatoes are cut before beginning to saute the vegetables. the onions got a little too browned.

somewhat unrelated: i also cleaned out my closet this weekend, taking clothes to buffalo exchange (where i ended up donating all but one item, since  my items didn’t sell) and am trying my best to maintain house a bit better. having my community group leader over for a bit on monday kind of inspired me to clean up my act (thanks judy! your presence was that big of a deal.)

somewhat related: my community group is doing and suggested to contribute a bit to the relief efforts in haiti: skip a meal(s) this week and the money you would have spent on that meal, send to a relief fund. someone told me that world vision is tripling donations they receive, though i wasn’t able to find that on their website (at cursory glance). also keep praying. death toll is estimated up to 200,000 now. unfathomable.

anthem:

he is jealous for me. loves like a hurricane, i am a tree. bending beneath. the weight of his wind and mercy. when all of a sudden. i am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. and i realize just how beautiful you are. and how great your affections are for me. and oh. how he loves us oh. oh how he loves us. how he loves us oh. … he is jealous for me. loves like a hurricane, i am a tree. bending beneath. the weight of his wind and mercy. when all of a sudden. i am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. and i realize just how beautiful you are. and how great your affections are for me. and oh. how he loves us oh. oh how he loves us. how he loves us all…

yea he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves — and we are his portion. and he is our prize. drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes. if his grace is an ocean. we’re all sinking — and heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss. and my heart turns violently inside of my chest. and i don’t have time to make maintain these regrets when i think about the way — that he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves — yea he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves –

yea he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves us. oh how he loves.

gospel cultural renewal

We’ve been going through a sermon series at church on the church’s core values. This week:

Core Value: Gospel Cultural Renewal
Rev. Dwight Yoo, Renwal Presbyterian Church
20091115

1.  Culture is what man creates by God’s design.

I absolutely appreciated this point. Pastor Dwight talked about the cultural mandate: that behind the creation was a charge for man to create cultures, build civilizations (be fruitful + multiply, AND subdue the earth) and in so doing bring glory to the creative nature of our God. He referenced Hospitals, Colleges, Classical Music, Arts, etc., etc., all inspired by Christians who took it to change the world–thus, the birth+life of Christ as the single-most influential event in the history of the world.

2.  Culture is never neutral: It is a product of what we believe (worldview)

man and woman fail to believe God. and seek our own way. so we see a culture that is built on everything but God. our labels (x, y, or z religion or faith or lifestyle, etc.), our beliefs either profess faith in the true God or denial of Him. All these ages, culture has advanced. but even like a baby with a disease advances, we were never completely cured. it’s just that the growing’s never stopped. (so yes, we are a pubescent teenager carrying around some disease.  at least we are not a disease-ridden infant any longer?)

3.  The Gospel forms a new culture, the culture God always desired.

Hype. All the brokenness that is the world and that is us resulted from the Original Sin. But as Christians change the way they view life (leisure, work, relationships, strangers, arts, everything), culture transforms — rather it is renewed. love God and love each other. it’s love, people.

The Gospel is not only about individual forgiveness and transformation, but its scope encompasses the renewal of all creation.
4.  Gospel culture brings real, but limited, change in a broken world… knowing redemption will come in Christ alone.

The City of our God the Holy Place… Heaven, itself, will BE a City. This is good. We won’t all be wearing sandals and togas and riding around on donkeys, but the City will be one of great culture and beauty (even technology ?).  we will bring glory to God through our creation. neat. in the meantime, the Gospel is our current hope. it’s hard for me to believe it sometimes, but the Church is the hope of the world. Why? it is the Body of Christ. we are called to engage in our culture in a way that will transform it. in a way where justice is promoted, the oppressed are freed, the poor are advocated for, widows and the fatherless are loved. (act justly, love mercy, walk humbly). while we work our tails off for God to “make a difference” in this life, we take heart and take hope that Heaven is the final destination — perfection will not be reached here. (this is hard for me. )

grades. or sleep. or planning. or apartment maintenance.  or dishes. or sanity. … something’s gotta give.

every.day.is.a.battle.

phew—–