AfricanKelli

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In my social circle, bean dip is a food group. Rebilou has perfected her bean dip recipe and the Ya Yas have been inhaling it by the pie plate-full since high school. Her secret concoction involves Frito Lay beans in a can, sour cream, cream cheese and gobs of cheese. Sometimes she makes this with fat-free dairy to make us feel better about eating it as fast as we can, occasionally with tortilla chips but more than likely off of our fingers. Of course we drink Diet Coke during this silly snack to only further the nutritional contradictions. Just typing this, my stomach is grumbling and I’m wishing we were sitting in her kitchen with my finger tips burning from poking at the cheese. Yum.

We love us some beans. However, if you also love your skinny jeans, it’s best to eat beans without all the lard and fatty dairy. This weekend I used left-over black beans from the community dinner to whip up my own bean dip recipe. It is by no means a replacement for the Rebilou Pie Plate of Bean Fabulousness, but it is a good low-fat substitute.

Ingredients:
4 cups black beans, canned or cooked
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup of fat free cottage cheese
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup diced onion
4 seeded jalape√±os — I like it hot!
Dash of garlic salt

Directions:
Throw in the food processor and pulse until it is your desired consistency. I like it creamy, like hummus. Serve with cut up veggies for a high-fiber, spicy snack that gives a kick of protein too. (It may or may not also be pretty darn good with chips and cheese in a half-healthy version of nachos. Ahem.)

~K

I’ve been sitting on the couch watching sports for the last three hours. And thanks to a very, very generous friend who works for a certain fabulous company, I may or may not be cheering for Team USA in new Olympic-themed workout clothes. That’s right — I’ve become one of those girls with words across her butt and currently my rear-end reads: USA!
I know what you are thinking.
Sports! Couch! Three hours! Sweats! And she drank beer this week? Is she morphing into Homer J.?
Well, not exactly. I spent my time in bliss watching athletic glory – I am a bit of an Olympic nut — completing this.

My friends Todd and Kathleen met in the Peace Corps in Cameroon and will be married next month.

Ah, hand-sewing. What a perfect way to get something done even when you are lounging.

And if I didn’t mention it: Go team USA! Woo hoo! Olympics!
~K

By popular demand, my recipe for the best summer drink and also the only way you’ll ever see me enjoying beer –

Where the traditional margarita and Mexican beer collide to create a Beergarita:

Ingredients:
1 Corona, or other Mexican beer
1 can of frozen limeade
1 tray of ice cubes
¬Ω of limeade can filled with tequila
¬Ω of limeade can filled with triple sec
Limes and salt to taste

Directions:
Blend
Sip
Enjoy
Rinse and repeat

Community dinner: green chicken enchiladas, steak tacos, salad, chips and guacamole, black beans, Mexican rice, cake and lots of great conversation; 15 fed, leftovers taken home, casserole of enchiladas left for a friend in the hospital, and one giant pitcher of beergaritas enjoyed. To add icing to the Olympic cake, we were blessed with an incredible rain storm that sent sheets of water down to cool us all off.
Worthy of hours of preparing, cooking and cleaning when it is sweaty hot? Without a doubt.

~K

Tomorrow night heralds the return of the community dinner. Any guesses to the menu? While my theme was “Go Team USA!” in Olympic Summer Game spirit, I am not fond of fried chicken and apple pie. Okay, maybe apple pie, but most “American” food isn’t my thing. Mexican food, on the other hand, makes me smile from one ear to the other.
There are 16 so far who may be attending; groceries this time around cost a bit more thanks to a lengthy menu, increased prices and more friends attending; however, cooking at home is still the best deal in town. I am guessing I’ll be able to feed at least 20 people a hearty dinner (including leftovers) for $80. Not too shabby. Feel free to cross your fingers for me that this all comes out as planned.
Oh, and did I mention I own 6 chairs. Ha! A little musical silla never hurt anyone.

~K

I mentioned earlier I’ve been reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.” What an incredible read. I am enthralled in part because I’m now working with refugees. These excerpts capture the nature of this excellent book and the cultural chasm it describes. Again, the story en sum is about a Hmong refugee family with an infant daughter (Lia Lee) who has epilepsy and the American medical system that tries to treat her for this illness. The conflict lies in the fact the family doesn’t consider epilepsy a sickness, but instead a blessing.

When interviewing one of Lia’s doctors after the fact:
Then I asked, “Do you wish you had never met Lia?”
“Oh no, no no!” His vehemence surprised me. “Once I might have said yes, but not in retrospect. Lia taught me that when there is a very dense cultural barrier, you do the best you can, and if something happens despite that, you have to be satisfied with little successes instead of total successes. You have to give up total control. That is very hard for me, but I do try. I think Lia made me into a less rigid person.”

In response to Lia’s family’s response to her disease progression that it was the medical system, not the epilepsy that made their daughter suffer:

“It was also true that if the Lees were still in Laos, Lia would probably have died before she was out of her infancy, from a prolonged bout of untreated status epilepticus. American medicine had both preserved her life and compromised it. I was unsure which had hurt her family more.”

When consulting a medical expert, who wasn’t involved in her treatment, about her case:
“I told him what had happened later — the Lees’ noncompliance with Lia’s anticonvulsant regimen, the foster home, the neurological catastrophe — and asked him if he had any retroactive suggestions for her pediatricians.
“I have three,’ he said briskly. “First, get rid of the term, ‘compliance.’ It’s a lousy term. it implies moral hegemony. you don’t want a command from a general, you want a colloquy. Second, instead of looking at a model of coercion, look at a model of mediation. Go find a member of the Hmong community, or go find a medical anthropologist, who can help you negotiate. Remember that a stance of mediation, like a divorce proceeding, requires compromise on both sides. Decide what’s critical and be willing to compromise on everything else. Third, you need to understand that as powerful an influence as the culture of the Hmong patient and her family is on this case, the culture of biomedicine is equally powerful. If you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interests, emotions, and biases, how can you expect to deal successfully with someone else’s culture?”

Excellent read, four out of five bananas absoloodle.
~K

The African wedding quilt top is done. Now I just need to buy the batting and sandwich this together. I’m using a navy capulana for the back and a royal blue quilting cotton for the binding.

~K

Dear Finny,
Is it just me or is everyone on vacation? Oh wait, you are in Costa Rica. (I hope your trip is going great! Love that country. So pretty, tropical and balmy.) By the looks of our lack of July entries, I think it is safe to say most crafty chicas are lounging by the pool with their feet up and a cold margarita in hand. Who can blame them? My entry for the July project was pathetic at best.
That said, I’ve got big plans for the August-September project. That’s right, I am once again making this a two-month project. My reasoning is that we are all in summer mode and frankly, we are quickly running out of cute projects in this book. Double-up time.
But! Before I announce the August Finny and Donk Great Sewing Adventure project, the July winner hands down is Denver Brunette. Yet again this woman wows me. How cute is that kid? How great is that project? Yep, she’s a smartie. And she once again wins. Bravo!

I am thinking about making one of these for myself, minus the hoodie. There is no bikini ridicule when you are wearing a towel poncho at the beach.

Now, the August-September project is the tri-pocket ticking tote. It is the cover project and while I know many of you will groan at the idea of sewing yet another bag, please consider the twist. This bag is not to be sewn for your use. Instead, you must create this for someone else and explain why you are giving it away. Not only does this support the CAOK movement, but I am pretty darn sure there are a lot of kids headed back to school in the next few weeks who don’t have a backpack and would love to rock this bag. Make it with ticking, or don’t. Make it a tote, or a backpack or a fanny pack if you are really creative. Do whatever inspires you to complete the project, post a photo in the Flickr pool and share your sewing talents with others.
Sound good? See what happens when you go on vacation? Ha!

Love,
Donk

A few things on my A+ list this week:

1. Working and feeling productive. I realized yesterday in about hour five of training that I have been in a professional rut for quite some time. There is so much to learn with this new job, so many new opportunities. I slept hard last night after a day of great work. There is such satisfaction in feeling like you can be a part of progress.

2. BandAids. New shoes for a new walk? Dumb move. BandAids that stay put and provide comfort? A+.

3. Mika. Have you heard this guy? I am really enjoying his voice and oddly creative lyrics.

4. Friends who volunteer to help me once again fix Ruby. I broke a spoke hauling her home from spinning. JT is going to help fix her without me spending yet another paycheck at Landis.

5. Cottage cheese and ice cold blueberries.

6. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Need something new to read? I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a slow read because there is so much information to absorb. It’s about a Hmong refugee family newly arrived to the US with their infant daughter who has epilepsy. The next 200 pages are a fascinating anthropological study of the American medical system and and the Hmong culture.

7. Jennifer Love Hewitt’s outfits on Ghost Whisperer. Why can’t I run around in pretty lingerie at work ? And while we’re at it, why can’t I have those eyelashes? She is so pretty and her attire is so odd. Watching this show is pure fashion mind candy.

8. My brother. You would not believe the kind message the boy managed to leave me yesterday. I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful sibling and I am embarrassed how many years we spent fighting. He is becoming an incredible adult and I couldn’t be more proud he is my family.

9. Making serious progress on the book editing. My goal is to resend my manuscript to a dozen literary agents and publishing companies by the end of the month.

10. Air conditioning.

Hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start!
~K