Teen produces fashion show for African orphans

Posted on 18. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in inspirational people

Yesterday evening I discovered that I can be proud of a child that’s not even my own. I am proud of Shannon A., who designed and sewed nearly 20 fabulous outfits, recruited her friends to model them, and hosted a fashion show to benefit Discover the World, an awesome organization that provides services to Kenyan orphans. (I’m already familiar with Discover the World since I coded their website.)

Shannon didn’t do this for a Girl Scout award or a debutante project. She did this because she genuinely has a big heart, and found a way to combine her passion for design with her compassion for others. She got the word out and filled the Family Life Center at La Canada Presbyterian Church, and not only did she raise money for Discover the World, but she raised awareness about its mission.

I’m so proud that our church and our community have produced such a fine young woman, and I can’t wait to see where life leads her.

The easiest way to make awesome homemade bread

Posted on 17. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in food

Don’t you just love homemade bread? The crispy crust, the soft, warm interior…it’s how bread is supposed to be. You’re in luck: today you’ll learn such an easy way to make homemade bread that you’ll be willing to make it whenever your family asks for it.

Here’s what you (k)need:

• Bread machine. We’ll use it to make the dough.
• Bread mix from Whole Foods. Or you can mix the ingredients yourself. The mix is easier.
• Water
• Oil. I prefer olive oil, but you can use vegetable oil or canola oil.

Steps:

1. Buy the mix.
   I use Bob’s Red Mill bread mix. It costs $2.99 at Whole Foods. Their website says it’s also available near me at Ralph’s, Albertson’s and Trader Joe’s. It looks like it’s available across the country.
   We’ve tried Wheat Bread and 10 Grain Bread, and both are fabulous. You can find them on the flour aisle. If you don’t buy the mix, you can follow the rest of the steps with any bread recipe.
2. Make the dough
   - Follow the directions on the back of the mix and add exactly the right amount of warm water and oil to the bread machine.
   Make sure it’s EXACT. I have a friend who got really frustrated that her bread never turned out right. It turns out she wasn’t carefully measuring her ingredients. Breadmaking is a science, and requires exact proportions to produce a perfect texture.
   - Add the flour part of the mix. (Don’t dump the yeast packet in the bread machine!)
   - Add the yeast.
   - Set the bread machine to make dough. Start the machine.
3. Let the dough rise.
   - Spray a bread pan (mine is Pyrex) and a sheet of plastic wrap with Pam with Flour or Crisco with Flour.
   - When the machine stops kneading the dough, remove it and put it in the bread pan. If you have the time, you might leave it in the bread machine a little longer, so it heats up a little.
   - Cover with the sprayed plastic wrap.
   - Wait until it’s risen a lot. I let it rise even higher than it did in the picture to the right.
4. Cook the bread
   - Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure the top rack is low enough to easily fit the bread in. I actually remove our top rack.
   - Cook the bread. I find that wheat bread takes 45 minutes in my oven with my bread pan, and white bread takes about 30 minutes.

That’s it. The bread pops out of the pan quite easily. The bread is perfect for toast or sandwiches. I’ve taught my teens how to do this, and sometimes they make the bread themselves.

Forget the carbs and enjoy!!

Do not pity a shelter dog. Adopt one.

Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in advertising, animals

Shelter dogs aren’t broken.
They’ve simply experienced more life.
If they were human, we would call them wise.
They would be the ones with tales to tell, stories to write.
Do not pity a shelter dog.
Adopt one.

Pedigree’s “Heroes” commercial, part of its Adoption Drive.

Best commercial I’ve ever seen.

Great restaurant near USC: Mo-Chica

Posted on 15. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in food

You know a restaurant is great when everyone at the table insists that their food is so good that everyone else must try it. That’s what happened when my daughter and I visited Mo-Chica. We’d never had contemporary Peruvian food before, but we both loved it. I was hesitant to order the Arroz con Pollo, since I don’t like cilantro, but it turned out to be fabulous. I’m not sure how they did it, but they tempered the cilantro so much that it actually tasted good. My daughter had the Lomo Saltado, and said it was amazing. The funny part is, we both ate so much of our own dishes that we didn’t try each other’s. We both also drank Chicha Morada, which is a “purple corn iced tea.” It tasted more like juice than tea, but it was fantastic.

I discovered Mo-Chica when searched Yelp for a great restaurant near USC (University of Southern California). The area around USC is full of fast food restaurants, but we wanted to eat somewhere nicer and more unique. Mo-Chica is located on South Grand Ave., about two blocks east of USC, on the other side of the Harbor Freeway (110). It shares a building with several other restaurants and shops, and my daughter said it actually reminded her of Costa Rica. It has secure, validated parking. I look forward to visiting Mo-Chica many more times.

If you click on the picture below, you’ll see a larger version. If your monitor’s big enough, you’ll be able to read the menu and the prices.

Watch parables come to life

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in religion

I’m a visual person. I’m far more likely to remember an image I see than words I read. That’s why I love the 36 Parables video series. This innovative project is bringing the parables of Jesus to life via short films.

These films are well-made and thought-provoking. They’re not at all dorky, and their messages have really stuck with me. Here’s one of my favorites: “Sean”, about a boy who’s in big trouble at school. It’s based on the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:6-9)

The 36 Parables blog advises that you view the movie first, then read the passage it’s based on, then watch it again. I found that to be especially potent, as it helped me to internalize the message of the video and of the parable better.

Which one is your favorite?

Don’t watch “The Cove” with your dog

Posted on 06. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in animals

Partway through the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove“, a diver sidles up to a wild dolphin and rubs its belly. When we saw this, our whole family said the dolphin reminded us of our dog, Ricky. So it’s no wonder that, when the movie got tense, our normally fearless dog freaked out and started trembling. He had good reason: the movie showed the violent methods used to capture dolphins for animal shows at parks such as SeaWorld. We also learned that the dolphins that weren’t “lucky” enough to be chosen would be killed and, despite the dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies, sold as food for humans. I took Ricky to the living room to calm him down, but he cowered under the coffee table and kept looking back at the family room. Eventually I took him outside and let him run around until the movie ended. He was still shaking slightly when he went back inside, but when he realized the movie was over, he stopped.

When my teens summed up what happened during the movie when I was out of the room, by son said that the dolphin hunting was “like eating orange chicken with one chopstick. Poke, miss, poke, miss.” He’s an eloquent young man.

I’ve been to my fair share of dolphin and orca shows at SeaWorld, but now I’d feel guilty if I ever went again. In fact, I’d feel guilty giving SeaWorld any of my money. I hope that they and other sea life and animal parks improve the conditions of their capturing practices, and if they can’t keep an animal in a setting that approximates the animal’s natural habitat, that they don’t keep the animal in captivity. If you don’t agree, please watch “The Cove” and see if it changes your mind.

By the way, the night after we watched “The Cove”, Ricky started shaking soon after we started watching “24″. He finally calmed down when I turned him around so he wasn’t facing the tv. This is definitely a G-rated dog.

Here’s the trailer for “The Cove”:

My new Easter egg tradition

Posted on 05. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in art

Many years ago, some friends and I decided to give a fancy send-off to a friend moving back East and each make a dish from a Martha Stewart cookbook. (This was so long ago that she didn’t even have a website yet!) Unfortunately, about half of the things that people made didn’t turn out as expected.

Therefore, I was proud of myself yesterday that when the Easter egg decorating technique that I learned from the Martha Stewart website worked perfectly. I bought some lace at Jo-Ann’s, tied it tightly around hardboiled eggs and wrapped a ribbon around the strands, and dipped them into a mixture of warm water, vinegar and food coloring. Here’s the end result:

I’ll definitely keep this in my repertoire. I think that next time I’ll let them sit in the coloring longer.

If you’re interested, here’s the video that explains how to make them. I think the key is to wrap the lace really tightly.

I’m looking forward to having lots of egg salad this week.

Happy Easter

Posted on 04. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in religion

As seen at La Canada Presbyterian Church this morning. People bring flowers from their gardens to adorn the cross.

“The Life of Christ” – Painting by Ayres Houghtelling

Posted on 04. Apr, 2010 by kchristieh in art, religion

Jesus fit a lot into the short time he ministered here on Earth, and Ayres Houghtelling did an excellent job of conveying the most important events in one painting, “The Life of Christ”. My grandparents had a print of “The Life of Christ” hanging in their home when I was growing up, and I loved it so much I found my own copy on Ebay a few years ago. I wish that my photo of the print did it more justice, because its incredible details draw you in as your eye follows key events in Christ’s life.

The Life of Christ by Ayres Houghtelling

Houghtelling called this technique of visualizing a series of events on one canvas an “art-told tale”, and it’s the same technique he used for the Alice in Wonderland painting I recently blogged about.

I found the article below from the Dec. 22, 1948 Norwalk (CT) Hour via Google’s impressive archives:

From the Norwalk (CT) Hour, Dec. 22, 1948

It explains that before even starting the painting, Houghtelling spent six months preparing himself mentally and spiritually, studying the New Testament and determining his concept of the characters and the continuity of the scene. The painting was ultimately praised by prominent religious leaders including Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, who wrote that, “This beautiful picture evidences deep and reverent knowledge of the life and mission of the Saviour and inspires one to prayer and meditation.” Another article in the Google archives, from page 23 of the the , says that the original painting depicts Christ 46 times in a span of 40 ” x 30″. It was scheduled to be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York later that Spring, and was featured in Collier’s magazine the following winter. The article said that his next project was slated to be a pictorial depiction of “Treasure Island.”

After I blogged about “Alice in Wonderland”, I was honored to hear from Houghtelling’s widow, Lydia Houghtelling. She says the following about “The Life of Christ”:

It was his first attempt at painting in an allegorical style and he thought that if he could paint the entire life of Christ in that style, then he could do anything. He spent a year on Marco Island (before it became a settled community), researching and painting it. It was viewed in the Crowell-Colliers Boardroom by Cardinal Francis Spellman who wrote a lovely letter commending the painting…After it was published, Ayres’ agent told him that the painting had perished in a warehouse fire….That was then…years later, when we had met and married, he decided to redo his Life of Christ ….and also painted another beautiful painting, Restaurare Omnia in Christo…representing the Renaissance of Christ.

Mrs. Houghtelling generously sent me some absolutely amazing cameo prints that her husband painted after the original “Alice in Wonderland” painting. I’ll share them with you in a later post.

Have a wonderful Easter, and I hope that you are inspired by this incredible painting.