Shastya's First Crayola Crayons

Russian Raw Garlic and Tomato Sandwich

The Russian raw garlic and tomato sandwich is only for serious health-conscience eaters or for any person that can acquire a taste for anything. I learned this secret recipe many years ago from one of my Russian instructors during cold/flu season. Raw garlic is a natural remedy for colds and the flu.

Ingredients:

Bread

Mayo

Raw Garlic

Tomato

The Clemson Judo Club

Judo is a Japanese martial art that is known as the "gentle way." At Judo class we are taught to fall a special way so that we do not get hurt. We are also taught to use our opponents strength against them. In Judo, the instructor is called "Sensei." Our Sensei in Clemson is named Art Gorka. He is from Poland. His fiancee is part of our class too. Her name is Yim, and she is from Thailand.

Anthony and I have recently begun participating in the Judo Club at Clemson University where one of Anthony's Clemson mechanical engineering friends Ivan Mata is pretty advanced. He lives in our neighborhood in Clemson, and is originally from El Salvador. Not only did Ivan invite us to join the class, he also kindly gave us his former Judo Gi (uniform). Qing, one of Ivan's mechanical engineering office mates recently started doing Judo as well. Ivan's fiancee Andrea also does Judo at Clemson when she is in town. Towards the end of our last class I was given a white belt. Shastya was given a brown belt!

Library Fun Time!

The kids are being taught the classics incuding the Hokey Pokey, Rub a Dub Dub, and If You're Happy and You Know It. I'm not sure who has more fun the kids or the parents! I think we all enjoy the social interaction, music, and reading aloud! 

One week I couldn't remember what time Central/Clemson's "Wiggles and Giggles" library fun time started so Shastya and I showed up at 9:30 a.m. instead of 10:30 a.m. It was nice to be there early. We got to check out the rest of the library, and we got to spend a little extra time with some of the other families that had also gotten there early.

  

Pizza Fail

This evening, a fantastic epic pizza failure took place in my kitchen. My food wreckage included a cocoa crust, an unrecognizable sauce, and classic mozzarella. I am still assessing the situation to determine what all went wrong . . .

It all started with me attempting to make a nice gourmet pizza with a savory cocoa crust, and a specialty wine type sauce. I was planning to put black mustard seeds in my cocoa crust. I planned to use frozen grapes, chopped onion, water, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar for my sauce. Things went off course when I forgot to put the black mustard seeds in my crust, though my crust turned out fine otherwise (to my liking, not Anthony's). Overcompensating, I put the black mustard seeds in my sauce instead of my crust. As I was cooking, I caught a whiff of the aroma of my sauce, it was all grape, almost like grape soda. Yuck. At that point I was thinking we didn't want it to be too sweet, and spices are sometimes helpful . . . I added some red chili powder and cumin which conversely further derailed my experiment. It is difficult to describe the distinct hot pungent flavor of my bad combination. I might add that the pizza actually ate a little better for a late night snack pulled straight from the refrigerator where it had chilled for a few hours after dinner,  than when it came straight out of the oven for supper.

Will I ever make an attempt at a chocolate crusted savory pizza again? You better believe I will. I'm thinking maybe a honey Dijon mustard sauce would be a more complementary sauce for the cocoa crust, or a white sauce. Perhaps bacon would make a good topping in addition to cheese. I like chocolate and bacon together. Let me know your thoughts.

Licklog, Pigpen & King Creek Falls, Oconee County, SC

This beautiful summer Saturday we again went hiking in Oconee County, SC. This time we hit three waterfalls: Licklog, Pigpen and King Creek with a bunch of Anthony's friends from CEDAR (Clemson Engineering Design Applications Research). We all had a lot of fun enjoying each others company, the fresh air, and the clear water. We did have some trouble locating the start of the trail to the third waterfall, but what is an adventure without a challenge? It started raining just a little at one point but the trees provided a pretty nice canopy from the rain.