Some recipes and some other stuff

By Tamika Whitenack

Wow, it has been a long time since I last blogged. I suppose I am getting busier! I feel that I have a lot to share, so this may be a very long post. Prepare yourselves!

The last time I blogged was Thursday, so I have the entire weekend to update on in addition to the current week. Where to start?! How about Friday, when I had my first time volunteering at the nursery school on campus! It was great to be in the presence of small children again and to read songs and sing stories and do arts and crafts (that was an unintentional mismatch but I like it so I'm keeping it).

vegan banana bread :)

The big news of the weekend is food-related. On Saturday, there were blueberries at the Deece! This was very exciting news, and I probably ate too many. I had a bowl of blueberries with milk, as well more blueberries with more milk and some granola. It was very satisfying. I also successfully completed a baking project on Saturday! Pazi and I made vegan banana bread using an assortment of ingredients that we have taken from the Deece, baking supplies found in the Raymond communal kitchen, and some supplies that we each brought from home. I made a peanut-butter-chocolate version and Pazi made an almond-butter-spices version. It was a slightly different texture and taste than I'm accustomed to due to the vegan-aspect, but I really liked it! I may get more into vegan baking. The last bit of food fun that I should mention from this weekend is watermelon! Talia and I have been talking about watermelon a lot and how we want it (almost as much as avocado and berries), and it appeared at the Asian Student's Alliance picnic on Sunday. Yay for me! Beyond the watermelon, the picnic was a nice way to meet some more Asian and Asian-American students and enjoy the beautiful day.

spinach + pumpkin seeds

I actually have more to say about food, which probably does not come as a surprise. I've been doing pretty well at the dining hall lately, largely because I've decided to make great use of the make-it-yourself stir-fry station (my, that's a lot of hyphens). At the moment I have two main versions that I make.
Spinach, Pumpkin Seeds, and Friends: I start with olive oil plus some spices, usually cumin and chili powder and paprika, and then add mushrooms. Next I add assorted veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots) and then I add massive amounts of spinach and let it wilt by putting the plate over the pan as a faux-steamer. Sometimes I also add edamame or chickpeas. I finish with diced tomatoes and more seasoning, usually salt and pepper, and then top the whole thing off with pumpkin seeds and sometimes raisins.

also spinach+pumpkin seeds

Asian-ish Stir-Fry: I start with a little oil and some ground ginger and garlic. I add onions or other veggies (carrots are a favorite, also broccoli and bell peppers) and add some of the tamari sauce. Then I add tofu and more sauce to do a sort of in-the-pan-marination/wok-mei thing.

A few other food notes: They have this new dried fruit mix that has apricots and prunes and apples. The late night now serves soft pretzels. We have a food truck with kimchi. I am continuing to (unintentionally?) eat vegetarian here but as I keep up this habit I find it less and less appealing to eat meat, which leads me to continue eating other protein sources and find meat less appealing...it's a cycle and I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not. The almond milk has gotten strangely thick so I've been drinking more nonfat cow's milk. They have Cheerios and puffed rice cereal stuff that I like.

food truck fare

Thanks for humoring me while I unnecessarily talk about food. I suppose I can use food as a segway into my next topic, which is clubs/extracurricular-y stuff. One of the club meetings that I went to today is for Hunger Action. I think I already explained the basics of this club, but essentially it is a community-service oriented club that works in the Poughkeepsie community to collect food for pantries and shelters and sometimes serves meals at a soup kitchen. Food insecurity is a big issue in Poughkeepsie, and I think it's just one of the easily noticeable ways to observe the strange dynamic of having a privileged college campus located in an economically depressed area (we have an all-you-care-to-eat dining hall and such while the community is 25% food insecure, and of course there are other examples of the disparity in resources too). It's very easy to forget that I am still in the real world while on campus, but I think that the area that we are in could benefit from the resources college students can provide, so I'm excited for the opportunities that this club provides. Also, it is food oriented and the bonding activities and fundraising (bake sales) will involve food so of course I am interested. Sadly, the funds for the group were reduced this year (not sure why exactly, I think it's complicated), so there is a lot of fundraising that needs to happen this year in order for the club to continue to do community engagement, specifically the soup kitchen work. If anyone is interested in donating, let me know!
The other club that I went to today was Vassar Outing Club. Not too much to tell about that because I haven't gone on any trips yet, but I'm hoping to go on a hike this weekend or maybe next weekend, so more updates soon!
I have gone on a couple runs with the running club, which has been great! I'm glad to find other people to run with, and both runs have introduced me to areas that I didn't know existed so it's nice to expand my range. I am able to run consistently here, but it is not as much mileage as I'd like so hopefully as I find more places I can change this.
I have been doing some other forms of activity. I went swimming twice last week and today I went to yoga! This yoga practice was very relaxed and focused on stretching and breathing, so it was not as active/movement-y as some that I've been too. I still enjoyed it a lot, and it was a good break from studying.
In general, I try to break up my studying with other things, like walking the Skinner to play/practice flute/piano, or walking from one place on campus to another, or other little activities. I find this is effective for keeping me productive and enjoying my work. On Monday and Tuesday, I attended mindfulness/meditation sessions in the quiet room in the library and really enjoyed those. I will try to keep going to them, they are only 20 minutes so it is a really easy, short break. On Tuesday we had to think of an instance in which we felt larger than ourselves, and we had to dwell on this memory and be in that place and just let it be and stuff. I thought of backpacking, and while I was sitting peacefully with my eyes closed trying to be in that moment again I decided that I want to try and put it into words as best as I can. Not in this post though, or it will be even longer than it is already.

library study space

library view

I mentioned walking to Skinner, the music hall, and I think I might end up spending a fair bit of time in there. This week was the start of the woodwind quartet chamber group and the wind ensemble, and I'm quite excited for both groups. However, between that and my lessons I have a lot of music to practice! I appreciate this though, as it makes each practice session go by quickly and helps me to structure my practice sessions more efficiently than when I have the freedom to play any or everything. Also, Skinner is a beautiful building that I will try to take a picture of to share with you all. Additionally, I think there is a wamp-wamp (what they call these giant groundhog things here that at first I thought were capybaras) that lives in the nearby swamp-shrubbery, so that's fun. I'll try to get a picture of it, too.

I would take more pictures, but I'm trying out a new thing where I see how late in the day I can wait to turn my phone on. I really like the results so far, but it does mean I don't take many pictures (except mental pictures).
 I do turn on my laptop relatively early in the day, largely because so much of my text for class is online. I want to talk about classes, but I want to really tell you about classes, not just sort of tell you about them, so I'm going to save it for another post (hopefully tomorrow, Friday, or Saturday). Stay tuned!

TREE!