Happy New Year!!!
2010 has been a year to remember for me. I took a lot of risks tried a lot of things and learned more than I have in a long time. It was probably one of my most difficult years and I thank God for working in my life and placing the people in my life that he has. One of my closest friends who’s been with me through a fair portion of it all said to me that it is dream killing season. For the most part that is what it has felt like. There were times that I prayed and it seemed like things would just get worse. I have had people who I thought were close friends hurt me. I have been hurt by people who I took a risk on, and I have found friendships in places that I never thought I would find them. I am grateful for every obstacle. I emerge from it all realizing that the most valuable lesson God taught me this year is that my obstacles can not break me. God can break me and I am broken for him but my trials, and my hardships only make me stronger.
My advice for 2011: Pray!!! Even when it seems like you are not being heard, pray. When things go bad always take notice to the fact that you are still alive. Every obstacle is an opportunity to face our fears and conquer them. There is great truth to the FACT that if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. Fight for what you want.
Finalized New Years Resolutions List
Develop my spirituality
Learn a new recipe every day
Finish my novel
Learn French
Work out every day except Sunday
Fall in love in with me
Learn to forgive
Guard my heart above all else
Appreciate EVERYTHING EVERY DAY!
Much love,
-Ju’lia Samuels
So on my New Year's resolutions, I have that I want to learn French. So I think that it is important for me to know what type of learner I am. In addition to French, I want to step my game up on researching designers, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I want to maximize my time. Normally it takes me forever to learn something and I think that main factor of that is that I never really understood the best approach to take for me to learn something. I took a little quiz and these were my results some of it makes sense.
Lesson: Make your life easier and make sure you know what type of learner you are. Once you know, thinking out approaches to learn new material maybe easier.
Visual learners like to arrange their space and their work; remember what they see rather than what they hear and don't relay on verbal messages. Write them down. Visual learners respond to color, art, and mapping; and may know what to say but have trouble difficulty coming up with the right words. Visual learners like to have to have plan, good organizers, and would rather show you than tell you. Visual learners usually don't mind outside noise, doodle during phone conversations, classes, and meetings. Visual learners are often good spellers, and usually need to have verbal instructions repeated. They enjoy reading and would rather read than to be read to; need to see the 'whole picture' before they have a clear idea. For making decisions you might list out the pros and cons. For asking directions you might prefer a map or landmarks. And for learning skills youll probably respond better to diagrams or watch someone else do it
You are an Auditory learner! Auditory learners talk to themselves (doesn't mean your crazy); like to talk through a problem; read load; often move their lips and pronounce words as they read; and often repeat words to hear them. Auditory learners are often good speakers; speak in a rhythmic pattern; and remember what they hear. They don't visualize well; can spell better out loud; respond to patterns of sound, speech, and music. They usually find writing difficult are very talkative and love discussion. For decision-making you probably talk it over with a friend. For direction taking you prefer verbal instructions. And you'll most likely respond better to learning when you listen more than anything or have someone talk you through the problem.
Take the quiz
Yayyyyyyyyy New development. I am cooking gumbo with my grandmother. We are making chicken and sea food gumbo. I already explained that I need a recipe for everything so........ Of course I chose a Neely's Recipe. I have made this with my friends back in college once and that was it. It is a laundry list of ingredients but it is -oh so- good. I will post pictures at the end of the day.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 large tomato, diced
- 1 pound sliced okra
- 1 cup chopped cooked chicken
- 1 pound lump crabmeat
- 1 pound large shrimp
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- Dash hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
- Dash Worcestershire sauce
Directions
In a heavy Dutch oven,
heat oil. Add the flour and stir and cook until the mixture darkens to a brown color, about the shade of peanut butter. Add the celery, onion, green bell pepper and garlic and saute until tender.
Whisk in chicken stock, add the ketchup, chopped tomato, and okra. Let simmer for 2 1/2 hours. About 10 minutes before serving time add cooked chicken, crabmeat and shrimp and simmer. Add lemon juice, hot sauce and Worcestershire.
Pictures from cooking with grammy. Staying true to old school my grandma remixed the whole recipe. But it still turned out good!!
Like I mentioned in my post earlier, I love food. I live on the Food Network station, and I fear that I am the type of chef who needs a recipe to boil water. So this is the latest project. This recipe can be found at Food Network and comes from my latest obsession Aarti Party.
I will be doing this next week!!! For now the house is overflowing with holiday leftovers.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup quinoa, picked and rinsed well (the red kind is prettier, but either the red or the white is fine)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons chopped dried cherries
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 grapefruit, zested, plus 2 tablespoons juice
- 1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated
Directions
Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until quinoa is cooked and curly white germ shows, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, warm the olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the onion and spices, and saute until the onion has softened and the spices are very fragrant.
Stir in the pine nuts and fruit and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the cooked quinoa (all the water should have been absorbed) to the skillet. Stir in the grapefruit zest and grapefruit juice. Taste, and season with salt, pepper, to taste. Allow to sit off the heat for 10 minutes so the flavors seep into the quinoa.
Serve in lettuce cups.
I enjoy reading two things at a time. I am only a fan of this when the genres are completely separate. I am currently reading these two books:
Jay- Z Decoded:
The book is a biography about the lyrical genius that also offers a unique insight to his lyrics, which has been the subject of controversy for quite sometime. I have started reading it and so far it is an amazing read. It reads beautifully. I am not sure if Jay had a ghost writer but to be quite honest I don't care, but I do want to believe that he wrote these beautiful lines by hand. It's possible it's Jay!
"Marcy Houses were like tunnels we kids burrowed through. Housing projects can seem like labyrinths to outsiders, as complicated and intimidating as a Moroccan bazaar. But we knew our way around," (Page 1 of Decoded)
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
I just bought this book at Target a few minutes ago. I can admit that I have a problem when it comes to Target. I must and always will buy something. My poison of choice is books. Say what you want, Target has the best books and I think I just purchased one of them. I am excited!
This book description came from Amazon.com
This fictionalized life of the notorious queen is told from the point of view of her younger sister, Mutnodjmet. In 1351 B.C., Prince Amunhotep secretly kills his older brother and becomes next in line to Egypt's throne: he's 17, and the 15-year-old Nefertiti soon becomes his chief wife. He already has a wife, but Kiya's blood is not as royal, nor is she as bewitching as Nefertiti. As Mutnodjmet, two years younger than her sister, looks on (and falls in love), Amunhotep and the equally ambitious Nefertiti worship a different main god, displace the priests who control Egypt's wealth and begin building a city that boasts the royal likenesses chiseled in stone. Things get tense when Kiya has sons and the popular Nefertiti has only daughters, and they come to a boil when the army is used to build temples to the pharaoh and his queen instead of protecting Egypt's borders. Though sometimes big events are telegraphed, Moran, who lives in California and is making her U.S. debut, gets the details just right, and there are still plenty of surprises in an epic that brings an ancient world to life. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Well I am getting old. This is obvious. So I have a few new goals that I plan on implementing now. I have a lot interests that I would like to document. My hopes for this particular blog has now changed. I want this blog to be a true reflection of me. I am a complicated, busy, movie loving, fashion loving, poetic, foodie. I love positivity and uplifting others. So that is what I want you to see when you read this blog. My new blog will focus more on what is going on in the news. Ju'lia Catherine will become more personal. I am at the age that I feel I should be pretty clear about who I am. Unfortunately, I don't think I am. I am inviting anyone who is actually willing to take the time out of their day to read the blog to join me as I try to change what I don't like about myself and embrace what I do love about myself. I am hoping my lessons can be lessons for someone else as well.
If anyone is reading this or has been reading my blog, thank you!! I don't think it will be boring. I have been told I am pretty weird and no one really likes normal. So thanks for now. To New Beginnings.
New Years Resolutions
Meditate (intimate prayer every day)
Actually get a real hair care regimen
Stop being so shy
Increase my confidence
Learn French
Learn a new recipe every day
Write something worth reading every day
Finish my novel
Work out every day except Sunday
Deuces,
Ju’lia Samuels
I am really happy I got a few of the things I have been jonesing for. Mulberry purse from Target, Jay-Z book Decoded and the Apple is old. There was also the standard clothes but I was super excited about the purse I wanted it for so long and I was dying for the Jay-Z book.
I find that I get I get lost in thoughts about life itself #
The cascading effects of obstacles
Make it difficult for me to move in stealth
My greatest fear has always been that you knew and could read the fears written on my face
After all this time of crouching low to the ground, my body aches
This is more than I agreed to take
After a decade of hiding, I must admit that I am tired of trying
I have no energy left to please you
I have no more savvy
to forcibly humble myself to praise you!
My acceptance of your problems
And my decision to go on a conquest to rescue you
has left me
Abandoned
with no canoe
You weren’t even kind enough to leave me a rescue tube.
I am left to build myself up on bottomless seas
When if you had asked, I would have given you the last breath of air that I breathed
It’s funny how people always lecture you to be kind to others but never to yourself
It’s a problem that I don’ t know how to properly congratulate myself -
Why the most difficult thing to hear is a compliment
Even more unfortunate, if eyes rest upon me
I begin to shift
It has become hard to believe in myself
I realize now
In learning how to save the world
I never learned how to love myself
And lets be honest, how valuable can I really be
when I don’t even know how to rescue me?
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