My Summer To-Do List:Blogging, Dancing, and French Speaking

        When taking the summer off from college, I wanted to go back to drawing board and re-evaluate how I wanted to spend my last summer break and fall semester. My plan was to strengthen everything: My writing, my french, my dancing, and my networking in general.

1. My blog has been keeping my fingers on the keyboard, but I have yet to work true hard news since spring semester. This is a forewarning that you may be seeing some local news somewhere on this blog. I love food and I love dancing, but I also love my area!

2. So far I have been started 12 sets of choreography and only completed five (It would have been 11, but I had spark inspiration after listening to "Harem Aleyk" by Natacha Atlas. I love all the songs I have chosen, so since my summer is getting closer to an end, my goal from here on is to finish the remaining dances for future uses. It'll be a fun challenge!

3. About a year ago, I finished my French minor and haven't been in a French classroom since then. I miss practicing my French so I use countless applications, movies, radio, and songs to keep the language fresh in my mind. In the future, I plan to post ideas, programs, and techniques I use that I believe are effective.

Let the games begin!

Fruit Pizza

This recipe is one of my favorites for comfort food. I have made it countless ways and found out two things: use fresh fruit when possible and never take the easy way out by softening the cream cheese. Melting and softening are two completely different things that will give you two completely different results.

Ingredients:

1 roll or package of cookie dough ( I prefer chocolate chip)

1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese

2- 8 oz. containers of whipped topping 

1 pint of strawberries (diced, fresh preferred)

3 kiwis (diced, fresh preferred)

Directions:

1. Spread cookie dough onto a round cookie sheet. If cookie is in a roll, slice the dough to mold a pizza.
2. Follow cookie dough baking directions on package and bake. Remove the cookie crust from the heat and  place in the refrigerator to cool for later.
3. Dice the strawberries and kiwis and set aside.
4. Soften the cream cheese and combine the whipped cream with a whisk.
5. Spread the cream cheese/ whipped cream topping on the cookie crust and scatter the strawberries and kiwis on the crust to finish.

Troupe Blocking with Nail Polish (Update below)

       With many thanks to the La La tribal troupe leader, April, I have been given an opportunity to prepare a full piece for a show in the future. One of the toughest issues I am having so far is working on the dance without the dancers. This is where the fingernail polish comes into play. So far, it is the funniest yet most helpful ways I have learned to block dancers in choreography. After watching a recent episode of Game of Thrones (the heart-wrenching "Red Wedding"), I had thought using nail polish to block the dance would help make the performance clearer in my head as I made choices to move dancers around.

        The bottles were treated as bodies, meaning if I was not able to move the bottle in a new position efficiently, I could correct it. If I wanted one red color bottle (a dancer playing a specific role) in a particular position, I could practice blocking with the polish as much as I want, with the help of photographs from previous blocking. I used different color nail polish to represent a different person, took a picture of each change, and uploaded the picture to add text to the pictures. I will eventually need to put this to the test, so I will have an update on how it works.

Update: I have ran through all but one part of the group choreography. When it came to better understand the dancer's places, the nail polish technique was very effective. I haven't had a chance to tried the dance with the dancers themselves yet, but I feel the choreography will be better understood now that I see the transitions.

Tuna Sandwiches

A quick and easy recipe for time when you just want a sandwich. This is a personal favorite from my mom's collection.

Tuna Sandwiches

Ingredients:

5 eggs, boiled
5 cans of tuna, drained
6 tbsp of juice from sweet gherkin pickles
5 tbsp of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Directions:

1. Dice boiled eggs with yoke into a medium size bowl.
2. Add the drained cans of tuna, sweet pickles juice, and mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip)
3. Mix together in the bowl and serve with crackers or on a sandwich.