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.

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats

This recipe brings me back to when I was a kid so I wanted to rekindle the memories of the days where my mom and I would make this quick treat on summer days.

Ingredients:

7 cups rice cereal

1/2 cup sugar

4 tbsp peanut butter

1/4 tbsp butter

1 bag (10.5 oz) marshmallows 

Directions:

1. Melt butter into a large size pan.

2. Add sugar, marshmallows, and peanut butter into the pan and stir until smooth.

3. Add rice cereal and stir with a spoon or spatula. Make sure the cereal is thoroughly mixed.

4. Pour the mixture onto a non-stick cookie sheet and spread it until the treat covers it fully. 

5. Cut into squares to serve.

It's great with milk! Enjoy!

New choreography in process

    Very recently I have performed my own choreographed drum solo to the song "Desert Princess" by Hossam Ramzy. It felt amazing to complete a dance and present the finishing product. Now, I am ready to work on another choreography. It's different compared to the previous Triberet performances since this is more of a Tribal Fusion dance and I want the vocabulary to be smoother with more isolations. 

    Right now, I am in what I feel is stage two of choreography development. It is drafted, but nowhere near clean. I have  separated the movements into combinations to make corrections and practices easier. Since I prefer to save choreographing the opening of this dance for when I have a clear idea of my "story", there is no introduction yet.

    This experience should be fun since I am trying something different and challenging. I tend to gravitate towards using shimmies (hence my drum solo) but I want to focus on my underused movement vocabulary. I'll do my best to update on my progress.

Summer time! Time to focus...

I have finally finish my spring semester leaving one more semester before I graduate. I see friends preparing themselves for a new adventure in life and all it creates is a stir of anxiousness in me. Leaving the school that gave me the opportunity to explore my major in all aspects will be bittersweet, but I can't wait to jump into the workforce. So, for one last time, I am searching for volunteer or internship work over the summer.

This is my last rodeo being that the time I donate to the fall semester will strictly be to graduate. I want to make sure I am prepared for whatever is thrown at me. The volunteer experiences I've had in the past (from the food pantry to nursing homes) were amazing and the internships in broadcast and print media  gave me much needed lessons. However, I want to be able to say I have "dabbled" in as much communication-oriented work as possible. This isn't a break for me, it's another opportunity to learn.

My Favorite Moments in Belly Dancing

    It's been a while since I written something on The Ferris Wheels, but it doesn't mean I haven't been moving. The year of 2012 has been memorable in many ways when it comes to family, friends, school, and experiences. I am going into the last year if my life as a Mass Communication student with hopes of finding a job in Journalism in the near future. The highlight of my 2013 year so far is the my second place win in Communication Law and our Press Club's first place win in onsite competition at the Southeast Journalism Conference.

    Belly dancing is also still  a passion for me. As I am entering my fourth year as a Tribal Fusion dancer, I have finished three choreographies. What makes this even better is I have an amazing boyfriend supporting me throughout it all.

    I have been feeling nostalgic lately and decided to look back at some of my most memorable performances with the girls I love. I'm choosing these dances specifically because of how it changed the way I danced. I believe some people call this the journey.

Easy Orange Chicken

One of my favorite Asian cuisines have always been orange chicken. I learned this easy recipe two years ago and never forgot it. Most of the time comes from preparing the chicken. I recommend using boneless chicken for ease.

Orange Chicken

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast

1 jar Orange Marmalade

1 packet of Onion Soup (like Lipton)

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Oil for Frying

1.) Cut the boneless chicken in pieces and dust it in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper.

2.) Warm vegetable oil on medium heat and dip chicken in oil to fry.

3.) When the chicken reaches a golden brown, remove the pieces from oil and set aside.

4.) In another large pan, mix orange marmalade with a dry packet of onion soup mix. Stir under heat until the orange marmalade/onion mix becomes a liquid form.

5.) Stir the chicken in the orange marmalade/onion mix slowly for even distribution.

Enjoy!

Feel the Music!

Lately I have been trying to practice musicality during belly dance practices. It seems so beautiful when dancers are involved in the music. This has become a goal of mine. It's like they are playing the instruments themselves. In the Dance Spirit article, "Musicality Matters: How To Become a Musical Dancer" , Wade Robson described the meaning of musicality. "Musicality is understanding music on a technical level, and then dropping all of that knowledge so you can sit deep inside the music.” In practices, I tried to think less of what moves I should do next. When I didn't focus on how I performed and how I should execute moves, I was able to enjoy the music.

There’s one technique mentioned in the article by Robson that really helps me:

Find a song you like and listen to it as you normally would. “Just take it in,” Robson says. Then play it again, but listen only to the drum. Block out every other sound and follow the drum through the entire piece. Does it change? Does it stay the same? Play the song a third time, focusing on another instrument, like the piano. Repeat this exercise until you’ve followed every instrument in the song. “You might have to listen 20 times, depending on the complexity of the song,” Robson says. “The last time you listen, take in the whole song again. You’ll be able to hear both the instruments individually and the tune as a whole. And you’ll be able to freestyle and dance to rhythms you never heard before. It will change your life as a dancer.”

By listening to a song repeatedly, the memory of the melody becomes familiar. Sometimes a song I've known for years would suddenly sound different as if I listened to it for the first time. It made dancing feel easier and more enjoyable. I highly recommend this article. It has plenty of valuable tips for dancers of all styles. By learning musicality, it could help me become a better dancer. In order to help me understand music better, I created a playlist for each mood of music.

1.) Smooth Moves ( Slow music, instrumentals, nonrhythmic taqsims and other music)

2.) Veil (The same as above but with more drums)

3.) Hip Pops (Drum solos, Upbeat Tribal Fusion music)

4.) Belly Hops (Turkish, La Caravane Passe, Energetic music, zills)

The last two titles were funny at the time...