Flaxseed and chocolate chip cookies

What I love about this recipe is that the cookies come out not so hard as most oatmeal cookies. Also, the combination of healthy fiber(oatmeal and flaxseed) and treat(chocolate chips) is great.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1.5 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup flaxseed

1 cup chocolate chips

Tools:

baking sheet

two medium bowls

wooden spoon (optional)

aluminum  paper

Ready? Then lets begin to make some cookies that will blow your mind.

Set oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix sugars and butter together. You want the butter to be soft. I usually take it out of the fridge about 1 hour before I start making my cookies. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. In a separated bowl mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine. finally, add the oatmeal, flaxseed and chocolate chips and mix with the hand or a wooden spoon.  I really recommend to refrigerate your cookie dough at least 24 hours before baking. This last step helps to set the flavors and textures. Take your refrigerated dough and get  the baking sheet ready by covering it with aluminum paper. I like to this since it is easier to clean up, but if you do not have aluminum paper handy, it is fine. Place spoonfuls of the cookie mixture over the baking sheet two inches apart from each other and from the edges of the baking sheet.

Place the spoonfuls of cookie dough in the hot oven and bake for 11 to 13 min. depending on you oven. I recommend to check on the cookies around the 12th minute, if the cookies seem to need another 3 or 4 min. more, TAKE THEM OUT NOW!!!! Over-baking the cookies harden them.  Take my advice, I have made like 100 batches of cookies, therefore I have some kind of authority. 

I love movies

    I really do not know why I love to watch movies. I guess I like to be entertained, but some time I like to be entrained with movies that depresses me, makes me sad or makes me anxious. I was trying to figure out why I like so much to watch movies and I came with the conclusion that I like to see how other people carry their lives and how they live, how they think, how do they reflect over the issues.  I some times see movies as a window, a passage to the world of another person, actually another world, with different perspectives, priorities, values. Another time movies are passage to lives, ideas so similar to mine that I feel identified with them. For example, I felt a lot of empathy with Ada McGrath, the character that interpreted Holly Hunter in The Piano. I also felt empathy with the character that Juianne  Moore  in The Hours.  Movies are I way to communicate each others about how we feel and that we can learn about feelings we did not know about or we can feel empathy about those movies that talk about somethings that we have experienced too.

The Band's visit

i like this movie. It is a movie about a Egyptian police band that has a presentation in some town in Israel, but they got stocked in the airport due to bureaucracy or God get to know what.  When trying to find the way by themselves, they got lost in a small desolated town of Israel in the middle of the desert. The story evolves from a small shop owned by Dina(Ronit Elkabetz), where the leader of the Band; Tewfiq( Sasson Gabai) asks for directions.  I just got stunted by the acting of both Ronit and Sasson. Since I saw the movie I have put in my blockbuster queue the movies Or and Late Marriage where Ronit performs.  What I liked the most about the movie is the fact that the film is all  but cliche. I do not like the cliche in movies where it is explained the arab vs Israeli conflict  and the reasons underneath it. the script  is so original, funny, and it flows so natural. I like The Band’s visit because I felt how it tells the story of deep and shallow human interaction and how we enormously need that human closeness, so bad that we try to grab it from anyone that show little need too.  

Tropical Thunder

I loved Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr., they are hilarious, so funny and creative. I was sceptic of this movie since I am not the type that likes this type of comedies, but later I realized that I had liked some of the Ben Stiller comedies such as “some thing about mary”,  “meet the parents” , “meet the Fockers” and “the night at the museum”. In tropical thunder Ben acts and directs. The movie is a satire about how Hollywood makes war movies and the actors producers, producer assistants, agents and explosive effects expert in them.  Tom cruise plays an annoying, over the top producer and Robert Downey Jr. impersonates an Australian actor who plays a role of a black soldier in the “war movie” that takes place in this movie

The Dark Knight

On Thursday my husband David and I went to see the world premier of Batman "The Dark Knight" at midnight. I am not a fan of the Batman movies but the last two movies really impressed me. The Dark Knight is the best batman movie of all and one of the best movies I have seen this year. The Dark Knight specially astonishes me for its great performances, direction, score, script and ideas. 

 The most impressive aspect of the movie is the great acting of Heath Ledger. The interpretation of the Joker by Heath is really scary, strong, original and deep. The performance of Heath Ledger is far  better and different from Jack Nicholson's.  I define a great actor or actress by rating their abilities of really making you feel the way they are feeling in their performances or the way they are making the character of the movie feel. For instance, the Joker want to generate and perpetuate chaos, desolation, uncertainty in Gotham, well, that was exactly how I felt when watching the movie and some time afterwards. Heath was a really gifted actor and even though I do not like the superficial, idolization of public figures after their dead, but in the case of Heath is a fact, he had a long way to grow in his acting career. 

With the direction of  Christopher Nolan and an unpredictable script, the movie gives a more human perspective  of friends  and foes who ideas about existentialism, humanity and morality are more deep than I would expected. I have never given comics the attention they deserve, but after watching batman I really give them all my respect .

The Piano

Writer/director Jane Campion  tells story of a mute woman's rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, just expresses herself trough her piano.  Ada McGrath and her strong-willed young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, Ada is the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). The story evolves around the piano and the rebellion of Ada against her situation of being forced to be a wife to a man she did not know neither she could love.  

The main reason I love The Piano is the way Jane Campion tells the rebellion of Ada in such a tantalizing, genuine  way.  The acting of Anna Paquin, Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel is supreme. The music by Michael Nyman is delightful, so romantic and poetic. I think Jane Campion deserved to win the Oscar Award for best director but she did not because of the misogyny of  some academy members.

Having trouble going potty poop?

My both children have trouble when it comes to pooping. They suffer from constipation constantly. I have tried ground bran from rice but it works just with a gigantic glass of water. If the humongous glass full of enormous quantities of liquid is not drunk with the bran then the situation could get worst. I also tried papaya which works for my older child David, but not for Derek. I tried oatmeal which Derek likes, but it is just not enough. Derek likes bananas, oranges and grapes for snacks. Those fruits are good to have healthy bowel movements but they are not making all the job.  We do our daily exercising of dancing  and going to the park but it is not making them go pooping as good as I would like. I finally found I great thing that they both like and work for them wonderfully. I give the a small cup of half cranberry juice and half of prune juice before breakfast of with the breakfast and as a bed time drink. The cocktail juice works great. Try it if you are having troubles with your children’s tummies. Regarding the bran; I use it when baking,cookies. I also use ground flax seeds which have a lot of fiber but you have to remember to drink a huge glass full of enormous  quantities of milk or juice with your cookies full of fiber.

Poem; Oh universe forgive me!!!!!!

Oh universe, forgive me,

let me be as humble as children, let me be honest and sincere.

Let me deserve the miracle of life,

I am as sorry as the sun, 

I am as so sorry as the stars consume themselves,

They are as sorry as i am,

ending their own lives, giving light, finishing a life.

Oh sun, stars and planets,

giving life, ending life,

miracle and contradiction, 

I am as sorry as nature,

oh nature, so cruel, so unforgiving,

antagonizing your out springs,

giving them sorrow and endless tears.

Oh nature, oh sun, oh me,

so contradictory, so nurturing and unmerciful,

Oh universe, forgive me, 

I do not deserve this earth,

stave after stave , making her cry, making her bleed.

Oh universe, forgive me,

so humble, so humble,

they love and forget 

all the children of this universe.

Poem; What is love?

I ask my self what it is love when I love you and our children.

I ask my self what is love at the time I see the bright light from the eyes of our children and your kindness and good will to do the right thing.

I question my self what is love at the time I am hopeful of our future and good things about our family.

I wonder what is love at the time I justify my mistakes, my children's mistakes and yours, and even the mistakes of the world.

What is being in love ? asking myself, when I feel relief about telling you my feelings even though I know you are going to feel sad about it?

What is love? Who really loves? Even the most profound love that one human can give, we cannot deny our nature as humans who make mistakes. But humans can also be humble, 

I wish you forgive me for not loving you as you deserve. I just hope you give me another opportunity to be better and love you better. It is a life long goal of a mortal, it is one of the reason to live for every human being.

Even though I am human I will love you better.

I Love movies

I really do not know why I love to watch movies. I guess I like to be entertained, but some time I like to be entrained with movies that depresses me, makes me sad or makes me anxious. I was trying to figure out why I like so much to watch movies and I came with the conclusion that I like to see how other people carry their lives and how they live, how they think, how do they reflect over the issues.  I see movies as a window, a passage to the world of another person, actually another world. These worlds have different perspectives, priorities, values. I also see movies like passages to lives or ideas so similar to mine that I feel identified with them. For example, I feel a lot of empathy with Ada McGrath, the character that interpreted Holly Hunter in The Piano. I also felt empathy with the character that Juianne  Moore  in The Hours.  Movies are a way to communicate each others about how we feel and that we can learn about feelings we did not know about or we can feel empathy about those movies that talk about somethings that we have experienced too.

The Curious case of Benjamin Button

On Christmas my husband and I went to see The Curious case of Benjamin Button. The curious case is that Benjamin is born as a old baby and grows backwards, so he is born blind with serious case of arthritis, and other illnesses of old age. The time goes by and Benjamin feels better and stronger, so he is getting younger. I like this movie because it provokes a reflexion about the course  of time,  and reflexions about the miraculous but  unappreciated moment of "now" in our lives. Also the movie exposes the idealism of having courage to live the life you really want for yourself and how timing of the important events in our life is everything. Technically speaking the digital effect of the movie are great. The special effects make Brad and Cate look much more younger in a very natural way. The acting is so surprising and warm. Brad Pitt is great, he performed in one of the most amazing ways I have ever seen him, so original and at the same time natural. I would adventure to say that Brad is going to be nominated for best actor at the Oscars. Cate Blanchet acts as excellent as always, so she is going to be nominated for best actress in the Oscars but Cate Winslet is going to win for revolutionary road(I have not watched the movie yet) or the reader(I have not watched it neither).   Taraji P. Henson  is going to be nominated also for the Oscar’s awards in the category of best supporting actress. The movie lasts 2 hr and 40 min. which are gone like that. The curious case of Benjamin Button is going to be nominated for best movie with good odds of winning  and with more then 11 nominations.

Kids into chess

Now the little guys are into chess. The play on the internet, so they push me away from my mac and play against the computer. They make me play during breakfast, lunch and dinner. They make their father play, and they play against each other with their own set of rules of course. They make the stuff animals play, and the action figures as well. David Iran is 5, so he understands the rules but he seriously tries to perfect his playing. Derek has fun throwing the pieces as in a king to king combat. First thing in the sunday morning the kids play even before putting some pants!!!!! Come on David!!!! you are showing your undies!!!!!!   

halloween crafty costumes and community center party

My husband David, Derek, David Iran and me went to trick or treat to the nearest mall as soon as 4pm. Later, we hit the 5:30pm party of the community recreational and sport center.. It was vital that my husband David was able to come with us because there was kind of a crowd at the mall and the more set of eyes to watch out for the children the better. Over the community center they had games planned, where the kids earned tickets that we could exchange for candy or prices. It was priceless seeing David Iran and Derek getting around by themselves, playing the games, exchanging the tickets and interacting with all the people since David Iran uses to be very shy. Also, it was planned a costumes contest, I was so excited  about the contest since I felt I could win it. I got the confidence at the mall where a lot of people compliment me saying how cute and creative was the little robot costume that I made for Derek(I will post a video about how I made the robot costume). Later, the host of the party at the community center announced that the contest was cancel. Our halloween day was so much fun for all of us, but I was sorry that the costume contest was canceled . I realized that we do not like to go house by house because it is very dangerous. Some no-common sense parents use to to drive their kids, dropping them off in a house and then picking them up two or three houses after. It is ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!  Let the little devils walk so that they spends some of the calories from the candy. Besides, around these days of october it is getting cooler and windy, it is better you keep your little ones inside. If you have toddles or children age 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 or 10 I definitely advice you to go to the mall the earliest you can or to your community recreational center. It was so much better to do it this way because it is earlier, quicker, safer and even funnier. 

Tips for handling chiles

In the kitchen there are several things that a cook can feel threaten by, the obvious  are sharp knifes, boiling water, fire and also natural fire; “chilies” . If you are a self-taught  cook, maybe you learned the hard way about handling chilies. You wanted to do some salsa for your corn chips, or green chili. The recipe asks for dice jalapenos. Therefore you  as fearless as a rookie cook starts washing the chiles and putting them on the cutting board and then pulling the stems off. You cut the chiles jalapenos in half and then longwise and finally you cut them into small dices. When suddenly you notice a burning on the tip of your finger and under the nails. You have been victim of the chile burn.  At this moment DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT touch another part of your body. If you do this, then it will burn as well. At this time the only thing you can do to alleviate the burning is to put some yogurt or milk  and the best of all; time. The most practical thing that you can use to prevent the chile burn is to put some disposable gloves. I personally do not like them, therefore I started asking for another way to prevent the chile burn. My mom told me to rub some oil on my finger tips and hands before I start cutting and handling the chiles. I tried this technique and it worked perfectly. Until now I have handled God know how many chiles and I had never been attacked by the chile burn again. 

An awakening: I love cooking

About seven years ago, when I was going to college as a freshman to become an electrical engineer, I was convinced entirely that I have to be the feminist stereotype. The stereotype who does not like to cook, clean, be a mom nor be a homemaker. Later, I felt in love with my super special husband David. We became parents of David and Derek, I changed major to be a math teacher and during that time I realize how much I love cooking. I realized that I had liked to cook all the time, but I was denying to be myself  by pretending to be the feminist stereotype so that I could fit in. I have always  loved to cook. My mother used to get me involve in her cooking, making cookies, cheese cakes, and some experiments that later I will write about. When I am cooking I get to concentrate,  be passionate and I get the urge to perfect what I am doing.  Now that I look at it, it is so unnatural that I was denying myself to be me and to do what I love. The key here is to be ourselves, and it seems so easy to say but I really think that it is a goal of a lifetime.