February 14, 2010
One, two, three, four, five. Five. It takes five Texans to build an igloo!
This is my friend SAA and her family, with the igloo they built during Dallas’ 12.5 inch record snowfall on February 11. I’ll bet I never get to say those words again…
Way to go SAA and crew!
~BigSisFebruary 14, 2010
Last Thursday, the Dallas area got a whopping 12.5 inches of snow; shattering the previous record of 7.5 inches to smithereens! I can’t even tell you how gorgeous it was and what a treat it was to see this. My neighborhood looked like some kind of fairy tale North Pole scene. Even though it was beautiful – and lots of schools closed to the delight of kids everywhere – it did cause a lot of problems. 100,000 people are still without power today. Thankfully, my power was back on Friday night after being out for the whole day. We had trees down all over town, and branches ripped off the ones still standing. Those poor little trees weren’t used to holding up all that snow, and ended up toppled over on power lines.
Since this may be the biggest snowfall I’ll see in my lifetime if I continue to live here, I wanted to remember as much of it as possible so I took a zillion photos. Here are a few:
Adios, snowstorm of 2010! You were a bit of a pain, but you were a blast while you were here! 🙂
~BigSisFebruary 8, 2010
Drew Brees Family at Super Bowl
Happy Monday-after-Super-Bowl, everyone! LilSis is still in Big D, and without Big T’s influence, we wouldn’t have watched the Super Bowl at all. We were watching “Death at a Funeral” during the game, so we recorded it. Our plan was to forward through the plays to just watch the commercials, but it became clear that the Saints had showed up! We ended up watching most of the 4th quarter, and were actually more impressed with the game than with the commercials!
So congratulations to the New Orleans Saints this morning! It’s always fun to see the underdog prevail, and it’s especially nice to see New Orleans get a much-needed boost!
Photo credit: Getty Images
~BigSisFebruary 1, 2010
Did you watch the Grammy Awards last night? I’m a big fan of Pink, so her performance blew me away, as usual! It also made me want to run for the gym! Can you imagine being in front of all those people in that *outfit*? Wow!
I like watching awards shows, but the Red Carpet is my favorite part by far. Here are some photos from the Grammys Red Carpet 2010. As you might imagine, it was not a boring evening!
Adam Lambert
Beyonce
Blackeyed Peas
Carrie Underwood
Heidi Klum and Seal
Keri Hilson
Lady Gaga
Lea Michele
Mary J Blige
Pink
~BigSisJanuary 28, 2010
I hope you’re all having a good week. I’m having a great week myself, but I have a nagging feeling that I can’t seem to shake, and it’s about the 27,000 exotic animals that the SPCA is taking care of. Last week, I told you about the largest animal rescue in US history that took place in Arlington about six weeks ago. Since then, the SPCA of Texas has been caring for 27,000 exotic animals who were neglected and abused.
I got an urgent email from the SPCA this week, which said that the “people” (I use that word loosely) who owned the company have appealed the judge’s decision to confiscate the animals from them and award custody to the City of Arlington. Until that appeal is settled, the SPCA will continue to care for the animals, at a cost of $8,000-$10,000 per day. They are in desperate need of $150,000 ASAP!
If this situation touches your heart as it does mine, will you please consider making a donation to the SPCA? If I could do another bake sale tomorrow that would put a dent in this need, I would do it. But their need is much bigger than that. They need us all to come together for them, and contribute what we can. Thanks for considering helping these poor little critters!
BigSis added this note January 28 at 1:30 pm: I just found this great video on DallasNews.com, which shows some of the animals and gives you an idea of the lengths the SPCA is going to for these guys. Here’s the link: http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=412930
It’s short, so please check it out. I’m in love with the Ring-Tailed Lemurs and the teensy turtles.
~BigSisJanuary 25, 2010
Occasionally, all of us girls at the office sneak out for a lunch together, and last Friday, we decided it was time to shake it up a little bit. Sometimes we go for a posh girlie lunch at a fancy place, like Stephan Pyles or Fearing’s at the Ritz Carlton, and other times it’s a cheap delicious lunch at Cafe Brazil. This week, we went raw vegan! The “we” is me; a 15-year vegetarian/3-week vegan, and 3 open-minded carnivores!
I don’t want to say where we went since the restaurant was having a bad day: their chef quit, they were short-handed, and they were having a sewage issue. Probably not the day to give them a fair review!
All 4 of us got something different so we could share. Some dishes were more successful than others. Our favorite was the Coconut Kale Enchiladas. I never thought I’d say those words! Marinated kale was wrapped in coconut tortillas with nacho cheeze, pico de gallo, salsa verde, and cashew sour creme. It was spicy and really tasty, but not sweet at all as you might think it would be from the coconut. I usually find raw kale to be too tough and chewy, but this was perfect. I would order this again.
Coconut Kale Enchiladas
Our second choice was the Greek Pizza. Creamy tahini hummus was topped with a Greek salad of cucumbers, avocado, red onion, capers, fresh tomatoes, Greek olives, chopped parsley, and romaine. The dressing on the salad had a great flavor, and the hummus base was delicious. You had to dig a bit to get to the “pizza” part, but it was delicious digging!
Greek Pizza
In third place was Raw Tacos. Crisp corn tortillas are topped with chipotle flavored beans, guacamole, nacho cheeze, pico de gallo, and salsa verde. This is a pretty dish as the previous two are, and had fresh ingredients on top, but we found the “tortilla” and bean topping to have a slightly bitter flavor.
Raw Tacos
And our least favorite by a mile was the Raw Pad Thai. Kelp noodles are tossed in almond butter and chili sauce, and
garnished with crispy vegetables. This dish was practically inedible, sorry to say! It was bland, watery and had a pretty nasty texture. The kelp noodles were oddly crunchy, and were mixed with slightly slimy zucchini noodles. None of us could eat this.
Raw Pad Thai
In spite of the challenges of the day, our waitress did her best to take care of us, and it was a pretty fun eclectic experience. Maybe we’ll go back after they’ve had time to recover from last week!
~BigSisJanuary 22, 2010
Last week, several of us who worked on the SPCA Bake Sale had the opportunity to tour the SPCA of Texas’ new facility. We met the Chairman of the Board at our 2008 sale, and he offered us a tour but we never made the time to do it until our 2009 sale was behind us. We expected to see kitties and puppies, and were worried that we’d all leave with our arms full of furkids. What we didn’t expect to see was a facility full of 27,000 exotic animals.
You might have heard about the largest animal rescue ever in US history. A PETA investigator went undercover for 7 months in an exotic animal store, US Global Exotics, who sold to pet stores and chains like Petco and Petsmart. After gathering evidence of the neglect and abuse going on there, the investigator blew the whistle on the business.
On December 15, 2009, Arlington Humane Services swooped into the facility with a seizure warrant, with assistance from the SPCA of Texas and the Humane Society of North Texas. It took these agencies over 14 hours to rescue the thousands of animals. Many were already dead or dying, including over 200 iguanas who had been packed up for a trip to Egypt and then were left for 2 weeks with no food or water when the order was canceled.
Three days prior to the seizure, the SPCA began preparing a facility to receive all of these stressed animals. You can read more about the incredible lengths they went to in this Examiner article.
What kind of animals are we talking about? Turtles, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, geckos and iguanas and all kinds of lizards, crabs, hamsters, rats, frogs, mice, gerbils, ground squirrels, sugar gliders, ferrets, guinea pigs, flying squirrels, coatimundis, agoutis, chinchillas, prairie dogs, hedge hogs, mini possums, ring-tailed lemurs, sloths, wallabies, and kinkajous.
Here’s SPCA of Texas President James Bias describing the situation in a local news video:
We were overwhelmed by the sheer number of animals we saw. Can you even begin to fathom what 27,000 exotic animals looks like? Then add to that the incredible variety of animals…over 500 species. Then imagine what all of those poor animals went through. It was really too much to comprehend. We were very grateful to have the chance to see all of these animals up close, but extremely sad that they were in this warehouse after this horrible experience, instead of roaming wild in their native habitat. At the same time we were thankful that the SPCA was taking such good care of them.
None of these animals will be available for adoption. They will be placed with accredited zoos, sanctuaries and rescue organizations.
So how can you help?
Thanks to PETA, SPCA of Texas, Humane Society of North Texas, the judge who awarded custody of these animals to the City of Arlington, and to all of the vets, workers, volunteers and everyone else involved in the rescue and care of these animals. God bless all of you!
~BigSisJanuary 18, 2010
Have you been really disciplined with your New Year’s resolutions and want to reward yourself? Maybe you’ve already lost a couple of pounds and need a non-food treat? How about getting yourself a Clarisonic Skin Cleansing System!
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not an early-adopter. I’ve only had an iPod for a year, an iPhone for a few months, a Wii for a couple of weeks, and I’ve yet to buy a blu-ray player. My television is over 20 years old and weighs as much as I do. Oh yeah, and my car will be 10 years old in a couple of months. With all that in mind, I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that I’ve been hearing about the Clarisonic for over a year and just now got one.
Why did I wait so long! My skin is already dramatically different in only two weeks of using the Clarisonic:
I noticed some of these benefits immediately, and I continue to be pleased with the cumulative improvement I see in my skin, which is a pretty big deal for me. I’ve never had pretty skin in my life. I started making weekly trips to the dermatologist when my skin started breaking out at age 12. In my early 20s, I was one of the first people to use Accutane, but by then I had scarring that really bothered me. In late 2007, I had 6 Fraxel laser treatments at a cost of well over $5000. By the way, I have a high tolerance to pain, but that was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. Thankfully, I did see substantial improvement in my skin’s texture and scarring was reduced somewhat.
But even so, I’m still not happy with my skin and I’ll always be looking for ways to improve it. The Clarisonic is an excellent tool, and it cost much less than $5000! I got mine for $225 through QVC because their deal came with some extra goodies like cleansers and additional brush heads. The model I got comes with a brush for your body, as well as 3 facial brushes. You can also buy the Clarisonic through Amazon, Ulta, Sephora, and probably lots of other retailers.
I highly recommend the Clarisonic…don’t wait forever like I did!
~BigSisJanuary 15, 2010
Do this. To your hair. Now!
I’m not kidding, you’ll thank me! You may already have this product in your pantry, but if not, you can easily pick up a jar. You don’t need to go to the beauty supply or the salon though. And you don’t need to take out a loan to buy it!
What is it? Coconut oil! You can get it at Whole Foods, Sprouts, or any health food/natural foods store. You can order it online from Swanson Vitamins or Vitacost and probably tons of other sites. You may even be able to find it at a well-stocked grocery store. I get mine at my favorite hippie health food store called Natural Grocers/Vitamin Cottage. For a 16 ounce jar, you can expect to pay only around $10.
I have coconut oil in my pantry because I put it in my smoothie each morning. I never thought about smearing it on my hair though until I was reading on Beauty Brains about an expensive hair treatment called Ojon ($55). Ojon is made of palm oil from the rainforest, plus fragrance and some extracts. The Beauty Brains said that coconut oil and palm oil are essentially the same thing, and each will actually penetrate the hair’s cortex. Most conditioners only coat the surface of the hair shaft, and don’t get into the hair itself.
Penetrating the hair’s cortex can help replace the natural oil that we lose simply by washing our hair. When you replace that oil, you’re “refatting” the hair. The Beauty Brains suggested that using a coconut oil based conditioner could be as effective as Ojon. I’ve since seen online that lots of girls are just using plain ol’ coconut oil, and getting good results so I had to try it.
Coconut oil is solid in my house right now since it’s 60-something degrees, but it will be liquid when the inside temp is in the 70s. Since it’s solid I took a blob and warmed it in my hands a bit til it softened. Then I just started rubbing it into my hair. My hair’s almost shoulder length and is a little thin now (dang hormones), and I used three walnut-sized blobs of coconut oil. I combed it through, and let it sit for about an hour. Ojon recommends leaving their treatment on overnight when possible, so I may try that with the coconut oil when I can.
After an hour, I rinsed really well with pretty warm water, and then had to shampoo twice before the oil was out of my hair. I did use my regular dab of Pureology conditioner afterward, since the coconut oil is supposed to work inside the hair and not outside.
What were the results? My hair was softer, shinier, fuller and had more body. It even had less frizz before flat-ironing. After the next shampoo two days later, the results are still there.
I’m planning to give my hair this little tropical treat once a week. It’s easy, it smells fabulous, I can do it myself, and it makes my hair happy. What more could I want? Give it a try and let me know how you like it!
~BigSisJanuary 11, 2010
It may be beautiful and sunny in LilSis’ neck o’ the woods, but it’s colder than a well-digger’s butt here in Texas. I guess that’s pretty darn cold, right? Our last few nights have been close to 10 degrees, and our daytime highs have been well below freezing. It’s definitely soup season here!
I’ve been trying my new vegan diet on for size this week, and so far, it’s been pretty easy. I’ve been disappointed to see how many of my favorite products have unexpected animal products in them, but I’ll adjust and it really motivates me more. It’ll just take a little getting used to, and my palate will need to happily adapt to a dairy and egg-free world. I did lose 3 pounds this week, but I think it’s because it was kind of a detox from the semi-bad eating I’ve been doing for the last month or so, and some of that weight was bloaty water weight from too much salt, sugar, etc. It’s the “etc” that gets you every time!
So dinner the other night needed to be 1) soup, 2) vegan, and 3) quick and easy. Voila! Here’s what I came up with: Creamy Tomato Soup with no added salt, no butter, no cream, no guilt AND lots of flavor! It’s vegan, but I wanted to share it with you because it’s so delicious, but isn’t loaded with bad fats like the tomato basil soups you usually find.
You can use any seasonings you like. I used the salt-free Italian seasoning and Mural of Flavor, and surprisingly didn’t have to add any salt at all. I think it may have something to do with the citrus peel in the Mural of Flavor, since lemon reduces our perceived need for salt. I’m super-sensitive to salt and get big “salt bags” under my eyes from a small amount of it, so being able to skip the salt is huge for me.
Creamy Tomato Soup
(recipe by me)
28 oz can Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
Water (I filled the tomato can about halfway full, but make your soup as thick or thin as you like)
2 tblsp Italian seasoning (I used Pampered Chef salt-free)
Penzeys Mural of Flavor, optional but really tasty
3/4 cup cashew cream (see note below)
Simmer the tomatoes and water in a medium saucepan with the Italian seasoning and Mural of Flavor for about 20 minutes to let flavors develop a bit. With an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is smooth, or leave it chunky if you prefer. Stir in cashew cream and heat through.
Note: Cashew cream is my new favorite discovery. It’s from Tal Ronnen’s book “The Conscious Cook“. You might have seen Tal on Oprah recently. Cashew cream can be used in place of milk or cream in lots of recipes. All you do is soak some raw cashews for 12 to 24 hours, and when whiz them around in a blender with just enough water to cover them. That’s it! Just cashews and water. Sure, nuts do have fat, but it’s good fat and you aren’t guzzling a gallon of this stuff. You’re just using 3/4 cup in this whole recipe.
~BigSis
