Peer Review of Laura, Growing up Portuguese

Peer Review of Laura, Growing up Portuguese

I really enjoyed reading your essay about your Avo and weekly family brunches. It’s nice to hear that there are still families that have traditions like your, as aren’t many as there used to be. In your essay I can feel the the closeness you had with your Avo. Over the many years you had the Saturday prepping and Sunday brunches with your Avo was there on particular one that maybe was more special or different? Was there one certain dish that you enjoyed making with her? Could you describe some conversations during your time in the kitchen with your Avo?

I found that paragraph 2 and 3 had some parts with scene and paragraph 1,4 and 5 was summary.

The main message of the essay to me seems to be about family and continuing traditions. There’s not one specific food item discussed but many different ones. The author does speak of all the wonderful smells in her Avo’s house on Sundays.

I think this essay shows a nice clear picture of the authors family Sunday brunch tradition. It shows her family tradition continuing over many years, starting as she was a child and then continuing with her own, keeping her Avo’s tradition going.

The last paragraph I found to be touching. She writes about how her Avo passed this year and her family continues with their family Sunday brunches. The author specks about how she now has the same special moments she had with her Avo now with her daughter, right down to going to the bakery and her daughter picking at the bread just like she did with her Avo when she was a child.

Portuguese Stuffing (Rough Draft)

Growing up there wasn’t any family traditions or gatherings in the kitchen cooking as a family, as I had a not so good childhood. I’ve had a really hard life even up to now. At about the age of 9 things started to get rough in my home. My mother was an alcoholic and father wasn’t around, separated from my mother and had drug problems. By 10 I was alone a lot getting up for school by myself every day and coming home to an empty house. When it came to meals to be honest, I can’t remember much as I just ate whatever I could find. Whether it was bread, on occasion broccoli or even a can item. There were times I had a few dollars of my mother’s food stamps and would get something from the corner store. So needless to say, there wasn’t any gatherings in the kitchen cooking together. But I did promise myself that when I grew up, I was determined to have special moments and family togetherness with my children.

In January of 2001 I moved in with my high school boyfriend and we got married April 20, 2001. Then, I remembered the promise I made my self-many years earlier. We didn’t ever cook together but our first Thanksgiving together we did to make his favorite, Portugues stuffing.

I woke up early and walked into my galley kitchen with my counter on one side and stove and fridge on the other. I pulled out the turkey from the fridge that I prepped the night before, pulling out the giblets, rinsing the turkey, coating it with come butter and seasoning it. Placing the turkey in the oven things was on its way for a what I hoped would be the first of many great Thanksgivings with my new husband and my family.

As sometime time went on that day, it was time to start cooking the rest of the Thanksgiving food. What I was looking forward to the most was cooking with my husband. When it was time, I called my husband into the kitchen, him on one side of the counter me the other. My husband got out the pot and added chicken broth, water, chourico and placed on the stove to boil. I asked him about adding some seasonings, but he said there was enough flavor in the chourico and broth.  When he left the kitchen for a minute, I reached into my cabinet above my stove and pulled out some seasonings, garlic powder, pepper and onion powder and added it to the boiling broth. While the chourico was boiling the both of us started to get the four vienna breads ready. As we both stood at the kitchen counter with a very large bowl, we pulled apart each vienna bread by hand into small pieces. While prepping the bread I remember thinking this sucks and is a lot of work this better taste good. At that moment he started to talk about starting a family, as that brought so much happiness to me it was nerve wracking, considering how my life was and wanted to make sure my family had so much more than I did. We spoke about wanting to start right away, unbeknownst to us it was going to take ten years, many tears, lots of negative pregnancy test and one round of In vitro Fertilization before we we’re going to get to hold our little boy in our arms. We we’re so excited at the time thinking next year we could have a little one at the table for the holidays with us. My husband said he wanted two kids, and I did too, we thought God willing one boy and one girl. I wanted to name our boy after him, but he said he didn’t want his son named after him. For a girl we loved Makayla. We both was also talking about the family that wasn’t around anymore to enjoy this day with us. My father who passed when I was 13 and mother that passed when I was 21. My brother in and out of trouble so I never had him around in my life. His mom as he always had falling outs with her. She was a very stricted, stuck in her ways kind of person.

As we finished up the bread, the chourico was ready, we both were excited as it was getting closer to our Thanksgiving celebration. I pulled out my chopper and we placed each piece of chourico in and continued until all was grounded and then he dumped it into the large bowl full of vienna bread. He started to pour the liquid from the pot the chourico was in as I mixed it by hand, I yelled out crap this is hot, and he started to laugh and all I could think was I hope this never changes and we can continue this every year. Once it was all mixed, I placed it into the glass Pyrex dish and my husband added a little more liquid on top, so the stuffing doesn’t dry out. Placing it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes our stuffing was ready.

I was so happy as he continued to help me with the rest of the Thanksgiving prep, carrots and turnips, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, picked tray, corn, biscuits and basing the turkey in-between. This was something new for me, family time.

As the buzzer went off for the stuffing, we we’re ready for our celebration. Family started to arrive and there was so much laughter and happiness, one of my best days ever. All I could think was I can’t wait to do this every year with my husband and hopefully adding children to it. As many years did pass by after our first Thanksgiving together, we was blessed with a baby boy and unfortunately when he was six my husband passed away. I am just very thankful for the 19 years we had together and the short time he had with our son  that we ended up naming after him Michael. To this day I still carry on with making the Portuguese stuffing ever Thanksgiving by myself and think of all the memories that him and I made.

 

 

Corn Taste Better on the Honor System

The title Corn taste Better on the Honor System I thought meant planting and growing the natural way by hand and not with science or technology. Honor system meaning doing it yourself.

The essay specks about how corn has changed over time in taste, how it’s used and how it is planted. Corn is the key stone to our food chain. We need to respect and take care of our land and nature and it will take care of us.

The essay is trying to educate us on how important it is for us to respect and care for our land. That corn is a big part in everyday life with the things we use and eat. Over time farming corn has changed with science and how we plant and harvest. How corn should be used to feed more people then it actually does. Less then 10% of the corn grown is consumed by humans.

To be honest some of the story was confusing to me, at the beginning of the essay and some of the science like when it specks of gene.

One surprising part of the essay was that less then 10% of corn is consumed by humans and most of that in the form of fructose corn syrup in soda and processed foods. One disturbing part was that most of the corn grown goes to cars and other things we use and consume and not the hungry.

  1. I’m getting ready too, preparing of Mother Earth to receive these seeds and celebrating the life inside each kernel with a song.

2. Holding the seeds in the palm of my hand, I feel the memory of trust in the seed to care for the people, if we care for the seed.

3. Most all of the Onondaga corn harvest is shared by the community, as corn soup, corn bread and cornmeal mush with maple syrup and berries.

These sentences stuck out to me because you can feel the love and care the writer has for her heritage and for nature. How she continues the traditions of her people.

 

Ideas for Essay

During my first essay some ideas I have and will be writing about will be:

  1. Starting a holiday tradition
  2. Making family memories
  3. Gatherings getting smaller because of loss
  4. Savory dishes
  5. Laughter around the table
  6. Cooking with my husband

Family togetherness hasn’t always been a priority in my family. I don’t have any memory of cooking as a family or any togetherness around food as a family. As I had gotten older and was able to I started a family traditions of my own. Every Thanksgiving I had my family on my fathers side over for a big Thanksgiving celebration. I would spend the day before prepping and the day of cooking delicious dishes and my husband helped with the stuffing. This became something I looked forward to every year and my family did too.

Scene vs Summary

Scene is when you are reading something and are brought right into the story. Where you can see and picture everything threw the words written. When it is given you step by step detail as if you are there experiencing yourself.

While reading Meatballs it contained some summary like when he mentions how his moms behavior is toward him but different when they make meatballs together. I do believe this story is more of a scene then summary. The writer brings you right into the story explaining step by step the process of making meatballs. For example, when the writer states, this is my favorite parts, it was like playing with slime. I begin with digging my hands right in and squishing it all together and letting it come thorough my fingers. The hamburger feels like playdoh and slime with sand stuck in it. After reading the I felt like I can picture and feel what the writer was talking about.

Summary is when you are given a break down of a story but not step by step. Your not given specific details to what is going on.

I found that when reading the Apple essay it was more of a summary. It did have some scene in it but not as much as the Meatball essay. When the writer is explaining about a warm crisp day, colored leaves, the sun shining and the scents in the air it brings you in and you can picture the scene. I found it was mostly summary though for example apple picking is often a cherished tradition bringing loved ones together. One of the most rewarding aspects of apple picking is the act of harvesting the fruit ourself. With that example it gives break down on how apple picking feels and what it does for families.

After reading both essays I believe Meatballs is more of a scene.

Want Kids to learn well? Feed them well

Food! Food is something you would think everyone would have access to but unfortunately not everyone does. One in six American’s are food insecure and in that study about 16,000,000 almost 20% are children. Diet and nutrition is one of the number one cause of preventable death and disease in the US. There are many families in the US that can’t afford food and many that can can only afford the cheap and unhealthy food. The healthier food is something that for many families they can’t afford. When it comes to our children we can’t expect them to learn and succeed if their diet consist of sugar and empty nutrients. For many of them they only have meals when their at school, unfortunately on the weekends at home there is none. When kids are hungry they can’t focus on learning if their stomach hurts from hunger, which will cause low performance and low grades.  When kids are given the proper nourishments they can and will thrive. In the US a bill called Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was passed. The act states that schools that have 40% or more low income kids in there school can offer breakfast and lunch for free for every student. Schools that implemented the program seen a increase in math and reading by 17.5%. Also The schools found that when adolescence were having a consistent nutritious breakfast graduates went up by 20%. This could give them the chance to succeed in life.

Unfortunately in this country there are too many kids going hungry. Food and living expenses has just gotten to expensive and there are families that have to choose between keeping a roof over their families heads and buying food. Food is something that usually is left for last. For many families that are able to qualify for food stamps they usually run out by the end of the month. It’s sad to think that there is people especially children that are going hungry. There has been times where my own child has come home saying he shared his snacks with some friends because they didn’t have anything. Now I always pack a few extra things in his bag to share. The Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 has proven to help child in school to succeed. We need to set our children up to be successful in life. This all starts with good balance meals.

 

Reading and Writing

When it comes to reading it’s not one of my strong suits. Readings has always been something I’ve liked to do but did struggle with because not being able to sound out certain words properly. As a kid in school and even now at work I don’t like having to read out load. I always think what if there’s a word I don’t know or pronounce right and everyone is going to hear me. I’ve always been the one to read ahead so I knew what I was going to read out load before hand. When I do have the chance to read on my own I do like drama and romance books. Writing isn’t something I do much now besides emails and text messages. In school when it was a book or subjected I liked, I enjoyed writing. The start of my writing always took a little bit to get going but once I had a few sentences and my thoughts together it would start to flow easily. Writing I would say I’m stronger with then reading. It has been along time since I’ve been in school and have written reports so this is something I look forward to starting again.