Just craving some Indian food...

We have a pretty diversed house here -- a Peruvian, a Mexican, and an Indian. So, needless to say, the food we eat around here is always different. My roommate's mom sometimes drops off Indian food for her, and it's just so irresistible that it's always gone soon. I managed to take a picture of what's left of these nuggets (not to be a creep...)

Indian little nuggets

Oh these small little delights are a taste of heaven on a bright sunny day. mmm They may not look so hot in the picture, but it is a harmonious composition of spices, masala, and pure perfection. So I had to look up the recipe, and I found it in this blog:

http://www.blendwithspices.com/2013/05/black-eyed-beans-and-soya-chunks-kebab.html

Around the corner of where I live is a Shell gas station that has a corner of Indian food. I'm going to go by tomorrow and get some of these ingredients to make it this weekend. I think the beginning of my Indian food obsession is taking place, but then again... why shouldn't I have this obsession since it's sooo wonderful to my little tummy?

The Holy Spirit works in beautiful ways

So, I'm still calming down from the excitement of these past few months. First of, our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI stepped down. When I first heard it from a friend I thought, "oh my gosh what must have happened?!" but when I read his announcement I was amazed by his humility and love for our Mother the Church. To quote him:

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saints Peter, will be vacant... And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

This is a critical time for prayer. The time for conversion is now. The time to open our hearts for Christ is now. Our beloved Benedict knew that this world is in dire need of Christ -- at full strength. Thus, "both strength of mind and body are necessary" to bring the Gospel to the world. We face so many modern issues that have to be addressed again and again. As Catholics we are so blessed to have our Mother the Church to guide us in these issues even when we don't agree and when we feel like our ways are so old and tradition is so overrated. No, the Church is a sound voice, patient but strong. For example, the issue on same-sex marriage is a pressing topic, specifically in the United States. Now that Obama has spoken for support for same-sex unions it is easier for the mindset of those growing up here to accept same-sex unions as normal. More secularization in the world. I feel like anger is stirring in Hell more and more as Satan attacks Christ's Church through abortion, contraception, and other secular events that lead us to sin. If we don't recognize that we are sinners -- all of us, not just people who steal or have same-sex attractions or fall into fornication or lie to others -- then we will never give God the chance to show us the LOVE that he has for us... despite of our sins, despite of our history, despite of everything.

But still, in the middle of the darkness of night there is always hope. The night that passed after Christ's death were the darkest hours the world had ever seen -- and the greatest battle Hell has ever witnessed. Christ rose victoriously, which we celebrate the day of Passover. There is always hope.

I truly believe that our Heavenly Father has such a desire for the conversion of the whole world, for every single person to feel the love that He has for them, for every sheep that is lost to return to Him that His Spirit is at work in Christ's Church. It is beautiful how the Spirit allows us to discern God's plan, and it is even beautiful to see it at work in front of our eyes. Specifically, it is amazing for me to witness the humility that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has had to step down to do God's will.

During these past days I anxiously awaited to learn who would lead this Church. I had a smoke cam on my laptop.. I checked my Pope App constantly, reading the homilies of the cardinals.. I even had a text alarm just in case I couldn't be by the T.V. when the conclave came to a 2/3 vote for our new pope. As I was driving to Houston for a job interview I get a text from my beautiful boyfriend, "HABEMUS PAPAM." I entered into frenzy mode. Seriously. I was excited. Much joy took over.

I scanned the radio hoping there was a decent station that at least mentioned the election of the pope.. AM stations -- nothing.. FM stations -- 92.1 Oh my gosh ABC news covered it. It was so exciting. I could not wipe off my smile even if I tried. Of course, I was stuck in traffic on 610 but I didn't even notice. A Hispanic guy in the car to my right looked over, also excited, smiled and gave me a thumbs up. At that point I just wanted to scream out to everyone-- we have a Pope!!

To amount to my excitement, when I finally found out that our new pope was South American... oh my, I almost began to cry of joy. A South American pope. :'D A lot of newspapers have commented that South America has the largest population of Catholics in the world now, so it justifies the election of the new pope. I think that's silly. There were so many great Cardinals, but it can only be God's will for Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to be chosen.

In this time of need and of guidance, our Lord gives us a second Francis. St. Francis of Assisi, if you know, came at a time when the medieval Church needed to see humility.

"Francis, repair my church"

Our new Pope Francis I (Francisco, en Espanol) shows us a similar humility, and encourages us to return back to the faith through love. To preach the gospel is best way to show our love to others, but we cannot preach unless Christ has revealed to us His never-ending love. Courage! As Pope Francis said in his latest homily:

"My wish is that all of us, after these days of grace, will have the courage, yes, the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord's Cross; to build the Church on the Lord's blood which was poured out on the Cross; and to profess the one glory: Christ crucified. And in this way, the Church will go forward. My prayer for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, will grant us this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ crucified. Amen."

Amen. Pray for our beloved pope!

I just wanted traditional chocolate chip cookies!!

You know when you have one of those not-so-good days and you just want to feel better, or get your roommate to cheer up from her terrible students in middle school, and you just want to make great chocolate chip cookies?! Yes, yesterday I was craving a simple traditional chocolate chip cookie.. so I went on the internet and google "CCC recipe" and up came a recipe from AllRecipes. I like this site so I trusted it.. and it had good reviews.

... so my roommate and I decided to try this. The recipe called for the following ingredients (you can google it yourself)

and here we go, just baking... la la la la la... added the sugars (2 CUPS) with melted butter, later the eggs (2 EGGS) , and you know.. throw in some 2 TSP of vanilla extract.. with some 3 c of flour. All right, well we must not have been on our guard because when we finished our cookie batter was very liquidy. BUT we went along with it anyways.. I mean the recipe called for us to "dissolve baking soda in hot water" and we figured it was just a nice trick since we had never really come across that before. Here's what came out!

 It's difficult to tell, but the cookies came out LOOKING like big, thick toasty cookies, and when you tapped them, they would crumble and fall because there was absolutely nothing inside. It was very deceiving.

deceiving cookie >_<

Seriously, there was nothing inside. I know they look huge. And they were way too sugary. Anyways, I had to throw it all away because (1) it was extremely sweet, and (2) you weren't actually eating anything...

After this (being the engineer that I am..) I compared the ingredients from this recipe with Nestle's.

Okay, they're not THAT different..so why were my cookies so empty inside? Nestle's recipe results in about a dozen more cookies with less granulated and brown sugar, 1 less egg, and no water, and less flour (of course, because of the less sugar amount). Hmm.. what went wrong?

This made me upset, especially because I love to bake and I "thought" I was a good baker! So, the next day (today) I decided to try a new recipe from a book I own, In the Small Kitchen by Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine. Its a great book, I love it. Anyways, they have a "classic chocolate chip cookies" recipe (p.180). So, I had to try one more time...

So here are the ingredient differences. Notice that this recipe doesn't require any vanilla extract :) even better.. we had to borrow some from our neighbors yesterday, and since we couldn't 'pay' them back with cookies we didn't have to use more of their vanilla this time. hehe.

So I added the sugars and the butter together....

After mixing it with a beater I added the ONE egg :) ooo yeah, looks good...

Kept mixing... look at how creamy it looks! :) yes, I like this..

And after all of the solid ingredients... just mixed some more... See the chocolates?

Yes, this is the stuff.

So we finally got to enjoy those classic, traditional chocolate chip cookies.

The world was right yet again.
-Allie

Johnny Football wins the Heisman = Gig 'Em Aggies!

By now the whole football-loving nation knows who Johnny Manziel (a.k.a Johnny Football) is. If you don't, at least watch this before reading my article:

Johnny Manziel. Well, he's been a football star all semester long. As an Aggie and a grad student who studied my undergrad at A&M I have to say that Johnny Football has been one of my favorite parts of college. I don't know him personally, I don't know how much of a gentleman he really is, or how well he does in his classes (although I do know a friend who really didn't want him to win because he's not a hard worker in class at all...), but I do know that he has such confidence on the field. This semester has been by far a set of amazing and CRAZY plays. That last drive against LSU ... although yes, it was a desperate "1 minute" .. it made me think of how our football team wanted to give it all.

AGGIELAND -- while the Aggie Band forms "SEC" on the field (TAMU-Florida game)

I'm glad I only missed one game this semester. Watching Johnny football live -- among thousands of other Aggies cheering our boys on -- has been incredible. ESPN compared it to a video game once, because his stats are unbelievable. Well, he gave us a scare more than once. But in the end, it was always "let's just trust him because most of the time it'll work." And, yes he's a redshirt freshman and he has so much still to give to Aggieland, but for now I do think his talent should be rewarded. After all, TAMU was supposed to be awful since we had a new coach, were in a new conference, and had a new freshman quarterback to begin the season. But all in all, Texas A&M came out strong, with a win against the Crimson Tide (Alabama), a ticket to the Cottonbowl against Oklahoma, and now a Heisman winner as our quarterback.

The only thing I have to say is... let's celebrate with his wide receiver, Ryan Swope! :)

My roommates and Ryan Swope at O'bannons

Personal Comments on biblical references to the Pope

When I read the letters of Peter from the bible, it always astonishes me to think that I am actually reading the first pope's words of wisdom. I took some time to scrutinize some of the passages in the Gospels and to look more closely at the relationship between Christ Jesus and Peter.

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Peter and Christ had such a strong relationship. Peter is the one that acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah (Greek for "the Anointed One")--the Christ (Mt. 16, 16; Lk 9, 20). Even so, when Christ appears to the apostles after his resurrection and has breakfast with them, he asks Peter if he loves Christ three times (Jn 20, 15:17). Just as Peter denied Christ three times before (Lk 22, 56:62), Peter now proclaims his love for Christ three times.

There is no doubt that Christ has a special and strong relationship with Peter.

Peter is weak in faith, as when he became scared in the sea when he walked out to meet Christ (Mt 14, 29:31) or when he not only denies but curses and swears against Christ (Mk 14, 67:71). Despite his frail faith Christ always speaks to him with love and compassion. Peter knows he does not deserve to be near Christ. Pope John Paul II writes in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope[1] that everyone is in debt to Peter when he says “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Lk 5, 8) Christ answers in very simple words, words that Pope John Paul II always uses in his writings: “do not be afraid” (Lk 5, 10).

Out of the twelve disciples, Christ tells him to tend his sheep.

The Catholic Church refers back to the Gospel of Matthew for the bible verse where Christ gives Peter the ‘keys of the kingdom,’ making Peter the first Pope of the Church.

“And I tell you, you are Peter (Petros) and on this rock (petra) I will build my church … I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16, 18:19)

Christ Jesus makes other references to Peter caring for the followers of Christ in other passages. When Jesus predicts Peter’s denial in the Gospel of Luke, he also reveals that Christ has prayed that Peter’s faith will not fail, “and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22, 32). This is where Christ reveals that Peter will become responsible for the faith of others (Moran, 388)[2]. Peter is called to strengthen others in the faith. At first he was instructed by Jesus as one of the twelve apostles. Then he becomes a witness of Christ’s death and resurrection. When Jesus appears to seven of the apostles and has breakfast with them, he asks Peter if he loves him three times. After Peter replies, Christ says “feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” “feed my sheep” (Jn 21, 15:17)

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[1] John Paul II. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. "The Pope": A Scandal and a Mystery (pg. 4)

[2] Moran, Luis R. El Misterio de Cristo en la Historia de la Salvacion. Spain 1967

So lovely

It's only a matter of time before my eyes begin to sparkle at the sight of you. In such a crowded room, my eyes only see you. You, who enters the room so discretely, capture my attention.

You walk straight towards me.

Your tender hand reaches out to mine as an invitation awaiting a response. I blush, tilt my head to my shoulder, and smile as I look at your open hand. Slowly I pluck the courage to breath and raise my hand. I place it on yours.

Your smile, so sweet and tender. You caress my hand with your thumb and lunge me forward.

Soon we start to dance. At first very upbeat and fast. Later, a more moderate dance. Soon, a slow paced dance. I hold on to you and close my eyes, thinking of the beautiful things you've introduced me to--dancing, music, laughter, feelings. You hold me in your arms like nothing else matters but this moment that we share together.

You look at me, move my hair out of my face, smile, and speak those secret words.

I love you.

I beam radiantly at those words and reply back.

I love you too.

We smile at each other's smile, laugh, and begin to dance the night away.

Thoughts on Religion

It is often spoken. The chosen ones hear it, take it in, and become followers. It is a simple understanding that opens eyes and cleanses the soul. It is a life-changing phenomenon. A miracle. No other life or object or pursuit or pleasure exists after taking in the news. Nothing else brings everlasting joy or eternal life. It's a beauty that makes you want to give yourself entirely. It's a truth that makes you want to become a better person, lend a hand to others, and share the goodness that you've discovered to the rest of the world. It is not selfish or boastful or arrogant, but rather hopeful, loving, patient, and kind.

To accept the ultimate truth--that is the task. "What is truth?" How can you distinguish between truth and falsity? How can you answer morality questions without a main core, a reference point, a comforting start--a beginning.

I hear whispers here and there. Murmurs. Soft lips letting questions slip into the midst of strangers. One word. Three letters. "GOD." One word. So what, I say. There are many. What distinguishes a real one from all of the fake ones? What about my job, my finance, my education, my success in life, my hard work, my knowledge, my science, my abilities, my facade, my material things, my lovers, my imagination, my everything? So what. God? What is that? I built this house, I decorated it, I raised my kids, I worked double shifts, I this and I that. My life has not known a 'god' and I've been very well off.

Why are we so resistant to the good news? Why does it bug us to hear those three words; those ever-hopeful, loving and comforting words?

GOD LOVES YOU

Three powerful words in such a simple sentence: (1) God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth; the definition of love; the Holy Father; the ultimate friend. (2) Love, the strongest emotion that makes us feel like there is a meaning to our existence; the selfless act of giving oneself to another; the respect and admiration towards others; the utmost realization that you are not alone. (3) You, the chosen creation, created in God's image; the reason for salvation; the salt and light on earth.

How? Because He sent his only son --Jesus Christ-- to die on the Cross so that OUR SINS can be forgiven-- so that the path to heaven can be open for us, and so that we can become a new creation.

If this is believed, all else follows.