Memo to Mrs. Obama from Hannah

Mrs. Obama,

I believe that it is of utmost importance that you visit Common Good City Farm. Located in the LeDetroit Park community in DC, Common Good City Farm is an urban farm that hosts events and activities for the local residents in an effort to get them to eat healthy. The residents and volunteers cultivate the garden, providing them with fresh produce. Having recently visited, I see great values of this farm and the impact it has on the community. It encourages local residents to work and supply the fresh food they need for a healthier lifestyle.

Volunteers come on a regular basis to help out with the maintenance of the farm. I observed the cheerful attitude of the people who worked there. They are so excited about what the garden has been able to accomplish for the local community. I participated in clearing out the harvested crop and laying down clover seeds as a cover crop. I learned that cover crop is used to fertilize the soil by providing essential nutrients. I used a rake to mix the clover in the soil and planted new clover seeds. Also, I sifted through the compost so that it can be used as soil. I did this by using a shovel to carry the compost to a sifter, where it was shaken. The soil that went trough the sifter is used to sustain the crops and provide good nutrition. I had a great experience working with my group on the farm. I believe that if you come you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Sincerely,
Hannah

Recipe for me by Kamilla

Recipe for me by Kamilla:

2 cups of adventures

1 cup of determination

2 cups of self-esteem

1 cup of responsibility

4 cups of respect to others

6 tablespoons of traveling

(Recipe may vary in cause of different mood :)

Hello! My name is Kamilla and I’m about writing a recipe for my personality. Yahoo!

I was born in Ufa (2 million people city, so I’m an urban girl), Russia and I lived there for 18 years. Now I’m in the USA and it’s really different, but still super exciting experience. I’m very up-to-everything new, so that’s why I’m here.

I have pretty small family: just me and my mother. But together we are so cool! I love her a lot; she is the strongest woman in the whole world. I admire her beauty and personality, and I believe I will be like her when I grow up. When I was writing this I understood that I miss my home so much!

I have a lot of hobbies and I absolutely adore being busy all the time. That’s why I was dancing for 14 years( hope I will get into MU Dance team), going to art school for 4 years, studying English since the first grade, studying French last year. Also I am a huge fan of sports like snowboarding. You know, winters are so cold and snowy in Russia, so that’s why these sports are so popular. I’ve started snowboarding 2 years ago and it’s so good!

Moreover, I really love studying. For somebody maybe doing homework and sitting in class can be as boring as hell, but for me it’s pretty exciting to learn something new every day.

And one more ingredient of recipe for me:

I like achieving my goals and dreams. Nothing tastes as good as the feeling of victory. That’s it.

Julie & Julia by Kamilla

Julie & Julia by Kamilla

«Passion. Ambition. Butter. Do You Have What It Takes? »

I am sure that everybody who will discuss this movie will start smiling, against their volition, just because “Julie & Julia” is fully saturated with kindness and love. While watching this movie, you can catch yourself thinking that cooking is also a kind of art, like sculpture or architecture!

To be true, the plot is simple, but still one of a kind. We observe two stories; the first of them began in 1949 in Paris, and the second one in 2002 in New York. Julia Child was a brilliant cooker, and she just turned upside down the world of Julie Powell with all of her skills, courage and innovation. That’s why Julie found her true calling. To prepare 524 meals for 365 days, the goal is not easy! I enjoy food and sometimes I even can cook something, but 524 meals?! No way! I really admire Julie strength for being able to overcome any problem with any dish and to make it super tasty.

“Julie and Julia” is really unique and original. I’ve never seen some other films about culinary, that’s why it became so special for me too. This film is truly “delicious”.

Recipe for Me- By:Sarah Naqvi

Recipe for Sarah


1 cup of honesty

1 cup of devotion

1 cup of friendliness

1 cup of sweetness

1 cup of love

Combine all the cups together and you have “Sarah-one crazy girl in head scarf!” I am the youngest in my family and was born in Orlando, Florida. I have an older sister, brother, and two loving parents. My sister is an accountant and my brother is studying in grad school. We moved here when I was only about 1 years old so I consider Alexandria, Virginia to be my hometown.

Personally, I enjoy living my life to the fullest. I love to spend time with my close and friends and family doing just about anything that’s fun! I went to Mount Vernon High School and choose Marymount because it is a good school close to home. One day I hope to start a non-profit organization helping women in oppressed countries and needy people around the world.

At Marymount, I hope to get involved in the Muslim Student Association and Fashion club. In the future, my goal is to decide a major and do well in college. I am looking into majoring in sociology and going to law school!

Julie and Julia By-Sarah Naqvi

Julie and Julia's Adventure by Sarah Naqvi



Julie Powell decided to create a blog about how she makes recipes by the famous chef, Julia Child. She attempts to make all the recipes in Julia Child’s Master the Art of French Cooking, Making 524 recipes in 365 days, Julie Powell published a book using her blog. I think Julie was very inspired by Julia Child which shows in the blog she created. Readers can see her become a better cook in the process and also become inspired.

It was very interesting how Julie Powell commits herself to this project. She takes her passion for cooking to a new level. Her personality is shown more in her blog than the movie because she expresses her thoughts and feelings in her words. The blog is very informal and real. It captures the details of Julia Child’s recipes. In the movie, the scene that stood out the most to me was when she attempts to cook crabs and how she overcomes cooking them. The actors playing Julie and Julia’s character were very good in the movie. Julie Powell and Julia Child were shown as very inspiring chefs.

Recipe for Sofie - Sofie

Recipe for Sofie

By Sofie Scarlett

9 cups of fabulous

2 cups of fashion

1 cup of dreams

1 teaspoon of crazy

2 tablespoons of excitement

2 cups of fun

½ cup of courage

2 cups of love

5 cups of loyalty

3 cups of music

Put the ingredients together in any particular order. It doesn’t really matter because each will show through in it’s own way. No baking is necessary for this recipe. Once completed you will get Sofie Scarlett “Not like anything you’ve ever seen.”

I was born in Detroit, MI but moved to Reisterstown, MD at the age of four. Even though I mostly grew up in Maryland, I still consider Michigan to be my true home. I go back every summer and I feel more welcome there than anywhere else.

I come from a very artistic family. My mother is an artist and designs Christmas decorations for major shopping centers and casinos. My father is a carpenter and has his own company that installs Christmas decorations for major shopping centers and casinos. There is never an instance where they work together. But that’s not all the art in my family. My grandfather was a painter and an architect. My aunt is an interior designer. And I, myself, am a make up artist, actor, and singer.

I went to Mercy High School in Baltimore, MD where I participated in the theatre program. That is where I found my love for theatre and make up artistry. Obviously, the two go hand-in-hand.

When I was applying to school, my parents were limiting me to schools in Maryland. I didn’t really like any of the colleges that were around so I was just going to go to community college for two years. Then, I was going to save money to pay my own way to an out of state school. I realized that community college wasn’t for me and neither was staying in state. My parents finally agreed and we looked at different schools. My first choice was Drew University in New Jersey. It was too expensive and there was no way we could have afforded it so I didn’t even bother applying. One of my best friends from high school goes to Marymount and she told me to look at it. I did and I’m very glad she talked me into it. So far, I love it here.

I’m someone who loves to get involved. I was very involved in my high school and I was even the president of our drama club. I hope to be able to reach a leadership position by my senior year. After Marymount, I want to go to beauty school. My dream is to open my own hair salon and have my own line of make up and hair products.

Julie and Julia - Sofie

Julie and Julia: From Sofie’s Eyes

By Sofie Scarlett

Julie Powell was a writer and loved food. In fact, her idol was Julia Child. According to Julie, Julia Child taught her how to cook. Julie had decided to cook through Julia Child’s cookbook everyday for a year and blog about it.

Personally, I give Julie a lot of credit for this. There is no way I could ever have the patience to do this. I can’t even keep up with my own blog everyday for a month, let alone a year. The cooking part I would have no problem with. I love to cook. I would gladly cook through an entire cookbook of Rachel Ray. There is no way I would blog about it. But I digress.

What I thought was interesting was that she kept going even though everyone said it was a bad idea. It seemed to me that she cared too much about what others thought of her, so it surprised me that she didn’t listen to people scoff at her. I also thought it was interesting that she got a lot of fame by doing it. At first she didn’t think anyone would read it, but soon they were sending her stuff and she was being interviewed. I would love to become famous from my blog. The only reason people read my personal blog is because I linked it to Facebook!

In Julie’s blog, her personality came forward a little bit. There’s only so much personality that can be shown in wiriting. In the movie, she seemed to be too high strung and too much of a perfectionist. Which is why I’m surprised she was about to do this for so long.

To me, one particular scene didn’t exactly stand out. A common theme did. While watching the movie, I saw how similar Julie’s life was to Julia Child’s. I’m not sure if that was actually true or just a Hollywood trick. But, I think it helped the story a lot.

Making Mistakes--by Prof. Whitman

I'm good at that.

I've already made a mistake on this blog.  I assigned my students a couple of posts, but I forgot that I had to invite them to be authors first.  Sigh.  Some enterprising students found a way around my text-blocking error by posting comments under my "How-To" post.  Read them; you'll find recipes for some delightful college freshmen.

I hope we'll be off and blogging collaboratively soon.

Chefs make lots of mistakes.  I know because I've eaten some of them.  My husband used to be a professional chef.  In cooking school, he learned lots of tricks for hiding culinary miscalculations.  Cream soup too thin?  Try thickening it with potato.  Marinara a bit bitter?  Temper the acidity of the tomatoes with the sweetness of an onion.  The mark of a master chef, it turns out, is not never-ending perfection: it's the ability to salvage a ruined dish.

I'm working on that.