Living at home with my dad, the ultimate carnivore, I figured it was time to get over my fear and start learning how to cook dishes that included meat .

Last week, I decided to make a meatloaf, the ultimate American meal.  So I browsed around the Internet & collaborated a couple recipes that ultimately resulted into a pseudo Italian style meatloaf.

First thing I did was whip up a quick tomato sauce; two cans of chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves crushed garlic, a handful of basil, and salt & pepper.  I let that simmer while I made up the meatloaf.  Here, there are Italian breadcrumbs, 1/2 of a chopped onion, a squirt of sriracha sauce, pepper flakes, 2 eggs, more basil, and flat leaf parsley.

Isn’t he handsome?

So I threw this guy into the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Afterwards, I topped it off with the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some dried oregano and cooked for an additional 30 minutes.

Afterwards, I sided it with some angel hair pasta tossed with spinach, olive oil, garlic, and a little bit lemon juice & of course some crusty bread.

Yummmmm….I must say I was very pleased with my first turkey meatloaf & hip hurray nobody got poisoned

1. Wonderful friendly guys who, when were bored, felt the need to give massages. And not just any massage, but AMAZING. Oh boy I was so spoiled last week.
2. I thought my friends could party & drink a lot, but my sister’s friends took it to a whole other level.  I could hardly keep up, wondering around Wednesday if I’d be able to make it till the end of the week.
3. The amount of creativity in the area was overwhelming. Walking through the market was something I so enjoyed to do because you got a chance to see all the amazing things people were working on.  It was extremely inspiring & made me want to rush home to apologize to my sewing machine for neglecting it. And the musicians! Oh lord, such rich and diverse music.  We would walk around and just let ourselves submerge in such talent.
4. Who doesn’t love the sounds of bagpipes and drums in the morning?
5. Sweet tea vodka & Mike’s hard lemonade…delicious and always guaranteed trouble.  One thing my sister, Kris, & I learned was never start drinking them at 3:00 in the afternoon…completely took us all out of commission around midnight. They are delicious and sneaky.
6. Belly dancers!
7. My tent flooded 2 nights. We were very amazed that my father, the civil engineer & lover of researching before each purchase, would ever buy such a thing.  When I confronted him, he immediately assumed I MUST have not closed the windows. Right. Luckily all my stuff was tucked away in plastic containers, so the only innocent bystander was my pillow who I threw away after the week ended.
8. MEAD. I haven’t been exposed too much to mead, but wow, is it delicious!
9. Talking about Harry Potter around a campfire….with people who went to Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Conventions. Amazing.
10. Hot guys dressed as pirates.
11. A second chance at haggis! Who would have thought 2010 would be a big year for me & the haggis? Remember back in January when I went to the Burns party & had my first experience with it? I wasn’t all that impressed. Apparently every year at the camp’s weekly party, they order a haggis. So I figured to give it another go. And what do you know, I like haggis now.

Overall, great week.  I got to spend some quality time with my sister & Kris, finally got to experience what Pennsic was after years of hearing about it, & it helped me get out of my life a bit to re-charge.  Now I’m ready for the next step, whatever that may be.

I’m not going to lie, I did like “The Notebook”, but obviously I sobbed hysterically through it’s entirety.  In my own defense, the first time I watched it was around the time my grandpa died, so anything to do with senior citizens & their long romances were touchy subjects. Psh, thanks alot Nicolas.

But then I think of his wife. Could you imagine being married to him? His office is probably like the office of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter; all pink with decorative pink plates with kittens all over the walls.  His wife must be the strong one in the relationship, having to comfort him during sad movies & commercials. She’s the one during the night who has to go downstairs with a baseball bat when Nick hears a noise.

Or do you think he just enjoys making girls cry? Maybe he had a hard time during high school where he was constantly being  rejected. Perhaps one day Nick vowed that he would get back at them all by writing heart breaking weepy stories, leaving them with doubts that there is no such thing as a happy ending.  Obviously once you find love they are going to die from a weird disease or get dementia…  When you look at it that way, he wins.  Who knows..

Way back in New Zealand, I started planning with my sister going with her to this event she has gone to forever called Pennsic War.  It’s this…well it’s hard to explain. Here’s the explanation from the website:

“Pennsic is an annual event, in the guise of a “War”, between the Kingdoms of the East and the Middle of the Society for Creative AnachronismPennsic is also the largest Society event, with attendance in recent years exceeding 10,000. The scheduled activities include large melee battles, tournaments, archery, stage performances, dancing, and hundreds of classes on medieval topics. The marketplace has over 200 merchants selling a variety of wares.”

What will I be doing in the midst of all this excitement? Probably happily (and hopefully) dressed like a gypsy, sipping wine all day, exploring, and dancing. Just what my soul needs <3

Seeya in a week, hopefully with a clear mind & all the answers.

So far I’ve been to

• 3 recruiters – all of which made open exciting promises & had so many opportunities, but of course didn’t follow-up with any good leads…even after I emailed AND called.
• 4 interviews for restaurant/cafe managing positions. One I didn’t get, one I got but was way too low paid, & another two I’m waiting on.
• 1 interview at Rolling Stone. Yes I said Rolling Stone. Maybe I’ll hear back, maybe not. I’m not staying hopeful.

And must we not forget the 500 jobs I’ve probably applied for over the course of the past two months.

It just sucks, you know. The last time around when I was looking for jobs my mom would always say, “keep looking, there is the perfect job out there for everyone”.

I can’t help but worry that there isn’t a job out there for me…that there isn’t anything out there that I’ll really love, but more just deal with.

I’m kinda having a sad down day.

Take for example, “The Help”.  I had never heard of it, but apparently it’s been a very popular book – been on NY Times list for a while.  Well within the first couple pages, I was hooked! It’s a beautiful story following the lives of three woman living in the south during the 1960’s & the relationships between the upper white class &  African Americans who are their help. One is Skeeter – a writer who came from a wealthy family. She had friends who were all from the upper class, but after graduating college, knew there was more to life than just getting married and having babies.  Then there was Minny, a hot tempered woman with loads of kids, an abusive husband, and the ability to lose jobs quicker than anyone else.  And finally, Aibileen, who is also Minny’s best friend. She was the sweetest, hard working, & good hearted person.  The type of character you immediately befriends.  Aibileen loved the children she helped to raise, had no patience for her employer, who also happened to be one of Skeeter’s close friends.  The three lives crossed when Skeeter decided to write a book about life as the help in Mississippi of a white home.  Minny & Aibileen help Skeeter to speak to all the people in the area.  I won’t give anything else away because it is just absolutely gem. I have a copy, let me know & it’s yours!

“This week’s edition of “The Splenda Stealer Diet” is one of the Splenda Stealer’s nearest and dearest, her friend and partner in crime, KC! Once a co-worker/neighbor in Hoboken, KC left the confines of a boring desk job in Midtown Manhattan to live and explore New Zealand for a year.  Now back for practically her third summer in a row (the southern hemisphere was all summery while NYC had blizzards), she has been stationed at her dad’s house in Middletown, NJ, where she spends her time job searching and hanging around the pool in between nibbles of curries, falafel, and Thai food. Let’s take a look at her week of eating.”

Go take a look!