Weekend Plans!

Short and sweet post. This Thursday is World Water Day! There are events on both Thursday and Saturday. You should check and see if there are any in your area. I'm going to be attending the Philadelphia Walk with Kim. You should check it out and even if there's nothing in your area you should do the virtual walk. Or just get some more info about the world water crisis! Another great site for info is Blood:Water Mission. Just another little way to get involved in make a difference.

Weekend Goings On

Kim came over this weekend and we had fun and relaxed and made pizza. But not just any pizza. Cool fun pizza! And meatless since it was a Friday during Lent. So we made spinach pierogi pizza and it was so yummy! So I'm giving you all the recipe as a wonderful favor. You should totally make it.

Spinach Pierogi Pizza

Ingredients:
1 roll refrigerated pizza dough
10 ounces chopped frozen spinach, thawed (squeeze to drain)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 small onion, sliced, separated into rings

Directions:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 13 x 9" pan. Place dough in greased pan; starting at center, press out with hands.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until light golden brown.

Meanwhile, in large skillet cook spinach and chopped onion in butter until onion is crisp-tender. Stir in potatoes; mix well. In small bowl, combine oil and garlic salt; mix well. Brush over partially baked crust; top with spinach mixture.

Sprinkle with mozzarella and then Cheddar cheeses; top with onion rings.

Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges of crust are golden brown.

Here's a picture of our finished product!Not perfect but so so yummy!!

So Fresh and so Clean

Happy Thursday everyone! It's absolutely beautiful outside and when spring is coming what must we do? Clean! My lovely roomie actually cleaned, I went grocery shopping. A good trade off in my opinion. In honor of the temporarily warm weather, I'm going to do a little "Must Read Blogs" spring cleaning. Check for my new additions which have quickly become my favorites!

On another slightly related, but mostly not topic....I was reading one of my new aforementioned blogs (Femminista della casa) and I came across The Seven Things project. Basically, every Saturday, you pick 7 things that you don't need and you get rid of them. You could also translate that to 1 per day. The idea is to "Sell, donate, give away, or recycle seven things a week. Every Saturday, post the Saturday Seven, a picture list of the seven things one got rid of that week, along with an explanation of how long one has had these things, what made it hard to get rid of them, and what one chose to do with them." I'm totally psyched! I've been trying to simplify and declutter my life for awhile now. I tend to do it in chunks though, which can be a bit overwhelming, but, one thing a day! That's so subtle, so nice. I can do this. Coming soon to a blog near you: The Saturday seven!

Not a Laughing Matter

I was checking on BBC this morning and found out that our president is currently on a tour of Latin America. This inspired a few articles on BBC about the state of things in Latin America and how our foreign policy has impacted those things. Basically, we've lost all ties to our southern neighbors and by our war in Iraq have driven up the price of oil in Venezuela, not exactly out closest allies, and put them in a position to control the price of oil from now until kingdom come. We're talking more oil in Venezuela then all the countries on earth combined. Let me shake your hand, Mr. President. Said country has also formed an alliance with Cuba and Haiti (two more US foreign policy failures) and meanwhile, China is making buddy buddy with Brazil. Whoot.

Speaking of Cuba...did you know that the infant mortality rate in Cuba is two times lower (at 7 per 1,000 births) then it is for African-Americans (at 14 per 1,000 births) and that Cuba has the lowest HIV infection rate in the Western Hemisphere and all those Cubans that do have HIV receive Cuban produced HAART (highly active anti-retro viral therapy) at no cost. And! As if that wasn't enough to make us look like idiots, most Cubans receive better health-care then do our own citizens who live in Washington, D.C. right under the noses of our fabulous law makers. Huh. And all this in the face of an illegal and intense embargo from said "most powerful nation." This info was taken from Pathologies of Power by Dr. Paul Farmer, whom I just had the privilege to hear speak at Seton Hall. This info is heavily cited in the extensive notes and references section of the book, in case anyone is interested.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Here's the link about Venezuela and oil.
Here's the link about the current state of Latin America.
And finally, here's the one about Brazil and China.
Finally, here's my favorite quote from this article on different views on Bushes visit:
"What has President Bush done for Latin America in the past six years? Let's see. He accepted the overthrowing of an elected government in Venezuela - the US was the only country in the hemisphere to do so, and then looked ridiculous when Chavez regained power. He is building a fence with Mexico. He keeps an illegal embargo on Cuba. He supports a government in Colombia that has alleged links to paramilitary groups. On and on we can go. We are poor in Latin America, but wise enough to know that this US president is no friend of ours."
Agustin Yerovi, Montevideo, Uruguay

Things That Make You Go "Hmm"

I found this in a friend of a friend of a friend's blog and thought it was interesting, so I followed a few links and eventually got to this story. It's about a professor and his research discovering that Americans are overwhelming ignorant when it comes to religions. I liked what he had to say, even if the article wasn't especially informative or well written. I very much agree with his opinion that educated people (i.e. college graduates) should have some kind of basic understanding of world religion. I don't understand how or why we separate out such an important aspect of history of culture. Everyone has to study history and math and science. Why not religion to? Being more educated and informed about an issue that fuels world events certainly isn't going to hurt anybody. Try the quiz to test your own knowledge and see what you could do some reading on. Click here to start!