Where do they come from?

As stated before, my favorite meal is Ox Tail with Rice and Peas. When it was required of me to research the dish and from whence it originated, I thought "well this is easy. Everyone knows that ox tail can be easily obtained by an ox. After all the name says it all. Ox Tail." But boy was I wrong. When I did infact inquire where it came from, I learnt alot of things that I thought I already knew before.

Before I commence, I have to tell those who do not know that an Ox is really a Cow. As stated from Wikipedia, an ox was reffered only to the tail of an ox otherwise known as a castrated bull. The tail of a cow usually weighs 2 to 4 lbs. After it has been skinned, it is cut into small lengths for sale. Ox tail is a very gummy and bony piece of meat. It generally takes a long time to be cooked, and is also a good stock base for soup.

Ox tail is the main ingredient of the Italian dish "coda alla vaccinara." It is a popular flavour for powder, instant and premade canned soups in the UK and Ireland.

Cite

"OxTail." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 30 October 2007. Wikipedia Foundation. 27 November 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxtail

Rice

There are 8 types of rice that can be eaten. They are wild, acromatic, parboiled, precooked, white, brown, medium and short grain and long grain. What I like to eat is the brown rice. I do eat white rice, but with this particular dish, brown rice is a must. As far as what I know, rice is grown in fields. But after that, I am pretty much left at a halt. According to consumer reports, brown rice is harvested and the unpalatable part of the rice is removed and the rice germ and bran are left, giving color and crunch as well as fat, vitamins, minerals and fiber. When brown rice is boiled, the bran layer protects the underlying white rice, adding approximately 15 to 20 minutes to cooking time.

Cite

"Dishing Rice." ConsumerReports.org. Janurary 2005. Testlabs. 27 November 2007 http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/expired/rice-a-primer-105/overview/index.htm?EXTKEY=SM72FD0&CMP=KNC-CROFOODM&HBX_OU=52&HBX_PK=rice

Going Green

Well i must say that the idea of "going green" in the first part of the semester was a really exciting and awesome thing to me. It was new, and therefore it had to be fun. Now I just get sick and tired of this ( if Professor Smith is reading this, and I know he is, do not pay close attention to the following). When once upon a time you would get an assignment from a teacher to do over the weekend, you would normally do it and hand it in, just like that...well maybe not for every teenager. lol. But now with all the technology that has increased, things are no longer like that. You have a nice weekend awaiting you but because of the fact that you can be sent homework over the internet, it automatically means that you have to continually check your mail whether it be e-mail or netmail, and just in case you forget you are screwed. That really can put a damper on things. Then there are the deadlines. I am from Jamaica and although we have the advantage of computers over there like the rest of the world, you could also say we are very "backward" to say the least. Until I came to this country I have never used a computer before. I mean other than the fact that I would play games on my sister's work computer, I never had access to one. Due to this, I am not very accustomed to going paperless. Paper was all I had at one point. So for me to be doing every thing on this wretched computer that crashes, shut down and malfunctions every chance it gets, I am surprised I have not lost my cool as yet.
Now I know that I am doing this all for a very good cause and I should just suck it up and quit complaining, but let's face it. I am a human and that's how we are. Sacrifice for good is one hell of a thing. It's so easy to do the wrong things that doing right seems so hard. I have however taken my first step toward making my contribution toward society. I have convinced my mom to trade out the other light bulbs for fluorescent bulbs (energy saving), and I am very glad to report that she has fallen in love with them. Not only are they brighter but they are said to cost less than the regular ones. I on't know how much I can do but as my mom normally says "every little counts."

The Museum of Natural History

On Wednesday the 24th of October 2007, myself along with my many classmates went on a small trip to the Museum of Natural History with our Professor Jason Smith. The purpose of this trip was to broaden our knowledge on global warning and to look around and identify varios things mentioned in Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," after which we were expected to elaborate on them. Upon arrival we were placed into groups in which we could work together as a team. It was a really fun and enlightening experience.

In Al Gore's film, he explains many things about greenhouse gases. He tells us what it is and how it functions. If I remember correctly, he uses a cartoon to get his message across. Alot of us were fascinated by this, but how many of us really stopped to think about the point he was trying to make? Greenhouse gases are many chemical compounds found in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. With water vapor, the planet is warm enough to support life over most of it's surface. This helps to make it the most important green house gas ever. That is why without it, the Earth's temperature would be below freezing. Solar radiation warms the Earth's surface. Some portions of the heat is radiated back to the atmosphere where it is trapped by greenhouse gases. My group also learned about the atmospheric layers. They are: thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and trophosphere.

Climate can also be recorded in ice. According tof some information posted at the site underneath the preserved ice, the composition of air bubbles, dust and ice itself are trapped and this records changes in temperature,humidity,atmospheric circulation,volcanic activity,extent of sea ice and even atmospheric pollution by human activity. Ice has numerous components that make it up as stated above. In Al Gore's film, he showed pictures and animations to bring across his meanings. He showed us the climate system and how the sun's rays would bounce off of the ice back into the sky. This would cause the ice to melt faster. But because of all the pollutin that we as human's create, the populaton of ice has begun to deteriorate. Temperature which is the ratio of oxygen isotopes, sea salt which is sodium concentration and dust which has calcium concentration; help scientists notify what year the particular pillar of ice was formed and what temperature it was. ( look above for eg. of pillar of ice) The temperature normally exists at the top of the ice, the sea salt in the middle, and the dust at the bottom. In the core of the ice there is the cold, warm, and the younger dryas period. Whenever there are high levels of sea salt and dust, scientists know that there is the cold period. When the levels are vice versa, the period of time is usually warm.

Nature as Media

Another aspect of our assignment was to find a hall in the museum that dealt with living beings. Out of Spitzer's many hall's of Human Origin, my group members and I (La'Relle and Justin) decided to focus on Vertebrates. Dinosaurs being our main focus. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone and brain case. The first vertebrates to occupy the Earth were fishes. That was approximately 500 years ago. For 150 years they lived in water, then 360 years ago they moved to land. Since then, they have become very diverse. While strolling through the hall, we encountered a documentary film about veretebrates. The 5 minute movie was about how vertebrates came into existence. While viewing this short film, I noticed some artistic proofs of principle being; logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is another name for logic. In the film we heard that in Yucatan, there were tremendous changes in temperature and acid rain begun to fall. The dinosaurs could not adapt to this environment and they all died. However, birds survived. It has been said that birds came from dinosaurs. Dinosaurs had a certain type of hole in their nostril that made them extinct. Birds are said to have this same exact hole in the nostril that dinosaurs had 65 years ago. When my group and I entered the room where the short film was being aired, it was clear to me that ethos was present. The person talking about the animals (speaker) caught my attention as it begun. Her persuasive appeal was amazing. She had a voice that was soothing and tranquil, yet not enough to let one dose off. Along with me, I could see that other individuals caught in her webb. We all practically sat there in ooh's and ahh's as we learnt about dinosaurs. Personally, I was complaining because we were focusing on dinosaurs instead of mammals. But I have to admit that along with the crowd I was mesmerized.

One form of media that I could definately compare to the exhibit we saw was film. There was a whole lot of cinematic effects in there. I saw good use of lighting to help convey a point. I saw different angles, normal angle being the main one. There was a lot of camera movement as well. There was zooming and panning left and right, sometimes when there would be a chart; example of the different types of veretebrates, the camera would move on a crane going back from a close up/medium close up to reveal a long shot. Talking about animals in film is not much different than a film about anything else. Things are usually the same, special effects, you name it. I learnt alot that day. It was truly memorable.

Estimated price range for Ingredients

Price Range


Ox-Tail

1) 2 lbs ox-tail: $12

2) 1 onion: 50 cents

3) 2 tomatoes: 50 cents

4) 1/2 sweet pepper: 10 cents

5) scotch bonnet pepper: 20 cents

6) 2 teaspoon garlic powder: 5 cents

7) food coloring: 60 cents

8) 2 oz olive oil: $1

9) all purpose seasoning: 50 cents

10) thyme and pimento seeds: 10 cents each

11) 2 tablespoon ketchup: 50 cents

12) 1 can butter bean: $1

13) salt: 5 cents

14) 2 tablespoon margarine: 30 cents

Rice and Peas

1) 4 cups of rice: $1.50

2) 1/4 lb red peas: $1

3) 2 tablespoon margarine: 30 cents

4) 1 pack coconut milk: $1

5) garlic: 20 cents

6) scotch bonnet pepper: 20 cents

7) escallion: 10 cents

8) salt: 5 cents

Recipe for my favorite meal (cont'd)

Rice and Peas.

1) 4 cups rice

2) 6 cups of water

3) 1/4 lb peas

4) 2 tablespoon margarine

5) 1 pack of coconut milk

6) garlic

7) scotch bonnet pepper

8) escallion

9) salt

Method

1) Wash peas

2) Throw into pressure cooker with coconut cream and 6 cups of water and cook for about 20 minutes

3) Wash rice and add to pot with peas after it is cooked.

4) Add more water, but just enough to barely cover the rice.


5) Place a whole scotch bonnet pepper into pot along with beaten escallion and margarine.

6) On low heat cook for about 25 minutes. continue to check with fork. no stirring
Serves 4

Recipe for my favorite meal

Rice and Peas with Ox-Tail.

Ingredients

Ox-Tail

1) 2 lbs ox-tail

2) 1 onion

3) 1/2 of a scotch bonnet pepper

4) 2 tomatoes

5) thyme

6) pimeto seeds

7) 2 teaspoon garlic powder

8) food coloring

9) a dash of all purpose seasoning

10) 2 oz of olive oil

11) 2 tablespoon ketchup

12) 1 can butter bean

13) a pinch of salt

14) 2 tablespoon margarine

Method

1) Wash and clean Ox-Tail. make sure all the fatty substances are removed.

2) Cut up the tomatoes, onion, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet pepper and thyme.

3) Add the all purpose seasoning, food coloring, garlic powder and salt.

4) Make sure to blend in these ingredients with the Ox-Tail.

5) Over low heat, place pot over stove and pour in the olive oil. Make sure to use the required amount because the Ox-Tail already contains oil.

6) Add Ox-Tail to pot but not the seasonings. throw water into pot. but not enough to drown the flavor.

7) Cook for about an hour or until meat is tender.

8) When this is done, add the rest of ingredients into pot. Continue to stir.

9) Cook for 5-10 minutes.

Serves 4.

Food Assignment (part 3)

Monday
Monday I left the house hungry. i seem to do that alot lately. Since monday is the shortest day of the week for me it wasn't a big deal. I got up, put my things together for school, had my bath, then rushed out the door to catch the bus. My first and only class for the day was Mass Media with Professor Louis. After class I headed to the cafeteria where i bought a stawberry, banana smoothie. then i headed straight to the trainstation.
When i arrived home, I decided to make myself a sandwich consisting of potato bread, mayonnaise, turkey bologna, ketchup and cheese. yummy! when i was finished, i drank some chocolate tea.
For dinner i ate rice and peas with mixed vegetable and corned beaf. For me, that was the easiest thing to prepare for that evening. I was tired and lazy. lol. after eating, i realised I still wasn't filled completely so i went into the refigerator and took out some strawberries which i ate greedily. lol. A strawberry, kiwi snapple hlped it to go down with much more comfort.

Food Assignment (Part 2)

Sunday
After a very long and stressful night, i got up and decided to have some breakfast. I normally eat cooked banana's with codfish accompanied by a luke warm cup of ginger tea on sunday mornings, but this particular morning my mom did not feel the need to make breakfast. The second best thing I could think of was cereal. So breakfast for me that morning consisted of Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries and milk. I love that cereal more than any other on the planet. There is just something about it that makes you want to eat it every second of every day.
At about mid-day, I went cruising through the kitchen and made myself two (2) hotdogs with ketchup, mustard and relish. When eating something of that nature, I tend to get really, really thirsty so I drank some icy cold Poland Springs water to quench my thirst.
Around three fifteen in the afternoon (3:15 p.m) my mom called me downstairs for dinner. A piping hot plate filled with Rice and peas, brown stew chicken and brockley awaited me. My juice of preference was a strawberry kiwi Snapple. If you haven't noticed by now, I love strawberries. So anything that contains strawberries are very high on my list.
That night, I focused all my attention on Professor Lucca's assignment. I almost killed myself that night after writing his paper and my laptop shut off. As stupid as i could have been, I had not saved my work and I lost everything. To distract myself from doing that paper yet again and not pluck every strand of hair out of my head, I went downstairs, entered the kitchen and ate away my sorrows with a few slices of cake and milk.

My Favorite Dish

After I finished posting what I had eaten on Saturday, I noticed that I wasnt supposed to be giving out the cooking method yet...oops! what I was supposed to do was name the types of food I usually eat and describe my favorite meal in detail. So here goes.
My favorite meal of all time I would have to say is Rice and Peas and Ox Tail. Every time that aroma streams past my nose I get weak. My knees begin to buckle and my tummy gets tied up in knots. I know this might sound a little funny to you, but that is what good food does to a person. I mean if you have never had such an experience when it comes to food, then I have to tell you there is something going seriously wrong in your life. I'm talking about the type of meal that makes your mouth begin to water. A dish that is so well put together that when one begins to look at it, they cant help but want to eat it. Rice piled high on one side of the plate (yup, I do tend to pack a very tight meal) and the beautiful, scrumptious, golden brown Ox tail on the other side, gravy running from side to side, through and through. As a kid growing up I could hardly ever wait for Chrismas, my birthday or any other special event. If when that meal was cooked and Rice and peas and Ox tail was not included, I would often go on a hunger strike. Of course my mom would often scold some sense into me, but eh, what the heck! There has only been one other dish that I have enjoyed as much as this. Steam fish with Jamaican Okra. Now for those who have eaten this dish, you know what I am talking about. The okra steamed in the belly of the fish with all of its tasty, slimy and juicy contents oozing out.
Being a Jamaican, our food is slightly different from the American food. Our rich culture provides us with so many dishes whether African or Indian, and so that helps to make our food so much more diverse as a people living in a small island. I think I am going stop now. Just talking about all this food is making me hungry again.

My Food Assignment 1

I had totally forgotten about my assignment. Eating for three (3) days and taking notes about what you ate and at what time is really frustrating. I mean, come on. When I am hungry and want food, do you really expect me to remember to take notes. Yes, I know that in the previous message i said it would be fun and an exercise that I would reccommend to anyone, but now reality has kicked me in the face. So because of this, I will have to jog my memory and remember my meals for the last three days.
Saturday
I am a Seventh Day Aventist. As a result of this, I attend church every saturday. On this particular saturday however, I had no breakfast. Now dont think I'm saying ths to get out of writing this,but it just so happens to be a bad habit. So in the time i would normally have breakfast I was getting ready for church.
At approximately 1: 45 p.m, i came home and ate lunch. This consisted of dumplings, yam and cabbage. For those of you who do not know this dish and how it is prepared, get a notepad and start writing. First you need to gather these ingredients: flour, cornmeal (optional), yam, salt, cabbage and water.
1. Mix the flour, cornmeal and salt together in a bowl, then throw water into it consisently and knead it until it becomes dough. Then you separate it into several lttle pieces and roll each and every piece into a circle. when this is completed you place it in the palm of your hand and press it down. when it becomes flatter drop it into a pot with boiling hot water to cook.
2. Take the yam and peel off the skin. cut it into several medium sized pieces and also drop into pot.
3. Wash the cabbage. Take off several leaves then begin to chop it up on a cutting board. Cut up tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions and scotch bonnet pepper to taste. Throw all of this into a frying pan with cooking oil, ketchup and salt. then saute. After a while the pot with the cabbage may start to dry out, so throw water in and let it simmer on low fire.
4. By this, the pot with the food would have finished. Turn off the stove and share to your hearts desire. Enjoy

That evening I had no dinner. I was still full from all the food I had eaten earlier. Instead, I drank some milk and decided to do Professor Lucca's homework.