The Midwest Dream

If you could make the world a better place, how would you do so. This is a question I looked towards during my class, Endurance. In this class, students studied explorers around the world, understanding their impact in history, and how their discovery lead to saving several lives. Students also explored hardships of people who survived tragic events, such as the Holocaust or being stranded in the middle of the poles. What students did for an assignment was to make predictions about their future lives and what they would do to make the world a better place. In my future, I want to give job training to teenagers in Visual Effects or animation.

This semester was different because of the COVD-19,  and students were forced to stay inside. This meant students couldn't explore their surroundings and didn't have resources that they had in school. The class was all online and communication towards feedback was done through Google Hangouts or Doc comments. It isn't sure what the future will be for the school, but students will see homework differently due to the isolation.

Food Work Isolation

What to do when your stuck at home. That's something I've been working on for sometime and found several ways to keep myself occupied. This includes doing artwork, doing homework, and cleaning the house. But what I'm doing as a new activity is cooking with my grandmother as she teaches me how to make traditional Colombian meals. For Wellness credits, my grandmother helped me make such dishes as rice, beans, omelets, arrepas, tortas, and soup. I also learned how to keep the kitchen clean, how to cut and cook certain meats, and how to use food when there is a shortage.

JN "Empandas" own work, 2020

For the past few weeks, I learned how to make Empanadas, or a chicken/steak pie. It is made throughout all over South America, but I focused on how to make it the Colombian way. Here are the steps to making the Empanada.

The ingredients are corn flour, all purpose flour, cilantro, Sazon Goya food spices, 2 eggs, chicken, a potato, rosemary, garlic, onions, oil. Panela (spanish sugar cube)

1. Get 2 cups of water and heat it with the Sazon Goya, Panela and the cilantro. At the same time, Lightly oil a pan and cut off the fat from the chicken( 1/3 a pound).
2. Once done with cutting fat, put the chicken in cooking, and t mash the garlic and rosemary together (along with some salt) in a separate container. Fling it on the cooking chicken and use water to get the remainder off. Put a top on the pan with the cooking chicken.
3. Take the first egg and boil in water with potato. Get 1 cup on all purpuse flour and and 2 1/2 cups of corn flour. Mash it with the second egg and slowly pour the cooked cilantro water into the mix. Keep mixing until you can round the mix in a dough ball.
4. After 20 minutes, with turning the chicken around the pot to cook, the chicken will be done.Use two forces and tear the chicken into string. Once done, cut up the boiling egg and leave the potato for more boiling. Once the potato is done, take the skin off and mash it. Mix the potato, chicken, and, egg into a bowl.
5. Cut half a onion into small pieces and cook it for four minutes to take away the acidity. Put onion  into mix.
6. Take the onion pan and heavy it with oil. Take a plastic sandwich bag, cut open two new sides, and roll out the dough in small balls. Flatten the dough balls with a pizza roller with the bag and then put the chicken mix on one car side. Use the bag to make the dough cover the mix.
7. Take a bowl and make a shape out of edges of the Empanda. Close the dough with your fingers and let it fry with the heated oil on the pan. Cook on medium heat until the empanada is a golden brown. Repeat until all dough and chicken mix is done.