I hate being in my apartment alone. Every creak of the floorboards or slam of the front door sends me scurrying to the kitchen for some sort of self-defense weapon. And don’t even get me started on having to kill bugs. So, when I moved back after winter break nearly a week before my roommate, I had to find ways to keep myself occupied. Otherwise, my imagination would run wild, turning the snowman across the street into a lurking kidnapper with a propensity for unsuspecting five-foot-tall girls.
We’ve all been there — you’ve tried every love potion on the market (even your mother-in-law’s horrifying concoction of Mountain Dew and toad legs), and none seem to bring back the spark that you and your Valentine found back in 1252. Things were going great: You spent your days terrorizing the locals with blasphemous femininist ideology while your Valentine tended to the fields. Though your relationship was largely peaceful, you went through the occasional rough patch. Luckily, any lover’s spat could be quickly solved with a trip to Eros’ temple, where he graciously offered free couples counseling and a warm cup of spiced wine.
But those were the old days; ever since he started working at that TJ Maxx on 5th Avenue to pay his rent, Eros has simply had no time for any of his loyal customers anymore. What’s a gal got to do to spice up her relationship these days?
In primary school, we learned that pollinators jump from flower to flower and help plants reproduce, giving us a myriad of vegetables, flowers and fruits. We learned that a pollinator can be a bee, a butterfly, a bat, a bird or plenty of other tiny creatures. Then, at some point in middle school, we learned that at the end of last century, agriculture started to turn towards pesticides and pollinators began to disappear. But now, in university, we don’t have to learn about bugs anymore. Unless we are entomology or environmental science majors, insects are the last thing we think about and their extinction is something to which we shrug, or even applaud.
Even though primary school tried to teach us the importance of every species in the food chain, adulthood seems to suggest otherwise.
For Cornell students, tomorrow marks the official beginning of finals. It’s the last push before our well-deserved winter break, and the stress is certainly piling on. With so much to balance between long study sessions and three hour exams, it’s easy for us to ignore our health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, many of us make the critical mistake of not realizing that success during finals week is a result of how we treat ourselves. Finding time to plan meals and not depending on six cups of coffee a day might be difficult, but now is the most important time to prioritize your health.
Our diet is the basis for our body’s ability to function properly.
Normally when people write articles about their cooking experiences, there’s always a picture attached of the dish they made. Have you ever wondered why there are never food pictures in my articles? It’s because nothing ever looks good. I don’t know if it’s my inability to plate food or my lack of understanding regarding “angles” and “lighting,” but no matter what color the dish is, it always looks brown and sad on camera. I’m not a very aesthetically pleasing cook.
With fall coming to a quick close and snow flurries blanketing campus, winter has finally arrived. If you are like me, you have already begun preparing for an annual hibernation, stocking up on Swiss Miss and holiday cheer. Along with us are the unsung heroes of our global food and environmental sustainability: the honey bees. Every winter, honey bee colonies prepare for the cold by forming tight clusters within the hive and slowly eating away the honey they worked so hard to produce all year long. Beekeepers find themselves busy insulating the hives and, most importantly, harvesting the excess honey from the fall flower blooms.
The process of harvesting honey is a simple, yet fascinating one.
Humans have a long and complicated history with gluten. Celiac disease was first described in 1888 and identified as early as the 1000 CE. Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where gluten causes an immune inflammation in the small intestine, leading to discomfort. Celiacs need to completely and permanently avoid any form of gluten in their diets. Though not incredibly common, people have paid a lot of attention to this gluten-free lifestyle.
Normally, I’ll cook one stand-alone recipe or two dishes that go together every week. But this week I was feeling very productive and made two completely separate dishes — one sweet and one savory. For my sweet dinner, I made Cottage Cheese Apple Pancakes, and for my savory dinner, I made Spanish Couscous Paella. Please do not eat these together. I am a proud card-carrying member of the Breakfast Club.
On Nov. 19, 2020, Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., cosponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Md., and Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act. This ambituous legislation aims to “address the history of discrimination against Black farmers” and to “prevent future discrimination” within the United States Department of Agriculture, among other objectives. The act has since been endorsed by over 100 organizations, including the National Farmers Union, a century-old union of over 200,000 family farms, and Soul Fire Farm Inc., a New York farm at the focal point of the food sovereignty and justice movement.
The legislation has five distinct titles, arguing for broad civil rights reform within the USDA, the establishment of a land grant program, increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities, sweeping credit assistance and land retention programs and systemic agricultural reforms that prioritize socially disadvantaged farmers. Title II, Section 203 of the Justice for Black Farmers Act has perhaps the most immediate implications for not just Black farmers, but any eligible Black individual across the country.
Returning home after this semester was a bittersweet experience. I was sad to leave the friends and university that COVID-19 has shown I value so much, but seeing my family and having a real bagel lessened that sadness. As I have mentioned before, I have a slight personal vendetta against Collegetown Bagels, and as I spent time away from home I started to have doubts about how harsh I was to the famed establishment. While many agreed with me, others brought up well framed arguments in defense of CTB and made me have a minor crisis of faith. When I came home to New Jersey at the end of the in-person semester, I realized that I had never been more correct in my life.
There are few breakfast foods in life that are as versatile, sustaining and simple as the humble breakfast sandwich.
