Wing a Prayer Continued...

Ironically enough, just a few days after I wrote about Alaska Airline's prayer cards (see "Wing & a Prayer" blog post) Alaska has announced that they're stopping this tradition: article here. 

As a Gold member, my husband Todd received a personal email about this yesterday and sent a response back sharing our disappointment.  It'd make sense to redesign the cards to be more inclusive of other religions and beliefs, but it's unfortunate that the complaints of passengers means getting rid of them completely.  

In his email back to Bill Ayers, Todd references an article by Charles Murray titled “The New American Divide” (see article here).  He writes, "It’s a long article that on the surface seems to indicate Murray’s just talking about the growing wealth/health divide.  But there’s a powerful message about what makes life valuable and why there’s a more important divide based on principles.  It talks about reinforcing those values and not backing away from them to avoid offending people.  And he views those at the top of the pyramid as having a duty to stand up for the right principles, even in the face of criticism."

At this point, it probably feels like I'm beating a dead horse here.  But I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately about how it's more important to stand up for what you believe in than to go around passively agreeing with everyone to maintain the peace and status quo.  Obviously this means facing the possibility of losing friendships and creating conflict, but I hope that those who know me will understand or at least respect the words that I share.    

Thanks for reading!  And feel free to comment below on your thoughts/beliefs on this matter too! :)

Mexican Meatball Stew

This is Winter's one grocery store, Lorenzo's Market, where I do my weekly grocery shopping. It's pretty small inside, but usually has what I need, and even sells local organic fruits and vegetables which are delicious! 

Yesterday I bought my ingredients here for a Mexican Meatball Stew which I cooked in our crock pot. This recipe came from the "Skinny Slow Cooker" magazine, and each serving only has 287 calories! It actually turned out pretty good, and I liked the fact that it only has 5 ingredients. :) 

2 14.5 oz. cans Mexican style stewed tomatoes, undrained

2 12 oz. packages (24 total) frozen cooked Italian-style turkey meatballs, thawed

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 14.5 oz. can seasoned chicken broth with roasted garlic

1 10 oz. package frozen whole kernal corn, thawed

1) Combine all ingredients in a 4-5 quart slow cooker.

2) Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours or high heat for 3-3 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!

Wing and a Prayer

This is the lovely little breakfast I enjoy most Monday mornings flying to California with my hubby - a bowl of granola cereal with fruit and juice.  Since we are frequent fliers with Alaska, we are regularly getting upgraded for free now to first class - yippee! Definitely makes the travel that much easier.  

Anyways, you might also notice the small piece of blue paper on the bottom left of my meal tray: a little prayer card which is handed out with all of Alaska Airlines meals. This one says: "I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name O most high. Psalm 9:2" I don't know why they hand these out, but they bring a little smile to my face and a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart.  

However, I did want to research this a bit to understand exactly how and why this tradition was started. I tried Googling "why Alaska Airlines hands out prayer cards" and one of the top search results was a new blog I've been following, The Everywhereist. This lady's site is actually quite similar to my blog: a fellow Seattle-ite who leaves her job to travel with her husband, and document her adventures in the process.  

So I click on her link, which leads to me this article where she GOES OFF on these prayer cards!! This small piece of paper clearly got this woman's panties in a MAJOR twist!!   She shares about how she wrote a complaint letter to Alaska, and spouted off ideas of using that space on the meal tray for wet-wipes instead so that "like good old J.C., helps reduce chance of spreading leprosy to your fellow passengers." Wow.  I think she's clearly missing the point here...

She did however share that Alaska wrote her a letter saying that the prayer cards have been a tradition for the past 20 years, and that "An overwhelming majority of our customers have indicated they appreciate the gesture, and those who don’t are not forced to read it."

Count me in as one who appreciates the gesture! :)

Tiki for Two

Yesterday's Chicken Tiki Masala recipe was awesome (see link in previous post for recipe)! I used these adorable measuring spoons / tiny shovels that my friend Millayna gave me to measure out the different aromatic spices.  I might have to use this website more for recipe ideas, it's nice that you can find recipes geared to just two people so I don't make too much and waste food.  If there are other good 2-person recipe sites, please let me know! Just comment below. :)

Some of you might be thinking, wow, two posts in two days! That's a lot for Emily! Yes, this is true, I've been averaging about one post per week and I'm really trying to up that a bit more. Unfortunately sometimes I feel like my days aren't exciting enough to really share any cool stories. But I always carry my camera with me in case something pretty pops up. 

Have a great day everyone! 

Winter in Winters

Here's a cool geometric pic of some local rice fields that Todd took from the airplane last week. Yes, airplane photography is our new specialty. :)  

We got out of Seattle this week just in time to miss the "big snowstorm". So we're enjoying the cold but sunny weather here in Winters.  I think the farmers must be burning debris from their nut trees because the air smells like roasted peanut butter - yummy.  It's pretty cool to see all of the trees down here - their branches are clear of leaves so you can see the huge hawks that sit near the top of them hunting for prey. 

I've still been cooking a lot of new homemade dishes, but nothing worthy of the blog lately. Tonight I'm trying Chicken Tiki Masala from a healthy website: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/quick_chicken_tikka_masala_for_2.html. I'll let you know how it turns out!