EEEtheWorld

In life there are moments that you do not understand; And in life there are moments that you do.

It’s all a balance.

Like a wave washing you a new, something happens in your life, and what you could not justify or reason before, suddenly makes sense and becomes shockingly clear. The seething hurt or loss you experienced, in retrospect, is now commensurate with understanding. In this clarifying culmination of events you realize that all the heartbreak is worth it; death and disaster part of this wave of life. For without that past darkness, the light now shining in front of you would not be so blazingly bright and beautiful.

Time is an outrageous perspective getter.

Love is a magical healer.

Words cannot express how peaceful, and proud, and grateful, and exhilarated I feel about exactly where I am at in my life, and where I am going.

Denver is miraculous, and so many pieces of the puzzle just fit in place here.

I signed a lease on this "KoKopelli Kottage" just blocks away from DU and a big yard for Dil.

I will be living with a young woman in the Korbel program with me, who is brilliant and easygoing, and her favorite band is my favorite band (Paperbird :), and I am hopeful the beginning of a lifelong friendship has commenced.

And I sat around our AirBNB porch upon arrival surrounded by old friends, drinking beer, laughing and smiling at the promise of what the future  holds.

And I galavanted through Wash Park overjoyed at how quickly two old pals can reconnect.

And I marched around campus like I was 19 again.

And I hiked the flat-irons overlooking nature’s magnificence.

And I congratulated a dear friend and old colleague now living in Boulder for being recruited by FB.

And I partied with my Bro. And I networked with my Mom.

And I chatted with two cool dudes the entire plane ride home.

I AM INVIGORATED!!!

I am so grateful for everything in my life that has lead up to me being here! I am so thankful to be supported by so many inspiring and loving family, friends, and mentors.

Denver here I come. La vie est belle!

I am going embrace these good vibes, and ride this wave with a smile and lots of enthusiasm as long as i can

EEEEEEEE

<3Hallie

1 year ago today I buckled myself into my flight to Bangkok.

I traveled from Chicago, Ohare Intl –>Naratia, Japan –> Bangkok, Thailand –> Chiang Rai, Thailand (OCT/NOV) –>Hong Kong (1 week DEC) –> Bali (1 week DEC) –> Back to Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand with the fam –(2 weeks DEC) –> Home (Wisconsin JAN) for Xmas and to finish applying to Grad School –>Back through Bangkok (FEB 24 hrs) –> Pakse, Laos ( FEB jungle trek for 1 week) –> Vientienne, Laos –> Hanoi, Vietnam (FEB1 week)–> HaLong Bay, Vietnam (FEB3 days) –>Phnom Penh, Cambodia (MARCH3 weeks) –> SIem Reap, Cambodia (MARCH 1 week) –>Siahnoukville &  Koh Rong, Cambodia (MARCH 3 days and not enough time!!) –> Krabi Thailand and Railey Beach & a couple "KOH’s" (islands)!! (MARCH 5 more days cuz I can never get enough of Thailand)–> Through Malaysia airport–> Singapore, Singapore ( MARCH 2 days) –> New Dehli, India –> Rishikesh, India (APRIL 1 month @ vinyasa yoga school) –> Kathmandu, Nepal (earthquake survivor) (MAY 1 week)–> Pokhara, Nepal (earthquake disaster relief) (MAY 4 days)–> Home sweet home.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with friends in Chicago, (MAY) Indianapolis (JUNE), and Evansville (JULY).

One of my favorite trips was the 10 hour drive from Mke, WI to Midway, KY where the LFA Headquarters is (JULY). The southern hospitality here is alive and well. I could not be more grateful to work towards the mission of advocating for local food enterprises.

But most of the summer was spent between Mequon, WI and Elkorn, WI (The Lake!) Home sweet Home to settle in with Dil the Pup.. Run by the river, or jump off the dock!

In AUG, I had the pleasure of driving across country with my parents and 2 dogs to start my new chapter in Denver, CO.

We stopped just outside of Des Moines, Iowa and a small mining town 2 hours east of Denver called (??). Traveling to my new home, across the US was extraordinary!

Now in Denver, CO, where I have settled just south of DU’s campus in the cutest Kokopelli Kottage ever, I am enjoying getting to know my neighborhood and surrounding hoods (Cap Hill, LoDo, Highlands, Union Station, Cherry Creek) and Boulder and THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS!!! Rocky Mountain High is Real!

Incontestably the past year is the most traveled and transformative 365 days of my life.The marvelous aspect is the adventure does not stop if you commit to a lifetime of open mindedness, empathy, and learning.

"EEE" Everyday.

The connections I’ve made with citizens across our globe are completely relevant to my physical, spiritual, mental and educational well being.

Now, as a Master’s Candidate at DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies  in international development concentrating on global health and food security, I am embarking on a lifelong journey to make a career out of the compassion I lived everyday on the road.

If you’re thinking about letting go. LET GO.

LET IT BE LET IT GO!

Let go of security

Volunteer abroad

Immerse yourself out of your comfort zone

Experience perspectives from the opposite side of the planet

Never take for granted the support system back home

Believe in yourself

Accept that everything may happen for a reason- but you have to figure out what that reason is for yourself

PICS COMING SOON!

Reflecting is a therapeutic process to ensure growth. Where have you been? Who were you with? What did you learn? Why was the moment significant to your life path? How does this experience impact your past, present, and future?

Here is a look at 2015 Month by Month…

JANUARY

The icy winter wonderland of home sweet home Wisconsin and Illinois and Indiana was a harsh change from the sunshine and humidity of the mountains I’d been trekking through and the Seas I’d been swimming in Thailand. But climate does not matter when you are surrounded by people you love. World travels puts that into perspective quickly, so I made the most of my month home by spending it with People I love!

Molly Roloff: NYE SNL Theme Party with her awesome homies in West Bend, WI)

Mom & Dad: Ice Skating at the Lakehouse in Elkhorn, WI and participating in the World’s Snow Sculpture Contest in Lake Geneva, WI

Nana: This brilliant 93 year old woman keeps inspiring me everyday and lives vicariously through my travels- I got my wanderlust from her!

The Rohrs: Amanda and Brian are best friends from college (Go Hoosiers!) and it is exciting to see Brooks exploring and settling into their new home in Downer’s Grove, IL.

The Indy Crew: Krista Robinson and Caroline Eaton. We had fun celebrating Brigg’s 3rd Bday with Lottie- It is incredible how fast these tots are growing up! in Brownsburg, IN.

The Homies: KK, KT, Sarah, & Gina all make me feel at home in Milwaukee.

Buggy: My Sissy let me crash at her cozy studio and she is cooking proof that a good chef can make delicious creations no matter the size of the kitchen!

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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…and it’s going to change everyday. In the past, I’ve been overly concerned about having a perfect theme for this blog paired with perfect posts.

I’ve had so many ideas floating through my head that never come to fruition on this keyboard due to my fear of the literature not being just right.

Well 2016 is the year of mistakes… that is right… I am not afraid to just go for it. Trial and error = progress.

There are so many quotes that run through my head coinciding with this theme like Thomas Edison’s 100 or so attempts at creating the lightbulb and Michael Jordan not making his high school basketball team. A mentor of mine and past executive at SB, John Stoiber, runs a blog titled King of Failure "Failure is a moment – Success is a Lifetime". That’s what I am going for. You get this gist? Mark Cuban even declares that no one will remember your failures as soon as you achieve success.

And what does success look like for EEEtheWorld this year? Consistent writing. Period.

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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Props to organizations like FOCUS for paving their way innovatively in the complicated school lunch system. Keep up your hard work!

http://news.sys-con.com/node/3672393

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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Guest post by Andre Roux, Director of 25 Farms, My CSA go to and Chef of Hunger, Faith & Food Conference…

Hot off the heels of the Hunger Faith and Food Conference.  Well, the conference was a success! In partnering with about a dozen non-profit organizations around Denver, we were able to make a meal for about 200 people. The only problem we ran into was that the biggest storm in a decade hit Denver and the city basically shut down. That put a damper on things. We still had about 100 people in attendance, but the meal moved forward nonetheless. Above, are two pictures from the event taken by someone with a cellphone (weather prevented the professional photographed from showing up). The pictures and the plating aren’t great, but I’m confident we had the busiest lunch in Denver that day, so I won’t complain.   Both meals are made from rice and beans and the same base ingredients, but are radically different from one another. The basic meal is a SNAP benefit meal of rice and beans with commonly available condiments (a Have-Not meal). The other meal (a Have’s Meal) is a rice flour ravioli, stuffed with fermented black beans, creamy risotto cooked in a vegetable stock, smoked shiitake mushrooms, served with a sundried tomato mousse, and tomato-infused pepper oils. Again, the ingredients were almost identical for each meal, but we wanted to show-taste-touch-smell-swallow, the difference that access to resources makes in the lives of those who live in poverty and those who do not.  Food is a very powerful communicator. How we eat can say more about how we live than what jobs we have, cars we drive, and friends we keep. For some of us, our eating habits can compete with our closest family and friends in describing who we are; the grab-and-go foods, the midnight-fridge-raids, family dinner nights, comfort food, and the junk food dancing in our mouths like nobody is watching! All of these are just a few ways food betrays our deepest intimacies and relationships with the outside world. Tell me HOW a person eats for 25 days, and I’ll show you everything you would want to know about that person. Our identities are right there in front of our noses: income levels, world location, education, job type, stress-level, free-time, family-time, food allergies, I can go on for a while and I bet you could too. There was a study a while back that demonstrated a correlation between people who parked by reversing into the parking space and people who were successful in life. Reverse-parkers demonstrate a higher than average ability to delay gratification and therefore are on average more successful in life.  Just imagine what your food says about your ability to delay gratification and be successful.  In a country struggling with an obesity epidemic, food is the biggest struggle we face with self-control while at the same time also the most masked systemic exploitation of eaters by corporations providing low-cost unhealthy food to the public and then claiming it’s just the public’s responsibility and lack of self-control that leads to obesity. These two pictures encapsulate food for me and express the tensions of it. While I’m not aiming for an art project here (some James Franco thing), I feel this tension in a food system that is both broken and beautiful, and cannot genuinely do one without exposing the other. It is the Ugh and Mhmm of Food. Jekyll and Hyde on a plate.  In closing, I ask: What does the food of 25 Farms say about our daily lives? Our value of living wages? Of healthy eating? Of convenience? Of relationships?  André

IN YOUR DELIVERY THIS WEEK! From The GrowHaus: Butter Lettuce Kale Greenstar Lettuce From Colorado Aquaponics: Tatsoi Rainbow Chard Mint Romaine Lettuce

WHAT’S COOKING? Here’s what every salad needs: Vegetables [Greens/Raw/Grilled/Roasted/Pickled] + Dressing [Vinaigrette/Creamy] + Crunchies [Seeds/Nuts/Croutons/Granola] + Optional Protein [Meat/Cheese/More Cheese] + Optional Extras [Herbs/Fruit/Grains/Etc.] = Salad! Is Summer Squash Slaw a salad? You bet it is. Photo: Christina Holmes The Veg Look, it’s a salad. You’re going to need to put some veggies in there.  Choose at least one, or as many as you want: Greens: Raw greens are what most people think when they hear the word “salad.” And with good reason: Most greens are better eaten fresh. Choose tender lettuce leaves and greens, like spinach, Bibb or Little Gem, for more delicate salads; spicy or bitter greens, like arugula, dandelion greens, or chicory, for bossy vinaigrettes; or sturdy greens, like thinly sliced kale, for marinated and massaged salads. Raw: Lettuce and greens aren’t the only ones who can go raw. Try using a vegetable peeler to make fibrous veggies more palatable (looking at you, asparagus). For crunchy vegetables, like kohlrabi, just chop them into bite-size pieces and throw them in. For usually-cooked vegetables, like beetsand squash, either slice them very thinly or grate them to make them easier to digest.  Grilled: Grilling vegetables like alliums, squash, eggplant, and more, adds smokiness and, depending on how aggressive you get, a nice char. If you can dream it, you can grill it (yep, even greens)—so provided your Weber is at the ready, feel free to toss those veggies on the barbie. Roasted: And, as the saying goes: If you can grill it, you can roast it. At least, it’s a saying now. Go easy on the oil, so your vegetables aren’t weighted down with grease. Pickled: Pickled vegetables add a funky, fermented note, and bump up the flavor in a big way. Combine them with raw vegetables or greens for a one-two punch; they’re a bit too intense to make up an entire salad. Grilled veg, a bracing vinaigrette, crunchy nuts, and fresh herbs? Yep, it’s a salad. Photo: Ryan Liebe The Dressing Without a dressing, your salad is just a sad bowl of vegetables.  Choose one Vinaigrette: A classic vinaigrette is made with fat and acid; traditionally, olive oil and either vinegar or lemon juice. But these days, you can get crazy with your vinaigrettes. Feel free to add warm bacon fat (it will solidify at room temperature), or experiment with a variety of vinegars and citrus juices. Thick and Creamy: Hearty salads with big flavors can stand up to creamy, rich dressings like ranch or buttermilk. Not sure what dressing your salad can handle? This guide breaks it down. Spicy seed brittle takes this collard greens salad to the next level. Photo: Nicole Franzen The Crunchies Having something to really sink your teeth into makes any salad feel more satisfying. Choose at lease one, or as many as you want: Seeds: Some of our favorite options: Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds (go easy on ’em; too many can taste fishy), sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. Nuts: Toast them first to bring out their flavor, and chop them for easier bites. Croutons: We like homemade. Use any old loaf you have on hand. Or, pita bread! Savory Granola: We always keep a batch of this close-by. Cayenne and fennel makes it savory. Chicken! Bulgur! Pistachios! This salad has a little bit of everything—and not too much of anything. Photo: Peden + Munk The Optionals You could certainly stop there. But why not make it a meal? Choose as many as you want. Fresh herbs: Add big handfuls of tender and soft herbs, like mint, parsley, cilantro, and basil. These work better with lighter vinaigrettes than thick dressings. Fruit: Think beyond the berry. If it’s ripe and ready, why not? Choose fruits that are complementary in flavor to the rest of your ingredients. Yes, avocado counts. Equally tasty: dried fruit, like raisins, dried cranberries, or dehydrated apple.  Protein: Cold leftover roasted chicken, hot and crispy ground lamb, poached eggs, basically any cheese ever… a little protein goes a long way when it comes to rounding out a salad. But let the vegetables be the star; there’s a time and a place for an ax-handle steak, and it’s not on your kale. Grains & Carbs: The easiest way to bulk up a salad is with a small addition of cooked grains, like quinoa, bulgur, couscous, barley, farro, wheat berries…you get the picture. Be mindful that the grains will soak up more dressing than the veg, so adjust accordingly. Originally written by Rochelle Billow, published at Bon Appetit: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/how-to-make-a-perfect-salad

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world!View all posts by HallieLou

Check out several of my travel diary posts that never made it to EEEtheWorld but are now available for your reading pleasure at EEEtheWorld.postach.io

Some are quite personal and unedited.

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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This article is a culmination of all I am learning in my international development program, all I have experienced in my travels, all my motivation for Food System Change! Listen America. Kudos to Civil Eats, Author Jenifer Lentfer, and Yonas Yimer for your leadership in food sovereignty and spreading the word.

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

What’s your spirit vegetable?Take this quiz to find out! I’m very excited that my purple kohlrabis turned out so well!! Time to cook em up:https://www.thekitchn.com/5-tasty-ways-to-prepare-kohlrabi-60321

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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