Last updated by at .
If you’re like me, you love dishes and recipes that incorporate interesting ingredients {like sunchokes} or creative displays {do you see that cupcake baked in an empty eggshell in the picture below?!}
{Click on the image below to be taken to my “Creative Foods” board on Pinterest}
What’s the coolest, most creative food arrangement you’ve seen?!
—————-
This Day Last Year: Divine Secrets of The Roman/Prater Sisterhood
Survey says….
Ever had one of those “Hahaha….but seriously” moments? Well, here you go! As I was checking in to Humble Pie at brunch the other day, my friends and I started brainstorming places where FourSquare should probably not be used.
Top 10 Places An Unmarried Young Woman Should Never Check In on FourSquare
We came up with most of the list but I had a little extra help from here (the asterisked ones)!
Haha, young social media addicts- take note!
—
This Day Last Year: Ahh my aptly named post Best Meal of My Life. Now I just need to buy a gluten-free spinach ricotta ravioli, like this.
I just saw the following status update on one of my friends’ Faceook page:
Thank you Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri, which are the first states that will require drug testing when applying for welfare. Some people are crying and calling this unconstitutional. How is this unconstitutional? It’s OK to drug test people who work for their money, but not for those who don’t?
This makes me think of the ban on using food stamps to buy soda, which I wrote about here.
What do you think? Do you think random drug testing will actually curb drug use? And do you think this policy is meant to demean welfare users, like they say here?
Some other good articles to read: here, here, here, and here.
It’s interesting for me to look at which blog posts of mine get the most traffic vs which ones are my favorite. There is some overlap between the two. Part of my mission with this post is to bring to light some of my poor neglected posts that I think deserve a spotlight! I put my favorites in bold and added a few others below.
Some of my top posts (in order):
Some of my other favorite posts:
I have to write a blog post about this because my sister is sick of hearing me talk about it (seriously, just ask her).
Dear Starbucks Corporate (Panera Corporate- please take note):
I love you. You know I do. But I have to bring this up because it’s really bothering me.
I co-own a business. It is legally set up as an LLC but I wholeheartedly believe that it contributes social value to the Raleigh community. There is no doubt it that provides economic value as well: through taxes, as well as the fact that it provides a place for small business owners to grow their businesses so that they, in turn, can provide value to the community.
You may wonder where I’m going with this seemingly obvious clarification.
Could we have been set up as a 501c3? Absolutely. Some coworking spaces are. We chose not to be. Not because we are profit-mongering bloodsuckers, but because it was the right decision for us. If we were a non-profit, would we have been paid a salary? Yes. Would our fundamental model have changed? Almost certainly not. We would still have charged the exact same fees-for-service in order to pay said salary in order to continue building our coworking space in order to continue adding social value to the community. 501c3 or not, they would have been the same fees because our expenses are the same.
So why can’t I hang a flyer on your community board?
If you stand by your decision to only support non-profits, help me clarify another issue I have. Upon seeking clarification of your flyer-hanging policy, I was told by one of your employees that I could only hang a flyer for something where there was no charge.
Wait a minute. Do I have to be a non-profit or do I have to be offering free products and services? These are not the same.
Yes, non-profits often offer things for free. But non-profits also often charge for their products and services. They have earned income streams. They charge fees-for-services. They sell tickets to galas, block parties, and fashion shows. VisionSpring sells eyeglasses. The SPCA sells items emblazoned with the SPCA logo.
And yes, businesses generally charge for things. But they also often offer free things. They offer happy hours, seminars, and workshops. The Raleigh Forum occasionally hosts free events, like our upcoming Design Mixer with AIGA.
I appreciate your willingness to support social causes (no sarcasm there). I really do. But as the lines between business and non-profit blur, I urge you to reconsider your policy. But most of all, I urge you to encourage your employees to understand the intricacies of tax designations before making flawed arguments.
Sincerely,
Cristina (The Girl Who Single-Handledly Keeps You In Business By Buying Soy Mistos)
</soapbox>
Do you have a different opinion or think MY argument is flawed? Let me know! I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on this issue (I’m looking at you, Matt, Sarah, Peter, and Elizabeth!).
Edited: my friend sent me this article, which details Starbucks’ commitment provide loans to small business owners. I thought it was very relevant to the discussion!
Edited: I submitted an edited version of this letter on the Starbucks website and got what may or may not be a form email promising to pass it on to corporate. I then posted it on My Starbucks Idea, which seems to be a pretty democratic way of suggesting changes to Starbucks. Feel free to thumbs up my post 
Clearly I feel very inflamed about this issue, mostly because I see it as symbolic of the continuous divide between business and non-profit.
Here are some funny, intriguing, and creative top 10 lists to start your weekend off on a good note:
10 Words for Intriguing Concepts via Merriam Webster
10 Insights on Rethinking Work via The99Percent.com
10 Things to Add to Your Bucket List via Mainstreet.com
The 10 Hottest Jewish Women Drake Can Take Home To His Momma via Bossip.com {wish I was on that list, he’s my favorite rapper}
I just found this gchat with a friend from 2 years ago:
I heard on the radio this morning that today is Do Something Nice Day. While I always try to be nice (as I hope you do!), it’s nice to have a reminder every once in awhile to step outside of ourselves and make a conscious effort to improve someone else’s day.
Some ideas I have (some of which I found here):
The last point brings me to an email I received recently from a friend.
On Friday night, a group of us went to ComedyWorx for the late night improv show. It was soo much fun and a great way to get out without doing the typical bar hopping night. We grabbed a super healthy dinner of fries and burgers at Mo Joes and then headed to the show and grabbed a few beers at the bar there. It was a super fun audience- when they asked for adjectives we heard “juicy,” “raunchy,” and “silly,” along with several less blog appropriate ones Definitely our type of crowd haha.
Yesterday I went over to Durham to chat with the Compass Fellows mentors at Duke. It is a fun, inspiring group of five upperclassmen who will guide fifteen incoming freshmen in a social entrepreneurship fellowship over the next year.
It was awesome to be able to share what I learned as a founding mentor at GWU; I had a lot to share, both from my successes and my mistakes. I hope that hearing from me was beneficial for them! I also extended an invite to The Raleigh Forum to them and their fellows. I thought it would be useful to chat with me and my sister, since we just went through the entire process of starting a business- from generating an idea to forming an LLC to finding an accountant to opening the business (well, almost- September 1!)/
But one of the coolest parts of the day was our “taste tripping” party. Trust me, it sounds much more illicit than it is You pop an mberry pill into your mouth, let it dissolve, and then sample an array of bitter and sour foods. It “magically” transforms the flavors to sweet and sugary! A lemon suddenly tastes like lemonade and you can bite into one without cringing. Gotta say though, radishes tasted like radishes and balsamic vinegar tasted like balsamic vinegar. But interestingly enough, a lemon dipped into soy sauce tastes oddly good.
But, as one blogger eloquently said, “Honestly, if Tabasco tastes like hot donut glaze, I think you may be tripping on something else.” Haha! Though we all (jokingly? not jokingly?) said we felt especially spacey afterwards! The blogger also said the following, which I agree with: “After much discussion, we seemed to agree that despite a few extreme flavor shifts, the Miracle Fruit tablets mainly took the bite/edge/stinkiness (all words used) out of most things, allowing you to taste more complexity in the flavors, or in some cases, just a slightly different flavor.”
So what did I do post-tripping? I went to Harris Teeter and picked up weird ingredients, duh! I grabbed Thai eggplants (very mini!), bitter melon, and sunflower chokes. Stay tuned for recipes!
Raleigh lover, Digital Strategist at CMR Strategies, former Junior Recruiting Coordinator. Obsessed with volunteerism, Twitter, and Starbucks. Love social enterprise, tennis, and cooking. Professional with a goofy streak.
Find out more here.
