3 Holiday Burglary Prevention Tips

With plenty of holidays coming up, it can indeed be the most wonderful time of the year. However, it can also be a dangerous time, as break-ins are usually on the rise during this season. Read on to learn 3 burglary prevention tips during holidays.

Don’t Advertise
Don’t post your family name on your mailbox or on you house. A burglar can call directory assistance to get your telephone number and call your home while in front of your house to confirm that you are away.
Don’t leave descriptive telephone answering machine messages like, “You’ve reached the Wilson’s…we’re away skiing for the Christmas holidays…please leave a message.” Burglars love to hear that they have plenty of time to break in and completely ransack your home.   Source: Crimedoctor

Check your Security
Heading out of town? Do a security check of your home before you leave? Walk the perimeter, and think like a burglar. Are there any easy points of entry or “welcome” signs for a burglar? Test all windows and doors to make sure they are secure, uncompromised, and locked.
Home automation is a great tool to use when you travel, enabling you to make it look like someone is home. You can use home automation to program lights, your television, or other devices, to come on and off throughout your house. The best part is, if you forget to program the lights before you leave, you can still do it from the road using a smartphone or computer. Source: Alarmrelay

Create the Illusion of Someone Home
Beyond setting your lights on a timer, you can also set the television and radio on a timer to create the typical noise and flickering lights of an average family home at night. But wait, that’s not all! Leave a car in the driveway. Arrange for someone to mow at least once a week (an unruly lawn is as bad as a pile of mail). During the winter, arrange for snow removal in case of a storm (neighborhood kids are great for this, if you get their parents’ word that they’ll remember). If you normally leave toys outside, or keep a hose unrolled, or do anything that shows signs of a home being lived in, don’t tidy up too much before you leave. Source: Safesoundfamily

Contact:
Mr. Locksmith Abbotsford
3275 Boundary Road
Abbotsford, British Columbia V3G 2T7
Canada
Phone: (604) 200-8622

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Chai Waffles with Berry Compote {Dairy-Free}

Dairy-free waffles with chai spice & almond milk | refined sugar free

“The more you love your art/calling/enterprise, the more important its accomplishment is to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more resistance you will experience facing it.” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

My current read might be the most quotable of books; the words ring like a gong of truth into my life and perhaps into yours too. Your creative work, your business or non-profit idea, your dream to write a novel or a screenplay or a symphony, to start writing poetry again, to start a blog or website: with that idea comes fear. Fear that it won’t work out, you’ll be laughed at, that you won’t be good enough.

We’ve been taking some creative risks lately, and man — resistance is right there with us. It might look easy from the outside, but each recipe and photograph is an effort as Alex and I learn the dance of holding light-bouncing boards and spoons and napkins as his lens-face snaps away. And the podcast — it’s both a joy and huge risk, as we try our hand at a new skill sets like conversation with intention (and without um’s) and editing audio instead of photographs. Over the years it’s gotten easier and easier to press Publish on our work, but after almost 6 years it still gives my stomach butterflies.

Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. -Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

But we keep pressing on because, well — we truly, deeply, sincerely love it. It makes us feel alive. And knowing that you make some of the recipes we post here and that they add nourishment to your life — that matters to us. A lot. Because our dream is that through our photographs and story telling, more and more people might come to know the joy of cooking and be inspired to advocate for sustainable ways of eating and the right to nourishing food for all people.

In last week’s post we talked about dreams and loved hearing what is on your hearts. This week, we’d love to know both about your dreams and your fears. Is fear holding you back from the creative dream that is in your heart? Did you grow up practicing a creative outlet but it’s fallen to the wayside now that you’re in the “working world”? Do you find resistance when you take steps toward the thing that makes you feel alive? Do you fear the judgement of others on your work — does it paralyze you from sharing that photograph, that essay or that poem?

This recipe was a happy accident, a challenge to create a recipe with almond milk that started with a few failed attempts, as per usual. Somehow we ended up with dairy-free waffles, made with almond milk and a bit of whole wheat flour, with some kick from the chai spices. (Cardamom is the key here, so make sure to find some ground cardamom if you can!) I unearthed some frozen berries from our freezer drawer and whipped up a bit of berry compote that made for both some shocking pink kitchen stains and a delicious topping.

Also: we’re now using #acouplecookscasa as a tag for our house shots; check out these behind the scenes house posts see our house & kitchen reno.

Chai Almond Milk Dairy-Free Waffles with Berry Compote

 

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This recipe is dairy-free and refined sugar-free.

by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 4

What You Need

• 1 cup white flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (no substitutions!)
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 large egg
• 1¼ cups almond milk (we used Califia Farms)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

What To Do

1. Heat waffle iron on high heat.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, spices, and salt; mix to combine.
3. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt coconut oil. Whisk 1 egg, then add milk, coconut oil, vanilla, and maple syrup.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Pour the batter into the heated waffle iron and cook the waffles until golden brown. Remove the cooked waffles and place on a baking sheet without stacking. Make to order or place in a 300F oven to keep warm.

3.5.3208

Chai Almond Milk Waffles with Berry Compote

 

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by: a Couple Cooks

What You Need

• 1 pound frozen mixed berries
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

What To Do

1. Place frozen berries and maple syrup in a skillet over medium heat. Stir for several minutes until fruit is thawed.
2. In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water, then pour into the skillet and heat until the sauce is thickened. Add additional cornstarch mixed with water for a thicker sauce, if desired.

3.5.3208

We developed this recipe for Califia Farms; all opinions expressed are our own. We’re big fans of Califia almond milk and it’s a mainstay in our fridge. Thank you for supporting the partners that keep A Couple Cooks in action!

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20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners

Experts Say Measuring Non-Cognitive Skills Won’t Work, But Districts Still Try

Federal education law now requires one non-academic measure of school progress, which has led some districts to consider including students’ social and emotional growth as a performance measure. Education researchers and practicing educators increasingly agree that what are sometimes called “non-cognitive skills” like empathy, self-regulation and the ability to understand another person’s perspective, are an important component of improving academic outcomes.  A much thornier issue remains how to accurately measure qualities that are so personal and context specific.

Kate Zernike highlighted California’s efforts to develop a measure of social emotional learning in a New York Times article. She writes that even the researchers who popularized terms like “grit” think using it to measure school effectiveness is a bad idea:

“I do not think we should be doing this; it is a bad idea,” said Angela Duckworth, the MacArthur fellow who has done more than anyone to popularize social-emotional learning, making “grit” — the title of her book to be released in May — a buzzword in schools.

She resigned from the board of the group overseeing the California project, saying she could not support using the tests to evaluate school performance. Last spring, after attending a White House meeting on measuring social-emotional skills, she and a colleague wrote a paper warning that there were no reliable ways to do so. “Our working title was all measures suck, and they all suck in their own way,” she said.

And there is little agreement on what skills matter: Self-control? Empathy? Perseverance? Joy?

“There are so many ways to do this wrong,” said Camille A. Farrington, a researcher at the University of Chicago who is working with a network of schools across the country to measure the development of social-emotional skills. “In education, we have a great track record of finding the wrong way to do stuff.”

One argument in favor of measuring non-cognitive skills is tied to the funding that would support teaching those skills. The system tends to provide instructional dollars for things that get measured. But can this be done effectively?

Testing for Joy and Grit? Schools Nationwide Push to Measure Students’ Emotional Skills.

SAN FRANCISCO – The fifth graders in Jade Cooney’s classroom compete against a kitchen timer during lessons to see how long they can sustain good behavior – raising hands, disagreeing respectfully and looking one another in the eye – without losing time to insults or side conversations.

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Easy Vegetarian Ramen

Quick vegetarian ramen

How many ramen lovers do we have out there? Ramen is a de facto food trend, but being landlocked here in the Midwest it takes a bit more time for food trends to filter their way into our neighborhood. But Indianapolis’s food scene is growing (so says Bon Appetit) and with it, we can now get real ramen — “real” being authentic, fresh noodle ramen with complex savory broth, not the 50-cent flavor-packet variety.

One of our favorite ways to get inspiration for our kitchen is to go out to restaurants and taste new flavor combinations, either in our own city or when travelling. Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines are our comfort zone, but after grabbing ramen at a local restaurant (Rook) this weekend, we were inspired to up our Japanese slash Korean game.

Our restaurant ramen experience was fantastic — savory broth full of umami (that fifth savory sense), creamy poached egg, curly noodles, if you’re me, spicy sriracha: the ultimate comfort food in a bowl. When we went to recreate it to our kitchen, however, we tried for vegetarian ramen and found we couldn’t quite create the savory, slow-cooked broth we were looking for. (But not for lack of trying.) So instead, we revamped the recipe into a quick, easy and fresh version, made with vegetable broth and aromatics like ginger and garlic, with a ton of vegetables thrown in: greens, shiitake mushrooms, peppers, green onion, radishes. And to top it off, we were able to find fresh ramen noodles from our local Asian grocery.

And guess what: not only did we bring our camera (which produced one of our favorite shoots ever), this time we brought our microphone along for the ride! This week’s podcast is all about how that restaurant experience turned into this recipe — which we created especially for the podcast. Check it out below, and we’d love to hear — are you a ramen fan? Do you have favorite recipes, or tips?

 

Easy Vegetarian Ramen

 

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*We found our fresh ramen in the frozen section in our local Asian grocery. If you can't find fresh ramen, you can use

by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 4

What You Need

• 4 eggs
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms
• 4 cups young baby greens (we used a mix of young Asian greens and tatsoi)
• 3 sweet peppers (optional)
• 3 green onions
• 16 ounces ramen noodles (fresh if possible)*
• 4 radishes, for garnish
• Purchased garlic chili sauce, for garnish

What To Do

1. Fill a medium pot of water and bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Gently lower the eggs into the water with a spoon and simmer for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a bowl of ice water. When the eggs are done, place them in the ice bath and let them cool completely, then gently peel. Keep the water in the pot and use it to cook the ramen (go to Step 4).
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice 4 cloves garlic. Peel and mince 1 tablespoon ginger. In another pot, heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 quart broth and bring to a simmer. Add 3 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon mirin.
3. Remove the stems from the shiitake mushrooms and thinly slice them. If necessary, wash the greens. Thinly slice the sweet peppers and green onions (cut the onions on the bias). Thinly slice 4 radishes for a garnish, and set aside. Place the mushrooms in the broth and cook 5 minutes. Add peppers, green onion and greens and cook for 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile, reheat the water used for the eggs and boil the ramen noodles until just tender, around 2 to 3 minutes.
5. To serve, place noodles in a bowl and top with broth and vegetables. Garnish with radishes and garlic chili sauce.

3.5.3208

 

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SELF-CARE, BODY-CARE SERIES (PART II): MY FACE

This is the second post in a self-care and body-care series I am doing in collaboration with Luminance Skin Care, an organic vegan skincare company that I love.

I've been listening to a lot of feminist podcasts in the past several months and an overarching theme that they all delve into is the benefits of self-care, and how it is especially important for activists. Whether you are fighting for racial justice, gender justice, animal justice, environmental justice or fighting any other form of structural oppression so many of us face in big and small ways - you gotta keep taking care of yourself. Devoting your time and energy to political and social reforms is inspiring, admirable and awesome but it also takes a lot out of you and can be damaging to your physical and mental wellbeing at times. I don't exactly identify as an activist at this point in my life. At best: I am doing activism in a very non-confrontational way via my blog and books, petitions I sign, opinions I share and events I attend. At least: I am simply going through the oft disturbing process of learning about the various kinds of injustice in the world and simultaneously trying to unlearn problematic behaviours and ideologies. It can be really difficult to feel happy about anything - or even get out of bed - when I know that so many people and animals suffer for merely being born in a different body than me, while I am so disproportionately privileged. But ultimately I always remind myself that these oppressive systems cannot be torn down if I keep lying in bed all day.

I need to do my part, stay positive and be strong. And in order for me to keep going I must make sure I am OK first, mentally and physically. I cannot help anyone else if I'm not watching out for me, checking in with myself periodically and practicing self-care. So I take bubble baths. I eat chocolate. I listen to podcasts. And I pamper my skin. My fave way to wind down at the end of a busy day and give myself some love is cleaning my face. Maybe that sounds really mundane but it's what works for me.

I'll have nice warm shower, scrub my body down with some moisturizing soap and gently massage my muscles a little. I also cleanse my face with Luminance's facial cleanser, a handmade mix of soap and oils that leave my skin clear and soft. After drying off I spray some rosewater toner on my face and arms - it smells SO GOOD. Often I'll be done at this step because the cleanser and toner are so moisturizing in themselves, but when I feel like I need a lil extra sumthin sumthin I use Luminance's hydrating facial moisturizer, gently rubbing it onto my cheeks, neck, nose and forehead until it is soaked up into my largest organ. I use their body butter on the rest of me, wrap myself up in my fave fluffy black robe and head to bed with a book or podcast ready to go. I dim the lights and eventually fall asleep on my own time. The next morning I am always amazed how glow-y my skin is, even if I at an entire XL greasy vegan pizza the night before (life happens). I've tried making my own cleansers, toners and moisturizers but none come close to the effectiveness of Luminance's facial care line. I highly recommend it. It's a fun routine that makes me feel taken care of and it keeps my skin happy. For me, it's little things like having clear skin and time to relax that keep me motivated and give me energy to continue trying to change the world.

Now I wanna know: What do you do for self cafe? Is pampering your skin an important part of your self care regime? 

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Arts Integration Allows Students to Engage Abstract Concepts in New Ways

In just a few years, art education has gone from the easiest thing to cut in a school budget to an increasingly utilized teaching technique to increase student engagement and deepen understanding. Arts organizations with an education mission are teaming up with classroom teachers to develop lessons that use drama, music, visual art and dance to help students understand concepts that can be abstract and complex.

In a Washington Post article, Moriah Balingit details one such program in Fairfax County, VA. Grade level teachers said they learned a lot from the trained arts-integration specialists and have tried to incorporate some of the strategies on their own as well.  Balingit writes than an external evaluation of the program found it to be success at improving achievement as well:

“Researcher Mengli Song said the students in the program did not necessarily learn additional math content but they did demonstrate a better grasp of the material. And the effect was comparable to other early-childhood interventions. ‘It’s not a huge effect, but it’s a non-trivial, notable effect,’ Song said.”

Teachers are using theater and dance to teach math – and it’s working

The children puffed out their chests and mimicked drama teacher Melissa Richardson, rehearsing their big, booming “rhino voices.” “Giant steps, giant steps, big and bold!” the kindergartners yelled in unison in a classroom at Westlawn Elementary in Fairfax County.

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