whaaaat??!

For years now - decades even - I've been convinced I couldn't cook. I've bragged about it, complained about it, even blogged about it!

But today I made a discovery that I may forever refer to as life changing.

I can cook.

All these years I thought it was me. It turns out all I needed was new cookware!!

I'm sure none of you believe me. I mean, you've all heard the horror stories - or worse - tasted them. The last time I tried to make an omlette, it ended up looking like this:

Not exactly appetizing, I know. It looks a heck of a lot like messed up scrambled eggs.

But yesterday my friend and I were hanging out and she was giving me some healthy tips (since I'm such a health nut now - and getting nuttier by the day) and one of said tips was to eat protein before bed. Not right before bed, 'cause that's just gross - and counterproductive. But protein in your last meal of the day is apparently a good thing. More specifically, egg whites.

And here's something you might not know about me. I love egg white omlettes. Spinach and cheddar egg white omlettes. But I can only ever get those when I go out for breakfast (which is almost never). Because I didn't think I could cook, remember?

Anyway, skip ahead 24 hours to 8pm this evening when I was digging around my kitchen looking for the rumoured non-stick pan my mother keeps someplace hidden. Due to my awesome sleuthing skills, I found the non-stick pan and poured my concoction of egg whites (which you can apparently buy in supermarkets!! who knew??!) and cheddar (my fridge was all out of spinach and I'd already spent my life savings on the egg whites - I'm a student, what do you expect?) into the pan and stared at it.

I stared at it for a good five minutes. Worrying the whole time that it would burst into flames.

It didn't though.

Eventually my weird, slimy mixture started turning white. Another five minutes and it was almost completely solid.

And here comes the best part!!

Once the entire top of my omlette-to-be had solidified, I started carefully poking at the edges, making sure if I were to flip it, it wouldn't fall apart on me (like every other time I've tried to make an omlette). I then placed my flipper (I may be able to cook, but you can't expect me to know the lingo!) under my eggs and turned it over and it stayed together!!

Long story short - take a look at the final product:

I made that. I made that. I know, it's hard to believe. In fact, many of you may think I'm not telling the truth because of the stark difference between what I ate for dinner tonight and that previous picture of a more pathetic dinner I ate a few months ago. But alas, it's true. I made that glorious looking (and even better tasting) omlette.

Larissa Benfey can cook.

Dude, now I'm beyond convinced that literally anything is possible.

Keep it real!!

cooking with lars

I'm trying this thing called 'healthy eating'... the impulse to do so comes and goes, but i tried to make an omlette for dinner tonight... ('cause apparently eggs are low-carb and low-carb is good?)... the catch is: I can't cook. Seriously. Just look:

...yeah...

Check out the final final product:

Looks reeeeeeal appetizing, right?

...Actually, it was pretty good, despite its poor presentation. Still, I stand firmly by my claim that I cannot cook.

And that's about all that needs to be said in this post. So...

Keep it real!

under pressure

They say "a little skipping won't kill you" ... "you can afford to take a day off" ... etc etc - so I'm wondering why I always feel so guilty when I skip out on the gym. Like today, for example. I woke up bright and early (well, 7:30 am is early in my books) in order to hitch a ride to the gym (save myself from a 10 minute walk in the cold) and work out for an hour or two. I got up, ate breakfast, packed my bag ... and then decided I didn't want to go. I had a legitimate reason: laundry. Afterall, Tuesday mornings are my only day off so if I don't do it today, I'll have to wear the same pair of socks for another week. Plus, I have an assignment due in about 6 hours. It's a lot bigger than I made it out to be in my head, so at some point soon I'm going to need to buckle down and do it.

But... it's now 11am and I don't think I've left my bed since re-entering it after breakfast. Besides discovering the world of tumblr, I haven't done a lot. In fact, I've done nothing. I still have to do three, if not four, loads of laundry and write two plays and a short write-up on my experience of it (weird, I know) ... and the worst part of it is, I skipped the gym in order to do those things. I would've been home from the gym over an hour ago and no worse off than I am right now.

I'm getting tired of having to force myself to go to the gym every. single. time. You'd think it would get easier! I mean, once I'm there, I actually do enjoy myself, as hard as that is to believe (for me, especially). I love to run - I never used to, but I do now. And weight lifting... well, it's not the funnest thing on the planet but it feels really good, so that's usually enough to get me through to the end of the routine.

I dunno... maybe it's just the cold weather. It makes me want to cuddle up in a blanket with hot chocolate and a good book and hibernate until spring. Or maybe it's the fact that my house is almost as cold as it is outside! My dad's core temperature has to be 20 degrees above the average person's! I don't think my feet have had a chance to defrost since September... It's getting to be unbearable.

...And now I'm just complaining...

So I'll get back to my original issue. Why do I feel this guilty about missing one day at the gym? Are my stubborn personality and unrealistically high expectations the only thing to blame in this situation? Or is it the fact that everywhere I look I see girls who look the way I want to? And I'm not referring to the Mary-Kate and Ashleys out there. I don't want to look sickly...

See, the thing is - I think, as an aspiring actor (which I still am, despite my one year hiatus), there's more pressure to look a certain way than there is for the average girl. The average girl wants to look 'thin' or whatever because she thinks that's what guys like. But she discovers eventually (I hope) that guys don't want that - most guys can appreciate real beauty in a real girl. An aspiring actor though - well, she knows how hard it is to look a certain way and how many sacrifices it takes to get there (and yes, she understands what airbrushing is); the aspiring actor even knows that her body is perfect just the way it is. But when the aspiring actor is competing with people like Mary-Kate and Ashley, Megan Fox and Natalie Portman, she definitely feels a bit of pressure to level out the playing field as much as possible.

Don't get me wrong - that's not the only reason why I work out, but it's definitely a major player as far as the guilty conscience goes. The main reason for working out is to be healthy. Which I am. I feel amazing these days. Now if only I could find a way to relax a little whenever I have to take a day off. Where do I find the valve that'll ease up on the pressure?

What's really ironic is that a 'campaign' that I worked on about a year ago is about to get into the hands of teenagers all over the States in the form of a magazine called sex, etc. Don't let the name throw you - it's a magazine that discusses all the issues teenagers have to deal with these days. And their focus for Winter 2010: Body Image.

Apparently it's still the fall (even though my frozen feet think otherwise), but when winter rolls around, you can check it out on their website.

I think I'm going to start doing some laundry... and maybe start and finish my assignment so I don't feel like today was a total waste...

Keep it real.

food for thought

I have this theory about food. Some of it was inspired by someone else, but I can’t remember who. So, I apologize, Someone Else, if you don’t appreciate me talking about your theories as if they were my own – but you changed my life. I just wish I could remember your name…

Here’s the theory: We live in a society that revolves too much around eating. We eat when we’re bored, we eat when we’re sad, we eat when we’re celebrating (anyone up for some birthday cake?), we eat when we’re watching movies (imagine going to the movie theatre and not chowing down a bag of popcorn with your mates!)… And then, of course, there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner. Special occasions come with feasts (insert name of holiday here: Christmas/Mother’s Day/Easter Dinner); speaking of Mother’s Day – who hasn’t made their mom a delicious buffet known as Breakfast in Bed? On Valentine’s Day we give people boxes of chocolate; “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach;” flick on the T.V. and chances are pretty high you’ll see a hamburger smiling back at you.

Why do I bring all this up? Well I was in the middle of doing my laundry when I got bored. It took all my effort to keep my feet (and stomach) from taking me to the kitchen. I’m not actually hungry. I could probably use a glass of fruit juice, but that’s about it.

I’ve shared my theory with you, but I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to do with it. Am I crazy and just over analyzing everything, or is it society that’s crazy? I’d really love it if you said ‘society’. It could be a little bit of both though. Do we really need to eat something while sitting in a dark theatre with our eyes glued to a screen? I’m gonna go with no on that one.

It gets worse when you think about all the other societies and civilizations through history. With all the draughts and famines, people dying of starvation, or getting diseases from the horrible state their food was in. Drinking alcohol because it was safer than water… many people probably wouldn’t see that one as that bad… But back then, food was just food; sustenance. Now it’s so much more. Why?

I dunno… it’s just a theory.

I think I’ll go get that glass of fruit juice now. Dinner Time isn’t too far away anymore. It would be awesome if I wasn’t counting down the seconds though…

Geez! I just ate three hours ago. This is ridiculous…

Keep it real!