A Baby's Birthright Final Draft.

Jasmine M. Goff Sturgill

Ron Mitchell

English 201.501

August 21, 2009

Essay #2, Final Draft

1437 words

A Baby’s Birthright

Would you like to try something that can be both entertaining and horrifying? All you have to do is simply walk into a group of women and mention that you are pregnant and intend to breastfeed “for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired” as the American Academy of Pediatrics or AAP recommends. The amusement combined with terror and even discouragement will come when the women begin bombarding with reasons why breastfeeding is too hard, too time consuming, or even impossible for somebody they know (Breastfeeding). The reality is every mother should make a good honest effort to nurse her baby because its the best choice for both her baby and herself.

Most of us have heard the phrase “Human milk is for human babies,” but how many really think about what it means? It means it's meant for a baby to drink. Every mother’s milk is the perfect blend of watery foremilk and rich fatty hind milk with a good dose of whatever antibodies she has formed being exposed to various pathogens. The proteins in human milk do not cause allergies, gives a baby the proper amount of sugars and carbohydrates, and contains the correct amount of easily dissolved vitamins and minerals (Perkins 10).

Infants are meant to exclusively consume breastmilk until they are six months old as per the World Health Organization and the AAP. Babies have what is know as an open gut meaning that their intestines are not fully developed and able to handle the germs and bacteria in regular food until they are at least six months old but also meeting several milestones like being able to sit unassisted (Bonyata When). Few people know that colostrum and later mature breastmilk contains antibodies that help to babies' intestines finish developing (Bonyata Why). The World Health Organization says “It(…) contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses - such as diarrhea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide.” Formula-fed babies are at a disadvantage to breast fed babies because they do not get these antibodies according to Sharon Perkins and Carol Vannais (18). Formula-fed babies are 50% more likely to have ear infections, 64% more likely to have problems with their open gut, 72% more likely to be hospitalized due to pneumonia, 40% more likely to have asthma, 39% more likely to develop insulin dependent diabetes, 19% more likely to have childhood leukemia, and 36% more likely to die of SIDS (The Risks). These risks all go up with premature infants. Every single month a baby is fed artificial baby milk, his risk of obesity goes up by 4% (The Risks). With the childhood obesity epidemic in our country, that fact should be encouraging all on its own. WHO has a published a fact file with 10 facts on breastfeeding. Especially interesting is number four.

Beyond the immediate benefits for children, breastfeeding contributes to a lifetime of good health. Adults who were breastfed as babies often have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, as well as lower rates of overweight, obesity and type-2 diabetes. There is evidence that people who were breastfed perform better in intelligence tests.

One would think no parent would want to deny their child an intellectual edge in today's competitive world so please do not think this was just one isolated study: both McGill University and the New York Times author Nicholas Bakalar reported the same thing in May of 2008. A study was done in New Zealand in the 1970s that found that adults who were breastfed as babies made better grades in school than their formula-fed classmates. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics reviewed dozens of studies and concluded that there is a link between breastfeeding and intelligence (Concato).

One aspect of breastfeeding is advantageous for both mother and child, economics.The breastfeeding resource published by Kelly Bonyata has a really handy table showing the various things a mom could purchase instead of formula. Using 2005 prices, Bonyata determined that a mom who breastfed rather than buying high end formula, she can save about $50 in the first six weeks. Better yet,if she breastfeeds for 6 months, that translates to about $1,600 and 12 months to over $3,000 (Bonyata Financial).These numbers are astounding. Who would want to throw $3,000 away when they have something better for their child that is free? Bonyata's table also includes several things mothers could purchase with the money they saved by breastfeeding. Just think of the amazing custom computer a mother could build with three thousand one hundred sixty three dollars and eighty six cents!

Another disadvantage to feeding her child artificial milk a mother should take into consideration is simply that formula-fed babies are sicker than breastfed babies. Not only do babies who are fed formula get sick more often, but they often are sicker than their breastfed counterparts sometimes even into childhood (Cohen).Therefore formula-feeding mothers who work outside the home miss more days of work caring for their sick infants. A study by the AAP determined that medical costs alone cost between $331 and $475 more for a formula-fed baby in any given year (Ball).

Most people do consider the cost of the tangible artificial baby milk itself but what about the time it takes to prepare it. Breastmilk is ready to go whenever, wherever a mother and child may happen to be.There is no need to worry about the temperature, water safety, or to ever consider boiling a nipple for sterility, OUCH! .

Breastfeeding is best for the mother. Declining the opportunity to nurse her baby, a mother is more likely to suffer from postpartum depression, her chances of developing type 2 diabetes increases, as well as her chances for various types of cancer (Benefits).We all also know sleep helps everyone recover from everything from hangovers to surgery, so it is safe to assume more sleep during the first few weeks of being a new parent would help a mother recover from delivery faster too.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I asked my own mother Betty Hayden many of the questions that kept me awake at night. She summed it up best when she said it was also easier for her “to just pop the baby on the boob and sleep while he ate.” My mom said she simply needed to get the baby latched on and she could read, practice typing one handed, watch TV, attend a phone conference for work or any number of things all while bonding with her child and giving him the best nutrition nature can provide. A true multitasker, she bragged she could nurse her child, make a sandwich,watch a football game, talk on the phone, all while winning gin rummy.

Breastfeeding also causes a woman’s body to produce a hormone known as Oxytocin. Oxytocin is also known as “the love hormone” as reflected in the July 28, 2009 Hathor The Cow Goddess comic. Production of Oxytocin not only helps a mother to bond with her baby, but also helps her uterus shrink back to its pre-pregnancy size. While the uterus does contract on its own, breastfeeding helps it go back quicker normally resulting in decreased lochia or postpartum bleeding, quicker loss of “baby weight” (Perkins 23) and the quicker the after pains end.

Nusing an infant requires about 500 calories a day on top of a woman’s normal caloric needs. For a one hundred sixty pound mom, burning off that many calories would take 40 minutes of high impact step aerobics to burn off (Calorie). Given the unfortunate combination of baby weight and exhaustion that nearly all new mothers experience, any help to lost weight should be welcomed!

Formula feeding has hidden costs in missed wages, sleep loss, work experience and medical costs that negatively impact the child's life as well as the life of his mother as well as the entire household. Declining the opportunity to breastfeed her child increases a mother’s chances of having a number of problems both with her recovery from birth and with her own health later in life as well as decreasing her chances of crucial bonding with her baby. On the most basic level, mothers want their children to be happy, healthy, successful people who both are and know how to love. By allowing a child full unscheduled access to what is his by right of his birth, a mother helps her child by giving him the best chance possible to grow up into a happy and healthy adult.

Works Cited

Works Cited
10 Facts on Breastfeeding. July 2009. World Health Organization 13 08 2009.
American Academy of Pediatrics. Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. PEDIATRICS Vol. 115 No. 2 February 2005, pp. 496-506.

Bakalar, Nicholas."Nutrition: Breast-feeding Tied to Intelligence” New York Times 13 05 2008.

Ball, Thomas and Wright, Anne. Healthcare Costs of Formula-Feeding in the First Year of Life. PEDIATRICS Vol. 103 No. 4 April 1999, pp. 870-876

Benefits of Breastfeeding. 27 02 2009.Federal Government Source for Women’s Health Information. 13 08 2009.

Bonyata, Kelly.“Financial Costs of Not Breastfeeding.” Kellymom.com. 2005. 13 08 2009.

Bonyata, Kelly. When will baby be ready for solid foods. Kellymom.com. 2005. 21 08 2009.

Bonyata, Kelly. Why Delay Solids. Kellymom.com.2006. 21 08 2009.

Breastfeeding Myths. 2006. Parenting Web. 21 08 2009.

Calorie Burn Calculator. 2007. Internetfitness.com Inc. 13 08 2009.

Cohen, Rona and Mrtek, Marsha B. and Mrtek, Robert G. Comparison of Maternal Absenteeism and Infant Illness Rates Among Breast-feeding and Formula-feeding Women in Two Corporations. American Journal of Health Promotion. 20 02 1995.

Concato, John and Jain, Anjali and Leventhal, John M. How Good Is the Evidence Link in Breastfeeding and Intelligence?. PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 6 June 2002, pp. 1044-1053.

Hayden, Betty. Personal Interview. 15 08 2005.

Higher IQ Connected to Breastfeeding. 05 01 1998. Breastfeeding.com. 13 08 2009.

McGill University."Breastfeeding Associated With Increased Intelligence, Study Suggests."ScienceDaily 6 May 2008. 13 08 2009.

“Oxytocin.” Hathor The Cow Goddess. Cushman-Dowdee, Heather. 28 July 2009. Web Comic. 2009.

Perkins, Sharon and Vannais, Carol. Breastfeeding for Dummies. Hoboken NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2004.

Rabin, Roni Caryn.“Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Cancer Risk”. New York Times 10 08 2009:

The Risks of Infant Formula Feeding. 2009. The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles. 12 08 2009 .

A Baby's Birthright

Jasmine M. Goff Sturgill
Ron Mitchell
English 201.501
August 13, 2009
Essay #2, First Draft
1235 words

A Baby’s Birthright

Expecting a new baby is an exciting time full of questions. Will he have his daddy’s nose? Will she have her mommy’s ears? After the baby is born, the questions change. When will she sleep through the night? When am I going to sleep through the night again? Is he ever going to stop crying? With all the questions running through the minds of new parents, few should be as easy to decide as the decision breastfeed. The reasons for nursing a new baby are simple: its best for the baby, its best for the mom, and it’s the most economical route to go.
Human milk is for human babies. It’s meant for a baby to drink. Every mother’s milk is the perfect blend of watery foremilk and rich fatty hind milk with a good dose of whatever antibodies she has formed being exposed to various pathogens. The proteins in human milk do not cause allergies, gives a baby the proper amount of sugars and carbohydrates, and contains the correct amount of easily dissolved vitamins and minerals (Perkins 10).
Babies are born with very weak immune systems. They have to be exposed to germs in their day-to-day lives to develop immunity to the common bugs in their lives. “It(…) contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses - such as diarrhea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide.” (10 Facts) Formula-fed babies are at a disadvantage to breast fed babies because they do not get these antibodies (Perkins 18). Formula-fed babies are 50% more likely to have ear infections, 64% more likely to have gastrointestinal infections, 72% more likely to be hospitalized due to pneumonia, 40% more likely to have asthma, 39% more likely to develop insulin dependant diabetes, 19% more likely to have childhood leukemia, and 36% more likely to die of SIDS (The Risks). These risks all go up and others come into play with premature infants. Every single month a baby is fed artificial baby milk, his risk of obesity goes up by 4% (The Risks). The World Health Organization has a published a fact file (10 Facts) with 10 facts on breastfeeding. Interesting is number four.
Beyond the immediate benefits for children, breastfeeding contributes to a lifetime of good health. Adults who were breastfed as babies often have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, as well as lower rates of overweight, obesity and type-2 diabetes. There is evidence that people who were breastfed perform better in intelligence tests. (10 Facts)
Adults who breastfed as infants are performed better on intelligence
tests. Why would anyone not want to give their child this advantage? Please do not think this was just one isolated study: McGill University(McGill) and the New York Times(Bakalar) reported the same thing in May of 2008. A study was done in New Zealand in the 1970s that found that adults who were breastfed as babies made better grades in school than their formula-fed classmates. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics (Concato) reviewed dozens of studies and concluded that there is a link between breastfeeding and intelligence.
It certainly seems that a baby is better off being breastfed than formula fed. A breastfed baby is more likely to be both intelligent and healthy when compared to a formula fed baby. Breast is best for the baby.
Breastfeeding is also best for the mother. Declining the opportunity to nurse her baby, a mother is more likely to suffer from post partum depression, her chances of developing type 2 diabetes increases, as well as her chances for various types of cancer (Benefits). A mother interviewed while expecting my own child said it was also easier for her “to just pop the baby on the boob and sleep while he ate.” Since sleep helps everyone recover from everything from hangovers to surgery, one would assume more sleep during the first few weeks of being a new parent would help a mother recover from delivery faster too.
Breastfeeding also causes a woman’s body to produce a hormone known as Oxytocin. Oxytocin is also known as “the love hormone” as reflected in the July 28, 2009 Hathor The Cow Goddess comic (Oxytocin). Production of Oxytocin not only helps a mother to bond with her baby, but also helps her uterus shrink back to its pre-pregnancy size. While the uterus does contract on its own, breastfeeding helps it go back quicker normally resulting in decreased lochia or post partum bleeding, quicker loss of “baby weight” (Perkins 23) and the quicker the after pains end.
Breastfeeding an infant requires about 500 calories a day on top of a woman’s normal caloric needs. For a one hundred sixty pound mom, burning off that many calories would take 40 minutes of high impact step aerobics to burn off (Calorie). For someone who is not a big fan of exercise, breastfeeding certainly sounds like the lazy way out!
The third reason to nurse your baby instead of formula feeding is economics. The breastfeeding resource kellymom.com has a really handy table showing the various things a mom could purchase instead of formula. Using 2005 prices, they determined that a mom who breastfed rather than buying high end formula, she can save about $50 in the first 6 weeks. Better yet, if she breastfeeds for 6 months, that translates to about $1,600 and 12 months to approximately $3,000(Financial).
These numbers are astounding. Who would want to throw $3,000 away when they have something better for their child that is free? Also, these numbers do not take the other “costs” for formula feeding into consideration. This is simply a comparison of the cost of the artificial baby milk verses the cost of breast milk.
Formula-fed babies are sick more often than breastfed babies. Therefore mothers who work outside the home miss more days of work caring for their sick infants. Not even considering their lost wages, a study by the AAP determined that medical costs alone cost between $331 and $475 more for a formula-fed baby in any given year (Ball).
Most people do consider the cost of the artificial baby milk itself but what about bottles, pacifiers, gas drops, drop-in inserts, sterile water and the time it takes to prepare it. Breastmilk is ready to go whenever, wherever a mother and child may happen to be. There is no need to worry about the temperature, water safety, or to ever consider boiling a nipple for sterility, OUCH! The mother simply need help her baby latch on and she can read, practice typing one handed, watch TV, attend a phone conference for work or any number of things all while bonding with her child and giving him the best nutrition nature can provide. My own mother bragged she could nurse her child, make a sandwich, watch a football game, talk on the phone, all while winning gin rummy(Hayden).
Formula feeding has hidden costs in missed wages, sleep loss, work experience and medical costs. Declining the opportunity to breastfeed her child increases a mother’s chances of having a number of problems both with her recovery from birth and with her own health later in life. By allowing a child access to what is his by right of his birth, a mother helps her child by giving him the best chance possible to grow up into a happy and healthy adult. What more could a mother ask for?

Works Cited
10 Facts on Breastfeeding. July 2009. World Health Organization August 13,
2009 .
Bakalar, Nicholas. "Nutrition: Breast-feeding Tied to Intelligence” New York
Times 13 May 2008: .
Ball, Thomas and Wright, Anne. Health care Costs of Formula-Feeding in the
First Year of Life. PEDIATRICS Vol. 103 No. 4 April 1999, pp. 870-876
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/103/4/S1/870
Benefits of Breastfeeding. 27 February 2009. Federal Government Source for
Women’s Health Information. August 13, 2009.
Calorie Burn Calculator. 2007. Internetfitness.com Inc. August 13, 2009.

Concato, John and Jain, Anjali and Leventhal, John M. How Good Is the
Evidence Linking Breastfeeding and Intelligence?. PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 6 June 2002, pp. 1044-1053
Financial Costs of Not Breastfeeding. 2005. Bonyata, Kelly. August 13, 2009.

Hayden, Betty. Personal Interview. 15 August 2005.


Higher IQ Connected to Breastfeeding. 05 Jan 1998. Breastfeeding.com.
August 13, 2009.
McGill University. "Breastfeeding Associated With Increased Intelligence,
Study Suggests." ScienceDaily 6 May 2008. 13 August 2009
.
Oxytocin. 28 July 2009. Cushman-Dowdee, Heather. August 13, 2009.

Perkins, Sharon and Vannais, Carol. Breastfeeding for Dummies. Hoboken
NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2004.
Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Cancer Risk”. New York
Times 10 August 2009:

The Risks of Infant Formula Feeding. 2009. The Breastfeeding Task Force of
Greater Los Angeles. August 13, 2009 .

Game Plan

I am picking the second prompt. I've been thinking about this prompt and my topic of choice since the first week of class. I've been interested in and have been researching my topic off and on for the past 2-3 years on my own but just haven't had time to do any additional research recently so I'm also using this paper for my own personal gains. I'm a big fan of the whole "kill two birds with one stone" approach to things.

My specific topic is how to purchase mostly organic foods on a budget. I know that my life as a working class parent leaves me with a grocery budget similar to most of the people in my class per person so I think it will be something with a pretty wide appeal. Pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics in our food are things I feel causes lots of people concern. I think that researching the foods that are best to buy organic versus the ones we can worry about later is an interesting approach that can benefit most everyone from learning more about it. Its really interesting to find out about exactly what the various labels mean and how difficult it really is for farmers to actually get the right to label their products USDA organic. I had no idea that farmers who are USDA organic certified are not allowed to save their seeds to plant again the following year unless they are also certified by the government as a seed distributor.
Hormones are not allowed in raising hogs or poultry. Therefore, the claim "no hormones added" cannot be used on the labels of pork or poultry unless it is followed by a statement that says "Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones." Source also struck me as kind of a wow thing to read about.

Most of the research I've done in the past has been online but for the purposes of this class, I've tried to find a lot of "hard copy" sources too since that's something I personally need work on.

I think I'll be using mostly a classification/division approach since I am talking about grocery shopping. Part of what I am going to write about will be the differences in pesticide levels of various foods (like peaches which have LOTS when grown standard and onions have very little) so I will also use compare/contrast.
As I stated earlier, most of my research completed has been online. I've found sites that explicitly are about "organic on a budget" which go right to the bone of what I'm interested in. I am also researching some of the other side to try and get an equal footing for my own head before I start writing.

402 words before the quote.

Let There Be Links.

I had mentioned that I've done a lot of research on my topic choice for my own life/family previously.
My first link is one I first saw last weekend. A like minded girlfriend posted it on her blog last week... Eating Real Food On A Budget.
Link Number Two is from a blog I've followed a long time... The Organic Thirfty Food Challenge.
Here is one from SparkPeople. I started following sparkpeople because i was looking to lose some weight... Its helped a bit. :)
Sparkpeople also had a link on the link above called Why Go Organic? that has a lot of good info.
This is the shopper's guide to pesticides....Has a lot of good info for what to get, what not to get, etc.
The next couple are google finds...
This one is called 17 tips for organic on a budget.
This one is another with a similar title, how to eat organic on a budget.
Another organic for cheap article talks about how the author spent about $60/week/person for mostly organic groceries. That sounds like a LOT of money to me! We average $35-40 per person per week in my family and rarely if ever buy organic milk and never buy organic meats. Still, something neat to ponder.

08/03/09 Class Exercise

1. As soon as I opened the door to the apartment, I knew that my roommate had played party host all weekend long.

As soon as I opened the door to the apartment, I knew that my roommate had played party host all weekend long. The door barely opened from the stack of pizza boxes shoved in the corner. Two girls were asleep on the couch at either end with a bottle of vodka sticking out from beneath the cushion between them. There were at least 40 empty beer cans on the coffee table spilling onto the floor. An empty beer keg sat on the kitchen table while a naked man slept curled up underneath with the tablecloth over his face. And the biggest indicator was the pile of crumpled up neon orange fliers that said "ROOMMATE GONE THIS WEEKEND! BYOB!"


2. There are many ways that the university bookstore takes advantage of students.

There are many ways that the university bookstore takes advantage of students. They will not allow refunds on optional texts. They never seem to have the books needed for the first week of class, instead saying it will be in on a specific date so you tredge into the store looking for the book only to find its still not in and by the time it is in, you've spent more money on soft drinks than the book cost in the first place. They mark the prices up tremendously on everything from t-shirts to spark notes. The lists of books needed is listed by section number rather than class time and place the way most students remember them. But the biggest way they rip us off is by only giving us pennies on the dollar for books we purchased or worse, not even buying them back when we had to buy a new Algebra book for $176.47.

3. When it was all said and done, I was just glad to call it a day.

My daughter peed in her bed in the wee hours of the morning, striped out of her wet clothes and decided to crawl in my bed and pee on me too. I was woke up by the smoke alarm since my husband had forgotten to check the oven before he turned it on and melted my favorite bowl. When I woke up, I realized I was soaked, the bed was soaked and I thought the house was on fire so I grabbed the naked pee covered child in my bed and ran towards the back door only to step on a hairball conveniently left so I could step on it with my bare feet by my loving cat. By that point, the squirming child in my arms was screaming, the husband was screaming, and of course, I was screaming too while trying to get the slime off my foot. All the screaming gave me a headache. So I went to school where I had a pop quiz in one class, the teacher didn't show up for the other and I lost my student ID. I started towards my car and the front tire was flat which reminded me my husband took my jack out of my trunk the week before and my cell phone was dead. When it was all said and done, I was just glad to call it a day.

4. When I first met Fern, I knew immediately that she was a smoker.

When I first met Fern, I knew immediately that she was a smoker. There was a haze of smoke that followed her everywhere she went. Her nails were yellow. Her eyes were bloodshot. She coughed up chunks that she spit on the sidewalk every time she laughed. Oh and she was wearing a t-shirt that said "I smoke. Get over it."

5. My roommate has a very peculiar morning ritual.

When his first alarm goes off, he usually screams and throws something at it from across the room. When his second alarm goes off, his girlfriend yells at him and shoves him out of their bed so he will turn it off. When the third alarm goes off, I usually scream and throw something in his general direction from my room down the hall. Once he actually gets out of bed, he walks around the house in his scooby doo boxers while scratching himself and murming under his breath on the way to his treadmill. He turns on Hip Hop Harry on Discovery kids and dances and sings along with that sad rapping teddy bear while he runs on his treadmill for an hour. After working out awhile in his underwear, he goes into the kitchen and falls back asleep in his cereal before his girlfriend sees he's asleep again and wakes him up again. My roommate has a very peculiar morning ritual.


6. Attending USI has changed my life in many ways.

Attending USI has changed my life in many ways. I've grown up as a person. I've changed my majors and my financial outlook for life at least 3 times. I rode public transit and met strange people. I discovered that what I loved to do wasn't something I wanted to do for a living. And I've made some friends that I'll want to keep around for the rest of my life.

Final Draft.

Sampling Bait

I never have had anybody in my life who would try new foods. My Papaw thought there were only two vegetables that were worth eating and both were potatoes. Mom wasn’t much better but she would eat things that were green. I’ve improved, but I still refuse to eat a steak that isn’t the same color on the inside as it is on the outside. Yet somehow, I find myself as a bit of a sushi aficionado. Everyone outside of my nuclear family thinks I’m crazy and while that may be true, to me there isn’t much out there that tastes better than a good fresh sushi roll. Unfortunately, as I’ve moved around the past few years I have discovered that every single sushi joint in the country seems to use the same two dozen names for their rolls but never seem to have the same “stuff” inside!

Our adventures with sushi started in Kingsport, Tennessee. Squeamish about any food even slightly undercooked, I’ve never been much for any fish that isn’t in nice deep fried little sticks the way God intended so this was a HUGE stretch for me. The husband was stoked that I was willing to try it so we ordered a variety of rolls. My favorite there was the Philadelphia roll containing smoked salmon, avocado slices, and cream cheese. It had a slightly smoky taste from the fish itself. The avocado lent a savory taste while the cream cheese gave it the creamy element that brought it all together. Okay, I’ll be honest: the real reason I liked it so much was because it was smoked. I wasn’t up for the idea of eating raw fish yet.

My husband was a big fan of their spicy roll combo. The meal came with salad, soup, and 3 full sized sushi rolls cut into 8 pieces each. One roll was a chunk of tuna and spicy vegetables, one roll had just spicy white fish, and the third was spicy salmon. One sniff told me that those rolls were too hot to cross my lips.

That fall, we moved. We got settled in and found ourselves familiar with the new town and went off exploring “metropolitan” Bristol, Virginia. Bristol’s Osaka was warm, cozy, and inviting with candles on the tables like The Fuji House. They had a lot of rolls we hadn’t tried before so we went a little crazy the first time we visited. Of course, after we tried them we realized a lot of them were the same things as what we’d had at The Fuji House in Tennessee.

They had all kinds of combinations that would leave your taste buds dancing for days afterwards. We tried sweet potato rolls, crunchy cucumber rolls, two different kinds of crab based California rolls, and dozens of others. We loved it but when we ordered a Philadelphia roll and it had cucumber inside, we were a little surprised!

My husband and I both found new rolls at Osaka that we preferred. He loved two of the new ones. His favorite is their spicy tuna roll containing pounded tuna and spices. The only way I can describe it is my mental image of Japanese tuna salad where it’s mixed up with Japanese mustard, some vegetables, and spice. We both enjoy their dragon roll. The dragon roll is huge with almost a whole avocado on top of it with sweet and salty mystery sauce on top. It’s got crab, cucumber, cream cheese, salmon, tuna, and crunchy bits inside and that sweet sauce and avocado on top and it is every bit as fabulous as it sounds. My favorite is the salmon skin roll and while I do not know what is actually inside it other than salmon, I am content to keep it that way. I’m still a bit squeamish about the idea of any food being less than well-done so it’s really one of those times where “the less I know…”

Well, the time came that we decided to move to my Hoosier hometown. Evansville has tons of stuff to do after living in “the sticks”, so we figured we’d find lots of great sushi joints. We live on the east side of town with my other half working on Green River Road so we tried Zuki first. While the sushi was okay, the prices were not. We went to Nagasaki and while the food was great, the sushi choices exponential, the names were all different and most everything was just a different name for the same things I’d had before. Also, it’s just too expensive to go back.

Recently, we decided to try Tokyo Japan. I had the same feeling I had at Osaka and The Fuji House from the candles and atmosphere. I looked at the menu and I did a double take at how cheap things were. My family of three can eat there and walk out with lunch for the next day and not spend thirty dollars. Of course, the rolls were all called by different names again! Their version of the Philadelphia roll is my favorite out of all the choices they offer. It is completely different from all the other places I’ve been containing crab, cucumber, and cream cheese inside and a big swatch of avocado on the outside topped off with crunchy bits and a “secret sauce” made mostly of soy sauce and something sweet. It tastes very similar to what you get mixing soy sauce and Japanese shrimp sauce in that it’s not only salty and savory but sweet. My husband likes their spicy tuna roll but it’s very different from what he’d had at previous restaurants. At Toyko Japan, a spicy tuna roll has a small piece of tuna, some Japanese mustard, spices, and is topped with a piece of kiwi! Because of the sweet draw of kiwi, I was lured into trying it and found my tongue nearly burnt out of my mouth.

It seems like restaurant owners don’t take each other into consideration when planning their menus. Really though, I can’t fault them. The combinations they opt to serve are their own choices to make. It just goes to show you really never know what you like until you try things. Sometimes it takes awhile catch what you’re after but if your net is big enough, you’ll reel it in.

Sampling Bait.

Sampling Bait

When you are newly-married, usually money is stretched a little tight. When you are new parents, money is stretched a little tight too. When you are college students, money is stretched out like fishing line. A reasonable conclusion would be that when you are newly-married new parents who also happen to be trying to finish college, money is just something you dream about having “one of these days”. Of course, it doesn’t really matter how broke you are because sometimes you need to do something nice for yourself. Going to movies, going to concerts or just any kind of change of scenery will usually work but when you have a young child and work second shift, it’s all but impossible to find a sitter. No sitter means you get to scratch out the idea of a movie or a concert unless it’s the Backyardigans Live or Elmo on Ice. So realistically, the only places you can drag your kid out in public where you can get out of the house and have a reason to get dressed in something other than flannel pajama pants and flip flops are Wal-Mart and restaurants.

We’ve sampled dozens of hole-in-the-wall diners, greasy truck stops and more than our fair share of places where we really couldn’t afford to breathe too deeply. For the past two and a half years, our quest has been towards ethnic foods.

Our adventures with sushi started in Kingsport, Tennessee. We weren’t sure what kind of food we’d find in The Fuji House but we were up for something different! The outside of the restaurant was kind of plain. We got the baby out of the car and headed inside and found ourselves in the prettiest Asian restaurant I’d ever seen.

We looked over the menu that claimed offerings of Japanese, Chinese, and Thai food. I am not a Chinese food fan and I’d never had Japanese or Thai. The server explained that Thai food was pretty spicy and Japanese is traditionally a little salty. I have been known to suck on rock salt so I was immediately excited about the Japanese. We decided to try a couple sushi rolls since they were all under four or five dollars.

I was squeamish about the idea of raw fish. I’ve never been much for any fish that isn’t in nice deep fried little sticks the way God intended so this was a HUGE stretch for me. The husband was stoked that I was willing to try it so we ordered four different rolls. That first time, I tried everything to get a feel for it.

We got similar meals this second time and I discovered how great their shrimp sauce tasted. I was feeling more adventurous and sampled it. Then I decided to get a little more. Then I just asked the server to bring the bottle out. After she brought the bottle, I tried to figure out how I could get it in my diaper bag without their noticing. To this day, I crave that dressing. Thousand Island is okay in a pinch but nothing tastes as good to me on salad as cold Fuji House Shrimp Sauce.

I tried mixing the shrimp sauce with soy sauce and found Jasmine’s Zen of Japanese dipping. The shrimp sauce is sweet and slightly spicy and the salty of soy sauce make for what I guess to be the Japanese equivalent of sweet and sour sauce. With sweet and sour being my favorite thing in a Chinese restaurant for the versatility in dipping, I was glad to find a similar dipping sauce there!

Of course, the sushi tasted better the second time. I ate an entire Philadelphia roll by myself and wanted more but I knew I had an order of hibachi beef and chicken coming so I should stop. I ate what I could of my dinner and took the leftovers home but not before filling my box up with shrimp sauce and fighting the urge the lick the bottle.

Another half dozen trips and it got to the point that I wanted sushi and would beg my husband to drive to Kingsport just to get some. He really liked it too so it never took a whole lot of persuasion.

That fall, we moved. We got settled in and found ourselves familiar with the new town and went off exploring the new area.

We tried Bristol, Virginia’s Kobe Steakhouse first. Kobe has GREAT hibachi food and decent prices but the atmosphere lacks something. We liked Kobe’s food but they also didn’t have sushi so we were in search of some place better. I decided to try the phone book and saw an ad for Osaka Sushi Bar. So the next time we headed to Bristol, we decided to find it and see if it suited us.

Osaka was warm and cozy and inviting with candles on the tables like The Fuji House. They doted on our daughter like crazy and even rubber banded a set of kid-proof chop sticks for her so she could “eat with sticks like daddy”. They had a huge bar where you could sit and watch the chef making sushi.

They had more sushi rolls than I knew existed! They had all kinds of combinations that would leave your taste buds dancing for days afterwards. We tried sweet potato rolls, crunchy cucumber rolls, their version of Philadelphia rolls, two different kinds of California rolls and dozens of others. My husband and I both found new rolls that were our respective favorites. He loved two of the new ones. His favorite of the favorites is still their spicy rolls. His favorite that I will touch and enjoy is the dragon roll. The dragon roll was around seven dollars but is huge with almost a whole avocado on top of it with sweet and salty mystery sauce on top. It’s got crab, cucumber, cream cheese, salmon, tuna, and crunchy bits inside and that sweet sauce and avocado on top and its every bit as fabulous as it sounds. My favorite is the salmon skin roll and I do not know what is actually inside it other than salmon and I am content to keep it that way.

Well, the time came that we were not able to find a house to purchase in Virginia and we decided to move to my hometown. Evansville has tons of stuff to do after living in “the sticks” as we call that part of Virginia so we figured we’d find lots of places to eat and new adventures. We live on the east side of town and my husband works on Green River Road so we tried Zuki first and were not pleased. We went to Nagasaki for Father’s Day at my dad’s request and while the food was great, the tab for my family of three, my parents, and my three brothers was over three hundred dollars before a tip. That just isn’t something we can afford to do on any regular basis!

Recently, we decided to try Tokyo Japan. I had the same feeling I had at Osaka. Then I looked at the menu and I did a double take at how cheap things were. My family of three can eat there and walk out with lunch for the next day and not spend thirty dollars. Their sushi is fantastic and their hibachi is great too.

You really never know what you like until you try things. Sometimes it takes awhile to find exactly what you’re looking seeking. Most people are like toddlers and don’t want to try things that are new to them. I think we should all follow the rule I give my daughter. Eat one big bite of everything. If you don’t like it, I’ll give you a drink of my tea.

Bait

Jasmine Goff Sturgill
English 201.501
Ron Mitchell
Essay #1, Prompt 3 Food-Adventure
First Draft
July 27, 2009
3,095 Word Count.

When you are newly-married, usually money is stretched a little tight. When you are new parents, money is stretched a little tight too. When you are college students, money is stretched out like fishing line. A reasonable conclusion would be that when you are newly-married new parents who also happen to be trying to finish college, money is just something you dream about having “one of these days”. Of course, it doesn’t really matter how broke you are because sometimes you need to do something nice for yourself. Going to movies, going to concerts or just any kind of change of scenery will usually work but when you have a young child and work second shift, it’s all but impossible to find a sitter. No sitter means you get to scratch out the idea of a movie or a concert unless it’s the Backyardigans Live or Elmo on Ice. So realistically, the only places you can drag your kid out in public where you can get out of the house and have a reason to get dressed in something other than flannel pajama pants and flip flops are Wal-Mart and restaurants.
I love food and I really love shopping. I love shopping for groceries best since that’s a requirement that doesn’t make me feel guilty. I love picking out fresh produce to get the most perfectly sweet Bing Cherries, the crispest brightest orange carrots, or the huge package of prewashed organic baby greens from Sam’s Club that will last us closest to next payday without turning brown and soggy. I love smelling the baked goods in the bakery browning to that perfect golden hue. I love looking at all the choices for yogurts, cheese, sour cream, and milk. I am slightly grossed out by having to touch and prepare raw meat but I love the taste of that when it’s all done and yummy in my kitchen.
I love to eat all that food when I get it home. Cooking is fun for me. Trying new recipes is one of my favorite pastimes. Coming up with a creative way to sneak fruits and vegetables into not only my preschooler but into my husband and myself is really fun to me.
Then I have my huge “but”. I hate cleaning up afterwards. My husband and his college roommate once took their dirty dishes to the car wash in the back of his pickup and pressure washed them to get them clean because it was quicker and easier than washing the truck bed full of dirty dishes they had accumulated in the 3 months since they’d last washed them. We all know good food usually makes a good mess in your kitchen that in my house nobody wants to clean up so to make up for feeling like we never get to go anywhere “fun”, we got out to eat.
My husband grew up the youngest of four pretty good sized boys. He’s 6’3” with broader shoulders than most NFL linemen and he’s the middle sized brother. Needless to say, those guys can put some food away! Holidays with my in-laws quickly taught me why my husband eats like someone is going to steal his plate if it’s not cleared off quick enough… His brothers will! I have seen them walk up to one of the others that had a piece of ham or a deviled egg on their plate for longer than forty-five seconds and they’d just grab it and eat it before the slower brother could react.
Quick food in his mom’s house means the same things over and over to the point of my stomach turning at the thought of more Little Caesar’s Pizza. Needless to say, with four boys that all eat like it’s going to eat them if they don’t inhale it, my husband wasn’t raised with much variety in his diet.
So, since he’s been on his own he’s wanted to try all the little restaurants that his mom would just laugh and remind him that there was no buffet upon his suggestion.
We’ve sampled dozens of hole-in-the-wall diners, greasy truck stops and more than our fair share of places where we really couldn’t afford to breathe too deeply. For the past two and a half years, our quest has been towards ethnic foods. We were both familiar with Mexican and Italian foods. He knew he loved Chinese food and I knew if I had sweet and sour sauce, I could eat it too… but we’d never had anything else, anything really outside the box.
On a whim one afternoon while we were living with his mom and trying avoid her in the summer of 2007, we went to Kingsport Tennessee. We had done our normal routine in scouting out Burlington Coat Factory to see if they had any good deals on big guy shirts for him and were ready for lunch.
All the places we normally hit were either too busy or just didn’t sound good so we drove a few blocks past the regular beaten path until we saw this tattoo shop. Brian wanted to get a quote on a touchup on his tattoo so we turned in and almost bottomed out on their driveway. We were disappointed to see it was closed for the day only to realize it was attached to a restaurant we’d never heard of called The Fuji House.
We weren’t sure what kind of food we’d find in The Fuji House but we were up for something different! The outside of the restaurant was kind of plain. It’s just a big white box with the letters in gold metallic over the windows…And a tattoo shop attached to the side. We got the baby out of the car and headed inside and found ourselves in the prettiest Asian restaurant I’d ever seen.
The carpets were thick, plush, and bright deep red. The building was broken up into distinct areas for hibachi, paying, entrance area, a small space to sit on the floor at low tables and a pretty good sized section of regular tables and chairs. Every table in the place had a candle in a pretty red glass making the whole atmosphere really nice.
They had a big pond separating the cashier counter and the floor seating that had its own bridge. Our daughter wanted to climb those steps all day long so she could look at the fish underneath!
We looked over the menu that claimed offerings of Japanese, Chinese, and Thai food. I am not a Chinese food fan and I’d never had Japanese or Thai. The server was a guy in his early 20s who was really nice and explained everything on the menu to us so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. He explained that Thai food was pretty spicy and Japanese is traditionally a little salty. I am NOT a spicy fan and have been known to suck on rock salt so I was immediately excited about the Japanese. He then told us that they did not have any Thai items on the lunch menu but offered a dinner one. Being that we’re pretty much always on a tight budget, we declined and decided to try a couple sushi rolls since they were all under four or five dollars.
I was squeamish about the idea of raw fish. I’ve never been much for any fish that isn’t in nice deep fried little sticks the way God intended so this was a HUGE stretch for me. The husband was stoked that I was willing to try it so we ordered four different rolls. We got their Philadelphia roll which has smoked salmon, avocado, and cream cheese and crunchy bits on the outside. We tried the California roll that has cream cheese, cucumber and crab inside and pleasantly unknown orange juicy specks on the outside. Brian really liked the spicy tuna roll that had tuna fish and something that smelled horrible and made my tongue burn for 45 minutes. Oh, and we got an avocado and cucumber roll.
Honestly, I was not impressed with the sushi at all. I thought it was slimy, hard to eat, and not nearly worth the money. My husband thought it was fantastic. Since I liked the hibachi very well, we decided we’d try it again and sample some different rolls next time.
The first time we went in, I paid more attention to the restaurant and the wait staff and not as much to the other patrons. People-watching is so much fun in places like that because you can obviously tell the people who are there because their wives or fathers or brothers or cousins have drug them there against their will. You can almost see the “Oh my god when I get done pretending to eat this bait I am going to go get a big mac!” written on their foreheads. I’m sure I had that expression on my face the first time we went and I know our daughter did. She only ate carrots and a piece of zucchini the whole time we were there.
The next time we went in there was a family there much like ours. The parents were probably a few years older, I guessed late 20s or early 30s. They had a little boy that was a bit younger than our daughter who was tearing up the rice! At that point, I had never seen a kid who really liked rice but this kid was acting like it was the best thing he’d ever eaten. The boy had his own serving and kept reaching up to steal bites off his mom’s plate. He was a cutie!
We got similar meals this second time and I discovered how great their shrimp sauce tasted. I had forgone it the previous time because it looked like Thousand Island dressing that had been through a blender to remove the lumps. Being that I did not like Thousand Island at all, I didn’t want any part of it. I was feeling more adventurous and sampled it. Then I decided to get a little more. Then I just asked the server to bring the bottle out. After she brought the bottle, I tried to figure out how I could get it in my diaper bag without their noticing. To this day, I crave that dressing. Thousand Island is okay in a pinch but nothing tastes as good to me on salad as cold Fuji House Shrimp Sauce.
I tried mixing the shrimp sauce with soy sauce and found Jasmine’s Zen of Japanese dipping. The shrimp sauce is sweet and slightly spicy and the salty of soy sauce make for what I guess to be the Japanese equivalent of sweet and sour sauce. With sweet and sour being my favorite thing in a Chinese restaurant for the versatility in dipping, I was glad to find a similar dipping sauce there!
Of course, the sushi was better to me the second time. I ate an entire Philadephia roll by myself and wanted more but I knew I had an order of hibachi beef and chicken coming so I should stop. I ate what I could of my dinner and took the leftovers home but not before filling my box up with shrimp sauce and fighting the urge the lick the bottle.
The third time we went was the first time we got a real meal for our daughter. She was coming up on 18 months old by then and was finally to the point that a dozen bites off our plate was no longer enough food. We knew she wouldn’t eat meat so we got her a side order of rice, broccoli, and carrots. I gave her a dish with shrimp sauce to dip and that was the first time in nearly 3 weeks that she really truly ate. I think all mothers get nervous with their little kids won’t eat much and since it was right around the end of July and our meal out to celebrate our anniversary, I remember the dates pretty well. Also, it was the longest no-eating spell she had. She has since recovered and sometimes will out eat grown men.
Another half dozen trips and it got to the point that I wanted sushi and would beg my husband to drive to Kingsport just to get some. He really liked it too so it never took a whole lot of persuasion.
That fall, we found an apartment in another town an hour east of my mother in law. Once we got settled in, we tried the Japanese place in town hoping for a closer version of The Fuji House. We were sadly disappointed.
We went there once. I had no inclination to go back. I’d rather have gone to Pizza Hut or Burger King than go back there and be told what my child can and cannot eat.
We got familiar with the new town and went off exploring further destinations. When you live in the sticks, you find out pretty quickly that you have to drive to get anywhere. By “drive to get anywhere” I mean that most every town that has more than a Wal-Mart and a grocery store is 20-50 minutes away. Lebanon was no different so we accepted the 35 minute drive to Bristol and started exploring down there. Pretty soon we visited every weekend looking for good Japanese food and hopefully a sushi joint.
We tried Kobe Steakhouse first. Kobe has GREAT hibachi food and decent prices but the atmosphere lacks something. They’ve got women dressed up as geishas seating guests but they also refuse to start preparing your food until you are part of a 12 party table. Then they tack on 18% gratuity and don’t fill your drinks up without having to practically throw them at someone’s head. As soon as your food is finished being cooked, they pass out the tickets and stand there staring at you while you eat. Most people box up their food quickly and leave so I am sure my sitting there eating ticked them off a touch.
We liked Kobe’s food but they also didn’t have sushi so we were in search of some place better. I decided to try the phone book and saw an ad for Osaka Sushi Bar. So the next time we headed to Bristol, we decided to find it and see if it suited us.
Have you ever walked into a place and just immediately felt at home? Seriously, that’s how Osaka felt. It was warm and cozy and inviting with candles on the tables like The Fuji House. The servers were all family and had their kids sitting at tables in the back coloring. They obviously loved children because they doted on our daughter like crazy and even rubber banded a set of kid proof chop sticks for her so she could “eat with sticks like daddy”. They had a huge bar where you could sit and watch the chef making sushi.
They had more sushi rolls than I knew existed! They had all kinds of vegetables and fishes and combinations that would leave your taste buds dancing for days afterwards. We tried sweet potato rolls with sweet potatoes and crunchy bits rolled up with rice and seaweed, crunchy cucumber rolls, better tasting Philadelphia rolls, two different kinds of California rolls and dozens of others. My husband and I both found new rolls that were our respective favorites. He loved two of the new ones. His favorite of the favorites is still their spicy rolls which were a combination of salmon, tuna, and whitefish with some mystery spicy ingredients. His favorite that I will touch and enjoy is the dragon roll. The dragon roll was around seven dollars but is huge with almost a whole avocado on top of it with sweet and salty mystery sauce on top. It’s got crab, cucumber, cream cheese, salmon, tuna, and crunchy bits inside and that sweet sauce and avocado on top and its every bit as fabulous as it sounds. My favorite is the salmon skin roll and I do not know what is actually inside it other than salmon and I am content to keep it that way.
We also tried their kids’ bento boxes for our daughter and to this day I keep a picture of that first one on my phone because it was so ridiculously huge and cheap. Those things are enough food for a normal adult and enough for a kid to eat on for three days straight!

Well, the time came that we were not able to find a house to purchase in Virginia and we decided to move to my hometown. Evansville has tons of stuff to do compared to “the sticks” as we call that part of Virginia so we figured we’d find lots of places to eat and new adventures. We live on the east side of town and my husband works on Green River Road so we tried Zuki first. That was a bad idea. We went to Nagasaki for Father’s Day at my dad’s request and while the food was great, the tab for my family of three, my parents, and my three brothers was over three hundred dollars before a tip. That just isn’t something we can afford to do on any regular basis!
Then after going to Menards one afternoon, we decided to try Tokyo Japan. I had the same feeling I had at Osaka. Then I looked at the menu and I did a double take at how cheap things were. My family of three can eat there and walk out with lunch for the next day and not spend thirty dollars. Their sushi is fantastic and their hibachi is great too. They also have a huge saltwater aquarium right at the entrance that fascinates my three year old into silence. She sits there quietly observing and afraid to make any noise so that “Nemo doesn’t get a headache”. So not only do we now get great food and great prices but they have fish to watch my kid!
You really never know what you like until you try things. Sometimes it takes awhile to find exactly what you’re looking seeking. Most people are like toddlers and don’t want to try things that are new to them. I think we should all follow the rule I give my daughter. Eat one big bite of everything. If you don’t like it, I’ll give you a drink of my tea.

1. Which prompt do you think you will select? Why does this one appeal to you over the others?

I believe I'm going to choose prompt number 3. Well, I don't have much in the way of a food family tree, I don't have any specific memories of food like that other than getting sick on banana milk shakes, and the last prompt is too personal for me right now. :)

2. Which mode(s) of writing will be most helpful to you in terms of creating content? Will you primarily tell a story, compare and/or contrast or describe, for example? What other modes of writing/thinking will you utilize?

I do better telling stories. I will most likely have a great deal of description because descriptive writing is interesting to me.

3. What specific details will you include for your reader? Why are these details important? What will they accomplish?

I plan to talk about texture of food a lot. That's important to me because I want to give the reader a detailed view of what I'm talking about and the way food feels in your mouth is very important.

4. What “place(s)” or “scene(s)” will you try to recreate for your reader? Why are they crucial?

I want to talk about the way some of the restaurants were set up. Part of the appeal of Japanese food for me is the atmosphere of the shop itself.

5. Thinking in terms of a working thesis, what do you think will be your main reason for writing? What are you hoping to accomplish in your essay?

I want the general idea to be similar to the blog I posted last week in that you don't know if you're going to truly like something until you try it. I hope to convince some picky eaters to try new foods.

6. What problems or struggles do you experience when it comes to writing? How can you overcome these difficulties?

I have a problem writing exactly the way I speak. I'm not sure if that is a bad thing for this essay other than I need to write more formally than I do on my personal blog over on El Jay.

Happy Anniversary to us. :)

Today is my 4th wedding anniversary. We went out to eat tonight... And had Sushi!
My family isn't known for ever trying anything different. The fact that I experimented and tried Sushi on a whim is really amazing considering my upbringing.
My Papaw was the kind of man who believed there were two vegetables worth eating: Corn and potatoes.
I married an adventurous eater, though. His philosophy on food is that as long as it doesn't eat him first, its okay to try at least once. He gets "creative" and puts corn in salmon patties (bad idea) or broccoli chunks in the "Hidden Veggie Skettie" I mentioned in my previous blog (worse idea that had me so upset I yelled and cried at him last night) and is willing to try any restaurant that looks neat and fairly inexpensive.
The first time Brian and I went out was to a restaurant in Morehead, the college town where we met. It was a Jerry's and it was one of those places where if your fork touches the table, you don't eat with it anymore because its sticky but the food was great! I was very sad when it burned down in 2006. I was craving pancakes but he was doing Atkins... and he didn't tell me. He sat there while I gorged on pancakes and while I remember his eating pancakes with me, he swears up and down that he ate an omlette and bacon.
Later that summer, he got me to go with him to his fraternity's favorite truck stop in Smokey Valley, Kentucky. The restaurant is called Smokey Valley because, well, they're not so creative in the hills. Smokey Valley had a grease fire in the spring of 04 and was closed down for a time but Brian did a geeky white boy dance when he realized they were open again and insisted on taking me up there to "lose my Smokey Valley Virginity". That place has the biggest burgers I've ever seen for $3.50. These burgers are seriously bigger than I can get my mouth around. I would take a patty of meat off the bun before attempting to eat it. Just writing about that place makes me hungry.
Anyway, so while we were living with Brian's mom in the summer of 2007, we decided to try this little hole in the wall Asian restaurant in Kingsport, TN called "The Fuji House" and Brian realized he loved Sushi. I wasn't so keen on it but I really liked the hibachi. We went back and every time I tried a different Sushi roll... until I started craving it. It got to the point that I wanted it every week but unfortunately, Sushi's not cheap! We both like a place in Bristol VA more than Fuji House...Osaka is so awesome.
We've tried a few places in Evansville since we've lived here, Nagasaki, Zuki...but our favorite by far is where we went tonight. Its up by Menards on Green River Rd...Tokyo Japan. Yum yum yum!

Food.

I obviously love food. I love to shop for it, cook it, and even more than that, eat it. But my husband and I both have issues with food and eating and do not want to teach our bad habits to our daughter.
We both have blood pressure issues stemming from weight and our formerly high salt intake so we try very hard to eat low sodium foods.
Because we have a toddler, we try to sneak vegetables into everything we eat. Her favorite food is spaghetti so we have "Hidden Veggie Skettie" at least once a week. I think we are having it tonight!
"Hidden Veggie Skettie" is easy to make. We're poor so it is a combination of what we have and what we can afford to go purchase that ends up in the pot.
Tonight is the night before payday so its all stuff I can find in my cabinets.
We start by browning a pound of ground meat. I've used turkey, chicken, beef, pork...whatever I've had on hand. Wesselman's had ground beef for $1.49 a pound 2 weeks ago so our deep freezer is full of beef already browned and bagged up. I add in chopped onion, an unhealthy amount of garlic that is more than a tablespoon but slightly less than a half cup and let it simmer with some tomato juice. Once its bubbly and the house has so much garlic in the air that you can taste Italians, I put a can of rinsed diced canned beets into the blender. I puree them along with a pound of chopped frozen spinach and add that to the tomato juice. Sometimes I'll blend up carrots or cauliflower too but I'm out of both right now.
Next comes basil, oregano, rosemary, and "secret spices". Once it bubbles and simmers at least 20 minutes, I add in 2 cans of tomatos and when it bubbles well, serve it with wheat pasta...Tonight will be organic whole wheat capanelli. The kind I bought is thinner than spaghetti but not as thin as angel hair. Yum!
Sometimes we have salad and garlic bread with it but again, close to payday so not tonight.
My 3 year old will eat at least two plates and whatever is left after packing hubby's lunch for tomorrow will got in a ziplock bag for the freezer.

Greetings. :)

Hello. My name is Jasmine Sturgill...USI has me listed as Jasmine Goff although tomorrow I celebrate my 4th wedding anniversary. I assure you, my name is actually Sturgill.
I'm a 26 year old senior. I grew up in Evansville on the south and east sides of town. I attended Bosse for most of high school but graduated from Harrison in 2001. I attended USI directly out of high school and stayed for 2.5 years. During that time, I had a bad breakup and had an Aunt and Uncle offer to let me move in with them. So I packed up my crap and moved to Kentucky. I attended Morehead State where I declared Electronic Media Production as my major and Women's Studies as my minor. I worked for the local radio station there, continuing on my experiences in high school radio/tv production and college radio. I loved it but the pay is bad, the hours are worse, the chances for advancement, well, that's something I don't want to get into right now.

I'm listed as a radio/tv major but I think I'm switching or adding a second major since I've got two classes to go for the required classes for that major. I'm leaning towards secondary education with a social science emphasis.

I met my now husband Brian my first day of class the spring of 04 at MSU, we became fast friends, started dating after finals that semester, I moved in with him that December, we married July 23, 2005 and had our daughter (a little early) on Feb 11, 2006.
We lived in Kentucky in a couple apartments/trailers that can only be described with words I'm not sure I should be using for school writing. Then we decided we wanted to live closer to family so we moved in with his mom for what was supposed to be a month or two while we found a house to purchase. Well, a month or two turned into 6 very long months before we moved into a teeny apartment in the town where he worked. We lived there for 18 months before we bought a house in Evansville in May. We are working to get it all fixed up. It was a foreclosure and we got it dirt cheap.

Brian and I are raising a 3 year old little girl named Kiernan Diane. Kiernan is in daycare for the first time in her life now that I'm back in school but she seems much happier with it than I am!
We have a St. Bernard puppy named Chewbacca, two kittens named Vader and Maul and two hamsters named Dora and Diego. All are male so Kiernan and I are kind of outnumbered.

I've stayed home with Kiernan pretty much exclusively the last 3.5 years...Just raising my kid the best way I know how. We are actively trying for another child but I have fertility issues so we're just on a "when it happens, it happens" basis right now.

I am a bit of a big mouth a consider myself an open book so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)