Summer Internship WOW!

So yesterday I was offered an unpaid summer internship with Vera Wang. It's in their Production category, which is like product development. I am so excited and really blown away, but at the moment, the biggest issue is monetary. I still have not talked to my father about it, but the first thing my mom mentioned is the money. She's like "That sounds great, but I just don't know if we can afford it."

As of right now, the early financial numbers are:
$1000+ for rent (sharing a studio apt with my friend Shira - she's AWESOME!)
$225 for plane ticket
$90 for taxi to and from JFK
$240 for 3 months of bus passes
$55 for laundry
$100/week for food - $1200 total
$50/week for entertainment - $600 total

That's $3,360 for 2.5 months in NYC... Expensive! But not as bad as I expected. Are my numbers appropriate, for food and entertaining? I realize I probably won't be doing a *LOT* of stuff out and about, but I'd like to have the option.

PLUS food, living, just *life* in general. I want to get a part-time job once I'm in NYC, depending on the hours Vera Wang wants me. It's a freakin dream come true, and the fact that I even had an internship offered to me is amazing. The past three years, I've applied to SO MANY internships and nothing has come through for me. I've been talking to my mom more today, and she's much more positive about it. She's still worried about the finances, and mainly about her little ole EmBee being in such a big city.

I can't say I'm not scared either, but it's a freakin chance of a lifetime! So, yeah, I called the HR woman at Vera Wang today and left a message, trying to let her know that I'm very serious about wanting the position. Her last email yesterday wasn't definitive in the "Yes, you HAVE the job." So, I'm a bit nervous.

So...la la la...I am excited! But nervous...Don't really even know how to approach my father about this.

But, I will do something that I feel is very tacky but I need the help. Someone told me about this website, and considering that my parents don't have $3500 just sitting around for someone to use, I'm looking for any and all donations possible. :-* I love you all!

Grant me my wish!

A greek/arab YUMMMMMMMMMM!!!

So, today I made a very yummy recipe and I must share. I took this directly from my Sparkrecipes page, just to, you know, advertise the greatness.

Kofte & Feta Crustless Quiches

Ingredients

My measurements are the exact for the nutritional information, but feel free to do what you please. It on average takes 5 eggs. 1 cup/5 oz crumbled cooked kofte patties - ground beef with onions, garlic and parsley. 4.25 egg beaters with added yolk 1 egg white 0.5 cup/3.75 oz crumbled feta cheese 0.25 cup/1.45 oz small dice provolone cheese 0.25 cup grated parmes an cheese 3 cloves garlic, diced 1 small hot pepper, diced 1/2 white onion, diced 3 green onions, sliced 1 tsp olive oil 1/3 cup diced tomatoes (I used stewed tomatoes) Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute onions in olive oil. Once translucent, add garlic and pepper. Season these veggies with salt and pepper while cooking. Set these aside to cool (I put them in the refrigerator).

In blender or magic bullet, combine the egg beaters, egg white, tomatoes and salt and pepper quickly. This was to make the tomatoes sli ghtly less chunky and to whip the eggs.

Mix well crumbled beef, feta , provolone, and cooled vegetables together. Add the egg and tomato mixture. Scoop this into a well greased mini muffin pan. This makes a little more than 24 mini quiches (meaning mine spilled over the edges). Try not to overfill the cups. :)

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, and then flip out gently onto a cooling rack. Number of Servings: 24

So what is kofte, exactly? It's a greek/arab beef dish. They're basically what I consider a Mediterranean burger. Gro und beef, parsley, onion, garlic and hot pepper and combined and made into small patt ies. They can be done as kabobs, on skewers and grilled, or just sauted on the stove top. Often the kabobs are eaten more like sandwiches, while the stovetop version is usually made with a chunky tomato sauce and served over rice.

We had some leftover kofte from a few nights ago, along with the tomato sauce. So I took the crustless mini quiche recipes from Eggface, her "bites", and went with it. You don't have to make kofte, though, to m ake these. If you brown ground beef and add onions, garlic and parsley to it, voila!

They're a little higher in fat than I usually prefer, but I used full-fat cheese and ground beef, so, oh well!

Some pics!
A cooked kofte patty pre-crumbling:


The pretty (not so much) pre-cooked mixture of egg, meat, cheeses and veggies:

The cooked bites:

Seriously good eats! Thanks again to Eggface for her many inspirational bite recipes!

It's been a long time...

Sorry ladies and gents, I have been meaning to make another post every week, and it gets put on the backburner.

I have a bit of a headache tonight (I'm getting over a cold from last week), so I just wanted to do a short update.

I finally did my measurements for 3.5 months...So I didn't lose as many inches this past month, but I realize things are going to slow down. Last weight at the gym was 266lbs, and that's with my sneakers on!

Another non-RNY update, and the main reason I've been so friggin busy that I've ignored my blog, is that I've been working on stuff for MorLove. Basically, MorLove is a group of NC State students, some that design and some that do logistics and other things. The designers refashion donated fabrics and garments into new apparel, jewelry, and home wares. We had a fashion show this past weekend in Raleigh. I made/altered 4 garments - a skirt and 3 dresses - for the show.

So yeah, that's consumed my life for a while now...And by the day of the show, I had no voice. Thursday I woke up with a runny nose, and it went downhill from there. Today, I'm just now feeling decent. But still not 100%

On the bright side, from our show on Saturday, MorLove raised $1350 for the Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja, Uganda!!! That's our charity/focus for MorLove, and all the items made are for sale after the show and at Beleza (fair trade boutique in Raleigh, NC). My model, Sarah Jane, loved her blue and white dress so much, she bought it. The other items are still up for sale. ;) We had over 300 people at the show, and it was simply fantastic. So I am so insanely happy to let MorLove consume a few weeks of my life. It's a wonderful cause and the girl that started it is just... it's her heart and soul, and all I've wanted to see from its creation (two years ago) was success.