Good morning!
The headache still rages on. In fact, it woke me up this morning it was so bad. Not a fun way to wake up.
I decided I needed some comfort food this morning…
Since eating leftover high protein garlic mashed potatoes for breakfast might be a bit strange, I decided to turn my leftovers into something magical with the help of leftover Veggie Chickpea Curry.
Ok wait, eating chickpea curry in the morning is also strange. Scratch that. I’m weird.
The other day a reader commented that I should make potato cakes out of the leftovers. What a genius idea! I don’t think I have ever made potato cakes before, but I sure do love the thought of them.
I mixed my leftover mashed potatoes with the leftover curry and formed small patties.
I had a feeling this was going to be awesome.
First I tried pan-frying them.
I do not suggest this…they fell apart and stuck to the pan. I shed a tear but persisted onward.
Onto a baking sheet and into the oven they went! Luckily I saved them. ;)
Baked for about 40 minutes.
Ohhhh yea.
Everything But The Kitchen Sink High Protein Potato Cakes
Ingredients (just estimates):
- ~2 cups high protein garlic mashed potatoes
- ~1 cup Veggie Chickpea Curry (or any veggie leftovers really!)
Directions: Preheat oven to 400F and grease a baking sheet or line with parchment. Mix together and shape into small patties. Bake for about 20 minutes on each side until golden and crispy.
These. were. amazing. I couldn’t really detect the curry at all. It just tasted like awesome crispy garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. :) The chunks of chickpeas were also wonderful to bite into.
As I ate I read some 9/11 articles in the Globe and Mail. Nine years have passed. I have so much respect for the rescue workers and everyday people who risked their lives to help others in need. My brother Chris is a firefighter so it always feels a bit close to home reading about other’s stories.
I still remember everything about the moment when I heard about the attacks. In psychology, we call this a Flashbulb Memory. With a Flashbulb Memory, an emotionally arousing event or piece of news elicits a highly detailed, vivid snapshot of the moment. Everything about the event is illuminated and imprinted into our memory forever. Just picture one of those old flashbulb cameras going off.
I was sitting in my tiny dorm room at the University of Guelph (Lennox-Addington building!), just having started my 1st year of university only days earlier. I was at my large wooden desk sitting in my uncomfortable wooden chair, looking up some of my courses and schedules. Suddenly, my roommate ran in to tell me that there was some kind of attack that happened. We turned the TV on and watched in horror.
I will never forget that moment.
Please take a moment today to remember those that were lost and their families.
Do you have a Flashbulb Memory for 9/11? Do you know where you were when you found out?
I was living an hour outside of D.C. on 9/11 and was a senior in high school. I was in AP Government class when another teacher burst into our room, interrupting the lecture. He was frantic and the first words out of his mouth were “They are evacuating the White House”. We sat there obviously confused and later the news hit and were worried. Our teacher went on the computer and checked out facts. I think I sat in awe and we spent the rest of the day crowded in the library listening to the TV. Later that evening, my friends and I got together for a prayer circle and some companionship.
I was working in surgery and a staff member came into our operating room to tell us what happened. At first we didn’t believe her and she said I would not joke about something like this. One of the nurses went to the computer in our room and was able to pull up news feedstThanks goodness for the internet. Of course our thoughts were focused on caring for our patient, but we couldn’t help but think of the lives that were forever changed that day. It wasn’t until we went home for the day that we realized the severity.
Have you hugged or thanked a armed forces service member, EMS member (police, fire, paramedic, etc) for their service today? Please do! For those involved and effected by 9/11….you will never be forgotten.
I’ve got flashbulb memories of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Columbine School Massacre (I live about 5 miles from that school), and of course 9/11. I was driving to work at the time, but I had a CD in so I hadn’t heard the radio. I heard about it when I got to work and saw it online. At first everyone thought there must’ve been a pretty bad rainstorm in NYC that caused a plane to get lost, or that it was a little commuter plane. It wasn’t until the second plane hit that it hit home that this was a terrorist attack. We all watched a tv in the conference room. When I walked in was when the first tower fell. I totally freaked out. I’m from the NYC area, and my family had visited the WTC years ago and I remember how BIG those buildings were, and all I could think of were all the people trapped inside. My boss let us go home early that day. I started getting really anxious, not just because of what else might happen that day, but for my husband (then boyfriend) who was a navigator in the Air National Guard, and I was worried about him possibility being called to active duty (which did happen about 6 months later). My heart goes out to all the victims of not just WTC and the Pentagon, but across the globe to the England attacks, etc, and to their families and friends. I also am so humbled by all the brave men and women of the NY fire and police departments who risked their lives to go into those buildings to save other lives. Absolutely amazing, amazing people! And I’m also so thankful for all the men and women in the military – they’re brave people as well!
I was sitting in my history class when my principal announced what happened over the loudspeaker. I will never forget..
I was 13 years old and in school. I didn’t know what the Twin Towers were. My friend loved NYC and knew all about it. We had a service in school as we awaited more details. I didn’t really understand.
I came home and my mom hugged my twin sis and I and she explained it more. People may diss George Bush, but his speech actually comforted me (unlike our current president, cough cough, sorry don’t mean to drag politics into this). I was a selfish teenager and was acting like I didn’t care, cuz I honestly didn’t. But that night I was watching the interviews with people on the street. And they interviewed one woman who couldn’t find her fiance. He worked in the Twin Towers…and she didn’t know if he was alive or dead. That just hit me. I excused myself and sat on the stairs and cried. I felt so sad for everyone who didn’t know if they had lost something. Imagine the stress and fear! No one deserves to experience that. My heart was so heavy.
Remember 9/11!
I’m sorry your head is still killing you!! Thos epotato pancakes look delicious though!
I was a freshman in high school and found out that morning while watching Good Morning America. We had a delayed start from school that day (we had one every 2nd Tuesday of the month) and I actually watched the second plane hit the second tower. It was very scary and we really didn’t have any idea what was going on. We still went to school, but all activities/etc. were cancelled that day. I remember there being NOTHING on the TV for weeks after that – I even remember the kids stations had only 9/11 news on it!
I too was in my dorm room at U of G… East Res though!!
I was 13 and we had just got back into class after lunchtime. We had a substitute teacher that day and she was visibly shook up. She said that there had been a terrorist attack in NYC on the Twin Towers. I remember one classmate asking questions – she seemed to understand what a terrorist attack was. I didn’t know what the Twin Towers were or what a terrorist attack meant. But the look on everyone’s face told me it was serious so I played along as best I could! Even after seeing the footage, I didn’t quite get it. It took me a long time to understand what had happened and how huge it all was.
i was getting ready for picture day at school, and i seriously thought it was “when building collapse” a demolition show. It was freaky
I remember I was in the 6th grade and it was right before school. My cousin and mom were telling me what happened and I completely did not understand the magnitude of the situation at all. I was more worried about getting ready and what I was going to be wearing, which I also remember exactly.
I definitely have a flashbulb memory for 9/11. I was driving to University when I found out. I remember that that was all we talked about at school that day, and then when I got home, all I did was watch the news.
I was working at my old job in a radio station as the receptionist, and I remember how the whole programming went freeform for at least the following week – it seemed like an outlet for people to really express their feelings through song choices and getting on air. My husband had a friend from school who died, and I remember going to her funeral and crying even though I had never met her. I cried when they put up photos on the TV of people who had died – it made it seem even more real. Never forget.
I was in history class in the 10th grade. We had our books open to a page with a photo of the wtc towers. The teacher’s aide ran in and told us the news. We weren’t sure the severity of it all until next period. Our teacher for that period went about class as normal. I don’t know why, no one could focus.
I very vividly remember what I was doing and I think I always will. Mine was pretty similar to yours actually. It’s interesting that we will likely remember it as strongly as our grandparents remember the attack on Pearl Harbor.
What a poignant post about your flashbulb memories. Yes, I have some too. My husband and I (who was my fiancee then) has JUST moved across the country 2 weeks prior and knew no one. All of a sudden, we felt like we were the only two people in the world we had, the world felt like it was crumbling down around us, we were living in a new place, and all we did for a week was watch the news. It actually still chokes me up to think about it.
Thank you for talking about this today, Angela! :)
And your eats look great of course too!
I have lived and worked in the suburbs of NYC my entire life. In 2001, I was going into downtown Manhattan 2 -3 times per week for work. Luckily 9/11 was not one of those days as I would have been right in the thick of it. I remember everything about the day itself. We had one small radio in my office and we were all huddled around it listening to the news (in the weeks that followed we decided it was a good idea to buy a tv). We were following it on our computers until our servers went down (and stayed down for the next three weeks – they were in lower Manhattan). I remember how the airspace was shut down over the City and the only planes in the sky were fighter jets. I remember how all the highways and parkways were shut down for all but emergency responders heading into the City. I remember driving home from work and everyone was in such a daze that there were no horns honking or other street noises that you would usually find on a NY street. It was quiet. I remember being glued to the tv for hours, as was everyone else I knew. I later learned that they stopped showing some of the most grizzly images on the news in NY because it was just too hard to see. I remember how our local newspapers for weeks would profile those lost. I remember people lining up to donate blood for victims, which unfortunately was never needed.
I also remember how wonderful New Yorkers can be (a fact which non-New Yorkers often do not see). The stories from colleagues that I would hear for the next several weeks about their experiences that day. How everyone worked together. How there were more people trying to volunteer to help than could be used. So, although I do have the “flashbulb” memories of what happened that day, I also remember so much more.
wow Liz, that’s amazing. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t there can really imagine what it was like to be there. So sad. The company I worked for created educational software for accounting, so a lot of our clients had NY offices either in the trade center or across the street. One lady in particle worked for Deloitte & Touche and she worked in one of the buildings directly across the street. I hadn’t heard from her for a few weeks, then she called our office. I asked her how she was doing, and all she said was that she was trying to get over what she had seen that day. I was at a loss for words, how do you cope with something like that. It’s so mind boggling, and even to this day I have such a hard time getting my head around something like that. I hope you are doing well.
One thing that I found very inspiring, at that same company I fielded all of the emails that came from our website. We were a global company. For the next few days (and weeks), so many emails came in from people all over the world expressing their grief and condolescenses, even though were were halfway across the country and weren’t physically affected by the attacks. It really lifted my spirits to read those emails. Also, I remember several websites had lots of slide shows, and one in particular had photos of that night and all of the candlelight vigils, not just in NY, Washington and across the country, but around the world. In a small way that was comforting to know that there are people in this world with compassion for their fellow human beings.
Thanks Gail. I fortunately did not loose anyone that day, but so many did. The History Channel usually runs some wonderful shows on 9/11. They are hard to watch. They make me cry every year, yet I feel compelled to watch them. It may sound strange, but I don’t want to forget the details of that day. Remembering, is how I try to honor those who lost their lives and those who gave of themselves at that time. It has been pointed out that there were many first responders who were rushing into the buildings in an attempt to save people they did not know, even as everyone else was trying to get out. For weeks thereafter, people volunteered to work “the pile” looking for survivors. Many of those same people have suffered chronic health problems since then. Their selflessness is the true definition of “hero” and I want to remember that, so one day, when my children are old enough to ask questions about 9/11, and I have to tell them about how some bad men did some bad things that day, I can also tell them about all of the good men and women there are in the world.
I don’t comment too often here because I’m a trifle shy :) but I felt the need to come out of the woodwork for just a moment to respond to this particular post. I always find myself smiling at your blog on my screen because we seem to have several funny things in common but today you truly touched a nerve. Your “flashbulb” description is, almost verbatim, the exact same as mine. I remember it so vividly which is odd because I hadn’t transitioned to dorm life very well (I was so homesick!) so those few months are a bit of a blur. I remember that day, though. I just sat in the floor of my dorm room, rocking and crying for, well, for everyone. A very old friend of mine was in the Pentagon just the day prior. It still sends a cold shudder through me just to think of it.
So, thank you for all the wonderful recipes and conversation but, today at least, thank you for always sharing so much of yourself with us. Even those of us who don’t speak up often appreciate it more than you know.
P.S. Hope your headache lifts soon! I’m a yoga instructor and I find holding the inverted poses like Downward Dog or even a headstand against a wall for a minute or two can help to alleviate head pain for me. Feel better!
i was in my ex’s car with him and my best friend. we all went to the same college so he drove us every day. we were listening to preston & steve, a local morning comedy radio talk show, and preston said “we have to stop and take a break. i was just handed a bulletin that a plane hit the world trade center in new york. this is not a joke.” they had just stopped talking about what steve should call his mother-in-law, mom, first name, etc. we immediately flipped to kyw, philly’s news station.
i was wearing a white v-neck tee and denim shorts and hippie socks with punch-buggies and flowers on them and my new sketchers. i packed a cheese sandwich with some herr’s popcorn for lunch. and that’s just the incidentals. all the moments of tv coverage, profs and students melting down, the empty streets driving home, the stillness of the world, the emergency notifactions my dad, a cop, got from the city, buying water jugs at acme, all still there too. and the weather, that beautiful weather. just like today. flashbulb for damn sure.
Oh man, those look sooooooo good. I just love mashed potatoes.
My memory is almost exactly like yours. I had just started college and was asleep in my dorm room at Colorado State University when my neighbor pounded down my door with news about an attack and we all gathered around the TV to figure out what was happening.
I have even stronger memories of Columbine (probably because that happened to high school kids just like me about an hour away from my high school) which always seems to surprise people.
It seems like quite many of us had just started university 9 years ago. I had moved away from New York just a few days earlier, to start college in Europe – I had had to change my flight for an earlier date due to changed class schedule. When I heard about the attacks, I was in a furniture shop looking for some items for my new apartment. It was my aunt who called me, asking if I’d seen the news. I didn’t have a TV or internet connection in my apartment yet (I had just moved in that day), so I heard most of the news on the radio. I knew several people working both in the World Trade Center and in Pentagon – but thankfully they were all safe. My thoughts go to those who were not, and to the rescue workers – both people and dogs – many of whom now suffer from life long health problems.
On a lighter note, I wish I had waited using up my leftover mashed potatoes today! Your potato cakes look great!! :)