God Bless Nigeria

Dedicate one tweet today to #GodblessNigeria

RIP ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Gone so soon at 40, Mr Mcqueen will forever remain in our minds as a legendary fashion icon. We love you Alexander Mcqueen, xoxo.

Fashion and Music

Nina Simone is the epitome of music in the 60s; she sang and made remarkable tracks. She was a recognizable talent in jazz, blues, classical, folk and soul music. She was a civil rights activist not only with messages in her song but actively participating in meetings and marches. Her style of fashion was subtle and afrocentric. For more info about Nina go to

http://www.ninasimone.com/

Cold Spell

2010 started with freezing temperatures in the south. I couldn’t comprehend the fact that it was chilly in Florida State. I remember two/three years ago when I was in Miami in the month of January it was blazing hot, so what went wrong in 2010?? Global warming-so what if in the next three years it begins to snow, where will the snowbirds move to??. However, towards the middle of this month, it began to get warmer

                                          Miami 2/3 years ago in January

                                           Miami 2010 January (chilly weather)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

WISHING EVERYONE A PROSPEROUS 2010

Jollof Rice

Jollof rice is one of my favorite foods when it comes to Nigerian meals. There are different variations of jollof rice but all I care about is the pepper seasoning and small amount of oil. Below is a recipe of jollof rice

400 g chicken
Salt and ground red pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
1L (1-3/4 pt) stock or water with 3 crushed maggi cubes
2 large onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2-3 chilies (hot peppers), finely chopped
5 large tomatoes- grounded
45 g (3 tablespoons) tomato paste
250 g (8 oz) each of assorted chopped vegetables, e.g. carrots, green beans, 
sweet corn etc
500 g (1 lb) long-grain rice

Cut chicken into small pieces and season with salt and pepper. Cover and allow to stand for 1-2 hours.
Heat oil in fry-pan and fry chicken until brown. 
Heat up 2 cooking spoons of oil and add the onions, garlic, chilies and fry until golden. Add the blended tomatoes and tomato paste to mixture. Stir, add seasoning and simmer for 7 minutes. Wash the rice and stir in uncooked rice into the mixture. Add the stock and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Add the assorted chopped vegetables and continue to cook until rice softens. Serve hot and garnish with lettuce or any garnishing of your choice.

Courtesy of Afrolems blog http://afrolems.wordpress.com/

México

My trip to México was remarkable: “haga usted dice el espanol” was the number question I was asked (I had to Google this to make sure what I was been asked).I went to Matamoros and Reynosa in Tamaulipas. The stories and warnings about kidnappings besmirched my mind that I didn’t want to interact with the locals or go to places where there were no tourists. However, there were some safe places to go to for food like Garcia’s-tourist haven. There were lots of typical places like pizza hut, subway, burger king, chili’s  and the likes. The malls were fun to glance around, some items cracked me up but when it comes to leather sandals and accessories they got it hands down. One annoying peeve was the infrequency of their network, it was horrendous. My Blackberry messenger friends (especially in Nigeria) had to make fun of my situation-I got messages 2hours after it was sent, how pathetic. Overall, México is a culturally enriched place if you are bold enough to go to the local places.