Kale and Potato Galette

I am a huge fan of kale and I absolutely love potatoes so I might be a little bias with how wonderful I think this dish tastes. This galette really brings Kale and potatoes together in a different way. I made it as a side dish during thanksgiving so I really chose it for the presentation: it is more pie-like so it would be something great to make when having guests over.

Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables. It provides vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, manganese, fiber, copper, tryptophan, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium, iron, magnesium, vitamin E, omega-3 fats, vitamin B2, protein, vitamin B1, foliate, phosphorus and vitamin B3.

Ingredients

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp ground ginger

2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

(To peal a tomato: bring enough water to cover the tomatoes to a boil. With a knife, make a very small x on the tomatoes skin. Put the tomatoes into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove the tomatoes and immediately put in iced water to stop the cooking. Remove the tomatoes and peel with your fingers.)

1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1.5 inches oil for frying

Salt and ground black paper to taste

Method

Heat vegetable oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Stir until onion is softened, about five minutes. Add curry powder, turmeric, ginger and tomatoes, stirring until tomatoes are softened. Add kale and stir to coat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until kale is tender and wilted. Fry the potatoes in the oil over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 220 degrees c. lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Cover the bottom of the casserole dish with a layer of potato slices. Top with a layer of kale mixture. Season with salt and paper. Continue layering with the remaining potatoes and Kale mixture, ending with a potato layer. Bake until potatoes are slightly browned around the edges, about 35 minutes.

DUDE? NO MEANS NO. PLAIN & SIMPLE!

Am afraid men need to be careful not to cross these imaginary lines they seem to think exist. One might cost them KShs.50,000 for an elegant dinner but the other might cost them years in prison for trying to get what they 'want' by sheer force. So he thinks you meant 'yes' when you said 'no'. What part of 'No' is so difficult to understand? A guy thinks that just because he bought you dinner or drinks or whatever at the Inter Continental that you are supposed to fall all over him and instantly jump into bed with him. Seriously?

We don't want to be rushed. If we say no, really they should respect that. There's nothing wrong with them making sure we are serious, i.e try to touch us once more and see how we respond but for crying out loud, why do they second guess? Any man reading this, please, talk to us while you're making your move. That'll typically loosen us up and make us more willing to get with you – If we want to.

I'm sure at one time or another, we all meet Mr. Great Persuasiveness and Sexual language prowess, Smooth and Sharp,  who will sweep our hesitations away with their manliness,  that we won't possibly resist, but believe you me, it’s an effort he has personally put in to see how weak or strong you are in having your wishes respected. He doesn't know if you will say yes. No he doesn't. He gets the cues from you.

Dolls, please don't let him second guess your voice and actions or body language. Get treated with dignity. You are a precious gem, act it. Go out have fun, get drunk on the very drinks they call 'Panty Removers' but refuse to get physical. It wasn't about sex, was it? This might irritate him a little considering he was 'undressing' you with his eyes back at the bar, barely waiting to get to bed with drunk you. But you have no idea by how many degrees his respect for you will shoot up when you say No. Let him ask to date you, make you feel special, suggest fun games together and treat you like a person, a super girl, not a woman he can hopefully get something from. Then you might reconsider.

We might as well make this phrase our little anthem; “Just don't rush me! Good things come to those who wait”  :-)

Written by Ricalda

WANTING WHAT YOU HAVE

Growing up I always wondered what that phrase meant. Am not sure it even makes complete sense at this point now. But the reverse of that of course is having what you want. This is a never ending fixation for everyone. We never have enough and that is why it is important to actually desire that which you have at the present moment. Schooling in contentment you might say.

I am one of those who are never fulfilled. I am always waiting for things to get better, never savoring the present moment. And I seem to never learn that nothing lasts forever. Even if I get that raise. Even if I buy those gorgeous new boots. Even if I get that darling haircut. I will still not be happy ceaselessly. Contentment is an unstable emotion. It fades like the wind. And it sure is a quest of fairy-tale proportions to expect myself to always be blissful.

On the contrary, it is normal though to wish for more. To yearn for more. To grow is only healthy. But then I wonder; when will I just learn to embrace the now? When will learn that I am perfect for now? That today I am actually at my ideal. I used to look at other women my age and think they have it all together. That they have everything figured out. I look at my older siblings and wonder if they were ever as confused as I was at this point in their lives. What did they do to get that perfect job, meet that perfect man, and have those perfect kids with that perfect house? Luckily I am slowly learning.

Lately I have come to realize that I was fooling myself. I was only on the outside looking in. When I spent more time with these women, I realized so many parallel paths to my own. They were not anywhere close to faultless beings. They had the same struggles I did and funny enough they even reminded me of myself. So I am now on a new journey to water my own grass and would love to share the knowledge I have accrued so far:

·         Getting outside of my head: Sometimes I am so confused by my own problems that it leads to a lot of navel gazing. I go round and round in circles that eventually lead nowhere. I have learnt to let out a deep breath for a moment and be concerned about the people I love instead of on my own issues.

·         Having a gratitude journal: At the end of each day, I take time to write down all the good things that are happening to me, no matter how few of those they may be. There is always something to be thankful for. And whether you believe in the power of the universe or not, this always has a positive effect on your outlook.

·         Express my anxiety: Sometimes we bottle up all our emotions, assuming no one else would ever understand what we are going through. But once you open up to close friends or people with similar interests to yours, you realize that a person is a social creature who needs that human connection with others to strive.

·         Indulge in your creature comforts: Do whatever it is that nourishes your soul. Makes you laugh. Makes you stop being so self-aware. For me it is music and dancing. Music just hits all the right spots. I can become any character I want with music. I can be anything with my own amazing soundtrack in the background. You will love yourself and life even the more.

Written by Freddy Njery

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU ATTRACT YOUR RELATIONSHIP PARTNERS?

Just the other day, I was having a light conversation with a dear friend of mine. She mentioned that the reason why she doesn't have a partner yet is that she keeps getting the wrong guys- they were either too crazy, too drunk, too young, too short, too needy or something just wasn't right. It seemed like a cycle and nothing magical came out of the little short-lived relationships she had with these guys. The big elephant in the room was this: How come we (including my friend) keep coming across almost the same type of people in our quest to find a suitable partner? I firmly believe that we attract these people into our experience. Yes, the guy or girl you are with, you attracted them into your life.

See, the concept of The Law Of Attraction is often very controversial and sometimes very abstract for most people. But, in simple terms this law works this way: like attracts like. Simple. I know, I know, we have always thought polar opposites attract. Nevertheless, according to the law of nature, things, people, and thoughts tend to attract similar things, people and thoughts. That is why some people hang out with each other and are comfortable around each other- their thinking (thoughts) and their emotions, interests and preferences are agreeable and are more or less similar to each other’s.

However, attraction happens on a deeper level, beyond your rational mind. Attraction is subconscious. What you attract or bring to yourself is as a result of all the cumulative experiences and reinforced thoughts and beliefs you have come to live by all your life. Now let us apply this concept to a relationship between a guy and a girl. Every guy or girl whom you come across, you have brought to yourself through your thoughts. They might not be the kind of partner you are looking to be with, but in truth, your subconscious thoughts have been thinking about this same exact person that you utterly do not want to be with. When you start to date a drunk, you really did attract a drunk with your thoughts. When you attract a needy girl, you really brought this type of person in your life. It is not that you want this type of partner; it’s just that you are focusing more on the type of partner you do not want and focusing your thoughts less on  the  kind of girl or guy you want.

I know, it may all seem very complex but at the heart of it all is the truth that we can change the type of partners we attract into our lives. It may not be easy because over the years we have been conditioned to think more about what we do not want to happen. We often lose focus of the ideal situation or the ideal partner that we want. How about you start to pay more attention to thinking about the wonderful qualities of the girl or guy that you want and see if you will not bring just that person into your life.

Written by Donna Moses

RECOGNITION IN WOMEN’S SUCCESS:

Here’s something I have a problem with:

I was in class and I was one of the only female representatives among many men arguing my case… But here is what I said,

“Women have to work three times harder in a male dominant industry.”

That statement alone started an argument.

My teacher then got to saying that he worked so hard in his previous job for a long time and he stayed in the same position while the women that he came in with had all been promoted and are now his bosses. Apparently he says he has better records than they did, even did better than they did in school. Then he went on and said how women are favored a lot. In some cases I can’t argue with that or say how false or true that is, but here is when the problem began:

Some random male student says that successful women are sleeping with their bosses or had to do something on that sense to get where they are today. Pause.

Another male student supports him and says that every time you see a woman driving a big car, or an expensive vehicle it’s obvious where or how she got it. That she must have been bought for the car by some male friend.

That statement and that kind of thinking is what got me fired up!

So is that what all men think? That women that are successful or well off in the society had to sleep around with their bosses to get their position?

There are women like me and a couple, actually most or all the women I know work twice as hard as the men to get to where they are today. I imagine it’s hard for a pretty woman to earn respect from her boss to get somewhere further or without having to deal with the boss hitting on her, asking her to sleep with her or demanding something back for exchange. I’m guessing it is because of that stereotype way of thinking.

I once heard, ok not once but I’ve heard it a lot that some chic says she’s turned down a job offer or quit her job because the person hiring her was asking for sex. I’m shocked that these things still happen to be honest.

I don’t see or hear of cases where a successful woman goes around asking men to sleep around with her to offer them a position or promotion either.

It’s sad when a woman goes to the extreme of actually doing it because of desperation. Leave alone that, why should any man take advantage of any woman that way?

All in all, my argument is, I can’t stand this stereotypical way of thinking that women that have made it and are successful had to sleep with someone to get there. Stop it! It’s not true. Give us credit that we deserve, not all women are the same. All in all, hard work pays.

Written by Sylvia Oloo

A Man’s Thinking:

Love is patient; love is kind, love keeps no records of wrongs... hold on, that is not what Basketball House wives preaches. Welcome to 2012, where men have evolved and changed the scope of dating tactics. I pity the fools who sit there and watch the table being turned on them. Relationships are complicated and I'm very sure there is someone reading this article and wishing for his/hers to end. What are you doing wrong? Hitting it right, remembering the lie, listening to her, picking her call after three missed trials. Let me take you into a man's head layout why we result to cheating.

Men are "dogs" and all "dogs" can be tamed. It's how you treat a man that will make him crawl back for more. Personally, I love ladies but I don't hang around most of them. Why? I get turned off immediately she starts using the 'buy me this, buy me that' phrase on day one. Getting pampered is ok, but some minds just revolve around that. You meet her on the first day and as you are escorting her she stops at an LV window puppy eyeing you to get her one. Even if I do, you will be in the 'friends with benefit' list no matter how serious we get in future.

Lilly was a nice girl, she would check up on me if I got home, call randomly to say hi and send those cute aaaaaaaw texts. No Homo. I am a very detail dude, a slight off on tweeze will be spotted two meters away, but that's not it. She was so religious I always felt out of place. I remember when she saw my tattoo and she gave me a lecture on how I brought a curse to the relationship. I don't mess around when it comes to prayer but must you freak out somebody by pointing out their imperfections? Men are simple beings. That is why it's easier for us to cope with a problem, we don't over think it. 

Tell a man he has sauce on his shirt, he will get a wet napkin and try wipe it off and if it doesn't budge, f*** it. Point out the same to a lady, you will end up taking her home to change. It's never that serious, we like a lady who feels confident with herself, its sexy yo! I mean you will doubt yourself till the rapture? Huh, ati no that's the ODM campaign bus when Gideon's Trumpet sounds.

There are five types of men you will meet: (1) The nice guy, (2) the dick you know, (3) the dick you don't know, (4) the nice guy you don't know and (5) the dick you don't care to know. They all have one weakness, the P. Yes you will see us calling that lady we don't like a hoe but be the first to plug in our shit when we get an invitation, honesty speaking never put all the blame on a man when he cheats, we are that weak, it is what it is.

Be smart, if you want to be giving it to him you better plan on not stopping. If you haven't because you are waiting for your wedding keep it that way, morals will push him on whether or not he will cheat. If you don't keep him on toes, don't raise alarm when he starts walking into the house later than before. We are human beings and we forget. That is why we need to be reminded that there is something good waiting for us somewhere else. This is real talk, the thought of cheating has crossed every man's mind not once but severally. For an average dude, the thought of sex will pop up in their mind at least once each hour, put my point a leash on him.

These were just my opinions but I strongly believe in them, take it or leave it, cheers. 

Written by Dan Obura

My Spinkly Nail Art Secrets

For all those curious to know how I get my nails all spruced up, I decided I’ll share some secrets of mine. The first thing that everyone asks me is whether I buy fake nails or whether they are real. The truth is, it’s all real and all mine. So there’s no telling for sure how my nails really grow that long. Although if I was to give any advice on that I’d say eat healthy. What you eat reflects back on your nails. I also avoid a lot of hand washing activities like dishes and clothes because this tends to break my nails a lot. Dish washers and washing machines should be your friends.  Taking a shower is no problem, so please don’t start skiving. If your nails don’t grow long that’s still not a problem, there are a lot of designs for short nails as well.

What you will need:

The first thing you need to get when you’re doing nail art is a design brush. If you don’t have a thin brush for nail art (like me) then buy the nail polish that already comes with a thin brush.

Here are some of the ones I use:

If not the thin brush, there’s the nail polish with the pointed end and it’s like writing with a pen nib.

  Here are the ones I use, usually find them at Super Comsetics:

Always put white under neon colors to give it a brighter and a more defined look.

Neon colors:

 

How it looks with a white base coat:

To give the nail art a sparkling look, you can use the glitter nail polish on top of your nail art designs.

These are the glitter nail polishes that I use as the top coat:

Here is a nail art design I came up with that you can try. It’s a fire flame inspired design;

I normally come up with the designs I put on my nails. If I don’t have any nailart ideas I seek inspiration elsewhere:

You can either copy it exactly or make a few changes like I did to make it easier to give this final look:

When in a hurry, I go with cracking nail polish also known as shutter nail polish. I usually like mixing the colors to make it more fun. Cracking nail polish can be found at Super Cosmetic if you want to keep it simple with the nail art.

With cracking nail polish it is advisable to first use a base color. Then let it dry and apply the cracking nail polish on top. The final look will depend on the colors you decide to use. 

 

This is what the cracking nail polish looks like, my favorite brand is:

I still haven’t been able to do a water marble nail art on my own. My sister is the expert on this and she does it for me. Here is how to do it: 

Some of the nail art water marble that my sister has done for me:

 

I also like buying nail accessories and mixing it up with polish. Mostly I use stickers:

Here’s some of the nail art I’ve done using stickers:

Hope you enjoyed, let me know which ones you liked best and check out our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/spinklynailart