Airplane Delight

Tips on How to Have a Nice Flight


Yesterday, I just had the nicest flight that I have ever had in my life. I was flying a one way trip to MIC (Kansas City, Missouri) and immediately leaving MO with my grandmother to move her here. I have had a ton of airplane flights in the past with a lot of complaints afterwards. The air travel industry gets a lot of negative wrath, so I thought it would be nice to share some tips on how I had a really delightful time in the sky.


Tip #1- Book the Earliest Flight Possible: I flew on a 5:50 am flight out of RIC (Richmond, VA). Although it stunk to get up that early, it paid off. Everyone was asleep on the plane. It was quiet. There were no upset babies. Plus, if I were to have a connection problem, there are a lot more possibilities to reschedule earlier than later.


Tip #2- Make Alcoholic Jokes with the Flight Attendant: When getting my beverage order, I told the flight attendant that I wanted a coke"straight up." Although I was being a total sleep deprived dork, she laughed and gave me an extra cookie for making her laugh. I like extra cookies that are "free."


Tip #3- Fly Delta with a Connection in Atlanta: If possible, fly Delta connecting in Atlanta. This was the smoothest connection I have ever had. They actually had screens at the gates showing people where their connections were located. The airport personnel were also friendly. 


Tip #4- Be Courteous When Boarding the Plane: I was sitting on the end seats. This made life easy. However, when I found my seat, I put my personal bag on the seat and stepped into my seating area. I let the people who needed to get to the back of the plane go before I stowed away my carry on bag in the overhead apartment. When we were exiting the plane, this woman let no one but ME in front of her because I had been nice to her.


Tip #5- Pretend to Fall Asleep so the Creepy Dude Next to You Won't Talk to You: Enough said.


After this flight, I was picked up my by my grandma and I drove a little over 500 miles to Louisville, KY because I had enough well rested energy (that was about nine hours!). It was really a blessing.


Please feel free to comment any other happy ideas that you may have! :)

The MONSTER MANKILLER FLIES of Charles City

To state the obvious, there are bugs in Charles City. Lots of bugs. However, there is one bug that is truly noteworthy: the monster mankiller fly. This fly not only bites you, but will take a chunk of flesh out and leave you with a swollen wound the size of a grapefruit. They are so big that they fly into windows and either kill themselves or stun themselves and have to lay on the ground for 15 minutes until they can fly away. They come into season around the beginning of August and "bug" you until Thanksgiving. I present pictures below of the terrible, flying, horror.

I hate you, bug. Close-up of the bug scheming how to get into the house and eat my finger from the kitchen window.

The mankiller fly on our kitchen window.

For scale, I am pointing to the fly with my finger so you can see how big he is. Thank goodness we had a pane of glass between us. Otherwise, I might have lost my finger!

Making Indian Food at Home

By no means am I a professional at making Indian food at home. My friend Kunjan in college taught me all about Indian food and I learned to LOVE it. Indian food is much more readily available up North. However, in Virginia, Indian food is really expensive to eat at restaurants that are few and far between. Occasionally, Brad and I will go to Nawab in Williamsburg, or Curry Club in Richmond. They are very good, but have high prices and are far away. We have compromised and learned to "cook" Indian food at home. By no means is this authentic, but it's good for when you need a weekday fix!

Products to Use:

• Simmer Sauces: After you cut up some chicken, all you need to do is brown it and then simmer it in an Indian inspired sauce. You can find a variety of simmer sauces in grocery stores. Our favorites can be found at Martin's, Harris Teeter, and Fresh Market. We have used a simmer sauce from Trader Joe's, but it was lacking flavor, even after we spiced it up a little on our own. For tips on spicing up the chicken, see below.
• Rice: For quick and easy rice on the weeknights, I love to use Microwaveable Jasmine rice by Trader Joe's. It cooks in three minutes. If we are using sweet simmer sauces, such as those made with coconut milk, we will jazz up the rice more (see our rice tip below!)
• Naan: For people who may not be familiar with Indian cuisine, naan is a type of bread that goes with meal. It comes in a variety of ways, such as out of the freezer cases at Walmart. However, we like to purchase Masala Tandoori naan from Trader Joe's. 

Pros of Cooking Indian at Home:

1. It is cheaper
2. You can add spices to the sauce to make it as mild or hot as you like
3. It's tasty
4. You can experiment with different simmer sauces and find some really good ones!
5. It's an easy weeknight meal and makes excellent leftovers for lunch the next day

Cons of Cooking Indian at Home: 

1. It makes your kitchen smell like a NYC taxi cab
2. It has the potential to make you want to consume an entire box of Gas-X 
3. You can choose a simmer sauce that is not so tasty and have a meal that's not tasty
4. It's not as tasty as restaurant (or Kunjan's) cooking

Tips:

Spicing the Chicken: Depending on the type of simmer sauce we use, we like to rub in any combination of the following: curry seasoning, cayenne, dry pepper flakes, and fennel seed. It works best to rub the spices into the chicken before it is cooked.

Sweeten the Rice:If we have a sweet sauce, usually containing coconut milk, we like to make sweet rice. I find that this rice is so tasty that sometimes I don't even want anything else. I just want to eat the rice! This rice should be used in moderation for healthy eaters because we add the following:

• Fennel Seed
• Chopped Pecans
• Golden Raisins
• Shredded Sweet Coconut

Types of Seasonings for Sara and Brad's Tasty Rice

Final Tasty Indian Rice