June 21, 2005 (IJ)

Hooray for the first day of summer! It's a beautiful day and I'm loving every minute of it.

Today, we got a new guy at work. His name is Alan and he graduated from Johnson & Wales about a year ago. He works for Tufts University now and just came here to work for the summer. He's a younger guy and I got to teach him everything today. I really think there must be some "red" in me because I love to tell people what to do. Some like to call that "leadership". I like to call it "being bossy". I showed him how to make all the recipes and where everything is.

Here is the Soy vinaigrette I was telling you about. It's a wonderful marinade for grilled chicken and as a dressing for an Asian salad. We use it over Asian vegetables (finely chopped cabbage, bok choy, bell peppers, carrots and snap peas), lo mein and sliced grilled chicken. It's very good.

Soy Sauce -- 1 cup
Water -- 1 cup
Mirin -- 1/2 cup (Mirin is Japanese rice wine. It is very flavorful.)
Sesame Oil -- 1/4 cup
Honey -- 1/4 cup
Sweet Chili Sauce -- 1/2 cup
Orange Juice -- 1/4 cup
Teriyaki Sauce -- 1/4 cup
Lime Juice -- 1 lime
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix well. Start doing something else. Anything . . . Stare at the wall, if you like. (Yield: 1 quart)

That's the recipe exactly how they printed it out for me. Including the sarcastic remarks at the end.

I realized today that young, non-LDS men have a totally different perspective about women than older, non-LDS or young, LDS men do. When I was at work today, I was trying to lift a couple of really heavy cutting boards (think 5 feet long). Alan, the new guy, was standing there watching me struggle with them. Because I'm accustomed to men just noticing my failing effort and stepping in to help me, I expected Alan to offer to carry them for me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed his inner struggle to decide his next move. I could just see these thoughts running through his head, "What should I do? She obviously needs help, but if i offer to assit her will I be accused of doubting her ability to lift heavy objects?" Sadly, chivalry is not dead. Feminity and womanhood is. I thought about how if I was at BYU-Idaho, most of the guys in that room would have offered to help me. Maybe we, as a culture, are old-fashioned. Maybe we're not politically correct. I don't care. I just want to be feminine and not have my female peers scoff at my (sometimes exaggerated) need for masculinity.

(Elizabeth steps off soap box)

Feel free to comment.