Author: Emily Gautreaux

Nicholls Summer Camps to Enjoy

Nicholls Performing Arts Camp has put on another show! This magical performance transported its viewers to the magical world we all have experienced, Dr. Seus’s world. The Fifty-three campers, ages that range from as low as 7 to 17, participated in the production of “Seussical, Jr.”. The performances were held at the Mary and Al Danos Theater on June 13-15 at 7p.m. and June 16th at 3p.m.

Nicholls website states that the show will:

“Transport audiences from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat narrates the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called the Whos. Horton must protect the Whos from a world of naysayers and dangers, and he must also guard an abandoned egg that’s been left in his care by the irresponsible Mayzie La Bird. Although Horton faces ridicule, danger and a trial, the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him.  Ultimately, the powers of friendship, loyalty, family and community are challenged and emerge triumphant!”

“Seussical” originally debuted in 2000 and has done two U.S tours. It was written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty who have both won Tony Awards.  “Seussical” is often also a pick for school productions and regional theatre productions.

Not only were there multiple performances, but on Saturday, June 15th there was a brunch that was hosted by the cast. This brunch only cost $25 and the cast actually performed skits from the production. The general admission tickets were only $10.

This is not the only summer camp that was offered by Nicholls. Their Continuing Education page has an entire list of all of the camps that are offered this summer. Here are a few that might be as enjoyable as the Performing Arts Camp:

Cooking with Chemistry Camp 

This camp will teach campers how to use chemistry and biochemistry to make materials that are edible and it is done in an actual science lab

Greek-Roman Mythology Camp

Who doesn’t enjoy learning about all of the ancient Greek and Romans gods and goddesses. Their myths will be explored and games and crafts will also be included.

Optical Illusion Art Summer Camp

The idea of an optical illusion is to present something that actually isn’t there. This camp will teach the campers how to apply this to the aspect of creating art.

Chess Camp

Mike Papa, was awarded the title of National Master from the United States Chess Federation in 1985, will be the instructor of this camp. Beginners are welcomed and so are those who are on a more advanced level.

Coding Wizard! Computer Coding Summer Camp

This camp not only dables in the use of coding over 70 apps, but campers will use their own wands to control them. This Hogwarts themes coding camp is perfect for those who love computers but also love the magical.

Colonel Artist Summer Camp

This camp is not the typical art camp, it included multiple different types of materials and concepts to create multiple different pieces of art. This week long camp will end with a gallery show!

For more education related information, click here.

 

Cod Recipes for the Summer

Cod is a an easy summer go to that everyone should try at one point or another.  Cooking dinner every night can be a hassle and sometimes leftovers just won’t cut it. Today.com not only shared an awesome Cod Filet Dish but the leftover fish from this meal can be used to make another recipe. What is better than two dinners coming from one?

COD FILET DISH

INGREDIENTS

UTENSILS

  • Baking dish

INSTRUCTIONS

The oven first needs to be preheated to 375 degrees; this gives you the perfect opportunity to use butter to grease the baking dish. Take the finely sliced onion and place it on the bottom of the baking dish. Place the Cod filets on top of the onion.

Once the filets are in the baking dish, season them with freshly ground black pepper, coriander, and salt. Take the parsley leaves and place them on top of the filets. Place the orange, lemon, and lime slices in an alternate pattern on top of the filets to ensure that the juices are evenly distributed. Top it off with the extra virgin olive oil.

Place the baking dish into the oven and cook for about 10-15 minutes. The fish should flake easily when it is touched with the fork. Once the filet has cooled a little, remove the slices of citrus and serve the cod.

The best part about this recipe is the fact that you can use the leftover Cod to make other recipes. Start off with the Citrus Baked Cod on Monday night,and use the extra filets to make dinner the next night.

COD TACOS WITH CREMA AND CABBAGE SLAW

INGREDIENTS

  • Leftover Cod, or you can make a new batch
  • Cabbage Slaw Ingredients
    • 1 pound of shredded cabbage
    • 1 small jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
    • 2 limes, fully juiced
    •  ½ cup of cilantro, finely chopped
    • ¼ cup or red onion, finely sliced
    • 1 teaspoon of salt
    • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
  • Chipotle Crema Sauce

DIRECTIONS

Making the Chipotle Crema Sauce

Take the small bowl and add all of the ingredients for the Crema Sauce. Whisk the ingredients together, cover the bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator until the recipe is ready to be served.

Making the Cabbage Slaw

Take the shredded cabbage and add it to a medium/large sized bowl. Make sure to toss the cabbage with the salt first. Add the oil and lime juice next, making sure to toss every time a new ingredient is added to make sure everything is distrusted evenly. Add the onions, cilantro, and jalapeno.

Making the Tacos

Heat up the cod in a pan to the desired temperature. Warming up the tortillas is the next step, they can be heated up in the microwave. Pro tip: tortillas that are cooked over an open flame on the stove for 30 seconds can make a huge difference in the way the tacos taste. But be careful!

Place the heated fish on a plate and break apart to make it easier to serve. Set up a Taco Station with the Cabbage Slaw and Crema (and any other toppings you would like). Place the fish on top of a warm tortilla and top it off with the crema and slaw! Serve hot for the best flavor.

For more delicious recipes, click here.

 

Nicholls In Top 25 Affordable Online Programs

Nicholls State University was recently listed as on of the top 25 affordable online programs.  Online education has radically changed the landscape of education. We’re learning in a new and more efficient environment, one with endless opportunities for students of every kind. The virtual learning environment (VLE) is innovation that is replacing an office-building’s worth of administrators, teaching assistants, file cabinets, and paperwork. VLE such as Blackboard, Canvas, and Renweb extend both the classroom and the administrator’s office. Automatically handling teaching and administrative duties such as gradebooks, auto-scoring, attendance sheets, enrollment, updating class lists, auto-sending emails for absent students, notifying people of unpaid bills, and tracking payroll and accounting information.

Along with the convenience and efficiency, online learning is moving more toward heavy use of mastery learning which requires students to master a concept or skill before moving ahead. Instead of treating a 60 or 70 as a “passing grade,” students have to demonstrate mastery in that topic by answering all or almost all of the questions correctly.

Our own Nicholls State University has been ranked one of the top 25 Most Affordable Online Business Bachelor’s Degrees by College Choice (CollegeChoice.net) which is an online resource that aims to help students and their families as they research and compare colleges to find one that fits their interests and needs based on its research and analysis.

Nicholls earned the 25th spot out of 30 and is one of four to make the list from Louisiana. College Choice analyzes several factors to come up with their list including the cost of the degree, the value of the degree and the convenience of the degree.  Nicholls charges no out-of-state fees to distance learners and  “there are no set login times for online classes; it’s important for students to be independent and self-motivated.”

Nicholls has been ranked among the nation’s Top Public Schools  and Best Regional Universities in the South by U.S. News and Worlds Report.

Students say that Nicholls does a great job of incorporating Project Based Learning (PBL) despite the challenges that online education present.  Online PBL programs cover all the main learning outcomes while also training students to share and organize responsibilities.  Students would be responsible for tasks such as: giving peer review, working in teams, engaging in self-directed learning, breaking down projects into smaller parts, and solving complex problems. To be successful, online ed students must stay plugged in to the process and will need to learn how to communicate with peers and be a good team player. A great deal of your online education success in a PBL setting depends on your ability to work with other students.

PBL helps to avoid the isolation that many online ed students face in poorly-designed programs.  It’s easy for online ed students to drift through their studies as strangers who never truly engage one another. Fortunately, Nicholls has made great strides to implement collaborative online learning strategies to confront this challenge.

In online education, collaborative learning is carried out by various programs and platforms to allow for video conferencing, texting, email, teleconferencing, and workflow programs. Chances are, you will use these programs and skills later on in your professional life as well.  Students claim feeling much more prepared for their careers after being trained in an online degree.

For more education news and information, click here.

Remembering Leah Chase, New Orleans Icon

Leah Chase, New Orleans legend, passed away at age 96.  She left an indelible impact not only on the New Orleans community, but the world at large.

Leah Chase was born to Catholic Creole parents and grew up Madisonville, Louisiana. Chase was one of 13 siblings and they all helped cultivate the land, especially on the 20-acre strawberry farm her father’s family owned, which Chase described as having significant impact on her life and her vast knowledge of food:

“I always say it’s good coming up in a small, rural town because you learn about animals. Kids today don’t know the food they eat. If you come up in a country town, where there’s some farming, some cattle raising, some chicken raising, you know about those things … When we went to pick strawberries we had to walk maybe four or five miles through the woods and you learned what you could eat. You knew you could eat that mayhaw, you could eat muscadines. You knew that, growing up in the woods. You just knew things. You got to appreciate things.”

Chase moved to New Orleans to pursue a Catholic education since her hometown did not offer a Catholic education for black people.  She started waitressing in the French Quarter and learned a lot about the restaurant industry.

Later on, she met and married jazz trumpeter Edgar “Dooky” Chase II. His parents owned a street corner stand in Treme and Chase began working in the kitchen at the restaurant.  Later on, Leah and Dooky took over the stand and converted it into a sit-down establishment and named it: Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. She eventually changed the menu to offer some of the Creole recipes she grew up with. These types of recipes, at the time, were only available in restaurants for white people, where black people were barred.

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant played an important role in the civil rights movement. Leah Chase and her restaurant have hosted Dr. King and the Freedom Riders at the restaurant for secret meetings. People in the African American community leaned on Dooky Chase for support and knew it was a safe place to go.  For instance, since there were no banks available to African Americans, Leah and Dooky would cash checks for trusted patrons at the bar every Friday. Friday nights at Dooky Chase soon became legendary, as people would cash their checks and have a poboy.

Leah Chase served famous people from all over the world, including Presidents and famous actors. The Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. liked barbecued ribs, while James Baldwin’s favorite was her gumbo. Nat King Cole loved a four-minute egg. She once had to stop Barack Obama from putting hot sauce in her gumbo and she fed President George W. Bush crab soup and shrimp Clemenceau.

“In my dining room, we changed the course of America over a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken,” she was often quoted saying.

Chef Leah Chase also published several cookbooks detailing her delicious, tried-and-true recipes:

The Dooky Chase Cookbook (1990)

And I Still Cook (2003)

Down Home Healthy : Family Recipes of Black American Chefs (1994)

Princess Tiana, the first black princess featured in a Disney movie and the waitress who wanted to own a restaurant in the animated feature “The Princess and the Frog,” was based on Mrs. Leah Chase.

Mrs. Chase had intellectual curiosity, a deep religious conviction and always tried to lift others up, which would make her a central cultural figure in both the politics of New Orleans and the national struggle for civil rights.

For more Louisiana news and info, click here.

Perfect Cities to Beat the Summer Heat

It is summer time, which means vacations. Living in Louisiana, the heat could drive anyone insane. But also researching the best place to go can also be a little overwhelming. Travel Trivia posted an article on the 8 U.S. Cities with Perfect Weather in June. We are here to share seven of the eight cities in the United States that have the perfect weather in June.

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles can be extremely hot but summer is a perfect month to visit. Take a slow stroll along Hollywood Boulevard; the TCL Chinese Theatre and Walk of Fame give their visitors the perfect opportunity to stop and see the sights. The beaches of Venice and Santa Monica are also the perfect getaway. The ocean is right there meaning there is a breeze, and there is always the opportunity to take a dip in the water.

Mackinac Island, Michigan

This island is famous for its horse drawn carriages and no cars are allowed on the island. May might be cold and rainy, but June  and other summer months are the perfect time to visit this beautiful island. The island is actually a state park, which means the views are amazing and nature is always around. Take a carriage tour or even visit a Horse Stable/Carriage Museum.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe has unlimited options for all of its visitors. The beautiful architecture makes anyone want to walk around outside all day, but the outskirts of the city make the view even better. The city offers over 400 miles of different types of terrain for its visitors to hike and bike.

The National Historic Landmark the Puye Cliff Dwellings are also in Santa Fe.

San Francisco, California

Famous for its fog, San Francisco’s weather during the early summer is perfect. Stop and check out the San Francisco Bay, but make sure to bring a jacket because it can get a little chilly. Who wouldn’t want to get a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Flagstaff, Arizona

Not only is this city perfect for the summer, but it offers its visitors year round opportunities. June temperatures during the day are usually high 70s mid 80s, but bring a jacket for the evenings. However, you might want to avoid the city in July and August because the rain can feel like a monsoon.

Denver, Colorado

Denver can get really hot during the summer, so June is the perfect month to visit. This city if filled with outdoor activities. Farmers Markets are usually always around somewhere. Rocky Mountain National Park is a great escape. Or even take a bicycle tour of downtown Denver.

Make sure not to miss out on the festivals that also go on during the summer.

New York, New York

The harsh winters can be made up by the amazing weather New York City experiences during the first month of summer. Central Park is the perfect setting for a picnic and relaxing in the sun. Take a book and lay out. Visit Staten Island on the free ferry and catch some amazing views of the Statue of Liberty. This is even the perfect time to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge.

For more travel related news and information, click here.

Skillet Breakfast Recipe To Please Everyone

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, however, many of us skip it. Taste of Home delivers with the perfect one skillet breakfast. This recipe is so good you will want to eat it for every meal. The best part? This recipe is so versatile that all the vegetables can be switched out to match the ones that are in season.  Picky eater?  If one ingredient doesn’t fit your taste buds, this recipe is just a base. Feel free to put your own spin on it.

 INGREDIENTS

  • ½ pound of fresh chorizo, or you can use bulk spicy pork sausage
  • 3 medium tomatoes, chopped up
  • 1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped up
  • 1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped up
  • 1 medium onion, chopped up
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 small zucchini, chopped up
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Make sure they are minced
  • ½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt

UTENSILS

INSTRUCTIONS

The first step to this great breakfast skillet is to place the large skillet on the stove and turn the heat up to medium. Add the chorizo, the red and yellow peppers, and onion. Cook these ingredients for 4 to 6 minutes, making sure the chorizo is fully cooked. You want to make sure that it is broken into pieces/crumbles once it is fully cooked. This will make the chorizo easier to distribute throughout the mixture. The next step is to actually strain the ingredients in the skillet. There will be excess grease, so make sure to get rid of it before adding the next set of ingredients.

The third step is to add the tomatoes, zucchini, and garlic or your choice of veggies. Mix all of the ingredients together in the skillet. Add the 1 teaspoon of paprika, stirring once again to make sure everything is distributed evenly. You should then cover the skillet and cook everything for 5 to 7 minutes, it could take longer. Make sure to check and see if the vegetables are tender to know if they are cooked enough.

The last cooking step is to take the spoon and make wells in the mixture. Four wells to be exact. Once the wells are made, take an egg and break it into each well. This is where the salt and pepper should be added. Feel free to add any other seasoning you desire. Cover the skillet again and cook the eggs for 4 to 6 minutes. You want the eggs whites to set completely, but the yolks should just be thick. They should not be hard.

Remove the breakfast skillet from the heat. Take the ½ cup of cheddar cheese and sprinkle it on top of the skillet. Cover the skillet again so the cheese will melt.

Cooking tips:

Buy tortillas to use to make breakfast wraps. It makes it an easy to-go breakfast and you can prepare them in advance.

You can substitute the chorizo for regular breakfast sausage if spicy food isn’t your favorite in a breakfast skillet.

Make for dinner and serve with biscuits. Use the biscuits to get every last bite.

For more delicious recipes, click here.