Monthly R.E.P.O.R.T. : March - 2025
Mar 30, 2025
R.E.P.O.R.T. March – 2025
Welcome to the R.E.P.O.R.T. of the month. This is a post that goes over my monthly brain dump. This will include recipes, life, and other tidbits that you may find interesting. Try out them, let me know about it! Wanna see what I watched and read this month? Check out my reviews on Storygraph(https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/breadgloves?redirect=true) and Letterboxd(https://letterboxd.com/breadgloves/).
Reading - Articles of Assassinations of Black Activists
I have been looking into assassinations of black and brown revolutionaries and activists. Many of them were black men, they were killed "because" they were deemed terrorists. Yet, the white men who are creating paramilitaries for fear of the white race being eliminated are not labeled as terrorists. White people arm ourselves, it means nothing to anybody. It is our "god given right" to bear arms. When black people do it, the government massacres them in the streets. The Black Panthers had mutual aid programs for food, medicine, and other needed resources. It is quite ironic that the government is going to deem that as terroristic as opposed to something like the "unite the right" riot. The sheer amount of black revolutionaries that have been killed by the government should not be ignored. It is not difficult to realize that if you are black and speak too loud and too much in critique of the American system, you will be permanently shut up. Talking about these assassinations is important, and I encourage people to learn more about them. This is a serious topic for many, and should not be taken lightly. Some places I recommend to start learning about this are Smithsonian Magazine (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/these-black-americans-were-killed-for-exercising-their-political-right-to-vote-180985383/) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (https://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-martyrs/)
Eating -French Onion Soup
I love me some French onion soup. It is not quite Spring, so I had to find some sweet onions at the grocery store. Typically, you would want to use Vidalias onions, which have nearly double the amount of sugar than white or yellow onions. I have been rewatching old episodes of Good Eats, before Alton Brown got too full of himself. He has an episode about onions, making a French onion soup for the dish. He recommended using an electric skittle, which I do have! So I got on the streetcar to pick up some onions, bread, and Gruyère cheese. Here is the recipe that I followed, and the adjustments that I have made:
5 pounds sweet onions, such as Vidalias (I think I ended up using 5–6 onions)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 teaspoons kosher salt
16 fluid ounces white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
40 fluid ounces well seasoned vegetable broth
2 sprigs each of thyme and parsley and 2 bay leaves
1 loaf, country-style bread
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
Set a 12-inch electric skillet to 250ºF (or low), or set a 4-quart saucepan over low heat.
Peel the onions. Halve the onions end to end, then slice into thin half-moons.
Melt the butter in the skillet. Add the onions to the skillet in 3 layers, adding about 1 teaspoon of salt to the top of each addition. Let the onions sweat for 15 to 20 minutes without stirring.
Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are dark mahogany and reduced to approximately 2 cups, 1 hour to 90 minutes. Do not let the onions sizzle or brown.
Add just enough wine to cover the onions, then turn the heat to 375ºF (or high). Cook until the wine is reduced to a syrup consistency, 5 to 10 minutes.
Add the vegetable broth and herbs. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 more minutes.
Meanwhile, set an oven rack in the top third of the oven and set the broiler to high. Cut the bread into rounds that will fit into the tops of the crocks. You can toast the bread in the oven for a minute if preferred.
Season the soup with pepper.
Place 8 oven-safe crocks on a half-sheet pan and ladle in the soup, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top. Place the toast rounds, toasted side down, on top of the soup and top with the cheese.
Broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
Enjoy!
Playing - Motorcycle Diaries
My boyfriend showed me the biographical movie based on the trip that Che Guevara took before becoming a revolutionary. I had known about the movie and the book for some time now, but I knew it was going to be a difficult watch. There was a sense of realness in the film that I haven't seen in mainstream cinema. I started to see it more as a documentary than a biographical film, Gael Bernal interviewing the people of the places Che had visited. The situation was much of the same, despite the several decades difference. The people who were in the film were not actors, they were people who suffered the same oppression that those who interacted with Che did. The movie recreated the trip that Che and Alberto Granado took to the last mile. The real Alberto Granado went with the film crew during production, despite being in his 80s. He is in the last shot of the movie, replacing the actor who played him. I held it together until I saw the real Alberto. He looked so sad, not being able to finish the trip with his friend one more time. It wasn't the last time he saw Che, they reconnected eight years after the original trip. It was only seven years later that the CIA tortured and killed Che while he was trying to liberate Bolivia. This was the trip that made Ernesto Guevara into the revolutionary, it is what radicalized him. He saw the people of Latin America being oppressed by the white Spanish and white Americans. He wanted to unify Latin America against the oppressive power of white colonizers. Radicalization happens from experience; from suffering; from exposure; from perspective. You will not understand it until it happens to you or the ones you love. It is unfortunately a very individualist society, so the suffering of the many is left unseen, unheard, and unresolved. My full review of The Motorcycle Diaries can be found on my Letterboxd, which can be found here (https://boxd.it/99IqMr) as well as my profile linked above.
Obsessing - Tea
I have a pretty decent tea collection I have been trying to dive into this year. Tea is a loose term, but black tea and green tea come from the same plant. The difference is how the leaves are prepared. Tea can also be brewed with fruit or flowers. I really enjoy genmaicha, which has roasted brown rice. Case Study café has an excellent genmaicha that I used to get before my Group Theory class in university. The medicinal value of tea is not utilized in western medicine. There are good benefits from drinking tea at all hours of the day. It is said that cold water is not good for you as your body takes energy to warm it up. So, drinking hot water is supposed to be good for you. Try it out and see how you like it, a coworker of mine in high school used to drink hot water by itself, but tea is definitely a plus.
Recommending - Foreign Language Study
Was the last time you spoke a second language when you were in Spanish 2? Can you say anything in another language? Studying another language can be very fulfilling in life and career; it also helps with neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to reorganize and hold more information. I took Japanese in high school for several years and took French a few times, but I preferred the former. I am currently studying Mandarin Chinese, which has been really fun. It has been easy for me, as I still retain some of my Japanese skills. English has changed how the world works in ways we can't truly understand fully, but I know that it is mainly used violently. Indigenous languages are dying out more frequently, children are made to speak English instead of their mother tongue. Language is a form of colonization, it has been used to erase the true meaning of what is translated, taking the speaker's voice away. When you translate for people, you have to translate exactly what they say, you can't sugar coat it, you can't add in your own flavor. You are speaking for someone else, you must use their words in the way they communicated it. You are committing an act of violence by mistranslating. Going to another country to teach English is a form of colonization. English being the universal language is from colonization, continuing to push that uniformity is violence.
Treating - Gift Giving
This month, I reconnected with an old mentor of mine from high school. It was really nice to get back in touch with him after so long, our lives have taken very interesting paths. He sent over homemade lip balm and soap. He also sent over yarn he bought from Portland the last time he was here. So I had an idea to crochet a hat for him with the yarn he gifted me. I will be able to see him in person this summer, but I will try to get him this hat before then. I followed a simple pattern that I have used before to make some balaclavas. The pattern for an adult size is as follows:
ch = chain
sl st = slip stitch
dc = double crochet
Row 1: Magic circle. Ch-2, dc 8 times in circle. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (8)
Row 2: Ch-2, 2dc in each st. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (16)
Row 3:Ch-2, dc in the first st, 2dc in the next repeat around. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (24)
Row 4: Ch-2, dc in the first 2 sts, 2dc in the next repeat around. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (32)
Row 5: Ch-2, dc in the first 3 sts, 2dc in the next repeat around. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (40)
Row 6: Ch-2, dc in the first 4 sts, 2dc in the next repeat around. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (48)
Row 7 – 13 (could be longer): Ch-2, dc around. Join with sl st to top of first dc. (48)
Final row: Ch-1, crab stitch around. Join and weave in the ends. (48)
Final Thoughts
Did you like my R.E.P.O.R.T. of the month? How was your March? Let me know by emailing me or following me on Bluesky. We are in unprecedented times, all we can do is keep moving forward with our heads up. If you are in need of help, let your peers know, you can build healthy support systems. It is a lonely world, but we can still help each other out. Have a fun and safe month!