The joys of cooking

When I was a young girl, my mother and father prepared a dinner most every night.  In my youthful opinion, the meals were delicious, except for the nights of liver and mako.  My maternal grandmother always prepared a wonderful meal.  Nobody could make a salad the way that my grandmother made a salad.  She had a particular way of slicing the onions and the make of her salad dressing ingredients.  My Aunt Paula makes anything amazing! Her baked clams are out of this world! How lucky am I?!?! Ok, so you think that I am a great cook. No way! I have grown in my cooking abilities and do impress myself and family at times. For me, cooking is one activity that will forever hold a goal for me to attain. I have some cooking goals on my personal list. My top three cooking goals are cutting down the amount of sodium(salt) in my meals, increasing my fresh ingredients over the processed ingredients, and preparing meals that contain more protein, especially dinner recipes. I say dinner recipes because I like to snack before I go to bed. If my belly is full, then I am happy and most likely will not grab that extra chocolate cookie or piece of candy before I go to bed. Do you have a favorite meal? Who prepares it for you? Do you pay close attention to what and why you eat a certain meal?

VOCABULARY:
youthful (adjective) - young or seeming young
opinion (noun) - a view or judgement about something or someone, not based off of facts
mako (noun) - shark that can be bought and prepared to eat
maternal (adjective) - relating to the mother's side of the family; motherlike
particular (adjective) - a specific item/person
impress (impress) - to make someone feel admired or respected; to affect someone in a respectable and positive manner
attain (verb) - to succeed in achieving
processed (adjective) - prepared by an artificial/not fresh process
protein (noun) - builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in your body

VOCABULARY EXERCISE:
Please select the word that best completes each sentence.
1. In order to _____________ (buy/attain) a high school diploma, you need to come to school and participate so teachers can help you move on to the next level.
2. Paul wanted to __________________ (impress/like) his teacher, so he brought in a fresh apple from his family's apple orchard.
3. Can I ask you your _____________ (opinion/look) regarding my essay?
4. Why are you eating Taco Bell and not the tacos that I made for you last night? The tacos at Taco Bell are _____________________ (fake/processed).
5. I thought that the lady that answered the phone was a young girl because of her ____________(beautiful/youthful) voice.
6. Would you prefer to have shrimp or ______________ (mako/maker) for dinner tonight?
7. My coach told me to drink chocolate milk after my 3 mile run because it has _____________ (cold/protein), which will help my body recover after exercise.
8. Are you interested in a __________________ (particular/nothing) movie?
9. He has blonde hair because his ________________ (mother/maternal) grandparents have blonde hair as well as his own parents.

GRAMMAR POINT:
An exclamation, also known as an interjection, is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, pleasure, or anger. Exclamations often stand on their own, and in writing they are usually followed by an exclamation mark rather than a full stop. In my blog entry that you just read, you can find an exclamation, such as, "No way!". Please think of 5 situations where you may use an exclamation. What is the exclamation that you would use in each situation?