Menu Ideas - Chili with Rice and Tomato Stew

What we call chili over here is very close to our beans stew, but made with more tomato paste, minced meat and a variety of vegetables and spices. I will be sharing the full recipe soon. On this occasion, I combined it with our traditional white rice and stew for a very hearty meal topped of with chicken. Enjoy.

Tuning in to the Superbowl XLVII for Beyonce?

When it seemed like there was genuine odds that the Seattle Seahawks would make it to the Super Bowl, the excitement in these parts was palpable. Even uninformed I was caught up and I was cheering them on. They didn't make it and the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens are the team of the day. So with no horse in the race, the half-time show is my draw to the Superbowl this year.

The buzz has been on for months, then Beyonce addressed a media conference a couple of days ago, now the big day is tomorrow. I have blogged about how I love the commercials, and the ones I'm rooting for, but I just saw some rehearsal videos for Beyonce's performance, and I'm also looking very much forward to that.

I wonder what her performance will be like, what songs she will perform and whether Jay-Z will join her on stage? I have seen both large and intimate Beyonce performances, but for the Super Bowl, I'm guessing she'll go big. I'll like my favorites, I was Here, Four, Love and Top, and other Ballads from her last album, but more likely she'll perform songs like Countdown, Run The World, and Bodied :)

Check out these rehearsal videos and some promo pics;

Blast from the Past: Awolowo and HID on Wedding Day

This picture is an amazing memorabilia. It's of of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his wife HID Awolowo on their wedding day, 26th December, 1937. Most of us know about Awo's political exploits, but less about his wife. She looks so meek and mild here, right? But she went on to be just as ambitious and achieveing as her famous husband. And she lives on.

A few days after her 92nd birthday [she's now 97] she granted an interview talking about the first days after she met her late husband, around 1934. “In those days,” she recalled, “a man would propose to you in writing. Obafemi wrote a letter to me that he was in love with me and wanted to marry me.” [How sweet :)]

Wisdom teaches that women are like diplomats. Do not expect a straight answer from them to such a request. They would never say yes. They would say “No” when they actually mean “Maybe” and “Maybe” when they mean “Yes.” So it was that young Hannah said “No” which late graduated to a “Maybe.” At this point, young Obafemi knew he had won the battle.

Praiz + Seyi Shay in "For You" Valentine Special

With the Valentine’s Season already upon us this year, LOVE is definitely in the air as usual and as we are in a period for sharing love gifts, Nigerian musician, PRAIZ has two gifts especially for his fans and music lovers this year.

First is a duet with the Seyi Shay titled “For You” produced by Dekumzy. The duo harmonizes vocals on a mid-tempo highlife beat giving it a touch of sensuality. Then there's the Wilson J’adore Joel-produced R&B/soul cut titled “I Miss You”.

Praiz will will be releasing his debut album this year, and it features some of the biggest Nigerian musicians with production from Cobhams Asuquo, Tee-Y Mix, Wole Oni and Praiz himself among others. Listen and download the singles below;

Ramsey Nouah - February Man Candy #2

This February, I am making an album of sexy Nigerian male celebrities. It is my Valentine Ode to the handsome and hardworking Nigerian men on the entertainment or sports scene. First up was Lynxx, Nigerian Musician.

#2 is Ramsey Nouah, Nollywood Actor.

Whitney Houston Gets Grammy Special for Anniversary

Grammy organizers plan to mark the first anniversary of the sudden death of Whitney Houston with a behind-the-scenes TV show on how they scrambled to honor the singer just 24 hours after she died.

The Recording Academy said on Thursday that the hour-long special entitled "The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family" will air on February 9, the day before the 2013 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Houston, who sold hundreds of millions of records and scored the mega hits "I Will Always Love You" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," drowned in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel room on February 11 2012 - the eve of last year's Grammy Awards show.

How to Make Chin-Chin with Eggs and Milk

Chin Chin is one of Nigeria's favorite pastries. It is made from short crust pastry mixture and then deep fried. The result is usually crunchy, but you can switch up the ingredients to have a more textured and soft outcome. I prefer mine not too crunchy, so I use eggs, and more milk, butter and sugar. There is no rising, or baking, rolling and cutting the dough is the only complicated part of the process.

Ingredients
2 eggs
500g of Plain Sieved Flour
75ml of 2% milk
150g of sugar
150g of butter
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1/2 a teaspoon  of baking powder
1/2 a teaspoon  of Lion Curry mixed spices
Vegetable Oil (enough to deep fry or half your pot)

Is Loneliness a Reason to Get Married?

This question came in through the search keywords and was directed to this post which listed some of the reasons men get married. However, while that post lists loneliness as one reason, it did not say how it worked out for those who married out of loneliness. Also, marrying because one is alone may work for men, but how does it work for women if it was a woman asking Google that question?

Let's be sure of what loneliness is or is not. When you're a private person, an introvert or a loner, you're not necessarily lonely. A lot of us need our me-time or alone-time once in a while, some more than others. Loneliness however, is more deep, more psychological than social.

Loneliness is a constant lack of contact with other people, even when the person wants to be. It is the feeling of isolation, when you find it hard to make a connection with a special someone for intimacy, including physical and emotional.

Can We Find 28 Sexy Nigerian Men [Celebrities]?

So this February, I am making an album of sexy Nigerian male celebrities. It will be my Valentine Ode to the handsome and hardworking Nigerian men on the scene. I wanted to leave it open to all men and start with Atala, but he refused o. Anyway, feel free to send in your own man if he agrees. We'll call them the Valentine Specials :)

First stop is my town man, Lynxx, Nigerian musician extraordinaire.

7 Ways to Tell Someone "I Love You"

Want to tell that special someone how much you really like them? Everyone has their own ideas on the ‘perfect’ way to make the confession, but you’re sure to find a technique that suits you in this list of seven ways to tell someone you love them.

How to express your love, tip 1: Add a little humour

The words “I love you” can be spruced up with all sorts of poetic techniques that don’t sound like they’ve come straight from one of Shakespeare’s classics. Why not add a light sprinkling of humour to your love confession through a creative analogy? Think of something you couldn’t live without and compare the one you love to that. You can make your analogy as silly or as serious as you like and your other half will appreciate the amount of thought you’ve put into your confession. “You are the cream to my coffee, the lamb to my farm, and I love you to little bits” – aww!

How to express your love, tip 2: Creative photography

Dropping the ‘L bomb’ can be equally as nerve wracking whether you’re a hopeless romantic or you have a heart of stone. Sometimes the mere mention of the word “love”, when you’ve never said it to this person before, can make you nervous. If this sounds like you, saying it through photography may be the form of expression you’re comfortable with, and it needn’t be as cheesy as it sounds.