December 8th

To be honest I've been mulling back and forth on how to write this entry, I have several versions in the draft section ranging from long weepy first person account to a bullet point list of straight facts. No matter the wording the story just wasn't coming out right, because in textual form there's none of the emotion that comes from a verbal retelling. I still can't get through a whole rehashing of the events before I reach the crying point. Maybe after time I'll be able to say it without crying, but I can't at the moment.

So I've decided to just not share any story, today is just another day. I'm not going to let one person's birth affect me anymore, or at least start to try to sort out all the emotions that are entangled with that part of my life. Because its going to be a new decade soon and I've already wasted one away on being upset, so I need to move on.

I apologize for being weird over the last few days, I just needed to start the whole "getting better" process instead of just ignoring and repressing the hell out of things.

Also, finals suck balls. The end

Roommate Bonding

I barely talked to my roommates last year, just the simple act of walking into the apartment was hard knowing that I'd be walking into oppressive silence. That would not be the case this year, Heather is all about talking and filling silence with chatter about anything, we've covered; prostitution, psychics, dreams, the prison system, the death penalty, crazy people, family, the military, drinking, horses and just a whole bunch of other stuff. It feels very grown up to be discussing politics with someone at breakfast, haha like I should be balancing sipping a nice french roast and flipping the pages of the paper. Both of which are completely ridiculous because coffee gives me massive headaches and the newspaper is dying out.

Anyhow back to my topic of discussion my roommate conversations! The other day I was in the kitchen cleaning up the messy stove top (pet peeve of mine) and Calvin walked in, asked me about my day etc. Then we started talking about his intense dieting habits, this guy is like a food nazi. He doesn't use butter or oils when he cooks just a light mist of PAM which doesn't help sear the food well at all, he's limited to only using the crappy pan because he burns the nicer ones. So yeah no butter or oils, no tortilla when he eats burritos and he has non fat everything; low sugar jelly, non fat yogurt, non fat cream cheese, non fat coffee creamer, etc. It just bothers me how inconsistent he is, because its not as if he doesn't eat carbs so I don't see why he can't a tortilla once in awhile. When I called him out on that he said it was because someone told him that tortillas were worse for you because they use lard as a filler. Ah that's it, the "someone told me" he really believes anything you tell him because he's so clueless about the world. He didn't know that face lotion existed until Friday, when he asked me and Heather about what he should do about his dry face from the cold wind. Someone that clueless at 24 is just a sad sight, I see a lot of take out in his future once he moves away from home since his parents still send him off with precooked meals for the week. Oh well, that's silly sheltered Calvin for you. But Heather came out after awhile to get some water and joined our conversation, pointing out the flaws in his diet regime. And then we got onto the topic of prostitutes and crazy people. I just love how you can be talking about one thing and at the end of the conversation you can be talking about something completely different.

I really need to start sleeping at a regular hour soon. Being up till 4 in the morning sucks when you need to go catch the bus at 9:37.

SIMs and Crosswords

Me and my roommate are probably the coolest people ever. We sit around in our room and play our respective cool games, she plays the SIMs and I fiddle around with crossswords. It's a pretty cool way to pass a Saturday night. We strike up fun and interesting conversations over whatever is going on, like how she created a Sim family to look like the cast of Criminal Minds (which required a lot of time searching up their likeness on google) or how she wanted to make another family with the biggest manslut known to man. That character has about 50 children now and all the children in that generation are basically related, haha. And then I ask for help with certain words like how to say school in French, since she's canadian and grew up speaking the language. Crosswords are a nice way to pick up random phrases and words in different languages, or at least the ones that I do. But a lot of you already know about my obsession with them.

Tostadas!

An open faced taco, super easy and simple. If you don't have any hard taco shells but have some tortillas lying around you can still have your taco night!

Ingredients

corn tortillas

meat (chicken, carne asada, carnitas, etc whatever you have on hand)

beans

salsa/enchilada sauce

cheese

toppings (shredded lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, etc)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 425

2. spray Pam or pour olive oil on a foil lined pan. Add tortillas then cover in Pam or oil, season with salt. cook for 10 mins or until crispy

3. Heat up beans then add some salsa for added flavor

4. Prepare toppings

5. Assemble!

food gawker

My current obsession would be looking at the food sites food gawker and tastespotting that just have thousands of pictures of tasty looking food with links to the blogs that will tell you how they made that awesome looking meal. It is part of my routine to look through the pages of new photos that come up after I come home from classes, I definitely recommend them if you just want to be inspired to cook something new. I have a whole slew of recipes that I bookmarked from those sites and the few that I have gotten to have been AMAZING, and I've also found some really good food blogs in the process, double plus! I just get so inspired looking at awesome pictures of food, wanting to go out and get the ingredients immediately or finding restaurant favorites in an easy to make home versions (ie mochiko chicken, HORCHATA, and maybe a recipe for spicy crispy chicken from cha! eeee). I look forward to growing older so I can acquire more food prepping supplies so I can attempt some of the more fancy looking recipes. Something positive about being older! haha

Bella, my roommate's cat, is an alien-badger-ninja-president. hahah she cracks me up. Bella has had a hard life, she was used as bait for a pitbull and because of that one of her paws is mangled. But now she lives a life of luxury, getting petted whenever she wants, trying everything from pasta bits to salami, it's a pretty nice life. I'm sure she enjoys it. But the thing is that she can fix you with this deathstare look that makes you think she is one of the V's and plotting your demise. haha another thing you can bet on is that she will cuddle with you and purr whenever you watch criminal minds, another reason why she is an alien kitty trying to get ideas for the eventual takeover and slaughter of earth.

Cereal and Buffalo Chicken

Cereal, every college kid's go to meal; and why not? It's soo easy dump some cereal in a bowl and pour a little milk on it, viola meal done. That reminds me of the F word, every time Gordon Ramsy narrates the recipe he's so serious about the whole thing and ends every recipe with the name and saying done while presenting the plate.

Here is a clip about beef wellington, what used to be the test for the aspiring chefs on Hell's Kitchen.

Perhaps I will attempt this? It doesn't look super hard, just making sure the temperatures are right and the meat won't dry out. But this is a grown up dinner so I'll just bookmark it and save it for the future.

Anyhow back to my cereal talk. My two top favorites would be the Post Banana Nut Crunch, which tastes like banana nut muffin with nice size bites of walnut, and Raisin Bran Crunch super delicious. Growing up my mom would buy my sisters and I those 30 little cereal packs so we would have a ton of variety and it worked it out well because each of us liked our own thing. I would dive straight for the Raisin Bran and my sisters would go for Apple Jacks or some other sugary cereal. I just never liked super suagary cereals, they never did it for me. Every once in awhile I like to have a bowl of fruit loops or some lucky charms but for my go to every day cereal it would definitely be raisin bran or frosted mini wheat.

I was very excited because I stumbled upon a recipe for slow cooker buffalo chicken drumsticks! Slow cooker recipes always require sooo little work and chicken wings are such a bitch to prep so this recipe definitely needed to be tried. And they were delicious! Tasted just like a chicken wing that was really tender and falling apart. Yum, definitely football party or casual party material. They are also relatively low in fat (diet freak Calvin approved of them even)

Ingredients

4 pound chicken drumsticks (I used 3 lbs of chicken quarters because its what I had, still worked out!)

1 bottle hot sauce (16 oz or two cups worth)

2 tbsp vinegar (white or apple will do)

2 tbsp worchester sauce

1/4 cup tomato paste

Method

1. Deskin chicken so you won't have gross pieces of fat floating around.

2. wash and pat dry the chicken

3. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl

4. Place chicken in the crock pot, pour sauce over it.

5. Cook for 6-7 hours at low or 3-4 on high

note on storage. Take the chicken out of the crockpot with a slotted spoon once they are done cooking so they still remain somewhat attached to the bone or else it will just turn into shredded chicken.

Books and Soup

I've established a sort of ritual for getting ready for bed; I turn off my computer, go wash my face and brush my teeth, then grab a book to read for half an hour or until I get sleepy. Its a good system and I like it but, there is a downside. I've read all the books that I have up here at least 2 times each, some of them I've read 5 times over. ( I find myself struggling to come up with the twice/thrice equivalent, fice? haha that's all I can come up with) For some of the books reading them again is like a comforting chat with an old friend but for others I struggle to just start them. I miss having my books so far away from me but it'd be in poor taste to bring up my boxes of books just to have something to read before bed or for a welcome distraction from studying, I find that nothing is more distracting than reading a good well-written book. So I need to remember to bring back books that I can't stand to read again and change them out for old favorite from home or new ones if my sisters have gone to the book store recently. I know that I could just go to the library and check some out but nothing beats owning a book and being able to fold over the pages to hold your place or not panicking when a little bit of hot chocolate runs over one of the pages.

My bedtime reading is currently Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, just some chick lit to ease into sleep. The trick with bedtime reading is to get something that's a quick read, you don't want thought provoking literature when you can't sleep just keeps your mind all wired up. The book does bring up an interesting question, can modern women have it all, rewarding career AND happy content family life? The book chronicles the friendship of Tully and Kate two women who've been friends since they were 12 and how one chose a successful career while the other chose staying at home and having a family. Can someone have both? I think its a maybe but it boils down to time and managing priorities, because at most jobs you only get so many months of unpaid maternity leave before you have to go back to work and then who's going to raise your child then? This is one of those times where I wish I could move to Sweden where you get 9 months of 75% paid maternity leave, that's amazing! You could just make a career out of popping out babies. Well enough of that.

A recipe for chicken noodle soup for those cold wintery nights ahead

Ingredients

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 small onion, diced

1 lb shredded chicken

one large carton of chicken broth ( 2 small cans)

1/2 a bag of egg noodles, uncooked

Method

1. Heat up a stock pot and add some butter. Throw in the vegetables and cook down until soft but not browned

2. Add remaining ingredients and simmer the soup until the noodles are cooked to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste. (if there doesn't seem to be as much broth as you like just add some water)

3. I like to have a thicker soup so I add about 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch

Assassins

Everyone has their own studying soundtrack, for me I really like listening to Broadway soundtrack or opera arias throw in a little Josh Groban from time to time to spice things up. So when midterm season comes up, like it does every so often, I find myself pulling up Into the Woods, Wild Party, Andrea Bocelli, etc. There's this one musical, Assassins, that I find myself drawn to time and time again. Basically its about the successful assassination attempts on US presidents and ends with the previous assassins circling around Harry Lee Osmond as he takes his shot on JFK. But the song before the final scene "Something Just Broke" just stays with me whenever I hear it. It's a song about people remembering what they were doing when they heard that the president was shot.

You can listen/watch it here where its combined with the ending.

grimm's fairy tales

I've been reading the Grimm's fairy tales for awhile now and some of the stories in it confuse the hell out of me and some are just twisted and demented. We all know the Disney version of Cinderella where she's forced to become the servant and is saved by a magical fairy godmother and a doting prince who will search the kingdom to find her. Well the Grimm's version is slightly different in that there is no Fairy Godmother, only a magical tree above her mother's grave and the part where Prince Charming scours the kingdom looking for her with glass slipper in hand? Well chases the Cinderella to her home and asks the Stepmother to bring down one of her daughters so stepsis one comes down and tries on the shoe, its too small so she cuts off her heel since "she won't need a heel when she's ruling the kingdom" so the Prince carries her out and as they pass the magic tree it shouts something about how she's not the real girl and to look at the shoe and he sees the blood. So he goes back to the house and stepsis two comes out and she chops off her pinky toe and the tree tells the Prince that this one is fake as well. And then he goes back finally gets Cinderella and they live happily ever after, once the tree sends out maniac birds to go pick out the step siblings' eyes out. Creeeeepy. But not as creepy as the Rapunzel story, in this version the witch that puts Rapunzel in the tower casts a spell on her blinding and disfiguring Rapunzel and banishing her to the desert once the Prince tries to rescue her. It was a weird story for sure. But not as creepy as the one where the father wants to marry his daughter because she looks like her mother. What twisted stories!

As for the pointless ones there was one about how a matchstick, sausage and cat. And I'm just going to leave it at that because it was so pointless and had no moral.

Food wise I think you all should go out and make this chili, it is so easy and so simple to make.

The recipe can be found here and basically all you do is cook up the meat and onions and then toss cans of beans and tomato sauce into a pot and simmer. Suuuper simple and delicious!

Pokey Little Puppy

Aww my adorable little puppy, we were both so young then. I love how I am sporting the Dalmatian look with that ensemble so its like we are matching! Also look at how Asian I look, haha its as if all my Asian-ness just faded away after that. And my mom looks so young there, and I believe that’s quilted sweater of some sort. Oh the early 90s and their fashion mishaps, at least she isn’t wearing stirrup pants or anything ridiculous like that.

Anyhow back to my main objective in writing this post. My Pokey, my adorable, playful Dalmatian loyal confidant till the end. Technically she isn’t mine but everyone knew that we were inseparable, my Aunt got her one day when I was around 2 or 3. So the two of us grew up together, I ran around chasing her on chubby toddler legs as she stumbled around on her puppy paws. She followed me as I made music with the rice bin, laid under the table as I fed her yucky vegetables, was my pillow when I needed something to cry on and just my constant companion. I miss having a pet in my life that can just be there for me all the time and offer that same level of innocent, constant animal love. We had many adventures that dog and I, she loved to escape so sometimes I would open the side gate and watch her sprint out, then after awhile go after her and we’d run together. She was also a ferocious watch dog, she would snarl at anyone that dared set foot in the house that she wasn’t familiar with. When my uncle first came over for his first date with my aunt he went down to pet Pokey when she bit down on his wrist hard enough to bleed and he still had to go and meet my Grandparents with a bloody wrist. He just tucked his bloody hand behind his back and went to greet everyone, very smooth Uncle Brian, very smooth. That’s how I’ll remember her constantly in motion and her fierce love. Sadly she died in my bed in her sleep in the middle of sophomore year of high school. It was a terrible way to start the day, to find your beloved pet dead by your side.

Hopefully when I move out on my own I will be able to find a pet just as loyal as she was. I am personally quite fond of large breeds like Great Danes and the Irish Wolfhound. The plus of having a Great Dane is that they make good apartment pets because they aren’t high energy and like to cuddle with you on the couch all day, which sounds like my kind of dog.

Aren't they ginormous and awesome? Great Danes used to hunt wild boards.

yesterday was a lazy pasta day. I don't know what else to call this a brown butter garlic sauce? But I am usually way too lazy to actually make a brown butter. But apparently there is a fancier way to make it which also looks good. So maybe when I don't feel so lazy I will try that method out. But in the meantime this is just how I make it

Ingredients

1/2 box of pasta

1 can tomatoes (diced, stewed, whole, just whatever you have on hand)

grated Parmesan cheese

cooked squash, diced (if you have any, I happened to have leftovers from another meal)

garlic powder to taste

basil, to taste

2-3tbsp butter

Preparation

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, be sure to salt the water (no one likes bland pasta)

2. Add the pasta and cook for however long the box says to al dente

3. Drain the pasta

4. Add all remaining ingredients and stir, making sure to heat up the veggies

5. Serve with even more cheese on top. Delicious, fast and easy!

Family Crests and November Nights

I finally remembered to ask for a picture of the family crests and then spent a huge chunk of my Sunday looking for larger images online with nothing more to go on then the pictures. But I found them and I love the simplicity of design. The first one is supposed to be a cross section of some gourd because my grandpa's family were farmers and the second one is a flower with the swords coming out because my grandma's family were samurai. These emblems have always been in my grandparents house in the form of medallians under pictures of their families, and I am looking forward to having them on my side to always be there.

It's November already! I can't believe it. The quarter is more than halfway over and I can see Thanksgiving Break! wooo. I'm excited and sad for this quarter to over because on the one hand it will be winter break and I get to be home for three weeks but that also means that it'll be when Heather leaves and I am stuck with Melinda the weird anime roommate once again. Sigh. That's how life goes though.

Another thing that I do not appreciate about it being November is that it is going to get ridiculously dark very early in the day. I need to be exposed to a certain amount of daylight and the sun setting at 5pm doesn't really help with that. I don't see why we have daylight savings anymore, just doesn't make sense. Let's just do without it and be the same as all the other countries and I mean some states are excluded from it like Hawaii so why can't California join them?

Fried Zucchini! So delicious I was getting lazy so I just copied and pasted the recipe found here and its basically like the one that I use.

• 4 medium zucchini
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs or regular bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.


2. Wash, trim and slice zucchini into 1/2-inch-thick rounds.


3. Drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil over a baking sheet to evenly coat. Set aside.


4. Beat egg in a small bowl.


5. Spread bread crumbs out in a shallow dish. Stir Parmesan cheese, salt, basil and pepper into bread crumbs.


6. Dip 5-6 zucchini slices into the beaten egg. Transfer to the bread crumb mixture, pressing on both sides to coat. Shake off excess, and place on prepared baking sheet.


7. Repeat with remaining zucchini slices.


8. Drizzle remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the zucchini.


9. Bake in preheated oven 8 minutes. Using tongs, turn zucchini so the other side gets crispy. Bake another 5-7 minutes until golden brown

Silly Asian Schoolboys

So the other day on the bus ride home these two high schoolers were having an "intelligent conversation" (I use the terms loosely) about how to spot gay men. It was probably one of the most ridiculous things that I happened to hear that day, probably because this gangly little Asian boy was so convinced that he was the authority on the subject and the little clueless Asian girl next to him was totally into the conversation. The boy started off by saying that "Most homophobes were secretly gay" and quoted some ridiculous statistic like 90% or somewhere around that number. And the Asian girl was just sitting there agape as if he was the messiah and she had to commit all this "knowledge" to memory, it was funny and sad at the same time. The guy then went into a long story about how he went to Vegas over New Year's and how he could get any guy in the room (mind you he's like 16 but looks like he's 12) with his oozing confidence and aura reading skills that he got from his highschool psych class. I couldn't help but snort when I heard that. Like anyone besides some creepy pedophile is going to pay any attention to this kid, never mind the Greek Adonis he was describing to the girl. And honestly how much does one learn in an intro psych class? Not much, just the basics of all the different types of psych maybe some stuff on memory. So I don't know where this boy got off talking like he was the next Cal Lightmen. It was just amusing, but definitely made my heart cry a little for the youth of Davis if they are anything like this boy. Confidence is a good thing it should be cultivated but not to the extent where you think that people should bow to you and you are God's gift to the world.

My recipe for pulled pork! It can also be used to make pulled chicken

Ingredients

3lb pork shoulder or butt

1 can beef broth

salt

pepper

1 palmful each of your favorite spices I personally like to use cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and paprika

1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

Method

1. Season the pork cut with the seasonings being sure to rub it all around. I like to put it in the crock pot first so I can sweep up all the seasonings that got strewn around (thank you Gordon Ramsey for that trick, he always seasons meat on a plate for that reason)

2. Dump the can of beef broth in

3. Turn the crock pot to low and let it cook for 4-6 hours.

4. Take the meat out and shred it with two forks, the meat should be so tender that this isn't very hard to do

5. Throw the meat back in, dump the juice or reserve for a gravy, dump in the sauce and let it stew for 30 minutes

6. serve on toasted kaiser rolls and viola! yummy pulled pork

Ditto and Kirby

The more time that I spend around my roommate Heather the more I find that I am picking up her catch phrases. I can't help it, for whatever strange reason I tend to pick up whatever I hear around me and mimic it around, mostly without realizing that I am doing it. It's a psychological thing I just repeat whatever I hear the most around me, apparently I never grew out of that developmental stage. Oh Piaget (the go-to guy for early child development). I am back to my ditto and kirby ways, I've picked up her laugh. And I really didn't notice until she pointed it out and said "Hey when did you start laughing like me?" apparently I just sucked it out of her. hahah

Look at ditto so funny with that determined look on its face. The phrases that I find myself repeating are "your face is just bad" but that was from Community. When Abed was trying to trick Troy with the whole gullible thing and aliens. I can't find a clip of it! How terrible, but if you haven't seen it then you should just go watch Community. Because its hilarious. Phrases that I have stolen from Heather would be "fuck me" when you've done something stupid, "that's unfortunate," and a lot of nonsense things that are said to the cat and are vaguely embarrassing when put in text form like "oh kitty boo, what are you doing" and that's said in an extremely high pitched voice, of course. Hmm so I apologize if I happen to repeat one of any of your catch phrases, I don't mean to! Honestly I would much rather just be myself but apparently being myself means mimicking other people's styles of speech. My writing tends to mimic whatever book I happened to be reading before bed, hopefully I can catch myself before I start writing Emily Bronte. Shoot me if I do, please.

I can't mention Kirby without including a picture of him in his pikachu hat. Ahhh so cute! hahah just reminds me of the time we were playing Brawl and all I did was go around trying to obtain character's hats and then float away. Gooood times.

OK on to more age appropriate things such as cooking! I realize that everyone cooks fried rice their own way and has their own preferences when it comes to the ingredients inside. This just happens to be the way that I enjoy fried rice.

Fried Rice

Everything is approximate because I never measure things. And its all to taste

but what I like to have are

about 3 cups of rice

2 large eggs

6 slices of bacon

one small onion, diced

ketchup (bare with me, its delicious)

sho-you (soy sauce)

and a handful of frozen or fresh vegetables of whatever medley you please

Procedure (aha forgive me I am doing a lab writeup)

1. Slice the bacon into little bite size pieces and cook in a large sauce pan

2. Add the onions and vegetables once the bacon is relatively cooked, drain oil if you think there is too much

3. Add rice once onions are cooked down.

4. Add the eggs. Stir everything around until the eggs are cooked to your preference. I personally like them really runny.

5. Add a squirt of ketchup and some sho-you. Stir around and viola fried rice. haha

nonesense

My usual lazy Sunday plans were disrupted when I woke up at 8:00AM for some unknown reason, I had gone to bed at 4 and was not pleased to be awake at that ungodly hour. But after that I had a hard time going back to bed because Calvin's friends were up and getting ready to go play in a badminton tournament and then Heather's alarm went off at 9 then the cat jumped on my face at 9:30 and my sister texted me at 10. I managed to get another hour of sleep before I just said "fuck it" and woke up at 11 to start the day. Being grumpy and tired I decided that the best course of action was to have a big hearty breakfast so I made soft boiled eggs and home style fries. Totally helped my mood and I didn't snap at my roommates when they tumbled out of bed later and started playing annoyingly loud country music. Sorry for the narration of my morning but I figure its better to write this out here instead of telling it to everyone.

Anyhow, after my shitty morning I was supposed to go out and meet up with some friends to spend our lazy Sundays together. Somehow that transformed into us streaming Paranormal Activity...obviously that was not my decision. I managed to remain relatively calm throughout the movie, I think it was due to the fact that I was getting headaches from the constant shaking camera. It had its scary moments but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a long episode of the Discovery channel's The Haunting, so that made me even less scared. It also lacked just general shock value without zombies or ghosts popping up all over the place, which always cause me to jump in my seat. But who knows maybe when I try and go to bed tonight every creep from the obese upstairs neighbors will send me into a panic.

I made a large pot of meat sauce the other day. The full recipe can be found here and the thing I like about the pioneer woman is that there are always awesome step by step photographs to help you along the way. I was skeptical over the addition of milk but it totally helped add a hint of sweetness to the dish and had a nice finish. I will just include the ingredients and basic steps that I found intriguing here. I didn't add wine because I didn't have any and the sauce was just fine. And I totally halved the recipe since that was way too much sauce for one person

1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 large red onion, diced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 pounds ground beef
2 OREGANO flakes
2 tablespoons dried basil flakes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 cups red wine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
salt
pepper
2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
1 cup milk
Fresh Parmesan cheese

Grate the carrots and dice the onion. Place in a large pot and cook down.

Once cooked down, create a well in the center of the pot and add the ground beef.

Once the meat is browned create another well and add the tomato paste

Add the tomatoes and herbs give it a stir

Add the milk in and let the mixture simmer for at least 30mins. And viola meat sauce is yours

Fear List

Found this on facebook and had to give it a go. 62 common fears. Let's see how many I am afraid of

I fear ...

[] black people
[x] the dark
[] staying single forever
[] being a parent
[] being myself in front of others
[] open spaces
[] closed spaces
[x] heights
[]dogs
[] birds
[] fish
[] spiders
[] flowers or other plants
[] being touched
[x] fire
[] deep deep water
[x] snakes
[] silk
[] the ocean
[x] failure
[] success
[] thunder/lightning
[] frogs/toads
[] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad
[] my boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[]rats
[x] jumping from high high places with nothing to hold your fall
[] snow
[] rain
[] wind
[x] crossing hanging bridges
[x] death
[] heaven
[] being robbed/mugged
[x] falling
[] clowns
[] dolls
[] large crowds of people
[] men
[] women
[] having great responsibilities
[] doctors
[] tornadoes
[] hurricanes
[x] incurable diseases
[] sharks
[] Friday the 13th
[x] scary movies
[] poverty
[] Halloween
[] school
[] trains
[] odd numbers
[] even numbers
[x] being alone
[] becoming blind
[] becoming deaf
[x] growing up, old
[x] creepy noises in the night
[x] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[] needles
[] blood
[x] grave yards
[] Zombies/Vampires

sweet 16! haha not as many as I thought that I would get, but I suppose its because these are the common ones and I happen to have a lot of uncommon fears. Oh well

Anyhow it was raining again today, but not as bad as last Tuesday where it was just pouring buckets, today was just scattered showers with the occasional downpour. Now that the weather is in fall mode I can't help but think of Thanksgiving and the feast that comes with it. Mmm turkey and scalloped potatoes and green bean casserole and STUFFING, man I love that stuff, and gravy and all the other assortments that make up Thanksgiving dinner. The more I thought about it the more that I have settled on hosting a formal dinner party during winter break, just for kicks. Dressing up is fun and I've been watching too much Top Chef with the formal sit down meals. Looks like fun though! I think I will plan the meal like it was a holiday dinner with French onion soup, turkey, scalloped potatoes, sesame spinach, and whatever else I feel like having at the time. I'll formalize the whole thing later, its barely October, but look forward to that!

For dinner I had leftover cauliflower soup and toast because my throat is getting a little sore and I didn't feel like dirtying my clean clean stove top. But I shall put in a recipe for pepper steak that I had a couple of nights ago and didn't post anything that day.

Pepper Steak

Liberally season steak with lemon pepper and seasoning salt

Melt 2-3 tbsp butter

Cook steak in the butter for 4 mins on each side over a medium high heat for a medium steak.

Big Bang Theory

So I am aware that I talk about this show a little too often sometimes, I can't help it though! It happens to be one of my favorite shows, probably because of the extreme nerdiness I can't get some of the physics happenings, they go just over the top of my head, but the dynamics of the relationships and Sheldon just always make me chuckle. This latest episode made me laugh SO hard with this scene where Raj (Indian guy if you couldn't have guessed) and Sheldon (tall white guy) do work to the soundtrack of Eye of the Tiger. And I find that the clip of them playing rockband would be what a certain someone could be like (if he actually READ the words instead of just humming and making us fail). Good stuff on that show. And that does it for my Big Bang Theory rant

Earlier in the week I was washing dishes and one of my knives (a boning knife if I want to be specific about it) slipped and ended up stabbing my thumb. I suppose it cut really deep because my thumb swelled up and hurt for awhile. But as of Saturday morning all is well with that. That really took a special level of clumsiness for a knife to slip in my hand and end up gouging my thumb.

Today was cleaning day, I swept and swiffered the kitchen floor, bleached the countertops, cleaned the stove, cleaned the drip pans, cleaned the oven, bleached the sink and vacuumed. Heather cleaned our bathroom, which was awesome. I like having a roommate that has cleaning urges like me. Calvin is clueless to that feeling and he's gone most weekends so he can't participate in our cleaning purges, though he takes out the trash. So its all cool

Uhh which recipe shall I include today? I made blueberry apple cobbler the other day so I shall include that. Cobbler is really easy if you happen to have fruit sitting around waiting to be used and you don't feel like eating it anymore. I think peaches would be really good in this as well.

Cobbler

Filling

2 apples

1 cup blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

Topping

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 butter (cold)

1. Core and cut apples into thick slices

2. Add blueberries and sugar to the apples and stir

3. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon together

4. Add in butter by mushing it all together. By incorporating the butter in till it looks like crumbs with the flour mixture sticking to it

that's what it should look like, nice and crumbly

5. Pour topping evenly over fruit filling

6. Pop into 350 oven for 30-40 minutes

Rainstorms

I like rainy days where I can stay in my house and watch rain from the inside. When I was younger I used to take as many umbrellas as I could find throughout the house and create an umbrella tent outside, so I could hear the pitter patter of the rain and still be dry. When it was especially rainy I would make the umbrella tent inside and open the windows so I could hear the rain. It's really comforting and soothing, just one of those songs. Sometimes if it was just sprinkling I'd climb down to this spot in my grandparent's backyard that had a fallen stump surrounded by trees and just stare at everything. I miss those times, because up in NorCal it rains really, really hard. Sideways rain hitting you straight in the face and just soaking your jeans and 103 people on a bus that has about 30 seats. Yeah its fabulous. But once you get home, change into pajamas and curl into a blanket, its dandy.

If it's pouring tomorrow too, I doubt that I am going to make it to class. Unless one of my roommates wants to drive me and pick me up from school. haha cause I don't feel up to being smashed like a sardine in a bus again with a bunch of other tired cold grumpy college kids.

Tonight for dinner was egg drop soup and corn with some plain tofu on the side. I was feeling really lazy, and a rainy day=soup in my mind. All in all this soup takes about 10 minutes to make! Very convenient for those lazy days.

1. Bring 4 cups of chicken broth ( 2 little cans or one big carton) and a can of creamed corn (10-12 oz) to boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and add 2 whisked eggs one at a time. Whisking the egg in so they don't make ugly big clumps.

3. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Then add 2-4 tbsp of cornstarch (depending on how thick you like your soup) mixed with equal amounts of water to create a "slurry" and add it to the mixture. Let it thicken and serve!

Clever Packaging

Those are by far the best packaging I've ever seen. They are from this site here. I think that I should purchase the band aid ones because they are hilarious! And 5% of the profits go to people who don't have healthcare, always good to support a cause. Also if you are bored they have a variety of things to click on, always good to have. The band-aid says

"Hello. I’m sorry you cut yourself. It could be an isolated incident, or maybe you are a very clumsy person. Don’t worry. The clumsy are much more lovable than the graceful. The graceful are always busy ballet dancing, and doing incredible feats on the trapeze. The clumsy are always busy being coddled, rubbed, and cared for.So if you’re not too busy having attractive persons ravish you with attention, take a minute to care for your injury. Wash it, and lay one of our pretty bandages on top. In a matter of moments you will be able to return to your clumsy affairs"

And the asprin one says "Hello. I’m sorry about the headache. Don’t be embarassed. It doesn’t mean you’re dim-witted. Maybe it means the opposite. Maybe your thoughts are so radical they have astounded your brain. You ought to be proud of your headache “I have a headache,” you should say to your boss. “You’re promoted,” your boss will say.But you probably want to get rid of your headache. That’s probably why you purchased this package in the first place. So sit down on a cushiony object, and swallow two tablets."

Seriously! Best clever writing on a package EVER! I do have to disagree with the clumsy people argument, you may get attention but its far more likely that they'd be laughing at you for tripping over your feet than coddling you with attention. Haha but its just the territory that comes with being an uncoordinated person.

It's rainingggg, fall has begun. Bring on the comfort food! Today I made chicken pot pie, but more like a chicken casserole with biscuits because I didn't want to roll out the pie dough. That is probably my least favorite task, rolling out dough, right up there with washing dishes.

Chicken Pot Pie (the lazy not from scratch way)

1. Preheat over to 350

2. Spray a baking dish with non stick spray. Mix together shredded chicken, one bag of frozen vegetables and one can of a cream soup (potato, mushroom, chicken, etc)

3. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.

4. Prepare biscuits any way that you like, out of a can, from scratch, made from Bisquick, however you please.