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.

Food Adventures

I am going to wipe my food preferences clean and reestablish which foods I do and do not like. While I was at the market the other day, I saw that cauliflower was on sale for 97 cents a head, so I bought some because it was so ridiculously cheap and went home to try out making a soup and it turned out pretty tasty! I figure that if I just have an open mind to certain fruits and veggies (mangoes, pears, broccoli, beets, bell peppers, etc) I'll find stuff that I like. Because I'm 20 and I don't want to limit myself with cooking/trying new foods. I want to have culinary adventures! I spend way too much time on foodgawker just staring at all of the food on display and to try some of the more exotic looking things I need to break down and buy some of the food that I currently don't like. I haven't had some of those foods in a long time and perhaps my taste buds have turned over enough times to accept some of those flavors now. We shall see.

One of my favorite things to do is just to listen to an interesting life story. I like having those intimate moments with people when they tell you something important and you just feel like they opened themselves to you. Sometimes I don't like to talk much so I'd much rather just listen to someone, so I suppose that's why I surround myself with people that like to talk. So when words fail me I can just fill the moments with someone else's chatter. And yeah sometime it gets boring to listen to a certain story a billion times but then I have to remember that the story has a special significance to them and not necessarily to me. But there are those cases where a story just isn't worth telling to other people, somethings just shouldn't be shared.

So I made soup the other day and here's the recipe! I made a full batch which has like 6 bowls? Its very comforting so for future cold wintry days I have stored some of the leftovers in the freezer, yay for home cooked microwaveable meals!

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

one head cauliflower (or broccoli) chopped roughly

1/2 tsp onion salt

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

one small onion, diced

6 TBSP butter

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, season with salt. Add the vegetables to the boiling water bring them to a boil then drain and set aside

2. Saute onions and butter in a large pot. Stir in the flour to make a roux. Then slowly add the broth and milk. bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for a minute then add vegetables and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.

Of being old

I had thought that my grad student roommate Calvin was 22 but he's 24. Wow a whole 4 years older than I am. I found out when he told me that he finally made a Facebook and said he couldn't remember what year he graduated from highschool. I jokingly said "Oh has it been that long?" he said yes. So I asked him how old he was and he said he was turning 24 in November. Jeez! That stunned me a little because it seems so old. He's really a 20 something and calls me a youngin'.

But then I realize that he doesn't really know much of anything and I don't notice that's he that much older than me. A bonus is that I get to call him an old man! haha, which is always fun. He may know a lot about engineering and computers and what not but not so much about practical things. How to cook being the main thing, as well as how to find interesting things on the Internet. Like he didn't know what a hypochondriac was or how to make a nice Alfredo sauce. Sometimes I feel like no matter how much I learn about animals or the human mind the most important part of my college life will be learning how to function on my own and cooking. Because those are the skills that will help me for the rest of my life. Sure I'll need my college degree to find a job but that's useless if I didn't know how to cook for myself. Just something that I was pondering while talking to Calvin about life.

It's easy to tell my current roommates personal things. They are both so open about the stories of their lives that stuff just pours out of me. Because you get to decide how much or how little you want to say about the subject. Its just nice to toss around stuff like that every once in awhile. Yay for roommate bonding over hot chocolate! Minty dark hot chocolate from Williams Sonoma. Yummm

As for dinner it consisted of leftover pot roast sandwiches and pasta. Because I need to eat some leftovers due to the fact that our refrigerator is packed full of stuff. I suppose that happens when three people who actually EAT share a fridge. Its nice though, I like seeing a full fridge.

Produce and bechamel

I've realized in the few short weeks of living with my new roommates I can identify when they are coming home by the sound of their footsteps outside my window. Weird right??? I think so, but its useful because sometimes, ok most of the time, if I hear a key turning in the door I freak out a little. So knowing ahead of time that they are going to be opening the door eases my anxiety. I'm just weird like that.

Do people know how to pick their fresh produce anymore? Most of the time when I am at the grocery store (big fan of grocery stores, they make me happy!) people just pick whatever produce seems to be at the top of the pyramid. I like to be sure that I get the best pick that I can get. So I'll share some tips that I've learned on my trips to the grocer.

Tomatoes- Ripe tomatoes should actually smell like tomatoes, so as weird as it may be, smell them! You want an even color on the tomato, green stems and no blemishes.

Avacados- Ripe avacados should be soft and they shouldn't smell like avacado. Use the tip of your thumb to press the skin. If the dent rises, then its ripe. If you feel a hard bump or pops back out, its bruised on the inside.

Lettuce- Just make sure that the tips of the lettuce aren't browned and that closer to the center the leaves should be dark green. The leaves at the center should be closely bunched together.

Onions- They should always smell like onions, haha. And you want to make sure that the outer skin is intact with no tears because if there are tears that means its been out of the ground for awhile and its drying out.

Zucchini, squash and eggplant- They should smell like the should and that it "feels heavier than it should" so that it still has its moisture content and is not dried out.

Corn- This is a hard one because you have to peel away the husk to see the kernels, they should be in a straight row and evenly distributed.

umm and that's the ones that I can think of. I'll post more as I think of them

As for what I made for dinner, a white sauce or bechamel as the french call it. Here's a step by step with some pictures!

Heat a cup and a half of milk or half and half or cream with half an onion, a bay leaf, and some garlic like so

Melt 3 tbsp butter and add 3 tbsp of flour to the pan. Whisk the two together. Let it sit for awhile and the mixture or roux, should look like this

Strain the milk mixture and slowly add it to the roux. Whisking all the way. Season with pepper and salt to your liking. Taste!

Then let it sit and thicken and you should end up with a tasty sauce! If you want to make alfredo just add some freshly grated parmesean until it hits your cheesiness requirement (about a cup or so)

breakups outside my window

I happen to have a prime location for hearing people have intense conversations, for whatever reason in Davis once you go past a certain street (DeNali) cell phone coverage for verizon is spotty as hell, and the spot outside my window happens to have the best coverage for them. I happen to be in my room often and its interesting to just listen to what they have to say. I've heard numerous break ups (and really what a shitty way to break up with someone I respect you enough to give you this call instead of meeting you in person...dicks (since in my experiences with these moments its always almost the guy)) serious conversations and even a somewhat scary incident where someone was making a last ditch effort to calm someone down from a suicide attempt (eee)

Yeah so I just prop open my window most days because I like having air circulation (stale room air sucks) and I get to hear the crazy people talk about their problems. Perhaps my all time favorite one listening in on was some drunk girl and her friends at 2AM trying to plead with her recent ex to take her back. She was slurring her words and crying and just being all over pathetic. The friends were doing the whole "you deserve better" and "he's a dick" and the classic "he doesn't deserve you" speeches that all girls know to dole out at these times. The girl was just crying on and on about how much she loved him and how could he do this to her, blah blah blah. Thankfully this happened to be on a saturday and not during the week or I would have been PISSED at having to stay up because of her drama. (because after awhile I closed my window and could still here her)

Today was a crock pot day. I made pot roast sandwiches, they were delicious. The recipe basically consists of sticking a roast into the crock pot, dumping a can of stock, coat the meat with a blend of salt, pepper, rosemary and italian seasonings, throw in some potatoes, carrots and onions and set the pot to low and cook for 8 hours. It makes the house smell delicious and its perfect for busy days where you can dump everything in the pot in the morning before you leave for class and when you come home you get a meal waiting for you. It's awesome

I was prepping said meal Calvin the roommate sees me and tells me that's pretty cool and that I would "make a good mom." Seriously if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned that to me... even got an award for it in soccer in high school, haha. And if he had any household issues that he would ask me.

thoughts on being the "housewife"

Honestly I should just go out and buy myself a pair of mom jeans and just have the whole shebang. When I'm back in MPK I have to transition to being housewife until my mother gets home.

Really though I may have to transition into being a housewife at home but does that make me the resident goto for all your domestic questions? Not that I mind or anything its just a surprise when people are asking me about rashes or how to remove a ketchup from a white shirt. I do know about them I just didn't think I was the resident expert.

Anyhow I made tacquitos for dinner from the leftover chicken and they were delicious. I found this recipe from one of the blogs that I read. Don't they look delicious? And they happen to be super simple and baked! So they are better for you than the fried version but still crispy because of the olive oil and high heat of the oven! Try them out for yourself!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/baked-creamy-chicken-taquitos.html

something of consequence

I had nothing much to do today besides some volunteering in the morning so I decided to tackle one of my more impressive looking meals, rosemary roast chicken, for dinner. It's actually quite simple to make a roast chicken and its a nice way to make your neighbors jealous when they smell it coming from your oven. Here's a quick rundown on how to roast a chicken.

1. Pre heat oven to 350

2. Quarter a small onion and peel 5 cloves garlic

3. Take out chicken parts that hide out in the cavity (kidneys, hearts etc) discard those innards or save for other dishes such as giblets seasoned with everything except cinnamon. Place the lovely chicken in a roasting pan or whatever baking dish it will fit in

4. Season the cavity with a sprig of rosemary leaves (or about a tsp of dried), 2 garlic cloves and the quartered onion

5. Seperate the skin from the breast and stuff the remaining cloves of garlic and a few pats of butter in there to make a nice crispy skin. Or you can create an herbed butter.

6. Pour some olive oil over the top of the chicken. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Rub around to spread the seasonings

7. Pour a can of chicken stock (or whatever stock you have on hand) into the pan and stick in the oven for 2 hours. Baste every half an hour or so

8. Viola! An awesome roast chicken dinner is now yours!

Not as hard as you all thought, huh? And leftover chicken can be used for enchiladas, pot pies, chicken salad etc! So many possibilities.

I do not enjoy warm water. It's a weird habit of mine but I must have the coldest water possible. I will fill my glass to the brim with ice and pour nice cold water from the container at the back of the fridge. haha it just doesn't taste as good when water is warm.

I've lately been obsessed with Nickasaur! a band I found on itunes. The lyrics are cute and its digitized like Owl City, another band I love. Gah I suck at describing music but just know that it makes me happy and you should give him a listen! And it helps that he happens to have a song named after me! haha I suppose that is the plus of having a super common name there is bound to be a song with your name in it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD0SAtRQT-s

This happens to be my current favorite song

Conquering fears and dirty money

Is it weird that Calvin the roommate only ever uses filtered water from the fridge for everything? Literally everything; water for boiling water, water for adding to a sauce, water for cooking potstickers, water for his coffee...I think that's a little extreme. The only time that I seem to ever be using the filtered water is to just drink, other than that tap is fine because its just gonna purify over the heat anyways.

So I have a gift card for $100 to Barnes&Noble from my father for my 20th birthday. It's weird because for the past 3 years since I've seen my father my presents have been 1) a used bible 2) a prayer card and now 3) a box full of useful things such as gift cards. Why the sudden extravagance? I suppose he's reaching out? I feel slightly guilty for using because it seems like a payoff but then I consider it to be my payment for putting up with his shit for 7 years. Soo now I have $100 to buy books with and if I spend at least $25 I get free shipping. Here I come complete anthology of Grimm's fairy tales!

I want to go rock climbing (in a nice safe indoor environment) because it seems like a good step in conquering my fear ( and a fun and interesting workout). My thinking is that if I can get comfortable scaling a wall climbing the stairs at Raging Waters will be easy peasy and I won't have a panic attack and start crying halfway up and embarrass myself in front of strangers. That would be peachy! I link my intense fear of stairs with the fact that I slipped on the top step at my family's timeshare in Kauai when I was about 7, and fell the entire flight down. Childhood mishaps are a common link with all my irrational phobias. Being afraid of dark when you were 5 was cute but at 20 you just seem like an irrational being. So rock climbing to battle the stair phobia andddd I don't know how to tackle the dark thing. Any suggestions?

Today was an effective letter writing day I got a lot done in that sense. It's nice actually sit down and hand write notes to people even if most of the stuff will be null and void by the time it reaches them. Its the thought that counts right? I'm glad that people appreciate them. Today was unsuccessful in that not so much got done with the whole catching up on school reading. But I have the weekend to do that and with Heather gone I can go to bed at a reasonable hour without feeling guilty!

Food wise I didn't make anything because people fed me bbq and cheesecake, yum! I plan to make peanut butter chocolate chip brownies tomorrow though, after I buy eggs.

I don't know how long I will keep up with the constant updates but this is new and interesting so it holds my interest!