next blog

So while randomly on blogger I decided to click the "next blog" button at the top of the screen and see what popped up. As I kept pressing I was passing all these personal blogs, family happenings blogs, expectant mothers writing about the troubles of pregnancy and tons of healthy living blogs. It just makes me wonder if they know that random strangers can stumble on their blogs.

It an interesting way to suss out what people do with their blogs and how insanely personal they make the entries. I'm all for having a nice cry session but not so much for putting it up on the internet for people to read about. I'm still no closer to figuring out what direction to take this blog in buut I would like to say that my garden is turning up just dandy. Maybe I'll be more motivated to spend time outdoors since I am a scary shade of pale at the moment. We'll see since I am pretty prone to getting burnt and I really don't want to start off the spring season with a ridiculous shade of red on my face.

My Knife

My chef's knife is pretty much awesome! All I have to do to keep it in tip top shape is to give it some TLC by always ALWAYS hand washing it and sharpening it ever so often (it feels really nice to be able to sharpen my own knives properly thank you random guy at the store for showing me how!). But my knife skills sometimes fail me with those awkward circular vegetables! I can mince an onion like nobody's business but hand me a carrot to julienne and I start to lose confidence and usually end up slicing off a chunk of my nail ( I always manage to swiftly stick my thumb under cold water before it bleeds all over the produce I was working on). It sucks but thankfully its just my nail and I don't end up cutting into any of my vital parts.

I haven't posted any recipes lately because I've become so damn complacent in my cooking I sort of lost my experimenting and trying phase and have settled into the 3 week dinner rotation schedule. Which makes me sad since I'm only 20! I shouldn't be in such a rut about something that I'm passionate about. But with the my garden project and the past several days, its been really nice to head into the kitchen and whip up something new. Today was 7 cheese tortellini with a brown butter sauce and homemade garlic cheese bread. It was AWESOME! I love when a spontaneous meal turns out to be delicious. I've also realized that I am pretty insecure about my cooking, just because I put a lot of pressure on myself to cook well so when something ends up burning or being over seasoned, it depresses me a little. It only lasts for a few minutes before I get back on the everything's a learning experience! So what if I make a mistake here and there if I can realize that I'm doing something wrong now then it'll be much better for me in the long run.

I've recently decided to make it a goal to be happy. Just be selfish and look out for myself for a bit and get my life back under control. Because I spend so much of my day just looking after everyone else that I just lose myself in the role that I've chosen to fill. People can talk all they want about me because at the end of the day I'm the one that has to live with my decisions, forget the others!

Here's the being happy! Cheerssss

Gardening!

So on a recent trip to Target I was perusing the dollar section (cause I mean who can resist dollar bargains?) and it was all decked out in gardening gear. So it seemed appropriate to pick up some supplies to start a summer garden (parsley, basil, tomatoes and cilantro) because I really had a craving for bruschetta and I only have to wait a couple months! haha but it should be amazing right? Vine ripened home grown tomatoes and fresh basil...YUM.

I believe that people should feign interest in my gardening habit lest they be not invited to share the bounty when everything is ready. I am not obligated to share, I only share with people that I care about and are nice. haha at least pretend to be excited guys, its exciting to me! Growing something from a little itty seed and seeing it blossom into a ripe fruit or herb, its completely gratifying.

I remember when I wanted to grow my own apple seed. So I took a seed from the apple that I had just finished eating and my mom helped me plant it in a pot underneath the air conditioning unit so it would get water. That plant actually sprouted and grew into a pretty good size before I gave it to my old kindergarten (for years I've wanted to wanted to spell it kindergarDen because that's how I pronounce it) teacher to have. I heard that it actually grew some apples a couple years back. Amazing right? Life grows in the most unlikely of places.

Avacados and Bananas oh my!

Wow one month to the day since my last update, so much for keeping this up regularly. Umm so the olympics happened and I actually watched so much of it that I understood curling AND actually was excited about the Americans winning the nordic combined cross country skiing race. Yeah I became a fan, ridiculous huh? That's how I roll.

Man. I'm boring the greatest thing to happen this week was that I made many little loafs of banana bread and found avacados for 6/$1. To my credit it is only Tuesday so I can only imagine how the rest of the week is going to go. Very exciting! I've tried to make some baked good every week some have worked out well and some have been a complete failure. Why did I even want to try to make an eggless, butterless chocolate cake, it was TERRIBLE. Tasted like dry bitter cocoa. ugh. But all my other attempts have been rather good; pumpkin pie, devil's food cake, snickerdoodles and banana cream pie (not sure if this was a win considering that my mom gave them away before I could give them to Chester). Culinary wise I haven't done anything terribly fancy yet, just the same old enchilada, pulled pork, roasted chicken, pasta routine. I think its because I don't have cooking wine around that I don't feel things are fancy. haha I want to make a wine reduction or chicken marasla.

So my baby sister's 16th birthday is this week, she starts the beginning of important birthdays or what we like to call "birthday bonanzas" my other sister has her 18th and I have my 21st.

Update!

So I was told that I needed to update my blog by my friend Godwin...

/update. bye!

Song of Myself

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

-Leaves of Grass, the only intellectual stimulation I've been getting recently.

That's probably the most recognizable quote from the whole book from the famous "Song of Myself" passage. I can't help but smile when I read the lines because it makes me feel connected to something bigger than myself. Its just so easy to lose a sense of my significance when I look up and stare up into the sky, all these stars are just projections from lightyears away and are probably nonexistent at this moment in time. I just get lost in this big universe and I lose a sense of myself and the only way to snap out of it is to shake my head to get the thoughts out. But this passage just helps ground me in the fact that "every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." How sappy, all those rommance novels have finally got to me.

I probably need to make a trip down to the library so I just don't turn into a pile of primoridal ooze with reading all my old teen rommance novels. Aha as amusing as they are I just feel my IQ dropping dramtically with each and every one I finish, even if it takes me about 2 hours to finish one. I miss school actually, even the tests! Ha just because it gave me a purpose and deadlines. Oh well I'll find something to keep me occupied.

I've got through one thing on my list of things to do this year, cooking more Japanese food. Tackled the long process of cooking tempura, its fairly simple there's just so much prep work that goes into it. So now the whole house smells like fried vegetables and udon. It took a huge chunk out of the day, which was nice. Can't really put a recipe for it since its just following a simple mix from the box and frying it. But y'all can look at a picture! aha

Southern Hospitality

I've become obsessed with watching the BBQ Pitmasters show on TLC where they follow several teams as they participate in different competitions. Just watching anyone with such a passion for their food and seeing the amount of time and effort they put in with this hobby is inspiring. And I can't help but by entertained by all the slabs of meat cooking away on grills, smokers and pressure cookers. Watching these teams putting so much love into their marinades and spice blends makes me want to develop some special secret sauces of my own, perhaps I will take this time off from school and work on finding that perfect blend for summer grilling. I definitely crave bbq when I watch the show

Since BBQ is a southern tradition a lot, if not all, of the contestants have that southern way of life and it makes me want to go and visit the south. To try all that down home cooking that is just so delicious! Collard greens, fried chicken, ooey gooey mac and cheese, yeast rolls, BBQ, black eyed peas and SWEET TEA. I just picture myself sitting on some wraparound porch sipping tea and watching the twilight settle in. Oh my! That sounds so ridiculously cheesey, but I get tired of this MPK bubble and I just want to go out and try something completely different than what I am used to and to also sate the travel bug in me that wants to go out and explore everything. It just so happens that I've been watching this show that highlights the South and so that region has jumped up to the top of my list of places to see. And I'm a sucker for southern accents so that's just the cherry on top! hehe.

Expectations for 2010

I had all the best intentions of maintaining this blog, but as with everything, I just couldn't find the motivation to write an entry. I will try to work out a regular schedule of keeping this up, but no promises!

hahah as some of you know I've been working out how to write this entry for some time, just didn't know what direction I wanted to take, so now I'm just going to prattle on about whatever I feel like. Even though its January 18th I still think its appropriate to put out a list of things that I want from myself this year. For whatever reason I want to go out and make mistakes, I suppose its because I've lived my life trying to find the best route to do things, I want to laugh at myself after I do something dumb because I still can. Go out and just do things that I've been to afraid to do because I'm tired of never having any interesting stories! I mean when my family talks about the things they did when they were my age I really feel like I am missing out; fights, late night adventures, road trips and so much more. So as cliche as it may seem I just want to go out and enjoy being young before settling into a caretaker role makes me older than I want to be. What else do I expect out of 2010? I expect fun, family, friends, good food and a tattoo! I definitely want to try my hand at more extravagant meals or more serious pastry decorating and what not, just an improvement on the culinary level with trying to learn more traditional Japanese dishes. Maybe more baking will turn into packages? hahah we shall see, because I have absolutely no motivation at the moment. Hopefully all my expectations will be met and I will be able to achieve them, because I don't expect for a white knight to come in and clean up my life for me. But who knows, maybe I've met that white knight! hahah even so I don't need them to come and fix me, that's totally a do it myself project.

I've gotten back into the habit of reading again, just because I couldn't focus on anything for the longest time. I have quite a few new books to read from Christmas and the books that I bought from Barnes and Noble to be able to get free shipping for my Battle of the Sexes game. So I'm starting the Dexter books, and so far (150 pages in) I like it. I know the basic plot of the book because I've watched a lot of the show but I definitely like reading all the subtext that can't be translated into a tv show. I think that's why I love books so much because of all the little nuances that you can perfectly picture in your mind as you wait for the plot to develop, it just makes me happy because I can become so completely engulfed in an interesting story.

Currently watching Pawn Stars on the History channel because I love it. I'm obsessed with watching shows about how much something can be worth, ie Antiques Road Show. I think it has to do with the stories behind all these objects and the fact that this rare item exists today. I can only imagine with those things have been used for and all the memories that have clung to something. Yeah I'm cheesy, like that I suppose. Pawn Stars is less sappy and more of trying to make a buck, I definitely like seeing the experts coming in and telling the owner all about the stuff to make sure the item is legit and then the bartering part of trying to make a deal. Useful life skills right? I've totally learned how to spot a fake Rolex. Just something fun to watch on a rainy day.

And back to posting a recipe! I think that's what I missed most is seeing the stuff I made up here, because I am proud of the meals I make (while most of them). I made ratatouille the other day and it was a perfect winter vegetable clean up day.

Ratatouille

Ingredients

2 zucchinis

2 yellow squashes

1 small eggplant

mozzarella cheese

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 tsp each of basil, oregano, rosemary

salt and pepper to taste

prep

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Chop all vegetables into small discs

3. Lay out half the vegetables into a greased 9x13 pan and half the can of tomatoes with a handful of cheese

4. Repeat to make the top layer

5. Cover the pan in foil and cook for 35 minutes

6. Take off foil for 15 minutes until the cheese is browned

7. Serve over rice or pasta!