A Little Rambling

School starts on Monday!  Well, parent teacher conferences start on Monday and school starts on Tuesday, but whatever.  I've ordered my workbooks, made up my gradebooks, organized seating charts, set up my class and my desk and my calendar and made forms and passes and all kinds of stuff...and have chosen (almost) no music and written no plans.  I'm severely lacking in motivation, and the closer I get to panic the more I avoid it.  Thus, blogging.  I WILL get it done, and the situation is not as dire as it appears, but I'm still in quite a tizzy of terror.  It won't be that bad...right? Anyways, the purpose of getting on here today (for the first time in far too long) was to share another recipe.  This one is stolen from a wonderful neighbor and adapted slightly. These ham buns are DELICIOUS and easy.  I've made them twice this week for friends who came over. Ham Buns 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 small onion, diced up into itty bitty pieces ...

I've been cooking a lot on the weekends, and feeding as many people as will come over and eat with me.  Dad told me I need to be a little old Jewish grandmother, since I never seem to be happier than when I am feeding people.  It's true!  I think it might come from having worked at the Hospitality House , but wherever it originated, I absolutely love to cook for others.  Sharing food makes it better, and part of it might be just that I like to show off. I had one particularly show-offy meal this week.  Nate came over for dinner on Sunday, and it was a Greek/mediterranean/middle-eastern food fest.  I got to use my new-to-me grill for the first time, and all the food actually turned out really well!  It's always nice to feed someone who vocally appreciates one's efforts, and Nate was good at that. The menu was: pork souvlaki (almost), quinoa tabbouleh, tzatziki, and flatbread.  The flatbread I bought from Trader Joe's, and I wish I had a lot mor...

This is my 200th post!  Apparently, I am celebrating by offering you free food and good company next Friday.  :) I still don't have any plans for my actual birthday, so I thought I might capitalize on all those places that offer free birthday eats.  The list of places that offer free stuff is very, very long, so I whittled it down to ones I would actually be willing to do.  Most of them, I don't even have to buy something to get it!  (although I've signed up for enough e-clubs that my spam box will be forever full of fast food.)  Who wants to join me for a day of free eating?  I'll share a lot! BREAKFAST Denny's - free grand slam IHOP - free meal Einstein's - free bagel? First Watch - free entree LUNCH or DINNER Firehouse Subs - free medium sub Liberty Market - $10 towards meal Joe's Farm Grill / Joe's Real BBQ - free meal ($10) Ruby Tuesday's - free burger Schlotzsky's - free sandwich SNACK Wing Stop - free fries Texas Roadho...

Most people don't really know their neighbors, at least not in a city like Phoenix.  It's too hot to play in the streets together, too much traffic, too many questionable neighborhoods.  We keep to ourselves in our air conditioning and our own backyard pools. I, fortunately, am an exception to this rule.  I know most of my neighbors, and their families have known my family for a generation or two.  Several go to the same church, we have neighborhood parties on big holidays, and you always know someone with a spare key when you lock yourself out.  I've tutored, taught, or babysat most of the kids on this block, and there's always someone to feed your pets when you're out of town, or someone willing to lend you an egg or some sugar.  However, sometimes the best perks are the little things.  The doorbell rang tonight as I was sitting around talking with my dad, and I opened the door to see my neighbor and her daughter standing there holding out a plate...

Not that I ever plan to face this situation to begin with, but I don't have any idea what my death row meal would be. I love food so much! I think between my inability to make choices and the impending doom, my decision-making skills would shut down. I wouldn't know if it was time to have comfort food, whatever I was craving, or to gorge myself on something I'd never indulge in otherwise. Even thinking about limitless possibilities of food is making me salivate (or that could be the aroma of my creole black beans and rice wafting in from the kitchen). I LOVE FOOD. And eating! Oh my goodness, it's probably unhealthy how much I think about food, and eating it, and cooking it, and making it pretty, and sharing it, and and and...yes. That. In my mind, I see the incredulous, then bored, then raging facial expression of whatever poor soul was forced to accommodate my gastronomic requests and had to listen to me talk through every possible option, indecisively hopping ...

It's amazing how good it feels to eat a bowl full of raw vegetables, even if Chris mocks me for eating rabbit food. Salad is just so good! I love meat and don't want to give it up, but I'm pretty sure I could make it happily as a vegetarian. I think I'd end up counting bacon as a veggie though. It's been a busy week! 3 concerts in the last 2 weeks, including one down in Tucson with The Chieftains . It was pretty darn awesome. JD, Austin, Chantel, and Toby and I loaded up into my car and headed down on a gorgeous day, Irish music playing as they tried to teach me a song in Gaelic by rote so I would be able to sing it by the time we got there - and of course, we didn't even sing it. We got to sing two songs with them, one of which we did learn in the car on the way there, since we'd gotten the music that morning. The other we'd had for 5 whole days already, so of course we knew it perfectly. The concert itself was lovely. Traditional Irish music i...

I keep having the thought that I want to write a cookbook. More specifically, I want to write "The Alcoholic Cookbook - for People Who Don't Drink." It's one of a long list (included is also a College Student's Cookbook, which is something along the lines of cooking with only a microwave and hot plate and not using any ramen. Maybe I should combine them. But I digress). Anyways. I'm a huge fan of using alcohol is cooking, and this recipe is one of the biggest hits - and suuuuuper easy. Just look - you can see the steam rising from it, fresh from the oven. Ingredients 3 cups flour 2 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp baking powder 1 tsp salt (a little more if you use sea salt) 1 cup cheddar cheese (finely grated) 1 bottle (12 0z) beer (I used a Corona...ehhh) 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) melted butter Instructions Preheat your oven to 350 ° and grease a 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan. Mix your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Add the beer an...

If you ask me, cooking for just one person is way harder than cooking for 25. (Unless you're making spaghetti and you only have a 2-quart pot. Then 25 is nearly impossible.) When you're one person, you have a lot of leftovers. Depending on what you make, you may be eating the same meal for days. For instance, I really wanted fruit salad with everything in it this week. If I use just one of each kind of fruit, I still end up with an enormous bowl of deliciousness that will start to go bad quickly if I don't devour it. The solution: share with friends at school and foist it off on whoever looks hungry. Works pretty well, but there's still a ton left in my fridge. The problem is, it's very hard to cut down a recipe that already only calls for one egg. What am I supposed to do with the other half of the egg? Like the fruit salad, you tend to have to use a whole something or you end up with a half-something taking up space in your refrigerator, getting forgotten...

I really, really dislike packing. If you haven’t been around my blog during travel before, this will show you just how much I hate it. Sigh. I think I actually did pretty well this time. I’m blogging after I packed, rather than during, which is an improvement. The only breaks I took were running stuff downstairs as I came across it in my room and going down again to check in for my flight. Not setting any records, but it took me less than 6 hours, so I say that’s pretty good. My carry-on is very heavy, and my suitcase is currently underweight, but we’ll see how long that lasts. I hate having to bounce things between both bags to try and even it out and make sure everything fits in the restrictions. Also – gummi bears are heavy!! So, my time here draws to a close. I finished the four videos yesterday and got them on DVD, and have started the interminable process of uploading them to youtube. Tonight is the last ministry night I will get to see. Yesterday, Debbie took me out s...

"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude." (E.P. Powell) Ahhh, I am stuffed full of stuffing and other stuff. Well, I've never liked turkey or stuffing or green bean casserole or gravy or sweet potatoes. (I know, I know, how unAmerican!) I like the ham, the mashed potatoes, the cranberries, the rolls, and the relish tray. And this year, I decided I liked the martian goop, a green, creamy, marshmallow-y concoction of my cousin's husband's. I ate my plate piled high and did not have room for seconds, though I did manage to consume a small slice of Tollhouse cookie pie for dessert. When I got to David and Sarah's house, the first thing Abby asked me was if she could wear my boots. Having just entered the home, I told her after dinner she could. As soon as I finished eating, she reminded me of my promise and spent the rest of the evening clomping around in bo...

Arrrrrgh it's that point in the semester again. The point where all those big projects are almost due, but not quite due, so motivation to get them done ahead of schedule is at a minimum. I work best months ahead of time or under the strenuous pressure of, "oh crap it's due tomorrow." However, I know that I like to savor my weekend days by lounging and munching and napping, not typing up projects, and so here I sit... ...clearly not making headway. Instead, I shall say that if you are in Tucson, or have the means to conveniently get to Tucson, you should go see UofA's production of "The Secret Garden." I drove down yesterday to see the understudy performance, and wow. If the understudies are all that good, the actual cast (overstudies?) must be great. I will staunchly defend my opinion that it probably can't be as good without Ryan as Archibald Craven, but I may or may not be a little bit biased. I had tears in my eyes for about half the sho...

One of my very favorite 'holiday' foods. And by holiday, I mean any time that the weather is cool and cloudy and warm, hearty food sounds good. Those days here in the valley are rare, so they all get to be special! Stoup is wonderful for having groups of people over, as it is non portion-specific. (The name comes from the cross between stew and soup.) It's also good for having just to yourself, since it will last forever and just gets better with age. It's super easy, not too pricy, and deeeeelicious. Good college-student food. You will need any of the following: beans - as many kinds as you want: black beans, kidney beans, red beans, great northern beans, pinto beans, ranch style beans, blackeyed peas, more black beans (cause they're the best, of course!) - no garbanzo beans - stewed tomatoes - generally 1 can to every 3 or 4 cans of beans? mexican style is yummy, or some kind of fire roasted tomato salsa (I used one can of each today) onion (red, white, yel...

I have long aspired to become a domestic goddess . Though I do not limit this to cooking, that seems to be the most currently marketable aspect, as I do not have my own home, nor my own family. Thus, I start where I can. Tomorrow night is my Halloween celebration, and we're doing food pot-luck style. I've been hankering to bake something, so I decided I would bring pie. Not just any pie, however. I wanted to make a pumpkin pie - from an actual pumpkin. Along the way, I somehow decided to make a pecan pie too. I began my adventure this afternoon by shelling fresh pecans with Heber while watching The Incredibles . Carrying my bounty home, I investigated the contents of my kitchen and ran to the grocery store, where I collected the necessary supplies, including a sugar pumpkin. Sugar pumpkins (also called pie pumpkins) are much smaller than the typical jack-0-lantern variety, sweeter and less stringy. I can't imagine how much pie filling you could make from one of tho...

Today was Bex's 19th birthday, so I made her a cake. A rainbow cake. In a jar! I had SO MUCH FUN with this! I saw the recipe here , and proceeded to spend another hour or so browsing through some of the deliciousness contained in this blog. I have such a love for creating in the kitchen, and I don't usually get the time to enjoy that during the school year. I've decided it may be more important than sleep, so I stayed up making the cakes last night, and tonight cooked my own delicious spin-off of a king ranch chicken casserole. Spicy! I have another, less colorful but equally sugary, recipe to try this weekend, too. :) Anyways, these cakes captivated me. I lovelovelove bright colors, which is why I love flowers and dresses and markers and coloring books and sparkles and lisa frank and my little ponies and little kids. I was already delighted before the cakes baked, when they looked like this. I had fun playing with the colors and the batter, making ...

So far, my alliterative plan of school + sleep + social life (+ sanity) is working out just dandily. Fridays are my favorite days right now, because it's my day off and I only have two classes. After 11:30, I have freedom! (Until observations start...sigh.) This Friday was reminiscent of the best parts of summer in that I got to spend about 12 consecutive hours with the Knights of Ubiquity and friends. I went out to lunch at Pita Jungle, which was delicious - so much so that I went again tonight (although in Peoria instead of Tempe) with a very old friend to celebrate 17 years of friendship. (I am constantly in search of a döner kebap substitute, so I keep trying different gyros. Pita Jungle's was delicious, but it's just not the same! The shawarma I had tonight was delicious, too. I do so love middle eastern/Mediterranean food! I need to eat it more often. Oh so scrumptious.) The rest of the afternoon ended up being movie at Matt's ( The Italian Job ), dinne...

I love trying new things - new countries, new activities, new people, new foods, it's just fun. (Also, if you look at the word 'new' too many times it starts to look verrrrry strange.) I enjoy a little bit of exoticism in my every day life, and as I'm stuck unable to travel for a while, why not travel by taste instead? In a moment of adventurousness, I got to try African food for the first time. My friend Tiffany and I went over to Zanzibar African Restaurant tonight, in hopes of discovering a new ethnic food to love. Well...that didn't pan out so well. As we were at one of only two occupied tables in the restaurant, our host had ample time to wait on us. He explained various things on the menu, and how one is supposed to eat them. We ordered, and before our food came out, he brought us a bowl of water to wash our hands with first. The appetizer was a meat pie (they were out of the yummier-looking sausage rolls), and it was an experience in itself. It looks ...

Oh how I love summer vacation! The freedom to lounge around and soak up sunshine without a care in the world but not frying and not being late for a barbecue. It doesn't get better, does it? I've had such a fun week! I went to Big Surf with Jessica and lounged around in the wave pool and on the slides during the hours when very few people venture out to a water park. Delightful! I saw Marc and Mohamed perform in "The Music Man" at the MAC, which was way better than I was expecting. Afterward, we enjoyed deeeeelicious food at Old Chicago , along with copious amounts of laughter, as usual, and one particularly awkward moment. My bad. I took my first piano lesson in 7 years, and my first jazz lesson ever. I have a healthy new respect for my adult students now! But it was great fun, and I'm excited to continue. I had a girls night involving a ton of scrumptious junk food and lots of really bad 80's movies, redeemed by finishing the night with Dr. Horrible...

Mmmmm dinner last night was delicious, and my wonderful sister took some pictures so that I could make up a "real" recipe blog. This is fairly easy food and always well received, so I hope you enjoy! Also, this is my first time writing it out, so it's probably pretty wordy, not nice and concise like normal recipes. Ah well. Bacon-Wrapped Chicken ingredients (suggested) chicken breasts thick bacon herbs/spices of various assortments according to your taste olive oil red wine possibly toothpicks 1. Get yourself some chickens out of the freezer. Because I am kind of bad at planning ahead, I generally marinade my chicks while they're thawing. It seems to work quite well. I used boneless & skinless this time, though there's a delightful variation if you use boneless, skin-on chicks in which you stuff the skin with herb-y cream cheese. Delish! But this is not that recipe. 2. Arrange them artfully - or not - in your glass pan, or if you don't have a g...

It's here! Although the weather would delightfully suggest otherwise, which is quite alright by me. My favorite part of summer is going to be not having every moment of my day scheduled out in advance to be somewhere. Instead of going from school to observations to work to rehearsal, I have time to go to the store, or to hike, or to hang out, or to shop, or to wash my car - and to cook! I LOVE to cook. I told my parents when they let me move back in while I wait on the still-no-news-on-the-approval-of-the-short-sale house that I would cook dinner for them whenever they wanted. I think I've 'actually' cooked once in the last semester, and that was pretty early on. Working till 8 at night and then having concerts to attend or perform in or rehearse for pretty much limited the number of times I ate dinner at home - or at all. But today, I got to cook! I've had a couple people mention that I should do a foody blog, and I really want to, cause most of the things I ...

Tuchetti's. Only it doesn't exist anymore. It was the most delicious Italian restaurant in the history of ever. Unlimited amounts of the best garlic bread you've ever tasted, and a salad bar that converted me from my days as a salad-hater. Oh, Tuchetti's, how I miss thee. Since my favorite place is gone, I'd have to say Oregano's - for the Vino Bambino, Jr. salad and the pizookie. Other than that, pretty much any Mexican food place, including the original Garcia's and Macayo's, and Carolina's. Apparently I like restaurants with possessive titles. how can you resist pizookie?!