Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

My motto for the day seems to be "Good things come to those who wait."

Well, I'm not sure if it fits for everything today, but it's a start.

One of the good things that came from waiting? Well, I applied for a paid internship recently and... I got it! I just found out last night, hooray! I suppose you could say that waiting to tell the world was good on my part, just because what if I didn't get it? Right? That's how I think anyways.

My main "Good things come to those who wait" point for the day is from my run today. For my runs, I tend to cut it into sections. On average, songs usually about 3-4 minutes. When three songs have passed, I assume I've gone a little bit around a mile in distance. (9-10 minute miles) I told myself that I would run for at least 60 minutes, and I would check my time at the end of the 9th song (about a half hour in). As my run went on, that was pushed back to the 12th song. Then to the 15th song. By the time I looked at it, I had only three minutes left! The more you check something, the longer it seems to take to get to the ending point. If I had checked it at the 9th song mark, I would still have about a half hour to go. I would have wanted to check constantly after the initial check, and that would have been annoying. "I still have so much left!" I would exclaim. Instead, when I didn't check my time I didn't think about it as much.

The last "Good things come to those who wait" idea for the day comes from just cooking, really. Sure, sometimes it's easy to throw some food together and call it good. On the other hand, when you actually take time to make something, it usually tastes a lot better. True story.

I'm a bit concerned with the coherency of this post. I've written more coherent posts while affected by other sources, but there is currently nothing affecting me. That is a bit concerning. Still, I wanted to get my thoughts out.

In other life news, my cold is disappearing quickly! Nice. I'm kind of surprised by it really. I pulled a college kid move and slept in until 11. Well, after waking up at 7 for an hour. Then falling back asleep at 8 because I thought it would make me feel better. And it did. What a concept.

What examples do you have of "Good things come to those who wait?"

Everybody's Cooking for the Weekend

Once again, the weekend comes to a close. And once again, I'm mentioning that it's coming to a close.

Not a whole lot to say tonight, only thinking about how I spent the weekend. A lot of time wasted, but at the same time a lot of preparing completed!

Case in point? I now have five servings of soup made up, veggies chopped, and chicken cooked up for at least 4 meals. Although at the same time, I've come to realize that I have no supplies ready to make really anything else. Still trying to plan out meals. It's difficult for someone who isn't used to cooking.
I went over to my sister's house to help her make something called beanoa. (Like quinoa) It was basically veggies, quinoa and peanut sauce, but it was delicious. Funny thing is, our batch didn't have beans in it. The thing about the beanoa was that she had bought most of the ingredients specifically for that recipe. Before college, I did that a few times to practice cooking for school.

Now, I'm trying to find multiple meals with the same ingredients, so it's cheaper. It's hard. Perhaps there's a system to it? For now, I'm hoping that chicken I cooked is versatile. Next time I go grocery shopping, I need to find some stuff so I'm in charge of the next sibling-meal-time. It's a new concept from my sister. All I know is that I have to make something she wants to eat, and I don't think my soup or chicken are going to cut it. (Besides, the soup? Not that amazing. It's okay.)

The soup. I told you, it's hideous.

Speaking of food, a funny thing happened to me today. I ate completely vegetarian. Weird. For me at least.

Hmm. Seems I ended up rambling for a bit of there. Didn't mean to sound so journal-y. Ah well, it happens.

How was your weekend?
How do you plan weekly meals?

Making Hideous Foods

So... school. Yeah. I'm not ready for you yet. Even though I had a long break. I'm ready for routine, but homework and studying? Not fun.

Ha, but it is about time to get off my lazy arse and get back to the swing of things.

Speaking of swinging, I swung back by my house (or parent's house) to get a few more of my things. It's one of the nice things about living not-so-far away from college. After college though? Hoping to go a bit away... at least for a little while.
Truthfully? I wanted to get in one last normal shower before I had to take one in my apartment. Eugh.

While I was home for a few hours, there was one thing I was able to get done:

Brew some coffee! Just kidding. I made soup! It's called curried lentil soup, and I'm excited to try it! I have yet to do so, simply because I've heard that things made with lentils are usually better after at least a day. As for how it looks? Well, not very appetizing. The color is a brownish green, and it's sort of sludgy. I've saved you the visual... for now.
Still, I know some of the most unappealing looking meals have been some of the most delicious. I think this works for many Indian dishes. For instance, Chicken Saag is hideous, but I love it.

Also bought books today. Ouch. Most of the books were only available at this school, so online was not an option. I think it's the most I've spent on books yet.

Tomorrow is a cleaning day, and making more food day! I think I'm going to freeze half of the soups, so I'll still have three to eat. Have to have some variety though!

What hideous looking food do you love?

Time for Some Holiday Cooking

Christmas eve Eve? I can dig it.

For the holidays, it always seems like there are a million things to do the day before. Then you wonder to yourself: why didn't we do this all before?

And it's a valid point. The only problem with that tends to be the fact that usually it's food prep that needs to be done. Food prep sometimes can't be done much sooner than the day before though.

Despite being stressful, making food for the holidays is some of the most fun food to make. Why is that? Here are my reasons:

All of the food is food you wouldn't usually make, so it's fun to cook with a lot of butter/ fun desserts.

Sure, it's stressful, but you also don't have to worry about work in the moment.

Busy kitchens full of family and friends =fun.

Then again, I'm typically only in the dessert area when it comes to holiday cooking. Stick to what you know I suppose.

Anywho, busy day tomorrow! Getting excited but nervous about getting everything done.

What's your favorite time to cook and why?

Imitating the Foodie Bloggers

Sometimes, I wish I was a foodie blogger.

Or had any theme, really. Other than college kid writing? I dunno. Still, foodie blogger is the type of blogger I wish I could be the most. Food bloggers seem to have all of the fun, and they make the tastiest looking things. For instance, Mimi over at Gingersnaps just wrote about the FoodBuzz Fest, and everything sounded amazing.

But here's the thing: I am not very good at cooking. As I've mentioned multiple times. However, I'd like to think of myself as an okay baker. I'm slowly learning the art of this baking thing, don't worry about it. I've been baking bread out of what I'm calling my Bread Bible since I bought it this summer, and yesterday I thought I would make something out of it for the pledge potluck happening tomorrow.

Which leads me to point two of why I'm not in the position of being able to be a food blogger... My food isn't pretty. The best quality that all of my food baked goods has that it smells amazing. (If I do say so myself, hur hur hur.) When I baked pumpkin bread on Halloween, I received complaints about the bread smelling good. Trust me, it was a good thing in said situation. For the last two days, I've smelt like butter. You'd be surprised, but it's fantastic. I just kept smelling myself.

So what did I make today? See for yourself...

Croissants! Yes, I realize they are not super pretty but hell I'm going to take them as my dish tomorrow. That's another thing that makes me nervous about my baking- no one has ever really eaten my baking before. Sure, they've had my cookies, but no one else has partaken in the consumption of my bread. My dad never ate any, even though I would offer it. Then again, when I made him granola for Christmas last year because he likes food to munch on, he didn't eat any of it. I don't know.

I'll admit, the croissants are a little... toasted on the bottom. I didn't even keep them in the over for as long as the recipe said, it was a lot less time. I freakin' watched them. However, I taste tested one and... OH MY GOODNESS. This is why rolling three sticks of butter into flour is a good thing. (True story.)

So I'll take my little batch of french baked goods...

...And serve them to people. Wish me luck!

In case you were wondering, my phone camera still hasn't been working. That means all of these pictures were taken with my web cam. Yet another reason why I could not be a foodie blogger.

Oh, and the Cascade Half is in January. Plenty of time for training, so I'll try a little experimenting with the running.

Are you nervous about cooking for others? What are you the best at cooking/baking? Truth be told, my specialty is chocolate chip cookie dough. The trick is adding two eggs, doubling your chance of salmonella if consuming raw. And it tastes way better raw.

Food for Thought: Wasting Food

I have a confession: I've let food go bad.

I know, I know. As a college kid who's trying to be frugal, wasting food is one of the worst things I could do. It's a problem.
The thing is, I think it's because I haven't been eating my food the right way. There's been stuff that I've waited to use, and should have cooked up as soon as I bought it.

Another reason for my food crime? I got way too much food at the beginning of the school year. In my mind, I thought that I would need a lot more food than I bought. I suppose I got a little too excited. I mean, I had never bought or cooked all of my groceries for myself before! Sure, I've made food when at non-college home... but the groceries were not those that I bought for myself. Plus, I grew up eating a lot of... dare I admit it, smart ones. That's just what had been in my house for the most part. And soup. I've always liked my soup.

Final reason for my spoiling quickly food? I've been making multiple portions, then saving them in the fridge. Thinking I'll eat it all quickly, I've soon come to understand that it's very easy to get bored of foods. That usually means I'm wandering over to the soup.

Now, I'm realizing how quickly food can go bad. I'm trying to learn more about it. For one thing, I need to make variety out of my foods. Usually I cook up one type of meat, and throw it with something else. I need to explore flavors and tastes.

Another thing I need to do? Freeze food! I froze chicken breasts, and used those. I know I can freeze food, I just need to take more advantage of it.

Lastly, I need to use the foods I buy as soon as possible. Truthfully, it's been things like veggies that have gone bad. No more giant bags of spinach, just what I can use.

Welp, I suppose that's it from me. I'm currently in Washington. Yup. More on that later.

What do you do to make sure you don't waste food?

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! Did you have a good one? Mine was pretty swell, just super busy.

Cooking of different gourds happened today. I roasted a spaghetti squash, but have yet to try it. I was out the door by the time I had finished cooking it! All I know is that I think one side of it was a tad old, so it didn't cook right. Had to get rid of that half.

I also whipped up some pumpkin bread! Strangely enough, I kind of traded candy for pumpkin bread tonight. My aunt didn't get any of the chocolate candy, so they weren't that appetizing. Still snuck in a Jolly Rancher or two.

I agreed to volunteer for this thing at my school and let's just say... I might be on TV in the future. Next to a pirate and a "Halloween" type guy. You have been warned.

Other than that, not much else to report. Have a midterm tomorrow, and I'm freaked out about it. I've been told I'll do fine on it, but truthfully... I'm wishing this was a class I could have dropped. The thing is, I understand all of the information and what it means. However, for some reason that doesn't seem to translate onto paper. I'm just glad that this class is graded on a curve.

I'm so tired, I have got to get to bed. See y'all later!

How have you spent your Halloween night?

Weekly Schedule, Gifts and Cooking Meat

Goodness, how is it already so late? Ridiculous.

Truth be told, I tend to like the beginning of my school week more than the end. Strange? I know, but there's a reason for my madness. At the beginning of the week, I have less to deal with in my classes. As the week goes on though, I start getting busier and busier. However, usually after class on Monday, I have quite a chunk of time. Today was pretty busy though. Eh, what can you do.

Before I finally stop talking about my birthday, I want to show y'all the lovely gifts I received.

My mom and dad (really, all my mom) got me this nice running gear:

Plus, that adorable apron. I can't wait to use it! I also got a jacket and a purse from her, although the jacket was an odd exchange:

"Hey, do you like this?"
"Yeah, it's cute."
"Good, you can have it for your birthday."
Yeah, that's how she works. She likes having excuses to hit up Ross and TJ Maxx.

My sister got me two very cool things:

Tikki Masala Sauce and the metal tin thing. Apparently, it's a type of lunch box thing from India, how cool! Reminds me of bento boxes. I can't wait to use it!

Finally, my aunt got me this:

A dumbbell, you ask? That's strange. Well it would be, but take another look:

It's a clock! I saw this in a magazine maybe a year ago, and I thought it was the most interesting thing. No, it's not interesting because it's a dumbbell. It's interesting because it's an alarm clock that you can't push a button to turn off. You have to do bicep curls. This tells you how lazy I am, doesn't it? I'll try to make an alarm make me do bicep curls. I'm trying it for the first time tomorrow.

It seems the theme this year was clothing, fitness and food, huh? Speaking of food...

My hopelessness in the kitchen has been getting better, but there's always one problem I tend to run into. Whenever I'm cooking patties or a chicken breast or something, my pan always turns into a pan filled with chopped up or crumbled meat. Why? Well, whenever I'm cooking, it appears that the outside cooks, but the insides never do. Then, as a precaution, I always end up chopping it all up (Yes in the pan. I'm kind of ridiculous like that.) hence always having chopped meat. It's fine for now, but I really think a burger could be nice.

To all of you cooking out there, I have to ask: how do I cook meat and actually get it cooked all of the way through?

Welp, that's all from me. Some magazine reading is in order perhaps? Probably bed would be better.

What's the quirkiest gift you've ever given/received?

The Pace Makes the Runner?

What pace makes a runner different from a jogger? Apparently an eight minute mile pace does. Does that sound a bit ridiculous to you? Yeah, me too.

Today I received an email regarding the running club that I had signed up to get info about. I was excited, especially after all of the things I had heard about it. Pace didn't matter, a lot of people were there just to have fun. Within this email though, it said and I'm paraphrasing only slightly:
"We are a group of runners, not joggers. We would like to have those with an eight minute mile pace or less inquire only, because anyone slower will not have anyone to run with."

I definitely don't run an eight minute mile. Think a minute more, on a good day. I don't think of myself as a jogger, but according to this email, I am. So that's been on my mind for the day.

The chaos of school is finally starting to settle down it seems. I'm glad. Honestly, I've been up to a lot of stuff. (Strangely enough, it didn't feel like I was up to much today but I probably got a lot more done than usual.)

Let's start off with cooking. I'm working from being a lousy cook to slowly becoming a mediocre cook. Sure, I probably didn't cook my chicken right last week but at least it's been edible. I also made a frittata.

Seemed scary, but surprisingly simple. My spinach did wilt a little too much though. Ah well.

The next thing I've been up to is getting information about groups. You saw how well the running club thing went, but I'm also getting info about something I didn't think I'd ever try ever: Triathlon.
I know. I bitch and moan about biking, and I'm slower than drying paint. Still, I've been getting some encouragement to try it, and talking to one of the guys in the club made it seem like I could learn. He was just a runner himself at first, and he admitted he was still bad at it. Confidence booster? Perhaps.

Lastly is organization. I've finally got a single notebook for each subject. Sad, huh? My notes have been organized, my planner is looking especially plan-y, and my homework list is up. Basically, I'm finally getting my junk all together. I like that feeling.

Geez, I'm starting to sound more and more diary-like each day. We'll work on that. For now, I've got to make sure I actually know the information I need to for a quiz tomorrow.

Do you think speed makes the runner a runner? Why or why not?

Fancy Cheeses and Bread Breaking Other Things

Recently I was reading a book about health and food when I came across a section on fancy cheeses. Being a fan of cheese, I decided to take a more serious look at the cheese page.
It's a shame that some people can't appreciate a good cheese. I'm not talking about some simple cheese from a plastic container, oh no. I'm talking about the types of fromage that you've barely heard of, or maybe have never heard of. I don't even think I'm that much of a cheese person, but I love myself some fancy cheese. For example, during the holidays my family and I dive into a baked brie wrapped in roll dough that's about the size of a baby. Sure, it's not the fanciest (or classiest, for that matter), but it's a tad fancier than that stuff you get in the plastic wrapper.
Back to the book, I was reading about all of the cheeses when I came across the cheese Comte. Under suggestions, it said, "Why don't you try an adult grilled cheese with slices of apple and Comte?" As soon as I read that, I knew that this needed to be done.

I bought the cheese. I sliced the apples. I even made the sandwich with bread I baked. If this doesn't get me ready for the "hip, urban lifestyle" of U of O, I don't know what will.

Sure, it didn't turn out that pretty. However, this sandwich was incredible. The Comte had such a distinct taste, but the apples toned it down. Crunchy, gooey, sweet, savory... Yum.

On the topic of cooking, I ended up baking some more bread. I know. However, this bread had some issues. You see, before this bread went into the oven, it sat in a fridge overnight as instructed by the recipe. I placed it on the trusty baking stone, and put it in the oven.
If you already see the problem that arises here, you're smarter than I was Monday morning. As you might be able to see...

...The stone cracked. Most likely due to the fact that you shouldn't put something that is kind of cold into a freakin' oven. I suppose I can say I've learned something? Also, I need to buy a new baking stone. I don't know if my parents ever used it, but I like having it. Good for bread.

Oh, the bread I made? I took it out of the oven too soon mainly because I was in a rush, and it ended up not being cooked completely. Tastes okay, but doughy.
Yes, I eat my doughy defect bread. I grated a lemon peel for it! (Which happened to make it smell AMAZING.)

What's the last food you made into an "adult version"? Have you ever tried it?

What's your favorite type of cheese?

Bakin' Bread

There's something that I've been keeping from the blog world, and it's that my bread obsession has grown to an all new high. I have a problem.

On my adventure Borders awhile ago, I happened to also buy one other item. Here is what I bought:

Yes. A big ol' cookbook of bread. Only bread, like a bread bible. And no, I didn't buy it all willy-nilly. I thought long and hard about if I really wanted to buy a bread book.

I made my first loaf from this book last Friday, and have currently made three different loaves in the last five days. (They were before I had a boatload of homework, and one today). Like I said, it's a bit of a big thing. Instead of having English muffins in the morning, I've been using toast. 'Tis delish!
Also, I've been waiting until one loaf is (mostly) gone. Half of the Banana bread went to my cousins, so that went fast, and the other loaf was munched at quite a bit on my long run day.

So it turns out, I can bake bread. I'm not so great at cooking, but I can live off of bread, right?
Bread, eggs, craisins, veggies, and peanut butter... sounds about right.

It's time for me to rush off to bed. Ta ta!

Have you ever baked bread? What's your favorite kind?

Getting into Cooking Mode

The kitchen smells like curry. I smelled like curry in the shower. The whole house smells like curry.

This means that I was able to cook something! And not kill myself from food poisoning in the process.

I've mentioned before that I'm a terrible cook. I don't know much about it, but I sure can bake. Well, cookies I suppose. I almost have the recipe for chocolate chip cookies memorized, but I digress. However, with my lack of cooking experience, I've always wanted to know how to cook. I remember in high school signing up for Foods class every term and I never got in. Don't ask me why, I seriously don't know. Along with the desire to cook, now it's something that I need to learn how to do correctly due to the fact that I won't be living in a place with a meal plan.
I have baked some bread this summer, but one cannot live on bread alone and not get bored. I like my meat!

Back to the dinner. I made something called West Indian Chicken Curry Flurry. More complicated than toasting an English Muffin, but I was ready for the challenge. Pretty much every way you could put yourself in danger while cooking? Probably did all of that. Cooked in clothing that was likely to be hazardous? Check. Almost get attacked by hot oil? I tried doing this correctly, but somehow the oil was still after me. I'm onto you oil. Sure, it may look a little terrifying...

But you know what? I'm happy. And eating what looks like a real meal?

Ranch from American Dream Pizza. You can't throw that stuff out.

That feels pretty good. Yeah yeah, it's a little pathetic that I'm getting so excited over this, but I just haven't really cooked much. I'm always worried I'm gonna screw it up, but I realized that cooking? Not that difficult.
It was way overly spiced though. Ah well.

It's been quite a long time since I've done a Things That I Have Learned from Fictional Characters, and I think I should do something with that again. Therefore, I have a simple thing that I learned while finishing up Paper Towns last night. No matter how much we want someone to be the version of them that we perceive, it may never be who they really are. People are not ideas we make them out to be, they're just people. I wish I had a better way of explaining myself, but for now I do not.

More cooking will commence! I also want to make more bread. As for tonight? It's time for me to go to bed.

As for comments on the last two posts:
Man, I want to read Bossypants!
As for the search for Draco, they don't do much with it in the movie in my opinion.

What have you cooked recently that was different for you?

Making Errors and Making Bread

I'll be honest with you. I'm feeling not so great today, especially since I failed at a task that a trained monkey could accomplish. And you know how I feel about feeling like an idiot.

I did make bread today though, and that was pretty cool.

I wanted to see if I should make bread to have with peanut butter or eggs instead of English muffins in the morning. I shall test it out tomorrow!

I did try a little bite though. Pretty good! I got the recipe from a cookbook for teens... because I'm just that advanced.

I'll be honest with y'all out there. I don't know much about cooking. When I was in high school I always wanted to get into Foods class so that I could learn how to at least make something. Geez, I barely know how to boil water. I can bake alright, but cooking? I dunno.
Next school year though, I need to be able to cook. I don't want to eat out constantly, and Ramen isn't fulfilling. Therefore this summer I'm going to practice. I've been studying cheap food, scouring for things that sound healthy. This bread is one of the things.
I don't want to go to school tomorrow. Or do anything that requires work. I want to read, draw, try to make up a song on the piano and create imaginary vacations in my mind. I don't feel like getting the chance to screw up on something in the work setting again.

Hey, the bread turned out, so I'm not that incompetent I guess.
Hope everyone has a lovely evening!

Do you cook? How did you get into cooking?

Busy Days, Wicked, Car Troubles Return, and Letting My Cake Boss Show

I can't believe that it's already so late in the day. What can I say? It's been a pretty busy day.
Actually, I feel like I haven't gotten a chance to look at my usual blogs! I don't know why it's been so go go go, but it has.
For instance, as soon as I was done with all of my classes yesterday, I drove back on home and got ready for the evening ahead. Last night, as I said before I went with my family to the show Wicked. The whole reason we got to go had to do with my mom being an alumn, and there was a whole night with dinner.

The show was very fun! After seeing it, it felt like I was in on some big inside joke. Things flew around, there was some wonderful singing... It was just a fun production!

After the show, a not so fun thing happened to occur. Remember how I was talking about the putt-putting of the good old van? Well, I hadn't taken it in because every time I mentioned it, my mother would say, "Wait to get it done! Your dad can fix it!" Um... After the show, it decided to break down. Currently, it be in the shop, but it thankfully will be back in full swing by Tuesday.

Today was a day full of cooking and getting ready for tomorrow. Usually Easter doesn't become a very big thing at my house, just the simply Easter baskets and dinner. Tomorrow however we're doing brunch with some friends in the morning, and having a bunch of our family members coming over for dinner. The candy has become like rabbits (ha) and multiplied. The food in the house has grown. Fridges that were once empty are now filled with goodies to be cooked up tomorrow. Madness.
One of the last minute things that was made? This little beauty:

Yes, I'm letting my Cake Boss show. Aw yeah.

Hopefully after this weekend, there shall be more time to talk about all of the stuff happening in life like interesting and exciting things!

Have you ever let your Cake Boss show? (As in, what's the most interesting looking treat you've ever made?)

Treasure Cookies and Getting Ready for Break

Thank you guys for the well wishes for my finals! The verdict? I believe I killed them! Well, for the most part.

My last final was History this morning, and whoa. The teacher thinks a good essay is about 3-4 pages in the large blue books. There were three essays along with two definitions. Personally, that's a lot of freakin' writing. I wrote right on through those two hours of test time. By the time I was done, I was dizzy from writing so much! Writing can take a lot out of me sometimes if I'm seriously writing.

After the finale of my finals, I caught up on my Tuesday shows Glee and Raising Hope. Ah, how great were they? Holiday-themed episodes are seriously the best. The one downside I've realized is that they probably won't have any new episodes until the new year... Curses.

Since there was no more studying to do, what did I spend the entire rest of the afternoon doing?

That's right. I made cookies. No, that's not really dough, that's just butter and sugar mixed together. It just looked cool. I'm one of those people who loves to give gifts to people, and I thought it would be nice to give some hall mates something. This lead to the thought, "What if someone feels left out?" This ended in me making a huge batch of treasure cookies.



This was after I had already stuffed some bags with cookies. There were about 100 altogether.

 If you've ever had treasure cookies, you'll know that they are delightful cookies with pieces of candy hidden inside. I have very distinct memories of searching through a batch of said cookies, on a mission to find the cookies with Reese's Peanut Butter cups inside.
I love the classic treats, but the more I hear about raw desserts, the more they sound delicious. I should look into venturing to get some during break.

I can't wait to go home, but I have to get all packed up first! It's one of those things where you just don't know where to start, you know?

Do you make gifts for other people? What type of treats bring back memories?