Ten on Tuesday: Back from a Break

I'm cranking this post out quickly before class starts for the night.  The day kind of got away from me.

Chelsea took a couple weeks off, for good reason.  But the questions are back this week, brought to us by Kara's Chatter.  Enjoy hearing all about my eating habits.  As a disclaimer, though my answers might make it sound otherwise, I do love sugar.  Just not with my veggies.

1. What's your variety of apple?
Crisp and not too sweet.  I don't do soft, overripe apples.

2. Do you prefer Long-English or Field cucumbers?
English.  I'm very proper.

3. Tomatoes - delicious or disgusting?
Depends.  I'm not a tomato lover, but they are absolutely necessary in some dishes.  Also, tomatoes homegrown and freshly picked in the summer can't be beat.

4. What's one fruit or vegetable that you can't stand and why is that?
I don't like cooked carrots.  They get too sweet and mushy (see first answer).  Oh, and peas are yucky.  There aren't many things I won't eat though.

5. What's your favorite way to prepare veggies?
Roasted, for sure, with olive oil and some good spices.  Or grilled in the summer.  Yum!

6. Sweet potato pie: love it or hate it?
Ambivalent.  I prefer my sweet potatoes offset by some savory, not with more sugar added.

7. What's your favorite "style" of french fry? Wedges, shoelace, curly, crinkle-cut other?
Sweet potato, actually.  Or fries from Wendy's dipped in a frosty.  Otherwise, I'm pretty open to any french fry.

8. What's your favorite fruit pie filling?
I'm not really a pie person.  I like raw pie crust, but it loses it's appeal to me once it's baked.  I prefer pies with cookie crusts.  However, my favorite pies are apple, fresh out of the oven.

9. When you were a kid did your parents make you sit at the table until all your veggies were eaten off your plate?
We had no thank you helpings when we went to other people's houses, so we at least had to try things. At home, we always ended up having to take as many bites as we were years old.

10. Do you drink veggie and fruit juice blends (such as V8) or make them yourself?
I rarely drink them or make them.  Occasionally I'll have a pre-made blended juice when I'm desperate for fruits and veggies.

Find Me at Elle Sees

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm blogging over at Elle Sees today about some of my favorite eye makeup choices.  Head on over and say hi!

I may or may not be back later with a real post.  No promises here.

Food Fun: Sweet and Savory

Even though I haven't posted about it recently, I promise I have actually been cookie (and eatting, which this weekend took the form of many spoonfuls of cookie dough).

I thought I'd share a few pictures and links to recipes of recent creations.  A simple post.

I don't know how much I really need to say about this treat.  Puppy Chow, Muddie Buddies, or whatever you call it...it doesn't matter.  Basically this is cereal transformed into candy crack.

I love it.  This batch was spiced up with chocolate chex.  Because there's no such thing as too much.

Now that we got the important recipe out of the way....

I give you Shepherd's Pie.  I roughly followed a recipe from Epicurious, meaning I used the gravy and basic steps.

However, I did not use the same veggies (mine had carrots, onions, leeks, green beans, mushrooms, and maybe something I forgot) and ended up adding italian sausage because I liked the extra spice.

It was really, really good.  Though, as a warning, it is a little labor intensive.  But it makes a lot and the taste is worth the time.

What have you made lately?

Awkward and Awesome: Yep.

No fancy intro tonight.  I don't have the energy or the ideas to make it happen.  The good news, it's probably Friday when you're reading this, which means it's basically the weekend.

So happy weekending!

Awkward:
- My ability to blog regularly. I don't know what my problem is, but inspiration is lacking.
- Money/life related stress. Being in school with a lot of people working full time and with life plans is making the fact that I don't know what I'm doing a little more stressful than it would be otherwise.
- The food I consumed today. Let's just say there was a bowl of cookie dough (though that is awesome) on my parent's kitchen counter.
- Misunderstanding someone's question but not realizing it until you are halfway through an answer. Or is this one just me? But gosh, it's awkward.
- That feeling that you've forgotten something and not having a clue what it is.
- My attention span in class last night. I'm just going to leave it at that.

Awesome:
- Seeing my grandpa tonight. I'm up at my parents for a couple days, so I made a visit to Grampie. He's really the best.
- Actually using the calendar on my phone. I mean, I have a smartphone for a reason, so I should probably get all the use out of it that I can.
- Actually feeling productive sometimes. Now if only I had written out a to do list, so I could check those items off. Mostly, I just have lots of lists running around in my head.
- Free food. It's the best. Also, I got a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate for $3 on my phone, which is pretty much like free food.
- Getting amped up for the Superbowl, though I have to say neither of the teams are ones I wanted to see here, but I love the festivities anyways. Fingers crossed that there are some good commercials.
- Being able to scrounge up pajamas from my sister's abandoned clothes at my parents. I pretty much just brought dirty laundry and a couple pairs of shoes with me.
- Being completely addicted to Downton Abbey. My sister and I are cruising through it. We just started season 2 this week.

To end, a serious question.  Blogger now has embedded replies to comments (which I love), but would anyone actually come to read them?  Because otherwise it's just silly.

Crockpot Cooking (Also: How I came to be drinking beer at 1pm on a Wednesday)

I've mentioned this before, but I'm not much of a measurer or recipe follower when it comes to cooking.  It's a problem I have.

I should clarify that this does not make me a professional.  I just get lucky sometimes.

Although I did have a conversation analyzing the spices used on some potatoes at brunch this weekend.  I felt faux-chef like and ridiculous.

I'm getting away from the point though.

The crockpot is a great kitchen tool for many reasons.  First, you don't have to pay any attention to it once the ingredients are in.  Second, measuring really isn't necessary (it's obvious now why I like it, right?).  Third, food is delicious.

I had picked up some BBQ sauce at the store last week with the intention of BBQ chicken, crockpot style.  There was no recipe I'd found or other guiding suggestions.  I just felt like it.

So this morning I threw in chicken, onions, BBQ sauce, and decided to add a little honey and beer for kicks.  Of course, a whole bottle of beer wasn't necessary, which is how I found myself drinking Shocktop while working on school work on a Wednesday.

I'll let you know how it all turns out (and by it, I mean the food.  The school work will be fine, I'm sure.).

Happy Wednesday!

A Deep Sigh

It's the end of the weekend, and I could use a nap.  The apartment has been full of house guests and the schedule has been full of to-do stuff.

Thursday night's surprise for my sister was as awesome as expected.  We had to kill some time as the snow storm had the entire mall shut down by 6pm, so we ended up going to see Sherlock Holmes (as fun as expected).  Then I forced my sister to wear a blindfold.

Her former roommate opened the door at the airport and asked for a ride.  Tears, laughter and screaming followed.  Perfection.  We ended dinner at Jimmy Mac's, a restaurant with delicious rolls and peanut shells on the floor.

Friday was cleaning, cooking, dining, cupcakes, and drinks with the girls.  And none of us fell on the slippery snow and water covered sidewalks (no small feat).

Saturday I woke up early to get coffee and donuts, had brunch to celebrate my roommate's birthday with some of her closest friends, cleaned and cooked, worked on some schoolwork, and had the parents over for a birthday dinner.  I chose to stay home and finish up some schoolwork, while my sister and her friends went out on the town.  (Look at me all responsible!)

Today was chock full of school, morning to night.  I had a group meeting, a town hall with the director of my program and other students, a career workshop, and my class group ran a focus group.  I only got to watch a quarter and a half of football, though we *might* have had the Patriots-Ravens game streaming at school.  Since my program is in digital media it seemed fitting.

I've been relaxing this evening, even though I really have things to be working on (such as a 5-page research paper on a digital media law issue of my choice, ideas anyone?).  But that's what tomorrow is for, right?

There's a lot of other stuff going on in life, but I think this little wrap up is about all I have time and energy for right now.  So I'll have to get back to you.

What were you up to this weekend?  Did someone get a nap in for me?

Awkward and Awesome: Surprise!

I just got back from an adventure, which will become much clearer (I hope) through my awkward and awesomes today.

Also, in case you don't know, we are in the midst of a snowstorm, soon to be flood.

Awkward:
- Going to grad school for digital media.  Even though school was shut down I still had class Wednesday night, via the internet.
- Busting a dance move in response to my sister at the movie theatre tonight, and having some random guy think it was for him.  It wasn't.
- A classmate asking me a question about an assignment, that I hadn't actually started.  So, you know, I had an intelligent answer for it.
- Not putting a real bra on for a couple days.  Or leaving the house.  Snow days, ya'll.
- Sitting next to frat boys on the plane trip home and having them call the flight attendant Shebow.  (We were flying into Denver.)  Luckily she was a super good sport.

Awesome:
- Having one of my sister's friends fly in as a surprise for her birthday and picking her up tonight.  We blindfolded my sister and everything.  It was pretty much the best thing ever.  Ever.
- We drove from one end of town to the other for a little shopping and every single store (except Nordstrom) was closed.  At 4:30pm.  Snow slows us down.
- School being closed for the third straight day.  We did get an ice storm this morning and many people (not us!) are without power.
- Still haven't turned on our heat.  Winning!  Thanks to a basement apartment, I guess.
- Breakfast happy hour.  Have you guys heard of such a thing?  Have I mentioned this before?  It's pretty much the best thing ever.
- Twitter during a snow storm.  I know everything...how much snow is falling where, where the plows have been, what stores are open.  It's not like I'm leaving the house to take advantage of it, but I know.

I'm calling it quits for the night.  I may or may not be back tomorrow with more shenanigans.  If not, have a fabulous weekend!