Friday, August 14, 2009

Happy Hours Around Portland

Happy Hour is my favorite hour. It means cheap food, cheap drink, somewhere more exciting that sitting at home, and likely with wonderful people. Since I have no real job at the moment and tragically no trust fund, if I want to go out, I do it as cheaply as I can. Happy Hour makes this easy for me, and luckily, Portland has some great ones. Since I live in SE, that's mainly what you'll find. Here is a list of my favorites:
Victory Bar (SE 37th and Division)--5 pm-7 pm I think
-->maybe 2 tiny tables outside? Totally cute inside but not for huge groups--4 or so is ideal
-->$5 food--get the spatzle (mac n cheese with caramelized onions and apple sauce on the side), no question.
-->$4.50 cocktails (they make seriously good drinks--no lemon drops or cosmos here. My favorite is the Corpse Reviver and I cannot figure out what's in it).
-->beer on tap (I think it's cheap but the kind as well as the price rotates so i could be wrong)

Bonfire (SE Stark and 28th)--maybe 3-6 pm?
-->outside seating that's usually packed in nice weather. Inside was nothing thrilling but bigger than I realized
-->$3.50 menu with excellent tzaziki, ok hummus, and a huge portion of fries. They have burgers for this price too that I didn't try (sadly) but seems promising
-->well drinks were discounted but I don't think beer was. Go for the food.

The Blue Dragonfly (between 11th and 12th on Powell)--til 8 pm
-->surprisingly fancy shmancy place considering the location
-->$3.00 (2.99 technically I think) food: chicken quesadillas, tacos, chicken wings, burgers. Yes, $3 for a very decent burger. Big fan.
-->cheap drink menu. I think $3.00 or 3.50 for well drinks and certain cocktails (appletinis etc), also bottled beers. Their tap wasn't working (demerit)

The 'Vern (27th and Belmont) --the food special is between 4 and 6 or 7 on weekdays I think
-->Totally dive/wannabe hipster bar from first glance, however, they get the plus of having a nice stack of books along one windowsil
-->$5 for a pbr on tap and a cheeseburger and fries
-->really good beer specials. Two beers on special (maybe $2.50 or 3.50 for a pint of legit beer on tap) rotating daily
-->no hard alcohol (beer and wine only) but the food special is so worth this place being on here

Vault (downtown/pearl 12th and Everett)--4-7?
-->my favorite bar--classy inside, awesome bartender (the tatooed lady is wonderful and so nice)
-->good drink menu. Certain drinks for cheaper (maybe $5?)
-->possibly a cheaper food menu, however, the food is fabulous and generally worth the price. Well, the grilled cheese and tomato sure is. They also have a bring-your-OLCC card and get happy hour all night but I'm not sure when

Crush (14th and Morrison)--til midnight tuesdays, otherwise I think 4-6 or so
-->super cheap food menu: $2.50 for an excellent place of mashed yams in curry gravy (my favorite) and bread and oil, up to $5.50 for a pulled pork sandwich. Among other things they offer nachos, ceasar salads, mac n cheese, and baked spagetti
-->$3.50 wells and certain cocktails (the Sidecar and the tropical one with guava in it are both actually very good)

Blue Monk (33rd? and Belmont)--til 8 downstairs
-->$5 food menu: the sandwiches were nothing special but the pasta primavera was a great deal: big plate of pasta with veggies and your choice of sauce
-->cheap drink menu: not thrilled by most of their drinks but I did like the margarita with blue curacao

Aalto Lounge (33rd? and Belmont)--til 8 maybe?
-->this place, like the Blue Monk are only on here for the food
-->cheap, cheap paninis for $4.50 or something. Comes with kettle chips. Really good.
-->Not much in the way of Happy Hour drinks but I think they did have a special on their IPA on tap. Unfortunately, I don't like IPAs (too bitter)

I'm sure there are more. I'll work on remembering all of them and try to come up with a point system and perhaps better reviews.

Belated Pie and Cookies






I'm not so great at doing things in the right order, but hopefully this will be the last time I mess that up. Several weeks ago I brought home some fabulous fresh blackberries from work in hopes of making a pie. I love baking pies (lemon meringue, pumpkin, and blackberry are my favorite, but I haven't broadened my horizons as much as I should) and when I think of summer dessert, I always think of blackberry pie. Turns out I bought way more blackberries than I needed for just one pie, so, bummer!, I had to make two.
The first pie I made the way my dad usually does: buy some frozen pie crust and follow the recipe for blueberry pie on the back. Now this is a great pie. I'm all for frozen pie crusts, too. Nothing wrong with frozen food, people (this is directed towards Ray)! Anyway, so I made that pie for our housewarming party and it was a hit.
My wonderful ex-housemates gave me a nifty fruit desserts cook book for my birthday that I haven't tried out as much as I've wanted to, so for the second pie I went checked out the book. I found a yummy-looking recipe for marionberry pie and decided to sub blackberries. Marionberries are a variety of blackberries. I can't always tell the difference, but occasionally you can, and I prefer marionberry jam to blackberry. Point being, they are essentially interchangeable for pie. I decided to get fancy and not only make a pie with more ingredients that the first one (no nice, simple tapioca, instead corn starch and a variety of fancy other things), but I decided to get really wild and make my own crust. Oh man. So worth it. Now with pumpkin pies especially (or more savory pies), I think the frozen pie crust is fine, and even for not-as-savory pies. Still, if you're making a pie with fresh fruit or fresh anything (as opposed to canned pumpkin), fresh pie crust really makes it.
I've always been one of those kids who loved pie crust (my brother never did and still just scrapes out the filling from the crust), so combine that with my adoration for bread, this pie crust is out of control. the downside, of course, to making your own pie crust, is that cutting in cold butter is a hassle, and letting it chill FOREVER is equally annoying. I stuck my crust in the freezer for half the time instead of in the fridge and it worked just fine. I also made the mistake of starting the pie around 10 at night so it wasn't done until after midnight. Even then, I was too impatient to try it that I took it out a little early and it didn't thicken up all the way. Still, it was deeelicious.
After making the pies I felt the need for something else outrageously sweet so I made homemade oreos from Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/ . I cooked them a little too long and they got very crispy/slightly burned, but it turned out to be kind of nice to have something really crunchy to munch on. Also I used about half the frosting. It's frighteningly sweet but tastes just like the inside of an oreo. I recommend these immediately.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

More Plums!




So I made a fantastic plum cake today, but alas, I still had several rather ripe plums. I could have eaten them, yes, but I am not quite as fond of raw yellow plums, so I was hoping for other ideas. Earlier today, I was looking up yellow plum recipes for ideas besides the plum cake, just in case there might have been something different, and I came across a "plum caipirinha" and I was intrigued.
Not only did I find free plum today, but turn out they were showing Casablanca in Laurelhurst park today. I went. I was a little late, but no worries, it was fantabulous still. They set up a huge screen outside in the amphitheater and I met up with some lovely people (who had gotten their earlier because they had brains) and it was so fun!. I can't wait to go to the next movie (although I think its friday and I'm working...but after that?) and plan ahead with a picnic. Ok, to the point already, I know. Well the movie was great and afterward a bunch of us went back to the apartment. I figured, what better time than now to try out some plum flavored drinks. I have friends who don't have to drive home, and plums that are ripening far too quickly! Here's my newest concoction:
(to serve...several?)
-3 shots white rum
-2 yellow plums, pitted
-ice
-a few spoonfuls simple syrup (one to one sugar and water heated til clear)
-the juice of half a lime
-lemonade (to top)
-->muddle lime, plums, rum, and ice
-->add syrup and shake
-->strain into martini glasses, top with lemonade to taste

Monday, August 10, 2009

Plum Cake!





I had an exciting day today! I went on a run this morning (I'm very proud here people) and on the way I found a bowl of free yellow plums! Seriously. Free. For me! So cool. I also went to the dollar tree and got us a dust pan (for $1), wrapping paper that's actually nice ($1), and pretty ribbon to go on it (also, guess how much, yep, $1). Of course, the main point here is the plums. I have never had yellow plums before and I have to say, I prefer the purple ones, and what's more, I'm not the biggest fan of plums. I like them, I like most fruit, but they aren't my favorite. Having tried one raw I decided to make that super cute looking dimpled plum cake from Smitten Kitchen because, hey, why not? SO GLAD I DID. It's deeelicious. The yellow plums are especially excellent in this one because they are a bit more tart and just a tad bitter. I used the recipe at Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/dimply-plum-cake/) but instead of orange zest I used the zest of one small lemon and several liberal splashes of triple sec. I also added a few more shakes of cinnamon. I loved the outcome. Granted, I haven't ever had the 'real' version of the recipe, but the triple sec combined with the lemon zest went perfectly with the tarter yellow plums. The lemon enhanced the tartness and the triple sec added that bit of orange that goes so nicely with cinnamon. All in all, I recommend that everything try this immediately. Also, I cooked it for about 20-25 min instead of 30-40 but maybe that's just my oven. (pictures coming soon)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Sandwiches



I love love love sandwiches (minus the spelling because I always want to write 'which' or 'witch'). Aside from my spelling issues, I'm a fan. I don't really know what it is about sandwiches that make them so appealing to me, but I've always like them. Granted, back in the day I liked only peanut butter and jelly and the turkey sandwiches from this place we always drove by when visiting some relatives (but even then, only turkey and mayo). I was picky back then. To be fair, I really still am. I'm branching out though! I now eat salads, avocados, bacon (only in other dishes), and ham. This is pretty good for me. Sadly I am still anti mushrooms, bell peppers of all kinds, parsley and cilantro in great quantity, soups (though I may try french onion at some point in a semi-near future), olives, and all nuts. Oh, except for the occasional dry roasted hazelnut. Sad but true.

Perhaps one of the perks of sandwiches is that you can really put exactly what you want on a sandwich fairly easily. I mean most sandwich places/delis let you either create your own or add and subtract from the initial sandwich. This is nice. Plus, think about the variety. What can't you put on a sandwich? I mean really? I'm actually trying to think of something and failing. I guess any raw meat might be a little weird, but then again, raw meat in general is not something I adore. I'm sure if I liked it enough it would be totally doable. The other cool thing about sandwiches is that they can be made in any shape or size. Well, maybe this is only cool to those of us who enjoy making cookies with cool cookie cutters and mini food items.

I recently had a craving for a hot sandwich (or more specifically, I had a craving for something crunchy). Sadly I do not own a panini press or George Foreman so I was wondering what to do and came up with the awesome idea to cook the bread like it was a grilled cheese sandwich. IT WORKED. Here's what you do:
Grilled sandwich:
(obviously put whatever you like in it. This is what I did.)
-bread--sourdough is my favorite and a little sturdier than some other kinds, but really, whatever you like
-spread the outsides of the bread with butter
-get all the rest of your ingredients together so you don't try to multitask and almost burn the bread like I did
-heat the pan while you get everything together
-for example, get out the mayo, mustard, and honey (to make honey mustard because that's my favorite and I'm out), chop up some onions, wash your lettuce or mixed greens, slice your tomatoes, get the turkey ready, have salt, pepper, olive oil**, and balsamic** ready
-put slice 1 of the bread butter-down in the pan and cook it til its crispy. put cheese on the bread at this time if you want some cheese on your sandwich
-toast it as long as you like, put it on a plate
-put slice 2 of bread in like the first and toast as long as you like
-start getting slice 1 ready with everything on it as fast as you can so you don't burn the other piece
-take out slice 2 and put the sandwich together
-put it in the microwave for 15 seconds or so to get everything hot inside
*Of course, you certainly could cook everything on the bread in the pan but that just seemed tricky and potentially really messy so I opted for the microwave
**I love balsamic vinegar and associate olive oil with it (though I am not quite as in love with olive oil) so I tend to put it on sandwiches. It adds a little something extra. So does the salt and pepper. I never did this until living with TourGuideRay who is (usually) the classiest person ever. Thanks Ray!

My other favorite sandwiches ever:
-grilled cheese and tomato (on good bread, with a variety of cheese, and basil--Vault does my favorite one)
-strawberry and butter. This is probably the first recipe I ever invented. You butter two slices of really soft white bread and slice fresh strawberries thinly and put them on. Eat without crusts.
-Peanut butter and jelly (on toasted wheat bread, with creamy peanut butter, black or marionberry jelly, with a large glass of milk)
-breakfast sandwiches (this deserves and will get a new post at some point but for the time being, it would ideally involve a fried egg on buttered and jammed english muffin with Monterey jack cheese and sausage dipped in syrup)
-vanilla ice cream sandwiches. The skinny cow ones are really good, surprisingly
-caprese ones
-the turkey sandwiches from Gabriella's. I haven't had one in years but man oh man they were amazing. Turkey is my current go-to sandwich meat of choice.

Wine and wine tasting

I have recently gotten into trying to guess what's in the wine I've bought--like what flavors. I learned a few months ago when I randomly went wine tasting by myself because I didn't have a book to read and I had a few hours with nothing to do at Edgefield. I figured that I might as well check out the hotel and property and stuff going on since I was there and then I found their tasting room. Once I learned that it was only $5 to try a flight of wines, I was sold. Since I was by myself, I decided to play "guess what's in the wine" and I managed to guess at least one ingredient in each. I'm very proud. Anyway, having figured out that this can be a fun little game, I've been playing it more and more. My biggest problem is that wine tasting is generally pretty expensive--we're talking anywhere from $15/20-40 and up. I'm all about the under-10-dollar kinds so I'm working on finding more. However, I did discover that Zupan's (cute fancy grocery store up the street from me) offers free wine tastings of like 4 different wines on Fridays and Saturdays between 3-6. I remembered on sat and went. It was really cool because the guy pouring the wines knew what he was talking about and, most of all, it was free. I should mention that you only get a little sip, not as much as if you were actually wine tasting for real, but, hey, it's free! In case you haven't noticed, I am pretty big on cheap living. This is because some of us are looking for real jobs and don't have much $$. Sad story. For this reason, I tend to by cheap wines (not hard alcohol though, I just can't do it) because I think you can really find some good cheap ones. Trader Joe's is my favorite place for the cheap ones. Also Safeway/Fred Meyer sales are pretty decent. So far my favorites:
*Hogue pinot grigio (and the other white that's not chardonnay--it's not a type of wine I'd heard of but it was really good and a little cheaper)
*Venetian Moon Pinot Gris
*Jumping Cow Riesling (not too sweet though)
*This Spanish one that looks all Mediterranean. It's got maybe a boat in an ocean or something on the label but I forget the name. It's great though.

As you may have noticed, I mainly go for pino gris's because 1. it's summer and white wine is refreshing, 2. I think the cheap pino gris' are better than the cheap chardonnays although I love chardonnays, and 3. I think you can get better cheap white than red. Also I have two reds at the moment--one from Vampire Vineyards (yes, that's the name of the vineyard and it's supposedly owned by vampires. The cork is red. Huge fan.) and the other is called Poizin. It came in a coffin. Haven't tried it yet, but ohhh I will.

My latest theory on finding good wines without being able to taste them first is to read the label. I've found that if there is no description (you know, notes of green apple with a hint of herbs and wildflowers, etc) on the back, it's usually not so good. If there is a description, it's much more promising.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Salsa Dancing in Portland

So I just reminded myself about my pressing need to go dancing. I adore dancing of all kinds, except perhaps jazz and modern, not that I've ever really learned (to be fair). In middle school through high school I took a hip hop class and a street jazz class and adored both. One of my schools also had a swing club where I learned swing and learned a bunch of the lifts despite my lack of knowledge about the style--this is where being really little is great fun. I also took a salsa class with a friend of mine. I loved salsa and still do, however that class was full of creeper older guys. In college, we were required to take P.E. (RUDE) so my freshman year I signed up for ballroom. Bad, bad choice. I love the dances in ballroom, don't get me wrong, but there were not enough kids in the class and twice as many girls to guys so you only danced every other dance. On the upside I know how to waltz. Ok, so I learned my lesson there. I signed up for tango after hearing how awesome it was from a friend and completely fell in love. Tango and salsa are tied hands down for my two favorite styles of dance. I love that you can dance them to music other than the music intended and I love that each person you're paired with has a slightly different way of dancing, which keeps it always interesting. The next quarter I had a conflict with tango, so I took bellydance. Now this I enjoyed, although the teacher was a little too friendly and oversharing talking about her breast cancer. Slightly awkward, but the class was cool. Bellydance is hard, but not as fun (or as hard) as some of the other dancing I've done. After that I chose tango again. I should also mention that this is argentinian tango, not the ballroom type. Big difference. Classical has fewer "steps and to do it, you mainly just have to understand that each step you shift you weight. This was second semester so the tango class had progressed from basic (first quarter), basic/intermediate (second quarter), and was now in "close embrace." This means you lean up against your partner which is slightly awkward although I quickly overcame my awkwardness upon realizing that a few of the guys in the class were a lot shorter than some of the girls, meaning their heads were at the girls' shoulders or chests. I'm short so no worries, no guys with their noses in my shirt. Yay! I'm not sure what it is about tango that I so enjoy. I think a big part of it is that when you begin to dance, you can automatically see that it's not american. I'm all for america, but latin dancing is just so much more fun. In tango you're hugging and essentially seducing your partner. Now obviously nothing is going to happen, and anyone who knows anything about tango is aware of this, but it just seems so much more exotic than tap dancing. It's steamy, but hard. Plus the shoes are fantastic and really high. And I do have a shoe problem. Tango dancing is apparently rather big in Portland, but I have not yet gotten to check this out. I DID however, go salsa dancing a few weekends ago. As I mentioned, I learned to salsa in a class, but I went to guatemala to visit relatives just before starting college and instead of going to language school (haha woops), my family sampled all of the salsa schools in the village of Antigua. Salsa schools are not nearly so fancy as they sound--they're generally just the front room of someone's house with no furniture and big mirrors. We tried a different one every day, and I got enough experience that I still remember a lot of the 'moves' and the tricks to moving your hips. I had mentioned wanting to go salsa-ing to two friends of mine, and they called me out of the blue to suggest we go one saturday night. I had to meet them there sine they'd gone a bit early for the class, so I got there in time for the end of the class. I remembered what I'd learned enough to be able to lead another friend who'd come too, although I must say, I prefer to follow. The lesson was fairly basic, but a small class so you could ask questions, which was nice for those learning for the first time. The salsa studio was in the basement/bottom floor of "The Grand Cafe" (I think--it's at Belmont and Grand) and there's a $5 cover if you come after the lesson starts, but then I think the lesson was $13 and included cover and a drink (good deal, but I'm not totally sure on the price since I came late). The lesson started around 9 pm, I believe and probably went til around 10. By 11 the place was getting busy and for three girls there without a guy, we got asked to dance almost every dance. Now I would not necesarily suggest this club as the place to meet guys if you're a 22 year old since the guys were generally about twice our age with the youngest ones in their thirties. They were nice, and fun to dance with, and not really creepy at all. One decided my friend was his soulmate, though, and bought her a drink and tried to convince her that he was better than her boyfriend. She didn't give in and he eventually got the hint. Another guy bought us all drinks and didn't even ask for our numbers (my favorite kind of older guy)! All in all, I would hands down suggest this place as a place to go with a bunch of your girl friends. I think 4 would be an ideal number because if you go to the lesson you need a partner and it's not so many people that generally everyone will be dancing or maybe two will sit out and chat for one dance. The drinks were decently priced (although I didn't get anything too exciting), and the bartenders were nice. I definately will go back and completely recommend it for anyone who likes to dance and wants something new to do.

Tomato salad and other things

I currently have two jobs (though they are ending soon, so still, hire me?) and the one that just ended a few hours ago often feeds us. Sadly this was not the case tonight so I came home hungry. I decided on the last of my mini corn dogs (they are frozen but man oh man they are deeelicious) and to attempt to be healthy, and to use up the end of my tomatoes as they are starting to go bad, I made a fabulous tomato salad.
-One large tomato sliced
-Some fresh basil torn into really little chunks (any size you like, really, but I prefer most things smaller in salads)
-Red onion, also finely chopped
-Put all these on a plate, season with salt and pepper
-Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar
-Eat*

*Perhaps don't eat with corn dogs and beer while watching So You Think You Can Dance. I love the show, I love corn dogs, and am greatly enjoying my beer, but I happened to turn on the TV to the fantastic dance with Janeane and Brandon doing some kind of tango thing. It reminded me that I am totally out of shape and perhaps corn dogs are not the healthiest meal. Luckily the show is now over so I can enjoy my corn dogs in peace. This has also reminded me that I need to go out tango dancing soon. Maybe this weekend? I'll keep you posted.

I apologize for the lack of photos, but let's face it, it's easy to imagine and not exactly the most original salad ever, but highly delicious. I love tomatoes.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Oops

In that last post I meant to talk a little more about the things I've cooked lately and forgot. It got rather long anyway, so here goes in a new post:

The key to fantastic scones: cold butter. I know, it sucks to cut it in when it's cold if you're doing it by hand (which I was), but it's so so worth it. Also half and half is fantastic in it.

Peanut butter brownies/peanut butter things in general: Avoid peanut butter with sugar added (Skippy's etc). I try to do this when I buy peanut butter in general, but I really really suggest it when cooking something with peanut butter because generally recipes call for sugar, and that much sugar overpowers the peanut butter and makes it too sweet and not peanut buttery enough--I think.

Scrambles: I love eggs. I generally make mine fried/over easy on toast with blackberry or marionberry jam on sourdough toast (ideally). I like them in eggs-in-a-hole, and I like scrambled eggs. The key to fabulous scrambled eggs: salt and pepper, a little bit of milk-- just a splash, some grated cheese, and the two most important things to fluffy eggs: whisk the eggs briskly before cooking them and lightly scrape the eggs when they're in the pan. Let them solidify slightly and then move them over with a spatula (I have this awesome wooden one that looks like a long triangle. It's perfect). Think of it like folding in egg whites. You fold the eggs over on themselves until they're cooked which keeps them light and fluffy.
*wash out the pan you used with cold water--works way better than hot for some mysterious reason
-also, just as of today I have gotten into scrambles. I'll order them at restaurants (Jam on Hawthorne and the Cricket Cafe on Belmont have fantastic scrambles and pretty much fantastic everything, actually), but I just don't ever think of making them at home. My housemate makes them a lot but she likes peppers and I don't (bell peppers, that is), so I steer clear when she makes them. However, today I went wild in the kitchen and made myself one with ham (I ripped up some leftover lunch meat into little bits), 2 eggs, salt and pepper, a little mozzarella, some feta crumbled in, and whisked it together. I had previously semi-caramelized onions (they were semi caramelized because I think the onions were a little old, oops haha) that I threw in too, and once the eggs were in the pan starting to cook, I tossed in some chopped tomato. I love tomatoes. Especially on pizza, but that's not so important at the moment. Anyway, I cooked all that up and had a fantastic, delicious, rather fancy brunch.

Potatoes: I should probably mention that I'm not a huge fan of hash browns. I'm not sure what it is about them. I like latkas so maybe I'm just missing apple sauce or yogurt or something when I get hash browns at breakfast. Also they're usually way too greasy for me. I do like home fries however (which I thought were the same as hash browns until I got to college), and those are what I made today. We've had some potatoes lying around for a while that I think were once going to be baked and then we had a spell of deathly hot, over 100 degree weather so hot foods were out. Anyway, they were going to go bad soon so I figured I'd cook them. *Note: you make home fries out of already cooked potatoes (generally. I suppose you don't have to, but it's much much easier to cook them first). My dad used to use leftover potatoes from baked potatoes and make home fries with them which is why I know this.
-I cooked my potatoes in my huge microwave for 10 min.
-Stab them a few times, stick them on a microwaveable plate, but a damp paper towel over them (not sure how necessary this is, though), and you've got potatoes.
-Let them cool and then chop them up.
-Meanwhile cook some onions in olive oil until they start to look cooked and add garlic
-Add potatoes and let them cook on one side for a bit til they get brownish or goldish and them stir them up/flip them over.
-Do this til they look done and golden and crispy and delicious all over
-If you have a cast iron pan, which is seriously hope you do, if not, get one, cook the potatoes in that so that once they're done you can grate some cheddar on top and stick them under the broiler until the cheese is melty and bubbling. I love cast iron pans.

Last thing: I used chocolate mint instead of regular mint for my lemon-mint granitas and it worked fabulously. The flavor was stronger than it would have been with regular mint, even though I used less of the chocolate mint, but it didn't taste too chocolately and, all in all, was as refreshing as it ever could be. YUM.

FOOD.



I have been cooking as much as I can considering my moving (and lack of real house for a few weeks) and the heat, so I thought I'd share. Most noteworthy are the scones I made for my orals (Yes, at my school, not only do you have to finish and turn in a thesis, oh no, then you have to be quizzed on it for 2 hours by 4 professors. Fun. Then you get to edit all the grammar mistakes they have found and then finally take it to the print shop and get it bound and beautiful. Also, you have to bring food to your orals. Mine were at 10 am so I brought OJ, water, blueberry scones, and fruit salad), eggs in hell, peanut butter brownies, turnovers for our housewarming, lemon-mint granita (thank you smitten kitchen), and the hash browns and scramble I made for breakfast today. My two more unique recipes are the eggs in hell and turnovers. Eggs in Hell is a recipe I got from my dad who got it somewhere else and it's basically just eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. I made it for brunch one time when staying at a house full of people because this recipe feeds quite a few. And I remembered to take pictures! Here it is:
-4 Tbl olive oil
-1 med. Onion, coarsely chopped
-6 cloves garlic; thinly sliced
-4 Jalapeno peppers, seeded and cut into ½ inch dice (depending on the size of your peppers--mine were huge and I'm not super into spicy foods, so I did less)
-1 tsp hot chili flakes
-3 cups basic tomato sauce (a little less than 3 cans)
-8 large eggs
-½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino cheese

-Heat cast iron skillet and add olive oil until just smoking
-Add onion, garlic, peppers, chili flakes
-Cook until veggies are softened & light brown (7 min.)
-Add tomato sauce
-Bring to boil
-Immediately lower heat until mixture simmers
-Carefully crack eggs into sauce. I started at the edges working my way to the center to make sure there was enough space for all of the eggs
-Cook 5-6 min or when whites are `set'--or longer as was my case--more like 10 but the sauce probably wasn't hot enough to begin with
-Remove from heat
-Sprinkle on cheese
*Serve with crusty bread and maybe fry up some sausages or bacon if you're feeling wild.
**I found that this serves more like 8 than 4 if you serve it with bread but I suppose it depends on who you're feeding

As for the turnovers for lack of a better word: I made this up earlier this year when I was going to a cocktail party and wanted to bring something classier than chips and dip. I had frozen pie crust on hand as well as ham for breakfast sandwiches and it blossomed from there:
-1 package of frozen pie crust (contains 2 pie crusts)
-filling ingredients: ham and Swiss or cheddar, feta and caramelized onions (my fave), mushrooms cooked down with mushroom soup--messy but good if you like mushrooms. I also would suggest but have not tried: spinach and feta, tomato and cheddar, tomato and mozzarella and basil, turkey and cheddar, apples and cinnamon sugar, berries and sugar, etc

-preheat the oven/look on the box to see what temperature to use
-make the filling or get the filling ready. I like doing two different ones and doing one kind for one of the pie crusts and one in the other pie crust (maybe one set with meat and one without?)
-Defrost the pie crust (follow directions on box) and unroll it quickly because it sticks on some kind of floured surface
-cut little circles out of the crust. I used a wide-mouthed cup but if you happen to have a biscuit cutter, like I do, this also works and I use both for little and big ones for variety
-move the circles to a greased cookie sheet. Maybe you can use ungreased, check the directions on the box, I tend to grease with Pam just in case
-fill the circles slightly less than half full with the filling. Seriously. It won't look like much, but really do a little less than half or you won't be able to close them
-fold the not-filled half over the other half and press the ends down with a fork--it seals the little pies and makes it look really cute and way fancy
-bake them according to directions. Like 12-15 min I think?
-Eat them.
*These are great for a party because they're pretty fast and easy, they look fancy, and they're unusual so people get excited. I got lots of compliments on them at my housewarming party.

Final Catch Up



In case you couldn't tell, I spent quite a lot of time and effort on that project. However, I also spent quite a lot of time and effort (much more, in fact), on a different project: my thesis. The official title is: Through the Magic Mirror: Exploring Sexuality in the Imaginative Fiction of George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll. Here are my acknowledgments, just for fun: "I would like to thank my family for encouraging and indulging my love of fairy tales, my advisor for letting me run with my topic and reassuring me at every meeting that my ideas actually worked, Quinquin and Princess Brioche for listening to me ramble about dream and mirror worlds, Tom for helping me see Alice in a new light (and for letting me tell him more than he ever wanted to know about repressed sexuality), and everyone else who encouraged me and supported me throughout this entire process. Thank you all, I could not have done it without you guys." Haha. I still can't really believe I'm done with it. I should mention that I set myself a due date (it's due Friday of Renn Fayre, technically, but man oh man do you NOT want to have to turn it in that late) and then a absolutely-must-be-done date. I turned it in by the second (the Weds before Renn Fayre). I got up early on Wednesday and went to my thesis desk (you get a desk in the library or an office, depending on your major) to finish editing. I skipped my only class that morning to finish (bad I know, but seriously worth it), and around 11 I finished reading it over and doing last minute edits. I remember I sat up in my seat, looked up at the shelf above my desk and away from the computer and said to myself, "I think I'm done." It was probably one of the strangest feelings I've ever had in my life. I had finished this thing I worked on for an entire school year. Something that was entirely my own, for better or for worse, something I had come up with, research, found a point and argued, all the way I wanted to. Now once you finish your thesis you must go print it out--in correct format--and take 4 copies to the registrar so they can check it before you're good to go. It's very scary to be there when they check it. I had to go back and fix my title page to say "department of literature and languageS" instead of "department of literature and language." No worries, though, I got it all turned in and got my laurels. Laurels are these plastic gold wreaths that seniors get upon completion of their theses. This shows that 1) you're a senior and 2) you're pretty freakin amazing and awesome because you're done with your thesis. Once you have them you wear them constantly and forever and people congratulate you.

Other Photos




















More photos I took at the time of that project that didn't make it in.

Photo Project Cont.









Here are the rest of the photos from that project

Previous Info Cont








As I have mentioned before, I love photography and took a class on it at Reed. Not my best plan, not a great class. Cool kids in it, though, and, if nothing else, a chance to play around with my digital camera. I'm actually really proud of my final project for that class: I attempted to represent the sense visually, beginning with a photograph of the body part associated with that sense, leading into something associated only with that sense, and finishing with a photograph of that sense used with a body part associated with a different sense (thus moving the series along). For example: I started with smell. The first photo was of blue cheese, the next, rotting fish, and the final one, the photo of steaming ham being cut (see previous post). The second set of photos was of taste and began with a conversation heart on a tongue, a photo of a sandwich, and a photo of someone crunching on a carrot (which led into sound). I set them up three in a row horizontally with the first photo of the next set starting underneath the last photo of the one above/before it.

Previous Info






So apartment excitement aside, I should probably mention a bit of what I'd been up to between my last post and my completion of my THESIS and graduation. Here goes highlights: Easter--we had an Easter supper thing where we made a ham with a bourbon molasses and orange juice glaze, crescent rolls (those Pillsbury mini croissant things? so addicted), a salad, green beans, scalloped potatoes, wine, and Ramos gin fizzes. Moving upwards in the photos (woops, sorry), my old housemate Em and I decided to "decorate" our other housemate's room one night by wrapping his desk, lamp, and chair in newspaper, and wrapping his bed as best we could. He loved it. The second from the top to the left picture is of a light in a dorm (ODB) at school that I thought was cool and was meant to segue into my next post about photos but I failed again with placement there. More on a photos in a sec. The final picture up there is from our celebration brunch for turning in our big thesis drafts. Huge deal. Therefore we made eggs Benedict (with hollandaise sauce from scratch instead of with the blender!), salad, and mimosas. Talk about yum.