Chili Mac

This was another idea I first thought of when this challenge occurred. I thought of using my own chili, which I had made JUST because I felt like it. But I had some Wendy's Chili lying around, so I thought I'd use that up instead.

I have to say I wish I had used my own chili--nothing against Wendy's, I just ought to have had more Chili in there.

So what you do for this one is you make the Mac & cheese, and then you want at least a cup of chili, and 1/2 C of cottage cheese. Stir and enjoy.

Sorry no photos on this one, but I made it at Cherie's house without my camera. I promise more next time!!

Salsa-Gouda Mac

Round Two!!

Also as part of the great 2011 food-storage dump, my mother gave me three jars of salsa. I learned two things from this:

1. I now understand why cheese goes so well and so often with Salsa
2. Never underestimate my ability to power through salsa. It is seriously one of my favorite snacks.

But this was one of my first ideas when I took this challenge on, and I happened to have some Gouda lying around, so I did this!!

You will need what you see here:

{Plus, of course, what it said you needed on the Blue Box}

Cook the mac & cheese as directed on the package. Now add in pieces of the Gouda, salt & pepper, 1/2c to 1 C of the Salsa, a teaspoon of the cream cheese {I used Garden vegetable} the chili powder, the cayenne pepper {go easy}, the sriracha {for gosh sakes go easy!}, the onion, and stir.

{Rather like this}

Once the cheese melts you know it's done and ready to serve. 

Bon Appetit!!

First-Ever Friday Fascinations

Hello everyone!! I've been dying to do this for a very long time, and I finally have the time in which to do it. I talked about taking time every Friday to tell you about what I'm currently fascinated with.

So, here I go:

Adidas Sweat Pants: As part of a weekend adventure up to Roy, I borrowed a pair of purple sweats from Mal's younger sister (thank you, Kirsty). Oh my laws, I put off giving them back for almost a month, they are that comfortable!

{Seriously, it feels like a second skin}

Dessert of the Week: Javier's Fried Ice Cream. On the way back from our friend Natalie's wedding reception, we were hungry. The food was great, but tiny, and we hadn't had any sort of dinner. So we stopped here after I admitted I had never been here and they insisted I try the fried ice cream. I've never had fried ice cream before because it usually involves coating the ice cream in corn flakes, which I think are gross. But this was like Ice Cream and a Churro fell in love, Disney style.

{This was the closest photo I could find}

Recipe of the Week: This is hard, because I have so MANY from cooking class, and everything we eat is total bliss. But if I HAD to pick one, it would be sort of a general, all-around love for Middle eastern food from my lab. Lentil, chickpea, black bean and rice soup? YUM!


Book of the Week: The Magic Bullet. It features Sherlock Holmes, although he is not actually the main character, and takes place in WWI St. Paul, Minnesota.

So, naturally, both my Sherlockian AND my history geek sensibilities were screaming "Oooh, SHINY!!"

Shadwell Rafferty, St. Paul's resident bartender/detective--I cast him as old-man Sean Connery in my mind--works with his African-American business partner Thomas--Taye Diggs, no contest--to solve the nearly impossible murder of tycoon Artemus Dodge, even as a radical terrorist runs rampant in St. Paul.

BONUS POINTS: Isabel Diamond, the hard-as-her-last-name reporter for St. Paul's Pioneer Press,  is the bomb. She was one of my favorite things about the book.

{The book cover, with the very dead Mr. Dodge}

Snack of the week: Pink Lady Apples.

Otherwise known as a preview of the fruit that grew on the Tree of Life.

I love them. Perfectly crunchy, lusciously juicy and sweet, and with just the right amount of tart flavor to balance it out.

So naturally when I found them on sale I bought a bunch...you should too!!

Song of the week: "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, performed by John Barrowman.

No matter how much inspirational I-can-do-anything girl-pop I listen to--and trust me, that is a LOT--sometimes I get a bit rundown and discouraged. 

This song is perfect. I love John Barrowman's voice, and so for me, this song is like crawling into a corner and getting a big hug and the gentle reassurance that I am not alone.

 

Lesson of the Week: Maybe it's not a setback, maybe it's an opportunity for mandatory re-drafting, so think of it that way!

More like lesson of the year.

First an entire half of a chapter of my book, then the first draft of this post...I thought it saved, but not really. 

At first I was really depressed and frustrated, but when I was re-writing the book I realized "Hey, this is SO much better than what I wrote the first time! Maybe this isn't so bad!"

I put off re-drafting that chapter for so long...but when I actually sat down and wrote, it was so much better! And, hey, anything is better than sulking, right?

So, this is Friday Fascinations! I'd really like to know what you think, ESPECIALLY any suggestions you have for "of-the-week" categories YOU'D like to see! 

Also, how was your Friday? What are you fascinated with right now?

Let me know either by e-mail OR in the comments below {I love comments!}

Asian Mac

So for the first variation on classic Mac-N-Cheese: Asian Mac.

I did this mostly because I finally bought a bottle of Sriracha Rooster Hot Sauce and wanted a chance to use it. I had put it on the Mac-N-Cheese at Noodles & Company and liked it, so I came up with Asian Mac.

During the beginning of school, I started having serious Chinese food cravings. Now, of course there is a Panda Express on the corner of Bulldog and University, but I am trying to save money this semester, so that is only an option when my roomies and I feel TRULY lazy. I came up with a pretty good imitation of Utah Noodle Parlor's Pork Noodle Soup, which was my favorite thing EVER until they stopped making their own noodles. {Uncle Leo, they did it RIGHT when you were alive, sir!!}

Then I thought "What if I did an Asian Mac-N-Cheese?"

Asian Mac:

You will need the following ingredients:

{Minus the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I really don't know why that was out, plus milk, margarine, and fresh cilantro}

Prepare Mac-N-Cheese as per package directions

{Frothy Bubbles!!}

{Whilst cooking}

{Drain it, and may I say I LOVE my IKEA colander?}

{In the end, it should look like this}

So, once you get to this point, add 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and enough Sriracha Hot Sauce (The one with the green lid and the rooster on the bottle) to look like this:

{That should about do it}

And, no, it cant't be Tabasco and I'll tell you why. Tabasco has no flavor for me, just pain. 

The first time I tried Tabasco, I was at Village Inn for a Drama Club presidency meeting. I gave my hash browns to Jeremy Illum, watched him douse them in Tabasco, and then was stupid enough to say "Oh, I've never had that stuff before. He proceeded to take a forkful and then, with the support of everyone in the presidency, forced me to try Tabasco. It was like searing hot fire with absolutely no pleasure of hot FLAVOR.

Sriracha actually has flavor attached to the spice. So I use that.

But anyway, you mix it up together, put it into a bowl, top with fresh cilantro and sprinkle with more Sriracha  sauce.

{All done!}

Mind you, you will want to have copious amounts of milk nearby. Even though Sriracha is not painful like Tabasco, this stuff is HOT!! It is tasty, but spicy. The cilantro adds to the spice, but in a fresh, green way.

Next time: Gouda Salsa Mac!!

How To get Spray-Paint off your hands without killing the Skin

I joined the Resident Housing Association council for the housing complex where I live. As a hall rep, I represent the interests and concerns of my buildings on my council. I also work on/walk by the RHA float in BYU's homecoming parade. today, in order to get my three required hours of out-of-class float work in for the grade.

It was snowing, blowing, and cold as blue blazes for those of you reading from outside of the Provo area. But I worked on--I want our float to look nice as much as anyone else!

However, while spray-painting the letters "R H A" to go on the float, I drenched my hands in blue {I believe latex} spray paint.

{Um...yeah, about like that. I'd have actual pictures of my own hands, but didn't wish to ruin my camera}

So, after a vigorous hand-washing in the bathroom of the building near the pavilion where we have the float stored, about half the paint was gone. Yes, I did use my fingernails.

All I could think was "Oh gosh how am I going to get this stuff OFF??"

I called my immediate family and other relatives. All of the removal methods seemed pretty caustic and hard on the skin.

• My Father suggested I buy paint thinner and pour some on a rag, wipe the paint off, and then wash my hands thoroughly. Yeah, we aren't even allowed to OWN paint thinner here {apparently it is highly flammable}, plus NO WAY am I putting that on my hands.
• I thought of nail polish remover, but I'm pretty low on that, and even it isn't wonderful on skin.
• My uncle suggested dousing my hands in gasoline or turpentine.

So I figured I was on my own.

However, Brittany, my friend and student coordinator, dropped me off at my apartment before we took a housing car to get more staples for the staple-guns. 

"Ok, I have, say, five minutes."

Not enough time to google, so I did the first thing I thought of.

I got the big bottle of dish soap from our kitchen, doused my hands in it, and began to scratch away under warm water.

{Basically, the Great Value brand of this stuff with a handle}

It still wasn't working, and I began to despair, when I realized: this paint is like a sticky, blue layer of extra skin. An d how do you get rid of extra skin, i.e. calluses?

You use an emery board.

So I grabbed the emery board I keep on top of my dresser {soapy hands and all} and rubbed away at the paint.

It was a miracle.

Yeah, there is still a little stuck in my cuticles and other places it was hard to reach, but I no longer look like I'm turning into Katy Perry as Smurfette.

{Both are lovely ladies, and blue is my color, but spray paint feels so gross on the skin!}

 

The Great Mac-N-Cheese Challenge

Hello All!!

So, when I visited my mom and dad over labor day, they informed me that a large portion of our food storage was about to expire. They proceeded to remind me that there was no way they could eat it by themselves before it would all go bad.

 {No spit, Sherlock! My parents eat like birds!}

"But you can," my mother said.

I chose to take that as a compliment to my cooking ingenuity rather than a "you should go to the gym and practice portion control more often" comment.

{I do need to go to the gym more, but that is beside the point}

So my car was packed with various food items, all of which I intend to transform into masterpieces. Among other things, I got five cans of stewed tomatoes, a case of oriental ramen noodles, a large can of gatorade mix, and eleven boxes of mac-n-cheese.

I really don't see what we saw, as little kids, in this stuff. Yes, it is simple and easy to prepare, but I somehow remember it cheesier than what it is now. Kraft, go back to your cheesy powder recipe from the 90's; it was SO much better!

In the meantime, I was stuck with eleven blue boxes in my pantry. I thought "What on earth am I going to do with all this mac-n-cheese?"

And then it hit me: I can blog about it.

The challenge: to turn eleven boxes of mac-n-cheese into eleven different dishes and make mac-n-cheese exciting again!

I will not, barring any nightmarish brain freezes, be doing this the way my friend Ryan does it. No. Chicken. {Frakking.} Nuggets. Or. Spam. 

To start off, Mac-N-Cheese classico. Just the way the package says it. My friend and roomie Hailey thinks I'm a food nut {Ok, she thinks I'm an all-around nut} and that mac-n-cheese should be enjoyed purely as is. So that's how she prepped it one night when she was hungry and we didn't feel like driving to Wal-mart for a rotisserie chicken {but that's another story for another day}.

So, that leaves me with ten blue boxes to transform! 

Stay tuned...

But Where Did the Meatballs Go?

A year later, here I am, sitting on the top floor of the Wilk after my laptop's yearly check-up with the IT guys in the bookstore {Thank you, Stuart and Thomas}. Apparently, I have to check for security updates myself--who knew?

About a month ago I packed my little Prius full of belongings and drove down to Provo.

Let me tell you something about packing half your life up into a little red Toyota Prius: Just when you've finally convinced  your Mom that you can fit it all inside, your Dad starts telling you that you're going to get a traffic ticket for obstructed view. So unless they're offering to help, you're going to have to let some things slide off you like water off a duck's back at that point.

But, in any case, I set off along the freeway the day before move-in on my way to Ikea. They had some great deals in the catalog, and this little chickie wanted to take advantage of that. Plus, they had a cafe and I was starving.

Once I was able to find the maps and make sense of the store, I found the cafe, because nobody ever made a good decision on an empty stomach. I ordered the Swedish Meatballs combo, and let me tell you, those were fantastic! Little brown meatballs in a tawny gravy with skins-in mashed potatoes, a roll, and a mixed green salad. Everything was delicious! So I picked up what I wanted, bought it, and finished driving down.

It's weird to have your heart in two places. Roy will always be home to me, but Provo is too. And it was weird because as I got off the freeway onto the parkway, I thought "I'm home!! But, I just left home...ok this is weird!"

But as I was waiting for Hailey after the IT guys helped me with my computer, I realized that I was starving. It was like that enormous plate of meatballs, mashed potatoes, and gravy just disappeared, never mind the roll and salad! And all I could think for some reason was "Want...PIZZAA!!!" It was like my mind had been taken over by the Audrey-II plant from Little Shop of Horrors and saying "FEEEEEDD MEEEE!!"

How on earth this happened when I spent almost the entire time after my meal sitting down is beyond me, but oh well. All I could do was sit there and distract myself on Pinterest until it was half-past-four.

Thank goodness Hailey had pizza to make when we got back to Orem.

I'm now happily moved in, and life is a blast...but where did those meatballs go?