Dessert for Dinner

     I get on kicks of different foods.  Summer rolls were a kick.  Black bean quesadillas were a kick.  I've gone of kicks of soup, of stir fry, of lots of things.  I'll eat one thing several times a week and then be done with it.  For a while.
     At the moment, my kick is brie and apple grilled sandwiches.  This sandwich has been around for a while in many variations, but is fairly new to me.  My first experience with a similar sandwich was at Roots Market in Cedar Falls (http://www.rootsmarket.net).  They serve up a delicious Toasted Normandy which is a roast turkey sandwich with melted brie, apples, and dijon.  One of the best sandwiches in the Cedar Valley at a great local health store.  I could eat this sandwich everyday.  Or at least a lot.
     Funny thing about being a grad student, however, is that you're poor and try to not constantly eat out.  So, I do the next best thing which is try to make it at home.   As I've said before, I am far too lazy (and too poor) to buy such fancy things as meat, so my creation is a vegetarian version.  And without the roast turkey, the dijon is a little much for me, so I left that out too.  So, that left me with apples and brie.  Pretty good, but needs something.  So, I sprinkled some cinnamon on there too and grilled it up in my baby cast iron skillet.
     All in all, not quite the same as the Toasted Normandy.  More of a dessert sandwich if there is such a thing.  Still very tasty and budget friendly.  This is my dinner tonight.  Grilled brie and apples, grapes, and a mug of chai tea with Hansen's milk (http://www.hansendairy.com) and sweetened with honey from B.J. Honey in LaPorte City.  It's a pretty good dinner.

Really Fast Pretty Healthy Food (Summer Rolls)

 
     For the past five months I have been visiting San Antonio, Texas from time to time since my boyfriend got a fancy pants job and moved down there.  Now, when I think of Texas cuisine, I usually think of steak, ribs and various other kinds of beef.  Because it's Texas.  I could just be stereotyping, but the people there seem to like cow meat.
     So, I don't know if my boyfriend lives in some sort of cultural pocket or what, but there are Asian restaurants EVERYWHERE!  Which is cool.  Because Asian food is generally awesome.  I believe the first Asian place we tried out was House of Pho which is actually a Vietnamese chain restaurant.  Here's some more stereotyping, but when I think of chain restaurants I think of greasy heavy food with no nutritional content.  However, House of Pho is gooooooooooood.  Lots of fresh veggies.  Very light food but you will still walk away pretty full.  Mostly because if you get the soup looking stuff it comes in gigantic bowls that are impossible to finish.  Here is their website!  http://www.houseofphosa.com/  Go there!  Anyway, I digress.
     One of the appetizers they have that I will probably now get every time I go are the summer rolls with shrimp and peanut dipping sauce.  I fell in love with them.  I went back to Iowa and craaaaaaaaved these things.  Unfortunately, I cannot find any place in the Cedar Valley that has them.  So, I looked up recipes on http://foodgawker.com/ and turns out they're really easy to just make at home.  The problem is that I could not find the rice paper wrappers anywhere in the Cedar Valley either.  Fortunately, my boyfriend happens to live about five whole minutes from a Japanese grocery store (I don't remember what this place is called or I would post their website too).  I picked up a pack of 50 some rice paper wrappers for less than $5.  Seriously, I'm probably set for a while.
     Moral of the story, I now make summer rolls all the time.  I'd post a formal recipe for them but honestly it goes something like:  microwave vermicelli noodles in a bunch of water until they're cooked.  While microwaving noodles cut up a bunch of veggies (I always put in spinach because it's full of vitamins and iron and stuff and then throw in whatever else I have.  Cucumbers are in season right now).  The noodles are probably done so drain them.  Take the rice paper wrappers and run them under water to soften them.  Pile on the noodles and veggies.  Fold 'em up!  15 minutes and you're done!  You can add shrimp or chicken or whatever but I'm a poor lazy grad student.  And meat is expensive and requires cooking.
     I do have a recipe for the peanut butter dipping sauce (or at least a list of ingredients) so here that is.

Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce (for 3 summer rolls)
2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1.5 tablespoons sushi vinegar
splash of soy sauce
couple shakes of cayenne

*Note #1:  Today I found a packet of sweet and sour sauce in my fridge from this one time when I had eggrolls so I added that into the dipping sauce too.  It was super tasty!
 **Note #2:  I for some reason find dipping summer rolls to be difficult and messy.  So now I just spread some of the dipping sauce over the wrappers and then add the rest of the stuff.  Probably not authentic but easy-peasy.
***Note #3:  This pic was my dinner tonight.  SO FULL.

This post has nothing to do with food...

     During my undergraduate career as an Earth Science major, I got to see some pretty cool things.  I have hunted fossils of creatures that have been extinct for millions of years near Coralville, Iowa, listened to wolves howl all around me as I stood near the geysers of Yellowstone National Park, and watched two helicopters land on the beach as I was sleeping on in the remote wilderness along the Colorado River in Utah.  This is that story.
     I was white water rafting the Colorado River as part of a field trip with the Earth Science Department of the University of Northern Iowa.  And that day we hit the biggest rapids yet.  As I recall, water was shooting through the canyon at around 35,000 cubic feet/second.  Definitely Class V rapids.  And very close to being too dangerous even for our experienced guides to mess with.
     I have never experienced anything so thrilling in my entire life.

     The guides called the troughs of water our boats dove nose-first into "bus eaters" and they were not exaggerating.  I was sitting in the back wearing nerdy goggles so my contacts didn't wash out and made sure that I kept my eyes wide open the entire time.  So, eyes wide open, I gripped the ropes along the side of the boat and watched the other students in the front dive 20 feet as my end shot into the air.  Then my stomach would do a quick flip flop as the butt of the boat came crashing down and I was staring up at a wall of water that, could indeed, crash over a bus with no problem.  I wish I had the words to adequately describe how terrifying and exhilarating the experience was but, honestly, anything I could say would sound flat.  All I know is that, before I die, I would dearly love to hit Class V rapids again.
     We camped on a beach that I don't remember the name of and lit a campfire for the first time in the four days we'd been on the river.  I remember alternating between exhaustion and freaking out about the day and eating hot dogs but that is about it.  At some point early in the evening it came out that the entire time we were bucking and plunging in Class V's, one of the students was feeling a very sharp pain in his lower right side.
     The guides and our prof gathered around him trying to figure out what to do.  By the time the severity of the situation was realized, it was too late and too dark for the guide who was an EMT to take him on one of the boats alone to the nearest edge of civilization.  It was decided that he would monitor the guy until first light when it would would be safe to navigate.  We were told that if he got worse they would have to call in a rescue.  It was pretty hot out (in the desert, you know) so I bedded down in just my rain gear for warmth and my sarong spread on the cool sand.
     I have no idea what time it was when they woke us.  The middle of the night.  I remember the stars making it almost as bright as twilight and the walls of the canyon casting shadows on the sky (something else I want to see again).  We were told that the student's condition had worsened and rescue had been called in.  They were sending a helicopter to lift the kid out and fly him to a hospital.  We had to wet down the beach so it could land.
     One of our guides later told us that we Iowans worked quickly and efficiently.  We formed a human chain passing buckets of river water to wet the fine sand.  It was a small beach.  If I recall correctly maybe a quarter of a football field?  It still took a long time.  We passed the buckets and dumped it on the ground working our way from one end of the beach to the other watching the sky and listening.  Eventually we got the beach as wet as a surface made of sand can be, grabbed our gear, and dragged it into the scrub.  Then we listened and watched some more.
     I can't remember if we heard the helicopter or saw it first.  Either way, it was far away.  It had a light that it swung around searching the many canyons of Canyonlands National Park for one small group of humans.  We flashed our lights a couple times.  Don't know if it helped.  It probably didn't.  Eventually, the helicopter found us and everyone but the sick student and the EMT guide ducked into the scrub.  Despite our efforts to wet the sand down as much as possible, we were pelted and kept our heads down.  Nothing more could be done at our end so we bedded down in what open flattish places we could find and tried to catch some sleep before morning.  I recall sliding downhill and waking up to my feet in a bush and something in the bush hissing at me.  I scooted up and passed out again.
     We woke up to daylight and a helicopter landing on the beach next to the first one.  Turns out something (I have no idea what) was broken on the first helicopter and they had kept the student stable until the sun came up and another helicopter could be safely sent in to pick him up and take him away.  One helicopter gone and one remaining.  We passed out for a while more.
     And woke up to a helicopter landing on the beach for the third time in just a few hours in the middle of the vast DESERT WILDERNESS of the United States.  They brought a replacement part for the first helicopter.  This time, I woke myself up enough to think of grabbing my goggles.  They replaced whatever the heck was broken and I kept my eyes wide open and watched as two helicopters lifted off the beach, pelted us with sand, and took off into the desert sky.
  We ran our last rapids of the trip that day.  Nothing over a Class III.  And I had the amazing fortune of being allowed to "swim" some high Class II's (by swim I mean the guide told us we were allowed to jump in with our life vests and have the current sweep us along.  I laughed hysterically the entire time.  In a good way.).  We landed in civilization sometime midday.  I don't recall where.  Then we received the happy news that the sick student had been flown to a hospital somewhere in Arizona where they definitively diagnosed him with acute appendicitis (our guides kinda figured that but definitive is good).  And then they took his appendix out.  And we all lived happily ever after!

Berry Season!

Best. Season. Ever.
     Today, I had the pleasure of spending my morning at my research site.  This meant I got to spend my morning on the prairie with a good friend and coworker whose research shares the same site as mine!  Everything is in bloom right now and, as I have been away for the past week, I needed to get back out there and take pictures demonstrating different aspects of my research for reports, presentations, and, of course, my thesis.  Dry as that sounds, what basically happened is that I took pictures of flowers.
    Side benefit of our scientific exploits is that our site is surrounded by thickets that are FILLED with raspberries!  We took full advantage of that.  In the name of science.
     Now, I am a student at the University of Northern Iowa.  We happen to have a lovely biological preserves system (Check it out sometime!  It is full of trails!).  It is also filled with apple and cherry trees and wild berries of all kinds and probably all sorts of other things that I have not eaten yet.  This is where I went after work to get the berries pictured here.
     Someone had beaten me to them.
     My former boss from my undergrad days came wandering off the trails with bowls of raspberries destined to become jam.  However, he left berries enough for me, other wanderers, and all the woodland creatures who wanted some.
     I wish I had taken my camera onto the trail.  Shafts of sunlight came through and hit the ripe berries making them shine.  Also shining were the ebony jewelwing damselflies (I had to look them up.  You should too!  They are beautiful!) that were flitting around everywhere.  I waded around in the thorny bushes filling the container used to store the peanut butter sandwich I had for lunch with the dark shiny berries, getting scolded by an irate catbird, and gradually staining my fingers purple.  It was amazing.
     To make a long story short, I took my foraged treasures home with me and after supper (Maple salmon, little red potatoes, peas, and a tall glass of milk!) made a bit of homemade whipped cream and globbed it on to my berries.  I ate them while I wrote this post.  My stomach is full to bursting and I am immensely happy.
     Also, here is a picture of me in my "office" today.  The flowers you're looking at are Ox-eye sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides).  The prairie is already much taller than me in a few places.  Soon I will get lost in it. :)

Breakfast of Champions

     First off, you know those food blogs that have the food "posed" at such an angle and the light is right and whatever and the food is crumbled delightfully just so?  Yeah, I am really bad at taking pictures like that.
     Instead, I kind of just aim my camera in the food's general direction and push the button.  That is what I did for this picture which is a picture of crockpot oatmeal which is my favorite breakfast ever and in all ways amazing.
     Now to do something I rarely do on this blog!  I'm gonna post the recipe!!!!!!!

Crockpot Oatmeal

1 cup steel cut oats
dump in some craisins (roughly 1/3 cup or 1ish handful)
1 chopped apple
dump in some cinnamon (around 1.2 teaspoon measured in my palm)
dump in a little salt (about 1/2 teaspoon again measured in my palm)
pour in REAL maple syrup or honey ( maybe 1/4 cup of whatever you have the most of)
4 cups water

     Stir it up in the handy dandy crockpot and cook on low for four hours!  Then just store it in the fridge for whenever you want to eat some breakfast.  I generally prefer mornings for such an activity.
     Come the morning time when it is the sustenance just scoop some into a bowl.  Now, you could just pop it into the microwave and that's just fine.  OOOOOOOOOOOR you could chop up half a banana and add a splash of milk.  Then microwave it.  Putting banana into your oatmeal is nothing new but I had not tried it until recently and IT IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!  The banana adds kind of a caramel flavor to the oatmeal which is quite nice.
     It is 12:18 a.m. and I have a pot of this just a cookin' away as we speak.  It will be done in about an hour.  I meant to start it as soon as I got home from work around 5:30 but I forgot.  I debated just waiting until tomorrow to start it but I would really like some oatmeal tomorrow morning and I figure if I waited until tomorrow I would just forget again so may as well do it now.
     My apartment smells amazing.  I am excited.

Chocolate Nom Cake

It broke in half.
     If you read this before I get a chance to post the pics then you will just have to imagine a small chocolate cake on a white plate broken in half.  If you are reading this after I got a chance to post the pics then you are looking at a picture of a small chocolate cake that is broken in half.
     I'm in San Antonio visiting the bf for the week and have been eating EVERYWHERE!  I will probably devote a whole post to the restaurants/bars I went to this week at some point (or not.  I do what I want.) but to give you a little background, le bf works 2nd shift so for 4 days this week I have 10 hours of alone time.  However, a couple of times his friends have been kind enough to invite me to hang out with them and do what people in San Antonio do.  Or at least do what they do which is eating and drinking.  I approve.
     Yesterday (or Tuesday as I like to call it) we went to a fancy pants restaurant called Tre Tratorria (http://www.tretrattoria.com/) for lunch.  Food was omgsonom.  If you look at the lunch menu, I had the power lunch of mixed greens and gnocchi with gorgonzola.  I did not order dessert but was offered a few bites of the Nutella X 3 and IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!! Basically it was a flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse (I assume all with Nutella).  I've never had flourless chocolate cake so the experience was wholly new and delightful and I decided immediately to try it.  Feeling kind of bad for the bf who was at work and didn't get partake in this delightful experience, I decided I would be the most awesome gf in the world and make it for him while he was at work and surprise him!
     So, today while the bf was at work I drove (all by myself!) to the store to get the ingredients for a flourless chocolate cake recipe from the internet (http://adashofsass.com/2011/05/23/flourless-chocolate-cake/).  Then I made the cake.  It's a very simple recipe and I whipped it up without any fuss and set the timer.
     Except I set the timer wrong.  I am notoriously bad at doing simple tasks.  So I waited for the beep.  And waited.  And waited.  Then decided to stop waiting and went to check the timer.  I forgot to press "start."  Luckily the cake looked ok so I took it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before turning it over on a plate like the recipe says to.
     It broke in half.
     Well I can't present the bf with a broken cake!  I did the only thing I could think of and put the cake back in the pan.  It looks mostly ok.  And it hides the slightly burned bottom of the cake.  Haven't gotten a chance to try it yet so hopefully it doesn't taste burned.
     Here's (will be) a pic of it right side up!  Nom!
*Note:  Bf if you are reading this while you are at work then the surprise is all spoiled.  How dare you?!  But hopefully you are now excited for it!  If you are not reading this then hopefully when you get home from work you will be surprised and excited.
**Note:  Pictures of this cake are saved to my camera's internal memory instead of the card and I cannot find the cord to my camera to get the pictures of the cake off of it and onto this post.  However, I have a solution!  First, go to Google and "Google" "flourless chocolate cake."  Look at pictures of flourless chocolate cake.  Imagine the flourless chocolate cake first broken in half and then cut up with a nice dollop of homemade vanilla whipped cream.  Also imagine the flourless chocolate cake a bit too crumbly because I burned it.  That is basically how it went down.

Machete Man

     Sometimes, I do stupid things.  The stupid thing I'm going to tell you about today is that time I got chased by a man with a machete.  This happened when I was like, 16, and was kept as a highly classified secret because I feared that if my parents found out, they would lock me away until I was 78 or something.  Because obviously girls who get chased by men with machetes are not safe to be out and about.  But last Thanksgiving, the story came out to my parents and my aunt so it's safe for the rest of the world to know now.
    We just wanted an innocent adventure.  One of my cousins (the one I usually do stupid things with) was visiting and we met up with the guy I was seeing and, living in a small rural town, had absolutely nothing to do.  The answer was clear.  We had to go trespassing!
     We have some train yards in town.  I honestly don't know much about them.  I had never visited them prior to this night and, after what transpired, I have never been back.  To give you an idea of the train yards so you can accurately picture them in your mind and make this blog reading experience more exciting, the train yards are a grassy, brushy area.  With trains in it.  Fix this image in your imagination.  Now imagine that it was dark.  Because it was.
     I have no idea why we chose the train yards from among the vast options of other places to trespass but that's teenagers for you.  We parked my trusty white 1993 Corsica (Le Blizzard) a little ways away to be all sneaky like and hiked in.
     The train yards are creepy.  Our teenage minds were well able to imagine serial killer hobos hiding behind every bush and rock and entire hoards of zombified hobos (I'm afraid of hobos sometimes btw.  Not all the time.  Just sometimes) lurking in the rusty boxcars.  My cousin is afraid of snakes.  Being a mean creature, at every rustle of the grass I jokingly said "Ooooooooooh!  It's a snaaaaaaaaaaaaake!" causing her to shriek and me to giggle.
     Then there was a really big rustle in the bushes.  Too big for a snake.  Too big for a rabbit.  We paused, cocked our head to the side like spaniels and peered into the brush.  Stupid mistake.  Never pause.  Just run.
     A scary hobo man with ripped clothes and loooooooong stringy hair leaped out of the bushes shrieking like a banshee and waving a MACHETE!  For, the record, I did not see my life flash before my eyes.  I SAW A FRIGGIN' SCARY HOBO MAN WITH A MACHETE FLASH BEFORE MY EYES!
     I ran.  I ran all the way to my Corsica (Le Blizzard), fumbled the keys into the lock, dove in, locked it again, and waited.
     Where were the other two people in the party?  Were they chopped into little teenager bits for hobo stew?  Were they strung up and having their skins peeled off to make kid suits?  Were they still alive, fighting this scary hobo man tooth and nail and cursing me for abandoning them?  I was all a dither.
     Luckily, both of them soon came racing out of the woods.  They hopped in the car and away we sped.
     Here is what happened.  I ran (like a sane person), the guy tried to run but there was a hole and he tripped in it and fell down.  My dear, dear cousin, God bless her soul, continued watching the crazy hobo with the machete.  Luckily for her, the machete man got tangled in the bushes.  And fell down with a giggle.  Obviously she had to stop and laugh at him.
     So, that's the story of the Machete Man.  It was scary, but we all survived!.  I have other stories where I do stupid things!  I will tell them to you sometime!

*Note:  I was going have a sweet picture of a scary man with a machete but I am at a place.  And google imaging "machete man" brought up very graphic images.  I don't want the other people here to be really creeped out as I quietly sit here looking at blood and gore.  Might give the wrong impression.

**Note:  Machetes are scary.  So I put a picture of a puppy up instead.  I stole it from the internet.

I Don't Follow Recipes

    At least not all the way.  I take a look at the recipe and then measure things like soda, salt, vanilla, etc in the palm of my hand.  I've had many people tell me you can't estimate measurements while baking.  It's a science.  This, in the past, has particularly driven my dad nuts when he's asked me to make stuff for him because he measures out every single ingredient exactly.  But I do it my way and people will always eat what I bake and no one has died yet.
     This recipe is based on Neiman Marcus cookies (my mom's fav, btw).  I'm baking them to trade.   Two dozen cookies traded to a coworker in exchange for enough rhubarb to make a small pie!  I'm excited.  I grabbed a Neiman Marcus recipe off the internet (this one has chocolate chips!) and starting mixing.  
     I then realized that this recipe doesn't have oatmeal and my mom's does so this recipe is unacceptable.  So, then I started getting creative.  First of all, I used almond instead of vanilla (whoa, crazy!) which had nothing at all to do with the oatmeal at all but it sounded tasty.  I reduced the amount of flour so that I could add oatmeal.  Then I was looking through my cupboards and realized that I also have whole wheat flour and bran.  Wouldn't that go great in an oatmeal cookie?  So, I again reduced the flour so I could add those too.  I kind of measured.  Almost.
   Then I thought to myself, "man, I sure do like craisins and walnuts in my oatmeal cookies.  I should add craisins and walnuts!"  A quick text to my coworker gave the okay from him and his wife to add craisins and walnuts.  Good thing my parents gave me this ginourmous bag of walnuts!  The next issue was that when I dumped all my craisins in there weren't enough since I had doubled the recipe so I could bake my cookies and eat them too.  Good thing my parents gave me part of a bag of golden raisins!

 So anyway, that's the usual series of events when I bake.  I find a recipe, then make it "better."  I sampled these cookies and they are pretty dang tasty.  And my apartment (which I cleaned yesterday) smells amazing! Here's an approximate recipe (again, I didn't measure).

Kind of Neiman Marcus Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons almond extract
3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup bran
chocolate chips, craisins and raisins, chopped walnuts to taste.

1.  Cream butter in sugars
2.  Mix in eggs and extract
3.  Mix soda, powder, and salt
4.  Add the rest of dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated
5.  Mix in chocolate chips, craisins/raisins, and walnuts with a wooden spoon
6.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes (in my oven anyway)
7.  Cook, remove from cookie sheet, and eat!

*Note:  if you don't have or don't want to add wheat flour and bran, just add do about one cup of regular flour.  Again I didn't measure.  Try that and add until it looks right.

Morels!

  
     We didn't find any.  The afternoon was still a success, however, as I was able to get enough greens together (mostly Virginia water leaf and violet leaves and blossoms, but also a few sprigs of dandelion) for a nice spring salad.    
     The site was Thunder Woman County Park in Black Hawk County along the Cedar River.  The area is flooded right now but green stuff is coming up and blooming.  An associate and I carried plastic grocery bags and scoured the ground with our eyes looking for morels.  Like I said, we didn't find any, but it was a beautiful spring day and we swapped stories about what's blooming where at this time of year and what kind of foraged plants we've eaten and how we cooked it and if we liked it and all that jazz that nerdy nature people do when they are out foraging.  Aside from food, there were quite a few objects tossed around by people and the river.  A couple treasures I spotted are 1. a nice glass saying "Robert River Rides.  Quad City Queen.  Spirit of Dubuque.  Mississippi Belle 11" which will make a nice vase should I ever desire to plop some flowers into it and 2. a GINORMOUS snail shell (the biggest I have ever seen on an Iowa river) that looks like it had something go to town getting at the critter that used to call the shell home.  Here are my treasures.

     So pretty!

     So back home with my bounty I went.  I had some chicken brining (I have been informed that this will completely transform my cheap frozen chicken breasts).  I made an Asian inspired coating and baked the chicken and then tossed it in a spicy glaze.  Turned out good.  For my spring greens I made a quick honey-mustard vinaigrette which was DELICIOUS.  Will need to remember what all I put in it.  Also steamed some broccoli and cauliflower for good measure.  Went fancy tonight.

  Alas, now it is finals week (the reason I haven't posted anything in a long time is because of homework) and I need to write a paper now.  The fact that I actually made real food during finals weeks is just weird.  Usually finals week is pizza and pb&j time.  Although, I do want cookies.  Cuz it's finals week.  And cookies are good.

Also, congratulations to Erin and Rich King on their newest addition Audrey who joined her brother Owen today!  Happy Birthday, Audrey!

Inventive Late Night Snacking

  This dish tastes better than it looks.
  It was cold, dark, and rainy.  I was in the middle of homework.  I wanted monkey bread.  Gooey, molten caramel over warm, soft bread with a touch of cinnamon!  It needed to be in my belly.  Trouble was it was cold, dark, rainy, and I was in the middle of doing homework.  Also, monkey bread is not a health food and I am trying sooo hard to shift my diet towards healthy.  But it sounded sooooo gooooood!
   First, I tried drinking gratuitous amounts of peppermint tea.  No relief from monkey bread fever.  Just needed to use the bathroom a lot.  Next tried healthy popcorn.  Tasty, but not what I want.  I got desperate.
   I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and dumped in a few teaspoons of brown sugar, a small pat of butter, a splash of milk, a splash of vanilla, a dash of salt, and finally a few chocolate chips.  I could settle without monkey bread but desperately needed caramel goodness.  I microwaved it for 20 second intervals stirring in between until a smooth creamy chocolate caramel sauce formed.
   I could not justify eating caramel sauce by itself with a spoon.  That is not very adult-like.  Also, felt kind of guilty for eating caramel sauce to begin with and wanted to "make it healthy."  So I ended up slicing up a banana and drizzling the sauce on top and sprinkling it with chopped walnuts.  Good.  Make it better?  Yes!  Add natural applesauce of course!
   I am full of good ideas.
   The resulting dish was...all right.  I probably should have stopped at the walnuts and forgot all about the applesauce (which, although natural, was super sweet).  But, dash it all, it was smooth, caramel-y, had a touch of chocolate, and the bananas provided a very nice creaminess.  Late night craving satisfied and possibly have an easy, relatively healthy snack recipe if I work out a few kinks.
  Later, I noticed that I had a bottle of butterscotch sauce in the fridge.  Will possibly just consider drizzling a little bit of that over bananas next time.  Faster, easier, and probably a lot healthier if just using a little bit.
*Note:  I recently visited the warm, sunny, full of flowers city of San Antonio, Texas.  Ate lots of tasty food, met lots of nice people, and will blog about it when I have time enough to devote to a possibly lengthy blog.

Spiders

     Spiders are scary.  They hide in dark places and wait there to bite you.  One time, I saw a video from a hut in Africa about this really aggressive really poisonous spider species that would crawl up broom handles and bite you and then you DIE!  So now I'm afraid to kill spiders with brooms because they will crawl up the handle and bite my face and then I will die even though we don't have this species in Iowa.  At least, they're not native.  A lot of times gigantic jungle spiders hide in bananas and other fruit and they wait, just wait, in the bananas until they get to the grocery store and then they launch themselves at the faces of unsuspecting grocery store people and bite them and then the grocery store people DIE!
    Spiders are also tricksy.  One time, I was staying at Lakeside Lab by Okoboji and a wolf spider the size of a dessert plate lived above the door inside the women's bathroom.  It wedged its nasty body between the limestone rocks and its freak legs splayed out on all around and it waited.  During the day it lurked and snagged flies and mosquitoes but late at night, it waited for unsuspected college girls who had to pee to wander in.  Then it would drop on her face and bite her and SHE WOULD DIE!  No one actually died.  We can only assume that all the girls learned to hold it until morning.
     Even dead spiders are dangerous.  They have spider cooties.  Spider cooties make you sick and give you cancer.  Wash your hands after handling dead spiders.  Or use a vacuum to avoid contact.  NEVER use a vacuum on a live spider.  Vacuums will not kill a spider.  They will lurk inside the vacuum and then crawl out when you go to sleep and bite your face.  The preferred method for killing spider is a pressure sprayer.  Because, unlike broom handles, spider cannot climb water.  If you can't use a pressure sprayer where you are at, kill the spider with short jabs from the broom so hopefully the spider won't be able to climb it.  Remember, you always have the option of screaming and running away.  Screaming will stun the spider so it won't chase you.  It also helps to scream when you kill a spider so it gets stunned and holds still.
*Note:  Regulations allow up to EIGHT spider legs per chocolate bar.  Just don't think about it.  Or try to think of it as added protein
Here are some spider things for your enjoyment
http://www.cracked.com/funny-1934-spiders/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
**Note:  A kitty just walked by me and I pet the kitty.  This somehow makes me less afraid that there is a spider in my pop.

Lentil Mother-Trucking Soup!

So, as I sit here doing the dishes and drinking my cranberry wine I realized that I mentioned my lentil soup in the last post of pointless stuff.  So, to fill you all in I made Spicy Egyptian Lentil Soup a while back and it was GOOOOOOOD!  Lots of vitamins and nutrients like iron and some fiber and stuff and I ate it with pita bread!  Here's a picture of it.  I should probably start posting the recipes for my foods if I have them (which for this one I do) but right now I'm lazy and in the middle of doing dishes and don't want all the water to drain away while I'm typing.  So, soup.  It may look like baby vomit, but it tastes like awesomeness.  Will probably post one or two more pics later so it's just not this pic of ugly baby vomit soup.  Here you go.
*Note:  I burn frickin' everything on my stove.

Sometimes I Fail at Being an Adult and Am Ok With It

     So, today I had big plans.  Ok, that's a filthy lie.  I didn't have BIG plans.  I just had plans to clean and do homework.  But, in all honesty, I REALLY needed to clean and do homework because I'm out of clean bowls and my apartment smells like old lentil soup because of the dirty bowls and I need to read the four papers from last week that I only skimmed so I can write a paper on them.  So, in terms of importance, this day was big.
     What really happened is that I sat in my rocking chair and did...something.  I don't really remember what I did but my computer was up so probably I sat and looked at stuff on the interwebs for a long time.  This happens a lot this whole I do something that is not important for hours at a time at the expense of important things.  The best way to do this is with Little Smokies, but the last time I was at the store they were out of Little Smokies and I was all "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  WHAT IS THE POINT OF CIVILIZATION????????" so no  tiny hot dogs today.  Luckily, last night I got crispy noodles with chicken and veggies from IPPA in Cedar Falls (go there.  it is good.) so I would randomly microwave a small portion of that and nom down on it while doing stupid pointless stuff.  All that has been accomplished today is that laundry got done which is good because this girl was in dire need of important things like pants, underwear, and socks.
     So, yeah.  Today has been a lot of internet surfing and watching random movies and HGTV.  I did write about three sentences of my four page paper and they were really important sentences so that's pretty much a win.  Then I started reading other people's blogs and got lost in that and decided to be all like "meh...homework...whatevs..." and opened a bottle of cranberry wine.  We'll see how far I get on that bottle tonight.  At this point I kind of have to drink it because I fail at opening bottles of wine and broke the cork off so now I have nothing to put in the bottle if I want to stop drinking it and there are little bits of cork floating in the wine.
     I promise, I started writing this post with a serious train of thought but forgot what it was now it's pretty much gone and this entire post is mindless rambling.  I've been doing that a bit today.  Like, I went to open the wine and brought my glass that I had been drinking water out of to pour wine in.  Opened the bottle of wine (eventually), looked over, and was all "Holy crap!  There's a glass all ready and waiting here!" like it was something fortuitous even though I had consciously decided to use my water glass for my wine and then forgot in about 45 seconds.  Anywho, it's probably time to wrap this post up being as it has no point to begin with.  Here's a pic of my failure! :)  Criminy, in the five minutes it took to spew these words out I drank a glass of wine.

*Note:  It has been commented that my blog is called "The Wandering Molly" and that, thus far, there has been very little in the way of wandering.  First of all, I can't just go whipping out my camera and snapping pictures everywhere I go.  That's rude, people.  Secondly, it's winter and I am a grad student busy with homework.  Like a groundhog, I will venture into the world and wander more when it's warm outside and when finals are over.  That is all.

**Note:  That is NOT all.  My ears are stuffed up and echoing.  So when I was eating chocolate chips it sounded like Godzilla was munching on rocks.  I have decided that Godzilla is awesome and, therefore, I am awesome.  And I should actually fill my allergy med prescription so my ears don't get stuffed up.  That is all.

Valentine's Day

     So, Valentine's Day.  Historically, one of the most awkward holidays ever.  Unwanted pressure to figure out romantic plans and stuff.  Should we go out?  Where should we go?  What kind of fancy clothes does this require?  Should I get him a gift?  If he asks me if I want a gift what should I say? 

     In general, I try to keep things low-key.  I mean, I can do fancy.  I'm just as comfy ordering pizza and watching a zombie movie.  As far as gifts go, I am so much more likely to make something delicious. (because the way to man's heart is through his stomach, you know?)  And cooking is more fun than staring at manly stuff in a store contemplating if he's allergic to this calogne or would this game run on his computer or whatever type of manly things the internet suggested I buy my man. 

   This year Valentine's Day would be celebrated with the bf.  Debate over plans went through my head for a while.  Mostly about what I was going to make.  The bf likes cheesecake.  Fact.  Was pretty sure bf wanted to go out which he later confirmed by being like "hey, pick a place."  Bf also likes chocolate things pretty sure.  Also think that the bf likes dinosaurs because everyone likes dinosaurs.  From these ideas was born the dinosaur cheesecake.  Went a a wild hunt to look for dinosaurs and found them ia the Dollar Store.  Made the cake.  Ready for hot date.  Woo!

     Hot date rolls around and we're both dressed fancy heading to Cu in Waterloo.  Fancy restaurant, fancy food.  Everything was tasty.  Service was excellent.  Would definately reccommend Cu for hot dates.  I've already gotten online to figure out the balsamic vinegar reduction that was drizzled over the grilled bruschetta and have every intention of recreating this recipe at home. 

     Meanwhile, the dinosaur cheesecake is in the bf's fridge just awaitin'.  I was suuuuuuuuuper excited about this cheesecake.  Mostly because it had dinosaurs, but also because I put a lot of thought into this cheesecake and had specially tweaked a recipe that I had used before.  Description of this cheesecake:  white chocolate cheesecake covered in dark chocolate ganache with Oreo cookie crust.  Two dinosaurs perched on top.  (I'm the blue dinosaur with the heart.  It's like my dinosaur is giving his dinosaur a Valentine's card.  Obviously)This cake was going to be goooooooooooood. 

     The problem was that we were both entirely too full for cheesecake.  Had to wait until the next day, but it was a hit with the bf.  Absolutely no way he could eat en entire cheesecake so it was decided that we would cut up half into bite sized pieces to share with people later.  Asked him if he wanted to keep the half he had eaten or the whole half and he decided he wanted to keep a whole half.  Win.

*Update.  At people's house with leftover cheesecake.  Big hit.  Win.  I'm awesome.

    

Thursday: I become a woman/member of society

     So, Thursday nights my bf's group of friends gets together at someone's house and that person makes a meal for everyone.  Good food, camaraderie, and stuff abound.  This week was my bf's turn and he was all, "you wanna cook something?" and I was all, "uh...k."  I've never cooked for 10ish people by myself before and didn't really know what a main dish designed to serve so many people required in quantity of ingredents. 
     My fallback for food is soup (I will probably post a blog devoted to soup later on.  Soup is kind of a big deal in my life.).  However, I was specifically asked to make not soup so that left me drawing a blank.  Ran a few ideas by my parents and by our receptionist at work who were all very helpful and very excited that I was cooking for a large group of people (Am I becoming a woman?  Do people think I'm a lonely hermit who never interacts with people?  Not sure.) and finally settled on shrimp alfredo (With peas because you should always add vegetables!).  Because it's good, you know?  So, back to the the problem of how big is food that feeds 10 people.  Dad advised me to go to food.com which was VERY helpful because I could just find a recipe and type in that the number of servings required.
     So, Thursday came and went.  Between the bf and I, we had some of the ingredients (I walked around with parsely, basil, and lemon juice in my backpack that day.  On an unrelated note, when parsley comes up I get "Scarborough Fair" stuck in my head because of the line "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme." Back to blogging!) and picked up the rest that evening.  We set to chopping and boiling and stirring and everything and the food was ready for consumption when everyone arived.  Food was eaten and most people took seconds which is a good sign.  Between that and the garlic bread no one went away hungry that's for sure.    All in all, a general success.  Stole another serving for lunch that day.  Eating shrimp alfredo (with peas) makes looking at biomass statistics better (I look at biomass statistics at work.  It's part of my job.)

*Note the awesome pasta scoop.  Called the "Pastasaurus" it is basically a more awesome way to scoop your pasta.  Also, note the real person stove.  This is my bf's stove, not mine.  My stove is one of those itty bitty college person stoves for college people.  I'm going to be a real person someday and that will probably mean I have a real person stove.

Health Month

     So, around New Year's my brother sent me a link for a game called Health Month where you're on a team of people wanting to get healthy.  I was busy doing... something... and ignored it.  A few days ago he sent me the link again and was all "plz?" and I was all "fine" so now I am on his team for Health Month.  My rules are something like drinking more water, cooking healthy dinners more often, and eating more fruit.  Keeping it simple.   I cut up a bunch of celery and bell peppers to eat, checked and made sure I had tea bags in the cupboard, and made a mental note to shove a clementine or apple in my backpack.  There are little smokies with cheddar in my fridge but they're fricking good so I choose not to care.  What's the point of life if you can't have little smokies???

     So, I was in my kitchen this weekend thinking about what I wanted to eat all week that would be healthy and tasty.  Put a pot on the stove, opened my fridge/freezer and started grabbing.  Carrots, celery, onion, spinach, green beans, and peas go into the pot along with spices that I glanced at and then grabbed and dumped into the pot.  Went to add chicken broth (low fat!) and realized I didn't have any.  A quick run to the store at 10:30p.m. and I have chicken broth (low fat!) and barley (heart healthy!) in my soup and it is happily boiling away.  A while later also found a can of tomato paste in my cupboard and dumped that in which resulted in scary looking thick soup but the addition of more broth fixed (Mom's idea) it so now I can follow my rule of eating healthy homemade food. Yay.  That was probably more than you needed to know about this soup but if that's the case you probably would have stopped reading by now.  Oh well.

    Anyway, here's a picture of my super healthy vegetable and barley soup.  It's in my bowl that I chipped when I accidentally dropped a jar of nuts on it.  This is why I can't have nice things.

     This is the mess that my happily boiling soup made.  Mr. Clean Magic Eraser knock-off handled the job, however, and my stove is once again all shiny and clean.

Getting Started

Hokay, so this is my first post on my first blog and I'm taking time out of doing the dishes to type this.  To give you an idea of what will likely be posted here let me just say that I am Molly.  I like to wander around and look at stuff.  While wandering around I tend to look for whatever type of unique food is available and then eat it.  So, there will be some postings and pictures about that.  I also like to try out cool recipes that I either find or am introduced to.  So, there will also be some postings and pictures about that.  And probably some postings and pictures about other stuff I do.  I don't know.  I'm dreaming big right now but am kind of lazy so we'll see what actually happens.  My goal for you followers (if any there be) is to entertain and also to force my excitement about the stuff I do into your lives via blog instead of just making you listen to me prattle on while at work, class, or just hanging out.  Hopefully I'll be posting some pics later tonight of my super tasty soup (which my co-workers previewed yesterday as that's what I ate for lunch).  This will happen if I remember where my camera is.  Anyway, that's all for now.