Things I Did This Week

1. Ate fish sticks! I've never had fish before in my life. Seriously. XD

2. Started unloading trucks at Walmart. It's kinda fun. :D

3. Learned how to speedpaint from watching a very good tutorial.

4. Ran out of money from Target and tax returns.

5. Got my first Walmart paycheck to replenish that money.

6. Made chicken marinated in whiskey. It had lots of flavor.

7. Took nice portraits of Tim.

8. Tried Nutella. Not as tasty as everyone thinks it is, in my opinion.

9. Started eating bagels with peanut butter instead of plain.

10. Pulled super heavy pallets ALL OVER WALMART.

11. Made a meal schedule to incorporate more variety and healthiness into my diet and Tim's.

12. Spent minimal time on Facebook and maximum time being productive.

I guess this is a spring for getting in shape, getting healthier, and lots of food. :P

October

I'm inexplicably excited for October this year. It's my favorite month, largely due to all the scary Halloween stuff, tasty apple and pumpkin stuff, and all the birthday stuff. My uncle's birthday is the 10th, my mom's is the 18th, mine is the 23rd, and my friend Travis' is the 29th (I think). One of the sites I hang around, a virtual pet site called Aywas, has tons of events going on this month, so I'm definitely excited about those. I just spent all day drawing for a bunch of their contests. Mostly, I think I'm just looking forward to a month filled with good stuff when the rest of the year hasn't treated me so well thus far.

If you want to check out Aywas, I get stuff for referring people, so use my link to sign up. They do all the member applications by hand, so it might take a little while to get your confirmation email. The site's a great place to sell artwork or make real life money on their contests. There's lots of pets to collect, or you can make customs and breed them to make unique pets. Below is one I made for the monthly shop contest:

Just to make sure this post is more than me being really excited that October starts in a few hours and I'll know if I won those contests, here's a recipe for pumpkin cake that needs to be shared. I made it a few times last year,a and it was a big hit with everybody. I recommend using Betty Crocker's Cream Cheese frosting. Don't use Pillsbury - they have wonderful cakes and terrible icings. XD I leave the nuts out. I only like walnuts in brownies. Also, a 12 X 18 pan is HUGE. You can halve the recipe and use a standard 9 X 13 if that's too much cake for you. :)

Unrelated to cake but related to cooking, I made a new barbecue sauce recipe! It's apple spice flavored, and after I tweak it just a little bit, I'll post the recipe. 

Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 12x18 inch pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time.

Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread batter into prepared 12x18 inch pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

Weird Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

I assume my boyfriend knows all of this stuff (since he lives with me), and I imagine a lot of it has come up around our closest friends as well. For the rest of you, I make no sense. These are in no particular order (sorry), and some are much more serious than others.

I eat my oatmeal dry.

It's gross when it's warm and mushy. D: I use a spoon and eat it right out of the packet.

I went to court for truancy.

In 4th grade, I had a lot of really bad friend issues. The girl I thought was my best friend was sort of terrible, and then she was worse when I decided I'd had enough of her. On top of it, there was this other girl that wasn't mature enough to handle any of the stuff we were going through. They were pretty much the only friends I had, and I missed a lot of school. In 5th grade, it was a new school building with the older grades, and the four elementary schools are all put together and shuffled around. The grade is split up into two "teams" where each team has like, 5 teachers. You might move around in your own team, but you would never do anything with the other team. That means I have like, no friends in my classes (in fact, there was only one person in my class that went to the same elementary school as I did), no one to talk to at lunch, and an unfamiliar environment. Instead of giving me help or trying to set it up so I could work from home because I clearly had severe issues, there was a time when I was carried by the principal to his office, forced onto a school bus, and generally humiliated on a regular basis by my teachers. I missed enough school that I had to go to the magistrate and risk going into foster care, which probably would have led to me running away or committing suicide, to be totally honest. My own family has trouble dealing with my food habits and personal endeavors; a new family would have no chance. Anyway, it all worked out and the one girl I knew sort of adopted me, and even though she lives across the country now, we're still great friends. I obviously stayed with my own family and continued on in school, only to later drop out against my will (though I should have done it anyway). Still, the whole experience was a big pile of trauma that I really didn't need.

I taught myself how to read.

I used to make my family read me stories constantly. I would follow along with the words, and before I knew it, I recognized tons of words. I was able to read books by myself without any of them lifting a finger to teach me anything. As I moved into more advanced books, I picked up grammar and punctuation like it was nothing. English classes refined what I already knew. I knew college-level grammar rules by middle school. Latin really helped pull it all together. After all, we had to understand our own grammar before we could put it in Latin.

I play trumpet really damn well.

I picked up the trumpet for band in 5th grade. Needless to say, my frequent absences made me one of the worst. I stayed after school with our horrible teacher, and she told me to quit and pick up a different instrument because I had an overbite. My dentist, by the way, says I do not. Anyway, I somehow learned it all really fast, because by freshman year of high school, I was the best of my grade's trumpets. All that with minimal at-home practicing (and none after like, 7th grade).

Dogs kind of scare me.

I've been around cats my whole life. When I was little, we had a dog, but we kept her outside, so I never interacted with her at all. When I went to friends' houses, sometimes they had dogs that would bark at me and jump on me and lick me. It was the scariest thing ever. I've pretty much gotten over it now, but I still don't like jumpy dogs. I'm usually just worried they'll knock me over and drool on me. I also don't want to get scratched by them, even though I know in most cases the dogs mean no harm.

I've never done laundry in my life.

I've helped at the laundromat before we had our own stuff, but that was when I was like, 10 and younger. Don't make me do laundry. It probably won't end well.

I taught myself how to cook.

I never cooked anything other than the occasional baked goods before I was 17 or so. When I started having health problems, my sleep schedule got all screwy, and I was often up at night with only my boyfriend. I learned how to make tons of baked goods, and from there, I taught myself how to do meats and stuff. Now I'm totally self-sufficient and make better meals than the rest of my family. I even have my own way of making rice, which I had never even eaten until a few months ago.

October is my favorite month. 

Fall is my favorite season. I love the temperature - perfect for a light jacket - and the smell of leaves. October is pretty great. I love Halloween, my birthday comes on the 23rd, and it's a whole month dedicated to pumpkin bread, hayrides, corn mazes, and pretty leaves.

A good example of Octoberness.

I'm terrified of soccer.

I have next to no coordination with my feet. I was lucky I survived marching band. Add to that an incident where I got hit in the face with a soccer ball and got really swollen, and you'll find that it's one of the worst things you can ever make me do. I'm just not aggressive enough to like sports, and in soccer, it's aggressive or get yelled at my the teacher.

I hate guys who give me special treatment because I'm female.

I've always had friends who were male. In elementary school, most of my friends were boys. In high school, the main group I hung out with (and still often see) was a bunch of big guys who played video games and looked really damn intimidating. Despite the fact that I was like, a third of their size and hardly played games, we got along great. I've had lots of my guy friends tell me they think of me as just "one of the guys," and that means a lot to me. To contrast, I've worked with people on projects who think they need to be careful not to offend the girl of the group. They're nice to me so they don't hurt my feelings. They don't joke with me about the same things, or tell me which porn stars they think are really hot. It's frustrating. In ways, I think on a more masculine level anyway; I don't care about the petty drama that a lot of girls do, and I don't feel the need to flirt with every male in the vicinity to get get what I want. The guys I'm used to don't care about any of that crap either. Also, despite the fact that some of them look like they could and would break someone in half, they're there to listen if I want to open up about a relationship I'm in or something. That's what I'm used to. I don't want the mindset that you shouldn't hit girls, that girls are easily upset, that girls get offended if you talk about your man parts, and etcetera. If you're a guy that really wants my friendship, than don't treat me any differently than the other guys you hang around. Give me the same hand-reddening high fives and complain about your girlfriend.

My religious views are confusing.

I'm not a Christian, but I believe God exists. I refuse to serve a being who supposedly created life with a free will and expects that life to obey his every command. That being said, I think most of the Bible is a load of crap. I believe most deities exist, and I do not believe any one of them is omnipotent, or even close to that. I think they are simply immortal beings on another plane of existence who offer protection to their followers. I believe there is a measure of truth in all religions, but I don't believe any of them entirely. Pagan beliefs are the closest to my own, so I suppose if I had to label myself, I'd say I was a pagan. I believe in an afterlife, and also in a form of reincarnation. I don't believe in an eternal punishment for your actions in your tiny amount of years on this Earth. I believe sin is dictated by the people of the world, not by a deity. I believe that we are here to learn about ourselves and our spirit's past forms on our way to bettering ourselves, much like the concept of Nirvana. I will not dedicate myself to a being. I have respect for the laws of society and the people I interact with, and I am doing what I can to improve the world of the living. I will not offer praise to a being on another plane of existence. I believe in fate, but not in karma. I believe our origins are mostly evolutionist. I think everything happens for a reason, and that if we spend a lifetime working towards one goal, that is how we were meant to spend that lifetime. Perhaps we'll never see it come to fruition, but a century later, the work will be recognized; maybe it was all useless, but it will prevent others from following the same path. Either way, I believe everything coincides with other events, and everything is connected.

I am allergic to two specific laundry detergents.

Gain and Dynamo both have a chemical that makes me really, really itchy. I don't know what chemical it is, so I don't know what others have it, but those two do for sure. I think it's the only specific allergy I have, other than nickel, which almost everyone has.

I would rather be in a snake pit than have one spider on me.

I like snakes. I think they're really cool, and I also know how to not agitate them. Spiders want me dead. Every time I see a spider, I ask someone to kill it. If they don't, it ends up crawling up my leg sometime later on. Never fails. It's like they see me as this all-you-can-eat buffet.

I can't wear thongs.

I disagree 100% with anyone who says they're comfortable.

I've never watched porn.

Seems awkward. XP

I'm slightly lactose intolerant.

I can eat milk in my cereal, but I prefer 2%. Whole milk makes me a little nauseous. A lot of 2% will, too, but it's usually okay to have a bowl or two of cereal. 1% and skim are just yucky.

I have really, really dry skin.

If I dry off too much with a towel, I might just disintegrate. 

I like guys with either blonde or black hair.

Even though they're opposites, those two colors are the best. Style depends drastically on the person, though I made this thing on DeviantART and noticed that I'll probably really like you if your face is obscured by your hair. (Mechazawa is a joke. Pay no attention to that. XD)

Also, I apparently like guys who are sadistic and/or mass murderers.

I can't stand whistling.

It gives me a very, very bad headache. I don't know why. If it's low, it's tolerable, but I still hate it.

I love really soft fabrics.

This is probably because of my dry skin, really. I'm way more likely to buy a shirt because of how soft it is over how nice it looks. Luckily, there's Deb, and most of the shirts they sell are both. I recently bought a nice blanket at Borders that's pretty much the softest thing I can use to make myself into a burrito. Best $16 I ever spent.

I flip between being dominating and submissive.

There are situations where I'm totally fine with taking orders, mostly when I don't want responsibility or want to trust someone's judgement. Other times, I want control over every minute detail. Let's not even go near the sexual implications of this.

I have weird elbows.

When I extend my arm, the joint can go past 180 degrees. I can actually touch the insides of my elbows together. My friends say they look broken. It's pretty funny. I'm also able to lick my elbow. 

I don't like chocolate things.

Specifically, chocolate cake, frosting, and ice cream. I love marble cake, though. It's my favorite. I can eat chocolate cake and icing, but they're usually just too sweet for me. I only ever do so when PMS drives me into a chocolate-craving frenzy. I always regret it afterwards.

I hate feminism.

Dear women of the world: without men, you wouldn't exist. My mother is one of those women who jumps at any opportunity to say things like "that's a guy for you" or "men are worthless." It gets irritating really fast. It's a good part of why I generally like guys more. Sure, you have the occasional remark about how women make no God damn sense, but there's never this idea that the world would be better without them. Feminist women seem to think we'll be able to reproduce asexually one day and that the male gender will become obsolete (my mother believes this, by the way), and I'm sorry (I'm not), but that's just ridiculous. Plus, I love men. They can fit any need, from cuddly and adorable to sex god. That's more than you can say about most women, who range from petty ditz to sort-of-compassionate ditz.

Look how cute it is. Don't you want one?

I'm pretty good at real-time strategy games.

Age of Mythology is a fantastic game, and I'm pretty decent at it. My able-to-do-500-things-at-once mind is very well suited to the multitasking you need for RTS games.

I'm a democrat.

Plain and simple. My views are pretty moderate, but definitely lean more left. 

So I guess that's about it for now. There's tons of other stuff I could add, but for now, I guess you know a little more about me that you probably didn't know already.

Food Ruins Lives

I'm a supertaster. That means I have an excessive amount of taste buds (like, 5 times the normal, on average). I can pick out preservatives and chemicals that most people can't notice. Being a supertaster isn't necessarily a bad thing. The reason it made me life horrible is because as a child, I wouldn't eat tons of things that were put in front of me. I often went hungry. That whole "she'll eat it if she's hungry enough" idea just didn't work for me. It was to the point where my doctor said to find things I would eat and just let me eat them.

I've spent my whole life getting tons of questions and complaints about why I don't like this or that. It contributed largely to my self isolation, something I still deal with on a regular basis. Having dinner with someone is among the worst situations you can put me in. It's stressful, and usually I just want to leave and cry. I can't eat people's home-cooked meals, and as soon as I turn down food, the questions start. "Well what do you like? I want to know so I can cook for you." No. Please don't. Please just let me crawl into your oven and kill myself first, okay? It would be preferable.

Then there are always the people who say I'll grow out of things, or that I can learn to like things if I just eat them enough. On the contrary, I've actually grown to dislike a lot of things I used to eat as a kid. As for forcing myself to eat things, that won't work, either. If I eat something I don't like, it gets worse and worse the more I try to force it down. It triggers the gag reflex really easily. If you don't want me to throw up, don't tell me to keep eating things.

I get a lot of complaints from people that I don't like trying things, either. Of course I don't. It's the worst when there's a food with a bunch of stuff in it and among the ingredients is a food I dislike. Don't think that I won't taste it. In fact, since I don't like it, I'll notice it a thousand times more. I have a really clear idea of what I like and what I don't like, so unless the food is totally different from anything I've ever had, I can say with probably 95% accuracy whether I'll like it or not. And really, it's no one's business if I don't want to try something. All that does is stress me out. I spent years of my life having people watch me eat just to see what I ate and, in some cases, if I ate at school at all. I was always done before everyone else was even served by the cafeteria. Being a really, really shy person, I cried my fair share of times in elementary school because of stuff like this. It was a legitimately traumatizing experience for me, and I always hoped it would stop once I was around people who were more mature than the average 8-year-old. It really hasn't.

I've also had people who don't understand the whole supertaster thing at all and tell me I'll be fine if I just dilute my food. No. It doesn't work that way. If the flavor is there, I taste it, and if it's something I don't like, I won't eat it. If I do, that gag reflex thing comes into play. It's not a matter of making things less flavorful; it's a matter of using flavors I like.

Anyone reading this who doesn't know me in real life may not have a clear idea yet of how miserable my life is because of my horribly specific diet. Let me list some stuff (I'm sure I'll forget some things) that I will and will not eat.

Things I Won't Eat
-Cheese. I used to like it, stopped eating it, and then couldn't stomach it again. It's sickening. No matter what cheese I try, it ends up being really gross. There's only one exception, and that's cheese curls. They're different somehow. As you can imagine, hating cheese rules out a huge chink of the world's foods.

-Pasta. The only pasta I'll eat is ramen, and even then, I'm picky about flavors and brands. There's another large chunk of options gone.

-Seafood. No exceptions.

-Sandwiches. The mixing textures of bread and other things is really awful to me. I used to like bread and peanut butter. Can't handle that anymore.

-Mexican food. I know that's general, but pretty much all of it makes me nauseous just smelling it.

-Beans. There are no beans that don't induce nausea by smell alone.

-Citrus. Lemon is okay in some teas and stuff, but I can't touch orange or lime.

-Pizza. No exceptions, for pretty much the same reason as sandwiches. This really screwed me over as a kid, especially since it seems like a food that everyone is expected to like and eat.

-Jelly. Not even in pastries. Yuck. 

-Egg. Unless baked into something, eggs are awful. 

Things I Will Eat (Conditionally)

-Chicken. I will only ever eat breast meat, and unless it's some sort of fried, I probably won't like it. I have tons of ways to season chicken that I fry in the oven, and they're all very delicious. I can actually eat a lot of restaurant chicken because most places have chicken tenders that are breaded and fried, which is the way I like it.

-Pork. I eat thick pork chops and pork tenderloin. Pulled pork is a texture I can't deal with. I like my meat in chunk form, thanks. Also, never breaded. I just want my meat.

-Beef. Only as a roast, and only if done with the right seasonings and well done. Most marinades I've tried are gross.

-Some fruit, like bananas, apples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and black olives. That's about it.

-A few veggies (some are fruits that are considered veggies), like cucumbers, lettuce (if totally plain), and potatoes, if done with very specific conditions. 

-Bread. I like Italian the best, but I regularly munch on cinnamon bread. There are lots of breads, bagels, and muffins I like.

-Oatmeal. I eat it dry, much to most people's confusion.

-Cereal. I'm not terribly picky about cereal, but there are definitely a bunch I prefer over others. Crispix is my favorite.

-Pancakes and waffles. Blueberry waffles, however, are a bad idea.

So I guess that's about as much as I want to write without thinking over my diet in excruciating detail and breaking down the really varied snack foods I eat. I guess the point of me doing this at all is to have something to send people to when they ask me irritating questions in the future.

Things I've Done Before I Hit 20

I'll be turning 20 next month. As messy and screwy as my first 19 years have been, I've done quite a few things that most people do way later in life, if at all. Some are great, some are awful. It's sort of a list of "when I was your age" stories that will be mentioned years down the road to the grandkids puppy. Most aren't terribly interesting, but I know plenty of people older than I am who don't know how to do some of this stuff and/or haven't done this stuff yet.

12

• I taught myself basic HTML. I needed it for my Neopets profile. XD 

13

• Got into fantasy and sort of turned into a little goth kid. Still a little goth kid at heart, I think. 

14

• I had my first poetry published internationally. I've since had a bunch of poems published.
• I got involved in my first serious relationship. It lasted 11 months, and it was great. 

15

• I started my business. 

16

• I developed arthritis after logging some intense Morrowind time. :( (This may have been earlier, now that I think about it.)
• I tamed a wild Tim. I still have him, but he still chews the furniture sometimes.
• Tons of health problems come on out of nowhere! D: 

17

• Saw my first concert other than a local show. It was Celtic Thunder because tickets were free. :D 
• I did my first major craft show, Oddmall, which I've done twice. 
• I dropped out of high school (unintentionally) and was able to focus much more on my business. 
• I broke my first bone! I was in a really minor fender bender, and the airbag hit a ring I was wearing. 
• I went on vacation with Tim and some friends. I'd never been on a trip without family, and also never stayed more than a few hours at a beach. It was wonderful. 
• I got my laptop. Best. Thing. Ever. ♥ 

18

• I taught myself how to make fractals. 
• I learned how to cook. Now I could effectively live on my own and eat really well. 
• I sat down and watched my first anime series all the way through. It was Death Note, since I sort of liked it and missed most of it on TV. I mainly watched it to catch up with Tim's TiVo'd episodes, but I turned out really enjoying it. I had never watched any anime until meeting him. 
• Somewhere in here is where I actually started hanging out with Tim's friends, I think. He had never really invited me to do anything with them, so it looked to them like I hated them and looked to me like Tim didn't like having friends. The few times we did hang out were sort of awkward. Now we hang out all the time.

19

• Started drawing digitally with a tablet. I love it. 
• I contributed work to 2 video games. 
• I tried rice for the first time in my life. I'm not super fond of it. 
• I published a novel. 

20

• I had best get a job, or I'm going to move to a place where jobs aren't a luxury. 

Habenero Pineapple BBQ Sauce

So I made a barbecue sauce a few months back on a whim when the boyfriend and I found fresh habenero peppers at Wal Mart. He loves things that are spicy enough to give you ulcers, so we bought a bunch and I threw this together. It's the first sauce recipe I've ever come up with, and by some miracle, it's freaking amazing. It's got a good amount of kick to it, and the batch is small, so if you want to be able to really slather it on, I'd recommend doubling or tripling the recipe, all except for the habeneros so the spiciness is more diluted. I want to make a batch with cayenne peppers instead of habeneros to see how that tastes, too, but I haven't done it yet.

It's on Instructables if you want pictures (but it's easy, I promise). http://www.instructables.com/id/Habenero-Pineapple-BBQ-Sauce/

Ingredients:

3 Habañero peppers
1/2 cup pineapple
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup molasses
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp hickory Liquid Smoke

Other things you'll need:
A blender or food processor
A meduim-sized pot

1. Preparing your Peppers
Remove the seeds from the peppers. You'll want to wear gloves so you don't get the oils on your hands. Cut about 1/4 of the pineapple into chunks. Put both of those into your blender or food processor and liquefy.
 
2. Simmer
Mix all of your ingredients together, including the liquified mix, in a pot. Simmer until it reaches the desired consistancy, which takes about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep the pineapple sugars from separating.
 
3. EAT IT ON EVERYTHING
Enjoy!

  

Potato Rolls

Around Easter, I made some potato rolls. I followed a recipe from allrecipes, but somehow screwed it up a lot. XD The rolls were great, anyway, though. I'll post my version here, and you can check out the original here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Colleens-Potato-Crescent-Rolls/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1.Place potatoes in a saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool, and mash.
2.In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
3.When yeast is ready, mix in 1 cup mashed potatoes, sugar, butter, eggs, salt, and 3 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough has become stiff but still pliable. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, and up to 5 days.
4.Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it a little, then make balls of dough about 2 1/2 inches across. Cover, and let rise for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
5.Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

I totally know that the original recipe is for crescents, but that seemed like too much work at the time. Also, I made these a second time with different yeast, which happened to have expired 2 years ago. Don't do that. You get balls of dough that are crispy on the outside and really hard to digest, according to my boyfriend.

Whiskey Cookies

These "Wicked Whiskey Chocolate Cookies" are from The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book by Camilla V. Saulsbury. The icing below is from the same book. I didn't try the icing, but the recipe is there. The cookies came out well.

Cookies

Ingredients:
-1 19.5-19.8 oz package of brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker's Dark Chocolate)
-1/4 cup of whiskey (I used Seagrams VO)
-1/4 cup of unsalted butter, melted
-1 large egg
-1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the brownie mix, butter, egg, and whiskey together with a wooden spoon or spatula until moistened. Stir in the choclate chips.
3. Drop by teaspoons onto the cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
4. Bake 9-12 minutes until cracked in appearance and just barely set at the center.



Icing

Ingredients:
-6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
-1/4 cup of whiskey or bourbon
-1/4 cup of light corn syrup
-4 ounces of coarsely chopped baking chocolate
-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
-2 cups of sifted powdered sugar

Combine the butter, whiskey, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring it to a boil, then remove it from the heat and wisk in chocolate until melted. Wisk in vanilla and gradually add powdered sugar untilthe frosting is a spreadable consistancy. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

The Ramen Chronicles Part II

In the continuing saga of young people left to cook for themselves (Part I is here), I've discovered another way to prepare a simple pack of chicken-flavored stove top ramen.

I prepare the noodles as I did in Part I. The spices are what differs. I keep the pepper, but replace the oregano with Italian seasoning. You can buy a bottle of Italian seasoning at the grocery store, but for those of you out there who like homegrown herbs, it is a mix of basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, sage, and thyme. I add quite a bit, but spices are meant to be added to taste. Experiment on your own. The mix of spices and the pepper add a lot of flavor and make it delicious.

Biscuit Recipe!

I make these every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is one of those recipes I didn't need to tweak in the least bit. It's from my 5th grade cooking class, believe it or not. :P

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal.
4. Add buttermilk and stir until well blended. The mixture will be moist and lumpy, but you should not see excess flour.
5. Use a table spoon to spoon the dough onto lightly greased cookie sheets about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges start to brown.

Delicious Icing for Gingerbread Cookies

I was making some Betty Crocker gingerbread cookies last night, and on the side of the box, there was a recipe for icing. I modified it and now I'm sharing it. Enjoy. :D

1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of water
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mix ingredients together until smooth. It came out very thick and paste-like for me.

Fantastic Fries

I'm a fry fanatic. I'm one of the world's pickiest eaters, and since I like fries, it's fun to compare the fries that different restauraunts and frozen food companies offer. The first frozen brand I'll recommend is McCain. Right now, I have some of their seasoned crinkle fries in the oven. They're crispy, flavorful, and delicious. They are very similar in flavor to the seasoned fries that you can order at Denny's. McCain has many other fries and potato products as well, but those are for another day. :)

An Awesome Muffin Recipe

This is a recipe I found almost a year ago on www.allrecipes.com. If you like it, go and give it 5 stars to make its creator happy. :) And an addition from me: add in about a tablespoon of cinnamon.

Ingredients



2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).



2.Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy. Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups.


3.Variations: Blueberry Muffins: Add 1 cup fresh blueberries. Raisin Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped raisins. Date Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped dates. Cheese Muffins: Fold in 1 cup grated sharp yellow cheese. Bacon Muffins: Fold 1/4 cup crisp cooked bacon, broken into bits.


4.Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

The Ramen Chronicles Part I

Being under 25 and left alone occasionally to cook for myself, ramen noodles are a regular occurrence. Unlike most people, however, I don't just boil water and add a flavor packet. I'll be posting some of my ideas and thoughts as I make my ramen.

First of all, brands.
-Nissan: great noodles, a little lacking on flavor
-Maruchan: tons of flavor, but the noodles can be mushy and a little slimy
-Smack: not sure if you can still find it. Firm noodles and a good amount of flavor

Here's how I prepare a package of chicken-flavored Nissan ramen.

The package calls for 2 cups of water brought to a boil. As soon as large bubbles start rising to the surface, I put in the noodles. I also add a pinch or two each of oregano and black pepper. As the noodles soften and pull apart, I dump in the flavor packet. It helps it cook into the noodles. Finish cooking the noodles and enjoy!

Tim's Scrambled Eggs

This is a recipe I created for my boyfriend. I'll have it posted on All Recipes once I have a definite cooking time and instructions, but for now, here it is. :)


You need:
-3 eggs
-1/2 cup of milk
-1/4 tsp of pepper
-1/4 tsp of celery salt
-1/4 tsp of salt
-1 chopped cayenne pepper
-1/4 cup of corn


Wisk together the eggs, milk, pepper, salt, and celery salt. Stir in the corn and cayenne pepper. Coat the bottom of a medium pan with butter. Pour in the egg mixture and prepare. Like I said, the instructions are still being worked on. You can prepare this like scrambled eggs (which I do) or like an omelette (which is what I tried to do the first time).