The Joys of Cooking

Before I start, I just want you all to know that the Ford Fusion "Is at its best when driven." Believe it or not this car is meant to be driven and actually performs best when it is used for what it was designed to be used for. A car dealership actually uses this line in its radio advertisement and I can't help but laugh every time I hear it.

Okay, on to the good stuff. In my last post (see below) I said that I was thankful for the ability to read, which included recipes. A faithful (I hope :-) reader asked what sort of recipes I used and what I ate for dinner. Being the fan of food that I am, I leapt at the opportunity to pontificate upon one of my favorite subjects. I am currently a lazy,cheap 23 year old bachelor and the majority of the time my meals reflect that. Pasta (fancy name for Ramen and Mac & Cheese), frozen pizza as well as frozen chicken or fish, rice-a-roni, and instant meals such as stuffing, potatoes, soup, and hotdogs. Not to mention the oddball stuff like yogurt, cereal, and candy. The above list probably covers 75% of my monthly dinners. I do of course like variety so I try never to get into any kind of habit, say like pizza only on Thursdays every Thursday; that's just boring. Also to shake things up, I actually occasionally cook something.

My family knows that I enjoy cooking (I've been doing it on and off since highschool) and they have encouraged and helped me out enormously. The two biggest helps that they have given me are a crockpot (with accompanying cookbook), and a bread maker. I've had the breadmaker for about a year and have used it close to every week. Being the lazy bachelor that I am, I usually buy the premade kits in the store; all you do is add water, put it into the machine, and 'hey presto' instant loaf of bread. Finally for the first time last week, I made up the recipe from scratch and I probably won't go back.
I have decided that the crockpot, not the dog, is man's best friend. Ten minutes of preparing your food, and eight hours later you have a meal. I will admit that when I first got it, I hardly ever used it. Then for Christmas I received the 'Fix it and Forget it' crockpot/slowcooker cookbook. That changed everything. Hundreds of recipes for everything from soups, to salad, to main courses, to desserts. I started out easy with things like chili, pea soup, simple cooked chicken. But then I started getting more involved, potato cheese puff (one of my brother's favorites),roast beef, something called cowboy stew, and this week I plan to try a tuna noodle casserole. However, I almost feel like crockpots are cheating because you don't have to do anything to get a great meal.

I have to admit though that I enjoy cooking. Things like shepherds pie, apple crisp, calzones (that was a bibleschool meal done with Diane R.), pizza, and pies aren't just tasty when eaten, but they are fun to make. There are four things that keep me cooking. The need for variety, the enjoyment of making something, the pleasure of eating it, and the compliments of others afterwards. I know it would be considered rude to do so but I can't remember anyone telling me that something I had made was lousy. I know that sounds stuck up so let me tell you my secret to a great dish. READ THE RECIPE! That's it. I have never made an original dish in my life. Everything I have ever cooked has come from someone more experienced than I who knew what would taste good and what wouldn't. This last weekend (Thanksgiving) I made a pumpkin cheesecake for the first time ever. How? I chose a recipe that I thought I could follow and simply did what they said. And it turned out great. Same thing for the crust on the pumpkin pie. I had never made one before but just followed a simple recipe and ended up with a great pie crust. So just follow the printed directions and you too can cook like a Wesley,... I mean a pro.

Huzzah!

All Righty Then! For the last week I haven't been able to connect to the internet at my house. That is why the lack of posting or commenting. Why didn't I have any web access you are asking yourselves? Well I had been using a free trial of AOL which ended so that was one part of it. The other part, which I just figured out today,was that my firewall was blocking Juno from sending any outgoing information so I couldn't connect using that. Now I have that problem fixed and am raring to go. I didn't realize how much I used the web until I couldn't. Amazing what a lack of something will do to you.

I'm afraid that today there will be no great post. Just let me say here that I had a great thanksgiving, am thankful to God and for God and for His many blessings, including my family both direct and spread out. I'm also thankfull for food and the joy of being able to read (including recipies). Hopefully tomorrow I will be thankfull for wireless hi-speed as well. I bought a card and router friday and can't wait to hook it up and get it working. Now that I have let you all know that I'm not in fact dead, simply cut off, I will go off to plan my next blog; hopefully to come within the next day or two.

Learning Something New...

It's said that you learn something new every day. Friday was one of those days for me. It was a fairly normal work day and then break time came and all the guys grabbed their lunchs and we sat around eating and talking. Through one subject or another the subject turned to drugs (not pharaceuticals, but the illegal stuff). Now a lot of the guys are nice enough, I would even go do something with most of them; I respect a lot of them as electrictians, as well as several of them have served in the armed forces which I also respect. However my eyes were opened as to what is considered normally in the world and how sheltered I have been from it.Out of the eight other guys in the trailer (not counting myself) all of them admitted to using and/or trying drugs at one time or another in their lives. Every thing from mushrooms, to pot, to crack, to speed and acid. As they told different stories I was laughing so hard at times that I was starting to tear up. Stories of being in an empty room one minute, turning around and seeing a bunch of monkeys in the corner. One guy told of a time when he was standing in a city and he looked down. Under his feet were hot steaming biscuits, with butter melting on them, and as he looked around every surface he could see was covered in biscuits, as far as he could see. It was funny until one of the guys asked if anyone else ever had some drug memories, things like seeing shadows move, or hearing impossible noises. No one admitted to it, but it reminded me that drugs aren't just funny stories, they have consequences. A few of the guys also told stories of bad trips, where they would be terrified, or get sick, or lose control of some part of their body. Not good stuff.

I also learned ways to hide traces of it if you were getting urine tested. Things like vitamin C, cranberry juice, but not water because if the sample were too clear they would take other tests that could find out. If you've ever smoked pot, apparently it bonds to the molecules in your hair and stays there, so tests on your hair can show if you have ever smoked marijuna in your life. It was definitely a day chock full of learning.

Also for a while I have been getting advice on women, and offers to hook me up. It is known that I am single and apparently in the minds of many this is a disease that needs to be cured as soon as possible. Today I got a couple of great tips. Either I need to totally impress them, such as flying overseas to visit them when they are least expecting it, or (this one was my favorite) club them unconcious, take them home and then show them who's boss. Apparently they like men who do that. The source for this great advice, a twenty-two year guy who luck is not to be envied. I told him he should call himself doctor and get a show on tv. There's nothing like a little bit of entertainment to make the day go by faster.

Vignettes

A couple of quickies and then on to the real thing.
Tonight, less than two hours ago I beat Halo 2! It was a great game and the multiplayer is definitely the best part about it. Though I'm usually excited and pumped when I beat a game, I was just a little disappointed by this one. It came to soon, ended with a lousy battle, and didn't resolve clearly (which could mean another one in the making-Woohoo!). However if anyone ever wanted to come over and play me in it, I would be more than happy to oblige.

The other is just a quote I overheard at work. Two guys were walking by and one of them was saying to the other, 'So, are you going to kill the fatted prodigal son?' Whaaatt?? I sure wish I could have heard the before and after to that.

Lastly, another quiz. I saw this the other day on Blogthings.com and it piqued my interest. Roughly 80% of my school work right now is math so I thought I would check out just what level I was learning at. No pen, paper, or calculator; just straight up gray matter. I have to say I was rather relieved at the end because a few of them I wasn't that sure about. I guess I am learning something in school after all.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Friends

I spent this past weekend with a group of my friends and I realized something. Even though my peers are my friends there is a difference between my friends and my peers. I was in the middle of one group of friends but I was missing another group of people; my peers. One of the people I was with was one of my peers and the best part of the weekend was a conversation we had Saturday night. It wasn't the conversation that made it the best part, it was the time spent with someone I had a history with. Someone that I had connections with, that I didn't have with the rest of the group.

Don't get me wrong, I love my friends and I would go hang out with them at a moments notice and be willing to help them out whenever I could. My peers though are almost a step closer to being family.It is hard to describe but there is a difference there.

Thank you both, be you friend, peer, or family, for your friendship, your fellowship in Christ, and your endurance in keeping on.

This isn't exactly what I meant to write tonight, and even though I have said similar things before, I'm still going to post it because it is true and encouragement should not be kept hidden.


On a side note I feel like quite the genius. I took my car in to be inspected the other day and it failed because of several broken wires going from the car to the tailgate. I decided to try to fix it myself instead of paying the mechanic $73 an hour to do it for me. Using my great electrical skills I spliced the wires and then, at the advice of the repairman, soldered the wires together. First time I had ever soldered anything. And everything works now! Tomorrow I take the car in again, show them that the problems were fixed and get my sticker for another year. I feel so smart when I can fix my car!

Who Has Two Thumbs...?

Forget halloween, what is really scary is how fast time can speed by. I wasn't planning on letting more than three days before posting again, but here it is already over a week. Normally I would try to do think of some clever segway into the real topic but since I'm leaving for school in less than thirty minutes I don't really have the time. So suffer! :)

In the last three weeks I have been entertained by a very good movie and a very good theater peformance (think play). The movie, Batman Begins, in my opinion was excellent. Most of the time I wait for movies to come out on video before I watch them so that is why I have just seen it for the first time. The writers and director did a great job of taking a myth, and looking at it in such a way as to say, 'If this were real, what would it be like? How would it be done? How would this be possible in real life?' They made the Batman legend real, believeable, and possible. The music was well done. Noticeable when it should have been but also in the background just adding that need edge at other times. There was a definite theme throughout the movie, keeping it unified.

I will admit here to being a Batman fan, so even though I thought the movie very well done, I had to occasionally remind myself that (a. this movie was about the beginning of Batman, and (b. where they strayed from the D.C. storyline really wasn't that important. I.E., the piano being the entrance to the batcave instead of the grandfather clock. (I now have a much better understanding of people who critize movies when they stray away from the original than I did before.)

And it was clean. No sexuality, no violence to speak of (fighting yes, but nothing that would make a person wince or cringe), and very little language (if you think in terms of levels of bad language, the worst was d**m). So overall I would recommend it to just about anybody, and give it both my thumbs up.

As for the play, you'll have to wait until another time. I'm a slow writer and now I have to leave for class.