Category Archives: Food

Baking!

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Life has been pretty awesome lately.
I recently bought plane tickets for Carnival. I’ll be in Pittsburgh April 10 through April 18.

Last night was baking and Rock Band at Sharon’s. I tried making Elephant Ears using this recipe and they turned out pretty awesome. I also made cinnamon cookies and they turned out pretty tasty (not greasy at all, because I didn’t use very much butter).

Elephant Ears

1/4 c butter (actually more like 1/8 is sufficient)
1 c flour
5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c milk
1 tsp cinnamon

Melt butter. Mix flour, 2 tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Stir in milk and 3 tbsp butter.

Flour surface, knead dough a few times, then roll out. Brush with remaining butter and sprinkle with 3 tbsp sugar and cinnamon.

Roll up dough, cut into four pieces, place onto cookie sheet (cut end up) and flatten into cookie-like shapes. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.


Cinnamon cookies:
1 c sugar
1/8 c butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything together to form dough. Form into 1/2-inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.


Mmm chicken

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I made tasty chicken today. It was really easy too.

1 chicken quarter (or breast, or two drumsticks)
One medium can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup Southwestern mix frozen vegetables (corn, beans, red and green peppers)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup uncooked rice
Spices to taste

Place chicken, tomatoes, veggies, water, and spices into a pot. Simmer on low heat for at least 5 hours (mine simmered for 8). About an hour before serving, add uncooked rice. Continue simmering.

Serves two.



Om nom nom nom. :D

Japanese food and karaoke

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Yesterday was a very nice departure from the normal monotony.
There was awesome Japanese food at Kappou Gomi.



Then there was real karaoke at Do Re Mi (where we, of course, did “Don’t Stop Believin'”) followed by Karaoke Revolution at Sharon’s/Charles’ apartment.

More photos are here.
Many, many thanks to Sharon and Charles for organizing things.

I also made a few tasty things yesterday. I experimented with peanut butter and jelly brownies. They didn’t end up half bad, although the jelly kind of crystalized and got rather strange to eat. I also made mac and cheese with veggies… pretty basic and easy, but tasty. I also bought like a pound of deli turkey to snack on, and it’s already over half gone. Mmm meat.

Today will be awesome tasty Mexican food for lunch.

I’m feeling much better. :)

Food (Chocolate Pasta)

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Still feeling kind of meh (see yesterday’s rant), but I did some cooking today.

This morning I woke up early and made myself a tasty breakfast sandwich.

A mushroom omelette with cheese inside a toasted english muffin.

My camera arrived today, so I put it to work taking photos of my attempt at dessert: chocolate pasta.

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons Ovaltine
1 egg white

Mix ingredients into a moist dough. It should not be crumbly, but should not be sticky. Roll out flat with a rolling pin and cut into strips. Boil about 5 minutes. Serve with cherry sauce, hot or cold.

12 cherries
1 tablespoon sugar

Cut cherries into small pieces and add sugar. Cook over low heat about 5 minutes until slightly syrupy.





It wasn’t bad. However, I would add more chocolate (so you probably want more like 4 or 5 tablespoons of Ovaltine).

Life

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Dinner today was a salad with mushrooms, grilled garlic-herb salmon, and some jalapeno cheese bread. It was fairly good.
I’m also currently working on a new incarnation of PPA TCG/Student Wars called People Wars:

Really though, I’ve lately been feeling like I’ve lost all my passion for things in my life.

I used to enjoy designing webpages. The last website I designed was my photos2 layout, and that was over a year ago.

I used to enjoy writing code in my free time. The last bit of code I wrote “for fun” was the backend for life.alanv.org, and that was mainly because I wanted a way to share photos (so more out of necessity than desire to code). I have a bunch of project ideas in my head that want to be turned into applications, but for which I can’t find the desire to work on.

I used to enjoy creating card games. Even as I work on People Wars, I keep feeling like it’s not something I really want to be doing. The past 3 or 4 TCGs I’ve started work on have stalled in various non-playable states. The older TCGs I used to like working on haven’t been updated in years (PSO TCG?).

I used to enjoy photography. Lately though, every time I pull out my camera, I feel more and more like I’m compensating for my utter lack of social skills. I rarely look through the photos I take anymore. I don’t really sort or tag the photos I take anymore. When I take photos, it no longer brings me the joy it used to. (Even the recent fourth of July and related photos were sorted mainly out of a sense of obligation rather than a desire to do so, and they still haven’t been tagged.)
I guess the purchase of the point-and-shoot was an attempt to get me interested again, but part of me is doubting that it will work… in particular after yesterday’s picnic where I kept finding myself wishing I had left my camera at home and was forcing myself to interact on a less superficial level.

I used to enjoy spending time around people. More and more, however, it feels like I’m incredibly out of place. There are times when, no matter what is happening, I can’t get myself interested. When there are people over I increasingly spend more and more time alone in my room clicking through the same 4 webpages or listening to the same dozen songs over and over. I simultaneously feel like I want more social interaction and social interaction would only serve to make me miserable and feel even more left out.

I used to be passionate about work and look forward to heading in to work every day. Lately though, it’s become more “same old, same old,” and I get up and get dressed and head to my desk every day out of necessity. Part of this may be the bad couple weeks I’ve been having WRT work, but I feel that it’s likely part of the larger issue where I’m losing interest in everything.

I guess I’m not entirely sure what’s wrong with me, other than I wish I had something I actually enjoyed doing instead of having a bunch of things I do to pass the time. Hopefully this is nothing more than a small rut and I’ll find my interests again. Maybe it’s time to go out and seek new interests. I want to enjoy, rather than simply live, life again. I just can’t seem to find activities that allow me to do that in the same way that I once did.

I should thank Greg, Tim, Ian, Mars, and Dan though. Sometimes I feel like you guys are the only thing keeping me sane, and when we play games or just talk, everything feels like it used to and I find myself being interested in things again.

Meh.

(I suppose this should include a small disclaimer that there’s still one thing I’m passionate about. You know who you are, and I hope that never changes.)