Beer, BMW and bastards.

Last Thursday my afternoon class let out early. With several hours on my hands, I walked across campus back to my car, which was parked in the stadium lot. As I started walking across the lot from the Union I noticed people tailgating. Mind you this was a Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon, during summer session. I find my car in the sea of other cars, get in, turn on the radio, and dig out my lunch bag with my dinner in it. As I snap open the latches of my lock lock box, containing tuna macaroni salad, a car pulls up in the spot across from me to the right. I'm eating my tuna-mac, listening to NPR, and watching as three young guys get out of this car. They appear to be the typical Long Island douche bags I'd rather not deal with. As work on this massive bowl of tuna-mac, I watch as they pop the trunk and go around, talking to each other in their secret D-bag language I'm not really able quite understand. As they hover over the trunk like cops over a corpse they start popping open cans of bud light and pouring them into the ever so discreet red party cups. The cans start hitting the ground, as I watch in some absurd amusement of their actions. "Really?" I say to myself out loud, "It's four in the afternoon." The three start walking to the location behind me where more festivities seem to be occurring, but just as they reach the hood of their fancy BMW, red cups in hand, I see a bastard bud light can come flying towards my poor Corolla, sailing over my hood, and just missing my poor baby by centimeters. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." I said out loud, as I look to the three. The shortest one looks over and clearly sees the look of rage on my face, and knowing better puts out his arms like wings and starts yelling "SORRY, SORRY!" in his Gotti Boy wanna be Long Island accent. I roll my eyes in pure disgust as I repeat, "You have got to be fucking kidding me." Tempted to run out after him and kick him in the nether region, I restrain myself and continue working on the macaroni salad, and listening to All things considered on NPR. Staring through my windshield, running a play by play of what just happened, as I usually do, and thinking about the various other ways I would like to have reacted, I glanced at that bastard BMW and noticed something absolutely magical. In their excitement for drinking from red cups and watching the high school lacrosse tournament going on in the stadium, they left the back passenger window down. All the way down. I gleamed at the shiny black BMW and it's tinted windows. Was there anyone else inside?, I wondered. No there must not be, after all who would sit in this car and pass up canned bud light in red cups? No one sitting in that car, that's who. Then suddenly I had this idea to return the beer can that almost hit my car. I glanced in my rearview mirror, and looked all around to make certain they were no where in sight. I unlocked my door, stepped out, scooted around my door, and slyly picked up the beer car that lay next to my tire. This car was much heavier than I expected. In fact I would say about half full. What wimps I though, can't even handle half a can of piss light beer. I looked around again, and darted over to the back window, my heart racing, stopping to pick up another can on the way, peeked into the open window and threw the two half full beer cans on the pristine black leather back seat then I ran back to my car. Adrenaline pumping through me I hopped back inside and locked the door. I peered around again. I couldn't believe what I had just done. I picked up my tuna mac, which was waiting for me and continued to finish eating. After i finished, I packed up my lunch bag, started my car and moved to the teacher's lot which was much closer to my evening class.

How I got here.

The topic of how I got here could become highly philosophical very quickly, so lets talk about how this blog became. My mind is ever changing, there are not many things that I am able to settle upon, except for my love of my husband and food. When anyone who I have not seen in a while asks how whatever I last told them I was doing is going it is usually 42 careers/ideas/jobs/thoughts ago. I've wanted to be everything from a nurse, artist, fashion designer, photographer, chef, teacher, business person, to pretty much anything else. I'm 25 now and have had over 22 jobs (that I can remember) including my current job. I have attended 5 different colleges/trade school with 7 different majors i've tried. There is only thing that has remained constant through all of this, my love of food (and my hubs!). 

Now I'm in my final stretch of school. This round I started out doing a double major in Asian studies and linguistics, with the ultimate goal of moving to Japan to teach English (that's another story) and was talking into doing a teaching program to be an ESL teacher. Short story short teaching is not for me. One night while sitting on the couch watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, having my usual "what I am going to do when I graduate/the rest of my life" moment, I declared "That's what I want. I want to eat and travel. That's it."

That's it. Eat and travel.

My personal secret to happiness. "Maybe you should take some journalism classes." my husband suggested. Really why did I never think about this before. (I could see the thoughts in my husbands head, here we go again). I am majoring in Asian studies and minoring in journalism. and will be done in a year. 

So this blog is my new project. I am going to love it and, I need to love it. Just like my love for food (and my husband!) When you are passionate about something you glow when you speak about it. Anyone who knows me knows this is true! Just ask me about a cupcake I just fed you, or the beer that we just brewed, or a the dosa I ate last weekend and you will know exactly what I'm talking about.  

Enjoy! 

Baked Mac N Chee, the easy teenage version

Driving home from work the other day all I could think about macaroni and cheese, specifically the baked variety. I had no desire to stop at the store to pick up things to make such a dish. I knew I would be eating macaroni and cheese from the box. But I really wanted the good stuff. I debated in my head, should I stop at the store, but it's 5 o'clock, it'll be a zoo. Ugh! I though about the block of parmigiana cheese in my fridge drawer... 

  When I finally got home, I investigated the contents of the icebox, and found some a block of cheddar, monterey jack, and a small carton of heavy cream. "I will make this work."I said aloud determined. 

Here's how it went down:

1 box of annies naturals mac

plus what the box of macaroni and cheese calls for (milk, butter)

1/4 heavy cream (or milk)

3/4 c shredded cheese i used a mix of motery jack, chedder, and parmgiana

a few spoons of panko

1 tbs butter melted

1. Prepare the boxed macaroni and cheese according to the instructions on the box. 

2. While the macaroni is boiling preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. After the macaroni is prepared from the box, mix in the heavy cream and shredded cheeses. Then transfer into an oven safe casserole.

4. Sprinkle panko on top of macaroni and top with melted butter. 

5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden on top and bubbly. You can also broil the casserole on high for a few minutes to get the top nice and golden. 

This came out great, it was exactly what I was craving. My hubs absolutely loved it. Next time I make this I'd like to add some chicken and broccoli to it. 

Food review: Starbucks Gluten Free Valencia Orange Cake

Starbucks Gluten Free Valencia Orange Cake

A little over a year ago I discovered that I had been misdiagnosed with Celiac disease, after 2 years on a gluten free diet. I've been on a regular diet which I keep high in fiber to help control my IBS (which I was diagnosed with instead). Since then i've been noticing an abundance of tasty looking gluten free goods on the market. And then last week I saw it, the mother of all gluten free goods, at Starbucks! So today as I camp out at my local  Starbucks writing final papers, I will take a break to review this little gluten free goody. Keep in mind I have not eaten any gluten free specific products in over a year, so I suppose this is a good unbiased review since i'm sort of broken out of that being used to GF foods.

Price: $1.95 + tax

Ingrediants: (from the package) Whole eggs, Valencia orange pulp, almonds, sugar, orange peel, G/f baking powder & orange oil.

Nutritional: 290 Calorie, 16gm of fat, 4gm of fiber, the whole cake is one serving.

This cake come individually wrapped protecting it from being exposed to cross contamination. Beware they are super moist and the first one they handed me had started molding so check it out before you leave! The high on this cake is pretty nice for something gluten free almost 2" high, not flat at all. Like I said very moist which is nice especially considering some gluten free things tend to be on the dry side. Very orangey, great flavor.  The crumb is very nice and tender not dry at all. There could have been a little less orange peel in it, the finish leaves my mouth a

 little dry until I eat another bite. Overall, Big win for Starbucks and Celiacs! This is something I would pick up again, finding it very satisfying and enjoyable to savor slowly!

Ratings (1 Lowest- 5 Highest):

Price: 5 Something tasty and G/F for under $2,who knew?

Taste: 4 really good, just a tad too much on the orange peel

Presentation: 5 individually wrapped, as to not make anyone cry

Value: 5 bargain!

Satisfaction: 5 Super yum! Celiac or not you need to try this one!

What's Left?

• 2 more days of class
  
• Linguistics final
• Japanese final
• 10 page observation report
• 8 page research paper  on being trapped in Intercultural Space

 That's it!

Then:

• 2 summer classes, one each half of the summer
• working full time
• July 4th
• San Fransico, the week in between Summer and Fall classes
• My garden
• Fridays off for the summer!
• Garrett's Tagine will be visiting me in August
• Making pickles from the cucumbers in my garden
• Food Adventures?

I hope I did okay this semester. I'm really worried about my grades, especially my Japanese class, which I am NOT doing well in. I will most likely be graduating next spring, if I do not decide to stay and do a minor, which I am thinking about. 

What am I going to do when I graduate? 

Stir fried pork in Nom sauce

Since school has been in full swing, the devil, the death of me i've been neglecting cooking, laundry, feeding my husband and myself a proper diet. This week i've had it. Tonight I decided at 11:30pm I needed to get my self in the kitchen and cooking (like a good housewife!) And now at 1:00am i'm going to tell you about it. 

Along with all the other neglect i've been neglecting my bento-ness. And since in my teaching class tomorrow, I will be teaching my class a Japanese lesson on food, and bento I thought I should make one to prepare and not look like a fake!

Lately at school, more specifically in my Japanese class, we've been obessing over lol cats, even more specifically the "noms" that they make. Ie: Anything yummy! 

This sauce= exactly that! 

Pork in Nom Sauce!

This recipe makes one Man sized bento portion.

• 1 porkchop, cut into strips
  
• sesame oil, for cooking

Sauce

• 2 tbsp tamari (soy sauce) , Please buy the legit stuff, read the label if there anything hydrolized put it down. I beg you! That stuff is crap!
• 2 tsp. mirin (aka: sake, cooking wine)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp or so of light agave nectar or honey. I like the agave better it mixes up nice!

I do this in the big pyrex measuring cup I have. Mix all the ingrediants other than the pork up in the cup bowl what-have-you. Make sure you taste it! Adjust the ratios if need be. I also wing this, and I think you should too. After it's kosher add the pork to the mix, stir up good and find something else to do for 15- 20 min. Heat a smallish skillet up and add about 1 tbsp of sesame oil, let heat up, throw down the pork strips and reserve the marinade on the side. Once I see the white creeping up the side of the pork, I add in the excess marinade, put a lid on it and let it simmer till its cooked all the way through. Only a few minutes or so depending on the thickness of the pork. Remove pork from sauce. 

Optional: You can crank the heat back up on the pan with the remaining sauce to thicken and coat the Noms all over the pork!

NOM!

What's in the Bento?

Clockwise from top left: Basmati rice (from the freezer stash) with edamame, hard boiled egg with nori faces, gyoza (from trader Joe's), pork in Nom sauce, steamed carrots, wax beans & haricots verts in mirin. Packed in DH's 900 ml bento.

Dear..

Dear Blog, 

Sorry I havent been showing you any posting love lately, school and papers has consumed my life. Please forgive me.

Dear Meg and Tree,

  Congrats on your new marriage! Thank you for having your wedding in the mountains! I needed a getaway!

Dear Spring 2009 Semester,

Its been swell, but In 4 weeks it's over. 

Sincerly,

Lauri