This is why facebook is life...

Look what facebook just sent me. OMG.

Win a lunch and shopping spree with LC.

Hahah. I definately just entered that. Win a trip to LA? NO WAY. I'm sorry I'm such a 13 year old girl.

If you don't know who LC is (ie if you are a socially retarded boy without a girlfriend), she is the star of MTV's reality TV series Laguna Beach... and also the Hills. She has pretty much the best job ever: get paid to wear amazing clothes and go to sexy restaurants and bars and bitch about the people you know.

I could do that so well. We were going to make a reality tv series, Providence 8, but never got round to it. Boo.

Anyway, sorry I think this is only for people in America... everyone else can just look and cry that they are missing out on this great opportunity.

Revisiting Risotto

Over spring break, the roomie and I stopped by Seattle for a night, and went to a birthday dinner at a moderately classy Italian restaurant. Sad to say, neither of us were particularly impressed with the food... hers I was pretty sure I could have made myself, and I found my ravioli sauce kind of too much on the brothy-side.

Whoa there, look at me writing all pretnetious-y. It's because I've spent all morning reading food blogs like Chubby Hubby.

Anyway...

Basically, nothing in this restaurant was cheesy or tomato-ey or robust, which is really what I think Italian food should be. I reached over and tried the birthday girl's risotto, and it was watery. How can you have watery risotto? And then I was a big bitch and sat there thinking "my risotto is way better."

I haven't made my risotto in a while because it is basically carbs cooked in fat, and I'd rather not tempt myself. But that meal rekindled my interest in it, and since I actually have stuff to do for school this week, it was the perfect opportunity to procrastinate with some cooking.

See, this is why it's better for everyone that I steal pictures from random blogs. This just looks like a pile of poop. But it was delish. Regardless,

Mushroom Risotto
(feeds 2-3 ppl, depending on how much of a fatty you and your friends are)

1/3 stick of butter (1/6 of a cup?)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot (thinly sliced)
1 clove of garlic (diced)
Sliced mushrooms (1/3 of a box? I used button but if you are fancy, portobello would be good)
1 cup med grain rice
1/2-1 cup dry white wine (depends on how tart you want it)
16 oz (ish) chicken stock (or vegetable I guess)

1/2 cup grated parmesan (more if you like that)
Salt n pepper


Heat the oil and melt the butter into it. Have the chicken stock heating in a diff pan. Sautee the onions and garlic (and here's a tip I learnt from Giada: put the onions in first then put the garlic on top of them so the garlic doesn't get burnt. Genius.) Season. Add mushrooms, sautee them too. Add rice, stir. Add wine, stir until all the wine is absorbed by the rice. Add a little chicken stock, stir until absorbed by rice. Repeat. Continue until rice is cooked. I checked that by taste testing, but it'll probably be cooking for about 20 minutes. Season. Watch out for the salt, coz parmesan is pretty salty too and you haven't added that yet. Turn off stove, stir in cheese. Eat. Yum.

So really, it's easy to make and only takes 1/2 an hour, but is kind of a bitch coz you have to stand there and stir. Would go well with roasted asparagus (but the Ralph's produce was tragically disappointing so we skipped that) and grilled chicken. Mostly coz I'm anal about having well rounded meals. Gotta hit every food group.

What To Do At Twenty Two?

This year's birthday is going to be so blah. Mostly because it isn't the big 2-1, and because I haven't spent the week wearing dresses every day despite the freezing cold. I did write a poem though. Usually, I'm not the type to put my heart up for the stabbing like this, but here goes:

One Lung Less

I have the most ferocious smoker's cough,
I say I don't and strangers scoff.
Don't smoke, that is, not one puff-
Well, that's a lie, but close enough.


What did you think?

I'm pretty uncool this year, I have nothing cute or quirky on my wish list, just practical grown-up shizz like "A job", "not to be deported", and my personal fav: "for my taxes to do themselves".

Actually, I just thought of one: a hat. My roommates will probably hate it, but I want one of those straw fedoras. Or maybe twill.

Like that but not brown, neutral is nicer I think. I'm sorry I'm so ugly, but I like them. This is why I could never write a fashion blog.

Lazy College Student Attepts Classiness

So, Spring Break is over and I have yet to visit Ralphs. As such, I had to make a meal out of the plethora of useless but irresistable things that I have in my over-stuffed cupboard. For those of you that don't know me (well), I can't say no to a great condiment/jar of preserved stuff. As such, all I have to eat are various chili sauces, gravys (gravies?), sun dried tomatoes, capers, jello that never became a jello shot, various Primas packets (Singapore food sauces), and some mac n cheese from freshman year.

Luckily, something I always have in my cupboard is a pack of spaghetti. I try to stay away from it, because carbs are meant to be insta-death, but desperate times call for desperate measures , so I just commited the cardinal sin of eating pasta after 8.
9:30, to be precise.

Tonight for dinz, we have:

Fettucine with Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Grilled Turkey Breast.


Since I've already gobbled this shizz down (and by shizz I mean big pot of amazingness), you will have to be satisfied by some kind of internet picture which is probs better than anything I could have taken.

Anyway, here's what you COULD do:

For pesto: Chuck 2 1/2 cups of basil, 1 cup of parmesan, 1/3 cup of olive oil, some salt n pepper (and this also says pine nuts, but really, who has those lying around?? I guess people don't really have basil either*) in a food processor and blend that shizz up.

For turkey: Season both sides of the meat (salt, pepper, whatever else you feel like: lemon juice would probs go well, or lemon pepper if you have it) then grill for probably about 3-4 min on each side. Don't over do it or it'll be disgusto and dry. You could use a chicken if that's easier

For pasta: Boil in water with salt (and I put in a little olive oil from my sundried tomato jar) for 5 min or until 'al dente' ie not too cooked.

Mix em up with a table spoon of sun dried tomatoes, some chilli flakes and salt and pepper, and serve.

OR,

For Pesto: I found a little pot of pesto that I bought last semester in the fridge. They only last 2 weeks which is kind of a drag, but you can freeze them.

For Turkey: I used the great pre-cooked turkey breast strips that I discovered them watching Semi Home Made with Sandra Lee, and was totally enamoured.

For Pasta: Same as above, then drain and leave over heat while you mix in the turkey and pesto so that it heats up, seeing as all that just came out of the freezing cold top shelf of the fridge.

Waaay easier. And if you're worried about health and all that, use whole wheat pasta. I would have added vegetables, but I didn't have any. You could throw some chopped up asparagus in, that would be good. Or some canned artichokes.

I guess it's not a very original recipe/dish, but it was delish and I'm a little bored and haven't food blogged in an age.

PS. I'm sorry I steal so many pictures.

* Long story that I didn't want to put in brackets. I have inherited from my mother a mad desire to own and maintain a basil plant (along with other 'useful' herbs) so that I can have freshly plucked basil in my food whenever I so desire. Unforch, along with this fantasy I inherited her reddish-purple thumbs. Which is the opposite of green on the colour wheel. Ie, every plant we touch dies. Anyhoo, that puts a damper on my plans because all my basil plants seem to whither away with the daffydils that I so love and also the other herbs that get thrown in the mix. As such, I used to end up paying ridic amounts for little boxes of basil leaves and now I just stopped eating stuff that needs them.

I Am Legend

Why did I watch this? Zombies scare the poop out of me, and then I had to move my car and was half convinced a zombie would pop out of the back seat and eat me. But whatevs, I did- just barely, either dancing around the room screaming at Will or else with my head burried in the Neighbour Boy's lap (eliciting many 'hur hur wow zombies make you really hot, huh?' comments from the boys)- and now you get to read about it.

Plot: Legend (idk his character's real name, but it was Will Smith aka the Fresh Prince and the Man in Black) is the 'last' man alive after the cure for cancer kills 90% of the world's population and then the 1% immune all get eaten up by the remaining 9% infected zombies. He likes experimenting to find a cure, daydreaming about the past, walking his dog (in the daylight, because Zombs are allergic to UV rays), Bob Marley and Shrek (Which was not one of his movies, Tony, you racist eff). Then one day the Zombs get smart and use his own trap on him and in doing that he gets himself attacked and nearly dies, but this lady saves him and oh yea, you aren't the last one alive coz she and her son are too and are on their way to some camp of survivors but Will doesn't believe it exists so he doesn't want to go but it doesn't matter anyway coz you led the Zombs to my house you silly slut, but oh hey I found the cure take that shizz with you while I blow myself up to save you.

Oh sorry, did I ruin the ending?

The Good: Will held his own pretty well, considering it was just him and the doggy for the first 1/2, and some Zombs and some Zombrats and some Flashbacks. The plot for the book sounds great too, coz apparently in that version Will is the only human that didn't evolve into a stupid Zomb and he's a legend because he's some kind of monster that hunts them down while they are sleeping so he shoots himself.

The Bad: The special effects were pretty fake. The ending was pretty cheeze. There was a little too much God-talk. Killing the dog was just rude, because everyone knows that's an easy heart-string tugger. Oh sorry, spoiler.

The Ugly: The Zombs.

Yay or Nay? Don't rush out and buy it or anything, but it might be good for a big buncha ppl to rent or if it's on TV or something, sure, why not, it beats Meet the Spartans.

Say hello to your friends...

Awesome blog for you to check out.

But really you'll probably only appreciate this if you were a little girl that could read some time in the early 90s.

This genius girl has decided to revisit her childhood by re-reading all the Baby Sitters' Club Books. Amazing. What a great plan. I wish I hadn't sold all mine to Sunny bookshop in that whole 'I'm too old for this shizz' phase of my life. You're never too old for the BSC.

Actually this chick is kind of a bitch about it, but I guess they aren't as good revisited as they were way back when.

I can feel some great Halloween costumes coming on....

Also, still working on the whole youtube biz, but I think I almost have it figured out. Until then, you'll just have to click to get to the only full episode I could find.

Electric Envy

As of late, my wish list has been occupied by an unusual amount of technology. Eg:

1) Macbook
2) Final Cut
3) Photo shop
4) One of those mouse-pen things... a pallet?
5) A polaroid camera

I think it's because I con myself into believing that my lack of creative output due to laziness isn't really laziness so much as not being efficiently equipped (equipt?) -- If I had final cut, I'd make sooo many movies. (Because, seeing as I now have a video camera and outside of having some wonderful shots of me scaring my poor roommate Shawks, no movies have come into being.)

Also, my mother is completely to blame for no 1, well my mother and also the demons (ie viruses. Viri?) that invaded my computer last semester. Because when I was last at home she was all "oh why don't we give Dom your computer and then get you a new one?" and "Or maybe we could just scrap the lot and all get new ones?" But that plan never came to fruition. Oh and even though I am a traditional Mac Hater I have been seduced by it's sleekness and grudgingly give in to popular appeal. I'm a late adopter.