Reasons for Being Broke

Have just discovered that every overdraft coverage transfer from my savings account to my checking account has cost me $10. And apparently that happened 13 times since the beginning of the school year. I never noticed, because I never check the 'savings' account, just 'checking'. $130. OMG. That is a reasonable amount of money that I didn't need to have wasted. I could have bought like 13 cocktails at the 9-0.

Another review:

"These are the best cookies I've ever tasted!" - Gabe from work.

Winner winner, chicken dinner. Or maybe a job.

Paella tips

I know you are probably bored of the paella talk already, but in case you haven't tried but are planning on it, here is something to consider:

I told my Daddy about making paella, and seeing as we bond over the most bizarre things, he also shared his war stories. His thoughts are that you either burn the paella or eat raw rice. Then he brought up the possibility of cooking it in a rice cooker. I told him I had done something similar but Asian in Home Ec back in the day, so he ventured to try it. He says it is pretty good, and also awesome that you don't have to stand there stirring. (Which you are not meant to do, according to paella lore. Risotto is to be stirred, paella is to be left alone. But I didn't mention this to him.)

So ya, there's your tip. Fry all the veg/meats up, stir in rice, put in rice cooker with stock and wine instead of water, leave to cook. No burns!

Rave Reviews - Chocolate Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have pictures of these, but I thought I'd share anyway. And trick you with a stolen google pic of some chocolate chips.

As of late, I have been on a mini-mission to make good chocolate cookies. I make good chocolate chip cookies, because I cheat and use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip packet. My roommates affectionately call these the 'salty cookies', because they aren't super sweet. But they love them.

Last weekend, I tried making a modified version of these, with white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and chopped pecans. I used her base recipe, took out the M&Ms and substituted with a cup of each chips and 3/4 cup of pecans.

The experiment was kind of a fail fail. The cookies were okay, but they weren't great or anything. They were a little dry and cakey. Plus the pecans were from my Costco spiced trail mix because I was too cheap to buy real nuts, so they made the cookies taste a little strange and peppery. I should have known not to trust a recipe with no salt and only one type of sugar.

It occurred to me last night that to 'chocolate' most recipes just involves substituting half a cup of flour for cocoa powder. Duh! Back to the Tollhouse recipe. Tried that, with 1 cup milk chips and 1 cup white chocolate. Success!

Here are the reviews:

"Oh my god, these are so good." - Shannon, the New Roommate.

"Your best yet!" - Adam, from Work

"These are by far my favorite." - Adam, from Work.

"These are really good." - Adam, from Work.

"Ngyrumsfds *mouthfull of cookie*, thanks." - James, from Work.

As you can see, Adam was a big fan. So yea, y'all should try that out, if you get all sweet toothy. They are really easy to make, especially with a KitchenAid. Heh. Product Placement. But not really, because they didn't pay me, I just want to show off that I have one.

Lumos!

When did you get so adorable, Hermione?

From the Vs shoot, pic stolen from here.

Irony

Is smashing a spider with your 'Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media'.

Fist Weekly Family Dinner - Vegan Paella

Everyday at the co-op, 2 people are in charge of making vegan dinz for the whole house. When I first heard that, I was green with envy, looking at all these fun vegan recipes on tastespotting and stuff. Then I remembered: I have my own house of people to feed.

Thus began the new (actually, renewed) tradition of Sunday night dinners. This week, we had

Veggie (for Rach, which in this case is also Vegan) Paella.

You might remember I was a little obsessed with making the perfect paella after my Spanish Summer. I haven't revisited it in a while, but this time was by far the best.

Ingredients:

(feeds 4-6, depending on how fat you are)

1 brown onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced and deseeded
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red/yellow/orange bell pepper
6 stalks of asparagus, sliced
1 cup of peas (I used frozen)
1 cup of artichoke hearts
2 1/2 cups of medium grain rice
1 cup of white wine
5 cups of vegetable stock
2 tbsps of olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp saffron, crushed
salt & pepper, to season

Heat olive oil on med heat (I added a pinch of chili flakes for an extra kick). Sautee onions and garlic until the onions are transluscent, then add the tomatoes, and sautee together. Add paprika, and seasoning. Add bell peppers, more sauteeing. Add rice, artichokes, asparagus and peas, and stir them all together so the rice is evenly coated, then add wine, stir until it cooks off a bit. Season again. Add vegetable stock, then cover and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Uncover and simmer for another 10 minutes so that the stock boils down.


Try a spoon of rice from the side to make sure it's cooked. If it is and the stock hasn't evaporated enough, try scraping the sides in to let the liquid run through the rice a bit more. Turn up the heat for the last minute to slightly burn the bottom of the rice. (Like bibimbop, the burnt rice is considered a delicacy. I failed at this part because I walked away to watch the end of the superbowl and the bottom ended up very black. But the rest of it was good!)