what i did on my memorial day

bonnie the basil plant. the newest resident of 357

no work. all play. the rundown:
sleep in. thankfully our neighbors are home again, so the alarm that was bleeping at 7 AM without fail every single morning has stopped. hallelujah!!

reading all morning. east of eden is what i'm on right now, and holy cow steinbeck is a master!! i recommend it.

gym time. the great thing about summer is i can basically schedule my day around my 2 hours at the gym and it's heaven.

car wash. ha so it has been raining cats and dogs here the past, oh, 2 weeks, but today after a torrential downpour the heavens parted and the sun came. my poor car has been neglected, oh, it's whole life because i am usually too cheap to wash it. however, i found a coupon for a free car wash on our calendar, so i ran down to the gas station and got it all clean. much to my delight this wasn't some cheap car wash either- the coupon was for a free bag of ice or a deluxe 9 dollar value car wash. (seriously i want to meet the guy who chooses the bag of ice) it even waxed it. boo yah

good earth ie the store that changed my life. lately i've been reading a lot of vegan blogs. all the recipes call for weird stuff like chia seeds, arrowroot powder, and nutritional yeast. i had no idea what any of this stuff even was until i stepped foot into good earth this afternoon and wandered around the bulk foods section for a good hour. it's basically just your average high end, high priced organic/vegan/raw grocery store, but man did it suck me in... i will be back. with a list. i mean, who can pass up overpriced granola?

so. much. cooking. britni made stuffed peppers for dinner. after that we found a recipe for wheat thins and just HAD to try it out. then we had the urge to chop things, so we made pico de gallo.

yeah, i haven't left this kitchen since 7. it's definitely summer.

cinco de mayo

so it might be el siete de mayo, but i am a little lazy so let's pretend this was posted two days ago!
cinco de mayo= a good excuse to make more mexican food. and for all the hole in the wall mexican restaurants of utah to get more college student business. as i was going on a little run pre-cooking, i couldn't believe how people were just leaking out of every single mexican place around campus! (and was somewhat disappointed in everybody who was eating at any place OTHER than a taco shop)
anyways, i worked til 6. britni started work at 6. we fiesta'd at about 10 pm.
the menu, you might ask? take a looky:

 seven layer dip. all 7 layers! we didn't even skip and i even added the olives and tomato i usual really dislike

 mexican coke. a whole medio litro was completely necessary, and we managed to choke it down even though i am kind of partial to diet coke. with lime

 and we broke out the mustaches and i dusted off the drug rug. here i am just stoking my stache in utter ponderance. can i tell you how uncomfortable a mustache is? my upper lip was sweating and felt like a furnace. how do the bearded men do it?

 that gem of a ring doubles as a bottle opener. who knew? ps britni's mustache is just looking a little too real right about now...

and voila. the main event- black beans and sweet potatoes. it was so good, and totally worth the extra trip to smith's when i started cutting into the sweet potatotes and realized they weren't orange, but yellow.
what the heck who are these imposter sweet potatoes?
turns out the "sweet potatoes" i love so much are in reality yams. go figure.
all in all, it was a great day and i was proud to be an american celebrating a mexican holiday no mexicans even celebrate. if only i would have had a sombrero.

it's that time of year again

when all the zoobies come out from all parts of utah, idaho, and the surrounding area to join together and throw chalk at each other while some hare krishna guy who used a little too much ganja back in the day croons hare krishna over and over. it's great. in the words of my then-chalk-virgin friend,

"so we're just gonna pull up and they're gonna throw some chalk on us?"

yes hailey, indeed they are. and that is just how it went down.

(after my gps got us completely lost and heading in the opposite direction of spanish fork)

although the weather was less than adequate and the riff raff the festival attracted this year grew exponentially, the colors were just as vibrant as ever and it was still a great time. 

i mean, who doesn't love to go to church the following day with pink hair and blow purple snot out of their nose for days to come? 

in other news, it snowed today, and i have this theory that it only snows when i wear a certain pair of boots. (it's been tried and tested, let me tell ya) anyways, i am taking one for the team and putting them in storage. it's just not worth it anymore!

i took my last midterm til finals today. yessssss my motivation is becoming increasingly miniscule. if that even makes sense.

this weekend i did a lot of cooking with britni. you must make these delicious recipes for :

chocolate chip banana pancakes 

snobby joes

and chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies.

honestly, they are all to die for i tell you! 

happy monday (only three more mondays for the semester!!)

you know it's monday

when you accidentally hook up the bunsen burner to the water spout instead of the gas pipe.
then turn it on and spray 2/3 of the class before realizing it.
i couldn't really tell how ticked people were- i was laughing too hard. just one of the graceful moments in my life, ya know?
kind of like another moment i had last week when i almost set our apartment on fire.
 you see, it was just another day of playing "try to make up something to eat", and when i found some corn tortillas in the fridge, i decided to try my hand at broiling some chips. things went smoothly up until i had flipped them over and went to check on them a couple minutes later. i opened up the oven to pull em out, and it was like dante's inferno in there. my chips were on fire! all of them! i yelled to my roommate, telling her i didn't know how to put out a fire and to get the fire extinguisher. then the bright idea came to me that i should swat at them with the oven mitt to get rid of the oxygen in the oven, so i proceeded to do that while jordan filled up a cup and doused the remaining flames with the water. ayyyy it's a good thing all we have to do to dismantle our fire alarm is to press a button on it. i think my roommates are becoming used to coming home to the smell of burn.
and don't forget exhibit c. it happened yesterday while my roommates were making birthday crepes. i was just doing my part, helping them along when i set my oven mitt on the stove... and it started smoking/almost flaming. someone didn't turn off the burner (not me! not me!) and my reputation continues to develop.
i am definitely starting 20 off right.

nothing says weekend

like 18 hours at the peds clinic.
if i have to give the run down on how to complete an insurance verification paper one more time, well, i won't be the happiest camper. work has infected my dreams, too. i tossed and turned all night dreaming about paperwork and nurses and putting calls on hold. eek!
in other news, I am addicted to almond butter and pretzels.
i made these waffles this morning and they were great.
i ran on the treadmill for an hour yesterday and it wasn't all unpleasant, especially when i have food network to watch.
jordan is now 20 and we surprised her with a great party and bowling and games and excitement. i rather enjoyed it. happy birthday roommate
i vacuumed our carpet. that may sound like small potatoes, but maaaaan having guests pick up hairballs probably doesn't showcase any hosting skills. it needed to be done.
my mom is coming next weekend. i am excited

butternut bisque.

pardon me.
i must blog the best recipe i've made in this kitchen as of late as so i don't completely forget the changes i made to it.

butternut bisque

1 onion, diced
1 apple, diced
2 c diced carrots
2 T butter
1.5 veggie bouillon cubes
3 c water
half of a huge butternut squash, peeled, diced
2 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
lots of pepper
a little nutmeg or ginger.
1/2 c cream

saute onion, apple, and carrots in butter til they are done. add everything else into big stock pot but the cream, boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. when it looks done-ish and your neighbors are coming over to see what you have cooking, take it off, blend it in your blender (man i wish i had one of the immersion variety) and then add the cream. mix it up and try not to eat the entire batch in one sitting.
trust me people, this is great.

Anita & Alyssa Cook

Antonio, my beloved phone, is dying.

At first he would just randomly turn off during the day or tell me I had a simcard error. No biggie, I'd just fire him back up and he'd work for the next 2 or 3 days. Today, however, he stopped vibrating. Now he just makes this weird shrill sound that I don't even understand... it's quite heartbreaking, really. I'm wondering if I should just euthanize him... no. He has to last til Christmas. I definitely cannot buy a new phone right now.

Anyways, bad tangent. On a happier note, Anita and I cooked today and it was a COMPLETE success. I highly recommend this one, folks. I found this little gem in October 2008 of Cooking Light at work a couple days ago. I have such an old soul- seriously. Anyways, I copied it down, and we tried it because it basically fit into Anita's raw food diet. Here's the link to the recipe because it's too long and I'm too tired to write it down. (PS. we substituted cumin for fennel)

and here is a pic of us enjoying. My camera is dead and gone until I get my charger from Idaho Falls, so we won't be having any new pictures for awhile... boo :(

Anyways, complete success, and even Kelsey liked it. "Alyssa make me healthy!" is what she said after trying it and me giving her a lesson on red lentils. Love you Kels.

Well, that is it for now I believe... only 3 more midterms and life will be good... man oh man.

oh, and this video is the most favorite of the week. enjoy :)

Wisdom Wednesday

It is safe to say that yesterday was NOT my day.

obviously, I do not know how to open a bag of cake mix without it exploding all of me, the floor, sink, counters, roommates within a 3 feet radius, etc.

You see, today was Anna's birthday, and because I wanted to be a good roommate, I told her I'd make her a cake.

Because I wanted to be an even BETTER student, I decided I would start it last night. While this incident put a damper on things, I still got the cake made.

However, this was not the least of my worries.

Snicker cake, you're were a huge pain in the ARSE.

Today I was on a time crunch. I got back from the gym at 10:30 and figured, "hey! How long could it really take to frost a cake?!" 2 hours. That's how long. Anna wanted Snicker cake, and the birthday girl gets what the birthday girl wants! Anyways, this cake entailed chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, and crushed Snicker all nestled between 2 layers of Devil's food. Sound pretty easy, right? Nope. Let's just say that within those 2 hours, I had to endure having the cake fall apart when I attempted to layer it, trying to thaw Cool Whip and having it turn to a puddle of goo, trying to make lunch only to have my grilled cheese burned to a crisp and my tomato soup boil over, and then when I'd doctored the cake all up and finagled a crevice of space in the fridge, having cartons of yogurt fall right into the piece of artwork.

Hang on, my blood pressure is rising just writing this.

Breathe. Breathe.

...better

However, if I do have one piece of wisdom for you today, despite my complete lack of cake skills, it is this:

WW51- PRESERVE.

In the end, Snicker cake turned out alright. (After a lot of paper towels and a sticky note on the tray telling people not to laugh at it too hard)

And Anna was a happy birthday girl.

And for once, all the roommates were in the same place at the same time!

Happy 19th Anna

still hung up on

that blog I read yesterday.... and sorry about the excess of posts the last couple days.

Today took me to the grocery store, and I bought a lot of vegetables and must-be-laced-with-gold-so-expensive fruit.

.. now what to cook? For sure this bread, cuz I am going to become domestic, one way or another... plus it just looks good. I got yeast and wheat flour, so now all I am searching for is a 4 hour block of time where I can sit around and think about nothing but yeast.

... ps I was right. It's been snowing like a madman off and on the last couple days.

Bottled Euphoria

i could give Jamba Juice a run for their money with the obscenely delicious concoction I made out of yogurt, way too ripe bananas, raspberries, and my roommates strawberries. (that will be our little secret)

what makes it even better? I discovered "Peaceful Holidays" channel on Pandora. I've been raised on the "bah-on-Christmas-before-Tgiving-humbug" so I was a little apprehensive to pull out the Christmas music quite yet... but "Peaceful Holidays" doesn't have Christmas in the title. And it's instrumental.

have I ever told you how good it feels to be completely done with everything I need to do for the weekend, plus have that weekend last 5 days? Really, really good.

and now I've got 17 hours to kill before I can go home for 48 hours. sigh. I guess it's better than 47?

and hold the pumpkin pie, Mom. Through my blogging travails, I've stumbled upon this morsel. It's begging to be baked on Thanksgiving. So excited.

dragging. and Wisdom Wednesday

I am really tired right now.
I am attributing this to the fact that I've been kinda too busy for much sleep the last few days... but it's been worth it. The highlight of my Tuesday/Wednesday? Volunteering at the MTC speaking Spanish.
So in my ward I'm on the Missionary Council, and since we've got 100% conversion in our ward, there's not much for our council to do except coordinate temple trips and get people to volunteer at the MTC. When the sign up sheet came around on Sunday to work in the TRC having missionaries teach you, the "investigator", the discussions, I glanced over it, and none of the sections worked for me in English. Thinking I should probably do something for my calling, I thought, what the heck! Spanish might be fun! So, I signed up and decided to worry about it later. ...and worry I definitely did. All day Wednesday that was all I could think of- all the things that could go wrong with me and the TRC. It's ok, though! Because my wisdom for the day is
WW34- Volunteer at the MTC
I didn't die at the MTC! Things actually went really well. For the first hour my role was a storekeeper selling the missionaries clothesf, and then we talked about the church, I made up questions, and they taught me. I had been worried that they wouldn't understand me or I'd say the wrong thing, but as we talked, I realized that they didn't even know when I was messing up, seeing as they've only been learning Spanish for 7 weeks! And for 7 weeks, I was pretty amazed at their skills! It was so refreshing to be in the MTC- to think thousands of guys my age go there and not learn how to teach the gospel, but in a language they'd never even uttered until arriving at the MTC. it's so amazing! For the 2nd hour, I talked to missionaries who had only been in the MTC for 5 days. Oh, they thought I was so good at Spanish! Each missionary bore their testimony in Spanish, we prayed, and then they taught me a lesson in English... which they were very excited about doing! I would write something deep about missionary work, but I am way too tired for that. So you'll just have to settle for this- missionaries are great and I am going to volunteer at the TRC every Tuesday now. Who knows? Maybe I'll teach guys I know sometime!

All I want to do lately is cook. In class I search recipes, I live for grocery shopping, and the thing that got me to run my 5 miles today at Gold's was the company of Barefoot Contessa and her mushroom lasagna demo on Food Network. All I want to do is go to Borders, sit in the cookbook section, find vegetarian recipes, and drink hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream!

And now I am finishing this very choppy entry cuz I told Cory to make me go home and go to bed at 11:30, and he just informed me I have 9 minutes. He is such a good mom!