I read an article the other day about the saddest and most disgusting thing I've ever read about food. There's a reality tv show (oh, the depths we have sunk too that this passes as something worth spending time on...) called "Here comes Honey Boo Boo" about a super red-neck family who's daughter Alana (aka Honey Boo Boo) is in pageants or something. I guess a while back the show featured what this family eats when they haven't gotten any road kill for a while and are out of meat. The meal it showed them cooking they call 'sketti' and it's spaghetti noodles with a concoction of half butter (probably margarine actually, even worse...) and half ketchup melted together and poured on the top. It looks like spaghetti sauce... but it makes me sick just thinking about what it would smell like, or taste like, or do to your body...
Anyway, this article was about how a blogger saw this and decided she could make a cheaper and healthier spaghetti from store bought goods, and she did. Before reading this article I had been sitting around thinking "Gee, I've got so much time today, what am I supposed to do with it?" (I did nothing with it, btw) But then I read this and realized- I should cook! I can cook, I'm just really lazy when it comes to cooking (or most things...) and so I usually eat things like mashed potatoes, rice and veggies, burritos, frozen veggies and raviolis. Things that are quick and easy (but not THAT quick and easy, cuz then you get into the sketti and easy mac realm, and that's scary) But since I have time on days when I don't have meetings and activities to go to, I should try to make cooking something I enjoy more. This article had some nice links to blogs and such that feature recipes that are easy and quick, but not potato flakes, which is just what I'm looking for. (though I'll still eat my fake mashed potatoes...)
Now this is not going to become a food blog, but I did want to show off some of what this new resolution has produced: Behold carrot/cucumber/cream cheese sushi and "Squaketti" (the recipe the blogger made that was cheaper/healthier than sketti)
Et voila. I think I'm going to like this cooking thing.
And as a bonus, here's a cake I made for my roommate a few weeks back. I feel so culinary-y.
It's the Bat sign... in case you were wondering... I'm not much of an artist, so just take what you get.
And I crocheted a hot pad/wash cloth something Sunday, but I left it at school. I'll talk about that later... so stay tuned!
I have really out done myself this year with the pumpkins.
Carving pumpkins is really my favorite part of Halloween. I just have come to love it for some reason. I have enjoyed the last few years making my own pumpkin patterns (at least somewhat) and this year I got all sides of the creative spectrum. One Kyle and I made completely free hand, one I took an idea from a picture online, and one I printed out and carved fancy pants style (I added the shadow to it though...) I love them all. Let's go through one by one shall we...
I call it: Crazy face with a "BOO" shadow. Creative name, I know. If you get your computer screen at just the right angle you might be able to actually see the "BOO" on the wall.
So, my friend Kyle needed a date for a double date with his friend, and knowing that I'm a fan of pumpkin carving he asked me to join them. We had a pretty big pumpkin, with really thick walls, so we went easy and big cuts. We drew this all on our own. We wow-ed the socks off of the other couple with the shadow. We even put 3 candles in it so the shadow showed up on the wall 3 times at different angles... "Science!"
This is
"Totem Pole Tiki Face"
He was carved based off a couple different designs I saw online.
My friend Abby got this awesome idea last Halloween to create a pumpkin totem pole that would have a nozzle in the mouth of the top pumpkin that would spit flames. The closest we could come this year was creating a totem pole by stacking 4 pumpkins up a fence post, then balancing the 5th one on top, putting a can with kerosene soaked wick in it, and lighting it on fire. We put a little ethenol on the top to try to make the flames blue, but it didn't really work. But it looked amazing anyway! I don't have a picture of the whole totem pole, but the carvings were (from bottom to top) a moon sliver, an eagle silhouette (think Native American), a jack-o-lantern face, and a haunted house. We realized later how cool it would've been to put the flame several pumpkins down and light them all up with the fire, but I kinda liked the foot tall flames out the top.
And the 3rd and final entry I call: Avengers: Unite!
If you can't tell what it is, it's Captain America in the shillouette of the Hulk with the Avengers' A on the wall. It was pretty darn neat. The problem was the pattern for the Captain/Hulk carving was definitely meant for a larger pumpkin, so some of the details got lost... along with part of the Hulk's fingers and the Captain's head. But don't worry, we found them and I reattached them with toothpicks. And you might notice the picks in the back holding the A pieces in place. The other thing that caused trouble is that this pumpkin was very very thick. I spent a long time thinning it out and still was carving through too much. So when I would try to carve away extra stuff to get a clear picture it would tear some of the more delicate features. Like the Captain's head... But it all came back together and looked fabulous on our front porch.
It was a pretty fun Halloween season. We didn't do much tonight. Half the evening was spent with people just watching me carve my pumpkin, but that's ok. As a bonus I'll show you a couple shots of my costume. "I'm a Hufflepuff!"
I saw a bird once!
My name is sewn into all of my clothes!
I'm a Hufflepuff!
If you have no idea what is going on, I suggest you watch this. Even if you do, I still suggest watching this:
