THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN

The battle of the century just took place in TA37, right outside the bathroom.

Details to follow.

I have found perfection and it is Grace's cookies

HAD to blog about this: So Grace came back from Thanksgiving break with a packet of cookie recipes she'd collected from magazines. And today was her first experiment: No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies.

No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooling Time: 30 minutes

½ cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup milk
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking oats

1. Add the first four ingredients (through the cocoa powder) to a 4-quart saucepan.

2. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil for 1 minute.

3. Remove from heat.

4. Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth, then stir in the oats.

5. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto wax paper-lined baking sheets.

6. Let cool until set.

It was delicious enough while she was melting it over the stove, but now that they've cooled they're FAN-TASTIC. I'm serious.

Three of my favorite things: chocolate, peanut butter, and oatmeal, all rolled into one. It's perfect!

I'll be updating further on Grace's cookie bonanza!

Lost Bread

We have two big, white, crumbly problems in our fridge. No, not mold-bread! (Though mold is sure to follow). Through a quirk of fate, we have acquired much more bread than we usually eat and we now must get rid of it! Behold:

We've eaten a lot of toast over the past few days, but there's only so much one can do before one becomes what one eats, and we can't have that with finals approaching so swiftly. And as you can see, we have a lot of eggs to get rid of too. Therefore, I extend this invitation to our friends and the campus at large: come over for some french toast!

I am entirely in earnest about this--if you stop by TA37, and I'm home (and I know you (no creepers)) I will make you french toast. And I'm told my french toast is very good! But this is a first-come first-serve offer--only good until the bread and eggs run out!

Roundabout Ramblers at the Dubliner!

What are you doing on Thursday, December 8th, between 5 and 8pm? Why, going to The Dubliner Irish Pub on Main Street, Poughkeepsie, to see the Roundabout Ramblers, that's what!

They're even advertised on the Dubliner's website! Check it out:


So cool, right?!

Home

It's Sunday night and we're all back from our respective Thanksgivings. Jo and I arrived at almost the exact same time, around 5pm this evening, and fifteen minutes later Grace came in with her parents and her cousin in tow to help her settle in. For dinner we had a casserole that my mom sent me back with. Now it's the evening and Stuart has just come in while I sit here working at my desk.

It was good to go home for Thanksgiving, to see my family and friends. But it was also really good to come back to TA37. Better than I expected. After all, this kitchen is more my own; this bedroom, with the walls covered in thesis materials and favorite quotes, is more 'my room'; this TA, while far from 'my house,' still feels closer to it than any other place I've lived. It's a different feeling than being 'home' at my parents' house.

As the semester draws to a close, thoughts of our inevitable graduation and eviction from TA37 loom large, but right now, at least, I can say that I have two homes, and two families, and I am so blessed.

What Dreams May Come

Well, it's Tuesday morning and quite a few shenanigans went down this past weekend.

Jo and Stuart brought back an enormous bag of bagels and a huge loaf of bread from a prayer service this past Friday night, so this whole weekend we've been rushing to eat as much of it as possible before Thanksgiving. Let me give you an example: This Sunday, I had a toasted peanut butter bagel for breakfast, a bagel with kimchi for lunch, and a pizza bagel for dinner. It bagels the mind, doesn't it?

This weekend was also ice skating, Harvest Ball, and shopping with Kaylene. On Sunday Stuart threatened to buy Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword just to torment me, even though he has a lot of other stuff to do, but thankfully he didn't follow through on the threat.

Also, as Stuart's been rather busy this weekend, Jo's been left alone with Grace and me quite a lot, and we have been, as he says, "team-tormenting" him. I think we broke his brain last night.

On Monday Grace participated in the 33-Hour Famine for LiNK, in honor of the 33% of North Koreans who are malnourished. You can still sponsor her (I think!) Monday evening, Jo and I had bagels (of course) with a bizarre omelet comprised of the leftover onion, tomatoes, cilantro and hummus in our fridge. It actually was pretty good. First I sauteed the onions, then added the tomatoes until they were roasting, then added the cilantro (and by "the cilantro" I mean "about two fistfuls of fresh cilantro") and 5 eggs, with some garlic. Meanwhile, Jo toasted the bagels. We then had the egg dish on bread with hummus. It ended up pretty good, but Jo was giving me flak because I put my laptop on the kitchen table and watched Star Trek while cooking it.

This morning, I thought the Morning Prayer group was coming up for breakfast, so I made french toast out of the rest of the bagels. Turns out they couldn't come though. And we still have more than half that loaf of bread left!

And finally, the quote of the day: Over french toast bagels (eggs, vanilla soymilk, sugar, and lots of cinnamon), Jo told Grace and I about a dream he had last night.

"You know how in dreams, it's like real people? Well this [dream] was [about] a Dan in woman form. And this Dan looked like Emma Watson. We had the most wonderful time on a train. It was so romantic."

...

Well, just two more announcements before I leave you to your emotional scarring! One: the title for this blog post comes from Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1, the "to be or not to be" soliloquy, and it's also the title of a video game I'm designing for my final project in MEDS 250: Virtual Worlds and Utopia! And two: The Roundabout Ramblers will be performing at the Dubliner on the second weekend of December. So stay tuned (ha ha--get it?) for more updates!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

"I guess I tend to like the schmucky ones." -Jo

More music!

Remember that particularly schmucky day we had a week or two ago, which featured Jo drinking Coors and composing songs on the guitar about how he didn't want to go to class? Well the beautiful and fantastic Grace captured the event on video!

Enjoy...