January Breakfast

Well, the holidays are over, but the guilt has just begun. If you're like me, you spent the entirety of the December break eating constantly. While it was immensely satisfying, it's time to ease up on the mindless gorging. On the other hand, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to give up tastiness. With that in mind, everyone should eat this incredibly simple, satisfying, and fat free breakfast at least once to feel a little better about themselves. (Or, if you don't care what the hell you eat, try this anyway-- it's goddamn delicious)

Only three simple ingredients: Grapefruit, sugar, and King Leo soft peppermint sticks.

Cut the grapefruit into quarters, and peel the segments out of their membranes.

Sprinkle sugar on top. Wait a few minutes, so the juices start to flow from the gleaming jewels. Use the peppermint stick as a straw to drink the sweet juice-- TRUST ME. You can thank me later.

Fear and Loathing in My Fridge

So, over the past few weeks, I had to write a paper about the book that I read. A ten page paper. Now, considering the content of the book, this meant one of two things:

Kidding! The only real option was ever jungle juice! So this is how my nights would go, more or less, for about 5 scattered days: 1. Open microsoft word. 2. Write a few sentences, get bored/distracted. 3. Open fridge, pour a cup of jungle juice left over from the weekend. 4. Write a couple paragraphs/pages, call it a day. I'd say that I did a pretty good job of keeping the spirit of the book going while writing. Even better, it was actually coherent!

I think I'm a much more proficient reader than writer, because I tend to do it more voluntarily and therefore have more practice with it. But I have to say, I made a pretty kick-ass metaphor. Here's a taste:

"...both characters’ brains are completely overwhelmed by the massive stress of chemical bombardment. All of the necessary ingredients have been added, and they are in the oven, the near-magical place where mysterious things happen and what comes out is completely different than that which was put in."

You see, the paper mainly focused on how the characters essentially replaced all food with drugs and alcohol.

(you are what you eat)

So, I was just browsing the web looking for illustrations by Ralph Steadman that were awesome and/or relevant to a point I might want to make. I came across this site that was just littered with delicious imagery, though some of it was thoroughly disturbing. Here are nice kit-cats that have nothing to do with my paper:

The rest of that website can be found here

See how easily I get distracted? That is why it took me a long time to write/drink my paper. Maybe if I add in an excerpt from my paper here, no one will notice that I completely just went on a tangent.

"There is in fact a lot of nakedness, mostly in the hotel rooms, but there is not a sexual undertone to any of it; the main meaning of it is an expression of vulnerability. The drugs have rendered the users minds susceptible to their environment’s powers of suggestions in terms of how their trip will go, good or bad, and when naked the body is similarly exposed. It would have been all too easy for Thompson to incorporate wild sexcapades into this crazy text, but I’m glad he didn’t take it in that direction."

I was really just excited to be able to use the word "sexcapades" in a meaningful way, that actually related to what I was writing. It was a first as far as using it in 'something my teacher is supposed to read'.

Seriously, though, can you even imagine what life would be like if you were jacked up on drugs 24/7? I feel like I would be much lower functioning than HST or any of the characters he writes as. They drove cars while hallucinating, without dying. I can barely drive as is! Seriously glad my boyfriend is obsessed with cars/driving. I don't think it would be a good idea to try and test out that kind of lifestyle, it seems too dangerous to apply the old 'don't knock it till you try it' mentality. Though if you are going to do a lot of drugs, you might as well do a lot of cool things, like petting grown tigers and skydiving, because you're probably going to die soon anyway. Kind of like terminally diseased people, but as a lifestyle choice.

I think that about sums it up. The title of this post is a link to the paper, in case you want to read it. And with that, I'd say this semester is officially over: no more exams or assignments! Have a good day (I know I will).

The Spinach Madeleine

You will need:

frozen spinach, thawed--------------2 packages

onion, chopped----------------------3T

baby bella muchrooms, sliced-------4-5 ea

butter------------------------------4T

flour--------------------------------4T

milk--------------------------------1/2 c

spinach juice------------------------1/2 c

celery seed-------------------------1/2 t

Tony Chachere's--------------------to taste

Crystal hot sauce--------------------to taste

worcestershire sauce----------------1t

pepper jack cheese, grated----------6 oz

chive cream cheese------------------schmear

large pot or pan

casserole or pie dish

oven, preheated to 350F

As every cajun knows: First, you make a roux.

(Well, technically, first you sauté the onions and mushrooms.)

After they get nice and soft and brown, add the flour. It's going to start looking a bit unappetizing here, but it's just a facade...

Now it's time to add the liquids. When squeezing out the spinach once it has thawed, remember to reserve some of the juice! But if it's too late, chicken broth or just some more milk will work too.

This part is actually a lot of fun:

After a little stirring, it comes together and gets nice and smooth. Add the cheeses.

I know, it's not really grated, but I'm too poor to buy a cheese grater. This is college, after all. The point is, stir it until all of the cheese melts into it.

Now it's time for all those seasonings. It will smell delicious! Add the spinach as well.

Now put it all into the pie dish, and top with slices of the pepper jack.

Put it in the oven, and bake it until the top and edges start to brown. This will take 10-20 minutes, depending on how much you enjoy nice crispy bits.

Wait for it to cool before digging in!

This recipe is much more satisfying than the "spinach casserole" recipe described on pg. 77 in the Book Lover's Cookbook (spinach, mushrooms, chive cream cheese, s+p. where's the flava in that?). I grew up with this at close to every family holiday gathering. It's a traditional New Orleans holiday dish; sometimes the grocery stores run out of frozen spinach around Thanksgiving.

While I was reading the passage from Open House by Elizabeth Berg, it gave me a strong impression that the characters were pretending to be more classy and rich than they were by having a special meal. Looking at the original recipe by the author, it is clear that the simple "spinach casserole" is something anyone can afford to make; however, it is so simple that I don't think anyone would be fooled into thinking it had a place in a fancy dinner. Another thing about the passage was that there was a great air of light celebration, and again, the recipe in the book was far too plain to really be a special occasion dish. However, the spinach madeleine recipe is a much better fit for the passage, if I do say so myself. It has rich depth of flavor, yet is still very easy to make, and I know from experience that it gets rave reviews every holiday season. So, although the recipe in the book didn't really go well with the passage, it provided a nice jumping-off point for a dish that does.