Thanksgiving Dinner at the Dining Halls

So last night they had Thanksgiving dinner at the dining halls on campus. My RA told us about it a couple of weeks ago but I had forgotten until I saw a sign for it Thursday at lunch. I was pretty excited for the rest of the day after that because I love Thanksgiving. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I was kind of thinking that it would just be like any other meal at the dining halls only with Thanksgiving food.

But I was wrong! It was great! Walking in the door of the dining hall, there was a massive line and the smell of turkey and rolls wafting through the air (which made me even more excited). We made it through the line, found a table, and got in line to get food.

They had everything! They had roasted turkey, glazed ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, pecan bars, and apple cider (cold and hot) from a local farm.

I had roasted turkey, mashed potatoes (no gravy), corn, stuffing, sweet potatoes, a roll, pumpkin pie, and cold apple cider. Everything tasted delicious, homemade! I was totally expecting it to taste like cafeteria food but it was almost as good as my grandma’s (I said almost)!

The turkey was very juicy. The mashed potatoes had a good buttery flavor. The corn was ok. The stuffing was pretty good. It actually tasted a lot like my mom’s. The sweet potatoes were ok (this is my favorite Thanksgiving food so I’m going to be a little critical about it). They had a little too much honey and not enough brown sugar. The roll was pretty good. I like mine a little doughier though. The pumpkin pie was pretty good. And the apple cider was really good, almost as good as the stuff from the orchard by my house! I was soo full and sooo sleepy afterwards. I felt like I couldn’t move (just like real Thanksgiving)!

Another thing that I liked about this dinner was the atmosphere. It felt very warm and happy and peaceful in there. Everyone was just talking and laughing and having a good time. It felt like a Thanksgiving with friends! There were even people dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians!

I had a really nice time and I will definitely be going to this again next year and every year that I am here at Purdue!

The Munchies - Part 2

Friday was my birthday, so naturally I did a little celebrating. Three hits and I was a giggling fool! It was awesome! But bummer! There was nothing to eat in the house. I wanted something crunchy really REALLY bad! I ended up eating a piece of cheese, 2 pieces of buttered bread, and 11 Reese's cups. Surprisingly, the buttered bread was AMAZING and I will definitely be eating that again! The Reese’s however were a bad idea. I just kept eating them and eating them and it made me really sick to my stomach. I will NOT be eating THAT again (at least not while I'm high...I just really have no self-control)! ...I am neutral on the cheese.

Cherry Limeade at Taco Bell

I went to Taco Bell yesterday and saw Limeade and Cherry Limeade on the menu, so I decided to try the Cherry Limeade. I was really excited because I’ve had Cherry Limeade before at Sonic and I really liked it. Well, I tasted it and…was disappointed. I couldn’t taste the cherry AT ALL! I don’t know if it was just at that one location or if that is what it’s supposed to taste like. I am willing to give it another try at another location though.

As far as the taste of the Limeade part of the Cherry Limeade goes, it was pretty good. I definitely think that Sonic’s is better though.

Store Bought Chocolate

I’ve eaten a lot of chocolate in my short life. I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. Since I could probably blog about chocolate for the next two years, I will just address a small category of chocolate.

This post is going to list store bought chocolate from best to worst. This excludes candy bars such as Snickers, Reese’s, etc.

The best: Chocolate boxes such as Russell Stover or Whitman’s – Assorted chocolate boxes are my favorite thing to get for Valentine’s Day or just as surprises. Russell Stover and Whitman’s are good because the chocolate is smooth and creamy and the things that they are filled with are of high quality too. Plus, with the assorted boxes, you get to try a lot of different flavors and textures.

Dove chocolate – Dove chocolate is also a very smooth, creamy chocolate. It is a better quality than Hershey’s and you can taste that difference. Dove also has a variety of chocolate from milk chocolate to dark chocolate to chocolate with almonds etc.
Hershey’s – Hershey’s chocolate is a fairly popular and inexpensive chocolate. If you are craving straight chocolate that’s cheap, I suggest this one. Like Dove chocolate, they also have a variety of chocolates to choose from. It’s also good for smores.


The worst: Palmers chocolate is disgusting. Don’t buy it. EVER! It doesn’t even taste like chocolate. It tastes very waxy.

So there ya have it! Store bought chocolate from best to worst!

Word of the Day: creamy

Breakfast Burritos

Almost every Sunday after church during the summer my dad would make his famous breakfast burritos for breakfast. They are one of my favorite breakfast foods I have ever had. He makes them so well and with ease. The cool part about the burritos is that my dad never writes down his recipe it’s all in his head. I have learned the recipe for the most part from just watching him make them time and time again. This is a fast and fairly simple meal and doesn’t require much clean up.

Here’s the recipe that I follow when I make the burritos:

· 1 pound of sausage

· 8 large eggs

· ½ tomatoe diced

· ½ green pepper diced

· 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

· 4 jalapeño diced finely

First brown the sausage and add the eggs in after the sausage is browned. Once the eggs and sausage are done cooking add everything else in at the same time. Cook on medium heat for about ten minutes allowing all the flavors to mix and the cheese to melt. After everything is mixed and cooked thourghly take a warm tortilla and enjoy the breakfast!

Jambalaya

Every year my church puts on a big Jambalaya dinner around Mardi Gras. It always is a big hit with everyone in town. A lot of people even come from out of town just to try our famous Jambalaya. During the dinner you are entertained with music played by the church band and friendly waiters and waitresses. The dinner is mainly put on around the history of Jambalaya and Mardi Gras.

Jambalaya originated in southern Louisiana by the Cajuns around the bayou where food was scarce. The word Jambalaya is a compound word of Jambon from the French meaning ham, and aya meaning rice in Africa. Many people believe that Jambalaya originated from the Spanish Paella which also has transformed in the United States as a dish called Spanish rice. Jambalaya is a bit different many times as it includes seafood, ham, link sausage, and chicken. But, most people have their own recipe for their own favorite Jambalaya mix.

What my church does for the dinner is we just add the chicken and the linked sausage and it tastes just great. Every year we always have a full house of excited guests that want to try the amazing Jambalaya and share good times with friends and family.

Cheesecake

Since starting college, I’ve eaten a lot more cheesecake than I used to. I used to only get cheesecake when my grandma made it for Thanksgiving and Christmas and once a year during marching band season in high school. (We used to sell cheesecakes as a fundraiser.) Now I eat it about once a week.

Here at the dining courts, they have a variety of cheesecake. Sometimes they just have plain cheesecake that you can put strawberries, cherries, or caramel topping on. Other times, they have flavored cheesecake like pumpkin cheesecake.

Although this cheesecake is good, no cheesecake is as good as my grandma’s. I don’t know why, but food that my grandma makes always tastes better than everyone else’s food. Unfortunately, she is getting older and gets tired easily, so she stopped making it and just sticks to pies for dessert.

Surprisingly enough, Fazoli's actually has pretty good cheesecake. They have several different kinds. My favorite is the chocolate cheesecake with chocolate chips. The turtle is also good.

Now that I eat cheesecake more often, I have come to appreciate it more and would consider it to be one of my new favorite desserts!

Word of the Day: gouda

College Dining Courts

Here at college some people say that the food is so good and they compare it to the food that was served back at home. I would agree with them on one part for a week or so but after that it gets really old and starts to taste like crap. I have been at school for four months now and I got sick of the dorm food after the first month.

The main problem with it is that the dining courts don't change the meals up very much. It is always the same things every week and it is just getting old. Like for instance the foo court that I go to a lot they have pizza and cheeseburgers every single day. Why not change it up a bit? I know I'm not the only one who notices that there isn't much of a choice.

It's not that the food isn't good it's that they leave the food sitting out under heating lamps and either the lamps don't work properly and the food is cold or that the lamps dry the food out and therefore mot tasting very well.

What I think the dining courts should do is change it up a bit and have more choices for the students to choose from and not make the same thing every single day. Also find a way to keep the food warm without drying everything out and loosing the flavor.

Mint and Chocolate

After the chocolate and peanut butter combination, mint and chocolate is my next favorite chocolate combination. They just go together so well. And there are so many foods out there that are mint and chocolate (mainly candy)! There are Andes mints, crème de menthe Hershey’s Bliss chocolates, mint chocolate chip ice cream, mint M&M’s. The list goes on and on.

I just recently tried the crème de menthe Hershey’s Bliss chocolates. They are amazing. The chocolate is soo smooth and the mint is perfect! They are soo much better than Andes mints which were my original favorites. Compared to the Hershey’s Bliss, the Andes mints taste like cheap chocolate (I would still eat them though).

I also just recently tried the mint M&M’s. At first I thought they were a little disappointing. I wasn’t expecting them to be so crunchy. After eating a couple though, I decided that I liked them and I actually couldn’t stop eating them!

One mint/chocolate candy combination that I’m not so fond of is York Peppermint Patties. They’re ok, but they’re definitely not my first choice. In other words, I wouldn’t turn one down if someone just handed it to me (unless it was given to me by a suspicious character). (The mint M&M’s actually kind of reminded me of a crunchy York Peppermint Patty at first.) And then there is the mint Three Musketeers. I like them better than York Peppermint Patties (and regular Three Musketeers), but they wouldn’t be something I would choose if I wanted to buy a candy bar somewhere.

At the dining courts on campus, they sometimes have mint brownies and mint cookies. The brownies are chocolate brownies with green mint icing. They are pretty good. The brownie is fairly moist and the icing has the perfect amount of mint flavoring. The cookies however aren’t so good. They look like the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies (which I LOVE!), but they’re not. They are dry and the mint flavor isn’t very strong.

If anyone has any delicious mint and chocolate recipes, send them my way!

Word of the Day: bliss

Frozen Pizza

Here at college I have had the opportunity to try many kinds of new frozen pizzas. I have become very fond of some and not so fond of others. I eat frozen pizzas a lot since they are quick and easy meal and there isn't much to them. What I like about these pizzas is there isn't much to clean up after just wipe up the counter space and then you are done.

My favorite brand of frozen pizza is DiGorno because it is a really good pizza and it doesn't taste like cardboard like some of the frozen pizzas I have tried like Jack's. Those pizzas are very thin and seem like they are made of cardboard and don't have a very good taste.

Red Baron pizza is not a bad brand but still does not match up to DiGorno but it comes in a close second place. Then tombstone and finally Tony's. Those are my top four frozen pizzas that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a good easy meal if you don't want to cook or make a huge mess in the kitchen.

What to Eat When You Have the Munchies?

Ever had the munchies? Well I have. So what are the best foods to eat when you’re too high to function? Well personally, I like Double Stuf Oreos, chocolate Donettes, tea, any kind of chips...this list could go on forever because everything tastes pretty good.

And why do these things taste so good? Well I’m not exactly sure, but when I’m high, I am definitely more aware of my body and how I feel.

I really like crunchy things, chocolaty things, cheesy things... The Double Stuf Oreos are good because they’re chocolaty AND crunchy (always get the Double Stuf ones cause they have more cream filling than the regular ones and everyone knows that the cream is the best part). The chocolate Donettes are good because they’re chocolaty. The tea is a recent thing, but I am now addicted (cold tea, especailly Arizona). I get goosebumps every time I talk about it. Sour Melon Powerade also goes well with the taste of Mary Jane. Chips are good, again, because they are crunchy and sometimes cheesy. And I also like pizza…and lots of other stuff...

If you feel like driving (which you probably shouldn’t do), I suggest going to Taco Bell or Steak n Shake. Steak n Shake is open 24 hours and Taco Bell is open til about 1:00 am. At Steak n Shake, I like to get a turkey club with cheese fries and a mint Oreo milkshake. The turkey club has turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. At Taco Bell, I like to get a chicken quesadilla, cheesy fiesta potatoes, and a pina colada frutista freeze.

My friend and I bought Pop Rocks because we thought they’d feel weird in our mouths, but neither of us can remember we have them (probably because we’re under the influence). Yesterday, she finally remembered she had them, so she tried em'. She said it sounded like a thunderstorm in her mouth and she felt like she was in a rainstorm and that it was soo cool.

So next time you have the munchies, try some of these foods and if you have any suggestions on other things to eat, I'd love to hear what they are!

This post is dedicated to Proposition 19. I’m sorry that you didn’t get passed. Please try again in 2012. And people! VOTE YES!

Word of the Day: brownies

Thanksgiving

It is getting to be that time of year again. When everyone is making plans for Thanksgiving. I have to say that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because of the endless supply of food that my family makes. Everyone in my family has some sort of job to help prepare for the special day.

For my dad and I we have the honor of deep frying the turkey. We have discovered that this is the best way for us to cook it because all we have to do is bring the cooking oil to the right temperature and place the turkey in there for 45 minutes (3 minutes per pound). So we just sit in the barn and just hang out while everyone else is making the rest of the feast.


My mom, grandma, and sister are in charge of the desserts and stuffing and potatoes. They make all kinds of desserts from Pecan Pie to cookies. My favorite thing they make is my grandmas Pecan Pie. She makes the best Pecan Pie. I don't know how she doe it because it's her secret recipe.

My brothers are in charge of pealing the potatoes and apples for my mom grandma and sister. They don't do much but they don't mind either cause they would rather be doing something else anyway. Sometimes one of my brothers will come out to the barn with my dad and I and just sit with us but not for the whole time.

After everything is done comes my favorite part EATING everything. The key to not getting full fast is to take it slow don't scarf down the food like a wild animal. This way you get as much as you can eat and not be hungry for a day and a half. The next best thing to Thanksgiving day is the couple days after with all the leftovers. You are eating like a king for a couple days after Thanksgiving is the best because you don't really have to dirty the kitchen for anything special because the meal is already made.

Thanksgiving has it's ups and downs more ups than downs. The worst thing is cleaning up after the meal. All I like to do after a great meal is sit there and relax and watch some football but, most times I can't do that due to cleaning. I shouldn't complain about it because when my whole family helps out we knock it out pretty darn quick. After that everyone relaxes for the next two days.

M&M's

M&M’s are the perfect thing to eat if you are craving chocolate. They are little so you can just pop them in your mouth and they don’t even melt in your hands (that’s what they say but after a while the color stains your skin).

A brief history: M&M’s were invented in 1941. They were made to be sent to soldiers serving in WWII. In 1954, they came up with the slogan “melts in your mouth, not in your hands” and the first M&M’s characters were introduced. Colored M&M’s came out in 1960. In 1982, the first M&M’s were taken into space. In 1996, you were first able to mix your own bag of M&M’s of all colors. In 2004, you could first customize your M&M’s to say whatever you wanted.

There are lots of different kinds of M&M’s. There are the original plain M&M’s, peanut M&M’s, peanut butter M&M’s, the new pretzel M&M’s, dark chocolate M&M’s, almond M&M’s, M&M minis, and they used to have crispy M&M’s. There are even premium M&M’s like Chocolate Trio and Mint Thrills. I have never had the premium M&M’s but I’ve always wanted to try them, especially the mint ones because I love mint and chocolate together.

I like pretty much like all M&M’s but the plain ones are definitely my favorite. The crispy ones used to be my favorite before they stopped making them. They came out in 1999 and slowly disappeared through the years. (I personally think we should start a campaign to bring them back.)

As far as the customized M&M’s go, I’ve never done it but I’ve always wanted to. My friend already told me she’s getting me some for my birthday. I’m not sure what they’re going to say.

That same friend also told me that she went to a store in New York called M&M's World. She said that they have all kinds of M&M merchandise and every color M&M you could ever think of. There is also one in Las Vegas and Orlando.

Word of the Day: crispy (in memory of crispy M&M’s)

Pudding

Yesterday my roommate and I had an in depth conversation about pudding. It all started with a care package from her mom. She opened it up and it was full of snacks and winter accessories (scarf, hat, gloves, etc.). Among all of this was pudding. Cinnamon roll pudding. It’s new.

She tried it and didn’t like it, so I tried it. It smelled exactly like a cinnamon roll. It did not taste exactly like a cinnamon roll though. It wasn’t bad, but I would never buy it. I can’t really describe what it tasted like. I mean it kind of tasted like a cinnamon roll, but the texture of the pudding made it weird. (That probably makes no sense. It really is hard to describe. If you like pudding, you should try it, but I personally don’t think it’s that great and would much rather have chocolate or chocolate swirl flavored.)

As we were discussing the oddness of the cinnamon roll pudding, my roommate mentioned that her family didn’t usually buy the prepackaged pudding. They usually buy the instant pudding. I said that I hated that stuff because it gets a weird rubbery layer on the top. She disagreed with me and asked how we made ours. I told her we made it on the stove and she told me that all you had to do was whisk in milk and put it in the fridge. We argued about what the directions on the box say for a while then googled it. It turns out that they have instant pudding, which is what her family buys, and cook and serve, which is what my family buys.

<- instant

cook and serve ----->

Although I’ve never had the instant pudding, I am going to recommend it because of the fact that the cook and serve gets the weird rubbery layer. Unless you just want to buy the prepackaged pudding which is a heck of a lot easier anyway. Next time I want to buy make-it-yourself pudding, I’m definitely getting the instant kind.

Word of the Day: pistachio

Candied Gourd

Candied Gourd could evoke childhood memories of every Chinese, including me. It's almost the favorite nosh of all the children. It has been a common scene in a Chinese novel or an old movie that a man holds a bunch of Candied Gourd with several children around him in the alley. I was once a member of those children anxiously waiting for a string of Candied Gourd. Nothing for me is sweeter than Candied Gourd, the taste of childhood.

As an American, you may be curious about the Candied Gourd is. Actually it is made of haws indeed but is called gourd. People skewer about ten haws on a wooden stick and coat the haws with a thin layer of syrup. The syrup would become solid in a few minutes so it makes the haws taste a bit like candies. Since the haws are really sour, I don't like eat them directly. Also it won't attract me so much if the the Candied Gourd is made up of sugar lumps which are as sweet as candies. Only the perfect combination of sour haws and sweet syrup would make the Candied Gourd so tempting.

Now I'm going to tell you the procedures to make Candied Gourd. First of all, pick some fresh haws (sometimes people would add other fruits like strawberries and oranges along with haws in the Candied Gourd) adn cut out the kernels with a knife. And then skewer them together. The second step is perparing syrup. You should put some sugar and a half volume of water into a pot and cook them with high fire for 20 minutes. The time and intensity of fire should be controlled carefully. If the cooking time is short, the syrup would be so sticky; if the time is too long, it would taste bitter. (I can only tell these steps, but can't do it well) Finally you only have to dip the skewered haws in the hot syrup adn cool them until solid. Hopefully you can make a delicious Candied Gourd by yourself.

Candied Gourd only belongs to childhood. It has been a few years since I last ate it. Every time I saw a little kid enjoying Candied Gourd, my sweet and sour childhood would appear in the mind.