Babbles of a Procrastinating Grad Student

Have a date tonight! We're staying in for dinner and a movie.  I'm maybe going overboard with dinner a bit (by the Maybe's standards), but at the same time, not really.  Had baby potatoes, onions and mushrooms that had to be used up, so I picked up a pork tenderloin to go with it.  I'm not a big meat cooker, so I picked up a marinate to fix it up (it's marinating in the fridge right now).  Am going to bake the potatoes, onions and mushies together with some parsley and oil, and am making a caramelized onion and apple (had an apple that was going soft) mixture to plop on top.  Here's to hoping it all works out!

And if not, well, he already know's I'm not the best cook in the world.  This will only confirm that (or blow it out of the water)!  Heh.

One of my co-workers is selfishly leaving next week to have a baby and abandoning me to take over her position (or as much of it as I can do with very little training).  Since my boss is a woman who has two young sprogs herself, we're of course taking a couple hours out of the day to throw a baby shower. 

Despite how that sounds, I really don't mind.  But between 4 different coworkers about to have babies, my boss just getting back from mat leave herself, and one coworker getting married on Saturday, I'm getting tired of talking about marriage and babies.  Luckily I'm not the only one, though, as most of the field techs are as enthusiastic as I am about the entire conversation.

Anyways, we're all bringing stuff to nom on during the party, and I volunteered to bring sandwiches.  Everyone is doing chili and meatballs and salads and a bunch of stuff that requires bowls and forks, and I figured finger sammaches to be the best option.  Did 3 different types: ham salad, egg salad and tuna salad.

Uh, I think I made too much.  Two in white and two in rye for each type for a grand total of 12 sammaches, cut into fours.  I think there's maybe 12 people in the office right now, and a tonne of food. 

Oh well, sammaches are good and leftover sammaches are even better!  Even with baby conversations.

I think it's a tuna casserole kind of day, don't you think?

*goes off to cook*

Please tell me it's a long weekend and I don't have to go to work tomorrow.  Please? 

*le sigh*

This weekend was way too short.  Probably because I was so drained from last week.  Oh well, it was good anyways.  Got some major organization done on Saturday, along with my laundry. 

Also cooked a tuna casserole, which I was terrified of because it's one of those things that sound disgusting and have the rep of being disgusting, but turned out really good.  And it was quick and easy to make, so bonus.  I'll definitely be added to my regular meal plans.  The best part was the cilantro that I added in lieu of dried oregano.  Seriously, cilantro is my all time favourite herb and I will be putting it in everything I possibly can.  Casseroles, stir frys, salads, ice cream, cake, EVERYTHING.  Mmm...cilantro.

Today I've been just cleaning and tidying.  Best part was my Grandma coming to visit.  Wish the living room had been more tidy when she had, but I know she didn't care.  It was a nice visit, and I'm looking forward to having more people over.

Also, she brought me a plastic tote full of random stuff.  Paper towels, spaghetti spices, scrap paper, canned soup, some fabric I'd left behind, lasagna noodles, and an aloe vera plant.  Random, but useful.  Mostly, anyways.

I've named to plant Lowell, by the way, from a character in a story by maderr .  The character's combination of sweet and strong seems perfect for my new plant buddy!

Okay, I'm off to the store to pick up the ingredients to make cranberry scones tonight, and I think I'll skip cleaning the rest of the living room to get some sewing done.  Wanna do something a bit more fun before the weekend ends!

Coming home (well, to my temporary and very comfortable home - thanks Carl!) this afternoon, I knew that while I didn't want to cook anything, I really wanted something 'home-cooked'.  So of course I stopped off at this little convenience/grocer store in the middle of the student ghetto that carries a variety of vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free/soy-filled/ethnic/local stuff not normally found at regular groceries.  Because in addition to all that (over-priced) product, they also carry The Village Kitchen line of prepared meals.

The store caters to students who have too much of Daddy's money in their pockets, so can afford to stock the better quality stuff.  And these prepared meals are really good.  It's all good ingredients, prepared well, and frozen, so all you need to do is warm it up and it's done.

I picked up some split-pea w/ham soup, and boy is it ever good!  Usually with these sort of meals, there's either not enough or way too much salt, but this is absolutely perfect, with just the right amount of salt and spices, and big chunks of pork.

It's maybe a little on the expensive side (I paid about $7 for 2 servings), but not that bad for good quality and tasty food.  Definitely worth trying some of their other products.  It's a shame I'm moving back to Manitoba soon!  :(

Poor Carl.  I was going to leave him some, but I may wind up eating it all myself!

I don't know why I ever settle for easy meals when I'm stressed out.  Last night I made an awesome meal of breaded fried fish, green beans, and rice (with just a touch of salt and pepper), and while yes, it's a little plain, I like plain food.  The flavour of the fish and the light seasoning was perfectly highlighted without being overwhelmed, and my all time favourite food is rice.

I practically lived on it at my Grandma and Uncles place in March and April.

And while it took a while to cook, it was a lovely break from thesising, and I had an instant and good meal ready to go tonight for dinner.  I guess I forgot how nice it is to cook for yourself.

Of course, the dishes afterward sucks.  :D

I'm sorry to those on my flist who are tired of me bitching about my thesis.  I can only promise that there is much more of it to come.  :P

Alright, word count.  I haven't officially typed anything up, but I got about 6 pages of long hand written out.  This might sound impressive, but I write long hand using a marker and double spaced on loose leaf paper (I can write fast enough to keep up with my thoughts that way), so this actually comes to only about 450-500 words in reality.  BUT, I also did my usual shortening of sentences when I jot thoughts down in a long-hand rough draft, so typed out it should actually reach my daily word count.  I'll do an official count tomorrow after I finish writing out this section and officially type it up.



Keep count may wind up being harder than I expected considering my writing process.  (Yes, I kill forests.)  HOWEVER, I don't know if I would've actually written anything if I hadn't committed myself to NaNoWriMo and actually told people both on- and off-line that I was doing it.  :D

I will admit, tackling this is scary as hell, and I think the uncertainty of where to start this beast of a thesis is what's held me back for so long.  I realized today that it doesn't really matter where I start, as long as I do something, anything. 

I think I can I think I can I think I can I think I can...


In other news, these scones are the best things ever, especially if you swap the raisins for cranberries!  Mmmm...

T-Minus 3 hours before Turkey Dinner, 1.5 hours before my first guest arrives, and I am BUSY! 

Appropriate icon is appropriate, yo.  Well, except for the bank part...



OMG, I can't wait to tell you guys all about my UNRULY TURKEY.  Last nights mishap is only the tip of the 'berg.  For now?  BACK TO WORK!

So uh, I'm hosting a Thanksgivings Day dinner at my place on Monday. I even have a 12 lbs turkey sitting in my freezer. Now I just need to figure out what the heck to do with it...

This should be an interesting holiday.

*prays for no food poisoning*

Oh my goodness, I've just discovered the best cookie recipe ever! 

Well, if you like chewy raisin-y spice cookies, that is.  Which I do so oh gosh yum.  And they're not the typical raisin cookies with hard chewy gross raisins in it, either.  Since you need to boil the raisins before adding them to the mixture, they are really moist and tasty.  The cookie itself isn't that sweet, although the raisins do make them much more so.

Seriously, I've already nommed 2 of them (and they're not small cookies), and I'm trying to keep from eating more.  Mmmm.

I did halve the recipe since I really don't need 6 dozen cookies (or 3 dozen at the size I'm making them), but also added a bit more allspice and cinnamon.  I can't describe how good my place smells right now.  I may have to make up another batch of these for the Geo Grad student coffee time I run each Wednesday.