Dorm Food.

Living in a dorm for 3 weeks is an interesting experience. Especially when you only have a mini fridge and microwave (and have to share a bathroom and showers with 9 other ladies). My friend/roomie Rachel and I decided to do a lot of experimenting with her sandwich maker. or Snack Master as she likes to call it.

Here is what we made-

Pizza Sandwiches. Pretty tasty. Put sauce, cheese and desired toppings (we enjoyed ham and pineapple) on a piece of bread. Top with another piece of bread... and enjoy.


Have you seen that infomercial for the GT Express 101? She makes something called Stuffed Soup so we decided to give it a try too. You mix stuffing, chicken and cream of chicken soup. It was pretty messy as you can see... But it was tasty.


We were pretty good at making breakfast... We made eggs which were probably my favorite. I don't know that I will make eggs in a frying pan ever again.


This is when we made eggs the first time. The next few times we added cheese and ham. Mmmmm.

We also made pancakes. Rachel loves sausages so we added them to her side.

Here is the final product... So yummy. Not sure if I will ever make pancakes in a frying pan ever again either.

Here is Rachel enjoying the goods.

We made cupcakes. I saw this mix a couple months ago and knew it would be perfect for our dorm living. And it was. While they don't look like cupcakes they sure tasted like them. Especially with yummy cream cheese frosting.

My battery died so I didn't have a chance to take pictures of everything we made. Other breakfast foods included muffins. And other desserts like brownies and cookies.

We made breakfast for our class one morning. It was so fun feeding 10 people a meal of muffins, pancakes, sausages, and eggs all made in a sandwich maker.

Now I need to go purchase one for myself.

Remember me?

Holy Schmolies it has been a long time since I lost blogged.

It has been a CRAZY month.

-I finished my 5 week teaching assignment and found out that a GYM teacher was getting the position. I don't want to talk about it.

-My parents left on their mission. And should now be in the Philippines although the last time I heard from them they were in the Taipei airport. Really hope they aren't wandering aimlessly.

-Celebrated Canada Day with some of the family. Yummy breakfast. Delicious BBQ. Too bad I was just recovering from the 24 hour flu so I didn't get to enjoy as much as I would have liked to.

-Started 2 online classes. Statistics and Research Methods. There are about as fun as they sound. Luckily there are only 2 weeks left of them.

-Unluckily they happen the same time as my 3 on campus classes. Yup. I am living it up in the dorms again. I am enjoying the delightfully fresh produce available in Washington. I am not, however, enjoying the fierce wind that comes with being in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Wind is my least favorite element. I would take snow, rain and of course sun over wind any day.

-What am I talking about? I have been enjoying the produce of Washington before I even left Alberta. I seriously think I have personally consumed at least 6 pounds of cherries in the last 2 weeks. Mmmmm.

-I had the opportunity and blessing of staying with some Virginia friends who are now living it up in Spokane. I was hoping to get pictures with all of the friends I was reuniting with this summer but forgot to take a picture. But I did get a picture of the cute little welcome gift Megan left on my bed. So fun. (and my battery just died as I was loading the pictures on to my computer so it looks like I won't be getting any other photos either since I forgot my charger at home).

-Amidst all the studying and paper writing I have had a few opportunities for fun. Like shopping at Target and Grocery Outlet (I seriously LOVE that store), going to the Seattle Temple (which p.s. is the MOST confusing temple I have EVER been to. And no workers to direct you), eating at Sonic and Chipotle. Mmmm. We were told about this amazing thrift store on Mercer Island in the Seattle area. Apparently the island is quite hoitey toitey and everything they donate is too. It was pretty impressive. But I was surprised how many clothes were stained/dirty. Apparently their maids didn't wash the clothes before donating them. And apparently no one on the island is larger than size 12.

-And my friend Anna (who I knew from home but married a guy from around here) had me and my friend/roomie Rachel over for dinner last Sunday. It was so nice to get out of the dorms, have real (and mighty delicious) food, play fun games and do lots of catching up.

-Today starts the last week of my on campus classes. I am more than overjoyed. We have a new professor each week and our professor for this last week is goooood looking. Pretty sure our class of 18 ladies isn't going to have any problems staying awake.

Mmmmmm.... Pie.

Over 3 years ago I said that I would share a recipe for the greatest pie EVER and never did! I am not a big pie fan but this one is delicious. It tastes like cookie dough/chocolate chip cookie. Mmmm. The first time I had it, I was in LOVE. I asked my friend for the recipe and he was kind enough to share it. I have made it 3 times since then (3 times in 3 years... there is something serwiously wrong with that) but for some reason it doesn't taste AS amazing as it did the first time. Maybe he is like the lady on my mission that would leave out an ingredient whenever she shared a recipe with someone so that theirs would never work out and hers would always be the best. Funny. But mean.

So anyways- it is really yummy. And I will just have to keep making it until it is as delightful as the original.

*Note: okay... so I did some research looking up other pictures and recipes online and it is indeed supposed to be gooey in the middle (like I remember). I am not sure why mine always turns out more like a cookie. I will do some experimenting and get back to you. But in the meantime- give this a try. It is still mighty tasty.




Kentucky Derby Pie


1 pie shell
2 eggs- beaten
1/2 cup butter- melted & cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 cup pecans- chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix eggs & cooled butter.
Add sugar & flour, then vanilla , nuts and chocolate chips.

Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes.
(watch the crust & cover with foil if getting too dark)




I made little tart size for our family's monthly birthday celebration. What says Happy Birthday more than a sparkler in a tart?
Not much.
Not much.

Adventures in Organizing

Here is a glimpse into some of the organizing I have been doing the past 2 weeks. There is a great pantry in the Foods Lab... but it is FULL of stuff. Every shelf was completely packed. And dusty. Oh my. So here are some before and after pictures. Sorry they are not the exact same shot but hopefully it all makes sense. And it is a small room so hard to get a lot in one shot.

The top left side- before:

Top left side- after: Bottom left side- before:

Bottom left side- after:

Top middle- before:

Top middle- after:

Bottom middle- before:

Bottom middle- after:

Right side- before:

Top right side- after:

Bottom right side- after:

It is SOO much better. Pretty sure there was stuff in there that hasn't moved since I was in high school. I love just walking in there and looking around. It makes me smile. Shout out to my sister for helping me out with the final touches!

J-E-L-L-O

I love Jell-O. I don't know if it is necessarily the taste of it. Or more of what you can do with it. (especially with the fabulous molds/jell-o cutters out there).

It is almost always a side dish for our Sunday family dinners. Some like it with fruit. Some like it without. So we have to have 2 different kinds to please everyone. The kids tend to eat more jell-0 than the "normal" food. But who can blame them?

Not me.

For our today's Sunday dinner I made everyone's name in Jell-O.

It was a special Sunday for 2 reasons.

1) It is Father's Day. (Hi Dad! I love you!!)

2) It is the second last time my family will be all together for 18 months. (my parents leave in 8 days for the Philippines -via the MTC of course!)

9 batches (or 18 boxes) of Jell-O later we were blessed with this:

plus one more table that I didn't get a photo of.

And me. I was actually short an S so I had to steal one from my sister Kristi for this photo.

Until I ate the evidence I was known as Helley.

(Please ignore the nasty hair and makeup. I was in a rush this morning- hence the waves and I bought new powder that apparently makes me look like more of a freak!)

To make jell-o Jigglers you need:

4 boxes of jell-o (the normal 4 serving size)

2 1/2 cups boiling water.

Mix and pour into 9x13 pan.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes (the longer you refrigerate, the more solid it gets)

In my adventures of making 9 batches of jell-0 I learned a few things.

*halve the batch when making lots of different colors (so 2 boxes & 1 1/4 cups boiling water in a square pan)

*mixing the power and water in a separate bowl (or liquid measuring cup) and then pouring in your pan creates better jell-o. Not too sure why- but it does.

*the recipe says to place the bottom of pan in warm water for 15 seconds to aid in getting the goods out. I found the greasing the pan with a little cooking spray works much bigger wonders.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. I will keep blogging. The problem wasn't lack of comments. It was that my life us dull and I assume people don't want to hear about it. But you spoke. And I listened.

So here is my dull life.

My teaching job has been an adventure. NOTHING like what I thought it would be.

I was so excited to do the film study with the drama classes... but quickly realized they were not ready to handle anything like that (or anything really!)

I have met some of the rudest teenagers ever. But thankfully have met some amazing ones too. My fellow teachers are fabulous and have been super welcoming. I am asked daily if I will be coming back next year. And because everything in the world of education is so last minute, I still don't know. Hopefully I will know soon. Some days I want to teach there forever (okay, maybe not forever but at least another year) and other days I don't even want to finish up the day. For some reason Tuesdays are the roughest days. I cried the last 2. Thankfully last Tuesday I was able to hold the tears in until I was alone in my room at lunch time.

There are only 7 school days left. And 5 of those are exam or activity days. I am in the process of cleaning the kitchens and sewing lab. Everything is a huge mess. The teacher I replaced pretty much just walked out (not sure why. There are rumors of her being fired and her Dad being sick. Not sure what to believe). There is stuff everywhere. After I clean something I think "I should have taken a before picture." So I will try to be better from now on and show you the mess I am dealing with.

The time has come.

I have finally realized what you have known all along...

My life isn't worth blogging about.

It's been fun. I appreciate you joining me in my "adventures".

Thanks!

There is a first time for everything...

Today.
Was an interesting day.
And it is only 3:30. But I am ready for it to be over.
Today I cried in front of students for the first time. And hopefully the last.
Luckily it was the last class of the day.
But unluckily there was still 30 minutes left in the period.

Let's just say I forgot how rude teenagers can be.
Now I need to go make some IFHRTCB Bars and eat half the pan before I go to bed tonight!