You May Call Me,,,

Some call me Susan Boyle (because of my amazing singing), to others I'm Angelina Jolie (because of my obvious beauty) and to the rest of the world I'm Oprah (because I'm inexplicably wealthy, smart and good at everything I do).

BUT! To you, my avid readers, today you may call me Julia Child.

I'm guessing a few of you are staring at your computer in disbelief. This strange, little white girl from Charlotte, North Carolina could NEVER be compared to the Rachael Ray, Gordon Ramesey and much less Julia Child.

To those (few) skeptics I say... off with your head! Or... off with mine... as this post will probably embarrass me but, also allow me to take my place among the greats. For they too, were doubted by onlookers.


Today, I was hungry. I have little food. Mostly because I don't really know what to go to the grocery store to buy. So, I survive off sandwiches, pasta, cereal and other prepackaged delights. I was tired of all of that. My heart craved in n' out. But, my wallet put it's foot down and said "NO." So, I set off to take inventory.

I looked in my fridge. Most everything was getting close to empty. BUT! I had a dozen eggs. And what is better than eggs? Well, a lot. Anyway, I thought to myself... where's that "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook I have tucked away.

Luckily it was on my shelf of books. Tragically... cooking has never been a joy.

I found the section that said eggs. Now eggs for lunch was a foreign concept to me. Unless you cook them in top ramen. Which I have none of. It's too unhealthy. Right?

However, I stumbled across a recipe titled: Eggs in Poached Soup.

Poached soup? I read it wrong the first time. But, fortunately in a desire to discover what exactly poached soup was... I looked at the ingredients.

That's when everything changed. It called for eggs and tomato soup. Both ingredients I had. I was sold. Except for the poached part.

Eggs Poached in Soup:

"The following recipe makes a good, attractive, light meal - Prepared in a few minutes. Combine in a 8-inch skillet and heat to the boiling point over low heat:

• 1 Can of tomato soup: 10 1/2 oz.

Diluted with:

• 1/2 cup of water.

Add:

• 1/2 tsp of dried basil
• 1/4 tsp sugar

Reduce the heat and keep the liquid  below the boiling point. Add to the soup:

• 4 eggs

Simmer 4 to 5 minutes or until the eggs firm up. Serve the eggs on...

• rounds of toast

Covered with the soup. Sprinkle them with

• chopped parsley

Easy enough right? 

Well, I had the skillet already on the stove. I was heating it to start with my eggs. I was planning on scrambling them.. Well, I thought to myself... I'm pretty sure that's a skillet? I thought it was a frying pan, but I think they are about the same thing. So, I took out my trusty iphone and googled skillet. Sure enough what I had heating up on the stove was in fact a skillet.

I got my can opened. And I took out 2 eggs. I began pouring my soup onto the skillet. Well, the stove was on and the pan was hot (not medium heat) and the soup began to steam and burn and scream and all kinds of stuff. Freaking out, I abandoned the recipe. I quickly poured in my 1/2 cup of water, turned the stove off and moved my skillet to another burner.

I turned that burner to medium heat and began stirring frantically in an attempt to combine the soup and the water to one consistency. It worked! And then I remembered the sugar. I couldn't find any small measuring spoons... so I did a pinch. I figured in a recipe like this less is best. So, I didn't use a lot.

It suddenly dawned on me I had NO basil. Garlic salt is a good alternative right? I put a little dash of that... it quickly solidified.  So, then I spent the next couple of minutes trying to chop little pieces of it up and make it dissolve!

Once all the excitement was over and the soup was "one" and it was finally boiling, I cracked my egg. Well, not one for poached eggs and being an expert at adding eggs to ramen, I used the same principle. I left the soup slightly boiling and added my egg all while stirring to make sure that the yolk did not solidify and that the egg cooked (like it looks in egg drop soup). It worked. And I decided that one egg was in fact, enough. I put the other egg away. Took my soup off the stove. And poured it into a bowl.

I almost forgot the most traumatic part of the story. Haha the whole story is traumatic right? Well, burned nasty chunks that looked a little like chunks of blood... were tainting my soup. So, I spent time scooping those out. It was an experience. And I was on the verge of nausea the whole time.

Wallah. I was done.

My beautiful lunch. Water, salt, crackers and soup. My communications book is underneath my joy of cooking. 

Studious as always.  

I was unable to remove all the chunks and was forced to eat around them.

The Recipe of life.

Soon to be my new favorite book.

My artsy picture. Cheese for some more taste. And also... to make it look more appetizing.

The soup seemed to be evaporating as it cooled off. A most peculiar thing... As every time I looked over at it (I was doing the dishes while my piping hot soup cooled off) it was getting lower in the bowl. I came up with 3 explanations:

1. It was evaporating. 
2. The ancient Greek gods must've thought it looked appetizing and thought I was offering burnt sacrifice. (My comparative literature class must be getting to me). 
3. My hunger was causing me to hallucinate. 

Anyway, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't delicious. But, it was good. It was college food. It was well worth the calories... maybe not.

But, it was lunch. And for the day... I AM JULIA CHILD! So, address me as such.

Dear Mom,

You were right. I need to learn to cook. And you are far superior than I. I also need to eat more meat. So maybe, I'll call you soon and we can work out a grocery list. You're the best.

Love,
Sophie

The only thing missing was my cooking partner... Nikole. Everything goes better and tastes better with her around!

That is all.

Sincerely,

Julia Child.

Billy's Last Dinner!

Credit for the title of this blog... goes to Ana!

Me and Chase left Utah on Thursday morning. So, Tuesday night, Chase, Will, Jenna, Ana and I all went to Legends Grille for dinner. Everyone was full of mixed emotions regarding leaving. Ana coined the phrase "Will's last dinner" since we would all be back for fall to eat dinner together except him. Sad huh?

Anyway, Chase calls him Billy (which is NOT his nickname). So, I figured I'd combine the 2 names/phrases... for one last round of pictures:

Ana on our way to Legends...

Will's Jumping Picture!

Jenna's jumping picture!

Ana's jumping picture!

My jumping picture!

Trip to the Grocery Store!!

So a quick run to the grocery store is something me and Jenna try to do every week. Just to stock up on the necessities. Mainly milk. Haha. This trip was more eventful where I spent ALMOST 30 dollars. I kept the receipt to blog about all our goods! I'll tell you the item, price and reason. Then you can tell me if the Creamery is overpriced, like I think it is.

(I'll admit this trip I splurged. I was in a good mood and having not eaten any snack foods since Christmas break I bought what I wanted. I was hungry and happy. I hear you should never go shopping hungry. Oops).

1 Nabisco Chewy Chocolate Cookie Package- Snack food. I was feeling deprived. $3.79
1 Turkey Breast (packaged turkey)- More yummy turkey sandwiches in my future. $ 3.98 (it was a lb. of turkey).
1 Package of sliced cheese- sandwiches- $1.35
Packaged noodles, 2 strogonof, 1 chicken and 1 broccoli alfredo-yummy food.- 4/$5
1 Nestle Cookie Dough- Missing Lewis's party tonight. So i'm making him cookies. :) $3.49
1 bag of Ruffles BBQ Chips (I haven't had chips in a month. I was craving them). $3.99
1 Tomato- for sandwiches- $.89
1 Bag of Tostitos- Me and Jenna are making salsa, so she bought veggies and I bought chips. She bought more cause she's making dinner tomorrow for her friend and serving the salsa.. But, promised me some. oh ya. $3.99.

Me in my SUPER cute hat that I love. However, I thought a hunter was a correct description of my outfit, so I posed with meat.

I look weird. But whatever I suppose. I look good in person. I promise.

Cutest Bread Bowls EVER.

Cutest bread bowl EVER. Complete with KILLER soup.

 :) After the Howl, Jenna, Chase and I came back with Mariss and stayed the night. She was getting sick.. So we had to go to church without her. BUT when we got home we had the best "interactive dinner ever!!

Jenna enjoying her meal :)

First. Hollow out your bread bowl
Second. Fill with soup.
Third. Eat.
Chase pounded his.

Chase and Aunt B. :) And the bread Bowl.

Letters.

As of right now I have mail to respond to.

I have letters to write to the following people:

• Elder Sammons (my cousin)
• Elder Hallam (my cousins friend/MTC companion)
• Aeryn (my Best Friend)
• Stephanie Spain (My GOOD friend from way back in the day aka my new pen pal)
• Elder Schow (Another of my cousins missionary companions.
• Elder Mauler (One of my friends from BYU's older brother.)

I am so far behind. It's insane. Ha all those letters. Thats 5 of them. My hand will be mad sore after that. But, I should probably get on that SOON. 

I have FHE in a few. I'll blog more tomorrow. 

Here's a picture from the weekend.

We went to The Cheesecake Factory. From left to right.. Whitney, Mariss, Chase, Karlie, Me, Matt.

Matt takes me out to lunch on Tuesdays. He works down in Provo on tuesdays. 

He's really nice. :) I'll blog about that the next time we go.

Till then!

The Kitchen.

My kitchen is GROSS.

And to make my point this week that NONE of it was mine, I refused to eat at home. I had a few meals at home like peanut butter and jelly, yogurt, apples and other finger foods. For the most part though all my meals were eaten at the cougareat. In an attempt NOT to get fat though, I had lots of Subway. (Yes Mom, with little or no mayonnaise.) I tried to eat as healthy as I could. (I'm sure most meals were healthier at the food court than the ones we eat at the apartment.) Along with the subway, salads, wraps etc... I walked around with my stomach flexed. I'm not sure what all that does for your stomach, but I'm sure it helped. Like I walked around ALL the time with my stomach flexed. It not only keeps me feeling fit it also makes my stomach look flatter, so it must also make me thinner. It's the only explanation.

What caused this terrible turn of events, you might ask?

Well, I came home Sunday after Aunt B's. The kitchen was a wreck. I FINALLY understand why my Mom hates coming home to a dirty house. The kitchen was FULL of dishes. The stove had dirty pots and frying pans. The counter had food sitting out on it. The refrigerator was full of WHO KNOWS what. I went straight to my room and my new project came into effect.

That being said. I made a comment about how dirty the kitchen was everyday. They all agreed. Nothing was ever done. I holed up in my room on Saturday until the game. I worked on my 10pg paper. I got dressed and ready. I cleaned my half of the room. I vaccumed our room. And when I came out, the kitchen was clean.

I am looking forward to more pasta. That's really all we have to eat here. Pasta, Cereal, Top Ramen and Fruit  Snacks.

Thursday night Dexter and Shawn asked Ashley and Me on a double date. We drove up to where you start to hike the Y and looked out over Provo and just talked. Afterwards we went to Denny's for hot chocolate.

Dexter (Ashley's Date) Shawn (My Date)
Dexter is at UVU. Shawn is manager of a Discount Tires.
They live in the same apartment complex. 

Shawn, Me, Ashley and Dexter

Me and Ashley.
FREEZING.

sWiTcHiN' Things UP a Bit!

Lets.. Start with Wednesday shall we?! If anyone really knows me they'd know that I am a ONCE decent basketball player as well as a former pretty good pianist. However, due to the fact that sometimes (for reasons that are UNCLEAR to me) I was unmotivated to practice. While it doesn't make sense to anyone especially me, I decided I missed both of those things! So! On Wednesday I decided to switch things up a little and practiced both piano and basketball for an HOUR each! Well piano was more of an hour and fifteen, and basketball a little more than an hour but who's counting! :) Rare? Just ask my mom! I haven't picked a ball up or sat down to play in MONTHS! It felt really good to do both. So, I made a silent commitment to myself to play piano for an hour once or twice a week! I'm not SUPER ambitious so i'll wait on the basketball goal! :)

Thursday, I went in and played piano for like 45 minutes! While Wednesday was a lot of Hymns and some sight reading of Jon Schmidt, today I did a couple of pieces from a book that has famous movie songs in it! It felt really good to rub the dust off my sight reading eyes and pick back up almost where I left off! I was surprised at how easy it all seemed to come back to me.. :) Thursday night I went to the soccer game (Women's). I felt some obligation to go since they were playing Katie Beck's school! LSU! Of course it didn't hurt that the cute guy from my ward, Terrell, asked me to go with him. It was a lot of fun and like 40 degrees. And guess who was in shorts. OH YA ME. He offered me his jacket but... He had on a short sleeve shirt and I didn't think that would be really nice of me to take his to wrap around my legs! Ha and to top things off they had shut the hot water off from 8am Thursday to 8am Friday. HOWEVER, we had discovered that sometimes we still got hot water. Earlier that evening Nikole had taken a shower and it was warm water. At like 10:30pm I undressed, turned on the shower and jumped in. Guess what happened. NO HOT WATER!! I was bathing in swimming pool water. I came out screaming,  freezing and dripping wet after taking a quick shower to Nikole laughing and saying "I hear it's good for your hair?" It better make my hair worthy of a Garnier Shampoo commercial after that pain.

Friday. Not much different than the others. No basketball. No piano. I did eat lunch with Chase and Nikole though. I am lucky. :) I love those two. And we all three get along really well. Nikole, Ashley and I went to the mall and I got my eyebrows done followed by shopping (which I NEVER do. Again switching things up! ;) ) Crazy huh?! When we got home we were a little on the rowdy side and decided to MAKE dinner. I had been craving REAL meat since as a starving college student I am a little deprived in that area. So together Nikole and I came up with a great recipe. It consisted of me standing over a frying pan with chicken, glancing in our cupboards and shouting ingredients. She of course picked out a few of her own. We then started 2 boxes of pasta roni (2 DIFFERENT KINDS to be creative. That was the theme for the meal). And began cooking. The chicken consisted of a lot of white wine vinegar, a lot of garlic salt, shredded cheese, butter, and a sprinkle of parsley. I cooked it to perfection (all my training finally paid off! ;)  ) We then combined the two to make an AWESOME pasta. Ashley joined in on the fun and made some crystal light to drink. Carrying on the theme when she left the room me and Nikole spiked it with orange juice, apple juice, and a little pineapple mango juice! And GUESS WHAT!! BEST MEAL EVER!! :) Try it if you dare!

From left to right:
White Wine Vinegar, Assorted Peppercorn, Pasta Roni 1 and 2, Garlic Salt, Parsley.
Middle Row:
Butter, Chicken, Cheese.

As this is the after shot the chicken is missing, the boxes are empty, we didn't use THAT much butter (less than half of whats shown) and the onion i threw in at the end is missing as well.

It was quite delicious. Next week were going to buy some ingredients and make a KILLER random soup.