Sophomore Year: The Night Before Move-In

So, everyone! I'm semi-back from the grave (well, almost), and I would like to share with you what I've done the past few days.

Last night, I couldn't sleep, so I cleaned my bathroom. Picked up all the laundry, put it in a laundry bag, and brought it downstairs. Cleaned off my little hamper/shelf thing I have. Scrubbed my toilet and my bathtub. Threw away random crap. Cleaned up my sink. Swept (EW).

 Seeing from my bathroom door looking in. There's a bit of a mess atop the toilet and the organizer, due to my pajamas and tomorrow's clothes, respectively. Otherwise, it's so CLEAN!

Bathroom sink. It's also very, very clean. It'll look a lot neater tomorrow, once I take my makeup case and stuff off and head to college.

It took about an hour and a half.

This morning, I tidied up my Corner, as I call it. It's where I plug in everything that I have to plug in. It's also a catch-all for all of my crap. 

(Sorry the angle's weird; I was looking from over my bed. But you get the general gist: It's EXTREMELY messy. Eurgh. I was always scared that things were going to crawl out and get me. I did find two spiders, which I promptly squished and vacuumed up.)

All nice and neat and stuff! All my chargers are neatly tucked away, I can actually see the floor, and everything has it's own space! (I threw away a lot of stuff.)

This morning (and some of yesterday), I packed all of my college crap in boxes and carted them from the upstairs, to the dining room, then to the basement, so I could inventory everything and my mother could help me organize things as needed.

Starting from the left in the back, you see the two foam mattress pads (I'm giving one to my room mate), my mini-fridge, the pillows, hampers (under the pillows), and the over-toilet rack (and the handle of the swiffer sweeper). In the front, I have my little plastic drawers and all my shirts that I'm taking with me. Between the drawers and the toilet rack, I have a laundry basket filled with all the cleaning supplies that I'm bringing. To the left of the basket (also behind the drawers), I have my little black ottoman, which is filled with my little fan, styrofoam cups, power strips, RAID, and plastic spoons. My suitcase is also there somewhere, and it has my pants, underwear, hairbrush, socks, and "hygiene" items in it.

In these white box, I have all my food, my little plastic cup and bowl, my insulated cup, and my cokes. Beside the white box, I have two packages of mini water bottles (they fit better in the fridge, they were BOGO, and I don't drink a lot of water in one sitting, anyways). In the red box, I have my little speaker pillow, my lamp, hair towels, and other miscellaneous items. In the clear box under the red box, I have my blanket, my mattress cover, my bathroom rugs, and my TARDIS blanket. (I'm obsessed.) My printer's in the back by the couch.

All of these boxes are downstairs in our basement, where my dad keeps his hunting trophies and we keep our old furniture. (It's a fully furnished basement, with a bed, a minifridge, couch, chairs, sink, bathroom, and closet. And all sorts of stuff stuffed in the closets.)

So, after I've gotten everything inventoried and organized, my mother and I went shopping to pick up a few extra things, like a bowl, some more hangers, and some cereal and stuff. (I'm going to have to get milk and yogurt and stuff on Saturday afternoon, probably. From CVS. Because I have Extra Care Bucks.)

We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out why my scholarship wasn't showing up in my student account. (It's all been fixed now, so no worries!)

I picked up my sister from school and we got milkshakes.

We took my sister's clarinet to the music shop later, found out that it's rusted (so began the hurried "CALL EVERYONE WE KNOW THAT HAS A CLARINET!" freakout), and it will be about two weeks before she can pick it up.

Took home Papa John's for supper, and we watched M*A*S*H*.

After supper, I went downstairs and cleaned out my car. I took out all the mats, wiped down everything with Armor-All, and then vacuumed EVERYTHING. The floors, the mats, the seats, the cupholders... It's extremely clean now. I even took off my shoes before I got back in to adjust the seats, because I didn't want to get it even the slightest bit dirty. 

I also washed the mats (that was backbreaking), and I even vacuumed the trunk.

I wish I'd had time to wash my car, but it was already 7:30 and still 85º outside, so that was out of the question. (I hate the heat.) So I'm going to college with a filthy car on the outside, but a clean car on the inside.

Then we packed the car. The trunk is full to bursting! My suitcase, printer, ottoman, water bottles, and laundry basket are in the trunk. The mattress pads, pillows, hampers, and all my hanging clothes are in the back seat (along with my umbrella). Everything else is going to go in the truck tomorrow morning!

My room mate got to move in today. (I'm going to have to rearrange the furniture when I get there tomorrow, anyways.)

I'm excited and nervous at the same time. This girl's a complete stranger. Sure, we like some of the same things, but I hope I'm not too weird for her! :/ Wish me luck!

Donuts, Y'all!

Doughnuts. Donuts. However you spell it, the word means the same thing: DEEP-FRIED DELICIOUSNESS. (I mean, you can bake them if you want, but the only way to make these things as delicious as possible is to dump them in a pot of boiling oil.)

Now, I'm going to share my fool-proof donut-making recipe. We figured it out by trial and error, but I'm sure it's already on the internet somewhere.

Ready? 

Here...we...go!

What you'll need:

• Pot of oil (vegetable or canola)
• Bowl of sugar
• Plate & paper towels (for draining the donuts)
• Slotted spoon
• Barbecue fork (two tines)
• Normal fork (for dipping the donuts in sugar)
• Pillsbury Country-Style Biscuits (they come in a can)
• Apple Corer

Got your stuff? Let's begin.

 All right. You got your biscuits. They're cold and refrigerated. So, we open up the can. (The kind I get has ten biscuits in a tin.)

 Get out your apple corer. This is mine.

 Flatten your biscuits out a slight bit, then punch the centers out of them. Carefully pop the centers out.

 Wait for your oil to warm up, then pop the donut holes in them. (That's the centers of the biscuits you punched out, all right?) They'll float to the top when the oil's nice and hot, and then you'll watch them. When they're all brown, all over (keep turning them with your slotted spoon), take them out.

 I've put my donut holes on the slotted spoon in the draining-plate so they'll drain. (I'm not going to use the spoon again.) I wait a few minutes, and then...

 I dump the donut holes in sugar. And I roll them around until they're evenly coated. (Go ahead, have one. They're amazing.)

 ALL RIGHT. Time for the donuts! Drop them into the oil (you can use the BBQ fork if you're leery) and wait for them to rise and brown, just like the donut holes. The first few donuts should take a little longer than the last few. Just be sure not to burn them!

 Take your donuts out and put them on your draining plate again. Make sure all that oil drips off of them before you shove them in the sugar!

NOM NOM NOM! It's delicious donut time!

***

So, how'd your donuts come out? Were the fantastic? Did your family try them? (My family fights over the donut holes.)

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this, and that this was easy to follow! Please tell me what you thought of this!

Fantastic Onion Rings

It amazes me that I've gotten this far on this blog and I haven't put up a single recipe yet. Well, actually, I'm not at all that surprised. I fail utterly at cooking, but the few things that I can make, I make really, really well.

Just ask my family about my chocolate chip cookies. I'm sure they'll agree whole-heartedly. In fact, my mother's no longer allowed to make the cookies. I'm the only one who can. I HAVE POWERRRR! :D

But seriously. Life can't be all desserts, all the time. So here's something that's a little more...deep-fried:

ONION RINGS.

I can hear y'all moaning now. "But what's so great about onion rings?"

I'll tell you.

My onion rings are absolutely fantastic. Crispy, not too oniony, and with a thick, delicious crumb-crust-shell-thing. What else could you possibly want in an onion ring? (I'm also going to share the recipe for the dipping sauce we use!)

Are y'all drooling yet? Let's get this puppy started, shall we? 

INGREDIENTS:

• Sliced Onion (amount up to you)
• Plain Breadcrumbs (amount varies)
• 2% Milk (amount varies)
• Flour (amount varies)
• Cooking Oil

MATERIALS:

• Knife (to chop onion)
• Three Bowls
• Pan
• Paper Towels
• Fork (to dip onion rings and to fish them out of the oil)

Step One: Get yourself three bowls. It doesn't matter how big they are, just make sure that you have three of them. Also, cut yourself up some onions. I don't care how many you use. I usually just cut up one onion, because only three people in my family eat the onion rings.

Step Two: Fill your bowls like so: the first one with flour, the second one with milk (I use 2%, but you can use whatever you want; I'm sure whole milk will work better), and the third with breadcrumbs (I use plain, but again, use whatever you want). It works better if you keep your bowls in this order, too.

Step Three: Dip your onion in the middle bowl full of milk. Make sure the whole thing gets wet.

Step Four: Take your onion and place it in the flour. Make sure you coat it completely.

Step Five: Put your onion ring back in the milk. Make sure you get every bit of flour covered with milk. Milk makes things stick!

Step Six: Chuck that sucker into your bowl of breadcrumbs. (Your breadcrumbs will gradually ball up as you continue doing this; refresh your breadcrumbs every so often so that you have more loose ones to work with. You'll see what I mean after you do a few of these.)

Step Seven: Back into the milk with that bread-ring! We're giving this baby two coats of crispy breadcrumbs.

Step Eight: And now we return to the breadcrumbs. Coat the onion ring thoroughly, making sure you don't see any flour. (Well, I guess you can see a little. But full coated is probably preferred.)

Step Nine: Place your onion rings either straight into the frying oil or onto some sort of pan. (I put them on the pan so my mother can fry them.)

Step Ten: Fry those babies up! High heat, until they're nice and golden brown. (You can see the knob on my stove, can't you? It's between the nine and the eight, one of the highest heat settings available.)

Step Eleven: Place your fried deliciousness on some paper towels to drain the excess grease. And you're ready to enjoy these things! Even my father says they're amazing, and that's a compliment, coming from him! (My mother's no longer allowed to make onion rings. It's now my duty, I suppose.)

*~*~*~*

BUT WAIT! What are onion rings without some type of delicious sauce to go with them? I present to you, Zesty Onion Sauce. You'll see why it's called that in a few minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ketchup
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Prepared Horseradish
• 1/2 Teaspoon Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Step One: Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl. Don't be shy. Measure 'em and dump 'em all in the same bowl and mash 'em together with a spoon. 

Step Two: Dip your onion rings in the sauce! Or, if you're slightly more germaphobic, spoon some sauce onto your plate and dip your onion rings from there. If you're looking for more spice, add more cayenne. If your sauce is a teensy bit too pale, add some ketchup. It'll take a bit of tweaking to get it just how you want it, but that's the beauty of a recipe like this: you can do whatever you want with it.

*~*~*~*

PLEASE tell me how your onion rings turned out!! Tell me how you liked them, tell me how your family liked them, tell me how your significant other liked them... I've worked hard on this, and I'm hoping that people really like them! (Oh, and tell me how you did your sauce!)