♥♥amanda♥♥

Imagine that. I have never baked in my life. Why would I bake? To make a mess with a ton of ingredients and have countless pots, pans, spoons, bowls, measuring cups, spatulas, etc to clean up by hand because the lack of a dish washer for my enjoyment…? Why torture myself? I suppose you can say I was bored, craving cheesecake, wanted something to blog about, and so on… But, here goes:

So here are the steps I took to make my cheesecake. Instead of buying plain graham crackers and ground cinnamon, I just bought cinnamon graham crackers.

So the recipe called for 2 cups of ground graham crackers for the crust. ground!?!? How the heck do I ground graham crackers? I started breaking pieces off and I was getting no where. So I went through all the cabinets and found something that looks like its purpose is to chop food. I gave it a try…

After estimating how many cracker squares (approx. 30) would make two cups I measured it and it was perfect! I poured the ground crackers into the mixing bowl.

I melted a stick of butter and mixed it in to the crackers. Poured the new mix into the pan and took a glass cup to the crust so it would make the bottom of the cheesecake even and flat.

Still following directions up to this point:

“In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes.”

Crap! I don’t have an electric mixer! I don’t have any sort of mixer. I used my muscles!

After realizing my muscles weren’t doing the job, I remembered about the blender. Hmm, I wondering if this would work just as good as the mixer.

Hey, at least the blender took all the chunks out. Then the recipe goes on to tell me I have to put tin foil around the pan, set the pan in a roasting pan and pour boiling water into the pan about half way up the cheesecake pan. Wha Waaa?

Okay, first of all, I have no clue what a roasting pan is! I just thought pans were pans and I use the ones that the food fit in. Anyway, I just used a normal pan thing and put the cheesecake pan in that one. Put water in it and in the preheated 325 degree oven it went.

In the meantime, I made the topping that consisted of lemon zest, blueberries and strawberries.

The cake was done cooking after 45 minutes then put in the fridge for at least four hours.

When the four hours was up, I decided to put the topping on and started to see my hard work come together!

Ta da!

I haven’t tried it yet. I am kind of scared to because I bet it tastes horrible and looks kind of pretty. Oh well, another learning experience. Also gave me something to do with my time and something to blog about!

Past: When I was little, I have some very fond memories of when I would visit my grandmother on my dad’s side. I always remember the bright colored roses that lined her driveway on both sides and how you could smell their strong scent. I remember picking berries in her backyard off the huge bushes and popping them in my mouth without washing them first. I remember playing games like Hi Ho Cheerio and having tea parties with our pinkies in the air while sipping off the tea cup.

But, my favorite memory is the food she always made…frozen bananas on a stick with chocolate, rice crispy treats, her amazing spanish rice and beans, or my all time favorite… stuffed artichokes.

Present: I am now settled into my apartment in Portland. I currently have no job but am very eagerly searching for a one. With so much extra time in my day, I decided to make stuffed artichokes for the first time, ever.

First I googled recipes… and became a little confused.

Then I decided to go on YouTube and try to watch some videos of people preparing them and I could follow along. But, they were all going so fast, I had to pause every 10 seconds. So I gave up on the videos.

I just winged what I read and what I saw. After I steamed them, I went to take them out of the pot and I guess I steamed them too much- they fell apart! Not the whole thing, but enough for me to say, “wtf, seriously” in my head.

Anyway, I put them in the bread crumbs and stuffed the leave things.

But I melted a ton of butter to dip the pieces in, so it will be great.

I am learning how to cook. But after the looks of these:

I might have to stick to shake and bake, pasta, and food that doesn’t take much time to prepare. Or maybe I should stick with a frozen banana on a stick covered in chocolate. I can go for one of those babies right about now.

Future: Frozen chocolate covered bananas on a stick!

Beginning:

Middle:

End:

This is kind of funny since I decided it would be my first post of the road trip. So here goes:

We left New Orleans and headed to Austin, Texas.

It was my turn to drive.

So I was driving and CJ was sleeping…

… and see lights in my rear view mirror.

Oh shit.

I pull over and the cop stands infront of his white suv waving to get out of the car. I get out first and start to walk over then CJ opened the door and the cop grabbed his gun and told him to get back in the car. Crazy.

He then goes to me, “you need to tell him to mind his own business, this is not how we do it here”.

I was like, “okay”.

Then he proceeds to tell me why he pulled me over.

“You were not traveling with the rest of the group of cars,” he said.

Mind you he was not taking radar and I was going exactly speed limit, 70. I wasn’t going over because when there is nothing but grass to look at and it’s completely flat, 70 mph feels really fast.

So, he tells me he will give me a warning.

He then decided to ask me where I was going since my license plate is Connecticut. I told him to my new home in Portland Oregon and he goes, “via Texas???” I told him yes, my brother and I stayed in New Orleans last night and now going to Austin. He asked if I was a drug cartel. Yeah. okay buddy.

He goes over to my car to talk to CJ. Asking him the same questions and probably making sure our stories match.

Anyway, he started talking about how they have to be careful with drug cartels and mexicans and how he will give me a warning.

He goes back to his probably air conditioned vehicle and takes forever to write out the warning making me stand in the damn hot 95 degree weather sun on the pavement highway. How dare he.

He gives me my warning and I get back in my car to something great- photos of the dude talking to me taken by my brother. They are pretty amazing. How many people can say they have photos of being pulled over and talking to a cop??What a D*ck head.

When in Texas, go big or go home. haha.

So for your entertainment:

I am thinking about buying a GPS for the road trip tomorrow across the country. But, I kind of want to do it with just maps. We’ll see what happens and if a stop at a store somewhere is necessary during the drive.

Today I graduated. It was pretty amazing. Happy and sad at the same time. It was a long four years, but I made it. Pics to come but right now i’m packing for my big move.

Congratulations class of 2009!