Tip #1: To thicken any pasta-from-a-box meal, break a packet of ramen and mix it into the pasta for the last few minutes you cook it. This can add a lot more pasta to the meal without you having to go for a second pasta-in-a-box at ten times the cost.
(Hat tip to 4L for teaching me this trick during the Summer of the Bat back in ‘03.)
I cooked dinner tonight. I had fewer guests than initially intended (only two) so I ended up cooking way too much.
Menu:
1) Spaghetti. wheat noodles and spaghetti sauce (from packet)
2) Chicken. Skillet cooked. When the skillet gets sufficiently heated, I pour in some water to create water vapor, and then seal the top of the skillet w/ some foil and a round pizza pan. This heats things up quite well within the skillet and helps the meat cook more thoroughly on the inside. The water vapor also helps the meat remain juicy. It’s still a good idea to turn the meat over a couple times and redo the seal.
For flavoring I tend to improv: today, added salt, pepper, dash of oregano, one beaten egg, “bread crumbs” (fist-ground Ritz crackers), Parmesan cheese, and some spaghetti sauce. It tasted good for improv. (I was roughly following a recipe for Parmesan chicken.
3) Green beans. They come from a can, they were put there by a man.
4) French bread. Sliced, buttered on each side. Note: don’t broil french bread. It starting burning on top in less than five minutes. I need a better way to heat it up for the future.
Results: Although I didn’t have as many guests as intended, the two people who were able to make it had a good time. I had some decent discussion about Christianity, science, and community with Lion. Also discussed work situations and other topics. Nick got here a bit later.
We played a game of Carcassonne. It’s my current favorite board game. It’s tile based and you take turns putting out tiles and placing your pieces. You get points as you reach objectives and keep playing until you run out of tiles.
After Lion took off, played some PS3 w/ Nick for a bit, but I’m not enthralled by any of the multiplayer games I’ve tried so far (Gran Turismo 5, Armor Core 4). Then again, I’m not quite the fiend at video games I was in the late ’90s ;)
All in all, I’m glad I had people over and I’m hoping to do it again on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
Yesterday, I upgraded three Wordpress blogs to 2.5.1. Had a good time at SaturdayHouse. After SH, Patrick, JDugan, and I were going planning to go to a teriyaki place. It was closed so we ended up at Denny’s.
Denny’s is great for several reasons: 1) food. 2) tasty food. 3) meaty food. 4) no rush - they’re used to people sitting around.
Zombies were discussed. I’d never thought about it before, but Patrick pointed out that zombie movies are an excellent vehicle for discussing societal issues. George A. Romero revolutionized the popular conception of zombies through his 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead” and following films. He did this by using zombies “to criticize real-world social ills - such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation - while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies.” (Source)
Today, I went to church, cooked and ate several bratwurst, upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 08.04 “Hardy Heron,” fought w/ multi-column CSS/XHTML design, converted six CDs to FLAC files, converted six albums of FLAC files to 320kbps MP3s for use on my iPod, updated my iPod catalog, and ate some cheese.
Now I’m going to go relax for a few minutes before sleep. Good night.
I’m feeling good. My immune system is finally back in gear so I can eat normal (microwaved food) again. Although I managed to add Cup O’ Noodle to my diet in the interim period.
Ran into snow today. The fortunate thing about typically getting to work 50 minutes early means that on days with bad weather I usually still make it on time. I’ve only been late to this job once by ten minutes and that was easy enough to make up on lunch break.
I’m keeping busy with lots of potential web projects. I’ve got MyTwitter that I’ve been working on and I’m also helping out with two other projects — one with my church and another one w/ some guys from Saturdays. It’s good times. Once I get a laptop I’ll be able to do even a little bit more hopefully, but this is still a hope and not quite reality.
Managed to sit in on a conversation regarding theology today. I know the term “Federal Vision” though I don’t have any grasp of the underlying theological concepts at this point. I intend to look at it more at some point, but that day is not today. Plus, due to either intellectual laziness or a more keen interest in other topics (punk rock, coding, etc.) I really am not all that interested. I’ll look into it a bit at some point though.
If I ever do read up on Federal Vision, these are the first resources I will check: Wikipedia: Federal Vision and Federal Vision and Theopedia: Federal Vision.
I just cooked one of the best meals I’ve ever done. I bought a huge, juicy steak at the grocery store after work tonight. When I got home and finished filling the refrigerator, I got down to business and begin cooking. Now, I don’t really use recipes. I called Benjamin for a bit of advise, but essentially all I did was cook the meat, flipping it every few minutes, until it looked done (slightly non-bloody, but plenty o’ pink). Oh, and I smeared a bit of oregano on it.
It turned out pretty good. After eating it I realized that steak has been a missing part of my diet for far too long, and I will be cooking more of it now.
For beverage, I drank the last Fat Tire in the fridge. For side-dishes, I cooked broccoli and French bread w/ butter. Mmm, mmm, good. It’s worth the effort to cook a good meal on occasion.