Dear Diary 10/27: Monday, Monday

Okay so I haven't written in awhile because things just keep piling up. I don't even want to look at my apartment - moving sucks in general, but moving really sucks when you work 2 jobs and are taking 6 classes. BLAH!! Ok, moving on. I haven't been cooking because well I just don't have time. I'm back to my one meal a day routine and seeing as how I'm not home for that meal its a little too much work for me to plan ahead and make something. This morning Lynds and I had a mega yummy breakfast at Genies. I think its safe to say that they blow for the weekend breakfast but bring it so hard during the week. We love, love, love the huevos rancheros, and the cute(ish) boy who serves them to us. We both have called dibs on him but he can have us both -word. Since then I've been at school, and I will continue to be at school for another hour... lame. I'm in this class right now thats fucking 4 hours of graphic design history. Could be awesome except the teacher is just weird. I haven't quite figured out what his deal is, and he just RAMBLES on and on and it seems like he has no clue what is going on or how to properly articulate what he wants. On top of that, every class, every single person does a 5-10 minute presentation on an idea or something that was covered in the chapters that we had to read... ok so literally the topic I chose was presented 6 times... THE SAME SHIT, 6 TIMES!! Are you freaking kidding me, please really tell me how that is worth me paying 1000+ dollars for this class to hear about the ars moriendi six times. OH and don't even get me started on the fucking kids in this class. So its one of those classes that you can take at any time during your stay here at Ai, so we have the typical variance in demographic. HOWEVER this class seems to be filled with freshman try hard bitches... maybe my disdain for them comes from the fact that at one point I was one of them, and it irritates me. I can't believe I looked that stupid then! God the way they present
the woodcut block books go a little something like this... (and I'm not kidding)

Hi guys (wave) I'm Megan
and I'm going to talk about the ars mo-mor- ers moooryend-I. Haha I totally don't know how to say that but I guess it means like the art of dead people
Anyways this was like a way for the churches and people to learn about how to get to heaven because they are good.. because they are well. (Smiles at the fact that she thinks she just corrected herself before anyone could say anything) So yeah like these books were there so people wouldn't be scared to die ya know because the like the plague was happening and there was a lot of people dying. Oh and I don't know about you guys but I think the pictures are really, really scary, I mean I'm sorry but these would not make me feel better about dying. Oh and also umm they had pictures of demons on some but in everyone there was a man dying and yeah they were based on these other long manuscripts but I couldn't find the author of those!
THe end.. (shoulders shrug with delight)

Alright I know that I'm probably being harsh, but seriously I had to sit through this shit 5 different times. By the time I got to go (how lucky was I that I had the same topic) I still had real facts to cover because all 5 of the little bitches before me said the same shit... why ... because they are all friends and they worked on it together! OH MY GOD HOW SWEET! Seriously, after 5 presentations you would think that they would have covered the fact that this block book was oh i don't know considered one of the first forms of printed propaganda ... or how about how it was one of the first books to have free formed typography ... SERIOUSLY. OR Even better how about that the name does not fucking me the art of dead people but rather the ART OF DYING!! UGHHHHHHHH!!
I FUCKING HATE THIS CLASS -

Dear Diary 10/23: empty nest

Its been a couple of days since I've written. I don't have any new food misadventures to write about because I haven't had time to cook anything. I did however buy 2 small acorn squash at the store this morning and I am really excited to make them. I figure I will do the standard brown sugar butter treatment on one of them, but I would really like to branch out and try something new with the second one. Cooking for one is so boring by the way, especially because I have to clean up by myself.
Speaking of one, I am officially living alone again. My fatty cat maxwell has moved out since I cannot take him with me when I move across town. Fortunately I was able to give him to my step dad who Maxy Cat knows and loves. It was still heart breaking though. I pretty much cried for a long time and then stopped and then started again when I came back home and realized that he's not here. I've gotten so used to sharing my bed with him and listening to him snore in my ear. I'm not going to lie though, he annoyed the fuck out of me at times but I'm still going to miss his fat furry face.

Dear Diary 10/21: two in one day

Okay, okay, I know that I have design comps to be working on, but sometimes when I get stuck on a design I wander for inspiration. I was just wandering and I found this great list. Its from a British food blog called Very Good Taste, and its a list of the 100 things that ever omnivore should eat. I'm totally stoked to see how many things I've eaten out of the 100 so here it goes....
(I'm going to bold the ones I have had)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Ok so if I counted right, I have tried 61 out of the top 100 things an omnivore should eat. Some of the stuff on the list I was unfamiliar with, and I also think there were a lot of things left out but it was still fun!
I love food, now back to work!

Dear Diary 10/21: Misfires

After making an Italian family sized bowl of polenta Sunday night, I am now stuck trying to figure out ways to devour the rest without overdosing on polenta goodness. As I mentioned last time, the polenta I made wasn't what I was hoping it would be. I can't get mad at it though, it was our first time with each other and sometimes it just takes practice before you can get in the groove and both parties are left satisfied. The good news is that I looked up many a recipes for polenta based dishes and feel like I have prepared myself for the polenta dishes to follow in the week.
Last night I scooped up balls of the polenta and attempted to fry them in a little olive oil. My intentions were good, however my mission failed. I was left with one big blob of reheated polenta to which I added some of the roasted chicken and some tomato sauce. It was good, but it could have been better. The tomato choked out all other flavors and I became haunted with memories of my mothers stewed tomatoes (sorry mom). Anyways I think its safe to say that so far I have not succeeded in my quest for creamy deliciousness. I'm not going to give up! I am now left with an obese American family sized portion of polenta, half of a roasted chicken and determination. My next battle.... polenta soup!

Dear Diary 10/19: sunday

I had a hard time writing yesterday. I'm probably going to have a hard time writing today as well - sometimes it just doesn't feel right no matter how much I try. After a majorly unproductive afternoon I decided to roll out of the groove I've managed to create in my mattress and shower. Showering then led me to the realization that I didn't have any clean towels ... EWW... so then I started to do laundry because its been awhile. Laundry sucks. Anyways after that I started feeling semi productive because when I gathered all my dirty clothes up I suddenly had a clean bathroom and my floor was clear.
Anyways this is all good and boring to read about I'm sure but I'm getting to the good stuff. After a couple of great conversations with some people that I absolutely adore I decided that I wanted to cook myself a beautiful dinner. I'm in love with food. Really if I could do anything I would eat, breathe, sleep, food. I've recently started a horribly addicting habit of reading food blogs. I'm becoming obsessive. I want one! I want to cook more! UH! I'm being whiny and stomping my feet. Once upon a year ago I used to be involved with some pretty amazing dinner parties. Seriously these dinners were so amazing. Great wine, beautiful food, dynamic people and did I mention the food? I mostly watched and ate but I did make an amazing cheesecake one time. It was lavender with a marcona almond crust... I picked the lavender from the garden and made everything from scratch. It was pretty fantastic.
Its hard because I lack the knowledge to be great at this whole foodie thing. I want to get there, and I'm sure I will, its just going to take some time and some friends who want to eat!
I made polenta with roasted chicken last night. The polenta was not what I thought it was going to be, it lacked that creamy goodness flavor. I'm going to have to consult the chefs in my life to find out where I went wrong. Also, two cups of polenta turns into be enough food for like 6 people... So I am going to be eating a lot of polenta this week.
More on my culinary adventures later

Dear Diary 10/15: perspective

I've decided to leave my old blog behind and embark on a new journey with this one. Keep in mind this will eventually be part of my portfolio, but I find it fitting to share the inner workings of my life as well as my designs (which will be posted one day). Currently the only thing on my mind is a conversation that was had late at night, while laying in bed, both of us speaking with a level of honesty that can sometimes only be reached when you're too tired to care about the risks of truths. After bearing my confessions I had the weirdest night sleep ever. Tosses and turns were met with hourly wake ups to check the time, and make sure I hadn't slept through my alarm. When I finally gave up and decided it was easier to wake up earlier than continue to have an awful nights sleep I sat there and wondered if I had actually just complicated my situation 10fold by being honest. Then again I thought, I wasn't really that honest, and in reality it doesn't even matter. I have a knack for surrounding myself with social circumstances that distract me from my grueling work loads. I keep hoping that I am going to wake up and not be tired. I keep telling my body that we just have to get used to the new chaos I've added to the roster and we can get through it. I'm pretty confident in myself right now. I'm taking on a huge load and even though the ones closest to me are doubtful that I will be able to make it through, I know I can do it. Its all a matter of perspective. I'm pretty sure the saying is "nothing that is worth doing is ever easy" well guess what I totally think graduating in March and moving to New York is worth doing so I'm going to fucking do it!
At the end of the day it doesn't make a difference if you decide to help me, leave me, cheer for me, scorn me, adore me, or what have you because I'm finding that I have more strength than I ever thought I did and I'm completely empowered.

First Step

I am taking my first steps towards creating my future, and its all starting right now.