Study Break Pancake!

Just as the title says. Mmmm chocolate chips <3

xo, Kristin

It's Chili in Here

It's almost winter. It's cold out. It's chili season!

Chili is so easy, I don't know why I haven't made it before. I used one of those McCormick's packets, a pound of beef, and then added in canned and fresh vegetables:

Chili isn't really a picture-friendly food, but although it may look gross, trust me--it was good. I made enough to have leftovers, and I'm looking forward to eating the rest tomorrow. Hopefully chili's like soup, and it'll be even better the second time around. 

Update (1/4) - Chili is not like soup.

xo, Kristin

Soup du Jour-ney

I've hit a lot of bumps on this food journey. Most of those bumps consist of studying and lack of time. None of them include food poisoning...so far...

That is why I'm happy to say that today's food adventure had a happy ending. My friend Carly is staying with me and she suggested we do an escarole soup tonight. Through teamwork we made it work!

Paired with beer and Hungry Ghost bread, it was an awesome meal!

It was a take on this recipe.

xo, Kristin

Lets be fruity

It's berry season! To commemorate this, I've been eating boatloads of strawberries, and enjoying homegrown raspberries and black berries.

The other day I tried my skill at making perfect oatmeal pancakes. They turned out really good. I topped them off with real maple syrup and some store-bought fresh raspberries. Great and filling breakfast!

Rating: 9/10
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: 5/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, a friend that used to live in the grad house dropped off some peaches from the peach tree in her new backyard. I couldn't believe how much fruit this tree produced. There must've been at least 50 peaches in the bag she brought to us, and she said that wasn't even half. Since they were getting ripe fast, and I was a bit skeptical about biting into the peaches, which were topographically not-so-pretty, I decided to make a peach pie.

It's probably a good thing I didn't eat them raw because I found a couple worms while slicing up one of the peaches. I guess that's what you can expect from a back yard peach tree.

It was my first time making a fruit pie with peaches, and so I was kind of nervous at first, but I made it just as I would make an apple pie and it turned out great! I decided to skip any kind of lattice crust because the crust is the best part, and I want to eat a lot of it. Duh! The pie is vegan and uses an oil crust recipe passed along from grandma.

I like this picture because the pie looks like a face going :O

Rating: 9.5/10
Total Time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: 5/10

Can't wait for apple season. There will be MANY more pies to come.

Kristin

PotLuck

Martin and Debbie have arrived safely in Japan, and wont have internet for a little while, and I am on a month break from school and get to avoid preparing anything more difficult than a bowl of cereal! :D :D

I guess the blog's going to take a couple weeks hiatus. In the meantime, I leave you with some pictures from the potluck party I threw in my dormitory.

The good thing about potlucks is a lot of people bring food, and so you don't have to eat the food you yourself prepared for the potluck. The other people get stuck doing that. Ha ha! Plus, the added advantage of actually throwing the potluck means that you get to keep all the delicious leftovers.

Other people prepping food. That's what I like to see! Here we have pasta, egg plant, melting chocolate, and something green.

Mac prepares a spinach, strawberry, and fetta salad. OMG YUM.

Gorging on food. Sipping wine. Enjoying the Olympics. 

Kristin

Free meal!

Tonight I made myself sauteed kale and tomatoes with rice. Preparation was exactly how it sounds. Not hard. Not impressive. Very delicious. 

The brown rice I bought using my parents' credit card last month at Price Chopper.

The tomatoes I got for free at Stop and Shop because they were mislabeled and I complained about it.

The kale I pilfered late last night from the college community gardens.

Rating: 7/10
Prep time: Set the rice to cook in rice cooker 30 mins before sauteing veggies. Total prep time, 35 mins.
Difficulty: 3/10

Next time I'll cut up the kale into smaller pieces and not overcook the rice (I hope).

Kristin

Martin & Kristin Reunion Special

Martin came to visit me today at school and brought along the things he found in his kitchen pantry at home. We had assumed that all grocery stores were closed on the 4th of July, but found out later that every significant store in the area is open for business...

Anyway, we started out with simple spaghetti and sauce:

Rating: 9/10 (Kristin), 6/10 (Martin)
Prep Time: 10  minutes
Difficulty: 2/10

Preparation took hardly any time at all because although we suck at cooking, we can boil water, to an extent. It was pretty hard, not letting the water boil over, but somehow we made something edible.

Next, since we're really bad at timing and synchronizing our cooking/ multitasking. We had canned vegetables for desert:

Rating: 1/10 (Kristin), 2/10 (Martin)
Prep Time: 1 minute
Difficulty: 4/10

WTF canned vegetables. More difficult to prepare than you'd expect:

Martin & Kristin

Kristin's Bio

Hi I'm Kristin. I'm a graduate student at Smith College studying Education. I met both Martin and Debbie (my co-bloggers) while studying abroad in Japan our junior year of college.

Both Martin and Debbie are moving back to Japan to teach English, and I'll be stuck here reliving the hell that is being a student.

The difference is, this time I'll have to cook for myself. Even more hellish considering my limited cooking skills D:

I'm currently on the meal plan this summer, but I'll have to fend for myself on the weekends. Occasionally I will cook for myself, or prepare meals, but mostly this summer will detail the weird meals that you can put together from combinations of food stolen from the dining hall/ hoarded from the campus center cafe.

My real updates will begin in August. GET PUMPED YOU GUYS :D

Kristin