Halloween

So, I've noticed that I'm the only person in my neighborhood that's decorated for Halloween, and it's really depressing... On the bright side, my decorations are awesome, and I just did an epic pumpkin carving

I decided that since I got a pretty awesome Joker costume recently, my decorations needed to represent the Clown Prince of Crime appropriately 

Here's how the carving looks/went

And here is my apartment:

Blah blah

So the pay period is officially over (finished it with a grand total of 130 hours in 2 weeks), but I still have two more days of work left before I get to have a weekend.

I honestly have mixed feelings about my days off... I mean, it's sweet as hell that I get two days in a row, never mind that I'm extra lucky that those to days are Saturday and Sunday, but I never really know what to do with myself... I usually just end up doing laundry and cleaning up my apartment, which doesn't take long considering I pretty much only have to wash my work uniforms and have a fairly small apartment. In fact, I usually just spend most of my days off sitting on my ass and watching random shit on Netflix.

Don't get me wrong here, I love my days off. They keep me from going crazy...er... I just wish I had something that resembles a social life for those two days... I guess that's the downside to living alone in a state where you don't know anybody... Oh well. C'est la vie.

Overtime

The best feeling in the world is knowing that the last two days of a pay period are going to be completely overtime... Especially when one of those days is a guaranteed 10 hours and there's a chance that the other day is going to be a double

Ugh

One day off is not nearly enough time to recover from 13 days straight.... Could be worse I guess... I could have been forced to work yesterday, which would have made that 13 day streak magically turn into a 19 day streak

Thinking I might try to do a recipe walk through for you guys soonish... Don't expect a miracle though

I don't like titles

I just gotta say, one of the best things to have in the morning is a pot of Earl Grey tea and a nice piece of cheesecake while watching an awesome TV show 

Activity

It's been a hell of a long time since I've made a post.... I'm gonna try to start being more active here and on other social media outlets, but don't expect too much from me.

I'm currently working as the sauté cook at Reynold's Landing, which is one of the clubhouses that make up the Reynolds Plantation country club (if you saw the Big Break Invitational golf tournament, that was at Reynolds, and I made some of the food for that shit). I'm trying to get bumped up to Lead Line, and I'm feeling that it's gonna happen soon-ish (fingers crossed).

Probably won't do too many updates for this blog from my computer, which means things are gonna be short and sweet until I decide to do something longer.

That's all for now. Over and out

Cheesecake

So I figured I'd give you guys a "how to" thing. It's not a video, but I took a bunch of pictures.

The topic is: How to make a cheesecake

gather all ingredients and equipment. (Not Pictured: Mixing bowl, spoon, vanilla extract). If you don't have a stand mixer, a hand mixer is fine. If you don't have any kind of mixer, go buy one. Otherwise, making a cheesecake will be a gigantic pain in your ass. Also, make sure your baking sheet has fairly tall lips on all of its edges.

measure out 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs. If you prefer a thicker crust, use 1 1/2 cups

Melt 4-6 Tablespoons of butter, depending on your decision with the graham cracker crumbs.

This is what your butter should look like when it's melted. If browned, don't use it. If there's any unmelted butter, make sure it's melted before you continue

pour your butter onto your graham cracker crumbs and mix. If you don't want to get your hands covered in butter and crumbs, you can use a spoon. However, I highly recommend mixing by hand... Makes people able to taste the love... or whatever the hell it is on your hands.

If you can form a ball that does not fall apart with your crumbs, you've added enough butter. If it doesn't stay together, add another tablespoon of melted butter

spread the crumbs evenly on the bottom of your spring-form pan. I usually put a tight tin-foil wrap over the base of the pan to make it easier to remove the cheesecake when it's done. I didn't do it this time though. Put it on your cookie sheet and bake at 350 F (176.7 C) for 5 minutes. While you're waiting, move to the next step. (NOTE: I used an 8 inch spring-form pan. A larger size means a thinner crust and thinner cheesecake. Make sure you test the recipe and alter it to suit your needs... Either that, or buy an 8 inch spring-form and follow my directions perfectly)

Place 1 pound of softened cream cheese and one cup of sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer; put it into a clean mixing bowl if you have a hand mixer. If you have neither, go to Walmart and buy one. Seriously, hand mixers aren't that expensive. Why are you still reading this recipe when I told you at the beginning to make sure you have some sort of mechanical mixer? It doesn't even have to be electric!

Cream together the cream cheese and sugar. If it looks like the above picture, your cream cheese wasn't as soft as it should have been.

This is how you want the sugar/cream cheese mix to look.

By this point, your crumbs should be nice and golden. Pull them out of the oven and set the pan somewhere to cool.

Add 1 Tablespoon of vanilla and 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the cream cheese and mix until it's nice and creamy

Add two eggs to the mix. Make sure you do it one at a time, and make sure you completely incorporate the first egg before adding the second. Why? Because I fucking said so. That's why.

If it looks like this, keep mixing.

Once it looks like this, add your second egg and mix until it looks like the picture below.

Make sure you scrape your bowl. If you don't, your batter will end up chunky and disgusting.

If you mix and scrape and mix again, you should have this. A nice, smooth, creamy batter.

Dump the batter on top of your now cool crumbs and spread it evenly.

Make sure you get as much of the batter as possible out of your bowl. This has two benefits. First, your cheesecake is gonna have a good amount of batter. Second, you won't be wasting any money.

These next steps are optional, but I've included them so you can know how to do it.

Using a double boiler (Or two pots like I did) melt about 1/4 cup of butterscotch chips with about 1/8 cup of heavy cream.

Pour the melted butterscotch on top of your cheesecake thusly.

Do the same with some melted chocolate.

While the chocolate and butterscotch are still hot, take a toothpick and draw lines from the center out (This was my first time using this method, so it got a little funky)

Fill the bottom of your baking sheet with about 1/4in (~1/2cm) of water (This is why you need to make sure you have tall lips on the sides of your pan)

Bake at 200 F (93.3 C) for 2 hours.

 

 If you don't have a topping that gets baked onto the cheesecake, you can tell it's done by lightly shaking it. If it doesn't jiggle, it's done. A toothpick poked into the center should also come out mostly clean. Let the whole thing cool to room temperature before proceeding to the next step

Remove the outer ring of the spring-form pan and place the cheesecake, along with the base of the pan, in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Once the cheesecake is completely cold, it should be safe to try to remove it from the base of the spring-form pan. This can be done by GENTLY sliding a knife between the crust and the pan base and moving the knife completely around the cake. You should then be able to use the knife to provide a small amount of leverage, which can then be used to carefully slide the cake onto a plate or serving platter.

You are now ready to cut and eat your cheesecake.

I recommend using a knife that's been dipped in very hot water to cut the cake, as you'll get cleaner cuts.

You will notice that I didn't give a recipe before going through the method... That's because I don't feel like it. Also, because I feel you guys are smart enough to be able to find the measurements and other pertinent info in the instructions...

Also note: If you don't want to use the butterscotch-chocolate mix that I used, just ignore that part and substitute anything you want. You can use pretty much anything... From canned pie filling, to homemade fruit sauce, to fresh fruit... Hell, if you wanted, you could probably put gravy over the damn thing... I don't recommend the gravy though...

This is a general method for cheesecake. Feel free to experiment with it. You could add 1/4 cup of melted chocolate to the batter to make a chocolate cheesecake if you so desired.

Well, that's all for now... Enjoy!

Been a while

Yes, I know, it's been forever since my last post. As I said then, though, I haven't really had time.

The only reason I have time now because I'm waiting for a tutee to show up. I got out of class at 11:30 and the appointment is for 2, so I got a lot of time to waste.

Let's see... What's new?

I got a response from Schloss Elmau... They offered me an internship! :D

I need to get a passport and send them a copy, but that's all they're really asking me for... Well, that, and to show up on the day I told them I would, which means I need to buy a plane ticket.

I just wish I made more money so I could actually afford a plane ticket... hahaha


Anyway, other than that, there really isn't anything you don't already know about what's going on. Work is still decent. School still sucks. Relationship is still awesome.

I would give you guys a recipe, but nobody seems to care about stuff like that, so I won't bother... That, and I don't have a recipe on me right now. If you want me to change my mind, I'm gonna need at least three comments asking for a recipe. That way I know that more than two of my 10 followers actually read this thing

Time

So I haven't really had time to blog recently, what with tutoring, work and class. Even when I do have time to sit down at a computer, I usually have to do homework or I just don't feel like blogging. I mean, let's be honest, barely anybody reads this blog, so it's not like me not posting will ruin anybody's life.

Anyway... Yesterday I celebrated the big 2-1. After I got done with tutoring, I went to ABC and bought a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Captain Morgan, went back to my town house and, with the help of my good friends Beckie and David, drank 3/4 of each bottle.

Needless to say, I barely remember anything that happened last night. Wanna know what made it better? I had to wake up at 6 this morning to take Beckie to the train station and then head to a 7:30 Spanish class. Icing on the cake: Beckie missed her train, so we decided that she'll just hitch a ride with me back to PA when I leave Saturday night. She's gonna help me stay awake and probably drive a little bit. haha

Anyway, that's pretty much all I got for now... See? Even when I don't blog for a month, I still have nothing of interest to say.

Don't ask for a recipe, because I don't feel like typing one up right now

Ugh...

I hate when a new term starts at the end of the month... I spent over $300 on books, which wiped out my bank account. Now rent is due this week, and I have to hope that my paycheck gets deposited before the check I wrote for that starts to process...

Not only that, but my classes this term have a much higher workload than the classes I had last term, and Anna and I have been arguing a lot more often. I would say I wish I was 21 so I could drink, but with the way I'm wired, alcohol wouldn't make me feel better... Sure, it'd distract me a bit, but I'm not the kind of person to drink out of stress. I drink to help myself unwind and relax after a long day. I mean... Yeah, I use it to get rid of work-related stress, but that's all it does for me. Financial, academic and romantic stress can't be solved with alcohol... Not when it comes to me anyway.

I guess what it comes to is that I'm terrified. I can work through the academic stuff, no problem. It's the financial and romantic stuff that's getting to me most...

I'm barely making enough money to get by. I literally have just enough in my checking account to cover my bills, assuming my rent check doesn't start to process until Friday. Granted, after this week, things will get a little better, but this situation will probably come up next month. Won't be as bad, but it's still gonna be stressful.

The romantic stuff is what's really getting to me right now though... I feel like Anna is starting to drift away from me, and there's nothing I can do about it. I try to talk to her every day, but her extracurriculars keep her really busy, and when she's not doing that, she's with her friends, which means she can't exactly talk to me, even through text messages. And when we do talk, we almost always end up getting into an argument over something trivial, and then it turns into her accusing me of making her look and feel stupid and saying that I don't understand her and that I'm an asshole because I can't follow the logic that she doesn't even try to explain. Sometimes I find myself wondering if she's trying to find an excuse to break up with me... Sometimes I feel like she doesn't love me as much as she used to, and when I feel like that, I can't stop myself from wondering if she's interested in someone else. Then I think about how the only reason she agreed to go out with me in the first place was due to pity, and wonder if its that same pity that's keeping her from breaking up with me...

And, of course, no matter how many times I tell myself that Anna wouldn't lie about how she feels, I can't shake the fear that she is. Before Anna and I got together, I spent six months o my life believing that someone had feelings for me, only to find out that she had been lying about how she felt since the beginning. That's hard to recover from. Just over three years later and I'm only recently able to look at the girl without remembering what she did to me, but even so, the fear is there and it's going away. Hell, right now it's stronger than it's ever been...

And of course, I know that the next time I see her, these stupid feelings will go away... Because that's how it always goes

Sorry about the emotional outpouring, but it needed to be done...