The Beauty of Black Friday

You may not celebrate it, but all know the meaning. Black Friday- pushy crowds, useless staff and house wives at their worst bickering over the last size small at Old Navy. Some folks set their alarm to get the best in stock, while others stay as far as possible. Personally, I embrace the quasi holiday. Sales? Bring em on!

However, when I'm loading up the car, it's not from the local mall...it's Wegmans. Or any grocery store for that matter. If you're a foodie, you'll understand why. Everyone in town is scrounging together their Thanksgiving feast; whether it's grabbing the last box of stuffing, or realizing you've missed out on the last frozen pie crust. But trust me when I say, these sales are worth stocking up. Pie crusts are going at a buck each, chicken stock is practically thrown at you, and berries are at a surprisingly all time low considering the weather. Obviously you may not be cooking a turkey themed banquet frequently through out the year, but these ingredients are gold.

A frozen pie crust and a bag of berries in the freezer makes for a quick, easy pie when you need to scrape something together; and chicken stock is a great start to any soup. It's cold out and you don't feel like cooking? Grab the crock pot, throw in a few veggies and you've got yourself some prime deliciousness by the time you're back from class. Another goodie, the canned soup. I think I saw mushroom soup reach 3/1.00 for the common green bean casserole. Grab these babies! Make some creamy pasta sauce when you're short on time and toss in some chicken, yum.

Foods that drop during this weekend:
Potatoes!! 1.50 for 5 pounds? You can't beat that!
Canned pumpkin- You may not use it often, but when you need it, you'll be glad it was this cheap
Cream Cheese
Flour (99 cents!)
Frozen Veggies
Chocolate Chips- I hate splurging 4 bucks for 1 batch of cookies, get these while you can



Black Friday isn't only for clothing and electronics, fill your cabinets! I know you college kids don't have the cash to be shopping every time you need something other than a tv dinner. It's easy, it's cheap. Do it.

Anatomy, meet Delmonico

Finals are quickly approaching, which can only mean even more flashcards, outlines, late nights and irrepressible spurts of ADD. Yesterday I was doing pretty well, nearing hour 4 of my anatomy notes and just a few slides from finishing. Cue, Delmonico.

Okay. So, to answer your first question. What the hell is Delmonico and why do I own any? Read here. It's just a deliciously tender steak that's a bit higher in quality than most. Trust me, it's worth the splurge! As for where I got the steak..interesting story. Keggers have a tendency to bring about uncommon interesting topics, one being how much I looove steak. No big deal, right? Next time Rico Suave here showed up at  my house, he adorned two frozen Delmonico Steaks. Not cooked, no intent of cooking them...just a tray of frozen meat. But hey, who am I to deny a steak? Hell no. I put those babies in the freezer for later use.

It might be easier to set out your ingredients on the counter since this one tends to cook a bit quickly.

1/4-1/2 cup of wine (I used white is not the typical meat wine, but it's what I had! Use red if you can)1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 Steak (obviously)
1 onion (I used a Spanish onion, it's what was in my fridge. What ever works!)
Kosher/ Sea Salt (It makes a difference compared to regular salt, spend the extra buck on this if you can)
Hot Sauce
Pepper
Olive Oil
2 gloves garlic, roughly chopped

Dishes!
1 frying pan
1 oven tray
1 cutting board... that's it

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare an oven tray lined with foil

2. Chop up your onion and garlic, roughly! You can use thinner slices of onion but they'll wilt quicker, and trust me- that little crunch is yuummmyy.
3. Picture me in a raspy voice getting chunkier as the season goes on saying "ADD YOUR EVOO TO YOUR PAN.." (No, but really)
4. Coat your steak in kosher salt and pepper. Sear it on the pan for about two minutes until both sides have been browned; don't cook the steak through! Immediately put it in the oven.
5. In the pan that you cooked your steak, pour your wine and add the butter. It'll most likely steam up first. Fun, right? Stir up all the gunk stuck to your pan, makes for better flavoring.
6. Toss in your onion and garlic. Add some thyme, salt, pepper and hot sauce for flavoring. Just a little hot sauce! You don't it to overpower the steak; it's great on its own.
7. Keep the sauce simmering, stirring the onion for a maybe 3-4 minutes or less.
8. Take your steak out, put on a plate, and douse in deliciousness. Yummm
9. Get back to your anatomy lectures.

1/12/13 Edit: One year ago I cooked these steaks with some potatoes and wine for a first date. Summary- we're still dating. And they were NOT for Rico Suave. He turned out to be pretty pretentious actually.

Great start day, thanks !

Guys, this may not apply to you quite as well. But ladies, we all know. There are the squatters, and there are the sitters. Some hover as they take care of business while others make themselves comfortable in the process. "Wait.. is she talking about toilets?" Yes. I myself am a sitter; I go as far as the protective layer of toilet paper, I know many of you do as well. The worst part is we all know it's not going to protect us from much, but we lay our pieces ever so gently around the rim anyway- it's a mental thing. Regardless, this morning I went to take care of some things, and tore my evenly sized pieces, and prepared my throne...only to leave the library like this:

Now, either I'm secretly a grown man working in an office, or clearly this picture is off the internet. I also don't know what the hell 'veer' represents this picture, so yes, I googled it. Is that not allowed? Am I giving a false representation of my story? No. You can imagine my humiliation as I strolled across the library with this gorgeous tail breezing behind me.

Thanks to that, I now ever so casually brush the back of my pants with my palm to make sure I haven't left with any additions to my outfit. I suggest you do the same.

Passion or skill?

We all have our hobbies. You pick that one thing, the one that drives you to learn more, to challenge yourself, to keep doing it, just to see if you can. Everyone has their passion, it's their thing. There's no rhyme or reason to it, it just so happens that one day you stumble across this thing, and you realize.. "I like this. A lot."

But your passion isn't always your skill. You may say to yourself "Well, that's why you keep practicing. Duh." What if you're already good at something else? What if you've already invested yourself into pursuing what you're skilled at, and your passion just sort of becomes.. a time constraint?

That's where I come in. Science driven. More specifically, a biochemistry major with my eyes set on medical school. Yet, I find myself designing wedding cakes in biology lectures and fiddling with crock pot recipes while I make flashcards at the kitchen table.

Passion versus skill. Should they be the same? Or maybe the question is one more directed toward time management. Maybe I should reconsider majors? Either way, here's where I'll be posting my attempts at cramming curried chicken and organic chemistry, bringing chocolate chip cookies to my anatomy lab, and finding that guy worth cooking dinner for when really all they want to get is wasted. Oh college, you'll make for an interesting blog...

If someone could teach me how to rotate this, that'd be great =)