30-day writing challenge: Day 28

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Challenge, cooking, Family, Food, Life, Uncategorized

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Buzzfeed, challenge, cooking, dogs, drinking, family, Hannah Hart, Jenna Marbles, Try Guys, writing

Day 28: Post five things that make you laugh-out-loud

There are many things that make me “lol” but I’ve put down the fail-proof ones.

My mom
I love her and she is quite possibly the most mischievous individual in the world. The funniest part? She has an innocent face so she gets away with everything.

The Try Guys

Buzzfeed’s Try Guys
I discovered the Try Guys on accident when watching make-up tutorials on YouTube. If I remember correctly, I was watching a video on contouring and in the suggested videos a “The Try Guys Try Drag For The First Time” video was listed and I couldn’t resist. One of my favorite parts of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is when the queens are challenged to turn normal men into drag divas because the process is hilarious. I watched the Try Guys video and basically had to hold in the laughter the whole time in fear of waking up my parents. They also led me to be addicted to BuzzfeedVideo but I always return to Zach, Keith, Eugene and Ned for a laugh. Their Mother’s Day five-part series was amazing.

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Hannah Hart (*Note: I made a gallery of gifs because I couldn’t choose just one)
A few years ago I had watched a Jenna Marbles video paying homage to My Drunk Kitchen. After watching Jenna Marbles’ video, I had to hop over to Hannah Hart’s web series and I absolutely love her puns and mason jars. Some of my favorites are the MREs, No Quitter Fritters and Eggs Benedict.

My dogs
I’ve always loved my animals but they always make me laugh. Jules used to patrol the living room like a warden does a cell house and run into walls then huff at them as if they were harshing her mellow for being there. Kitty, our Yorkie, acts like an angel and stares at my parents with a sparkle in her eye but as soon as she looks at me her head goes down and she glares because I’m her rival. Jackson, our bulldog we lost a year-and-a-half-ago, would growl and snap at you if you got too close but as soon as there was a thunderstorm the sausage with legs would be a teeth chattering shaking mess and try to edge into your person. Mr. Bosworth, our Maltese and newest addition, is energetic and looks for trouble to cause or things to destroy. I believe he thinks my mom goes into my Macbook when she goes on vacation because anytime she’s left he gets to see her trapped on my Skype or FaceTime. I edited together a video of things he’s done while I am trying to work because he thinks he needs to rescue his mama.

My nephew
Austin, my 4-year-old nephew, loves to blame me for everything. The worst part is my mom thinks it’s too funny to pass up so she eggs him on. He also loves to tell me how to do things, what I’m doing wrong and what I should watch. He starts talking about Groot, I tell him I haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy, he gives me a “what the f***” type look, then tells me I have to watch it and even goes as far as saying he’ll let me borrow the movie…that isn’t his. He also told me I need to get Spiderman sunglasses because it will make me cooler.

30-day writing challenge: Day 27

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Challenge, College, Food, Life, student, Travel, Uncategorized

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challenge, chef, College, cooking, favorite, Food, french cuisine, organization, personal, student, travel, writing

Day 27: Conversely, write about something that’s kicking ass right now.

Anytime my parents leave town, instead of being a stereotypical college student living off ramen and frozen dinners, I cook for myself like a “real” adult. I’ve mastered a lemon garlic with rosemary roasted chicken, made up my own mashed redskin potato recipe and didn’t give myself food poisoning when cooking myself a full Thanksgiving dinner.

Since November my parents have gone on three trips, one of which lasted a month, and each time I’ve survived off my 22-year-old’s skills in the kitchen. I’ve never minded trying new things mostly because no one else was here to see my possible failure. The things that turned out well I would make for my parents when they got home admittedly to show off.

The croque monsieur I just made tonight.

Beginning in May, I was on summer break from school! Being home more meant I wanted to do something constantly, like knitting or writing challenges, so I’ve began cooking more instead of my parents doing it. I’m not saying I do most of it but I’m definitely doing more than I used to.

And I’m freaking loving it.

Just an hour ago I made my dad and I some croque monsieur for dinner. The other day I made amazing wraps from left over chicken breast, avocado, Gouda cheese, roma tomatoes and green onions. I also made a colorful and delicious pasta primavera last week that I could have eaten until I burst it was so good.

I’ve essentially become the college equivalent of an untrained, unqualified chef.

One of my favorite things to make is the above-mentioned roasted chicken which I stuff full of garlic, lemon wedges and rosemary then sprinkle garlic and rosemary olive oil on top. I usually pair it with either lemon garlic redskin potatoes or string beans with slivered almonds.

The beginning stages of my lemon garlic redskin potatoes.

It’s all easier than it sounds too. I started my recipe folder with Googling things I wanted to make or some healthier options I wanted to stash away. I keep them in a three-ring binder and have everything separated by category. I highly suggest anyone does this whether they cook or plan to in the future that way you have a reference at the ready instead of searching through the Internet looking for something to cook.

Seriously, go look for stuff to cook and save them!

30-day writing challenge: Day 26

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Challenge, Life, Uncategorized

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bugs, challenge, desire, heat, improvement, lake, Michael Scott, outdoors, sun, travel, writing

Day 26: Write about an area in your life that you’d like to improve

I have flaws. Frankly, none of them jump out as things I’d like to improve except one.

My lack of desire to be outdoors.

I hate the idea of bugs and creepy-crawlies. I hate the sun and heat. I love the rain but not the mud that it leaves behind. Basically put, my idea of roughing it is a hotel with subpar air conditioning.

Michael Scott, “The Office.”

I’ve been camping once in my life and I nearly melted from the sticky August heat. I’ve hiked around a mountain side and through a near death trap trail to a waterfall at Yosemite National Park. Being from Michigan, a state with a wide variety of outdoor friendly activities that many enjoy, you’d think I basically lived at a Cabelas stocking up for my next outdoor adventure by a lake.

Nope. No I am not.

Plenty of people I know take weekend adventures to this campsite or that hunting camp while I stay home in my cryptically cold bedroom preserving my paleness and clutching a vintage book. I’m mostly fine with it but there are times I feel like I’m missing something.

Maybe I’m just not adventurous enough but I think it boils down to needing to overcome my disgust of bugs and heat.