Easter

I don't know about you but if you're anything like me, people on transit are annoying. I was en route to work yesterday morning, and there is a man... about 400 pounds passed out on the bus snoring as loud as humanly possible. Everyone was staring and he got off at the second to last stop, even worse. I was truly jealous of all the people around me with headphones on, what I would have done for a pair. 
I haven't done anything exciting, nor cooked anything exciting due to my lack of motivation. 
For Easter today we cooked some eggs that were pinterest inspired and then studied for our finals, what a wonderful holiday. It was so nice out so we decided to go down to the beach and collect some rocks for the rock mat that I am making! Also pinterest inspired. I obviously need some original ideas of my own but for now pinterest is inspiring my creativity. I think once we move to our new place I will start doing a lot more crafts and cooking and baking! 
Happy Easter!

Crab Bisque

What a stressful last week I've had! School is killing me! Thankfully it is my last week of classes and I will get a small break before the summer semester starts. I worked over the weekend, 5 hours of hauling buggies in the pouring rain. Needless to say, I was pretty choked. I thought people were bad drivers in the Lower Mainland. they are even worse in the rain. I was wearing the brightest florescent rain jacket, and yet I almost got hit by a few cars! I am extremely motivated to get a career now! That's the only positive about working lame jobs when you're young. I haven't been cooking much recently so I don't have any NEW recipes. But I can post one of my all time favourites...


Obviously I did not take this picture, as I am not that crafty to get shells from the beach and have a crab-bisque photo shoot. But I thought perhaps it would give you an idea of what it should look like!

Crab-Bisque (The best soup you'll ever have)

2 tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp minced onion
2 1/2 Tbsp Flour
2 cups chicken soup broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups half & half
1/2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp dry white wine (optional)
Crab Meat (I usually use two small cans)
1 Tbsp Parsley

First, melt butter add onion & saute. Next add flour and stir until bubbly. Add chicken soup broth and tomato paste.  Whisk mixture until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and boil. Once it is at a boil reduce to low.Add parsley before you serve.

This is excellent any time of the year, & I definitely recommend it!

Stuck in my room, writing a paper on sex offenders & doing a presentation on Incarceration. Did I mention I can't wait until summer? My list of things to do is endless, I truly feel that being a university student is all about an endurance test... how long can you deal with being broke, having bad professors, being constantly disappointed.. and all that other lovely stuff! Fact from my sex offender paper.... did you know that most college aged males would rape someone if they were guaranteed they wouldn't be caught? Terrible I know. And that most people who rape aren't actually mentally ill? Only about 5%.

Crime is all that's on my brain today but I think that I will share a recipe for these magnificent chocolate chip cookies I made about two weeks ago. I am a chocolate addict, and I will tell you that this recipe was by far one of the best. 

mmmmm.....

Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 cup White Sugar

1  Egg

1 Egg Yolk

3/4 cup melted Butter

1 cup Packed Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips (I always add a little extra!)

also, I added sliced almonds to mine, and it was a great extra! I am sure any nut will do.

Preheat the oven to 325C 

Stir together flour & baking soda in a bowl

In another bowl mix the rest of the ingredients together. Slowly stir in the flour/baking soda mixture. 

Add chocolate chips & almonds

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Something I always do when baking cookies is after they are done baking, I put them in a container and put a lid on right after I take the cookies off the pan. It keeps them moist, and chewy a lot longer. These are perfect snacks & great for chocolate lovers ! 

Happy Monday to all :)

Did I ever mention how much I just love writing in APA style? Putting one period in the wrong place and getting marks taken off. Thank-god this semester is almost over, I am drowning in homework and my brain is on overload. And there's this shiny thing in the sky for once, I think it's called the sun. But I can't get too excited, because knowing Vancouver it will probably snow tomorrow, then rain for another 30 days straight. Perhaps I will go work out, then bake something fattening, if you have never tried these peanut-butter, chocolate, pretzel brownies you should, you will feel completely guilty for eating them, but at the same time thank yourself because they are so incredibly good.

obviously mine are not as beautiful as the picture, but I am working on perfecting the look. Just remember, tastes over looks.

Basically, to make the crust, I crushed up some pretzels and the amount you use really depends on how big your pan is. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels, 1 cup of butter, and 5 tbsp of sugar. So, because I already felt guilty for making this I used just enough butter to make it stick together, and 1 tbsp of sugar. 

After you prepare this and mix it together flatten a layer on the bottom of your pan.

Then, I used betty crocker peanut butter cookie mix to  make the next layer, on top of the pretezels

After your peanut butter cookie layer is in place, spread out reese peanut butter cups, I used just 12 

Lastly, brownie mix! Prepare it as it says on the box, or if you are a keener make it from scratch! Then pour that on top and bake.

You will love & hate your life all at the same time. Enjoy it! 

Usually, I haven't been the blogging type. I have never had one or wanted one because I am pretty sure no one wants to read about my boring life of homework, work, and more homework. But riding on Vancouver transit and seeing all the characters made me think... maybe I should start a blog called transit people. Because some of these people are so bizarre I just feel the need to share how amusing it is with everyone. So instead I made this blog, about my life as a broke university student. Since I can't take pictures of these people (because I will get sued) maybe I will just write about them, amongst my recipes and what other random things I feel like talking about. As of right now I have not taken transit today, typically not as many weirdos over here in Burnaby as there are in Vancouver but maybe I will spot something worth writing about. I think the girl with a giant wade of kleenex hanging out of her nose is worth noting, because she looked like she had no idea that it was there. I feel like my ability to act normal would be affected by a huge wade of kleenex hanging out of my nose on a bus full of people. But then again, there is a lot weirder things going on than someone with a possible nose bleed.

Shrimp Creole

Personal Spin on Shrimp Creole

So for Valentines day my boyfriend decided to cook some Louisiana style shrimp creole and this was an amazing recipe! Not often can food turn out like this unless you are actually in New Orleans! It only takes about 20-25 minutes or less to make and is great served over rice. 

Recipe

3 tbsp oil (I use olive)

2 tbsp flour

4 green onions with tops chopped fine

1 clove of garlic (my boyfriend thought a clove was the entire thing so he added about 4 cloves but it wasn't too noticeable)

2 ribs of celery finely chopped

2 (16 oz) cans of tomatoes

1 tsp salt or thyme

1 large bay leaf crumbled

Black Pepper

1/2 lb of Shrimp

Also, we added salmon chopped finely instead of the crawfish, because we don't have access to that here! But the salmon was just as good of an addition, I am sure that scallops would also do!

Instructions:

Heat oil in dutch oven, add flour and oil -- stir until it turns a light brown. Add onions and garlic, cook until tender. Add tomatoes, bay leaf, celery, simmer until thick. Add shrimp (and whatever other seafood you choose) and serve over rice. 

Definitely we did not follow these instructions to the T, and I don't think you will have to either! Just watch it, eyeballing can sometimes be just fine.

Enjoy!