Lazy Girl Recipes: Honey Ginger Chicken

When it comes to cooking, I'm pretty... relaxed. I love doing it, but I'm no gourmet cook. I mean, come on, I'm in college; I can deal with Descartes before noon, but ain't nobody got time for fancy recipes. But if college has taught me anything, it's that variety is the spice of life, particularly when it comes to food. So I've been experimenting, and I've come up with some pretty good recipes for those of us on a budget.

Without further ado, may I present my Honey-ginger Chicken recipe?

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ginger paste
1 Tbsp honey
Salt and pepper
1 frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breast

Equipment:
pyrex dish
foil

What to do:
If you are ambitious you could thaw your chicken, but if you're a lazy bum like me, you can pull it straight out of the freezer. Dump all the ingredients on the chicken. If you want to be fancy, you could mix the olive oil, spices, and honey in a small bowl, but I usually just pour them straight on to the meat. Cover with foil and cook at 350-400 until the chicken is done through. *If your chicken is frozen it can take up to an hour to cook.*

Okay, so I totally took a bite before I took the picture. It was just too yummy!

Tidings of Comfort and Joy: Part 2

I wrote this yesterday, but I passed out before I could post it. What can I say? It's hard to be the birthday girl!

Today is my birthday, and like Sydney says, one of the good things about having a birthday so close to New Years is that you get two fresh starts at once. 2013 was a pretty crazy year for me; in fact, it's hard to believe that I crammed so much into one year. 

Right after my last birthday, I jumped on a plane and went to a foreign country. I thought about turning around and running away from the security lines. I thought about not going, but I got on that plane and took off into the great unknown, called Italy, and for four months, I lived in the Italian countryside, sharing a room with two other girls.

I explored Rome, eating gelato and drinking delicious coffee. We studied art and visited museums. We saw beautiful churches, got lost a lot, and became very familiar with the Roman metro system. We also just took time to wander: to drink in the sights and sounds of the eternal city. 

Then one Monday morning, as I was sitting in Art History thinking about lunch, as lovely pasta smells wafted from the Cafeteria, Pope Benedict resigned. It was the saddest thing I'd ever heard, until we realized the we were going to be there for the conclave... 

But we did say a proper good bye to Pope Benedict. I was one of the first hundred people into St. Peter's for his last Mass on Ash Wednesday. We went to his final papal audience, and, of course, we wished him a very epic good bye from our football pitch. 

Photo Cred: James Bernard

Then we waited. Our group went to Greece while we waited, but not without much grumbling. There probably would have been a mutiny if the conclave had started while we were there.But, luckily for us, God worked around our schedules, and the conclave started right after we got back to Rome. 

Then one day I blew off my homework to go into Rome. Of course, there was no point, because they weren't going to pick a pope that day, and of course, I know these things. Oh how wrong I was.

 I was standing in a huge crowd, trying desperately to be under a random Italian man's umbrella without being too obvious. Then everyone started screaming, but I was like, "Oh. Black smoke. Lame." Again, my psychic intelligence was working like a charm. 

Photo Cred: Grey.

Then this guy turned up. This photo still sends chills up my back. I can't believe that we just happened to be there! It was the craziest things that has ever happened to me. Every time I think about it I wanted to run around screaming, which is basically what I did at the real thing. 

After all the excitement of the Papal election, I couldn't possibly write a paper, so I wrote it about an our before it was due, turned that sucker in, packed my bags, and headed off to Germany! 

And, boy, was it ever cold! We spent a couple of days in Munich, and then our group split up, and four of us headed to Salzburg where we spent about four days, hanging out, hiking, and generally having a good time. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Mozart museum is not exactly the most riveting thing in the world. 

Then we went back to Rome, and it was crazy how fast the rest of the semester went by! We took a trip to Florence and Venice. I loved Venice, but it just is not the city for those of us who are, ahem, directionally challenged, but I absolutely fell in love with Florence! I actually went back because I just had not had enough time to soak in all the art! 

Then we hit finals, and before we knew it, it was time to go! So my now-roommates and I headed off to the UK! This was definitely the wackiest trip I took, but it was also one of the most fun. We hit London, Edinburgh, and Dublin in a week! Of course, we just didn't do these cities justice, but we did the best we could. 

I should also mention that we saw the Sutton Hoo helmet, which was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. I may or may not have had a total fangirl moment in front of this display case. 

Then my friends went home, and I went back to the city where I grew up, which was amazing. I hadn't been back since we moved ten years ago, and it was so nice to just see familiar sights. I had a lot of time to myself, so I just wandered around, but after four crazy months, it was nice to slow down for awhile.

Then, finally, I came home. In that same week, I went to work at camp, and my dear Joy moved. You hear that crack? That's my heart breaking. But she's doing a great job caring for her grandmother, so even though I miss our crazy shenanigans, I guess I can spare her. 

Then after a very long and exhausting week at Camp Cheery, I went to work at Nerd Camp. Also, in case you were wondering, camp and jet-lag don't mix. Nerd camp was a ton of fun. My two coworkers were fantastic, and all thirty of the kids were terrific. So I spent my summer running all over the country: NC, Texas, Tennessee, and back to NC!

Then it was time for school to start, and suddenly I was a junior, which was a little confusing because I was pretty sure that I was just a Freshman, but hey, I made it through one of the craziest semesters of my life. I studied Elizabeth Bishop and Chaucer and even some old English. I caught up with old friends and made some new ones. This semester had some all time highs, as well as some all time lows, but I got out more or less unscathed. 

 I can't really think of an unsentimental way to end this ridiculously long post, so here goes; 2013 was a big year for me. I grew a lot as a person, and I had some really great experiences, but it was also a very trying year with a lot of heart break. So I'm not exactly sorry to see 2013 go, and we'll see what 2014 has to offer. 

7 Quick Takes (Because it's Tuesday Night or Wednesday Morning)

1

I'm sorry for not keeping you all updated on this, but baby Caroline is now a healthy six week old! She had surgery almost immediately after she was born, but it all went well and she was able to go home much earlier than originally anticipated! I now shamelessly creep on her parents' facebooks because she is such a cutie! Thank you all so much for your prayers, and if you are at all able please donate to the Caroline Reedy Fund, which will help defray the cost of all her medical care!

2

Motivation is running awfully low here at Bag End after our Thanksgiving break. We're currently justifying our utter sloth by having a who-can-put-up-the-most-Christmas-decorations contest with the boys next door. They may have lights on their porch, but dadgum we have a pine tree scented candle and an advent calendar with milk chocolate behind every door! 

3

I have two research papers due in a week, and I've even started one of them! Words on a page is progress, and, they're even real words! I didn't just whack my head repeatedly on my keyboard. Hey, at this point in the semester this is a real accomplishment. 

4

Recently I've really been missing the Pope. Not Rome. Not Italy. Not even Gelato. Just the Pope. Everytime I get on twitter and see the papal tweets (in three languages, for some reason I can't figure out), I get super weepy and emotional, and if someone even mentions Pope Benedict, I'm gone. This is probably the most bizarre case of "homesickness" I've ever had.

5

The weather is Texas is more indecisive than a bipolar pregnant lady. It was freezing for two weeks: absolutely freezing, and I had no winter clothes. So I spent two weeks shivering and miserable, but when I finally go home and get all my winter clothes what happens? Texas decides to have a week of 70 degree weather. Thanks, Texas. 

6

 My favorite part of the fall semester, intramural softball, is over. Not that I play or anything. I've had far too many accidents with these so-called sports to get anywhere close to those bats, but I am a great groupie. I really love going to watch all my friends play, and no matter what the score is, they're still may favorite team. (Okay, let's be real, I go to the games to socialize with my other non-athletic friends, but the game is a good excuse to, oh, I don't know, not write papers...)

7

I started making a books-I would-really-really-like-for-Christmas list, and shall we say it's getting a little long. As in, it may or may not be longer than the afore mentioned research paper. I have this great plan for getting a ton of reading done over break, but if previous breaks are any indicator, we'll just have to see what happens. 

Day 17

Dear Diary,
I've been stranded in this wasteland for 17 days now with no sign of rescue. The monsoon season is coming, and I have developed a cold. My only hope for recovery lies in a potion that one of the locals gave me. It is a startling shade of blue, and apparently, if taken in excess can kill you. One of the natives has undertaken it to teach me their poetry. Today, he tried to teach me about the meter of their poems, but in my weakened state I could barely understand him. I am, however, eager to learn and am trying my best to scan one of their native laments. I hope someday to write an intelligent essay on the matter. Perhaps, if I make it through this ordeal alive, I can have it published.
I have also moved my living quarters and am now installed in a tiny wooden box measuring about three feet by three feet, with room only for a small wooden table on which I spread my books. It is neither large nor comfortable, but I must stay here until the period of final examination, by the natives' calendar, has past. Sleep is irrelevant and nourishment unnecessary. If you find my bones here, commend my soul to the Lord and give me a proper burial. 

Apparently, I wrote this the other day, while sitting in the library. It worries me somewhat that I have only vague memories of this event.

Life at Bag End, Among Other Things

Well, we're finally settled into our apartment, and the semester is in full swing. We've christened our apartment Bag End, which really makes no sense because we live on the second floor and our front door is decidedly rectangular, but we needed a name for our wifi, so after rejecting "The Wardrobe", "Narnia", and other such names we decided that Bag End seemed dorky and literary enough for our home. Little did we know what repercussions our seemingly innocent wifi naming would have. Now we all have Hobbit names: I'm Merry because apparently he was the youngest hobbit in the fellowship.

We're still working on decorating the rest of the apartment, but I've definitely got my room all sorted out. Sure, it's basically the same as last year, but our apartment is cute that I just have to share it. I absolutely love the window above my bed! I doubt you can see it, but there's a tree right outside, so it's like our room is in a tree house! As you can see Little Miss Sunshine is still around, and what's even scarier, after a year in storage her batteries still work, which is utterly terrifying when, oh you know, you sit on her in the middle of the night, and suddenly a cheery voice says, "Hooray for everybody!" Terrifying I tell you.

I'm also doing a pretty good job keeping myself well fed. My roommates are always chopping vegetables and stuff, like they're gourmet ninja's or something, while I'm dumping things out of cans on to frozen chicken. But all in all I feel pretty satisfied with myself.

This is one of my favorite "quick fixes" from last week. Basically what I did was brown some ground turkey in a frying pan with some olive oil and other spices, then I added it to a jar of Prego pasta sauce. Sure, not the most original recipe ever, but it's a good way to add some protein to basic pasta.

As far as classes go, my schedule is pretty weird: I have classes at 10 or 11, and then my next one won't be until about 3 in the afternoon. I really hate afternoon classes because if I've spent my day studying, the last thing I want to do is go sit in a classroom for an hour. I really prefer to get my classes over with as early as possible, so I can work all afternoon and then, occasionally, have the evening to do my own thing. On the up side, I really do like all my classes, so it's worth the goofy schedule.

I did decide to drop down to twelve credits this semester, which does feel like kind of a cop out, but I am taking four upper level English classes, so I need the extra time just to get all my reading done. I had originally thought about auditing an intensive German class, but I'm already taking Old English this semester, and I really just don't have time to learn another language. Unfortunately, because the German language is absolutely beautiful. Ah, well, perhaps Senior year.

Speaking of English classes, I am really excited about my major now. This semester I'm focusing heavily on poetry, what with the Junior Poetry project as well as Medieval Lit., and we're even translating a lot of Anglo-Saxon poetry in Old English! I have studied poetry before, but never as intensely as we are this semester. I have a feeling that soon I'll be spouting lyric out of my ears.

Even though I'm not getting to spend this semester without one of the loves of my life (German), I am getting to spend a lot of time with my other one- the Anglo-Saxons. I don't know what it is about those lovely tribes, but I absolutely love them. I was a little wary about Old English at first, but when I got the syllabus, and realized that the first class was entitled "Getting in Touch with your Inner Anglo-Saxon", I knew that I was in the right place. The first poem we worked on- Caedmon's Hymn, is one of my favorites, and I actually translated it out of Medieval Latin when I was in high school, so I was super excited to get to read it in the language in which it was composed. The Anglo-Saxon history class I took last semester is also helping me out a lot both in Old English as well as Medieval Lit., which is really nice because I already done most of the reading for both classes.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be working on the Wife's Lament!

Brownies and Elizabeth Bishop

I knew that my life had reached an all time low today, when I went up to my mother and said, "Mom, all my friends are either engaged or have chosen their poets for the project." Obviously there's not a lot I can do about the latter, but I decided that today was the day that I finally chose a poet for my Junior poetry project. So off I went to the coffee shop armed with my new satchel and my ever trusty copy of the Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Originally my plan had been to read every poet on the list, and then chose one, but eventually I just ran out of poets than interest me. What with the semester being only 3 weeks away, I figured I had better get a move on, so I went back and reread the poets I had really liked. And several hours later I decided on Elizabeth Bishop! You have no idea how happy I was about this decision. I mean, I couldn't stop smiling. If I can't be engaged, this is obviously the next best thing, obviously.

Then, after Mass, I decided to throw health to the winds and bake brownies rather than going for a run. Who needs health anyway? I used this recipe, but I substituted almond extract for vanilla, not because I'm artsy or anything, we were just out of vanilla extract. I also tried to substitute shortening for oil, which somehow didn't work out. Then just when you think I've messed up enough, I decided to make these celebratory brownies. After all, it isn't everyday you pick your junior poet, so I found some writing frosting in the cabinet and frosted "Bishop" in very amateur writing. The writing started out okay, but I ran out of room, so the last three letters were all squished together. So we ate greasy, almond-y brownies, bad decoration and all. Yep, Elizabeth, they were a disaster (and they didn't just look like it).

Summer Reading and Kiddie Poetry

Summer boredom has officially set in. Well, it set in in June, then took a break while I had a blast at nerd camp and with my grandmothers during the month of July, but now its back in full force. I also deleted by pinterest account (no more mindless pinning. No more wasting my life), so now I'm trying to remember what worthwhile things we did before we pinned.

Today I read a book. It has been an embarrassingly long time since I read a book for fun (The Norton Anthology of Poetry doesn't count). Okay, it's been like a month, but I'm an English major, so the bar is pretty high. Yeah, because English majors are that snobby (sarcasm). Anyway, at the moment I am giggling my way through my first every Terry Pratchett book. That man is a genius. I suppose my pinterest addiction had led me away from intelligent humor, but my goodness, Pratchett is hilarious. I've also realized that my summer reading list has been... eclectic to say the least. So far I have read The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, My Anthonia by Willa Cather,  Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym, and Good Omens by the aforementioned Mr. Prachett. I'm not sure what's next on my list, but I am considering another Pratchett book, possibly Going Postal.

On a more juvenile note, I have been desperately seeking the audiobook of Michael Rosen's You Wait Till I'm Older Than You. We checked it out from the library when my brother, Cole, and I were but wee tots, and those poems have been part of our family vocabulary ever since. Unfortunately, the audiobook is not to be found (I've found a million copies of the book). This is a bit of a catastrophe because yesterday when I turned to my sister and said, "I know that now, but how do I get the car out of the ditch?" She had no idea what I was talking about. Right about now you're probably wondering why I think this is such a catastrophe:

Now do you understand? This man is genius, genius I tell you, but I still can't find him reading my favorite poems. Michael Rosen, if you ever ever read this, there are poor, deprived children in America who have never experienced the pure hilarity that is You Wait Till I'm Older Than You.