Home for Christmas

Hi all!

It’s been a busy fall quarter (September – December) for me at college. Being a Resident Adviser for 60 freshmen has been a fun experience. Balancing my job, school work, family, friends, and spiritual commitments has been a learning experience (to say it lightly). But I’m so thankful for all that has happened this quarter.

Coming home has been a good break from my job and school work responsibilities. It has meant decorating my home, spending time with my mom, going Christmas shopping with friends and family, and baking (yes baking!).

I’ve done some cooking too like the Filipino macaroni!

Can you guess what the sauce it made out of?

It’s strangely sweet but so good…

…

…

…

Ketchup!

And it’s usually served with spaghetti noodles and sliced hot dogs.

You might call it a “poor man’s spaghetti and meatballs” but it actually makes a tasty dish!

For a more detailed and authentic recipe, check out this Filipino blog here: http://www.busogsarap.com/2011/01/filipino-sweet-style-spaghetti.html

Summer Baking (Part 1)

Blueberry Oatmeal Crumble

Adapted from: The Farm found on “Leite’s Culinaria“

The Recipe & Procedure

1. Gather 12 ounces of fresh blueberries…

2. Mix blueberries with 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 to 2 tablespoon lemon juice. Then transfer berry mixture into buttered 9-inch pie tin.

3. In another bowl, stir together 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup quick cooking oats, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then blend 1/2 stick unsalted butter cut (already cut into cubes) in the flour mixture.

4. Bake in preheated oven (375F) for 25 to 35 minutes or until berry filling is bubbling and the crumble is browned. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream on top!

We Heart Ramen

I am a college student but here in UC Davis I don’t eat instant ramen very often. The Dining Commons (DC) is just that good and convenient enough that I don’t have to cook up ramen. However, this really cool infographic was brought to my attention:

Created by: HackCollege.com

Original link: http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2012/2/27/infographic-we-love-ramen.html

Isn’t it cool? I thought so too and decided to make my own version of ramen. Granted this isn’t going to be super healthy but I did my best.

My ramen with egg and vegetables (red/black/green things). Photo taken using my smartphone's app called "PicsArt"; setting: Pastel.

Nell’s Quick Ramen

Ingredients

• 1 package of ramen
• 1 egg, boiled (takes 5-7 minutes, depends on how well you want the egg to be cooked)
• 1/2 cup frozen vegetables, thawed
• ground cayenne pepper OR freshly ground black pepper to taste (optional)

Ramen Ingredients

Procedure

1. Cook ramen according to package. Usually this means 2 cups of boiling water per 1 package of ramen. Cook ramen in boiling water for 3 minutes (or package’s required time).
2. Thaw and warm up frozen vegetables in microwave. For my microwave, it took 1 minute. It will vary based on strength of microwave.
3. Slice up boiled egg in about 1/4 inch slices.
4. Once the ramen is cooked, pour the entire contents (water and noddles) into a medium bowl. Mix in vegetables and ground caynene pepper or black pepper to taste. Sprinkle a little bit of the spices from the ‘spice packet’ provided in the ramen package. Do NOT pour it all if you want to reduce the sodium (and unhealthiness).  Top with sliced egg.
5. Eat and enjoy!

My thoughts taste-wise? Not too bad actually. Of course I didn’t use all of the spice packet so the flavor wasn’t as strong as usual but I added the ground cayenne pepper to give it a kick. Having the egg slightly “gooey” helps too.

Glad this infographic was shown to me. I’m tempted to try to Spaghetti Ramen and Breakfast Ramen too… :)

Easter Day with Family at UCD

Just last Sunday was Easter, so let me start off by saying: Happy Easter!!!

This little guy looks a tad grumpy but isn't he cute?

For Easter my Mom, Mom’s best friend (Eric), Dad, and Aunt (Dad’s sister) came up to visit me in Davis last Saturday. It was a lovely treat especially since I don’t see my Aunt very often since she lives in Los Angeles. I was able to show my them downtown Davis – “so cute!” they said – and the Davis bookstore which we pillaged through for cute UCD shirts and memorabilia.

They even saw my dorm room, which I was so busy cleaning that morning. I vacuumed, dusted, fixed my bed, reorganized my desk, and shoved everything that I didn’t know where to go in the closet. (Haha…) It looked all nice when they came in and by the nods of their heads and the lack of questions like “When did you last clean?”, I figured I did a good enough job.

When my family greeted me, they all came bearing a gift. Check them out:

"Watering Can Flower" brought by Mom

Mr. Caterpillar

Pink carnations with Easter Egg

Easter egg that "came" with the pink carnations

Orange Star (flowers)

The three flowers on a window sill with a balloon.

Count how many “things” are in the above picture. Three flowers and one balloon, so there are four things.

How many family members came to visit me? Mom, Eric, Dad, and Aunt. So four again.

Logically you could assume that each one of them carried in a flower or the balloon. But that is not the case! My mom (or was it my Aunt?) carried in a flower AND the balloon. But I said they all came bearing a gift. What did my dad give me?

After I gave all the initial hugs and greetings, I noticed my dad standing there behind everyone. When there was a slight pause in the conversations, I walked toward my dad and asked him how he was.

The first thing you should know about my dad is that he is a man of very few words. He rarely shares his opinions. Our conversations are at most 5 minutes long. This only makes the words he does say AND his actions all the more important. When I approached him he was holding a white plastic bag with something wrapped in foil inside it.

“I baked you an apple pie,” he said handing over the white plastic bag.

“That’s an apple pie in there?” I asked not hiding the surprised expression on my face.

“Mhmm..”

“Are you sure?”

“Mhmm..”

“You baked it?”

“Mhmm..”

“Really?”

“Mhmm..”

After we all returned from our mini Davis tour, we gathered outside my apartment near the parking lot. The subject of the apple came up again because I couldn’t help asking him, “Did you really bake that pie?”

He smiled slyly and said, “When you open it, you tell me.”

The second think you should know about my dad is that he likes to tease. How does he do that when he hardly talks? At the minimum 50% of what he says is a joke. However, he only jokes with you when he likes you or feels comfortable with you.

I nodded my head. Then with gusto and a smile displayed from ear to ear he said,

“But you HAVE to eat it with ice cream. It’s not apple pie without ice cream, vanilla ice cream.”

So there you go, folks. The man of very few words who doesn’t share his opinion on much said that I MUST have apple pie with ice cream.

And so I did. Thanks, Dad. :)

Got some Thrifty ice cream to go with the apple pie. Did he really make it? Well, I guess I'll never know for sure. ;)

Topped the apple pie with vanilla ice cream ... and coffee ice cream ...

Midnight Crepes

It’s not advisable to eat after 9pm, or specifically 2-3 hours before you go to bed but I had to make an exception when it came to crepes.

I was at a home meeting when I was asked to make crepes.

“Make crepes? But I don’t know how,” I said.

“It’s fine. You’ll learn! We have the batter ready too.”

Luckily I have spent my fair share watching Sofie’s Crepes in SF Japantown so I knew sort of how crepes were to be made. SORT OF.

So the crepes didn’t turn out too bad. Do I have a hidden skill for making crepes? I wouldn’t go that far yet but I’ll have to try making crepes again. Overall, it was a delicious midnight snack. :)

Skillet Brownies, Pesto Pasta, & Walnut Banana Bread

Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut Skillet Brownies

Recipe from theKitchn here.

My last post was about Nutella Oreo brownies, and now this post also includes dark chocolate hazelnut brownies… You may start to be seeing a theme with what I’ve been baking lately. I’ve got to say that I’m enjoying making all these cookies/bars/brownie recipes though because back home if I made any of these I wouldn’t have people to eat them! The recipes always produce 24+ pieces and there was no way my friends and teachers could eat all of them. Some are dessert fans, others are watching their sugar intake, and still others are just watching their weight. But with starving college kids, no one is really that picky. :)

Pesto Sauce: perfect for pastas!

Recipe from Allrecipes.com. 

But you’ll also notice that this title includes pesto pasta, which is a savory dish. I’m also trying to cook more and utilize the kitchen I have in my apartment.

I haven’t always liked pesto sauce but just within the past year or so I’ve grown to like it, especially on pasta and pizza. It’s green color isn’t a bright green. It’s more muted. Yet it’s made of olive oil, nuts (pine nuts or walnuts), basil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the final product (pesto penne pasta)…but (to my amazement) people finished the entire container at the potluck!

Pesto sauce ingredients

Pesto sauce ingredients in a blender. (I wish I had a food processor.)

Walnut Banana Bread

Recipe adapted from Tartine bakery cookbook.
I found this recipe in a cookbook so there’s no website. However, if you want the recipe, please email me at nell.notebook@yahoo.com I would be happy to share with you.

Because my mom requests banana bread so often, I’ve posted several times about it already. I’ve even found my favorite recipe too. The recipe comes from Tartine, a San Franciscan bakery in the Mission District. It’s a small, homey bakery with friendly people. I’d go there more often if I didn’t live on the opposite side of town. Alas!

Remember to toast the walnuts before adding them to the batter. This makes them so much more flavorful!

Gotta Love Nutella Oreo Brownies

Greetings! I am back with some pictures and comments of a  monostrously crazy-looking baking endeavor.

For the volunteer club I am a part of (Circle K), I baked a brownie-like dessert for the annual Spaghetti Feed auction.

Here’s what I made:

“What is THAT?” you might be thinking (not necessarily in a good way). I know, I know they look sort of funny. But trust me when I say that these brownie-like things are delicious.

First of all, they are NUTELLA brownies. It’s more nutalla than flour! What’s better than sweet, chocolate-y, hazelnut brownies? …

Of course, ones that have whole Oreos inside it. This is the second reason why these brownie are delicious.

And as if Oreos and Nutella weren’t amazing enough. I added other layers of yumminess on top of the oreo: a small teaspoon of marshmallow cream, four M&M’s, and graham cracker bits. Then I topped it off with another scoop of the Nutella brownie batter. Ta-da!

Yep, that’s my monster brownie! NOW, what do you think? Delicious, yes? Fattening? Yes, that too. ^^; Ah, but that’s why whoever bid on the boxes of monster Nutella-Oreo-M&M’s-Marshmallow-Graham Cracker brownies should have shared them.

If you’re looking for the recipe, here’s the original recipe that I adapted mine from: http://butterbaking.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/oreo-and-nutella-brownie-bites/

Updates in the New Year

I can’t wait for spring. Bring on those allergies!

Beautiful cherry blossoms outside Student Housing building

Oh, and happy belated Valentine’s Day to you!

Happy Valentine's Day :)

A purple daisy for you! --- Basket of roses and purple daisies courtesy of my mom.

Received a terrarium from Papa

It was one of my best friend’s birthday on January 23rd so I sent her a lovely care package filled with goodies.

Birthday Care Package: Chocolate covered pomegranit seeds, chocolate mints, Hi-Chew candy, a stuffed cow with a T-shirt that reads "Someone from UC Davis loves me", and a cute ducky letter ---- oh, and don't mind the awkward person in the background...that's just my friend (I think) or her roommate P

Dry Hair Remedy

My hair has been feeling dry because of the cold winter weather here, so I found a new way of hydrating it: avacados, bananas, and egg.

Now don’t laugh because it works. Ladies (and gents), if you have dry hair on the verge of split ends this is a great remedy.Many shampoos that claim to rehydrate hair have avacado oils so why not just ditch the extra chemicals and go straight for the real fruit? Bananas are also helpful for making hair shiny. However, I listed it below as optional because it gets very sticky and is hard to remove.

After the first use, I saw a great difference. My hair was soft and shinier. The next week I didn’t even have time to use the homemade remedy and my hair still was soft after shampooing.

Here’s what I did:

– 1 ripe avocado, mashed

– 1 egg, beaten lightly

– 1/2 ripe banana, mashed (optional)

– long-toothed comb (a must-have if using banana)

As you can see, the banana and avacado here are not that ripe. You MUST use ripe fruits otherwise the avacado will crumble instead of turning into a mush. Banana is also hard to smush but still useable.

After combining all these together in a clean bowl, spread onto the dry parts of your hair. For me, this was from the mid part of my hair to the bottoms (not the top). Lather up your hair as if you were shampooing. Keep in hair for 2 hours. Wash out, and then shampoo and condition hair as usual. Do this twice a week at least. Results guaranteed! :)

*If using the banana, then make sure you have a long-toothed comb. I suggest leaving hair wet after washing it, and thoroughly combing all the banana fibers out.

Since I’ve been away for a long time, I’ll just sum up these past 3-4 months as:

– fun! Met lots of nice people at college.

– successful! Got a 4.0 last quarter.

– laid back! It didn’t seem like that last quarter but compared to this quarter, it sure is. This quarter is a killer with the extra class I’m taking, applying for jobs, and finding the right apartment to live in next school year.

Since it is the new year, I do have some resolutions:

1. Make more friends. –> I have a great start already :)

CKI Greengate Elementary Volunteer Event --- awesome people, might I add. <3

2. Maintain friendships better. –>Working on this. Care package is a start!

3. Keep up my grades. –>So far, so good.

4. Apply (and hopefully get hired) for a job during summer and/or the next school year. –>So far, I have a job for the summer as an Orientation Leader for incoming freshmen and transfer students! Yea!

5. Make the most of college socially, academically, and spiritually. –>Bible study is going well.

Things I would like to do:

– read more often

– sleep more

– go out more

– bake more

– update this blog more!

What are your new year’s resolutions? Or, why don’t you have any?

Food-related Tidbits from my Classes:

Think of this essay as orange. You want to squeeze it to get the juice, but you don’t want to squeeze it so much that all the pulp and seeds come out. I will grade your essay as if it were a glass of orange juice so try not to over think (and do) it; I don’t want any pulp or seeds. – Cultural Anthropology Teacher Assistant (TA)

You can’t be nice. In economics you’ll find that when you try to give something away you simply can’t do it. For example, there’s this restaurant in San Francisco that serves a $20 meal for only $10. Great deal right? Well not really. You see, the line of people waiting to eat at the restaurant is extremely long. People wait anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before they are seated. They pay less $ but they lose their time, which could be used for something more productively. Like they could be eating somewhere else, spending their money elsewhere, which would help society’s economy. This of course assumes that the monetary value of the people waiting is the same for all
…
Now assume the restaurant owners feel bad for the people waiting in line so they start serving FREE wine. Nice right? Nope. By doing this, the restaurant is creating rent seeking loss, hurting society’s total surplus, and wasting people’s time. – Microeconomics Professor

A mi me gusta cocinar, comer, y cenar. Y tu? – phrase from my Spanish essay (pardon the lack of accents and upside ? mark)

Translation: I like to cook, eat, and dine out. And you?

Comment below on what you like to cook or bake.

77. Cooks often add some salt to water before boiling it. Some people say this helps the cooking process by raising the boiling point of the water. Others say not enough salt is usually added to make any noticeable difference. Approximately how many grams of NaCl (salt) must be added to a liter of water at 1 atmosphere of pressure (normal room pressure) to raise the boiling point by 2C? Is this a typical amount of salt that you might add to cooking water? – Problem from my chemistry textbook

In regards, to this question what is salt used for if it’s not to raise the boiling point? I know some cooks add salt to water when boiling pasta to make it tastier.

Wow. 113 grams of salt is needed! Feel free to double check my math. There's always room for mistakes.

Mummy Cupcakes, Anyone?

Blue-eyed Mummy Cupcake

It seems like I have been a lot of baking lately with the huge batch of cookies last week and then with my latest adventure: mummy cupcakes.

Don’t get me wrong. I love to bake. But baking on a schedule with classes right after and homework and studying that needs to be done, enjoying the process of baking is hard (especially the cleaning up part -of ugh).

So these mummy cupcakes are probably going to be the last of my baking until Thanksgiving. That’s when the baking-cooking marathon really starts. And this year’s menu is changing too. There’s going to be more Filipino food and vegetables. I am personally going to make sure we have eggplant Provencals like the ones I had in the Dining Commons here in Davis.

I don’t want to give away the whole menu quite yet so instead I’ll tell you about the mummy cupcakes.

I made these for Cooking Club because the theme was Halloween (duh!). I saw these on the Joy of Baking website (my favorite resource for baking recipes!). I didn’t have my piping bag with me so I couldn’t make the cupcakes quite as nice of Joy of Baking but they turned out cute I think. And, I put in the extra effort to design their faces. (Yes, I put the chocolate sprinkles one by one.)

Mummy Cupcakes Recipe found here from Joy of Baking.

The family of mummy cupcakes. Every family has to have its personalities right? :P

First Post from My Davis Dorm

Hi Everyone!

I’m here to quickly post up some pictures of my food adventures at UC Davis. For those who know me personally, you will have seen some photos on facebook but I have some new photos and stories here.

FYI: If you’re interested in more frequent updates on my food adventures, then you can follow me on twitter: @Notebookworthy. :)

Downtown Davis Farmer’s Market

Check out the prickly pears on the right! Who knew they existed? And I never knew there were different shades of purple that eggplant could be. And don't even get me started on how strange those squash look. Amazing. *I also like their sense of humor. The sign over the eggplant says "Grill me! I'm a superstar." :P

So at the farmer’s markets, I usually go with my friend Liz and the last time we went, we ended up walking up and down and all around the market 6 times, and each time we saw something different. The second time we went there we learned not to eat breakfast before hand and to instead get there early and buy a freshly baked pastry. I got a large cinnamon roll – the size of my whole hand with fingers extended! – and she got a scone and expresso.

But the first time we went we had a good time too because we ended up buying fresh basil, chinese long green beans, several types of eggplant, squash, and garlic. Then we made a veggie stir fry the next night. We were happy kids especially since we were so used to eating like this at our homes.

Segundo Residence Hall Garden

Luckily, I don’t have to go all the way to the official student farm which is located off of campus because the residence hall here has a little garden where we can grow produce. After the summer vegetables were harvested, we planted the fall (winter?) produce like purple and white beets, green beans, squash, tomatoes, basil, and much much more. I was only able to stay for an hour so I’m not sure what else they planted but I passed by the other day and all the boxes are filled so this week I’ll figure out what else they planted.

No more having to try growing tomatoes all by myself on the rooftop of my apartment. I've got a garden team!

The Green Chef Challenge: Team Cuarto!

At the Dining Commons (DC), I saw a sign posted calling all cooking enthusiasts. How could I not resist?

Photo credit: UCD

I got lost on my way to Cuarto (the dorms of campus) and almost ended up on the freeway….on a cruiser bike. Right before the road turned into an on ramp, I pulled into some apartments’ parking lot and called the coordinator. Luckily, she steered me in the right direction. :)

We had a team of five and one UCD chef, a list of vegetables produced on the Student Farm, and a 3-hour time limit to create a dish for the judges who would judge the dish on appearance, taste, and reproducibility.

Some of the ingredients:

• eggplant
• olive oil
• setan (meat substitute, made of flour)
• cherry tomatoes
• mini strawberries
• vinaigrette sauce
• boy choy
• zucchini
• brown rice
• sea salt
  

  Photo credit: UCD

We could NOT use:

• garlic
• onions
• oil

It was difficult to create the flavors we wanted since we couldn’t use the above items, but I think we did pretty good considering we were limited.

The chef had great ideas so we mainly went with his ideas but we were free to incorporate some of our ideas and own techniques while prepping and cooking.

photo credit: UCD

And our final creation included:

1. Mixed vegetable gazpacho (cold soup) with fried eggplant chips on top
2. Bok choy vegetable fried rice in a thin zucchini wrap topped with fried setan and fresh cherry tomatoes
3. Strawberries rolled in a fresh vinaigrette sauce

photo credit: UCD

Cooking Club

I also joined the Cooking Club at Davis. The first meeting’s theme was “Home” so I made an apple blueberry cobbler with a cinnamon walnut crumble on top. It was a hit! The girl behind me was talking to someone and she said, “OH MY GOD. This cobbler is delicious, guys! I’m going to get some more.” It made my evening and helped me survive through Philosophy discussion which was right after.

(unbaked) Apple Blueberry Cobbler with Cinnamon Walnut Crumble Topping -- yes, there was oatmeal in the crumble too!

My plate: pesto pasta, marinara pasta, banana bread, poppy sead cupcake, chocolate chip cookie, and my cobbler :)

This week’s theme is Halloween so I’m going to bake pumpkin spice cupcakes in halloween cupcake liners. So excited!!!

Hopefully I don’t get sick this week though. Last week baking with a fever was no fun. :(

Circle K International – UCD

I happened to see a post on the UCD Class of 2015 post asking if anyone was going to the Circle K meeting. Having nothing to do and simply browsing through the site, I kept reading the comments. Someone asked, “What is Circle K?” The original person responded saying it’s a community service organization/club on campus.

Since I was looking for this kind of club, I was immediately hooked. I Googled what Circle K was and found their website here.

I was sort of thrown off with all the video game references because I thought “Eh… I may not fit in with this group after all…” but I went to the calendar and I liked the various events they held and the other service organizations they were affiliated with. I was especially intrigued by the “Challah for Baking” weekly event.

After emailing back and forth with the service rep from Circle K, I went to Challah for Hunger, had lots of fun, and then went to the general CK that night.

Funny story about that meeting actually. A couple of the CK members at Challah for Hunger mentioned that the meeting’s theme was plaid. “Where any plaid you have,” they urged warned. It felt like a warning at least. Their facial expressions seem to say, ‘If you don’t wear plaid you’re going to have to suffer some sort of embarrassing public humiliation.

After Challah for Hunger I went back to the dorm and pretty much ran around the tiny little room as if I were a tornado. I tore through my drawers and closet as if the building were on fire and I was trying to find my most precious possession. I was about to give up finding a plaid anything when I remembered that I had this plaid pajama top.

I wasn’t sure if this was something that was presentable for outside but I had nothing else. The plaid shirt was sort of fuzzy, made of red material with forest green lines so I paired it with a lighter forest green shorts with a brown belt and a yellow tank top. I figured I was going to go for a “forest ranger” look. Luckily, it didn’t turn out too weird and at the meeting, I won team points for being in theme clothing for my new CK family – the Zoras!

Right after the meeting, I had to go to the Dining Commons (DC) to have a reunion with the Green Chef Challenge participants so I simply went there with my plaid costume. It was getting cold so I buttoned my plaid shirt up all the way – which was a bad idea – because I really did look like I was about to crawl into bed and go to sleep (haha). And funny thing too was that we took pictures so now there’s evidence! But, I’m not posting the pictures here… :P

Anyway so since I like adore being in CK a lot especially in the Zora’s, I decided to bake them cookies for the next meeting. Unfortunately I had baked for three straight hours the day of the meeting while having a fever so I was not in great shape in time for the meeting. I dropped off the cookies with the team leader hoping they would get eaten, but they weren’t eaten until two days later! By then my beautiful graham cracker topping was not crunchy, but everyone still loved them. :)

Inspired by Picky Palate's S'more Cookies (recipe here). I was actually going to only make 1 batch but decided that I didn't have time (and energy) to bake cupcakes for CK so I just doubled the recipe. By the way, when Picky Palate calls them giant, she wasn't lying. Look at how huge they are!

Challah for Hunger

Yeeee - challah if you like Challah for Hunger! ;)

I just mentioned that I volunteered at Challah for Hunger and for those who don’t know what challah is, it’s a Jewish bread. Now I knew it was bread but I didn’t know it was a Jewish bread so when I showed up at the volunteer club house – it’s literally a house – I was surprise but not deterred. Besides the house smelled of sweet pumpkin and cinnamon. (That week the recipe was for cinnamon sugar and pumpkin challah – yum!)

I eagerly joined where I could that first day which was simply making labels for the bags and putting the finished challah in them. Just to show you how bad of a speller I am, I was constantly misspelling every other bag by writing, “Cinnamon” and then “Cinnamin” (incorrect). Haha… luckily the guy next to me noticed and corrected me before I wrote too many “Cinnamin” bags.

Pumpkin Spice Challah - Week 1

The next week I actually participated in shaping the loaves with contained either nutella or olives. I’m actually pretty good at making the filling stay inside of the challah strands. :) And then because I was going home that weekend, I bought one olive challah and one nutalla challah. I was just going to buy one, but when I was given a sample of freshly baked olive and nutalla challah my taste buds gave me no choice!

Olive Challah - Week 2 ---- This one I actually ate with my mom and we warmed it up for 30 seconds and the whole loaf was delicious. The bread was soft like Filipino sweet bread but it was firmer than that; and the savory taste of the olives complemented the bread so well. Too bad we didn't have any olive oil to dip it in. And if you're wondering about the nutella, it didn't last long enough for a picture (haha).

The third week I showed up on time at 1pm and participated again in shaping the bread and filling it with pesto. (mhm…) I wish I could have tasted it but I had to leave early to help out at the Resident Garden and then see my Stats TA. (boo…)

The Dining Commons – Segundo

Eggplant Provencal with side salad and setan

Farm to College Theme Night

Farm to College Theme Night - all of these are REAL

Ta Ta for Now!

So since it’s Halloween Eve, I want to wish you all a Happy Halloween!! I hope you taste all the lovely holiday foods out there. The seasonal treats make this time of year very special and memorable.