Cinnamon "Tea"

Matt and I were recently in Charlotte visiting friends for my fall break. We have a ton of fun (as usual) spending time with them! In addition to visiting the North Carolina Renaissance Festival, we ate... a lot (also as per usual). I always end up hovering in the kitchen whenever we visit Blayke and Eduardo because they are both fantastic cooks! Eduardo made this steak for tacos one night that was delicious accompanied by homemade refried beans (which Blayke actually made) and pico de gallo with avacado. Mmmmm... it was good. They also made this wonderful (but totally not good for you) sausage dip (sausage, cream cheese and rotel). This has become one of Matt's new favorite foods.

In addition to the other wonderful things that were made, I was introduced to cinnamon tea. It's not really "tea" in the sense that it contains tea leaves, but tea in the sense that you brew cinnamon sticks in water and let them steep. After you've let them release their cinnamony goodness, you mix the warm cinnamon water with some sugar and a tablespoon or two of evaporated milk (or just regular milk if you don't have the evaporated kind). I cannot begin to describe how much I love this drink! It tastes like those little red hots candies that come out around Valentine's Day but not hot. I always wondered where that flavor came from because it truly doesn't smell or taste anything like ground cinnamon, but now I know! It's amazing to me how different a spice can be when it's applications are varied! I suppose that's my food-nerd side coming out! Any way, hopefully I'll be posting again soon about this...

Mission: Destroy the mouse

One of the very best things about our new home is that the previous owner was an english major and transformed the dining room into a library to house her enormous book collection. I have always wanted a library in my house and am thrilled to be able to have one so early in my life!! I don't have nearly the same amount of books as she did, but I've got room to grow!

The one drawback is that the previous owner also LOVED Disney. When we walked through the house, there was at least one Disney related thing in each room, if not more. I think it was her love of the mouse that drove her to do something that truly (in my opinion) detracted from the house. She had cut-out holes of Mickey Mouse on the top molding on the shelves in the library.

The following is a documentary on my attempts to get rid of the mouse:

So you have a mouse problem, eh? Don't look at this like a problem, but an advantage to beautify a room.

In some of my earlier planning sessions, I had contemplated square, ceramic tiles, preferably of the hand painted spanish style, but given the desired use of the room (garden-themed), I opted for silk flowers.


Shown here is the final result. Note: I hung curtains in front of two panels of shelves to be explained later.

Here is the end result of the mission. Also, please don't think that I am crazy. I am going to paint the cabinet doors white. I just haven't had time yet. I love my room. It's wonderful to read in. Very relaxing.


Here are the two panels I've hung curtains on. I made the curtains to cover up my pantry storage since there really isn't any. The "pantry" is a few shelves above my washer and dryer, but that space smells like laundry detergent and also makes most food stored there taste like tide.
I also love the shutter blinds that the previous owner installed. Several other windows in the hosue have them too. It just goes so well in this room though.

Any way, I love my library and look forward to collecting more books and cool old glass bottels to put on my shelves. :)

School, glorious school!!

And thus, another semester has started. I am particularly busy this semester already and am wondering if it will ever get better. On a brighter note, after this semester, I will only have two more semesters left until I graduate. What are you doing with your life after graduation, you ask? Well, since you inquired, I'll tell you what I'm not going to do!

• Animal Trainer - I love animals, but feel I lack the necessary qualities (read: patience) to make this a life-long career. However, I have taught Truman how to sit on command, so I'm not entirely ruling this out.

• Professional Computer Geek -I am not talented in the art of computer. In fact, that's one of the many things I love about Matt: I don't have to worry about my computer being broken again. I feel that if someone were to ask me to fix their computer, I might bring it back to them worse than it was to begin with.
• Sushi Chef - I do love the sushi. I tried making it at home once... I failed miserably. I just can't get the roll tight enough to hold all that deliciousness inside. I think I'll leave the rolling to the professionals.

• Hair Dresser - This, as a career option, is out. As any body who's gotten their hair cut by me before can tell you, I just don't have a talent for it (Do you remember those awful bangs, Mary? I'm so sorry).
• Ninja - I am quite possibly one of the clumsiest people I know. It's not that I don't want to be a ninja, I just believe I don't possess the necessary skills (such as stealth, killing and stealthy killing) nor could I hope to ever master those skills, this late in life. But I aspire to the same level of ninja greatness as the following:

House Warming Party

On Labor Day, we had a house-warming party for a bunch of our church friends. It was fun! We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner. Funnily enough, two real Hawaiians were in attendance and had no idea what they were about to eat. :) I'm pretty sure it's called "Hawaiian" because it has pineapple in it... Any who, for those of you who haven't had the privilege of having one, a Hawaiian Haystack is a mixture of ingredients assembled by the person who is to consume it (so that if it stinks, it's your fault, not the cooks!). Typically, it starts with a bed of rice and then some type of chicken and sauce mixture (I used cream of chicken soup and milk to make mine) and then toppings including, but not limited to, pineapple, mandarin oranges, chow mien noodles, almonds, green onions, and coconut. Several people expressed hesitation about what they were about to eat, one of them being a very picky southerner. She loved it. I know it sounds crazy that all those things would work together, but they do!! It's delicious and so easy (especially if the chicken is pre-cooked)!

One of the reasons for the party was to give us motivation to unpack those last few boxes and put up pictures. I have to say, the house looks pretty good, thanks to the decorating help from Blayke. She came all the way from Charlotte to help. :) The pictures instantly made it feel homey and more like our space.

Well, it's been a nice break, but I have to get back to my organic chemistry homework... *ugg*