What's Cooking

     Alright, then. I am going to come right out and say: I do not cook. I have made very few things in my life, and, with the exception of some pancakes-gone-wrong when I was 10 or 11, all of my attempts have been dessert related. I feel bad about this sometimes, especially since there is the strong stereotype of the woman being the one that cooks. Apparently it's a common saying in the Hispanic community that as soon as a girl is able to cook, she's ready to get married. Well, shame on me, since here I am getting married, and I don't cook one bit. I think I just got exceedingly lucky that Charlton not only can cook, but enjoys it very much. He also doesn't seem terribly bothered by the fact that I don't, but rather he sweetly tries to teach me little things here and there.

      I am capable of making cakes or brownies from scratch, and usually I do, but on this instance I chose to use a box mix. Brownies aren't particularly difficult to make, but the box mix does take less time. All in all, the prep time was about 7 minutes, and then there was the 24 minutes of cooking time.

     I tried to fit all of the things you need in the picture, but I forgot the shortening for greasing the pan. Also, you can't see that it is canola oil very well. (Speaking of the oil, be careful with that; in the moments that my hand was reaching for the bottle, I thought that it would possibly be greasy, and sure enough, the lid and top few inches were sticky and slick. I hate feeling oily or greasy, so I washed my hands immediately.) Personally, I used a 13X9 pan, since I like more cakey brownies that aren't super thick. The steps are pretty easy, though:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (for the 13X9 pan), and grease the pan in preparation. (Greasing pans is another one of my least favorite things; I washed my hands very promptly and thoroughly.) I like to get of my supplies out at the beginning so I'm not scrambling for ingredients in the middle of something else. 
2. Combine the dry mix (from the box), 1/4 cup water, 2/3 cup oil, and 2 eggs (another cause for hand washing) in a bowl. Mix thoroughly (I used a spatula to clean the edges of the bowl), but it won't be completely smooth. 
3. Pour the mix into the greased pan, and bake it for 24-26 minutes. 

     After the timer goes off, you'll want to check if it's really done or not with a toothpick. It should come out mostly clean, but not completely. (Well, the more crumbs are attached, the more squishy the brownies will be. So, it depends on how you like them, I suppose.)

     *Ice cream is optional, but highly recommended. :)

A Reflection on Blog-Journaling

3/March/2013

     I admit this assignment proved to be more difficult than I had thought, for several reasons. I was counting on my years of writing experience (and journaling experience) to make this a simple and easy, something that wouldn't take very much of my time. However, I was more self-confident than I should have been. It was much more difficult than I would have thought to pick a prompt all on my own. I've never had problems in the past writing journal responses, but in those cases, the prompt was always given to me. I turned out to be extremely picky with my prompts, wanting something more profound and philosophical than "my favorite movies". If anything, what took the most time was picking the prompt. I laughed when I read on one of the sites that Ms. A gave us for prompts: "When you utilize these free creative writing prompts , it is advised that you just start writing whatever comes into your brain. Too much thinking is what got you searching for prompts in the first place, so you might as well get rid of that crap right now :)." Who would have thought too much thinking could prove to be a detrimental thing? It was nice that I was able to share some of my previous pieces of writing, but I could only use that so many times. Then, too, it was hard to fight the tendency to just write about what happened that day, like an actual, normal journal.

     Also, my procrastination got the best of me, I fear, and caused me to have several journals left with little time, so the last few were rather sloppy and I did not get to be as choosy with the prompts as I had before. I shouldn't have written that in the passive tense; it was my fault and my fault alone that I procrastinated. There's that arrogance in my own abilities again. I really should work on that. When I wasn't stressing over how far behind I was, though, I did  have a lot of fun with this. There are a few journals that I hope others see, because I would love to get some other minds' feedback and opinions. I had forgotten a little how much I love to write.

     I never know how to end these things. Before, in class, we had a specific amount of time to write in, and if you were cut off mid-sentence even, it didn't matter. The important part was that you were writing the whole time. Now, though, I have to give these journals an actual structure, beginning, middle, and end. I found myself repeatedly reaching the end of a journal and writing something silly like, "Well, that's what I think" or "Hopefully now I can do this too". So, here I am again, at the end. Am I supposed to tie this up like an essay? Or is it acceptable that I leave it a little less formal? I think I did a little of both in my past journals, so one way or another I hope I'm covered.