Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bachelor Cooking - July Edition

A new series I will be promoting on this blog is "Bachelor cooking". A cookbook of sorts that will feature some of my best "recipes". Living out on my own has really allowed me to "get to know" my "cooking" style, and I hope to share this with you.

Let's dive in.

Recipe One:
Steak Flambe over Latin American Flavor Chips
Summary:
First on our list is the Steak Flambe with Latin American Flavour Chips: a delightful dish served at some of France's finest restaurants. Unbeknownst to most,  this dish can actually be prepared in the very comfort of your own home, and at a fifth of the price! Let's take a look at how.

Ingredients:

  • One Steak
  • Some Cheese
  • Latin American Flavor Chips (Nachos will do)
  • Olive Oil. 
Steps:

 1. Turn up grill to 8/10. Put Steak in Frying pan and place on grill. Remove steak from frying pan, add Olive Oil, return Steak to frying pan and place on grill.

2. Let it sit for a while. Preferably while it cooks. Cut in half when you are able to get through it. Return to grill.

3. On a whim, decide you are putting this on Nachos. Grab Nachos from cupboard, grate cheese over nachos and place in microwave for 25 seconds.

4. Cut steak into strips. About yay [____]wide.

5. Remove Nachos, place steak on Nachos.

Serve
Once served, eat around the steak as it is very inconveniently placed and you are not sure if it is fully cooked. Eat nachos, return steak to microwave for further cooking. Eat steak slices.

Rating: 4 stars.

Everything in the Fridge Sandwich

Summary: 
Ever look in your fridge and think "Wow, I have way too many vegetables". What do you do? Some people will suggest a stew or a chili. But why not make something so difficult and messy to eat that it's delicious healthiness is aided by the work out of getting it all in your mouth without spills. 

Ingredients: 
  • Butter
  • Cheese (I used Brie and Marble) 
  • Vegetables in your fridge
  • Probably Meat. 
  • Four slices of whole wheat or whole grain bread
Steps: 
1. Butter one side of each bread slice. 
2. Cut up all the vegetables into sandwich sized portions. 
3. Cut the cheese. 
4. Cram everything into the sandwich
5. Serve cold. 

Rating: Fantastic, will cook it again when I buy way too many vegetables. 

Eggs apres  noir

Summary: 
Get your day kick started with a healthy breakfast! Or, sleep in like a normal human being and have your healthy breakfast the night before. The "Eggs Apres noir" meal will give you the jump you need before bed. And plus, people look at you funny if you have beer and eggs before 8 AM. 

Ingredients
  • Eggs
  • Olive Oil
  • Ham
  • Beer
Steps:
1. Apply Canola oil to pan. Turn heat on medium
2. Cook eggs over easy
3. Remove eggs from pan, cook Ham until desired color is reached. 
4. Place eggs and ham on same plate. 

Serve with beer. 

Rating: One thumb up.



Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sticky Doors

So in this incredible heat over the last week, and the humidity that we have felt for almost a full month, every door in our apartment now sticks. I nearly dislocate my shoulder everytime I try to leave my room and it's impossible to tell if our front door is locked, which might be decent for eluding criminals.

I look forward to the day where I walk (run) home wasted, try to get in with my house key, but the door won't budge. Unable to process what is going on I will fight with it for a few minutes and then fall to the floor in tears, where I will quickly pass out to be embarrassingly found by my roommate in the morning.

So today we get home from soccer and again comment on the probable death of our neighbour who has 2 weeks worth of Gleaners stacked up in front of her door. This isn't the first time she goes missing: I was only somewhat concerned. We sit down to enjoy some Netflix action, when all of a sudden we hear some very loud pounding from above. This isn't odd, these people are noisy. They take incredibly loud steps and apparently love to hammer shit. Or at least is sounds like that. Granted they are better then the previous tenants who ran a mini bowling alley upstairs until they got evicted due to numerous domestic violence reports (true story, Connaught street is sketch).

Anyway, there are loud bangs followed by silence and more loud banging. I couldn't figure it out because it didn't sound like it was coming from above. I check the peep hole of our door but see nothing in the hall. Oh well. I'll handle it as handle everything in life:  deal with it until it's gone. But it doesn't go. No, more banging.

So, Roommate decides that enough is enough and he is going out there to sort them out. Yeah right I think. You're lazy like an old dog, no way you're up for that. But, to my surprise, he throws his shirt on and heads out the door. We were about to make an ass of ourselves. "Ooo basement floor apartment can't take a little noise :( poor guys, so sad." will headline the front page of the Gleaner tomorrow morning.

He comes back sooner than expected. In way less time than it takes to go upstairs, get mocked and come back down.

What was it? I asked in a cool voice that makes most die in my eyes.

The neighbour is back, she couldn't open her door. The humidity made it so sticky that she couldn't even budge it. Awful. That is all, pretty great story eh?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The best 365 days of my life.

June 21st Leave for Bangor
June 22nd Leave Bangor for Johanesburg South Africa
June 23rd Arrive in South Africa
June 24th Italy vs Slovakia
June 25th Spain vs Chile (Pretoria)
June 26th Wildlife Reserve














June 27th Argentina vs Mexico (Round of 16)














June 28th Brazil vs Chile (Round of 16)



















June 29th Fly from Johanesburg to Bangor
June 30th Arrive in Fredericton after 21 hours of flying, 3 hours of driving. Get a ticket at the last set of lights before my house for going too late on a yellow. Damn.

"When the universe looks on with indifference, laugh, and shout back "Fuck you!". Remember that to fight meaninglessness is futile, but fight anyway, in spite of and because of it's futility."

August 18th Visited Montreal to see a good friend. Found out I was too short to be a professional male model
August 23rd Returned from Montreal
August 24th Said Goodbye to the first car I was ever allowed to drive. Bertha, you are missed.

August 28th Leave on American Trip 1. Spend night in Buffalo (18 hours of driving)

August 29th MBL Game in Cleveland, Spend night in Chicago (10 hours of driving)
August 30th Sears Tower, Full day in Chicago















August 31st Drive Chicago to Hot Springs South Dakota (15 hours of driving)
September 1st Mount Rushmore, Spend night in Yellowstone National Park (13 hours of driving)
September 2nd Yellowstone Bisson, First KFC Double Down ever, Night in Missoula Montana (9 hours of driving)
September 3rd Arrive at the Gorge Day 1 of DMB (10 hours or driving)















September 4th Day 2 of DMB at the Gorge. Got wasted and sang Bloodhound gang at obnoxious volumes



September 5th Day 3 of DMB at the Gorge, Leave for Seattle
September 6th Fly out of Seattle, headed home.

September 7th Move into New Apartment with first roommate Eric Sloan
September 10th Celebrated my first Beer and Kraft Dinner Friday
September 21st Elected President of Speed Skate New Brunswick

October 7th - 11th Octoberfest in Calgary, last big ST SpeedSkating meet of my career
October 18th KFC introduces Double Downs to Canada
October 22nd Attend a Political Science pub crawl on a whim, meet my Girlfriend for the next 7 months (and counting)















October 24th First date. Forgot to tell her it was my birthday
October 30th First SSNB Board Meeting in Moncton

November 15th Have my first Big Mac ever.
November 18th Made it "Official" with Laura

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

December 17th - 19th Long track Competition in St. Foy for CWG trials














December 31st Spend New years in Style: playing video games at home with the lady. Booyah.

January 7th-8th-9th Long Track Masters Nationals in Halifax. Manhandled Steve at Skating

February 11th, 12th, 13th Attend CWG in Halifax as President of SSNB

















February 14th Googoo dolls concert for valentines day

February 15th Attempt to Return to CWG's but crash car on the drive up. Oops.

March 3rd Leave for England
March 4th - March 12th England, see Two English Premier League games. Wonderful trip with my sister(in spirit) See a Castle. London.




















March 13th - Purchase a BlackBerry. First new phone in 5 years
March 27th - Attended the CIS finals at the Aitken Center

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Trip 2

April 13th Get Kijiji Ride Share from Fredericton to Montreal
April 14th Train from Montreal to New York City
APril 15th Bus from NYC to Washington DC and then to Raleigh North Carolina
April 16th BUs from Raleigh to Nashville Tennessee
April 17th See the Predators Playoff Game in Nashville
April 18th Fly from Nasvhville to Pheonix AZ
April 19th Shuttle from Pheonix to Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, double back and stay the night in Williams AZ















April 20th Round trip to Grand Canyon on the train.















April 21st Return to Flagstaff. Board night train to Los Angeles
April 22nd Spend time in LA and Hollywood before heading to Anaheim for Playoff Game (ANA vs NSH), make it onto a History will be made video



April 23rd Take Train from Anaheim to Portland.
April 25th Spend day in Portland, visit worlds largest Forrest inside city limits















April 26th Travel to Seattle.
April 27th Spend day in Seattle, visit the needle, walk along River. Have coffee from worlds oldest starbucks
April 28th Fly to Calgary, abandon flight in Vanconver, go to NSH vs VAN playoff game















April 29th Bus to Calgary















April 29th, 30th Hang out in Calgary
May 1st Return home, happy to be back.

May 14th Re-elected as SSNB President

June 11th - June 12th Rimouski
June 15th - June 18th Calgary for Speed Skate Canada AGM


The most amazing year of my life. Thank you to all who were involved.