Welcome to the Corn Part 2: Unwanted Food

Remember when your parents used to get mad at you for not eating your dinner? (or parts of your dinner?)

"There are starving kids...somewhere...that would be happy to eat that." My parents never had to convince me to eat the pasta or bread, or anything else that would ever go bad, for that matter. Nope, the real convincing had to be done for produce.

Now there are two reasons for this. 1) eating fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you, but perhaps even more saliently 2) PRODUCE IS EXPENSIVE AND ROTS ... after like, a day

I now understand why our parents were mad when we didn't eat spinach, broccoli, whatever; this stuff is expensive! and you only have a few days before its actually inedible. Now I'm a grad student, so I'm not exactly making millions here. However if I don't partake in a daily dose of these finicky plants I feel awful and my concentration goes to hell (not so great for anyone enrolled in a graduate statistics course). Therefore, in the face of expiring food, I have to get a little crafty in order to get maximum value from my shopping trips.

oh look, bananas...

delicious right? ...not

But thats ok! because while they're totally inedible this way, they have now become the perfect consistency to make banana bread! (note: the picture above has some white-ish sheen on the edges. This is because I had to stick them in the freezer before my roommates threw them out. It's frost, not mold. That would be gross).

So thats what I did.

To turn nasty bananas into something this good, you need a few extra (but highly common and non-expiring) household ingredients.

If you really want to help the banana bread reach its full potential, I recommend adding chocolate and peanut butter chips.

The recipe calls for
- 1 1/3 cups of mashed over-ripe bananas

-2/3 cup of sugar
-1/4 cup of milk
-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
-3 eggs
-2 2/3 cup of Bisquick

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a loaf pan. Combine all ingredients except Bisquick in a random tupperware container borrowed from a friend (if you have a life and a real job and stuff figured out you might even have a mixing bowl, my instructions are more for the spontaneous unplanned poor person's baking session). Now stir the Bisquick into the mix until as many lumps as possible are gone. Add chocolate chips :) and pour into the loaf pan. Close the oven door. Set timer for 60 minutes to bake, while simultaneously realizing you didn't know it would take this long and now you're committed to a project that needs to be over in more like 20 minutes...not an entire hour.
text your friends to tell them you'll be late for the study group
text your friends to tell them you'll bring them fresh banana bread if they wait for you to do their data analysis
check on it ever 5 minutes muttering "c'mon c'mon c'mon, this is taking forever" (that helps it bake faster)

take it out and test it with a fork or a toothpick to make sure it baked all the way through

and enjoy!

Friends quickly forgive you for being late as long as your bring a peace offering. And that's a good thing, because while I'm pretty great at making banana bread, I am not so great at stats. It's a fair trade-off.

time for wool socks, I guess...

Well, it's fall.

Like officially. And here's the trouble. For the past few years I've been living on a university campus where all of my utilities were included right in with the rent paid each semester. So I'm pretty accustomed to taking liberties with the thermostat.
Oh, it's cold outside? Lets crank the heat up without monetary consequences. YAY!

However now I live in a real house, where we have to pay real companies real utilities every month. Hence my fall nights are starting to become a little chilly.

Ironically, I got this grey oversized sweatshirt from the psychology department in April with a "good luck in grad school" card...

it's like they knew, or something. Too bad they didn't think of wool socks and hot chocolate, too.

Happy Studying <3

Boyfriend Visits 1

Boyfriend Visits: NIU Victory

This weekend was a particularly awesome one, because (drumroll please)...

ERIC VISITED!

I am somewhat less happy now because he started driving back to Michigan about 10 minutes ago, but before I get back to reality and start working on things that I need to accomplish in the immediate future, I am going to recap the weekend's festivities.

First, I dragged my boyfriend all over DeKalb and Sycamore running errands, including grocery shopping at HyVee

We then went to Blockbuster, where we rented Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
It was very good, but I recommend watching with a hall light or kitchen light on.

Saturday was dedicated almost entirely to NIU football. We started off with a tailgate in a parking lot close to the Husky Stadium with a few friends from the cognitive program at NIU. We were fully equip with a small portable grill, a package of hot dogs, buns, various condiments, coal, lighter fluid, paper to get the fire started, and a few classic football-fan beverages.

What we were NOT prepared for was the wind!!

You can't quite make out the ferocity to which my hair is blowing around my face in this picture, but I can tell you that by the end of that afternoon I became acutely aware of what it means to be wind-burned. It took a couple of tries and about 15 minutes to get the fire going in order to heat up the coals, but once the grill was hot we were able to make some pretty delicious hot dogs with toasted buns.

The best part? The Huskies took the victory in the 4th quarter!!

It was an all-around exciting day that ended for Eric and I curled up on the couch with some homemade  New Orleans style Jambalaya (it's starting to get really cold outside).

In the next installment of boyfriend visits, I will hopefully be headed back to Grand Rapids to catch up with a few of my favorite Michiganians...
Until then...

Happy Birthday Up There!

So it's September 21st, and in my house that used to mean a special day where my mom, sister and I would go to Baskin Robins at get a turtle pie (pictured below)

Thats because September 21st was my Dad's birthday - and that was the dessert that he actually liked (or at least pretended to like, for his daughters' sake).

For those of you who aren't aware, my Dad passed away about a year and a half ago, but if he were alive, he would have been 53 today. My Dad was never that into celebrating his birthday, but he loved us all enough to play along with all of our mandatory celebrations and gifts anyway with a big smile on his face.

Playing along with our birthday escapades was only one of the many reasons to love this amazing man, and so in honor of his birthday I'm going to share a few more...

1. He was an actor, writer, director, and well-rounded artist

Dad always had a flare for performance. Earlier in my childhood he an active cast member at the local community theater, and I remember seeing him in plays including "Noises Off", "Sylvia", "The Premature Corpse", and "The Boys Next Door". Later on he became on entrepreneur in partnering to create Finn Viking Productions, a company that produced comedy dinner theater local restaurants and banquet facilities.
After a year or so Finn Viking bought a theater and renovated it to make it the amazing performance space that it is today.

Outside of work however, his skills as a director and writing were put to good use in the context of training Caroline and I in the ways of performance and story telling. From the time we were little, Caroline and I were involved in vocal performance, theater, dance, and voice lessons. Dad was our biggest fan and our harshest critic. I can even remember getting a little fed up after one too many "Thats good, but try it this way...nope...Lil...do it like this..." or "You know the words but you don't own it yet."
After all that hard work, a booming "bravo!!!" from the back of the theater meant a lot more than an exemplary rating in a competition ever did. He loved us (and his craft) enough not to bullshit his feedback, and we were always better for it.

2. He was fun

I wish I had a picture from an average night that Dad would put us to bed. Caroline and I always shared a room as kids, with two parallel twin beds that he used to pull a chair between to tell us stories before we went to sleep. Our favorite was the "circle" story, where each of us took turns adding to the plot.
We also wrote stories and poems, and years later we wrote music.

He also granted us the freedom to play. He and my uncles helped build a treehouse for all of the cousins at our cabin up north (pictured above). He even took me out to the swampy creek bed in the middle of the woods after dark on several occasions armed with a flashlight and giant rubber boots to find bullfrogs purely to assuage my own curiosity.

3. He was a doctor and a chef

Well not really...but I have distinct memories of him keeping me company late into a night of the stomach flu or Bronchitis, and he had a way with making amazing flank steak.

4. He was honest

My Dad told me what he thought of just about everything, and when I asked him questions, he always told me the truth (it's amazing that I never questioned the existence of the tooth fairy as a young child in his presence). I had a lot of questions as a kid, and he never got tired of explaining the mysteries of life to me in a way that I could understand.
I learned some of my most important life lessons, and modeled many of my personal philosophies after those discussions. One time, when I was upset that someone I liked hadn't asked me to Prom, I got the FLC talk. "Things will change. Commit to someone who can be your friend, your lover, and your companion." was his advice. I think it's the best relationship advice in the world. Think about what those words mean... each one is distinct, and important. Never settle for someone who can't fit each in its own right.

5. He was my dad

and I look like him. and I heard his voice on the day I was born, and recognized it. I proudly sport his complexion and stature, and remember him in hard times and times of accomplishment.

so happy birthday up there! I hope you're enjoying a nice golf course or a bit of literature.

"All the world's a stage.
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances..."

-William Shakespeare
As You Like It

Welcome to the Corn Part 1 -- a new house

DeKalb IL is a small college town about 50 miles west of Chicago, and my brand new home.

It has a cute little downtown area

A great University, where I get to teach, do research, and go to school

and fields and fields of corn...

(above is an actual photo of a farm by my house)

DeKalb is packed from border to border with cornfields. They're actually pretty nice looking until this happens.

And then they just become sad barren fields of yellowish dry-looking grass.

Upon moving to DeKalb I was insistent upon finding a small downtown apartment. After living in London and Grand Rapids I guess I consider myself more of a city person. That, however is not the case.

I ended up finding the perfect home for me in the middle of a cornfield.

This is the view from my deck. It is one of the 4 cornfields I live next to.
Here's another one...

Despite my removal from the city, my house is pretty great.
This is my deck.

You can't see in this picture, but there's a grill to the right. When you walk into the house,
you walk into the kitchen!

There is a lot of counter space, which will be perfect for when my family comes to visit for Thanksgiving. Next up is the living room...

and then the entry way, leading to the front door

I would post a picture of my room, but it's pretty messy...
Anyway there are some benefits to living out in the middle of a field.
It's always quiet, and the sunsets are really pretty. Definitely worth the 10 minute drive to campus.

Pilot Blog

Hello there!

Wow this is more awkward than I expected, I feel a little bit like I'm talking to myself...

A good friend of mine started blogging a while back but I didn't come to appreciate her dedication to recording all of her life experiences until I wanted to see the pictures from her honeymoon, and they weren't on Facebook. Later on I moved far away and our little lunches at Panera had to stop, so I also couldn't catch up with her on a regular basis anymore. And she's only ONE of the people I left behind in Michigan when I moved to Illinois to follow my dreams of exploring cognitive psychology at the Ph.D level.
Ergo the purpose of this blog is to A) keep my loved ones caught up on my super exciting graduate-school life and B) keep a fun journal of this point in my life so as to look back later on and remember my experience...so here we go

The theme of today's blog is people I miss from Michigan. While it is my opinion that Illinois would be better off with a few of these particualr citizens, EACH of them has refused to follow me out to the cornfields of the midwest (can you believe that??). Luckily all have agreed to visit.

Number one:

Elizabeth

or..

Liz, Biz, Lizbeth, Betty... she answers to pretty much everything

Liz and I moved to Grand Valley and shared a dorm room our freshman year (2008-2009), and she is the BEST ROOMMATE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE. We have shared everything from a single bedroom to a two story townhouse during our undergraduate careers. They say that rooming with someone has one of two outcomes -- you'll either be best friends or hate each other. So glad that ours ended in an amazing friendship :)

Tied for first is also

This guy!

Eric and I have been dating for...a long time. (somewhere in ballpark of 2 1/2 years) and we have a lot of fun. Pretty much everything is fun if you do it with someone you're crazy about, and whenever we're together we're always looking for the next adventure (from exploring cities to renting movies we've never seen to hiking and kayaking to cooking...the list goes on and on). We also kick butt at Cranium and Euchre, based on our ability to read each other's minds and definitely not cheat...usually.


Next up is my lovely sister, Caroline

As you can see, we are not twins. Despite this I never stop hearing how much we look alike -- but as anyone can see from the picture, this is obviously a compliment :)
Caroline goes to school in Michigan, and is in her second year of undergrad (being three years younger than yours truly). She is SUPER SMART, so don't argue with her about environmental policy or sustainable agriculture because she is well on her way to being an expert and will own you. She's also a really good singer and makes really good guacamole.

speaking of twins...

here are two ladies who are VERY dear to my heart

On the right is Allie. According to dumb girls at parties, she and I are twins. Allie and I always have a lot of fun when we're together, and love us some good girl talk and a good movie night.
On the left is Kelly. And SHE's the one who convinced me that blogging was a good idea! Ta-dah!
This picture was taken at the Hudsonville Winery for Kelly's bachelorette party, a few weeks before she married the human equivalent of Super Man (he grew up in the country, he's strong, and has excellent manners combined with a high level of chivalry...think about it) wearing a gorgeous dress whose selection and fitting I happened to be present for :)

Another lady I love?

the one that insists we eat and drink things that are dyed green on St. Patrick's day! (see tongue)

Mallory!!!

This is Mallory, and she and I are like THIS! (pretend that you can see my index finger overlapping my middle finger). By that of course I mean that we can tell each other anything from our thoughts and views on society to what makes a cute outfit. Mallory is also really good at hair, which is sometimes very helpful to me, because I am not.

and the picture wouldn't be complete without this lady either! Melody!

Well, I'm running low on time, but I think this is pretty substantial for a first blog post. Of course there are many others I didn't have time to include, but I can definitely see a part 2 on the horizon...

In the meantime, I may as well gear up for a few pictures of my new life here....

'till then <3