44. Learn 5 ways to make tofu.

Status: 1/5

I am not the greatest vegetarian. In fact, I flat out refused to eat vegetables until I was 17. Not entirely sure how I'm alive, actually. It defies modern science that I did not come down with scurvy.

My parents would always say "you'll like them someday" and I'd scream, dramatically, "NEVER!" Well, grudgingly I now have to admit that they were right (though I still hate peas!) Vegetables are yum, and eating right is where it's at! Which is why I should eat more tofu (also because when I tried to donate blood I was told that no one wants that "protein-weak water" running through my veins) but it's just so......nothing. It tastes like nothing! Up until now I'd only eat tofu in the deep-fried grease-laden variety from Oodle Noodle Box. To health it up a bit I brought out my treasured copy of "Eat, Shrink, and be Merry" and made "Parma Chameleon". Tofu parmesan! It was so good that I forgot I was eating tofu!

When my roomate, who shall remain unnamed, walked into the kitchen, she exclaimed, "Jackie, what did you make?? It smells so good!", and when I told her what it was, she cringed! Poor tofu, such a bad rep.........

Now I imagine I'll have to get on the next 4 soon as I've got half a block of the stuff rotting in my fridge.

25. Tie/ un-tie the laces of my runners every time I put them on/ take them off, until it gets too cold for me to wear them this winter.

Status: Too cold!

You'll just have to trust me on this one, but since they were expensive (though ironically from Payless), I followed this fairly religiously. The one exception being the day I went shopping for new jeans, and the untying/tying requirement complicated the trying-on process to the point of sheer exhaustion. And I firmly believe that diverse situations deserve flexible analysis in regards to levels of shoe carelessness.

But the only reason I was able to accomplish this was because I mainly went straight from ballet flats to boots. Despite them being half pink, as a rule I'm too much on the girly side to bother with runners to any great extent.

Shallow and Pedantic Blog Entry

Since this is not a diary blog, I'm going to make an obscure attempt to link one of my completed items to what I really want to write about: the snow. So here goes:

"It's a good thing I bought those winter boots when I did, because I woke up to this winter wonderland this morning."

There, a futile follow-up of my excellent purchase. Now that the connection has been made, isn't my street pretty with snow??




It's about time too, we usually have snow by the end of October - meaning the bunnies got an extra 3 weeks of unlimited food supply.....and they're getting embarrassingly chubby. Come to think, that'd be a nice deal - if all of the cakes and pies went away for the winter (grass, in the bunnies' case) and I was forced to eat less.



AND (just when you thought I couldn't add yet another seemingly unrelated occurrence) since there is now snow it was perfectly acceptable to set up our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. And yes, we do have a present under there already! It's construction paper from me to my roomies so, through the manipulation with scissors and crayons, we can fill our little apartment with holiday spirit!

18. Make all the cheesecakes in my cheesecake book.

Status: 6 out of 30.

I would not consider myself to be the greatest of cooks. I burn absolutely everything that I place in a frying pan, and could not make cookies to save my life. I bought pre-made cookie dough once, and somehow set it on fire in the oven. But strangely, I have found my niche in the baking world with cheesecakes. I just looooove making cheesecakes, the batter (being the most delicious stage of any baked good) is more sugary and addictive than anything else you'd find in a bakery, and it's nearly impossible to screw up (says the girl who can't bake cookies!)

So for years now it's been my 'thing' to make cheesecakes. Last year for Christmas my mom gave me a little book of fancy cheesecakes (which was a conflict of interest, as she loves my cheesecakes), and I would like to take the opportunity to cross off the ones I've made since adding this challenge to my list (and a few that were made post-101 in 1001 list, but deserve to be counted dammit!) Good and done are: chocolate-cranberry cheesecake (made for Christmas dinner last year), mint chocolate chip cheesecake (it was like eating chocolate and brushing your teeth at the same time!), chocolate swirl cheesecake, cafe au lait cheesecake, peach cheesecake, and white chocolate cheeecake.

Next on the docket: White chocolate raspberry cheesecake (my roomate's choice), and eggnog cheesecake for Christmas!

How many do you think you can eat, Matt?

68. Buy new winter boots.

Status: Bringing sexy back.

Well, it's finally happened. I've finally become trendy. I am a total fashion conformist, and it's time to admit it. I've fought it long, and I've fought it hard, for two winters now I've trudged around in inadequate footwear, but my feet were cold, dammit!

Nevermind that we, for some strange reason, don't even have snow yet (Can I get a hip hip hooray for global warming?), yesterday I went out and bought what I would call Ugg-like boots. They're not Uggs (As Uggs are roughly my entire months' budget), they're Rocket Dogs, and they're purrrrrrty. Plus now my tootsies can brave the -20 weather that is soon to be upon us, and I can skip happily through mountains of snow. And yes, I AM going to roll my pants up when I wear them to show them off, because they were expensive!

56. Give sushi another try.

Status: Yuck

I wish I liked sushi.....I really do, and I like to think I'm fairly open-minded when it comes to food (despite my meat-and-potato upbringing, which turned me completely off meat and, honestly, potatoes, by the time I was 12). I can't think of any cultural cuisine that I could completely write off, and even Japanese food has elements that I can.....tolerate. But sushi is just foul.

I've given it the old college try before, resulting in absolute disdain. But it just looks so cool to eat.....so trendy, so hip! I desperately want to be a part of this, not stuck in a stuffy spaghetti and meatballs routine like my parents! So I decided to give sushi another chance, and when I was invited out to a sushi restaurant a few days ago, I accepted......with only a bit of nervous hesitation.

I love the atmosphere, the dim lighting, taking off your shoes, sitting cross-legged in the booth......if only the food wasn't so vile. The problem isn't the rice....or the cucumber....it's the damn seaweed that's wrapped around it! Even before I was a vegetarian, I refused to eat absolutely anything that came out of water....so if it wasn't wrapped in weeds ripped from the sea....I think I could actually enjoy it. Why can't they wrap it in fruit roll-ups? Needless to say, I ended up peeling the seaweed off every roll and eating a mess of rice and cucumber.

So there you have it, I tried and failed. It'll be tempura for me from now on.

57. Make muffins for my roomates.

Out of sheer apathy towards my studies, I decided to not do research for that 10-pager I have due soon, and instead spend my precious Wednesday evening baking and watching trash TV! (Yes, ANTM, because I like to eat fatty food whilst watching skinny models on TV, tastes even better knowing they can't eat it.)

I even braved the wind and rain to make the trek to Safeway to get the necessary ingredients to make carrot muffins with cream cheese icing! Yum! (No picture as they're....umm...all gone....already)

And you may say that I didn't actually do this out of the goodness of my heart, and that I was just trying to avoid the nagging components of my student life, but I'll remind you that there was no stipulation regarding where my intentions must lie in the original list item!

The fact that I'm posting this from work should also give some idea of my professional ethic. But I am wearing pinstripe dress pants and I think giving off the impression of professionalism is enough for one day.

97. Bake cupcakes.

Status: Completed, but feeling sick.

Short and very sweet note on my supreme baking ability. Sara and I needed a girls night in, for which baked goods are an absolute necessity. Cupcakes were made and decorated with extreme care and agility (and by that I mean a box of cake mix was used and icing in a can was purchased.) But before you look at the pictures let me remind you that taste accounts for more than appearance when it comes to the art of cupcakes! And they had a chocolate centre!





And let it be known that crushing a snickers bar on top of a cupcake was easily the most enlightened decision of my entire life. Mmmmmmm! But after three cupcakes and about 7 more cupcake's worth of batter.....my tummy hates me.

34. Go Trick-or-Eating for the food bank on Halloween again.

Status: Done for this year!

I'd consider myself a fairly charitable person, I do what I can, but this deed for the campus food bank was far from selfless. I have to admit, I do this every year because I have yet to truly grow-up, and I'm not ready to give up trick-or-treating! The costumes! The candy! The excitement! The candy! Running around in the dark on a spooky night! The candy! The liquor??

It's not all fun, as I had to haul around the incredible things people would donate to the food bank....a massive tub of peanut butter, 3 gigantic jugs of juice....I had to lug around a tin can of beans that I'm positive weighed more than me. But the fun parts are VERY fun! Reliving one's childhood by dressing up and begging for candy, while still benefiting from the perks of adulthood and being offered alcohol while begging for candy. In particular, we were given a 6-pack which was devoured promptly en route, and I had the "adult treat" at one house which consisted of a vodka shot washed down with chocolate. Felt a bit strange to be downing hard liquor whilst small children dressed as fairies and superheroes came to the door for candy.

Afterwards while indulging in a nourishing meal at Boston Pizza (aka - more beer) loot was compared and negotiations were made. Turns out I ended up with way less candy than everyone else, but joke's on them because we all have to be in bikini's in Mexico in 4 months.

On a sidenote, I love Halloween and am sad that it's over. The things that you see! I saw a guy dressed as Luigi from Mario Bros. running frantically for the bus, and I got the fast-paced Mario music in my head (you know, when you're running out of time near the end and you're rushing toward the castle to bring down the flag) Not to mention this lego man that was strolling around campus all day.

Until next year!