Going to Oxford-town

Last weekend, mumsy (aka mom, May-rann, and Mrs. Hambelton) and I made the sojourn to Oxford, Mississippi, my future home for the next two years. This was our tentative itinerary:

1. Walk around the school, familiarizing with the buildings I may spend my waking (or sleeping) hours
2. Walk around the square, making stops at the various book stores (which were all the same store, with slightly different names). We ended up buying lots of books. I know I'm about to have to purchase many "serious" books, but my justification for the fun purchases was that I still have a month and a half to read what I want. Ready, set, read!
3. Visit the condo where my future roommate and I will be living
4. Eat dinner with roommate and grill her relentlessly about her living habits, making sure they are harmonious with my own. (ha! just kidding) I'm just glad she didn't say anything about what Ellen referred to as "nesting." She's actually pretty neat--I almost wish I had something crazy to say about her...NOT!

We also tried to visit the Faulkner house. We drove past a very official-looking placard, you know, one of those historic site notices, but I'm almost positive it was just in some body's yard. It didn't have the stature and place in history that I imagine Rowan Oak would. Besides, it was very residential. And by that, I mean if I had knocked on the front door, I'm sure that a man with no shirt and his scruffy little poodle-schnauzer would have greeted me.

Before dinner, we had about 2 hours to kill (there isn't that much to see in Oxford...go figure), so we stopped in "Oxford Mall" and saw the only movie that was playing at the moment: Land of the Lost. Wouldn't recommend that one.

Our last stop was Rooster's - a restaurant/bar where we met Elizabeth, the very nice, down-to-earth, normal person who is letting me live out of her condo. You might say she's a craigslist oddity. :)

The visit to Oxford served its purpose, and now I am geared up to pack my things and move them back to good ole Mis-a-sip (thanks for the nickname, Danielle!). Oxford, as mom put it in 2 very different ways, is "a small town with a big history," and in a completely different context, "not a shopping mecca."

Proof I can cook...sort of

A few weeks ago, I posted a bit about cooking, and I requested recipes. Thanks to Courtney Bradshaw Howe (via facebook), I have become addicted to a website that calls itself "a community driven visual potluck." Tastespotting.com is a drool-fest and a half. Every day I visit this site, browse through the little squares of tasty treats and such, and lust after things like margarita cupcakes, caprese pasta, and strawberry lemonade.

The thing about tastespotting.com is the photos. It seems that they are either professional photogrophers or professional chefs. Either way, they know how to make that food look GOOD.

So the purpose of this post is to say that I (and my stomach) have been so inspired to try some of these recipes, and in tastespotting fashion, I've taken pictures of them all. FEAST your eyes upon my not-so-professional shots of tasty, tasty things.

Monkey Bread:

Thanks, Megan, for the Bundt tin! This scrum-diddly-umptious creation is basically butter, sugar, cinnamon, and biscuits. I don't know why they call it monkey bread--that's probably not the best name--but I don't think butter-sugar-biscuit-bits is actually better, either. The recipe I used--and a better photo--are here.

Lasagna:

Thank you for this recipe, Shannon! I didn't use any meat for this recipe, just spinach. And the white stuff on top is fake parmesean--which probably didn't make for the best picture, but I assure you, it was gooooood eatin.

Here's a slice of it:

Cheese+spinach+spaghetti sauce+noodles=:p (yum!)

And last but not least, homemade potato chips, before:

And after:


I also got a recipe for chicken rotel (thanks Laticia!) and blueberry "butter" (it was more like jelly--Thanks Paula), and I didn't take any pictures of that, but that doesn't make them less delicious, by any means. In the future I will surely be making treats and taking pictures of them. Tastespotting has led me to have unrealistic expectations for my food, so I hope it doesn't decide to stop posing! :)

Roger not 'Rob'bed

Usually I leave the sports commentating up to Thomas, but I'm going to butt in on this one. The French Open final between Roger Federer and Robin Soderling is the topic of this post--so if you are a sports buff, but aren't into tennis, feel free to have a merry jaunt on over this website for other big-time sports happenings.

I thought this match was great--it was played well, both men carried themselves very honorably, and there was even a shocking interjection when a "jester" ran onto the court and waved stuff in Federer's face before being tackled and hauled off the premises. And Roger won (can't you tell I'm a fan?), and as expected, gave a tear-laden (and bilingual!) speech to top it all off.

As much as I enjoyed the match and the fact that my pick scooped up that last grand slam to put himself in the history books, I felt so badly for Mr. Soderling. He was doomed the moment he stepped out onto the clay. And everyone knew it. The whole world was rooting for Federer at this point--the crowd knew it, and said so with each chant, and the commentators went on and on about how Federer was a "peaceful warrior" and so forth. At one point they said something to the effect of "usually the crowd wants a good match, a close match, but not today." Everyone knew Federer had to win this--even from the moment his rival lost in the quarterfinals.

I am very happy Federer got to join my 2 favorites of all time (Sampras and Agassi) with his achievement. But I am also happy that Soderling's play didn't reflect that the world was not on his side. His demeanor was never dejected, and he continued to play the way he might against any other opponent. His joke at the end, that nobody beats him 11 times (Federer has beat him 10), to me, said, "Keep bringin' it, Rog."

I forgot the best part!

People! In my post yesterday, I had so much fun talking about the sights and sounds that I FORGOT to talk about the highlight of my day! So let me tell you about it.

While Thomas and I were waiting on some equestrian games to begin, a wasp sat on my shoulder. After a small freak-out moment (my eyes just got really big, basically), I used my mighty thumb and my terrorizing fore-finger to *flick* the little guy away from my face. I mean, you just can't be O.K. with a stinging bug being two inches away from stinging you in the eyeball. Whew! When I thumped the little bugger, he/she left a little residue on my shoulder--maybe from where I thumped it so hard.

Here's the best part, and I wish that blogger let you record things, but since it doesn't, I'll do my best. A man behind me, who was probably from the Midwest, maybe Wisconsin or Chicago, commented on my situation. But this big, bald guy behind me says, "A BEE 'r somethin' la-unded ahn 'er an he POOPED!"


VS.



He tried to comment further, but I escaped the situation and blew up with laughter. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

Little Britain in Middle Tennesse

This weekend, Thomas and I went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival, about 25 miles outside of Nashville, for some turkey legs, bawdy pub humor, jousting, and people watching. We arrived in Arrington, TN at about lunch time (don't think we didn't time it that way!), salivating for a big ol' turkey leg. Unfortunately for us, everyone else's taste buds were doing the same thing because they ran out of turkey legs while we were still standing in line. Boo! So we split a sausage sandwich instead, in an attempt to be "exotic."

Next, we wandered around for a while, waiting for "Axel the Sot" to do his comedy routine. In that time, we saw some tourney games--you know, all the horseback games that aren't jousting-- and we observed several games that we didn't have the money to play--like archery, the axe throw, a knife throw, the mug slide, where you try to slide the stein down the bar onto a target, and a test of strength, which was basically the equivalent of the carnival game where you hit the target with a sledgehammer to ring the bell. There was also a human chess match going on, which was pretty neat. It got kind of old though, what with all the coreographed battles between two [over]actors happening. And let's not forget the "birds of the gauntlet." They were, let's see, badass. You don't want to cross those dudes. Man.

When it was time for Axel the Sot, we headed back to the pub, grabbed some ale, and took our seats. Our drunk sailor-comedian was full of some funny vulgarities. After his jokes and songs, we headed to the tournament field for the most anticipated event: the joust!

No one was unhorsed during the jousting, which was probably for the best, because all of the jousters had white beards and looked like Dick Cheney. But there were some shattered lances, which was ne-e-e-at.

Going to the Renaissance fair was a fun experience, and I'm glad it was had. (rhyme!) I think the most interesting part of it all was the different people there. It made you wander what that person with the bad British accent* and the fake fox tale and the elf ears and the fairy wings and the chainmail and the really dark makeup did for a living. Did he/she have all that stuff lying around, or did they buy it before such an occaision? Did he/she feel more comfortable dressed in Renaissance/Computer game/typical British*/fantasy attire than their regular clothes (which, quite possibly, could have been what they were already wearing)? What really matters, is that they were there, and I had the privilege to observe them.

*Even though it was a Renaissance fair, almost everyone there was a part of Elizabethan England, or they were a part of Fern Gully, which was neither English nor Renaissance. :)

Wanted: RECIPES

You are not reading a culinary whiz's blog. I merely wish I had the knife skills of my food network heros, their know-how, creativity, or their seemingly innate ability to put together the perfect combination of ingredients. I wouldn't know where to get fondant in the first place, and even if I could get my hands on some, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'd most likely end up on here. 3/4 of my experimentations end up begrudingly shoved down my throat (because let's face it, I can't afford to waste food--even bad food), and the rest ends up covered with disdain in a Ziploc container, just waiting to be consumed by the garbage disposal.

That being said, I've been trying a lot of new foods and recipes lately. My latest successes have been lentil soup, squash casserole, and a recipe my friend Anna sent me called African peanut stew. All of these trials have taught me that I am really good at following a recipe (and making spaghetti, but really the only experimenting I do there is with different combinations of veggies to throw in there, and I think the difficulty that comes with screwing up spaghetti is beyond my ability level...thank goodness).

So please, reader(s), send me your recipes! Browsing the food network website isn't always reliable, and I love sharing recipes with people. In fact, I'll start the sharing. Here is the recipe from the Nance family (that would be my mom's side of the family, for you non-related folks floating around this blog) for banana pudding. I guess you could call it Ba-Nance-a Pudding!! (I'm almost positive this recipe is pretty common, but as far as recipes go, I wouldn't really know!)

Ingredients:

Instant Vanilla Pudding (NOT the sugar free kind)
About 4-5 bananas
A box of Nilla Wafers (insert copywright symbol here)
2 cups of milk (I think 2 is right--I always just look on the back of the pudding box where the directions are, and subtract the given amount by one cup.)
the Large tub of Cool Whip
a large can of Eagle brand condensed milk

Combine the pudding mix, the milk, and the condensed milk--it's easiest to use an electric mixer her. Mix in the cool whip with a spatula. Start making a layer of Wafers on the bottom of casserole dish--it doesn't really matter the size or shape. Add a layer of sliced bananas, then add a layer of pudding mix. Do this (wafers, nanners, pudding) until the dish is filled, then top it with the rest of the pudding mixture. We always made a border around the dish with wafers, so it sort of looking like a banana pudding crown, and then used the crumbles at the bottom of the box to sprinkle over the top of the pudding. In other words, don't be stingy with the wafers.

The Perpetual Student

I've found that since I graduated from college, checking my email just isn't that fun anymore. To compound the matter, I haven't been able to shake the habit of compulsively checking my email. So, when I would check my school email every 30 minutes, I would have at least a few emails, telling me about a friendly social event or that last fateful day that I could drop a class with a "W." Now, I'm like Pavlov's dog--except there is no dogfood. I want the dogfood!

So I've decided to sign up for a word-of-the-day from dictionary.com. I know it's not the same, but at least it isn't Amazon.com offering some awesome deal. I don't need $11 DVDs! At least this way I can gain some useful (or not) information, right?

Today's word of the day:
tyro \TY-roh\, noun:
A beginner in learning; a novice.

How appropriate that tyro is my first word! Since we are having so much fun here, let's use it in a sentence.

"Look, Charles, a tyro."

We did it!! Now YOU try!