Last year, Halloween, we didn't do much. In fact, I think we just forgot completely that it WAS Halloween.
THIS year, however, we're proper gearing up. I ran around yesterday last minute gathering up the last supplies for my costume (basically the entire thing) at the mall, and called up Joann to get me some stuff that wasn't available. Mum went and bought candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. Since I hate candy anyway (I'm just going for the novelty of trick-or-treating), I figure I'll come home, dump the candy on Mum, and she can hand out even more.
Or possibly I'll give it to a passing kid, I don't know. Unless someone gives me Bounty. I love Bounty. I know a lot of people hate coconut-filled chocolates and all, but hey, I'm Sri Lankan. My countrymen grew coconuts for a living.
I'll put pictures up later. Of the costume and stuff, I mean, not the coconuts.
I'm not sure what's happening later, actually. What I know for certain is that Gillian and Joann are coming over to trick-or-treat, and then spending the night for a horror movie marathon. They may bring their little cousin Gabby with them, and maybe another friend, Aamna. And my cousin may come along too, but she's still deciding. So yeah, not sure how it's all going to happen in the end.
Oh, and I did the silliest thing yesterday. I decided that we'd have nachos and homemade nacho cheese dip during the marathon, so I bought the ingredients yesterday at Geant, Ibn Battuta (henceforth, in this and future posts, known simply as Ibn). I now have all the ingredients for nacho cheese, including a large two-pack of processed cheese slices, and no nachos.
Genius, I tell you.
Luckily, though, most anything can be dipped in cheese and taste good. Some people, like my cousin, would disagree with me just because they hate cheese. HOWEVER. Cheese on earth is like heavenly stuff in heaven (What do you get in heaven, other than eternal wishes? I know that there's some sort of magical river or something, plus pomegranates [this is upsetting, actually, because I don't even like pomegranates. I'm just going to wish for cheese, if I end up there]).
So I'll fry up some sausages, maybe toast bread, add some jalapenos or something. Grilled chicken works too. We're all going to die of a coronary, I know it.
Only to end up in heaven and wish for more cheese. Ah, irony.
Anyhoo.
Ciao.
Showing posts with label fail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fail. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
A Short Excerpt From The Lives Of A Dysfunctional Family
The fact that I can't get a hold of my UK visa is annoying. Irritating. Just a plain bummer.
Dealing with the University, though, has been super helpful. I informed them that I'd need to matriculate late and all, and they've replied reassuring me that everything will be okay. I even just got a call from the people wanting to know when I'd be collecting my keys.
Two days ago, I sent an e-mail saying that I would be late to the architecture course to someone I assume will be one of my professors, Cameron Wilson. The thing is, I've only ever known Cameron Diaz. So I addressed the e-mail as, "Dear Ms. Wilson".
The reply, although very nice and all, was signed exactly like this:
Kind Regards
(Mr.) Cameron Wilson.
Oh lord, the shame.
If brown people could blush, I'd be beet red. I shrieked when I saw it. My God. I don't know how I'm going to face this professor when I see him. It probably won't be as bad as I'm imagining, but still. My parents burst out into peals of laughter when I hung my head and related the story to them, informing me that I'm an idiot for not realizing that Cameron is generally a guy's name.
In other news, Aehshaan was in my room just now, talking about something or the other (I wasn't paying attention). Suddenly, he falls silent and kind of cocks his head in the direction of the door. His eyes narrowed, and he hissed, all cool like, "The dog's gone for my burger."
And he was out of there like a shot.
Really, between my e-mails and the relationship between my dog and brother, it's a miracle our family functions normally in public.
Ja.
Dealing with the University, though, has been super helpful. I informed them that I'd need to matriculate late and all, and they've replied reassuring me that everything will be okay. I even just got a call from the people wanting to know when I'd be collecting my keys.
Two days ago, I sent an e-mail saying that I would be late to the architecture course to someone I assume will be one of my professors, Cameron Wilson. The thing is, I've only ever known Cameron Diaz. So I addressed the e-mail as, "Dear Ms. Wilson".
The reply, although very nice and all, was signed exactly like this:
Kind Regards
(Mr.) Cameron Wilson.
Oh lord, the shame.
If brown people could blush, I'd be beet red. I shrieked when I saw it. My God. I don't know how I'm going to face this professor when I see him. It probably won't be as bad as I'm imagining, but still. My parents burst out into peals of laughter when I hung my head and related the story to them, informing me that I'm an idiot for not realizing that Cameron is generally a guy's name.
In other news, Aehshaan was in my room just now, talking about something or the other (I wasn't paying attention). Suddenly, he falls silent and kind of cocks his head in the direction of the door. His eyes narrowed, and he hissed, all cool like, "The dog's gone for my burger."
And he was out of there like a shot.
Really, between my e-mails and the relationship between my dog and brother, it's a miracle our family functions normally in public.
Ja.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cakes Rolling Downhill
Right, so I decided that, since I'm moving to the university in around two weeks, I'd best start preparing.
Well, yes, I've been preparing for months now. But I mean preparing, proper.
Last night, at around three in the morning, it hit me that I'm not quite ready. I've got most of the clothes now - I think I still need to buy a couple of jackets. Apparently, 18 degrees Celsius is considered warm there. In Dubai, we're surviving at temperatures of over 50 degrees. Warm, here, is like 35 degrees, I guess? I don't know, I just know that we complain it's hot when the weather escalates past 45 degrees. One thing I do know, however, is that 18 degrees is not warm. It's freaking cold.
Yeah, I need more jackets.
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not ready. I still needed to buy knick-knacks such as earplugs and all. So, I pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down a to-do list.
I also had a random craving for Cinnabon. Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to try and learn to cook, I looked up the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, and added the ingredients of that to the to-do list for the next day.
When I woke up at my usual hour of 3 in the afternoon, I got dressed and drove to Yolany's place. My brother was playing video games there, so I picked him up and headed to Geant, which is like a massive Tesco or Walmart or whatever at the local mall.
We picked up the ingredients, picked up some other stuff (thumb tacks, a note pad, couple of toiletries), picked up my brother's friends (they wanted to play basketball at the court near our house), and headed home.
Now, I wanted to make cinnamon rolls. That was the plan. I made the frosting first, and stuck that in the fridge. It tasted pretty good - the same as the Cinnabon rolls', I should think. Then I started on the actual rolls.
Complete chaos.
I tried to get organized, I really did. But before long, there was flour all over the table, sugar sprinkled among that, and the dough stuck to my fingers and would not come off. I do not know how people are supposed to bake that stuff, when half of it goes down the drain in an attempt to have reasonably dough-free hands.
Dad came in right as I was trying to knead the stupid dough, and had this weird smirk on his face that kind of said, my daughter is a really lousy cook. And it's funny.
I told him it was tougher than it looked, and he nodded sympathetically, but really, I know he was laughing on the inside.
Anyway, halfway through I realized that I wouldn't be able to roll the dough up like the recipe called for. I added half a cup more flour than asked even, because it wasn't solid enough to roll up. It was too squishy, and stuck to my fingers way too much.
So I decided that, instead of making cinnamon rolls, I was baking a cinnamon cake.
I altered the rest of the recipe, according to how I thought the cake should turn out. I poured half of the batter/dough thing into a cake pan, melted some butter and spread it over that, added the cinnamon and brown sugar, and then poured the rest of the batter over that. I figured that that ought to work.
It did. *epic grin here*
So even though I couldn't make proper cinnamon rolls, the cinnamon cake turn out delicious. Tasted exactly like a Cinnabon roll, but cake form. I'd even added less cinnamon than was listed, since Dad mentioned at the table that he didn't like Cinnabon that much.
The cake:
I'm in my PJ's in the picture, because the cake finished baking at like 10 pm.
Mum and I were tempted to eat more than the piece we cut, but we decided to let the cake cool a bit and share it around in the morning. I figure I'll take some of it to Yolany's. Yomal, her younger brother, looked super eager when I mentioned my Cinnabon plans to him earlier today.
So it looks like I can bake when I get to uni. I'm not sure if I'm going to - baking this cake was a MAJOR hassle. Well, alright, not really. I just really didn't like the stupid, sticky dough. Or batter. Isn't it called batter, for cakes? Can you call it dough? The recipe called it dough, but that was meant for rolls. Maybe the term changes depending on what you're baking, even though it's the same ingredients.
Whatever.
In other news, my flatmates have met each other and are enjoying Freshers'. It sounds loads fun. I've seen pictures and all that they've put up, and the flat looks pretty nice. I'll put my own pictures up here once I get there.
For now, though:
Ja ne.
Well, yes, I've been preparing for months now. But I mean preparing, proper.
Last night, at around three in the morning, it hit me that I'm not quite ready. I've got most of the clothes now - I think I still need to buy a couple of jackets. Apparently, 18 degrees Celsius is considered warm there. In Dubai, we're surviving at temperatures of over 50 degrees. Warm, here, is like 35 degrees, I guess? I don't know, I just know that we complain it's hot when the weather escalates past 45 degrees. One thing I do know, however, is that 18 degrees is not warm. It's freaking cold.
Yeah, I need more jackets.
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not ready. I still needed to buy knick-knacks such as earplugs and all. So, I pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down a to-do list.
I also had a random craving for Cinnabon. Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to try and learn to cook, I looked up the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, and added the ingredients of that to the to-do list for the next day.
When I woke up at my usual hour of 3 in the afternoon, I got dressed and drove to Yolany's place. My brother was playing video games there, so I picked him up and headed to Geant, which is like a massive Tesco or Walmart or whatever at the local mall.
We picked up the ingredients, picked up some other stuff (thumb tacks, a note pad, couple of toiletries), picked up my brother's friends (they wanted to play basketball at the court near our house), and headed home.
Now, I wanted to make cinnamon rolls. That was the plan. I made the frosting first, and stuck that in the fridge. It tasted pretty good - the same as the Cinnabon rolls', I should think. Then I started on the actual rolls.
Complete chaos.
I tried to get organized, I really did. But before long, there was flour all over the table, sugar sprinkled among that, and the dough stuck to my fingers and would not come off. I do not know how people are supposed to bake that stuff, when half of it goes down the drain in an attempt to have reasonably dough-free hands.
Dad came in right as I was trying to knead the stupid dough, and had this weird smirk on his face that kind of said, my daughter is a really lousy cook. And it's funny.
I told him it was tougher than it looked, and he nodded sympathetically, but really, I know he was laughing on the inside.
Anyway, halfway through I realized that I wouldn't be able to roll the dough up like the recipe called for. I added half a cup more flour than asked even, because it wasn't solid enough to roll up. It was too squishy, and stuck to my fingers way too much.
So I decided that, instead of making cinnamon rolls, I was baking a cinnamon cake.
I altered the rest of the recipe, according to how I thought the cake should turn out. I poured half of the batter/dough thing into a cake pan, melted some butter and spread it over that, added the cinnamon and brown sugar, and then poured the rest of the batter over that. I figured that that ought to work.
It did. *epic grin here*
So even though I couldn't make proper cinnamon rolls, the cinnamon cake turn out delicious. Tasted exactly like a Cinnabon roll, but cake form. I'd even added less cinnamon than was listed, since Dad mentioned at the table that he didn't like Cinnabon that much.
The cake:
 |
| Cinnamon Cake! |
 |
| The Cinnamon Cake and its Awesome Patissiere. |
I'm in my PJ's in the picture, because the cake finished baking at like 10 pm.
Mum and I were tempted to eat more than the piece we cut, but we decided to let the cake cool a bit and share it around in the morning. I figure I'll take some of it to Yolany's. Yomal, her younger brother, looked super eager when I mentioned my Cinnabon plans to him earlier today.
So it looks like I can bake when I get to uni. I'm not sure if I'm going to - baking this cake was a MAJOR hassle. Well, alright, not really. I just really didn't like the stupid, sticky dough. Or batter. Isn't it called batter, for cakes? Can you call it dough? The recipe called it dough, but that was meant for rolls. Maybe the term changes depending on what you're baking, even though it's the same ingredients.
Whatever.
In other news, my flatmates have met each other and are enjoying Freshers'. It sounds loads fun. I've seen pictures and all that they've put up, and the flat looks pretty nice. I'll put my own pictures up here once I get there.
For now, though:
Ja ne.
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