the end has arrived...

On my last night of studying, my amazing roomie Lauren and her mom brought me clam chowder from The Village Tavern. A nice way to end the crazy week of finals! It made studying for Biology a little more bearable.

As for the soup, it was pretty good! I've had better dishes from the Village Tavern, which I may feature in a future blog post, but this was most certainly better than the alternative pit food.

The hands you see holding my soup to-go is my friend John James. He is actually a super picky eater, and pretty much doesn't like anything. SO...I'm not sure why he's on this food blog, but whatevs.

Well, this was Friday night! Saturday was my last final and now I'm done with Finals. I survived. Barely.

...and continues...

After quite a productive day today, full of French oral exams, and stacks of flashcards...what was my reward? Only a wonderfully delicious bowl of homemade beef stew (pictured below).

 

I have this friend who's a talented photographer, and a pretty good cook. (He didn't take the picture above... that obviously amateur picture is all mine :) But you can see some of his pics here or here! He was kind enough to invite me over for dinner with a few other friends, and of course I accepted! Ok, maybe I invited myself over...but being such a gracious friend, he welcomed my company. The stew was so good! He made it in a pressure cooker, which I understand isn't normally found in a college student's kitchen, but he has a strong appreciation for using the right tools for the job. The beef turned out so tender, after only 20 minutes of cook time, so maybe a pressure cooker isn't such a bad investment?

Definitely my favorite study "snack" (more like a meal) thus far.

 Days of studying: four and counting...

Subject of choice: Français

Snack of choice: Beef stew and whole wheat bread

moving in

Upon moving into my new dorm room, one of the girls in our suite brought me and my roommate homemade blueberry tarts! They were absolutely delicious. She made them in individual pie crusts, so everyone got an individual tart for themselves. It's been over a week since we've all moved in and she's baked pecan pies and a coconut pie as well! I'm so glad that she loves baking as much as I love eating! I guess I'd better start my regular exercise routine!

mmmm.

And who said college kids don't eat well?

lunch with a friend

A week or so ago, I drove to Hickory to visit with my friend Catherine. While I was there, we went to two amazing restaurants for lunch. The first called Cafe Gouda was this little bistro at the end of a strip mall. On the wall there were SO many sandwiches and entrees to choose from. After about 10 minutes of reading description after description, I finally settled on getting the Hot Brown.

Oven Roasted Turkey, bacon, tomato, white cheddar cheese, and mayo on grilled sourdough 

 SOOO good!! The cheese was perfectly melted, and the bacon gave it some smokiness. My favorite part was the bread. I only dream that one day I'll be able to make sourdough bread that delicious.

The other restaurant we went to was called Dante's Pizza. Since there's limited seating inside, we called ahead of time and ordered subs to pick up. I had a turkey with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and oil and vinegar. It came with chips and a pickle, but I don't think anything lasted longer than 3 minutes. I was so hungry, that I practically inhaled it. If you're ever in Hickory, NC and are looking for a great place to grab a sub sandwich to go, Dante's is the place! 

They don't have a website, but here's the address: 2208 N Center St Hickory, NC 2860

adventures with bread

I love bread. I really do. It's probably one of my favorite foods of all time. I've always wanted to know how to bake it on my own, and recently, I've had the opportunity to try my hand at making it myself.

My loving neighbor Joy gave me a sourdough bread starter, and a lesson on making bread, so two days ago I decided to give it a try.The following pictures document the process.

This is after I let the starter sit overnight with some flour and water. So far so good.

After the starter sat overnight, I pulled out a new starter, added some olive oil and salt to the mixture, and worked in more flour. When it became too hard to stir, I poured it out and kneaded in the rest of the flour.

This part was the most fun :)

Here it is, all ready to rise!! I put this loaf into a bowl drizzled with some olive oil so it didn't stick, and covered it to let it rise.

Then, I pulled it out after about 4 hours, kneaded it once again, formed two small loaves, scored them, and set them aside on a pan to rise once more. (sorry there aren't any pictures of these steps! I took my bread over to a friends house to finish making it)

Alas! My hard work has payed off! The final product! (My friend and I ate the other loaf with butter and jam, so obviously, only one is included in this picture) Overall, it came out great for my first try! The texture of the crust was good, but the inside was a bit doughy and dense. Definitely tasted like sourdough though! In the end, it was a success.

Luckily, I've had nothing but time the past few days to experiment with different rising times and wheat to white flour ratios. Results coming soon.