college food: microwave egg burrito...

The other day the lines were too long in the cafeteria, so I had an egg burrito the other day at one of the many cafes on campus. And it turned out to be a refrigerator-cold, flavorless, gelatinous lump of egg with a tiny smear of cheese somewhere hidden in the burrito.

So I set about trying to improve upon the basic idea: a cheese and egg burrito. And because I recently found out that eggs can be scrambled and cooked in the microwave, I wanted to test the idea out as my first review of how microwaves do everything.

Verdict?

This is halfway through my burrito. I made it with the Trader Joe's Mexican shredded cheese blend that my roommate and I bought to make eggs and chorizo...which we haven't yet. We had cherry tomatoes in the fridge too, so some of those mysteriously found themselves in my burrito in place of salsa.

My opinion on microwave scrambled eggs? They were...interesting. I made two eggs in the microwave according to these instructions. 30-45 seconds per egg in a microwaveable container--it should have been easy. But the eggs wouldn't set completely. Not after a minute and a half. Not after two minutes. At three minutes, almost all of the egg was set, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that I would be fine. I think it was because I microzapped them in my coffee mug, so maybe the egg was too dense to be cooked properly?

The resulting burrito was pretty yummy, despite a little bit of gooeyness, which I told myself was the cheese melted by the heat of the eggs. Because you know what's one of the good things about making eggs in the microwave? They're actually warm when you eat them. Take that, cafe.

college food: microwaves are amazing...

I didn't really intend to have a microwave in college. Fridge, yes, microwave, no.

And then my roommate got one and there's no going back.

This is my in-room kitchen. It's gotten even bigger since this picture.

The sheer volume of things you can make in the microwave is impressive. There's the easy things, like microwaveable mac n' cheese that was intended to be made in the microwave. And then there's tons of other foods that can easily be made in the microwave. Sure, there's a definite trade-off in taste. But when it gets to the point where you never have to leave your dorm room where you can resist the unhealthy temptations in the cafeteria using your microwave food, you start accepting the idea of microzapped pasta and eggs and everything.

Obviously microwaves can be used to make yummy brownies. But you can also use it to make eggs. Or pasta. Or baked apples. Or a multitude of other things (including Potatoes Lyonnaise and fudge apparently).

So I'm planning to try out a wide variety of somewhat classy microwave recipes and report back here on my blog. Like traveling the world in an RV but only eating at fast food joints?

With trusty, never-fail Pinterest as my guide, there's no way this could possibly go wrong. Until something explodes in the microwave and I have to clean it up.

college food: microwave brownies

Normal college students eat ramen or Easy Mac. Not my roommates and me. Three weeks into our first semester of college, we figured out how to make delicious, near-gourmet brownies in our microwave. They were extremely delicious--much more delicious than you would expect from the microwave.

A horrible picture of the best brownies ever made in a microwave

They were the brownie babies of some mix my roommate's mother sent her and the trail mix we had around the room.

Me with the delicious brownies

Easy Microwave Brownies

1/2 cup brownie mix (we used Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt, but I know that you can use other varieties)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/8 cup trail mix or to taste (we used Target's Chocolate Cranberry Crunch, but mainly the walnuts, so feel free to use just nuts or whatever trail mix you like best)

Combine the brownie mix and the applesauce in a microwave safe bowl. Stir until well-mixed. Add the trail mix--if using nuts, break them up well.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Let them cool...or pop them out of the bowl as fast as you can. There's no judgement here. Enjoy!

what i'm knitting now...

College is kind of a time suck. When I'm not doing the things I'm supposed to do (i.e. studying, eating, sleeping, studying), I usually wind up in late night/all hours discussions about life, the universe, and everything. Especially how many paths a man must walk down.

But don't worry sports fans! I still have one project on the needles that seems to be never-ending. Back home in Chispita-land, a new children's hospital opened up, without enough baby blankets to protect the preemies that would undoubtedly show up. So this hospital pulled up its Superknitter light and summoned all the Superknitters in the area to knit baby blankets.

Look! There's a new comforter to be my picture backdrop!

Being connected to a super knitter as I am, I of course joined the fight against the evil villain of Coldness that likes to prey on babies. But what with all that studying and watching Youtube videos, what I thought would be a quick little project has dragged out to be considerably longer. Especially because this puppy's supposed to be 30" on each side, which in dk translates to hundreds upon hundreds of stitches.

Oh well. That's what taking math is for, isn't it?

a sewing fo: ruffly upcycling

I got scared off of math once I had to actually start doing things beyond the capabilities of a four-function calculator. So I suppose you could say my brain has the math capabilities of said four-function calculator, except in late-night games of Monopoly. *ahem*

But this, now this is the kind of math I love to do.

One..

Plus one...

Equals something a little more fun!

I kept telling myself that I would take not-webcam pictures with my actual camera, but then...college...and the lack of natural light in my dorm room...and college...

I know, lame excuse worthy of being shunned by any nice Sewing Fairies who happen to see.

I used this tutorial as my basis. But instead of making quite such a ruffly neckline, I decided that I wanted a single ruffle that would make something of a collar. I also decided to use a blue skirt that I had lying around as the skirt, instead of making my own. Because, you know, I'm lazy and stuff. And then I decided that I didn't want another empire-seamed dress that would wind up making me look vaguely pregnant, which is always my fear with too-far-raised waistlines.

You can sort of see the ruffly collar here. Darn webcam.

Details:
Pattern: Ummm....a tutorial as inspiration?
Time spent: 2 days--partially because I sewed that all by hand, including an attempt at a hand-sewn stretch seam at the waist. Not a good idea, folks. Just use the sewing machine. Sooo much faster.
Cost: Can I consider it free? I already owned both the tank top and the dress, so really it wasn't something I was spending money on.
Last words on it: I'm really happy with it, but the waistline is a little floppy. Easily fixed by a wide belt, but I don't own one of those yet. But I do still love it, so overall this one is a keeper!

a little fo teaser

I'm going to be honest: I've already finished this sweater. But I can't bring myself to model it right now when it's hot and humid and feels like I could go swimming without ever setting foot in a pool. So instead, you can have more of the lovely pictures that feature my ancient comforter as the backdrop.

This is what I did with all the yarn leftover from that fail of a fo that was The Vow sweater. I looked through my piles of inspiration and picked out a cabled hoodie and started designing. Fortunately, the inclusion of waist shaping saved this design. So without further ado, Internet, meet my sweater.

This is from before I actually finished it--at this point it still needs its ends woven in and an edging knit on to the neckline and buttons sewn on. But the cabley goodness is still there.

Someday, I promise, there will be pictures of this sweater actually on a person. Until the weather decides to get amenable, though, this is the best I can do.