Candy Graduation Caps

My brother just graduated, and my mom and I had been working together to make some food and decorations for his joint graduation party.  As you can tell from the title, this recipe is for candy graduation caps, which turned out very nicely.  My mom had the recipe, which we then adapted to be peanut free, as one of the graduates has a peanut allergy.


Below is my picture guide of the process and at the end of this post is the full recipe.  My brother's school's colors were royal blue and white, so we found the closest thing we could to royal blue for the buttons and tassels.  And since I am at home and was working with other people, we used more tools than absolutely necessary.  That said, these could still be somewhat difficult to make in a dorm due to the lack of counter space and lack of fridge/freezer space.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Rolls

One weekend I thought it would be nice to make a special brunch-like meal.  I googled different things that I thought I would be in the mood for, and ended up with a recipe found on this site.  It looked great!  It only required a few ingredients, and those were items that I could use for other meals.  It was a very simple recipe.  And so I made them.  And they did not lead to a nice brunch.  This was due to a couple of important problems.

Problem 1:  Brunch did not happen until after lunch time.  I had gotten up early to make these, but was waiting on a friend to come over and eat them with me before I put them in the oven.  Suddenly, it was afternoon and I had eaten nothing all day and I was not happy for it.

Problem 2:  The pasteries did not get done in the middle.  The oven was too warm, so the outside crust got a nice golden brown look to it while the middle remained gooey and uncooked.

Final result:  I was too hungry for this very sweet and thus overwhelming pastry, and the gooey middle had to remain uneaten (or maybe I ate some of it and that contributed to not feeling well).

Fixes:  Make sure this isn't the only thing you are eating on an empty stomach unless you tolerate very sweet things in large quantity well.  The oven needs to be cooler than mine was.  I don't know if this means that the recipe needs to be changed or that my oven just runs hot.  But next time I will reduce the temperature just in case and cook them for longer.

Green Onion Magic

Sometime when I was looking for recipes this past semester, I found something online about regrowing green onions.  If you keep the root ball after cutting off all of the useful green parts, green onions will grow again by just putting them in water.  So of course I had to try this!

I used the green onions in a recipe and then put them in water and used string to tie them together so that they would stand up.  And as I don't have a vase in my dorm room, I used a plastic bag contained within a pencil holder to hold the water.

I had cut the green onions down to the white part, and this is what they looked like a few weeks later.

Want to give it a try?  I originally found this idea here.  

Fancy Sandwiches, part 2

Another way that I dress up an otherwise boring meat and cheese sandwich is by adding other healthy things, such as eggs or sliced tomato or avocado.  By adding these things I feel like an otherwise small sandwich can turn into a healthy, filling meal.

At the start of the week, I can slice a tomato and store it in a plastic container in the fridge to use a slice or two every day throughout the week.  Avocados are harder to keep, as they turn brown soon after being sliced.  Therefore using an avocado is better when you are making sandwiches for you and a friend or two.  Another option would be to make some guacamole from the leftover avocado.  The lime or lemon juice in the guacamole helps the avocado stay fresh for longer.

Eggs are one of the easiest things to make in a dorm room.  All you need is a microwave safe bowl or mug and a fork (for scrambled eggs).  Crack the egg into your bowl or mug.  Whisk it with the fork.  Microwave until done.  Microwave times vary a lot based on the microwave (wimpy dorm one vs. high powered one) and how many eggs you use.  The egg will expand a lot as it is microwaved.  Just make sure that it is no longer runny, especially in the middle.

My sandwich: pepper-crusted turkey, tomato, egg, onion, green pepper
My meat of the week this week was pepper-crusted turkey.  I had also purchased a tomato for the week.  The onion and green pepper I had bough for another recipe, so I used some to make this sandwich seem even more delicious.

Microwave egg with green pepper and onion.  Add egg, turkey, and tomato to your bread.

And enjoy!

What are your favorite additions to a sandwich?

Fancy Sandwiches, part 1

Having a sandwich for lunch is wonderful.  It is simple and quick and can even be healthy.  But with only one person eating meat and cheese, I have the same meat and cheese all week.  So if I got roast beef and cheddar at the store the previous weekend, I eat that for lunch most days of the week.  But that can get boring very quickly.  So how can you change a boring sandwich into an exciting one?  Go fancy!

Find a different meat or cheese:
In addition to switching up the normal meats and cheese, you can find less normal toppings.  For example, at the grocery store I found small strips of chicken already cooked.  (They were called "short cuts" or something like that.)  They came in different seasoning, but I just got the plain ones.

Add seasonings:
Also, you can add your own seasonings to a sandwich.  Who said you could only add spices to elaborate dishes?  Not me!

My sandwich: toasted Oatnut bread, chicken strips, shredded cheddar cheese, basil, and garlic
Even though I'm home for the summer, I decided to make something simple that I could eat in my dorm room.  And since I couldn't find some of the spices at home, I dug through my college things and found my box of spices.


Assemble cheese and chicken, then sprinkle with spices.

Microwave until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Keep up with "Before College Life" People

Yesterday I visited my high school and spoke to lots of my former teachers.  I went to a great high school where all of the teachers truly care about the success of their students.  And after having seen you in the halls for four years, they get to know you pretty well.

I always enjoy visiting the school.  My former teachers enjoy hearing updates about how I'm doing, what I'm majoring in, and how classes are going.  They, in turn, tell me how they are doing and what is new at the school.  It is always very encouraging for me to visit these people.

So don't forget about the people who helped you accomplish what you have achieved.  They are still rooting for you and are wonderful to talk to.

Thank you, everyone, for a great day yesterday and a wonderful high school experience.

Chicken Tetrazzini...a work in progress

When I want to make a meal at college, one of the post important things for me is that the recipe not contain very many ingredients and only those ingredients whose leftovers I will use in another recipe.  My mom is awesome and sent me to back to school with some frozen meals and some frozen chicken that she had previously cooked and shredded into bite-size pieces.  So when I realized that I had chicken and some spaghetti, I wanted to make chicken tetrazzini.  And as any good college student who doesn't remember something does, I googled it!  I compared 5-10 recipes and reduced them to as few ingredients and trouble as possible.  Also, I have yet to perfect the proportions of each ingredient.  That means that this isn't the most wonderful dish and certainly isn't your grandmother's well-known recipe, but it does still make a decent meal.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Reading books - for fun?

When I was little, I loved to read.  I read all types of books, but my favorites as a child were mysteries.  My mom would taken my brother and me to the library often, and we could choose from lots of new and interesting books.  I even knew that the limit to the number of books we could check out from the public library was 99 (not that we ever reached that number).  When I got home from school, I would read.  If my brother was bothering me, I could always lose myself in a good book.  In the summer, we would both participate in the summer reading challenge held by the library and get prizes for how many books or hours we read.

And then high school happened.  And with high school came more school work and more extracurricular activities.  I was taking harder classes and reading more for school.  After school I would go to practice for whichever sport I was participating in that season: soccer, basketball, cross-country, or indoor track.  And once a week I would go to youth group after a long day of school and sports practice.  With all the time I was spending school and other things, I did not have much time left over for reading for pleasure.  But when summer came around, I would be reading a lot again.  My family has always taken books to the beach so that we can read and relax on the beach.  One summer I recall averaging about a book a day, at least for the first half of the week.

To have or not to have...a meal plan

During Christmas break of my sophomore year, I decided to reevaluate my meal plan.  Actually, I reevaluate my meal plan after each semester.  But during this evaluation, I decided to get rid of my meal plan all together.  My decision was based on what made the most sense financially and on my desire to make my own meals in my dorm more often.

So my advice is to take a good look at the different meal plan options.  One benefit of a meal plan is that your food costs are already covered at the beginning of the semester.  You are also guaranteed a variety of options of meat, veggies, fruit, etc. that would be hard to generate on your own.  Additionally, eating at a dining hall is great for meeting with friends or making new friends.  When I was a freshman, all of my friends had meal plans, and a group of us would go to dinner together almost every night.

On the downside, meals at the dining hall are generally more expensive than if one were to cook for themselves or eat out at somewhere like Noodles and Company or Qdoba.  Many people feel a certain security in having a meal plan with a guaranteed number of meals, but then fail to eat at the dining hall enough.  And when I decided to drop the meal plan, there was no problem for me with using a payment method other than my dining hall card.

For me it came down to a few factors.  I did not have as many friends with meal plans this year.  Also, I enjoyed cooking on my own when I had the chance.  Even when I was on the meal plan, I wasn't eating at the dining hall often enough to make it worth it.

What's your dining hall story?

Welcome!

Welcome!

I just finished my sophomore year in college, and in the past two years I have learned a lot about college and life in general.  In trying to make more of my meals on my own this past semester, I realized that there were not that many resources online for students who wished to make simple meals in their dorm rooms.  I decided that I could try to fill this void with some of the things that have worked.  

Therefore, I created this blog: to discuss some of the things that are great to know "For Life in College."  In addition to discussing food and posting recipes, I expect that I will post other things that I've learned because of being in college.  

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy my content, whether you are in college or not.  And don't forget to leave your comments and questions!

Thanks!
Catherine