Macaroni and Cheese for One

Some things just should not be eaten as leftovers, and for these things, I am constantly in search of good "recipes for one." Today while writing an SLA paper, I got a craving for some uber cheesy mac and cheese, so I googled it and found a pretty good recipe. With some modifications, it is now baking in my oven.

Here's my recipe:

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
A pinch of black pepper
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup grated or shredded cheddar cheese (I was probably a little more generous with the cheese)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
A few shakes of 5th Season Chopped Onions, which can be had for only 50 cents in the spice aisle of Wal-Mart
(Rounded) 1/3 cup pasta shells, cooked and drained
3 Ritz crackers, crushed up

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter; stir in flour, salt and pepper. Whisk in milk until smooth. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. It cooks really quickly, so watch it.

Add the cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and onion; stir until cheese is melted. Turn off heat. Add macaroni. Transfer to a 1 cup (or slightly larger) baking dish. (Those little Corelle-Ware dishes that you wouldn't use for anything but are really cute work wonderfully!)

Sprinkle with crushed up Ritz crackers. If you put them in a Ziploc bag to crush them, you can cut the corner of the bag open and shake them onto the macaroni, which works nicely and does not make much of a mess!

Bake, uncovered, at 350 F. for 10 minutes or until heated through. Enjoy!

I will add a picture at some point.

Thank you, Citigroup

In the five and a half years I have been in college, I have never had a credit card. That might seem strange, but I figured that since I was going to be a student and would be spending money instead of making it, it probably wasn't a good idea to have any more ways to become indebted. But now, I'm graduating in December, and a credit card is a very useful thing, so over the weekend I decided to take the plunge. Saturday morning, I went online and compared credit cards for two hours. (Research, baby.) I found one I liked, the Driver's Elite from Citibank, and decided to fill out the app for it-- however, there was a problem with my app, so I had to call their customer service line.

My call went something like this:

C: Hello, this is Foioweri from Citibank, how mays I helps you?

A: Hi, I'd like to apply for a credit card, but your website won't let me. Help.

C: Hokay, lets me see. Which cardizit?

A: The Driver's Elite.

C: Hokay, I am checkingzit now. Please hold.

...waiting...waiting...waiting...

C: Ma'am?

A: ...Yes?

C: I am veddy sorry but we no longer has dis card. Can I interests you in one of our ozzer cards?

A: No, I've spent two hours researching and this is definitely the card I want. You say you no longer have it?

C: Not on zis line. But you can apply for it online.

A: I did, but your website didn't work.

C: I am veddy sorry ma'am. Perhaps you can tries again later.

A: Sure.

C: Hokay, have a nice day to you.

This morning while reading CNN, I found this: http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/17/news/companies/citigroup/index.htm

I think that pretty accurately explains the situation.

Thanks, Citigroup!

past musical obsessions of the week / month / whatever

When I used to blog on myspace, I would sometimes write about music that I had stumbled upon and enjoyed. Here they are, condensed into one neat post for your viewing pleasure.

5. This is a blog about one of my very favorite artists, Sia. Check her out.

4. Jose Gonzalez is a Swedish acoustic artist. His music is soft and soothing, but if you listen carefully to the words, you'll find that his message is not always in agreement with the melody. I first heard him on WMSV, the campus radio station at Mississippi State, and I had a hard time choosing songs to put on the playlist below-- they're all good.

Check out his myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/josegonzalez

This song is my favorite:


3. Well, it's finals week, so obviously this week I'm procrastinating on my studying. Which is really stupid, because I'm completely done with the exception of one paper which I've known about forever, but took an extension on anyway because I just don't think I'll be able to write it before tomorrow morning. (Especially not now.) I really like being in grad school, because you get a ton of time to work on everything, but if you procrastinate like an undergrad, it will really REALLY catch up to you. However, instead of learning from my previous mistakes, I will probably be up all night on Thursday finishing this thing.

Anyway.

This week I'm feeling kinda into Charlotte Martin. I don't really know anything about her, but some of her stuff is good and some of her stuff is meh. So take a listen. (Also thanks to Nikki for introducing me to her music!)

2. This week I'm procrastinating on laundry, bathroom cleaning, and a paper about how Korean syntax works. (That's going to be a fun one.) Please procrastinate with me and enjoy the musical greatness that is Gomez, a band that gets a little play on the radio station here at MSU. They are British. They are badass. You will be a happier person for listening to them.

You can also check out their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/gomez

1. So, while procrastinating on the large majority of my work during this past semester, I stumbled upon some pretty awesome music. My current fav is Katy Perry, who I discovered after Perez gave her a shout-out on his blog (which I look at during the aforementioned procrastination). You can check her out on myspace music (http://www.myspace.com/katyperry/), or you can just listen to her on the music player below. Enjoy!

a blog for hayley’s boredom... and mine, really. featuring Crackazz

Original Post Date: September 30, 2008

Why hello there.

I figure it is time for an update on my life, so here we go. I am still living in Mississippi, finishing up my graduate work. For more information on what that's like, see the earlier blog about SLA papers (from my undergraduate life, but close enough).

I have no idea what I am going to do upon graduating. I would really like to just kick it on a farm with some chickens and maybe a goat, knitting all day long. I just made this scarf today, and gave it to my dear friend Christie. Happy birthday, Christie!


However, I have to get a real life. I wish it were a simple formula, such as figure B: What is the table made of? Hypothesize, test, analyze, report. It is made of leather. Scientific method made easy.


Life? Not so easy.

I realize that this blog probably makes hella* less sense than my earlier blogs, but please understand that I am blogging for the specific purpose of entertaining my dear friend H-Argh, also known as Hayley, H-Bizm, Captain HR, etc. She is like my life-blood, as she does things like putting my life in danger (figure C)



...and saving me from zombies, chupacabras, ninjas, and betches with her karate skills (figure D).


She is very bored because she has to run tests that last for 5000 seconds for work. I don't know much else about these tests, but I do know that she is still at work at almost midnight on a Tuesday.

And here I am, still awake at almost midnight on a Tuesday, writing a blog about pretty much nothing. Why? Because I still can. The impending sense of increased responsibility is upon me... I just want to make sure that I can have fun in whatever path I take next. I want to enjoy my life, not feel as though I am being dragged through it. I want to be able to stay up late and take ridiculous pictures like this one


and know that I am still young and free and ALIVE.

Is that so much to ask?

Work might make me feel dead, I imagine.

I could always move home.

Just for fun, figure F:


Go Pats!!

I'm out

*is this proper use of "hella?" It is now.

feedback sandwich for my landlord

Original Post Date: August 18, 2008

Dear Billy,

Thank you so much for painting my door and doorframe yesterday. I think it looks really nice. However, you probably should have waited until a day that was not 90 degrees with 100 percent humidity and wind speeds of 0 mph. Paint does not dry in these conditions. I also wish you would have told me that you had painted... and that you had not also painted my doorknob. It's still wet today, by the way. I would like to reiterate that it looks nice. Except where you flung white paint on the green part. That part doesn't look so good.

Love,
Ashley

http://www.wikihow.com/Give-a-Feedback-Sandwich

office hours

Original Post Date: June 11, 2008

Every week I am required to keep two office hours as part of my teaching assistantship. I chose Wednesdays from 1:00 to 3:00 as this breaks up my week nicely and allows me to have the rest of my afternoons off. Why I am required to keep these office hours is beyond me, as none of my students have ever visited me during this time unless I specifically asked them to. (To put this into perspective, I've been keeping office hours since last August.) I usually use my two hours a week to grade things and write lesson plans, as I make a point of leaving my materials on my desk at work and avoid bringing them home at all costs. I'm relatively lazy by nature, so I motivate myself through my office hours using incentives. For example, if I finish grading all the tests, I can stalk people on myspace and facebook for ten minutes before continuing on to the next task. Or sometimes the incentive will be walking to the bookstore for a cup of tea. Usually it's stalking though. But you get the idea.

Well today, while I was in my coworker's office, I noticed a Crunch bar wrapper in her trash can. I haven't eaten a Crunch bar since I was in middle school, and frankly they are not my junk-food-chocolate-bar of choice, but today I got an appetite for one and decided that it would be my incentive for writing two weeks worth of lesson plans (that I really should have already done, but I "forgot" about my office hours last week). When I finally finished my planning, I walked down the hall to the snack machine (which is conveniently located a couple doors down from my office). As I looked at the Crunch bar through the nose-printed glass, a little conversation began in my head. It went something like this:

A voice that sounded strangely like my mother: "Ashley, you know you don't really need that Crunch bar."

Me: "Yes I do."

Voice: "You're not even hungry."

Me: "Yes I am."

Voice: "But you already had your junk food today—you just ate Chick-fil-A for lunch a half hour ago."

Me: "So?"

Voice: "Don't you want to look good in your bathing suit?"

Me: "I don't care. I'll go to yoga this afternoon to work it off."

Voice: "No you won't."

Me: "Yes I will."

Voice: "No, you're going to go home and sit in front of the computer reading Perez and MSN gossip and eating M&Ms by the handful. So how about you just save those calories for then."

Me: "Shut up!!"

I then shoved my dollar into the slot of the vending machine and pressed C8 to get my Crunch bar. It did not register on the machine. I tried again. And again. And again. Finally, I gave up, pressed the coin return, took my change, and returned to my office. And here I am, sans Crunch bar.

But I am going to eat those M&Ms when I get home.

dunkin donuts update

Original Post Date: July 11, 2007

So, here is the promised Dunkin' Donuts update. (One year later. Yeah.) This year, a few things have changed about my favorite summer job:

1) One of my co-workers let Dunkin's get to her. She now wanders aimlessly throughout the store, mumbling to herself and blaming it on the "person in her ear."

2) Two of my co-workers have fewer teeth than last year.

3) Dunkin's decided that new shirts were in order. (The smoothies got old, I guess. We still make them but no longer advertise through our attire.) The latest apparel includes two colors of polo shirts better suited for the golf course than serving coffee. Yes, you read that correctly: two. I think they are called "petal" and "pumpkin" or something equally metro. I lucked out this time, too: I now have one oversized, petal-colored shirt and three pairs of pants. (Do the laundry math on that one.)

That is it for now.