An eventful week!

Last weekend:

Camping at Kerr Lake Friday/Saturday (cut it short).

• Froze my ass off Friday night!
• Watched/listened to Carolina get their asses kicked by State.
• Drank a bit, ate just a bit...Or quite a lot... (Kent rocks at camp cooking) Highlights:
• Baileys mint chocolate + hot cocoa
• Goldschlager + hot cider
• Lindeman's Framboise (raspberry beer)
• Peppermint Paddy shot (chocolate syrup and peppermint schnapps)
  
• Greek chicken and rice
• Mmmm chili
• Low Country Boil (shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, in yummy broth).

Saturday, we (my ride Jenna and I) decided to head back after dinner instead of staying the night. Even though it was warmer and the wind had died down, I think we both realized it was the smart choice.

Oh, and did I mention Saturday afternoon, I found out one of my closest friends is officially engaged? Yeah, ex-fucking-citing day!

Saturday night, I went out with two camping buddies, Hibernian and Stool Pigeons. I'm not used to that whole "I'm paying for all your drinks" things most college females are fairly adjusted to, but that's what that night consisted of. Chris and Jenna wanted to treat me to an awesome birthday. I had 2 ciders at Hibernian, got to see my friend and her fiance (and the freakin amazing ring) for a bit. After they left, we headed to Stool Pigeons, where it continued with a shot - Buttery Nipple. And then 2 Sex on the Beaches. By no means do I drink as much as I did Saturday on a normal basis (I drank during the day camping, and then that night), but I can't deny it was sorta fun being a stereotypical college student for a day. I've never really "gone out" for my birthday, either, so why the hell not now?!

My birthday was Sunday, had Thai food with some friends and then saw "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." (entertaining enough) I did that instead of studying for my test on Monday, but whatever. I have supersenioritis at the moment (or more like for the rest of the semester!).

Monday/Tuesday = school hell. But Tuesday, mom and aunt came up, and we had lunch at Five Guys with Brittany. Mmmm amazing burgers + fun times with friends and family = <3. Wednesday was basically just Thanksgiving prep, and damn Thanksgiving was amazing.

This entry seems sort of food-focused, but dinner was so amazing, I must continue the theme. Our menu:
Brined roast turkey with a pomegranate-port glaze
Homemade baked macaroni and cheese
Beef in Barolo
Creamy polenta
Homemade stuffing with sausage
Kibbe
Sweet potato casserole (with lovely pecan crumble on top)
Green beans in tomatoes (not a casserole)
Homemade cranberry sauce
Honeybaked Ham
Salad
Crescent Rolls

Oh, and the desserts
Chocolate mousse/ganache roulade with mint creme anglaise
Tres Leches cake with lots of whipped cream
Carrot cake with a buttermilk glaze and cream cheese icing

My brother made the turkey, mac and cheese, beef, polenta and chocolate torte thing; my mom made the stuffing and handled the responsibility of buying and baking crescent rolls. She also made her requesite pumpkin pies, but they weren't really brought out for dessert. Aunt Suzie handled the cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and carrot cake and Aunt Nabila brought the kibbe, green beans, salad, and bought the ham. Oh, and my cousin Maher made the Tres Leches cake... It was technically my birthday request, but everyone had some. It's a damn good cake.

So, yesterday was insane. Fourteen people here to eat, and a few more showed up afterwards. As much as my family drives me insane, I enjoy nights like last night. It's just not something I can do on a regular basis. ;)

Aha, and on another food note, my dad just got home with mahshi that Aunt Violet (Maher's mom) made. Stuffed squash and stuffed grape leaves... mmm mmm!

All of this food and fun is just helping me to delay all the work I have to do for this week. I am DREADING Monday.
My to-do list for Monday:

• Revise 8 pg spanish research paper
• Make 5 min powerpoint on said paper (in spanish, of course)
• TT 331 lab report - 'nuff said
• Knitting at 1pm: possibly resize/remake my file for that
• Work-out log for Weight Training due
• Make portfolio pages for knit project, due Tuesday

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Mmmm...soup weather...

I don't like the cold weather, but I do love a good soup or stew.

I did a "Throw whatever is in my pantry in a pot" stew/chili...

1/2 gigantic onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, diced fine
~1 tbsp butter
19 oz ground turkey breast
1 yellow bell pepper
1 can (1.75 cups) red kidney beans
1 can (1.75 cups) black beans
1 can (2 cups) Trader Joe's "Salsa" refried beans
~2ish cups low sodium chicken broth
~2ish cups crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp cornstarch
~1/4 cup Trader Joe's Enchilada Sauce
lots of salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and paprika

I threw the onions in with butter, let them cook down quite a bit. Added the garlic, and a minute or two later, added the ground turkey. It was sorta still frozen and I didn't realize that until it was in the pan, so I tried my best to break it up. Added a bit of broth, and spiced it up, and let it go for a few.

Added the diced bell pepper and the black and kidney beans. I then kept eyeballing broth and crushed tomatoes until I felt like it seemed good, added the last of my enchilada sauce from the bottle. And then I mixed in the refried beans to thicken it up a bit. I just let it cook until I felt like it was thick enough (added the cornstarch at the end because I was getting impatient).

It's a bit carby, from the beans, but the turkey (it's actually ground turkey breast) makes it high protein, and low fat for the most part. I sort of estimated it made a good 8 cups of stew, and with that, gives nutritional stats:

An estimation, per cup:
288 calories
3.1g fat
37.5g carbs
10.6g fiber
28.8g protein

I could have thrown some TVP in there to up the protein even more, but I forgot until the end... And the last (only) time I've used TVP, the smell bothered me a bit. But that was in oatmeal, so I don't know how it works in a soup. I figure if I top it with some cheese, that will up the protein and the fat is low enough that cheese won't hurt! It's quite yummy!

Oh...and...I'm going camping this weekend. Birthday weekend. I've never camped before, and let's say that as excited as I am, I'm also... nervous. I'm a wimp, and not so outdoorsy. But it's with Phi Psi, so, hopefully it guarantees fun. :) Wish me luck!

What I honestly wasn't sure America could do...

We did. Last night was an amazing night, and it makes me so happy, so excited. Obama's speech last night gave me goosebumps, and simply took my breath away.

While I never looked at Obama (or ANY politician) as the miracle cure to this country's woes during this election, the fact of the matter is - this is huge. Now, what he does from here, one can only hope for the best. There's a LOT on his plate, but Obama is such an intelligent man. If we need nothing else, I feel like America needs the brains and the calm demeanour right now.

I'm proud of this nation, and I'm looking forward to the future. You can't wipe this shit-eating grin off of my face for a while!

Walking through campus on a Sunday afternoon...

The leaves are changing.
The weather is gorgeous.
Sometimes I forget how nice NC State's campus is.
I also forget how nice it is to be able to walk from my apartment to the library (at a nice, leisurely pace) and not have my body feeling like crap by the time I arrive.

I'm working (trying to) on my research paper for FLS 300, Spanish Literature. This weekend has been unproductive otherwise, so we'll see how today goes.

Friday was Halloween, obviously, and after plans changing many times in the course of the day, I ended up at my friend Misha's party. I would have liked to do some of the Hillsborough Hike and then go to the party, but it had to be an all-or-nothing choice, and in the long run, the party made more sense. It was free, indoors, and just a chill night in general.

For anyone that's interested, I was Alice (in Wonderland).
That picture is a little blurry... This one's a bit better, it's me and my badass roommate Sarah.
If you're curious, Sarah was Molotov Cocktease, from The Venture Bros.

Halloween was fun... a bit too much drinking, but nothing substantial or damaging. And yesterday was completely unproductive as well - I watched The Shining and Borat, both for the first time. My kind of day. :)