Cheesy Chicken & Veggie Soup

This is a fuzzy cell phone picture of soup, but what it represents is significant: the first time I ever cooked for my boyfriend.

I don't really cook much in general, especially since during school, I have a meal plan at my dorm. Spending this past summer on the East Coast, buying groceries and doing stuff with them, gave me motivation, though, that I wanted to cook a little for myself and share the food with my boyfriend. Visiting a friend, who cooked delicious ceviche for his visiting girlfriend, my boyfriend, and me, provided even more motivation.

Instead of going out to eat before watching a ballet Saturday, my boyfriend and I had a home-cooked meal. It was up to me to decide what I would prepare. What ended up influencing my final decision for a dish was that my boyfriend was recovering from a cold, so a warm bowl of soup on a cold evening sounded wonderful. I found a recipe for Cheesy Chicken & Veggie Soup, courtesy of the blog vanilla sugar. My boyfriend especially seems to like creamy soup that's good for dunking bread into, so this definitely fit the bill. I would definitely consider this comfort food.

One of the things that I like about this recipe is how easy it was to make something so yummy, especially on my first attempt. I did feel a little bit of pressure (from myself), though, because I wanted to make a good first impression in the kitchen. Before starting cooking, my nerves definitely were getting to me when, for example, I couldn't find the milk that I had bought and my boyfriend had to go out and get some more. For the 10 minutes or so he was out, I was probably 80 percent done with chopping a medium to large onion (I'm not very confident in my knife abilities and tend to chop slow). However, things ultimately ended up working out for the best!

This is a dish where you can use whatever you have on hand in terms of leftover poultry and vegetables, which also helps cut down on the cooking time. Since I didn't have the "luxury" of leftovers, I used cubed pieces of turkey breast and grilled chicken from a supermarket's salad bar and a can of strained vegetables that had carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans, and potatoes.

I served this soup with slices of French bread that had garlic rubbed onto them, along with butter, cracked black pepper, and parsley. The bread unexpectedly got a little too toasty after just a couple minutes of broiling in the oven, but on the bright side, they weren't that burnt. Since this meal is hearty and kind of rich (with the creamed corn, cream cheese, milk, and mozzarella cheese), I served something light for dessert: fresh blueberries -- yum!

All in all, it was a great meal. My boyfriend and I were very pleased, and I definitely would like to cook again in the (hopefully near) future, not just for sharing food I had cooked (He also helped me a little in the kitchen, too), but also for myself.

Trick or treat

Smile! :-D

This was my first ever attempt at carving a pumpkin, though really, it was a team effort between my boyfriend and I. I designed it to be like a pirate with an eye patch. When I was carving the smile, one of the corners came too close to the eye patch, so we used toothpicks for support. The toothpicks actually added a cool effect. If we could have found a flimsy, black piece of fabric to put over the patch, then I wonder what kind of effect it would give it.

On Halloween, I also got to go trick-or-treating, something that I hadn't done in years! I was part of a group who dressed up as characters from the "Star Wars" films. Ahead of time, we had gone to thrift stores to find clothing to put together costumes at an affordable price. The results were amazing:

I was Princess Leia, and I probably spent less than $25 to put together an outfit that consisted of a white robe, a white skirt, and her famous hair buns that covered each ear. I pinned dog mullet wigs (go figure) that were each in hairnets to the sides of my head.

Afterward, we watched "The Others," starring Nicole Kidman:

Kidman plays a 1940s mother to a girl and boy, who all live in a big house in England. The children are sensitive to sunlight, so (conveniently) the rooms are so dark and add to the mysterious atmosphere when the family thinks there are ghosts haunting the place. The movie is suspenseful and there are parts that can make you jump, but it's not a film filled with blood and guts, which is good, since I can't stomach (ha ha) violence and gore. I was also familiar with the big twist of the film without having seen it. While that might have "spoiled" it for me in that regard, at least I could watch the film without being too jumpy and running out of the room.

All in all, it was quite a nice way to spend a Halloween evening.

October 25 -- Pancake Breakfast

More than 10 days ago, the big event that I've been co-organizing for the past few months finally took place ... and I've been recovering from it ever since. I've recovered from it enough that I'm dusting off the cobwebs from this corner of the Internet to provide you, dear readers, with some updates.

I was one of the co-organizers of a fundraiser/outreach event at my work. My boyfriend was kind enough to take some pictures during the event and share them with me afterward. The photo above shows a centerpiece that was on each of the tables. Believe it or not, the base is actually a red plastic cup. However, it has become more classy with the help of ribbons and leaves (As you can see, the event had a fall theme). The cup was topped off with a flat, clay pot, more leaves, and a tea light candle. Unfortunately, the candles couldn't be lit, due to the sensitive nature of the building (it's made of wood!).

In that picture, you can also partially see the program, which looks similar to the flier. You can also partially see the menu; have a better look:

The days leading up to October 25 were particularly busy. Among other things, I was responsible for much of the computer-based designing for the event. I especially liked how the donation drawings sheets turned out, which were used to showcase the different prizes that were available for people to buy raffle tickets. The prizes were pretty impressive -- who wouldn't want a chance to see a performance or visit an amusement for the fraction of the normal price?

Side 1

Side 2

Here's a picture of the dining room. Flags representing countries from all over the world are present, like at all of the previous Pancake Breakfasts, but my co-organizer and I wanted to focus on our theme and do additional decorations that were different. Warm shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown made up our color palette. Fake leaves and butterflies were hung from the ceiling with fishing wire, as well as on the walls.

The event really was like running a restaurant, with the residents of the dormitory helping out at different positions. The residents wear traditional clothing from various countries, and some of them perform, as you can see above. Overall, we served more than 300 people that Sunday morning.

I am SO glad that Pancake Breakfast is over. It was definitely stressful sometimes, and I didn't get very much sleep. On the other hand, we received a lot of positive feedback for the event, and it was a good personal experience when it came to event planning, which I'm sure will come in handy in the future.