November 13, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged cooking, soup, vegetarian
After reading this article, I want to begin avoiding food that comes in cans! Now I am glad I registered for that crock-pot at Target, because soups don’t seem to be that difficult to make–start it in the morning and have it that night, or make a ton and freeze it… this is totally doable!
I have no idea why I have soup on the brain so much right now. I really really want some french onion, complete with the cheesy bread on top, but as I’m at school with no resources I think i’ll go down to Fresh and Easy and get some instant miso. Yayyyy sodium!
Soups to learn to make:
Minestrone (Actually, I’ve got this one covered.)
French onion
Chicken and rice
Black bean and lime (like at the Main St Deli in Mcpherson!)
Broccoli and cheese
Lentil
Butternut squash (a challenge?)
November 10, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged graphic design
With a little help from Microsoft Publisher, my mom and I created graduation announcements ourselves and saved around $250 (when compared to doing them through the school). Classy and economical, no? Now if only stamps were cheaper….
Class of 2009! Excuse the white blotches--I took off my personal information
Thank you to my wonderful best friend Angela for doing my senior pics. She is available for anyone in Orange County and the Temecula area. Contact her through flickr ;)
October 27, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged wedding
So, last Saturday… I got engaged <3 I’m super happy and super relieved because now I don’t have to be all sneaky and sheepish when researching wedding stuff. Because I now have the right to. :D
Giving me over six months and unlimited web resources to plan one of the biggest days in my life? YES PLEASE.
October 16, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged interior design
This room has been rolling around in my brain for a while ever since I had the idea to paint my bed yellow. I figured it’d make the normal into the unique!
blue and yellow loft layout. click to enlarge, again its an obscenely huge file.
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October 13, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged interior design
When I enrolled in college, I intended to major in Interior Design. Later I changed my mind and now I’m majoring in International Studies. Very different. I changed from Interior Design because I was afraid that being forced to do something I love (by the clients) would burn me out on it and change how I felt about it. One bachelor’s degree (almost!) in IS later, I’m kind of still wishing I could be an interior designer. We’ll see where life takes me… :)
My black, white, and green New York themed room. Click to enlarge. Warning... the file it links to is HUGE and I'm not sure as of yet how to make it smaller.
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October 11, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged chocolate, cooking
Mama Bidwell’s Deluxe S’mores:
1 marshmallow
1 reese’s peanut butter cup (full sized)
1 graham cracker
1 sheet of foil
1 skewer
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October 1, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged photography
This isn’t news if you kept up with La Route Libre, but… I went to Morocco this summer. Anyway, today I’m entering a few of my pictures in a contest run by the study abroad company I went with, and did some minor photo editing (brightness, contrast, saturation) before sending them in (the form on the website wasn’t working but that’s a different story) so I figured I’d upload them here just for funsies. You’ve seen ‘em before but these are the richer versions. I guess you could say I consider these the best photos of the trip? I have other favorites too of course.
Someday I’ll have a nice shiny expensive camera that takes pictures this rich with little to no post-editing :)
I tried to take a discreet, candid photo and the man looked up as I snapped it.
Taken at Medersa Ben Yoursef in Marrakech.
In Morocco, it’s like cats outnumber people. Taken at the Chellah ruins; over 40 cats have free run of the place.
September 24, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged chili, cooking
My #1 goal with this recipe was to use up the leftover green peppers and onion I bought last week for fajitas. (Sidebar: it looks like I totally forgot to put in a picture of the fajitas! They were delicious!)
My #2 goal was to make chili delicious enough for me but mild enough for my oh-so-white parents. I think I struck a happy balance–even my mom approved!
Mmmmmm.....
Ingredients: tomatoes, green peppers, red onion, kidney beans, corn, garlic, ground beef, chili seasonings. If you want details of any of the meals I make don’t be afraid to ask in the comments section!!
Also, this made enough for like 8 people. So I have a ton leftover. If you live in the Temecula area, call me up and come on over to have a bowl with me :)
September 15, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged outreach, thoughts, website
Over the past three weeks I have opened the heavy doors in the back of my mind and dusted off my web design boots. I haven’t worked on web sites since, oh, probably 2005 and boy am I rusty! Anyway, back then I was totally an elitist and only designed sites in HTML and CSS. I am so humbled now that I have a hard time remembering things that used to come second nature to me. So I’m using the WYSIWYG site builder that comes with our web package.
That said, as part of my internship with the Missions director at my church, I have pieced together little by little a missions section for our church website. Every week I add new pages and new links to it and I’m actually becoming rather pleased with it. The first week was a struggle but now when I work on it every couple days I keep getting inspired and adding new things.
The main page is found here at Gateway Missions. We have a team going to Haiti (that I was on at one point until I realized I couldn’t realistically miss that much school) so I made a team HQ page here. Today I made this unimpressive little number–not so exciting on its own but I am enjoying adding more and more layers to this growing section of the site.
That, and I get to put some knowledge from my International Studies classes to work! Yay for real-life application of school idas!
September 13, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged chinese, cooking
My beginner’s luck had to run out sometime, and the second half of my eggplant was not destined to be as successful as the first. The overall outcome of this meal was just “okay.”
Correction: the eggplant turned out okay, but the general disposition of the dish as a whole was not as expected. Anyway, I made sweet and sour eggplant! and chicken. It was looking a little weak so I added chicken. And half a can of pineapple. Which was the best addition in my opinion.
eggplant, bell pepper, chicken, and pineapple
I think the sauce is where I went wrong. I would be willing to try again and add MUCH more sugar to the sauce. I was following a recipe though, and since I’d never tried making such a concoction before I didn’t deviate from it. My old roommate said something once about using ketchup to make a sweet and sour sauce? Maybe I’ll give that a try next time!
Also someday I hope to own a rice cooker. A real one. A Japanese brand.
