My weekend with the high school besties

What a great weekend, does it really have to be monday tomorrow? Not impressed, but as usual, I will deal. 

This weekend was really spent among friends and family, doesn't get much better than that. On Friday my sister came down for the UWindsor open house, it looks like we might have another Lancer in the family! In fact, if my sister does decide to come to the dirty dubs my entire family will be Windsor Alumni... There should probably be a scholarship for that. We did a tour of the campus, which I supplemented with fun facts that I've learned over my 4 years here, I hope the little sister enjoyed it. I know she enjoyed me falling UP the stairs and eating concrete, it was pretty funny if I say so myself. Later that night with celebrated my boyfriend's friend's (get it?) birthday by heading stateside to Mexican Town in good old Detroit. I live in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge so trips to the states are simple, other than the fact that I'm still a baby and can't drink in the states so also had the task of designated driver. If you're from Windsor and have a valid passport, get your butt over to Mexican Town and try the flaming fajitas with a pitcher of blue frozen margarita, you will not be disappointed. The food was followed by more drinks and a trip to downtown Windsor. When I say more drinks I mean my new favourite drink! It's simple, delicious and you don't have to feel guilty or bloated after drinking it, Cake vodka + water w/ Crystal Light = skinny drink heaven. It's also great because the water keeps you hydrated, less chance of a hangover!

The awkward family photo

Team Chicken Dinner

Woke up the next morning as excited as a kid given a chocolate bar, I was finally going to see my best friends from highschool! We're usually pretty good about trying to see each other when we're all home for the holidays, but this was my first "trip" to go see ma friends. I scooped up Alyssa from Windsor and Julie from Chatham and we headed out, only an hour late and we even survived a detour. After 3 hours of driving we'd finally made it!! My friends forgot to tell me they lived in a mansion so I thought we were at the wrong place, in the end we weren't, they just have a really gorgeous (not so student) home. I'm still jealous. Another friend, Taylor was coming from Toronto, she met us there and we went to East Side Mario's for supper where we were joined by another highschool buddy Matt and the shenanigans began. The plan was to go downtown Guelph, but first we needed to prepare. Faces we're painted on,  hair was damaged and doused in hairspray and boy, did we look good... we could have really torn up Pain Court back in the day! We sipped drinks and me and Taylor formed a beer pong team called the "Chicken Dinners", mostly so we could yell "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!" followed by clucking noises when we won a match, it was great. Are you starting to see why these girls are my friends? We're the weirdest bunch I know, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh downtown Guelph, the song "A Whole New World" from Aladdin comes to mind right about now, you were great and different from my native Windsor.  First of all there's a drunk bus. What's a drunk bus you ask? Well It's a city bus that runs late so drunk students can get home safely, it's the best thing I've heard of in a while! Even better, it's free with your UGuelph student card... or a quick flash of your green health card for us Windsor ladies. The downside of downtown Guelph? Expensive cover, or maybe I'm just cheap. The bars we're great and we danced like fools. Finally at the end of the night we went home to devour our East Side leftovers. 

The girls! Alex, Alyssa, Julie, Taylor, Emily, Lo and Carley

It was a short visit, but it was so worth it. It's exciting to see where all of us have ended up over the last four years. We're all in universities with thousands of students, much different from our 300 student highschool! We've all switched to learning in English, but still have fun trying to remember notre français. Most of all I like to think of where we'll all be next year, some still in school I'm sure, and others off to be grown ups... scary thought. But for now I'd much rather look back and take a trip down memory lane. Thank God for the invention of facebook so I could creep myself and find these gems! 

Oldest one I could find, grade 9 semi? 

Halloween Dance 

Winter semi grade 11 I think 

Dressed up for animal house

School uniforms... ouch  

Girls night at Emilys

Dressed up as old school rockstars for animal house

Some of us who played on the soccer team 

Nigh out in Tilbury 

All of us with Matt's mom (Mama Shelley) at grad

Being the goofs that we are at prom

More recent summer hangout 

Christmas break last year 

As I sit here icing my foot for my soccer game tonight I can't help but smile and remember that I've got some great friends, tu me manques toujours. 

Salad Jars!

Lunch on the run? Need to plan ahead? Eating healthy? Meet salad jars, also known as your new best friend! While browsing Pinterest I saw a few recipes for salads in jars and thought these people had to be nuts. But, being a little crazy myself I needed to try them.

The final verdict? These things are amazing. You can put almost anything in them, I followed this simple diagram (to the right) and chose the ingredients that I like to eat. Be creative and try something new! Most of the posts I looked at said the jars last up to a week. I kept one for 7 days to test the theory and although it was edible, it wasn't as delicious as the one I ate the day after making it. Some people said you could eat it right out of the jar but I'm messy and clumsy so it didn't work for me. Besides, when flipped into a bowl your ingredients come out in perfect order with the dressing on top.

I chose to do a fruity spinach salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette, and a veggie spinach salad with balsamic dressing. You can see exactly what I put into my two jars down below. 

So next time you have a busy week, call your meme for some old mason jars and grab your favourite salad ingredients, make yourself a salad in a jar and impress all your friends. 

Renee's Recipe Box: Double Chocolate Cheesecake

Well folks, this is the first feature section on my blog! You heard me, get ready for a new regular. I hope you'll enjoy it, actually I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Allow me to explain... For christmas this year I wanted to do something a little more personal, and that was easy on the pocket being a student and all. This "gift" in particular will be going to my boyfriend's mom aka the biggest domestic diva I know. You'd be stupid to ever turn down food at their house, and you bet there's dessert after every meal. But when you cook and bake like this woman how could you not indulge a little?! The gift I'll be giving this year is the gift of an organized and typed recipe box (or binder, or something). So I figured why not share some of the delicious recipes I'll be transcribing? And hey, let's even go a step further and try to actually make some of them. 

So, whenever I make a recipe, or whenever I feel like sharing they'll be a new addition to the online version of Renee's Recipe Box.

And the best part is,
All the recipes from Renee's Recipe Box will have an index card (5x8) copy of the recipe that you can download and print for yourself!

And, the first will be...........

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

Prep Time: 20 minutes      Baking Time: 45 minutes      Servings: 10-12

Crust

1 cup crushed chocolate wafers (I used Oreo crumbs)

3 tbsp margarine or butter, melted 

Filling

3 pkgs Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, softened 

3/4 cup sugar 

3 large eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla 

3 squares Baker's White Chocolate, melted

3 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

2 tbsp raspberry schnapps liqueur (optional, I opted out... what I didn't have that flavour of schnapps!)

Glaze 

3/4 cup whipping cream 

6 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped

.  .  .  

Crust: - Combine crumbs and margarine, press onto bottom of 9 inch (23 cm) springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (180C) for 10 minutes. 

Filling: - Beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. 

- Remove 1/2 of the batter to another bowl. Stir melted white chocolate and liqueur into this portion.  

- To remaining batter, blend in melted chocolate. Pour chocolate batter in crumb-lined pan; spread evenly. 

- Bake at 425F (220C) for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 250F (120C). Bake for 30-45 minutes longer or until center of cake is just barely firm. 

- Remove from oven and run knife around sides; let cool completely before removing sides. 

Glaze: - In small heavy saucepan, bring cream to a simmer over low heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Spoon over cake. With metal spatula, spread to cover top, allowing some to run over edge to cover sides. Garnish as desired. 

... I'm just going to be honest with you and tell you that I screwed up the glaze, I think I burnt it, or maybe it was because I tried to cheat and use one square of white chocolate... so don't do that.

Overall, I definitely approve this recipe! It was the first cheesecake I've ever made and it turned out great. It was a lot more work in the kitchen than I'm used to, but it was definitely worth it. It's also roommate approved! Try it out some time, and look for more additions to Renee's Recipe Box soon. 

The Halloween Post

Since I'm older now (in years, not really attitude) Halloween has become a different event. As a university student we tend to like to throw parties and have a few drinks for almost any occasion  so you can guess halloween is one of those can't miss occasions.  I must say the best part of Halloween this year was hosting a "Night of Fright, Frolicking and Fun" with my roommates. I think we've really found our calling in party hosting, we might even be planning a christmas party already, did I say that out loud? A few things came into play to make this party the bash that it was, but the most fun was our theme and decorations. As a house we decided to dress up as the Mean Girls on Halloween, ex-wife and all! 

Being the Mean Girls we needed a Burn Book, so we found some embarrassing pictures of friends that we knew would be good sports, took quotes from the movie and posted our very own burn book around the house. We had to invent a couple burns too, but all in good fun and only for people we knew well enough to kid around with! On top of this we had a prize for best costume and a house that was decked out in haunted house fashion. I used this great idea to put silhouettes in the windows, thanks to the domestic goddess herself, Martha Stewart. Along with some decorations of streamers, cob webs, a giant spider, some severed limbs, mason jars filled with body parts (eyes, fingers, a heart), and some caution tape we made our house extra spooky for our guests. We had the four seasons stop by, a surfeit of skunks, three witches, a few superheroes, a couple of gold diggers, Wendy and Colonel Sanders, a couple of Sandy's and Danny Zucko, well you get the picture.   

For the real halloween, aka October 31st me and my guy decided to do a couples costume. This my friends, was our first couples costume ever, it was exhilarating. I had a costume picked out and bought (a sailor) when I found a couple online with this costume and I dropped everything, texted Jeff, and got to work creating this masterpiece.

He was Dexter and I was his well wrapped and cut victim. 

This costume was so simple and so much fun! The people who watch the show loved it and the people who didn't just thought Jeff was a butcher.. which technically, he was the Bay Harbour Butcher. 

Did I mention it's basically a dollar store costume?! All the Dexter stuff that was bought came from good old Dollorama.

For Dexter: 
A vampire cape for the apron
Some string for the apron
Black dish gloves
Red paint 

A fake knife 

Already had: Cargo Paints & Brown Henley shirt

For the Victim: 
A nude coloured slip
Plastic Wrap

Fake Blood

For Dexter I cut out an apron shape from the dracula cape, you could probably just find a black apron already made, but I couldn't so I attached some string to hold it up around the neck and attached some extra strips of cape to attach it around the waist. 

I splattered some red paint on the apron with a spoon, because we didn't have paint brushes, but it worked.
And that's it for Dex! 

For the victim I put on my slip and got my lovely roomate and friend Katie (aka Karen Smith) to wrap me in saran wrap. I used loop of tape under my arm to hold the starting point on then went to town spinning and wrapping. I stopped at about my hips and added a huge squirt of fake blood to my stomach, then wrapped the area again and continued all the way down to my legs.
Make sure you don't wrap it too tight or it'll be hard to breathe, and be prepared to sweat a little. 

Securing the bottom wasn't the easiest, but I tucked the last piece of saran wrap under the slip and secured it with a piece of tape.
Don't forget a cut on your cheek! I used some lipstick and fake blood.


Overall, halloween was a pretty good time this year! I had a blast and got to wear a couple homemade costumes made by or rather put together by yours truly.

Check out some pictures from the festivities... 

Magic Muffin Mix: Lo's version

The Magic Muffin Mix found here was put together by Taralynn at undressed skeleton, I did not make the original recipe, I just modified it to fit what I like. Taralynn's got a great fitness/healthy eating blog, check it out if you're into that, she's got tons of great recipes and tips on staying healthy.

One of the recipes I've tried of hers is the magic muffin mix, very simple and healthy too! The only thing I didn't like is I prefer not to use stevia, It's hard to find unless you want to open 200 coffee sized packets (thanks little sister for helping me do that!). Also, I simply don't like the taste of it. Instead I substituted honey and the muffins turned out great! Keeping with the flavours of fall, I made up a couple variations of my own.

So the base recipe is: 

1 cup whole wheat flour 

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 cup applesauce (sweetened) 

3/4 cup honey

1 tbsp vanilla 

2 egg whites

Preheat Oven to 350 C
Mix Liquid Ingredients together
Slowly add dry Ingredients
Fill muffin liners 3/4 full
bake 15-20 minutes

Makes 8 muffins
... I usually double or triple it because, well, I love muffins. 

Banana Walnut
Add 1-2 bananas
1/4 cup chopped walnuts 

Pumpkin Spice 
2 heaping tbsp Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
I saved some of the seeds to put on top of the muffins. Also, use as much or as little spice as you like, this is just roughly what I used. 

Apple Oatmeal Cinnamon 

1 chopped apple
1/4 cup oatmeal 

2 tbsp applesauce
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Again, I kept some oatmeal aside to sprinkle on top as well as a few thin slices of apple to make it look nice. 

Fun Facts about muffins: Want to triple the recipe to try them all, but know you won't eat them all before mould does the job for you? FREEZE THEM! Perfect for packing a lunch in the morning, by snack time you're good to go.
Dollorama has super cute cupcake liners, check it out next time you're there. 

Pair one of these super healthy muffins with your favourite tea and you've got a light breakfast or midmorning snack that you won't have to feel guilty about. I've got some Tazo Passion Tea here, which is also amazing chilled with lemonade, but I'll tell you about that some other time! 

Monday morning pick me up: My favorite radio show

Oh Monday, I hate you, we all hate you. Got a case of the Mundays? Well, I've found a fix... for the morning anyway.

Now, before I go on, you have to promise not to judge me. I'm going to go out on a limb and share with you my all time favourite radio morning show. This shows is the only reason I even remotely look forward Mondays, because they only play during the week. If you live in the Windsor/Detroit area I hope you know what I'm about to say, if not I may just be about to change your mornings.
If you've got a radio nearby, turn it to 88.7 also known as the station 89x. During normal hours it's an alternative rock station, which I enjoy, but in the morning it's literally a RIOT. Now before you tune it, let me tell you this show is NOT safe for work and should not be listened to around virgin ears. ...You better not be judging me right now.

If you can't catch the station on the radio it's also available online http://www.89xradio.com/, just click the listen live link at the top. This station is basically all the things you wanted to know as a young teen, and lets you act like a kid again by encouraging callers to say the word that starts with a P pertaining to the male genitalia when they call in. The show consists of the hilarious trio of Dave, Chuck the Freak and Lisa (your poor, poor woman, you are a saint!). From special guests like Leon the Sex Coach, Walmart Security Guard, Andrew the Man Expert this show will make you laugh and give you some fun facts to share with your friends. Be prepared to be offended, to be grossed out, to be intrigued, and most of all to laugh till you cry. I've literally had to stop running before because I was laughing so hard... that funny.
Not feeling the show itself? Check out their twitter for regular updates about the stories they feature, or the shows blog has all the stories they feature put down in writing. If you can tune in! The dynamic of three mixed with the (sometimes crazy) callers is a hoot and will definitely give you a reason to smile on a Monday.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveandChuck
Blog: http://www.89xradio.com/Shows/Blog?author=5b9f5597-9983-402a-9f02-21832112e87f 

Study tips

Ever notice that Studying is Student and Dying put together? Ya, I'm sure we've all heard that one once or twice and I think most of us would have to agree with said statement. Being a drama student, studying isn't always a part of my academic life, but when it is boy does it throw me for a loop!
I figured I'd try to save some of you new students the trouble and here's a few tips I've found that help me study more effectively! Again, I'm no expert, just a fourth year university student so I think it's safe to say I've done my fair share of studying.

1. Make a Plan... and Stick to it
This tends to be one of the first things I do when I'm studying, usually just to procrastinate but in the end it helps me map out what needs to be done and allows me to see everything as a whole. Be realistic with yourself, are you really going to read 5 chapters in one day? Doubtful. I probably won't take my own advice on this one, but start early. Take a tip from Nike and JUST DO IT.


2. Snacks 
I know this may not be the best tip, so why would I put it so close to the top? Well, because it helps me tremendously. I can't go to the library without something to munch on! It helps me get my mind off the stress of studying and helps channel my frustrations elsewhere than the papers in front of me. The harder my work  gets, the more I chew... which is good for you and burns more calories anyway! Obviously choose healthy snacks, or this tip will just make things worse for you.
When packing a library snack I go for a green tea, some kind of fruit or veggie, and something crunchy and salty like pretzels or goldfish. You know what you like, just try to make it a good balance. Not pigging out during finals is hard, that kraft dinner may be taunting you from the cupboard, but you want your brain to be in the best shape possible for the amount of knowledge you're going to try to cram into it.

3. Take a Break 
Again, you may think I'm crazy for putting this one on the list, but it works for me. Your brain can only retain so much information at once! The general consensus is that you can fully concentrate for about 30-45 minutes at a time. The amount of time varies on the person, the subject and whatever, but you get the idea. If you're sitting go take a walk, take a shower, cook a nice meal. Just don't forget to come back to your notes. If you really have a hard time coming back, set yourself a timer. For every 30 minutes of studying you get a 10 minute break, I think that's extremely fair. Or if you're like me and will stare at a wall while trying to figure out what sound a giraffe makes for 15 of those 30 minutes, set yourself goals that relate to amount of material covered, such as after I read this chapter I can go on the internet and youtube what a giraffe sounds like.

4. Self-Control 
This is possibly one of the most useful apps for studying! Unfortunately, I believe it's only available for mac. The app lets you choose sites to "blacklist", then you set a timer and those sites will be blocked from your browser! It's great. You can still use the internet, just not facebook, or twitter, or pinterest... I could go on. http://selfcontrolapp.com/

5. Music or no Music? 
Depending on what I'm working on music may or may not be part of my routine. When it is, I prefer something without lyrics because I find myself singing along and adding choruses to my study notes... Although, if you're musically inclined turning your study notes into songs is a GREAT way to study. My study playlist is Modern Meditations on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIOcXpq_Gb4&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=ALHTd1VmZQRNola_Qi3erQCWklYoF9JrpG).

I hope this helped you procrastinate from the work you should be doing, it sure helped me not study for my midterm Wednesday, so now....