Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

We used frozen strawberries because I had a ton of them and fresh ones were really expensive. I think it turned out fine? :O The original recipe called for more sugar and 2 cups of regular flour, so we changed some stuff up, but they turned out really well. :] You can definitely taste both the strawberry and the lemon. <3

Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

Ingredients:
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 cup whole wheat flour
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-6 tbsp butter, room temperature
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 tbsp lemon zest
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
-1 1/2 cups finely chopped strawberries

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.
2) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
3) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon zest, then blend in the eggs one at a time.
4) Stir in about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well, then add in vanilla extract and half of the lemon juice. Add another third of the flour, followed by the remaining juice and the remaining flour mix. 5) Stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Mix in finely chopped strawberries quickly, just to distribute them evenly into the batter.
6) Spoon batter out into prepared muffin cups. The muffin cups should be very full. (They don’t puff up by that much.)
7) Bake for ~20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached.
8) Cool on a wire rack. (Makes 12 muffins!)

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Hot Cocoa

The day that classes officially started again for spring semester, Luke & Chris came over to my place to hang out, and after several games of Settlers, Luke and I started talking about adopting miniature horses and starting a farm.

Chris wisely chose not to take any part in this plotting by falling asleep. When he woke up, he made us hot cocoa to shut us up. :O

We even looked up the difference between hot cocoa and hot chocolate. According to enerhealthbotanicals.com, “Hot cocoa is made from raw cocoa powder, which is pressed chocolate which removes the fat of the cocoa butter. Hot chocolate is made from chocolate bars melted into a cream or ground into a powder. Often hot chocolate has a very high sugar and fat content and low cocoa content.”

Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-4 cups soy milk
-1/4 tsp salt
-3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
1) Simmer water, sugar, cocoa & salt in a pan over moderate heat. Stir until lumps are dissolved (~3 minutes).
2) Add milk to ingredients. Stir and bring slowly to simmer (~5 minutes). To enhance flavor, stir in vanilla just before serving.

contests

Today is the super badass competition that I would have entered, had it not been for the fact that I completely screwed over my spine. :[ I was cleared on Monday to go back to doing “regular exercise,” but I realized that what I consider to be “regular exercise” may not be so regular for everyone else, so I got some clarification today. I’m allowed to do anything I want again. You have no idea how overjoyed this makes me. :O

However, this does not negate the fact that it has been well over 2 months since I’ve lifted anything all that heavy (unless you count my lugging around giant suitcases for 1-2 miles). Logic concludes that it would be a terrible idea for me to enter a lifting contest that’s based off some of the Strongman events when I haven’t even lifted anything more than, say…20 pounds(?) since December (again, minus the suitcases).

Not gonna lie, I was and am still pretty effing bummed about this. :[ I am pretty darn sure that I, at the veryvery least, could have been one of the top 3 finalists if I hadn’t effed over my spine/had been able to train (or hell, even work out on a regular basis) for it. I really wanted that spiffy plaque proclaiming my badassery to the world.

Such is life, however, and there goes another missed opportunity. :[ At least I’m being smart about it this time though? A couple years ago, I auditioned for a dance competition the day after I thought I’d possibly slipped a disc/pinched a nerve. Clearly I’m full of all kinds of bright ideas (or just a zealot in my hobbies/a fan of the whole “Tis merely a flesh wound; just walk it off” mentality.).

But you know that saying, when one door closes, another opens? It’s pretty true.

I can’t enter RU Strong 2012, so I am instead entering an eating competition with several friends. It takes place on Monday. I am the only female on our team, and they are sending me off on round 8 to inhale the ginormous samosa. I hope I don’t let them down. I’m not at all worried about not being able to finish it, but my talents lie in consuming vast quantities of food, but not all that quickly. We’ll figure something out though–we’re in it to win it, and it’s going to be awesome. :]

hi there!

Another one of them disclaimers: if you’re easily offended or somewhat sheltered/conservative, don’t read this one. :O

I have some of the most amazing friends in the world, and I sincerely doubt I’ll ever find people this awesome that I feel this comfortable with anywhere else. You can’t get much closer than being able to wander around in various states of undress and/or shower together to save water without it being even the slightest bit awkward. Was that TMI? My apologies, but this was basically how almost the entirety of my undergraduate career went. I had the good fortune to live with one of my best friends for all four years. We’ve been friends since 6th grade, but this is how the rest of it all started:

And we all know how much I love following rules, so I complied. :O

We’d put on intense Final Fantasy battle music and this is what would happen:
(Intense FFX Battle Music Playing In Background)
J: Farrah, Farrah, we have to battle!
F: Pow pow pow!
(J falls against bed, then gets back up after a moment.)
J: Counter attack with Wobuffet!!! Wobbuuuffffeettttt.
(F flops against her bed peacefully.)
J: That was the most peaceful death I’ve ever seen.
F: Weren’t you just attacking me with your stupid powers?
J: No! It was a COUNTER attack. So you were supposed to get hit by what you did before. That’s why it’s “counter.”
F: But it seemed like you were just transferring your stupid powers to me.
J: You know what, Farrah? This battle is over. That’s the most pathetic battle we’ve ever fought.
F: I’m sorry.
J: Thanks for ruining the intense battle music.
F: I’m sorry, but it’s partially clouded by the sappy love songs playing from my laptop.
J: You know what, Farrah?
(Music from After You Die in FFVIII Starts Playing.)
J: Do you recognize it?
F: It’s from after you die in FFVIII, right?
J: Yeah, this is YOUR music. It’s called “The Loser.”

We’d also make stuff like this for mutual friends. (This was freshmen year, for my favorite neighbor’s Christmas gag gift. We were pretty pissed that the box lied about having blue ones. I think our exact wording went something like this: “Um, can you tell us if this has any blue condoms in it? My boyfriend won’t touch me if they’re not blue.”)

So now that I’ve ruined your thoughts, here’s an almost completely random subject change! I wanted to share the box of awesomeness that I was greeted with last week! :O

That yellow box contains “Cream Collon.” (oh, asians…) They really kinda do look like short cream-filled colon segments…

They definitely made my day/week/month. <3 I miss you guys dearly, and I also wanted to wish a very happy birthday to my facebook husband! Here’s to over 5.5 years of awesomeness/fun times and many more to come! <3

This is how we knew we cared about each other:
F: “Wait, no! Don’t die! Who am I going to share my lease with next year?!”

J: “If I decide to kill myself, you should take 25 units of the hardest classes you’ll ever take, okay, Farrah?”

<3

top 10 games

I snagged this off Gamespot/a friend’s status update a couple weeks ago:

Of any console, through time and space(?), if you had to choose your top 10 BEST GAMES you have EVER PLAYED in your entire life. What would these life grabbing games be?

This is a pretty difficult question. I’m probably going to have to throw in a couple disclaimers and modify it to top 10 best games I’ve ever finished, or almost finished, because I don’t think it’s entirely fair to judge a game if I haven’t play it the entire way through.

Unfortunately, this means that I also can’t include a single Final Fantasy on my list. ;_; The only FF I have ever finished is FF3, and although I did enjoy it, it doesn’t quite top my list.

Please keep in mind these are the gaming consoles I possess:
1) SNES (dominated my life from ages 4-present)
2) Gameboy (which I basically only ever used to play Pokemon)
3) DS ( XD! 2009 and on)
4) Computer

Once upon a time in junior high, I was playing FF8 on my computer, but somehow, the second disc got lost before I could get to the third one. (A tragic day that was for us all. ;_; ) I also started FF7, which many argue is the best FF of all time, but unfortunately, my ex and I parted ways before I managed to finish the game. My friend snagged my save file from him though, so mayhaps somewhere this summer, I can finally finish the entire thing. <3

1) Harvest Moon (basically any of them, although I<3 DS Cute)
When I first heard of this game, I thought it sounded kinda dumb. Who wants to spend all their time in a game growing crops and wooing girls? (Although now that I think of it, I did play SimFarm, which didn’t even have the wooing part…) After seeing how cute the cows were though, I had to give it a chance. This basically was the end of me. I realized the extent of my addiction when a friend came over and was pouring out his heart out to me on the cruddiness of the friendzone and I was intently giving presents to Eve, the bartender, in hopes that she’d fall in love with me (SNES version). In DS Cute, I am diligently leveling up turnips (and other crops) to save up 990 million gold so that I can buy my own island.

2) Mystic Quest
We (by “we.” I mean my brother and two of our family friends) were pretty much obsessed with this game. I’ve beaten it multiple times, and back in the day, we used to hate on Phoebe all the time (our freakishly mature selves would call her “flea bag”) because she’d always be freakishly wasteful with spells if we accidentally put her on auto. (We were pretty upset that she was the partner we had to fight the Dark King. ._.) I was a fan of Tristam and Rueben because they were super awesome. We got stuck at Captain Mac’s ship forever until I discovered that you could climb the planks and excitedly called up our family friends so they could also progress in the game. Doom Castle is still one of my favorite video game music pieces ever.

3) Super Bomberman 2
This game is freaking awesome. <3 I haven’t played too many other versions, but I was a major fan of this one because of the bunny/kangaroo-like creatures with special abilities, although for the longest time, we thought the brown and the blue bunny/kangaroos were kinda useless and just gave you an “extra life.” We used to have Super Bomberman tournaments all the time, and I loved all the different levels there were (+ normal mode was fun, especially when you weren’t playing alone). The rollercoaster one was probably my favorite, and there was an option you could turn on where after you died, you could [try to] take revenge on the people who killed you from the sidelines. :D

4) Diablo II (+Eastern Sun)
I loved Diablo when it first came out and was even more thrilled when D2 appeared. I can’t wait til D3 finally comes out, but in the meantime, my brother discovered Eastern Sun, a super-amazing mod for D2 expansion that makes it seem like an entirely new game (kindasorta). There are new levels, new items, and one of my personal favorites: unlimited inventory. This is beyond perfect for the compulsive packrat (like yours truly) and you can transmute a bunch of shitty items for better ones. :D :D :D I played D2 with my friends in the summer + over Thanksgiving break in anticipation for D3, then started Eastern Sun over winter break and ended up practically never sleeping. I feel like I can possibly actually wait until prices drop to get D3 now. :O

5) Tetris Attack
Victoria and I were at a family friend’s house trying to find something to pass the time when we unearthed this gem and decided to learn how to play it. It didn’t take long to start building ginormous blocks that were accompanied by a trumpet fanfare before they dropped. :D We could play this for hours on end, but I unfortunately never actually owned the game. (I mourn the days when it was just $5 at Toys R Us. ;_; ) Thank goodness for the invention of emulators.

6) Rune Factory III
An RPG + Harvest Moon combined!? No effing way!! I was sold from the moment I read the description. <3 I love all the billions of side quests and requests you can fulfill + the things you can gather. And you can make friends with the “monsters” and have pets! And cook! And upgrade weapons/basically everything with the stuff you earn/find! And save the world/unite the two towns! I haven’t played the previous installments, so I can’t say how they compare, but if you like Harvest Moon and/or RPG’s, this one is a win-win. (I just wish I had more storage space. *-*)

7) Tales of Phantasia
This is actually the only game on this list that I haven’t finished. The reason behind my not finishing the game really has to do with the fact that I like the characters too much to say goodbye to them. ;_; To remedy this, I started doing every side quest under the sun to prolong the inevitable. I haven’t played it since 07-08, so I actually don’t really remember what my original quest was anymore. ._. But I love this game. Would not recommend to small children though because I recall several f-bombs and some not-so-kid-friendly comments being made about Arche. >_>

8) Chrono Trigger
The music is incredible (I am slowly but surely attempting to write out the notes to the compilation kLuTz made for 600 A.D. so I can play it), the storyline is amazing, and the characters are awesome. This is one of the first RPG’s I’ve ever completed, and is also the closest I will ever get to time travel (sigh). I don’t really know what else I can say other than that you should play it and it’s one of my favorite RPG’s of all time.

9) Guitar Hero / Rock Band 2 (this is probably cheating, but ._.)
This makes me sound like a complete nerd of sorts, but I met my last ex because of Rock Band. He invited me and a bunch of mutual friends over to play and the rest was history. Call me crazy, but there is a small part of me that wants to be a rock star (perhaps not an actual rock star, but to be in a band? hells yes!). I actually got to be pretty effing good at this game and would consistently score in the high 90’s-100 on expert with guitar and bass because we once spent an entire weekend shunning the world and unlocking everything in Guitar Hero World Tour. (Drums were a completely different story. ._.) Imissthisgame and I really want a Wii someday, haha.

10) Pokemon
This was basically the reason as to why I got a Gameboy. As cool as I think all the new features in the newer Pokemon games (speaking of that, I wonder where the hell my Pokewalker went ;_; ), I really liked the original 150 Pokemon. There are wayyyy too many to keep track of now, but the original Blue/Red versions were definite classics. I’m nowhere close to finishing SoulSilver (I kinda don’t even remember where I am/what I’m supposed to do anymore :[ ), but I will figure it out!

Honorable Mentions: Twinbee, Soul Calibur 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party 8, King of Monsters II

In Progress: FF4, FF7, FF8, LoZ: Spirit Tracks, Chrono Cross, Phoenix Wright

Hoping To Play [Soon] Someday: FF9, LoZ: Phantom Hourglass, LoZ: Wind Waker, LoZ: Twilight Princess, LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Okami, any of the Tales of… games, Lunar series, The World Ends With You, Knights in the Nightmare(?)

Game That I Think You Should Never Play: Super Mario Strikers
(It brings out the worst in everyone. Not even kidding. ._.)