First bento of the year

Hello again!

Little did I realize that I have entered my last year as an undergraduate. And I have been in college only for 2 years. Sometimes I wish I could graduate normally like others, but tuition is expensive. Why not graduate in 3 years when I can do that?

That being said, my schedule this semester has been very hectic because at least three out of seven courses I am taking right now only exist in Fall semester. Which is to say that once I miss those classes right now, I will have to add another year of expensive tuition and housing and living fees.

Taking 23 credit hours (the normal limit is 18) is more painful than I thought it would be, considering that I'm taking one graduate level course, three 400/senior-level courses, one 300 level course, one 200 level course and only one 100 level class (which apparently takes a lot of my time because most 100 level courses have tons of homework even though they're not that hard).

And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have classes starting at 9:30 all the way till 3:20. Six hours with no break. On the first week, I thought my brain got burnt. The moment I came back to my apartment I just collapsed on my bed, unable to think about anything.

Anyways.

Here's my first bento of the (academic) year. School starts in August, ending in May, so, yes, this is going to be my first bento of the year.

Very simple. Rice seasoned with basil, thyme, salt, mirin, and rice vinegar compacted into squares and a big heart shape. The heart shaped rice actually has a piece of lime and clove seasoned pork chop inside. Simple decoration this time: sliced cheese and nori for the rice, cup cake papers for the rest.

The bottom compartment is the dessert compartment. So it's whole wheat bread decorated with Nutella spread, sandwiching sliced cheese and nutella in between. With a couple of Lorna Doone crackers.

The reason why most of the stuffs here are bite-sized is because as I told you earlier I have no breaks on Tuesday and Thursday. So it has to be something that is easy to eat within 5 minute break in between my classes.

Okay, bento time is over. Time to get a grip on my mind and start doing my homework >.<

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Chicken and Beer

It was actually quite some time ago when my friend left a case of Stag beers in our hotel room. She left earlier than I did, and I called her to ask if she still wanted those beers and she said no. I hate wasting things off, so I took them with me and I didn't know how to deal with them since I don't drink beers.

Chicken breast cooked in beer and herbs on rice vermcelli and sauteed squash

It was a little scary to see the beer foaming up as I heat it up on the saucepan. So basically I boiled a piece of chicken breast with a can of beer, and I added dried basil, thyme and parsley. I added a pinch of black pepper and salt to season. And I actually boiled the rice vermicelli together with the chicken. I added the vermicelli much later than the chicken. To put it simply, all the remaining beer got absorbed by the rice vermicelli.

I like the fact that the chicken had a herby feelings in it, but I don't think children will like this chicken beer >.<

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Bye Bye Bye, Forest

Today was the last day of internship. I'd say I will miss living without a TV, newspaper, internet and phone service. I'm serious. Okay, I did get some phone service in the kitchen and sometimes in my room. I did get unreliable internet service at the lab and at home (but it's always gone whenever it rained because it was a wireless connection). But seriously, no TV and no newspaper. We had some old magazines from like.. 2005 at our house. That's about it.

Work was tiring in the morning - it was hot, and physical work was not really my forte. Mowing the grass, weed eating... picking tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries... No. Not my thing at all. But I do gain some field knowledge from those days, like pruning tomato and apple trees and such.

Dinner was always my joy. It's a pain to think of what to eat. The closest restaurant was like 20 minutes away and rather than driving I'd rather cook at home. Thankfully, we often got lots and lots of tomatoes from the field, and they're really good and sweet!

I think during the past 11 weeks I ate a lot of tomatoes. I normally make tomato sauce by crushing the tomatoes and cooking them under low heat for at least 30 minutes on the stove. When there were some peppers from the field, I'd normally put those in too. There was one time we got onions. I cooked them with the tomato sauce. Yum~

Freshly made tomato sauce with broccoli, cauliflowers, carrots, yummy orange peppers, green pepper and meatballs, seasoned with dried basil, parsley and thyme.

Dixon Springs. Shawnee Forest. I'll miss them :)

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