Macaroni and Cheese...on a Pizza.

The world is changing. There used to be a time where pizza, macaroni, and cheese were discrete. We then had pizza with cheese and macaroni and cheese.

And now I have encountered the sum of all parts. A macaroni and cheese pizza.

Yes, it's in a bowl because I had eaten cereal beforehand. The macaroni and cheese was ridiculously buttery, which was kind of a deterrent because it tasted more like buttery oily pasta on pizza dough. In other words, it didn't really taste cheesy or umami :(. Recently, I've realised that a lot of the dough at Commons is some mix of whole wheat and white flour, which makes the dough extremely... elasticky. It almost has a plastic sheen to it. I'd say it's the high gluten content that whole wheat flours tend to have [due to less refinement? If you look at nutrition labels, the 100% whole wheat flour-made breads usually have 5-6g protein per 120 Cal, wheras white bread... doesn't have many. 1-2g? 3? Anyway, this was at Hill... and it was most definitely white flour.

Chocolate [Ear Candy?]

When I was younger, the phrase "eye candy" made me think of this. Evidently, it's supposed to mean something else but I think that it's an ugly phrase. Just my 2c. Anyway, I figured that this is literally ear candy [please, continue laughing. I enjoy hearing people laugh at my ... puns]:

My friend SVC from HK got them for me for my birthday last year although it arrived in the mail a few months later than expected... Either way, it's so cute :D I wasn't going to use them since I had really amazing headphones already. Unfortunately, last week the right bud's wire seemed to have gotten disconnected... so only the left earbud transmit sound now. I guess it was expected since I've had them since January 2008, and they've been smooshed by my track stuff, my school stuff, heavy books, my laptop, dropped on the floor... etc. This, however, signifies the fact that I am a consumer. I consume. I honestly don't have to use these new headphones; my old ones still half WORK; they're tolerable. This just shows that I've become materialistic.

Another piece of evidence to support my materialistic tendencies has to be this. My dad went to Switzerland and he bought a lot of chocolate. I didn't even know he was going to buy chocolate actually... Usually he gets utensils. I'm not kidding. If you look in our cabinet, you will see at least 5 plates from different countries, 17 international vessels [including shot glasses and mugs...], 9 small spoons... I really wonder why we get this stuff every time we/my dad goes to another place. Oh yeah, right, we're materialistic.

So anyway, I've never had Godiva chocolate before so I decided to bring a box with me back from home after "fall break" [autumn holidays]. I decided to bring half white chocolate and half dark chocolate, since I like both depending on my mood [but milk chocolate doesn't interest me much].

I did eat some so far and I guess I'll blog about each one later, but again, this demonstrates my inclination to CONSUME. Do I sound like I'm writing an essay? I had an in-class midterm essay yesterday, which is why my diction is so formal. The lack of time was mortifying.

Penn Picnic and Reception - 2nd Sept

Penn NSO started on the 2nd of September, and we all got up at 5:30am to drive to PA by 9am. As usual, it took 90 minutes to get into Philly, but half an hour to actually end up at the specific street on which we stopped. I'm not disclosing where I live, although one could probably figure it out... since I don't have a cafeteria at my dorm house, unfortunately.

Anyway, after unpacking and all, there was a Penn Family Picnic for all we families and kids. It was actually very similar to the food at the Penn Frosh Picnic in my area on the 19th of August. There were wraps and cookies, but there was also some punch and iced tea and lemonade, which helped, since it was really hot that day.
Firstly, I'd like to say that I fell for the cookie trip again. Last time, I ate a chocolate cookie that was way too hard for my liking. This time, I made the same mistake. I need to learn!! I'm not particularily fond of hard/crunchy cookies. I like the moist cakey ones more, such as the raisin one. It's good to know that Penn has consistency though, concerning its cookie production. The wraps were really good though, with the mozzarella cheese and vegetables, although it was a tad oily.
After the President made a speech, there was a reception, and it was quite a sight watching 3000+ people swarming around taking food... There was this amazing mashed white bean thing, some caramelised onions [the first I've ever had] and a smokey-chipotleish spiced [I'm guessing?] eggplant thing.
There were also tons of cookies. They were the hard kind.
The vegetable station was ridiculous. I wonder what they did to the half heads of cauliflower, the whole peppers and the corn. Surely it's not solely for display? If it was, that'd be a waste of vegetables...
Whole heads of broccolis! Whole rutabagas! Utterly ridiculous!

Excess. Superfluous. Extravagant. Luxurious. I don't know; so much for this being the "year of water". Think about all the water used to produce these crops...they better use them.

Hershey's Hugs

There is always a way to turn something into a party. Seriously, in our English class, we had our final project, in which we read a book and explain stuff to the class [yeah, it was vague]. I don't really want to get into the details for every person's presentation, but NC brought in Hershey's Hugs, which I can now add to my "New Chocolate" list [on the sidebar]!

The Hershey's Hugs were extremely pretty, as they were nicely striped. Although the inside was plain ol' chocolate, the outside white chocolate was surprisingly overwhelming. The whole thing had a bite of caramel [though when I checked the ingredients, I found nothing caramel related... so it could've been the taste of white chocolate that confused me. Though, my taste buds honestly felt as though they were tasting a hint of caramel]. As usual, they melted pretty fast. If you had moulded a few of these into a spherical shape, sifted some cocoa powder over it, and offered it to some person on the street, he/she would most likely state that it was a chocolate truffle.