MAGNI 2011 (Quiz Bowl) at GMU

Quiz bowl...logistics: at George Mason University, at 9 in the morning until 7:20 pm. The night before, I went to bed at around 11 and got up at 3:55am. AS and I took the train to DC, took the metro to Vienna/GMU, and SP's mum drove us and SP to GMU. We were the B team. the A team got to drive there (a.k.a they left around 6:30 am instead of 4).

AS and I were supposed to take the 7:20pm train back to Penn, but as we were sitting in the library-food-court-thing (AMAZING! LIBRARY AND FOOD COURT ALL IN ONE!!) at 7:21pm, that evidently did not happen. We ended up getting to the train station at 9:00, just in time to take a 9:20 pm train... except that there wasn't one! The next train was at 10pm (and the one after that was at 3:15 am). Unfortunately, the train didn't actually arrive until 10:40 pm and we finally got back to Penn around 12:50am. It was terrible.

However, I did have a nice time (initially) and my organic chem and bio knowledge definitely paid off (but now I should relearn all that APUS that I used to know!!).

In 11 rounds, I got 15 toss ups, apparently. I think that I could've gotten at least 22 (or even 25, actually) if I wasn't so scared to buzz in. I apparently -5 only two times, so this means that I should buzz in more often. Also, there was a question (am I allowed to talk about questions if the same tournament is being played next Saturday at Brown?...guess not?) that I disagree with...but nevertheless, a good time overall. I like sandwiches. I can live on sandwiches! I really like jalapeno cheese bread...I got this at "subconnection", which, according to JL, is a knock-off of Subway. A sub-connection of Subway (har. har.). The black market version. I mean, they sell 30 cm subs for $5, just like Subway! I've decided that raw mushrooms are alright, if doused in chipotle sauce. Actually, raw mushrooms are pretty good even without the sauce. They're really umami!!

So, Starbucks sucks. I am not a fan of Starbucks anymore. I don't understand why it's cool to spend $2.50 on a slice of pumpkin bread that is possibly made the afternoon before using a Starbucks-distributed-flour-mixture-which-includes-egg (i.e. not freshly cracked eggs: do you see eggshells at Starbucks?) when I can get a whole loaf of equally delicious homemade no-maltodextrin-added pumpkin bread from the farmer's market for $3. Tasty, though.

Potato Cake/Bread

With sundry scrumptious potatoes, what better thing to bake than potato cake/bread?! Banana bread and pumpkin bread exist; surely potato bread (NO, NOT THE LOAF/SLICE VERSION AT THE STORE) is the next best thing ever? Carbs on carbs? I found a banana bread recipe and used it as the basis for my potato bread/cake. My sister says that it looks more like a brownie than a bread (true, because it doesn't really rise), but it has banana-bread-like crumbs, and is very moist, so I would be inclined to say that it's a muffin... even though it's not muffin shaped.

The best part? Everyone in the family, INCLUDING MY SISTER, eats it. My sister, the most fastidious person in the house when it comes to food (she has to have her dinner arranged EXACTLY, has to eat certain foods with a FORK ONLY, won't eat in the presence of the smell of mustard etc.) eats potato cake/bread. Whoo!!!

Below are two versions; the normal version, and the lower Calorie version. The lower Calorie version... surprising tastes the same and has a similar texture to the higher Calorie version!! Wonderful! I've made four of these breads/cakes so far, so I've had time to experiment and make adjustments.

INGREDIENTS for a 3 cm tall x 20 cm square pan of cake (1200 cm^3)

120 g butter

30 g brown sugar

40 g white sugar (more if you want something sweeter)

300 g freshly mashed potato

0.75 tsp baking soda

cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

vanilla

pinch of salt

40 ml water from the pot you used to boil potatoes

1 tbsp vinegar (optional but highly recommended)

100 g whole wheat flour

100 g nuts, chocolate, dried fruit etc. HIGHLY OPTIONAL.

METHOD

1. Boil water and potatoes. Mash potatoes with baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt. Keep hot water in pot.

2. Cream sugars with butter. The result is a soothing, creamy, beige substance.If you feel like it, throw in an egg BUT IT IS NOT NECESSARY, and DO NOT ADD WATER in STEP 3.

3. Mix creamed butter with mashed potato, water, and vinegar. Note that the butter melts.

4. Fold in 25 g flour. Do this 4 times. You should have a rather light, gooey batter the consistency of pudding. Throw in OPTIONAL nuts/chocolate etc.

5. Spread evenly into a baking dish (greased with the butter wrapper).

6. Bake on the bottom shelf of an un-preheated oven at 177 degrees F/350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes.

7. Let bread/cake sit in oven for an hour or two or whenever you think it looks cooked.

8. Eat, or freeze it for later.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD if you are running low on time

1. Mix everything in a bowl. It will look ugly and lumpy. Just keep mixing. It will get much smoother.

2. Bake on the bottom shelf of an un-preheated oven at 177 degrees/350 degrees for 25-28 minutes.

3. Stick a fork into the bread/cake and if it comes out clean, it's done.

Because I'm kind of upset with the celerity of butter consumption due to this recipe (120 g of butter within 2 hours...), especially for my mum, I tried to make a lower calorie version that would still neatly crumble, stay moist, and be bready/cakey-textured. It looks the same:

INGREDIENTS FOR THE LOWER CALORIE VERSION (20 cm square pan)

60 g butter

20 g brown sugar

6 sachets of artificial sweetener

300 g freshly mashed potato

0.75 tsp baking soda

cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

vanilla

pinch of salt

120 ml water from the pot you used to boil potatoes

1 tbsp vinegar

100 g whole wheat flour

100 g nuts/chocolate/etc. (OPTIONAL)

METHOD

1. Boil water and potatoes. Mash potatoes with baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt. Keep hot water in pot.

2. Cream sugar and artificial sweetener with butter. The result is a soothing, creamy, beige substance.

3. Mix creamed butter with mashed potato, water, and vinegar. This will look ugly.

4. Fold in 50 g flour. Fold in another 50 g flour. You should have a rather light, gooey batter the consistency of pudding. Throw in OPTIONAL nuts/chocolate etc.

5. Spread evenly into a baking dish (greased with the butter wrapper).

6. Bake on the bottom shelf of an un-preheated oven at 177 degrees F/350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes.

7. Let bread/cake sit in oven for an hour or two or whenever you think it looks cooked.

8. Eat, or freeze it for later.

Again, the lower Calorie version tastes the same as the higher Calorie version, although it looks uglier when you're mixing the ingredients together. Both have similar textures; if you get something that's more gooey than crummy (so, more like coconut pudding than like a cake), you should bake it for a few more minutes.

I made a coconut version, which wasn't as tasty as the plain version, surprisingly (too chunky). The walnut/pumpkin seed version was pretty good, though, and I enjoy encountering chunks of potato, so my next potato recipe will most likely be something sweet with huge chunks of potato.

I know that my opinion doesn't count for this, but the potato bread/cake looks, tastes and feels like banana bread. I think it's the nutmeg, vanilla, and potato texture that sort of... give off a banana-y aura. Neither my mum nor my brother agree with me. Maybe I'm just going bananas. (haha!)

PIE FOR MY PI!!!

Monday Night [13th]: PIE!!!!

Study Break by my dorm house!

There were myriad pies of all shapes and colours and burns...

Oreo (3)

Coconut (2)

Chocolate (2)

Peach/mixed fruit (1 or 2)

Berry (2?)

Cherry (?)

Pumpkin (2)

Pecan (2)

Apple (?)

More? 18 total... x 12 slices each

And the coconut pie crust tasted like bacon. I am serious. I honestly doubt that they used lard, and the aluminium containers were new... so the crust really shouldn't've tasted like bacon.

Maybe, relative to the coconut and custard, the crust was bacon flavoured.

AND FUDGE! I didn't eat any cookies but the fudge... the chocolate fudge tasted a bit on the chocolate side rather than the soft, gooey side of fudge that I'm used to [I'm guessing there were no marshmallows in this batch]. The white fudge was literally gritty powdered sugar stacked into cubes. It was densely packed sweetness. Sort of like compact chunks of aspartame without the aftertaste [not that I would know, but they really don't give that much sweetener in those little packets, since each artificial sweetener is ~200? times sweeter than sucrose].

It's in a bucket.

BEST PIE EVER. I love chocolate pie. I actually also love key lime pie.

Actually, I like pie a lot more than I like cake, but cupcakes are much easier to draw.

I brought my coconut, cherry, chocolate, and fudge back to the computer lab because I had to study/write an 8-page final. The pies mixed together was... interesting. I liked the cherry chocolate combination.

An Epic Day of FOOD!

I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I'm finally getting used to managing time in college... so now I think that blogging shouldn't be as difficult as it was in September. Everything is finally settling down and I don't really know if I want to blog for PennAppetit. Can I double post? Can I blog here and then copy and paste the same thing onto their blog? Will PennAppetit shrivel up from my seriously bad sense of lack-of-humour and honestly longer-than-necessary sentences?

Anyway today at lunch there were ricotta cheese stuffed pasta shells [They. Are. Gigantic. I don't think I've ever had pasta that was THAT THICK. Yes, the shells were thick.] and a variety of pumpkin/squash stuffed with Buglar. This meal was amazing. It was also a really photogenic dish.

Later, TJ and I went down to the basement of Commons to do some homework. At around 5pm, there was a reception for another Food Week event, and even though TJ and I hadn't signed up for it, we managed to obtain some food [not the ones with animal pieces inside, though, since both she and I are vegetarian]. This Food Week event included the audience and chef of Commons, Donald Stauffer, asking 5 local farmers about gardening and raising animals and meeting the demands of the clientele. It was pretty interesting, I suppose, except I was sitting in the corner trying to do my Comparative Medicine outlining. There was a point, though, where a guy asked one of the farmers a question, and the farmer said something about how he had "two angels on his shoulders" [as opposed to an angel and a devil, I presume]. Of course, this generated some giggles from the audience. Then, as the guy proceeded to ask his question, the farmer cut him off and started saying some random stuff that wasn't really related to the question [which we never actually heard]. The farmer said that "we should get off the computer and unplug everything because we don't need to know about what Britney is wearing" [paraphrased]. A few minutes later, the guy who was asking his question left the forum.

I was pretty surprised, but in retrospect, I would leave a pro-choice forum [but why would I be at one in the first place?!].

I need to stop digressing. The food that I DID eat included a cold pumpkin soup with cute little cubes of pumpkin texture and a candied walnut [amazing], an apple crumble with flaky pastry, and a pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin cheesecake itself didn't taste much like cheesecake; the pumpkin flavour was more prominent. The crust was phenomenal, though, since it had this caramelly butter taste, and it also reminded me of Digestives. The crust was honestly the best part of my day, foodwise.

The apple crumble was deliciously textured and clearly resembled stewed apples with seasoning, nuts and oats. It was wonderful. The pastry was icky and tasteless, but that's because I don't really like plain pastry [yes, I ate all the crumble first].

Evidently, Commons food need not be terrible. The other animal-filled stuff seemed good too, judging by the way MA was eating them. He ate a lot of food and appeared to be sincerely enjoying it.

Veggie Crunchers.

I really would rather call them "Veggie Chips", but there's probably some copyright issue with FritoLay or something, or someone did a [as typical] bad translation from Chinese to English. Anyway, these... chips are extremely crunchy!!! There is a weird sweet and salty taste, because, as you can probably tell, SWEET potato is sweet. Thus, sweet potato chips covered in [ostensibly,] "sea salt" just tastes kinda weird. Not "bad", exactly [as in, not like mint chocolate + fat free plain yoghurt, which is the WORST COMBINATION OF FOOD IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!], but just not satisfying. Also, though they aren't fried, they still contain 6g fat per 28 g serving. Sure, it's better than Doritos [8g per 28g serving], but I think I'd rather eat the vegetables raw.

In order: Sweet potato [brown skin], carrot, taro, green bean [THE BEST PART!], purple thing... I don't think that it's taro, but it probably is, but it's too dark..., squash - a.k.a. pumpkin [green skin]. Now, a 3D view!:

Sittin' on my chair. I'll definitely buy a pack of green bean chips in the future, but I probably won't be buying these again. They're not super. [Well, my mum bought them.]

On another note, today in Calc we had an M&M lab, in which we had a graph of f(x)=xx+1, and we found its integral by putting M&Ms in the area between [0,3] and between f(x) and the x-axis. I put them in order of colour... turns out I had a lot of green, a lot of blue, barely any red.. some orange and yellow and brown. I didn't take a picture because I'm not allowed to use my phone [though if I had brought it, I'm sure I would've been allowed to...]. It was pretty chill.
SMILE GUYS!

Random pictures from my phone.

I'm too tired to update much after shovelin' for two hours. 120 minutes. I actually wanted to make snow cream today but it was 5 when I was done and I just wasn't in the mood, and I made pretty crappy mocha today... :(

So here are just some pictures from my phone from around town.

Pumpkin Ravioli at the Ritz Diner... irregularly shaped [speaking of which, Mars hasn't emailed me back yet concering the mutant M&Ms], not very sweet, which was good because sweet ravioli with savour sauce would've been terrible. The sauce was awesome though. I don't think I'm obsessed over ravioli enough to order it again.

My first pretzel in the U.S... for free at Tom's River because we had Sectionals there. A and I just got back into the Bubble after going into the school to get water/bathroom, and there was this tray of pretzels [because the meet was nearly over] and people were taking them... so I took one. I chipped off all the salt though... it was really. Dry. But pretzelly. I was pretty happy about it... so I ate it prêtzelously ["haha!!!" - pretzel/zealously and "prêt" means "ready" en francais.]

First matzo ball of my life. In delicious vegetable soup made by A's mum.

Saw this at Target. Next to all that kiddy stuff - Hello Kitty notebooks, half toxic hand cream... etc.