Happiness is...

Happiness is... sleeping in for the first time in a month.

Now, granted, I've been busy in a good kind of way (especially last weekend, having my family here :)), but it was nice to know when I went to bed last night that it was OK to sleep until 10:00, which I definitely did, because I knew that all I had to do today was homework, and it was glorious.

Happiness is... a cool fall day spent reading.

Some Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, some Kipling, some Richard Wright-kind of random, all for homework, but all good. Speaking of reading, if you have not read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, you need to. Right now. We read it for African American lit this week and it was one of those books that reminded me why I'm doing what I'm doing. Hurston uses dialect for the speech, which can be a little difficult at first, but it is so worth it. I'm planning a blog that details exactly what I loved about the book, but while I'm working on that, you should be reading :)

Happiness is... a clean apartment.

Before I went out last night, I got my apartment mostly straightened up and finished it this morning. It feels so nice to have it neat and clean-it's doing wonders for my productivity!

Happiness is... homemade bread.

I found a recipe here, in a link that popped up in my Google Reader (I like going through the suggested links, even though I don't subscribe to a whole lot of them, since Google tends to suggest a lot of super-fundamentalist evangelical blogs for me, which is not me at all!). I modified it quite a bit, as you can see by clicking the link and comparing it to the following; I haven't tried it, but am looking forward to a simple dinner of soup and a sandwich:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 packets of yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
• 1 tbsp sugar, divided
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3-3 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve 1/2 tbsp sugar into 1/2 cup of warm water in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top of the mixture and allow to foam for 5 minutes. Add oil, additional sugar, salt and milk; mix well. Add three cups of flour; mix 50 times clockwise, then 50 times counterclockwise.

Add 1 1/2 cups of additional flour until dough forms a ball. If necessary, add additional flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky.

Roll the dough into a ball and place in a buttered bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place for an hour. Punch down the dough and let rise for an additional 30 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes, place into greased loaf pan and let rise for an additional 30 minutes.

Bake the loaf in a 425-degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan immediately after baking. Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

Sorry to have been AWOL for so long; it was midterm season, so I was swamped with work. At this point, though, I'm almost done with my work for the beginning of the week and just need to finish my Wednesday presentation and do my Thursday reading. Also, in 20 days, I'll be home for Corn! Yay!!

Quick and easy lunch: chicken fried rice

Now, I am a fan of Chinese takeout as much as the next person, but lately, I've been preferring to make my own, as it is cheaper and healthier. Stir-fry is a good, quick meal for me for dinners, especially when I'm just cooking for me as I have been the past two weeks. But since it is just me, I end up with TONS of leftovers and I can only reheat the same dish so many times. Plus, rice tends to get rather dry and (in my opinion, gross) when it sits in the refrigerator for too long. So what's a girl to do? Well, in my case, I make fried rice, which is good for lunch when I've got a busy afternoon of classes or meetings, which is where I will be spending this afternoon.

I start with one egg, beating it with a teaspoon of soy sauce (you can use more or less, depending on your preference), then scrambling it in a saucepan that has been heated with just a few drops of oil (I don't really measure, but I'd guesstimate that it's about half a teaspoon):

When the egg is scrambled, remove all those lovely little bits onto a plate and keep warm (on a side note, aren't our dishes lovely?):

In that same saucepan, put half a cup of leftover vegetables (this particular batch of stir fry was from a kit, so the noodles were in the original. Also, I added chicken when I made the stir fry the first time--you can add it or leave it out because it's yummy either way) and saute them until they are hot:

Add half a cup of rice (more or less as you desire) on top of the vegetables:

And pour in about 3-4 more teaspoons of soy sauce. I like a lot of soy sauce, so I used 4 (and I use low-sodium, so it's not quite as bad for me!). Stir these ingredients until everything is nice and hot; it makes a great crackling sound once you add the soy sauce and the kitchen smells lovely!

Once it's all nice and hot, put the eggs back in and stir to mix:

Then dish it out onto a pretty serving dish and top with some Chinese noodles (at least, that's what I like to do).

The nice thing about this is that it can be customized to whatever I have on hand--no chicken? No problem! If you like beef or shrimp, that can be added instead of the chicken. Any particular vegetable you can't stand (mine would be mushrooms) can be left out. And since I make it myself, I know there's nothing yucky like MSG added.

Having a kitchen is bliss :)