The Seven Seas.

Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Day Forty-One: Pot Pie and a Luke Warm Reception.



Let's make a pot pie.
Before we get started I feel obligated to state that this was probably the best thing I've ever made. It was also literally the easiest.
The recipe I used can be found over at Mom's Test Kitchen.
THINGS YOU'LL NEED:
-2 tubes (8 ounces/8 rolls) refrigerated crescent rolls
-about 2 teaspoons of mixed dried seasonings, divided (The original poster used thyme ,garlic powder, parsley and oregano. I swapped the garlic powder for basil and added bay leaves.)
-1 can (10.75 ounces) cream of potato soup
Heidi Klum Horrified-1 can (10.5 ounces) cream of celery soup
-1/3 cup milk
-2 bags (12 ounces) frozen vegetable soup mix*, thawed
-salt & pepper to season
-2 tablespoons butter, melted
-additional dried thyme for seasoning

You'll want to preheat the oven to 375 degrees (Fahrenheit) and prep your pie dish. The recipe recommends a nine inch dish. I sprayed mine with a little cooking oil and got to work on the crescent rolls. First thing I noticed was the recipe said to take apart the 8 triangles, which I did. I then had to attempt to geometrically fit the 8 triangles into a circle. It didn't help that I might of grabbed the wrong sized pie dish. After five minutes of hammering dough into place I finished. I put the crust into the oven for six minutes.

Look at the light dapple that delicious slice of heaven.
I made that, hell yeah.
While that was doing whatever baking magic it was doing, I was prepping the innards. I dumped two cans of soup in a large sauce pan. The celery soup came out fine, but the potato soup was stuck inside the can. I also face the dilemma of the recipe not telling me if I should add a can full of water to the soups. (Quick question on that matter, do you or your family add a can of water to your soup or is it just my family?) I added half a can and then the vegetablesImmediately I was filled with fear and a twinge of regret because what was in my sauce pan looked like way too much filling. I also forgot about the milk until this point and added it hastily. As well as the seasonings. 

At this point you may notice I don't always follow instructions to a T. (Makes everything much more exciting in my opinion.) That means I didn't measure out the proper amount of seasonings. I added about a handful of basil and oregano, two bay leaves, and a pinch of parsley flakes. Allowing that to stew for a little bit, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Until the microwave beeped, letting me know that "Oh yeah I had crust in the oven." I couldn't find the oven mitts, which means the crust stayed in the oven an extra two minutes. When I pulled it out, I saw that the dough had raised a considerable amount. I squashed the crust down a bit, careful not to burn myself (I did burn myself though.) and added the delicious insides. 
I actually managed to make something look like the pin
I want a medal.

I then conscribed the help of my little sister to open the second can of rolls. With the earlier triangle challenge tackled, I was able to get the top crust on much faster. I threw it in the oven, proud of my accomplishment. Then immediately took it out and brushed butter and seasonings on the top. The pie was done in about twenty minutes, just enough time to clean up after my cooking fiasco and make pasta salad. 

Out came the pie and damn did it look good. It tasted even better, slightly savory and filled with vegetable goodness. I might cut the oregano next time, but that's just being nit picky.

To rate this recipe, I'm going to judge it on three things
-Easy to follow.......9/10 (Gotta dock on the can of water. And the fact that I had to use my brain to make the crust.)
-Cost........10/10 I spent twenty bucks on a meal for eight people.
-Deliciousness.........10/10 It tasted better than Marie Calenders.

Have fun and Eat well.
\\.Jukebox.//
Old Fashioned By Me!

\\.Soapbox.//
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
― Ruth Reichl

Monday, May 25, 2015

Day Thirty-Nine: Gotta Love It.



Well if it hasn't been quite the week.
  • Senior presentations
  • The dumbest drama to ever be a thing
  • Actual extreme frustration
  • Long weekend (yay)
  • I missed two days of blogging because life happens.
    • Really I just didn't look very nice on Wednesday and my Thursday post never got edited. Oh well~
  • Ipoly Senior year is looking like a thing I'm doing.
    • If I can find summer school because free summer school is full.
I'm super exhausted and have been sleeping for large chunks of time. 14 hours yesterday and 6 hours today. Unfortunately it still doesn't help the fact that my head feels like it's splitting and I would like to fight an army of berserking orcs at the moment. 
Rage aside, the slow and steady progress that has been May hasn't been wasted. I've made real headway into all my projects (except the kitty hat.)
I leave you with very little sentiment and a deep permeating happiness that it's a long weekend.

Have fun and be safe.

\\.Soapbox.//
"You use and lose a lot of energy being grumpy."
-Ted Danson

Day Thirty-Eight: Mr. School Systems, Tear Down Those Tests.



Standardized testing has become the bane of every student's existence. Come testing time, you'll hear a cacophonous mixture of groans and heads thumping against desks. Both student and teachers hate testing with a passion. Thanks to John Oliver's segment on testing I have more reason to hate the damn things beyond the fact that they're stupid. Edwards (My chic English teacher) assigned us a "Build a Better School" project. One of the facets of this project was to talk about testing. I may have gone a little bit overboard. Below is the small essay I wrote for that bullet point, that got rejected.
"The reasons behind our dis involvement with standardized testing are as follows.
The standardized testing industry is exactly that, an industry. Pearson Education is the largest distributor of standardized tests. They control over 40% of the testing market. They have had a spectacular business as of late, even though they have had countless complaints filed against them. Giving students a test that doesn't benefit them, while wasting time teaching for that test in class, seems like a pretty bad idea. All for a business to maintain its projected growth? At what cost does this business operate. To my knowledge it’s at the cost of teachers and students. Both who could better spend that time learning. Whose time is better spent preparing themselves for higher education and a successful life.
The standardized tests such as smarter balance testing have been the subject of walkouts all across the nation. Nathan Hale high school in Seattle saw an entire class of juniors refuse to take the smarter balance test. Meaning, any resources put forth to administer said test would be wasted. Once again standardized tests waste time and resources for schools who may not have money to waste.

These tests also have extremely negative impact on students. Causing major anxiety and in some case actual physical harm. On standardized test in Ohio actually has instructions on what to do if a student vomits on their test. The test also reflects negatively on students who may be passing their classes, but don’t test well. One such incident happened in Florida with an eighth grader who was taking an AP English class. She was asked to leave this class that she had outstanding grades in all because of her score on the FCAT."
I had no conclusion because it was already to long and I'm pretty sure at that point I was ranting. Go to Business Insider to see where I got parts of my information. As well as watch John Oliver talk about the subject much better than I do.

Have Fun and Testing is dumb.
😎

\\.Jukebox.//
Little bit of something.

\\.Soapbox.//
"Failure is always an option."
-Adam Savage

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Day:TGIF(On saturday!!)




Gotta love the fact that I think schedules are for chumps, and rarely follow my own!

This week week we:
  • Lost Grooveshark
  • Met Pierre (The best future mentor ever)
  • Discovered our powers as the best spin doctor ever
  • Finished an anime
  • Started three more anime
  • Wrote words
  • Almost finished a knitting project by Friday
  • Are changing the tides
  • Are starting book club!!!

That's right, it's time for the Yarnshark Book Club!
This month we're reading:
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore


We're also welcoming the advent of Sunday posts about food! I realised that I'm not actually watching enough T.V. or movies that aren't anime. On Sundays I'll be cooking some kind of vegetarian meal and telling you all about how I did it, what trouble I ran into and what I payed for it. I forewarn you that many of the recipes will be coming from my Pintrest board Vegetarian Delight
Here's to another week completed and filed away as a pretty enjoyable one.

Have fun and enjoy the weekend!

\\.Jukebox.//
Weekend.

\\.Soapbox.//
"Sometimes the weekend gets hijacked by work, but as my mother would say, this is the right problem."
-Julian Fellowes
\\.Where To Get It.//
(Nico

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Day Sixteen: Manga VS Anime.

 


Guess who finished "Love Stage!"?

It's a lovely BL-anime (BL, for all the anime novices, stands for boy love or boys love) filled with sparkles, moe, and nose bleeds. It end's in a semi-cliffhanger. You could end the series on that note or you could continue on in the manga.

Photo Credit HERE
That got me thinking about the pros and cons of anime vs manga. The argument goes much like the old books vs film. It is said that when you adapt, you lose detail and often have more filler. While this is true for the long running anime (such as Naruto or Bleach.) I'm not too sure that it is true for short run anime like Love Stage!

So I present to you, in spirit of anime day,

ANIME

PROs: 
  • Pretty colors!
  • Movement!
  • Voice actors bringing life to the character (Talking about you octopimp. Freaking love Thugisa...)
  • Fun Music
  • Anyone can watch
CONs:
  • Leaves out detail!
  • Often doesn't finish a story
  • Bad animation??
  • Bad Dubs (Looking at you 90's era Sailor Moon)
  • CENSORSHIP

MANGA

PROs:
  • Less filler!
  • More character development and story
  • Back stories
  • Fun minor characters
  • Collection value
CONs: 
  • No color (in most cases)
  • Hard to follow for newcomers ("What do you mean its read from right to left??")
  • More solitary experience
  • Hard to grasp fight scenes
  • CENSORSHIP
Like anything, anime and manga is it's own can of worms. But you better believe that I will love all of it for a long time..

Have Fun and Be Awesome!


\\.Jukebox.//
I feel like crap (á—’á—©á—•)՞

\\.Soapbox.//
"Don't believe in yourself! Believe in me! Believe in the Kamina who believes in you!"
 Kamina

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Of What's to Come.

Hello everyone!
I'm Hunter, and I'll be leading you on this journey. Below are some of the things you might see here on yarnshark. 
  •  [Monday]
    • Knitting Pattern/Projects
      • A pattern/project a week
      • bigger projects get more time 
        • blankets/sweaters/etc
    • Weekly theme
      • Theme for the week.
  • [Tuesday]
    • Anime
      • What am I watching
      • What manga am I reading
      • reviews
      • what's on my list to watch next
    • Writer talks [ Tuesdays or Wednesdays]
      • what am I working on
      • how do i work characters 
      • other writer-y things
    • Life stories [Tuesdays or Wednesdays]
      • only the big ones
        • first kisses/family dinners/etc
  •  [Wednesday]
    • Fashion and Life 
      • OOTD(this is a maybe)
      • Current styles I'm loving
      • Outfits I'd love to have
      • Polyvore
      • 5 sentence Life updates
    • Life stories [Tuesdays or Wednesdays]
      • only the big ones
        • first kisses/family dinners/etc
    • Writer talks [ Tuesdays or Wednesdays]
      • what am I working on
      • how do i work characters 
      • other writer-y things
  • [Thursdays]
    • Social 
      • what's going on in the world 
      • what's important to me
      • social news
      • how to help
    • Special Music posts [Occasional]
      • Favorite artists/albums/songs of the month
      • Mixes made by cool people
  • [Friday]
    • Week wrap up 
      • summary of the week
      • pro/con list
      • weekend forecast + week to come
    • Book club [First Friday of every month]
      • monthly book to read
      • review of last month's book
      • what's on my 'To Read' list
  • [Sundays]
    • TV and Movies
      • What shows am I watching
      • What did I think of the latest episode
      • What movies did I see that week
      • What did I think of them
  • On Every Post
    • Music
      • Playlists
        • 8tracks and grooveshark
    • Quotes!
      • quotes that tie in with a weekly theme
  • NANOWRIMO [November]
  • There will be nothing posted on Saturdays 
This is just a working of ideas, so you can see how my mind works and what's coming up.
Hope you'll stick around
H.